text:
CaribbeanFever / FeverEyes / CaribFever
Caribbean Fever - Your ONLY destination to all things Caribbean and more
Get Your Events & Products, BLASTED to the World!
Check Out Upcoming Events via CaribbeanFever!
GET YOUR NEW MUSIC PLAYED SAT & SUN NIGHT on Caribbean Fever 107.5 WBLS NY
Haiti's Prime Minister Resigns; Replacement Named
Posted by Caribbean Fever on July 24, 2019 at 7:30pm
Fritz-William Michel is President Jovenel Moise's fourth choice for prime minister.
President Jovenel Moise last night named Fritz-William Michel as Haiti's new prime minister, following the resignation of Jean Michel Lapin.
Lapin, whose tenure was brief, having taken over from Jean Henry Ceant who was ousted in March, told a local newspaper that his stepping down was "a choice for Haiti".
His successor, a former executive in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, must now have his nomination approved by legislators.
Michel is the fourth person chosen by Moise to head the government since his election to office two and a half years ago.
The technocrat's appointment came after consultations between Moise and the leaders of the two chambers of parliament, signalling a resumption of dialogue after months of turmoil.
You need to be a member of CaribbeanFever / FeverEyes / CaribFever to add comments!
Join CaribbeanFever / FeverEyes / CaribFever
Comment by Kaindra on January 10, 2021 at 11:24am
https://a-little-red-flower.tumblr.com/
https://a-littleredflower-4khd.tumblr.com/
https://shadow-in-the-cloud-4k.tumblr.com/
https://hospital-hktw-4khd.tumblr.com/
https://warm-hug-hktw-4k.tumblr.com/
https://warm-hug-hdq-2020.tumblr.com/
https://miss-andy-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://shockwave2-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://a-little-red-flower-4k.tumblr.com/
https://into-the-labyrinth-hdq.tumblr.com/
https://fox-hunt-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://songbird-1080p-hktw.tumblr.com/
https://missandy-hktw-4k.tumblr.com/
https://songbird-hktw-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://silent-tokyo-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://watch-miss-andy-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://dreamland-4kbluray.tumblr.com/
https://wonder-woman-1984-celyfilm.tumblr.com/
https://silent-tokyo-twmovie.tumblr.com/
https://black-file-tw1080p.tumblr.com/
https://nezha-hktw-twmov.tumblr.com/
Comment by Ki Onod Lewu on January 1, 2021 at 12:25am
https://a-little-redflower-jacksonyee.tumblr.com/
https://alittle-redflower-twhdonline.tumblr.com/
https://alittleredflower-twhdonline.tumblr.com/
https://a-little-redflower-tw4k.tumblr.com/
https://a-little-redflower-tw1080p.tumblr.com/
https://springfield.instructure.com/eportfolios/10441/Home/4K
https://springfield.instructure.com/eportfolios/10442/Home/_2020____
https://springfield.instructure.com/eportfolios/10443/Home/_2020__
https://springfield.instructure.com/eportfolios/10444/Home/__A_Litt...
https://springfield.instructure.com/eportfolios/10446/Home/_20201080P
https://muckrack.com/becky-conway-1
https://www.guest-articles.com/loans/little-red-flowers-01-01-2021
https://gumroad.com/beckyconway826/p/little-red-flowers
http://warm-hug-twhdonline.tumblr.com/
https://warmhug-twhdonline.tumblr.com/
https://warmhug-tw4k.tumblr.com/
https://warm-hug-tw4k.tumblr.com/
https://warmhug-hdonlinezh.tumblr.com/
https://aihe.instructure.com/eportfolios/911/Home/__2020HK
https://aihe.instructure.com/eportfolios/912/Home/_Warm_Hug2020
https://aihe.instructure.com/eportfolios/913/Home/HD2020
https://aihe.instructure.com/eportfolios/914/Home/_2020___
https://aihe.instructure.com/eportfolios/915/Home/2020HD___Warm_Hug...
https://muckrack.com/juju-darmo
https://www.guest-articles.com/anime/dragon-nest-01-01-2021
https://gumroad.com/ujanggolodog/p/dragon-nest
Comment by jhons lanne on November 17, 2020 at 8:14am
https://vasd.instructure.com/courses/24246/pages/watch-123movies-fr...
Comment by dangde on October 9, 2020 at 11:49am
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/50537/Home/vostFRFilm_Parent...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/50538/Home/REGARDER_Charm_Ci...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/50539/Home/REGARDER_Mon_gran...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/50540/Home/REGARDER_Lupin_II...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/50541/Home/REGARDER_Relic_20...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41327/Home/REGARDER_Mulan_20...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41331/Home/REGARDER_Bigfoot_...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41332/Home/REGARDER_Les_Blag...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41337/Home/REGARDER_Tas_pcho...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41338/Home/REGARDER_Terrible...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41339/Home/REGARDER_Scooby__...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41341/Home/REGARDER_Greenlan...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41343/Home/REGARDER_Blanche_...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41348/Home/REGARDER_Tout_Sim...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41349/Home/REGARDER_Et_85_20...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41350/Home/REGARDER_A_Perfec...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41351/Home/REGARDER_Tenet_20...
https://iu.instructure.com/eportfolios/41352/Home/REGARDER_BelleFil...
https://extranet.who.int/nutrition/gina/sites/default/files/afterch...
https://extranet.who.int/nutrition/gina/sites/default/files/parents...
https://extranet.who.int/nutrition/gina/sites/default/files/[_%5EvostFR=Film%5E%23_]%20Parents%20d'%C3%A9l%C3%A8ves%20StreaminG%20en%20VF,,%20%23%20Voir%20Vostfr%20Parents%20d'%C3%A9l%C3%A8ves%20en%20Ligne%20et%20FRANCE.pdf
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-the-walking-dead-saison-10-ep...
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-mince-alors-film-complet-en-f...
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-parents-dlves-film-complet-en...
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-mon-grand-pre-et-moi-streamin...
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-lupin-iii-the-first-streaming...
https://portfolium.com/entry/regarder-hubie-halloween-streaming-vf-fr
Comment by dangde on October 5, 2020 at 4:57pm
https://pasteio.com/xYGtDH95IUaU
Comment by Chocolatoz on October 5, 2020 at 4:37am
https://mon-grand-p-re-et-moi-film-complet-en-fran-ais-str.glitch.me/
https://the-war-with-grandpa-film-complet-vostfr-2020.glitch.me
https://mon-grand-p-re-et-moi-film-complet-fran-ais-stream.glitch.me
https://parents-d--l-ves-film-complet-en-fran-ais-vf.glitch.me
https://parents-deleves-film-complet-vostfr-et-vf.glitch.me/
https://parents-deleves-film-complet-vostfr-et-vf-2020.glitch.me
https://lupin-3-the-first-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me/
https://lupin3-the-first-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me
https://lupin3thefirst-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me
https://mon-grand-p-re-et-moi-film-complet-en-fran-ais-str.glitch.me/ https://the-war-with-grandpa-film-complet-vostfr-2020.glitch.me https://mon-grand-p-re-et-moi-film-complet-fran-ais-stream.glitch.me https://parents-d--l-ves-film-complet-en-fran-ais-vf.glitch.me https://parents-deleves-film-complet-vostfr-et-vf.glitch.me/ https://parents-deleves-film-complet-vostfr-et-vf-2020.glitch.me https://lupin-3-the-first-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me/ https://lupin3-the-first-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me https://lupin3thefirst-film-complet-en-streaming-vf.glitch.me
Comment by Mr. Gamer on August 27, 2020 at 8:01am
https://twitter.com/i/events/1298948205229428736
https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguheb/maki_pitol... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguhii/mallory_ma... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguhn6/alessio_di... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguhqn/alex_cacer... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguhvy/polyana_vi... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguhzi/sean_brady... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igui3q/anthony_sm... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igui9b/robbie_law... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguifm/ji_yeon_ki... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguiog/magomed_an... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/iguj93/f1_belgian... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv1ca/coke_zero_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv1p3/wawa_250_l... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv22o/wwt_racewa... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv48w/arca_dutch... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv4zv/aragon_wor... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv6t4/live_pract... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv6x3/live_pract... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv6zw/live_pract... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv734/live_race_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv75y/live_race_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv7f8/aragon_rac... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igv7j6/aragon_rac... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igve8q/bommarito_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igvvkr/bmw_champi... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igvvoe/walmart_nw... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igvym1/dutch_boy_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwiep/worcester_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwijk/saracens_v... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwiq1/leicester_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwj57/northampto... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwj9r/sale_shark... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwjed/harlequins... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwjqx/exeter_chi... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwjvk/gloucester... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwk14/london_iri... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwkfr/bath_rugby... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwkq8/leeds_rhin... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwkxl/warrington... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwl2u/huddersfie... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igwl6y/wigan_warr... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igx3rb/ironman_pr... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/igx40i/ironman_pr... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/ihh8h8/dutch_boy_... https://www.reddit.com/r/lovesportsordie/comments/ihh8tj/arca_dutch...
Celebrate your BIRTHDAY with CaribbeanFever on 107.5 WBLS, NY
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FOR ALL YOUR DANCEHALL AND REGGAE NEWS CLICK PIC BELOW
}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{
PUMP IT! or DUMP IT! SAT & SUN NIGHT on Caribbean Fever 107.5 WBLS NY (GET YOUR NEW MUSIC PLAYED) SONG{S} BEING VOTED ON ARE {------ ) and {----- }
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jamaica Carnival Postponed To October 2020
CoronaVirus Causes Suspension of University Classes and Closure of Schools in Jamaica and Guyana
Chris Brown Morphing Into Justin Bieber? Fans Losing It Over This Hairstyle
President Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus, his doctor revealed 'The President remains symptom-free,' in-house physician Sean Conley wrote Trump revealed he was tested on Friday night a…
Teyana Taylor – We Got Love ft. Ms. Lauryn Hill {VIDEO}
Kenya Moore Gets Candid About Her Failed Marriage, NeNe Leakes Mocks 'Her Situation' [VIDEO]
Jamaican Who Ran Away From COVID-19 Quarantine Could Face Charges
CARIFTA Games Postponed Because of Coronavirus
Now Cuba Confirms Coronavirus; Italian Tourists Test Positive
Suriname Closes Borders, St Lucia Cancels Jazz Festival After Confirming Coronavirus; Curacao, Aruba Report First Cases
St Vincent Has First Coronavirus Case
Caribbean Airlines Crew Members in Self-Quarantine Following Death of Passenger Who Had Coronavirus
Trump Blames Obama for Coronavirus Testing Mess That He's in Charge of
'My rock': Floyd Mayweather breaks his silence and pays tribute to his ex-wife Josie Harris after she was found dead amid $20m legal battle with him
Taye Diggs To White Gym Goers: 'Were You Raised In A Barn?'
Man Arrested For Attempting To Spread 'Coronavirus' On Subway! (Graphic)
COVID-19 Spreads: First Cases in Antigua, Trinidad, Cayman Islands; New Cases in Martinique, Jamaica
Donald Trump declares a national emergency on coronavirus with drive-thru testing centers in Walmart, Target and CVS parking lots - but says everybody should NOT be tested
Babyface Shades R. Kelly Live On Stage
'PIMP and PIMPSTRESS' Beats Woman BADLY For Refusing To Turn Tricks Cause Of CoronaVirus {VIDEO}
Caribbean Fever with the best Caribbean News online!
SOME TOP BLOGS
SURF FEVER
Hobby Fever
COLLEGE CAFFETERIA
5 Linx
Team Jamaica Bickle
Fever Films
© 2021 Created by Caribbean Fever. Powered by
Hello, you need to enable JavaScript to use CaribbeanFever / FeverEyes / CaribFever.


text:
Deanna Benjamin
Assistant Dean in College of Arts & Sciences
Lecturer in College Writing and University College
Her studies and teaching focus on theories of identity and memory, writing as activism, the histories and structures of memoir and lyric prose, and writing about the natural world. She especially enjoys helping students as they learn to balance practicality in their writing with self-discovery, and she is delighted when her students find not only such a balance but also the tenor of their voices on the page.
Some other points of interest: Deanna has two sibling dogs, a partner who is a visual artist and professor, a porch swing that's been in her family for four generations, and affinities for the St. Louis Symphony, dark chocolate, crayon rail games, cribbage, quantum physics, and the Texas coast.
Her creative work has appeared in Brevity, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, the anthology Sleep It: Writers and Artists Do Sleep (Red Claw Press), and other venues.
Email: dbenjami@wustl.edu
Office: Cupples II, Room 104

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
by Alim Kheraj
27 March 2019, 10:28pm
important: sky ferreira has returned with her first solo music in six years
'Downhill Lullaby' is the first single from Sky's much-delayed second album 'Masochism'.
Like stumbling across a rare Pokémon or watching the sequel to Avatar, there are certain things that you just assume aren't going to happen. Sky Ferreira releasing new music was, hate to say it, one of them. But last week in an Instagram post, she did the unthinkable. Six years after she released her debut album, the grimy and sublime Night Time My Time, she confirmed that she was, in fact, ready to share new music with the world. And now that day has come.
The song, titled Downhill Lullaby, is a nearly six-minute gloomfest filled with dirgy vocals and demonic strings that tug you along like an undead funeral procession. If you're getting Lynchian elements in there too you wouldn't be mistaken; Sky produced the track alongside Twin Peaks music supervisor Dean Hurley.
Speaking about the track in an interview with Pitchfork, Sky said that she roped in the prowess of Danish violinist Nils Gröndahl, whom she asked to play the instrument "as if you're one of the birds in Snow White, singing underwater, while slowly being suffocated by plastic". Quite.
Originally announced in 2015, Sky's second album Masochism has been subjected to numerous delays. While she told i-D -- four years ago! -- that she was "having a lot more fun" making the album, the singer lent her hand to a variety of other projects, including acting in the film Baby Driver and starring in David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival in 2017. In 2018, she wrote on Instagram that her silence around the record's release "should not be confused for negligence".
"I deeply care & put everything I have into my music. Including all of my earnings," she wrote. "I won't put out something that I don't stand by or the bare minimum." It seems now, however, that Masochism is finally on its way. She told Pitchfork that the album was "almost positively" set for a 2019 release date.
Whenever you're ready.
This article originally appeared on i-D UK.


text:
Queerly Different
Disturbing the Placid Waters of Normativity
10 Best Historico-Biblical Epic Films
10 Best Classic Hollywood Films
10 Under-appreciated Disney Movies
Tag Archives: gay porn
Gay Porn Studio Style: TimTales
December 28, 2019 Gay Pornography, Pornography, Queer Culturegay porn, pleasure, porn, timtalestjwest3
Some time ago, I wrote of my intention to write a series of blog posts examining various gay porn studios, looking at not only their house style but how such style influences the types of pleasure that they seek to incite or indulge for their audiences. Well, it's finally time to unveil the first of these posts, this one dedicated to the studio known as TimTales.
The studio is named after its founder and its most prominent star: Tim Kruger. Tim, like so many of the other tops in the studio's stable, is tall with a truly gargantuan endowment. In fact, Tim is emblematic of the sorts of men that the studio prefers in its tops (though a muscle bottom isn't an unfamiliar sight by any means). They also specialize in a very particular kind of sexual pairing: typically a very hung top with a very submissive and slender (sometimes bordering on pathologically thin) bottoms.
A casual perusal of their recent scene offerings makes it clear that a viewer looking for anything remotely resembling tenderness or affection between their models should probably look elsewhere. While there are some scenes that feature a bit of intimacy, for the most part the sex here is brutal, relentless and, some cases, frenzied. In relying on this form of sexual performance, TimTales is trying to both cater to and incite a particular form of desire, one that finds pleasure not in the intimacy of contact between two men, but on the juxtaposition of dominance and absolute submission. To my eye, all too often the sex doesn't even look particularly enjoyable for the bottoms in these scenes, who are often twisted into all manner of poses that look uncomfortable if not downright unpleasant. For that matter, the tops look like they are merely engaging in a bit of business, and I struggle sometimes to see whether there is actually any enjoyment to be had (either for the performers of the viewers).
However, I would argue that TimTales most notable aesthetic and erotic signature is its emphasis on the effects of sex. Anyone who has a familiarity with mainstream–or at least fairly vanilla–gay porn has probably recognized that there is a certain camera shyness regarding the actual effects of fucking. That is to say, mainstream studios (with some exceptions, of course) seem very reluctant to show the actual hole, as if doing so is somehow an even greater penetration of the male body than that which is already happening in front of the camera.
TimTales seems to have recognized this phenomenon and decided to go in exactly the opposite direction. Time and again in their scenes, the camera dwells lovingly–one might even go so far as to say pruriently–on the effects of such violent fucking on the anuses of the bottoms involved. One has to wonder whether the site of a "wrecked hole" (to use the parlance typical in message board discussions of gay porn), has become itself something of a fetish for a certain kind of gay male viewer. In fact, the entire reason I started this series of blog posts was in response to a comment on a message board that said something to the effect that the poster hadn't known they had a fetish for seeing a completely destroyed hole. These scenes invite us to take pleasure in the abasement of the male body, to indulge in a fantasy that we, too, can abandon ourselves to sublime oblivion.
Of course, it also goes without saying that, with a few exceptions, the sex here is bareback (this has, for better and worse, become mostly the norm in much gay porn). Part of this no doubt stems from market forces, since as of this writing there are very few studios that still use condoms. Another, equally strong part, however, stems from the aura of the forbidden that still accrues around the practice. What's more, it also feeds into the notion of a brutal top who cares little or nothing for his bottom, merely taking his own pleasure.
Personally, I do enjoy watching TimTales, though I'm rather choosy when it comes to which of their videos I actually watch. Far too frequently of late they've come to rely on that brutal aesthetic, and while I don't necessarily need to see love between two screen partners, I do like to get the sense that there's at least a measure of attraction between the two models. There are clearly those who enjoy the studio, however, and for them the dominant/submissive aesthetic is a key part of the appeal.
Searching for Studio Style in Contemporary Gay Porn
June 3, 2019 Gay Pornography, Queer Culturegay culture, gay desire, gay porn, gay pornographytjwest3
Regular readers of this blog probably know that I have a longstanding interest in gay porn. Obviously, like many gay men, I have a libidinal interest in watching it (a lot of it is quite hot), but as a scholar of film and queer theory, my interest in it is also an intellectual one (it's fascinating how porn reveals so much about who we are and how we think about and feel desire). And, if I'm being completely honest, my posts about porn have been some of my most popular, so why not continue writing about it?
There are many things that I find endlessly fascinating (and, ahem, stimulating) about porn: the erotic component, the ways in which audiences engage with it (particularly in the era of social media), the star system it employs, its methods of distribution. Most importantly for this particular blog post (and the ones to follow), however, is the question of "style." Now, it might seem counterintuitive to use a word like "style" with a genre like gay porn. After all, to many people, even academics, porn as an object of study exists somewhat beyond the pale of respectable company. To think about something like style would, I think, be to challenge the codes of taste that still govern how we think about pornography, elevating it to a position that perhaps doesn't deserve.
I would like to suggest, however, that by focusing on the particular styles of various gay porn studios we can learn a great deal about the types of pleasures that they aim to offer their viewers. Given how central gay porn is to many gay men's experience of the world, to say nothing of how they learn about sex, it seems to me especially important to understand the ways in which they do so. Like the classic Hollywood studios of old, today's porn studios are very much in the business of cultivating, and catering to, specific tastes among their various audiences. And, as with classic Hollywood, one can get a strong sense of the way a studio views the world, as well as the ways in which they encourage their consumers to do the same.
In a subsequent series of posts, I plan to spotlight several of the gay porn studios that I most frequently watch. Some potential subjects will be TimTales, Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, GuysInSweatpants, Helix, and RawStrokes (yes, these are all real names of porn studios). Though I have a preference for those "minor" studios that have come up in the last ten years or so to challenge the hegemony of their titanic predecessors, I will, I think, also be focusing on some of the heavy hitters in the industry, if only because they provide such a marked contrast to their newer counterparts.
Each post will focus on the "house style" of a studio. They will focus on issues like cinematography (strange as it seems, most studios can be identified simply by looking at their camerawork), their stars or star types (indeed, the type of model they employ is frequently one major way in which studios differentiate themselves), and the type of sex they focus on (also a significant marker of brand differentiation). Doing so will, I hope, shed some much-needed light on the crucial differences (and similarities) between and among these purveyors of desire.
It Ain't Easy to be a Bottom in Porn
September 6, 2017 Gay Pornography, Gender, Pornography, Queer Culture, Queer Film Theory, The Bodygay, gay men, gay porn, gay pornography, gay sex, pornography, queer men, queernesstjwest3
If you spend just a little bit of time poking about the comment threads on porn sites, you'll learn something pretty quickly: no one likes a bottom. In fact, the bottom in many gay porn videos is sure to become, sooner or later, the object of scorn and ridicule, the abject that has to be cast out of the collective gay male conscious (as epitomized by the online community) in order for that community to still pride itself on its masculine credentials.
This might seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, it takes both a top and a bottom to make porn work, but you wouldn't know that from looking at the message boards. Any time a particular model or individual starts to stake out some territory as primarily a bottom, the comments begin. "Throwing a hot dog down a hallway," "is there anyone he hasn't fucked?," "I wonder how much adult diapers cost?" and so on. It's really quite insidious at some points, to such a degree that one comes to wonder why it is that people watch porn at all, or why the stars themselves would continue to offer themselves up for the derision of others (besides, of course, the obvious inducement of money). You would also be led to wonder why it is that people bother watching gay porn if all they are going to do is complain about someone having too much sex.
However, it's not all that unexpected to see so much vitriol poured on the bottoms in gay porn. After all, if pornography is a form of spectatorial fantasy and if, likewise, it is a reflection of the social milieu that produces it, it only makes sense that people would find the bottoms in gay porn to be both the object of desire and derision. When it comes to the food chain in the world of gay men, bottoms frequently occupy the lowest rung, the subject of scorn and often pity. There is a bit of a joke among us queer men that a top that shows up on Grindr is guaranteed a success rate, since bottoms on most dating sites are seemingly a dime a dozen. Another joke is that, once you get on Grindr, you basically have to switch from bottom to versatile if you hope to get laid. It's something of a myth, but even the most far-fetched myths have more than a bit of truth to them.
Queer theorists from Leo Bersani to David Halperin have remarked on the ambivalent relationship that many gay men have to the sex act that makes them, well, gay. It's all well and good, in the logic of many, to be a top, for that is behaving like a man. Being all masculine and sticking your dick into things is par for the course for the average man. To be a bottom is, as everyone knows, something of a necessary evil, but it's hardly something that one should seek out. And if you do, you had best be sure that at least your gender performance matches up with the perceived ideals of male behaviour, even if your position in the boudoir does not. No one likes a flaming faggy queen, after all (one need look no further than the many profiles that say something about "masc seeking masc" or "regular guy seeks same" or "looking for a workout buddy" to see what I mean). And heaven forbid you like musicals, or handbags, or anything else that smacks of acting like a woman.
To embrace one's identity as a bottom in the world of gay porn is to embrace that abject position, the penetrated. It's one thing if you are able to evince displeasure at doing it (see also: all the "Gay for Pay" actors out there who look like every moment of gay sex is an agony). But if you dare to show that you enjoy it, and if you spend a lot of time bottoming in front of the camera, then you have unforgivably and irrevocably surrendered your male card. Do not pass go, do not collect $200; you're going straight to the adult diapers section (and can we talk about the infantilizing rhetoric for a minute. Seriously. There is little to no evidence that lots of sex, sex with big dicks, and even fisting leads to incontinence. This is just another example of gay men internalizing the pernicious logic of homophobia).
(An amusing, if irritating aside: some time ago, a friend of mine remarked that men only bottomed out of service to their partner, not because it actually felt good. At the time I was still a virgin, and I felt this clawing fear that maybe my friend was right. Maybe I was fated to never enjoy sex as a bottom! Naturally, that proved to not be the case, and I very much embrace my identity as a bottom. I tell this story because it reflects the misunderstanding that there is something shameful, painful, and/or innately more disgusting about anal sex. Let's be real. Penetrative sex is a rather disgusting act in all of its forms, but there is much pleasure to be had, so we should let go of our hangups and not force our own assumptions on other's behaviours).
And of course it goes without saying that porn bottoms who dare to do the unthinkable and get into topping are setting themselves up for all sorts of vitriol and dismissal. After all, how could na avowed bottom, one who is good at what he does, possibly be…versatile? It's almost as if people are something more than just the positions that they occupy in the bedroom. There are boat loads of specific examples I could cite that have been subjected to this sort of scrutiny, but among the most prominent are Johnny Rapid (a very prolific performer who never fails to draw the ire of many commenters, despite his twinkish beauty and reasonably good performances), Armond Rizzo (don't get me started on the number of jokes that have been made about his sphincter), and Travis of Corbin Fisher (everyone loves to hate on him when he attempts to top). Unless you're very very lucky in gay porn world, once you become a bottom, you're basically a bottom for the rest of your professional life. I mean, you can try to switch off and on, but chances are you'll be met with hostility.
All of this is not to say that the tops in gay porn don't come in for their share of criticism from the "fans." For tops, though, the question involves less shame and more impatience if they refuse to bottom, or if they do that they don't enjoy it, or that they can't keep a hard-on. It is only the last of these complaints that's truly comparable to the sort of shame that's loaded onto the bottoms in gay porn, who are made to be the scapegoats (in the classical sense) for all of the shame that gay men seem to collectively feel for their desire to bottom.
I would go so far as to suggest that it is precisely this collective shame that explains why so many commenters on message boards reserve their greatest vitriol for bottoms. If, as Leo Bersani said some time ago, there is a certain suicidal ecstasy of embracing the role of the penetrated, then there is also a deep and almost frenzied fear of that position. Small wonder that that so many gay men continue to project that shame and sense of collective abjection onto those who most visibly and publicly give in to that suicidal ecstasy. The fact that a similar discourse does not (and perhaps cannot) surround the prominent tops in gay porn suggests, to me at least, that it is the innate vulnerability of the bottoms that render them so prone to this sort of dismissal.
As a bottom myself, I find all of this tremendously frustrating and hypocritical, just as I find it infuriating to see so many gay men disavow any traces of femininity. Heaven forbid, after all, that we show any trace of anything that doesn't fit into the dominant model of hegemonic masculinity, that we embrace a certain measure of vulnerability. And perish the thought that we try to think outside of the box that automatically equates bottoming with passivity or misery or try to find other ways of thinking about the sexual positions we occupy.
What's to be done about all of this, you're probably asking right about now? Well, to start with, gay men can get over their fixation with appropriate gender behaviour. Dispense with the "straight acting" gay bullshit. It's so 2004. We can also stop projecting our anxiety about our own sex positions onto porn performers. There are already enough problems in the world, without unloading them onto men who are, when all is said and done, just trying to make a living.
And, finally, in porn as in sex, sometimes we just need to relax, enjoy the ride, and embrace the pleasure.
Getting it Both Ways: Gay Porn and the Bareback Debate(s)
October 5, 2015 Gay Pornography, Pornographybareback debates, bareback gay porn, gay porntjwest3
If you follow the goings-on in the face-paced. contentious, and often-troubling world of online gay porn, you've no doubt noticed that a number of high-profile studios, including Corbin Fisher, Sean Cody, and even Bel Ami have, for the last couple of years, been producing condomless/bareback scenes. Now, this move has been met with a divided response, to say the least. On one side are the vehement (and often quite vitriolic) scolds, reminding all and sundry that such practices are hideously unsafe and that the studios should be ashamed of putting their models and risk and asking us as viewers and consumers to take pleasure in those risks. On the other side are those who have unabashedly and enthusiastically embraced this development within the porn industry. Indeed, there are many on the message boards who are not satisfied, and are often harshly critical, of those sites that persist in utilizing condoms in the making of their films. And there are the true die-hards, who are not truly happy until they see an internal cumshot (and they are in turn chastised by those who see these desires as socially irresponsible, always pushing the models to engage in ever-more-dangerous behavior).
Both sides, I would argue, have some excellent points, but for the moment I want to focus on the ways in which the studios themselves have sought to address this question. After all, they are no doubt aware of the blizzard of comments that, at least in the beginning, often accompanied the release of these types of videos. Even a casual perusal of the message boards of, for example, WayBig (an aggregator that pulls together new releases from many studios), reveals the ways in which this particular issue has split this particular segment of the (presumably queer) community. As a result, most of the bareback videos currently in circulation begin with a disclaimer that states at least two of the following things: 1) the models in the video were all rigorously tested using the most accurate tests available; 2) the studio does not advocate nor is it in favor of engaging in this type of sexual behavior, even if you happen to be a committed relationship; 3) "unsafe" sex is, indeed, unsafe, and therefore should most likely be avoided.
This rhetoric, laudatory and socially responsible as it might seem on the surface, instead serves as an ornate–and not entirely convincing–way of allowing us as viewers to have our cake and eat it, too. We can indulge in something that we have been taught over and over again since the 1980s is the utmost in irresponsible sexual practice (remember that it is called "unsafe" sex for a reason), while also patting ourselves on the back, comforting ourselves that OF COURSE we wouldn't do such an unsafe thing in our own life. Nor, presumably, would the studios, who clearly want to maintain at least an aura of social respectability and responsibility. However, their rush to assure us, the viewers, that they don't really advocate "unsafe" sex practices rings more than a little hollow, especially since, if they were really so invested in being socially responsible, they wouldn't produce bareback scenes in the first place.
What is most striking about these disclaimers is the way in which they simultaneously invoke and disavow the very pleasures that, presumably, the viewer has sought out the pornography for in the first place. Contained in those few simple, boilerplate sentences that so often accompany these videos, it seems to me, is a world of anxiety and ambivalence within the gay community about the status of bareback sex in an age when HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence and when the 1980s (the height of the pandemic) is largely a shadowy memory. Should we do it or shouldn't we? And if we decide not to, should we indulge in pornography that does and still retain our social justice and ethical credentials? Are we contributing to a still-extant health issue by showing the studios that they can indeed make money from us watching their bareback productions? While the disclaimers strenuously attempt to wipe away those pesky and troubling questions, even the slightest bit of pressure on the flimsy rhetoric reveals how truly empty and double-sided it truly is.
As more and more studios, both "amateur" and "big time" begin to exclusively film bareback scenes, it becomes increasingly obvious that both kinds of studios will have to fall in line with this new bareback orthodoxy in order to maintain their competitiveness in the market. What began (in the U.S. at least) as a fairly marginal practice has become increasingly mainstream, as studio after studio has fallen in line. Even giants in the industry such as Bel Ami (the very famous European studio that, in my view at least, came to define the 1990s era of gay porn), have gone the bareback route, as have most of the more prominent amateur studios (such as Sean Cody and Corbin Fisher). They know there's a market out there, and they are determined to do everything in their power to make sure that they tap into those desires and keep their paying customers satisfied.
This debate has far-ranging consequences beyond just the world of pornography. With the advancements made in HIV prevention (including the recent PReP announcements), we are having to rethink how we conceive of sexual health and how the goals of queerness fit into those parameters, both new and old. It goes without saying (even as I proceed to say it), that there are no easy answers to these questions, and we shouldn't rush to judge. What is needed instead is an open, frank, and nuanced discussion about what is at stake in these kinds of films, and just how complicit we become by indulging in them. Just as importantly, we can also use this is a much-needed opportunity to reflect about the advances made in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. These questions remain as vital as they did in the 1980s, for all that we seem to have forgotten them.
"Broke Straight Boys": The Intersection of Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Amateur Gay Porn
July 26, 2014 Erotica, Gay Pornography, Gender, Pornography, Queer Culture, Queer Film Theory, Queer Theory (General), Representation, Subjectivitybroke straight boys, bsb, corbin fisher, gay for pay, gay porn, gay porn exploitation, gay pornography, pornography, pornography and exploitation, sean codytjwest3
It's no surprise that many gay men (and much gay male pornography) is obsessed with straight men. There are many reasons, both historic and cultural, for this long-standing erotic attraction for, as David Halperin has eloquently argued in his book How to Be Gay, part of what constitutes contemporary gay male identity and sexual desire is precisely an erotic attraction for the masculine, and in our culture nothing represents masculinity better than the machismo-enshrouded figure of the straight man. Love or hate him, he remains a haunting presence in the American cultural and social imaginary, infusing even the gay community with a sometimes-noxious and toxic infatuation with masculinity and a concomitant rejection of the feminine.
This emerges quite clearly in the world of so-called amateur gay pornography, of the sort produced by such much-vaunted and celebrated studios as Corbin Fisher and Sean Cody, as well as some of the lesser luminaries such as Broke Straight Boys. What makes the latter studio so compelling is the way in which it manages to encapsulate and draw upon so many different strands of gay erotic desire (including the rough trade figure that has long been a staple of gay pornography and erotica of various kinds) as part of its brand identity. What emerges from this gay pornography studio is a compelling, and slightly disturbing voyeurism of the vexed figure of the straight male willing (and able) to do anything for the right amount of money.
Of course, the website's agenda is spelled out in its very title, which draws explicit attention to the indigent status of its stars. This attention to the financial vulnerability of its performers–many of whom are both explicitly and implicitly coded as traditionally masculine–seems to undermine the very stability of the masculine attributes that it otherwise fetishizes. Appearances can be deceiving, however, and I would argue that it is precisely the confluence of gender, class, and sexual desire that comprises the visual and fantasy pleasure to be gained from this particular website. Though its models are not as uniformly muscular or gay-clone-esque as those of some of the higher end studios (such as the aforementioned Sean Cody and Corbin Fisher), that actually works to make BSB's models both more "realistic" and, perhaps surprisingly, more desirable. To paraphrase a clutch of comments on various message boards, most of the models look like actual boys that you might pick up at your local gay bar.
Due perhaps in no small part to its own branding efforts–and in spite of its own claims to being the web's #1 gay porn site–Broke Straight Boys has gained something of a reputation for producing and featuring pornography that, to paraphrase commentators at the WayBig Blog, looks like it came out of a trailer park. The comment threads attached to the website's updates frequently contain derogatory remarks about the studio and the quality of its products, and yet, it has clearly managed to gain a substantial enough following to warrant the forthcoming TV series that purports to offer a reality-TV perspective on the internal workings of the studio and its stable of stars. I would argue that this can at least partially be explained by the particular niche that BSB seeks to fill, one that is studiously underserved by both Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, and other more self-consciously high-level studios.
This niche is one in which Broke Straight Boys provides the pleasure of the attainable and the everyday, while also drawing upon those things that gay pornography has always attempted to provide for its ever-diversifying consumers. In an era in which what constitutes gay culture and gay identity is, like many other categories of social identity, increasingly fractured and in flux, BSB also highlights how unstable even gay desire can be. What's more, it also illuminates the ways in which studio branding in the gay porn industry can have a significant and potent effect on the types of erotic pleasures being mobilized by these purveyors of visual erotica. Not all gay pornography, it would seem, is made equal.
At the same time, however, there is a darker side of this branding identity that needs to be acknowledged. While there is something seemingly perpetually appealing about the straight-to-gay transformation (commonly referred to as gay for pay within the industry), it also caters to a slumming mentality among gay male audiences that is worthy of sustained attention and critique. What the comments sections on discussion boards call attention to (among many other things) is the unfortunate appeal to a masculinity made vulnerable to the vicissitudes of economic privation. While this may be appealing as fantasy (and we can fervently hope that it is, though the unfortunate statistics regarding porn stars, economic instability, and suicide paint a different picture), we should also be aware of the disturbing contours and drives that undergird those fantasies. Is it really so appealing to see financially strapped straight men paid to perform sex acts? How is this any different than the economic exploitation that occurs when women are engaged in pornographic exploitation?
What emerges from this website, therefore, is an uncomfortable reminder of the contradictions and strains that continue to operate at the heart of gay male pornography and gay male sexual desire more generally. In order to gain a more complete understanding of the complexities involved in the pleasures offered up by different pornography studios, we need to also understand the intertwining of class, gender, and sex that constitute those pleasures. While many such entertainments attempt to make us forget what goes into their production, BSB is often forthright, actually making a point of mentioning the amount of money being offered. In addition to seeing this as part of the fantasy scenario being constructed by the studio, as audiences and spectators we should also use this as a valuable opportunity to think about our own complacency in the exploitation of male sexual labour, as well as the consequences such exploitation has for an understanding of gay male culture's contradictory relationship with hegemonic masculinity.
Follow Queerly Different on WordPress.com
Categories Select Category 1950s Culture 1950s Film 1960s Culture 1990s Films 2016 election 2020 election A Song of Ice and Fire Adventures in Research Affect American Horror Story american horror story freak show Ancient Greece Ancient Greece in Fiction Ancient Rome in Fiction Ancient Rome in Film Ancient World in Fiction Ancient World in Film Ancient World in TV Animal Studies Anthropocene Antiquity in Film Apocalpytic Fiction Apocalyptic Film Appalachia Athuriana Biopic Book Reviews Cecil B. DeMille Character Sketches Christmas Movies Classic Hollywood Classics costume drama Critical Theory dawn of the planet of the apes Disney Dissertation Dissertation Days Documentary Film donald trump Dystopian Fiction Dystopian Film Education Epic Fantasy Epic Film Erotica Everyday Language Fantasy Fantasy Film Fantasy Literature Fantasy Television Feminist Film Theory Feminist Filmmaking Feminist Television Feminist Theory (General) Feud Film Film History Film Reviews Game of Thrones Gay Pornography Gender Gender Theory George R R Martin Graduate School Grindr Halloween Films Harry Potter hillary clinton Historical Epic Historical Fiction Historical Film/TV History History in the Media Hollywood Directors Hollywood Film Hollywood History King Arthur Liberal Arts Marvel Cinematic Universe Marvel Films Middle Ages in Fiction Middle Ages on Film Musicals Novel Weekends Pedagogy Peter Jackson Pixar Planet of the Apes Politics Pornography Queer Classics Queer Culture Queer Film Theory Queer Filmmaking queer pedagogy queer politics Queer Service Announcement Queer Television Queer Theory (General) Reading History reading tad williams Reading the Anthropocene Reading The Wheel of Time Religious Film Representation Science Fiction Film Screening Classic Hollywood Screening History Screening the Bible Shannara Shannara Chronicles Short Fiction Stars Subjectivity tad williams Television Television Reviews terror of history Terry Brooks The Bible in Film The Body the golden girls the great golden girls marathon The Heretic's War The Hobbit The Humanities The Lord of the Rings the midwife The Shannara Chronicles The Silmarillion The Sublime Theory Tolkien Tolkien Appreciation Month Tolkien in Film Tolkien Scholarship Tolkien's Heirs Travel Tudors in Fiction Uncategorized war for the planet of the apes Weekly Rant West Virginia Western Film Wheel of Time Women's History Words I Hate world building Writing


SUMI-G, FootJoy, OGIO confirmed fantasy golf sponsors!
I'm pleased to announce the addition of three awesome golf companies to the HOG Space Fantasy Golf 2010 sponsor list!
SUMI-G makes high end golf belts, head covers and a bunch of other great golf accessories. SUMI-G will be awarding weekly prizes and some larger packages of prizes for segment winners and/or finalists. Details yet to be completely arranged.
Our great friends at OGIO will once again provide an awesome golf bag to one of the finalists!
FootJoy now enters their 2nd year of sponsoring our fantasy golf competition. They will provide a finalist with a custom pair of MyJoy golf shoes! Thanks FJ!
Join now! The official season starts soon!
HOG Space Fantasy Golf is presented by The Golf Space and Hooked On Golf Blog. The official season starts soon. For more details and to join free, click here. To talk about fantasy golf, visit the fantasy golf discussion forum.


unprecedented rebellion within the top leadership of the United States military.
commanders in order to end the war.
North Carolina tank operator died "mysteriously" in Baghdad on June 17, 2003.
attack jets and Apache helicopters firing DU munitions.
and pericardial effusion, or cardiac failure, after showing flu-like symptoms.
Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are nuking the world.
Michael Tosto died, young and innocent, when they nuked him.
turned blue and was dead within 48 hours after the first symptoms.
According to Tom Flocco, upon whose story this account is based, ".
casualty officer asked me, "Is it possible that Michael had heart problems?"
asthma. He was never sick.' "
uranium can cause lymphocytic leukemia.
disability 15 years after the end of the first war against Saddam Hussein.
depleted uranium has anything to do with it."
government's side of the story."
GI's illness or a single veteran's death.
a serious external radiation hazard," and thus is not considered dangerous.
other uranium-related adverse health outcomes."
veterans "did not experience intakes high enough to affect their health."
cases from the first Gulf War showed no long-term health problems."
was packed in a casket for burial.
Wedding Ring Contaminated With What?
exposure to depleted uranium dust.
more invasive tests such a surgical biopsy of lung or bone marrow."
request tests for radiation poisoning.
were from "friendly-fire" DU weapons.
The Tosto family will never know if this was Michael's fate.
radioactive to move were buried in a giant hole in the ground.
the firing end and those on the receiving end."
enough to light up a small village."
dust. "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," Rokke said.
arms. "They're weeping as we speak," he said.
nation and just throw it into another nation. It's wrong. It's simply wrong. . .
refuse to clean it up, you've committed a war crime."
Michael Tosto's death? Can you understand the strange silence last month of Maj.
that it is not tested for radioactivity.
Division, they expected a prompt response from McNorton. Not a word.
from 1991 to 2005, only 7,035 Gulf War vets — were "wounded" in the conflict?
Illness' "ill-defined symptoms") is just a "mystery."
command in the Middle East deeply involved in Cheney and Rumsfeld's war.
denunciations "unprecedented in United States history."
congressman John Murtha channeled the top brass's opposition to the war.
by the military consequences of bringing Iran into a war we've already lost.
secretly invaded neighboring Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Think about that next time you pump gas.
paying for the arrogance of the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld's DoD.
people who posed no threat to the United States.
October by VHA epidemiologist Dr. Han Kang but has yet to be publicly released."
asked not to be identified."
Afghanistan with "ill-defined conditions" may be too low.
during the Persian Gulf War, and levels comparable to what was found among U.S.
troops during the Vietnam War."
to 25% of U.S. soldiers suffer from major depression or combat stress."
soldiers have committed suicide or murdered their spouses.
Can PTSD, in some cases, be another phrase for Gulf War Illness?
What's Going To Happen To All These Sick Vets?
problem is going to grow fast. We're seeing systemwide there are major problems.
needs of new combat veterans while still providing for veterans of past wars."
installment we'll describe what that burden has meant to ailing Iraq vets.
jail if they talk about the soldiers or their medical problems.
Washington, D.C. What is the DoD hiding?
after the massive bombings in Iraq.
mushroom-shaped clouds of radioactive debris illuminating the skyline.
are seeing that everybody is being contaminated. We are all Gulf War veterans."
of Gulf War Illness, expressed his bitterness.
government took patriots and turned us into terrorists.
suicide mission to murder innocent people.
on my family just like they're dumping on the people over here."
The soldier asked if I had heard from public relations officer, Maj.
Richard J. McNorton, about the radioactive showers at Camp Forward Danger.
other. Who is McNorton looking out for?
would have been much harder to get them to board the trains.
after they find out about depleted uranium?


text:
Q: Effects in cube of chrome Good morning, I tried to find information to give some effects to my little cube of rubik, but I could not find any documentation regarding this.
How can I separate the cubes so there is space between them and the rubik cube is larger? and how can I change the texture of its flat color to crystal color?.
The properties I have used are:
    var cube = new ERNO.Cube();
    document.body.appendChild( cube.domElement );
    setTimeout(function () {
        cube.twist('UDLF');
        cube.shuffle(50);
    },2500);
    cube.autoRotate = true;
    console.log(cube);
    cube.setSize(500,300);

I attach an example of the official page https://www.chrome.com/cubelab
Thank you!

A: Look for setRadius(), this will increase radius so you could have an explode-implode effect on the cube, single cubelet, a side, or group etc.
For the following, we include all 27 cublets (even the middle one) but then we only explode-implode outer 26 cublets so that 1 in center of cube stays still.
        function(){

            var excluded = new ERNO.Group( cube.cubelets ),
            included = cube.hasColors( window.R, window.Y, window.B )

            excluded.remove( included )
            excluded.setRadius()
            excluded.setOpacity( 0.5 )
            included.setRadius( 120 )
            included.setOpacity( 1 )
            cube.taskQueue.isReady = false
            setTimeout( () => { cube.taskQueue.isReady = true }, 6000 )
        },
        function(){

            cube.setRadius()
            cube.taskQueue.isReady = false
            setTimeout( () => { cube.taskQueue.isReady = true }, 3000 )
        }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package org.apereo.portal.portlets.statistics;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class TabRenderReportForm extends BaseReportForm {

    private List<Long> tabs = new ArrayList<Long>();

    public final List<Long> getTabs() {
        return tabs;
    }

    public final void setTabs(List<Long> tabs) {
        this.tabs = tabs;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The nickname "Sooners" may not strike any recollection at one's core. But, locals of Norman, Oklahoma, are well acquainted with the "Sooners" associated with the nationally recognized University of Oklahoma and sports teams that draw upwards of 85,000 to football games alone. Aside from being a town of great spirit, it magnetizes many for its thriving art culture that is highlighted at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and intriguing artifacts found at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Yet, Norman, Oklahoma, is well-known for something else that is not schools or sports but for the weather. On a national scale, Norman and nearby Oklahoma City reside in the most impacted area of the tornado alley. Therefore, a branch of the Storm Prediction Center is housed at the Norman National Weather Center to forecast these weather events
Geography And Climate Of Norman
Main Street of Norman, Oklahoma, lined with old brick buildings. Editorial credit: RaksyBH / Shutterstock.com
Norman rests in Cleveland County in central Oklahoma, United States. It is a part of the Oklahoma metropolitan area, with the capital city only being about 20 miles to the north. The popular water recreation area of Lake Thunderbird and the state park of the same name is on the eastern side and offers over 5,300 acres for waterskiing, fishing, swimming, and hiking. Of other substantial nearby cities: Moore is about 10 miles north, Edmond is about 36 miles north, and Stillwater is about 81 miles northeast. As for day trips: Alabaster Caverns State Park is about 175 miles to the northeast, Chickasaw National Recreation Area is about 69 miles to the south, and the Great Salt Plains State Park is about 156 miles to the northwest.
According to the Köppen Climate Classification, Norman has a humid subtropical climate. It experiences muggy summers and windy and freezing winters. There is an annual temperature of 62.5 °F, with December having the highest relative humidity of 63.21%. July is the warmest month having an average high of 92.9 °F, and January is the coldest month, with a temperature of 26.7 °F. Of the 80.5 days that produce precipitation, there are 39.7 inches of annual rainfall and 5.2 inches of snowfall. On average, 237 days see sunshine, constituting a median UV index of 5.3.
History Of Norman
"May We Have Peace" - a bronze statue by Allan Houser at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Editorial credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
The 1830s saw the Indian Removal Act that assigned the Creek Nation to present-day Norman. With the passing of the American Civil War, the Creek Nation was implicated in aiding the Confederacy, and the region was regained by the US in 1866. The reclaimed land survey took place in the 1870s, led by Abner Ernest Norman. Norman and his men set up camp, in which jokingly, "Norman's camp" was carved into a tree. Once the railroad commenced operations, settlers opted to keep the name of Norman. The Land Run of 1889 saw 150 settlers who camped out while the town was constructed. Two businessmen, Delbert Larsh and Thomas Waggoner, campaigned for the first state university to be located in Norman. This led to the establishment of the University of Oklahoma in 1890. On May 13, 1891, Norman was incorporated as a city.
The Population And Economy Of Norman
The southern entrance of the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Editorial credit: Alonzo J. Adams / Shutterstock.com
As per the latest US Census, Norman has a population of 131,446 inhabitants. Spanning over 490.57 sq. km, the city has a population density of 269.56 people per sq. km. Of the population, there is a median household income of $79,239, with 16.9% living below the poverty line. As for cultural/racial background: 75.87% identified as white, 8.84% were two or more races, 4.93% were African American, 4.44% were Asian, 4.15% were Native American, 1.64% were of another race, 0.13% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
As of July 2022, Norman had an unemployment rate of 3.0%. Of the 62,700 people employed: 10,913 work in educational services, 8,111 work in healthcare and social assistance, and 6,713 work in retail trade. The top-earning jobs comprised the following sectors: management of companies and enterprise with $90,909, mining, quarrying, oil, and gas extraction with $73,657, and, utilities with $70,703.
Attractions In And Around Norman
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
Façade of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma. Editorial credit: RaksyBH / Shutterstock.com
When looking for a day of family fun for all ages, look no further than the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Come and explore the various temporary and permanent exhibits housed here. In the Hall of World Cultures, one can peer upon the ancient Samurai armor. The Hall of the Oklahoma People also showcases the "Cooper Skull" of a now extinct bison species. The many artifacts contained at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History are guaranteed to insight wonder in all who visit the museum.
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Editorial credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
Operated by the University of Oklahoma, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds one of the most intensive collections in the US, with 20,000 artifacts in the permanent collection. Here, visitors can be immersed in French impressionism, the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection, and Asian art from ancient times to the modern day. There is no admission fee making for an afternoon of inexpensive fun in Norman.
Native Spirits Winery
Found near Lake Thunderbird is the family-owned winery of Native Spirits. With a wide selection of everything from Grizzly Red Zinfandel to Laughing Coyote Cabernet Sauvignon and even Soaring Thunderbird Chardonnay, there is something here for all wine sippers. While in Norman, this is one local business that you simply do not want to miss, with purchases only offered in person.
Norman serves as a less busy option to the nearby capital of Oklahoma. Although it is a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and shares much of the same culture, Norman has emerged with its own identity. Deeply enshrined with a Native American past, glimpses of this can be seen through the historic buildings, museums, and art. As of today, Norman is a place of higher education well known for intense sports rivalries that bring the city to life, a spectacle that can only be witnessed in person.
Alexis Towle August 23 2022 in Places


text:
'The Good Place' is the ethics lesson America needs right now -- and it's forking funny
It's a little too real.
By Chris Taylor on October 28, 2017
Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Ted Danson and an ethical dilemma: Making America think about morality again. Credit: Colleen Hayes/NBC
> Entertainment > TV Shows
Warning: There are spoilers below, but we'll flag them before they arrive.
If you haven't been obsessively watching The Good Place, you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. Maybe you've heard it's a comedy about a mixup in the afterlife, and you're expecting some sort of goofball network version of Heaven Can Wait(Opens in a new window).
On a surface level, the NBC show -- now nearly halfway through season 2 -- seems an inoffensive, pastel-colored sitcom. Billboards show Kristen Bell holding balloons above a cactus patch, for no apparent reason, while Ted Danson grins evilly. Tune in for a few minutes and you might see Bell making a joke about her own selfishness, or her love for all-you-can-eat shrimp.
CARD ID: 283745
But as Good Place aficionados (let's call them "Goodies") will tell you, the still-water sitcom surface level masks a show that runs increasingly deep. Way deep -- taking ancient ethical debates as dry as dust and making them fresh and funny for a cynical world. Yes, even for the segment of the audience that prefers a good fart joke.
We can go so far as to say The Good Place is the show Trump's America (not to mention Brexit Britain) needs most desperately right now. In a world where our leaders appear to have abandoned all pretense of morality and objective reality, where the entire edifice of the White House is built on the shifting sand of whatever the president decided was true this morning, we need the eternal truths of legend far more than we need another lying reality show.
For example, in the most recent episode, "Janet and Michael" -- well, no spoilers, but we discover that a problem which could cause an apocalypse is all down to the original sin of one man's lie.
That almost sounds like a religious allegory, and you can certainly take it that way -- this is the afterlife, after all. But the situation is so surreal, the comedy so consistently zany, that secular viewers don't even begin to feel a church pew beneath their butts. Sermonizers everywhere, take note.
We can't get much deeper into what's going on in this surprisingly twisty show without issuing a massive spoiler alert, so here goes. Newbies, consider catching up before you read the rest. (At 21 minutes per episode and 13 episodes a season, it's easier to binge than, say, Stranger Things.)
In Season 1, Eleanor Shellstrop (Bell) believes she has been misplaced in the Good Place -- a neighborhood of heaven, in effect, filled with frozen yogurt shops. She didn't have the selfless, refugee-saving life that the Good Place boss, an apparent heavenly "architect" named Michael (Danson), seems to think she did.
Eleanor was a friendless disgrace of a human who scammed the impressionable and elderly with what was basically snake oil. That character remind you of anyone?
Unlike Trump, Eleanor enlists her supposed soul mate, an ethics professor named Chidi (William Jackson Harper), to teach her how to be good enough to not get thrown out of the Good Place. She wants to stop the parade of surreal disasters that seem to have been triggered by her presence.
But when the folks from the Bad Place arrive to take her downstairs, Eleanor figures it out -- and we'll insert one more spoiler alert here for the big reveal at the end of Season 1 coming up below.
Not only does Eleanor belong in the Bad Place -- so does Chidi, because he allowed his knowledge of ethics to make him so indecisive that he failed to make any decisions in his life, basically putting his friends through hell. He's the embodiment of that famous quote from conservative hero Edmund Burke: the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Are you watching, Republican senators who think you can salve your conscience with a single speech that doesn't even name its target?
Eleanor, Chidi and their equally selfish friends Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jason (Manny Jacinto) all belong in the Bad Place. Therefore, Eleanor reasons, this is the Bad Place, and all the other residents are fake people. At this, Ted Danson puts on his best evil cackle. She sussed it out.
He's really a demon, and they're being tortured for eternity. The anxiety of knowing they're in the wrong place is part of the torture, as is the frozen yogurt. (Because, Michael revealed this week, it's a thing you think you enjoy while still being "kind of a bummer.")
With a snap of his fingers, Michael hits the reboot button and they're all back to square one, without any memory of the evil things he did as recently as yesterday.
The devil in the details
Is there any setup in modern entertainment that's more about 2017 without seeming like it's about 2017?
Now, I'm not saying America is being tortured for what seems like eternity by a demon with a nasty grin. A thing in the shape of a man who wants to make us think we're in a good place -- a great place, even -- to cover up the nature of his evil plan, which is to stress out everyone (save his demonic followers) as much as possible.
Nope, not saying that exactly. Just ask yourself this: if a demon like Michael were in charge of our real-life good place, would things look that much different than they do now?
Season 2: Getting Deeper
The Season 1 finale twist was so well hidden that not even the cast saw it coming(Opens in a new window). Critics and fans alike were awestruck, yet skeptical about whether showrunner Michael Schur (who also gave us the exquisite Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine) could keep this up. (Cast member Jamil wonders that aloud in the Season 2 teaser, above.)
Michael had hit the reset button on Eleanor and her gang's memories -- would that mean Season 2 was going to be a stale rerun, Season 1 with slightly different jokes?
In reply, the showrunner gave us a couple opening episodes where the gang's memories were wiped again and again. And again. And again and again. They took a clue Eleanor had written herself at the end of Season 1, something we all expected would amount to something way down the line, and tossed it in the trash.
It didn't matter. Eleanor always figured out Michael's schemes, just as we can always see right through Trump to whatever he is trying to distract us from. Every reset button attempt became wilder, weirder, more desperate.
Schur basically gave us the highlights of an imagined next 10 seasons of this show (if it had been a lesser, more repetitive sitcom), all in less than an hour. They burned through every possible idea, then melted down the entire premise.
Michael, Eleanor and the gang were now all on the same side, an alliance of convenience against some even nastier demons who'd taken over the whole torture experiment.
That put Michael, working undercover and pretending they'd all lost their memories again, in Chidi's ethics class. Which set the stage for three episodes in a row that have contained the show's most philosophically enrapturing scenes.
First came "Existential Crisis," in which Michael is forced to contemplate that he may be executed if it's discovered that he's working with the enemy. A formerly immortal being confronts death for the first time, and it turns into the mother of all midlife crises.
"He basically smoked a big bowl of ennui," says Eleanor -- a line that is quintessential Good Place, highbrow and lowbrow all at once. But it's the speech she gives to snap him out of it that makes the episode really shine. Her simple Shellstrop-style explanation of ever-present death should be taught in schools as a tool to confront our own existential crises.
"The Trolley Problem" came next, an episode that had ethics professors doing cartwheels of joy(Opens in a new window). The famous thought experiment -- you're on an out-of-control trolley, you can either kill 5 people on one track or switch tracks and kill one -- can and has been done to death in philosophy courses. There have been infinite variations: for example, what if the one person is your best friend?
But never before has it been represented on screen before, done with actual death, with the blood of the victims splattered all over the face of the tram operator. Michael put Chidi in that position to torture him, and because it wasn't real, a dream within an afterlife, we were able to laugh. And also think.
A further spoiler alert: At the end of the episode, Michael confesses he tortured Chidi with anxiety because he's still having an existential crisis and is crying for help. It's too much to ask that the leader of the free world have the same realization, but the show holds out hope: even demons can see the error of their ways.
That's the thing about the afterlife; done right, there are endless opportunities for new plots, new characters (we got another at the end of "Michael and Janet"), new explorations of what it means to be human. A story set in the Good or Bad Place of the great beyond is in the best place to comment on our world -- something known by Dante (The Divine Comedy) Milton (Paradise Lost) and Oscar Wilde (The House of Judgment(Opens in a new window), one of the best short short stories ever written).
I'm not saying Michael Schur (or his great writer's room, which includes Twitter legend Megan Amram(Opens in a new window)) are our modern day Dantes, Miltons or Wildes. But they are giving America an ethical and moral center, making our brains work at a time when social media is sucking our attention spans dry.
And because they're presenting us with the true nature of things, which is a risky proposition in any era, they are also making it as funny as hell. And God only knows, we need some worthwhile laughs right now.
Strap in, folks. This trolley ride to Thoughtville via Joketown is only just leaving the station.
The Good Place airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.
Someone created a storm lamp that produces lightning every time Trump tweets
More in NBC, Donald Trump
Chris is a veteran journalist and the author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start working as a sub editor on national newspapers in London and Glasgow. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and West Coast web editor for Fast Company.Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.


text:
Q: Does Ubuntu support old Windows games? I wanted a alternative for the Windows XP, its crashing a lot in Vmware Workstation

A: You should try Wine for that - https://www.winehq.org/. It is a compatibility layer used for running Windows applications on Linux, though not all of them. To find out whether your desired program works in Wine, visit https://appdb.winehq.org/ and do a search.

A: *

*press ctrl + alt + t

*type sudo apt-get install steam

*wait and open steam

*make an account , its free

*play

*wine does the emulation , but it is slow...

steam give you acess to a large library of free games also , some of which include dota and some I don't download , also not to forget , you get free Softwares (for game development purposes) too....


When you partner with Xymox as your interface supplier, you gain a sizeable, experienced team ready to help you design a high quality, engineered interface solution. Our people's unique expertise sets Xymox apart. While others may use the same production equipment or materials, no one else has the Xymox team!
From concept to prototype to production and into end-of-life service requirements, their engineering program management and customer service veterans support you with open communication every step of the way.


text:
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Plastic-bags-gone-next-up-paper-3283524.php
Plastic bags gone - next up, paper
S.F. SUPERVISORS
By John Coté
Published 4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco Supervisor sits in his office in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, January 2, 2009.
Photo: Mark Costantini, The Chronicle
The question "paper or plastic?" will become irrelevant in San Francisco if Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has his way.
Mirkarimi, who pioneered the city's ban on plastic bags at large grocery stores and pharmacies, introduced legislation Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors that would require those stores to offer a 10-cent rebate as an incentive for people to bring their own bags.
"I believe we now need to tackle paper bags," Mirkarimi said. "So when the question is asked, paper or plastic, the answer is neither."
The plastic-bag ban, initially viewed skeptically, is now seen by many as visionary. That law is meant to decrease litter, reduce waste going to landfills, and curb dependence on petroleum, as the bags are oil-based.
The proposed ordinance is designed to save some of the 14 million trees cut down each year to supply paper bags nationwide, Mirkarimi said. It would apply to roughly 135 large grocery stores and pharmacies in the city, he said.
Some stores offer a smaller rebate or other incentives for bringing your own bag. The new ordinance calls for fines from $100 to $500 for retailers who fail to provide the 10-cent rebate.
Separately, the board also approved a settlement with Mirant Corp. to close a heavily polluting 40-year-old power plant along the city's waterfront by the end of 2010, although state regulators still have to sign off on the plan.
The board voted 10-0, with Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier excused for a funeral, to approve the settlement. It calls for Mirant to close the Potrero Power Plant by the end of 2010 and pay the city $1.1 million for health initiatives in the neighborhood.
Civic groups and city officials have targeted the plant for years.
Regulators at the California Independent System Operator, which ensures energy will be provided even in the case of a major infrastructure failure, said that two transmission projects must still come online before they can approve complete closure.
The largest and dirtiest generator at the plant, Unit 3, is planned to be shut down after a transbay cable comes online, scheduled for March, said Stephanie McCorkle, a Cal-ISO spokeswoman.
It's unclear whether the state will allow all or just part of the remaining units to be shut down when a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. re-cabling project is completed in October 2010.
"It's premature to say," McCorkle said.


text:
Jason Steinhauer
Director, Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest (current)
Inaugural director of $10 million center that brings history to bear on contemporary global issues
Program Specialist, The John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress
Managed programs and communications for the scholars center inside the Library of Congress
Liaison Specialist, Veterans History Project, Library of Congress
Collected the stories of America's war veterans for the nation's largest oral history project
Assistant Curator, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Exhibits "New York: City of Refuge" and award-winning "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War"
Honoraries
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute (current)
Senior Fellow at the nation's top-rated small think
Expert, U.S. Department of State (current)
Exchanges with embassies around the world as part of U.S. State Department programs
History Communication (current)
Founder and creator of international effort to create new sub-field of History
International Network for History and Policy (current)
Founding member of international network dedicated to infusing history into policymaking
Open Scholarship Initiative (current)
Summit group member of UNESCO-backed effort to make academic journal scholarship more accessible
HuMetricsHSS
Invited participant in initiative to alter value structures in the humanities
Oral History Association 50th anniversary
Task force to commemorate OHA's 50th anniversary
Judge for national competition and sponsor of Philadelphia National History Day
Judge for MUSE technology awards of the American Alliance of Museums
Editorial Board, "Made by History," The Washington Post (current)
Editorial board for The Washington Post's history blog, "Made by History" section
Presidential Counselors, The National WWII Museum (current)
Counselor to the President and CEO of the National World War Museum
Board of Directors, Esperanza Education Fund
Providing scholarships and mentoring to immigrant students
Board of Officers, Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region
Advocating for oral history from New York through Virginia
Program Committee, National History Center
Program Commitee of the National History Center, a project of the American Historical Association
Editorial Board, H-OralHist
Board member for H-Net Listserv devoted to oral history
Full-day history communication workshop for the Society of American Archivists
Half-day history communication workshop for the American Association for State and Local History
Half-day history communication workshop at the University of Michigan
Future of History in the Liberal Arts
Two-day workshop sponsored by the American Association of Liberal Arts Colleges
Webinar on building your scholarly reputation
Museo Judio de Sosua
Created the archive of the Jewish museum in Sosua, Dominican Republic
Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
Helped create the libray and archives of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
"Lincoln and New-York"
Research historian on critically-acclaimed exhibition on President Lincoln and New York
Barbara Goldsmith Archives
Created the archive of author/philanthropist Barbara Goldsmith for the New York Public Library
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
Project registrar for "Have You Eaten Yet?" exhibition


Please join us for the 4th Annual Alligator Ron's WingsFest 2018 at the Bergeron Rodeo grounds for amazing local restaurants competing for the best wings and wings sauce in South Florida! Get your PRE-SALE VIP and General Admission tickets before Thursday, April 12! VIP includes FREE FOOD & DRINKS from 11am-5pm. REGISTER OR SPONSOR TODAY!