text:
It's Getting A Bit Warm Here ...
Just in case you were wondering
Yesterday, donald trump announced that the United States would be pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, claiming that it was unfair to the US and that it "is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries ..."
This is false and shortsighted, and indicative of trump's provincialism and his inability to see the bigger picture. The question then becomes: why?
Profit, of course. Everything trump has done has been to boost his own wealth. From loading his Cabinet with Goldman-Sachs people, to charging the Secret Service rent in Trump Tower and Mar-A-Lago, everything he has done makes perfect sense when viewed through the lens of "what will give me, donald trump, more money?" And this is no exception, considering his investment stake in fossil fuel companies:
Energy Transfer Partners (primary builder of the Dakota Access Pipeline): $500,000 to $1,000,000.
Chevron: $550,000 to $1,100,000
Occidental Petroleum: $500,001 to $1 million
Total: $501,000 to $1,015,000
BHP Billiton: $501,000 to $1,015,00
ExxonMobil: $50,000 to $100,000
Halliburton: $51,000 to $115,000
EOG Resources: $50,000 to $100,000
Schlumberger: $15,000 to $50,000
Conoco Phillips: $1,000 to $15,000
Shell: $1,000 to $15,000
Kinder Morgan: $2,000 to $30,000
In addition, Harold Hamm is the CEO of the largest fracking company in the United States, Continental Resources. He is also trump's energy adviser, maxed out his contributions to the trump campaign, and donated an additional hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee's election efforts to put trump in office.
Conservatives argue one of two things: climate change isn't real, or it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. However, scholarly sources disagree vehemently with this assessment. In an article published in Nature, Chris Thomas of the University of York and Alison Cameron of Queen's University Belfast and their colleagues argue that, given the current rate of climate change, we can expect to see the extinction of about 35% of all species on Earth by 2050[1]. An even more dire warning comes from arctic-news.blogspot.com, which warns that human beings could be extinct within a decade, by 2026.
While there may be a certain level of sensationalism attached to these (especially the one about human extinction), they are based on objective scientific data and point to a larger point: human beings are changing the climate of the planet to a degree and at a rate never before seen in the planet's history. granted, there have been climatic shifts over the eons, but they have taken place over centuries, if not millennia -- certainly not in the space of 35 years, or even 82 1/2 years (from now until 2100). It is accepted science that, if we can limit the amount of warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, we have a fighting chance of surviving on an Earth that doesn't look a lot different from today. The problem is that this assessment was made in 2010, and we have already "used up" 0.8 degrees of that.
Think about that. From 2010 to 2016 global temperatures increased by 0.8 degrees Celsius. In order to maintain some semblance of life as we know it, we have to limit temperature rise to 1 1/2 times that over the next 84 years. If we continue at the current rate, temperatures will instead rise by approximately 8 1/2 degrees, more than enough to completely inundate virtually every major city within fifty miles of an oceanic coastline ... and let's be honest, this encompasses the majority of cities on Earth. New York. Miami. Los Angeles. Tokyo. Hong Kong. Mumbai. Shanghai. London. Rome. Rio de Janeiro. Buenos Aires. Mogadishu. Tel Aviv. Athens. Venice. Dublin. Amsterdam. Stockholm. The list goes on. All of these cities would be under water.
In addition to displacing a sizeable chunk of the Earth's population (the cities listed above alone house 160 million people) because their homes would be gone, there is the added trauma of dealing with the loss of arable land. Rising temperatures are already leading to desertification in the tropics. The Sahara is expanding. The Amazon rain forest, often called "the lungs of the Earth," is being denuded at an alarming rate. Climatic zones are moving toward the poles, forcing arctic and antarctic species to deal with changes in habitats and predation. Growing seasons are changing, causing food crops and the migratory species dependent on them to become out of sync -- giving diminishing populations and the resulting reduction of pollination.
This is the most crucial issue facing our planet. Even assuming a best-case-scenario, that we are able to keep global average temperature rise to two degrees Celsius over this century, we are still looking at about a three meter rise in sea level. This is enough to inundate large sections of Florida, Louisiana, Bangladesh, and other low-lying locales, as well as completely wiping out places like the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Maldives.
We are already seeing these effects, actually. In Hallandale Beach, Florida, near Miami, salt water intrusion has breached five of the eight freshwater wells the city uses for its water supply. "King tides" -- resulting from the alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun, which used to happen a couple of times a year, are now almost regular monthly occurrences. People going to work have to wear rain boots just to get to their cars, and some have given up and are going barefoot. Roads are closed. Other roads are being elevated by an average of five feet.
But hey. As long as trump's energy portfolio does well, it's all good, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
Please like and share my page at www.facebook.com/BlowhardPundit for more!
1Source: "Extinction risk from climate change" Chris D. Thomas, Alison Cameron, Rhys E. Green, Michel Bakkenes, Linda J. Beaumont, Yvonne C. Collingham, Barend F. N. Erasmus,
Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira, Alan Grainger, Lee Hannah, Lesley Hughes, Brian Huntley, Albert S. van Jaarsveld, Guy F. Midgley, Lera Miles, Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta, A. Townsend Peterson, Oliver L. Phillips & Stephen E. Williams, Nature 427(6970):145-8 · February 2004, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8928870_Extinction_risk_from_climate_change
2http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/warning-of-mass-extinction-of-species-including-humans-within-one-decade.html
C'mon, People, Let's Get It Together


text:
Strasburgeriaceae är en familj av tvåhjärtbladiga växter. Strasburgeriaceae ingår i ordningen pimpernötsordningen, klassen tvåhjärtbladiga blomväxter, fylumet kärlväxter och riket växter. Enligt Catalogue of Life omfattar familjen Strasburgeriaceae 2 arter.

Kladogram enligt Catalogue of Life:

Källor

Externa länkar

Pimpernötsordningen
Strasburgeriaceae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Telegram CLI: How to mark a message as read? I'm running a little telegram bot on my Raspberry Pi
telegram-cli -W -s recieve.lua

Here a snippet of my lua file:
function on_msg_receive (msg)
  if msg.text == nil then
    return
  end
  if string.sub(msg.text, 0, 1) ~= "/" then
    return
  end
  mark_read(msg.from.print_name)
end

But the messages aren't marked as read, maybe the command isn't right?

A: Add this line to your bot
mark_read(receiver, ok_cb, true)

And when you wanted to disable it,just comment it :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


06/19/2014 City Clerk scheduled item for Council on July 1, 2014 .
06/17/2014 Planning and Land Use Management Committee denied appeal(s) .
06/13/2014 Planning and Land Use Management Committee scheduled item for committee meeting on June 17, 2014.
05/14/2014 Los Angeles City Planning Commission document(s) referred to Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
City Planning Commission report, dated May 13, 2014, relative to an appeal for property at 11965-11973 Montana Avenue.


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Masks, TNG S7 E17 Review, The Battle Bridge
While investigating a rogue comet, the cultural archive concealed inside begins taking over both the Enterprise and Data. Today James and Lou discuss (Masks) and what we think of it. Please note, Colin Higgins, a long time friend to the Lou Trek Show and Battle Bridge podcasts, was slated to be a part of this review. Sadly, bowed out at the last minute, saying he wasn't feeling well. Days later, Colin took his own life. I...
Thine Own Self, TNG S7 E16 Review, The Battle Bridge
Data suffers amnesia in a primitive society while Troi applies for a promotion. Today James and Lou discuss (Thine Own Self) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest host Chris Johnson. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used under the Fair Use doctrine for the...
Lower Decks, TNG S7 E15 Review, The Battle Bridge
Junior officers speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border. Today James and Lou discuss (Lower Decks) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest host Colin Higgins. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used...
Sub Rosa, TNG S7 E14 Review, The Battle Bridge
Worf's foster brother violates the Prime Directive by saving a group of villagers from a doomed planet. Today James and Lou discuss (Sub Rosa) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest hosts Chris "The Teacher" Johnson and Krys "Kieran MacDuff" Kujawa. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and...
Homeward, TNG S7 E13 Review, The Battle Bridge
Worf's foster brother violates the Prime Directive by saving a group of villagers from a doomed planet. Today James and Lou discuss (Homeward) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest hosts Data Logan. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used under the Fair Use...
The Pegasus, TNG S7 E12 Review, The Battle Bridge
When Riker's first commanding officer comes aboard to aid in the search for the vessel they served on, he is forced to rethink the actions he took at that time. Today James and Lou discuss (The Pegasus) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest hosts Colin Higgins and Shawn Vanderloo. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used...
Parallels, TNG S7 E11 Review, The Battle Bridge
After Worf returns from a bat'leth tournament, he is the only person who notices subtle changes on the Enterprise. Today James and Lou discuss (Parallels) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest host Shawn Vanderloo. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used...
Inheritance, TNG S7 E10 Review, The Battle Bridge
Data meets Juliana Tainer, former wife of Dr. Noonian Soong and Data's "mother," but she holds a shocking secret that even she doesn't know she carries. Today James and Lou discuss (Inheritance) and what we think of it, with tonight's guest host Christopher Johnson. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is...
Force Of Nature, TNG S7 E09 Review, The Battle Bridge
Investigating the disappearance of several ships, the Enterprise discovers two scientists who claim that warp drive is destructive to the fabric of subspace. Today James and Lou discuss (Force of Nature) and what we think of it. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used under the...
Attached, TNG S7 E08 Review, The Battle Bridge
After escaping imprisonment on an alien world, Picard and Dr. Crusher find that their thoughts are connected by brain implants. Today James and Lou discuss (Attached) and what we think of it. Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage All audio used is copyrighted by CBS and Paramount and is intended to be used under the Fair Use doctrine for the purposes of...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Inventory management for growing businesses.


This page helps answer: how do I use the word plump in a sentence? How do you use plump in a sentence? Can you give me a sentence for the word plump?
Example sentences with the word plump, a sentence example for plump, and plump in sample sentence.


text:
Bulgaria deputy minister resigns after mismanagement charges pressed
Written by The Sofia Globe staff on June 14, 2016 in Bulgaria - Comments Off on Bulgaria deputy minister resigns after mismanagement charges pressed
Bulgarian Deputy Transport Minister Anton Ginev tendered his resignation on June 14 after the prosecutor's office said that he was charged with large-scale intentional mismanagement of state funds. In a terse statement, the Cabinet's media service said that Ginev's resignation has been accepted by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and said that Ginev cited "personal reasons" for his resignation.
The prosecutor's office said that the charges against Ginev concerned a contract awarded by the National Railways Infrastructure Company in 2007, when Ginev was the company's executive director, to carry out repairs on the railway station in the town of Rousse on the Danube River.
The company claimed at that time that the urgent need to repair the station – a claim that the prosecutor's office has challenged – prevented a public procurement tender, and the contract was awarded after negotiations with three companies that were invited to selected by the National Railways Infrastructure Company.
The total value of the contract was estimated at 3.1 million leva (about 1.6 million euro), well above the threshold that requires a public tender, according to the prosecutors. Two companies submitted incomplete offers and the contract was awarded to a company "controlled" by MP Ilia Iliev, the prosecutor's office said.
Shortly after signing the contract, Ginev authorised the payment of 927 000 leva to Iliev's company even though work on the project was yet to start. Iliev's company carried out no repairs under the contract and Ginev made no attempt to recover the funds, thus making this a case of intentional mismanagement, the prosecutor's office said.
(Palace of Justice in Sofia. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)


You may have been noticing a lot of companies and websites notifying you of changes to their privacy policies and terms of service as of late. This is especially true for those living in Europe. At first glance, it may appear companies are afraid of running into the same trouble Facebook has been contending with for the last several weeks. To a certain extent, this is somewhat true. Firms certainly have a reason to fear potential government regulation and oversight.
However, a large part of what is driving the current wave of notices and opt-in requests is government regulation.
You may have heard of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect on May 25. The new rules require businesses to obtain consent from Europeans before they are allowed to use or collect their personal information, especially when using it for advertising. The storing of personal data will also be restricted to a finite period, and users may request deletion of their information at any time.
Airbnb, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and many others have all updated their policies to comply with GDPR and have issued emails to inform users and allow them to opt-in to services. While European consumers are the only demographic protected by these provisions, CNN reports several companies are choosing to have only one set of rules rather than having certain guidelines for Europe and other standards for everywhere else.
While it may seem relatively straightforward to change internal data collection policies, there is a significant financial impact that comes with the revisions. Many companies rely on data collected from users to gain ad revenue, which in turn allows them to offer their services for free. Since the new regs will enable users to delete their data as they please, companies stand to lose billions in marketing income.
Mark Thompson, a lead privacy advisor at KPMG said companies are getting ready for a tsunami of deletion requests. Some companies will have it better than others. "If you are a large investment bank, it could be five requests a week. If you are a large retail bank, it could be 500 a day," Thompson said.
Other companies will simply not be able to comply due to associated costs.
While those concerned with their privacy may be applauding government regulation of the online services they use, they need to keep in mind that it is a double-edged sword.
On one hand, they can feel secure knowing they have more control over their data. On the other hand, less revenue for their favorite services means the possibility of facing subscription fees for said services. Where they were previously paying for membership with their data, they may soon be paying with their wallet.


Picture an exceptional teacher. Who comes to mind? Whether it's a character from a film or a memorable mentor from your own school days, chances are that person exudes confidence, passion, and wisdom that goes much deeper than their subject matter.
The crux is that great teachers nurture so much more than academic learning. They inspire students to have the self-confidence to tackle challenges, seek information, and solve problems inside and outside the classroom. A great teacher shows students not only how to think about math, science, history, or literature, but how to think for themselves.
With software like LanSchool Air, teachers can maintain a direct digital connection to each student so those who may be afraid to speak up in class can still communicate and participate. Students can "raise their hand" digitally to send their proposed answers directly to the teacher, ask questions, and share ideas.


text:
John C. Reilly Stan & Ollie
Cast: John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Steve Coogan
Director: Jon S. Baird
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Synopsis: Laurel and Hardy, the world's favourite comedy double act, set out on a variety hall tour of Britain in 1953. Diminished by age and with their golden era as the kings of Hollywood comedy now behind them, they face an uncertain future. As they start crisscrossing the country, attendances are disappointingly low. But they've always been able to make each other laugh and as the charm and beauty of their performances shines through their audiences laugh too, and they re-connect with legions of adoring fans, old and new.
The tour becomes a hit, but Stan and Ollie can't quite shake the spectre of Laurel and Hardy's past; and long buried ghosts, coupled with Oliver's failing health, start to threaten their precious partnership. A portrait of the most tender and poignant of creative marriages begins to unfold as the duo, aware that they may be approaching their swan song, try to rediscover just how much they mean to each other.
Release Date: February 21st, 2019
Writing Stan & Ollie: "It's A Love Story"
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are widely regarded as the greatest comedy partnership in movie history. Between 1927 and 1950, they made over 107 film appearances (32 silent short films, 40 sound shorts, 23 features, 12 cameos), defining the notion of the double act with infectious chemistry and hilarious routines that seemed effortless but were honed down to the finest detail. The pair were part of the very few silent stars to survive and thrive in the sound era, adding wordplay to their comedy mastery, "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be led," quips Stan in Brats.
Their influence goes way beyond cold stats and film buff analysis having amassed a huge and devoted international fan base, three museums and an appreciation society, Sons Of The Desert. Beloved the world over – in Germany, they are Dick Und Doof, in Poland Flip I Flap, in Brazil O Gordo e o Magro – they are a gateway to comedy, a passport to a world of sublime silliness and everlasting friendship. Whether you know them from TV re-runs, cartoon adaptations or a Twitter gif, just to hear their theme tune, The Cuckoo Song, is not only a guaranteed smile, it's a time machine to a more innocent age. People admire Chaplin, sit in awe of Buster Keaton but they love Laurel and Hardy. There is a hardly a comedian alive who hasn't been influenced by Laurel and Hardy, their reach is long.
It is an affection shared by Stan & Ollie screenwriter Jeff Pope. Weaned on Saturday morning BBC TV screenings of the pair's legendary two-reelers, Pope was gifted a Laurel and Hardy DVD box-set fifteen years ago, watched Way Out West and started to investigate the story behind the icons. His research revealed a little-known slice of Laurel and Hardy history: the double act's theatre tour of the UK during the early '50s as documented in AJ Marriot's book, Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours.
"You just have this wonderful picture of these two guys that had been such giants staying at little guest houses, playing tiny theatres and not realising they did it because they loved each other," says Pope. "This is the thing that inspired me to write the whole film. It's a love story between two men."
Producer Faye Ward agrees with Pope, saying "Stan & Ollie is essentially about two best friends. And what that means to be two best friends at the end of your life, without them being aware about the end of their life. But it's also about these two creative forces and how that magic arrives"
Steve Coogan who plays Laurel and worked with Pope on the Academy Award® nominated screenplay for Philomena immediately responded to Pope's approach of analysing their 35- year relationship through the prism of the tour.
"It is very smart of Jeff to do that because the mistake is often to try and do a biography where you tell the chronological story of someone's life," he says. "It's better to shine a light on a specific aspect of their lives and you can learn everything from that. You can see humanity in a moment."
The filmmakers decided to call the film Stan & Ollie, not Laurel & Hardy as the production was dedicated to exploring the men behind the legends, Pope's script revealing truths behind their cinematic personas. Whereas Hardy would often take control on-screen, Laurel was the creative brains who oversaw every aspect of production; once shooting had finished, Hardy would often go off and play golf. The film also suggests that, while in the movies the pair were inseparable, off-screen they were friendly but just work colleagues. As Pope puts it, "They were never really close until they took these arduous tours and they lived in each other's pockets week in, week out. The premise of the film is how they became as close in their real lives as they were in their fictional lives."
Producer Faye Ward explains "I think it was really important this idea of getting back to the homage and essence of Laurel and Hardy and the reason why we didn't want to do a conventional biopic. We wanted to create something that new and old audiences could enjoy. Laurel and Hardy have huge fans around the world, as well as huge comic fans like Ricky Gervais and Paul Merton, John C Reilly and Steve Coogan there are millions of others, thousands of people talking about how inspired they still are by them. I think there's an immediate ease even if you're new to them you can feel the inspiration of what that comedy duo did for the comedy we still see today"
Pope's script is peppered with telling, touching details about the central relationship – Laurel kept writing sketches for the pair seven years after they had retired – yet Coogan was constantly aware Stan & Ollie needed other colours.
"I knew the film was going to be poignant and sad and emotional, my fear was: would it be funny enough?" he says. "You have to earn the right to have the poignancy by charming people. You can charm an audience with comedy."
While much of the comedy comes from meticulous recreations of Laurel and Hardy's stage acts, Pope's script also sews in some of their most famous routines into the fabric of their lives. So their attempts to get the trunk up the stairs in a railway station closely mirrors the memorable piano-stairs sequence of Oscar® winning The Music Box. "As the script evolved, I realised there were certain points I could tip my hat to their glorious past," says Pope. But for Coogan, stitching their skits into everyday situations also says something about the nature of comedians.
"As with many comics, there is not a total distinction between a comedy character an actor plays and who they are in reality, especially if they are heavily involved in the creative process," he observes. "There is an overlap and we try to let the audience see that, really if you are a Laurel and Hardy fan, then I think we honour the memory of them for those people for whom it's important that we don't generalize and that we are specific, and that we're faithful to who they were. And for those who aren't, it's entertaining because when we recreate some of their iconic moments I think we do it in such a way that it's funny and it still makes people laugh now"
Realising Stan & Ollie: "It's Not Like A Conventional Biopic"
Jeff Pope sent the script to Jon S. Baird, who was directing Danny Boyle's TV series, Babylon. Baird, who remembers watching Laurel and Hardy growing up in Scotland had a background in recreating the comedy legends. "I've still got pictures of me and a pal dressed up as Laurel and Hardy in a school fancy dress show," he laughs. "I was Stan, he was Ollie. He had a lot of padding, the first remnants of a fat suit."
The film's journey to the big screen really stepped up when Fable Pictures' producer Faye Ward (Suffragette) joined the team. Ward had met Baird on film industry initiative, Inside Pictures, and she immediately recognised the story had a chance to appeal beyond a film buff fan base.
"Even if the film wasn't about Laurel and Hardy, it's about two best friends who have lived through something together," says Ward. "They lived through wives, work, bankruptcy, highs and lows. They are reaching a point where they are realising they are old and might be towards the end of their lives. Watching that reflection would be fascinating even if they weren't Laurel and Hardy. It was incredibly clear to me when I first read Jeff's script and heard Jon's vision I could see the potential of how special the movie could be"
With family near Stan Laurel's hometown of Ulverston, Ward spent many summer holidays at the Laurel and Hardy museum. A big fan, she brought a passionate zeal to ensure Stan & Ollie didn't fall into the spoon-feeding clichés of true life stories.
The director had a clear take on the compelling dramatic question raised by Ollie's decision to make a film, Zenobia, without Stan.
"It's about a marriage between these two people who love each other but someone has committed an infidelity in the past," he says. "Then the other one has the opportunity to do the same: do they take it?"
Just before shooting began, Baird was struck by appendicitis and had an emergency operation but Jon made an almost miraculous recovery and was back on set in a week! As the production moved forward, the clarity and confidence Baird brought to the project impressed everyone. "Jon was fantastic on set, really specific and clear with his direction," observes Coogan. "There was no waffle, which sometimes you get from directors."
John C. Reilly, who plays Oliver Hardy, was similarly taken with Baird's passion. "Jon is the person who sat down with me and made me feel I could really do it. He was a true believer, a very unflappable optimistic guy. If we have any success with this project, it will be with Jon's commitment to the project and belief in us."
Ward says of working with Jon, "He is incredible, he's got such a vision for the piece and I felt he really got under the skin of Laurel & Hardy and Stan & Ollie"
Baird's cinematic dynamism is present from the get-go. The film opens with a six-minute tracking shot that follows Stan and Ollie from their dressing room across a Hollywood studio lot, onto set and into an argument with studio boss Hal Roach.
"I just felt to get that flavour of Hollywood, it seemed like the right device," notes Baird. "You need to see it unfold all the way through. I thought the script really called out for it. I wanted to challenge myself as well."
Baird's bravura asked a lot not only of his crew but also of his actors, who had to deliver reams of dialogue in one go.
"There is a lot of pressure in a shot like that," admits Coogan. "You almost have to not care about it. If we were on tenterhooks about screwing up, the casualness would be too inauthentic. So you forget about all the choreography, you just think we are two guys having a conversation. I think that comes with experience, realising the best thing you can do is just relax and stop giving so much of a shit about everything."
The shot immediately leads into another pressurised and iconic moment for the actors: Stan and Ollie's iconic dance to 'At The Ball, That's All' in front of a Saloon backdrop in the classic, Way Out West. Coogan and Reilly worked with Director Of Movement And Choreography Toby Sedgwick to get the scene down perfectly. The dance makes a number of appearances in the movie as Laurel and Hardy perform it on tour, with the routine getting increasingly creaky. For the on-set version, Sedgwick even coached the actors to incorporate the mistakes Laurel and Hardy made during the filming.
"We choreographed that dance so many times we could do it in our sleep" confirms Coogan. "What's great about watching them dance is that they are just sort of throwing it away and not appearing to try very hard. It requires a lot of work to make something look easy." Ward elaborates on the extraordinary dedication Coogan and Reilly showed, saying, "It was amazing the level of work John and Steve had put in. They'd replicated in so much detail that even when the real Laurel and Hardy in the footage get it wrong, they'd recreated the mistakes too; they got it absolutely spot on and it is magic to watch"
As well as the dance, Sedgwick, an expert in clowning, also worked with the actors to create the skits Laurel and Hardy performed on stage. Sedgwick, Coogan and Reilly built the established routines from the ground up but also invented new shtick especially for the film. For the actors it added an extra dimension to the filming.
"We had to forge a bond in those moments because it wasn't just a film," recalls Reilly. "Because of the theatrical nature of the tour we were filming performances with people out in front of us. It was not only the pressure of making a film but then there's the pressure of all these people sitting there watching us. We've got to deliver for them too. It almost gives you a battlefield loyalty to each other. I'll always love Steve for what we went through together."
Casting Stan & Ollie: "It Was So Intimidating To Play These Guys"
Key to the success of Stan And Ollie was finding actors who could not only inhabit but also illuminate the inner lives of the central partnership, to shine a light on whom the men actually were, what made them tick.
Steve Coogan was the first and last person Jon Baird spoke to about playing Stan Laurel. Coogan first met Laurel and Hardy on TV, watching their misadventures in a dressing gown during school summer holidays. "It was very accessible to a child," he recalls. "A pure kind of comedy that is to do with character not situation. There are no real consequences. It's a happy world." During Skype meetings with Baird and Ward, Coogan would effortlessly slip into Laurel's mannerisms but his performance also captures the drive and decency of the man. As Ward puts it, "I think it's great to see Steve do something you've not quite seen him do before."
Baird elaborates "I met Steve over lunch one afternoon and we were chatting away about Stan Laurel, and without any warning he went into Stan, he started doing Stan. And he would drop his napkin and then come up and bump his head on the table and the shivers went up my spine and I thought 'wow', and it was just that little moment, it was everything. I knew he was a very clever guy and I knew that he would absolutely get everything that it was supposed to be but actually bringing Stan off the page, in the amount of detail he puts into the voice and the performance, it was just a no brainer after about five minutes of speaking to Steve about it. Everyone got excited when Steve got involved, for obvious reasons"
"I had a great partner in Steve," says John C. Reilly. "We realised from the beginning there's no way to do this unless we learned to love each other. We were pretty much strangers but we became real friends. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I'd get this real lonely feeling whenever Steve wasn't on the set with me, it would feel like a part of me was missing."
Faye Ward recalls how she felt when Coogan and Reilly were onboard "It was just so exciting to get John and Steve, there're really not many actors in the world who could actually be Laurel and Hardy, they're just incredibly tuned comedians with a perfect sense of physical comedy timing. It was just so wonderful to see those two play Laurel and Hardy, you did feel like you were watching two icons playing two icons"
If Coogan's career has been marked as a solo performer, Reilly has worked in partnerships with the likes of Will Ferrell. But still the actor was daunted at the prospect of playing a comedy legend.
"In a way I tried to talk my way out of the project because it was so overwhelming and intimidating to play these guys," says Reilly. "I feel we live in an age of Google and Wikipedia and anything that anyone wants to know about the facts of someone's life are instantly available. But the beautiful thing about this story was you go inside their relationship and it gives you a glimpse of what it might have been like working together."
From comedies (Step Brothers) to musicals (Chicago) to drama (The Lobster), Reilly's range was critical in landing the screenplay's balance of laughs and emotion.
"He's a fantastic actor," says Coogan. "He is also able to be mature, poignant and truthful and at the same time have an understanding of comic technique. They are two different skillsets. Comedy is frequently a technical skill and being emotionally open and honest is about being in touch with your feelings. There isn't a huge amount of actors who can do both those things. He is one of them."
Reilly's casting was also instrumental in landing Coogan. "I asked whom were they thinking for Oliver Hardy," Coogan recalls about his early discussions for the role. "They said they were thinking of John C. Reilly and I said, 'Well if you get him, I am in.'"
Baird recalls his meeting with Reilly "The thing John said was 'it's a massive responsibility to play this character, he's my hero', and Steve had said that as well. But John said 'I can't let anybody else play this part, it's terrifying to take this on but I can't let anybody else do it'. And I thought 'well, if that's the kind of guy you are, that's the kind of guy I want to work with because it shows responsibility, it shows bravery.
Once both men signalled interest, the team had to check the chemistry vital in bringing the relationship alive.
"Jon and Jeff flew out to New York to put them together to make sure they got on," remembers Ward. "It was totally nerve-wracking. They left them to it in the restaurant and then suddenly in the distance they saw Laurel and Hardy sitting having dinner. It was just like 'They are the ones'."
And that magical combination was felt throughout the shoot, Ward recalls "When they first did the live theatre of 'Double Doors', it was in our first week of shoot and in front the whole crew – film crews can be somewhat cynical because they see hundreds of movie stars do a million things; but the whole place fell completely silent in awe and then laughing hysterically. And in fact Harriet who is our second AD was crying, it was just that amazing."
One the most difficult scenes the actors had to perfect was the Way Out West dance. Steve Coogan remembers, "We had to study what Laurel and Hardy had done on film and then rehearse it and choreograph it, but what was peculiar was that we had to not only learn these dance steps, but the way they performed them was slightly haphazard and almost deliberately has a kind of amateurish charm and there are mistakes in the way they dance, and we had to learn the dance – with their mistakes. We had to emulate every misstep they made and every throw away gesture, that was quite hard as we had to learn to emulate what was in the original film and we had to perform the same dance routine on stage, but without the errors. So you have to learn the dance two ways: one way with some slight, odd errors and another way which is more refined. So it got quite confusing but we did it so many times that we just knew it, I could probably do it now!"
The Wives Of Stan & Ollie: "It Wasn't An Easy Job To Get"
In the fictional world of Laurel and Hardy, the pair's wives are sometimes portrayed as henpecking their hapless men into submission often resulting in a madcap scheme. Stan & Ollie's conception of Lucille Hardy and Ida Laurel playfully nods to the notion of nagging wives whilst simultaneously painting a much more rounded portrayal of two very different women who were the bedrock for their partners amid the ups and downs of show business. These women were strong, intelligent and forthright and we are left in no doubt that these iconic men absolutely needed the women they had standing behind them.
As Ward says, "The wives come along and they're also a duo. What Jeff has achieved so cleverly in the script with Ida and Lucille is that you don't know a huge amount about their history together with the men, as well as their careers, but he shows you enough so that you can understand that they have gone on a journey for a long time with these men and they have their own quirks and energy together – they are their own double act."
Both Coogan and Reilly had input into who played their spouses. Although Shirley Henderson had previously worked with Baird twice, it was Reilly who suggested her to play Lucille, the Way Out West script supervisor who became Hardy's third wife, after working with her on Tale of Tales. Given Lucille was a Texan and Henderson is Scottish, Reilly and Baird had to convince the production she was right for the role but, for the actor, the advocacy was completely worth it. "As an actor, as I was playing bigger, older and with bad knees, I had to believe the person playing my wife not only loved me but was attracted to me," he says. "Shirley and I developed a real affection for each other."
Despite having worked with actor and director before, Henderson recalls, "It wasn't an easy job to get. I had to do three auditions!" Having fond memories of watching Laurel and Hardy on Christmas morning, Henderson reacted to the dilemma in Lucille's love for Hardy during the punishing tour.
"She is concerned he is taking far too much out of himself but acknowledges he needs it for his life-blood. She cares very deeply for him. And that's what I latched onto. No matter what, everything was about him, his health and his well-being."
If Lucille is quiet and undemonstrative, Laurel's wife Ida, played by Nina Arianda, is a tour de force with a flair for the dramatic. Arianda caught Baird's eye following her role in Florence Foster Jenkins and met the actor for a meeting in a New York restaurant.
"We must have had three or four bottles of wine," he laughs. "I was under the table and she was still there, absolutely solid. I thought 'This is my girl.' I think she is one of the best actors I have ever worked with. It was a total mixture of what we were looking for: somebody who was quirky but had that sense of tough love which is kind of an Eastern European sensibility. She was perfect."
A Tony® award-winning actor, Arianda was drawn to the story's exploration of "the public vs. the personal." A dancer in Hollywood, Ida understood Stan's creative ambitions and his need to be "on." Yet beneath her histrionics, there was an empathy and vulnerability that Arianda found engaging.
"I thought she was wonderful in both her warmth and strength," she says. "I loved that she adored this man so deeply. The thing that struck me in doing research was that the first thing that attracted her to him was his loneliness. I thought it was a very specific woman who was attracted to a man's loneliness. I found that fascinating."
Ward recalls, "Shirley and Nina both spent so much work researching the real wives It was incredible to work with Nina and Shirley they are also both such fantastic heavyweights and we were just so fortunate to have them in the roles".
The arrival of the two women in London is when, according to Baird, "Events start hotting up. Things are brought up from the past. They are the catalyst for the argument that leads to the split."
The Money Men Of Stan & Ollie: "Laurel And Hardy Were My Girls And Booze"
Key to the break-up of Laurel and Hardy was long-time collaborator, producer Hal Roach played by Danny Huston. The actor spent some of his childhood in Italy so only knew the comedy duo as Stanlio e Ollio dubbed into Italian. "I remember coming to London as a child and being horrified that they were speaking in English," he laughs. Huston plays the hardnosed Roach as a "cigar-chewing studio boss" refusing to pay the pair what they are clearly worth, pitching the performance between broad comedy and something more realistic. Yet for all the potentially cartoonish qualities of the character, he is quick to acknowledge Roach's importance in the Laurel and Hardy story.
"You could also say he discovered them," says Huston. "They were both independently successful as actors but he had the genius of putting them together. I use the word 'genius' lightly because they were the geniuses but he was able to capitalise on them. He had a keen enough eye to know they would be a triumph together."
"There is nobody who knows Hollywood like Danny Huston," says Baird. "He's steeped in it. He's a very handsome guy and we wanted him to be that very commanding studio head. He told us some incredible tales about his dad, John Huston, and some of the stuff that was going on then. He was great to have around as a reference for that time period."
"Hal Roach is only in the film a small amount," Faye Ward says. "What we needed from the Roach character was a 'super injection' of Hollywood, so to speak, we are depicting old Hollywood in its purest form so who else to ask but an actor with Hollywood running through his veins – Danny Huston. When he arrived on set he simply had this aura of 'Huston' to him, which oozes Hollywood mogul. He was perfect."
She continues, "Physically there had to be an element of somebody who seemed scary to John C Reilly and Steve Coogan, and there's not many people in the world that has that texture, that gravitas that you feel like this gentleman could hire and fire these two icons in a second. Danny has that in spades."
A kind of British theatrical version of Roach, Bernard Delfont is the impresario who brought Laurel and Hardy for a UK tour in the '50s. As played by Rufus Jones, Delfont is an archetypal showbiz schmoozer. "He'll never stab you in the back but he might deliver live acupuncture," laughs Jones. "He's two cups Bob Monkhouse, one cup Denholm Elliott in Raiders of the Lost Ark and a dash of Ian Faith from (This is) Spinal Tap. He's very urbane, very charming."
Faye Ward describes Jones' energy on set saying, "Rufus brings this modern, youthful energy into Delfont. It is 1953 and far into the career of these two men and it is a joy to watch him standing next to these giants of comedy with this youthful energy. Delfont enters their lives, he understands television, he understands the modernity of life. Laurel and Hardy haven't yet reached that point. Plus Rufus is very, very funny and extremely likeable which is so key with Delfont."
As a kid, Jones was a self-proclaimed "Laurel and Hardy completist nerd" joining the fan club, Sons of the Desert, and buying Super-8 two-reelers to project against his bedroom wall. Such an important pillar of his childhood – "Laurel and Hardy were my girls and booze before I could afford girls and booze" – Jones was nervous picking up Jeff Pope's script as a super-fan. Flicking through the pages, he breathed a sigh of relief. "I think Jeff did a fabulous job of giving you everything you wanted to see in terms of the iconic Laurel and Hardy scenes with such really delicious references to their work but at the same time presenting Stan and Ollie as opposed to Laurel and Hardy and realising them as three-dimensional characters."
Becoming Stan & Ollie: "It Was Like Wearing A Mask On Your Whole Body"
Coogan and Reilly's physical transformation was overseen by make-up supervisor Jeremy Woodhead and Mark Coulier, the talented prosthetics designer who won Academy Awards® for The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Iron Lady.
"Mark Coulier is an absolute genius" said producer Faye Ward. "The level of work that went into perfecting the look for the two boys was unbelievable and having talent like Mark onboard and working alongside Jeremy just elevated the whole process to a whole new plane"
After lots of experimentation, the team made the decision to dial back the make-up for a less is more approach.
"You have to be very careful the viewer isn't thinking, 'What incredible make-up!'" explains Coogan. "They have to get lost in the performance, in the story. So we didn't want anything too distracting."
"It's not a waxwork," says Woodhead of the prosthetic. "You've got to design it in a way they can move, talk, perform and do all these things. It's not a carbon copy but it's as near as we can get it to enable the actors to do their bit."
In the end, Coogan opted for a false chin, teeth and customised tips to make his ears stick out. In a strange coincidence, Coogan has brown eyes and needed blue and Reilly had blue eyes and needed brown so both men wore coloured contact lenses. For Stan's hair, raised in a quirky quaff on screen, Woodhead stuck to the back-to-basics philosophy "Steve uses his own hair but it is coloured to match Stan Laurel's," he says. "Stan was actually a red-head. We toyed with the idea of going red but it gets distracting – it becomes a surprise that his hair was red. By the end of his life, he was colouring his hair anyway." To become Ollie, Reilly endured four hours in the make-up chair. By the '50s, Hardy weighed near 400lb but the team took the decision not to go that heavy. Coulier and Woodhead tried four different fat suits made out of reticulated foam. To get the look right, the team drew inspiration from Hardy's own life.
Ward says, "We worked for a long time with John C Reilly to get his look right, he came in and did hundreds of different sessions and we built his suit in many different ways. And of course, there are a huge amount of practicalities in regards to prosthetics because not only do you have to look the part but you have to be able to act through it, you have to be able to feel the magic of John C Reilly through the suit but be perceived as Hardy."
"Oliver Hardy's nickname was 'Babe' because he had the shape and proportions of an overgrown baby," says Reilly. "I started sending baby pictures to Guy and Mark and it started to click."
Reilly had different suits for the various stages in Hardy's life, the 1937 version more firm and controlled. Although reticulated foam is lightweight, it still retained the heat so Reilly was plugged into an ice machine in between takes. The whole process was helpful for Reilly to increase his confidence to play the character.
"Only my face and the flats of my hands were exposed," he recalls. "The rest was encased in prosthetics or a fat suit. So in a way it was like wearing a mask on your whole body. The mask was so convincing it made me believe from the outside in that I could play this character."
Shirley Henderson recalls the first time she saw Coogan and Reilly in full costume and make up, "It was just mind-blowing. I saw them first on the Blue Ridge Mountains song, you know when he knocks him over the head with a hammer and everything. Nina and I were in the back of the auditorium, our characters are meant to be sitting, later on we're meant to be sneakily watching what they're up to. But all day we were just sitting there watching them perform this, and it was… it was like it was Laurel and Hardy, it was phenomenal. That they could just do that. There's obviously little hints in their faces, but the prosthetics and the voice and the dancing, it was just immaculate, incredible to watch."
Jon Baird remembers the first time he saw them "There was complete silence," he recalls. "I thought there was something wrong. But there wasn't. People were just astounded by how they looked." Nina Arianda got her first glimpse of the pair shooting a scene where Ida watches them perform. "I forgot where I was for a moment," she marvels. "I felt like I was watching Laurel and Hardy. In that room I can't tell you how magical it was. On that day I completely forgot what I was doing."
Dressing Stan & Ollie: "20 Different Types Of Hat"
For Stan & Ollie, costume designer Guy Speranza and his team created just under 2000 costumes to represent both '30s Hollywood and '50s Britain. But there were two elements that took absolute precedence – the hats and suits that form the unmistakeable and iconic silhouette of Laurel and Hardy.
"Poor Guy," says John C. Reilly. "He must have manufactured 20 different types of bowler hat to get the height of the crown or the width of the brim just right because we couldn't afford to get that wrong. The image is so iconic."
Speranza's research ensured no detail went unnoticed. Laurel would unstitch the brim of his hat – a cross between a bowler and a derby – then cut the brim and re-stitch it to give it the appearance of being much taller and thinner. Speranza fashioned a dark suit with a Norfolk fabric for Ollie, who wore the jacket with one button done up to accentuate his stomach. The designer put Laurel in a light three-piece suit with lots of pockets with shoes without a heel – Laurel would remove the heels from his shoes to give him a comedy gait which meant the trousers were too long. Speranza was also keen to demonstrate the distinction between fictional and real-life appearances.
"On stage, Stan in particular was scruffy," he observes. "Ollie was the smarter one. In real life they were quite dapper. The biggest thing was trying to give an American feel to their costume because their fabrics were much nicer. There's lots of images of them in real life wearing these berets and looking quite silly. It was nice to show them in normal life but still with an element of comedy about it."
There was also the conundrum of using colour in creating the world of the two actors who so many only know in black and white. Speranza says, "Well the big thing was just seeing them initially, just seeing them not in black-and-white. And introducing colour into two very iconic people, comedians that you've mostly seen in black-and-white – trying to get the audience used to seeing them in colour. I spoke to JP at the beginning, he showed me all the sets and then we worked together with Jon. There's just so much information about Stan and Ollie, there are tons and tons of reference, which really helps. And then with the locations trying and trying to get their American feel about them, trying to make them stick out in an English environment. So it's a work in progress. I like to do lots of mood boards of colours, then for example we tried to keep colour for this scene in Worthing very Technicolour, and then more green in Ireland, just trying to make certain areas more specific"
Speranza's personal most memorable moment is the Way Out West dance: "When they did the dance, the Way Out West dance on stage, because I've watched it on film so many times. Stop, pause, stop, pause, stop, pause all the time, trying to see all the little details of what they wore I actually burst into tears when I saw them do it, I got very emotional. It was just lovely to see them doing that dance, I've seen it so many times, seen the actual Stan and Ollie doing it, and the way they recreated it was just brilliant, that was one of my favourite moments"
Designing Stan & Ollie: "It Really Got People's Laurel And Hardy Juices Flowing"
The story of Stan & Ollie not only covers two distinct time periods but also two completely different worlds: the glamour of '30s Hollywood and the somewhat dreary gloom of '50s Britain. It was an exciting challenge for BAFTA award-winning production designer JP Kelly to bring these contrasting landscapes visually to life.
"There's a colour palette from the grandeur of '30s Hollywood to the dark dankness of a rainy day in Newcastle to London in all its post war recovery splendour. Then there is the simplicity of arriving in Ireland, which is like a group hug for the film at the end. Each of those have to have a different quality that was really the design brief for how we balanced all those different looks together and how we showed progression in their journey, and to contrast it of course with the 1930s and this Hollywood lifestyle which they had which was sunny and shiny and exactly the opposite to a rainy day in Scunthorpe."
To realise the exteriors of Hal Roach studios in its heyday, the production knew there was only one location in the UK that fit the bill: Pinewood Studios. The team researched the films being made at the Roach Studios during that period – children's franchise The Little Rascals – and augmented this with roman centurions and Egyptian pharaohs, phasing in cowboys and saloon girls as Laurel and Hardy approach the Way Out West stage.
A busy bustling studio, supervising location manager Camilla Stephenson knew finding a window at Pinewood to mount the complex scene would be challenging.
"We had to come on Sunday because we would literally have Stormtroopers walking past," she laughs. "We still had to change a lot of things to make Pinewood work. A lot of productions helped us out by hiding their equipment. We asked Jurassic World if they would move a container and they said, 'It's not a container, it's a raptor cage!'"
Kelly elaborates on the challenges of the scene, "We really wanted to create a world that showed Laurel and Hardy's success but also the excitement and contrast with the world we end up in for most of the film, which is in England. Pinewood Studios has very little to do with Hollywood but was built around the same time, so architecturally a lot of the buildings are able to just about pass as Hollywood studios. We then made set extensions at the end of streets so you can see Hollywood hills in the background and so on. And then the characters arrive at the Way Out West stage, which was in Twickenham, where we're meticulously recreating the scene from Way Out West, which is where they arrive at the saloon and they do their famous dance. This was a really fun set to create. There are really two aspects to it: a saloon bar where we'll have the Avalon brothers sitting outside singing and then amazingly at the time, which most people won't have realised when they watch the film, that the Way Out West scene of them dancing was shot with a back projection. And if you look at it, very carefully you can see a definite line between where they're standing and projection behind them."
The exciting thing about that backdrop was that the team managed to track down the very one that was used in the original shoot. Researcher James Hunt tracked down the original archive that held Laurel and Hardy material and was put in touch with Jeff Goodman who works at the Producer's Library. Jeff was incredibly helpful and it turned out that he had been the archivist who had put the material into store way back in the day. He knew exactly what we were looking for sent two pieces of the original backdrop to ensure the piece could work.
For the studio interiors, a staffroom at the grandiose Eltham Palace in Greenwich doubled for Stan and Ollie's dressing room while the Way Out West set was painstakingly recreated at Twickenham Studios right down to the mule. "It was tough because we wanted to get it pinpoint accurate," explains Baird. "If you step back far enough and play them both together, you would struggle to see which one was which – that's how we wanted it to be." Also at Twickenham, the team created a set for a fantasy sequence depicting Stan & Ollie's never made Robin Hood comedy, Rob 'Em Good.
"We purposefully recreated a strange looking Sherwood Forest in keeping with the Laurel and Hardy one," laughs Kelly. "It had a river running through it and a huge amount of greenery, all completely inappropriate for a forest in the Midlands. As soon as you put actors in Robin Hood costumes in the middle of it, it looks like you are in the middle of a Technicolor epic. It was funny. We built loads of lovely and elaborate sets but everyone raved about that set the most. It really got people's Laurel and Hardy juices flowing." When the action switches to Britain, Stan & Ollie becomes a road movie with the American legends travelling the length and breadth of Britain. Similarly, Kelly and Stephenson combed the country looking for theatres that were both period-accurate and fit the needs of the story. Theatres used included the Old Rep in Birmingham, The Fortune Theatre in London, building to the Hackney Empire, which doubled for the Lyceum, the venue for Laurel and Hardy's triumphant London show. As the pair moved around the country, they discovered a similar pattern.
"We'd go to a theatre and they'd say, 'Laurel and Hardy performed here, we've even got a poster'" says Stephenson. "They were absolutely across all these rep theatres."
The Britain that Laurel and Hardy tour is a landscape of run-down boarding houses, and cheap-and-cheerful lidos. Kelly wanted to accentuate the contrast of two Hollywood legends amidst the post-war austerity, especially in the North of England. But the team were wary of straying too far into traditional British film territory.
"There is a certain expectation with British film for it to be grimy, for the pace to be a bit slower and for it to be real," says Baird. "It had to be true to the '50s but it had to match up tonally to the whole film. We've not overly designed anything. Things are rubbed down a little bit but it doesn't come out like social realism. We wanted it to make it feel like Britain but also not to depart too much from the tone of the film."
When the action reaches London, much of the drama unfolds in the Savoy Hotel. The production utilised the hotel exteriors but recreated the foyer and restaurant at the Park Lane and the rooms at West London Studios. Although not completely historically accurate, Kelly carried the Art Deco stylings of the Park Lane into the interior rooms to add a touch of opulence that demonstrated Laurel and Hardy were on the up.
"What was grand in the fifties isn't so grand by today's standards," says Kelly. "In reality the Savoy's rooms were modest compared to today. There is a balance between historical accuracy and contemporary audience expectations of what a big hotel looks and feels like. At the end of the day, we are storytellers so that has to be the key consideration."
Faye Ward recalls "One of the most memorable days was when we recreated Cobh Harbor in Ireland. We couldn't actually go to Cobh Harbour, so we cheated it in Bristol Harbor, which was fantastic. It was a sunny day and we had this incredible vintage ship there and had about 350 extras, all dressed in Irish textures along with authentic reproduced banners and we recreated that wonderful arrival. The Irish church at Cobh Harbour played the Cuckoo Waltz, through the bells, for their arrival, which was really wonderful. And it was their journey from England to Ireland at the last moment of their tour. It was such a special day and JP and Guy did an exemplary job, it was a very special day and I am sure that will come across in the film."
This moment of Laurel and Hardy receiving the warmest welcome in Ireland also resonated with the Dublin born Kelly. "My uncle had seen them in Dublin in the 1950s," says the Ireland-born designer. "I've always known that story. He's in his nineties. He's delighted about that."
'Delight' is a notion that comes up a lot discussing Stan & Ollie. For Jeff Pope, it is the heart of the Way Out West, the simple scene of two men dancing just for the joy of it, that inspired the project.
"You just sit there and laugh about how much they love being together and how they can take enjoyment in such simple things. I think that is why they are still so loved. We can look at them and think: 'You know what? It doesn't take a lot to get happy.' We complicate it too much now. If you look back at them, they can get happy so easily."
It is this bright innocence that resonates with Faye Ward. For her, it is one of the reasons Stan & Ollie, a film about legends from the golden age of Hollywood, is a film for right now.
"We are in a place and time where people are pretty scared of life," she says. "Watching their routines is just so heart-warming. There is a pure joy, an innocence to what they bring which I think is really great and fun for audiences today. Half the audience are crying and then laughing just because it is incredibly clever but simple at the same time. It's so lovely and actually I think we really need a bit of that at the minute."


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A Peek Inside NSA's Giant Telephone Database
And why another tool, known as PRISM, sounds far more troubling.
We're learning more about how that enormous cache of telephone metadata at the National Security Agency is actually used. According to two sources in the intelligence community who have worked with the system, it's one of many tools available to analysts working on terrorism investigations or providing intelligence for military forces overseas.
One former defense intelligence employee describes it this way:
The NSA makes a list of names and/or phone numbers available to analysts who are cleared to use the meta database. These names and/or numbers have been obtained by NSA through other collection programs, presumably legal ones. The analysts input those names and/or numbers to the meta database, which will then show any connections to phone numbers in it.
The meta database itself doesn't contain any names–it is only phone numbers. If there's a number that's based in the United States, the analyst only sees an "X" mark. If he wants to see the number underneath that X, he has to get clearance from higher authority–in this source's experience that was the general counsel of the organization where he worked.
The source also said the tool wasn't particularly useful. It's there to help analysts better understand the links between potential terrorists, and to help identify them. But the analyst said that searching for numbers and names on Google often led to better results.
An intelligence official who has used the meta dabtase confirmed the description of how it works. But he said the presence of so many "innocent" numbers in the system posed a challenge. Analysts have to weed through them to find only the numbers they're allowed to see without permission from a higher authority.
The meta database is one of dozens of different systems or intelligence streams available across the intelligence agencies. From the sources' descriptions, it sounds relatively mundane compared to the other tools that are available.
However, one of those other tools, which was revealed yesterday by the Guardian and the Washington Post, called PRISM, appears far more secretive and less widely used. Neither of these source had ever heard of it. The former defense intelligence employee expressed alarm that, according to reports, the system gives the NSA direct access to the central servers of some of the country's biggest Internet companies, including Facebook and Yahoo!, and then lets analysts obtain e-mails, video and audio files, photographs, and documents.
This individual said he couldn't explain how, based on his training and experience, the PRISM system complies with the law. It doesn't seem to be discriminate enough in separating US person's content–such as their e-mails–from those of foreigners. The government almost always needs a warrant to look at content.
Reportedly, PRISM sweeps up the information of US persons when analysts tap into those central servers. They're instructed to document these "incidental collections," but are told, according to a training manual reviewed by the Post, that "it's nothing to worry about" if Americans are caught up in the stream.
The intelligence official said that based on reports, the PRISM system would have to be collecting massive amounts of information, and that NSA was likely the only agency with the computing power and the storage space to handle it all. The agency has been running out of electronic storage at its Ft. Meade, Md., headquarters and has built a new 1-million square foot data center in the Utah desert.
More: Dead DropNSASurveillance State
The Retired Spy Who Took On Trump's "Deep State"
The Amazing Story of the Russian Defector Who Changed his Mind
The NSA Research Director Wants Hackers to Know Who She Is
What We Know About the NSA Metadata Program


Smartphones already have storage speeds that rival PCs and they're going to take another big leap soon. Standards group JEDEC has unveiled UFS 3.0, a new flash storage standard for mobile devices, Chromebooks, VR headsets and automotive devices that doubles the bandwidth of UFS 2.1 to a stellar 2.9 GB/s. That's only a theoretical maximum that real-world devices won't likely reach, however, and requires that the host device has the hardware to support it.
UFS 3.0 also lowers flash power consumption and increases reliability in a wide ranger of temperature conditions, a bonus for vehicle applications. It does all this thanks to lower voltage requirements that support the latest types of NAND, a refresh function that increases reliability, and double the speeds per lane (from 5.8 to 11.6 Gbps with a maximum of two lanes).
Such speeds might seem crazily unnecessarily, but they would let you do things like capture 4K at 60 fps or even 8K without stressing your phone. And as Samsung, for one, has promised new 512GB storage modules for its next-gen phones, you're going to want to transfer all that data as fast as possible.
Just because there's a new standard doesn't mean your next phone will have it, for course -- UFS 3.0 might take a while for companies to implement. Samsung devices might be among the first to see chips and controllers using it, as Samsung is far and away the biggest NAND manufacturer in the world.


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Norquist: GOP should push delay of individual mandate in shutdown fight
by Erik Wasson - 08/02/13 5:19 PM ET
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist weighed in Friday with his recipe for GOP success in the fiscal battle this fall.
A main part of the plan Norquist outlined to the The Hill involves taking a targeted approach when it comes to ending ObamaCare as part of the government shutdown fight.
The powerful anti-tax crusader said he doesn't think it is possible to end ObamaCare or entirely defund it as part of a continuing resolution to fund the government.
But getting President Obama to delay the controversial mandate for individuals to buy insurance could be a winnable concession for Republicans, he said.
"Obama opened the door to it with a delay for businesses," Norquist said. "That is a fight everybody should relish."
If Obama refused to delay the mandate and the standoff resulted in a government shutdown, he would have trouble explaining that position to the public, according to Norquist.
The conservative activist also said the GOP must at all costs keep the sequester levels of spending in the continuing resolution while avoiding the "Trojan horse" of tax reform.
{mosads}"Keep the sequester, keep the sequester, keep the sequester," said Norquist. "If we maintain the sequester, we are on a glide path to a more sustainable situation."
"The sequester was his idea, it was Obama's screw up," Norquist said, adding he doesn't like indiscriminate cuts either, but that Democrats will offer flexibility once again if the top-line sequester level stays in place.
The House has proposed $967 billion in discretionary spending for the next fiscal year, but the Senate wants $91 billion more.
Republicans in the House were unable to pass this week a transport and housing bill reflecting those cuts, however. Norquist said this is not a huge cause for concern.
"You don't need to pass that bill to get the cuts," he said. "The sequester is the backstop."
"Can we also do something on ObamaCare? I think that's very likely," he said.
Norquist said the House Republicans can craft a revenue-neutral tax simplification bill, but they should harbor no illusions that Obama would ever sign it.
"Don't get seduced by the promises of tax reform," Norquist said. "Obama has made it clear it is a Trojan horse for a tax increase … He's announced ahead of time."
Any talk of a lower corporate tax rate or other enticements must be squelched, Norquist said.
"It doesn't matter the quality and quantity of cheese in a rat trap," he said.
Ryan Ellis of ATR told The Hill that keeping the sequester cuts will "take most of our chits in any negotiation."
He added "shutting down the federal government is one of the few things less popular with the American people than ObamaCare."
"When the government inevitably re-opens with ObamaCare on schedule after a shutdown, all Republicans will have to show for it is a dispirited base, lower poll numbers, and a few groups with fatter email and small donor rolls," he said.
Elise Viebeck contributed.


Start with something from the raw bar, then progress through the gleaming offerings on the menu at chef/restaurateur Jennifer Jasinski's compact Union Station seafood house. Stoic & Genuine's slate reads as both serious and playful, from a rich and rewarding take on paella loaded with mussels, shrimp, squid and sausage, to an amusing tuna sandwich that robes a rare slab of fish in molten American cheese. Crudos, oysters, crab legs and caviar are presented with pride and care, whether you're looking for a quick lunch or celebrating big. You pick the adjectives: impressive and elegant; vivacious and bright; delicious and bountiful.


My last post reflected a bit of a desperate meltdown. I'm happy to say, despite the critics and naysayers, we stepped back, compared our challenges to our abilities and realized what we needed was help.
We found a contractor who, at this writing, seems to be awesome. Let's hope all goes as planned. Ninja Man and I are pretty confident that it's working out well with him. No pre-pay, we pay him on Saturday for his work during the week. We buy the materials. It's a good plan.
Meanwhile, this is costing more than we anticipated. The trade off is that we have help! The crew comes in and knocks out in one day what took us the better part of a week.
Our contractor is doing the floors and walls. That is, removing ALL sub flooring and that hideous paneling, PLUS… are y'all ready for this? A few walls.
I believe in usable space. That makes our lifestyle a bit quirky, such as: that dining room where the family gathers for Sunday dinner? Well, in our case since it's just the two of us most of the time, so that Sunday dinner thing really meant Thanksgiving.
One day when I was particularly frustrated with the annual utilization of the dining room and the possible seven-night per year usage of only one of our two guest rooms, I did the "math".
Add mortgage payment, HOA fee (yeah, THAT thing), monthly utilities and insurance. Divide that by the number of rooms in the house. It's pretty generalized but gives a halfway decent idea of how much these rooms cost us per month.
I scratched my head and figured it again.
Yep. These rooms were costing us a small fortune just to sit there looking pretty in the slight chance someone may come to visit.
I'll try to insert some pics later- but cute as these rooms were, we weren't USING them. What we were doing was PAYING for them to sit void of use throughout the year.
At first, the dining room was converted into a library, which we rarely used. But once we added some specialty machines, it became my sewing studio.
Those TWO guest rooms? Yeah. Easy to figure what to do there. I'm a serious crafter and man, I needed space. Ninja Man's hobby could fit on a card table, so we found it a no-brainer to turn one of the guest rooms into a crafting studio. His card table hobby is in the garage and he has a great setup that he loves.
Our rooms are truly in use!
One guest room, because there are some friends and family who do come to see us.
And freedom! Freedom of doing what everyone expects and freedom to be quirky as well as resourceful.
So what has this got to do with Six Little Acres?
This is a three-bedroom-about-to-be-a-one-or-two-bedroom UTILIZED-space home. "One or two" means we are removing walls and closets (yep! CLOSETS) and making two bedrooms into one. This large space may become our master bedroom, or, as originally planned, my studio.
We are going to install two of these in two separate areas of the house. Which style do you like best? I'm loving #1, but that could be because I'm pretty sure I can find those doors at Habitat for Humanity.
Just comment below and I'd love it if you would share my post! Maybe I'll have a giveaway at some point- right now all I have to share is a lot of faith and sawdust.
God bless y'all! Thanks for stopping by.


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Home > News > Responsible Business > Charities > Coronavirus: OCF launches new Community Resilience Fund for Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire Community Foundation
Charities | Oxfordshire
Coronavirus: OCF launches new Community Resilience Fund for Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire Community Foundation Wed 25th March 2020	475
Unlocking the power of our community to respond better and recover stronger during this crisis.
Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF) today announced a new fund and package of support available to help community and voluntary organisations meet the new needs and challenges created by the Coronavirus. OCF's new Community Resilience Fund has been kick-started with an inspiring donation from the Indigo Trust and has already reached more than £500,000.
At a time when they have never been more needed, many charities and voluntary organisations are at risk, with little or no working capital, thus anticipating significant cashflow problems. "We want our new fund to unlock the power of our community," OCF CEO Jayne Woodley commented, "This is a time when their services have such potential to provide the essential lifeline so needed by those who are most vulnerable and at risk in our communities."
The fund will help organisations like SOFEA, who can scale up their efforts to distribute food to vulnerable people across Oxfordshire. It is working together with existing volunteer hubs, such as Oxford Together and Citizens Advice Banbury, to ensure support for those who need to self-isolate. This means renting additional vans, buying more fuel, cleaning materials and redeploying staff. SOFEA have committed to this even as their cashflow is reaching a critical point. Restrictions on educational activities are reducing SOFEA's income.
The speed with which the fund has been set up means that SOFEA has already received an emergency cash injection of £10,000. CEO Richard Kennell said, "Support from this new fund is vital for us. It enables us to focus on meeting the urgent needs of the crisis and gives us confidence that SOFEA will still be here when the crisis is over."
Jayne Woodley added, "OCF has the infrastructure, governance and networks to distribute funds raised effectively and ethically, which is why we have launched our Coronavirus: Community Resilience Fund for Oxfordshire. We will also pool resources with any additional monies received via The National Emergencies Trust to continue to help local charities overcome the challenges presented by this ongoing emergency.
These are extraordinary times calling for extraordinary responses and our priority is to act swiftly yet responsibly to ensure the support, sustainability and development of community infrastructure, enabling charities to not only respond better but also recover stronger.
We cannot thank the Indigo Trust enough for an unbelievably generous gift and we hope that such philanthropic leadership will inspire others to add their support too."
To donate to this fund please go to oxfordshire.org/donate.
Additional Tags: #b4covid #charity #CSR
By Kate Walker Marketing Projects Manager
Research & Development Specialists Ltd Delivers over £2,000 of...
Pretzel Group Tue 21st December 2021	110
Altrincham-based Research & Development Specialists LTD (RDS) has delivered over £2,000 worth of toys, games and presents for underprivileged children across Greater Manchester and Nottingham. In Manchester, partnering with Manchester-based charity, Wood Street Mission, the local business provided gifts for those children in the care system, and those who may not have received any presents this year without donations from individuals and companies such as […]
Oxfordshire Youth Wed 8th December 2021	138	4min
Who cares for care leavers at Christmas? Who is in that sleeping bag you just stepped over to carry on Christmas shopping? Chances are it's a care leaver. The stark reality of 'looked after' children in this country is that 10,000 of them leave care every year, and one in four is homeless by […]
Business as a Force for Good, Tech, IT & Comms
Donate your unwanted laptops to those in need
Oxfordshire Community Foundation Fri 12th November 2021	197	2min
The Getting Oxfordshire Online partnership is encouraging businesses to donate unwanted laptops to be refurbished and passed to disadvantaged school students, older people and job seekers across the county.
Community Building, Education, Responsible Business
B4 Thu 22nd July 2021	374	5min
Businesses have a responsibility to their communities, to be supportive and at the very least not actively cause harm. Here you will find content relating to businesses being a Force for Good, supporting charities and their local communities.
Education, Responsible Business, Tech, IT & Comms, Workplace Wellbeing
B4 Newsdesk Wed 30th June 2021	41
Digital exclusion is not just a Covid-19 issue! However, the pandemic has highlighted that lack of online access is a serious issue that limits people's life chances and wellbeing. As we come out of lockdown, we must not lose focus on this ongoing problem.


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BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
RUN TIME: 2hrs (with intermission)
SUBSCRIPTIONS START AT $16
27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Part of 2014 Winter/Spring Season and DanceAfrica 2014
Artistic Director Chuck Davis
Groupe Bakomanga
DanceAfrica—the nation's largest festival dedicated to African dance—returns for its 37th year, welcoming Madagascar-based music and dance troupe Bakomanga.
This year, the spotlight shines on Bakomanga, making its US debut. This Madagascar-based music and dance troupe embraces a rich variety of indigenous cultural forms, using jubilant drum- and accordion-driven music and movement to honor its ancestors, usher in the harvest, and preserve tradition. Catch them and select New York State artists in the annual Memorial Day weekend performances, hosted by Baba Chuck Davis. Ago! Amee!
DanceAfrica is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature
DanceAfrica 2014 Opening Celebration
Artistic director Chuck Davis hosts this showcase of dance and music to kick off the festival, featuring Madagascar-based Groupe Bakomanga, Malagasy guitarist Madagascar Slim, New York State artists, and more.
Iconic BAM Artists
Chuck Davis (1937—2017) was the founding artistic director of DanceAfrica.
BAM/Restoration Dance Youth Ensemble (Brooklyn)
BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble celebrates ancestral roots and the modern-day community.
Madagascar Slim
The Malagasy-Canadian guitarist combines folk and blues in his own award-winning style.
Bakomanga has performed in Japan, France, La Reunion, and Gabon.
An internationally awarded artist, Okore was recently featured in Sculpture magazine.
Asase Yaa
Artistic Director Yao Ababio founded Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater in 2001.
AACC Dance and Drum Performance Company
This Buffalo-based organization draws on Senegalese dance and drum traditions.
Photo: Nick Schwartz-Hall


There are two wood workshops. You can learn lots of different skills. How to use tools like saws and chisels. Some people learn how to use big machinery too. Members of the workshop make lots of different things, like, tables, wooden toys, stools, picture frames and even musical instruments.
Some of the things that get made get sold in our shop – the Mulberry Bush at 77 Morningside Road, or at our Christmas Bazaar.


Looking for recommendations for a hairdresser who knows how to cut curly hair.
Camille Tremblay! She has naturally curly hair so she knows the struggle!! and did an awesome job!!!!
Amanduh Marie awes thank you hun!
Roxanne Pickering-Groulx who do you go to?
Michelle Amanda I see Christine at Carols Family Hair Care.
Kayla at The Bombshell Beauty Saloon cuts my curly hair.
Faye Thorpe she not just knows the trade but combats her own curls daily!