In the end—and it will end—your life will seem to have sped by like a fleeting dream.
It took seventeen days without food, and almost no water, for my friend Ruth to leave her body. She died on the morning of the Winter Solstice. That was the choice she made, rather than risk having another stroke and ending up in a nursing home.
The Winter Solstice is upon us. It was at this time of year, many years ago, that I rode my bicycle over to Eucalyptus Street to see my old friend Ruth. It was a crisp, sunny day after a long rain, and I was not really in the mood to be stuck indoors, but Ruth had called to say she had something important to tell me.
The moment I stepped inside, I could sense that something unusual was up. Shirley, the next-door neighbor who checked on Ruth twice a day, was in the kitchen dumping oatmeal into the garbage disposal. She didn't waste any words telling me what was going on.
"She messed all over herself again this morning. It's the third time this week. After I cleaned everything up, she got back into bed, and now she says she's not going to eat or drink another thing.
Ruth had always done things her own way. Most of her friends would have checked into a nursing home by now, but I knew that Ruth would never give up her independence. Unmarried and with no children, she had supported herself as a PE teacher before retiring in Ojai. A Theosophist and lifelong student of esoteric and Eastern thought, she relished her autonomy and privacy.
I walked into Ruth's bedroom. Her head was perfectly centered on the pillow, and the covers were pulled up to her chin.
Coaxing someone as strong-willed as Ruth to eat was out of the question, and I'm not a fan of force-feeding. There were no nearby relatives to help out. Plus, after years of giving end-of-life care, I saw what was ahead. I didn't want to sentence myself or Ruth to endless days of catheter draining, adult diaper changing, and the spoon-feeding of someone who might eventually no longer recognize me.
The last person I had taken care of, Ada, had been a close friend of Ruth. We had both known Ada when she was still a vibrant, artistic person. But at some point in her late eighties we began to see her slowly deteriorate. Ada didn't want to live in a nursing home, and she hired me to care for her at home. The day came when her body was nothing more than a bag of bones. She didn't want to eat. It hurt to breathe. She wanted to die in her own bed. Unfortunately, she didn't have the energy or mental capacity to resist when well-meaning relatives checked her into the hospital. There, she was somewhat revived. From there, she was transferred to a nursing home where she spent three years strapped into a wheelchair before the end. Ruth and I both visited her regularly, but she no longer knew who she was or where she was.
While visiting Ada, I had seen dying people force-fed chunks of steak and potatoes. Ruth was still sane enough to know that, in a nursing home, the social norms of dying would be imposed on her. It would be almost impossible for her to choose her own way of death.
Her face shrank. Without the dentures she looked much older, but it didn't matter to her how she looked anymore.
Not knowing what else to do, I sat quietly by her bed. Ruth's room, where she had slept for more than twenty years, felt warm, pleasant, and familiar. There were no offensive smells of urine and other people's poop. After a while, I absorbed what Ruth intended to do and it started to feel natural. I recovered from the shock of it all. I held her hand, and it felt like holding the hand of a sick person that you want to encourage to recover. Only we both understood that this would be a different kind of recovery. Our hands were warm and relaxed. We had begun the process of letting go.
Three days had gone by before I'd had time to visit Ruth again. She was already so thin from a lifetime of careful vegetarian living, and her spirit so stoic and serene, that I entertained the romantic notion that she would take pleasant leave of her body in just a few days. I envisioned myself holding her hand, just like in the movies. She would give me one last smile, then exhale and enter the great beyond.
Ruth was flat on her back in exactly the same position, the white sheets pulled tightly up to her chin. Her eyes were closed, but I could tell she wasn't asleep.
Her sole request was that I wipe the dried skin from her parched lips. The water by her bedside stood untouched.
"Well, what do you think of my little project?" she asked, flashing a toothless grin.
What could I say? That she was brave, sensible, courageous? Crazy?
Neither of us had the faintest idea how long the process would take. "Just make sure those attendants Shirley has hired know not to feed me," Ruth instructed.
I looked at the calendar and counted 18 more days till Christmas. I promised Ruth that I would take time off from work so that I could be with her full-time the whole week before Christmas. Yet, even as I promised this, I doubted that she would survive until then. I also assured her that in a few more days I'd start spending the night and that she could call me at any time.
I visited Ruth again on her fifth day without food or water. The scene was exactly the same. She was perfectly still in her bed, with the covers pulled up to her chin. Shirley was changing the sheets as often as necessary, and helping her to shower before putting a clean T-shirt and diaper on her. The room was immaculate, with freshly cut roses on the dresser.
Ruth consistently assured us that she was very comfortable and there was nothing she wanted. She had called up the few friends that would understand and told them goodbye. She was leaving it up to Shirley to deal with the few out-of-state relatives who hadn't visited her in years.
"What shall we talk about, Ruth?" I asked.
As I read, she occasionally interrupted to correct my pronunciation. It was during this hour that she lost her voice. By the time I left, she could barely whisper her request to have the dried skin wiped from her lips.
The warm winter sunlight felt good as I headed for home. It was a relief to step out of Ruth's house and back into the stream of life. This was only the fifth day, and already I was weary of my friend's dying process.
A whole week had gone by. As I entered her room, Ruth lay motionless like an empty shell. I took her bony hand. "How do you feel, Ruth?" I asked.
For several minutes there was silence, and I thought she hadn't heard me. Then, with great effort, she whispered, "I've looked forward to this for years." I sat on her bed with my eyes closed and allowed myself to relax.
Shirley interrupted our reverie. I offered to take Ruth to the shower while Shirley changed the sheets. Ruth clutched my arms and strained to a sitting position. It took a while for her to swing her legs over the side of the bed. I helped her remove her T-shirt and diaper, trying not to stare at her emaciated body.
"These disposable diapers are great," she whispered as she grasped the portable potty at her bedside to raise herself to an upright position. I put my arm around her and supported her down the hallway to the bathroom.
While Ruth lathered her lower body, I washed her hair and armpits. She liked the water full blast, and very hot. "Oh, the water feels so good. It feels so good to be clean . . ." It occurred to me that perhaps she'd been drinking water in the shower all this time, and that was why she hadn't yet died of thirst. But I never saw her swallow a single drop. I dried her with her favorite pink towel and eased her skeleton back into a clean T-shirt and diapers.
The shower had completely exhausted her. She thanked Shirley for the crisp feel of the clean sheets. Even with my ear right up to her lips, I could barely hear her.
I returned late the next night and slept in Ruth's living room. When I checked her in the morning, she was in an unusually happy mood. Perhaps she felt that her "little project" was nearly over. Yet I still had doubts that she could see it through to the end. I worried about her becoming disoriented. In a moment of weakness and hunger, she might ask an attendant for breakfast.
"What day is it now?" she whispered.
It seemed to take her a few minutes to understand, or was she finally feeling the full impact of her intent? "Oh, the waiting takes such a long time . . . I can live a long time without fat on my body . . ." she finally whispered.
Shirley rarely hired strangers for the night vigil, but several different women "babysat" during daytime hours when she or I couldn't be there. The note forbidding any food or drinks remained posted on the refrigerator. Since Ruth slept most of the time, I don't think any of the attendants actually realized she was starving herself to death.
On Friday night my boyfriend, Paul, came over. Ruth's emaciated form didn't faze him. Ruth was pleased to see him, and motioned for him to put his ear by her lips.
"Aren't you a chiropractor?" she whispered.
Part of me resented that I might be going through this whole ordeal for nothing. Not that I wanted her to die, but if she began eating, and then changed her mind about living a month from now, I knew that Shirley and I would have a hard time finding the patience to help her again.
Following the call, Ruth had drunk half a cup of chamomile tea. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. That night, her urine smelled of strong chamomile tea, and she expelled foul-smelling gas into the toilet. When I thought she was finished, I half-carried her back to bed. As we sat talking, I could hear her insides rumble. That should have warned me to grab a diaper.
Just as I was about to put another diaper on her, it started again. I grabbed more towels and buried everything, sheets and all, in a double garbage bag. Cleaning her up the second time, I felt more convinced than ever that Shirley and I should encourage her to see this through to the end.
I prayed that she would die this night.
I was feeling utterly naïve. I told myself to stop anticipating that Ruth was going to die soon. This morning both her regular doctor and her osteopath were coming to see her. They had both known Ruth for years, and Shirley and I had great hope that they could give us some idea as to how much longer she would live.
"How'd you sleep, Ruth?" I asked.
"I sleep the sleep of the dead." She laughed at her own joke, and appeared incredibly alert.
The osteopath, a tall, solemn-looking fellow, arrived first. I assumed that Shirley had informed him of Ruth's condition. After the long days of silence, his loud voice seemed to echo in the room. Maybe he thought she was hard of hearing.
You stupid fool, I thought. He's probably asked that same question for the last ten years.
He shrugged and automatically continued his exam. He listened to her heart, took her blood pressure, and pronounced that everything was normal. I felt relieved when he finally took her hand and sat briefly by her bedside.
The doctor's presence felt somewhat like the long-awaited arrival of the midwife at a home birth. "How much longer do you think Ruth will last?" I asked.
He, too, checked her vital signs and confirmed that there was nothing unusual.
"Do you want water?" he asked her.
Shirley was in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies. It didn't seem quite right to be baking goodies with someone starving to death in the next room! I worried that the sweet, spicy aromas would arouse Ruth's appetite.
A neighbor knocked on the door and asked if she could visit. She'd heard that Ruth was ill and might be dying. I went into the bedroom and asked Ruth if Mrs. Perry could come in.
Mortified, I pulled her aside and told her not to say things like that. No wonder Ruth didn't want visitors! I escorted Mrs. Perry back into the kitchen and left it up to Shirley to get rid of her.
Like a midwife checking on a laboring mother long overdue, I peeked in on Ruth briefly the evening of the fourteenth day. She lay so still, and the spark of life in her dehydrated body seemed so faint that I placed my face close to hers to be sure she was still breathing. She was deep asleep, and I left the room without disturbing her.
A new attendant was watching TV. "How has Ruth been today?" I asked.
None of the attendants seemed to notice how close to death Ruth was.
When I returned later that night, Ruth was still sleeping. I really believed that tonight she would die. The house was deathly still, and for the first time I started to get the creeps. Shirley had decorated a Christmas tree, but even the blinking lights failed to dispel my sense of foreboding.
When it was close to midnight, Ruth woke briefly. I reassured her that I was spending the night. She clutched my hand and then sank back into her deathlike state. But sleep eluded me. I could hear Ruth fidgeting.
At around 2 a.m., she struggled to get out of bed to use the potty chair. I lifted her skeleton into an upright position. She moved so slowly, I feared she would collapse. She slumped over on the potty, but insisted on waiting there until a bit of urine finally dribbled out. I couldn't comprehend how her kidneys continued to function.
Now I was really getting the creeps. Ruth's eyes were glassy and unfocused. Her body continued to endure, but her spirit seemed to be ebbing in and out. It was 3 a.m. before I got her bones settled back under the sheets. Finally I, too, lost consciousness.
Christmas was only six days away. We had all grown weary of waiting for Ruth to die—especially Ruth herself. Her body was unusually restless this night, and I wished we'd rented a hospital bed with rails. Instead, we barricaded her into the bed with six chairs.
Again at midnight, she began to fidget as if her spirit were fighting to fly out of her body. I checked on her frequently. Fear gripped me. Why couldn't her flesh release her spirit? Why couldn't she relax and let go?
The house felt cold and eerie, and was filled with a foul, musty odor. We had invited death, but my instinct was to let life flow into the house. I opened all the windows and let the fresh air in. Ruth didn't care how cold it was. I buried my own body deeper under the blankets.
At almost the exact moment as the previous night, I heard her struggling to get out of bed. The sight of her skin dangling off her bones was unnerving. She no longer had the strength to sit upright, and doubled over on the potty chair.
As I helped her to lie down, I prayed over and over, "Release this woman from her body." But Ruth's body continued its inherent task of surviving. Even her hair and nails were continuing to grow. Her heart continued its ceaseless repetitions—the senseless task of pumping life force through her dying body. I felt that the time had come to give Ruth a merciful injection, but had no idea what that would be or how to get it.
I couldn't understand why she didn't just die in her sleep. Was there something worrying her, something unsaid? Several times I asked her, "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" She always shook her head, murmuring, "No. No. No." She seemed as perplexed to find herself still living as I was.
It had now been sixteen days. On this night I was so exhausted that I napped at home before going over for the night shift. Shirley had called earlier to say she had to leave by 9:00 p.m. When I woke up it was already past 9:00, and by the time Paul drove me over I was half an hour late and still half asleep.
As I walked in the door, I tried to assure myself that Ruth was asleep as usual and probably hadn't even noticed that no one had been at home with her. When I entered her room, her bed was empty. My mind went blank. In panic, I quickly searched the bathroom. Had my worst fears of someone "rescuing" Ruth and rushing her to the emergency room come true? As I yelled for Paul, I saw that Ruth had fallen off the far side of her bed and was hanging face down, half-on-half-off the floor. She was tangled up in her bedding and it looked as if she had bumped her forehead on the nightstand.
Shaken, we maneuvered her back onto the mattress. Paul checked her pulse. Ruth was still in this world. I placed a cold compress on her head while Paul rearranged the covers. We had no way of knowing whether she'd fallen just after Shirley left or soon before we'd arrived. She could have been hanging off the bed like that for more than half an hour!
Ruth began to fidget in a state of frustrated agitation. She coughed and spat, then motioned frantically for a Kleenex. She spat up globs of mucous several times, being very careful to spit only in the Kleenex and not make any mess. I didn't know if she was coughing and spitting because she had been lying face down or if this was the death rattle I had heard about. Then she wet her diaper. I thought, If she's dying, why change it? Why disturb her? But, being uncertain, I asked her to lift her bottom while I arrange a new diaper underneath. She seemed to understand everything. I hoped she wasn't angry that no one was here when she fell out of bed.
She remained restless. I felt how sick and tired she was of still being alive, and cursed myself for not getting rails as we made another barricade of chairs around her bed. We had to keep moving her back to the center of the bed. Later on I realized that we were witnessing the final moments of her spirit wrestling with her body for release.
Later he told me that she had stared intently at him for a long time. She had squeezed his hand as much as she had strength to and then turned her head away. He'd had the strong impression that she wanted him to leave, that she wanted to die alone.
When I woke up it was Sunday at 4 a.m., the morning of the Winter Solstice. Ruth must be dead, I thought. But then I had thought that so many times before. I examined her closely in the dim light of her night light. Still unsure, I woke up Paul. He turned on the overhead light. Ruth's head was perfectly centered on the pillow. Already she was turning yellow. Paul checked her pulse. He closed her eyes and covered her face with the sheet. Ruth was gone. This time she was really dead.
I called Shirley. Upon hearing the news, she told me that Ruth had been unusually alert and talkative the previous afternoon, and that they'd had a wonderful, warm final visit.
Ruth's doctor arrived to sign the death certificate. [When did Paul leave?] An ambulance arrived to take the body to be cremated. Ruth hadn't wanted a funeral.
I walked up Signal Street in time to see the sun rising above the snowcapped Topa Topas. It was an incredible relief to be alive and out in the open air.
Now, years later, I think about everything that I experienced in helping Ruth to leave her body while awake, aware, and alert. I close my eyes and clearly see Ruth's image. I can still see her striding vigorously up North Signal Street with her long, strong, independent legs, a smile on her face. Looking back, I see that spiritually I was just a child. I didn't fully grasp the great gift Ruth was giving me by asking me to be her guardian through her last days on Earth.
Mahasamadhi (the great and final Samadhi) is the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one's body at the time of death.  A realized yogi (male) or yogini (female) who has attained the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi (enlightenment) will, at an appropriate time, consciously exit from the body and cease to live. This is known as Mahasamadhi. Each one prepares for and enters Mahasamadhi in a unique fashion.
Adapted from Suza's forthcoming memoir, Ojai Stories. A version of this story appears in the book,Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, a collection of stories by Phil Bolsta. Foreword by Caroline Myss. Atria Books, 2008.
This entry was posted on January 18, 2015 at 12:44 am and is filed under death and dying, death and dying, elder care.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Dear Suza…Having just read your story about your friend Ruth, I feel compelled to comment about my own family's experience. It was December 2016, that my husband died, here at home. He had opted to contract with Hospice For All Seasons, in mid October. He suffered from congestive heart failure, along with other debilitating maladies. He was so tired from hospital and doctor visits. I was fortunate, with Hospice help, to care for him at home. I recognize, in your story, the "Terminal Restlessness". as I had repeatedly to keep my husband from getting out of bed…he was strong enough to do that, but not strong enough to support himself once on his feet. I will never regret having him at home, even through the most difficult efforts to see to his care. He became very mixed up mentally, at the last, but miraculously came to in the two mornings before the end. Those two mornings, in which we held a private "communion", were truly a gift to us. Then on Christmas Day, with our adult children around us, he breathed his last.
But it wasn't The End, Suza, for him and me. We now carry on a communion that grows more with every passing day. I say this with all belief in my heart and mind.
You were are so blessed to have done this great thing for your friend.
All love to you, and her.
Thank you, Scotty Brown, I so understand what you wrote here in your comment. It is a sacred, healing time. So beautiful how you describe the communion that deepens with each passing day. Last year my two younger sisters and I, and our grown children and their young children, with the help of hospice, helped my mother and father to continue living and dying at home. Even the children were so in tune with their great grand parents (who died two months apart from each other) during their last days, and the wonderful hospice workers showed us how to care for the body after they passed.
Love back to you, Scotty, from my heart to yours.


text:
Tag Archives: Martin Freeman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition (2014/2015)
Peter Jackson | 164 mins | Blu-ray | 2.40:1 | USA & New Zealand / English | 15 / R
"I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You're going on to a set and you're winging it. You've got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards, and you're making it up there and then on the spot […] I went to our producers and the studio and said […] 'I don't know what the hell I'm doing now.'"
So says Peter Jackson in the special features accompanying this extended cut of his trilogy-closing saga-ending sixth Middle-earth movie, as widely reported on the set's release back in November. Similar comments are echoed repeatedly throughout the special features, like how on Lord of the Rings they had racks and racks of metal orc helmets finished a whole year before they were needed for filming, whereas on The Hobbit they were delivering such props to set on the morning they were required for the shoot.
Another revelation: by making the late-in-the-day decision to split the intended two Hobbit movies into three, Jackson gained a whole year to prep and shoot the gigantic (sub)titular battle scene that forms the climax to his telling of Tolkien's story. Various reasons have been suggested for Jackson and/or the producers' trilogy-making decision, from genuine artistic intent, to poorly managed storytelling, to pure greed. In the wake of those special features, this new one — that everyone was making it up as they went along, too deep in to see the bigger picture, and desperate for a way to gain some time to get a handle on what they were doing — seems the most plausible of them all.
In the end, The Hobbit films are what they are. What, if anything, does extending the last one by 19½ minutes bring to the table? Well, as with The Desolation of Smaug, the third film counterintuitively doesn't feel as overlong (note: as overlong) in the extended cut as it did in the theatrical, but I'd attribute that more to the re-watch factor than the extra scenes and moments making it magically quicker. The new material isn't scattered about as freely as it is in the Lord of the Rings extensions, but instead is largely confined to three or four wholly-new scenes and some short additions throughout the battle, plus largely-immaterial alterations to the effects in existing footage. Anyone interested in a six-page account of every little change can find those details here.
Most obvious, and most discussed, is the dwarves' war chariot action scene, whose bloody decapitations saw the film earn an R in the US and 15 over here. A seven-minute action sequence in the middle of the battle, it's by far the largest single addition, and is mainly notable for all that blood and its use of the word "jambags". Somewhat ironically, the sequence was a last-minute addition (the physical chariot was the last thing built for the films), which even as they're shooting it Jackson acknowledges is an indulgence, and then of course it got bumped to the extended edition for being just that.
Elsewhere: the brief funeral scene at the end is good; more Billy Connolly is more Billy Connolly; an extended fight at Dol Guldur proves you didn't need the Smaug confrontation to provide some up-front adrenaline; some extra comedy is uncomfortably, inappropriately silly; I don't think there's more of Ryan Gage's over-featured Alfrid, thank goodness, other than that he's treated to a death scene — hurrah! Fans who had hoped for more of Beorn fighting in the final battle get their wish… for all of ten seconds (literally). No wonder they weren't best pleased.
In the comments on my review of the extended second film, I assessed that film's new scenes between Gandalf and Thorin's mentally-fractured father Thrain should pay off in the third film when Gandalf re-encountered a gold-mad Thorin. And… they don't. At all. Not a sausage, unless I missed something. It didn't bother me too much because, quite frankly, I can't quite remember what it was all about; but when I inevitably watch the extended trilogy back to back one day, it may do then. That said, I can't imagine it's a major fault, but again highlights the built-on-the-fly, ill-thought-through state of expanding The Hobbit 2 into The Hobbit 2 and 3.
That The Battle of the Five Armies feels less overlong on a second viewing demonstrates how draggy films come about in the first place: sat in an edit suite for weeks or months, watching a film over and over (and over) again, the material must become so familiar that you lose any sense of perspective about its length or pace. Nonetheless, I still feel The Hobbit would've been best served in two films, or by allowing Parts 2 and 3 to run considerably shorter than your usual Middle-earth excursion. Fans have already cut together book-faithful edits of the entire trilogy, which I believe run something like four hours. Maybe that would've been best of all.
In case you missed it, my review of the theatrical cut can be read here.
Posted in 2010s, 2015, 4 stars, Action, adaptations, Adventure, alternate & director's cuts, Fantasy, War	| Tagged battle, Bilbo Baggins, Billy Connolly, Gandalf, J.R.R. Tolkien, jambags, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Peter Jackson, Richard Armitage, Ryan Gage, Smaug, The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien	| 5 Replies
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016)
Posted on January 2, 2016 by badblokebob
2016 #1
Douglas Mackinnon | 89 mins | TV (HD) | 16:9 | UK / English | 15
Screened in UK cinemas simultaneously with its TV premiere (and coming to the big screen in various other countries over the next week or so, too), the latest episode of the BBC's modern-day Sherlock Holmes series is actually a standalone adventure set in the character's original Victorian time period.
The rest of this review will be spoiler-filled, but before I get into that I'll say this: if you're someone who's a Sherlock Holmes fan but not keen on Sherlock and are wondering if the changed temporal setting means this special might be of interest to you, then I think it's fair to say it won't.
1895: detective Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his sidekick / companion / chronicler Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) learn of the case of Emelia Ricoletti, who committed suicide by shooting herself in the head in public… and then later that evening murdered her husband. Despite the intriguing impossibility of the crime, Holmes' thoughts are for some reason preoccupied with his deceased nemesis, Prof. Moriarty…
It would've been a bit weird if Sherlock completely abandoned everything that has marked the series out for an aside of an adventure in Victorian London, and so it is from the start. While there is certainly a different feel — not just the obvious trappings of horse-drawn carriages, candlelight, costuming, and so forth, but in the way the characters speak and behave — it's still spun from the same cloth as the regular series. These are recognisably the Holmes and Watson we commonly know as Sherlock and John, surrounded by versions of Mrs Hudson, Mary Watson and Inspector Lestrade that aren't so very different from their present-day incarnations.
The case they find themselves embroiled in is a little more period than usual, however, with lashings of Gothic and some of the trappings of a Christmas ghost story. The episode is co-written by series creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and anyone familiar with Gatiss' wider work can clearly see his influence here. Moffat brings his trademark fast-paced intricately-tricksy plotting, for which individual viewers' mileage varies greatly: some find it genius, some find it tedious. Is it clever, or does it just think it's clever? Is it impossible to follow, or were you just not paying enough attention? As to the first question, I think it's a bit of both; as to the second, I think the episode ultimately answers everything, but you might need to realise a few things for yourself.
Much of The Abominable Bride is a lot of fun. The mystery is fairly engrossing, though we're frequently sidetracked into character interplay — such is Sherlock's way. There are many entertaining scenes of this, however, not least Holmes and Watson's arrival at the Diogenes Club and the state of the version of Mycroft they find therein. Douglas Mackinnon's direction is atmospheric, retaining the series' usual flashy, whizzing editing and camerawork at times, and incorporating suitably horror-esque elements at others. Anyone after a fully traditional take on a Victorian Holmes and Watson can always revisit Jeremy Brett — here we have Victorian Holmes through the filter of Sherlock, and it works.
Until the last half-hour or so, anyway, when the modern version suddenly comes crashing in. At first it seems like a clever interlude; a little reminder of the true time period for this version of the characters, and a tease for season four. But it quickly transpires that, no, this episode isn't actually a wholly standalone aside from the main series — Gatiss and Moffat have found a way to integrate it into continuity. For me, this is where the special begins to come apart at the seams; not because I inherently object to this integration, but because from that point on the episode begins to jump back and forth between the present, the imagined past, and various other dream-state asides. It's almost entirely justified by the beautifully-shot Reichenbach Falls sequence, but a spot of cinematographic prettiness doesn't really excuse the way the story goes a little haywire. The least successful part of all, for me, is that it calls into question the solution for the case we've just been presented with… but then doesn't get round to offering another, meaning you kind of feel like the case hasn't been solved, even though it presumably has been, with the first solution. I think.
All of which kerfuffling makes The Abominable Bride a tricky beast. From the promotional trailers and blurbs, it may've looked like a standalone Victorian Sherlock Holmes adventure that happens to star the cast of the present-set Sherlock — hence why I felt it worth offering that clarification back in paragraph two, because, despite not being connected to a full series (the next one of which will probably appear in exactly one year's time), in reality this is Episode 10 of Sherlock — and, tonally, feels like it.
As someone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes in his proper era but is also a fan of this modern day version (I would say "a big fan", but I'm not one of those people), I'd rather they'd played this a little more straightforward. Not a lot — it's still under the umbrella of Sherlock after all, and the era-transposed stylistic flourishes in the first hour-ish worked very nicely in my opinion — but the mixed-up mishmash of the final act dilutes the effectiveness of the entire experience. There's fun and thrills to be had along the way, but in another form it could perhaps have been a Sherlockian classic in its own right.
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride is available on the BBC iPlayer for most of January. It's in cinemas worldwide over the next few days, including in the US on the 5th and 6th. An extras-filled two-disc special edition is out on the 11th.
Posted in 2010s, 2016, 4 stars, Adventure, British films, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Thriller	| Tagged Benedict Cumberbatch, Douglas Mackinnon, Dr Watson, Mark Gatiss, Martin Freeman, Moriarty, Mycroft, Mycroft Holmes, Natasha O'Keeffe, Reichenbach Falls, Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, Steven Moffat, The Abominable Bride, TV, Victorian	| Leave a reply
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Posted on April 18, 2015 by badblokebob
2015 #36
Peter Jackson | 144 mins | Blu-ray | 2.40:1 | USA & New Zealand / English | 12 / PG-13
Peter Jackson's epic Tolkien adaptation blunders its way to a conclusion with an instalment some have declared the trilogy's best, presumably because they really enjoy watching someone else play video games. That's what about half of this sextet-completing movie feels like, as it concludes the three-part Hobbit narrative with a CGI-riddled rendering of the titular battle. It's the shortest film in Jackson's Middle-earth magnum opus, though it comes to something when a film the best part of two-and-a-half hours long is described as "short".
Before said battle, the movie finds itself with some business to attend to: we pick up immediately where the second part left off, with giant dragon Smaug flying towards Laketown with destruction on his mind. Kicking things off with a gigantic ten-minute action sequence isn't a wholly bad decision pacing-wise, but this particular sequence is the wrong way to do it. Really, it's the second film's climax displaced — once Smaug is dealt with, a whole slew of new developments and subplots grow out of it, and that's where the material that feels like it belongs in this film commences. Of course, that means there's a lot of talking and manoeuvring, both politically and literally as people and troops shuffle about the board. Were it not for the big opening, there wouldn't be an action sequence for about half the movie, and I guess that's not considered acceptable in the modern blockbuster environment.
Now, if you were to watch all three films in one sitting, I suppose it wouldn't matter precisely where the breaks fall. But how many people are actually going to do that? Not first-timers, that's for sure. And then you'd get the problem of massive action sequences butting up against each other: the one that opens this film, right after the dwarfs-vs.-Smaug sequence invented during reshoots to take its place at the end of Film 2. Surely there were two other options available to Jackson when he made the decision to extend from a duology to a trilogy: he could have ended Film 2 before it even reached Smaug, or he could have ended the second film with Smaug defeated and added more material to this third film to reach his desired running time. Or not even bothered adding stuff: if you lost the Smaug opener, The Battle of the Five Armies would still be over two hours long, which anywhere but Middle-earth is considered a decent length for a movie.
The rest of the film is a mixed bag for different reasons. For instance, Ryan Gage's Alfrid is given a significant role — that's the Mayor of Laketown's assistant, if you've (understandably) forgotten who he is. Every minute that's spent on his "comic relief" part is a minute wasted, and there are far too many minutes of it. Why that wasn't left to the extended cut is anybody's guess. It wouldn't be particularly palatable there either — he's just irritating, his actions predictable and unfunny — but longer versions are where there's time for such indulgence. Conversely, Tauriel and Legolas are underused, wandering off on a completely aimless mission before wandering back for the battle.
Said battle feels a long time coming, but when it arrives… well, it's a long time happening. It's an epic by default, due to its sheer length. There are good bits, like the effort that has clearly been put into working out the armies' tactics and the ebb and flow they would create. Wide aerial shots showing legions of troops swarming in formation, directed by generals with flags and horns mounted on high, are rather effective. On the ground, the meat of the conflict only occurs when individual heroes are parcelled off into one-on-one duels. None of these particularly stand out, however, other than Legolas athletically jumping around a collapsing bridge that's all so much CGI. This is where my earlier video game comparison really comes into play.
Some characters die. The impact is little-felt because of all the noise and bluster. That's partly because there's not really enough time for all the characters, of which there are more than ever. As with the second film, there's been criticism that Martin Freeman's eponymous Bilbo is barely featured, and, as with the second film, I disagree. Freeman's not especially well-served in the acting stakes — Bilbo's character development remains completed by the first part — but there's still a focus on the actions of the little hero, some of which are pivotal.
Coming out of things best is Richard Armitage as Thorin, who succumbs to the paranoid madness that has afflicted generations of his family. Can he overcome it to do the right thing? The extent of this is sometimes laid on a little thick, but that's the filmmakers' fault (maybe this is another place that would benefit from a few trims) rather than Armitage's performance. As the leaders of two of the titular armies, Lee Pace (elves) and Luke Evans (humans) also get a bit of a part to play, but the remaining dwarfs are given short shrift. That includes those played by James Nesbitt, Ken Stott and Aidan Turner, all of whom I'd thought would have more to do in the second and third parts of the trilogy. Turner, in particular, should have expected a bigger boost from Jackson's decision to enrol him in an interracial romantic triangle, but it feels like they pulled back from that story thread a little after it proved unpopular in the previous film. It's still obviously there, I just expected more of it.
On balance, The Battle of the Five Armies is probably the weakest of the three Hobbit films. Really, it's just one big battle with a lengthy preamble. I can sort of see why Jackson felt like he could extend his original second film into a second and third — if you imagine them shorn of the reshoot-added bits, there's still too much material for a single feature. The better solution, I suspect, would have been to accept splitting it into two shorter (i.e. regular-length) films, applying a bit of restraint in the process, rather than padding things further in an attempt to create two epics out of one ultra-epic.
As the credits begin, we're treated to a sequence that emulates the one from Return of the King, with pencil sketches of the main cast alongside their names. On the Lord of the Rings concluder, it felt earnt; a special ending to a grand adventure. Here, it doesn't. If anything, it feels like a reminder that the story we've just seen may have pushed to reach Lord of the Rings-level epicness, but is really just a tale of a small group going on an eventful hike, capped with a fairly large skirmish. A contemplative, momentous credit sequence does not feel warranted.
I was something of a defender of Jackson's version of The Hobbit at first. I enjoyed An Unexpected Journey and stand by my comment that, while it's not The Lord of the Rings, it is the next best thing. As the trilogy has dragged on, however, it's been dragged out, and the shine has gone off it. I still think there are elements to commend it, but I also think it could have been executed better. It's hard to imagine an even longer version will improve much this time.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on Monday.
My review of the Extended Edition can now be read here.
Posted in 2010s, 2015, 4 stars, Action, adaptations, Adventure, Fantasy, War	| Tagged Aidan Turner, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Orlando Bloom, Peter Jackson, Richard Armitage, Smaug, The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien	| 2 Replies
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Extended Edition (2013/2014)
Posted on March 23, 2015 by badblokebob
2015 #35a
At the start of their audio commentary on The Desolation of Smaug, co-screenwriters Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens note that, when the decision was made to extend the already-shot Hobbit duology to a trilogy, it wasn't a third movie that need to be created but a second. That is to say, it was the middle instalment that required the most extra material, including a new prologue and climax. The theatrical version rather felt like that had happened, too, and now we have a cut with 16% more again.
Fortunately for new-stuff spotters, most of these additions come in the form of whole scenes, rather than tiny extensions here and there. In total, there's almost 27 minutes of new material, plus a little over 90 seconds removed (all of it moments that seem to have been added to the theatrical edition to cover for now-reinserted scenes). That's a pretty significant amount, and it does impact on some facets of the story, but not enough to change the overall feel. That said, I did like the film a little better, but I'd attribute that as much to simply watching it again: things that bugged me last time felt less irksome, like how long was spent on Legolas fighting orcs at the end, for instance.
One thing I never had a problem with, unlike some others, is the film's proportion of Bilbo: some say the titular hero is sidelined, with too much focus on Thorin and Gandalf as a result. Two things: one, despite the title, this is clearly structured as an ensemble movie — of course other characters are going to get some of the focus. Second, there's actually loads of Bilbo! He saves everyone from spiders in Mirkwood, he saves everyone from imprisonment by the wood elves, he's the one who finds the keyhole at Erebor, he goes into the mountain and has a long confrontation with Smaug, he's the first face we see after the prologue and the last we see before the credits. And those are just the highlights. The extended cut amps him up even more, with an extra part in Mirkwood and a moment where he stands up for Thorin in Laketown. In fairness, he doesn't have as much character development in this film as the first, while Thorin is on a definite arc and Gandalf is off on his own side-plot, but he's undoubtedly a key character. I really don't understand that complaint.
Of the new stuff, however, the best addition is more Beorn, authoritatively played by Mikael Persbrandt. He felt underused and half-arsed in the theatrical version, like they'd cut out a book character to make way for more film-added stuff later on. I have no idea how big his role is in the novel, but Tauriel and her dwarven love triangle aren't in there at all, so I can well imagine some would rather have more of the skin-changer (whether from the novel or not) than the interspecies romance. Here, we get more of a sense of him as a character, with two whole worthwhile scenes supplementing his sole one from the other cut.
Other notable additions include an extended bit in Mirkwood, where the party have to cross a river; some more of Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown; and a whole additional character encountered by Gandalf at Dol Guldur, played by renowned actor Sir Antony Sher, under so much make-up you'd never even know. There are more bits and bobs, including additional lines that set up some of the aforementioned new scenes, but nothing as significant as these. Some build on storylines first included in the extended cut of An Unexpected Journey, others are just on the level of "we shot this so here it is".
Even if some of the additions are worthless, on balance this is a better version of the film: more Beorn, more of the atmospheric Mirkwood, an additional character whose appearance will hopefully pay off in the extended Battle of the Five Armies (presuming it can't have done in the theatrical version); plus simply watching the film for a second time helps iron out some of the pacing and emphasis problems I had on my first viewing. It's still the weakest of Jackson's Middle-earth films, and there are many issues with splitting one film in two (which I expect to rear their head again in the third film, with how some of the decisions pan out), but it isn't all bad.
The concluding part of the trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies, is 2015's #36. It's released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US tomorrow and in the UK on 20th April. I'll have a review nearer that time.
Posted in 2010s, 2015, 4 stars, Action, adaptations, Adventure, alternate & director's cuts, Fantasy	| Tagged Antony Sher, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Ian McKellen, J.R.R. Tolkien, Legolas, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Mikael Persbrandt, New Zealand, Orlando Bloom, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Smaug, Stephen Fry, The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien	| 8 Replies
The World's End (2013)
Posted on December 18, 2014 by badblokebob
Edgar Wright | 109 mins | Blu-ray | 2.35:1 | UK, USA & Japan / English | 15 / R
Shaun of the Dead is the favourite of critics and fanboys, and Hot Fuzz seems to have attained widespread popularity, but The World's End may be the most mature and, in its own way, subtly subversive of the 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy. Does that make it the best? Well…
The story sees man-child Simon Pegg gathering his old gang of Sixth Form friends — all now grown-up with proper jobs and lives — to attempt their hometown's twelve-stop pub crawl, which they failed as teens. Despite lingering tensions within the group, all starts well enough — until they begin to notice there's something oddly familiar about their old town… almost as if it hasn't changed at all for a couple of decades… Cue sci-fi hi-jinks with special effects and action galore, mixed with some deft character-derived humour — the Cornetto trilogy's usual M.O., in other words.
That's not a criticism. This is a thematic trilogy, and as such you expect certain elements to be there. No one wants a beat-for-beat rehash, because what's the point, but there are certain stylistic and tonal elements you want to be present. The World's End largely achieves that, though not enough for some — those after nought but genre spoofery and non-stop humour may be disappointed.
This is a more mature work than its two predecessors. While they were clever genre mash-up/pastiches, this goes lighter on that crowd-pleasing bumf. There are still generous segments of that in the film, but the genre being manipulated is less clearly defined than "zombie movie" or "Hollywood action movie", and occasionally co-writers Pegg and Wright have substituted character development and thematic points for send-up. It may not play to the genre-loving fan-audience that the trio's previous work has accumulated (demonstrably so, based on many a viewer review), but it does make for a more grown-up film.
I noted that the film is definitely a part of the Cornetto trilogy, but there's an element of growing up and moving on about it. Shaun of the Dead was made when Pegg and Wright were in their early 30s, but now they're in their early 40s — a very different time, with different personal concerns. Some people may wish to remain young forever (as per Pegg's character in the film), but others mature, and it seems Pegg and Wright have more grown-up aims in mind with their filmmaking. In that sense The World's End may be transitional, from the genre-focussed spoofery of their 'youth' to a more considered, perhaps even realistic (at least as far as character and theme are concerned), style of storytelling. Of course, it's quite meta that the film they've made to grow up and move on from the Cornetto trilogy is all about growing up and moving on.
It's a shame some viewers can't get on board with this more mature approach. While the consensus appears to be "very good, but definitely the weakest of the trilogy", there are (normally sane) people who seem to genuinely despise it (what was that I was saying about immaturity again…), and at least a couple who cite it as their favourite of the lot. It's been a long time since I last watched Shaun or Fuzz so I'm not going to offer my definitive opinion on their relative merits, but I can see that this could be my favourite.
It will definitely reward multiple viewings: it's littered with signs, omens and portents (in fairness, a good few can be grasped on an attentive first go). There's a featurette on the BD (but not the DVD) which helps point out any major ones you may've missed; though I have to say, even at seven minutes long, and even with it pointing out some that felt too obvious to be worth mentioning, I swear it left some stuff out. That could be a deliberate decision of course, to leave some things for people to just spot.
Clearly too mature for some viewers (and I don't mean in the sense of swearing and violence), Wright and Pegg's trilogy-capper is a thoughtful character movie about growing up and moving on… paired with the usual Cornetto trilogy genre-riffing hi-jinks. The result may just be the trilogy's pinnacle.
This review is part of the 100 Films Advent Calendar 2014. Read more here.
Posted in 2010s, 2014, 5 stars, Action, British films, Comedy, Sci-fi	| Tagged apocalypse, Cornetto, Edgar Wright, Martin Freeman, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Simon Pegg, The World's End, Three Flavours Cornetto	| Leave a reply
Nativity! (2009)
Posted on April 8, 2012 by badblokebob
Debbie Isitt | 106 mins | Blu-ray | 1.78:1 | UK / English | U / PG
Yes, this is exactly the kind of review I should be posting in April. But hey, it's Easter! That's about Jesus too, right? (It'll have to do, I'm not hanging on 'til next Christmas.)
Nativity! comes from writer-director Debbie Isitt, previously responsible for the entertaining part-improvised comedy Confetti, and this fits in a similar vein… albeit more family-friendly than a movie featuring Robert Webb and Olivia Colman as nudists. This one sees Confetti's Martin Freeman as a primary school teacher charged with producing his school's nativity, which always gets bad reviews in the local paper (do any local papers really review nativities?) while their rival private school always gets glowing endorsements. To make matters worse, the other school's nativity director is an old friend/rival (Confetti's Jason Watkins), and he must deal with an enthusiastic but unprofessional new classroom assistant (Confetti's Marc Wootton), and there's some stuff about his ex-girlfriend (Extra's Ashley Jensen) who's gone to LA, and it's all quite straightforward when you watch it but I'm making a right pig's ear of describing it. This is why I didn't use to bother trying to include plot summaries.
It's not wholly my fault — it's kind of a daft plot, really. It's played relatively straight and realist, but it goes off that beaten track at times. Which I suppose is fine — why not, after all? No one promised grim social realism — it's a Christmas family film, with some moral messages and a sort of romance and sweet kids and a cute dog. And regular readers know how much I love a cute dog.
It's also cheesy and silly, with an ending so packed with sentimentality it could make Spielberg look like a grumpy spoilsport. But in a feel-good Christmas-time film I think that's mostly allowed. It's not deep or meaningful, and it's not cutting edge or shocking, but it has a charm and a sweetness that sit well at that time of year. The kind of film you flop on the sofa, shove your brain in to neutral, and tuck in to a box of chocolates while smiling along.
Try watching this at any other time of year (like, er, now) and you can knock a star off, but over the Christmas period it's a fluffily entertaining diversion. Maybe I should've held this review back after all.
Posted in 2000s, 2011, 4 stars, British films, Comedy, Romance	| Tagged Ashley Jensen, Christmas, Debbie Isitt, Jason Watkins, Marc Wootton, Martin Freeman, Nativity	| 1 Reply
Confetti (2006)
Posted on August 6, 2007 by badblokebob
Debbie Isitt | 96 mins | TV | 15 / R
Largely improvised Britcom, shot in a documentary style, about three couples trying to win a most original wedding competition.
It starts out quite poorly, with unlikable characters and an irritating style, but things do improve and a number of the characters do grow on you (some, deliberately, remain horrid). My favourites are the pair of camp wedding planners — you don't get much more stereotypical, but they're lovable and amusing from the off.
Fittingly, the weddings at the end are probably the best bits.
Confetti is on BBC Two tonight, Monday 25th August 2014, at 11pm.
Posted in 2000s, 2007, 3 stars, British films, Comedy, Documentary, Romance	| Tagged Confetti, Debbie Isitt, Jessica Hynes, Martin Freeman, mockumentary, Olivia Colman, Robert Webb, Stephen Mangan, weddings	| Leave a reply

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A double header of videos today from the ATCA Northeastern PA classic truck show held in Harford, PA. We'll start off with this Brockway U360 with a 12V71 Detroit. According to sources in the know this barn find U-Model is one of the earliest trucks according to serial number yet to have been found. Who will find the next one? Will it be you?
And now the bitter sweet videos begin, trucks leaving the show after another successful year.
This entry was posted in Truck Show and tagged atca northeastern pa, endless mountains, harford. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Estimating Student Competence in Engineering Statics From a Lexical Analysis of Handwritten Equations
Author(s): Lin, Han-Lung
Advisor(s): Stahovich, Thomas F
We present a technique that examines handwritten equations from a student's solution to an engineering statics problem and estimates the correctness of the work. The solution is recorded with a smartpen that digitizes the writing with time stamps. Our technique first separates equation pen strokes from other content, such as diagrams. Then the equation pen strokes are grouped first into individual equations, then into individual characters. A character recognizer is used to recognize each character, and then a Hidden Markov Model is used to correct recognition errors. The equation text is characterized by a set of features. Some of these describe the frequency of various symbols and symbol combinations, such as a letter following a mathematical operator. One feature describes the frequency with which units of measure (e.g., "kg") appear, while another describes inter-character pauses. This set of features is used to construct SVM regression models to predict the correctness of the work. We tested our approach on a corpus of solutions to exam problems from an undergraduate statics course. The SVM models predicted the grade assigned by the instructor with an average coefficient of determination of 36%. We also combined our features with an existing set of features that describe the temporal and spatial organization of a handwritten solution a statics problem. Using both sets of features, the SVM models predicted the grade on the exam problems with an average coefficient of determination of 56%. This is a surprising result given that none of the features consider the semantic content of the writing, or even the correctness of a student's final answer.
Stroke Classification
Interpreting the Text
Extracting Features from Text
Set C - Exams
Spatiotemporal Neuroprotection and Early Regeneration after Ischemic Stroke with Neuregulin-1 Treatment
Noll, Jessica M.
Effects of PALS Math on Classroom Behaviors and Math Performance in Fifth Grade
Zheng, Ruiwen
Semi-Supervised Tracking of Multiple Identical Objects With Occlusions
Lee, Colin Jiho
Higher-Order Accurate Variance Estimation in Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)
Bastola, Deepak
Joint Models and A Study of Missing Data Mechanisms: New Statistical Methods and Novel Applications
Sain, Debaleena


U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire firefighters responded to a report of a vegetation 1 mile up Bee Canyon Road on the west side of Bee Canyon at about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.
First on scene reported the fire was 1 to 2 acres in light to medium fuels and traveling at a low to medium spread. The fire has a potential of becoming 5 to 10 acres.
Engines, crews and air attack were on scene of the wildfire, named the Wasp Incident.


Paytm POWER Promocode : Get Rs 50 Cashback On Electricity Bill Payment Of Rs 500 : Hello Readers, Today again Verifiedloot Team has Bring New Electricity bill Payment offer for you. Previously we have posted, Paytm FILMY Promocode : Get Free Movie Ticket on Electricity Bill Payment. Now Again Paytm Offering Rs 50 Cashback On Electricity Bill Payment Of Rs 500 or more. You can avail this offer 3 times per user. So Hurry up Guys Follow Simple steps and Grab This Offer as soon as.


Buffalo, N.Y., April 10, 2009, Volunteers from the Diocese Youth Ministry between the ages of 15 - 17 will volunteer their time as part of an intensive work camp training program during Holy week to provide services of cleaning, painting, and fellowship. On Good Friday, April 10, 2009 between 9:30AM -12:30 PM the volunteers will spend the day at People Inc.'s Seniors Unlimited Program located at 310 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, NY.
People Inc.'s Seniors Unlimited is the only program of its kind in the City of Buffalo that provides respite for caregivers of individuals with Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease, stroke and other related memory loss. In a safe, comfortable environment participants are involved in a variety of activities designed to foster self-esteem, maintain social and daily living skills, exercise the body and stimulate the mind. Activities include exercise, art, crafts, music, intergenerational program, community outings and interaction with peers. Collaborations like this provide an opportunity to promote awareness, diversity, and information sharing with the community.
The day will be devoted to educating, raising awareness about individuals with special needs, community living/working together, and developing new friendships. It is a way to have fun socialization, make friends, share experiences and make a global impact, right here in Western New York. In addition, the youth will be asked to take part in raising the consciousness of the community and their peers by pledging their support and stop the offensive use of the "R-word - retard(ed)" in casual conversation.


text:
Pay rate ruling a landmark decision
By Jono Edwards
Neil Finn-House
In a landmark decision, the Employment Relations Authority has set collective pay rates for Jacks Hardware and Timber Ltd employees.
Jacks owns Mitre 10 Mega in Dunedin and Mitre 10 in Mosgiel.
Authority member Christine Hickey released her decision yesterday,
concluding the tier 1 rate should be $19 per hour, and the tier 2 rate should be $21 per hour and no increase from September 1.
She also set an additional rate at $2 per hour.
Union membership currently sits at four out of a total staff of between 180 and 200.
The unprecedented action of the authority "fixing" the collective agreement rates came after almost six years of Jacks Hardware and First Union being unable to agree on a collective agreement.
The decision comes just 10 days after the hearing between the two parties.
At the hearing, the company offered starting pay rates of 25c and $1 above the minimum wage, amounting to $17.95 and $18.70 respectively for tier 1 and tier 2. It rejected the trade qualification clause.
Ms Hickey said if it set the rates Jacks proposed, nothing would change for at least 44 of its lowest paid staff.
The union wanted a base rate of $21.50 an hour (increasing to $22.50 an hour from September 1), $23 (increasing to $24 an hour from September 1) for tier 2 employees, and $3 extra for employees with a relevant trade qualification.
The union's claims were "too high" when compared with Retail NZ's figures and the rates paid by the two other Mitre 10 franchises in the South Island, Ms Hickey said.
She agreed with Jack's Hardware that it would be inappropriate to set artificially high wage rates as a punishment to the company.
"However, I consider that it is reasonable to take into account the period of time since a collective agreement could have been agreed to consider what wage rates could have been by now."
She used comparisons of Bunnings, other South Island Mitre 10s and Foodstuff stores in her decision.
First Union retail secretary Tali Williams said it was a "landmark case" in what was fair pay for a retail worker.
"It's an absolutely fair decision."
The union had a campaign on what workers deserve to be paid.
"It's been a long time coming. It's a warning to other employers who may refuse to negotiate a pay rise."
The unprecedented instruction to the authority to "fix" disagreements in collective agreement negotiations was part of an Employment Court decision released in February.
Jacks Hardware chief executive Neil Finn-House said he was pleased to have concluded collective agreement negotiations and felt the authority reached a fair outcome for the minimum wage rates.
"Most Kiwis will agree that it is important that local, New Zealand-owned and operated businesses are able to pay their employees rates that are locally comparable.
"Our objective at the hearing was to reach a fair outcome, consistent with market rates of comparable businesses in the South Island, which maintains our ability to reward and recognise our staff above and beyond the minimum pay rates that the collective will contain."
Pacifist memorial funds goal reached
Bus gets stuck completing a turn
Watch: Is the new steepest street deserving of title?
Diesel spills on Southern Motorway
First gun buy-back events announced for Dunedin
A short trip to the top
Cycle lane work to affect parking


text:
Q: Overflow while shiffting C Hello i am trying to concatenate 2 uint32_t to make a 64 bit message to send throw a socket. But i get the following error
warning: left shift count >= width of type [-Wshift-count-overflow] uint64_t mensaje = (random_number << 32) | mensaje_temp;
Here is some code sample:
void send_msg(int num, int connsocket){
    uint8_t largo = 6;
    uint8_t type = 11;
    uint16_t filler = 0;
    uint32_t random_number = num;
    uint16_t second_part = (type << 8) | largo;
    uint32_t mensaje_temp = (filler << 16) | second_part;
    uint64_t mensaje = (random_number << 32) | mensaje_temp;
    size_t msg_length = 8;
    char *new_msg = (char*)&mensaje;
}

I just did a similar thing to concatenate uint8_t types with a similar code and it worked, Any advice on how to manipulate safely this type of data would be great.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to calculate expiration date based on next record's [EffectiveDate]-1 in T-SQL (SSMS 2017)? I have the following simple query, and the resulting table:
    SELECT
          [Client_ID],
          [ClientName],
          [EffectiveDate],
          [MedConditionID],
          [MedCondition]

    FROM
         [Medications]

Resulting Table:

I need to populate  [ExpirationDate] field - which is based on next record's [EffectiveDate] field - 1.
For example - if effective dates are  '1/16/2019', '10/16/2019' then the [ExpirationDate] for '1/16/2019'= '10/15/2019', etc.
For the biggest effective date (in this table it's '3/18/2020'), expiration date should always be = '2050/12/31'
Please see updated table below (how I need to populate [ExpirationDate], I highlighted the 1st 2 examples):

Plz, help with any suggestions
I was thinking about some Lag() / Lead() functions that will compare records between each other, but not sure
Thank you!

A: declare @Medications table
(
[Client_ID] int,
[ClientName] varchar(50),
[EffectiveDate] date,
[MedConditionID] int,
[MedCondition] varchar(50)
);

insert into @Medications(Client_Id, ClientName, EffectiveDate, MedConditionId, MedCondition)
values
(100, 'jeffrey', '20190116', 123, 'Alcohol'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20191016', 123, 'Alcohol'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20191016', 267, 'Head'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20191220', 123, 'Alcohol'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20191220', 267, 'Head'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20200121', 123, 'Alcohol'),
(100, 'jeffrey', '20200121', 267, 'Head');

select EffectiveDate,
    dateadd(day, -1,
    lead(EffectiveDate, 1, '20510101' ) over(partition by Client_id, MedConditionId order by EffectiveDate)
    ) as ExpirationDate,
    *
from @Medications;


If you have to do auto repairs on your Subaru Legacy Outback 2.5i Automatic then it is always a good plan to own a Workshop Manual to keep just for a guide in case you need to know the right way to remove a particular part such as the Drive Shaft and fit it again effectively.
Subaru Legacy Outback 2.5i Automatic Workshop Manuals provides targeted diagnostic information on your car so if something is faulty it will help you determine what the situation is and how to make it better. After that you can analyse if you can do this on your own or if ever the job is too big you can still make a reservation for your Legacy Outback 2.5i Automatic in to a trusted repair garage.


text:
Gałęziaki (Tylomyinae) – podrodzina ssaków z rodziny chomikowatych (Cricetidae).

Zasięg występowania
Podrodzina obejmuje gatunki występujące w Ameryce.

Charakterystyka
Gałęziaki są zwierzętami o średniej wielkości, z ogonem o długości nieznacznie większej od długości tułowia wraz z głową. Prowadzą nadrzewny tryb życia.

Systematyka
Do gałęziaków należą następujące plemiona:
 Nyctomyini  – nadrzewki
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Disqualified Zimbabwe Under-17 Soccer Squad Returning Home After 'Fielding' Old Player
Gibbs Dube
MARYLAND —
The Under-17 Zimbabwe national soccer team is expected to return home Monday following their disqualification from the Confederation of Southern African Football Association Youth Championship.
In a statement, Zimbabwe Football Association communications manager, Xolisani Gwesela, said the team is coming back home as the Confederation of African Football has not yet responded to their inquiries over their disqualification from the event.
"The Zimbabwe Football Association would like to inform the football fraternity and the nation that ZIFA has not received any response from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), following our appeal against the disqualification of our Under 17 team from this year's edition of the COSAFA Youth Championship.
"COSAFA has insisted that in the absence of communication from CAF, the expulsion stands and the team should travel back to Zimbabwe. The on going tournament also serves as the qualifiers for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals. Consequently, the team will return home tomorrow (Monday). This does not mean that ZIFA has abandoned its appeal against disqualification, but we have taken this decision to avoid further straining the committed and innocent Young Warriors whose premature exit was disappointing and questionable."
CAF officials were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.
Gwesela did not reveal the name of the player that resulted in the disqualification of the squad.
In a statement, COSAFA said the disqualification of Botswana, Comoros Islands, Eswatini and Zimbabwe from the 2020 COSAFA Men's Under-17 Championship on the basis of fielding over-age players has forced a reset of the competition.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Youth Competitions Committee made the decision to disqualify the teams from the zonal qualifier tournament for the 2021 Africa Under-17 Cup of Nations on Friday.
"The quartet all had at least one player fail their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that were conducted in the host country prior to the start of the competition.
The tournament regulations stipulate that "an age eligibility test will be obligatory and will be performed on all participating players upon arrival in the host city. The test will be performed by the CAF Medical Services in accordance with the protocol of the F-Marc in a health facility duly accredited in the hosting country using an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) apparatus. The cost of the MRI test will be covered by CAF.
"In the event that a participating team has one or more players who do not pass the MRI test for eligibility, then the applicable team will be disqualified and will have to return home as soon as is practically possible."
MRI scans are used across the world to determine whether players are eligible for Under-17 competitions.
According to COSAFA, doctors look for bone fusions in the human wrist, which are highly unlikely to occur before the age of 17, with a more than 99% accuracy rate.
"If the fused bone can be seen on the MRI scans, then it is proof that the player is older than 17. It is certainly not an issue that affects Southern Africa alone. Guinea were disqualified from appearing at the 2019 FIFA Under-17 World Cup after being found guilty of fielding two ineligible players in the continental finals, where they finished third."
Zimbabwe and the other nations' punishment will see them miss the next two Africa Under-17 Cup of Nations, and by consequence the next FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
The 2020 COSAFA Men's Under-17 Championship restarted as a four-team tournament on Sunday and is expected to be played on a round-robin basis, with the top two teams advancing to a final on November 29.
The matches which have been played to date will be regarded as warm-up games and will have no bearing on the new tournament format.
There are also fixtures on Tuesday and Thursday, before the final positions are decided next Sunday, including a third-fourth play-off.
The two sides that reach the final based on their position in the group will have already achieved one ambition by qualifying for the Cup of Nations that is scheduled for Morocco in the middle of next year.


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Posts Tagged 'bar associations'
ABA review of judicial nominations again comes under fire
Josh Blackman, at The Atlantic and Volokh Conspiracy, has the tale of how in the nomination of conservative Ninth Circuit nominee Lawrence Van Dyke, the American Bar Association (ABA) appears to have played fast and loose with the interview process, breaking its own rules along the way. Given "that the ABA cannot be trusted to accurately recount the conversations" resulting from its inquiries, Blackman proposes that in future "these interrogations should be treated as hostile depositions. A court reporter and videographer should be present, as well as private retained counsel to push back on unfounded accusations."
Filed under: bar associations, judicial nominations, Ninth Circuit
Lawyer files First Amendment challenge against uses of Louisiana bar dues
"A libertarian attorney filed a lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Louisiana State Bar Association's monopoly on the legal profession, joining a wave of similar litigation in other states. New Orleans insurance defense lawyer Randy Boudreaux alleges in the federal court suit that his rights of free speech and free association are being violated because the bar association collects his mandatory dues while taking positions on controversial issues like the death penalty and LGBT rights…. Boudreaux, a married gay man, said he agrees with the bar association's position in favor of LGBT rights. But he's opposed to the idea of compelling his fellow lawyers to pay for a group with which they disagree." [Matt Sledge, NOLA.com, earlier] But note: Eighth Circuit rejects argument that North Dakota bar fees are open to challenge under Janus [Fleck v. Wetch]
Filed under: bar associations, First Amendment, Louisiana, North Dakota
Update: Ontario law society drops mandatory diversity avowal
In a divided vote last month, "The Law Society of Ontario ditched a controversial rule requiring all lawyers to adopt and abide by a statement advocating equality and diversity." A compromise measure adopted instead "requires lawyers and paralegals to acknowledge, each year on their report to the society, an awareness of their existing professional obligation to abide by human rights legislation." [Adrian Humphreys, National Post; text of new requirement at LSO; Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, The Post Millennial; CBC Radio; earlier]
Filed under: bar associations, Canada, free speech in Canada, legal profession
The ABA and "affirmative consent" in criminal law
Many colleges have adopted a principle known as "affirmative consent," which makes it easier to infer misconduct (and thus impose expulsion or other discipline) when a record is lacking in verbal or physical evidence one way or the other as to whether a student's sexual encounter with another student was consensual. It might seem unthinkable to apply such a standard in criminal law, where the consequences are not expulsion but imprisonment and the burdens of sex offender registration.
And yet that's the gist of a resolution urged on the American Bar Association by its Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. Read my account at Cato, and then for additional insight check out the letter from Bay Area employment lawyer Mark Schickman, who chairs that sponsoring commission, especially the portions characterizing "The Principle Behind the Opposition." Emily Yoffe's investigation into the oddly influential "freeze" theory is here.
It was a close-fought thing, but Monday afternoon the assembled ABA House of Delegates voted to table the resolution 256-165, killing it for this conference at least.
Filed under: bar associations, sexual assault
Battles continue over lawyer speech codes, in both U.S. and Canada
As I noted last year, the American Bar Association in 2016 adopted as a recommendation its Model Rule 8.4 (g),
which makes it "professional misconduct" for an attorney to engage in "conduct," including verbal "conduct," that "the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law." …
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh has argued that the ABA rule's scope "is broad and vague enough to potentially apply to a wide range of political speech, and thus violate the First Amendment."
The rule would invite charges of professional misconduct against lawyers who express or circulate opinions, jokes, or graphics that they should have known would make a listener uncomfortable based on one or another protected class membership. It would apply in an extremely wide range of contexts "related to the practice of law", as listed in these April comments:
Activities that seem to fall within the extremely broad scope of proposed Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g) include:
* presenting CLE courses;
* participating in panel discussions that touch on controversial political, religious, and social viewpoints;
* teaching law school classes as faculty, adjunct faculty, or guest lecturers;
* writing law review articles, op-eds, blogposts, or tweets;
* giving media interviews;
* serving on the board of one's religious congregation, K-12 school, or college;
* providing pro bono legal advice to nonprofits;
* serving at legal aid clinics;
* lobbying on various legal issues;
* testifying before a legislative body;
* writing comment letters to government agencies;
* sitting on the board of a fraternity or sorority;
* volunteering for political parties; and
* advocating through social justice organizations.
While some state codes of lawyer conduct already ban bias and harassment, these have generally been drafted much more narrowly. In Maine, for example, up to now the missteps have to have been committed "knowingly," in the course of representing a client, and in a manner "prejudicial to the administration of justice" — all three important safeguards against overbreadth.
Model Rule 8.4 (g) has faced rough sledding around the states since it was proposed. According to these comments in October, "seven states have rejected the rule: Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, South Carolina, and Tennessee have rejected the proposal. The Attorneys General of four states have concluded that adopting the rule would violate the First Amendment: Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Only Vermont has adopted the model rule in its entirety."
As Vermont goes, so goes Maine: the Pine Tree State's highest court has now adopted a version of the rule, although narrowed in several respects. In particular, the Maine version defines "the practice of law" in a less broad (though still quite broad) way that covers fewer purely social activities; it removes socioeconomic status and marital status from the list of protected classes; and it tries at least to define what sorts of speech it will deem to be bias or harassment. Its definition is still quite unclear in its contours, however, and far broader than the standard approved by the U.S. Supreme Court as to harassment law and speech liability in workplace and university settings.
Let's hope other states don't follow Maine's example: even as narrowed, the rules curtail important rights.
In the mean time, however, there is heartening news from Ontario, Canada, where (as I reported last year) the Law Society had gone all in on rules that go much further than the ABA's, requiring all lawyers on eventual pain of discipline to draft a personal Statement of Principles (SOP) avowing a dedication to principles of diversity, equality, and inclusion. The Society rejected a proposal "to create an exemption to the new mandatory Statement of Principles for persons who believe the requirement violates their freedom of conscience."
But its membership revolted. Attorney Lisa Bildy and other SOP objectors led a campaign that, in a seeming miracle, elected 22 of its supporters to the 40 lawyer seats among the benchers (governors) at the Law Society. While the newly elected are not a majority because of the other seats on the body reserved for lay benchers and paralegals, the message was unmistakable (more on the campaign from Bruce Pardy, Murray Klippenstein, Teng Rong, and Dylan McGuinty). Now, in the face of a determined campaign of abuse directed at the incoming benchers (sidelight), the Law Society of Ontario's governing Convocation will meet June 27 to begin considering whether to repeal, render optional, otherwise change, or retain the Statement of Principles requirements.
The June 27 Law Society meeting, and what follows, deserve a close watch by all of us concerned about the rise of speech codes and forced expression in the professions.
[cross-posted from Cato at Liberty; earlier]
Filed under: bar associations, free speech, hostile environment, legal profession
Janus: what comes after
The Supreme Court's Janus decision on public sector union fees was not received in a spirit of total cooperation by all public sector unions and employers. Two Cato Daily Podcasts from late last year, one with Robert Alt of the Buckeye Institute, the other with Ken Girardin of The Empire Center:
Related: Federalist Society podcast with William Messenger and panel with Messenger, Steven Greenhut, Hon. Chuck Reed, and Hon. Ryan Nelson; William Baude (critical of Janus).
And now, citing the First Amendment and the Janus precedent, "three conservative lawyers are seeking to overturn Texas laws that require attorneys to join the State Bar of Texas and pay annual dues;" in Texas, as in many states, bar dues go to various ideologically fraught issues and causes [Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman]
Just for fun: Cato's amicus brief in Janus v. AFSCME is an answer on Jeopardy!
Filed under: bar associations, labor unions, public employment
December 5 roundup
"An important win for property owners": Supreme Court rules 8-0 that protected species habitat doesn't include tracts containing no actual dusty gopher frogs and not inhabitable by them absent modification [Roger Pilon, George Will, earlier on Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cato Daily Podcast with Holly Fretwell and Caleb Brown ("The Frog Never Had a Chance")]
Proposed revision of federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would expand definition of domestic violence to include nonviolent "verbal, emotional, economic, or technological" abuse. Vagueness only the start of the problems here [Wendy McElroy, The Hill]
Bad ideas endorsed by the American Bar Association, part 3,972: laws requiring landlords to take Section 8 tenants [ABA Journal; earlier on "source of income discrimination" laws]
Minneapolis "Healthy Foods Ordinance" drives up costs for convenience stores, worsens food waste, pressures ethnic grocers into Anglo formats [Christian Britschgi]
New York Attorney General-elect Letitia (Tish) James has been zealous about suit-filing in recent years, quality another matter [Scott Greenfield]
"Plaintiff wins $1,000 in statutory damages for technical violation of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. (Debt collector illegally used the words 'credit bureau' in its business name.) After plaintiff's lawyers seek $130k in fees, district court awards them the princely sum of $0. Fifth Circuit: Just so. While fees are ordinarily mandatory, 'special circumstances' obtain here: The record suggests that the plaintiff colluded with her lawyers to generate this 'outrageous' fee-heavy lawsuit in Texas instead of in her home state of Louisiana." [John Kenneth Ross, IJ "Short Circuit" on Davis v. Credit Bureau of the South]
Filed under: bar associations, debtor-creditor law, domestic violence, endangered species, Fifth Circuit, housing discrimination, obesity
Free speech roundup
Repercussions of Supreme Court's Janus ruling on bar associations' compulsory extraction of dues from nonmembers [Maxine Bernstein, Oregonian] "State Supreme Court calls a 'timeout' for Washington Bar Association to review its rules" [Steve Miletich, Seattle Times] "ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) Cannot Survive the Supreme Court's Recent Decisions in NIFLA and Matal" [Kim Colby, Federalist Society, earlier on rule banning some types of speech and expression by lawyers on anti-discrimination grounds]
Pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio sues New York Times for libel [Quint Forgey, Politico; Joe Setyon, Reason; over the years]
When may governments boycott private companies' output because those companies promote disapproved ideas? [Eugene Volokh, more]
First Amendment has consistently foiled Donald Trump's designs against critics' speech [Jacob Sullum; related, David Henderson] "The culture of free speech has been deteriorating for long enough that politics, sadly and predictably, is catching up." [Matt Welch] "Threats of violence discourage people from participating in civic life. This is an unusually good opportunity to deter them." [Conor Friedersdorf during Ford-Kavanaugh episode]
"Fighting Words and Free Speech" [John Samples] "A New Podcast on Free Speech: Many Victories, Many Struggles" [same on Jacob Mchangama podcast series]
"U.K. Supreme Court: Baker Doesn't Have to Place Pro-Gay Marriage Message on Cake" [Dale Carpenter, Peter Tatchell, Lee v. Ashers]
Filed under: bar associations, Donald Trump, First Amendment, free speech
Feds and states bless ABA's gatekeeper status in law school accreditation. Why?
The American Bar Association (ABA)
has been granted monopoly status over the accreditation of law schools by the U.S. Department of Education (for purposes of determining eligibility for federal student loans) and nearly all state supreme courts (for purposes of determining eligibility to take the bar exam). Monopoly status is inevitably prone to abuse, and in recent decades the ABA has gone far beyond its original mission of establishing minimum standards for legal education to protect the public. Professor John Baker maintains that "the ABA is an ideological organization forcing its ideology into the standards on accreditation."
I found while researching my book on legal academia, Schools for Misrule, that the ABA's and AALS's (Association of American Law Schools) role as accreditors has had far-reaching structural effects on law schools and probably ideological effects too, as well as restricting competition and discouraging innovation. I agree with Mark Pulliam that the federal government and states should refrain from artificially promoting these groups' gatekeeper role or, worse, conferring monopoly status on them [Law and Liberty]
Filed under: bar associations, law schools, Schools for Misrule
Good riddance, Persuader Rule
"The U.S. Labor Department on Tuesday officially rescinded the Obama administration's 'persuader rule' that would have required lawyers and consultants to report on advice given to employers about persuading employees on union issues." Among its numerous other problems, the rule drew fire from the American Bar Association and other groups as an infringement on lawyer-client confidentiality. [ABA Journal, earlier]
Filed under: bar associations, labor unions


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Work / About / Archive
Tag: ethics
Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil. Traditional folktales never were. What changed?
"Good guy/bad guy narratives might not possess any moral sophistication, but they do promote social stability, and they're useful for getting people to sign up for armies and fight in wars with other nations. Their values feel like morality, and the association with folklore and mythology lends them a patina of legitimacy, but still, they don't arise from a moral vision. They are rooted instead in a political vision, which is why they don't help us deliberate, or think more deeply about the meanings of our actions. Like the original Grimm stories, they're a political tool designed to bind nations together." [c/o LinkMachineGo] #link
Maciej Cegłowski on how to 'build a better monster'
"This year especially there's an uncomfortable feeling in the tech industry that we did something wrong, that in following our credo of 'move fast and break things', some of what we knocked down were the load-bearing walls of our democracy." The collateral damage of building for the reality we hope to create, rather than the one we live in, to paraphrase my previous link. But Cegłowski goes a lot deeper that that in this tech conference talk from earlier in the year. And it doesn't get more damning, more cyberpunk dystopian than this: "The algorithms have learned that users interested in politics respond more if they're provoked more, so they provoke." #link
Mat Honan for Buzzfeed on Facebook's 'reality hole'
"The problem with connecting everyone on the planet is that a lot of people are assholes." That's it right there. I don't subscribe to the notion that people in general are fundamentally decent; there's too much evidence to the contrary. Social media — in ushering in an era where everyone is online, not just a self-selecting proportion — reveals that much. Does Facebook care about that? It's a different kind of caring, to be charitable; rooted in head-in-the-sand techno-utopianism that strives for solutions to problems no one really has, while ignoring the actual problems people have right now. As Mat Honan writes: "You have to build for the reality we live in, not the one we hope to create." #link


Technology continues to influence and drive our everyday activities, both personally and professionally. From running corporate America to managing the family household, we need to be in position to access, process and manage information instantaneously, regardless of the time of day. Information access and management continues to be a key enabler for Corporate IT and its ability to support the business. As a result, attention to areas such as virtualization, data governance, corporate social media and cloud computing become critical points for the CIO agenda.
As data demands grow at an exponential rate and users expect uninterrupted access to this data, virtualized storage and server components are required. Data volumes continue to grow regardless of corporate budgets and IT organizations must continue to address this demand via the virtualization of the server and storage environments, and the automation of its operational support. In addition, regulations and compliance will continue to drive requirements for the protection, control and management of the information and supporting infrastructure assets.
Users will want to be able to access corporate information, regardless of its sensitivity, from any device, platform or location. Devices like smartphones, public kiosks and home computers are bringing new networks into corporate infrastructure. IT shops can no longer standardize on a single platform, but rather accommodate this change while trying to control and protect the appropriate business sensitive information. This places greater emphasis on the security and management controls for an IT organization and to proactively know and monitor this type of information.
Most IT organizations should be at least assessing how cloud computing will impact their operations for information access. Besides potentially reducing operational expenses, cloud computing will help organizations evaluate what could be considered commodity IT services that can be leveraged internally (private) or externally (public). Utilizing cloud solutions in response to the continued information demand will allow the CIO to be more responsive to the business, meet stringent service levels, and shrink its infrastructure footprint and supporting operations.
Our West Monroe Partners' Technology Solutions practice continues to act as the trusted CIO advisor to work through many of these growing demands and bring innovative solutions that meet their IT needs.


Welcome to our huge archive of Cheats for Master System. Below you'll find organized alphabetically by title a collection of Master System Games with Cheat Codes, Video Game Walkthroughs, Answers and more. Please select a letter from the following index to browse this game platform for Cheats, Hints and More.
Golden axe found in game?


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Liver Center
Administrative Core Facility
Cellular and Molecular Physiology Core Facility
Morphology Core Facility
Clinical and Translational Core
Pilot Feasibility Grants
Pilot Project Awardees
Completed Pilot Projects
James Boyer, MD, FACEP
Ensign Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases); Emeritus Director, Yale Liver Center
Internal Medicine: Diabetes Research Center | Digestive Diseases: Autoimmune and Cholestatic Liver Disease Program; Hepatology | Gastrointestinal Procedure Center | Liver Center
Dr. James L. Boyer is the Ensign Professor of Medicine and Emeritus Director of the Liver Center at Yale School of Medicine. He is a graduate of Haverford College (1958) and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1962). From 1982 until 1996 he directed a combined Digestive Disease Section in the Department of Medicine. He was the founding Director of the NIDDK funded Liver Center at Yale since 1984. and former Director of the NIEHS Center for Membrane Toxicity Studies at the Mt Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salsbury Cove, ME where he was also Chairman of their Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2011-2013. He is also past Chair, Board of Directors of the American Liver Foundation and a current member of Board of Mangers of Haverford College. Dr. Boyer has a broad interest in all aspects of basic and clinical hepatology. His laboratory's major efforts have been the study of mechanisms of bile formation and cholestasis , currently supported by a MERIT award from NIDDK. He is a member of the AASLD, ASCI, AAP,APS and ACCA and past president of both the American and the International Association for the Study of Liver Disease. He is the recipient of Distinguished Achievement Awards from the AGA, AASLD and American Liver Foundation.
Johns Hopkins University (1962)
Haverford College, Biology (1958)
Yale - New Haven Hospital
New York Hospital
AB of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine (1969)
Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars -2016Johns Hopkins University (2016)
Spinoza ProfesesorshipUniversity of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2009)
NIH MERIT AwardNational Institutes of Health (2008)
Distinguished Scientific Achievement AwardAmerican Liver foundation (1999)
Distinguished Achievement AwardAmerican Association for the Study of the Liver (1998)
Ismar-Boas MedalGerman Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolism (1996)
Ensign ProfessorshipYale University (1996)
Distinguished Achievement AwardAmerican Gastroenterology Association (1989)
Adolf-Windaus Prize	Falk Foundation (1988)
Haverford College (2009 - Present) Board Member
Mt Desert Island Biological Laboratory (1995 - 2013) Board Member
American Liver Foundation (1976 - Present) voluntary health agency
Yale University School of Medicine Committee Member
Bile formation Austria; Switzerland; Germany; Italy; Netherlands; Thailand (2008)
Dr. Boyer collaborates with numerous researchers on projects related to the cellular and molecular mechanisms of bile formation and mechanisms of liver injury that lead to impairment of this important physiologic process. He has been engaged in this NIH funded work for the past 30 years.
Email james.boyer@yale.edu
Yale Digestive DiseasesTemple Medical Center
40 Temple Street, Ste Suite 1A
Yale Digestive DiseasesYale New Haven Hospital
The Anlyan Center
300 Cedar Street, Ste S240
Digestive DiseasesPO Box 208019
Yale Liver Center
The Anlyan Center for Medical Research & Education 300 Cedar St., Room S241 New Haven CT 06520 203.785.5610


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UIUC not likely to take back Exceptional Achievement award from former Ecuador President Rafael Correa, says local activist
By Colin Froment | Aug 1, 2019
One local activist is not convinced that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will rescind former Ecuador President Rafael Correa's "International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement" that was given to him in 2009.
Correa is currently residing in Belgium with his family since requesting asylum in 2017 following embezzling and kidnapping charges against him in Ecuador. In 2012, he was accused of using state funds to kidnap Colombia lawmaker Fernando Balda. Colombian authorities later rescued Balda where he was deported back to Ecuador after fleeing from Ecuadorian government.
Scott Tapley, a former Champaign County Board member, states that UIUC has favored Correa's leftist politics and has a long history associating with extreme left politics.
"UIUC is staying true to its Cultural Marxist ideals," Tapley told Chambana Sun. "As long as you're a leftist, communist or socialist, you receive special treatment like you're part of a club. If not, you may be subject to harsh intolerance. These double standards date at least far back as the 1960's, with Bill Ayers being a prime example. If Correa was politically right wing, UIUC might give him the boot…as long as he adheres to his communist principles, I would expect him to continue to be embraced by his kindred spirits at [UIUC]."
Tapley has strong beliefs that UIUC is sympathetic to Correa's actions. "The faculty are overwhelmingly socialist, communist [or] leftist, so a majority probably approve of Correa politically, which nowadays often means being tolerant of wrongdoing," Tapley said.
As reported in The Chicago Tribune, Correa is affiliated with FARC, a group classified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group with history of kidnapping and killing American citizens.
As to why the "Exceptional Achievement" award has not been recalled sooner, Tapley says that UIUC is "reluctant to criticize their own."
Tapley also expressed doubts that UIUC will not change any policies on selecting award recipients in the future.
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RANTOUL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 137: 8th Grade Career Conference
By Press release submission | Jan 22, 2020
GIBSON CITY-MELVIN-SIBLEY COMMUNITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 5: Falcon Academy Youth Basketball Program Postponed
RANTOUL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 137: Glow Bingo Fundraiser
By Press release submission | Jan 9, 2020
RANTOUL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 137: Drug Free School Zone
GIBSON CITY-MELVIN-SIBLEY COMMUNITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 5: 2020 Softball Camp
RANTOUL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 137: Auditions For Dearly Departed
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