text:
New year, same old sexism
Agim Veliu's obsession with Vjosa Osmani is just the latest installment in a series of misogynistic episodes featuring Kosovo's politicians.
Once again, Agim Veliu, LDK's Minister of Internal Affairs, a perpetual sore loser, has insulted Vjosa Osmani, Kosovo's acting president and Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly.
In the past 12 months Veliu has already called Osmani [Hashim] Thaci's translator, accused her of having an opinion contrary to the LDK leadership's unanimous view, and essentially blamed her for his party's loss in Podujevo, the city in which he was previously mayor.
Unfortunately, this smear campaign isn't solely a personal battle of Veliu's. Several LDK officials have repeatedly insulted Osmani unprovoked over the past few months, having already kicked her out of the leadership of LDK, a party which she has been a member of since she was a teenager.
In August, Besa Gaxheri, an LDK MP, accused Osmani of siding with Vetevendosje when she presides over parliamentary sessions, while less than a week ago, Avdullah Hoti, the caretaker Prime Minister said that Osmani has no political career after leaving LDK. Note to Avdullah: She didn't leave, she was forced out by your bosses.
This rampage of insults culminated this week, when Osmani told BIRN that she would consider going back to LDK if the current leadership is ousted. This provoked a rather telling response from Veliu, LDK's deputy leader, who said:
"I know she's big and needs a lot of space, you know what, what context. I know she's big, and wide and needs a lot of space, but I didn't know she needs the entire leadership to vacate their spaces and I don't know if she will fit."
This inherently misogynistic and body-shaming comment was uncalled for and sets a poor example for how a Minister or a member of a party's leadership should behave. Veliu has been shockingly vile to Osmani all year, which has prompted numerous other members of LDK to disparage and disrespect her.
It is not the first time LDK has been discriminatory towards women, with members of the party's presidency having previously ordered Donika Gervalla, then leader of LDK in Germany, to be dragged out of an LDK General Council meeting. In 2016, LDK leader Isa Mustafa also insulted women's rights activists and civil society members, accusing them of 'grazing on funds', and adding that they would likely 'leave their husbands and go to North Korea'.
However, misogyny in Kosovo politics is far from exclusive to LDK.
In 2018, Kadri Veseli, then Speaker of the Assembly, told Albulena Haxhiu, a Vetevendosje MP, to 'eat him'. When Vetevendosje MP, Drita Millaku called him out for insulting and cursing Vetevendosje MPs for throwing tear gas in the parliament, telling him that if she had seen him cursing she would have shoved the gas canister in his mouth, Veseli responded by saying 'do you use your mouth a lot?', once again showing his true colours,.
Another favourite misogynistic saying among our politicians is accusing men of being 'gra te keqija' ('bad women', or 'gossips'). It tripped off Veseli's tongue when he was fighting with then Vetevendosje MP Fisnik Ismaili in 2015, while it also slipped out of current Vetevendosje MP Mimoza Kusari, when she spoke about LDK officials just last week.
Kusari herself has been labelled as a 'political prostitute' by the head of PDK in Gjakova, while her colleague in Vetevendosje, Sami Kurteshi, previously labelled former Minister of Justice Dhurata Hoxha a 'cow', later adding that he did not regret calling her that.
It appears that if you are a woman and you are a public figure, you are fair game to the male majority in politics who will attack you without hesitation. This also stands true for the one other woman who has served as Kosovo president, Atifete Jahjaga, who was vilified, objectified and attacked in every manner.
A result of a compromise between PDK, LDK, and AKR, and with the brokering of the US Ambassador Christopher Dell, Jahjaga was named a candidate for presidency with no prior political experience, having worked as a police officer for several years. This provoked the ire of fellow politicians and citizens, who dismissed her as being 'appointed by the Americans' and for 'coming out of nowhere' and constantly criticized her for every mistake.
By the end of her mandate, one graffito in Prishtina depicted Jahjaga in a sexy police officer's uniform. The image was condemned by civil society, but politicians took their sweet time to react, silently condoning it in the meantime.
It is exhausting to wake up each day and fight sexist attitudes in Kosovo, and it must be even more exhausting to be attacked each day by your fellow colleagues just because you are a woman who had the audacity to be active in public.
Clearly, there has been no improvement in the mindset of 'veteran politicians' in Kosovo despite the increasing representation of women in politics, or the amount of work done by women's rights activists and organizations. This older generation has shown that it is unwilling to learn or change. The only way forward – as Osmani suggested – is to oust them.
The opinions expressed in the opinion section are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.
Adea Kondirolli is a project manager and researcher at the Organisation for Improving the Quality of Education – ORCA. She has studied MSc Research Methods in Psychology at the University of Surrey (2019-2020).
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text:
War Prologue: News
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot, Gawain/Galahad, others later.
Notes: Based on an aggregation of historical campaigns, but not intended to faithfully reproduce any one in particular. A few years before the movie.
Summary: Off to war.
The rider came in just before dawn.
His leathers were filthy with mud and dried gore that the sentries, high up in their towers, could smell as clearly as they could the ale on their own breath. They let him pass with only a minimum of challenges, for it was clear he brought urgent news, and then they turned their faces back to the vast black fringe of forest on the horizon. The harshness of Roman discipline ensured that they did not speculate aloud between themselves, but their minds were neither on the beauty of the misty sunrise, nor on the by-now familiar menace of the treeline beyond the Wall.
Arthur was in the act of sitting up when the door burst open. He stiffened and shoved his hand down, hastily rumpling the sheets back over himself, while his other hand went out for Excalibur, leaning against the bed. "Who goes—"
"Still abed? I thought you were famous for rising early," Lucius said, voice heavy with mockery. The other officer was already in armor, and had his pack hanging from one shoulder as if it were filled with rocks. "Courier's in. Damned Britons revolted, burned a town. They're massing upriver; get your men ready to ride. Then get yourself to the general's quarters."
Infantry and cavalry never were very friendly with each other, but for the moment, Arthur chose to ignore the fact that he nominally outranked Lucius. There wasn't any point in rising to the bait. "Thank you. I'll be there."
"Good. Wouldn't do to have the prodigy missing." With that Parthian shot, Lucius started to swing himself out of the door. But then he paused and glanced back, his long thin lips first frowning, then smirking. "A word of advice—you might want to set up your mistress somewhere outside of the barracks."
As the other man finally departed, Arthur gritted his teeth and dragged his fingers from Excalibur. Then he sighed and rose, wrapping a blanket around him as he went to shut the door. It was barely into campaigning season, so the air was still chilly enough to steal one's breath with icy claws.
Behind him, Lancelot threw off the rest of the blankets and sat up, eyes laughing. "I suppose 'mistress' is better than 'whore.'"
"If you say so." Arthur threw the bolt, wishing he could use it more often. The disadvantage of rank was that, if he was going to be a good officer, he had to be accessible at all hours. The higher he rose, the less privacy he had, and the more he dreamed of it. "Get dressed."
He said that much more curtly than he'd meant to. In his defense, news of a Woad uprising this early in the year didn't bode well at all; last year's campaign had been aimed at crushing the insurrection for good, and here it was, seemingly fresh as ever. Ready to eat up more of Arthur's men and tear to pieces more of his memories of his mother's people.
But one look at Lancelot's face, smooth handsome features going so easily from amusement to hard sarcasm, told Arthur it was too late to explain anything. Or to even apologize, and one was owed. It was grossly unfair for the Sarmatians to even be here, let alone have to suffer the temper of their newly-promoted, preoccupied commander. Arthur still tried. "Lancelot…"
"You'd rather I had left right afterward." The other man turned away and scooped up his clothes from a chair, which thankfully hadn't been in view of Lucius.
Then again, that particular officer wasn't especially observant or smart, sharp as his tongue was. While Arthur would like to think that they'd always be so fortunate, he knew better. "It has nothing to do with what I want. But the Romans aren't quite so relaxed about their morals, and they're already watching me closely because—"
"And you favor me so much anyway. I have ears, Arthur. I can hear. And I'm not some callow youth that has to be taught about the hypocrisies of society." Lancelot threw on his clothes with quick, tense jerks that had him dressed in less than a minute. He bent down to pluck Arthur's cloak from a chair, then flung it at Arthur hard enough for the hem to sting as it slapped Arthur's arms. "It's a wonder you like Romans so much when they frown on something you very definitely enjoy. Unless some other man happened to be fucking me into the ground last night."
"Lancelot, for God's sake—" Arthur lunged for the other man, but Lancelot deftly evaded him and slammed open the bolt. Then he opened the door and slipped out while Arthur was scrambling to dress himself.
As soon as he could, Arthur followed, but naturally Lancelot wasn't anywhere in sight. And there was the first campaign of the year for which he needed to prepare, which meant he most likely wouldn't catch up with Lancelot till late morning. By then, the other man might have cooled off, but more likely was that he would've spent the time perfecting his argument.
Arthur didn't sigh as he ducked back into his room. He lost count of the number of times he broke the third commandment while he strapped on his sword, but it hardly mattered since he didn't have time for forgiveness. Another season of shattering the sixth commandment awaited.
Thankfully, the first man Lancelot ran into at the stables was Gawain, who was patient and calm and knew better than to interrupt Lancelot's snarling. After all of that had been worked out of Lancelot's system, he hefted a saddle onto his shoulder and redirected himself to the knights' barracks.
"So…" Gawain began, hurrying after him.
"A wonderful start to the year—Woad rebellion upriver. Now help me wake up everyone." And wasn't he a helpful little knight, Lancelot savagely thought. First laying into Arthur, which certainly wasn't going to help the deep lines carving ever deeper into Arthur's face, and then waking all the others up for another plunge into blood and guts and steel.
All right, he didn't feel very guilty about the waking-up part; it came with the territory, after all. But he still failed to see why he should appreciate the territory, given that the Romans had made him exchange wide plains for a miserable little island in the grips of an endlessly miserable war. The few bright spots he had were like those strange green wisps that rose from the swamps, always flashing out of reach—either because of him, or because of Arthur.
Damn the man. Lancelot did understand, and he didn't want the bastard Romans prying any further into his life than Arthur did; he might give them the services of his sword, but he wasn't there for their amusement as well. But skulking around and looking nervy as a new colt as Arthur seemed to like doing grated on Lancelot. It was too close to denial when only hiding was necessary. And Arthur would deny this and that and—Lancelot nearly tripped over a knight who hadn't quite made it back to his cot before passing out. With more than a little glee, he dropped Bors' saddle on his head. "Rise and shine! Your duty calls!"
"Yarrar—you damned—what?" Bors leaped to his feet and, blinded by the saddle, nearly ran Gawain into a door. Then he apparently remembered that chances of proper turnabout were greatly increased if he could see his opponent and took off the saddle. "Gawain?"
"No, him," Gawain sighed.
Lancelot assumed the man was pointing at him, but by then he had already banged the doors of half the corridor. Behind, he could hear Gawain starting on the doors on the other side, so Lancelot sped up and rounded the corner before Bors could catch anything resembling wits. By doing so, he nearly smacked into a knight he didn't quite recognize.
Spitting oaths, he stumbled back a pace. "Well, you're up early. Good. Get your horse packed for campaign; rations will be issued once everyone's assembled on the parade grounds."
He didn't wait to hear an answer, but instead moved around and continued down the hall, spreading the good news as he went. His knuckles were going to be sore—were already sore, in fact, but that was just as well. It would distract him from thinking on the ache between his legs, or the one in his throat.
Everyone thought he was a proud bastard, and they were right. Arthur made a mission out of bending his head, but Lancelot had a better sense of himself than that. Though it was cold, walking down these corridors and watching the sleepiness in men's faces turn to resignation, frustration, fear. And it'd been warm, curling up by Arthur's side.
The man by whom Lancelot had brushed turned to sweep his oddly intense stare over the halls and after him. Then he seemed to smile very slightly and spun back to greet Gawain. "So that's Lancelot."
"Yes…you don't—oh, you're one of the knights they just brought up from the other garrisons." Gawain temporarily stopped banging doors to take in the newcomer. Down the hall, Bors was doing a fine job of bellowing out the explanation for the rude awakening, so Gawain could spare a moment.
And he'd better, since he'd never seen a member of this tribe among the cavalry before. Facial markings, armor that was slightly more fitted at the waist than the usual, and what looked like a curved sword. The man himself was about Gawain's age, with an aloof demeanor that probably irritated most people. "I am," he acknowledged. "They're consolidating units as the officers die or transfer."
"Fucking shame they can't send you along with your officers," Agravaine growled, stumbling half-dressed from his room. He yanked his shirt all the way onto his shoulders as he attempted to glower the newcomer into shrinking. It didn't work, partly because Agravaine's puffy red eyes made him look quite pathetic, but Gawain suspected that the new knight wasn't intimidated by much, anyway. "Mother-killing son of a bitch."
"You would know," Lancelot snorted, coming back down. When Agravaine whirled on him, he slowed just enough to deliver a leveling stare. "Shut it, Agravaine. We're all being equally fucked by the Romans without your pretty self helping. You and your gear, in the stable in two minutes, or you're answering to me."
There was a reason Gawain hadn't ever seen this man's tribe here before. Displaced they might be, but the old grudges and tribal feuds hadn't been left behind in Sarmatia. Among their peoples, raiding and fighting on horseback was a profession they'd perfected on and amongst themselves before exporting it elsewhere.
Not that Gawain particularly cared about that; as Lancelot had said, they were all in the same grinding trap, and there was no point in such petty quarrels. As long as he didn't see someone he knew had killed a relative of his, he wasn't going to bother. "Agravaine's a mean drunk. He's always like that."
That wasn't a common attitude, so the surprise in the newcomer's face was understandable. The emotion, however, didn't last long, so apparently the stories about an especially stoic tribe were true. "I see. And Lancelot?"
Lancelot was a long, long story that was easier to watch than to tell. He had the same attitude about intertribal grudges as Gawain, but more likely his reasons were that if they weren't about him, he didn't care. Even if he'd stayed in Sarmatia, he probably would've kept the same opinion.
So Gawain shrugged. "He's who he is. I'm Gawain, by the way."
"Tristan." The man started to say something else, but something stirred at the end of the hall—another knight ducking in to wave at Tristan. He made a quick nod to Gawain and passed by, just a little less rudely than Lancelot had gone by him.
The second man, who appeared to be of Tristan's cohort, greeted him with a broad smile and an arm around his shoulders. They went off in the direction of the stables, heads bent together like very close friends.
A familiar grunt and elbow in Gawain's side announced Galahad, who had finally dragged himself out of bed. "Adorable," he drawled, sarcasm thick as honey on the back of a spoon. "Someone might want to mention that the Romans and Christians don't approve."
Gawain glanced right and left, saw no one, and then grabbed Galahad by the arm, yanking him back to their room. "You're in no position to talk. And start packing. We're probably going to leave before midday meal."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text: This module contains the business logic for the app.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 92 degrees and Patchy rain possible . There is 54 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
18pm:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 72 degrees and Partly cloudy. There is 93 percentage chance of rain and 2 mph winds from the East.
3am:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 69 degrees and Partly cloudy. There is 94 percentage chance of rain and 2 mph winds from the East.
6am:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 73 degrees and Partly cloudy. There is 88 percentage chance of rain and 2 mph winds from the Southeast.
9am:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 87 degrees and Partly cloudy. There is 68 percentage chance of rain and 2 mph winds from the South-Southwest.
12am:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 92 degrees and Patchy rain possible. There is 54 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
3pm:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 88 degrees and Moderate or heavy rain shower. There is 68 percentage chance of rain and 5 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
6pm:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 81 degrees and Patchy rain possible. There is 86 percentage chance of rain and 3 mph winds from the South-Southwest.
9pm:The Adavikanda, Province of Sabaragamuwa forecast for Apr 24 is 74 degrees and Light rain shower. There is 93 percentage chance of rain and 2 mph winds from the East-Southeast.
Wednesday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 24 is 92 degrees and Patchy rain possible. There is 54 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
Thursday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 25 is 88 degrees and Moderate or heavy rain shower. There is 68 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
Friday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 26 is 89 degrees and Torrential rain shower. There is 66 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
Saturday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 27 is 85 degrees and Patchy rain possible. There is 72 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
Sunday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 28 is 85 degrees and Patchy rain possible. There is 70 percentage chance of rain and 4 mph winds from the West-Southwest.
Monday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 29 is 85 degrees and Light rain shower. There is 74 percentage chance of rain and 7 mph winds from the West.
Tuesday:The Adavikanda forecast for Apr 30 is 85 degrees and Light rain shower. There is 74 percentage chance of rain and 7 mph winds from the West.


text:
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Recent Posts by Ina Fried
Steven Sinofsky Looks Back at Microsoft and Ahead to More Disruption
May 30, 2013 at 9:25 am PT
Steven Sinofsky has branched out since leaving Microsoft last year.
The former Windows head is teaching at Harvard, blogging and trying out lots of different technologies. In recent weeks, he has been tweeting from an iPhone and toting around the HTC One.
On Thursday, he's making his first big public appearance since departing Redmond.
9:26 am: Walt and Kara onstage with Sinofsky.
On leaving Microsoft:
It's always hard to decide when to change things up.
"You have to pick a time, so I picked a time."
9:27 am: Walt asks what went into the decision to write a tablet operating system and not restrict it to tablets. Also, what's your analysis of what appears to be a slow uptake to Windows 8.
Sinofsky: One of the things we tried really hard to do during the development process was be extremely open and transparent about the rationale. Those decisions we made as a team.
Microsoft is now figuring out how to take that forward (they announced some new features of Windows 8.1 earlier Thursday).
As for sales, it's hard for me to look at selling 100 million of something and not be happy.
9:29 am: So why hasn't it revived PC sales overall?
Sinofsky: The industry is undergoing a tremendous amount of change. I think that is exciting and it means a lot of opportunity.
It will take a long time for things to play out. It's exciting but it means while it is going on you have to resist the urge to pick winners and losers. Things are just very different.
The nature of the computer is undergoing a transformation. Form factors of PC is one effect of that but more is going on under the hood. Machines seem off but can be connecting intermittently. That's a very different paradigm, too. Or the way computers are evolving to be a sealed-case kind of design vs. something that people tinker with and expand over time.
9:31 am: To reach the next billion, you have to seal things up more. I remember when I was 16 and I was looking at cars. My father asked them to open up the hood.
Why are we opening the hood, Sinofsky asked.
Owning a car means fixing a car, his dad told him.
"I am not in the shop class, Dad," he said "That's other people."
Same thing is now going in PCs.
9:33 am: Kara: We've seen this train coming for a while. Why didn't Microsoft shift faster?
Sinofsky: Hoepfully you don't just want to jump out of the way. You want to move forward with the train.
Microsoft did make a few big transitions, he notes, reacting and changing with the Internet, the shift to cloud computing, etc.
"It's essentially just a management challenge. It's very rarely a shortage of ideas."
9:35 am: Another thing that Sinofsky did was he very enthusiastically headed up Microsoft's effort to make its own hardware.
Sinofsky holds up a Surface RT.
"I'm doing this for Panos (Panay)," he said, referring to the head of Surface.
9:36 am: Walt: How much friction was there in getting Microsoft to do this?
Sinofsky: What you are seeing in the industry overall is everybody is sort of in everybody's business. That co-opetition is now much broader than anybody thought it would become.
Companies give away what other companies charge for and that creates disruption. Everybody that makes parts is looking at which parts to deliver.
9:37 am: After years of not doing it, why does it make sense to make your own hardware?
Sinofsky: When you sum up all of the parts of the ecosystem, delivering a great experience is about the connections between all of those parts.
That's an engineering thing. There are real people that have to sit in an office and have the right code to connect two things. You have to choose which things you are connecting.
9:39 am: Kara: Can you assess the broader landscape? Who is doing it right?
How do you look at a Google or an Apple?
Sinofsky: The whole tech industry is delivering a ton of innovation, he said, something we all lose sight of.
Okay, Walt and Kara say. Having said all that, what do you make of Google and Apple?
Sinofsky: He holds up an HTC One — we are all HTC One users these days. There are positive and negative challenges at Google and Apple.
Using this Android phone. It is amazing in its openness and all its variety. But then the seams, the software that duplicates things. Because of the duplicate home screen thing it actually thinks I am in Portland, Maine, right now.
The design language shows that openness. Lots of dialogue boxes asking if you want to open this program or that program. Those are hard challenges.
Having many people be part of your success, by the way, is a big force multiplier, he said, something Microsoft long benefitted from with Windows.
On Apple: It's beautiful to use an iPhone — as long as you want do the things it supports.
Apple deserves a lot of credit for iMessage, for example. "It's really, really nice. But they have to innovate there."
WhatsApp and WeChat are adding lots of features. But then those services have integration challenges.
The subtlety of being open is hard to get across. There are nefarious app developers out there. Not malware but just developers trying to make their app get seen.
They might have a great calculator but they want to show up everywhere.
(This used to happen all the time with Windows where security and RealPlayer and other apps would pop up all the time in an effort to compete with rivals and, in some cases, Microsoft's own software.)
9:48 am: Walt and Sinfosky talking about the challenges of app stores and curating when you have a million apps.
All people who do stores — whether for apps or music and video — have to be thinking about better ways of doing without just letting wealthy players buy their way to the top.
Home pages, shopping sites all face that challenge.
"We're just so early in all of this," Sinofsky said.
9:51 am: Kara: Where do you want to work next? Would you go to Apple or Google?
Sinofsky: Right now I am in learning mode. Learning by writing, but teaching and visiting in the Valley a lot. That's tough in the woods in the Northwest, he said.
I am learning a lot, working with small companies, medium companies.
"I'm not in a big rush," he said, likening his current position to a sabbatical.
9:53 am: On to Q&A.
Does Microsoft have a problem being in the flow of ideas?
Sinofsky: It's just a general problem of being part of a giant organization anywhere and trying to integrate with other organizations. Large organizations always have a hard time meeting with small organizations.
9:55 am: Is Microsoft best positioned to handle the changes of the enterprise?
Sinofsky: Oh absolutely. One of Microsoft's core strength is in the enterprise.
9:56 am: What about the innovator's dilemma? Can companies that have led one wave lead in the next? Even Apple, is reluctant to change the iPhone quickly.
Sinofsky: Business is a social science, not an actual sicence. You can't draw causal lines. There are no algorithms. As for innovator's dilemma, it is true that if you don't do anything it will happen to you. If you act, then you are part of the innovation (and therefore have a chance).
10:00 am: Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have this flat look; iOS sounds like they are moving in that direction. What are your thoughts on flat vs. the other (known as skeumorphic design)?
Sinofsky: I don't know more or less than what I read about what Apple is doing. It was exciting to be part of a project that changes the design paradigm. He gives a shout-out to Julie Larson-Green and others who led that effort within Microsoft.
"If people follow it can be even better."
10:03 am: Last question: Windows 8 had a lot of disruption in it. Do you think Microsoft could have done more to make that transition easier?
Sinofsky: "Any time you change a product you introduce that challenge if you have any installed base at all."
If you have no market or customers then you are only disrupting other companies. "That's a balance you face in anything you do."
After a product comes out you can do more or less based on reaction. "There's no magic answer."
As Tim Cook said, customers pay you to make a set of choices.
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api-video/find_all_videos.asp&fields=id,videoStillURL,thumbnailURL,guid,video320kMP4Url,name,duration&count=4&doctype=128&type=allthingsd-section&query=Mobilized
Another gadget you don't really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.
— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus


text:
Revealing What It Takes to be an Astronaut
Dr Suzie Imber visited Bolton School to give a talk about her career, her varied interests beyond the world of science, and her experiences on BBC 2's reality television programme Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? which she won last year. Dr Imber is an Associate Professor at the University of Leicester, specialising in the study of 'space weather' and the environments of the planets in our solar system, particularly Earth and Mercury.
She gave a whirlwind overview of her life so far, from her schooldays to the present, beginning with the fact that she didn't want to be a scientist or an astronaut when she was younger, but rather an explorer: a theme she returned to later while discussing her passion for high-altitude mountaineering.
She talked about the extra-curricular activities she took part in at school, such as lacrosse and the cadet force, and the fact that she took advantage of all the opportunities offered to her. Throughout her scientific career, she has picked up several new sports, including wushu kung-fu, elite rowing and high-altitude mountaineering. Each of these sports helped her teamwork, communication, and a host of additional skills that she would not necessarily have worked on as part of her job. She highlighted the importance of looking for gaps in her skill set, across the board not just in science, and addressing them in order to improve.
Dr Imber also discussed the scientific work she has been involved with, including her internship at NASA which gave her a first taste of real research and inspired her to complete a PhD in physics. After graduating, she worked at Goddard Space Flight Centre from 2008 to 2011, a time when the first ever spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mercury, meaning that she was the first person to analyse some of the data which was sent back! She also briefly explained her work on magnetospheres of terrestrial planets, and how explosions on the surface of the sun interact with the Earth's magnetic field and cause severe effects known as 'space weather'. She made this complex field of study really accessible, and pointed out that space weather can have a profound effect on technology and power sources and therefore on today's society. She also explained why she studies Mercury and some of the research that will be carried out through the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission to the planet, which launches later this year and will arrive in 2025.
In addition, Dr Imber talked extensively about her passion for high-altitude mountaineering and how it has intersected with her scientific studies. In her spare time, she used altitude data taken in 2002 from the space shuttle to map the mountains in the Andes, and found dozens of undiscovered peaks between 5,000 and 6,000 metres. She has since visited some of these and found Inca ruins. She has also been able to take field trips to these sites. Locations where there is no human contamination are important for studying climate change and also allowed her to collect extremophiles: life-forms which exist in extreme conditions, which can be used to test an instrument which will one day be sent to Mars to look for signs of life or past life.
Finally, she talked about her experiences on the BBC 2 reality television programme Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? She said the programme has been described as "like Bake Off, but instead of Mary Berry we had Commander Chris Hadfield", who has served as the commander of the International Space Station. All of the contestants had science degrees, but something additional as well, and Dr Imber pointed out that their science skills were never tested as part of the programme.
She noted that they were not given preparation or feedback but had to deal with a range of physical, mental, practical and emotional tests with no contact with the outside world. Particularly interesting anecdotes were the first test, which she described as a "test of failure" to see how each participant responded, and the emotional resilience test, in which it wasn't about the answers to the questions asked but the micro-expressions and reactions they had before speaking.
She was also able to describe what it was like to feel G-forces while being spun in a centrifuge, visiting Aquarius, NASA's training centre bolted to the bottom of the ocean, and experiencing weightlessness in a reduced-gravity aircraft. However, Dr Imber said that the best thing about Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? was the people, who she has stayed in touch with and wouldn't have met if she hadn't taken part.
The event ended with a series of questions from the audience. When asked whether she had the opportunity to go into space, Dr Imber revealed that sadly Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? was "not that kind of TV show" and her prize was actually a letter of recommendation from Chris Hadfield for the next time the European Space Agency opens its astronaut training programme. However, the last time this happened was ten years ago and there is no guarantee of when it will open again. Nonetheless, she also said that her life has gone in a completely different direction as a result of the show, thanks to the outreach she now does and her involvement with helping companies come up with training programmes for commercial space flight, and she was glad to have done it. She was also asked about her high-altitude mountaineering and whether she named the mountains she discovered, and replied that she did, but had "learned from the mistakes of the past" and didn't name them after herself! Instead, she uses other local features as inspiration. She also talked about her passion for climbing less well-known mountains where there are no other people. In terms of her research, she was asked if she had found any mountains on Mercury and revealed that there are not many, but instead there are lots of craters, and was also asked if she looks at any other planets. She talked about using the Hubble Space Telescope to look at Jupiter and Saturn, in order to get a better understanding of the dynamics of the whole solar system. Finally, she said that she had a few more high-altitude field trips planned this summer and winter, which will allow her to tackle some brutal technical peaks between 5,000 and 6,000 metres in height while simultaneously collecting scientific samples.
Dr Imber's talk formed the culmination of a day-long Festival of Science hosted by the school. Over 800 students from Bolton School and other local schools attended. Primary school children including Bolton School Junior Boys and Girls and Year 1 pupils from Beech House, Bolton School's Infant School, experienced the fascinating Polestar Planetarium, which was set up in the Great Hall for the day. Girls' Division pupils in Year 10 were also able to visit the Planetarium. Secondary school pupils in years 7 to 9 enjoyed an action-packed science presentation from Sam Gregson about 'Finding the Higgs Particle' and the work of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Sam also ran a competition prior to Dr Imber's lecture, in which teams watched a simulation of what happens inside the LHC and had to identify when specific sets of particles were created.
This was also the last Science event in the series of Arts and Sciences Enrichment Evenings hosted by the Girls' Division. The final Arts event of the school year will be a Poetry Festival featuring pupils and acclaimed poet Simon Armitage, which will take place on 2 May.


Maggie Klinge, sophomore in social work, sells cupcakes on the Quad to raise money for "She's the First" on Tuesday.
A Registered Student Organization at the University called She's the First is working to provide girls in developing countries with the same educational opportunities available to students in the U.S.
She's the First is a national, nonprofit organization sponsoring girls from underprivileged countries to become the first in their families to graduate from secondary school. The University established its own chapter in 2013.
The organization raises money for the girls' scholarships through fundraisers and bake sales that are put on by the 117 high school and university chapters. She's the First has helped more than 390 girls in 10 countries, according to its website, and works with other organizations in those countries that have the same mission.
Alex Horton, public relations chair for the RSO and senior in LAS, said the University chapter is currently working with a group in Guatemala called Starfish One by One.
The student that the chapter sponsored last year was in her final year of school and was able to graduate with the help she received. The student they now support was selected by She's the First's headquarters based on her need for help.
Abigael Friling, president of the RSO and senior in LAS, said the amount of money the chapter needs to raise is also determined by the organization's headquarters, which sets a goal based on the country and the girl's grade level.
"This year the national headquarters, just as a general goal, wanted every organization to raise at least $600, and we've definitely already exceeded that amount," Lin said.
The University chapter holds biweekly meetings Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in 223 Gregory Hall as well as fundraising bake sales on campus throughout the year.
She's the First is hosting a nationwide bake-off for its chapter from Monday to Friday. The bake-off allows chapters from various colleges to compete and raise money for the girls. The University's chapter is selling cupcakes and puppy chow on the Quad from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the bake-off with the help of volunteers from partnering RSOs, including the American Medical Student Association, the National Organization for Women and Alpha Phi Omega.
The chapter also participates in what they call "Cupcake Corners" every other Friday and Saturday, in which they sell baked goods on the corner of Green and Sixth streets from around 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
With more than 45 registered members, Horton said She's the First is always looking to welcome new members and work with other organizations.
Horton said he and other members of the RSO felt it was their duty to help the girls overcome the obstacles, which prevented them from going to school.
Lin said without the help of She's the First and its partner organizations, the chances of the girls gaining economic independence would be slim.
"By allowing them to receive an education … they can learn how to get things like microloans to start their own businesses so that they don't always have to depend on their families or a male figure in their life," she said.
Lin added that an education also allows the girls to be more informed about issues like health care and sanitation.
Many of the girls that She's the First helps return to their communities and promote change within them post-graduation, Friling said.
Lin said this is the essence of the mission that She's the First operates on.


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Trend Micro Home Network Security
Back in prehistoric times, when a household typically had at most one computer, installing a security suite on that computer was simple and logical. In the modern world, each household member likely has at least one computer, plus a collection of mobile devices. Installing security on all of them gets tough, even if you have an unlimited license such as McAfee AntiVirus offers. Then there are those plentiful Internet of Things devices that just don't allow for installation of security software. Protecting the whole network rather than individual devices starts to seem very inviting, and that's just what Trend Micro Home Network Security aims to do. In testing, though, it failed to impress.
The list price for this device is $149.95, less expensive than F-Secure Sense and Bitdefender Box, both of which go for $199.99. However, there's more to the story. With Bitdefender Box, you pay $99 per year after the first year, and that gets you Bitdefender Total Security protection for all your devices. That's a nice deal, given that a standalone subscription to Total Security (an Editors' Choice) costs $99 for 10 licenses.
F-Secure Sense is now called F-Secure Sense Router, with the old name applied to security software embedded in third-party routers. In another twist, the product is no longer available for sale in the US. Those living in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, or the UK can pay to add an F-Secure Sense device to their F-Secure Total installation (Total is a bundle including the F-Secure Safe security suite, Freedome VPN, and F-Secure Key password manager). Sorry, here in America we no longer have Sense.
Firewalla goes for a one-time price of $109. There's no associated software, and hence no reason for an ongoing subscription. Home Network Security likewise doesn't come with associated software, but to keep it going you must pay $59.95 per year after the first year. My company contact explained that this fee covers "ongoing security updates (intrusion prevention patterns, website reputation service, vulnerability scans)" and also supports development of new features such as the recently added parental control component.
Dimensions and Specifications
The simple black security box measures 1.3 by 5.3 by 4.3 inches (HWD). That's decidedly smaller than the Bitdefender Box 2 or the F-Secure Sense. However, it is not remotely as tiny as the Firewalla. You could arrange six Firewallas in a rectangle and set the Home Network Security box on top, covering them all.
That said, Home Network Security is simpler than Firewalla when it comes to connections. It has a gigabit Ethernet port, a power port, a recessed Reset button, and a single status light. Firewalla has all that, plus a USB port and a slot for a micro-SD card.
Unlike F-Secure Sense and the now-discontinued Norton Core, this device doesn't attempt to replace your router. Like Firewalla, it joins the network and does its security work without taking on all the tasks of a router. Bitdefender recommends installing the Box in the same way, though it can also function as a router.
As is common, you use an Android app or iOS app to communicate with and control the Home Network Security device. The main dashboard shows the number of protected devices at the top, on a background that's green if all is well, orange-red if items need your attention. Scrolling down you see a summary of recent activity, a list of family members, the devices suffering the most attacks, and a chart of network usage. A three-line hamburger menu at top left offers access to all features.
The Home Network Security device aims to provide security for any user, including those with minimal tech skills. A card inside the box offers simple instructions: plug in the power, plug in an Ethernet cable, and wait for the blinking red light to turn green. That's step one finished.
Now you install the Home Network Security app on your Apple or Android device. It asks for a pairing code, which is printed on the instruction card. Don't lose that card! To complete the pairing, you use the app to snap a QR code on the bottom of the device. Create or log into your Trend Micro account and you're done setting up. Home Network Security immediately starts scanning the network.
Once the scan finishes, you get a list of devices found on the network. I found that some had useful names, things like PhysicalTest and Neil's iPad, while others showed up with more generic descriptions. This is common for network scanning devices, and for network software such as Bitdefender Home Scanner. Most scanning products require you to laboriously figure out the IP or MAC address of a device, match it to an unknown on the list, and enter a friendly name.
Trend Micro's solution is much better for the non-techie user. You simply go to the device in question and enter a short, simple URL, then type in the name you want to use for that device. Within 30 seconds, the app should pick up the name you chose.
At this point I started to have some trouble with Wi-Fi communication. For example, the friendly names I entered didn't reach the app, and the ticker for bandwidth used remained at zero. But the trouble also affected all my devices with a Wi-Fi only connection. Some apps and websites worked, most didn't. And the connection showed up as strong, but with no internet.
Given I had only had this network for a week, I contacted the ISP and made an appointment for troubleshooting. Devices using Ethernet weren't affected, so I shifted gears to perform tests that didn't require Wi-Fi.
Poor Malicious Web Page Blocking
Your antivirus can check the websites you visit and steer your browser away from those that may be dangerous. However, it naturally only works on devices where it's installed. With Home Network Security hooked up, that protection extends to all devices on the network. I didn't have to install anything to test this feature—I simply fired up a test system and got to work.
For this test I use a feed of malware-hosting URLs recently discovered by researchers at MRG-Effitas. I launch each URL, discard any that return errors, and record how the product under test reacted. Products get equal credit for blocking access to the URL or for eliminating the malware right after download. In the case of Home Network Security, of course, there's no local antivirus to wipe out malware.
The results proved seriously disappointing. Home Network Security detected and blocked just 61 percent of the malware-hosting URLs, identifying them with descriptions like "Adware," "Disease Vector," and "Malware Accomplice." Three-quarters of recent security products scored higher. McAfee, Sophos, and Vipre Antivirus Plus all topped the field with 100 percent protection. Trend Micro's standalone antivirus managed 99 percent, almost all of them by blocking all access to the dangerous page. So, what happened?
My Trend Micro contact explained that while the antivirus and Home Network Security both use Trend Micro's Web Reputation Services system, the antivirus has a serious advantage. As a local program running on the endpoint, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security can get the full URL even for HTTPS sites, while the network box only gets the domain. That does make sense, but it also means that you can't really rely on Home Network Security to identify dangerous pages. In my latest set of real-world malware-hosting URLs, more than half used HTTPS.
Poor Phishing Detection
Home Network Security also aims to keep you from being fooled by phishing sites, frauds that try to steal your login credentials for sensitive websites. These sites pop up, hoodwink a few unwary web surfers, and vanish quickly, either by design or because they got caught and blacklisted.
To test phishing detection, I start by scraping hundreds of recently reported fraudulent pages, including both those that have been verified as phishing and those too new to have been checked. I launch each page in a browser protected by the product under test, and simultaneously launch the same page in instances of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox protected only by the built-in phishing detection.
Home Network Security detected 87 percent of the frauds. That's better than it scored against malware-hosting URLs, but still not good. More than half of recent products scored better, including Trend Micro's own standalone antivirus, which, along with Kaspersky Anti-Virus, earned a perfect 100 percent.
Normally I also compare the product's detection rate with that of the three browsers, but this time doing so proved difficult. Home Network Security manages all connected devices, including the virtual machines hosting the three browsers. In some cases, I saw a notification from Home Network Security in one of the VMs that was supposed to only rely on protection built into the browser. I had no way to tell whether that meant the browser failed to catch the fraud, or Trend Micro simply got to it first. That being the case, I'm not attempting the usual phishing protection comparison chart. Suffice it to say that the hardware-based detection system scored poorly compared to most competitors, including Trend Micro's own antivirus.
For more on how to protect yourself from this kind of threat, you can read my piece on how to avoid phishing scams.
Just Not Compatible
Not long after I finished those tests, my ISP dropped off a new, higher-end cable modem. I unplugged the older router and the Home Network Security box and hooked up the new one. After the usual handshake and settling-in process, the new router seemed to work perfectly.
With the Wi-Fi troubles out of the way, I hooked the Home Network Security device back up…and the problems came right back. As before, all Wi-Fi-only devices reported a strong connection but no internet. Some apps and websites worked, but most didn't. After several rounds of connecting and disconnecting the Home Network Security box, I could only conclude that rather than being the victim of a Wi-Fi problem, it was the source of that problem.
My Trend Micro contacts confirmed that the device is not compatible with every router, though the list of compatible routers is very long. I must admit feeling surprised that the product's compatibility did not extend to the proprietary router supplied by one of the biggest ISPs in the US. Absolutely do not purchase this product without first checking your router against that list.
With that problem solved, I plugged in a second router downstream, a compatible one, and moved enough devices to the new, separate network to make testing possible. Even that didn't work initially, because I connected the device through a network switch rather than using one of the router's own ports. Eventually it all worked, but I can't imagine a non-techie user would have succeeded.
Scanning for Network Trouble
Home Network Security keeps track of just what devices are on your network and lets you view all devices that have connected or just those currently online. Separately, you can tell it to scan the online devices for possible security problems. Bitdefender's software-based Home Scanner does something similar, as does Avira Home Guard.
On my test network the scan took just short of 10 minutes. Specifically, it looked for default passwords and network vulnerabilities. Not surprisingly, it didn't find any.
You can optionally turn on New Device Approval, meaning that no new devices can connect until you approve them. Use this feature cautiously, as you may incur the wrath of others in your household if you don't respond quickly enough to new device notifications.
Simple Parental Controls
If your household includes children, you can use Home Network Security as a simple parental control system. You start by adding a profile for each child in the app. After that, just connect the devices that family member uses to the corresponding profile.
As expected, this system lets you block any profile's access to sites matching inappropriate categories. You can choose from presets for Child, Pre-Teen, and Teen, or make a custom selection of sites. The system offers to block over 30 categories, organized into: Adult or Sexual; Communication or Media; Controversial; and Shopping and Entertainment.
In testing, I quickly discovered that the content filter only displays a warning when it blocks non-secure HTTP pages. For pages that are both secure and inappropriate, your child just sees a browser error. I also found that I could get around all restrictions by finding a secure anonymizing proxy that slipped past the Hacking / Proxy Avoidance blocking category. Separately, you can configure the device to block use of apps in seven categories: Games; Adult; Social Network or Chat; Shopping or Advertisement; Media / Streaming; Dating; and VPN.
Many parents worry that their kids spend too much time online. By creating rules in Home Network Security, you can put a cap on daily internet use, define when going online is permitted, or both. For each rule, you start by identifying the days it applies. You can cap internet use in 15-minute increments, up to eight hours, and separately limit use of YouTube. And you can elect to get a notification when your child has run out of time.
You can also add one or more time periods when internet access is permitted. It's not the simple grid schedule that many parental control systems use, but this method does lend itself to use on mobile devices. As with the daily cap, you can choose to get a notification of use outside the scheduled hours, or just block access at those times.
There's a separate setting to simply alert you if the child's devices connect to the internet during a specified time, such as bedtime. And right from the program's main screen you can pause any child's network access with a quick tap.
I'm not sure how much effort you should put into configuring parental control. Your child can completely evade all control and monitoring by switching to a cellular-only connection, or by connecting to a different Wi-Fi network. When the kid leaves the house, all bets are off. If you truly need a cross-platform parental control and monitoring system, consider using our Editors' Choice, Qustodio.
Early on I mentioned the menu that gets you access to all app features. One of those is Timeline, which simply logs all events, things like a new device joining the network, or a child trying to visit a blocked website. You can view the whole long list or filter on Security, Parental Controls, Connections, Action Required, or System. It's probably a good idea to check regularly for any outstanding Action Required items.
At the bottom of the main dashboard you'll find network usage stats, along with a graph. Choosing Network from the menu gives you this information in more detail. In particular, it breaks out bandwidth usage by device. If someone in your household is using up all the data from a metered connection, you've got the evidence right in your hand.
Finally, there's Voice Control. This is just an elaborate walkthrough of things you can do if you give your Alexa or Google Assistant device the Trend Micro skill. You can launch a scan by voice, for example, or pause the internet for a misbehaving child. That is, if you're not worried about the privacy implications of having a smart speaker listening to your every word.
Trend Micro Home Network Security is a pricey security box, with an ongoing yearly subscription but no corresponding local protection for your devices. It's designed to be so simple that even the non-techie user can get it working. However, compatibility problems foiled our initial attempts to test it, causing network-wide problems. Even when we used a compatible router, a simple matter of plugging it into a network switch brought back those network-wide problems.
Some of its features aren't affected by those compatibility woes, such as its ability to keep all devices from connecting with malicious or fraudulent websites. However, the network-level nature of the web-based protection necessarily makes it less effective than a local antivirus or security suite.
So, what should you get instead? Maybe not a security box at all. The category is troubled; Norton discontinued its Norton Core router, and F-Secure Sense is no longer sold in the US. While they don't cover Internet of Things devices, powerful cross-platform security suites like Bitdefender Total Security and Kaspersky Security Cloud do a vastly better job protecting your Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices.
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I agree Billy, it would have been much more competitive. Still I think Dillon would have won by atleast 14. The physicality of that team and the way they fly to ball is insane. They are very dynamic defensively for a 3A squad! Hope to see them agaisnt my Silver foxes next year as we have a open game for the opening week.
Congratulations to Dillon on a hell of a game and season!


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Hunstanton is a popular Norfolk coastal holiday resort. The Old Hunstanton beach is at the north end just outside of the town and is a quiet rural beach. The wide sandy beach has a row of colourful beach huts just behind the sand dunes.
Photos are automatically tagged by geographic coordinate proximity and/or are submitted by website visitors, and may not necessarily be specifically of Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton) Beach.
The only coastal town in East Anglia to face west. Hunstanton is known for its famous red and white striped cliffs. The tide retreats to expose a large sandy beach which can become crowded in the summer.


Fly west to the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. Upon arrival, we'll drive the famous strip and take in the sights of the city that never sleeps. Check into the Golden Nugget hotel. Tonight, enjoy the entertainment of the "Fremont Street Experience" just steps from our hotel.
Depart Las Vegas and travel north to Zion National Park for amazing scenery this afternoon. Board an open tram that will take us past the park's famous scenic wonders. See the Great White Throne, Watchman, Angel's Landing, and Weeping Rock. Our afternoon drive takes us from Zion to another scenic marvel, Bryce Canyon National Park.
This morning we'll explore the overlooks of Bryce Canyon National Park, a wonder of nature's sculpted pillars of red, yellow, and brown limestone. After enjoying lunch, our journey leads to our hotel, the Lake Powell Resort. Surrounded by stunning views, we check in for a two-night stay. Tonight, we'll enjoy a scenic dinner cruise on Lake Powell.
Lake Powell, a reservoir on the Colorado River, is one of the most scenic lakes in the world. The day is set aside for some rest and relaxation. You may wish to join the group for a trip to get a close look at the nearby Glen Canyon Dam. Tonight, enjoy dinner cruise with beautiful views of Lake Powell.
Travel south from Lake Powell and pay a visit to an authentic Navajo trading post. Our afternoon will be spent exploring the many scenic overlooks on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, one of the natural wonders of the world. This is sure to be an experience that will likely leave us feeling speechless. Check into our lodging in nearby Tusayan.
A winding road takes us through scenic Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona's first official scenic highway. Arrive in Sedona in time to scatter for some lunch. Visit galleries and browse unique shops at Tlaquepaque, an arts and crafts village on the banks of Oak Creek. You are in the heart of red rock country and an excursion with the famous Pink Jeep Tours provides some great photo opportunities this afternoon! Tonight, we'll enjoy a farewell dinner with the group.
A morning transfer to the Phoenix airport awaits us. Natural and man-made scenic wonders, boat rides, and photo opportunities have filled our journey through a special part of our country.


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Rößnitz ist ein Ortsteil der Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl. im sächsischen Vogtlandkreis. Das zur Ortschaft Leubnitz gehörende Dorf wurde am 1. Januar 1999 nach Leubnitz eingemeindet, mit dem es am 1. Januar 2011 zur Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl. kam.

Geographie

Geographische Lage und Verkehr
Rößnitz liegt im Süden der Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl. und westlich von Plauen. Durch die Ortsflur fließt der Rosenbach, ein Zufluss der Weißen Elster. Südwestlich des Orts befindet sich der zu Rößnitz gehörige Weiler Eichigt. Rößnitz liegt im Nordwesten des Vogtlandkreises und im sächsischen Teil des historischen Vogtlands. Geografisch liegt der Ort im Zentrum des Naturraums Vogtland (Mittelvogtländisches Kuppenland).

Der Ort ist mit der vertakteten RufBus-Linie 45 des Verkehrsverbunds Vogtland an Plauen-Neundorf angebunden. Dort besteht Anschluss zur Straßenbahn Plauen.

Nachbarorte
Rößnitz grenzt an drei weitere Ortsteile der Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl. und drei Ortsteile der Gemeinde Weischlitz.

Geschichte

Das Zeilendorf Rößnitz wurde 1297 erstmals als Roseniz erwähnt. Der Name leitet sich vermutlich vom slawischen Bachnamen "Crosenicz" ab, der wiederum vom Wort "grozny" – "schrecklich" abgeleitet sein dürfte, möglicherweise im Zusammenhang mit kultischen Vorstellungen. Kirchlich ist der Ort seit jeher nach Leubnitz gepfarrt. Bezüglich der Grundherrschaft gehörte Rößnitz anteilig zum Rittergut Rößnitz und als Amtsdorf zum Amt Plauen. Das Rittergut Rößnitz, welches seit 1583 nachweisbar ist, war ab 1408 im Besitz der Familie von Röder, auf die im Jahre 1561 die Familie von Reibold und 1744 die Familie Adler folgte. Das im 16. Jahrhundert errichtete alte Schloss stürzte im Jahr 1875 ein. Einzig der Treppenturm des alten Schlosses blieb bis heute erhalten. Nach einem Großbrand, der das gesamte Rittergut zerstörte, wurde dieses im Jahr 1938 wieder aufgebaut. Die Häuser der Gutsfröhner befanden sich nördlich und östlich des Ritterguts sowie in der südwestlich von Rößnitz gelegenen Siedlung Eichigt. Die Schäferei, welche sich an der Straßengabelung Kloschwitz/Kobitzschwalde befindet, ist vermutlich der älteste Ortsteil von Rößnitz.

Rößnitz gehörte bis 1856 zum kursächsischen bzw. königlich-sächsischen Amt Plauen. 1856 wurde der Ort dem Gerichtsamt Plauen und 1875 der Amtshauptmannschaft Plauen angegliedert. Kirchlich gehört Rößnitz seit jeher zu Leubnitz. Im Zuge der Bodenreform in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone ab 1945 wurde die Familie Adler als Besitzer des Ritterguts Rößnitz enteignet. Das Gebäude, in welchem sich heute Wohnungen befinden, wurde 1951 der Gemeinde Rößnitz übergeben.

Durch die zweite Kreisreform in der DDR kam die Gemeinde Rößnitz im Jahr 1952 zum Kreis Plauen-Land im Bezirk Chemnitz (1953 in Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt umbenannt), der ab 1990 als sächsischer Landkreis Plauen fortgeführt wurde und 1996 im Vogtlandkreis aufging. Mit 164 Einwohnern war Rößnitz bis 1998 die kleinste noch selbständige Gemeinde Sachsens. Am 1. Januar 1999 wurde Rößnitz nach Leubnitz eingemeindet, welches sich am 1. Januar 2011 mit Mehltheuer und Syrau zur neuen Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl. zusammenschloss.

Entwicklung der Einwohnerzahl

Weblinks

 Rößnitz auf der Webseite der Gemeinde Rosenbach/Vogtl.

Einzelnachweise

Geographie (Rosenbach/Vogtl.)
Ehemalige Gemeinde (Vogtlandkreis)
Ort im Vogtlandkreis
Ersterwähnung 1297
Gemeindeauflösung 1999

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Vera Belyavskaya is a New York based portrait and fashion photographer, originally from Moscow, Russia. She studied psychology and is keen on art, cinematography and fashion.
She became interested in photography in 2007 starting as a still-life photographer and very soon was involved in capturing people.
In 2010, she graduated from Moscow Watercolor School of Sergey Andriaka. The painting background has enriched her understanding of lighting and color.
She likes to reveal a person's inner world and emotions. Focus on people's personalities helps her to keep a visual story of her photographs vivid and honest.
Vera describes her style as minimal and clean.
Her current professional goal is to keep working hard on new editorials and personal projects.
The photographer's works were published in Marie Claire Russia, Boss Life Magazine and Solis Magazine.


text:
Eva Longoria, Tony Parker Split Shocks Fellow Basketball Wives
Eva Longoria, Tony Parker split shocks wife of former Spurs player.
By SHEILA MARIKAR
'Basketball Wife' on Longoria Divorce
Jennifer Williams: Eva Longoria, Tony Parker seemed so happy.
Nov. 19, 2010 — -- It's hard out there for a basketball wife.
For Jennifer Williams, Eva Longoria's split from Tony Parker serves as a sobering reminder that cheating can crush even the most seemingly rock-solid of marriages.
"I was surprised," Williams told ABCNews.com. Her husband, Eric Williams, used to play with Parker on the San Antonio Spurs. Both now appear on the VH1 reality TV series, "Basketball Wives," whose second season premieres Dec. 12.
"I never knew them to have any problems, so it was definitely shocking to me," Williams said. "They just seemed like the perfect happy couple."
Williams often chatted with Longoria at Spurs games.
"She made sure to come to a lot of games considering she was filming her show," Williams said. "When you're on a team with the other wives, everyone is somewhat cordial. we go to the games together. From what I know, she's definitely down to earth and she's a sweet girl."
Williams also knows the woman with whom Parker reportedly cheated on Longoria -- Erin Barry, the wife of Spurs player Brent Barry.
"I do know her, I don't know a lot about her," she said. "I was shocked to hear that because that's just not something that you expect from another wife. We have this sisterhood, so to speak, and that's something you would expect from someone outside that doesn't really understand what we go through, being married to these guys."
It's not easy, Williams said, to be wed to a famous athlete who spends much of his life on the road, in front of adoring fans. She and her husband have been married for three years, and she said he's cheated on her before.
"It's something that you can't control," she said. "Women are definitely going to be around and they somewhat throw themselves at the players and you just have to hope that you have a strong enough foundation to stand it. But a lot of these players, they definitely fall victim to these women."
She's learned that she can only control her own behavior, not her husband's, and hopes that Longoria and Parker find a similar balance, together or apart.
"I just wish her and Tony the best," she said. "I hope that if they are committed to working through it, I hope that works. If not, I hope that they have an amazing future whether it's together or not."
Eva Longoria, Tony Parker Split
Speculation has swirled about Parker and Longoria since she filed for divorce on Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple wed in a lavish Parisian ceremony in 2007 and often gushed about each other in interviews.
But late Wednesday, Sports Illustrated reporter Bryan Armen Graham outed the potential other woman in Parker's life.
"Have it on good authority from entertainment sources that 'former teammate' in Tony Parker-Eva Longoria affair is Brent Barry," Graham wrote on Twitter. In another tweet, he added, "Source did mention Barry and wife are going through a divorce."
Graham also tweeted, "Longoria said she found text messages from wife of a former teammate on Parker's phone. Source says former teammate was Barry."
Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood" reached out to Erin Barry for comment.
"We spoke to erin barry," he tweeted on Wednesday. "she cried and said "No comment ... TP [presumably, Tony Parker] was texting her."
On Thursday, Brent Barry's father, Rick Barry, told ABCNews.com that he "feels badly for his son." He declined further comment on Brent and Erin Barry's relationship with Parker and Longoria.
Longoria herself broke her silence on Twitter Wednesday. "It is with great sadness that after 7 years together, Tony and I have decided to divorce. We love each other deeply and pray for each other's happiness," she tweeted.
Parker said his piece on Thursday.
"Eva and I have been discussing our situation privately," he said in a statement. "I was aware that she would be filing for divorce in Los Angeles. ... We plan to continue to keep our discussions of this matter private."
This is the second divorce for Longoria, 35. In 2004, she divorced her first husband, Tyler Christopher, after two years of marriage.


I have to be honest, the main reason for buying the Sony A7 was because of the incredible low light capabilities.
I've been a keen photographer and filmmaker for about 27 year, I've been very lucky I'm working for some pretty impressive companies including Disney, Sony, Halfords, Sky Sports just to name a few.
I've never been happy with noise levels in all the cameras I've owned, unfortunately I've never been satisfied with the noise in certain images when shooting above a certain ISO.
So although I've filmed with Sony video cameras for many years, I've never owned a Sony DSLR/Mirrorless camera, when it came to wedding photography. I've always wanted and wished for a camera that exceeds in low light, when pushing high ISO.
This Sony A7 is absolutely amazing with regards pushing the ISO, I keep the in camera noise settings to low because it does tend to smear the images if set higher however keeping the settings low and importing the images into Photoshop, I've seen some pretty impressive photos, I've taken at crazy high ISO levels.
An added benefit to this camera is the focus, I use the eye Focus 90% of the time when shooting weddings with this camera, I have been stunned how this thing locks onto the eye from a distance and catches those images pinsharp.
The speed of which this camera focuses is superb, it's massively increased my hit rate and helped make being a wedding photographer even more enjoyable.
So a few months ago I was reading a lot of articles with regards to grabbing stills from 4K footage, because I've filmed and Photographed weddings all over Europe, having an extensive knowledge of editing, using programs such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premier, Canopus and Avid, I still find myself being asked to film a Dual service for weddings, I became very interested with the possibility of using the Sony A7 mk iii to film certain sections of a wedding, having the ability to grab images from the footage.
This is going to be my first introduction blog with regards to my initial tests and later after offering the dual service using this camera full wedding (Wedding number 24 with the Sony A7 mk iii) It's now my workflow for weddings, when asked to provide the full service.
I have only added two images to this article, partly due to time but also so is not to bore you with my attempts at wildlife photography. I clearly remember these first clips were filmed in 4k Aperture setting f 5.6 - shutter speed 1/1000 and ISO at 8000. I then imported the frames into Photoshop and grabbed 2 frames (of literally hundreds that I could have used) I was very excited and pretty impressed.


text:
package org.osgi.impl.bundle.component.annotations;

import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Activate;
import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Component;
import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Deactivate;

/**
 *
 *
 */
@Component(name = "testConfigPid", configurationPid = "test.config.pid")
public class ConfigPid {
	/**
	 */
	@Activate
	private void activate() {
		System.out.println("Hello World!");
	}

	/**
	 */
	@Deactivate
	private void deactivate() {
		System.out.println("Goodbye World!");
	}
}


Weather: Sunny & Clear, 57 deg.
Watkins to 3b for Chisholm.
H. McDonough struck out swinging (2-2 KBFBS).
B. Morton grounded out to 1b unassisted (2-2 KFBB).
A. Dacunto grounded out to p (1-2 KKB).
Sherrill grounded out to ss (3-1 BKBB).
Pennell singled up the middle (2-1 KBB); Tyner advanced to second.
Millsaps grounded into double play 2b to ss to 1b (3-1 BBBK); Pennell out on the play.
M. Barker singled to pitcher, bunt, advanced to second on a throwing error by p (1-1 BK).
B. Coleman lined out to cf (3-2 BKBFB).
K. Bilbrey reached on a fielder's choice (1-1 FB).
B. Herman grounded into double play 2b to 1b (3-1 BFBB); K. Bilbrey out on the play.
Westerbeek struck out swinging (2-2 BBKKS).
Brown walked (3-2 KBSBFBB); Davis advanced to second.
Benton fouled out to ss (3-2 KSFFBFBB).
Brown advanced to second; Davis advanced to third on a passed ball.
Sherrill singled, advanced to second on the throw, 2 RBI (0-1 K); Love advanced to third; Brown scored, unearned; Davis scored, unearned.
Tyner singled to left field, 2 RBI (1-2 KBS); Sherrill scored, unearned; Love scored, unearned.
Pennell grounded out to ss (0-1 K).
A. York grounded out to 2b (1-2 KBF).
A. Ingle grounded out to p (2-1 BBF).
H. McDonough grounded out to 3b (3-2 BKSBFFBFFF).
K. Ogle to dp for A. Ingle.
Millsaps flied out to rf (2-1 BFB).
Westerbeek homered to left center, RBI (2-1 KBB).
Davis struck out swinging (1-2 KFBS).
Brown struck out looking, out at first c to 1b (1-2 BKFK).
B. Morton grounded out to p (3-2 KFBBFB).
A. Dacunto grounded out to 1b unassisted.
M. Barker grounded out to ss (1-2 KBF).
Benton grounded out to ss (0-1 K).
Love struck out looking (3-2 BBKFBFFFK).
Sherrill flied out to lf (3-2 BBKBFF).
Wallace to p for Millsaps.
B. Coleman homered to center field, RBI (3-1 KBBB).
Millsaps to p for Wallace.
K. Bilbrey reached on a fielding error by ss (3-2 BBBKKF).
B. Herman popped up to ss (2-1 KBB).
A. York lined into double play 1b unassisted (0-1 K); K. Bilbrey out on the play.
Tyner singled to right center (2-2 BKBKFF).
Pennell reached on a fielder's choice (1-2 KFFBF); Tyner out at second ss to 2b.
Millsaps struck out swinging (3-2 BBBKFS); Pennell stole second.
Westerbeek lined out to 3b (3-2 KBBKBF).
K. Ogle grounded out to 1b unassisted (1-1 KB).
H. McDonough singled through the right side (2-2 BKSBFF).
B. Morton grounded out to p (0-1 K); H. McDonough advanced to second.
A. Dacunto grounded out to p (3-1 BBBK).
Davis popped up to 2b (1-0 B).
Walter pinch hit for Brown.
Walter struck out swinging (3-2 KBBBKS).
Heitz pinch hit for Benton.
Heitz flied out to rf (2-2 KFBBF).
Brown to c for Walter.
Benton to cf for Heitz.
Chisholm to rf for Love.
M. Barker doubled down the lf line (0-1 K).
B. Coleman struck out looking (2-2 KBBKK).
M. Smith pinch hit for K. Bilbrey.
M. Smith grounded out to 3b (3-1 KBBB); M. Barker advanced to third.
B. Herman grounded out to 1b unassisted (2-2 FFBB).


text:
Levántate y muere es el decimosexto álbum, el cuarto en directo de La Polla Records, grabado durante la gira de conciertos de 2019 "Ni descanso, ni paz!".

La Polla Records regresaba a los escenarios en 2019, después de 16 años separados, en un tour que pudieron disfrutar en directo 100.000 personas en España y otras 45.500 en América.

Salió a la venta el 30 de octubre de 2020 en los formatos CD y Vinilo más DVD.

La grabación y producción de sonido ha estado en manos de Haritz Harreguy, quien ya trabajó con la banda en su anterior referencia "Ni descanso, ni paz!" (2019). La grabación audiovisual corrió a cargo de la productora Tamboura Films y está dirigido por el cineasta y documentalista Javier Corcuera ganador de un Goya por el cortometraje 'La voz de las piedras' del film 'Invisibles'.

El grupo regresaba con su formación al completo. En sus filas podemos ver a los cinco músicos que ofrecieron sus últimos conciertos en 2003: Evaristo, Sumé, Abel, Txiki y Tripi. Con este trabajo que incluye 44 canciones celebran ahora nada menos que el 40 aniversario del grupo.

Las imágenes que encontramos en el DVD muestran la potencia de la banda en plena forma, acompañada de la euforia y emoción de los miles de personas que lo disfrutaron en directo. Está grabado en los conciertos del Bizakaia Arena BEC! de Barakaldo (Vizcaya) y es una muestra de lo que se repitió en todos los conciertos de la gira que también pasó por Madrid, Barcelona y Valencia -tenieindo que repetir en todas las ciudades-, así como en Argentina, Uruguay, Chile y Perú. Este disco en directo cuenta con la mejor producción que la banda ha tenido nunca.

Personal
Evaristo - Voz.
Txiki - Guitarra solista, coros.
Sume - Guitarra rítmica, coros.
Abel - Bajo.
Tripi - Batería.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Álbumes de España de 2020
Álbumes de La Polla Records
Álbumes en español
Álbumes de rock en español
Álbumes de punk


text:
The gates are gone. Developers could pay city $2.5 million to finish South Knox riverwalk
Democrats support Haslam on Trump, Insure Tennessee
The political winds have been blowing rather strongly against Tennessee Republicans in the handful of legislative races where the party's candidates must face general election storms Nov. 8, inspiring Democrats to hope for a tornado or two touching down in isolated areas of the state.
Indeed, it's hard to imagine a political environment where developments have fallen into place more favorably for the state's minority party than this year. And a striking thing is that the face of Republican Gov. Bill Haslam may be seen in the clouds that have formed over the Tennessee GOP as the winds blow – most recently in a declaration that he will not vote for Donald Trump and thinks the billionaire celebrity should resign as the party's presidential nominee.
That's about the boldest thing Haslam has ever done politically, rivaled only by his proposal for a modified Medicaid expansion plan that was curtly rejected by the Legislature's Republican supermajority as an embrace of Obamacare, wildly unpopular in GOP circles generally. Trump, in accord with all the state's Republican congressmen and most of the party's legislators, wants to repeal it.
Democratic legislators, on the other hand, uniformly embrace Haslam's Insure Tennessee plan and are uniformly using it in their campaigns this fall against GOP opponents. Polls have shown that Haslam's proposal, which he has abandoned pending some potential post-November change in the political environment, enjoys strong majority support among Tennessee voters overall.
After Haslam's alleged but debatable embrace of Obamacare and before his extraordinarily open trashing of Trump, both going against the GOP flow, there was the Jeremy Durham affair. The Republican representative from Franklin was voted out of office last month after being authoritatively accused in an attorney general's report of sexually harassing women.
The governor had called on Durham to resign long before the expulsion vote, basically backing the position taken by House Speaker Beth Harwell, a longtime Haslam political ally who deserted him on Insure Tennessee but who is now striving to come up with some sort of compromise alternative while eyeing a run to succeed him as governor in 2018. She's currently running TV ads featuring Haslam's endorsement in her own campaign for re-election to a Nashville House seat.
Haslam's call for the resignation of Trump as the GOP presidential nominee came after a national uproar over a video suggesting Trump once engaged in sexual harassment that arguably exceeds any of Durham's alleged doings. He is thus being consistent in taking positions.
That is not the case for other Republican officeholders who have uniformly denounced sexual harassment while declaring support for Trump as the party nominee with curious variations, though basically boiling it down to Trump being the lesser of two evils given that his opponent is Hillary Clinton. In the Durham debacle, all Republicans denounced sexual harassment, though some are also denouncing Harwell for her tactics in giving Durham the boot, and Rep. Jimmy Matlock, R-Lenoir City, is running against her re-election by House Republicans as speaker.
In this remarkable environment, then, we have Republicans splintered – Haslam versus Trump? – and Democrats pretty much united behind Haslam. Tennessee Democratic Chair Mary Mancini says Haslam "did the right thing and should be applauded" for trashing Trump.
Theoretically, this should have down-ballot consequences. At the national level, there's much GOP concern that Trump and the associated bickering will drag down U.S. Senate and House candidates. In Tennessee, there's no such concern because there are no competitive congressional races.
That leaves the legislative races as the next step for any Trump trickle-down impact. There are only a dozen or so that are truly competitive, but there are a lot of long-shot Democrats running and every now and then a "hail Mary" pass connects in politics as well as football.
In the few contested races, there are valid reasons for Republican concern, as indicated by some candidates trying to distance themselves from Trump, voicing support for something like Insure Tennessee and dodging discussion of Durham and/or the recent Democratic push for a follow-up investigation of another Republican legislator.
But none, so far, have been so bold as Haslam; that could undercut their support within the Republican conservative base and a strong faction of Trump advocates. Indeed, the governor's move has been seen by some as writing off GOP right-wing populists, indicating he has decided to quit politics after his term ends.
That's not likely. Instead, the Haslam maneuver may be seen as strategic positioning with an eye toward the post-Trump Republican future. And it's just possible some Republican candidates for lesser office will wish they had been as bold.
Tom Humphrey, retired News Sentinel Nashville bureau chief, may be reached at tomhumphrey3@aol.com.


text:
Once In A Lifetime (The Extraordinary Story of The New York Cosmos)
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ZANI was conceived in late 2008 and the fan base gradually grew by word of mouth. Key contributors came from those of the music, film and fashion industry and the voice of ZANI grew louder. So, when in 2013 investor, contributor and fan of ZANI Alan McGee* offered his support to help restyle and relaunch the site it was inevitable that traffic would increase dramatically and continues to grow. *Alan McGee co-founder of Creation Records and new label 359 Music..
ZANI is an independent online magazine for readers interested in contemporary culture, covering Music, Film & TV, Sport, Art amongst other cultural topics. Relevant to modern times ZANI is a dynamic website and a flagship for creative movement and thinking wherever our readers live in the world.
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We all know that Tupperware makes a great gift that stands the test of time, but sometimes choosing for someone can be tricky!
Well not now...you can order a Tupperware eGift Voucher to the value of your choice and we will send you a voucher code for that value so that you can pass it on as a gift. The voucher code is added at the checkout and the value of it is applied to the order.
Give the gift that someone really wants this way and let them have the excitement of choosing for themselves!


Edmund Kuepper is a national treasure. Considered an immortal of Australian rock on his Saints output alone. However, just as impressive is the way the guitarist has walked his own line over the past two decades with his bands (the Laughing Clowns, the Yard Goes On Forever, the Aints) and his intriguing solo work. Reminiscent of Neil Young and Richard Thompson in character, sharing the ability to explore and cross genres in his own very recognisable style.
Since 1985 Kuepper's output has come at a torrid rate - 24 solo albums that have included pop outings, mail order records, instrumental freak outs and compilations. Indeed, there's no greater example of an obsessive music fan than one who has diligently collected the entire Kuepper back catalogue. If their ticks also include multiple readings of 'Catcher in the Rye' and a penchant for needlework the law is definitely looking for them.
Now comes Out-takes, Castaways, Pirate Women & Takeaways - a collection of unreleased material recorded throughout the 90s. It offers radically different interpretations on some of Kuepper's previous work (a faux techno update of Also Sprach, singer Rachel Holmshaw's take on All of These Things, a live La Di Doh, a much wilder, horn driven Poor Howard etc.) It also houses another batch of idiosyncratic cover songs including Merle Haggard's notorious Okie from Muskogee, Dylan's If Not for You and Bo Diddley's Mona.
Quite amazed to hear you've got a series of outtakes left to unleash.
This album isn't everything by any means. It's just what I thought stood out as being material that, with the benefit of hindsight, sounds remarkably good and in some cases I don't really know why it didn't come out at the time.
So there's more outtakes to come?
Possibly. It's not something that I want to flog to death. I don't want to put stuff out just for the sake of it. I think this album of outtakes is out because the material is very strong. Despite the period of time over which it was recorded it hangs together remarkably well.
There's some radically different approaches to your own material.
Certain songs lend themselves to being played differently and, regardless of how prolific I may seem, I don't write a new album's worth of stuff for every tour. So it helps to keep old songs alive. Castaways features bits of projects that haven't been finished like, for instance, songs that I started to record where other people do the lead vocals. There's a version of 'All of These Things' sung by Rachel Holmshaw that is absolutely beautiful. That's a single as far as I'm concerned. It's a kind of a shame that it didn't come out a few years ago.
What's the thinking behind doing so many cover songs. Some people would see that as the well running dry?
I started doing it in the mid-90s just because people didn't seem to be doing songs by other people and making them their own. Which is what I try to do when I play someone else's song. It has to fit in with my own work to an extent.
What made you want to re-vamp Merle Haggard's infamous 'Okie from Muskogee'?
It's a song that I've always found colossally amusing. It's a very entertaining lyric and it works particularly well when you're playing out in the country towns and you're doing the sound check in the afternoon. The afternoon drinkers are there and they generally respond favorably to it. Other people walk out in disgust. It's a song that has a certain polarizing effect. We also used to play the Ballad of the Green Beret which didn't make it onto the album. With hindsight, and I only put the album together recently, but there's quite a few songs that didn't make it on that I kind of now regret not putting them on.
'Dominique'? I love that song. I haven't actually because I've never really been a master of the French language. But I used to have a French girlfriend that used to sing it to my guitar accompaniment in a very musical way.
You did Elvis's 'Kissin' Cousins' with the Saints. Why have you re-visited it?
When the Saints did it I just thought it was fantastic because here we were living in smalltown Brisbane and the whole notion of the incestuous nature of the song seemed really perverse and appealing to me. This version is more of an acoustic approach that's maybe closer to the Elvis original than the Saints version.
You're not afraid to go for standards – for instance you had a crack at 'Fever' off the last album Smile…Pacific.
I've had a weird tendency to do songs that make people generally recoil in horror. I've recorded 'If I Were a Carpenter' which I share with Jimmy Barnes. I mean the Saints did River Deep, Mountain High. So it's always been a mixture of unbelievably well known songs and relatively obscure tunes. Fever was one of those tunes that was so well known that I ignored it for a long time. I guess what made me do Fever was playing the riff with the intention of doing a new song and found that the phrasing and melody I was using was too similar to the original. So I decided to take the easy route and cover it.
That's an interesting way of working. Is that why 'The Way I Made You Feel' has a remarkable resemblance to Status Quo's 'Sunny Cellophane Skies'?
(Long pause) I'd say more Pictures of Matchstick Men. There's something about that chord progression that made such a strong impression on me as a kid. It probably featured in the first ten songs I wrote and probably still do base things around that. I'm not into recreating psychedelic masterpieces but there's a few artists that I listened to to such an extent at various times that you just take it for granted they're part of my make-up.
Can you tell us about the version of (I'm) Stranded that's on The Most Primitive band in the World album. It seems to be all there in 1974.
Yeah it was. In fact there was more of it there than the later version because there's an extra verse. The band was pretty much what it was in a relatively short period of time. The changes that happened after the first proper record developed really quickly because we were in a different situation. Being in Brisbane for the first three years of our existence we took a fairly leisurely pace which you tend to do anyway. But in a lot of ways we could've recorded the first album a couple of years earlier than we actually did.


A mass notification system (MNS) is designed to clearly communicate with people during a catastrophic disaster or threat, steering them away from danger and toward safety. There are two MNS classifications: wide-area, providing real-time information to outdoor areas, and in-building, providing information and instruction to people inside a building by way of intelligible voice communications and often, visible signals, text, and graphics.
This article will focus on a specific aspect of the in-building MNS, the voice communications of an emergency communication system (ECS) that provides fire alarm, public address, fire fighter, area of refuge, and elevator communications during an emergency. The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) provides code requirements for a MNS and ECS used for these purposes, as well as weather emergencies, terrorist events, biological, chemical, and nuclear emergencies, and other threats. The NFPA code referred to in this article is the NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm Code 2010 and 2013 editions.