LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, April 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― A well-loved pro-life sidewalk counselor was attacked by a woman exiting an abortion mill, leaving her with a broken thighbone and a bleeding head wound.
Donna Durning, a sidewalk counselor for over 20 years, was outside the E.M.W. Women's Surgical Center on the afternoon of April 13 when a younger woman who had been inside the abortion mill violently pushed her, causing her to fall on the pavement. She underwent surgery.
Durning told LifeSiteNews that the young woman, who was in her early twenties, had gone out from the clinic to a car that was waiting for her. It was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Durning sustained a head wound and a fractured femur. Fortunately, her skull did not break, and she didn't suffer any brain injuries.
"Thank goodness I have good bones," Durning remarked.
Darnowski told LifeSiteNews that police were already on the scene.
Witnesses at the scene recorded the license plate number of the car in which the assailant and her friend drove away.
An ambulance was called while Durning was attended by the other pro-life witnesses outside the clinic. Her blood was still visible on the ground the next day.
"The picture [see above] does not do justice to it," Darnowski said.
Local pro-life lawyer Vince Heuser also spoke to LifeSiteNews, saying that he would make sure the prosecution of Durning's assailant went forward.
"Pro-lifers do try to turn the other cheek, but beating up an old lady is not to be tolerated in anyone," Heuser said, adding that Durning was not going to like being called an old lady.
E.M.W. Women's Surgical Center is the last freestanding abortion mill in the state of Kentucky, and it is a hotbed of both pro-life witness and pro-abortion demonstrations. Material help is offered to abortion-minded women in Louisville at a number of pro-life institutions including LifeHouse Maternity and BSideU for Life Pregnancy Center. The latter is right next door to the abortion clinic.
Darnowski told LifeSiteNews that although Durning has encountered violence outside the clinic before, violence against demonstrators is unusual. However, tensions run high during 40 Days for Life.
"This past Saturday, one day after the incident, there was a huge amount of activity down there," she said, to illustrate.
Donna Durning has been praying and witnessing outside E.M.W. Women's Surgical Center almost every day for 23 years. She told LifeSiteNews that she is usually there from 6:30 AM until 9:15 AM, but on Friday she stayed the whole day to help out the less experienced pro-life witnesses from her parish participating in Forty Days for Life.
On Saturday, Durning's femur was surgically reconstructed, and she told LifeSiteNews today that she was delighted with the staff at Louisville's Baptist Health Hospital.
"There are so many good people in this world," she enthused.
Durning is expected to make a full recovery. Tomorrow she will begin five days of rehabilitation at Louisville's Nazareth Home.


text:
Where the Trains Turn
by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen
Published here for the first time in English, "Where the Trains Turn" won first prize in the Finnish science-fiction magazine Portti's annual short story competition and then went on to win the Atorox Award for best Finnish science fiction or fantasy short story.
I don't like to think about the past. But I cannot stop remembering my son.
Emma Nightingale prefers to remain grounded in reality as much as possible. Yet she's willing to indulge her nine year-old son Rupert's… (more)
Emma Nightingale prefers to remain grounded in reality as much as possible. Yet she's willing to indulge her nine year-old son Rupert's fascination with trains, as it brings him closer to his father, Gunnar, from whom she is separated. Once a month, Gunnar and Rupert venture out to follow the rails and watch the trains pass. Their trips have been pleasant, if uneventful, until one afternoon Rupert returns in tears. "The train tried to kill us," he tells her.
Rupert's terror strikes Emma as merely the product of an overactive imagination. After all, his fears could not be based in reality, could they?
"In this long novella, the details are presented meticulously, building characters and atmosphere layer on layer."--Locus
Fiction Science Fiction Short Stories
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates (November 19, 2014)
Collection: Tor Books
Science Fiction >

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Art for the masses
By Andrea Estrada, UC Santa Barbara Thursday, July 24, 2014
Credit: Image courtesy of Carole Paul
View of the Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill), home of the Capitoline Museum
In 1734, almost 60 years before the Louvre made its debut in Paris, the Museo Capitolino (Capitoline Museum) opened in Rome. Established under Pope Clement XII, it was the first public art museum of international importance and served as the model for such institutions as we know them today.
Carole Paul
Credit: Spencer Bruttig
How the Capitoline came to be — and how it managed to beat the Louvre by more than half a century — is a question being asked and answered by UC Santa Barbara's Carole Paul. She recently received a prestigious fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which will support a book project on the Capitoline Museum as the archetype of the modern public art museum. "The book will be about the unrecognized importance of this museum and how it changes our perceptions of the history of public art museums," she explained.
Misunderstanding the history of these early institutions, she added, impacts the way we view museums today and consider what they should be in the future. "The widespread notion that the first public art museum was the Louvre, which opened in 1793, conveniently associates the moment of origin with the French Revolution," said Paul, a lecturer in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. "But it simply is not true."
According to Paul, public art museums began to spring up all over Europe, especially in Italy (the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is one example), earlier in the 18th century, which places the Louvre farther back in line rather than front and center, as she has shown in a book she recently edited, "The First Modern Museums of Art" (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012). "This revision is important because it displaces the motivation for the emergence of this new type of institution from revolutionary politics onto other factors, such as the internationalization of Enlightenment values and the growth of cultural tourism."
Not-so-private collections
"There was a long tradition in Rome in the 18th century of private collections that became sort of semi-public museums," Paul said. One of the most important, she noted, is the collection of the Borghese family, now at Villa Borghese, about which she has written two books and curated an exhibition at the Getty Research Institute.
"Many elite families had these collections," she continued. "They were among the premier sights for aristocratic European travelers on the Grand Tour, who went to Rome expressly to visit them."
In the 1770s, Paul said, the wealthy Borghese family of Rome converted their suburban villa on the Pincian Hill into a space specifically designed to display their collection of ancient and early modern sculpture. "The spectacular redecoration of the rooms, together with the reinstallation of the collection, had the intended effect of turning the villa into one of the most admired and frequently visited attractions for foreign travelers on the Grand Tour," she said.
Stimuating social interaction
"Although not a public museum, strictly speaking, it deliberately addressed a larger, more diverse audience, impressing tourists with a dazzling new idea of what a museum could be," said Paul. "Such spaces were designed to stimulate social interaction — well-to-do visitors from all over Europe met and mixed in front of works of art and were expected to exhibit their knowledge and taste in polite conversation."
These exchanges were a crucial part of the experience, Paul continued, and visitors were as much on display as the objects, for the museum was, in effect, a stage on which they performed an ideal of enlightened civility.
Even earlier, as more and more people traveled to Rome to visit these collections, the papacy saw the potential for using its own art collections to a similar advantage. "They saw it as an opportunity to exhibit the great heritage of ancient Rome and to represent themselves as enlightened modern patrons of art," said Paul. "They also saw it as a way to protect their cultural patrimony."
So began the Capitoline, the earliest institution to manifest the defining characteristics of the public art museum as it has evolved into the present day. "The scholarly narrative is that public museums really are about democracy and they were brought about by this 'modern' form of government," Paul noted. "But it's a combination of tourism and Enlightenment values that gave birth to the Capitoline Museum and thus gave birth to the public art museum.
"It's a fascinating and underexplored history," she added. "Working on private collections and thinking about these museums and thinking about Rome over time, I began to realize that we had gotten the story wrong."
Andrea Estrada
(805) 893-4620 andrea.estrada@ia.ucsb.edu
UC Santa Barbara: Art for the Masses


Stress can trigger OCD lapses, and when I was 16, I went on a trip with a friend that I didn't know very well to her dad and stepmom's house in a different state. The environment in this house was very different than what I was used to (alcohol, her stepbrother partied and later came out as gay, we were stuck at the house without a vehicle, etc.). This trip did trigger a lot of OCD.
Things became more intense as I grew older. In college, I had a very difficult season of OCD which caused me to move home (I lived on campus at a local Christian college) for three weeks. It was during this time that my mom took me to our family doctor who was also a friend. He prescribed medication for me, and he also prayed for me with tears in his eyes.
It was soon after this that I met my husband at a Bible study. We started dating very soon after we met, and I remember wondering before I met him if I would ever meet anyone who would want to untangle the mess that I was on the inside. When I told him that I was taking medication for depression and anxiety, his response was to tell me something that he was struggling with as well. What a relief it was that he wasn't repulsed by me!
My 24th birthday was a low point. Again, my mom helped me, this time by getting me in to see a Christian counselor. This is the same one that I'm still seeing over ten years later. He encouraged me to adjust my medication, and we eventually found that Zoloft (which I'm still on) works very, very well for me.
After my first son was born, I had a very difficult time postpartum. He was born 3 1/2 weeks early and aspirated during birth. This put him in the NICU for 10 days, and that time was extremely stressful. I took a 14-week maternity leave from teaching in which I felt very lost. The shock of going from no kids to suddenly having a son was a big one. I was completely responsible (at least while my husband was at work) for this new little life. It was overwhelming. We got through it, but the first 8 months or so of his life were difficult for me.
I went off of medication while trying to get pregnant with baby #2, but I had a very, very difficult time. I was in lots of distress but still managed to get pregnant. This son was also born prematurely at 34 weeks. Surprisingly I did okay after that kid. He was in the NICU for 8 days, and soon after we left the hospital I felt my thoughts starting to slide toward depression and anxiety. We immediately upped my medication, and that seemed to do the trick. I felt pretty much completely fine until a couple of months after my daughter was born in August.
On the morning of Monday, October 26, I started praying compulsively (again) for God's forgiveness, and what had been manageable not long before quickly became unmanageable and spiraled into many other obsessions and compulsions. I was terrified of so many things. I returned to an intrusive obsession from several years before about the existential meaning of time and how it works. It sounds so weird as I write that, but it truly became paralyzing.
My treatment included increasing my medication and implementing ERP. I stopped writing down prayers. I strove to replace false thoughts with true ones. I determined that trying to figure out time was not focusing on what was lovely and admirable (Philippians 4:8-9), so I forced my brain to refocus on something else. Eventually the OCD started to fade, but not without lots of discomfort on my part. In fact, it felt like it got louder before it got quieter. But it did get quieter after I pushed through the noise without giving in to the overwhelming anxiety. And those times when I just gave in? It got louder. And louder, and louder, and louder, until the OCD became unbearable once again.
Eventually, I had the first time in weeks where more of the day was positive than negative. And I was able to climb back out of the hole.
OCD is a daily – and I do mean daily – battle for me. Intrusive thoughts pop in to my head all the time, and I'd love to say that I always resist every compulsion. But that's not realistic.
Let me be clear: I believe that OCD will probably always be a part of my life here on earth, but it will not be a part of my life in heaven. God's sustaining grace pulls me through those days when the OCD is so loud that I can't hear much of anything else.
My prayer is to be fully delivered by God in this life. But even if He chooses not to do that, He is still good. And sovereign. And loving. And, I believe, He is helping me manage the OCD.
A.J. Michaels is a Christ-follower, wife, mommy, and mental illness survivor. Hailing from the heart of the midwest, A.J. has struggled with OCD, anxiety, and depression for most of her life. She is on a (lifelong) journey to choose hope and live in grace. You can follow her victories and struggles at www.mindbeautiful89.blogspot.com.
I love your story, AJ. I love how you hold on to special people and moments that were significant on your journey thus far. It's beautiful.
And I really appreciate your insight into the ERP process. Knowing that it is supposed to feel worse before it feels better is helpful for me as I am just getting started in ERP.
Thanks for your comment Ashley. Yep I loved the ERP part too!


text:
Publicly-Traded Firm Gears Up To Become One of the Largest Bitcoin Miners After $120,000,000 Deal
in Bitcoin, Mining
Crypto mining giant Marathon Digital is primed to become one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the world after inking a multi-million-dollar deal.
In a new press release, the Nevada-based mining giant, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MARA, says it will purchase 30,000 units of the Antminer S19j Pro model at a total cost of $120.7 million.
Once deployed and fully operational, the new equipment will increase Marathon Digital's total number of miners to over 133,000, producing approximately 13.3 exahashes per second (EH/s).
Marathon Digital projects that its hash power could potentially represent 12% of Bitcoin's total hash rate if all of the company's miners, including the ones recently purchased, were deployed today.
With the new deal, Marathon's CEO Fred Thiel says the company is set to become one of the largest Bitcoin mining firms in the world.
"Increasing our percentage of the total network's hash rate increases our probability of earning bitcoin, and given the uniquely favorable conditions in the current mining environment, we believe it is an opportune time to add new miners to our operations.
With this new order, we are growing our operations by 30% to approximately 133,000 miners, producing 13.3 EH/s. As a result, once all miners are fully deployed, our mining operations will be among the largest, not just in North America, but globally."
According to the mining giant's website, Marathon is en route to deploying 103,120 Bitcoin miners that can produce 50-60 BTC per day.
Don't Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get crypto email alerts delivered directly to your inbox
Featured Image: Shutterstock/andrey_l


text:
MEET THE CAPE TOWN CREATIVES SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICAN STREETWEAR
by Cassidy George
Cape Town's population is roughly 450,000. Compare that with Johannesburg's 4.4 million, or even London's 8.7, and you begin to get an idea of how small that really is. This fact often catches members of the international art, fashion and music communities by surprise, because its humble population feels incongruous with the density of its cultural export. Cape Town's young designers wasted no time in making their impact on style, by channeling the unique perspectives of the Rainbow Nation and its enduring challenges.
Cape Town's streetwear scene, bolstered by an alliance with its vibrant surf and skate cultures, has flourished in the last decade, but after the loss of its retail mecca Corner Store in October last year, the scene's protagonists have had to think up creative ways to compensate for its closure. Not unlike elsewhere, the Cape Town streetwear community has always predominantly orbited around one brick and mortar store—first it was Smith & Abrahams, and then it was Corner Store, the lovechild of the three most prominent brands: 2Bop, Young and Lazy (YÔNGN LAYZEE), and Sol-Sol, and a one-stop-shop for those interested in the local game. Corner Store was a full blown cultural phenomenon, a place for like minded people, for parties, launches, workshops and opportunities—and a monument to South African talent. But its external success was not mirrored internally, as clashing visions and disproportionate efforts made the three-way partnership more burdensome. When key player Young and Lazy pulled out, the remaining two brands struggled to keep the business afloat. Corner Store's closing was decidedly bittersweet, marking the end of an era, but also bringing new beginnings—the end of its monopoly has given industry up-and-comers a chance to gain further traction.
In a time of structural change within the subculture, INDIE met up with the brightest stars of Cape Town's streetwear scene to chat about what lies ahead.
Anthony Smith, 2-Bop, Designer
Cape Town's streetwear story, in some ways, starts here. The idea for 2Bop came in 2004 and by 2008, hit the city in full force. Younger designers describe 2Bop as the OG; its success proved to the aspiring that locally produced streetwear had a future. "I skated for 20 years and that was a big part of my identity," says Smith. "I wanted to do a skate brand like any other skateboarder, but I never had a concept strong enough to differentiate it from anything else." His eureka moment came when he decided use his obsession with old video games as a jumping off point. The brand's official history states: "2Bop began when the futuristic fantasy realms of bootleg arcade games converged with the heavily censored media landscape of apartheid era South Africa".
Smith describes the "contraband arcade games" as the window to an outside world, an opportunity to explore beyond the limits of his reality. The brand is named affectionately after the 20 cent pieces required to unlock these alternate realms. Since Corner Store's closing, the resident vet has shifted his focus to pushing the brand in terms of both design and in reaching new markets. "I feel that I have the energy to do those things now. I'm excited to open up a bit and be more playful, and not define the brand as tightly anymore."
Anees Petersen, Young and Lazy, Designer, Stylist
Anees Petersen is described by those who know him as "a visionary" and "the one". In light of his massive contribution to Cape Town streetwear (when considering both design and community building), these unofficial titles are well deserved. Despite his aura of effortless success, Petersen is a classically trained designer, with a wealth of experience in the industry. The breadth of his knowledge is conveyed in his aptitude for garment construction—Young and Lazy (YÔNGN LAYZEE) is a brand that does far more than put logos on blanks.
While Petersen's initial collections took inspiration from external sources, the designer describes a trip to Mecca as a "turning point", where he began to draw influence from the richness of his own religion and culture. Young and Lazy's ethos shifted to celebrate his own Cape Malay and muslim identities, two demographics both mis- and underrepresented in popular culture. "Documentaries about drugs, gangsterism and crime, that's all you can find about Cape Coloured culture", says Petersen. The authenticity of his initiative gartered a cult like following, and Petersen became a role model for aspiring South African youth. Young and Lazy managed to retain the subcultural "bite" (i.e. "this garment is not for you… spineless motherfuckers") that is fading from many street and skate wear brands, as they further commercialise. To the dismay of many, Petersen announced in September after an immensely trying year that Young and Lazy had produced its last season. Those mourning the loss of a meaningful brand should retain hope—because the end of Young and Lazy does not mean the end of Anees Petersen designs.
Matthew Kieser, Sol-Sol Designer, OSCS Store Owner
Durban born designer Matthew Kieser is the man behind Sol-Sol. Beside the more obvious surf and skate references, Kieser's clothes are also informed by his time working alongside his father in construction. The durability of workwear is transferred into Sol-Sol's clean cut, minimal streetwear, creating an unlikely alliance between looks that are both polished and tough. Fans of Sol-Sol have called the brand "smart streetwear" for its versatility. Kieser takes pride in his brand not trying to reinvent the wheel, or advocating "creativity for creativity's sake" and rather in producing solid collections that are appropriate in a variety of arenas. Understated has become part of Sol-Sol's elegance. "We have never tried to set ourselves too far apart from anything else as we are making ready to wear menswear," Kieser explains. "But we do try really focus on making great garments, things that work and wear well. We do have lots of small details that you might never notice, especially in the cut and sew pieces. Small things that are cool when you find them."
Since Corner Store's closing (although both stores were open for a period simultaneously) Kieser has shifted his focus to a new project, Orphan Street Clothing Shop, which was designed to be a flagship for Sol-Sol and partner brand MAYLEE. Unlike in Corner Store, OSCS realises a space that reflects Kieser's vision specifically—from the design, the sound and even down to the smell. "We've gone hard on customer service and hopefully it shows. Corner Store was cool and worked because it wasn't all of those things. Obviously we cared very much for it…but there was a definite 'we don't give a shit' attitude. We put stuff out how we wanted to and it really resonated with some but possibly not with others".
Luke Doman, Photographer, Stylist
Although the only non-designer in the bunch, Doman has been in the thick of the streetwear cut since the days of Smith & Abrahams. Now a photographer and stylist, Doman was once the manager and "the face" of Corner Store—the draw of his personality was a fundamental aspect of its success. Doman was also largely responsible for the store's online presence, a responsibility which helped him hone in on a developing skill. Doman quickly went from casually documenting skate sessions with friends to shooting official look books, all while retaining a lo-fi charm.
"I crammed a lot of practice into those years because we posted every day. I had to shoot, it wasn't an option. It was like school, basically," Doman explains. He describes the beginnings of Corner Store as "revolutionary". "Our energy was less about fashion and more about doing it yourself and rejecting the idea that you need qualifications to do things. The message was very much: everyone can take photos, everyone can style, everyone can do whatever the fuck." It's this same romanticism that has bred an understandable feeling of discontent with both global and local streetwear culture. It's the dawn of an age where streetwear and street cred are two totally separate entities. Doman has been a long time advocate of preserving integrity at the expense of commerce, an attitude the industry could use more of now more than ever. Fortunately Doman doesn't need to manage a brick and mortar store to promote that spirit, he conveys the same energy in his photographs.
Melissa Kieser, MAYLEE Designer, OSCS Store Owner
Adding some much needed female energy into the mix is Melissa Kieser, the woman behind MAYLEE and a fellow owner of Orphan Street Clothing Shop. "Matthew and I found that a lot of girls were buying Sol-Sol and we thought it would be cool if it had a sister brand," she explains. "In the beginning it was a ladies only brand, but now its evolved into something completely beautiful and emancipated." Its appeal to a male audience has helped the brand develop a more autonomous and gender neutral voice. "It's not limited to guys and girls wearing trousers, we have guys wearing our skirts and our dresses. Seeing that always inspired me to create a better collection next time around," says Lee.
The Orphan Street store has has also undergone an unexpected transformation. "In the beginning we thought it would just be for MAYLEE and Sol-Sol and hopefully we could stock other brands some day, but it happened a lot faster than we expected." The hyper contemporary OSCS store now carries a crew of fellow South African designers, like Lukhanyo Mdingi and Good Good Good. "Everyone we carry in the store we know personally, and they're here because we love them—both their work and who they are as people." Kieser's hope is that next 5 years will bring more support for the local industry, as opposed to those abroad. In the meantime, the Kiesers will be holding down the fort on Orphan Street, which just had its first birthday. The space, which they were told would "never work" because of its lack of foot traffic, has proved the naysayers wrong. "Slowly we've built up a cool following, that comes because they know it's here. It's almost like a landmark."
Daniel Sher, Good Good Good Designer
Daniel Sher left behind the world of finance to pursue the dream that has come to be Good Good Good. The brand was founded in 2016 with the sole aim of creating high quality, locally produced t-shirts, but has since evolved to produce full menswear collections. "The entire project is made possible by the fact that we manufacture the product in our family owned factory [Mungo], started 25 years ago by my wife's mum," says Sher. Textile and texture are at the forefront of the Good Good Good agenda, which bridges the gap between lounge and everyday wear. The loose silhouettes have a '90s feel and make use of bright colourways and bold patterns, which give garments a playful and cozy charm.
As a young brand, Sher is keenly aware of the unique challenges designing in South Africa presents. "There is not enough disposable consumer spend available for our products here, which makes the business of niche local fashion brands unsustainable locally". Partner that with an extreme geographical location that makes international deliveries quite the expenditure, and it seems a wonder that any up and comer can survive. But Sher remains positive and is keen to point out the unique benefits of participating in this burgeoning industry. "Our democracy is very young, which means that the doors for unique, cross-cultural collaborations are wide open—and being a country with such a rich and diverse variety of culture, I think we have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible in this regard."
Robyn Keyser, Art Club and Friends Designer, Stylist
Robyn Keyser is bringing the power of ethics and artwork to her clothing line, Art Club and Friends—a company just as charming as it sounds. "I always knew I would be bad at working for someone else," explains Keyser, but it's clear that she has merely switched the preposition, instead devoting herself to working "with" others. The big-hearted designer is advocating for transparency in the production process, and uses the royal "we" when discussing her brand, so as to always include the seamstresses, printers, fabric stores and artists along the way who make her collections possible. The Art Club and Friends mission statement radiates warmth: "This is a story about 600 hands and 300 smiles coming together to reconnect you to the way you dress".
Keyser hit the ground running with two product categories, "art wear"—a series of t-shirts that feature the artwork of local painters, designers and illustrators, and dungarees— best selling utilitarian numbers in corduroy and denim. "I come from a family where there are no creatives whatsoever, they're all doctors and engineers", says Keyser, which likely explains why cross disciplinary creative community is something she aims to foster. Art Club and Friends' focus products have been quite the hit, and in just a year and a half after launching, Keyser will debut a full range for Johannesburg Menswear Week in March, in the design contest. Keyser's work ethic is industrious, despite her gentle energy. "It keeps me busy and out of clubs," she laughs.
Photography by Cassidy George.
KRAKATAU makes advanced technical outerwear for outsiders
CAPE TOWN, FASHION, SOUTH AFRICA, STREETWEAR


David's research team assembled and posted the first working draft of the genome on the Internet on July 7, 2000, thereby ensuring the human genome would exist forever in the public domain. His research integrates mathematics, computer science, and molecular biology to develop new computer-based algorithms to interpret comparative and high-throughput genomics data to understand gene structure, function, and regulation. He built the UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub database to hold NCI's cancer genome data and is a co-founder and organizing member of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), a coalition of the top research, health care, and disease advocacy organizations that have taken the first steps to standardize and enable secure sharing of genomic and clinical data. Haussler is Scientific Director of the UCSC Genomics Institute, Scientific Co-Director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), and a co-founder of the Genome 10K Project.


We installed six of our half-crate instant veggie gardens in studio lane, Harbour Town.
Lately we've been spending some time at the Harbour Town precinct at Docklands where there's some big changes in the pipeline.
Residents, shoppers and visitors to the centre have all been excited by the arrival of our temporary pop-up-patches. The apple-crate pop up patches have been placed throughout the centre and planted out with a mixture of seasonal herbs, vegetables and flowers. Every time we visit the pop-up-patches, people are keen to chat to us about the gardens. They often want to know if they can pick some produce to take home. Our answer is always, "Of course! That's what they are there for".
Through the pop-up-patches, we hope to encourage and inspire visitors to the centre to grow more of their own produce. The pop-up-patches also provide a space for the residents living in the apartments above the precinct to have access to freshly grown and harvested herbs and veggies. They are a great demonstration of what can be achieved in even the smallest of spaces. In the near future, we hope to run some workshops and get the community more heavily involved in tending these gardens.
The temporary edible gardens at Docklands are a sign of things to come. We're currently working on a much larger project for the Harbour Town Community… Stay tuned!
← Which Potting Mix is Best?


I usually avoid the beach like the plague during Summer. I'm good at Photoshop, but not good enough to edit out the throngs of people. We got lucky for this session. Perhaps it was the Great White lurking off the coast. Or the stingrays that were spotted in shallow water. Obviously we nixed the pictures in the water that we were planning on doing. Because a shark bite or stingray attack would have put a damper on our session.
Beautiful work, as always! 🙂 I love your technique. Did you use a step ladder to get the photos from above?
Such a fun session! I really love your style.


A business owner hoping to boost sales or create a new stream of revenue?
Someone with a sweet story from your community that you think everyone needs to know about?
Another writer/marketer/entrepreneur/creative person interested in sitting down for coffee (or in a thoughtful email exchange)?
Send me a message. This contact form gets you right to my inbox. Promise.


Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties have the largest number of Higley 1000 households in New Jersey. The three counties are the exurban extensions of suburban Essex and Union counties, and are characterized by quaint villages, discrete estates on country lanes, and even a few standard suburban subdivisions. There are extensive areas of horse farms, particularly in Somerset County, for the equestrian set. Of the 17 Higley 1000 neighborhoods, 14 are (in general) contiguous and are centered on the historic town of Morristown. The wealthiest neighborhood in this area is located in a geographical outlier, Mountain Lakes (mean household income: $306,015). Although there are six manmade lakes in this small Borough, the wealthiest area is found around the shores of the Borough's namesake, Mountain Lake.
Morris County is home to one of the few luxury gated communities in Northern New Jersey. Smoke Rise, located in Kinnelon. Just south of Smoke Rise is the nouveau riche subdivision of Grandview at Kinnelon. This neighborhood consists of huge new trophy houses built on the the long and winding South Glen Road.
As is usual across the country, there are neighborhoods that have a substantial number of Asian households, although overall the 17 neighborhoods together are about average for the Higley 1000 with 4.8% of the households categorized as Asian. The two neighborhoods with larger concentrations of Asian households are New Jersey National Golf Course-Liberty Corners (11.3% Asian) located in Bernards Township and a collection of subdivisions in Bridgwater Township that I have dubbed Martinsville-Running Brook (for the lack of a better name). Again any one that would wish to help me with the proper name for this area would be much appreciated.
Unlike Essex County, few Black households have chosen to locate in this area. There are only 74 African households in the 17 neighborhoods found on the Higley 1000 (0.4%). With virtually no Hispanics household either (1.5%), this collection of neighborhoods is extremely "White" (93.4%).


If you own a cat or kitten that needs neutering please contact us, we can help.
Currently, we are able to offer assisted neutering for peolpe on benefits, low incomes, pensioners or students.
For a female cat we will pay £26 and for a male cat we will pay £20, in exceptional circumstances and multi-cat households we may be able to offer further help. Assistance is provided in the form of a part-payment voucher which is sent directly to your vets. You will need to pay the remainder of the balance to the vets.
We are a charity, we are unable to offer free neutering and do not help with the cost of other veterinary care (including vaccinations and microchipping).
Neutered cats are less likely to get injured or sick, saving you money in the long term.
There are too many unwanted cats in the UK, we don't need more.
Please be a responsible pet owner. Neutering reduces a cats likelihood to roam, fight, spray and otherwise be a nuisance.
Improved Health - neutered cats are generally healthier overall than those who are un-neutered and live longer.
1 un-neutered female cat in 5 years can have 20,000 desendents?This leads to unwanted kittens, which leads to unwanted strays with a life that offers only misery, hunger and disease.
Neutering promotes a more satisfactory and enjoyable pet. A neutered male will be much less inclined to spray about the house and leave an unpleasant smell. He should also be less likely to wander or fight.
There is a common misconception that a female cat should be allowed to have one litter of kittens before being spayed. This is a myth.
A female cat has no anticipation of motherhood, there is no benefit to the cat from having a litter.
Neutering also decreases the risk of acquiring FeLV (Feline Leukaemia Virus) and FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). Both of these diseases can be transmitted at the time of mating.
FIV is also commonly seen in males that fight a lot (transmission via saliva). Making them less territorial will therefore decrease the risk of disease.
Use the contact us page and we will contact you, please remember the branch is run soley by volunteers.
This branch aim is to neuter/spay 300+ Cats & Kittens in 2013.


The Paris region, or Île-de-France in French, is one of the areas in the world that can show a long regional planning tradition. This makes it a perfect example of the lights and shadows of the planning instruments, be it from a short term or a long term perspective.
In 1908 the French parliament receives a bill from André Siegfried, which was never enacted. In 1919 a competition is held to define the urban extension of Paris, but the results were never to be realized as they were closer to an architectural composition than to a real, viable urban planning proposal.
The Sarraut Act (15 march 1928), aimed at irregular subdivisions (largely a result of the refugee settlements around France in the first world war) is an approach to a metropolitan vision. On 24 march 1928 is created the Comité Supérieur pour l'Aménagement et Organisation de la Région de Paris (CSAORP), a study institute ; its role was to define an « exception regime » for a region « gangrened by the cancer of slums", giving the responsibility to deliver a plan to urbanist Henry Prost and Raoul Dautry, the General Director of the Railways. After a study of the problem, Prost proposes to organize the territory with freeways and national roads, and proposes two zones. The first would integrate the areas that could be reached by train from Paris in less than half an hour, concentrating the most problematic slums and needing an urgent solution; the second zone, external to the first, would be subject to a ban for industrial settlement as to try to control the arrival of new population. The plan introduced a protected status for woodlands.
On 14 may 1932 the Law on the Organization of the Parisian Region is enacted, encompassing an area defined according to the half an hour proposal of Henri Prost. In 1934 the Prost Plan is technically finished, and it is enacted in 1939, so it is never really applied as the second world war begins. Even if the 1929 New York Regional Plan is often presented as the first modern regional plan, it is clear that it was a proposition from a private association without a legal status, while the 1939 Paris Plan was a legal document.
In 1960, Under President Charles de Gaulle, the Institut d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région Parisienne (IAURP, in 2012 IAU) is created, under the direction of Paul Delouvrier. The Schema Directeur de la Region Parisienne is enacted in 1965 as the first truly operational plan, defining today's structural features of the region as new towns, mobility systems and public facilities. In 1994 a revision of the plan is approved, with less innovation as much due to the maturity of the institute and the fact that some innovations were already under way, as to a less benign economic climate.
The 95-115 act, from 4 February 1995, gives to the Paris region the regional planning powers; it is no longer a state matter, but one closer to the citizens. The decision to revise the Schéma Directeur is taken by the Regional Council in 2004, and the works are parallel to innovations in the state policies regarding sustainable development and the 2010-597 act (3 June 2010), on the Grand Paris, an initiative of President Nicolas Sarkozy. The State Council decides that the revision approved by the Regional Council in 2008 must be subject to a new public participation procedure to take into account these questions (and some talk discretely on how inconvenient for the project was the fact that the regional and national governments are from opposed political parties…). So, in October 2012 a new document is presented taking all that into account.
70.000 new housing units are to be built each year, and existing units are to be improved, as a way to tackle a housing crisis (some voices say that there is no real need for new dwellings, but a problem of mismatch between offer and demand). 28.000 new employments should be created each year, and mixed use should help there. Ensuring good access to public facilities, a better transportation system less dependent on automobile (with significant improvements on public transport between suburbs and more multimodal use of relevant roads) and improvements on urban spaces and natural surroundings are also proposed.
A more dynamic economy, the multiplying effects of an efficient transportation system and a sustainable management of natural areas are the proposals. Not much is said about the fragmented local administration scene, probably as a separate work is done on that.
14 project territories are identified, starting with Paris as the center of the metropolitan area.
On the whole, it is an interesting document, with many common points with the problems in many metropolitan areas around the world.


Kirsty Izat has been appointed the coordinator of this year's Islay Book Festival, in a move she described as 'an amazing opportunity'.
Portnahaven-based Kirsty, was chosen ahead of some strong competition for the new part-time post, and she will work closely with the festival com-mittee to deliver the event on August 29-September 1.
This year's event will be headlined by top crime writer Ian Rankin, with cookery writer and novelist Sue Lawrence, Mortal Engines author Philip Reeve, and high profile his-torian Tom Devine also confirmed to attend.


To avoid any confusion or unhappiness, before any type of dental procedure is started, it is important for the dentist and patient, or the patient's guardian, to thoroughly understand not only the procedure, but the end result as well. One Arizona mother thought her young daughter was undergoing routine dental work, but there was nothing routine about the procedure and the end result was shocking to both her and her husband.
On her daughter's recent dental check-up, the dentist wanted to fill her young daughter's four cavities. The mother approved the procedure, her daughter was sedated and then underwent the procedure.


Triangle Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in private equity and mezzanine investments. It focuses on leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, ESOPs, change of control transactions, acquisition financings, growth financing, and recapitalizations in lower middle market, mature, and later stage companies. The firm prefers to make investments in many business sectors including manufacturing, distribution, transportation, energy, communications, health services, restaurants, media, and others. It primarily invests in companies located throughout the United States, with an emphasis on the Southeast and Midatlantic. The firm makes equity investments between $1 million and $25 million and debt investments between $5 million and $30 million per transaction, in companies having annual revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $35 million and can also co-invest. It typically makes investments between $5 million and $35 million. It primarily invests in senior subordinated debt securities secured by second lien security interests in portfolio company assets, coupled with equity interests. The firm also invests in senior debt securities secured by first lien security interests in portfolio companies. Triangle Capital Corporation was incorporated on October 10, 2006 and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Sign-up to receive the latest news and ratings for TCAP and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
What is Triangle Capital's stock symbol?
Triangle Capital trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "TCAP."
How often does Triangle Capital pay dividends? What is the dividend yield for Triangle Capital?
Triangle Capital declared a special dividend on Monday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 2nd will be paid a dividend of $1.78 per share on Friday, August 3rd. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 6th. This is an increase from Triangle Capital's previous special dividend of $0.05. View Triangle Capital's Dividend History.
How were Triangle Capital's earnings last quarter?
Triangle Capital Co. (NYSE:TCAP) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May, 2nd. The credit services provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.04. The credit services provider had revenue of $26.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.65 million. View Triangle Capital's Earnings History.
What price target have analysts set for TCAP?
1 brokers have issued 1 year price objectives for Triangle Capital's shares. Their forecasts range from $13.00 to $13.00. On average, they expect Triangle Capital's share price to reach $13.00 in the next twelve months. View Analyst Price Targets for Triangle Capital.
What is the consensus analysts' recommendation for Triangle Capital?
1 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Triangle Capital in the last year. There are currently 1 hold rating for the stock, resulting in a consensus recommendation of "Hold." View Analyst Ratings for Triangle Capital.
What are Wall Street analysts saying about Triangle Capital stock?
2. National Securities analysts commented, "• TCAP's NII/share came in at $0.27/share versus consensus estimates of $0.29 and our estimate of $0.28. While this was below the $0.30/share quarterly dividend, we think the quarter itself was largely inconsequential as the market continues to look towards Barings taking over as the external manager in the next couple of months.
• We think that the strategic review outcome was one that worked out well for TCAP shareholders, with Benefit Street taking all the risk in terms of the legacy portfolio and Barings getting to start with a clean slate and pile of cash.
• The initial ramp up of the portfolio will have Barings purchasing liquid loans and some high yield bonds as placeholder assets before we model a lot of the recycling to take place in 2019. This should lead to stair step increases in NII/share and dividends/share through 2019 as the company redeploys capital into primary originations.
• Non-accruals at cost went down Q/Q to $106.2 million or 10.0% of the portfolio from $120.1 million or 10.7% of the portfolio and NAV/share declined by only 7 cents to $13.36. The clean slate Barings will start with courtesy of Benefit Street taking the highly distressed legacy portfolio bodes well for NAV/share through the remainder of 2018 and into 2019. Our $13 price target represents a 7% discount to our 4Q19 NAV/share estimate of $13.94 which we think is a reasonable discount given the transition of the company.
Has Triangle Capital been receiving favorable news coverage?
News articles about TCAP stock have trended positive recently, InfoTrie reports. InfoTrie scores the sentiment of press coverage by monitoring more than six thousand blog and news sources. The firm ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of -5 to 5, with scores nearest to five being the most favorable. Triangle Capital earned a coverage optimism score of 2.7 on InfoTrie's scale. They also assigned news headlines about the credit services provider a news buzz of 1.0 out of 10, indicating that recent press coverage is extremely unlikely to have an impact on the stock's share price in the next few days.
Who are some of Triangle Capital's key competitors?
Some companies that are related to Triangle Capital include Blackstone Group (BX), LEG & GEN GRP P/S (LGGNY), Ameriprise Financial (AMP), Franklin Resources (BEN), KKR & Co Inc (KKR), Invesco (IVZ), Oaktree Capital Group LLC Unit (OAK), Apollo Global Management (APO), Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), Morningstar (MORN), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), Eaton Vance (EV), Lazard (LAZ), Evercore (EVR) and Federated Investors (FII).
What other stocks do shareholders of Triangle Capital own?
Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Triangle Capital investors own include Energy Transfer LP Unit (ET), Ares Capital (ARCC), Prospect Capital (PSEC), THL Credit (TCRD), General Electric (GE), Oxford Square Capital (OXSQ), Main Street Capital (MAIN), Medley Capital (MCC), Endologix (ELGX) and Arlington Asset Investment (AI).
Who are Triangle Capital's key executives?
How do I buy shares of Triangle Capital?
Shares of TCAP can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.
What is Triangle Capital's official website?
The official website for Triangle Capital is http://www.tcap.com.
How can I contact Triangle Capital?
MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Triangle Capital and other stocks. Vote "Outperform" if you believe TCAP will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote "Underperform" if you believe TCAP will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days.


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Flooding overwhelms Australian towns after cyclone
Published Friday, March 31, 2017
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from towns in two Australian states as authorities warned Friday there could be deaths from severe flooding caused by a powerful tropical cyclone.
Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland state, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.
Debbie was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast, but continued to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the eastern coast to New South Wales state, south of Queensland, and Sydney.
Lismore near the NSW coast was hard hit, with the State Emergency Service (SES) warning of three-metre (9.8-feet) high flood levels in the town.
"As we start to go out and try to find people that made... calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news," SES acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don't know at this stage."
Other towns subject to evacuation orders include Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah.
Farmer Peter Hannigan, whose property is just north of Lismore, said the deluge was the worst he had ever seen in more than 50 years in the area.
"I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of significant damage on the farms," he told the ABC.
"It is the worst I have ever seen I have to admit."
Recovery efforts
Further north in Queensland, the popular tourist city of Gold Coast and other nearby regions were also inundated by water. Upper Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland recorded 789mm of water during Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The weather bureau's regional director Bruce Gunn said across southeast Queensland where the Gold Coast is located, there had been widespread rain of between 100-300mm falls over the last two days.
"In terms of what happened in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have seen some pretty big rainfall totals," he told Brisbane's Courier Mail.
"There is still that strong risk around the Gold Coast."
Focus has turned to the restoration of essential services such as water and electricity in the areas hit by Debbie, including Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsundays where some 50,000 people were still without power, officials said.
The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said some 2,000 properties had been assessed, with about 270 severely damaged.
"The army is doing everything it can to get water into those parts of North Queensland that I mentioned -- Airlie, Proserpine, Bowen and the Whitsunday islands," she told reporters.
"We also have structural engineers that are on the ground at the moment."


I just took your survey about public health communicators and I think you totally overlooked the role of patient advocates. There are many reasons people in recovery might know more about health care than professionals. Also, one of the biggest risks in health care is iatrogenic harm, and patient advocates prevent that. Also, patient advocates are often much better at promoting prevention messages than professionals.
I would not reccommend any degree requirements for a certification process, and I would have tiered fees depending on whether or not someone is a patient advocate. Also, this survey really ought to have a comments box so I didn't have to track you down to send a separate email.
So I sent them back a follow up questions, "Does your organization have any plans to include patient advocates or any awareness of the need to do so?" Keep in mind that patient advocates is a term used by other medical reformers, even though the term patient is offensive to many psychiatric survivors. We might start working towards a compromise term like (ex)-patients.
I'll bring it up with the committee but as of now the job analysis we have conducted would require an individual to demonstrate competencies on a broad range of public health skillsets to get certified. These include media skills, (responding to media inquiries, spokesperson and publicity), health risk communication in all of its facets (environmental, Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication, reputation management), health marketing, communications research, social media, public health law and ethics, cross cultural communication, etc. My understanding is that patient advocates primarily deal with health care issues. While there may some overlap in the patient education area do you think the typical patient advocate would be well versed in all of the above? Also this is intended to be a certification for public health communicators, not those who specialize in health care. Health care communicators already are eligible to earn accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators, but there is no certification program targeted specifically to public health communicators, as of yet. So honestly, we do need to narrow the criteria of who is eligible to apply to try to earn this credential. Perhaps an umbrella organization (e.g. Patient Advocate Foundation) might be willing to develop a certification program which could assess the abilities of those who do that particular job.
Good news! I have just completed a conference call with our Credentialing Committee and they will recommend to the NPHIC Board of Directors that eligibility to apply for a Certified Communicator in Public Health (CPHP) credential (should the program be developed) be expanded beyond our original criteria. The proposal is to make it clear that the credential is primarily targeted at communicators in public health or voluntary health agencies—or who have had past experience in such agencies—but anyone who feels that they can successfully complete the assessment process may apply. We would provide a checklist to help potential candidates evaluate whether they are likely to be successful, and thus, whether it makes sense for them to pay the application fee. PLEASE NOTE: this will be a Committee recommendation to the NPHIC Executive Board which will make a final decision based on results of the survey you were kind enough to complete.
So of course I tried to send a thank you to make sure everything came out OK.
This is very good news. I really appreciate the update. I read through your list of criteria and I think I would know how to do most of that stuff, and also, many of the advocate friends as well. To become a good advocate requires social media and risk assessment and law and policy work, so many of us have learned this as we've experienced iatrogenic harm and worked to prevent it for other people.
Excellent! We just wanted to make sure that we set our candidates up for success; not just take their money. You input was VERY important. Watch the NPHIC website for updates (we needed to slow down until we could evaluate our survey results.) Happy holidays!
So I consider this a very nice advocacy victory. It was based on some lessons I learned at the Partnership with Patients Conference hosted by Regina Holliday.


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Action / Movies
Bruce Lee Movies
May 13, 2019 May 13, 2019 - by entertainmenttalk
We all know Bruce Lee from some particular fight scenes from his movies. There is the classic scene of Bruce versus Chuck Norris at the Coliseum in Rome in Enter the Dragon. There is the fight scene with a 5'7″ Bruce and the 7'2″ tall Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in "Scenes of Death". Who can forget the classic ending of Bruce running and jumping at his attackers in the final scene of "THE CHINESE CONNECTION"? With a lot of these classic movie scenes framed in memory, let's take a walk through Bruce Lee's movies.
This first movie, "GOLDEN GATE GIRL", takes us way back to 1941. Bruce was only a couple of months old when this movie was filmed in San Francisco, where Bruce was born. No karate in this film. Entering this early into show business gives us an idea that film making was introduced to Bruce at a young early age.
Bruce's first starring movie, "THE KID", was filmed in Hong Kong in 1950, when Bruce was 10 years old. In this film you are starting to see a very personable and involved kid, who played very well for the camera. Bruce Lee's father was a well known Chinese actor, who also starred in this film. Bruce Lee also worked with his father on a previous film, "THE BIRTH OF MANKIND", in 1946.
Bruce moved to San Francisco, California in 1959, then moved to Seattle, Washington to complete is high school education. He later attended the University of Washington, where he enrolled in the drama, and also studied philosophy. All through this time, Bruce practiced the Wing Chun Kung Fu he had learned in Hong Kong from Yip Man. Through Bruce's innovations, he mixed traditional kung fu, boxing, wrestling, and other fighting forms, to create his style of mixed martial arts, he called, Jeet Kune Do.
While expanding his practice and teaching of martial arts in the 1960's, Bruce never forgot his background in films. This led to several TV roles including, "THE GREEN HORNET" and "BATMAN", in 1966-1977. Bruce was also in "IRONSIDE" in 1967, "BLONDIE" in 1969, and "HERE COME THE BRIDES" in 1969. In 1971 Bruce also starred in some episodes of "LONGSTREET". What was unique about his LONGSTREET role is he starred as himself, and taught his form of martial arts and martial arts philosophy. In 1971 Lee pitched a modern kung fu western show to Warner Brothers, which, of course, he was to star in. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers used the concept of a Shaolin priest wandering the cowboy west and awarded the role to David Carradine. At the time, David Carradine had never had any martial arts training. This let Lee know he was limited in what types of movies or roles he could play in the U.S. TV and movie market. In all fairness to Warner Brothers, Lee's English may have been difficult for some people in the U.S. market to understand.
Bruce's first movie in the U.S. after the 1941 "GOLDEN GATE GIRL" was "MARLOWE", starring James Garner, as a somewhat rough characterized private detective. The movie was fairly mediocre, with Bruce playing a Chinese gang member who used karate and tore up James Garner's office. In one scene James Garner fights Bruce Lee and somehow beats him. This is not a movie Bruce Lee is very well known for.
With Bruce Lee's movie acting career going nowhere in the U.S., Bruce travels to Hong Kong and finds he is well known from the "GREEN HORNET" TV series. In Hong Kong TV series is known as the "KATO SHOW". With his popularity in Hong Kong and Asia, Bruce decides to try his hand in the Asian film industry. In 1971 Bruce Lee stars in "THE BIG BOSS", which is his first Asian Kung Fu/Martial Arts movie. This movie was filmed in Thailand, and became popular in Asia. Frankly, in my opinion this was not a very good movie. The fighting was not that good. The only unique part of the movie I remember was the bad guy throwing a knife at Bruce, which Bruce intercepts with a kick, which strikes the opponent in a killing blow to his body. The movie plot was based on workers in an ice factory being subjugated by the boss, who was also selling drugs. If I had never seen this movie, I would not have missed anything Bruce Lee represents. I'll give it one star for historical purposes. Note: in the U.S. market this film is also known as "FISTS OF FURY"
The real turning point in Bruce Lee's movies was "FIST OF FURY" in 1972. Note: in the U.S. this film was known as "THE CHINESE CONNECTION". This film is an absolute classic. In this film we are seeing more hand to hand fighting and less swords and knives that we saw in "THE BIG BOSS". This movie is definitive of a new class and genre of martial arts films. The storyline of the movie has Bruce Lee as a student of a kung fu school in the early 1900's. This was a period of time where Shanghai, in China, had been subjugated by European powers, and more recently by Japan. The Japanese held the power over the local police and treated Chinese like second class citizens. One day two Japanese came by Bruce Lee's school and left an insulting sign, taunting the Chinese. Bruce Lee incensed at the insult, took the sign back to the Japanese karate school beat everyone up. Things then escalated between the Chinese and Japanese with Bruce Lee essentially beating up all of the Japanese. The final scene has the Japanese and police coming to close the Kung Fu school and arrest Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee resists to the end with a flying kick straight into the guns facing him. There are a number of important points here. You have a country or part of a country which has been subjugated by a foreign power. The locals fight back. It pits the good regular people against the bosses. My school is better than your karate school. The real story line here is that Bruce Lee stood up for something, and stood against bullies. This message resonated with many people in third world countries at the time. This was a fight against oppression. The martial arts in this film were good. The story line made it great. If you are a Bruce Lee fan, this is a must see film.
With two recent martial arts movies completed, and a tremendous response at the box office, Bruce Lee is now a certified movie star Hong Kong and Asia. With this Asian movie success, Bruce Lee is getting more recognition as a film star from Hollywood. Bruce's next movie is "THE WAY OF THE DRAGON" or "RETURN OF THE DRAGON". This is the film shot in Rome with the epic scene between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. This film was the first movie Bruce wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. This was considered a martial arts action, comedy movie. The movie was fairly mediocre. The fight scene behind the restaurant showed Bruce's talents with empty hand karate, as well as using a bo staff, and nunchucks. Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris were friends and used to work out together. Bruce asked Chuck if he would like to be in his movie. Chuck asked who was going the win the fight between them. Bruce said, "Me, of course, it's my movie!" This fight was classic in that it was between two marital artists who respected each other, and vowed to fight to the death. This fight scene really spoke more about the essence of what a martial artist is and represents. This film is what really made Chuck Norris's film career. Good stuff! I'll give this movie one star for storyline and three stars for Bruce and Chuck's epic battle.
Bruce's next film was "ENTER THE DRAGON" in 1973. This film is significant with production being co-produced by a Hollywood film company, Warner Brothers, along with a Hong Kong company, Golden Harvest. Bruce Lee was a writer, editor, and star of this film. "ENTER THE DRAGON" also featured, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Robert Wall, Bolo Yueng, and a newcomer, Jackie Chan. Quality and story wise, this was a well produced movie, with good video, action, story line, and characters. According to one source, Bruce Lee wanted to show some to the good parts of martial arts and Chinese culture. The film cost about $850,000 to make, and made around 25 million dollars in the U.S. and 200 dollars million worldwide. This was a well put together film which I give five stars to. Due to Bruce Lee's death in 1973, this was the last film Bruce Lee made before he died.
"THE GAME OF DEATH" came out in 1978. This is the movie where Bruce Lee fights various martial artists up different levels of a pagoda. The main idea of this film was to showcase Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do techniques and how it is used to adapt to different fighting styles. The most stand out part of this film is Bruce Lee, 5′ 7″ tall fighting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 7'2″ tall. Talk about extremes. In this case, Bruce found out Kareem's sensitivity to light, and defeated him. The Pilipino karate master, Dan Inosanto, was one of Bruce Lee's opponents in this film. Dan was the martial artists who introduced Bruce Lee to nunchucks. After three months, Bruce was better than Dan with nunchucks. Bruce also fought a Japanese karate master using a variety of techniques. I'll give this film three stars for the nature of the movie and how Jeet Kune Do is showcased. Bruce is probably best known from this movie from this yellow sweat suit.
To recap, Bruce Lee's first movie role was when he was a couple of months old. He acted in a number of U.S. TV shows and a movie, which showed his talents, but could not achieve stardom and a Chinese man. He rocketed to stardom in Hong Kong martial arts movies, and then finally received the recognition from Hollywood he deserved. More than an actor Bruce Lee re shaped martial arts, karate movies, and became a cultural icon. His popularity today, shows the significance of who he was, and what he gave us. He was truly a man before his time. We are fortunate to be able to see Bruce Lee from his movies.
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Home/South Africa/Read full remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of the 2020 Report of the UN Secretary-General's Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman Every Child
Read full remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of the 2020 Report of the UN Secretary-General's Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman Every Child
Today News Africa Send an email July 13, 2020
African Union Chair and President of South Africa His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the opening session of the AU and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) virtual conference on Africa's Leadership role in COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access on June 24
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this event, which addresses some of the most important issues facing humanity today.
The coronavirus pandemic is testing the social, economic and political resilience of many countries around the world but more especially developing countries.
Many of these countries, especially African countries, already face challenges of extreme poverty, a lack of basic infrastructure and services, inadequate social protection systems, poor health care capacity and pre-existing disease burdens.
The pandemic is placing an additional burden on already constrained health care systems.
This global crisis has starkly highlighted the value of universal health coverage in responding to health emergencies and the need for robust health systems to save lives.
South Africa fully supports the efforts of the World Health Organization to ensure there is universal health coverage across the world.
The reality that we must now confront is that the response to the COVID-19 crisis has required countries to reprioritise the allocation of their resources by diverting crucial technical and financial resources from other critical areas.
The health of women has been adversely impacted through this reallocation, particularly in sexual and reproductive health services.
Jill and Joe Biden eulogize Archbishop Desmond Tutu
South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu dies at 90
There is a real danger that this will contribute to a rise in maternal and newborn mortality, increased unmet need for contraception and an increased number of unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections.
South Africa believes sexual and reproductive health services are crucial for a thriving society, including access to maternal health care and interventions related to gender-based violence.
As countries of the world we must ensure this pandemic does not worsen existing inequalities in society or impede the realisation of the rights of women and girls.
We must ensure that our response enables young people in particular to shape the world that will emerge from this crisis.
It is significant that 65 out of the 169 Sustainable Development Goal targets refer to young people explicitly or implicitly, with a focus on their empowerment, participation and well-being.
It is our desire that developing countries should have equitable access to safe and effective medicines and new health technologies.
We call on upon the global community to undertake the actions that are urgently needed to ensure collaboration on the development of knowledge, intellectual property and data for existing and new therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics for COVID-19.
I would like to commend governments around the world for their collaborative efforts towards advancing Sustainable Development Goal 3 on ensuring health and well-being for all.
This includes a bold commitment to end HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases by 2030.
Fighting this global pandemic requires us all to work together in collaboration with the United Nations as a united force.
Indeed we are stronger together.
I wish this meeting success with its deliberations.


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From Today's Papers - 30 Apr 2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140430/nation.htm#2
Allow Sikhs to serve in US army: US-Indians to Defense Secy Hagel
Washington, April 29
Sixteen influential Indian-Americans from across the country have asked US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to allow Sikhs to serve in the armed forces with their religious faith intact.
"As entrepreneurs and community members dedicated to advancing issues important to the Indian-American community and strengthening ties between the US and India, we respectfully request that the US Department of Defense modernise its appearance regulations so that Sikh-Americans can presumptively serve in our nation's military while maintaining their articles of faith," 16 Indian-Americans wrote in a letter to Hagel.
According to the copy of the letter dated April 25, which was provided to PTI today, the Indian Americans - all of whom are major fundraisers and wield considerable influence in the nation's political circle - praised the recent efforts of 105 bipartisan members of the US House of Representatives, who recently had also sent a letter to Hagel expressing their support for Sikh-Americans in the US armed forces.
That letter was led by Congressman Joseph Crowley, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, and Rodney Frelinghuysen, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
"The importance of this issue to the Indian-American community is underscored by the fact that the Government of India issued a statement supporting the effort. As you know, our NATO allies already permit Sikhs to serve," the letter, which was signed by Shekhar Narasimhan, Ranvir Trehan, Shefali Razdan Duggal, Rajeev Sharma, Parag and Usha Saxena, Reshma Saujani, Frank Ismail, Raj Goyle, Anju Bhargava, said.
Among other signatories to the letter are -- MR Rangaswami, Mahinder Tak, Sunita Leeds, Aneesh Chopra, Vinod K Shah and Parag V Mehta.
"We wanted our Sikh-American brothers and sisters to know that, at the very least, the Indian-American community stands with them and while it may be seen as symbolic, their cause is our cause," Narasimhan said.
In the letter, the Indian-Americans said for more than a century, immigrants from India have strengthened and enriched America, even after overcoming obstacles. — PTI
Soldiers injured on leave entitled to benefits: SC
Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, April 29
Upholding a judgment of the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), the Supreme Court has ruled that soldiers injured while on duly authorised leave are entitled to grant of disability pension.
The Tribunal's judgment was challenged by the Central government in the Supreme Court. The apex court dismissed the civil appeal observing that there was no infirmity in the conclusions reached by the Tribunal.
In November 2011, the Tribunal's Bench comprising Justice Ghanshyam Prashad and Lt Gen HS Panag had, after discussing various Supreme Court judgments in favour of and against the proposition of grant of disability pension to soldiers injured during leave, held that disability pension would be entitled to such persons when the injury was not due their own fault and when they were not engaged in a militarily inconsistent activity.
Disposing a case where a soldier was injured in a road accident, the Tribunal had concluded that it was its duty to give a beneficial interpretation to such social welfare schemes and policy had to be interpreted liberally since roads were now flooded with vehicles while the rules were originally framed in 1950 and that otherwise it shall lead to grave injustice to soldiers who defend the frontiers.
The Tribunal had also observed that while civilians were retained in service on incurring disabilities, defence personnel could be discharged. It observed that if military personnel could not be retained they must be adequately compensated for being thrown out on account of disabilities so that they could meet their own and their families' basic needs.
The issue of denial of benefits to disabled soldiers and tendency of the defence ministry of filing multiple appeals against disability pension to disabled soldiers in the SC, was also raised in the Parliament in August 2013 by several MPs.
Experts dealing with the subject state that it was only in India that defence personnel were not paid any kind of monthly pension on being discharged on non service-related disabilities whereas the services of disabled civilians were protected and they were entitled to pay and allowances till superannuation and pension thereafter.
Former Air Chief NAK Browne is Norway envoy
Ashok Tuteja
New Delhi, April 29
The Centre today named Air Chief Marshal (Retired) NAK Browne as India's next Ambassador to Norway. Browne would take up his new assignment shortly, the External Affairs Ministry said in an announcement which is also bound to upset mandarins at the Foreign Office.
He succeeds RK Tyagi. ACM Browne, also known as 'Charlie' Browne, was chief of the IAF from July 31, 2011 to December 31, 2013.
The government had two years back appointed former Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma as the High Commissioner to Canada, courting a controversy. The then External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had proposed the name of senior diplomat Basant Gupta for the post but the PMO ignored his recommendation and appointed Verma. Before this, another former Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta was appointed as the High Commissioner to New Zealand.
http://indiandefence.com/threads/india-urgent-defense-reforms-needed.45997/
India: Urgent Defense Reforms Needed
On April 2, India's outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, told a conference that: "As a responsible nuclear weapon state that remains committed to non-proliferation, India supports the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free world because we believe that it enhances not just India's security, but also global security."
Less than a fortnight later, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), largely expected to lead the next government, sprung a surprise by declaring in its election manifesto that it will "study in detail India's nuclear doctrine, and revise and update it to make it relevant to [the] challenges of current times."
That was a surprise, because India's 15-year old nuclear doctrine that decrees "no-first use" of nuclear weapons was put in place by the last BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. If the BJP indeed comes to power and then delivers on its promise, it would mark a major shift in India's nuclear policy.
Tweaking or changing the course of India's nuclear doctrine will surely alter India's foreign policy too. The challenge for the new government will be to balance India's own national interest with the current – and fast-changing – geopolitical situation in Eurasia.
The outgoing United Progressive Alliance government has had a mixed record on strategic issues. It vacillated between unusual firmness on some issues (the Devayani Khobragade affair with the U.S. for example) but was erratic in dealing with China and Pakistan and sent out mixed signals in its interactions with other smaller neighbors like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh. In several instances, New Delhi failed to deliver on promises made to its neighbors, often putting the local leaders in those countries in awkward positions. For instance, New Delhi, despite its best intentions, could not fulfill two major promises made to Dhaka on concluding a land boundary agreement and sharing the waters of the Teesta river. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced a major political embarrassment at home because of New Delhi's failure to keep its word.
With Colombo too, India swung between two different positions during the vote against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council, and paid the price by losing considerable ground to China in terms of influence with the island nation. New Delhi's failure to calibrate events in the Maldives is also seen as a setback for its own clout in the region.
India's next prime minister – and everyone believes Narendra Modi will be the man, post-May 16 – will need to step up and reboot foreign policy as a priority if India is to regain the influence it had acquired at the turn of the century and even during the first term of the UPA, but which was frittered away by its ineffectual leadership since 2010.
However, a greater challenge awaits the new prime minister. The Indian military is in shambles not least because it is stuck with a largely 19th century mindset, is mostly armed with 20th century weapons, but has a 21st century ambition. The stark mismatch, topped by a risk-averse Defence minister, has left India's military forces at their lowest ebb in decades.
Two years ago when a letter written by the then Army Chief Gen VK Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh found its way into the media, there was much outrage and anger over the state of Indian Army's preparedness. "The state of the major (fighting) arms i.e. mechanised forces, artillery, air defence, infantry and special forces, as well as the engineers and signals, is indeed alarming," the General wrote to the prime minister. The army's entire tank fleet is "devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks," while the air defence system is "97% obsolete," he wrote. The infantry is crippled with "deficiencies," while the elite forces are "woefully short" of "essential weapons." Singh has since joined the resurgent BJP and is hoping to win a seat in parliament when results are declared on May 16.
Since then, urgent steps have been taken to improve the deficiencies in some areas, especially in improving the stock of fresh ammunition. Still, many critical shortages remain unaddressed. For instance, the Army's light helicopters are more than 40 years old; it has not bought new artillery guns since 1987; it is also short nearly 600,000 hand grenades. The list is endless.
The Indian Navy, too, is short of conventional submarines. Its fleet of diesel-powered submarines is down to a single digit. Submarines in production in Indian shipyards are at least four years behind schedule. The Indian Air Force is down to 33 squadrons of fighter jets against the required strength of 39 squadrons. Its eight-year-old plan to purchase 126 new combat jets is yet to come to fruition, although a contract negotiating committee is currently talking to French manufacturer Dassault Aviation and hopes to ink a mammoth 15 billion dollar deal as soon as the next government gives it the green light. Even then, the first lot of 18 aircraft will enter service only in 2017, and only then if the contract is signed before the end of 2014.
Acquiring critical weapons platform is but one of the facets of defense management. India has been found to be woefully inadequate in reforming its higher defense management structure. A combination of bureaucratic lethargy and cumbersome systems topped by a timid minister has weakened the Indian military alarmingly. The biggest hurdle in the Indian military's quest for rapid modernization has been the country's defense minister AK Antony. As a politician concerned solely with preserving his squeaky clean image, Antony has time and again put his personal obsessions above national interest.
His record as India's longest serving Defence minister (he's held the post since October 2006) is a clear testimony to this. During his tenure, Antony has already barred or blacklisted half a dozen major international defense firms at the first hint of wrong doing and bribery and has cancelled contracts in the very last stage of the process leaving the three armed forces to battle with shortages and obsolescence.
And so the three services continue to suffer. The new government and its leader will have to urgently press the reset button to put defense modernization on the fast track, equipping the Indian military with the teeth it needs required teeth to match India's ambitions to become an important regional if not global player.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/retired-deputy-army-chief-n-s-malik-slams-upa-government-114042901233_1.html
Retired deputy army chief N S Malik slams UPA government
Retired deputy chief of the Indian Army Lieutenant General N S Malik claimed here today that the security and integrity of the nation is not safe under the UPA government.
Malik, who is the BJP's national security cell convener claimed that India's defence preparedness is not upto the mark under the Congress-led UPA government.
Malik who is here to seek votes of ex-servicemen for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha BJP candidate K Haribabu said that there is a need to modernise defence services including the air force and the navy.
Recommendations of the C Subrahmaniam Committee appointed by the NDA government after the Kargil war was not implemented by the UPA government, he said.
He said that during his recent election meetings Narendra Modi had promised to solve ex-servicemen's problems once the BJP comes to power at the Centre.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/solemnity-marks-cremation-of-major/article5957330.ece
Solemnity marks cremation of Major
Chennai on Monday bid an emotional farewell to Major Mukund Varadharajan. The 32-year-old officer, who laid down his life "in the most gallant manner in the finest traditions of the Indian Armed Forces" fighting extremists in Kashmir on Friday last, was cremated at the Besant Nagar crematorium.
The atmosphere at the crematorium, where the final rites were performed, was solemn with his parents, wife and their young daughter, accepting the condolences of officers, Ministers and people from various quarters. The coffin was draped with the Tricolour with his beret and battle gear uniform placed atop. The cremation was done with the full military honours, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Defence said.
Fourteen soldiers fired 42 rounds in the air as a mark of respect to the officer as bugles were sounded in line with the Army tradition.
Young people from across the city, including school and college students, assembled at the crematorium early in the day to pay their respects. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called on the officer's parents and wife at their home later in the evening on Monday.
Expressing his condolences, Governor K. Rosiah, in a letter to the Major's father Raghavachari Varadharajan, said the death of Mukund Varadharajan was a great loss to the Army.
Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family and termed the loss irreparable.
http://indiandefence.com/threads/army-undertakes-major-exercise-along-western-front-to-hone-combat-skills.45992/
Army undertakes major exercise along western front to hone combat skills
SOURCE: TNN
India may be raising a new mountain strike corps to counter China's build-up of military infrastructure and capabilities all along the Line of Actual Control but it continues to hone its combat skills on the western front with Pakistan as well. A major exercise, codenamed 'Sarvada Vijay' (Always Victorious), is currently underway in the deserts of Rajasthan with the overall aim being to practice conventional cross-border thrusts into enemy territory.
With a large number of tanks, infantry combat vehicles and howitzers deployed, the exercise involves the Mathura-based I Strike Corps with some support elements. "Army chief General Bikram Singh will be visiting the Suratgarh area to review the exercise later this week," said a source.
After Operation Parakram in 2002, which exposed operational gaps and the slow troop mobilisation along the border, India reorganised the Army formations along the western front to ensure the capability to deliver a more effective lethal punch if required.
This involved the creation of the South-Western Command (SWAC) in Jaipur in 2005 as the 1.18-million strong Army's sixth operational command. While I Strike Corps falls under SWAC, the other two such "attack" formations are II Corps (Ambala) under the Western Army Command at Chandimandir and XXI Corps (Bhopal) under the Southern Army Command in Pune.
But with the focus for long being on a land battle with Pakistan, it is only over the last few years that India has belatedly turned its attention to China. So, while the three existing strike corps are largely geared towards Pakistan, the Army in 2009-2010 raised two new infantry divisions (1,260 officers and 35,000 soldiers) at Likabali and Missamari (Assam) for the "defence" of Arunachal Pradesh.
Now, India has begun raising the new mountain strike corps – the XVII Corps with its headquarters at Panagarh in West Bengal — to add some much-needed "deterrence" to the "dissuasive posture" against China. It will give the Army, virtually for the first time, some "rapid reaction force" capability to launch a counter-offensive into Tibet Autonomous Region in the event of a Chinese attack.
The XVII Corps is to be fully raised over the next seven years with around 90,000 soldiers at a cost of around Rs 64,700 crore. Apart from "integral units", the new corps will have two high-altitude infantry divisions (initially being raised at Panagarh and Pathankot), two independent infantry brigades, two armoured brigades and two Para-Special Forces battalions, spread across Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.
This is deemed critical to counter China's "aggressive" strengthening of its military capabilities along the LAC, including at least five fully-operational airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads in Tibet. This allows China to move over 30 divisions (each with over 15,000 soldiers) to the LAC, outnumbering Indian forces by at least 3:1 there as of now, as earlier reported by TOI.
I'm reading: From Today's Papers - 30 Apr 2014Tweet this! Posted by Rohit Agarwal at 09:11
Labels: aft, ambassador, browne, disability pension, navy chief, sinha, supreme court, VK Singh
From Today's Papers -24 Apr 2014


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'Winnie the Pooh' Screenwriter Alex Ross Perry Cites 'A.I.' as Inspiration for His Script
by Tommy Cook November 19, 2015
When it was announced earlier this year that indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry would be writing a live action Winnie the Pooh for Disney, there were quite a few surprised reactions. Even Perry himself knows he's not the 'traditional' choice to write a live action rendering of the classic. The writer/director specializes in the confounding intricacies of adult relationships: Queen of the Earth, Listen Up Phillip, The Color Wheel – none of which prepare you for a foray into the world of stuffed teddy bears and honey; but in speaking with the filmmaker this past weekend at the Los Cabos International Film Festival, a children's film was exactly what he had hoped to do next.
"I had been talking about a children's property I was interested in, which of course seems surprising to everyone," Perry stated, "It was just one of the things after Listen Up Phillip that I said to people that I care about. Nothing happened with [the children's adaptation]; but eight months later, [my agent] randomly called me and said 'Hey I was on the phone with someone at Disney and they're trying to get [Winnie the Pooh] going. Do you want to talk with them about it? It's similar to the thing you were trying to do before.' I said, 'Yeah – I will earn that job. I will earn that job the minute they talk to me."
Image via Walt Disney Pictures
Ross Perry has up-to now written only his own original material; Winnie the Pooh will be his first stab at writing for pre-existing characters. "I'm learning now about writing in a voice of something you didn't create" he confides, "There's eight animal friends in the movie and each one has a specifically distinctive voice that everybody remembers exactly the way it is. So it's different…"
I press if he's attempting to recapture those same voices or put his own specific spin on it. Perry answered succinctly – "You can't give people a movie that is different from what they remember otherwise they'll hate it." The eight characters will "represent the part of the story they represent"; but Perry is quick to add – "Everything else is new."
Tonally – Alex Ross Perry seems to be going for a more somber take on the children's classic. I ask what films he's looking to – and he reveals it's not necessarily a children's film that has inspired him. "There's a lot inspired by the relationship between David and Teddy in AI" Perry explains, "That's not really a children's film at all. Crushingly depressing. But the relationship between human and toy bear in that movie is pretty spot on. And Fantastic Mr. Fox is something I've been talking about and thinking about because it has a lot of characters and each one is pretty distinct. It's a fun movie and it works for a four year old and for a thirty year old. But David and Teddy in AI is the relevant model."
Ross Perry continues – "We're looking at Toy Story a lot because that's a thing about toys that are alive just as Pooh Bear and his friends are all stuffed animals. Those films are all emotionally satisfying and classy and clever in a really sophisticated way. Last time when I was out at Disney, we watched forty minutes of Regarding Henry. That's part of where our heads are at with this type of movie. Holiday was also a film we talked about a lot for some reason. It's all pretty surprising."
Besides Winnie the Pooh, Disney has a number of live action adaptations currently in the works. Jon Favreau's Jungle Book and David Lowery's Pete's Dragon are set for release next year and Bill Condon's Beauty and the Beast will follow in 2017.
The Los Cabos International Film Festival ran from Nov 11th-Nov 14th
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• Alex Ross Perry • Disney • Winnie the Pooh


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