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PokerStars, PokerStars Casino, BetStars and Full Tilt Privacy Policy
For information on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how it may affect you, please visit our FAQ.
Identity of Data Controller. For the purposes of this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy"), the "data controller" (i.e. the person responsible for the capture, storage and use of your personal information) is TSG Interactive Gaming Europe Limited ("TSG"), who can be contacted at Villa Seminia, 8, Sir Temi Zammit Avenue, Ta' Xbiex, XBX 1011, Malta or via Support. In this Privacy Policy, when we say "PokerStars", "PokerStars Casino", "BetStars", "Full Tilt", "we" or "us" we are referring to TSG, its subsidiaries and any holding company of TSG and any subsidiary of such holding company.
Any references to "Sky Bet", or "Sky Betting and Gaming", mean companies within the Sky Betting and Gaming Group which includes Bonne Terre Limited (whose trading names include "Sky Bet", "Sky Vegas", "Sky Casino", "Sky Bingo" and "Sky Poker"), Hestview Limited (whose trading names include "Sky Games", "Sky Sports Super 6", "Sky Sports Fantasy Football", "Fantasy Six a Side", "Sky Bet Italia" and "Sportinglife"), Cyan Blue International Limited, Cyan Blue Odds Limited (trading as "Oddschecker") and Core Gaming Limited, all of which are entities wholly owned by The Stars Group Inc.
References to "Group" mean collectively, TSG, the Sky Betting and Gaming Group, any holding company of TSG, the Sky Betting and Gaming Group, any subsidiaries of such holding companies and any subsidiaries of TSG or the Sky Betting and Gaming Group together with any company associated with the group of companies known as The Stars Group.
Please note, your data may be shared within the Group for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy (as well as third parties that supply services to the Group in order to fulfil such purposes) - for example, marketing, identity verification, creation of alerts on suspicious activity, creation and deployment of anti-fraud measures, account analysis for the purpose of developing segmented offers or customised products, batch testing for new products or services, combatting criminal activity, development and/or deployment of machine learning tools to help reduce gambling related harm. However, any exercise of your rights in relation to this Privacy Policy shall not extend to or encompass Sky Betting and Gaming Group which has its own privacy policy for its products and services that can be accessed here.
Our Commitment to Our Players' Privacy. We are the owner and operator of the websites located at www.pokerstars.eu, www.pokerstarscasino.eu, www.betstars.eu, www.fulltilt.eu, www.pokerstars.com, www.pokerstarscasino.com, www.betstars.com and www.fulltilt.com (the "Sites"). We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of the personal information collected by us, utilising 'best in class' information security technology and procedures, all in accordance with European Union standards of data protection and the requirements of our gambling regulatory authorities.
Purpose of this Privacy Policy. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to enable you to understand how we collect, store, use and safeguard your personal information and to explain your rights in relation to that information and its use.
Our Legal Obligations. We will comply with the terms of applicable data protection regulations for the relevant licence through which you access and use our Service (as such regulations may be amended from time to time), including in particular, General Data Protection Regulation (EU) No 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regards to the process of personal data and on the free movement of such data ("GDPR") and any other valid and applicable legislation (collectively, GDPR and all such laws shall be referred to herein as "Applicable Law"), when processing your personal information. Your personal information may be also processed or transferred by us to other members of our group of companies, our affiliates, our agents and third parties providing services to us, in jurisdictions outside of the Isle of Man, Malta and the European Economic Area. In this event, we will comply with the terms of Applicable Law which ensure that personal data is only transferred to such jurisdictions which comply with the various 'adequacy' requirements for data protection set out in Applicable Law or as otherwise authorised under Applicable Law.
What do the Capitalised Terms Mean? Unless we give them a specific meaning in this Privacy Policy, capitalised terms shall have the meaning given to them in our End User Licence Agreement which takes precedence over any conflicting provision of this Privacy Policy.
- Your Agreement to the Privacy Policy
- What information is collected and for what purpose
- Conditions for Processing Personal Information
- Information Sharing, Disclosures and Recipients
- Deposit and withdrawal processing
- Confidentiality
- Limits of Confidentiality
- Your Rights in Relation to Your Information
- Cookies
- Further Information
Your Agreement to the Privacy Policy
Agreement: By using the Service, you ("User" or "you") agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy as may be amended by us from time to time, save that we will ask you separately, when you provide us with your details whether you consent to receiving promotional communications from: (a) us; and also (b) third party providers of goods and services with whom we may share your details.
Amendments: We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any amendment will come into effect immediately upon such change being notified on the Sites. We therefore encourage you to visit this Privacy Policy from time to time to make sure that you are aware of the current version and any changes that we may make.
What information is collected and for what purpose
Registration Details: As part of a User's Stars Account opening process across the Sites and to allow us to provide our Service to you, we will ask you to provide us with certain personal information, including but not limited to your name, date of birth, postal address, telephone number, email address and password as well as certification that you are at least 18 years old or older in jurisdictions in which the minimum age for use of the Service is greater than 18. The name you register with us must be your own name. In addition, it is important that you complete the account details with valid information, since it will be used in the course of validating financial transactions and for the other purposes described in this Privacy Policy. You must advise us of any relevant changes to your personal information as provided to us and we do not accept liability for any harm that you may suffer as a result of you failing to notify us of any changes to the personal information that you have provided to us. Mobile Gambling: If you wish to use the Service via a Device (as defined in Clause 16 below), you will be required to consent to the use of location-based services by us (or through third parties acting on our behalf) or other operating software information that can be derived from your Device, to detect your geographic location. If you do not permit your location to be known, we will not be able to provide the Service to you using your Device. Ongoing Data Capture: In addition, when you use the Service, we capture and store certain personal information including information on your activity on the Sites and information held on the Device(s) you use to allow us to enhance the Service that we provide to you. We also use 'cookies' and our 'cookie' policy is explained below. Data Retention: We retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy which includes any period of historic retention that may be required for regulatory purposes. We do not collect any more personal information from our users than is necessary for our purposes and our data management policies include the deletion of any personal information we no longer require. Should you close (or if we shut down) your Stars Account with us (but excluding where your account is self-excluded), we will retain your personal data for a period of 6 (six) years to allow us to meet our regulatory and legal obligations and defend ourselves against any claims. Personal information which is not needed for these purposes will be deleted after this period. Please note that information relating to self-excluded accounts will not be deleted and will be retained for much longer than the specified periods above in compliance with our regulatory obligations. Purposes: We, members of our Group of companies, our affiliates and third parties providing services to us or to you on our behalf will use your personal information for the purpose of conducting our business and providing the Service to you. Specifically, this includes the following purposes (but we also reserve the right to use your personal information for any other purposes that are reasonably ancillary to the business of providing you with online gambling services):
- to confirm financial transactions;
- to analyse your credit and fraud risk and verify your credentials using third parties, including financial institutions, identification verification agencies and credit reference agencies;
- to assess your gambling activity for responsible gaming purposes;
- to verify whether you have registered with any mandatory self-exclusion bodies (as may be applicable), for responsible gaming reasons;
- to provide the Service to you;
- identification, verification and vetting purposes;
- statistical analysis and research;
- research and development;
- marketing, market research, customer surveys and customer profiling;
- data analysis;
- to comply with licensing and regulatory requirements;
- to carry out batch testing of documents prior to the deployment of tools sourced from or provided by third parties;
- to combat against security risks and fraudulent activity; and
- to confirm your geographic location.
Conditions for Processing Personal Information
Conditions: We will process your personal information for a variety of reasons, each of which is prescribed by relevant data protection laws.
Our processing of your personal information will primarily be necessary for us to provide you with the Service. On occasion we may ask for your consent to processing personal information in a discrete manner, in this instance your personal information will be processed in accordance with such consent and you will be able to withdraw this consent in writing at any time. By way of example, your consent will be needed in order to send you marketing and promotional communications.
Please note that we will not share your data with companies outside of our Group for them to use for their own marketing purposes. This restriction does not apply to the Sky Betting and Gaming as we may share your data with them and they may contact you regarding their products and services which fall under our combined Group. Opting out of marketing for any products and services provided by TSG will not affect your marketing preferences on Sky Betting and Gaming.
Fulfilment of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation
It may also be necessary for us to process your personal information where it is necessary for the performance of a contract (such as the End User Licence Agreement when you open a Stars Account) or in order for us to comply with our various legal and/or regulatory responsibilities, including, but not limited to, complying with the conditions of our gambling licences and complying with any anti-money laundering legislation.
Legitimate interests
Finally, we may also process your personal information where we deem such processing to be in our (or a third party's) legitimate interests and provided always that such processing will not prejudice your interests, rights and freedoms. Examples of us processing in accordance with legitimate interests would include: (i) where we disclose your personal information to companies in our Group following a restructure or for internal administrative purposes; (ii) where we identify certain companies that can offer you additional benefits to our Service or provide us with valuable information about your use of our Service; (iii) detection and retention of information pertaining to those with responsible gambling issues. Note that if you self-exclude yourself on any of our Sites for responsible gaming reasons, such restrictions shall not automatically extend to or be replicated on accounts that you may hold with Sky Betting and Gaming (as may be applicable). Nonetheless, we may share information about your self-excluded status within the Group in order to help with the identification of individuals who may be at risk of problem gambling and may take suitable action where necessary; (iv) processing for the purposes of ensuring network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our electronic communications network; (v) safeguarding the integrity of sports by combating suspicious betting patterns as well as reporting and sharing information related to such patterns; (vi) adhering to regulatory and statutory requirements; (vii) devising a tailored reward scheme for players.
Information Sharing, Disclosures and Recipients
Specific Disclosures. We may disclose your personal information as follows:
- to any recipient if required to do so by law or by regulatory authority;
- to any regulatory body or licensing body or authority;
- to third parties for the purposes of settling or making payment in connection with any wager;
- to third parties who provide services to us or on our behalf;
- to third parties for marketing purposes, provided you have consented or not objected, as the case may be, as described in Clause 11 below;
- to any payment management or debt collection company engaged by us to handle payment and collection processes to and from our users;
- to any third party that purchases us or our business or any part of us or our business;
- to credit reference agencies;
- if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary:
i. to comply with any law or comply with legal process served on us;
ii. to protect and defend our rights or property;
- with your consent;
- for the purposes of disaster recovery; or
- as set out in Clause 5 below.
- General Disclosures: In addition to the specific examples of disclosures listed above we may disclose your personal information to our employees, employees of other companies in our Group, our agents and to third party service providers who use your personal information to provide services to us in respect of you being a user of our Service.
- Combined Personal Data: We may combine your personal information collected from your use of the Service in accordance with this Privacy Policy with other information collected from your use of other services operated by any other company in our corporate group (including 'Sky Betting and Gaming', 'BetStars' and 'Full Tilt' sites and services) as well as all products which are related or ancillary thereto, including mobile and social networking services. We will treat this combined information in accordance with and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
- Credit References: Where you fail to reimburse us for any chargebacks, denial or reversal of deposits you make, we may give details of your accounts and how you manage them to Credit Reference Agencies (CRA). The CRA will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations and records will remain on the CRA file for 6 years after the date of the chargeback, denial or reversal of payment. The information will be used by the CRA to prevent crime, fraud, money laundering, verifying your identity if you, your partner, other members of your household, your business or financial associates apply for other credit facilities, monitoring the operation of accounts you may hold, making decisions for credit, credit related or other facilities, tracing your whereabouts, recovering debts that you owe, statistical analysis and system testing.
Deposit and Withdrawal Processing
- In the course of making a deposit, you will need to provide deposit method information (example: your credit card number). This information in conjunction with your other personal information might be used to clear or carry out financial transactions executed by you on our Sites. You must advise us immediately of any relevant changes to your personal information.
- What Do We Do? We have undertaken substantial efforts to protect the confidentiality of the identity, preferences and other information we have collected about individual Users and we will not knowingly allow access to this information to anyone outside of our Group, other than to User themselves or as described in this Privacy Policy. We have made a substantial investment in our server, database, backup, firewall and encryption technologies to protect the information that we collect and process. These technologies are deployed as part of state of the art security architecture. See here for more.
What Can You Do? You should also play your part in protecting your personal information. Your Login Credentials are confidential and you are obliged to keep your Login Credentials secret and confidential at all times and to use your best efforts to protect their secrecy and confidentiality.
Limits of Confidentiality
- Legally Required Disclosures. Due to the legal, regulatory and security environment in which we operate, we may be required, under certain circumstances, to disclose personally identifiable information about our Users and we may not be permitted to inform you that we have done so. We will use reasonable endeavours to limit such disclosure to the following: (a) where we believe in good faith that we are required to do so in response to a subpoena, warrant or other legal process or obligation upon us; or (b) where reasonably necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities to preserve and/or enforce our rights. Further, we can, and you authorise us to, disclose your User identification, name, date of birth, street address, city, county, post code, country, phone number, email, account activity, transactions, transfers to and communications with other Users, plus details of financial instruments used to deposit and withdraw, to our third party agents or official government bodies as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of money-laundering, fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy or other unlawful activity or activity that may expose us to legal liability.
- Group Marketing. We may use your name, email address and phone number for the purpose of providing you with news, promotions and other marketing offers from companies within our Group. If you no longer wish to receive these promotional communications, newsletters and marketing offers, you may opt-out of receiving them either when you register with us initially, or subsequently by following the 'opt-out' instructions included in each communication. You are also entitled at any time to notify us that you do not wish to receive any promotional communications from us and you may do this by emailing Support.
- Third Party Offers of Goods and Services. Where you have provided us with your consent to do so, we may also share your email address and phone number with third parties so that they may send you offers of their goods and services. You may request at any time not to receive such offers by sending a blank message with the word 'Remove' in the subject area to Support. If you request not to receive these offers we will remove your details from our marketing distribution lists and from any future lists we may share with our marketing partners. However, you will need to unsubscribe separately from marketing communications sent by partners who have received your contact details from us prior to your request to be removed from these lists.
- Publicity. We will only use your name and details in publicity materials with your written consent.
Your Rights in Relation to Your Information
- Right to request information about you. We aim to keep our information about you as accurate as possible. You can contact us at any time to review, change, obtain a copy of your information or have your details altered or corrected in accordance with your rights under Applicable Law. In this event we may require evidence of and be satisfied as to your identity before we take any requested action. To contact us so as to exercise any of your rights as set out in this Clause 14, please get in touch with Support. We may, in certain circumstances, levy a small charge to cover the cost of administration regarding any request made by you in this regard or deal with your query in accordance with Applicable Law.
Additional Rights. You have the following rights in relation to your personal data however please note that some of these rights are not absolute and may be further qualified under Applicable Law:
- a right to know what information we hold about you by way of a data subject request;
- a right to request modifications to your account details including the correction of errors and the updating of incomplete information;
- a right of erasure which allows you to request us to stop all processing of your data and to request the deletion of your data relating to your Stars Account;
- a right to object where a request made by you to cease processing is rejected;
- a right to object to decisions being taken by automated means; and
- a right to data portability which enables your personal data to be sent electronically to a third party upon your request.
If you are unsure about your rights or are concerned about how your personal information may be processed you should contact the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (see Clause 17). If you contact us in relation to your rights we will do our best to accommodate your request or objection. Please note, however, that not all rights are absolute.
- Cookies are text-only strings of information that are downloaded to your personal desktop, laptop computer or mobile device (each a "Device") when you visit a website. They are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises those cookies. Please see: www.allaboutcookies.org for information about what cookies are and what they do.
Cookies are very useful and are used for many different purposes. These include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving user experience. Sometimes cookies are used to help ensure that adverts you see online are relevant to you and your interests. We use cookies in order to track referrals to our Sites, to remember your preferences, and to generate anonymised statistical data, which we use to improve the user experience on our Sites. We also use cookies to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns, to limit the number of times you see an advertisement, to remember that you have visited a website, and to provide advertisements that are more relevant to your interests.
Detailed information about cookies and how we use them on the Sites may be found in our Cookie Policy, which also describes how you can turn off cookies or control which cookies are set on your Device (see in particular the section headed "How to manage your cookie settings").
Further Information
- We are happy to provide you with further information on how we protect and use your personal information. Please contact Support. You can also obtain much useful information on data protection and privacy from the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (Malta).
Privacy Policy last revised: June 3, 2022


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Mortgages Made Easy
LoanStar360 is a Fresno-based mortgage lender. We are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest level of service and expertise when it comes to obtaining their dream home. Our experienced staff members can assist you every step of the way in navigating the loan process.
We specialize in FHA loans and VA loans, USDA loans. Jumbo loans, Adjustable rate mortgages, 30-Year Mortgages, Jumbo loans, Jumbo Loans, Jumbo loans, Adjustable Rate mortgages, Adjustable-Rate loans, 30-Year Mortgages, and 15 Year mortgages for buying a home or refinancing a current one.
We can help you with everything from buying a home to refinance an existing one to financial advice. Come visit us today and let us show you how we can make your homeownership dreams come true!
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123 Example StFresno California 93650USA
About Fresno
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km2) and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation. The Metro population of Fresno is 1,008,654 as of 2022. Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885.
Neighborhoods in Fresno, California
Bella Vista by Bonadelle Neighborhoods, Bonadelle Neighborhoods, Bondelle Neighborhoods, Bowles, Brookhaven, Bullard High School, CNOA Region 7, Cameo, Canyon Creek by Bonadelle Neighborhoods, Chinatown, Cincotta, Downtown, Downtown Fresno Foundation, Edison High School, Emily Bonadelle Estates
Things to do in Fresno, California
Our Newest Profiles

subset: commoncrawl


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Apparently the UCI License Commission has denied Katusha WorldTour status for ethical reasons (several doping cases and lack of an internal anti-doping culture).
According to procedure, it can now apply for Pro Continental team status. This makes no sense. Teams have to meet sporting, financial, organizational and ethical standards. I can understand the sporting, financial and organizational standards will be lower for ProConti teams than for WorldTour teams.
But does cycling really allow lower ethical standards at the lower levels? That's insane. Some will argue that although Katusha has the right to apply for ProConti status, it isn't guaranteed success there. That's true, but there shouldn't even be a reason to apply, it should be a guaranteed "No" on the ProConti level if it was a "No" on ethical grounds at the WorldTour level.
What message is the sport sending? You can't dope at the highest level, but knock yourselves out at the lower levels?


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Discover stories behind the latest exhibitions, fascinating explorations into maritime science and archaeology, and the surprising details of what happens inside (and outside) a modern working museum.
18 Feb 2021
Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here?
17 Nov 2020
Sail, steam and Suez views
03 Nov 2020
The Greycliffe ferry disaster
12 Oct 2020
The art of making: New immigration acquisitions
23 Jul 2020
Cabinet of curiosities
22 May 2020
Q&A with WPY finalist Justin Gilligan
21 May 2020
'Ever your loving son': Arthur Pringle and his letters home
17 Feb 2020
Frolicking and Fossicking: Touring the Great Barrier Reef in 1928
04 Feb 2020


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Alien Abduction, alien abductions, alien experiments, alien invaders, alien invasion, Anja Savcic, Blitz//Berlin, Brittany Allen, cabins, cabins in the woods, cinema, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, co-directors, co-writers, Colin Minihan, Emily Perkins, Extraterrestrial, film reviews, filmmaking duo, films, Freddie Stroma, Gil Bellows, Grave Encounters, Grave Encounters 2, horror films, isolated estates, isolation, Jesse Moss, Melanie Papalia, Michael Ironside, military coverup, Movies, Samy Inayeh, sci-fi, sci-fi-horror, science-fiction, Sean Rogerson, special-effects extravaganza, Stuart Ortiz, the Vicious Brothers, UFOs, Vicious Brothers, writer-director-editor
If you're the kind of horror fanatic who prefers the road less traveled to the well-worn thoroughfare, you've probably also spent your fair share of time backtracking from dead-ends. With the almost mind-boggling array of horror films being released these days, be it studio-supported tent-poles or direct-to-streaming vanity projects, separating the wheat from the chaff has never been a more daunting prospect. While the number of horror films actually released to theaters still seems as small as it's ever been, direct-to-video/streaming releases are healthier than ever: with companies like Netflix and Amazon looking to scoop up as much content as possible, potential audiences have more choice than we have in some time.
To compound this issue, horror filmmakers have beaten some sub-genres such as found-footage and zombie films into the ground, releasing so much unmitigated crap that it becomes almost impossible to shift out the diamonds. To these over-mined fields that include the possession film, the haunted asylum and the post-apocalyptic wanderer, feel free to add the alien film, whether in its "abduction" or "invasion" variety. As of late, it seems that indie filmmakers are pumping out one alien-themed horror flick after another. Just recently, we've had Dark Skies (2013), the "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" segment of V/H/S 2 (2013), Skinwalker Ranch (2013), Alien Abduction (2014), Honeymoon (2014), The Signal (2014), and Oren Peli's long-delayed Area 51 (2015), along with a host of others that have managed to slither under the radar. As mentioned, sifting out the diamonds in all of the mud is quite the task.
All this, of course, is by way of saying that the Vicious Brothers' (aka writers/directors Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz) Extraterrestrial (2014) is not only a diamond, it's easily one of the brightest diamonds that I've had the pleasure of witnessing in some time. I'll actually go one step further and, with no hyperbole, state that Extraterrestrial (warts and all) is easily the apex of the modern alien abduction film: the filmmaking duo, along with wunderkind cinematographer Samy Inayeh, have managed to craft a film that is, by turns, gorgeous, terrifying, mind-blowing and endlessly thrilling. Thanks to its impeccable visual effects, amazing costumes and ability to cherry-pick the very best of sci-fi horror gone by, the Vicious Brothers' ode to little green men looks like it cost roughly 500 times what it probably did. It's not a perfect film, mind you, but it's very nearly the perfect alien movie.
Plot-wise, the Brothers' film stuffs an alien abduction filling into a cabin-in-the-woods casing. Overly serious April (Brittany Allen) and her clingy boyfriend, Kyle (Freddie Stroma), are headed to her family's backwoods cabin so that she can take pictures in order to facilitate its sale. Without her knowing, Kyle has decided to turn this into the weekend that he proposes and has invited along their friends, Melanie (Melanie Papalia), Lex (Anja Savcic) and uber-asshole Seth (Jesse Moss), to join in the joyous occasion.
The problem, of course, is that no one bothered to ask April what she wanted: turns out, she doesn't want to marry her high school sweetheart and settle down. She has a job offer in New York and wants to get out there and experience life, neither of which plan really involves Kyle. As expected, this little revelation throws a monkey-wrench into the weekend, causing Kyle to become withdrawn and moody, whereas asshole Seth just gets one more excuse to get blitzed and act like a jerk, in order to "protect his boy."
Our little close-quarters domestic drama plays out with a larger, more sinister drama unfolding in the background: local sheriff Alan Murphy (Gil Bellows) is investigating a mysterious disappearance that seems to be tied in to a string of local livestock mutilations. He doesn't necessarily suspect the city slicker kids but he also doesn't want them stirring up the locals or interfering with his investigation: toss a personal angle into the missing person phenomena (Sheriff Murphy's wife vanished without a trace) and you have a lawman with an agenda and no time for tomfoolery.
Just when our group of young people seem to have comfortably settled into the kind of restful vacation that might befit Virginia Woolf, however, a fiery meteor explodes out of the sky, screaming right into the nearby woods, where it explodes in an appropriately impressive little display. Upon closer inspection, the group discovers that the object wasn't a meteor but an honest to gosh flying saucer. To amp the "uh oh" factor to 11, they also notice a set of humanoidish footprints leading away from the crash site…back in the direction of their cabin.
From this point on, the film becomes an unrelenting triumph in building and relieving tension as April and her friends, along with the able assistance of her surrogate uncle/old family friend/pot farmer, Travis (Michael Ironside), attempt to fight back against their other-worldly visitors. From the claustrophobic confines of their cabin "sanctuary" to the surrounding woods and, ultimately, to places that no human has ever gone, the survivors will learn one very important lesson: not only is humanity not alone, we're not even at the top of the heap.
First off, let's get the negatives out of the way. As far as the "human" relationships go, Extraterrestrial doesn't show us anything we haven't seen a million times in the past, nor does it present us with a group of unique, sympathetic characters: while the young group in the Vicious Brothers' film doesn't necessarily fall into the most generic "stoner," "final girl," "jock," et al stereotypes, no one really stands out with the exception of Allen's April and Moss' odious Seth. This isn't the kind of film where one gets wrapped up in the intense interpersonal drama of the characters, let's put it that way.
The acting is fine, if a little unmemorable, although Ironside and Sean Rogerson both manage to chew a fair amount of scenery: Ironside's Travis is a great character, however, brought to vivid life by an iconic character actor, whereas Rogerson's Deputy Mitchell is a blustery, loud-mouthed and very silly caricature. Allen and familiar-face Bellows are constantly sturdy, although I'll admit that Papalia and Savcic sort of blurred together, in my mind: they just didn't get much to do, aside from the stock "run and react" options.
There are also a few moments where the editing and/or cinematography gets a little too flashy for its own good: one particular shot featured so much focus-shifting that I would have assumed the operator was having problems if the rest of the film hadn't been so impressive (more on that later). I'll also freely admit that the hand-held camera stuff doesn't work at all, especially when held side-by-side with the actual cinematography: it's like touching up a Picasso with ketchup rather than paint. The film also has a tendency to over-rely on the soft/loud dynamic of the modern jump scare, leading to numerous moments that are telegraphed by audio stings or ridiculous increases in volume.
And that, folks, is pretty much the downside to Extraterrestrial. The upside? Everything else. The film looks absolutely astounding: from gorgeous, evocative establishing shots to cleverly revealed shocks to immaculately composed frames, cinematographer Samy Inayeh goes way above and beyond the call of duty. It helps, of course, that the film's visual effects (both CGI and makeup/costuming) are jaw-dropping: when combined when the absolutely state-of-the-art camera-work, Extraterrestrial is as immersive as any mega-budget Hollywood sci-fi film.
In fact, the first full reveal of the massive space craft reminded me of nothing less than Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): there's a genuine sense of awe, grandeur and spectacle to Extraterrestrial that is almost completely missing from other indie sci-fi/alien films. Say what you will about the Vicious Brothers' grasp on the human dynamics of the story: the technical aspect is so astounding that it should, automatically, vault them into the upper echelons of the "event picture" biz.
This sense of perfect visualization continues with the actual aliens, which are pretty much the apex of the traditional "gray-headed, almond-eyed" alien in pop culture. The aliens, here, aren't so different from other depictions of said types but they inhabit the film in a purely physical way that feels real, refreshing and, ultimately, rather terrifying. I was immediately reminded of the ways in which Spielberg's original Jurassic Park (1993) felt so organic and "physical": Extraterrestrial feels the same way, which is pretty much the antithesis of the current "green-screened-to-death" trend.
While the Vicious Brothers' and their excellent crew absolutely ace the technical aspects of the film, there's another, even more important aspect that they also nail: the claustrophobic atmosphere. Unlike most alien abduction films that aren't called Fire in the Sky (1993), Extraterrestrial is genuinely, absolutely frightening. It's actually frightening on several levels: it perfectly hits the "something in the background" vibe of modern horror films but it also digs in on a deeper, more existential level. There are moments in the film, particularly in its final 20 minutes, where it honestly feels as if the Vicious Brothers are letting us peer into the howling maw of madness: I don't have to tell you how exhilarating that is, I'm sure.
As I've mentioned several times, Extraterrestrial isn't an especially ground-breaking film, plot-wise: it's not difficult to see the Alien (1979), Fire in the Sky and Night of the Living Dead (1968) references. The most important thing to remember, however, is that all artistry is theft: it's what you do with the ill-gotten gains that makes the difference between trash and treasure. In this case, the Vicious Brothers have taken a laundry list of their influences and spun them into something that feels complete and whole on its own, regardless of the foundation its built on.
Lest I seem like an overly supportive stalker, let me conclude by stating that I had seen the Vicious Brothers' debut, Grave Encounters (2011), some time before I saw Extraterrestrial and wasn't overly impressed. While the film had its moments, it also didn't really strike me as anything more than another "found-footage in a creepy place" film, which we already have plenty of. Based on that experience (I've yet to see the sequel), there is absolutely no way I could have predicted Extraterrestrial: suffice to say, the level of growth, here, is roughly the same distance between adolescence and adulthood.
Is Extraterrestrial one of the best films of the year? Not at all, although it at least has the finish line in sight (unlike a basketful of films that I won't mention). Is Extraterrestrial the film to beat for modern, indie alien films, however? I'll stake my damn reputation on it. There a level of craft and imagination that's impossible to ignore: if filmmakers can get "discovered" and jumped into the big time based on Youtube videos, here's to hoping that they can still do it the old-fashioned way…you know, by creating a great, memorable film. If we don't see the Vicious Brothers directing a tent-pole picture within the next few years, I'll buy and eat an entire haberdashery.
Catch Minihan and Ortiz on the small stages while you can, gentle readers: something tells me the Vicious Brothers are going to be doing a helluva lot of headlining in the near future.


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Ware group
The Ware group was a covert organisation of Communist Party USA operatives within the United States government in the 1930s which aided Soviet intelligence agents.
The group was founded by Harold Ware, a Communist Party (CP) official working for the federal government in Washington D.C., and it is for him that it is named. By 1934 the group had around 75 members, divided into about eight cells.
The members were initially recruited into Marxist study groups, and then into the CP itself. They shared a belief that Marxist ideologies were the correct way to approach the problems of the ongoing Great Depression. The agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but also used their political influence to further the CP's goals.
The Ware group initially consisted of young lawyers and economists hired by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), a New Deal agency that reported to the secretary of agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy.
Notable members
Members of the Ware group included:
- Alger Hiss
- Lee Pressman
- John Abt
- Charles Kramer
- Nathan Witt
- Henry Collins
- George Silverman
- Marion Bachrach
- John Herrmann
- Nathaniel Weyl
- Donald Hiss
- Victor Perlo
Harry Dexter White, then Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the United States Department of the Treasury, was also affiliated with the group.


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Today: Cring tells the story of Chief Iron Eyes Cody. If American stopped littering, could we stop racism?
Jonathots Daily Blog
When I looked at the parable again, it just made me laugh.
Jesus often had a dry sense of humor–and in this particular story, he refers to the society in which we live as "the lump."
Could it be personified any better? Just a big pile of dough, laying there with no prospect of becoming anything in particular, susceptible to being manipulated.
Even though we are tempted to become part of the dough, Jesus suggested we become the leaven–the yeast–the ingredient that quietly slips inside the lump, ends up affecting it by expanding it and making it into bread.
It is the reasonable expectation of all people who are followers of Jesus–thus Jesonian: to contribute to the world around them by adding their yeast into the mix to produce the bread of life.
The problem is that many Christians, instead of using emotional leavening in their outreach, end up with spiritual "littering. "
This spiritual "littering" occurs in three distinct ways:
1. A generic God.
Yes, in an attempt to become all things to all men, we talk about God instead of Jesus. It seems safer. It appears to be less offensive.
But since Jesus did not come to start a religion and is not in competition with those who did, the way to gain emotional ground with others–to leaven the lump of their lives–is to share the compassion, the heart, the tolerance and the mind of Jesus.
God is an idea. Jesus is a feeling.
2. We also spiritually litter offering an invitation to come to our church.
May I give you a clue? The people who are inclined to go to church at this point are already there.
So the next step for creating a spiritual awakening in this country will not be church attendance. It may lead to that eventually, but to leaven the lump–to put your yeast of emotion into people's lives–you have to participate in social interaction where they live.
The Internet, dinner invitations, parties, or even going to a movie with a friend is much more effective than the spiritual littering of inviting them to your congregation.
3. And the final step of spiritual littering is feeling the need to make a stand on social issues or moral questions so as to separate our "sheepishness" from those who are more "goat-like."
We achieve nothing with this.
Whether we are vigilant or vindictive in our assertions makes no difference because we are still accused of being judgmental.
The emotional leavening that Jesus wants us to bring to life is good cheer.
Rather than looking at the tribulation of the world and having a disagreement with it, he tells us to leave the world to him and instead, pursue a life of good cheer.
It's just a fact–people like to be around happy people.
This does not mean we are free of difficulty, but it means we come into trial in good cheer, survive it, and come out the other end also cheered by the good.
We have too much spiritual littering going on in our society today which renders the Gospel weak because it is at the mercy of people's perception of the church.
Jesus said the world is a lump.
Put your emotional leavening into it, and let the yeast expand the experience of those around you.
Share Jesus, eat with them … and be of good cheer.
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Andrew Horton
World-acclaimed film director, and ambassador of Greek cinema abroad, Theo Angelopoulos died on the 24th January, after being hit by a motorcycle, while filming in Drapetsona, near Pireaus. Winner of several international film awards, Angelopoulos had started shooting his latest film, The Other Sea, earlier this month. His untimely death hit headlines around the globe.
Angelopoulos was born in Athens in 1935. He studied Law at Athens University, and at the beginning of the '60s he moved to France where he followed courses in ethnography and studied film at the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. Upon returning to Greece, he initially worked as a film critic and in 1970 he completed his first feature film Anaparastassi (Reconstruction).
His next three films make up a trilogy on the history of contemporary Greece: Meres tou '36 (Days of '36, 1972), O Thiassos (Travelling Players, 1975) and Oi Kynighoi (The Hunters, 1977), followeed by Megalexandros in 1980.
With these films some of the thematic and stylistic constants of Angelopoulos' cinema were established – the weight of history, a clinical examination of power, a Brechtian theatricality, wherein the individual has no importance with respect to the group, a rejection of conventional narration in favour of an intentionally broken one, in which stationary cameras and sequence-length shots create an alternative sense of time.
Taxidi sta Kithira (Voyage to Cythera), in 1984, won the Cannes Festival International Critics' Award for best screenplay, followed by O Melissokomos (The Beekeeper), in 1986, starring Marcello Mastroianni. With Topio stin Omichli (Landscape in the Mist) in 1988 he won the Silver Lion at the Venice Mostra.
His filmography in the 90s included To meteoro vima tou pelargou (The Suspended Step of the Stork, 1991), followed by To vlemma toy Odyssea (Ulysses' Gaze, 1995), starring Harvey Keitel – which won the Grand Jury Prize and the International Critics' Prize at Cannes Festival.
Then in 1998, he won the Cannes Palme D'Or prize for Mia eoniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day) with Bruno Ganz. In 2003, he began another trilogy with To livadi pou dakryzi (The Wheeping Meadow) followed by H skoni tou chronou (Dust of Time, 2009). The film The Other Sea that he was currently shooting was to complete the trilogy.
Filed under: Art, Balkans, Cinema, culture, Greece, history, International Relations, Literature, Music | Tagged: Anaparastassi, Angelopoulos, Athens, Award, Bruno Ganz, cameras, Cannes Festival, Cannes Palme d`Or, Cinema, Cinematographic, Contemporary, culture, Current Affairs, death, Europe, feature film, Film, film awards, film critic, film director, filmmaker, filmography, France, Greek, headlines, history, I skoni tou chronou, Institute, International, πρωτοσέλιδα, πολιτισμός, σύγχρονη, σκηνοθέτης, τριλογία, φιλμογραφία, Έλληνας, Αγγελόπουλος, Αθήνα, Αναπαράσταση, Βραβείο, Γαλλία, Ελλάδα, Ελληνικός, Η σκόνη του χρόνου, Η Άλλη Θάλασσα, Θόδωρος, Ινστιτούτο Κινηματογραφικών Σπουδών, Μέρες του `38, Μία αιωνιότητα και μία μέρα, Μεγαλέξανδρος, Ο Θίασος, Ο Μελισσοκόμος, Οι Κυνηγοί, Παρίσι, Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα, Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα, Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει, Το μετέωρο βήμα του πελαργού, Τοπίο στην Ομίχλη, Φεστιβάλ Βενετίας, Φεστιβάλ Καννών, Χρυσός Φοίνικας, βραβευμένος, θάνατος, ιστορία, κινηματογράφος, κινηματογραφικά βραβεία, Marcello, Mastroianni, Megalexandros, Meres tou `36, Mia eoniotita kai mia mera, narration, O Melissokomos, O thiassos, Oi Kynighoi, Paris, power, shots, Silver Lion, studies, Taxidi sta Kithira, The Other Sea, Theo, To livadi pou dakryzi, To meteoro vima tou pelargou, To vlemma tou Odyssea, Topio stin omichli, trilogy, Venice Mostra | Comments Off on Last Voyage for Theo Angelopoulos


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After a particularly great men's conference, one of my male friends made the following statement. He said, 'I wish my daughter had been there. I want her to know what kind of man she is to look for, and this speaker made it so clear.'
He has a point. A good one. Why should the other gender not know what the church is saying to their spouse (literal or potential)? Would the men have more of an incentive to be a wonderful man of God if they knew the women had heard the message as well, and were holding them accountable? Would the young girls choose more wisely, and thus motivate the boys to be better husbands, if they had heard what a mature man believes all men could and should be? Why do we keep separating the sexes?
The Pharisee-controlled society of Jesus' day separated them; but the early church did not. Women supported Jesus' ministry and sat at His feet to learn. Women were in the Upper Room, and told of the empty tomb. Women ministered with Paul and one taught Apollo along side her husband. With so many examples of the sexes together, why the over-fascination with splitting them up?
The sad truth is that more women probably watched the movie Courageous than men. More women currently attend Bible studies and have daily devotional time. More women work in the church. More women are told that they have to remain pure, but cannot expect this of their future husband. More women settle for men who are not what they should be, and then try to change them once they are married. More women are leading the homes because the man is absent, physically, or emotionally. Our notion of separate, but equal does not work. Men and women are to become one, not separate entities who split the work according to gender roles that make little sense now that there are modern conveniences and the children go off to school. And even if you choose to teach them that way, shouldn't the other sex know what they can expect?
And our women's groups seem to be compensating by throwing tea parties and dumbing-down the curriculum choices. Where one could once get fed deeply, a woman is more likely to be required to dress up like a princess at a pre-school party and asked 'non-judgmental' questions that have no right answer, rather than examine what the truth is according to God's Word. Would this occur if the men were invited?
I am tired of women's conferences that have no meat! (Literally and figuratively- have you seen the menus? Which begs the question: Who decided BBQ and wings were only for men? And how did I miss that meeting?!)
I want my daughters to know what a true man of God should look like, and I want people to stop implying that 'real men can't help themselves' as a motivation to keep them modest. I want the men to stand up and protest any time it is implied that they are animal-like slaves to their hormones, because they don't want their girls picking a man who is. Sure, modesty is good. But a real man throws his coat over the naked girl and saves her from the burning building without a second glance. He does not ogle her and then blame her for whatever wrong thing he does next.
I also want my sons to know that the good girls make the best wives and that they have no chance of getting them if they are not behaving themselves. I want them to understand that purity is for before marriage, and that girls can and do make the change. False teachings cannot be corrected when one side has no ability to say, 'That is definitely not true' and discuss it. Men and women's roles in today's society continue to be different- that much is true. But society is changing rapidly and the answer to how we keep up and remain godly lies in communication, not private lectures that are soon forgotten, and occasionally focus on an ideal that could only be achieved in the 1950s or before. Let's stop playing around and get real.


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'Wild' child: Did Sean Penn just make his first hit (as a director)?
Sean Penn: prickly actor, chain-smoking environmental activist, political progressive, no friend of the press. He first caught our attention a quarter-century ago as the stoned-out, laid-back high school clown Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
Eventually, due to wise role choices and phenomenal acting chops, Penn won over moviegoers and filmmakers with solid parts in "The Falcon and the Snowman," "Dead Man Walking" and "Sweet and Lowdown," and an Oscar for "Mystic River," along with some dogs such as "Shanghai Surprise" and "We're No Angels."
But Penn was never content just to act in movies. He had set higher goals very early on. When his reputation as a serious student of cinema became big enough, he went on to write and direct "The Indian Runner" and "The Crossing Guard," films that didn't make much money, but earned him a whole new level of respect in Hollywood, where he was already seen as the heir to the De Niro throne.
His newest film, which he wrote, directed and produced, is an adaptation of "Into the Wild," the based-on-fact book by Jon Krakauer. It tells the haunting tale of free-spirited Christopher McCandless, who dropped out of society to live off the land in Alaska, only to find that he wasn't quite up to the power and grandeur of Mother Nature.
Penn had tried to get rights to make the movie for a decade, but the wealthy McCandless family wasn't willing to let Hollywood get its hands on the story of their late son. Even Penn isn't sure why they finally acquiesced, but he was long ready to get the project off the ground.
"I had read the book from cover to cover, once," says Penn, "and it made such an impression on me that 10 years later, when I wrote the first draft, I did it without rereading the book.
"It went very fast," he adds. "I had been writing it in my head, in hopes, for 10 years. So it was about three weeks for a first draft — pacing, smoking and dictating to my assistant."
Penn did later reread the book, and added some polish to the script, but he maintains that the film is exactly the book he read all those years ago.
One of his most important early decisions was picking an actor to play McCandless, someone who could hold the film together even while playing most of his scenes alone, a small speck in a vast landscape. He went with Emile Hirsch, 22, who's done dynamic dramatic roles in "Alpha Dog" and "Lords of Dogtown," and played effective comedy in "The Girl Next Door." He'll soon be seen starring in "Speed Racer."
"I wasn't very familiar with actors of Emile's age," admits Penn. "Among the ones I was familiar with, nobody moved me or gave me great hope for the future. I wanted someone with talent. I wanted somebody that was on the cusp of boy-to-man; I wanted to watch it happen. And most of all I wanted somebody whose weight was their heart, because the heart shows through the head and eyes. And all of those things came together in Emile."
With a script and a leading man in place, Penn then had to figure out how he would direct the complex project. He explains that his talent for that part of the job comes from his lifelong love for everything about movies.
"It started when I was in the audience," he says. "I think I was as interested in sound and image as I was in writing and acting. I found my way in with what I fell in love with, which was acting. But for me, it was always being part of storytelling."
Penn claims that, for him, the most intense part of the process is in the writing.
"That's where I have to take it in, feel it and express the details and nuances of character," he says. "But in terms of directing, I think the real job is finding a lot of elements that work together. That was always the thing I paid most attention to and cared most about, and care most about, even as an actor — to understand what my part is in the whole picture."
Penn goes out of his way to give credit to his collaborators on "Into the Wild," and he includes in that group everyone from actors to producers to crew. His favorite mantra seems to be that the movie was made by a lot of people.
He follows that with the statement that he wants to destroy a myth, the one about the director — any director — who has a particular touch with actors.
"I've always resented it when people ask how did you bring these performances out of this person or that person," he says. "It doesn't happen. Directors don't get performances out of actors. Actors give great performances to directors. I'm just an organizer of a family, and everybody builds this thing. So when you have that behind you, you don't look at it as something that's hard to get done. You get your family together, and you will it to be done."
"Into the Wild" opens on Sept. 28.
Ed Symkus can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Ice FloeSheila Grabarsky
Acrylic painting on Stretched canvas New
Painting wraps around edges
Varnished and Ready to hang
Signed on front
36" h x 36" w x 1.5" d |6 lbs. 9 oz.
Sheila Grabarsky
Bluffton, South Carolina
Sheila Grabarsky is known for her bold, gestural nature scenes. Her fluid paintings have been compared to those of Vasily Kandinsky, the Russian painter and art theorist referred to as the father of abstraction. And, like Kandinsky, the essence of inner beauty and the potency of the human spirit are key factors in her art. Sheila's art carries an air of spontaneity, however, the work develops in many layers and takes a long time to come together. "I search for evolving forms within the composition, look for 'eye flow' and use my color intuition," she explains. "This is the mystery I love about abstraction - always evolving and birthing itself." Sheila draws energy and inspiration from living near water, and says she rarely travels because she does not like to be away from painting. In her studio, she is usually accompanied by three animal friends and an eclectic playlist of Janis Joplin, blues, reggae and classical. In 2016, Sheila's art was featured in the movie American Pastoral, starring Ewan McGregor and Dakota Fanning.


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What can you give to one small girl?
A diamond ring, a baton to twirl?
A pretty pink dress with lots of bows,
or decorated sandals that show her toes.
A walk in the woods, a stomp in the park,
a shopping trip from dusk till dark?
A shiny pink bike, a kitten for a pet?
No, there is still time for such things,
Give her a day of her very own.
Just one small girl and her mother alone.
Give her the gift that only you can,
the companionship of her own mum.
Games are outgrown and toys decay,
but she will never forget if you give her a day.
A poem from Qattara Cousins, year 9 student at St Ursula's Covent School.


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"The Day of Doom"
(these lines from near the end)
This O New-England hast thou got
By riot, and excess:
This hast thou brought upon thy self
By pride and wantonness.
Thus must thy worldlyness be whipt.
They, that too much do crave,
Provoke the Lord to take away
Such blessings as they have.
We have been also threatened
With worser things than these:
And God can bring them on us still,
To morrow if he please.
For if his mercy be abus'd,
Which holpe us at our need
And mov'd his heart to pitty us,
We shall be plagu'd indeed.
Beware, O sinful Land, beware;
And do not think it strange
That sorer judgements are at hand,
Unless thou quickly change.
Or God, or thou, must quickly change;
Or else thou art undon:
Wrath cannot cease, if sin remain,
Where judgement is begun.
Michael Wigglesworth died this date 6/10/1705, at Malden, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1851. His famous The Day of Doom is thought to have been first published in 1662. (At least one source says he died 5/27/1705.) He appears to have been born in England and that most likely on 10/18/1631.


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Settlement starts out with one unusual claim to fame — it is translated by an American, at a time when most translations of German literature come from European sources. As well, it has another claim — it is a novel that explores some of the difficulties which followed the end of World War II, through the Soviet occupation of East Germany and finally the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the 1989 breakdown of the Soviet Empire.
Bernhard Haber is a refugee, a German who was in Poland when WWII took place and whose family has been sent "home" to Guldenburg, on the German side of the newly-established post-war borders. Haber is an incomplete youth, with both weaknesses and strengths — he has missed much of what is normal in growing up, but he has also found a compensating strength (read, violence) that helps to offset his problems. Permit a quote from about a third of the way through this excellent novel:
Bernhard spoke very little, and he was very stubborn, but he was also easily influenced, if you knew how. There was something mule-like about him — a stubborn beast that wouldn't respond to words or whips, but then, after you'd given up, would suddenly take off in the desired direction, because it had finally dawned on him what was wanted. When I told him something, he first had to chew on it and digest it throughly before it sank into his head. He was a little slow on the uptake, and mistrustful, just like his father and the rest of the family, and they all did these strange things with their eyes when you spoke to them. They didn't completely squint, they just narrowed their eyes as if they were anxiously awaiting what might come next. Maybe that was normal where they came from. Maybe everyone there was mistrustful, or maybe they had lived through terrible things and were afraid they might happen again in our town.
A nation that has just lost a war is one thing; a community inside that nation, with an influx of refugees from that war claiming access to scarce resources, is quite another. This is the challenge that Hein has set in this novel and, I am happy to report, he delivers with exceptional success. Given that his central character speaks very little, the author has chosen to tell his story through the eyes of five people who know Bernhard — the parts are arranged chronologically so we meet him first as a pre-teen and then follow through to his success as an adult business owner. (The device brought to mind J. M. Coetzee's similar approach in Summertime, albeit without the authobiographical angle.)
As a child, Bernhard developed an initial coping mechanism of withdrawal to address the discrimination that he faces:
His one true friend was his dog, a young mixed-breed terrier farmer Griesel had given him as payment for a week's field work, which he gave the unusual name of Tinz. He even tried to bring the dog to school. When the bell rang he tied the terrier to the school's low picket fence and told the dog to sit down and wait. The dog sat and looked at Bernhard attentively.
"Sit and no barking," Bernhard said. Then he went inside, turning around several times to make sure that Tinz was doing as he'd been told and keeping quiet.
During our first lesson the custodian came to our classroom and, after consulting with the teacher, asked Bernhard whether the dog in the yard belonged to him. When Bernhard gave a silent nod, the custodian said that bringing animals to school was against regulations, that it was cruel and a public nuisance and he didn't want to lay eyes on the beast in his schoolyard ever again.
For Bernhard (and his family), there is always a regulation. Stubborn lad that he is, he continues to bring the dog to school until finally he is threatened with expulsion. Eventually, Tinz is murdered and his body left to rot. It marks the start of Bernhard developing a more agressive response to the discrimination that he faces.
He never retaliates directly, but he does retaliate. And along the way he spots and siezes opportunities that allow him to create his own place in the world. His path to success is not a direct one, but it is one he understands. He remains an outcast even as East Germany descends into the chaos that will eventually end with the collapse of the Berlin Wall — at this point Bernhard's well-honed coping skills stand him in good stead as he is more used to dealing with uncertainty than most of his neighbors.
As I hope the quotes illustrate, there is a flatness to Hein's prose style that suits his story well. His central character is not an emotional person — as the story goes on there is more inevitability than there is dramatic catharsis. It is accomplished very effectively.
There is no doubt that the dislocation of post-war Germany created many examples of stories like Bernhard's. Settlement is not a long novel but the ambiguity implied in the title is maintained throughout the book. The result is a very significant book which I am pleased to recommend. I don't read as many European works in translation as many other bloggers do — I am very happy that I read this one.


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USDA reported market herd and total herd numbers came in close to trade expectations, but the breeding herd was about 2% below average estimates.
According to USDA's Sept. 1, Hogs & Pigs Report, the breeding herd was estimated at 92% of levels shown one year earlier. Both the market herd and total herd were estimated at 96% of the previous year.
Our gilt slaughter data would indicate a slightly smaller breeding herd, although that data is biased towards the Corn Belt. Corn Belt states' breeding herd was down nearly 12%.
Breeding herd estimates in Illinois and Wisconsin were down 20% or more. Herds in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio were down 10% or more. Missouri, Minnesota and South Dakota showed decreases less than 10%.
Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania averaged 1% less in the breeding herd. Oklahoma's breeding herd was estimated to be up 10% from last year.
USDA shows the 33 states that do not have individual state data for Sept. 1 are down about 5% in their breeding herd. Based on National Pork Board marketings from these states in 1998 compared to 1997, we believe there is a chance that USDA is overestimating these states' production. However, it would take quite a large miss in these states to influence the total U.S.
Conditions in the hog industry continue to be favorable for concentration in production and vertical coordination with packing. When the purchase of Murphy Family Farms by Smithfield is completed, we believe about 25% of the U.S. hog industry will be vertically integrated. We believe that another 45% of the industry is now vertically coordinated - meaning the hogs are under marketing contracts with packers.
Based on the heavier-weight-market-hog inventories and the 10-year slaughter relationship with these inventories, this year's fourth quarter slaughter numbers could be down almost 7%.
However, using last year's fourth quarter slaughter numbers relative to the heavier-market-weight inventories, this year's fourth quarter slaughter numbers would be down only 4%.
There is a tendency for slaughter numbers to be lower relative to the heavier-market-weight inventories in years when production is declining. Therefore, we estimate a slaughter reduction of about 6% for October, November and compared to 1998.
Based on the 10-year relationship between the under 60-lb. market inventories on Sept. 1 and slaughter in the first quarter of the following year, hog slaughter in January, February and March should be down a little more than 8% from a year earlier.
However, using last year's relationship of marketings in this quarter and the lighter-weight inventories, slaughter would only be down a little more than 4%. For this quarter we are going to go with slaughter down a little more than 6%. Again, marketings in the first quarter have been lower relative to the September inventories in years where production was declining.
Productivity growth continues, a situation where what is good for the individual producer is not desirable for the total production segment of the industry.
Although the breeding herd on June 1 was down 6%, farrowings during June, July and August were down only 4%, and the pig crop was only down 3%. With a breeding herd down 8% on Sept. 1, farrowing intentions for September, October and November are forecasted to be down only 5%. December, January and February farrowing intentions are forecasted to only be down 3%.
We are hoping that both quarters' farrowings will be a little below the intentions. If so, marketings in the second and third quarters will be below our estimates in Table 2, which would be positive for prices.
Demand for pork at the consumer level continues to show a 1-2% growth for January-July compared to last year. This is the fourth consecutive year with some growth at the consumer level.
Our slaughter estimates and prices by quarter for the next 12 months are in Table 2.


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Volunteer Information
Did you know that Cherry Creek Youth Sports offers seven different sports run primarily by volunteers? Help your community by volunteering your time to support our youth sports programs! Players, parents, family, friends, neighbors and community members are all encouraged to become involved as a CCYS volunteer.
We need your help with the following items, in addition to special projects that arise throughout the year:
- Uniform fittings
- Equipment handout
- Field set up/tear down
- Equipment organization
- Attending league meetings
- Fundraising
- Assisting sport commissioners
- Coaching
Keep our teams going and growing… volunteer now! Please send an email to if you are interested in volunteering.
Coaching Information
If you are interested in becoming a CCYS Coach please complete the coaches application. To be a head coach in CCYS in an AYL governed sport you must be in district for CCYS as defined in the AYL bylaws. Please send the completed form to:
Scholarship Information
We want everyone to have a chance to play! We do not want payment to be the reason that a kid is left behind. We do our very best to be inclusive and strive to help any family that needs it. For those in need, please complete a scholarship application and email it to firstname.lastname@example.com or mail it to our office (please let us know if you intend to mail your request. Email requests will be processed faster). Please note that scholarship requests will not be reviewed until registration for the particular sport is closed. Please send a reminder via email to email@example.com once late registration begins to check the status. It is the responsibility of the applicant to send notification that they are still interested in receiving the scholarship. Failure to do so can result in voiding applications as late registration begins. Because each sport operates on its own individual budget, scholarship dollars available may vary and most sports are not able to offer full funds, only partial assistance may be available. Scholarships will only be granted if funds are available and there is room on a roster and/or players are needed to round out a roster. Team requests will be considered but roster spots will not be held prior to registration closing. Partial registrations are not stored nor counted as complete registrations and players will not be placed until either a scholarship is awarded in writing from CCYS or payment is complete. Any family that is awarded scholarship dollars are REQUIRED to volunteer 20 hours (or as needed) during the season which can include field set up/tear down, equipment organization, working special events or camps/clinics, etc. Families in need are only eligible for one scholarship per calendar year unless approved by the sport commissioner and the CCYS Board. If you have any questions, please email firstname.lastname@example.com
Due to continuing growth in the Bruins program we are currently looking for additional candidates to become officials. The AYL's Officials provider offers complete training for new officials as well as refresher training for experienced officials.
For more information, please contact the AYL: www.aylsports.org


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Koplow writes that Wright is wrong to assume the odds of Syria and Turkey going to war are as high as "50/50." Citing a post in The National Interest, Koplow discusses how even if Turkey were intent on fighting Syria, they would be hard pressed to execute such combat. Instead, they are relying on a hard bluff in the hope that it will suffice to placate internal critics and appear strong on the international scene.
This is the double secret probation strategy, in which Turkey keeps on ramping up the threats to punish Syria to the point of absurdity. Wright's argument is that Turkey will end up intervening in Syria in order to put a swift end to the civil war, but the inconvenient reality here is that Turkey might not have the capability to do so, which has obviously been affecting Ankara's calculus this whole time. In addition, even if Turkey did have the capability to step in and put an end to the sectarian fighting in Syria, Wright assumes that this would put a damper on Kurdish nationalism, but in fact it might very well have precisely the opposite effect. Once the Assad regime falls, the PYD and other Syrian Kurdish groups are likely to try and carve out their own autonomous sphere within Syria, and Turkish intervention on the side of the rebels could accelerate this process.


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In 2010, US counterintelligence and counterespionage efforts resulted in the take down of 10 Russian "sleeper agents" from the "S" Department of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). As Raymond Batvinis discusses in Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies, the foundation of present US counterintelligence capabilities was laid 70 years before.
Outstanding spy novels tell exciting tales of spy rings, secret and double agents, surveillance, codes and ciphers, wiretaps, microdots, deception, disinformation, and even use of invisible ink! That is what a reader would expect from the works of John le Carré, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum, or Tom Clancy. In Hoover's Secret War Against the Axis: FBI Counterespionage During World War II (University Press of Kansas, 2014), Raymond Batvinis recounts equally thrilling stories of international intrigue as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working alongside other US government elements and allies, sought to overcome Germany's efforts to disrupt and defeat its war effort in the US before and during the war. They will transfix the reader to the book's pages much as the writings of the great spy novelists. However, unlike the novelists' works, Batvinis' accounts are not amusements, but discussions of real cases of a struggle between adversaries filled with lessons on counter-intelligence (spycatching) as well as counterespionage (turning enemy agents against their spymasters). The stories present the thought provoking, sometimes absurd, and often horrifying realities of spycatching and turning spies into double-agents. The history is not presented as nostalgia, but as a text on a unique aspect of the intelligence war against Germany, and to a lesser extent, Japan, from which valuable lessons can be drawn. It is not by chance Batvinis' book would be presented in this fashion. The work is a product of painstaking, detail oriented research, and the benefit of his experience as a former FBI special agent.
Indeed, during his 25 years as an FBI special agent, Batvinis focused on counterintelligence and counterespionage cases. His assignments included work out of the Washington Field Office and the FBI Intelligence Division's Training Unit at FBI Headquaters. As a Supervisory Special Agent, in the Baltimore Division, Batvinis managed the espionage investigations of Ronald Pelton (a spy for the Soviet Union), John Walker and Michael Walker (spies for the Soviet Union), Thomas Dolce (a spy for South Africa), and Daniel Richardson (caught attempting to spy for the Soviet Union). After the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, Batvinis came out of retirement and returned to the FBI for three years in order to manage a team of former FBI special agents and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officers who taught the Basic Counterintelligence Course at the FBI Academy. With a continued desire to contribute to US national security efforts, Batvinis went on to teach a "Lessons Learned" course for counterintelligence personnel at FBI field offices throughout the US for two years. Exploiting his doctoral studies in American History, Batvinis has lectured at George Washington University and has written several articles on counterintelligence. Prior to writing Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies, he published The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence (University Press of Kansas, 2007).
Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies was designed to pick up where The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence finished. Origins was an in-depth look at the FBI's development in the 1930s from a small law enforcement organization to a counterespionage service. The need for change was made stark in 1938 with the bungled handling of the long-running investigation of the Guenther Rumrich espionage ring. A series of missteps allowed dozens of German agents from Abwehr (German military intelligence) to step out of the US and reach Europe safely. The Interdepartmental Information Conference in 1939 brought all elements of the burgeoning US intelligence community together for the first time, to discuss creating a structure to handle the espionage threat to the US. Rather than fight like a sack of wildcats, new linkages were created between the FBI and the US military, and partnerships were established with foreign services such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as Mexican and British intelligence officials. The FBI's General Intelligence Division was established to manage foreign counterintelligence and other intelligence investigations. In 1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt signed a Presidential order allowing FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, to begin wiretapping embassies and consulates. The Rumrich failure, the new initiatives, and FBI's education in managing the intricate details of counterespionage matters resulted in the surprise arrest of 33 German agents in 1941, effectively breaking the back of German military intelligence in the US.
Although the Special Intelligence Service (SIS) of the FBI (whose evolution and expansion into Europe, Latin America and Africa Batvinis discusses), was already engaged in foreign intelligence in the prewar years, in 1941 Roosevelt created a new foreign intelligence office under a Coordinator of Information (COI). By the end of the year, COI's director, William Donovan, managed 600 personnel. Hoover and Donovan had a mutual dislike of each other that was over nearly 20 years old. Hoover sensed the COI as an effort by Donovan to supplant SIS, and as both viewed the Oval Office as their turf. Their poor relationship hampered coordination between their services. In 1942, the COI transformed from a civilian agency to a military intelligence service known as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency
In extending his discussion beyond The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence , Batvinis relates the story of how William Stephenson of British Security Coordination (BSC), the center of MI6 (British Secret Intelligence Service) operations in the US, ran afoul of Hoover. Hoover railed on Stephenson for what he viewed as BSC's rumor mongering and mischief. Without spoiling this amazing segment of the book, it is enough to say MI6 personnel and MI5 (British Security Service) personnel also had a shaky relationship. Hoover skillfully managed to bypass MI6 and its BSC in the US to reach MI5 in London. As result, the FBI gained access to Ultra, the British code name for its capability to intercept and decipher encoded German communications from the Enigma system.
Batvinis is at his best in Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies in his discussion of the Double Cross System. Although known historically as a British success during the war, Batvinis explains that achievements through Double Cross were the result of joint Allied efforts. That includes the handling of the double-agent, Spanish pacifist Juan Pujol—codenamed "Garbo"—who deceived the Germans into believing the Normandy invasion would not occur, and then convinced them that the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings were a mere diversion for a larger invasion soon to come. Double Cross began to make use of US based turned German agents after the British, with some difficulty, convinced the US there was great value in counterespionage work. The very persuasive Ewen Montagu, from Bletchley Park, home of the Ultra secret, was brought into the fray to bring Hoover. Hoover and the FBI hoped through counterespionage, further control could be gained over German intelligence activities.
Among the several Double Cross counterespionage cases Batvinis discusses are that of: a flamboyant playboy who was also a central figure in the dispute between Hoover and Stephenson; a world renown French flyer, who had orders to infiltrate the US aircraft industry; and a lecherous Dutchman, who was deemed useless as an agent and whose activities in the US were fabricated for his spymasters while he remained bottled up in London. Batvinis takes the reader to school, brilliantly teaching about the fundamental nature and "nuts and bolts" of counterintelligence and counterespionage in a manner understandable for both the intelligence and law enforcement professional and the laity right in the midst of his exhilarating storytelling. To help readers understand the type of enemy the FBI faced, Batvinis explains how Germany acquired the often involuntary service from German expatriates as agents and their very capable and somewhat ingenious handling of them. In Chapter 11 entitled "The Count from New York," Batvinis discusses the case of Wilhelm Rautter, a scion of German aristocracy, who was recruited into the German military intelligence without choice, and tacit threat to his well-being and that of his family and property. As Batvinis magnificently recounts, Rautter, searching for employment, was invited to interview at Remy and Company, by its owner Hans Blum. After a month at the company, during which he established a very cordial relationship with the owner, Rautter was abruptly interrupted in the midst of perfunctory business chatter when Blum said, "German military intelligence had investigated him, found him acceptable, and wished to use him for collecting information in the United States." Blum downplayed the request in a friendly, soft-spoken and reassuring, but subtly betraying a sinister, threatening tone indicating that he would not accept "no" for an answer.
Almost immediately, Rautter began training at Blum's company's in secret writing, radio construction, transmitting, receiving, coding, and decoding cabled messages using a standard work of fiction. He was directed to recruit an experienced operator to handle transmissions once he reached New York City. Rautter was given the address of a mail drop on Manhattan's Upper Westside, and rented an apartment in Brooklyn near the famous Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was provided a contact, Heinrich Stuhl, whose home, also in Brooklyn, offered easy observation of Brooklyn and Manhattan piers where merchant ships routinely lined up to load cargo bound for Great Britain. Rautter was given a catalogue of requirements to monitor shipping bound for Europe by riding the Brooklyn-Staten Island ferry. He would use Blum's business contacts to travel throughout the East coast of the US, to observe factory facilities of US Steel, Remington Arms Corporation, and twelve leading aircraft companies such as the Douglas and Boeing companies. He also was directed to pick up intelligence in local bars and restaurants about troop strength, unit designations, military equipment, and specifics on armament production. To evade capture, Rautter would vary the means of communication with Germany. The unexpected collapse of the FBI's capability to intercept radio transmissions also managed to temporarily thwart its counterintelligence effort. Nevertheless, in 1944, Rautter was identified and waylaid by the US government as the outcome of some incredible investigative work by the FBI, along with the US Customs Service, comparing German handwriting samples with tens of thousands of baggage declarations of travelers going to Europe and British censors on Bermuda, sifting through mail to Europe.
To understand how the FBI handlers engaged in counterespionage operations against Germany, Batvinis illustrated how they concerned themselves with things that the average person might very well assume was minutiae or too esoteric, to matter. Among the tactics, techniques, and procedures used, the FBI would first closely watch a German agent to determine his susceptibility for neutralization and recruitment before intercepting him. Particular attention would be placed on his movements and behavior patterns. The target's mail and cable traffic would be copied and read, his contacts were identified, and his accommodations would be searched. Once the turned agent was activated by the FBI, his reports to Germany were designed to match his trained capabilities and the degree of the agent's access to information. For example, if stationed in New York City, an agent from the marine branch of German intelligence would be expected to easily identify all types of Allied ships from specific combat vessels to cargo ships and tankers entering and departing the port. Allowing a turned agent to remain positioned near a port or shipyard might require the FBI to sacrifice too much vital information about US activities, to legitimize his efforts, in exchange for a tentative counterintelligence reward. Moreover, the US Navy would never clear information on the departure of such convoys, and it would be difficult for a double-agent to explain the failure to collect such information to his intelligence principals in Germany. The counterespionage agent would need to be placed in a plausible new post, such as Washington, which would allow for a mixture of valuable information, rumors, and other pieces of information picked up from soldiers and sailors in local bars and from senior military and military officials on the Washington cocktail party circuit. A persona had to be established for counterespionage agents that would typically present them as being fiercely loyal and well-placed, making the most of access to important military secrets, but greatly concerned about being discovered by the FBI. In one case, a counterespionage agent's persona was spiced up with emphasis on his struggle with communications equipment and transmission problems, coupled with encoding and decoding errors. When transmitting messages for a turned German agent, a painstaking effort would be put into mimicking his distinctive transmission style through the study of recordings.
In Chapter 13, entitled, "Peasant," Batvinis explains that one case, to copy the style of a very inexperienced radio operator, his FBI substitute filled his messages with errors common to amateurs. Further, by using his left hand, with the radio key placed on the edge of a table so that the hand and arm had no support, the technician found that he could easily produce scores of unintentional and intentional errors. The FBI categorized messages from counterespionage agents to Germany as "A" or "B." "A" messages held a blend of accurate and fabricated information, created by Joint Security Control (JSC) of the Military Intelligence Division, established in 1941. JSC had a central deception staff to its portfolio of both the Army and the Navy to plan measures for disguising or concealing an operation against the enemy that would encourage enemy action on a belief that something true was actually false. "B" messages, developed by FBI special agents of the Washington Field Office from open sources were sent in the form of suggested messages with the actual source of information actually identified. All "A" and "B" messages were first discussed with translators of the FBI's Cryptanalytic Section, which helped assure that German intelligence service radio operators made no mistake in deciphering the information. The reader will find many more comparable lessons in Batvinis' book.
There is some discussion of FBI efforts against Japan. One segment concerns German efforts to gather and transmit important information on B-29 bomber manufacturing, other war production relevant to the Pacific Theater of Operations, the increase in conscription in the US in 1945, and war plans. The extent to which the FBI tried put Double Cross measures in play against the Japanese is discussed in Chapter 12 entitled "Japs, Aspirin, and Pep." Although Batvinis relays how the FBI had little success in positioning double agents among Japanese targets, he also uses this aspect of the history of US counterintelligence and counterespionage in World War II to explain how best to manage an effort when "That dog don't hunt."
Organizing the US counterintelligence effort was not based on a vain desire by the FBI to take on a new capability on top of its well-known criminal investigation work. There was no other service fully engaged in counterintelligence work, and as the war drew close to the US, it became an absolute necessity. There was no guarantee of success. The German intelligence service, and the various departments of German military intelligence were up and running full speed with well-trained and very capable agents spreading out worldwide. Nevertheless, it was anticipated that through the right organization, appropriate preparation, and diligent work, as well as engagement with allies, the effort would be effective and possibilities for success would increase. The FBI learned quickly that the fight against Germany was not taking place in some "war over yonder" but already underway in US. Despite the difficulties the FBI had with the OSS, and its counterparts in Britain, those obstacles were overcome, and it was able to protect the US public and US interests from harm.
There is a breath-taking amount of amazing information on counterintelligence and counterespionage to learn from Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies. There is also much to that can be learned from the history it provides on US relations with Great Britain and other nations on national security issues. Batvinis' book is also a real page turner, and one that will be difficult to pull away from. Without reservations, greatcharlie.com provides its highest recommendation to Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies to its readers. They are guaranteed to read at it over and over again. Given the timeless value of its information, for some practicioners, it may even serve as a reference. It is a book everyone will appreciate.
By Mark Edmond Clark


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Can it really be that my last post was three months ago? Where did the summer go? I honestly don't feel like I did much of anything, so I don't know why I haven't been blogging.
Hmmm, on second thought, I was pretty busy…..
- my middle son graduated from high school
- my oldest son surprised us with a visit
- I worked
- G flew over to Germany and brought back his youngest children for a month
- several friends came to see us
- we did a lot of boating and cooking out
- I sent my middle son off to Oglethorpe University.
- G and I took his kids back to Germany
- I worked some more
I guess the summer was pretty busy after all.
But now things have calmed down, and I've been thinking about this blog and which direction to take it. After all, it hasn't been very focused, has it?
I thought about a poll, to see what you, dear readers, find most interesting.
I also thought about what has interested me the most, during the writing of What the Focus. I've got an idea of where I want to go with it, but I really would like your thoughts.
So please take a few seconds to vote in my poll – just check the category (you can pick more than one) of posts that you have enjoyed the most. And if you'd like to leave a comment about where you'd like to see this blog go (be nice), I would love that even more.
Thanks! I can't wait to see the results!


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Fridays after school, especially when the weather was lousy, Mom would take me to the library. She'd let me check out whatever I wanted, and I checked out a lot. Some of my choices were predictable ones like Stephen King or Beverly Cleary or Charles Schulz. But other Fridays I checked out writers I doubt more than three souls in the whole county had heard of: writers like Italo Calvino or Tadeusz Borowski or Chinua Achebe. Often their books were too weird for me, and I'd only manage to stagger through their landscapes for a few pages.
But sometimes I fell in love.
I read Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat'' when I was 11. ("Mom, what's a dinghy ?'') I read Paul Bowles's "The Sheltering Sky'' when I was 12. ("Mom, what's hashish?'')
Here's what I think about now: No one ever told me no. Not Mom, not the prim librarians stamping return dates onto slip after slip. No one ever said: This book is outside your age range; this book is too complicated.
2. We live in a culture that venerates scores. We affix numbers to how much fat is in our mochachinos, how quickly our telephones suck information from the air, how much pain we're in. Reading, too, has become a skill to quantifiably assess. My twin sons' most recent report cards, for example, have them reading at a "proficient'' level for their grade.
Proficiency! Happy news, I suppose. But I worry that we are presenting reading to our kids as a labor to suffer through for which a reward can be earned at the end: Read these two pages, Timmy, and then you can go play your Nintendo DS! Finish three more books this summer, Claire, and you'll cross the competence threshold!
These are, of course, credible and well-intentioned approaches. The message to young people is obvious: Books are good for you. What's missing, however, is the idea that sustained reading is magic, a kind of magic that can be wildly addictive, even dangerous.
Books, remember, used to be considered as compulsively all-consuming for young people as "Call of Duty 3'' or binge-texting is now. Lovely Emma Bovary read too many romance novels and the next thing she knew she was cheating on her husband, running up huge debts, and putting fistfuls of arsenic in her mouth. Don Quixote read so many chivalric adventures he could no longer tell the difference between a belligerent giant and a windmill.
Pretty much every night of their lives, my 8-year-old sons have absorbed themselves entirely in books. As toddlers they pointed out pictures, made conjectures; lately we find them in their bunk beds embarked upon two-hour comic-reading benders. They want joke books, caveman books, books about a baby that gets magic powers and flies around in his diaper.
What my kids remind me, every evening, is that books are not always parboiled eggplant or overcooked asparagus; they're not giant horse pills stuffed with mental-multivitamin-dust meant to be choked down before dessert.
Some books are roasted lobsters soaked with butter; some are molten tubs of dark chocolate; some are luminescent piles of narcotics.
3. Supposedly the brain excretes endorphins when a person's mind is stimulated, when a person is thinking imaginatively and creatively. Endorphins are opioids, as you may have heard; they have a similar chemical structure to morphine. So I don't think it's too far off to suggest that great books are like drugs, readers like junkies, and, yes, to stretch the analogy into absurdity, good librarians like drug dealers.
So, to all you beautiful librarians out there, with National Library Week in the offing, keep slinging the rock, pushing the product. Keep on putting books in the hands of readers, because as every good dealer knows, all it takes is one fix and your patrons are hooked.
There were a lot of exceptional books for me, but there was one in particular. A librarian in Bainbridge, Ohio, gave it to me when I was 14. It was written by a girl about my age. Her name was Anne Frank.
"I see the eight of us in the Annex,'' she wrote, "as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. The perfectly round spot on which we're standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter.''
That has everything to do with the power and magic of reading - the coming darkness, the danger, and the little trembling packets of magic that are words. In those sentences, in those paragraphs, a murdered girl still lives.
4. In an era when some state governments are basing estimates for their future prison populations on the literacy rates of their third-graders, there are many justifications for the continued existence of public libraries. People who don't have jobs turn to them. People who don't have childcare turn to them. People who don't have computer skills turn to them. Libraries are deeply useful.
But is "usefulness'' the only criteria we should consider? Can't the books inside libraries also show readers beauty, wake them up to the startling, breathtaking phenomenon of being alive?
These are things that cannot be scored or quantified. And yet they are considered the most important reasons, perhaps, for sustaining libraries.
On the map of my life, with its dark spots and blank spots and smudged spots, few spots glow more brightly than the libraries, those luminous repositories of stories and lives, little holy lands that have taught me, all my life, about the mysterious, dangerous, profound, and addictive magic of our shared language.
Anthony Doerr, author of the story collection "Memory Wall'' can be reached at email@example.com.