Review: As A Conceit - Frown Upon Us

Review: Hyaena - Existence

Progressive death metal is a genre that can be quite difficult to appreciate at times. It took me some time to get my head around some of its intricacies. I would now consider it to be one of my favourite sub-genres. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many bands from the northern hemisphere that are playing it so I was excited to hear what France's Hyaena had to offer. Straight off the bat it is clear that Hyaena have a bit more to them than some of the more generic progressive death metal bands around.

The music is essentially a riff soup that is continually stopping, starting and changing tempo. There aren't any direct comparisons to be made to other bands though there are plenty of influences including Hate Eternal, Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me and Meshuggah. The sheer intensity of this album is something to behold. It has all the characteristics of a band that have been playing and recording together for years, and that’s true as they released two EP’s prior to this record. It is a credit to their musicianship and provides a glimpse and a hint towards what they may be able to achieve in the future.

Not only is 'Existence' extremely heavy, it is ultra technical also. There isn't a moment where the entire band are resting on their laurels. While the guitars are shredding away, drummer is putting in one of the most spirited performances I have heard for some time. Though he isn't the fastest drummer I have ever heard his choice of beats and fills is really interesting and creative. His playing reminds me a lot of the late Steve MacDonald from Gorguts. The production of the album was handled by Jamie King, and that really makes difference. Everything is audible and certainly doesn’t lack the bite and the punch that would push the sound to the next level.

Hyaena is an asset to France's metal scene and should have a long future if things keep going the way they are. Pre-order 'Existence' here.

Review: Pregnant Whale Pain - Blank

Pregnant Whale Pain is an experimental metal band from Budapest in Hungary, and "Blank" is their second release. In 2014, the band put out the self-titled full-length debut, and back in January they released "Blank."

What "Blank" shows is a band that honed its style to near-perfection. This is an EP that will definitely put the band on the map; for the most part "Blank" is a taste of what is to come for PWP. Most of "Blank" is blistering metal, oddly-timed rhythms that tear across the small length of recording. Pregnant Whale Pain is not afraid of exploring different music styles, and it’s fascinating how they can switch from a mathcore part to some weird mix of funk and psychedelia with ease. The sound is still very raw and well done, and the clear intent throughout the album is to give you something tangible before it leaves the listener in the dust.

For example, "Blank long Nights Kill Romance Vengefully" is bruising for all of its almost five minutes; it includes beautiful laid-back melody, only to hit you in the face with brutality of vocals, courtesy of Krisz Horváth, who absolutely shines on this record. His voice is an excellent example of the diversity these guys aspire to. Horváth is perfect with screams, spoken-word, and he definitely can sing.

"Cicada" pounds away right from the beginning, and giving the you just enough to move your head to. “When Home is Wrong" is quite a break after the previous song, its blindingly hasty rhythms still wrack your mind and ears.

This is without doubt one of the most exciting releases to appear at the beginning of 2017. "Blank" may be an EP, but with five tracks it’s a generous one and the songs are so good that it fully deserves full marks. If they can follow this work of genius with a full album of similar quality, they’ll very quickly find themselves among the elite.

"Blank" is available from Bandcamp here.

Serpentyne's Maggie-Beth Sand and Mark Powell discuss with Metal Horizons about their music, inspiration, the new album titled "The Serpent's Kiss."

What made you go for the name Serpentyne?

MAGGIE-BETH: We wanted a name that sounded mediaeval, but also somehow conveyed the notion of strength and power. We thought of “Serpent,” inspired by the medieval instrument the serpent which is a very long brass tube……but that had already been taken. Mark suggested “Serpentine,” like the lake in Hyde Park, so I then said, “Yes, but let’s spell it with a “y” making it sound more medieval as in the old word for time; tyme. We both liked it, so we went with that.

How do you usually describe your music?

MARK: One magazine editor described us as “Tarja meets Solstice,” which is a fairly good summation; a mix of Nightwish-style orchestrations with progressive rock. Although we’ve progressed from acoustic mediaeval band to rock, there is a world-mediaeval-fantasy thread running through everything that we’ve done.

What is your writing process like?

MARK Often I’ll hear a traditional tune, or be playing one myself for practice when I think; “Hmm, I could make a good song out of this.” Lyrically, a lot of my ideas come from plays or stories, like “The Dark Queen” and “The Serpent’s Kiss.” A track on “Myths and Muses,” “Alexandria,” was inspired by Homer’s Iliad. The reason we chose that as a theme was that after writing the tune, Maggie said “The chorus needs to be the name of a place or person with five syllables.” That was the only one that I could think of, but as it happened, the story goes perfectly with the song, which is based around a traditional tune from that part of the world. Our songwriting is always a joint effort- often Maggie will suggest an idea to me, I’ll write a tune, then she’ll come up with some ideas on how to improve it, so the end result may be quite different from how it started off. Or she’ll write something which gives me ideas. Looking back at all the songs, it’s impossible sometimes, to remember which one of us wrote which bits of each.

Who or what is your inspiration, if you have any?

MAGGIE-BETH It comes from all sorts of sources - films, books, poems, paintings, or places we visit. We’ve played festivals in a lot of castles and mediaeval settings and they’re often very inspiring.

What is your favourite piece on the “The Serpent’s Kiss” album?

MAGGIE-BETH …I like all of them but I’d choose “Jeanne D’Arc” because the story is about a brave woman who went to fight for her people, and I think musically it’s a very strong theme.
MARK It’s hard to pick one. I love “Saltarello,” as it’s one of my favourite mediaeval tunes, but I also like “The Dark Queen” for the story. There again… no, I can’t say that I have a favourite; I like all of them.

What makes “The Serpent’s Kiss" different? What would you say is your biggest difference from other bands out there?

MAGGIE-BETH: The previous album, “Myths and Muses” was themed mainly around historical and mythical figures; Boudicca and the Valkyries, for instance. This one continues the legends and fantasy route, around Helen Of Troy, Jeanne D’Arc, Brigantia, the mythical; figure of the Morrighan for example - all powerful female figures. But it’s more loosely themed - one song, for example, “Spirits of the Desert” is about lost ghostly souls wandering the desert, while another, “The Dark Queen” is based on a Howard Pyle short story. There is a world-mediaeval-fantasy thread running through everything that we’ve done, which is, I suppose, what makes us different.

What should music lovers expect from “The Serpent’s Kiss”?

MARK: If you like a mix of progressive rock, metal, world and mediaeval music, you might like to give this a try! If you can’t imagine what that sounds like… well, here’s your chance to find out!

MARK: Any piece of music, of any style, can inspire different emotions in different people. They may feel excitement, joy, or pathos, depending on the song. If you can communicate any of these emotions, then your music is working.

MAGGIE-BETH: Both. Studio work, for me, means focusing on creativity and developing ideas into songs, and stories into compositions. This gives me a sense of achievement; the pleasure of thinking how much I would like to share this music with my audience. Being on tour gives me the opportunity to share directly with our audiences and it is always a pleasure to get this immediate feedback.

MAGGIE-BETH: Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti. Within Temptation - The Silent Force. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana; the version recorded by the Choir and Orchestra of the  Deutschen Oper Berlin, with Eugen Jochum.

Visit http://www.serpentyne.com for more news from Serpentyne.

Review: SynaptiK - Justify & Reason

Prog/Heavy metallers SynaptiK from England have been around since 2012, and they are about to return with their second studio album “Justify & Reason.” Why the hell didn’t I know about them earlier? Now, thanks to the PR wire, I got a promo copy of the upcoming release which is a real t(h)reat.

The style that SynaptiK plays is pretty standard, comparing somewhat with more traditionalist 80s metal throwbacks, yet they manage to sound different and fresh when compared with a lot of the other bands that attempt to play in this particular style.

John Knight’s vocals are gravely and rough, standing at the very center of the counter-tenor wails of Rob Halford and the husky baritone of Blaze Bailey. During the choruses of such catchy anthems as “The Incredible Machine” and “As I Was, As I Am” the vocal work almost punches past the rest of the arrangement. While he doesn’t soar into the higher stratosphere in the manner that most in the genre do, he more than compensates with sheer power.

Although the voice alone gives this album a heavy yet melodic edge, the entire arrangement pounds the sonic threshold of the listener into submission. Whether its faster songs like “Conscience” or down tempo stomping machines like “White Circles”, there is a consistent picture of a mighty fist slamming itself down on a stone table and commanding your undivided attention. Balancing out the simple yet aggressive riffs and backing instruments are flashy leads of guitarists Ian Knight and Jack Murton.

“Justify & Reason” is a powerful statement from a band that is hungry to show what their abilities are, and according to this they have much more to offer. Grab this record, you’ll not regret.

Follow SynaptiK on Facebook here.

Interview: Zafakon

Zafakon from Puerto Rico has been bringing their mixture of thrash, death and progressive metal since 2013, and the release of their debut album "War as a Drug." The band's second full-length, "Release," saw a band shifting towards more complex sound, adding on their progressive metal influences.

We talked with the band about their beginnings, writing, and more.

What made you go for the name Zafakon?

Marcus Veit: The name started out as a sort of joke. It comes from a word that only has meaning to Puerto Rican people, which is zafacón. It actually means trash can. We decided to keep it mostly because of the fact that most people will hear the word “Zafakon” and find it mysterious and ominous. And only of you were Puerto Rican you were in on the joke.

How do you usually describe your music?

MV: I personally find it hard to describe what our music has become. On our first record “War as a Drug”, it was mostly just straight up Thrash with a bit of Death Metal. Now it’s sort of like that, but the addition of Yhann to the band has brought on a whole new layer of sounds and influences. More melodic and technical stuff.

What is your writing process like?

MV: Usually we come up with ideas at home. We usually record them and then bring them to the rest of the guys so we can develop it into a song. I, personally, sometimes come up with stuff at work and have to hum it into a voice recorder app on my phone (looking and sounding like a weirdo in the process) and then get home and record it with the guitar. The main idea for a song we start developing will usually go through dozens of changes and tweaks until we have something that we are 100% happy with.

Who or what is your inspiration, if you have any?

Weslie Negrón: There are many things that keep inspired to make music. There are two that are always present in my mind. First, I’m a diehard Opeth fan, so knowing how Mikael Akerfeldt has kept and evolved the band from pretty much being in the bottom, it’s always very inspiring to know. Also, having to be on stage and watching how much people are enjoying themselves, how they are forgetting about life’s issues during the thirty or forty minutes of our sets, it’s always gratifying and it keeps driving me to do this as long as life lets me.

MV: I usually list Nergal from Behemoth as one of my main inspirations. Not just in music but also in life. Here’s a guy who has built this band from the ground up and has been through so much in his life, still standing possibly taller than ever, and never once letting himself down. His creativeness has been more than proven and I he just doesn’t care what anybody has to say about his beliefs, his music or his life decisions.

What is your favourite piece on the “Release” album?

WN: My favorite track is “Valor y Sacrificio”. I just love the prog elements in the song and it’s just such a soothing song, if you compare it with the other tracks of the album, that it just hits the spot if you’re looking for a kind of a technical, melodic, and progressive song in our catalogue.

What makes “Release” different?

MV: I think there’s something for everyone on this album. There’s some technical stuff, there’s some fast, thrashy tunes, there’s songs you can sing along to… I think it’s a very complete album and what makes it different is that it comes from a place where many influences come together, which is Puerto Rico. There is a distinct flavor to the Puerto Rican Metal sound.

What should music lovers expect from “Release”?

MV: Like I said, there are things on this album that everyone can enjoy. There is plenty of melodies and arrangements that feel catchy but aggressive at the same time. There also plenty of lead breaks and riffs for the guitar lovers. And Nicko did a great job adding a proggy feel to the drums in many different ways. Check it out!

MV: I mostly would like everyone to feel empowered somehow. I feel that surge of power every time we play these songs on stage. I would like them to feel like they are taller than buildings. At least that’s how I feel when I listen to a good Metal song.

MV: TOUR hands down! I hate the studio *laughs*. My favorite thing about being in this band is being able to travel and play this music to different people every day. The road is not easy at all, but it sure beats the hell out of being locked up in one room the entire day playing do-over after do-over. That’s just my opinion, of course.

WN: I prefer life on the road. I mean, both are tough in their respective ways, but touring is better for me. I love being able to meet new people and seeing their reaction towards our show. Also, discovering new places I haven’t got the chance to go before it’s always nice.

WN: I would take:
1. Ayreon – The Human Equation
2. Opeth – Ghost Reveries
3. Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet

MV: Oh boy... let’s see (in no particular order):
1. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
2. Behemoth – The Satanist
3. Testament – The New Order

Like Zafakon on Facebook for more news.

Review: Increate - Void

As if Progressive Metal met Technical Death and Djent for lunch and the three later casually partook in rough coitus, Portland-based Increate make some heavy, heavy music. Call it progressive metal or even an incredibly atmospheric derivative of death metal, the band’s debut record, Void is an oppressive sea of fury, and it resonates with me in a way few bands of its style manage to do. The songwriting may be solid and the production some of the best I’ve seen in metal, but it’s the ubiquitous atmosphere that has this album screaming ‘masterpiece’.

Too many bands in metal ultimately sound indistinguishable from one another, and it is a bleak statement. True enough, Increate’s resistance from this heavy metal clone complex pays off. Although their dark brand of tech metal can still find itself associated with a number of prescribed genres, Void feels like a natural collision of influences from across the spectrum, from black and doom metal to modern and extreme variant of prog.

As a whole Void relies on a sickening atmosphere of rage and fear. Although Increate sticks exclusively to their guitars, drums, and bass (you guessed it right - Void is a fully instrumental adventure), the music sounds vast. “Depths of R’lyeh” introduces the sinister mood that pervades the majority of the album. By the cornerstone “Interstella Displacement,” Increate have developed their riff energy into a dense fury complete with burstfire picking. All the while, Portlanders layer their music with atonal atmospheric guitars. The band’s style will certainly draw a number of comparisons with other bands, but Increate combine the elements and make the sound truly their own.

Although it’s not the biggest reason why Void has stood out to me so much, it’s worth mentioning that Increate enjoy some of the richest, most organic production I have heard on a metal record for quite some time. Perhaps it’s the heavy presence of the bass guitar, but Increate find an incredible balance between a live ‘raw’ energy, and a clear mix between instruments. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Increate channel their atmosphere-laden heaviness through such an organic studio execution. Those willing to set the time aside to fairly digest the atmosphere will find an incredible world to explore with Void, one governed by anger and chaos. I give my highest recommendation.

Void is out on February 3; pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Review: Burnt City - Resurgence EP

Burnt City is a prog-power metal project by guitarist and composer Aydin Zahedi hailing from Sydney in Australia. Zahedi has gathered quite a line-up for Burnt City’s debut EP "Resurgence" which was released on the first day of 2017. He teamed up with singer Gus Monsanto (Revolution Renaissance), keyboardist Bob Katsionis (Serious Black, Firewind), bassist Mike Lepond (Symphony X), and drummer George Kollias (Nile) to create quite a powerful synthesis of genres.

Musically very rich, "Resurgence" is not easy to understand at the first encounter, but I immediately discerned some obvious qualities. The vocal performance from Monsanto is very convincing; he owns such a powerful voice and charisma to deliver.

As the record passes by, "Resurgence" expands further, in a precise and clever way little by little, a long process to fully enjoy it in its fullness. The identity of the album is based around a dark Progressive Metal sound with some Melodic method and some intricate harmonic arrangements, more dramatic in the ambiances than it seems, while the smartness and the complex shape of their creative ways are updated by an evolutive style in a thick schema of heaviness.

Songs on "Resurgence" are of same quality throughout the record; this quality is uniform and goes gradually all the way from the opening intro to the closing piece “Armageddon.”

"Resurgence" is a great release; the talent of Aydin Zahedi accompanied by masterful execution of collaborators is evident on every step. I hope that this record is just an indicator that this project has a lot more to say.

Get a copy of "Resurgence" here.

Listen: the Flight of Sleipnir - Skadi

I have been a long time fan of these guys, I own t shirts, posters, signed prints, cds, you name it, I got it. There is just something so ethereal about their music, a balance of darkness and light, a battle of emotion and an atmosphere quite unlike any other. Am I looking way too deep into this? Probably. Though somehow the Flight of Sleipnir makes this kind of introspection come with such ease that it is hard not to delve deeper and deeper while letting the music wash over you.

I urge literally everyone in the world to listen to these guys, start with any track from their catalog, they are all worth it. Below you will find their latest album 'Skadi' named after the Norse goddess of winter, skiing and hunting. It is beautiful and I can not get enough of it.

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Listen: Dopelord - Children of the Haze

Dopelord are a stoner/doom band from Poland who were founded in late 2010 in Lublin. Smoking, rehearsing and touring ,their main inspirations are: old movies, 70s music and magical herbs. Seems like a great combo if you ask me. Dopelord just released 'Children of the Haze' which you can find below, its 6 tracks of fuzzed out crushing doom. Make sure you turn your volume up to eleven for this one!

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Review: Farwatch - Transmigrated

"Transmigrated" is an album by US Progressive Symphonic Metal group Farwatch, independently released in December 2016. With four lengthy tracks – "Library of Empyreus," "Water Turns the Wheel," "Viridian Pearl," and "Behold the New" – this is album is a good exemplar of the genre, developing harmonies that evolves from very subtle, lucid and poetic melodies, that has in beauty a very mature element that constantly revolves and adorns the harmonies, as a resilient broken hearted universe, trying to fix its overall emotions in a more theatrical, but ethereal consignation of truth.

An interesting genre work, consolidated by a very solid line of interchanged rhythms absorbed in an inadvertently sensorial musical definition, "Transmigrated" departs from a very symbiotic pattern of cohesive harmonies, that relies constantly in beautiful melodic overtones, and all around the sonorous shapes of its contiguous abundant poetic stature, also inserts into the creative outlines convoluted and surprising electronic elements, precisely combining interesting components to create and develop a very peculiar style of their own.

With interesting passages, designed to fulfill and comprehend a more magical and indefinite musical cosmogony, that aligns several different sonorous elements into an unusual style of ambitious artistry, "Transmigrated" is really focused in a very antagonistically complex, but cohesive musical proposal, that never departs from absurd or overall commonalities: developing their own colossal and monumental concept of Symphonic Progressive Metal, "Transmigrated" is really absorbed in an interesting pattern of poetic diversity and creativity, being a lot more ambitious and solid than other works on the genre. They truly develop a new concept, being so vigorously original, that is impossible not to recognize the new values they present to the genre, as a whole.

"Transmigrated" is a very colorful and versatile album, filled with beautiful, precise and delicate harmonies that, despite the fact that widely explores several different layers of musical shapes at all corners of symphonic / progressive metal, does fully secure a lucid and vivid sonorous cohesion, all the way through. Destined to become a powerful reference to the genre, this work really opens new possibilities, as well as consecrates a true evolutionary road for the genre, in each and every possible aspect. Farwatch is a band of enlightened logic, poetic versatility, unusual fulfillment, musical beauty, and artistic ambition, destined to take Progressive Metal to the next level. Until them, the genre was inclined to a very monotonous decline and stagnation. Now, we can see a revival, an upheaval and a vigorous rebirth in the horizon!

"Transmigrated" is available now from Bandcamp.

Review: Second Horizon - Albdruck

Albdruck is the debut studio album from German experimental band Second Horizon. The band employs wide spectre of elements in their music, and if you are a fan of bands such like Cult of Luna, Enslaved, Isis, Tool, Mastodon and more, I kid you not, you will make a room in your heart for this album.

Albdruck consists of modern day, relentless, in-your-face riffs, and pounding rhythm section. The drums really shine through over the thrashing, heart-pounding tracks with insane sound quality and wicked speed that are easily to focal point in many of the songs.

Second Horizon add this ear-popping and near hypnotic distortion to their heaviness which really adds character to the album. Although there are no vocals, the band makes up for it by a mind blowing performance. Their heavy take on the already heavy genres is what makes this record a very pleasant discovery.

You can get yourself a copy of the album here.

Frost Giant Show That Amon Amarth Arent The Only Ones Who Can Do Viking Metal

If you couldn't guess from the title, Frost Giant play their own fusion of viking metal inspired by Norse mythology punk rock and american hardcore. Their latest album, 'When Myth and History Merged Into History' is not just a mouth full, but a pretty solid release featuring 5 original tracks which are full of lore and brilliant viking hall sing along moments and 4 cover songs. One of which being 'Song of the Dragonborn' from Skyrim which is the perfect track to go alongside viking inspired music.  Check it out below.

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The Lynch Pin That Connects The Scandals

American Lens posted an article today that reminds us why we need to drain the swamp.

The article states:

Loretta Lynch is the only Attorney General in American history to invoke her Fifth Amendment privileges in her appearance before Congress in October 2016 about the $1.7 billion dollar Iran ransom payments.

It is her constitutional right to assert that privilege, as it is for all Americans. However, it dramatically increased the already toxic environment between the Obama Justice Department and Congress and left serious concerns in the air about her actions surrounding the $1.7 billion in cash payments to a hostile terrorist regime.

Invoking the Fifth Amendment does not immediately make her guilty of anything, but she is the first Attorney General to do so.

The article explains:

Under Federal Law, 50 U.S. Code § 1805 (a) (1), the Attorney General must approve the application for the warrant before it goes to a judicial panel in a FISA court.

A FISA order is used to collect information on a foreign entity when there is no other normal means available to gather the information – 50 U.S. Code § 1805 (6)(c).

According to the law there must be credible evidence that demonstrates, “each of the facilities at which surveillance directed is being used or about to be used by foreign power or agent thereof .” That could mean trouble for President Trump.

If the FISA standards were upheld, it could mean that there were at least two intelligence indicators that Trump’s equipment or personnel were about to act as foreign agents.
However, with the revelation that General Flynn was a confidant of the Turkish regime and had been in contact with the Russian foreign minister, these would likely be the indicators that could have been or were used as part of the FISA affidavit.

But, as we have previously reported, there is at least one cooperating witness in the tap of Trump tower during his presidential campaign.

Stated another way, someone in the Obama/Lynch Justice Department swore under penalty of perjury that they had evidence that Trump Tower was being used by a foreign power during the presidential campaign and/or that there was reasonable suspicion that Trump or one of his associates at the tower was about to be a secret foreign agent.

Obviously, we do not yet know all the details of the FISA request, but it appears that the Democratic Party’s opposition research team definitely got out of hand. This wiretap is different from Watergate in that government agencies were used against an opponent of the opposite party. In Watergate, it was a Republican campaign committee–the government was not involved in the actual burglary, and when the guilty parties attempted to bring in the government, the scandal was uncovered and people went to jail. This is a much more serious breach of the trust of the American people–we expect those in office to follow the laws of the land–not break for their own personal gain.

Don’t Get Lost In The False Narrative

As I sit here writing this post, I am listening to the news. The news is telling me that a number of Democrats will not attend the inauguration of President Trump because they feel that he is an illegitimate President. Hopefully most Americans realize how ridiculous this charge is. However, there is a full-blown effort by the media and the political left to undermine Donald Trump before he is even sworn in as President.

Andrew McCarthy posted an article at National Review yesterday detailing one aspect of the attack on soon-to-be President Trump. The article deals with the strategy behind the Justice Department Inspector General’s review of some aspects of the Justice Department’s handing of the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Mr. McCarthy explains how the parameters of this investigation will make sure the investigation determines exactly what the political left wants the investigation to determine. It is important to note that the investigation will not look into the meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Arizona during the Justice Department investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server. They will not look into immunity granted to witnesses and evidence destroyed during the original investigation. They will not look at ways in which Mrs. Clinton‘s private server compromised national security. So what is going on here?

The article explains:

The aim is obvious: If Comey’s statements were against protocol, then they will be portrayed as violations that caused Clinton to lose — the argument will be that Trump’s victory was as razor thin as it gets, Clinton decisively won the popular vote, so surely Comey’s impropriety is what swung the few thousand votes Clinton would have needed in key states to win in the Electoral College. Therefore, the narrative goes: Trump’s victory, and thus his presidency, is illegitimate.

…The Democrats erase your first argument by reducing the whole election down to the e-mails investigation, such that Mrs. Clinton’s many other flaws as a candidate do not matter. The Democrats erase your second argument by making sure the IG investigation focuses on James Comey, not on Hillary Clinton’s crimes and the Justice Department’s outrageous machinations to make sure she was not prosecuted for those crimes.
There you have it. The public’s perception of Trump’s legitimacy may hinge on the public’s understanding of the Justice Department inspector-general’s probe. The Democrats fully grasp this and are lining things up so that they’ll win before Republicans even realize the game is on.

I hope most Americans will see through this dog and pony show. It is really sad that the political left is doing everything it can to damage the Presidency of Donald Trump even before he is sworn in. If Donald Trump is such a horrible person with such bad ideas, why not just sit back and wait for him to fail? It is disheartening to hear politicians on the left repeating charges that have no proof behind them as if they were fact. Unfortunately I think this is going to get worse. The only cure for the lying media is for Americans to stop listening to the mainstream media and their lies. Maybe at that point, the mainstream media will realize that it is in their best interests (and the interests of America) to report the truth.

The National Review posted an article today about all the gnashing of teeth on the Democratic side of the aisle about the letter FBI Director James Comey sent to Congress (sent to Republicans and Democrats–not just Republicans as the Clinton campaign claimed). The article reminds us that Director Comey is not the person actually responsible for the problems of the Democratic Presidential Candidate.

The article reports:

In July, the same James Comey contorted himself into rhetorical pretzels to avoid recommending Hillary Clinton be prosecuted for exposing classified information, despite laying out a compelling case that she would be facing serious charges were she possessed of any surname besides the one she has. He settled on saying that while she was “extremely reckless,” her actions did not constitute “gross negligence,” a distinction that remains unclear.

The feeling among Democrats is that when Director Comey wrote the letter to Congress, his actions aided the Trump campaign.

The article reminds us of the root of the problem:

It is already becoming obvious to those of us old enough to remember the 1990’s that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be nothing more than Hillary Clinton operating under a veil of secrecy and covering up any of her actions that Americans became aware of. That is not a recipe for a successful presidency.

Insanity At Its Best

Real Clear Politics posted the following today:

Editing the transcripts does not change the facts. Anyone doing research into this shooting (and the American public) needs to know what this man was about. Putting blinders on does not help anyone. This is political correctness at its worst.

The Justice Department Has Become Totally Political

The Blaze posted a story today about the Obama Justice Department that even surprised me. The article involves Congressional testimony by Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Attorney General Lynch states that the Department of Justice has looked into the possibility of prosecuting climate deniers under RICO statutes.

Here is the video posted on YouTube:

This is the same Department of Justice that has not prosecuted Hillary Clinton for blatant violations of rules governing the handling of classified material. Under President Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has become the head of the Department of Injustice.

This Needs To Be Done In Every State

The article reports:

The article concludes:

This practice is unconstitutional and needs to end.

Protecting The Rights Of American Businesses

The problem with having a President and a cabinet that lack hands on business experience is that they lack hands on business experience. The quote “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.” is attributed to Thomas Jefferson although it is not found in any of his papers. Regardless of who said it, the quote is accurate.

In its Saturday/Sunday edition, the Wall Street Journal posted an editorial about the nomination of Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General. Ms. Lynch is currently in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. She has been busy there.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

Amendment IV

Evidently Ms. Lynch didn’t read that part of the Constitution, and unfortunately, she is not the only government official who did not read that part. As of late, prosecutors have been using civil forfeiture laws to confiscate private property and use the money gained to shore up state and municipal budgets. One example of this in Ms. Lynch’s district is the case of Jeffrey, Richard and Mitch Hirsch. In 2012 the federal government drained their bank account of $446,651.11. The bank account was used for deposits from Bi-County Distributors, a company the brothers have run for 27 years. The company stocks convenience stores in the region with candy and snack food.

The editorial explains:

According to the federal government, the brothers came under suspicion because of the frequent small deposits they made in the bank. Under federal law, banks are required to report cash deposits of more than $10,000 at a time to the Internal Revenue Service. Frequent deposits beneath the $10,000 threshold can also trigger federal scrutiny on suspicion the depositors are seeking to evade federal oversight for crimes like money laundering or drug trafficking.

The Hirsch brothers run a small business that deals in small amounts of cash, a fact that the government surely noticed, since they were never charged with a crime. But more than two years after the government grabbed the hundreds of thousands of dollars, none of it has been returned. According to the Institute for Justice, which is representing the family in a lawsuit, the government has also denied the Hirsches a prompt hearing on the forfeiture, putting it in violation of the 2000 Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act.

Ms. Lynch’s office brought in more than $113 million in civil actions between 2011 and 2013. Unfortunately, these cases have spread across the country. Between 2003 and 2011, annual payments from forfeiture went from $218 million to $450 million.

Many small businesses deposit small amounts of cash at various times of the day. Some do it out of fear of theft, others because that is the way their computer bookkeeping systems work, and others because that is how the timing of their office staff works. A small company I worked for at one point made one deposit a day, but since their computer program could only handle twelve checks on one deposit slip, it appeared to be multiple small deposits.

The editorial in the Wall Street Journal suggests that when Ms. Lunch gets her nomination hearing, someone should ask her about the Hirsches.


APS Faces Final Accreditation Push

ATLANTA,None - The Atlanta Public Schools board has less than two months to salvage the district’s accreditation, with members still at odds over a policy that caused last year’s leadership coup and the board’s subsequent meltdown.

How members deal with it represents one last, crucial hurdle. The board otherwise has made significant progress since January, when Georgia’s primary accrediting agency put it on probation for poor governance and infighting among members.

To read more of this article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here.


I’m Late…Again

Unhinged Usage

For those interested, I’ve probably started a new series. Short stories so far, but then that’s how both The Laws of Power and the Yamada series started. I’ve already sold the first one and finished the first draft of the second. Otherwise there’s not a lot to say about it right now. I’ll give more details when we’re closer to publication day. Of course things can get derailed; that’s always a possibility, but so far it looks promising.

I’ve never been a member of the grammar police (no segue for you); which is probably a good thing, as my punctuation usually doesn’t meet ALA standards, and I’m okay with that. My bugaboo, my pet peeve and constant irritant is usage. This started early. Back in the stone age there was such a thing as Saturday Morning Cartoons, and one of my earlier memories was fussing at the intro to one of my favorite cartoons which always used “transferred” when they meant “transformed.” I knew they couldn’t hear me, but I fussed anyway. Which, looking back with 20-20 hindsight, was probably my first hint that I was going to write. Mark Twain talked about usage in the context of writing effectively: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

Twain was right on this, just as he was right about a lot of things. But to this quote I’d add another: “The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between a well-oiled machine and a machine with sand in its gears.” Not “almost right” word. WRONG word. Not only does the machine not work, the sand gets into everything and is extremely irritating. Continue reading

The Joys of Revision

WRITING 02In the olden days—maybe no further back than the sixties and seventies—writers used to brag about never having to revise. “First drafts are final” was the saying. Which made sense only a little further back in time during the pulp era when you were trying to make a living writing for 50+ different pulp magazines at a penny a word. Spend too much time revising and you’d spend the rest starving. I imagine a lot of that attitude was a holdover from those halcyon days but, as a more recent wisdom has it “Writing is revising.” Also not completely true on the face of it. Without a first draft, there is no revising. It’s more accurate to say writing begins with the first draft, it just doesn’t end there. It’s called “first draft” for a reason. Continue reading

The Biter Bit

Snow-Jan-2014There was a time when I considered myself primarily a short story writer. I mean, other than the occasional review, that was mostly what I did and what I was, above all else and proud of it. This despite the fact that I had written over ten novels at the time, which of course I did not consider a contradiction. A story was a story, and some were longer than others. That was all there was to it, so far as I was concerned. However, I did have clear ideas about what was and was not a short story, none of which would fit into any academic definition. I knew one when I read one, contrariwise I knew when one wasn’t and tended to get a little miffed when I read a story in a magazine or collection, said story not living up to my own personal definition. “That’s not a short story, it’s an excerpt from a novel!” was my rallying cry.

So how did I know this? I didn’t, really. It was just something that seemed obvious to me. Someone clipped out a section of a novel, maybe smoothed the edges over a bit, emphasized the self-contained elements and downplayed those which implied matters outside itself in a cynical ploy to pick up a quick check and possibly some free advertising for the eventual book. Sometimes I’d give them a break because I knew the writer was primarily a novelist and probably couldn’t write a proper short story with a gun to their head. Ahem. As I said, it used to annoy me a little. I mean, if you’re in a short story market, write an actual short story, not this patchwork pretender!

Yeah, about that… Continue reading

Grist For the Mill

snow-eastwindowWell, I had planned to start this post in the morning, but the winter storm Orson hitting the northeast sort of delayed everything. I hear it was and is much worse further east of us, but here in central New York State it snowed all day yesterday and all last night, and part of the morning, so this morning was given over to removing about a foot of snow from our walkway, steps, and driveway. I’m starting to get the hang of it, I think, but shoveling snow is a new skillset for me. Straight-handled shovel for pushing, bent-handle for lifting and carrying reduces the amount of bending necessary. I have a little electric snowblower that works surprisingly well, but even it can’t handle a foot of snow at a time unless you shovel a part for it first so you can split off the snow in manageable slices for the blower.

Yes, I know this is old hat for a lot of you, but consider—I’m a southerner, born and raised. We only saw snow very occasionally. In my entire childhood I can remember three good snows. Three. I never owned a snow shovel. I didn’t know anyone who did. Now I own two, and a snowblower. In Mississippi, 3-4 inches of snow would have shut down the entire state, with runs on the grocery shelves because the snowpocalypse had arrived. I know the state owned a snowplow, because I saw it. Once. Never saw it being used. A little sand on the bridges was about the most anyone could think to do. Here, naturally, 3-4 inches is barely worth mentioning. A foot or more, otoh, has to be dealt with.

It’s still a new experience for me, and that’s a good thing. Writers need new experiences, almost as much as they need to sit their butts in the chair and get writing. It was once said that a writer is a person who can watch a cat stalking a mouse and then write a scene capturing what it would be like to be stalked by a tiger. I dunno about that, but in the story I’m working on now there’s a scene where our heroes(?) are trudging through snow, freezing their butts off  to get a job done.

I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble with that scene.

P.S. In the picture above, that white fog? Yeah. That’s falling snow.


Global inequality dropping

Noah Smith writes:

Tomas Hellbrandt of the Bank of England and Paolo Mauro of the International Monetary Fund show in a new working paper that global is falling, as poor countries power ahead. The global Gini coefficient – a standard measure of income – is falling fast. In 2003 the coefficient was 69 (with 0 being perfect equality and 100 being perfect ). In 2013 it was down to 65. If current trends continue, it is on course to reach 61 by 2035.

So inequality may be increasing within some countries, but over humanity as a whole, the gap between rich and poor is closing.

The reason for this is what free trade and capitalism have done to countries like China and India, with hundreds of millions rising out of poverty.

So around the world, a rising tide is lifting all boats, and it’s lifting the boats at the bottom faster than the boats at the top. This is really an extremely good, successful outcome (though it would have been nice to see this happen without the increase in inequality within some countries).

A nice break from the gloom and doom.

It’s important to realise is that this is a recent phenomenon. For a long time, the opposite was happening. In 1988, for example, economic historian Brad DeLong showed that the poor countries of the world had mostly failed to catch up to the rich countries since 1870. The former colonial powers of Western Europe, the US and Japan were zooming ahead, with the former colonies either being left in the dust or struggling just to keep pace.

So we may be seeing something like a global Kuznets Curve. In the early stages of global growth, rich countries – and the rich people in them – zoom ahead of the pack, but eventually the masses catch up. If the forces that move inequality really are global in nature, then it means that capitalism and trade really are a force for good. It means that we don’t really face a tradeoff between wealth and inequality in the long run. And it implies that once the poor countries have done some more catching up, inequality will begin to fall within countries, too.

The new data, and the global Kuznets narrative, also destroy the idea that the wealth of rich countries is based on the exploitation of poor countries. Capitalism is not colonialism after all. Most of our global wealth is created by trade and industriousness, not plundered or extracted by force. The world isn’t a zero-sum game.

That is the most vital thing to remember.

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Zhimeng Xu

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Solar ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiance at the Earth’s surface is increasing due to anthropogenic influences. To evaluate the effects of enhanced UVB radiation on photosynthetic characteristics of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, the species was exposed to four levels of UVB radiation, 0, 0.25, 0.75, and 1.50 KJ m−2 day−1 for 7 days. Effects of UVB(More)
In this paper, a novel detection algorithm based on variance detection (VD) is proposed for non-coherent impulse radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers. In the VD-based detection algorithm, after the received IR UWB signals are squared, their variance instead of their mean is measure to recover information bits. Computer simulations show that as compared(More)


Stress is a natural reaction to react to a new or demanding situation. However, when stress starts weighing on your mental and physical health, it’s time to learn some coping skills. With constant (or chronic) stress, your body remains in high gear off and on for days or weeks at a time. Chronic stress can harm your heart.

We’ve summarized a few easy tips for you to manage stress. Share these tips with everyone in your life, with special attention to your aging loved ones.

  1. Puppy Playdate If your loved one is partial to pets, consider planning a weekly visit. Consider borrowing a friend’s pet that likes to play and/or likes to snuggle. It’s scientifically proven that pet therapy can have significant benefits.
  2. Jot it Down Identify what is bothering you and write it down to begin the process of finding a solution. It can be helpful for you At Always Best Care Senior Services, we believe that an educated, informed consumer makes the best decisions.or your loved one to talk with a friend about what’s on your mind.
  3. Indulge Life is always going to come at us in cycles of peaks and valleys. The anticipation of something pleasant can let us see the light at the end of the tunnel. Make a plan for a bit of joy (big or small) – an upcoming visit, a new recipe or a favorite movie.
  4. Reflect Consider the positive things in life and practice deep breathing until you feel yourself calming. Everyone has something to be grateful for.
  5. Move It Exercising regularly can help reduce fatigue, improve concentration, and enhance your overall cognitive function. Even just taking a brisk walk outside to get some fresh air can make a big difference.

This February, make a change to keep your heart healthy.


Answers to problems in "Electrode Potentials"

Question 7

The reader is recommended to read pp. 63-66 of the book, to see how to solve this particular problem. Readers looking for innovative and novel ways to solve it are invited to read on!

Harned Cell:

Pt | H2(g) (P= 1atm) | HCl(aq) | AgCl(s) | Ag(s)

Potential determining Equilibria

RHE: AgCl(s) + e- ⇌ Ag(s) + Cl-(aq)

LHE: H+(aq) + e- ⇌ ½H2(g)

Cell Reaction:

AgCl(s) + ½H2(g) ⇌ Ag(s) + H+(aq) + Cl-(aq)

Nernst Equation: Ecell = E0cell - {RT/F}ln{aH+ aCl- a Ag / aAgCl PH2 ½}

Notice that since hydrogen is a gas at the temperature of the experiment (298K), we use its partial pressure. ( Strictly, we should talk about the fugacity of hydrogen. This is similar to the concept of activity. However, we can consider hydrogen [to an excellent approximation] as being an ideal gas, with a fugacity coefficient equal to unity.)

Also, since silver and silver chloride are pure solids, their activities can be equated to unity.

Therefore, the Nernst Equation simplifies to: Ecell = E0cell - {RT/F}ln{aH+ aCl-}

Now, aH+ = f+mH+ = f+mHCl, and aCl- = f-mCl- = f-mHCl

But in the electrolyte solution, the H+ ions and Cl- ions co-exist, and hence, the activity coefficients of the individual ions have no physical meaning. We therefore use the mean ionic activity coefficient f±, which is defined on p.48, for each ionic species.

Therefore, since we are dealing with a 1:1- electrolyte, f±= (f+ f-)½

Hence, substituting these results into the Nernst Equation, and changing from natural logarthims to decadic logarthims gives:

Ecell = E0cell - 2.303{RT/F}log mHCl2 - 2.303{RT/F}log {f±2}

E0cell = E0Ag|AgCl - E0H+|H2 = E0Ag|AgCl (by definition of E0H+|H2 = 0V)

Thus, Ecell = E0Ag|AgCl - 2.303{RT/F}log mHCl2 - 2.303{RT/F}log {f±2}

The Debye-Hückel Limiting Law (DHL) states that logf± = -A|z+||z-|I½, where z+, z- are the charges on the ions, A is a temperature and solvent dependent parameter (= 0.509 in water at 298K) and I is the ionic strength of the solution, as defined on p.45. In this case, I = m. [The committed reader will find a derivation of the DHL in chapter 2, Rieger, P H, "Electrochemistry"; Prentice-Hall, New Jersey (1987).]

Hence, we can calculate a value for log f± .

m / mol kg-1 I / mol kg-1 log f±

4 x 10-4

4 x 10-4 -0.01

9 x 10-4

9 x 10-4 -0.015

1.6 x 10-3

1.6 x 10-3 -0.02

2.5 x 10-3

2.5 x 10-3 -0.025

We can now determine a value for the Standard Electrode Potential for the silver/silver chloride couple.

Ecell = E0Ag|AgCl - 2.303(2){RT/F}ln m - 2.303(2){RT/F}log {f±}

or, Ecell + 4.606{RT/F}log {f±} = E0Ag|AgCl - 4.606{RT/F}log m

We now plot a graph of Ecell + 4.606{RT/F}log {f±} against log m. This gives an intercept of EAg|AgCl.

E / V I / mol kg-1 Ecell + 4.606{RT/F}log {f±} log m

4 x 10-4 0.62447 -3.398

9 x 10-4 0.58283 -3.046

1.6 x 10-3 0.55329 -2.796

2.5 x 10-3 0.53020 -2.602

From the graph, E0Ag|AgCl = +0.222V


Solar Insolation

Solar insolation is the energy in sunlight.

The solar insolation that a location receives over a day is expressed in peak sun hours. This is the number of hours of sunlight at 1000W that would be equivalent to the total energy received at a location during the day.

The sunlight received at a site will be affected by the position of the sun, the length of the day, and the amount of clouds and other interference in the sky.

Insolation can be either “direct” or “diffuse”. Direct insolation reaches the earth’s surface in an uninterrupted path from the sun. Diffuse insolation is scattered light reflected from particles in the atmosphere.

Solar panels generally convert direct insolation into electricity more effectively than diffuse. Some photovoltaic materials use diffuse insolation more effectively than others.

PV Array Tilt and Azimuth Angle

The maximum amount of solar insolation falls on PV module when it is facing exactly perpendicular to the incoming irradiance. This is achieved through the adjustment of the array tilt angle (relative to the horizontal ground surface) and the array azimuth (east to west facing)

Dual axis tracking arrays continuously change the array tilt and azimuth to keep the PV module constantly perpendicular to the incoming irradiance.

Single axis tracking arrays have a fixed tilt angle but continuously change the array azimuth to keep the PV module facing as close as possible to the incoming irradiance.

For fixed flat plate PV modules the tilt and azimuth is generally selected to optimize the array output (net energy kWh generate) over the whole year. The fixed PV arrays at the DKASC are all set at a tilt of 20 degrees and azimuth of 0 degrees (Solar North). The exception to this is the solar compass that also has east facing (Az = 90 degrees), west facing (Az = -90 degrees) and flat (tilt = 2 degrees).

The output of a solar panel decreases as temperatures increase.

High ambient temperatures limit the amount of electricity a panel can produce. Solar panels also generate their own heat as they produce electricity.

Dust and dirt block light to solar panels reducing their output. Horizontal installations are generally avoided, to prevent dust build up.

At the DKASC all PV arrays are given an annual full cleaning to remove dust. The time and dates of this cleaning are posted in the notes on the data section.

Shade blocks direct insolation from the panels.

A small amount of shade has a large impact on the output of a solar panel, as it changes the flow of electricity through the panel.

At the DKASC we aim to ensure that know arrays are subject to shading from trees, buildings or other arrays within the hours of 08:30 and 16:30 each day.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

Atomic - Lucidity (Jazzland, 2015)

Atomic is a stalwart modern jazz band from Scandinavia featuring Havard Wiik on piano, Fredrik Ljungkvist on saxophone and clarinet, Magnus Broo on trumpet, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on bass and Hans Hulboekmo on drums, replacing Paal Nilssen-Love. The music is their trademark free-bop, beginning with “Laterna Interfult” which opens with a mysterious melody before diving into some more powerful improvised sections, where the music stutters and sways, and the horns weave and joust around each other. Ljungkvist breaks lose on saxophone, before stopping on a dime, moving the music back to a more passive position. There are sections of faster, choppier collective improvisation which are quite exciting as is the nimble way that everyone can drop out to give Haker-Flaten a well deserved bass solo. The full band returns for a rousing and swinging conclusion. More beautiful bass playing is featured on “A New Junction” which patiently adds instruments developing a slow simmer. Spacious and spare, there is room to move for trumpet and clarinet, then involving droplets of piano. “Lucidity” jumps out of the gate hard with the full band firing on all cylinders. A punchy trumpet solo from Broo, is kicked in the pants nicely with Hulboekmo’s heavy pulse. They ramp down to a more abstract section, before Wiik gleefully leads them back into the back into the fray with trumpet and saxophone reaching for the sky about the powerful rhythm team. Flute like trumpet from Broo along with open ended piano draws subtle shades on “Start/Stop” before they jump up with a more complex group improvisation including a nice section for clarinet and bass, followed by very heavy hitting piano and drums accented by trumpet squeals. “Major” has a noir-ish haunted opening, Things spring to life with throbbing fast bass (IHF is just epic throughout the whole album) pushing Broo’s trumpet ever higher. The full band comes together, rocketing into orbit with an excellent collectively improvised section. Atomic has been around for a while now and their music continues to evolve, moving from jazz to free improvisation and back. The band is a group of very talented individual musicians, but when the come together, the whole is definitely better than the sum of its parts. Lucidity -

Send comments to Tim.


Books and DVD's

Dasyuromorphia -- Hairy Tails are twitching!

tasmanian tiget numbat tasmanian devil

The order Dasyurmorphia (which means hairy tails) consists of most of the most carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the Numbat, the Tasmanian Devil, and the recently extinct Thylacine. There are three families: one with just a single member, one with only extinct members, including the late "Tasmanian Tiger" (Thylacine - Thylacinus cynocephalus), and one, Dasyuridae, with about 70 members.

The earliest known carnivorous marsupial in Australia, Djarthia murgonensis, comes from the early Eocene (55 million years ago). The taxonomic affiliation of this and two other early carnivorous marsupials is not certain, as key anatomical features used to clearly identify them to family level or even to separate them from the South American marsupial fauna are lacking in the fossils found to date.

The Australian dasyuromorphian and American marsupial taxa are quite distinct but are allied in the possession of many incisors (polyprotodonty) which distinguish them from the herbivorous Diprotodontia. Dasyuromorphians originated in the late Oligocene. The early radiation comprised the very conservative or "primitive" thylacinids. Ranging in size from chihuahua sized, 70 oz (2 kg) to slightly larger than 65 lb (30 kg), thylacines dominated the Australian carnivorous marsupial fauna until the late Miocene, after which they steadily declined to two species present in the Pleistocene and only one persisting until historic times.

Dasyurids first appeared in the fossil record in the early to middle Miocene but were rare until the late Miocene when they diversified and replaced the thylacine as the dominant marsupial carnivore fauna. Most of the Pleistocene fossil dasyurids are from still-living taxa, although none of the living groups occur earlier than the Pliocene. Dasyurids are considered to be highly specialized or "derived" dasyuromorphians in terms of their body type.

The numbats are represented by only one living species which appeared in the fossil record as recently as the Pleistocene. The numbat is a highly specialised dasyuromorphian, with features of the skull, teeth, and tongue adapted for termite feeding.

Physical Characteristics

Geographic Distribution

This order is represented by two surviving families: the Dasyuridae with 51 members, and the Myrmecobiidae with the Numbat as its sole surviving member. The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, was the largest Dasyuromorphia and the last living specimen of the family Thylacinidae; however, the last known specimen died in captivity in 1936. The world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial is the Tasmanian Devil; it is the size of a small dog and can hunt, although it is mainly a scavenger. It became extinct on the mainland some 600 years ago and is now found only in Tasmania. There are four species of quoll, or native cat, all of which are threatened species. The remainder of the Dasyuridae are referred to as 'marsupial mice'; most weigh less than 100 grams. There are two species of marsupial mole — order Notoryctemorphia — that inhabit the deserts of Western Australia. These rare, blind, earless carnivores spend most of their time underground; little is known about them.

Most Australasian carnivorous marsupials are only active at night. Some species, however, have shown occasional periods of daytime activity, and a few species such as the numbat are usually active only during the day. Australasian carnivorous marsupials spend most of their time in the search for food. Each species has different ways of finding prey, from digging for termites, to climbing trees and raiding the nests of possums during the night, to feeding on the bodies of animals that are already dead.

Most Australasian carnivorous marsupials have relatively short life spans. Females usually mate with more than one male, and in many species, offspring born in the same litter have different fathers. Some species in this order only mate once during their lifetime. They usually die soon after reproducing, having used all their energy in a sudden burst of activity required to mate successfully. Antechinus (ant-uh-KINE-us), which are broad-footed marsupial mice, mate in this way. The female lives long enough to raise her young until they can live on their own, but the male often dies before his offspring are mature.

Australasian carnivorous marsupials, like all marsupials, have very short pregnancies, some lasting only days. They give birth to immature young that are usually blind and hairless, and always are unable to survive on their own. In most cases, the young make their way into the mother's pouch, which contains milk teats, and are carried with her wherever she goes. Some species have young that crawl to external teats, or nipples, of the mother. They cling there and are carried wherever the mother goes, protected only by the hairs on her underbelly. Many do not survive to maturity.

The amount of time the young spend growing outside of the mother's womb, or uterus, depends on the species. It can be as short as a few weeks or as long as many months. In most species, once the young have grown enough to fend for themselves, they spend a short amount of time in the mother's nest or den, wandering further each day to find food, until at last they leave the nest for good.

Feeding Habits

Competition for food contributes to differences in foraging niche among all size ranges of carnivorous marsupials that live together, with the exception of the termite-eating numbat but including, historically, the thylacine. Competition appears to be more prevalent in mesic forests and heathlands than in arid environments, where droughts, floods, and unpredictable food supplies may often reduce populations to low levels. Competition from larger antechinus species excludes smaller species from the highest quality habitat, with the result that the smaller species eats smaller prey for which they probably have to work harder. In Tasmania, food competition among the larger carnivores has resulted in separation between species on prey size. If species consume different-sized prey, competition for the same prey items is reduced. Competition has been sufficiently intense over a long enough time scale to drive evolutionary changes in canine tooth size among the quolls. Canine tooth strength, which determines the size of prey that can be killed, have become evenly spaced. Even spacing in prey size among species minimizes competition.

Families within Dasyuromorphia


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DPheckt was formed due to a chain of events deemed inappropriate and offensive for the casual audience. Therefore it is impossible to say how the group came to be, nor is it possible to forsee their demise. (much like the universe)

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Newsletter #25 - October 2008 for the
Crisis Coalition at

What is a Footprint?

For earlier Footprints visit the the archive.

The Crisis Coalition aims to raise awareness and to galvanise action.
For the latest information read this fully referenced report.

Dear Friends

FOOTPRINTS #25 – October 2008

Megafauna biomass tradeoff as a driver of Quaternary and future extinctions – UCLA
Earth's most recent major extinction episode, the Quaternary Megafauna Extinction, claimed two-thirds of mammal genera and one-half of species that weighed more than 44 kg between 50,000 and 3,000 years ago. Estimates of megafauna biomass (including humans as megafauna) suggest that growth of human biomass largely matched the loss of non-human biomass until about 12,000 years ago. Then, total biomass crashed, because many non-human megafauna species suddenly disappeared, whereas human biomass continued to rise. After the crash, the global ecosystem gradually recovered into a new state where biomass was concentrated around one species, humans, instead of being distributed across many species. Pre-crash biomass levels were finally reached just before the Industrial Revolution began, then skyrocketed above the pre-crash level as humans augmented the energy available to the global ecosystem by mining fossil fuels.

global warming beats economicsSeaside landowners draw battle line in the sand - The Age
Property owners along Gippsland's Ninety Mile Beach have had 95% of the value of their land wiped out over concerns climate change will see their coastal blocks swamped. Some owners have seen the value of their properties drop from $45,000 to $2,500. Already $30 million has been slashed from 2500 properties along Victoria's Gippsland coast.

Sydney Morning Herald cartoon: PM Rudd struggling with the economy .....

European Union makes power firms pay for all emissions – Australian
The future of coal-fired power generation in Europe has been called into question after the EU backed laws that would force power companies to pay for all their carbon dioxide emissions from 2013. The decision could cost the power industry E30 billion a year and could trigger a steep rise in electricity bills, represents a huge boost for the renewable energy industry. The Bill effectively prevents the building of new coal-fired power plants from 2015 unless equipped with CCS (carbon capture and storage technology). The move came despite fierce resistance from power industry lobbyists, who said the EU's aggressive emissions-cutting targets should be weakened because of the global financial crisis.

Is California on the Brink of Environmental Collapse - Rachel Olivieri
California has the greatest, most ecologically destructive water projects on Earth. It has spared no expense to either taxpayers or natural ecosystems to attain its status as the most hydrologically altered landmass on the planet. It would surprise few that California was built on gold, greed, extraction, depletion, extinction, dubiously acquired large-landed semi-desert agricultural empires, well-gifted railroad land grants fueling speculative growth, and highly subsidized stolen water -- all comprising a tunnel vision for overextended populations and infinite growth in a world utterly finite. The incomprehensible vulnerability of California's over-reaching population centers, the projected urban expansion of the Central Valley, and the weight of climate-warming models leaves one haunted by civilization's lack of respect for a land's entitlement to its water and the food systems that it naturally perpetuates.

Planet Eaters- Andrew Glikson
The history of Earth includes five major mass extinctions which define the ends of several periods, including the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Jurassic and Cretaceous. Each were triggered by extraterrestrial impacts, massive volcanic eruptions, or methane release and related greenhouse events. Yet, with the exception of the role of methanogenic bacteria in relation to methane eruptions in the past, the Sixth mass extinction is a novelty: For the first time in its history, the biosphere is in crisis through biological forcing by an advanced form of life, namely the activity of a technological carbon-emitting species. The sharp glacial-interglacial oscillations of the Pleistocene (1.8 million years ago to 10,000 years ago), with rapid mean global temperature changes by up to 5C over short periods of, in some instances, a few years, culminated in an extreme adaptability .....

The ultimate gas leak that scientists dreaded - The Independent
Methane is about 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and there are massive stores of it locked away under the permafrost of the northern hemisphere. Methane is produced naturally by the decay of water-logged vegetation. Over thousands of years it has accumulated under the ground at northern latitudes and has effectively been taken out of circulation by the permafrost acting as an impermeable lid. What makes methane so potentially dangerous is that its release from under the now-leaking permafrost could accelerate global warming, which in turn would speed the melting of the permafrost and release even more methane. This has happened in the geological past with devastating consequences for the global climate and life. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have risen significantly from about 700 parts per billion (ppb) in 1800 to about 1,790ppb today. Much of this increase is down to human activities, notably oil and gas exploration, and agriculture.

Government pledges to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 – Guardian
Ed Miliband, the new energy and climate change secretary, said that the current 60% target would be replaced by the higher goal. He warned energy companies to act "in a satisfactory way" to reduce charges for customers with pre-payment meters, Greenpeace said: "This is a hugely encouraging first move from the new climate change secretary. In a decade in power Labour has never adopted a target so ambitious, far-reaching and internationally significant as this. To meet it will require determined action from Gordon Brown and every one of his successors for the next four decades. Hard choices will be made that will touch every Briton, but it can and must be done.

Borneo's Moment of Truth - National Geographic
The majestic forests are vanishing in smoke and sawdust, but there's still hope for the island's fabled biodiversity—if the palm oil rush can be slowed. Considering the island's unsurpassed biodiversity—from orangutans and rhinoceroses to tiny mosses and beetles not yet discovered—and the rate at which its forests are being lost, Borneo's future may well be the most critical conservation issue on our planet. It's an increasingly desperate sory for lowland forests, the prime habitat for most of Borneo's wealth of biodiversity, including orangutans and elephants. During the past two decades, an estimated two million acres were cleared annually prompting warnings of "dire consequences" of "the current state of resource anarchy". It is believed that lowland forests could be totally destroyed by 2010. Also, in the past 20 years vast, single-crop plantations of oil palm have spread across Borneo to meet the demand for the versatile (and vastly profitable) oil derived from palm oil is used for cooking, cosmetics, soap, desserts, and a seemingly endless list of other products, including biofuel. Indonesia and Malaysia provide 86 percent of the world's supply; growing conditions are perfect on Borneo for this green gold. Even as conservationists spread the news about palm oil's contribution to global deforestation Indonesia has become the world's number one producing country, with 15 million acres under cultivation, a figure that may double by 2020.

15 EU countries on track to meet Kyoto targets – AAP
The EU's 15 original member nations are on target to meet Kyoto treaty commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions pledging by 2012 to reduce by 8% their C)2 emissions. The bloc was still far from implementing other measures, including a European Commission proposal that the bloc derives 20 percent of its energy from renewable supplies by 2020.

John James
My personal site www.johnjames.com.au
Crucible Centre  www.cruciblecentre.com
Crisis Coalition  www.planetextinction.com
 Let us together save this precious planet.


Doing the numbers on food insecurity in the United States

A woman receiving food from a food pantry.
September 9, 2015
by Elaine Waxman

Reposted from the Urban Institute.

To quote my favorite business journalist, Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal: “First, let’s do the numbers.”

Today, USDA released the 2014 estimates of the number of food insecure individuals in the United States. Despite some recent signs of economic improvement, the data show there are still 48.1 million people in this country who live in households that struggle to afford an adequate diet and may compensate in ways that compromise their health, whether that means relying on less expensive and less healthful food than they would desire—or in the case of the 17.2 million with very low food security, skipping meals and reducing the size of meals.

The number has persisted at stubbornly high levels since 2008. At the beginning of the Great Recession, the food insecurity rate jumped from 12.2 percent to 16.4 percent of the population—adding almost 13 million people in a single year. Today’s figures are not statistically different from 2013, meaning we’re a long way from returning to pre-recession levels.

Someone you know has experienced food insecurity

But let’s take a minute to reflect on the places and the faces behind the numbers. If you haven’t experienced food insecurity yourself, you know someone who has. As documented through Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap project, there are households struggling with food insecurity in every county in the nation, no matter how wealthy.

The county where you live now, where you grew up, where you spent your last vacation—how many people are food insecure in those familiar places? Do the numbers. (The new data out today will be incorporated into the map in the coming months, but the patterns don’t typically shift a great deal.)

About 20 percent of American kids experience food insecurity

Do you have kids? Work with kids? Pass a school on your way to work? Then you should know that 15.3 million American children—approximately one in five—live in households that are food insecure at least some months of the year.

The risk is even higher for children in African American and Latino households. We know from census data projections that nonwhite children are expected to be the majority in this country by 2020, which means that the physical, cognitive, and emotional stresses of food insecurity potentially hang heavily over the next generation of adults in this country.

Who is food insecure? Not always those you’d expect

Millions are hard to wrap our minds around. So let’s just do the number one. Who is the food insecure person you crossed paths with today? Maybe they were the home health aide taking care of your parent? The young adult who bagged your groceries? The older adult standing behind you in the drugstore line, choosing between paying for prescriptions and paying for a better diet?

In many cases, they were not the people you were expecting—say, one of the 10.6 million people living in  food insecure households earning more than 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which is typically beyond the eligibility levels for federal nutrition assistance programs like WIC orSNAP. Or maybe it was someone who “didn’t look like they missed a meal,” as I’ve heard people say when they see an overweight person standing in a food pantry line, oblivious to the reality that some struggle with the dual burden of food insecurity and obesity.

For me, the person I didn’t expect was the young man who set up my Powerpoint presentation at a recent poverty symposium. Following my talk on food insecurity, he came to retrieve my microphone. As I thanked him, he said, “Well, I want to thank you. I was one of those people you were talking about. I was food insecure growing up. We went to food pantries. And I remember eating a lot of cheap food. I appreciate that you talked about in a humane way. Because people need to know that we would have eaten better if we could have.”

Now they do.

*Elaine Waxman is a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She is also member of Feeding America's Technical Advisory Group (TAG). The primary role of the TAG is to review and provide ongoing feedback on Feeding America research projects in order to ensure our ability to deliver the highest quality of information to food banks and other service providers within the Feeding America network. TAG Members also collaborate with us to conduct new research on charitable food assistance, poverty, program evaluation, client studies, etc.

Tags: Hunger in the News , Hunger in America

Stay Informed


Watersports in the Cayman Islands

Watersports is the number one source of income for the Cayman Islands economy. There is simply so much demand, that the local population has been able to sell tours and excursions to all the tourists. There are thousands of American tourists that visit Grand Cayman every year, and many operators offer jet skiing to meet the demand. Some people prefer not to go into the water, which is fine, but it is always recommended to enjoy the islands watersports to get the full Cayman experience.


Wills and Trusts:

When you are creating your trust, you can choose to split the job of trustee among several people. Two or more trustees are referred to as co-trustees. When selecting co-trustees, many people choose to include both professionals and non-professionals. For example, you may select a family member as one co-trustee and a lawyer or tax professional as the second co-trustee. As the trust creator, you can decide how the co-trustees will make decisions. Make sure you create a mechanism for resolving disputes. Additionally, if you name a family member as a trustee, make sure you name another relative as successor in the event that the original co-trustee dies or becomes incapacitated.

Do you think you might have a Wills and Trusts case?
Contact our experienced Wills and Trusts lawyers right now.

Please fill out the form below
and receive a free case evaluation
at no cost or obligation.

Wills and Trusts: Choosing a Trustee


Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information

Qualitative characteristics or qualities necessary for information serve a major supporting role in the decision usefulness, decision model approach to accounting theory. Qualitative characteristics are the tributes that make the information provided in financial statements useful to users.

Accounting information that is reported to facilitate economic decisions should possess certain characteristics or normative standards. The informational qualities, which has been accepted by FASB (USA) in its Concept No. 2 “Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information” is displayed in Table 1.

A Hierarchy of Accounting Qualities

International Accounting Standards Board (1ASB) has recognized the four principal qualitative characteristics of accounting information:

1. Understandability

2. Relevance

3. Reliability

4. Comparability.

The other qualities suggested by IASB are materiality, faithful representation, substance over form, neutrality, prudence, completeness, timeliness.

The qualitative characteristics that have been found possessing wider acceptance and recognition in accounting literature are as follows:

1. Relevance:

Relevance is closely and directly related to the concept of useful information Relevance implies that all those items of information should be reported that may aid the users in making decisions and/or predictions. In general, information that is given greater weight in decision-making is more relevant.

Specially, it is information’s capacity to make a difference that identifies it as relevant to a decision. American Accounting Association’s Committee to Prepare a Statement of Basic Accounting Theory defines relevance as “the primary standard and requires that information must bear upon or be usefully associated with actions it is designed to facilitate or results desired to be produced”.

Financial Accounting Standards Board in its Concept No. 1 comments:

“Relevant Accounting information must be capable of making a difference in a decision by helping users to form predictions about the outcomes of past, present and future events or to confirm or correct expectations.”

2. Reliability:

Reliability is described as one of the two primary qualities (relevance and reliability) that make accounting information useful for decision-making. Reliable information is required to form judgments about the earning potential and financial position of a business firm. Reliability differs from item to item.

Some items of information presented in an annual report may be more reliable than others. For example, information regarding plant and machinery may be less reliable than certain information about current assets because of differences in uncertainty of realization. Reliability is that quality which permits users of data to depend upon it with confidence as representative of what it purport to represent.

FASB Concept No. 2 concludes:

“The reliability of a measure rests on the faithfulness with which it represents what it purports to represent, coupled with an assurance for the user that it has that representational quality. To be useful information must be reliable as well as relevant. Degrees of reliability must be recognized. It is hardly ever a question of black or white, but rather of more reliability or less. Reliability rests upon the extent to which the accounting description or measurement is verifiable and representationally faithful. Neutrality of information also interacts with those two components of reliability to affect the usefulness of the information.”

3. Understandability:

Understandability is the quality of information that enables users to perceive its significance. The benefits of information may be increased by making it more understandable and hence useful to a wider circle of users.

Presenting information which can be understood only by sophisticated users and not by others, creates a bias which is inconsistent with the standard of adequate disclosure. Presentation of information should not only facilitate understanding but also avoid wrong interpretation of financial statements. Thus, understandable financial accounting information presents data that can be understood by users of the information and is expressed in a form and with terminology adapted to the user’s range of understanding.

4. Comparability:

Economic decision requires making choice among possible courses of actions. In making decisions, the decision-maker will make comparisons among alternatives, which is facilitated by financial information. Comparability implies to have like things reported in a similar fashion and unlike things reported differently.

FASB (USA) Concept No. 2 defines comparability, “… as the quality or state of having certain characteristics in common, and comparison is normally a quantitative assessment of the common characteristics. Clearly, valid comparison is possible only if the measurements used- the quantities or ratios-reliably represent the characteristic that is the subject of comparison”.

Comparable financial accounting information presents similarities and differences that arise from basic similarities and differences in the enterprise or enterprises and their transactions, and not merely from difference in financial accounting treatment.

Information, if comparable, will assist the decision-maker to determine relative financial strengths and weaknesses and prospects for the future, between two or more firms or between periods in a single firm.

5. Consistency:

Consistency of method over a period of time is a valuable quality that makes accounting numbers more useful. Consistent use of accounting principles from one accounting period to another enhances the utility of financial statements to users by facilitating analysis and understanding of comparative accounting data.

It is relatively unimportant to the investor what precise rules or conventions are adopted by a company in reporting its earnings, if he knows what method is being followed and is assured that it is followed consistently from year to year. Lack of consistency produces lack of comparability. The value of inter-company comparisons is substantially reduced when material differences in income are caused by variations in accounting practices.

6. Neutrality:

Neutrality is also known as the quality of ‘freedom from bias’ or objectivity. Neutrality means that, in formulating or implementing standards, the primary concern should be the relevance and reliability of the information that results, not the effect that the new rule may have on a particular interest or user(s).

A neutral choice between accounting alternatives is free from bias towards a predetermined result. The objectives of (general purpose) financial reporting serve many different information users who have diverse interests, and no one predetermined result is likely to suit all users’ interests and purposes.

Therefore, accounting facts and accounting practices should be impartially determined and reported with no objective of purposeful bias toward any user or user group. If there is no bias in selection of accounting information reported, it cannot be said to favour one set of interests over another. It may, in fact, favour certain interests, but only because the information points that way.

7. Materiality:

The concept of materiality permeates the entire field of accounting and auditing. The materiality concept implies that not all financial information need or should be communicated in accounting reports-only material information should be reported. Immaterial information may and probably should be omitted. Information should be disclosed in the annual report which is likely to influence economic decisions of the users. Information that meets this requirement is material.

8. Timeliness:

Timeliness means having information available to decision-makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions, Timeliness is an ancillary aspect of relevance, If information is either not available when it is needed or becomes available long after the reported events that it has no value for future action, it lacks relevance and is of little or no use, Timeliness alone cannot make information relevant, but a lack of timeliness can rob information of relevance it might otherwise have had.

Clearly, there are degrees of timeliness, some reports need to be prepared quickly, say in case of takeover bid or strike. In some other contexts, such as routine reports by a business firm of its annual results, a longer delay in reporting information may materially affect the relevance and, therefore, the usefulness of information. But in order to have gain in relevance that comes with increased timeliness, it may involve sacrifices of other desirable characteristics of information, and as a result there may be an overall gain or loss in usefulness.

For example, it may sometimes be desirable to sacrifice precision for timeliness, for an approximation produced quickly is often more useful than precise information that is reported after a longer delay.

9. Verifiability:

The quality of verifiability contributes to the usefulness of accounting information because the purpose of verification is to provide a significant degree of assurance that accounting measures represent, what they purport to represent.

Verification does not guarantee the suitability of method used, much less the correctness of the resulting measure. It does convey some assurance that the measurement rule used, whatever it was, was applied carefully and without personal bias on the part of the measurer.

According to FASB, “Verifiability means no more than that several measures are likely to obtain the same measure. It is primarily a means to attempting to cope with measurement problems stemming from the uncertainty that surrounds accounting measures and is more successful in coping with some measurement problems than others. Verification of accounting information does not guarantee that the information has a high degree of representational faithfulness and a measure with a high degree of verifiability is not necessarily relevant to the decision for which it is intended to be useful.”

10. Conservatism:

There is a place for a convention, such as conservatism – meaning prudence in financial accounting and reporting, because business and economic activities are surrounded by uncertainty, but it needs to be applied with care.

Conservatism in financial reporting should no longer connote deliberate consistent, understatement of net assets and profits. Conservatism is a prudent reaction to uncertainty to try to ensure that uncertainties and risks inherent in business situations are adequately considered.

Thus, if two estimates of amounts to be received or paid in the future are about equally likely, conservatism dictates using the less optimistic estimates. However, if two amounts are not equally likely, conservatism does not necessarily dictate using the more pessimistic amount rather than the more likely one.

Conservatism no longer requires deferring recognition of income beyond the time that adequate evidence of its existence becomes available, or justifies recognizing losses before there is adequate evidence that they have been incurred.

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Zyra's front page //// site index

Zyra's page //// Linda's page

Linda Moghul Salon of Transmogrification

in conjunction with

Zyra Artistic Restoration and Alteration

offered the chance of a MAKEOVER in the actual world and a DIGITAL MAKEOVER using computer transmography (it's quite painless).

When you have a Linda Moghul salon makeover at Chasser Le Femme, you could be further adjusted by digital means in conjunction with Zyra Artistic, and have photographs to show for it. Complete confidentiality was assured.

Update 2005/02: As Linda Moghul and Zyra will both be emigrating, but to different parts of the world, it is no longer practical to offer this service. There must be other people who would do this, though. Maybe we should add some contacts on this page.

Also see the Tranny page, health and beauty, and other photography and photographic references.


White Collar Update: M.A. Angeliades, Inc., Three Principles and Others Indicted for $600,000 Larceny

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office just released more information regarding the fraud indictment involving $600,000 in theft. The defendants, M.A. Angeliades, Inc., Merkourios Angeliades, Dimitri Malakidis and Irena Angeliades were indicted on the charges of Grand Larceny, Offering a False Instrument for Filing, Falsifying Business Records, Bribing a Witness, Bribing a Labor Official and Attempted Tampering with Physical Evidence. Additionally, three employees from Local 731, Anthony Graham, Harold Johnson and Eduardo Visone, were each indicted for Falsifying Business Records, Bribing a Labor Official and Bribing a Witness. It is alleged that their conduct resulted stemmed from 2005 through 2007.

It is alleged that M.A. Angeliades, Inc., a general contracting firm, had four separate contracts with New York City and the MTA. Specifically, M.A. Angeliades, Inc. was to provide the labor to rehabilitate eleven subway stations. In doing so, the company was required to pay the prevailing wages for these jobs. Instead, it is alleged that the above named individuals in some capacity appropriated the wages to themselves and instead of the employees. This was hidden from the MTA through many means including creating false payroll reports.

The defendants face up to one year on the misdemeanor charge of Attempted Tampering with Physical Evidence, four years on the Falsifying Business Records and Offering a False Instrument for Filing, up to seven years on the charge of Bribing a Witness and Bribing an Official, and up to fifteen years on the Grand Larceny offense.

Regardless of the specific charges each of these individuals face, they need to act quickly and implement their defense strategy. As a former Manhattan prosecutor, I can tell you that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Rackets Bureau consists of top prosecutors who will not wait for a defendant to decide how he or she will proceed. Whatever the charge and allegation, the white collar NY criminal defense attorneys and former prosecutors at Crotty Saland PC know that time cannot be wasted. That is why we are ready to fight to protect your freedom and implement a plan to defend your rights as soon as possible.


Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Questioning One's Point of View

Exhibition Discussion
Why and how we receive information were recurring themes this Saturday. In front of Ways the World Ends, we marveled at the ability humans have to create such far-fetched explanations and how fantastic the scientific theory sounds. That so many narratives can exist at one time makes me feel a little giddy. Their coexistence in the space overwhelmed me, mirroring the process some of us experience when making sense of our own beliefs: lots of thoughts vying for attention and not always being able to think clearly.

Moving over to Intelligence, our conversation turned to how sometimes people are looking to reinforce a set of beliefs already held, be they about personality, star sign, or in the case of Condoleezza Rice, gender. We talked of how seductive astrology can be, despite most of us knowing it isn't real. Where we find our information is crucial too, for example relying solely on the Media for your facts generally leads to inaccuracy and distorted reality.

One of the things I wanted to discuss with visitors was how different our view of the same thing can be. It's very easy to say I'm right and everyone else is mistaken, but how easy is it to take a step sideways and question our beliefs? A perfect opportunity to explore this arose when we looked at Messiah. Our Christian group member saw only benevolence and joy, ordinary men in humble surroundings celebrating the Word of The Lord, whereas others including myself admitted to finding it rather oppressive. Claire referenced Angel by Mark Wallinger when talking about the paradoxes she saw in the work. The atmosphere became a little charged as we discussed whether or not Christianity was just another way to interpret past, present and future. Most agreed with Judith that Grayson observes each belief system rather than sitting in judgment. Alice diffused the tension when she said how important it was to have such work displayed in order to discuss these difficult and important issues. I agree; walking round the show I have been amazed at how quickly people have been willing to talk candidly about very challenging topics.

Thinking Aloud
It felt like the openness in the gallery had paved the way for a very broad and enjoyable discussion over tea on the top floor. Here are just a few of the topics we touched on:

Why Richard Grayson had subtitles in Messiah and The Golden Space City of God - was it a play on the power of The Word?

Facebook and how once you have written words there, you lose power over them.

How important it is to have challenging exhibitions in the provinces, vibrant galleries along the South Coast and touring exhibitions such as Artist's Rooms. Claire told us how she was part of a group who were raising the profile of arts locally in Surrey.

The pressure some visitors feel to have the "right" response to an exhibition. Claire was particularly interested in the importance of language; how at times what is written about the work can seem elitist and confusing rather than communicate clearly.
Arthur Koestler, individual versus group needs, tribalism, cults, the need to belong.

Judith talked about the importance of (not) expressing an opinion and the value in being an observer.

How art is taught in schools and Universities and the unrealistic expectations of art graduates leaving college.

Comments that caught my eye at the back of the gallery:

Don't judge a man 'til you've walked a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He's a mile away and you have his shoes...

Don't try to be a second version of someone else, be the first version of yourself.

Answer the question but question the answer.

The last word goes to Wendy, one of our Invigilators. She told me that despite all potential for controversy, the overwhelming response to the show from visitors has been "the importance of love, peace, sharing and humanity".

My thanks to everyone who took part and shared their ideas so generously. Apologies for any omissions or inaccuracies. Please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments


Why Jessica Chastain Doesn't Mind Skipping Red Carpets

  | January 13, 2015 16:14 IST
Jessica Chastain

Jessica looked gorgeous in a gold Versace gown at the Golden Globe Awards (Image source: AP)

Jessica says she fears falling backwards in high heels at the red carpet events

Actress Jessica Chastain has revealed that she would have rather skipped all the posing and smiling to cameras if she could have it her way.

Jessica looked gorgeous in a gold Versace gown at this year's red carpet of Golden Globe Awards.

"The red carpet is not something I look forward to. Not at all. Because all I'm thinking in my head is that I'm going to fall backwards," she said.

Jessica donned six-inches high with her beautiful dress.

"I'm wearing very tall heels. And if there is any instability.. If I see Meryl Streep or whatever and get excited, I'm just going to go [backwards]," she added.