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Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Harmonium" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
^ Khan, Mobarak Hossain (2012). "Harmonium". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.


text:
América Futebol Clube, commonly known as América, was a Brazilian football team based in Vitória, Espírito Santo state. They won the Campeonato Capixaba six times.

History
The club was founded on November 25, 1917. They won the Campeonato Capixaba in 1917, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, and in 1928. América eventually folded.

Achievements

 Campeonato Capixaba:
 Winners (6): 1917, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1928

Stadium
América Futebol Clube played their home games at Estádio Joaquim Calmon. The stadium had a maximum capacity of 4,000 people.

References

Association football clubs established in 1917
Defunct football clubs in Espírito Santo
1917 establishments in Brazil

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
[greenyes] Climate Disruption - New Series in the New Yorker
Subject: [greenyes] Climate Disruption - New Series in the New Yorker
From: "Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>
[DISCLAIMER. In anticipation of yet more strawmen in reply, and in defense
of The New Yorker, as if they needed it: newspapers and magazines do not
print general treateses. They start with a particular that is currently in
the NEWS, and build out from there. This does not mean, nor should it be
interpreted to imply, that Elizabeth Kolbert or The New Yorker's editors, or
anyone else seeking to elicit public concern over global warming in order to
build a political base for constructive action, are intending to suggest in
any way that the likelihood of climate disruption can be determined from an
isolated case. - p]
THE NEW YORKER - 4/25/05
THE CLIMATE OF MAN-I
Disappearing islands, thawing permafrost, melting polar ice. How the earth
is changing.
The Alaskan village of Shishmaref sits on an island known as Sarichef, five
miles off the coast of the Seward Peninsula. Sarichef is a small island-no
more than a quarter of a mile across and two and a half miles long-and
Shishmaref is basically the only thing on it. To the north is the Chukchi
Sea, and in every other direction lies the Bering Land Bridge National
Preserve, which probably ranks as one of the least visited national parks in
the country. During the last ice age, the land bridge-exposed by a drop in
sea levels of more than three hundred feet-grew to be nearly a thousand
miles wide. The preserve occupies that part of it which, after more than ten
thousand years of warmth, still remains above water.
Shishmaref (pop. 591) is an Inupiat village, and it has been inhabited, at
least on a seasonal basis, for several centuries. As in many native villages
in Alaska, life there combines-often disconcertingly-the very ancient and
the totally modern. Almost everyone in Shishmaref still lives off
subsistence hunting, primarily for bearded seals but also for walrus, moose,
rabbit, and migrating birds. When I visited the village one day last April,
the spring thaw was under way, and the seal-hunting season was about to
begin. (Wandering around, I almost tripped over the remnants of the previous
year's catch emerging from storage under the snow.) At noon, the village's
transportation planner, Tony Weyiouanna, invited me to his house for lunch.
In the living room, an enormous television set tuned to the local
public-access station was playing a rock soundtrack. Messages like "Happy
Birthday to the following elders . . ." kept scrolling across the screen.
Traditionally, the men in Shishmaref hunted for seals by driving out over
the sea ice with dogsleds or, more recently, on snowmobiles. After they
hauled the seals back to the village, the women would skin and cure them, a
process that takes several weeks. In the early nineteen-nineties, the
hunters began to notice that the sea ice was changing. (Although the claim
that the Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow is an exaggeration, the
Inupiat make distinctions among many different types of ice, including
sikuliaq, "young ice," sarri, "pack ice," and tuvaq, "landlocked ice.") The
ice was starting to form later in the fall, and also to break up earlier in
the spring. Once, it had been possible to drive out twenty miles; now, by
the time the seals arrived, the ice was mushy half that distance from shore.
Weyiouanna described it as having the consistency of a "slush puppy." When
you encounter it, he said, "your hair starts sticking up. Your eyes are wide
open. You can't even blink." It became too dangerous to hunt using
snowmobiles, and the men switched to boats.
Soon, the changes in the sea ice brought other problems. At its highest
point, Shishmaref is only twenty-two feet above sea level, and the houses,
many built by the U.S. government, are small, boxy, and not particularly
sturdy-looking. When the Chukchi Sea froze early, the layer of ice protected
the village, the way a tarp prevents a swimming pool from getting roiled by
the wind. When the sea started to freeze later, Shishmaref became more
vulnerable to storm surges. A storm in October, 1997, scoured away a
hundred-and-twenty-five-foot-wide strip from the town's northern edge;
several houses were destroyed, and more than a dozen had to be relocated.
During another storm, in October, 2001, the village was threatened by
twelve-foot waves. In the summer of 2002, residents of Shishmaref voted, a
hundred and sixty-one to twenty, to move the entire village to the mainland.
Last year, the federal government completed a survey of possible sites for a
new village. Most of the spots that are being considered are in areas nearly
as remote as Sarichef, with no roads or nearby cities, or even settlements.
It is estimated that a full relocation will cost at least a hundred and
eighty million dollars.
"..."
FOR FULL ARTICLE (PART OF A COMING SERIES):
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050425fa_fact3
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net
This message, and all attachments thereto,
is covered by the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C., Sections 2510-2521.
This message is CONFIDENTIAL. If you are
not the intended recipient of this message,
then any retention, dissemination, distribution
or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. Please notify me if you received
this message in error at anderson@no.address
and then delete it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Is wearable tech any use to business?
By Rene Millman 2013-11-08T15:43:00.311Z Future tech
Google Glass, smartwatches and more in the workplace
Google Glass could really help in the workplace
Over the past year, devices such as Google Glass and fitness bracelets that monitor your health and keep fit regime have entered the mainstream.
While these devices present some intriguing use cases, would wearable tech be helpful for business?
Displays worn on the head are nothing new, but Google Glass has gained a lot of attention and equally as much in the way of high expectations. These expectations hail from early leaks of the inbuilt features of such devices.
According to Kevin Curran, senior lecturer in computer science and group leader for the Ambient Intelligence Research Group at the University of Ulster, wearable tech brings forth the geek utopia of instant internet connectivity with the answer to everything at the tip of the nose, as well as perfect navigation updates and 'always-on camera mode'.
"They have the potential to be one of the most disruptive technology offerings we have ever seen," says Curran. "Some early uses for Glass have seen it used to translate foreign languages in real-time on the display."
Google Glass: release date, news and features
He says that one app that could be very likely to be of use to business is the ability of glasses to conduct facial recognition on meeting a person. "A Google search in an attempt to ascertain a person's name. Much easier may be to simply 'recall' a person's name from previous interactions where their image was saved in our private image databases. Basically, apps to help us never forget a name again."
Taking off already
This may seems like flights of fancy, but according to a study carried out by the Centre for Creative and Social Technologies (CAST) at Goldsmith's, University of London, 18% of the 4,000 UK and US adults surveyed already use some kind of wearable device.
The research also found that 6% of employers are already providing wearable devices to workers. A further third said they would be willing to use wearable devices if offered to them by employers.
"Regardless of the rate of adoption of wearable technology in the workplace, there's little doubt that if businesses use it effectively it will make a real difference to employees' lives and work," says Nigel Beighton, technology and product vice president at Rackspace. "We have already seen some great examples of this, including companies using health and fitness devices to promote well-being and productivity within their organisation."
Beighton says that at the same time there are huge opportunities for businesses to gain greater insight into their customers who are adopting this technology at a much faster rate. "Enterprises could connect with third parties to provide more tailored and personalised services, and healthcare institutions have the opportunity to get a much better understanding of their patients," he says.
Google Glass shown off again, new features revealed
It's all too easy for a debate on wearable devices to get caught up on the gadgets themselves. Giovanni Mancini, director of product management for E Ink Holdings, argues that the consumer or business is not purchasing the gadget but rather the experience or service that is enabled or delivered by that gadget. "This is what separates fads from truly successful products," he says.
"When we think about wearable technology we should not focus on the gadget that we wear but rather on the function or experience it delivers," says Mancini. "If it can deliver a truly useful and different function it will be a success that will see mainstream adoption, versus a fad that will fade away."
Fun new experiences
He says that there are three technologies ripe to enable the delivery of new services or experiences with wearable devices, namely: ubiquitous use of smartphones with significant compute power and network connectivity, small low power sensors and very low power displays.
See more Future tech news


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To evaluate symptoms, therapies and outcomes in rare microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis.
Retrospective study with 11 patients treated between 2009 and 2014. Clinical findings, corneal diseases, history of steroids and trauma, use of contact lenses, number and type of surgical interventions, determination of causative organisms and visual acuity (VA) were evaluated.
The incidence of transformation from microbial keratitis to an endophthalmitis was 0.29% (n = 11/3773). In 90.9% (n = 10/11), there were pre-existent eyelid and corneal problems, in 45.5% (n = 5/11) rubeosis iridis with increased intraocular pressure and corneal decompensation, and in 18.2% (n = 2/11), ocular trauma. Specimens could be obtained in 10 of 11 samples: 33.3% of those 10 specimens were Gram-positive coagulase-negative Staphylococci (n = 3/10) or Gram-negative rods (n = 3/10) and 10.0% Staphylococcus aureus (n = 1/10). In 30% (n = 3/10), no pathogens were identifiable. 72.7% (n = 8/11) of all keratitis-induced endophthalmitis were treated with vitrectomy and 9.1% (n = 1/11) with amniotic-membrane transplantation. In 27.3% (n = 3/11) the infected eye had to be enucleated – 18.2% (n = 2/11) primarily, 9.1% (n = 1/11) secondarily. No patient suffered from sympathetic ophthalmia. The median initial VA was 2.1 logMAR (n = 11/11). At one month, median VA was 2.0 logMAR (n = 7/11), after three months 2.0 logMAR (n = 6/11), and after one year 2.05 logMAR (n = 6/11). The change in VA was not significant (p > 0.99). 36.4% (n = 4/11) of the cases resulted in blindness.
The overall outcome is poor. Enucleation should be weighed against the risk of local and systemic spread of the infection, prolonged rehabilitation and sympathetic ophthalmia.
Infectious endophthalmitis is a rare and severe inflammation of the intraocular tissues and fluids of the eye, involving the anterior and posterior eye segment and the adjacent sclera [1, 2]. Endophthalmitis of either form, exogenous or endogenous, can lead to a significant reduction of visual acuity and, at worst, result in a loss of the affected eye . Exogenous endophthalmitis is caused by microbial pathogens that enter the eye after surgery or trauma, or infiltrate through the surface. Microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis is a sight-threatening disease, often bearing the worst possible visual outcome .
Microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis is uncommon (0.5%  to 6.1% [3, 6–9]), especially in an otherwise healthy eye [5, 8]. Different treatment options in severe keratitis exist, such as fortified local and/or systemic antibiotics, crosslinking and keratoplasty à chaud in contrast to intravitreal or vitrectomy in microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis. Literature shows a wide spread in prevalence rates, most probably due to the lack of a common definition of microbial keratitis cases, let alone microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis. Inconsistencies in routinely taking swabs in cases of initially mild keratitis that later develop into endophthalmitis might further cloud a correct estimation of microbial association and detection rates.
In the majority of cases, endophthalmitis is diagnosed clinically, [7, 10] with typical symptoms of loss of vision, photophobia and pain (Fig. 1).
Clinical signs consist of conjunctival injection as well as infiltrates, oedema, opacities and endothelium precipitates on the cornea. Moreover, it might be possible to detect anterior chamber flare, cells, fibrin or hypopyon, altered pupil, vitreous infiltrates, periphlebitis, retinal haemorrhages, Roth's spots or reduced or even loss of fundus visualization [2, 11, 12]. Ultrasound can be of substantial aid in cases with reduced posterior visualization; however, it might also be misleading at times and its limited local availability should not lead to a delay in starting the treatment if sufficient clinical suspicion is raised. This is supported by the fact that the most common form of uncomplicated microbial keratitis holds a rather good prognosis when treated correctly and in a timely manner, contrary to endophthalmitis with a severely reduced visual prognosis of light-perception or worse [13, 14].
Pre-existing dry eye disease, blepharo-conjunctivitis, corneal perforation, recent trauma or surgery, immunosuppression and local or systemic steroid therapy have all been identified as risk factors of progression to endophthalmitis in initially corneal infections [3, 5].
Common forms of treatment include anti-inflammatory and antibiotic drugs, corneal scraping and vitrectomy [15, 16]. During surgery, samples may be taken for a microbiological or virological analysis followed by intravitreal antibiotic treatment.
The goal of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate symptoms, therapies and outcomes in rare but sight- and eye-threatening microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis in our department of ophthalmology.
In a retrospective analysis, all patients treated with endophthalmitis between December 2006 and December 2011 in the Department of Ophthalmology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Germany, were identified using the computer software program clinical information system I.S.H. med® (SAP® SE, Walldorf, Germany). From this collective, all cases of microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis were extracted, pseudonymized and included in this study. None of these patients had relevant ophthalmic preconditions to be excluded from the study. The following patient data was identified: age, gender, localisation, clinical findings and subjective symptoms, surgeries, trauma, prediagnosed corneal and eyelid diseases, history of steroids, previous history of trauma, and use of contact lenses. The study was conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the internal Institutional Review Board of Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich.
For all patients, the time interval between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis was analysed. In all cases, ultrasound examination was performed to confirm the clinical diagnosis of endophthalmitis. Corneal swabs were taken in all cases with diagnosed endophthalmitis upon intial presentation and directly processed by the on-site Microbiological Department by specimen cultivation. Broad-spectrum antibiotics were initiated according to the Magdeburg treatment regimen:  vancomycin (1 g bid intravenously) and ceftazidime (2 g tid intravenously) were administered to cover Gram-positive pathogens and Gram-negative pathogens respectively. Systemic steroids (prednisolone, 1-2 mg/kg) were added to the therapy one day after starting the antibiotic therapy to limit further tissue destruction by antigens and cytokines released from infiltrating leukocytes [2, 17]. Intensive topical moxifloxacin and a fixed combination of polymyxin B, neomycin and gramicidin eye drops were administered initially ¼ to ½ hourly and tapered to hourly by day 2. Antibiotic therapy was adjusted after receiving the appropriate antibiogram .
Anterior chamber and vitreous sample aspiration were performed in eyes with increasing hypopyon and affected vitreous shown in ultrasound examination. Following removal of the vitreous including gathering of microbial samples, an intravitreal and intracameral therapy with vancomycin (0.05 ml: 20 mg/ml) and ceftazidime (0.1 ml; 2.25 mg/ml) were applied. Postoperatively, subconjunctival and topical broad-spectrum antibiotics (gentamycin 40 mg/1 ml) and steroids (dexamethasone 4 mg/ml) were administered .
Amniotic membrane transplants were performed in cases of severe surface defects. Primary enucleation was only performed in cases of painful amaurosis with no light perception.
Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was assessed on initial presentation (day 0), after one month (1 m), three months (3 m) and after one year (1y). Complications defined as retinal detachment, recurrence of infection, lack of improvement, enucleation and blindness were evaluated for a one-year follow-up time period.
A statistical comparison depending on the aetiology of keratitis-induced endophthalmitis (Kruskal-Wallis test), the clinical findings (Mann-Whitney U test) and the form of therapy (Kruskal-Wallis test) was performed. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Altogether, 152 eyes of 149 individuals presented with endophthalmitis to the Department of Ophthalmology, Technical University of Munich, Germany between December 2006 and December 2011. In 74.3% (n = 113/152) of our cases, endophthalmitis originated from previous surgery, 5.3% (n = 8/152) had a history of recent trauma and in 13.2% (n = 20/152) an endogenous endophthalmitis was diagnosed. In 7.2% (n = 11/152), the endophthalmitis developed from an initial microbial keratitis (Fig. 2).
In that same time period, overall 3773 patients were recorded with diagnosed microbial keratitis who were treated at least with topical antibiotics. The transformation rate from microbial keratitis to an endophthalmitis in our collective was 0.29% (n = 11/3773).
In 90.9% (n = 10/11) of patients with keratitis-induced endophthalmitis, a pre-existence of eyelid and corneal problems was observed. Overall, 63.6% (n = 7/11) had a history of topical or systemic steroid therapy. Rubeosis iridis was present in 45.5% (n = 5/11), along with increased intraocular pressure (IOP) and corneal decompensation. In all of these cases, the IOP decompensation was caused by either retinal vein occlusion or diabetic retinopathy. In 18.2% (n = 2/11) of the microbial-induced endophthalmitis cases, patients had a history of a recent corneal trauma. None of the patients were contact-lens wearers.
The mean age of all patients with keratitis-induced endophthalmitis was 67 years (range 32-89), while the mean age of all patients with endophthalmitis was 70 years (range 17-89). About half of all patients with keratitis-induced endophthalmitis (45.5%, n = 5/11) were female. The right eye was affected more frequently (63.6%, n = 7/11) than the left. The timespan from first onset of patient reported complaints to diagnosis was four days (range 1-360 days). The patient with almost one year time to diagnosis had fluctuations in the severity of his symptoms and inflammation and was externally treated with antibiotics of varying extent and route before final exacerbation led to admission. All patients (n = 11/11) presented with a clinically "red eye", a reduction in visual acuity was initially present in 36.4% (n = 4/11). Pain was reported in 72.7% (n = 8/11), and a hypopyon could be detected in 90.9% (10/11). The fundus red reflex was lost in all cases (n = 11/11).
Microbiological samples could be obtained in 90.0% (n = 10/11) for causative organisms. Of those, 33.3% were Gram-positive coagulase-negative Staphylococci (n = 3/10) or Gram-negative rods (n = 3/10) respectively and 10.0% Staphylococcus aureus (n = 1/10). In 30% (n = 3/10), no pathogens were identifiable (Fig. 3).
Vitrectomy was performed in 72.7% (n = 8/11), primary enucleation in 18.2% (n = 2/11) and amniotic membrane transplantation in 9.1% (n = 1/11) of all keratitis-induced endophthalmitis cases.
The median initial BCVA was 2.1 logMAR (n = 11/11; range 2.0-2.2). At one month, the median BCVA was 2.0 logMAR (n = 7/11; range 2.0-2.2), after three months 2.0 logMAR (n = 6/11; range 2.0-2.2) and after one year 2.05 logMAR (n = 6/11; range 1.4-2.2). The change in BCVA from baseline was not significant over time (p > 0.99) (Fig. 4).
Overall, 90.9% (n = 10/11) of all patients in the keratitis-induced endophthalmitis group became legally blind in the affected eye and 36.4% (n = 4/11) resulted in amaurosis with no light perception.
The mean change in BCVA in the keratitis-induced endophthalmitis collective was − 0.1 logMAR, whereas the BCVA in the other endophthalmitis aetiologies were: − 0.6 logMAR in the post-operative, − 0.3 logMAR in the traumatic and ± 0 logMAR in the endogenous subgroup (p = 0.052; Fig. 5).
During the one-year follow-up, we did not observe any occurrences of retinal detachment. One patient (9.1%, n = 1/11) experienced a recurrence of endophthalmitis. Overall, 27.3% (n = 3/11) ended up in an enucleation (two of them were primary enucleations). No patient suffered from sympathetic ophthalmia. One patient died during the follow-up period from chronic cardiovascular disease, whereby a connection to keratitis-induced endophthalmitis remained unlikely.
In our examined study population, patients suffering from microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis originating from initial lesions of the corneal surface constituted the third largest group of all endophthalmitis aetiologies. Accounting for 7.2% of all cases of endophthalmitis at our clinic, this group was substantial in comparison to published data [3, 7]. This may be partially due to the general focus of our clinic on the anterior segment as well as the fact that in the urban area of our university clinic setting, a high density of posterior segment surgeons are commonly available. Therefore, in our study the postoperative endophthalmitis group might have been underrepresented.
In a healthy eye, eyelid, tear-film, epithelium, stroma and an intact descemet membrane offer protection against intraocular infections. In our study population of keratitis-induced endophthalmitis, 18.2% of patients had a positive history of recent corneal surface trauma; chronic inflammatory eyelid or corneal alterations were pre-existent in 90.9% of the group. It would have been interesting to compare those patients to matching control groups with same pre-existing risk factors but no initial keratitis. However, an external infection progressing to endophthalmitis by bypassing the cornea would be is an even rarer disease aside from special anatomical exceptions like e.g. glaucoma tubes or severe scleritis.
We found a progress rate from microbial keratitis to an endophthalmitis in 0.29%. A review of currently available literature illustrates that, in general, 0.5%  up to 6.1%  of corneal ulcers seem to progress and end up in endophthalmitis.
In about 80% of these cases, local or systemic steroids had previously been used, posing a well-known risk factor for keratitis-induced endophthalmitis . On the other hand, the Steroids for Corneal Ulcers Trial (SCUT), a double-masked placebo controlled randomized study, raised no safety concerns in its 500 cases of keratitis treated with or without topical steroids. None of the patients progressed to endophthalmitis proving the potential benefit of steroids under appropriate use and antibiotic coverage .
Immune dysfunction, fungal keratitis, keratitis next to a recent surgical wound and corneal penetration are also considered as potentially predisposing factors [5, 8]. Since none of these entities occurred in our study group, these risk factors could not be verified in our study. However, 45% of the patients had rubeosis iridis with secondary angle closure glaucoma causing corneal decompensation. Another study confirmed our findings and also reported a strong association of glaucoma and corneal oedema with secondary corneal ulcers in their patients . Pathophysiologically, one might argue that elevated intraocular pressure levels and induced damage to the corneal endothelial cells  lead to decompensation and secondary oedema . By decompensation and swelling of the cornea, tight junctions and microbiological barriers break down, allowing the keratitis to spread more easily and progress to a keratitis-induced endophthalmitis faster than in an uncompromised cornea.
In keratitis-induced endophthalmitis, the latency to definitive diagnosis can be expected to be higher than in other endophthalmitis entities . This might be due to pre-existing minor visual loss and unremarkable pain caused by often associated chronic eyelid and corneal diseases. Therefore, patients are mostly accustomed to both to some extent, leading to a deferred consultation of an ophthalmologist.
On the other hand, keratitis-induced endophthalmitis could be rather difficult to diagnose: the frequent loss of the red-reflex may be related to intraocular inflammation itself, but could also result from the underlying corneal diseases and the frequent incidence of a hypopyon since both factors reduce general insight into the eye.
The spectrum of causative organisms included Gram-positive coagulase-negative Staphylococci (30%) and Gram-negative rods (30%). Other studies also found fungi as frequent pathogens in keratitis-induced endophthalmitis [5, 8].
However, it remains unclear up to date whether the final outcome is more determined by the patient's comorbidities or the causative organisms. Fungi appear to show higher rates of progression to endophthalmitis and their prognosis is among the worst. Difficulties in cultivation, treatment availability and their ability to penetrate otherwise intact corneas potentially contribute to this . In our study, we were unable to support these findings since we had no cases of proven fungal keratitis.
Patients with keratitis-induced endophthalmitis initially achieved a median visual acuity of 2.1 logMAR, which hardly improved to 2.05 logMAR within the first year. They therefore presented with a very poor visual outcome and prognosis. BCVA showed no significant changes at any of the follow-up intervals (all p > 0.05, median difference − 0.1 logMAR). In 27.3% of our keratitis-induced endophthalmitis cases, the infected eye had to be primarily or secondarily enucleated. Other studies also show the typically reduced prognosis in keratitis-induced endophthalmitis, [5, 8] with high rates of enucleation or evisceration [19, 23, 24]. Predisposing chronic corneal pathology or advanced secondary glaucoma with further reduced prognosis and treatment success rates may be at least partially responsible for this association. In respect to this extremely low visual prognosis, a primary enucleation or evisceration especially in devastating cases with pre-existing ocular pathologies must be considered a valid option since it has been shown that the risk of sympathetic ophthalmia is increased in keratitis-induced endophthamitis .
Therefore, keratitis-induced endophthalmitis represents one of the severest ophthalmic entities. It often results in poor visual outcomes despite extensive treatment. While most cases of keratitis-induced endophthalmitis entail a positive history of predisposing ophthalmic risk factors, the range of established risk factors or comorbidities differs from the cases with keratitis alone . Since severe isolated keratitis mostly presents with similar clinical features, at least initially, distinguishing it from the visually far more endangering posterior endophthalmitic form can be crucial if only to preserve the eye as such.
Microbial induced keratitis is a rare disease with variable presentation and course. Only 0,29% of initial keratitis cases progressed to endophthalmitis. The overall outcome of microbial keratitis-induced endophthalmitis is very poor, including high rates of enucleation and evisceration. The decision for enucleation or evisceration should be considered carefully in order not to endanger patients' health by risk of systemic and local spread infection, prolonged rehabilitation and danger of sympathetic ophthalmia.
All anonymized data available upon request (Christian.mayer@mri.tum.de) and are being stored in our study centre.
DZ and CM designed, set up and supervised the study. DL, LR and NF gathered the data and, when necessary, contacted the patients. DZ and CM drafted and revised the manuscript. RK and TT conducted the statistical analysis and provided critical input for the final version of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
The study was conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the internal Institutional Review Board of Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich.


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It is manufactured on-site or shipped from our facility in 3 different widths in 26 or 24 gauge steel. Secure Seam is available in 21 colors in stock, including acrylic coated galvalume.


The American Coffee Berry Tree also known as the Kentucky coffee tree grows in moist woods, creek banks, and flood plains. It is mainly found in the Midwest from western Ohio to eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, southern Michigan to northern Alabama and Tennessee. The tree was much planted around farm houses and may now be maintained as ornamentals around newer buildings.
The leaves, seeds and pulp are poisonous and have affected sheep, cattle, horses, and humans. Sprouts eaten in the spring have produced toxicosis. Pods and seeds on the ground eaten in the fall or winter have produced poisoning. Leaves, young sprouts and seeds with the gelatinous material around them contain the toxin.
Until spring grasses and herbage are abundant, animals should not be grazed in woods where the Kentucky coffee tree grows or where it has been cut and allowed to sprout. Since there are never more than a few of these trees in any woodland, sprouts can be grubbed out periodically, and thus poisoning from them can be prevented.The pods cling to the tree through the winter and are shed in the spring. To prevent animals from eating the fallen pods, large fruiting trees can be fenced in. Although the tree has little commercial value, it is so rare that unnecessary cutting of it is not recommended.
The toxic principle of this plant is uncertain. It is possibly the quinolizidine alkaloid, cytisine, which acts like nicotine.


Previous PostOkra transplants. Trying something new (cause, you know, I didn't have anything else to do. ) We'll see how they do. Put 2 rows of seed out too.
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Update on JetBrains' Statement on Ukraine
Maxim Shafirov
As a response to the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine, we announced that we would be suspending all R&D activities in Russia, as well as our sales in Russia and Belarus. It has now been approximately nine months since that announcement and we would like to provide an update.
In addition to terminating all sales, all of our offices in Russia, including Moscow, Novosibirsk, and St. Petersburg were shut down. Work on the new campus in St. Petersburg was also terminated. All R&D activities were gradually stopped and liquidation papers for our Russian legal entity were filed in August 2022.
We managed to move out the majority of our people from Russia. The ones who could not relocate for personal reasons, we had to part ways with. As one can imagine, moving, and more challenging, placing well over 800 people with their families (and pets) was no easy task. Fortunately we were able to distribute folks across the offices we had in Europe, including our largest R&D locations in Amsterdam, Munich, and Berlin. We also opened new locations in Cyprus, Serbia, and Armenia.
Thanks to the wonderful support of our customers and the overall good financial shape of the company, we are in a great position to continue to develop the best development tools we can. And we're also hiring!
While it has been a very challenging and difficult time for the company, it cannot even remotely be compared with the horrendous situation that the people of Ukraine are facing on a daily basis, caused by the war. Once again, we condemn this aggression, and have and will continue to stand by the people of Ukraine, including our colleagues and their families.
Remote Development in JetBrains IDEs Now Available to Amazon CodeCatalyst CustomersOverview of the 2022.3 Versions of All JetBrains IDEs and .NET Tools
The State of Developer Ecosystem 2022
The State of Developer Ecosystrem 2022, the sixth annual report about the software industry that we base on the responses of almost 30,000 people.
Anastassiya Sichkarenko
Overview of the 2022.3 Versions of All JetBrains IDEs and .NET Tools
All of our IDEs and .NET tools have rolled out their last updates for this year, and we hope the latest features and improvements will not only help you take your productivity a step higher but will also make your coding more fun! Here's an overview of the highlights of each update. IntelliJ-based IDEs First, let's talk about a few big new features that are common to the 2022.3 versions of all our IDEs. New UI The completely reworked UI, which was announced earlier this year, is now available to all. After thorough testing, it has proved that it's both functional and easier to w
Marina Kovaleva
Remote Development in JetBrains IDEs Now Available to Amazon CodeCatalyst Customers
We've partnered with Amazon to deliver an integration between Amazon CodeCatalyst and JetBrains Gateway! Amazon CodeCatalyst, which has just been announced at AWS re:Invent, is a unified software development and delivery service that includes on-demand development environments. This integration means that you can now use JetBrains Gateway to develop remotely with your favorite JetBrains IDEs running in Amazon CodeCatalyst Dev Environments. All language processing happens in the AWS Cloud, while you work locally with a feature-rich thin client. This creates a perfect blend of powerful cloud
Max Golov
Remote Development in JetBrains IDEs Now Available to GitHub Codespaces Users
We have partnered with GitHub to deliver an integration between GitHub Codespaces and JetBrains Gateway! GitHub Codespaces allows users to create a secure, configurable, and dedicated development environment hosted in the cloud. This integration means that you can use JetBrains Gateway to develop remotely with your favorite IDEs running in GitHub Codespaces. All language processing happens on virtual machines hosted by GitHub while you work locally with a feature-rich thin client. This creates a perfect blend between powerful cloud computing and a responsive and familiar JetBrains IDE exper


text:
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';

const {
  arrayOf, number, object, string, shape,
} = PropTypes;

export const errorShape = shape({
  statusCode: number,
  error: string,
  message: string.isRequired,
  attributes: arrayOf(object),
});

export const userShape = shape({
  user: shape({
    name: string.isRequired,
    screen_name: string.isRequired,
  }),
});

export const timelineShape = shape({
  text: string,
  user: shape({
    name: string,
  }),
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Kambhoji's soundtrack features the final songs that veteran poet-lyricist O N V Kurup wrote before his passing. And composer M Jayachandran doesn't waste those words, crafting three neat songs out of them. Shruthi Cherumo is composed in the raga the movie is named after (the soundtrack understandably has multiple songs based in kambhoji raga) and has Yesudas on vocals. The arrangement that takes one back to the 90s features some lovely veena and flute. Nadavaathil doesn't have a particularly charming melody, but the arrangement and Chithra's singing make the song work. Chenthar Nermukhi is best of the three songs, and indeed best of the soundtrack! A delightfully constructed ragamalika (surutti, kamas, saveri, shanmukhapriya, begada the ragas) that Chithra does a top notch rendition of along with an equally competent Sreevalsan J Menon (who incidentally composed a similarly themed dance musical Swapaanam two years back), while the backdrop is replete with kathakali sangeetham elements that add to the song's charm. Movie's director Vinod Mankara pens the song Anguli Sparsham, a song the composer largely bases on the raga ahiri, one that is rarely used in movies (the last one was again by MJ for the movie Rathi Nirvedham, the most famous song would be pazham thamizh/oru murai from Manichithrathaazhu). Composer gets Carnatic doyenne Bombay Jayashree for this one, and her singing is a perfect fit for the song's mellow tone. Some excellent violins in the arrangement; the first interlude being a high point.
Rest of the songs are all set around traditional lyrics. M Jayachandran lets Bombay Jayashree deliver Gopalakrishna Bharathi's behag-based Irakkam Varaamal with just a tanpura for backing, and it is a delight to hear the lady here. Similar treatment is given to the female version of Irayimman Thampi's Harinakshi. Here it is young Carnatic singer N J Nandini who does a freeform rendition, and quite commendably so. The song works better in the male version however as it is orchestrated as a kathakali padham that the song is. Sopaana sangeetham exponent Kottakkal Madhu is the lead singer here and he has little difficulty delivering this with finesse. The tune remains largely same in both versions, based in the raga kambhoji. Nandini does a similar solo act with Unnayi Warrier's Olivil Undo as well, the composer retaining the song's original tune (bhairavi-based, as per the internet, but there seems to be some kharaharapriya as well). The final song which also comes from Unnayi Warrier's Nalacharitham is sung by Kalanilayam Sinu and this is the only song that doesn't really work. With no orchestration here either, the song depends entirely on the singing which isn't effective.
Kaliyachan last year. Swapaanam the year before that (And Nadan and Ivan Megharoopan in the years before, though not strictly based on the similar themes). Good to see at least one movie focusing on Kerala's traditional arts/music come out every year. After Sreevalsan J Menon and Bijibal, M Jayachandran delivers an excellent soundtrack in Kambhoji. So good to see the composer go all out with classical, not many remain in Malayalam who are capable of pulling that off.
Thanks to @kitha_n for helping with figuring out the ragas and @soundtrackindia for introducing me to the soundtrack.


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Reinsalu: Russia wants to use Sputnik to undermine EU unity ({{contentCtrl.commentsTotal}})
Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa). Source: Ken Mürk/ERR
Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu told ERR in an interview that Russia is accusing Estonia of going after Sputnik to erode the EU's Russian sanctions policy.
Sputnik has launched a media campaign aimed at Estonian authorities where it strongly urges Estonia not to attack the free press which it claims to represent. How do you comment?
Sputnik does not constitute journalism as it is understood in the free world in my eyes and in the eyes of many institutions. It is a propaganda institution. Estonian agencies or more precisely the money laundering data bureau is exercising European Union financial sanctions based on Estonian legislation, following the logic that Dmitri Kiselyov, head of Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, has been among the central propagandists in vindicating Russian aggression in Ukraine. And the Sputnik office in question is a branch of that media organization. That is the reason behind financial sanctions against Sputnik. It is not the first time higher-ups of the Russian Federation are trying to erode the unity of the West.
What measures has Estonia taken in connection with Sputnik's activities?
Because we are talking about financial sanctions against a specific influential person, citizen Kiselyov, who controls the Sputnik news agency, they are primarily measures of the financial kind. Engaging in financial activities with the sanctioned organization is prohibited, meaning that Estonian credit providers will not open accounts for them or facilitate their payments for example.
Have any other measures been taken?
The list of measures following financial sanctions is very long. But what I want to emphasize is that we have not taken measures against the portal's media content. They are financial sanctions aimed at economic activity. I believe it to be justified. We have notified the European Commission's Legal Service. European agencies have said in the Commission that steps taken by Estonia in exercising sanctions policy are warranted.
Sputnik is active in a lot of EU countries, and it seems right now that Estonia has taken the lead in terms of moving on sanctions. Do other countries have different legal frameworks? Lithuania, Latvia and Finland are likely not applying the sanctions?
Member states get to make decisions concerning the practical execution of sanctions based on their legal systems. Estonia is not an exception. Latvia, citing sanctions against Kiselyov, has previously restricted access to online portals Baltnews and Sputnik in the territory of the country. As far as I know, Lithuania has also applied financial sanctions against Rossiya Segodnya. It is nothing unique.
What about Western and Southern Europe?
The European Commission has a working group where member states declare sanctions they have applied. They can also ask for advice in how to do it from a legal standpoint. I believe it is sensible to realize that the consistency of the policy of sanctions is a matter of values for all European states and definitely a matter of security for our region.
Why is Russia spreading the narrative that Estonia is persecuting Russian news portal Sputnik?
Because that is the political picture Russia wants to paint. I believe it is not a matter of besieging Sputnik journalists. Sputnik was not allowed to attend this summer's media freedom conference in London that also sparked a protest by Russia. It is a broader issue, one of Russia attempting to erode Western unity as concerns sanctions policy. It has picked this case the effect of which in the international community is rather modest. Russia has picked it and wants to put pressure on us to surrender ground so that it could show that even the Baltics are not consistent when it comes to sanctions. The incident might be modest but one of significance down the line.
Are some countries more principled and thorough in observing sanctions policy than others?
I believe that if we look at all persons and institutions, there are definitely fluctuations in different European countries.
Sputnik has been active in Estonia for some time and the bank accounts in question have also been used for a while. Why was the step taken now as opposed to sooner?
That is a good question. The EU has separate working groups for interpretation and execution of sanctions policy where there are consultations and where information is exchanged. I'm sure our officials evaluated and analyzed the practice of other countries, especially Latvia and Lithuania. Why were the sanctions implemented now? I'm sure the data bureau's officials have the answer. I would like to emphasize once again that I have no doubt it has been handled properly, applying our sanctions law inside the broader framework of EU sanctions brought on by Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Would you support restricting Russian television networks in Estonian free-to-air television and radio and perhaps blocking the content of online portals?
Estonia has not gone down the path of content blocking, while we formally have the legal basis for it when it comes to war propaganda and other such activities. Latvia and Lithuania have exercised it following various reasons. I have deemed it necessary to analyze different legal aspects first. But no decision has been made there.
I believe that when talking about war propaganda and attacks against persons in terms of urging people to commit crimes, the measure can be justified in certain situations, and several countries have deployed it. I believe this is not where we should say that freedom of speech is absolute and that calls to violence should be under total protection from freedom of speech in the mass media – I do not agree with that.
Editor: Marcus Turovski
ministry of foreign affairssputnikurmas reinsalurossiya segodnyarussian sanctionsmoney laundering data bureaudmitri kiselyov
Russian foreign minister hits out at Estonia Sputnik actions
Urmas Reinsalu: It was a year of media radicalization
Sputnik ends operations in Estonia
Estonia provides nearly €100,000 in humanitarian aid to Ukraine in December
Financial intelligence unit: Rossiya Segodnya/Sputnik sanctions no surprise
Russia threatens countermeasures against Estonia over Sputnik sanctions
Reinsalu: Concessions to Russia sign of West's powerlessness
Reinsalu: Response to hybrid threats needs to be 'systematic and strong'
Foreign minister condemns return of Russia to PACE


If your dream career is to be a solicitor in England & Wales, it is important that you have the proper training to become qualified. It is against the law to market yourself as a solicitor if you have not received qualified status and if you have not been accredited by the appropriate body. Thankfully, there are a lot of places in the United Kingdom where you can train to become a properly qualified solicitor and so we shall take a quick look at those below.
Many of the people training to be a solicitor in England & Wales have studied law at university. Law courses can be quite competitive, so it is important that you achieved good grades in high school exams if you want to secure a place at a top university.
There are around 100 universities across the United Kingdom which offer law as an option, but it is important to be aware that the United Kingdom is separated into three different legal jurisdictions (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), and learning law in one of these jurisdictions can prevent you from practicing in other jurisdictions, unless extra training is completed. For example, if you study law at a Scottish university, this may only allow you to practice law in Scotland. If you have already completed a degree in a different subject, or if you have completed a law degree in an alternative jurisdiction, law conversion courses are also available at a range of different universities across the country. These courses usually take a year to complete if they are taken as a full time course, however these courses can be very intensive, so applicants must be prepared to work very hard if they want to pass them. Even after students have graduated from their degree or their conversion course, there is still plenty of work to do before they are qualified.
The majority of people training to become a solicitor will need to complete a Legal Practice Course (LPC). In order to qualify as a solicitor, the LPC must be completed and passed at a training provider which has been accredited by the Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA). Without this accreditation, the course is not an official one, and will not help you to become a fully qualified solicitor.
LPCs are offered by a number of different universities and private training providers across the UK. In order to find a training provider in your area, you can search on the SRA website. This is also the best place to go if you want to check whether your chosen provider is fully accredited.
The types of course which are offered by training providers can vary slightly depending on where you go, but the content will be similar in many respects. This is the stage in legal training where most people choose their specialism, so it is best to choose a training provider that is well-regarded in providing training in the specialism that you are interested in. Whilst most people take a year to complete their course when studying full time, part time, evening and fast track courses are available from some providers.
Training contracts are available from law firms around the country, although the firm that you do your training contract with must have legal training provider status. The firm is required to carry out regularly evaluations about your performance, including at least 3 formal assessments which meet assessment requirements issued by the SRA. As an authorised training provider, the SRA can provide additional support to firms which are employing graduates on training contracts.
The most competitive training contracts offer large salaries and fantastic progression opportunities for candidates, although they require a lot of hard work and determination from those who are lucky enough to secure one.
It is possible to become a solicitor without a university degree, if you have experience of working within a law firm. Candidates must work towards CILEx accreditation and membership by completing a series of courses and exams. As part of this route, candidates must usually complete the LPC, although many candidates choose the part time route so that they can continue to work whilst studying. The CILEx route takes at least 5 years to complete.


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La stazione di Marino del Tronto-Folignano è una fermata ferroviaria posta sulla linea Ascoli Piceno-San Benedetto del Tronto. Serve principalmente il quartiere di Marino del Tronto, ad est della città di Ascoli Piceno e il limitrofo comune di Folignano.

Storia
La fermata venne disattivata e in seguito riattivata il 29 ottobre 1939.

Note

Bibliografia
 Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, Fascicolo Linea 103.

Altri progetti

Marino del Tronto-Folignano
Folignano


Paul Benwell & Associates would like to thank the extraordinary line up of companies who presented at our November Investor Cocktail. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our event. You can find the presentations of the presenting companies below.


Here is the result for "Exotic" rugs and carpets provided by Aladdins Carpet. Bellow you can find more pages of Exotic area rugs. We hope that you will like these Exotic carpet Now just click the carpet picture to see more details about that Exotic area rug.
Hand woven Nomad Dark Copper Wool Sumak 5'0" x 7'11"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Brown, Red Wool Rug 4'6" x 10'2"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Dark Red Wool Rug 5'7" x 9'4"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Black Wool Rug 3'4" x 17'10"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Red Wool Rug 3'4" x 16'10"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Black, Dark Navy Wool Rug 5'6" x 9'6"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Black, Red Wool Rug 4'7" x 9'6"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Dark Navy Wool Rug 4'8" x 10'7"
Hand-knotted Meshkin Dark Copper Wool Rug 4'5" x 10'10"
Newport Cream, Light Green Rug 7'10" x 10'10"
Newport Cream, Dark Navy Rug 7'10" x 10'10"
Los Angeles Cream, Dark Navy Rug 7'10" x 10'10"
Newport Cream Rug 7'10" x 10'10"
Los Angeles Cream, Navy Rug 7'10" x 10'10"
Newport Cream, Dark Navy Rug 2'3" x 7'6"
Newport Cream Rug 2'3" x 7'6"
Newport Cream Rug 3'11" x 5'7"
Los Angeles Cream, Dark Navy Rug 2'3" x 7'6"
Newport Cream, Dark Navy Rug 3'11" x 5'7"
Hand-knotted Royal Kazak Cream, Red Wool Rug 5'8" x 7'11"
Handmade Thom Filicia ECGSTM0F908D Brown, Creme Wool Rug 5'0" x 8'0"
ECG's Thom Filicia collection is inspired by timeless contemporary designs crafted with the softest new zealand wool available.This rug is crafted using a hand-tufted construction with a new zealand wool pile and features main color of cream.


Chemicals and technologies perform key functions in our society – for example, in the fields of electronics, textiles and packaging. They also make a crucial contribution to sustainable economic activity in areas such as the manufacture of energy-saving products. At the same time, high-risk chemicals and technologies are still being used in many fields, despite the fact that better alternatives are now available. The usefulness of problematic substances and new technologies must be examined and weighed against the risks to people and the environment.
Chemicals should be used in ways that conserve materials and resources and are socially and environmentally acceptable. The concept of "sustainable chemistry" provides the framework for this approach. In the EU, the REACH chemicals regulation provides a further set of demanding rules. Chemical substances cannot be manufactured or sold in large quantities in the EU unless they are registered under REACH. REACH also regulates the authorisation of chemicals that give particular cause for concern, the aim being to replace these with other substances. The RoHS Directive, which restricts the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, operates in a similar way. Under REACH consumers now have the right to be informed about particularly problematic substances in products.
New technologies – opportunity or risk?
Many new technologies also need to be scrutinised. This applies in particular to modern enabling technologies such as digitalisation and additive manufacturing or 3D printing. These technologies often depend on the use of new materials that may significantly influence the sustainability of the technology. In many cases, such as in the use of nanomaterials, the impacts on humans and the environment have not yet been sufficiently explored. Notwithstanding all the benefits associated with the new functions and improved properties of nano-based substances, undesirable side effects must be carefully examined and appropriately regulated. Genome editing is another field in which unbiased consideration of possible advantages and disadvantages is essential if this new genetic engineering technique is to be used responsibly.
The Oeko-Institut addresses the safe use of chemical substances and new technologies at many levels. Its researchers work on chemicals legislation and explore ways of replacing problematic substances – in the light of the REACH regulation, the RoHS Directive and the ELV Directive on end-of-life vehicles. They also study the requirements for the sustainable use of new materials and technical processes and apply their expertise to the development of new products and processes. As a result of their involvement in development activities they are able to encourage consideration of sustainability aspects at an early stage in areas such as plastics and electronics.


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Abandoning the now-traditional briefings at Queen's Park, Premier Doug Ford has embarked on a province-wide tour he expects to cover some 5,000 km over the summer. He is still planning to provide daily updates, but said the tour is to hear first-hand from businesses and communities about the impact of and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the tour has an election campaign feel, Ford – today at least – is keeping the focus on pandemic-related issues, starting with a $1.4 million investment for a Cambridge company manufacturing personal protective equipment.
PPE Funding
At his first stop on the provincial tour – to "showcase our strong local businesses who went the extra mile" – Premier Ford announced $1.4 million for Cambridge-based Eclipse Automation, through the Ontario Together Fund, to manufacture up to one million N-95 masks per week. "Thanks to the incredible businesses like this one, Ontario will never, ever again, be left at the mercy of other countries and other leaders when it comes to vital PPE and medical equipment," Ford enthused.
You can find the details of the province's announcement here.


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Rolling Stone #227: Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt: The Million-Dollar Woman
LOS ANGELES- "Miss Ronstadt's line is busy. You'll have to wait. I gotta check you." The beefy guard at the front gate of Malibu Colony waits and dials again. Still busy.
Twenty minutes later, the guard gives up and waves me through. "You could be here all day," he cracks mirthlessly. "But listen . . . if I don't hear from her within five minutes" . . . he pauses for effect . . . "you'll meet the sheriffs. You don't want to meet the sheriffs."
The Colony. A tract of roomy beach houses strung along the Pacific 25 miles north of Los Angeles. Considering the surroundings, it's not surprising that Malibu has almost always been inhabited by artists, though the enormous cost of year-round, triple-security living makes it a select few at that.
The Band built their studio here. Dylan, Neil Diamond and Eric Clapton recorded here. Neil Young named Zuma after the Malibu community where he lives. Joni Mitchell refers to it in "Trouble Child" . . . and Linda Ronstadt posed for the softly erotic cover of Hasten Down the Wind just outside her picture window.
I pull up in front of her wooden gate and push the intercom button. A frenzied voice blurts, "Uh . . . hold on . . . c'mon in . . ." and the gate buzzes open.
A minute later Linda Ronstadt, who turned 30 last July, bounds down from her upstairs bedroom. Hair mussed and still in a nightshirt, she rubs the sleep from her eyes. It's one in the afternoon. "I've been on the phone all morning," she says. "Let me make some coffee." I almost forgot to explain about the sheriffs.
Her eyes widen as she listens to the story. "That guard said that?" she asks incredulously. "What a jerk. I better call." After inviting me to look around, Linda scampers back to the phone.
Her split-level home, which she purchased for almost $200,000, dominated by the Pacific Ocean and beach only a few yards below, is roomy, with wood floors, plenty of windows and virtually no furniture besides a piano, stereo and blue paisley couch. Linda has lived here alone for the past nine months, and repeatedly apologizes for the lack of furnishings.
"I'm learning to live by myself . . . and I love it," she says a few minutes later, curled up on the sun deck sofa. "I lived alone for two months once, in an apartment, but I've always either been on the road or shacked up with one guy or another or living in some kind of hell." She leans back into a stream of bright sunlight. "I've gone a long time now without falling in love and without having that neurotic tendency to define my existence."
Photo by Annie Leibovitz.
The overwhelming popularity of Linda Ronstadt has caught more than a few people by surprise. For six years and four albums she was regarded as no more than a barefoot, braless, pleasant-sounding country-ballad singer. Then suddenly, she cut "You're No Good," a mainstream pop effort stronger and more confident than anything she'd ever recorded. Her 1974 album, Heart Like a Wheel, shot past Led Zeppelin and Elton John to the top of the charts. Her next two albums, Prisoner in Disguise and Hasten Down the Wind, have also been million-sellers, helped along by singles like "When Will I Be Loved," "I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love with You," then "Heatwave" and "That'll Be the Day." Now, just two years after "You're No Good," Elektra/Asylum has compiled Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits for Christmas release.
"When Heart Like a Wheel went to Number One," says Linda, "I just walked around apologizing every single day. I could see that my supposed friends resented me. I went around going, 'I'm not that good of a singer. . . .' And I got so self-conscious that when I went onstage, I couldn't sing at all. It almost made me go crazy . . . I mean I needed a lot of help, you know."
Although she rarely looks me in the eye, focusing instead on couples and dog walkers on the beach, Linda's confessions begin to flow easily. Almost as if I were her analyst.
"I found a psychiatrist," she continues, "who really put me on the right track. He got me through all those little obstacles. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have quit . . . I didn't want to live and I didn't want to sing again. But I feel stronger now than I've ever felt. This is not my fantasy of what I want to be, but it is the reality and it's a lot more comfortable to live with."
Linda's fantasy began in Tucson, Arizona, where, at age 14, she began singing in a folkie group with her older sister and brother. In 1964, at age 18, she left for Hollywood with $30 in her pocket and joined a folk-rock group that became the Stone Poneys. After three frustrating years they broke up, just before "Different Drum" became a hit. As a solo, Ronstadt fronted numerous transient musicians, among them Glenn Frey and Don Henley, who went on to form the Eagles. Linda was unable to communicate with them on musical terms, she says, and she had difficulty bossing men around. "When I got to L.A.," she says, "I was so intimidated by the quality of everybody's musicianship that instead of trying to get better, I chickened out and wouldn't work." She also had problems with her first solo albums- "I didn't know what I was doing," she says. Her producers among them John Boylan and J.D. Souther- would also be managing her or living with her, so that she was at once a singer, a lover, a daughter-figure and a puppet.
Finally, in 1973, she asked Peter Asher, the former pop singer (Peter and Gordon) and the producer of James Taylor, to help complete her Don't Cry Now album. On the road, anxious to please Asher, she brushed up on acoustic guitar, took command of a ragged band and, in short, grew up. Heart like a Wheel was next. Asher is now her manager and producer.
"Peter," says Linda, "was the first person willing to work with me as an equal, even though his abilities were far superior to mine. I didn't have to fight for my ideas. I thought I couldn't understand machines, you know, and it turns out that the joke's on me. I finally realized, 'Gee, I can learn about digital delay . . . .' All of a sudden, making records became so much more fun. I used to get so depressed when I was in the studio that I would slither under the console and go to sleep with the monitors blaring. Just to escape."
"For the first time," Peter Asher notes, "Linda feels more in control of her career, she knows when she has a month off, when she has to do an album. She can see a pattern, a kind of reality to things. It's more like working for a living, as opposed to going through all the craziness. Before, she always felt that events were just rushing her along . . . in a direction that was really up to the wind."
These days, Linda has the plucky air of a seasoned professional; and she has matured, as an artist and a woman. Ronstadt may still not be the sex goddess her album-photo-infatuated fans lust for, but she's getting closer.
Linda's stage attire has become more refined, too. Her standard Levi's and white blouse tied at the waist are frequently replaced by long, flowing dresses and halter tops.
But Ronstadt has quirks in her stage presence. She'll smile sweetly after a song, curtsy and then chirp, 'Didn't the Jerry Lewis telethon last night suck?' Her onstage confidence has grown considerably, and she projects success, helped along by applause from the audience, every time she begins a song.
Still, Ronstadt has hours of horror stories of stage terror and tearful backstage scenes dating as recently as the outset of her tour earlier this year. "I threw up on the way to the airport . . . and for the first two weeks of the tour. I had taken six months off because I'd become a physical and emotional wreck, and now I thought I had an ulcer. I just didn't think I was good enough. Finally, I just went, 'Okay, I can go home and forget about it and get sued by every agent and promoter in the world and be completely unprofessional, or I can say, 'Look, it can't get great in a month but I'm going to do a little better every night.' By the end of the tour, a month later, I was looking forward to every night."
But, she adds, "Believe me, things are not hunky-dory. They haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you like you're people in stars' suits. People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit and think I'm famous and act like fools . . . it's very dehumanizing.
"I think it's helping each other out that makes it bearable. The only way to deal with it is to have that real close camaraderie and to keep recycling it and teasing and keeping the humor level up all the time. You have to do it in an aggressive manner, though, or else it turns ugly. It was like group therapy, only worth more.
"When we came back to end the tour in L.A., I had my first feelings of a letdown. Suddenly, all these people weren't down the hall and you can't all sit around and drink coffee. We were so lonely that we turned to each other, then they all went home to their old ladies and I came home to the dog, you know."
It's very easy to become drawn in by Linda's tales of intense vulnerability, though Ronstadt has obviously been drawing on some kind of strength all these years. "Anybody can hurt my feelings; it's not very hard to do. But they don't get a second chance. I am not a professional victim, and there's plenty of those in this business because they see vulnerability as something attractive. If I see that someone or something is going to hurt me, I'll get the fuck out of its way. It's too easy to get destroyed. But, yeah, I worry. I try to walk that fine line between being strong and trying to avoid becoming callous. As soon as you're callous you not only shut out all the pain, but all the good stuff too. You either close the door or you open it. I keep the door open with the screen door slammed . . . and a strong dog at the door. That's the policy of my heart.
"When I first started doing this," she muses, drawing her legs up close to her chest, "there weren't really any other [rock/pop] women singers, except for Maria Muldaur and Grace Slick. But Maria was the only one I really knew and neither of us could afford to go to psychiatrists then. Nobody had gone ahead of us and broken any of the ground on the kind of emotional problems that you experience being a woman in this particular place.
"I had a woman cousin at Yale, one of the first women to graduate . . . and they studied these women very carefully and found that they developed all these masculine mannerisms . . . in other words, they completely succumbed to the peer-group pressure in order to get recognition and acceptance. They all began to walk like a man. They began to cop butch attitudes, you know, and that's what's happened in this male-dominated business. I felt it happening to me and I decided to strike that from my personality. I like being a girl."
Another valuable lesson she's learned, she says, came from Dolly Parton. Emmylou Harris had called Linda over for some vocal and moral support when Parton dropped in on her sessions. They've since appeared together on Parton's syndicated TV show and become friends. "I've never met anybody so free of neurosis as that person," says Linda. "I was devastated by her honesty and her charm and sweetness. I'm sort of this Northern thinker and she's just kind of a Southern magnolia blossom that floats on the breeze. But she's no dummy.
"She taught me that you don't have to sacrifice your femininity in order to have equal status. The only thing that gives you equal status with other musicians is your musicianship. Period. It doesn't matter how butch you act, how much dope you can take or how many nights you can stay up in a row."
Linda has been widening her circle of musician friends, too. Phoebe Snow and noted session vocalist Valerie Carter- whom she's helping record a solo album, giving emotional and vocal support- are recent acquaintances. Snow turned her on to Charlie Parker and jazz singing. "I intend to do some heavy hanging out with her," Linda laughs. "It's another sphere of music to drag in."
When Mick Jagger turned up at her recent shows at the Universal Amphitheatre, she was as surprised as anybody. She brought him to the Valerie Carter sessions, where they hooked up with Lowell George and sang all night. Contrary to rumor, Ronstadt and Jagger did not discuss a one-shot duet album. "But maybe," she giggles, "I ought to write up a resumé."
Meanwhile, Ronstadt's accolades pile up. She didn't bother to show up and collect her Best Female Vocalist award on Don Kirschner's Rock Music Awards show (she called them the "Who Cares" awards). "My attitude is, 'Don't give me an award, send me money.'" She doubles up with laughter. "I know how good or bad I am. An award won't convince me that a record that I didn't think was good is good."
The doorbell rings. It's Wendy Waldman, another friend, dropping by to spend the cool late afternoon at the beach. The two immediately talk music, Linda rushing to a cassette machine to play a rough cut of a duet with Valerie Carter. "It's such a thrill," she gushes, "to sing with someone this incredible."
Waldman listens intently to the beautifully intertwined voices- Carter, the unharnessed youngster, and Ronstadt, the polished veteran.
"What do you think?" asks Linda.
"She's really good," Wendy says. "She'll learn . . . just like you."
Linda smiles and stares at the cassette player. Then the intercom buzzes with my 4 p.m. lift and . . . the phone starts ringing again. "Oh God," shrieks Linda, "I'm not even dressed yet. I always forget to get dressed."
Courtesy of Rolling Stone – Cameron Crowe – December 2, 1976


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"UK-sized swirls" are transporting energy throughout the solar atmosphere
by Lee Cavendish, 6 August 2019
This could explain the conundrum that is solar atmosphere's temperature rising as you move further away
Research led by the University of Sheffield shows the first observational evidence that ubiquitous swirls in the solar atmosphere could generate short-lived Alfvén pulses. Image credit: NASA/SDO
An international team of scientists led by the University of Sheffield have discovered previously undetected observational evidence of frequent energetic wave pulses the size of the United Kingdom, transporting energy from the solar surface to the higher solar atmosphere.
Magnetic plasma waves and pulses have been widely suggested as one of the key mechanisms which could answer the long-standing question of why the temperature of the solar atmosphere rises dramatically, from thousands to millions of degrees, as you move away from the solar surface.
There have been many theories put forward, including some developed at the University of Sheffield – for example, heating the plasma by magnetic waves or magnetic plasma – but observational validation of the ubiquity of a suitable energy transport mechanism has proved challenging until now.
By developing innovative approaches, applied mathematicians at the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC) in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield, and the University of Science and Technology of China, have discovered unique observational evidence of plentiful energetic wave pulses, named after the Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén, in the solar atmosphere.
These short-lived Alfvén pulses have been found to be generated by prevalent photospheric plasma swirls about the size of the British Isles, which are suggested to have a population of at least 150,000 in the solar photosphere at any moment of time.
Professor Robertus Erdélyi (a.k.a. von Fáy-Siebenbürgen), Head of SP2RC, says, "Swirling motions are everywhere in the Universe, from sinking water in domestic taps with a size of centimetres, to tornadoes on Earth and on the Sun, solar jets and spiral galaxies with a size of up to 520,000 light years. This work has shown, for the first time, the observational evidence that ubiquitous swirls in the solar atmosphere could generate short-lived Alfvén pulses.
The Sun's corona is the most mysterious part of the star as it is the farthest region from the core, but even hotter than the surface. Image credit: Habbal, et al.
"The generated Alfvén pulses easily penetrate the solar atmosphere along cylinder-like magnetic flux tubes, a form of magnetism a bit like trees in a forest. The pulses could travel all the way upward and reach the top of the solar chromospheric layers, or, even beyond."
Alfvén modes are currently very hard to observe directly, because they do not cause any local intensity concentrations or rarefactions as they make their journey through a magnetised plasma. They are hard to be observationally distinguished from some other types of magnetic plasma modes, like the well-known transversal magnetic plasma waves, often called kink modes.
"The energy flux carried by the Alfvén pulses we detected now are estimated to be more than 10 times higher than that needed for heating the local upper solar chromosphere," says Dr Jiajia Liu, postdoctoral research associate. "The chromosphere is a relatively thin layer between the solar surface and the extremely hot corona. The solar chromosphere appears as a red ring around the Sun during total solar eclipses."
Professor Erdélyi adds, "It has been a fascinating question for the scientific community for a long while – how the Sun and many other stars supply energy and mass to their upper atmospheres. Our results, as part of an exciting UK-China collaboration, involving our very best early-career scientists like Drs Jiajia Liu, Chris Nelson and Ben Snow, are an important step forward in addressing the supply of the needed non-thermal energy for solar and astrophysical plasma heating.
"We believe, these UK-sized photospheric magnetic plasma swirls are also very promising candidates not just for energy but also for mass transportation between the lower and upper layers of the solar atmosphere. Our future research with my colleagues at SP2RC will now focus on this new puzzle."
Tags: Alfvén pulses, All About Space, Magnetic plasma waves, news, Solar Atmosphere, Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre, Sun, University of Sheffield


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Kaylee McKeown Blasts 57.63 Commonwealth Record Just 0.06Sec Shy Of World 100 Back Mark
Craig Lord 2021-05-15 Reading Time: 3 minutes
This happen for a reason, says Kaylee McKeown on her Swimming Australia profile
Kaylee McKeown threw down a Boxing Kangaroo of a gauntlet at the Sydney Open with a Commonwealth record of 57.63 in the 100m backstroke, the sizzling speed of it just 0.06sec shy of the World record held by American Regan Smith.
That the swim came with only a few weeks left to Olympic trials in Australia and two months out from the Games themselves can be taken with a pinch of salt: world records set soon before a Games throughout history have been both precursors and curses to gold on the big occasion.
What is certain is that McKeown is in the form of her life at just the right time. After giving warning with a 58.14 in evening heats on Friday Down Under, Kaylee McKeown scorched a 28.24 there and 29.39 back to take the helm of the 2021 World rankings in the second fastest time in history.
Results in full – online on Meet Mobile
The World record of 57.57 was set by Smith at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju when she led the USA to gold in the 4×100 medley.
Deep into a pandemic in the second season of Covid-19 constraints, the pace of the delayed Olympic Games might feel the weight of it all, or so it was thought at some point in the challenge of it all. Events this year have clearly shown that the elite shoal of world swimming has continued to work on and gather momentum fit to deliver a tidal wave of pioneering performances should the Tokyo Olympic Games go ahead, given the crisis underway in the health service in Japan (in The Vortex).
Money and multi-billion-dollar contracts are driving the agenda on the Olympic side of decision-making at a time when 70% of the Japanese population want the Games cancelled.
The contract between the IOC and host city Tokyo is straightforward: There's one article regarding cancellation and it only gives the option for the IOC to cancel, not for the host city. That's because the Olympic Games are the "exclusive property" of the IOC, international sports lawyer Alexandre Miguel Mestre told the BBC. And as the "owner" of the Games, it is the IOC that can terminate said contract.
War or civil disorder are among reasons to cancel. Arguably, the pandemic is another in 2021 after that was indeed the case in 2020. The Olympic charter also stipulates that the IOC should ensure "the health of the athletes" and promote "safe sports", Mestre told the BBC, which adds in its commentary: "but despite all this, the IOC seems determined to go ahead".
Meanwhile, the athletes must work on and envision their goals being achieved regardless of what unfolds.
How Kaylee Mckeown Shuffled The All-Time Rankings
Kaylee McKeown took down the national and regional 100m mark a day after a 2:04.31 in the 200m backstroke that leads the 2021 rankings and left her a touch closer than she was to the top 2 all-time at No3: Smith's world record from 2019 World titles stands at 2:03.35, while the London 2012 Olympic title went to fellow American Missy Franklin in a then World record of 2:04.06. McKeown's best had been 2:04.49.
Big backstroke showdowns, then, set for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, beyond Trials in both Australia and the United States, the last two nations to hold full trials and among the few to keep it 'sudden-death' with no pre-selections and no 'other events' that count towards selection.
Speaking to reporters in Sydney after the 100m, Kaylee McKeown said:
Kayless McKeown, courtesy of Swimming Australia
"It felt like I was holding a lot more water than last night (in the heat) so we decided to take it out a bit easier and see what I could bring it home in… I was actually really impressed with that race backing up. When I touched the wall, I looked over at my coach Chris Mooney and he wasn't looking at me…and I thought what? And he was (actually) hand shaking all the other coaches and of course he came down and of course he's happy with me as well. It was so close but I have to have something to chase and (world record holder) Regan Smith is still the No. 1 girl at the moment and then I've got a lot of girls chasing me here like Emily Seebohm and Minna Atherton and other girls coming out left, right and centre and there is still a month to go (to our Trials). Who knows what can happen in that time…? And between now and then I'll keep doing what I'm doing and keep training hard."
Kaylee Mckeown
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You are here: Home / Thoughts to ponder / Man's electromagnetic field?
Since our thinking & feeling are electrical process, we are surrounded by our own electromagnetic fields. Our own electromagnetic fields start at birth, travel though space, and stop at death. Is what we call Spirit a form of electromagnetic field? Can others sense our thoughts & feelings?


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The warm and cold adventure of Icy the Iceberg delights young readers and inspires them to never give up. In this children's book, a snowflake transitions from being just a tiny crystal of ice to being a large iceberg. As he goes through the stages of life, Icy realizes that life is a balance between good and bad, happy and sad.
This endearing tale of squirrels teaches children about the life of such amazing creatures in a fun and entertaining way. This narrative of Squirelly's life starts from the very moment he was born, under his mother's care, all the way to the time he meets the love of his life, Starlett, and starts a family of his own.
Larry Friend (author) and Sidney "Mindy" Makis (illustrator) are creative siblings. Icy the Iceberg is their first published work.
Once upon a time in Vancouver, Canada, the sun began heating the waters. The water started to evaporate. The water turned into vapor. This vapor formed molecules. Into the air the molecules rose. Higher and higher they went. They became colder and colder.
At first the particles turned into water, then the water became snow and Icy was born!
On a cool spring day a baby boy squirrel was born in the top of a very tall oak tree. After this squirrel entered the world, he was joined by three sisters and one brother.
Because they had little hair, the babies huddled together to preserve their body heat. They were so cute, but oh so helpless. The mother and father had to do everything for them. The mother nursed them to supply them with nourishment. Both the mother and father had to take turns leaving the nest to eat.
I am always up for good conversations and queries. Feel free to drop me a message. Have a beautiful day!


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Tag Archives: Shia LaBeouf
'Fury' as Subtle as, Well, a Tank
Two stars (out of four)
R (strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, language)
There is nothing subtle about war, so it follows that there's not much subtlety to be found in war movies.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but in the case of writer-director David Ayer's "Fury," the film is so desperate to shock and awe, watching it feels like being barreled over by something big, heavy and unwieldy. Like a tank, for instance.
I know that's a cheap and easy metaphor for a movie about an American tank crew barreling their way suicidally through Nazi Germany in the last, grim days of World War II. Nevertheless, it's an apt comparison for a film that prizes force over finesse and sprawling, simplistic themes and imagery over convincing relationships and emotion.
That's not to say a tank movie isn't a brilliant idea. It's gotta be one of the most novel war story angles Hollywood has come up with in a long time. And when Ayer focuses his pen and his lens on what it's like to be inside one of those gigantic, creaking hunks of metal, rolling its way inexorably through a nightmare landscape of smoke, carnage and death, "Fury" is fascinating.
Unfortunately, the director's focus too often roams to the kind of wartime sequences we've seen before in more compelling visions of World War II, including "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific."
"Fury" takes its name from its most imposing star — the one that isn't married to Angelina Jolie — a battered bruiser of a Sherman tank, manned by the seasoned, war-weary Sgt. Don Collier (Brad Pitt) and his faithful crew.
The movie makes a point of telling us that the average tank crew only survived for about six weeks. Collier's gang has bucked that trend, managing to stay alive and stick together for four years.
The sergeant's goal is to keep it that way, not an easy task considering his new crew member, Norman (Logan Lerman), is a baby-faced clerk who has no combat experience and has never seen the inside of a tank.
"Fury" may appear to be an ensemble film, but don't let that fool you. This is Pitt's show. It's almost as if the actor is reprising a less comical version of his character from "Inglourious Basterds," the Nat-zi-hating Lt. Aldo Raine.
Collier schools young Norman in the ways of war and utters the movie's choicest monologues. "Ideals are peaceful. History is violent," he informs his scared-stiff, stubbornly pacifist protege in a jaded Southern drawl.
Don't get me wrong. Pitt is a fine actor. His hair buzzed into a crew cut, his face scrawled with scars, he deploys his signature blend of toughness and torment like a weapon. If only the other members of the cast were given a chance to show their stuff. Instead, they're made to embody war movie stereotypes.
Shia LaBeouf plays Boyd, the religious one who quotes scripture and refrains from partaking of the spoils of war. Michael Pena, who was excellent in Ayer's "End of Watch," provides the comic relief as driver Gordo. Jon Bernthal, so memorable on "The Walking Dead," is assigned the role of Fury's resident redneck, the brutish Grady.
None of these characters are particularly likable, so Lerman is there to soften them up as the GOOD guy. In case, we don't get that he's the GOOD guy, one of the actors is kind enough to point it out to us. But even though he is the GOOD guy, Ayer isn't content until Norman is killing Nazis just as gleefully as his battle-hardened comrades.
Lest we feel any sympathy for those dagnabbit Nazis, the Germans are depicted as goose-stepping ghouls who chant so operatically and in perfect synchronization, they may as well be the Orc army marching out of Mordor in "The Lord of the Rings.
Ayer's last film, the cop drama "End of Watch," was equally grandiose, but soared on the strength of the relationship between a pair of LAPD officers played by Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal. If only the interactions in "Fury" were as solid, but truth is we know very little about the characters or what connects them.
The director resorts to stirring up phony conflict between these brothers in arms in a bizarre, deeply uncomfortable scene in which Collier and Norman hold hostage/seduce/befriend — it's disturbingly never clear — a pair of German women after securing an enemy town.
On a purely technical level, "Fury" fares better. Ayer obviously took great pains to ensure the film's authenticity and delivers several suspenseful, horrific scenes of combat, illustrating both the power and limitations of the World War II-era tank.
The movie's finale ramps up the heroism to almost ridiculous extremes.
Funny thing is, the heroics of everyday life inside the tanks, with their claustrophobia, tedium, close quarters and forced intimacies, probably would have proved more profound.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Band of Brothers, Brad Pitt, David Ayers, End of Watch, Fury, Inglourious Basterds, Jon Bernthal, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Saving Private Ryan, Sherman tank, Shia LaBeouf, The Walking Dead, World War II on October 24, 2014 by Lavender Vroman.
Why I'm Boycotting Michael Bay
I spent about two seconds last weekend thinking about whether I should go see "Transformers: Age of Extinction."
My conclusion?
Nah. I'd rather binge watch "Orphan Black." Or stare at the wall for three hours. Even banging my head against the wall for three hours would be a more attractive alternative to sitting through Michael Bay's latest extravaganza of shape-shifting robots, wanton destruction, senseless civilian casualties and explosions, explosions, explosions.
Based on the 1980s toy line and cartoon series, the original "Transformers" trilogy is packed with colossal morphing creatures, sleek technology, things that go boom and gratuitous shots of voluptuous pinups posing as leading ladies. They are flicks made for boys, both the literal sort and the kind who never grew up. And I just can't bring myself to sit through another one.
I know I'm in the minority here, considering that "Age of Extinction" set a record for biggest box office debut of 2014, grossing $300 million worldwide. It may be futile, but I've decided to take a personal stand against Hollywood's most annoying, antiquated and nonsensical filmmaker.
I'm sick of the way Bay blithely mingles jokes catering to the 8-year-olds in the audience with wildy inappropriate innuendo, harsh violence with treacly sentimentality, and cutting-edge filmmaking technology with politically incorrect, hackish storytelling that borders on quaint.
I'm weary with sitting through movies that double as jingoistic recruitment videos for the armed forces.
Bay may have an impressive grasp of how to serve up insane visual effects sequences, but he's sexist, juvenile, self-indulgent, wildly unfunny — and judging from his on- and off-set antics over the years — something of a douche bag.
So while I dutifully sat through last year's utterly pointless and morally bankrupt "Pain & Gain," I won't be seeing "Age of Extinction" or the upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," which Bay produced. This despite the promise of Dinobots and Mark Wahlberg.
And the only justification I need for this decision can be found in the original "Transformers" trilogy.
2007's "Transformers" is big, loud, bold and brainless, and mostly diverting in that insanely excessive, more-is-more Bay kind of way. It has car chases, explosions, air strikes, ambushes and all varieties of mass destruction.
Then there's the cleavage, bare midriffs, gratuitous slow motion and weirdly uneven mingling of wacky, politically incorrect humor with laughably "serious" moments set to overbearing symphonies of strings.
The plot is straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon and treated alternately with the utmost gravity and tongue-in-cheek glee. It's essentially the tale of a boy — Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) — and his car — trusty Camaro Bumblebee, who is actually an "autonomous robot from the planet Cybertron."
The highlight of the film is its computer generated vehicular stars, who are not only stunningly and realistically rendered through the considerable marvels of CGI but are surprisingly intriguing as personalities. The Autobots, with their sad, robot eyes and agenda of peace, are far more engaging than the film's overstuffed assortment of human characters.
If the first "Transformers" is a flashy sports car, the sequel, "Revenge of the Fallen," is simply a piece of junk as the robots in disguise are rendered virtually indistinguishable. With this second installment, the king of Hollywood excess' trademark profusion ceases to be enjoyable, threatening the audience with total exhaustion.
There's too much going on in the movie: too many characters, too many robots, too much so-called comic relief, too much mayhem and too much of a plot that is at once vague and over-complicated as Sam heads off to college and is swept up in an Autobot mission to stop the evil Decepticons from resurrecting their leader, Megatron.
"Revenge" isn't 2½ hours long because it's stuffed with actiony goodness. It's seemingly endless because of the nonsense Bay fills it with, like sexy coed Isabel Lucas, who turns into a serpentine assassin, a conspiracy theorist roommate (Ramon Rodriguez) and Sam's mom's (Julie White) wacky interlude with a pot-laced brownie.
In the previous film, the Transformers were the stars of the show, hulking, meticulously detailed hunks of metal with personality and heart, showcased with loving care. In "Revenge," there's no time for that. In some scenes, it's a strain to even tell them apart.
The third "Transformers" film, "Dark of the Moon," may be an improvement over the virtually unwatchable "Revenge" but it's still a ridiculous, cacophonous spectacle built on equal parts juvenile humor and superlative special effects.
The film depicts an epic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, which results in the gleeful destruction of large swathes of downtown Chicago. The movie clocks in at two hours and 37 minutes, but there's a lot of nonsense we could do without, including another appearance by Sam's annoying parents and John Malkovich's funny but utterly pointless cameo as Sam's eccentric new boss.
In the grand, unenlightened tradition of "Transformers" babes, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley traipses around in her underwear and waits for Sam to come rescue her.
Bay continues to beat us over the head with supremely silly moments, as when Optimus Prime gives an inspiring speech in front of a battered American flag while thundering music threatens to drown out the dialogue.
The only reason he gets away with it is because we all love Optimus Prime.
Perhaps the director's biggest crime is ruthlessly and relentlessly preying on the insatiable nostalgia of the children of the '80s.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Age of Extinction, Autobots, Bumblebee, Decepticons, Megatron, Michael Bay, Optimus Prime, Shia LaBeouf, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers on July 1, 2014 by Lavender Vroman.