Comments: I liked the ease of the transition and the customer service is great.
Comments: Sign up was painless, the statements are easier to read and understand. No complaints at all.
Comments: Horrible, horrible... since the first day until 3 weeks later a complete disaster. I wasted many and many hours trying to fix all the problems that they caused me, I got disconnected (yes... no energy... ) for one day... so many problems. They never call me back when they told me they were going to do it. I don't recommend them to anyone, it doesn't worth it.
Comments: Chose American P&L based on rate over the period of I time need providered. using TrueCost, it was super easy to sign up. Got my first two bills from AP&L, they are exactly what I signed up for. No complaints, satisfied eletric user.
Comments: Great service. Easy to set up, no hassle. Great pricing.
Comments: only been 3 months but so far, great!
Submitted on 10/01/2015 by Walter or M. J.
Comments: Signup with TrueCost was seamless, and we had no issues with American Light & Power (never had to contact).
Comments: Minor issues with sign up and first bill, but resolved promptly by AL&P.
Comments: So far so good. Only been with them for 1 month, but the electric provider has very little to do with the end user. All they do is inject power on the grid. CenterPoint maintains the lines and delivers the power and fixes the lines when they go down. The generator just gets the meter reading from CNP and bills your credit card. You don't show up at their storefront and bring home a bucket of electricity and interact with the generator. Switch providers as soon as you can [but make sure you're not in a contract] to save money using this TrueCost portal. Look at the seasonal rate cycles and switch when the price is lower and do not choose a plan that ends when the price is historically high. The 6 month plans look good until you realize they may end when the cost is high. Pick a term that will let you renew or switch when the price is low. As a disclaimer, I work for CenterPoint and I have been there since it was HL&P in the 1970's. By switching providers, you will save a little money. You will not put your kids through college with the savings, but you can go out to dinner a couple of times.
Comments: It is very early in the contract; however I a very happy with the service and the savings.
Comments: The TrueCost Portal was extremely helpful; previously, I had been analyzing the costs manually. The transition to American Light and Power's Smart Power 12 TC plan was seamless and, thus far, the service and cost meet my expectations.
Comments: Appears to be zero issues.
Comments: Good pricing. This was the first time I signed up with my credit card on TrueCost...AL&P set me up for automatic payments when they did my switch, so I didn't have to deal with that separately.
With headquarters in Houston, TX, American Light & Power is proud to be the electric supplier of choice to residential and commercial customers since 2007.
We believe deregulation in Texas has been and will continue to be a success. With the freedom to choose, American Light & Power wants to be your electricity provider. We can save you money every month, whether you're running the air conditioner around the clock in the summer, or powering your holiday displays in the winter. We know low energy rates are at the top of your list when choosing an electricity provider and we offer a wide range of plans from short term to long term to meet your needs. From competitive rates and plan options, to reliable and easy to understand electricity bills, to friendly customer service ... we work hard to build long lasting relationships.
We are committed to providing you and your family with the best service possible, so choose American Light & Power as your electricity provider today!


The Wyandot tribe of Indians in Ohio cede to the United States a strip of land five miles in extent, on the east end of their reservation in Crawford county in said State - also, one section of land lying in Cranberry Swamp, on Broken Sword Creek, being the one mile square specified and set forth in the treaty made with the said tribe on the twenty-ninth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen - also, one hundred and sixty acres of land, which is to be received in the place and stead of an equal quantity set apart in a supplemental treaty made with the said Indians on the seventeenth day of September in the following year, all situate and being in the said county of Crawford.
The said five mile tract, as also the additional quantities herein set forth, are each to be surveyed as other public lands are surveyed by the Surveyor General, and to be sold at such time and place, allowing sixty days - notice of the sale, as the President may direct.
All expenses incurred in the execution of this treaty, and in the sale of the lands included in it, shall be defrayed out of the funds raised therefrom, including such expenses and disbursements as may have been incurred by the delegation to Washington - and such allowance to individuals who have assisted in the negotiation, as the chiefs in council, after a full and fair investigation, may adjudge to be reasonable and just, shall in all cases be made.
The monies raised by the sales of the lands for all the above mentioned objects, except the last, shall be paid by the receiver on the order of the chiefs; - and such order, together with the receipt of the persons to whom payment shall be made, shall be the proper voucher for the final settlement of the accounts of the Receiver; - but the funds for the tribe shall be distributed by the Register and Receiver to each person entitled thereto.
By the 21st article of the treaty concluded at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, dated the twenty-ninth day of September in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, and the schedule thereunto attached, there was granted to Daonquot, or half King, Rontondee, or Warpole, Tayarrontoyea, or Between the Logs, Danwawtout, or John Hicks, Mononcue, or Thomas, Tayondottauseh, or George Punch, Hondaua-waugh, or Matthews, chiefs of the Wyandot nation, two sections of land each, within the Wyandot reservation - The aforesaid chiefs, their heirs or legal representatives, are entitled to, and allowed one section of land each, in the above designated tract of five miles, to be selected by them previous to sale, and the same shall be sold as the other lands are sold, and they allowed to receive the respective sums arising from said sale.
If during the progress of the sale, the Indians are not satisfied with the prices at which the lands sell, the Register and Receiver shall, on the written application of the chiefs, close the sale, and report the proceedings to the War Department - and the President may appoint such other time for the sale as he may deem proper.
- Peacock, his x mark.


text:
Q: Send and Get data from code editor like Plunker/StackBlitz embedded I have a website in .Net Core 2 and Angular 6.
I am trying to create a code editor in angular or javaScript that will interact with part of the website, from parent to embeded direction, not the opposite and this code can be submitted to my server once it is done. Can be any other editor that like jsfiddle, jsbin, etc...
So I tough about the image below.
I would like to embed something similar to Plunker Editor on my website and in this page there will be events that will be sent to this embeded plunker, I believe is an iframe.
Also I would like to know if the plunker can submit the code that now it is possible to download manually by creating some button internally and sending it through the web.
PS: Sorry, is written splunk on the draw below, but I meant plunker.
Is it possible to have something like this.
If yes, How?

EDIT:
Another possible solution may be stackblitz, it has the capability to connect to github.
Pre-requisite: The user would need to have a github account and let me know what is it's address.
So I could load the load the stackblitz embedded could do:

*

*Load angular code from github (It's possible according with their API)

*Commit from stackblitz through github API, if is it possible? If yes how?

*It's possible to communicate from parent page to iframe as far as I know, so stackblitz could get data from that event in theory.

If the point 1 and 2 is possible is there any live example ?

A: Definitely better Stackblitz.
Going by steps:

*

*You need to create an NPM package, rather than just git repository

*You need to setup an API with POST/PUT/PATCH resource, allowing external headers; however this is definitely something not secure and you'll need SSL activated

*As in step 2 but with GET

Here an example.
If you dont know how to embed, they have a documentation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
ACCEPTED

#### According to
Index Fungorum

#### Published in
null

#### Original name
Tilletia earlei Griffiths

### Remarks
null

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Mini used excavator enables hydraulic energy to be passed to different purposes at the exact time. Mini excavation is ended making use of a scaled-down edition of a mechanized backhoe and digging appliance than is normally utilized for big scale excavations. Mini used excavators replace the use of handbook labor in building environments and are typically classified as getting much less than 24,000 pounds in fat, hydraulic compact gear reviews.
Mini excavation equipment started to be produced throughout the 1970s in an try to produce mechanized digging equipment that could be utilized in environments exactly where room was restricted. Mini used excavators use hydraulic engineering to energy their purposes and to proceed the appliance on its rubber or steel tracks. Mini used excavators typically use tracks as opposed to wheels to permit simpler precedent more than challenging soil discovered on building sites. In 2011 mini used excavators use engineering permitting the hydraulics technique to energy 3 purposes at after, rather of the technique working a solo request.
Every single mini used excavator is made with the operator's controls inside of a home that consists of the power plant and hydraulic equipment; the home and equipment are capable to rotate a total 360 levels. The home is positioned on the below carriage, which consists of the tracks that permit the appliance to proceed. The group of the mini used excavator consists of the boom and different attachments that can be positioned on the boom; the most normally utilized is the bucket, bobcat reviews. The backfill blade is utilized by the mini used excavator to degree, backfill and trench, as nicely as getting utilized for stabilizing the used excavator when the boom is getting utilized at the entrance of the appliance. The attachments that can be fitted to the boom of the appliance are interchangeable simply because of piping permitting interconnection to the hydraulic technique situated on the boom and digger arm.
The variety of appliances that can be classed as mini used Hitachi excavators is big and encompasses scaled-down appliances below 16,000 pounds. The littlest mini used excavators weigh much less than 5,000 pounds and can be maneuvered via gates and doors via the use of expandable tracks. When relocating via enclosed rooms the tracks of these little mini used excavators are retracted prior to getting expanded back to total sizing for a stable perform surface area.
Complications had been previously discovered with the swing of the tail of the appliance hanging more than the tracks and getting bigger than the relaxation of the appliance. Various producers now create mini used excavators that have zero tail swing, which properly minimizes the sizing of the mini used excavator home. When the appliance swings on its 360 level axis there is no opportunity of the back end of the appliance hitting structures surrounding the building site.


text:
Healthcare design expert named to head college research center
Ray Pentecost
Ray Pentecost, one of the nation's foremost advocates and practitioners of healthcare facility evidence-based design, is the new director of the Texas A&M Center for Health Systems and Design.
"College administrators and faculty look forward to helping Pentecost elevate the the center to the highest levels of excellence in scholarship, engagement with practice and outreach," said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture, in making the appointment.
One of the world's leading healthcare design research organizations, CHSD is a joint venture of the Texas A&M College of Architecture and College of Medicine. The center is home to the world's largest group of interdisciplinary faculty, students, and affiliated professionals committed to healthcare facility environment research and education. CHSD brings together experts from multiple disciplines to focus on sustainable, evidence-based design in the field of healthcare environments. CHSD research fellows examine how the built and natural environments affect patients, influence healing, pain relief, quality health care, physical activity, social interaction, work flow and other behaviors.
An American Institute of Architects and American College of Healthcare Architects fellow, Pentecost comes to Texas A&M from Clark Nexsen, a Virginia-based architecture and engineering firm, where he served as vice president of healthcare architecture since 2003.
"Pentecost has been an outspoken advocate for the use of research in design, a practice that is changing the way healthcare facilities, and indeed other building types, are designed," said Todd Hutlock, editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design magazine, which named Pentecost to its 2012 list of the most influential people in the field.
He was a key contributor to numerous award-winning healthcare facility projects in Virginia, including the Hancock Geriatric Treatment Center, the Sitter & Barfoot Veterans Care Center and the Sentara Center for Health and Fitness.
Pentecost has also advanced healthcare facility design in leadership roles in several advocacy groups.
As the 2009-10 board president of the AIA's Academy of Architecture for Health, Pentecost led a drive to add healthy community design to the group's mission statement.
"The result has been a broader perspective and scope of service for … the nation's premier membership organization for healthcare architects," said Todd Hutlock in Healthcare Design magazine.
Pentecost's additional leadership roles include an appointment by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to serve on panels studying and developing construction standards for military healthcare facilities.
Since 2013, Pentecost has served as chairman of an AIA and National Institute of Building Science initiative to create a public, Internet-based repository for peer-reviewed research and case studies of the built environment from pre-design through occupancy and reuse.
Once established, the repository will serve as a one-stop storehouse containing quantifiable proof of the advantages of evidence-based design approaches, said Robert Ivy, AIA chief executive officer.
Former CHUD head Van Zandt named LAUP dept. head
Noted preservationist named interim head of architecture dept.
archone gallery
chsd gallery
coa gallery
health systems & design
research gallery
CHSD selected for prestigious AIA research consortium
Study shows more physical activity in Austin development
Built environment's effect on health is subject of research
Study eyes effect of ER doctor-nurse interface on patients
Design prof's new book to help plan new children's ICUs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The fledgling Morning Light team needed to get a taste of what the Transpacific Yacht Race would be like this summer, and they got it with their first of two 138 nautical mile trips around the island of Molokai and back.
Starting at 18:08 HST at dusk off Diamond Head on Oahu on Tuesday and finishing at 10:45 on Wednesday, for the most part it was hard work in the dark with little time to rest, but the 15 young men and women might have had the times of their lives in the 16½ hours they spent sailing their Transpac 52.
HONEY, who charted ABN AMRO ONE's victorious course in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race, mostly left the navigation up to BRANNING, a junior at the US Merchant Marine Academy. BRANNING, holed up at the nav station below decks, worked from GPS to guide Morning Star on a tacking route along Molokai's lee south shore before turning the east end of the island and heading back.
The only break in the action came at 08:00 on Wednesday when the wind dropped to 5 knots near Koko Head at the southeastern approach to Oahu. The crew dropped the jib and motored for a while before enough wind returned to allow them to pass Diamond Head under spinnaker.
For Graham BRANT-ZAWADZKI (USA), 22, of Newport Beach, who has been sailing for only two years, it was the first time to sail at night.
Soon, there it was, the morning light.
This second of four monthly training sessions will wind up Tuesday at the end of another run around Molokai, with no instructors on board. Meanwhile, the team will do its first race as part of the host Waikiki Yacht Club's Opening Day ceremonies Saturday and its second with the Hawaii YC's Opening Day on Sunday.
The twin goals of the Morning Light project are to prepare and send a youthful team from diverse backgrounds in a major ocean race and to produce a documentary film of the entire experience. The film is being produced by Roy E. DISNEY and Leslie DEMEUSE of Pacific High Productions in association with Disney Studios and is scheduled for theatre release early next year.


Used in a wide variety of light fittings, including ornate pendants and candelabras, candle bulbs are generally designed to look pretty - resembling a naked flame. It's possible to buy these in a wide variety of forms, including fluorescent (CFL), LED, energy-saving halogen, and even regular incandescent!
Only slightly more expensive than their traditional incandescent cousins, energy-saving halogen candle bulbs produce a crisp, bright light, and last twice as long as their regular counterparts. Already that justifies the difference in price, but these bulbs also boast a typical 30% advantage in energy efficiency over their equivalent.
While energy-saving halogen candle bulbs offer several advantages over older incandescent technology, the fight gets a little more ferocious when LED and fluorescent bulbs join the affray! Either of those technologies offers a considerably longer lifespan than halogen and is very easily more energy-efficient. They're also significantly more expensive, and for all of their modern refinement the halogen bulb still produces the more natural and colour-accurate form of light. Thus it is that in this jousting contest there is no clear winner!
When choosing from our range of energy-saving halogen candle bulbs you'll be presented with various options. Normally you'll be able to pick them up in any type of screw-fit or bayonet cap, and in a choice of wattages. You might also find a little extra stylishness in some of them, whether in the form of a bent-tip or twisted candle design.
An ideal cost-cutting replacement for existing incandescent bulbs without compromising on quality of light, choose from these energy-saving halogen candle bulbs for a satisfying solution to your lighting project!
All content and images are copyright © Lyco Group Ltd 2018 All rights reserved.


text:
This week's Speed Read highlights the importance of equality training for your staff.
Ndebele v A Bubble Company Limited
In the case of Ndebele v A Bubble Company Limited a female claimant brought a claim of direct sex discrimination for being prevented from working at an all-male barbecue event.
Ms Ndebele (N) was a temporary worker who was signed up to a catering agency. On 28 and 29 June 2016, she worked as a chef for A Bubble Company Limited (B), a catering company that provided food and drink at prestigious events.
On 29 June 2016, B's Head of Sales, asked the Office Manager (whose job involved obtaining staff for events) to arrange for a chef to assist at a private barbecue that was being hosted by one of his friends. This was a completely private event, and was not being organised by B.
The Office Manager followed the Head of Sales' instruction and went to the kitchen area to ask the chefs whether they wished to work at the barbecue. She explained that they would be remunerated in 'cash in hand' which made it clear that the barbecue was not an event being run by B.
N and four male chefs volunteered to work the barbecue. The Office Manager decided that N would be the most suitable person to work the event. However, on being told that N had been selected, the Head of Sales objected to her appointment on the basis that his friend's barbecue was an all-male event, and a male chef would therefore be his preference.
Subsequently, the Office Manager went back to N and told her that she would no longer be required for the event. N asked the Office Manager to clarify that she was not needed because she was a woman and the Officer Manager confirmed this.
N brought two allegations of sex discrimination against B, namely the allegation that she was prevented from working the barbecue because of her sex, and a second allegation that her remaining shifts were cancelled shortly after the incident.
Tribunal decision
The Tribunal held that in respect of the first allegation, B had committed direct sex discrimination. The Tribunal found that B had breached section 41 of the Equality Act 2010: 'A principal must not discriminate against a contract worker… in the way the principal affords the worker access, or by not affording the worker access, to opportunities for receiving a benefit, facility or service'.
B had sought to argue that this section only related to 'benefits' provided by B's business and that they were simply the messenger in this case. The Tribunal disagreed, stating that there was nothing in the section to suggest that this was the case, and other examples such as giving a worker the opportunity to work or train with a third party could be 'benefits' under this section.
B also tried to argue that they were not vicariously liable for the discrimination. The Tribunal disagreed, finding that the Office Manager had carried out the act of discrimination in the course of her employment and that B had failed to present evidence to suggest that they had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the incident from occurring (for example by providing equality training to staff).
N's second allegation failed, as there was no evidence to suggest that her shifts had been cancelled because of her sex.
This case clearly shows that organisations can be liable for the acts of their staff even where it appears that those discriminatory acts do not themselves relate to the business of that organisation.
It is a reminder that all staff should have proper equality training and be aware of what could constitute a discriminatory act.


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Coca-Cola internal documents reveal efforts to sell to teens, despite obesity crisis
Obesity rates for children were soaring at a time when Coke aimed to "cement credibility in the health and well-being space."
A new study shows that the Coca-Cola Company's public relations goals included trying to shift teens' sense of the health impacts of drinking sugary soda. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Laura Reiley
Reporter covering the business of food
Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympic Games since 1928, the longest-standing brand partner and one that has helped many National Olympic Committees send athletes to compete.
So says the beginning of a Coca-Cola internal document, a global request for proposal for a public-relations campaign for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. The budget? $1.5 million to $2.5 million. Among the target audience? Teens and moms.
A new paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health this week found that the Coca-Cola Company's public relations goals included trying to shift teens' sense of the health impacts of drinking sugary soda.
Obesity rates for children have tripled since the 1970s, an increase that puts children at greater risk of diabetes, heart disease and other health problems. The 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found 18.5 percent of kids ages 2 to 19 were obese. In the United States, childhood obesity is estimated to cost $14 billion annually in direct health expenses.
It doesn't matter if it's sugary or diet: New study links all soda to an early death
Rates of obesity among adults are even worse: In 2007, 33.7 percent of American adults were obese. The most recent estimates approach 40 percent, according to the American Medical Association.
The paper, produced by Australia's Deakin University and U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit consumer and public health group, includes another Coca-Cola document, a request for proposal for a campaign called "Movement Is Happiness." Its public relations goals included "to increase Coke brand health scores with teens" and to "cement credibility in the health and well-being space."
Countries such as Mexico, Chile and Brazil have pushed back against sugary sodas legislatively, enacting sugary drink taxes and limiting marketing and advertising directly to kids.
Gary Ruskin, co-director of U.S. Right to Know, said that after a review of thousands of pages of requested documents from Coca-Cola, some themes emerge.
Latin America's war on obesity could be a model for U.S.
"One of these is Coca-Cola's efforts to evade responsibility for the global obesity epidemic," he said by phone. "Even though the health problems are quite severe in the U.S., we live under de facto corporate control; the food industry is incredibly powerful in the U.S. What's insidious here is a health campaign that is using tobacco's tactics, promoting alternative science in a way that advances the notion that sugary sodas aren't really so bad for people's health."
Ruskin said Coca-Cola is intentionally targeting a vulnerable population.
Kent Landers, vice president of public affairs and communications at the Coca-Cola Company, said these internal documents predate Coke's 2016 commitment to discontinue funding physical activity programs. He said Coca-Cola has repositioned itself as a "total beverage company" with products that include water, juice, juice drinks, tea, coffee, sports drinks and energy drinks as well as sodas.
The latest sign we're in a sparkling water bubble: Coca-Cola is making something called Aha
"At Coca-Cola, we recognize that too much sugar isn't good for anyone," Landers said. "That's why, around the world, we are reducing the amount of sugar in our products and taking other steps to help people reduce their sugar intake. In fact, in 2017-2018, we eliminated 425,000 tons of sugar from our global portfolio of products through innovations such as new recipes, smaller packs and wider availability of low- and zero-sugar products."
In the "Movement Is Happiness" internal document, which dates to 2013, there is a commitment to offer low- or no-calorie beverages in every market, to provide transparent nutrition information, and to not pitch advertising to children under age 12.
Benjamin Wood, a PhD candidate at Deakin University and one of the study's authors, said the documents show how explicit Coca-Cola is in targeting teenagers and that younger populations are not immune.
"We wanted to raise awareness of these hidden tactics and strategies to target teenagers and their mothers," Wood said. "Coke also uses the recruitment of role models for young children."
Ruskin pointed to Coca-Cola's powerful and far-reaching political apparatus as an impediment to enacting good sugary drink policy.
"There's a global effort from policymakers and public health people across the world trying to grasp the … effect of ultra-processed food on human health," he said. "It's a weapon of mass destruction."


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cinecist vs. oscar 2012
I realize an apology is in order. I did my very best this year to see as many of the nominated films as I could—and I didn't do badly! But unfortunately, seeing them is only about 10% of the work. Writing about them...well, it's a different story. In the end, I was brought low by that most pedestrian of adversaries: Being too damned busy and/or too damned tired. Spare time being a scarce commodity, and spare energy being even scarcer, I was compelled in the late innings to admit a sort of half-defeat. Much as I relish this opportunity to hold forth publicly on the relative merits of the nominees in, say, Sound Mixing and Costume Design, it was simply not meant to be this year. No, this time, I had to pare things down. Way down. Try to contain your grief.
So the "good" news is that I am still able to deliver to you, loyal readers, my annual brain-spasm on things Oscar. And it will surely be as enjoyable (??) and instructive (?!!) as ever.
The "bad" news is that it only covers the Big Six Categories. So if you were looking for help winning the office Oscar pool...sorry, not this year.
Oh, and no list of Top Ten or Favorites or Really Good Films this time, either. But if the truth be told, there was really only one movie I saw all year that really excited me, and it will quickly become very clear to you which one that was.
© 2013 dondi demarco
Before we start, the usual notes, definitions, and disclaimers:
· Prediction: The nominee that will win. In red, for your convenience.
· Pick: The nominee that should win—and in fact would win, if the universe were just. It is not.
· Percentages: My arbitrary, inexact, self-designed means of assigning probability to certain outcomes. Not statistically useful—or, really, useful in any way at all.
· Nominees in short-form categories: I always exclude them from my discussion, and I say this is because neither you nor I have seen them, will see them, or have much desire to see them. This year, I could credibly claim to have excluded them for a whole different reason. But why bother?
"Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, to get ourselves a treat."
Enjoy the show.
Best Picture · Director · Actor · Actress · Supporting Actor · Supporting Actress
Nominees:
Pick:
Let's start the discussion with my personal pick. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a film of ravishing vision and imagination, acted and directed with wild gusto but still somehow ending up at a place of sublime calmness. It is both raging and meditative, sometimes simultaneously. And it looks like nothing you've ever seen. It is, in fact, not only the best of these nominees, but was indeed the very best movie of 2012 (my full review is here). As is usually the case with my personal picks—and perhaps even more frequently the case with the actual best movie of the year—it has no chance of winning. But kudos and thanks to the Academy for nominating it. Every other nominee on this list, down to a one, was released in the November-December Oscar-baiting window. Beasts came out in June, which for Oscar purposes was about 20 years ago. But they remembered it and they nominated it—not just for Best Picture, but for several other awards as well. Well done, AMPAS.
Now, on to the real race.
A month and a half ago it might have seemed frivolous or contrary to predict a win for Argo. Sure, everyone likes it, and it's a lot of fun—a classic CIA nail-biter that tells the (mostly) true story of an absurd plan to rescue some Americans stranded in Iran during the hostage crisis, and how against all odds it is actually set in motion by a small collective of heroes, cynics and Hollywood types. It's confidently directed, gamely scripted (X: "All we have are bad ideas. This is the best one." Y: "You don't have any better bad ideas?" X: "No sir, this is the best bad idea we have."), and expertly edited for maximum seat-squirming. But that all really just goes with the territory in these covert-action thrillers, doesn't it? Not really a compelling case for winning The Big One—especially since Ben Affleck wasn't even nominated for Best Director, and movies virtually never win Best Picture if the director isn't nominated. A couple of months ago, to my eyes at least, Lincoln was looking like the favorite, with strong challenges coming from Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook, maybe Les Miserables. But then against expectations Argo just started winning everything: Golden Globe, SAG, Directors Guild, Producers Guild, BAFTA, Critics Choice, you name it. Essentially out of nowhere, it has quickly become the overwhelming front-runner, and I'm not fool enough to put myself in the path of that juggernaut. I predict a win for Argo here too, though with some degree of befuddlement.
So what of those erstwhile contenders? They may have shrunk considerably in stature of late, but they haven't disappeared entirely. Lincoln is at the front of the trailing pack and not terribly far behind the lead, I would say, given its twelve (twelve!) nominations and likely wins in some other major categories. Personally, I place it somewhere in the top, say, 25th percentile of Spielberg's oeuvre—which is not faint praise, considering just how high his highs actually are. Lincoln feels perhaps a bit bloodless for a Spielberg work (and I'm not referring to an absence of battles scenes), but it does have its affecting moments, courtesy of Daniel Day-Lewis's committed-down-to-the-bone central performance and the beautiful handling of a small character revelation in the last act. But it focuses on the political rather than the moral imperative for abolishing slavery, and isn't afraid to show us how the sausage gets made. That may dilute the immediate emotional impact a bit, but it effectively engages us—more deeply than we might notice at first—by implicating us in the compromises and shady machinations that Lincoln understood are often the only way to get anything done amid bitter ideological division. We all get that, now perhaps more than ever, and Lincoln slyly persuades us to root for favor-trading, prevarication, threats and bribery in the service of an ultimate moral good. It's a smart, mature, technically impeccable film by one of our greatest directors (and most beloved by Hollywood), with rich writing and several outstanding performances. How is it not the favorite to win among these nominees...?
After Lincoln, the next most likely upset would come from either Les Miserables or Silver Linings Playbook. Les Miz is, in its way, quite a film. If you're in the market for a grand rousing musical historical epic, and hoping to shed some tears along the way, I don't think you're going to do better than this one. It is overwhelmingly affecting—overbearingly, one might even say. Even the cinecist, much to his own annoyance, spent about half the length of the damn thing choked up. Fortunately, that sorry display went entirely unnoticed by the other movie-goers bawling unabashedly around him. In all seriousness, though, it's a good film. Yes, one's enjoyment of the music itself is ultimately dragged down over the course of the 160 minutes by its relentless, inescapable sameness. And yes, one has to be prepared to forgive the hokeyness and histrionics that accompany any project of this type. But Tom Hooper's unexpected directorial choice to have characters (repeatedly and at length) stare directly into the camera and sing at it, in tight close-up, and his ambitious (potentially foolhardy) decision to record all the vocals in real time rather than overdubbing in post-production, actually come together with surprising effect and pay great emotional dividends. And it doesn't hurt that with one notable exception (sorry, but Russell Crowe is the sore thumb in this ensemble) the key players are all excellent musical performers. There were times when a movie like this would have easily walked away with Best Picture. It has to settle for dark horse status this year.
Silver Linings Playbook is another dark horse that once looked like a serious contender. This one is a little harder for me to figure. I really like the first two thirds of the movie, much more than I ever expected to, having braced myself for some romantic-comedy-with-a-twist tedium. Instead, it quickly develops a jagged, off-kilter sensibility that teeters knowingly between comedy and tragedy as it explores how maybe mental illness and addictive behaviors are not symptoms of individuals, but rather of whole families and social groups. It works, and it does so with the kind of flair director David O. Russell has always demonstrated for tricky interpersonal dynamics. Plus, Bradley Cooper, Professional Sexy Guy, is surprisingly effective as the lead nut case—more on that in the Best Actor discussion. But then in the final act, things take a well-telegraphed turn into conventional rom-com territory. The rough edges get smoothed out, everyone seems to get better-looking, and there are tears and laughter and none of them feel real or deserved...and the yawning commences. It's a shame, most notably because the film doesn't stay true to the difficult nature of the characters it takes such pains to create in the beginning. I understand why I like the first part of the movie, and I understand why other people like the last part; but I don't understand why anyone would like the whole thing, at least not enough to nominate it for an Oscar. Nonetheless, it's the only movie to score a nomination in every major category—Picture, Director, Screenplay, and all four acting categories. So clearly I don't know anything.
What about Zero Dark Thirty? That's a good question. Sometime in December I probably would have pegged it only a little behind Lincoln in the race. A technically superb, fact-based CIA procedural by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, who practically specializes in sharp military thrillers—and with a satisfying ending already baked in, no less. But after getting out of the gate very strong, with countless critics naming it to their top ten, it just seemed to lose momentum. There was the minor political backlash against it for (erroneously) implying that some vital intelligence in the hunt for bin-Laden was gained through torture, but that hardly seems enough to derail it. Maybe it implicitly has to compete in people's estimation against the other high-profile CIA flick this year, and Argo is simply more likable, human and appealing than the cool, cerebral, tough-as-nails ZDT. If pressed on the subject, I suspect many people would say they admired Zero Dark Thirty more than Argo, but enjoyed it less. That matters.
The remaining nominees can safely be considered out of the running. Life of Pi is a thing of beauty, to be sure, charming and even beguiling at all sorts of levels. I don't have any big problems with the film. I will say that it kept making me want to go read the book, which I assume was able to devote more time and words to fleshing out the ideas at the heart of the story. But that's not much of a criticism. And while the narrative framing device of an incredible adventure story told in flashback is clearly modulated at a low key to keep the ideas from spinning into tiresome philosophizing, for which I'm grateful, I do think it finally mutes some of the potential magic of the story. Pi was nominated for eleven Oscars, making it second only to Lincoln, which would seem to make it formidable. Ang Lee was even nominated for Best Director, which is something Affleck couldn't manage. But none of its nominations were in acting categories, a clear sign that Best Picture is probably not in its future. It will probably have to settle for technical awards.
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's take on slavery by means of spaghetti western, saw its chances undone by just a little too much controversy and a little too much criticism from the wrong quarters—and also probably the general Tarantino-fatigue that seems to underpin most discussions of his work. And finally Amour, the latest and many would say best from Austrian filmmaker-provocateur Michael Haneke, has a great shot at Best Foreign Language Film, but it's not going to bring home the top honor.
Best Directing
Amour, Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Obviously, the absence of Ben Affleck from this category is rather confounding, given the apparent likelihood that Argo will win Best Picture and the extreme rarity of such a win happening without a Director nomination. But then...there might be an easy explanation. Argo is a late favorite, one whose early momentum faded, seemingly dooming it to also-ran status on Oscar night. At the time of the nominations, it wasn't a real contender, so Affleck didn't get the nod for Director. But then as Argo starts winning everything, Academy voters who were undecided before start to view Argo as their favorite, too. Voters who haven't seen the movie yet, not considering it a top contender, decide to see it—and a lot of them like it. And, of course, some voters just change their minds, because everyone likes a winner. So Argo builds new momentum for Best Picture, but it's already too late for Affleck to get nominated for Director. It's unfortunate for him, but we won't bring out the violins just yet. It has become clear in his three impressive directorial efforts to date (Argo, Gone Baby Gone and The Town) that this is ultimately how he'll make his lasting mark in Hollywood, not as an actor. So his time will come.
In the absence of the upstart Affleck, the early favorite in this category remains the favorite still. I never tire of proclaiming (though some may tire of hearing me proclaim) that Steven Spielberg is quite possibly the best technical film director in history, in spite of his proven unreliability at choosing/developing vehicles that are worthy of his talents. In short, he often seems to be a genius with questionable taste. But Lincoln doesn't suffer in that regard; it may delve into some unseemly political territory, but the film itself remains a model of tastefulness, eminently worthy of Spielberg's directorial prowess, which is brought to bear with remarkably little of his signature sentimental nonsense. As always, he is able to create compositions and find textures that tell stories before, and after, any words are spoken. If there's anyone who understands the language of cinema better than Spielberg, I don't know who it is. He'll be recognized for it again this year, I believe.
If for some reason it's not Spielberg, I would put Ang Lee as the next most likely for his gorgeous Life of Pi, which at times becomes a kind of cinematic poem—in 3D, no less. Beyond the visual beauty, there's also the fact that he managed to elicit/capture such a wonderful performance from young Suraj Sharma, who had to play most of his scenes against a CGI tiger that obviously wasn't there, or a real tiger that also wasn't there because they couldn't risk having them on set together. I'm not sure how, as a director, you create anything recognizably human out of a situation like that, but Lee managed to do it with room to spare.
Could David O. Russell win for Silver Linings? He could, I guess, if voters are really turned off by the obvious, conventional choice of Spielberg and decide they want to do something 'hip' instead. And again, this movie was nominated in every major category. That's a lot of love out there among the voters. Finally, lest we forget, the Harvey Weinstein Oscar-Gathering Machine was fully mobilized a couple of months ago and continues to troll the streets of Hollywood collecting stray votes. It ain't over 'til it's over....
Michael Haneke's Amour, as before, is likely out of the running here—as is my personal pick, deserving though it may be.
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
Let's get the also-rans out of the way first—by which I mean anyone who isn't named Day-Lewis.
Denzel Washington has won before and will in all likelihood win again one day. He gives a terrific performance in Flight, as an ace commercial airline pilot who spends most of his time off the job, as well as a fair amount of his time on it, as a falling-down drunk propped up by cocaine. He surfaces out of haze on one flight to pull a genius maneuver that saves hundreds of lives, but that just proves to him that he's a better pilot when he's half in the bag than all the rest are when they're dead sober, and it's this super-competence that keeps him in denial. He knows he's a drunk, he just doesn't really think it's a problem. No one can play an arrogant a**hole as perfectly as Washington can and still make you root for him. Another year, the award could have been his.
As I mentioned before, I was also very pleasantly surprised (which is a kind way of saying "shocked") at just how good Bradley Cooper is in Silver Linings Playbook as a former history teacher who has struggled most of his life with bipolar disorder and rage issues, and now finds himself (perhaps prematurely) released from a mental hospital and wanting to repair his very, very broken marriage and life. His performance (at least for the first two-thirds of the movie) is awkward, off-balance, harsh, a little goofy. It's just right. He's a person who is smart and self-aware, but lacks filters and impulse control, making all social interaction precarious for him. Looking into his eyes, it's easy to believe that at any moment he might pose a threat, whether he means to or not. It's not a complete performance, given the direction his character is required to take in the weak third act, but what's there is very good.
The most likely upset (though it's not really very likely at all) would come from Hugh Jackman for his mighty turn as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. I confess that Hugh Jackman dwells somewhat outside my world. His sweet spots seem to be musicals and supernatural/superhero vehicles, neither of which is exactly in my wheelhouse. But watching him belt out the tunes and bring the anguish in Les Miz, I was duly impressed. The guy sings the bejeezus out of song, and also manages to act while he's doing it. It's an entirely different sort of talent than Day-Lewis or Washington bring to the table, but it's not to be dismissed. And I'll say this: If the people in the theatre with me when I saw this movie were able to vote, Jackman would win by a landslide.
So, on to the winner. A question for you: Who are The Great Film Actors? Everyone agrees on Olivier, Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Duvall, Nicholson. Most would probably agree on Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Penn, a few others. Can we all maybe agree on Daniel Day-Lewis as well? It's true he doesn't have nearly as many credits as the others on this list. But let me mention just four: My Left Foot, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln. The scope of what Day-Lewis does in just these four performances, and the eerie perfection with which he does it, put him so far ahead of nearly everyone else that you almost have to call it something other than acting. It's more like...becoming. Or maybe dissolving and resolving. He disappears, he eradicates himself—his literal self—and in its place creates an entirely new being. So even in tight close-up, the touchstone of film acting, you find no trace of Daniel Day-Lewis. You find only Christy Brown, or Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting, or Daniel Plainview, or Abraham Lincoln, painstakingly built from the particles that once made up Daniel Day-Lewis. Look, I don't understand what he does, and I certainly don't want to do it myself. But I will watch him do it all day long.
Oh, did I forget to discuss Joaquin Phoenix? Hmm. Go figure.
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
As we all know by now, Quvenzhane Wallis (apparently, mercifully, you can call her 'Nazie') is the youngest nominee ever in the category, at the ripe old age of 9-and-a-half. She auditioned and won the role when she was 5, and gave the performance at 6 or 7. At this point, numbers cease to matter. The question is: Is Nazie's performance really that good? The answer is: You bet it is. She isn't just the thematic focus of the film, she is in every way the lead actor. She carries nearly every scene in the movie squarely on her shoulders; if she fails, the scene fails. But it never does, because she never does. She is a little force of nature, preternaturally wise when she needs to be, but still able to convey real fear and sadness and humanity. Her performance is jaw-droppingly natural, accomplishing everything it needs to without straining for any of it. It's simply great acting, and it would be amazing if the Academy decided to recognize it with more than just a nomination. I'm not particularly hopeful that's going to happen, but it's not out of the question.
Much more likely is a win by Jennifer Lawrence for her portrayal of a recovering sex addict and all-around loony chick in Silver Linings Playbook. I'm a little ambivalent here. I became a Lawrence fan a couple of years ago when I saw her tough, no-nonsense performance in the best movie of that year, Winter's Bone. It was a killer. But since then, I find myself wondering whether she's going to choose the path of starlet or serious actress. On the strength of her talent and attractiveness, both are now open to her; it's simply about what she wants to do. Her performance in Silver Linings doesn't give any clear indication of which direction she's headed in. It's a perfectly good performance, quirky and challenging, fiery but vulnerable, 'serious' but still pretty cute: well within the bounds of what either a Jennifer Anniston or a Renee Zellweger might have delivered at the same point in their respective careers. Lawrence is capable of Oscar-caliber work (she's already done it once) but this isn't it. This is a transitional performance, and we need to see what's next. However...this is the Academy's best opportunity to deliver a top-tier award to this movie, and I don't think they'll pass it up.
Jessica Chastain only really showed up on the Hollywood radar two years ago, but what an appearance it was: Her 2011 credits included The Help, The Tree of Life, Coriolanus and Take Shelter. She "announced her presence with authority" as Ebby Calvin LaLoosh might say, and I'm a believer. She's the real thing. But her nomination this year for Zero Dark Thirty is, I suspect, primarily about recognizing the need for strong female leads in American cinema, and secondarily about acknowledging the stunning volume and variety of work Chastain has done in the last couple of years. She is as good as anyone could be in ZDT, so she's not out of the running, but it's not a role that requires all that much.
Emmanuelle Riva would have a shot at winning this one if more voters had seen Amour, but most of them haven't, so there it is. Naomi Watts is, I guess, this year's stand-in for Nicole Kidman, because what's an Oscar ceremony without a blond Australian on the red carpet?
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
There's rarely a sure thing in this category, because it's where you tend to find the most interesting, varied, and entertaining performances of the year. That being said, I think we can rule out a couple from this list. Philip Seymour Hoffman was, I'm sure, as wonderful as he always is in The Master (to my shame, I didn't see it). There was early Oscar buzz around all the main performances in The Master, but it was always considered a "problematic" film. Then once the movie went into wide release, the audience response was a marked indifference. So the actors did get their nominations (Hoffman, Phoenix, and Amy Adams) but I can't really see any of them winning. Christoph Waltz, for his part, did win the Golden Globe, and he was directed by Tarantino to an Oscar win in this category once before for Inglourious Basterds. But my gut tells me it's not in the cards for him this year, and sometimes I just have to go with that. I won't count him out completely, but I'll make him a long shot.
I think the contest here is really between Arkin, Jones and De Niro. Alan Arkin is enjoying a heck of a third act, having made a whole late career out of playing cynical, wise-cracking old coots. It's always fun to watch, and it's already brought him one Oscar (for Little Miss Sunshine). Will it bring him another? It's a possibility. His is the only acting nomination for Argo, which could provide the extra push he needs.
As for Robert De Niro, his work in Silver Linings isn't classic, top-shelf De Niro, and it's not the performance he's going to be remembered for. But one does have the sense that he really connected with the material in a way that he doesn't always do these days. It's a heartfelt, genuine, and moving performance—and one more opportunity to make good on all the acting nominations for this movie. He has a solid chance at it.
But in the end I think the favorite is SAG-winner Tommy Lee Jones, who is also my personal pick. He gives a crowd-pleaser of a performance in Lincoln as the aging Thaddeus Stevens, a nasty, arrogant, sarcastic, self-righteous bully, redeemed only (but quite completely) by the fact that he has committed his entire political life and every fluid ounce of bile inside him to the single absolute moral good of ending slavery. He's the kind of guy you just hope and pray agrees with you, because if he doesn't, your life will be miserable. Jones has the stature and the craggy exoskeleton to make Stevens a formidable physical and psychological presence, but he can always find those little notes that make you feel the humanity underneath. This is one of his best performances, and I think it will be recognized.
A couple of post-scripts: First, it's not surprising but it's still regrettable that Dwight Henry wasn't nominated here for his amazingly strong work as the young Hushpuppy's raging alcoholic father in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Before making the movie, Henry was a New Orleans bakery owner who had never acted in his life. You'd never know that from watching this performance. Some might say it veers into caricature in its over-the-top ferocity. But take it from a former bartender: Drunks can be cartoons, and they can be horror-movie monsters. That's just the truth of it. Nothing in Henry's performance felt false to me.
Second, does anyone else think James Spader got the shaft? His turn as the shady, shameless political operative W.N. Bilbo in Lincoln was not only flat-out hilarious, it was also exactly the air valve needed to prevent this closely contained drama from becoming too claustrophobic. He should have gotten a nomination, if you ask me.
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jackie Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
I think this race sounds closer than it really is. Anne Hathaway and Sally Field give high-profile performances that set up what would seem to be a classic opposition: the young, beautiful, warm, heart-wrenchingly sympathetic Fantine vs. the older, harsh, difficult, and most assuredly UN-sympathetic Mary Todd Lincoln. The stage is set for a tough little battle pitting the red-carpet starlet against the hard-knocked veteran, youth against age, sentiment against artistry, etc. etc., in which we'll just have to wait and see which side the Academy comes down on.
All well and good, but really I just think Anne Hathaway is going to win. And I think she's going to do it handily. And I think she deserves it.
In Lincoln, Sally Field conveys very effectively the difficult character of Mary Todd, her anguish and her mental instability and her selfishness, and how she uses them all to manipulate the people around her—whether she understands that's what she's doing or not. There's no doubt it's a strong performance. But does it at any point create a moment of intimacy, a point of connection between the character and me, so that I'm not just watching a performance, but actually experiencing something within myself because of that performance? It does not.
Hathaway, on the other hand, does. And it happens at exactly the moment you think it does, when she sings THAT SONG. Whatever other renditions of that song you've heard in the last couple of years—and we all know there have been plenty—when Hathaway sings it in Les Miserables, it belongs entirely to her. Not to the actress, but to the Fantine that is being created and lived by her in that moment. That song, as she performs it, connects the character and the audience in a way that Sally Field's performance is just not able to do. Is it sentimental? Sure it is. But what works, works. If I had to choose between watching Field's Mary Todd and Hathaway's Fantine, I would choose the latter every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And on this particular Sunday, I'm pretty sure the Academy will concur.
The other nominees here seem like distant trailers. Helen Hunt, bless her bland, likable little heart, was as certain to be nominated as she is to lose—a tough hand to be dealt, but I'm sure she'll persevere, and look fantastic doing it. Jacki Weaver has a slightly better chance of winning, but I think she's here mostly just to prove that, yes, the voters really, really do like Silver Linings Playbook, for whatever reason. And Amy Adams, with her fourth nomination in this category in seven years, would really seem to be due for a win; but not this time, I think. I would almost feel bad for her, if I weren't 99% certain that she will win an Oscar in the next five years.


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About Dr. Dhafir |
About Katherine |
DhafirTrial
Information about Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Rights U.S.: Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards?
Posted by k under Civil Liberties , Dhafir by others
William Fisher NEW YORK, Feb 22, 2005 (IPS)
Civil libertarians are wondering if the new U.S. attorney-general, Alberto Gonzales, will continue one of the trademarks of his predecessor, John Ashcroft: razzle-dazzle news conferences announcing the arrests of terrorists, followed by trials in which no one is charged or tried for any terror-related offences.
They point to the recent case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an Iraqi-American oncologist who was convicted on Feb. 10 of violating economic sanctions against Iraq, Medicare fraud and tax evasion.
But when Dhafir was detained in northern New York State in February 2003, Ashcroft trumpeted the arrest as part of Pres. George W. Bush's war on terror.
"Those who covertly seek to channel money into Iraq under the guise of charitable work will be caught and prosecuted," he said.
"As Pres. Bush leads an international coalition to end Saddam Hussein's tyranny and support for terror, the Justice Department will see that individuals within our borders cannot undermine these efforts."
New York's governor, George Pataki, declared, "It is again troubling to see.that there are clear terrorists living here in New York State among us…who are supporting or aiding and abetting those who would destroy our way of life and kill our friends and neighbours."
No terrorism charges were ever bought against Dhafir. A member of his defence team, Joel Cohen, believes that his client "was clearly targeted, clearly investigated, clearly indicted, tried, and clearly convicted because he is a Muslim, (and) because he is a person of Iraqi ancestry."
The government alleged that Dhafir illegally raised millions of dollars and violated U.S sanctions by sending funds to Iraq through his charity, Help the Needy, and that he also diverted some of these funds for his personal use.
He is thought to be the only U.S citizen convicted of breaking the Iraq sanctions, though groups such as Voices in the Wilderness, Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi USA, the American Friends Service Committee, the Order of St Dominic (Dominican priests), Conscience International, Global Exchange, and the International Action Centre have admitted breaking the sanctions with Iraq since before the U.S. invasion.
The judge in Dhafir's case denied a defence motion to allow mention of Dhafir's religion or refer to terrorism during the trial.
David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Centre and an internationally recognised legal authority on civil liberties, believes the Dhafir case is emblematic of a pattern created by the Ashcroft Justice Department.
"Not one person of the more than 5,000 locked up as a foreign national in preventive detention by John Ashcroft was ever convicted of a terrorist crime," Cole told IPS. "The only convictions have been of U.S. citizens. John Ashcroft labeled them as suspected terrorists, but it turned out they had nothing to do with terrorism whatsoever."
In his end-of-year speech to Justice Department (DOJ) employees, Ashcroft said "375 people have been charged in terror-related cases over the past three years and 190 have been convicted or pleaded guilty."
But according to Cole, "what Ashcroft doesn't say is that most of those people are not indicted on anything to do with terrorism. What he doesn't say is that a Syracuse University research department looked at Justice Department figures and found that the median sentence imposed on persons convicted for crimes in cases that the DOJ labeled as terrorism was 14 days."
"Now, 14 days is not the kind of sentence you get if you're convicted of terrorism. It's the kind of sentence you get if you're convicted of some completely petty crime."
For complete article:Inter Press Service
Friday, Feb 17th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Civil Liberties and Dhafir by others


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Arbor Closes $3,48M Fannie Mae DUS®ARM Loan on Oakley Shoals in Union City, GA
UNIONDALE, NY, Nov. 3, 2008 – Arbor Commercial Funding, LLC ("Arbor"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage, LLC, announced the recent funding of a $3,480,000 loan under the Fannie Mae DUS®ARM product line to refinance the 86-unit complex known as Oakley Shoals (top right photo) located in Union City, GA.
The 10-year loan amortizes on a 30-year schedule and carries a note rate of 5.93 percent.
The loan was originated by Ronen Abergel, (bottom left photo) Director, in Arbor's full-service New York City lending office.
"The borrower chose Arbor because of our ability to provide flexible terms, even in these challenging times," said Abergel.
Contact: Ingrid Principe, Tel: (516) 506-4298, iprincipe@arbor.com
Labels: Arbor Commercial Funding
Marcus & Millichap Sells 300-Acre Development Site in Connecticut for $3.4M
NEW HAVEN, CT , Nov. 3, 2008 – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation's largest real estate investment services firm, has arranged the sale of a 308.71-acre development site in Cornwall (top right map) and Canaan (middle left map) in Litchfield County.
The sales price was $3.4 million.
Laurie Ann Drinkwater and Seth Richard, investment specialists in the firm's New Haven office, together with regional manager Edward Jordan (bottom left photo) represented the seller, a Stamford, Conn.-based investor.
Marcus & Millichap also procured the buyer, the State of Connecticut and the Cornwall Conservation Trust.
"This offering was an excellent opportunity for the State of Connecticut and its partners to acquire 300-plus acres zoned for residential development with frontage along the Housatonic River in historic Litchfield County, midway between New York and Boston," says Drinkwater.
"This was a unique collaboration between public and private ventures, including local congressmen, land preservationists, private investors benefiting the residents of Connecticut."
The State of Connecticut purchased the land with funds from the Federal Highlands Funds and Natural Heritage Trust, a state program that acquires land to expand the state's parks and forests.
Located in the towns of Cornwall and Canaan, a portion of the property runs along the Housatonic River.
The Cornwall parcel consists of 229 acres and is accessed from River Road, a dirt road along the banks of the Housatonic River and railroad tracks.
The Canaan parcel consists of 79-acres and is accessed from both Music Mountain and Lime Rock Roads, located in the village of Falls Village.
Press Contact: Stacey Corso, Communications Department, (925) 953-1716
Labels: Marcus and Millichap
Post Properties Announces Third Quarter 2008 Earnings
Investor/Analyst Conference Call Scheduled for Nov. 4, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. ET
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Post Properties, Inc. (NYSE: PPS) announced today net income available to common shareholders of $25.2 million for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $9.1 million for the third quarter of 2007.
(Post Woods apartments, Atlanta, (top right photo) recently sold by Post Properties.)
On a diluted per share basis, net income available to common shareholders was $0.57 for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $0.21 for the third quarter of 2007.
The Company's net loss attributable to common shareholders was $(1.0) million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, compared to net income available to common shareholders of $93.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2007.
On a diluted per share basis, the Company's net loss attributable to common shareholders was $(0.02) for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, compared to net income available to common shareholders of $2.12 for the nine months ended September 30, 2007.
The Compa ny's net income available to common shareholders for the three months ended September 30, 2008 included (i) casualty losses of approximately $2.8 million relating to preliminary estimates of the damage sustained at its Houston, Texas properties as a result of Hurricane Ike and (ii) severance charges of approximately $2.2 million associated with the elimination of certain employment positions during the quarter.
For a complete copy of Post Properties' news release and financial highlights, please contact Chris Papa, 404-846-5028 or pbutler@postproperties.com
Labels: Post Properties Inc.
Selig Enterprises Announces Completion of 38,000-SF Retail Development in West Atlanta
ATLANTA, GA, Nov. 3, 2008-- - Selig Enterprises, Inc. announces delivery of 1465 Chattahoochee Avenue, (top right photo) a retail project in Atlanta's Westside neighborhood.
The development is located on a long-vacant parcel located at Chattahoochee Avenue and Collier Road.
The four acre site contains approximately 38,080 square feet of retail and restaurant space. Spaces w ill start from 2,100 square feet.
(Steve Selig, president, Selig Enterprises, top left photo)
The site is bounded by Collier Road, Chattahoochee Avenue, and Logan Circle and allows for direct two-way access from all three roads, as well as ample parking. Featuring a blend of stone and industrial materials, 1465 Chattahoochee Avenue offers a modern aesthetic appearance while keeping with the industrial feel of the Westside community.
Selig opted for 16 foot high ceilings and operable glass roll up doors to encourage walk up shopping and give customers the feeling of an open market shopping experience. Tenants can expect two separate loading docks as well as fully air-conditioned suites.
Additionally, 1465 Chattahoochee Avenue will feature a patio seating area for the restaurant tenants. Selig wanted to not only create an architecturally distinctive building that contributed to the changing West Atlanta environment, but to assemble a complementary merchandising mix where customers can find a wid e array of unique product.
West Atlanta has long been a destination for furniture and home specialty retailers, and has become one of the fastest growing residential areas in the city.
It has experienced a significant increase in its population since 2000, made evident by a considerable increase in housing units delivered in 2007 and similar projection for units expected to be added by 2010.
"We have been very discriminating when evaluating prospective tenants. We consider the products that they carry or design as well as the price points of their merchandise," says Jim Saine, (middle right photo) Vice President of Selig Enterprises.
Selig also owns and manages Logan Circle, (middle left photo) the adjacent 600,000 plus square foot industrial office complex which is home to some of Atlanta's fastest growing businesses. The center maintains high occupancy rates,due in part to its accessibility to Buckhead, Midtown and Downtown commercial and residential markets.
Selig expects to experience the same success with the 1465 Chattahoochee Avenue project. Unlike LoganCircle, the development will cater to tenants who seek street front visibility and more showroom space.
Selig Enterprises is a privately held real estate operating company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company owns and manages a real estate portfolio in excess of 10 million square feet throughout the Southeast United States.
For more information, please visit http://www.seligenterprises.com/.
Media Contact: Taana Kow, tkow@seligenterprises.com
Selig Enterprises, Inc., 404.870.1506 http://www.seligenterprises.com/
Labels: Selig Enterprises
GVA Advantis Hires Carol Tanner as Associate, Office Services, in Central Florida
ORLANDO, FL (Nov. 3, 2008) -– GVA Advantis has hired Carol Tanner (top right photo) as the most recent addition to its office services team in Central Florida. She will be based in the firm's Orlando office and will focus on client needs in the Greater Orlando area, particularly northern Orange County and Seminole County.
"We're very excited to have Carol as part of our office services division," says Senior Director Lisa Bailey (top left photo). "Our goal is to provide our clients with the best se rvice and value, and with Carol's experience in the commercial real estate business and her depth of knowledge of Greater Orlando, she's just what we need to better serve our clients."
Most recently Tanner worked with RE/MAX in Orlando as an agent and managing director in the Certified Commercial Division. Prior to joining RE/MAX, she had five years' experience as business development manager with an urban design/landscape architecture firm and a general contracting firm. Tanner also has extensive experience in real estate marketing and communications.
Tanner is a CCIM candidate and serves on its board as well as leading the newsletter committee. She is a member of CREW Network and the Central Florida Commercial Association of Realtors.
Media Contact: Shelli Browning, 407.999.4775, sbrowning@gvaadvantis.com
Posted by Alex at 10:04 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: GVA Advantis Orlando
W Hotels Makes Landmark Entry into China with Opening of W Hong Kong
KOWLOON, HONG KONG, Nov. 3, 2008--Owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties, W Hong Kong Unveils Asia's First Bliss Spa, Two Signature Restaurants(bottom right photo), a Destination Bar, More than 8,000 Square Feet of Ultra Modern Function Space, a 73rdFloor State-of-the-Art Fitness Facility and Hong Kong's Most Highly Elevated Rooftop Swimming Pool
Hot in the pursuit of the world's most intriguing destinations, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) today announced the landmark entry of W Hotels into China with the grand opening of W Hong Kong. (top right photo)
Located in a glittering, new waterfront skyscraper in the heart of the city's vibrant new commercial, entertainment and cultural district, W Hong Kong features 393 luxuriously appointed guest rooms, including 42 suites.
"We are deli ghted to bring the W brand to China, continuing our global expansion into the world's most exciting and intriguing destinations," said Eva Ziegler, (top left photo) Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide and Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts.
"Hong Kong's dynamic mix of style, culture and modern design make it the perfect backdrop for the W brand. The abundance of world-class restaurants, art galleries and luxury retailers in the city contribute to Hong Kong's emergence as a vibrant international business and leisure destination."
"We are thrilled with the opening of W Hong Kong, our first W hotel in China! This hotel is truly an exciting addition to the W brand's growing international footprint in the world's most exciting cities and emerging destinations, including Barcelona, Istanbul, Athens, Guangzhou , Bali, Shanghai, Koh Samui, Santiago, Dubai and Doha," said Miguel Ko, (middle right photo) President of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Asia Pacific.
"W Hong Kong is certainly one more great reason to visit this exciting city," said Vice Chairman & Managing Director Thomas Kwok (bottom left ph0to) speaking on behalf of Sun Hung Kai Properties, owner of W Hong Kong.
"Its positioning and attractions are unique additions to our extensive portfolio of first-class hotels in Hong Kong, and given Starwood's professionalism and passion for the W brand, we have great confidenc e in W Hong Kong's future.
In North America and Latin America, W Hotels have been announced in Austin, Buckhead Atlanta, Downtown Atlanta, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Hoboken, Hollywood, Huntington Beach, Downtown New York, Santiago, South Beach, and Washington, D.C.
In Europe, W Hotels have been announced in Athens, Barcelona, London, Manchester, Milan and St. Petersburg. In Asia, W has announced properties in Bangkok, Guangzhou, Macao-Studio City, Shanghai and Yokohama.
In Africa and the Middle East, W has announced properties in Amman, Doha, Dubai-Festival City, Dubai-The Palm and Marrakech. W has plans to open W Retreat & Spa properties in Bali, Koh Samui, Vieques Island and Verbier, the latter of which will serve as W Hotels' first ski retreat.
For more information, visit http://www.whotels.com/.
Hwee-Peng Yeo
Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts Ltd
9 Temasek Boulevard, Suntec City Tower 2
#24-02, Singapore 038989
Tel : +65 6335 4837; Cell : +65 9768 6087; +65 9248 0424
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/; http://www.starwoodpressclub.com/
Labels: W Hotels


text:
1.1Early years
1.2Mid career
1.3Final years
Manuel de Falla (born Cádiz, Spain, 23 November 1876; died Alta Gracia, Argentina, 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer. Falla (pronounce: "FA-ya"), together with Albéniz and Granados, helped to make Spanish music important again after three centuries during which there had been no important Spanish composers.
Life[change | change source]
Early years[change | change source]
Falla had his first music lessons in Cádiz. At first he did not know whether he wanted to take music or literature as a career. When he was ten he started to go to music evenings where he heard chamber music being played. Then he started to go to the opera, and he heard church music and orchestral music. He liked the music of Grieg and decided that he wanted to do something similar with Spanish music. He went to Madrid where he studied very hard and won prizes. His first compositions were played in Cádiz. He studied with Pedrell who had also taught Albéniz and Granados.
He wrote a song called Tus ojillos negros which became very popular, and he won a prize for a piano composition, but it was his opera La vida breve (1904-1905) which really showed his genius, although it was not performed at the time. No one in Spain wanted to perform his zarzuelas, so he went to Paris in 1907. He soon made friends with Dukas, Debussy and Ravel. He made changes to La vida breve and it was performed in Paris in 1913. His piano works and songs were also performed in Paris, and in Madrid.
Mid career[change | change source]
In 1915 he wrote El amor brujo. It was a work with dances, songs and spoken passages. He soon turned it into a ballet. The music uses the songs of Andalusia and the rhythms of Spanish folkmusic. He wrote a work for solo piano and orchestra called Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the gardens of Spain). Later he changed it to a ballet for Diaghilev, calling it El sombrero. It was performed in London in 1919 with designs by Picasso. The music is very lively and often sounds like a guitar. He wrote a piano piece called Fantasia bética (1919) which is the most important Spanish piano work after Albéniz's Iberia.
Falla had many friends, including Lorca. They liked small theatre pieces and Falla wrote El retablo and set it as a puppet opera. He liked the music of the past centuries, and wrote a concerto for harpsichord and five other instruments.
Final years[change | change source]
During his final years Falla was composing a very large work called Atlántida. It was a long oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The words were in Catalan. Falla did not live long enough to finish the work. He became very depressed because of World War II. In the end he was invited to Argentina where he settled. He continued to work at Atlántida, but he had not finished it when he died. A man called Ernesto Halffter spent many years trying to finish it and prepare it for a performance. It was performed on stage at La Scala, Milan, in 1962, but it does not work well as an opera. Occasionally it is performed as a concert piece.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manuel_de_Falla&oldid=8029391"
20th-century Spanish composers
People from Cádiz
This page was last changed on 15 February 2022, at 12:29.


"Word of Life, Life, Eternal Life"
Jesus is not only the Word of Life, He is LIFE itself. And when we come to Him for the SALVATION of our soul, we experience a transformation from living a SINFUL life, a life that is sinful and defiled, a life that carries with it a judgment of condemnation, a judgment that will send the sinful person straight to Hell for ALL of eternity. To a life that is free from the slavery of sin, to the FREEDOM of living a Christ-like life, a life that is modeled after the Lord Jesus Christ, who is LIFE, and with it we have the HOPE of an ETERNITY in Heaven.
Therefore, we have LIFE, Christ, who indwells us by the presence of His Holy Spirit. He who is LIFE, becomes our life. That is why we should STRIVE daily to live a RIGHTEOUS and HOLY life-style, one that is free from the burden of sin. This is only possible when we are SUBMISSIVE to the Holy Spirit, which indwells us and NEVER leaves us. And when we are REPENTANT of any known sins that we commit. When we sin we bring defilement into the new life we are living, and we MUST CONFESS it before God, and turn AWAY from the sin and back to the life we live in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is not only the Word of Life and Life, but He is also ETERNAL LIFE, who was with Father, God, before Creation. Only through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are we able to have ETERNAL LIFE, in Heaven. He who is ETERNAL LIFE, gives it freely to those who are TRUE CHILDREN of the LIVING GOD. Without Him, we would have NO HOPE of ETERNAL LIFE, in Heaven. Do you possess LIFE, Jesus Christ? Do you have ETERNAL LIFE, the HOPE of HEAVEN, Jesus Christ? You are NOW being given the opportunity to possess LIFE and ETERNAL LIFE, by coming to the Source of LIFE, God, with a TRUE REPENTANT HEART, CONFESSING your sins to Him and asking Him for His FORGIVENESS, BELIEVING, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you, before God, then ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION, and receive the WORD of LIFE, LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE, Jesus Christ, and the HOPE of HEAVEN. Do it NOW, while you still can. He's waiting and coming SOON!!!


Slow down on the garden path and get lost in a paradise of heady English blooms. For this is where you'll find the RUBY girl this season.
Drawing the natural world ever closer, RUBY's Spring 2015 collection Nectarine is in a garden state of mind. This season, strong can also be pretty and one can never have enough flowers.
Designer Deanna Didovich has borrowed from the botanical with a polite dose of British sensibility. A visit to London's Columbia Road flower market informed her vision, as did the work of famous floral illustrators Elizabeth Twining and Pierre-Joseph Redouté.
Botanical patterns are plentiful, with geometric daisy and neon floral prints, while the colour palette is bold. Poppy red, hunter green and midnight navy hues are balanced by white marle, ivory and blush pink.


If you can afford it, a private tutor is definitely a good choice for those who wish to learn English quickly and efficiently. However, there are literally thousands of tutors in every city around the world so choosing the right one can be a difficult task. If you are having trouble deciding which tutor to hire in your part of the world, read the tips below and your task should become a little easier.
Whether you find prospective EFL tutors online or by looking through your local free paper, make sure you consider the following factors carefully before deciding which one to hire.
Personality – This may n ot seem like a particularly important factor but if you do not get on well with your tutor, you will find it hard to motivate yourself during your lessons. If you can find a teacher who has similar interests to your own and who shares the same sense of humour, your lessons will be a lot more fun and you will be inclined to pay more attention.
Qualifications – Unfortunately, there are many unqualified and inexperienced EFL teachers around the world and if you are paying good money for your lessons, you will want to make sure that your teacher knows what he or she is doing. Look for educational degrees or specific TEFL/TESOL certification.
References – An English language teacher with plenty of experience should easily be able to provide you with 2 or 3 references that you can check. If they are unable to do so, it would be best to move on to another prospect rather than take a chance.
A good English tutor will not come cheap so you should take your time when choosing who to hire and do not be afraid to ask plenty of questions when interviewing candidates.


Now back to what I was saying, it was by the means of my "internal dialogue" that I understood my actions for going into the desert could not be based off conditions that are always changing for they are always are in motion. That my choice needed to be of something much more stable and consistent which of course would be God for who is the Alpha and Omega beginning and the end, the same today as He was yesterday. My motivation was for my relationship between Father, and myself and all other concerns became secondary. But I will say that hearing the reports of growing hostilities towards Israel did give me more confidence of myself being lead, and me not leading myself. What is the difference you may ask? The difference is that you are in alignment with the "Will of God" by the state of mind of humility and peace, versus when you are leading yourself there is ego (personal drive) and conflict resulting from self-imposed choices.
First, stopping making choices that are result from the motivation of unsatisfaction but instead make choices resulting from satisfaction. Many times, we make choices because of not being satisfied with a job, relationships, or even where we live. With not being satisfied as your focus will attract more situations to continue to not be satisfied. Therefore, it is to be satisfied with whatever situation you are in before making any decision of change. Look for satisfaction in your situation, and use that as your motivation, so it is in this manner that your focus will be satisfaction thus attracting more situations to have satisfaction. This may seem to be a contradiction but it really is not, it is however a matter of seeing satisfaction in your situation and still have the desire to provide better for yourself. For all the parents out there, providing better for yourself is providing better for the children. This manner of thought is not one of being selfish but of one leading your children by you being a role model for them. Look forward to the future benefit, for your grandchildren.
Thank You To All Roadceos.


LUNARC is the center for scientific and technical computing at Lund University.
The center provides computational resources for academia in Sweden for all aspects of computational science.
LUNARC has been in operation since 1986. As of 2003, the services are synchronized with five other centers within the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing, SNIC. One of the major collaborations is Swegrid.


Ever wonder what fruits and vegetables to store in the fridge or at room temperature? Well, Drew Canole from FitLife.TV has help to make it a little easier with the below chart!
Here is another article from About.com on what foods to refrigerate or not. http://lifehacker.com/5849074/what-foods-dont-i-need-to-refrigerate.
Previous PostPulled Pork Sliders on Tomato Buns!


text:
Q: What is the difference between MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec) and getWidth()? I konw the difference between getWidth() and getMeasuredWidth(),
but I can not understand the difference between MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec) and getWidth(),
which width does MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec) get?
thx~~

A: MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec) returns the preferred width or the specified witdth of a view you want to create. This may or may not be the same as getWidth() after the view has been created, as views may change size based on the width of other views, screen orientation etc.

A: Ok lets see.
getMeasuredWidth() returns the width measurement set in onMeasure() via setMeasuredDimension().
getWidth() returns the final width of the view. The Parent view may accept the measurements set in onMeasure (set via setMeasuredDimension()). In which case getWidth and getMeasuredWidth will return the same value. If the Parent view decides that the measurements you set cannot be used, either because it's too big or too small then it will set the final width to something more appropiate. In which case getWidth will have the final valid width and will be different from getMeasuredWidth(). Always use getWidth() in onDraw(). only use getMeasuredWidth() if you want to know if the parent changed the width you previously set in onMeasure().
Finally to explain MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec) you need to understand the following from the official documentation:

If you need finer control over your view's layout parameters,
  implement onMeasure(). This method's parameters are View.MeasureSpec
  values that tell you how big your view's parent wants your view to be,
  and whether that size is a hard maximum or just a suggestion. As an
  optimization, these values are stored as packed integers, and you use
  the static methods of View.MeasureSpec to unpack the information
  stored in each integer. Custom View Components

As you can read from the snippet. WidthMeasureSpec and WeightMeasureSpec are not pixel measurments. To get the actual pixel value use MeasureSpec.getSize():
int width = MeasureSpec.getSize(widthMeasureSpec)

PD:This all applies to the height as well
For more Infomation see my answer here(its not marked as the answer):
MeasureSpec returns a 0 value


text:
Archive for the 'Korea' Tag
A Druid's Compass Leave a comment
[A version of this post was originally published in Druid Magazine. How do we orient ourselves, and what guides and markers can we use? The things I write about are part of my own "Druid compass" — you probably have a similar set yourself. The article gets a little purple in its prose, but if you're a regular here, you're used to reading past that.]
Inwangsan (photo by Gael Chardon)
Sometimes it takes another country to teach you lessons about your own. Five summers ago while I was teaching English for a busy month in Seoul, Korea, I encountered a local land spirit who showed me that this lovely country I was just beginning to discover was decidedly not my home.
It was about a week after I'd finally joined OBOD and requested the Bardic course. It was also my last weekend to explore Seoul and its environs before I flew back to the States to await that first of a series of welcome brown envelopes with the British postmarks of the OBOD course.
So on a foggy Sunday morning I made my way by train toward Inwangsan, a sacred mountain a handful of kilometers from my one-room apartment in Seoul, and then on foot into the mist. Outside Dingninmun Station and under the overcast sky, I managed to miss the tourist signs and markers , but the mountain loomed nearby, unmistakable, so I began my ascent off trail, figuring I'd intersect it higher up, near where a Buddhist and shamanic shrine coexist peacefully. Inwangsan is famous for its commanding views and granite cliffs. As for the view, I had little hope for on this gray day, but exposed granite slabs and outcroppings shone slick in the rain.
Forty-five minutes of climbing later, wet, muddy, and annoyed with myself, I paused to catch my breath. The fog had thickened, but the rising slope was still a reliable guide for the direction I wanted to go. I took a step, and –- how to describe it? –- up rose a wall of resistance in front of me. Something challenged me and barred my way from further ascent. At first I thought, stubborn and oblivious as I can be, that it was merely the tug of my own fatigue, but when I took another step it was clear this issued from something other than me. The hair on my arms stood up. Heart pounding, I apologized out loud, mumbled the few phrases of polite Korean I knew, turned around and slogged back down.
What was it? I rarely see anything inwardly in such situations, but impressions came this time as I made my way off the slopes. Something with multiple arms, big as a pickup truck, banded in stripes of dark and light, and determined to block me from advancing any further. I've not written about this till now, and just putting it into words makes the feel of it march again up and down my spine, vivid as if it happened this morning, a heavy ascent of wet earth, a tang of juniper and Asian pine and dead leaves. Yet I'd forgotten the mountain's name, and the train station's, too, and had to consult my journal from that summer. That as much as anything reminded me yet again (as if I need any further sign) of my "outlander" status there: I did not know the proper names for things.
Rupert Brooke, 1887-1915
After British poet Rupert Brooke visited the Rocky Mountains some hundred years ago on a North American tour, he wrote: "There walk, as yet, no ghosts of lovers in Canadian lanes … it is possible, at a pinch, to do without gods. But one misses the dead" (Brooke, Letter XIII, "The Rockies").
Brooke was young – it was just a few years before his untimely death at 27 – and he wrote with a young bard's flip ignorance to cloak his discomfort with an unfamiliar country. For of course ghosts walk this continent, millennia of them. Brooke simply hadn't yet listened closely enough. But new landscapes often strike us that way. A Chinese proverb I heard while working in The People's Republic of China sums it up handily: shui tu bu fu – "earth and water aren't comfortable." We don't yet know them, and neither do they know us. But stay in a place long enough, sweat and sleep there, plant and harvest, raise families and bury your dead, and the land begins to learn you, too, and to recognize you. And as you work out names for the shapes of water and earth you find in the neighborhood, and come to greet the stones and trees as friends, the words get shaped by mouths that eat and drink here, by lungs that take in the local air.
In the way of Bards, another who grappled with the same challenge comes to answer Brooke's verses with words of his own. At 86, Robert Frost was asked to deliver a poem for President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in January, 1961. The day dawned cold and bright, and with his failing vision and the sun in his eyes, Frost couldn't read the words in front of him, so the old bard made do with memory instead, and recited another of his poems.
Frost at Kennedy's inauguration
"The land was ours before we were the land's," he begins in "The Gift Outright" (Frost, 1975, p. 348). How often a bard finds a way through error and trial and awen. Frost continues, naming an experience common enough among many American Druids who may strive to honor a rich heritage originating east of the Atlantic, while also heeding new-old voices here on what some First Peoples still call Turtle Island:
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves …
Here in what homesick settlers called New England, older names still linger for things no one truly possesses. Within an hour from where I live you can find Mt. Monadnock, Mt. Ascutney, Wantastiquet Trail, Skatutakee and Nubanusit lakes. Anywhere you go on this continent, similar names and undercurrents whisper, and careful listening will repay any effort to attend to lore and myth and what the land wights may have to say. (The earth's an old house: many lands have the same overlay of newer names on older ones.) Sometimes it takes long patience to regain their trust, if careless previous inhabitants squandered it. Sometimes it takes longer practice to stop withholding ourselves from our places, and to inhabit them fully.
Here in Vermont the Yankee accent and sensibility rise like springwater from long winters and sap from local trees boiled to syrup, pork from free-range pigs that graze the oak mast on Windmill Hill, which we can see from our living room window, and Okemo State Forest not so very distant. "Eating local" needn't be mere marketing of another yuppie indulgence. It's what we all did until just a couple of generations ago, growing it ourselves, letting the land feed our bellies and spirits. And it makes sense if you're committed to "Druiding" (let's make it a verb!) –- the taste and smell of home, and of a new place, too, can be powerful guides. The body leads the way by a kind of homing instinct.
Names, listening, tastes and smells. What of ritual and ceremony? Once my wife and I settled in Vermont, walking to learn my neighborhood became a go-to practice for me, with a three-mile loop of dirt roads my almost-daily ceremonial. When I honor the four quarters, I see the fish pond east of our house the former owners stocked with carp, and I remember water-of-air. The cold fronts each winter sweep down from Canada: air-of-earth. And with a hill named for a grove of hemlocks to our east beyond the pond that obscure the horizon, we never get much in the way of sunrises, but dramatic sunsets make up for it: fire-of-water. Online you can still track down Mike Nichols' Wiccan classic "Re-thinking the Watchtowers: Thirteen Reasons Air Should Be in the North" (Nichols, 1989): it's now a "sacred text" itself, though it started out as an observed deviation from traditional practice. Rules change with places, but ancient patterns abide.
Brooke, Rupert. (2004). Letters from America. Project Gutenberg EBook #6445. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6445/6445-h/6445-h.htm
Frost, Robert. (1975). The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Nichols, Mike. (1989). "Re-thinking the Watchtowers or 13 Reasons Air Should Be in the North." Internet Sacred Text Archive. Retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos089.htm.
IMAGES: Inwangsan by Gael Chardon; Rupert Brooke; Frost at JFK Inauguration.
Posted 24 July 2016 by adruidway in Druid Magazine, Druidry, earth wisdom, land spirits, Mike Nichols, nature spirits, New England, Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke
Tagged with Druid Magazine, Druidry, earth spirituality, Korea, land spirits, New England, Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke


No apartment investment transactions that fit Reis' criteria closed during second quarter; only one was completed the quarter before.* Since the quarter ended, Kurtell Properties has acquired the 212-unit, 11-year-old Reserve at Autumn Creek property in Friendswood for $25.5 million, yourfriendswoodnews.com reported in July.
Given the recent minimal sales activity tracked by Reis, all sums were small and most submarkets recorded no single-property transactions in recent quarters. Bear Creek/Katy led all other submarkets with 594 units traded over the past four quarters. Total dollar volume and mean selling price were $36 million and $59,764 per unit. Cypress-Fairbanks and Cloverleaf followed with 390 and 342 units sold, respectively, with dollar totals at $11 million and $33 million. At $96,491 per unit, Cloverleaf claimed the metro area's highest average selling price.
Small numbers of single-property transactions have resulted in erratic quarterly average cap rate averages—and no averages reported for the four of the past six quarters. The 12-month rolling cap rate has been somewhat more consistent with respect to trend, declining overall over the past couple of years. While the 6.0% 12-month rate for second quarter, however, was unchanged from one and two quarters prior, it was down from 7.5% from the first quarter of 2011. The 12-month rolling cap rates for the Southwest and the U.S. markets per second quarter 7.0% and 6.5%.