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About Us
DLA Piper Global Law Firm
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Product Liability, Mass Torts and Product Stewardship
Product Liability, Mass Torts and Product Stewardship
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Advising a number of large multinational firms, including a Japanese software and hardware manufacturer and a US-based speciality chemicals manufacturer, on the requirements on the EU REACH Regulations and providing detailed compliance strategies. This legislation, which provides for the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals, affects not only the chemicals sector but also most other significant manufacturing operations.
Representing a major consumer electronics manufacturer in a US nationwide class action in which the plaintiffs alleged common law claims for fraudulent concealment and breach of express warranty, as well as violations of California's unfair competition law. Before any discovery was conducted, the court granted DLA Piper's motion to dismiss and motion to strike class allegations.
Advising a manufacturer of lighting equipment exported to more than 20 jurisdictions in Europe, Asia and beyond, of its product safety, regulatory notification and recall obligations. We represented our client with the public authorities which initiated the proceedings and used the EU RAPEX System. Our timely advice ensured that the manufacturer's all-important reputation remained intact.
Representing a steel manufacturer on in construction claims and construction product defect cases. Recent matters involve construction claims for payment on major stadiums and arena projects, roof collapses due to snow and other overload conditions and construction injury cases including wrongful death and other serious personal injury claims.
Working with regulatory authorities and representing and advising a client in relation to the recall of domestic and trade central heating boilers throughout the UK, Italy and Greece. Faulty flues in the boilers could have given rise to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Advised on the pan-European (20 countries) recall of Peugeot windscreens for a tier 2 manufacturer.
Worldwide product recall of overheating fax machines and photocopiers giving rise to a fire risk.
Defending a Hong Kong company in a claim for supplying defective toys which breached EU safety legislation.
Advising underwriters on coverage and recovery issues under product recall policy in connection with the shipment of defective refrigeration units from mainland China to the UK.
Acting as co-national counsel for a leading global pharmaceutical companies in the US in the defense of more than 3,000 claims alleging neuropsychiatric and other injuries from the smoking cessation aid.
Represented one of the world's leading oil companies in gasoline leak toxic tort claims resulting in collective jury verdicts of $1.65 billion, which were reversed on appeal by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Acting as national counsel in the US for a global medical device company in approximately 175 individual lawsuits arising from injuries and damages allegedly caused by the use of the Company's "cold therapy" medical devices (used in the post-surgical setting to deliver therapeutic cold to an injured area).
Acting as national counsel in the US for a global pharmaceutical and supplement company in concurrent putative nationwide class actions arising from challenges to advertising, allegedly in violation of consumer protection statutes.
Serving as regional and strategic counsel for a Japan based automobile manufacturer in the US with respect to personal injury lawsuits alleging unwanted acceleration in two of the company's automobile lines.
Representing a US home builder, in several individual claims alleging home defects, including breach of warranty, and consumer misrepresentation and fraud in its sales and marketing practices.
Serving as national counsel for a major US motorcycle manufacturer and several automobile and tire manufacturers.


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Bangalore University has launched a students adoption scheme for students who cannot afford higher education including students from the weaker sections of the society and orphans. The varsity recently announced free education to master degree courses to those students who are orphans and to those cannot afford higher education.
According to the students adoption scheme by the Bangalore University, orphan students will be offered free of cost education and boarding facilities.
The university will be offering post graduation and Ph.D programmes under this scheme. According to reports 2 girl students are currently pursuing post graduation courses under this scheme.
According to a senior official in BU, the teaching faculties of the university will be donating money to provide free education under the scheme.
Students falling under this category can apply for the programmes by submitting death certificates of their parents and income certificate. However, the university has not reserved a particular number of seats for orphan students. Students falling the merit category will be given seats under the general quota.
The students will also be given free food and training in personality development.
In case, the student fails to clear the complete the course in the stipulated time, he/she will be given hostel services until they clear supplementary exams.

subset: commoncrawl


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This rural site is located in the small hamlet of Margaret's Marsh at the heart of the Blackmore Vale in Dorset. The design of the replacement family house is vernacular in form but incorporates subtle contemporary details. It was designed to reflect a simple farm courtyard, suited to the surrounding rural open countryside.
Local vernacular materials are celebrated throughout.
The principal living areas and bedrooms are located on the south-west elevation with large areas of glazing. The utility and bathroom areas are located to the rear on the north-east elevation with minimal areas of fenestration. This layout captures the optimum natural heat gain to the main living areas and reduces the heat lost through north-facing glazing. From a design perspective, this also allows the best views to be maximised to the south-west and affords privacy to the occupants from the adjoining road. A double garage is connected to the house by a covered timber car port and walkway which wraps around the house to the front entrance and utility – designed to reflect a cluster of farm buildings.
It was important to design this house with a careful consideration of the end performance and energy consumption so several renewable technologies are integral to the house, these include:
The project was delivered within a modest budget but to a high specification. The quality of local materials and workmanship skills are testament to the overall finished design. In particular, the stone was supplied by a local stone quarry in Marnhull and was used as an exemplary project by the quarry to showcase their material and quality of workmanship.


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Local News
Opponents rally to keep school for the blind open
Lawmakers are considering closing the Gov. Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh to help erase a projected $4.5 billion shortfall.Posted — Updated
RALEIGH, N.C. — About 100 people opposed to a plan to close the state's only school for the blind rallied outside the state Legislature Wednesday.
Lawmakers are considering closing the Gov. Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh to help erase a projected $4.5 billion shortfall. The House version of the budget stops new enrollment and closes the school in two years.
Students at the school would be shifted to either the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson or the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton or would be put back into the public school system.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the schools, is facing more than $1 billion in budget cuts.
Secretary Lanier Cansler has said the department is trying to find the best ways to deal with the cuts with the least impact on services.
It costs about $30 million to operate the three schools, which serve about 250 students combined, he said. Closing the Morehead School would save the state about $10 million.
A plan was on the table last month to close both schools for the deaf and move students to the school for the blind. Cansler said that would save about $17 million.
Opponents to the plans, however, argue that combining the students would set them up to fail, because each school is specialized to meet students' individual needs.
"Those students that are hearing impaired, or deaf, will learn visually and through sign language. The two systems do not connect," said James Penton, an opponent of the plan who happens to be visually impaired.
"There's nothing in place to truly take care of these children," said Carolyn Register, a teacher at the Morehead School. "I know, I have a daughter who graduated from this school."
Advocates say that by placing the students in mainstream public schools, they won't learn the skills they need to be independent later on in life.
Ricky Scott, a Morehead School alumnus who went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the school system in his hometown could not provide him with the necessary skills to help him succeed.
He credits the Morehead School with giving him a chance.
"It served as a foundation for me becoming employed as a Social Security disability specialist," he said.
• Credits
Bruce Mildwurf, Reporter
Terry Cantrell, Photographer
Kelly Gardner, Web Editor
Copyright 2022 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Had the most surreal BT experience, whereby a number of calls and e-mails are exchanged, and the matter of cancelling my BT TV Essentials is meant to have completed. Only I receive a bill a few days later, and I'd been charged in full for the following month. It's as if the entire episode simply never happened. Surreal.
Keyboards, well I did it, I ordered a Razer Chroma, and the process of buying it, well that's another story. As for the keyboard, well, it works well, but with one tiny niggle. Again the difference between Razer (Kalih) switched and Cherry switches is noticeable, even lay people I've had press a few keys can tell. This time it's Razer Green vs Cherry Blue. Here's the thing, the Razer have a squidgy activation click, the Cherry have a much more crisp click when depressed. As for the activation force required to register a key press being reduced, I'm not that sure that's desirable, well it's not noticeable, does it cause more typos? I just can't be 100% sure, but it appears not to. However I was so convinced that the click requires more force, that I used some coins to test the claim. Sure enough the Razer Greens do need less force, but that squidgy feel appears to take that away, and gives me the psychological impression that I am using more force, even though I do not appear to be. Confused? Well I remain so.
On the lighting front, it's just amazing, the things you can do, ripple parts of the keyboard, have other parts cycling colours etc. It's just brilliant, to the point that I have almost accepted the Blue/Green switch difference. The colours are nothing like the washed out Corsair ones. The only downside is that they no longer dim well, I pretty much need them at maximum brightness to match the old Razer green backlight at mid-level. Doesn't bother me, apart from the inter key light bleed now being more pronounced. One last very minor issue. The Caps/scroll lock/Num lock LEDs, they're so dull, even at maximum brightness, that they may as well not be there. But I never look at them, so no biggie. The media keys are still FN shifted, so no new keys, disappointing. Obviously I went nuts and coloured the keyboard silly, with the keys right of the enter key set to cycle through colours, it was too distracting to have the main typing area cycle in the same way.
|Deep rich colours here, the photo doesn't do them justice.
As for the Corsair RGB Cherry Blue, I left that on order at Amazon, some three months ago, after three date changes, in the first week of February, it no longer had a delivery date at all. Finally they cancelled the order altogether. I checked on-line and discovered that they have a problem making switches that have a consistent feel, with some users returning theirs as they felt that some keys were stiffer than others. Rather cheekily Corsair suggested that the market for Blue switch based keyboards is minimal, because apparently they largely sells Red switch based keyboards! They might want to tell Razer who for years have only ever sold Blue switched keyboards, and now its green switched variant. Of course Razer could fold tomorrow and I'd look gift horse in the mouth, but isn't it meant to be about giving the user/customer what they want? Even Razer decided to start selling softer switch for those who just don't like the Blue and Green switch's actuation click.
On a final note, I have to admit, my keyboards' lighting does make me a little more cheerful when I come to use my PC, it does make a psychological difference, it's just nice to look at. Sounds petty, but it's true. Some may assume that I lead a sad life that is brightened by a gaudy coloured keyboard, but nothing would be further from the reality of how I live, the main issue is that I use my PC for work too, and my 'work' has troughs and peaks, as does most work.
Oh the BT problem, they actually fixed it, a relief.


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Record borrowing costs for the Spanish government have prompted consternation to quickly return to markets, who seem to largely have forgotten Greece's election. Joel Flynn reports.
SPAIN-BONDS - The alarm bells in Spain are getting louder.
Tuesday's sale of government debt saw borrowing costs for Spain rise to their highest levels since 1997.
Yields on Spain's one year loans are now 5% -- that's 40% higher than May.
But Soledad Pellon from IG Markets said demand for the debt was the number that should be focussed on.
"Things have been very tense in the last few weeks. But the bid to cover ratio was higher than in last auctions and that is positive. There is still appetite for Spanish debt and we were afraid there wasn't."
The 7% price of borrowing over ten years that Spain is currently paying was what forced Portugal, Ireland and Greece to ask for help.
But whilst there are certainly concerns, CMC Markets' Michael Hewson says a Spanish bailout is not yet a certainty.
"Given how long it took them to actually ask for a banking bailout, I certainly wouldn't put it past them to actually have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table to actually get a sovereign bailout, but I think the measure for that would be if Spanish bond yields hit seven and a half percent."
Another Spanish auction is set for Thursday.
Some have suggested without better leadership from policymakers in Europe, the story will be the same.
Monday's good news from Greece has quickly faded from the market's mind.
Without swift action to help Spain, that could quickly become irrelevant altogether.
Joel Flynn, Reuters
business >


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Dear P
As a mother, I feel guilty that I will never be able to give you my undivided time and attention, as I gave to your elder brother.
I feel guilty that I cannot hug and kiss you without someone else wanting the same from me.
I feel guilty that I do not connect with you and talk to you, as much as i do with your elder brother (even though I know there will be time for that in the future).
I feel guilty that most of your toys, clothes and possessions are hand-me-downs.
I feel guilty that since you dont talk yet and are easily distracted, I have to make you give up your preferences, for the sake of your elder brother's tantrums.
But then, I am grateful that you have a later bedtime than his, which gives us some much-needed mummy and baby time at the end of the day. I love to make you sit close to me while feeding you dinner, or cuddling and tickling you during those diaper changes. I will cherish these moments forever.
Like you, I am a second-born to my mother and I know that even though my parents connect better with my elder sister, they don't love me any less. In fact, I am the more pampered one, whose every demand was met, who could get away with most things when I was younger. I am grateful for my older sister, who is my best friend and my guardian angel.
When I see you look up to your older brother, follow every action of his (good and bad), giggle at his antics, look lost and lonely when he is at school, squeal in delight when he gets back from school, or when I see the way he takes care of you, talks to you in his baby tone of voice, feeds you a bite of his meals, or when I see you both hug, it makes me feel all mushy inside and I thank God that I was able to give you this gift of an older sibling. I hope and pray to God that you have a friend for life in your brother, who will look out for you forever.
Always remember that you both will always be equal to me. You both are a part of me and I cannot love one of you more than the other. If your older brother is first in my motherhood memories, you are my last. You are and will always be my little baby.
I Love You,


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Please be aware that in order to work safely and continue to provide a service, the Dispensary will only be open from 10.00am - 1pm and 3pm - 5pm Monday-Friday. Our staff are working as hard as they can to maintain the service and we would be very grateful for you cooperation during this time. Please allow at least 5 working days for your request to be processed. We are currently dispensing medication ordered on 24 March and would ask that you only come to collect medication if you have received a text message advising that it is ready. If you are vulnerable and can ask someone else to collect medication for you, we would strongly encourage you to do so.
Following the Prime Ministers announcement this evening we would urge our patients to stay at home wherever possible. We are doing our utmost to dispense your medication and will text you once it's ready. Please do not turn up on the off chance that it is ready and if you are trying to collect for someone else please check first. We cannot stress how important it is to heed the advice being given. Please stay at home and stay safe.
Online appointment bookings have been ceased
Please be aware that we are no longer accepting online bookings. All bookings must be made through Reception staff who will arrange for you to be telephoned in the first instance by a GP. They can then assess whether it is appropriate for you to visit the Surgery.
If you have symptoms associated with coronavirus including a new continuous cough and a high temperature, you are advised to stay at home for 7 days. Do not book a GP appointment or attend your GP Practice. If your symptoms are serious, or get worse, NHS111 has an online coronavirus service that can tell you if you need further medical help and advise you what to do. Only call 111 direct if you cannot go online, or are advised to do so by the online service. For the latest Covid-19 advice please visit www.nhs.uk/coronavirus
Changes to the Practice
Following yesterday's announcement from the Prime Minister and in line with recommendations from NHS.uk the Practice will be making some changes to how we continue to operate over the coming weeks. We will be keeping patients informed via our website and facebook page, and of course our Reception team will be available to speak to. Our Receptionists will be asking all patients questions regarding symptoms prior to booking any appointments.
Please bear with us as we are extremely busy at this time and calls will take longer than usual.
Many thanks from the team for your cooperation in what are difficult times for everyone.
GP Partner Announcement - It was with sadness that we said farewell to our Practice Manager, Alison Lowerson who left us on Friday 28 February. Our Deputy Practice Manager, Karen Turner will be taking over in her absence until we have recruited a new Manager.
Dispensary - The Dispensary will be closed every Wednesday between 1.00pm and 2.00pm.
PRESCRIPTION REQUESTS: We require at least 3 FULL WORKING DAYS to prepare your paper or electronic prescription as per NHS standard. This excludes procurement and dispensing time which is subject to separate clinical and safety standards. You may not request items which are not on your repeat list due to local health policy restrictions in that items which are used occasionally and are available at a pharmacy must be purchased at a pharmacy, whether you are exempt or not from prescription charges. We encourage patients to register for SystmOnline prescription ordering. Just ask a member of our reception team.
PRESCRIPTION CHARGES - If you pay for your prescriptions the NHS increased the Prescription Charge by 20 pence from £8.80 to £9.00 for each medicine or appliance dispensed from 1st April 2019. The cost of the prescription pre payment certificates (PPC) has been frozen for another year. For more information please click HERE.
GDPR - On 25 May 2018 the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. Here is a copy of our Privacy Notice which includes information on how we use and protect your personal information, and your rights relating to this.
CHECK-IN SCREEN - Our new patient self check-in screen is up and running. It takes just a few seconds to use and is an effective way to increase efficiency at the reception desk and improve the patient experience. The reception staff will be encouraging patients to use it when they arrive for their booked appointments.
SAVE TIME, DO IT ONLINE - Order your repeat prescriptions online, book and cancel your appointments online. Please ask a member of our Reception team for details about how to register for Online access.
ARE YOU A CARER? If you help a family member, friend or neighbour that has a disability, has a mental illness, has a chronic illness, is frail or has a substance misuse problem with alcohol or drugs, we would like to provide you with relevant information. Please complete one of our "AM I A CARER?" forms at the Reception desk click on the Carers link in our Further Information Index.
ARE YOU A MILITARY VETERAN? The Practice will be working to support and signpost military veterans to advice and support relating to their healthcare. In the meantime, for more about Veterans UK please click HERE
1. Telephone the doctor who will visit to confirm that death has taken place.
2. Contact a funeral director.
3. Arrange to collect the doctor's Medical Certificate of Death (usually from the surgery).
4. Take this to the Registrar's Office, (together with the deceased's Medical Card and Birth Certificate, if available) for the area in which the death took place. Alternatively you can register by declaration at any convenient Registrar's Office but certificates will not be available as these will have to be posted to you a few days later.
5. The Registrar will normally issue a Green coloured certificate for you to give to your funeral director who will look after necessary arrangements for the funeral. The Registrar will also issue a white notification certificate for the DSS. They will also enquire as to the number of Certified Copies you require for dealing with the deceased finances (a fee is payable for each copy).
Please click on the following link for a step-by-step guide of what to do when someone dies. What to do when someone dies: step by step - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
1. Contact a funeral director to inform him his services are required.
2. Collect the certificate from the hospital then follow 4 - 5 as above
Your funeral director will usually liaise directly with the surgery regarding the additional certification required.
Advice on what to do after a death
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In 2009, 7,440 people were arrested for misdemeanor marijuana offenses in Orange County. In 2014, the number of pot-related arrests plunged to 548, a 93 percent decrease thanks to a law that passed in 2010, making so possessing up to one ounce of marijuana is a civil infraction, the Orange County Register reported.
Orange County is no different than the rest of California where we've seen the number of marijuana misdemeanors drop by 90 percent between the years 2008 and 2014.
Pot legalization initiatives are making their way towards the November ballot, but they're not focused on making room in California's jails because they don't have many marijuana offenders in them anymore.
"Marijuana possession has fallen from a felony to a misdemeanor to an infraction," said Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. "It's essentially decriminalized already in California."
Dealers, however, will still be slapped with felony charges.
The plunge in marijuana-related arrests have some in law enforcement disgruntled. Critics of legalizing marijuana, including Hutchens, are afraid that it encourages teenagers to smoke pot and to drive under the influence.
Hutchens is concerned about young people using the drug. "If we legalize a drug, we're saying it's OK. What kind of message does that send?" Hutchens said. "We don't need one other thing to dumb our kids down or demotivate them."
The California Sheriffs' Association is against the legalization of marijuana. They believe that legalizing marijuana goes against the interests of public health and safety.
Advocates of legalization are tackling the youth issue, arguing that the Adult Use of Marijuana Act would incapacitate the black market by moving pot purchases into a legal structure that safeguards against children purchasing marijuana.
We'll have to see what happens this coming November.
Arrested for a marijuana-related DUI? Contact our firm for a free criminal defense consultation!


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School climate is a topic educators care about but they don't always understand whether their actions contribute to fostering positive or hostile school climates. Although our first priority is always the students, I worry a lot about how teachers feel in their prospective school climates and it comes from personal experience because I spent 11 years in the role of teacher.
In my career as a teacher in the United States of America, I worked for several principals. One in particular had an impact on me and that impact was not positive. She checked teachers lesson plans on a rotating basis, even though she never gave feedback on what was being taught. We soon found out she was making us hand those lesson plans in as a way to control us. When we walked down the hallway during our prep, she would stop us and ask where we were going, and when we had to collaborate as teachers, those collaborative sessions were more about compliance than creative thinking.
Professionally, the situation turned into a hostile working environment and it became difficult to remember whether the teachers were the adults in the school. I left that experience knowing I wanted to be a principal who treated students and adults differently.
According to the National School Climate Center, school climate is defined as "the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students', parents' and school personnel's experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices and organizational structures."
I spent 8 years as a school principal, and I define school climate as how we feel when we walk into a school building. Do we feel like part of the community or an unwelcome guest? When I say "we", I mean students, teachers, leaders and families. It begins by understanding that not all teachers, students and family members are at a place where they have the same focus and that has everything to do with self-efficacy.
Self – Efficacy
As a principal, I wanted to foster a more supportive and inclusive school climate where people were welcome in school regardless of whether they always agreed with me or not. I wanted our school community to be a place where we learned together and over the years, I have found that self-efficacy plays a very important part in that learning.
Bandura (1994) defines self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave."
Additionally, Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) suggest that "Self-efficacy beliefs are context-specific, however, people do not feel equally efficacious for all situations." For example, we may have a teacher who feels comfortable de-escalating a student in the hallway, even if that student may not be in their classroom. But that same teacher is resistant to use scaffolding in the classroom, and that is all due to the fact that they feel efficacious when it comes to de-escalating a student, but not when it comes to using scaffolding in the classroom.
To build collective efficacy among teachers and leaders, which Tschannen-Moran & Barr (2004. p.190) define as, "the collective self-perception that teachers in a given school make an educational difference to their students over and above the educational impact of their homes and communities," we must make sure our school climates are a place where teachers feel supported and safe, so they can collaborate together in a way that will have a deep impact on student learning.
All of this revolves back to school climate. Adults in the school will not feel comfortable challenging opinion if they work with a school leader more hostile than supportive. Additionally, adults will not work deeply together if their previous experiences of collaboration taught them they did not have a true voice in the process. All of those past experiences contribute to how they feel now when they have the opportunity to collaborate.
Even after teachers and leaders have done the hard work to gain trust and foster a school climate that is supportive and inclusive of diverse thinking, they must also ensure all members of the collaborative group (for example, stakeholder group, PLC, etc.) make a difference.
The following are suggestions on how to make sure everyone plays a part in that collaborative process:
- Define why each member is a part of the team.
- Define the expectations of each team member.
- Co-construct a goal around an initiative.
- Assign duties for each member of the team.
- Promote and support discourse in the process.
Finally, we need to make sure we always meet people where they are and not where we already expect them to be. Our focus is not always their focus. Our area of expertise is not always their area of expertise. The old saying "many hands make light work" rings true when a school community has created a climate where people admit they don't know everything and are open to learning more through collaboration on a level playing field.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Bandura, A. (2000), "Cultivate self-efficacy for personal and organizational effectiveness", in Locke, E.A. (Ed.), The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, Oxford, Malden, MA, pp. 120-36.
DeWitt, Peter and Sean Slade (2014). School Climate Change: How Do I Build a Positive Environment for Learning. ASCD. Alexandria, VA.
DeWitt, Peter (2016). Collaborative Leadership: 6 Influences That Matter Most. Corwin Press/ Learning Forward. Thousand Oaks, CA.
DeWitt, Peter (2017). School Climate. Leading with Collective Efficacy. Corwin Press/Ontario Principals Council. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Tschannen-Moran & Barr (2004)Fostering Student Learning: The Relationship of Collective Teacher Efficacy and Student Achievement. Leadership and Policy in Schools, v3 n3 p189-209 Sep 2004.
Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) "Principals' sense of efficacy: Assessing a promising construct", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 42Issue: 5, pp.573-585


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Ok so I kinda left you all hanging there for a long while! My sincerest apologies!! Lots has happened in the last little while that has distracted me from writing. So now I'm back!
I left off enticing you all with my terrible start to my Australian adventure. My AirCanada flight was set to leave Toronto Feb. 11 at 8pm. My parents drove me to the airport and we had a nice dinner before I had to leave them behind at the security check. As I waited in the long line, I expected my parents to just leave. Nope. They waited until I walked through the door and couldn't be seen. They're so sweet.
Anyway…as with past dealings with Pearson International Airport security checks, it was a breeze. I was waiting at my gate in no time. The flight was on time. Everything seemed to be going as planned.
After boarding the plane, we waited and we waited and we waited. Finally the captain announces to us that we need to go de-ice the plane. So we taxi over to the de-icing area. After that, we waited and we waited and we waited. What felt like a lifetime later, the captain comes back on to inform us that "something was spotted on the fuselage of the plane, so we must return to our gate." At this point everyone was groaning and quite frankly, pissed off. We returned to our gate to sit there and wait for the maintenance team to take a look at our plane.
Guess what…..turns out it was NOTHING. But we waited over an hour to get that answer. So now at this point we are 3 1/2 hours behind schedule. And we had to sit on the plane this whole damn time. The captain comes back on the PA system to now tell us we had to go back to de-icing since we've sat so long, and we also need to refuel the plane. If a mutiny hadn't already started on the plane, I thought for sure it was going to happen now. People were beyond angry at this point. It was so, so frustrating!
Our plane finally leaves Toronto. It arrives in Vancouver 4 hours late. The people waiting for their connection to Sydney, Australia have now been waiting for over 5 hours for our plane to land. They made everyone get off the plane, including those of us who were continuing on to Sydney. Yep, I had to gather up everything and get off the plane. I think we were in Vancouver over an hour before we were allowed to re-board the plane.
Meanwhile, in Australia, my bestest had timed out her flight from Brisbane to Sydney to correlate with my arrival. She would land about an hour before me and meet me as I came down from security. Little did she know that she would be waiting there a helluva lot longer!
The flight from Vancouver to Sydney felt unbearably long. I was lucky to have been sitting next to a nice, young couple from Ottawa, ON. Unfortunately, the girl had been suffering from food poisoning all evening. I'm thankful she didn't vomit while sitting next to me. Ick.
After what felt like a lifetime of being on this plane, we were finally landing in Sydney. YESSSS! We were 5 hours behind schedule. Poor Chloe has been waiting for hours outside of the security/customs area. I had no way of letting her know how late I was going to be! I felt awful!
Not as awful as I felt for just having spent 27 hours in transit. I felt like I hadn't showered in days. We were at our gate ready to disembark the plane when they told us to stay seated. All of a sudden there are agents walking down the aisle ways of the plane opening the overhead bins and spraying something in them. Myself and my neighbours were all looking around like, 'wtf is going on??!' I was worried about what we were inhaling….what exactly are they spraying in there??
The doors opened and we were finally free. AT LAST! I never wanted off a plane so bad in all my life! I was walking as fast as my legs could take me. I just wanted to get through customs and be done with this terrible day..er…days.
Have any of you seen the TV program, Border Security? I must have watched a hundred episodes to prepare me for what seemed like a strict Customs in Sydney. When I arrived at Customs….it looked nothing like the TV Show, and it was the easiest thing I had to get through. Well…that's just fine with me since I've already been through the most awful flight of my life!
Chloe was still waiting for me, a welcome balloon in hand! It was the biggest, most needed hug I could have asked for! I apologized profusely for my tardiness and filled her in on the disastrous flight. We opted for a taxi to get us to our hostel in hopes that we could get there faster. It was an easy ride in, not knowing any better mind you.
We checked into our hostel. If you're looking for a great place to book while in Sydney, I highly recommend the YHA Australia – Sydney Harbour, The Rocks. It's in a great location, just minutes from Sydney Harbour.
We dropped our bags and decided to head out for some food. By the time we got back, my feet and ankles were so swollen! I just couldn't do any more walking. The damn 27 hour travel day has caught up to me. It was only about 7pm when we got back to the hostel. I literally climbed into bed, elevated my feet and fell asleep. Whoops!
The next morning, I awoke around 4am Sydney time. I quietly climbed down from my bunk and got showered. When I got out, Chloe was awake and we decided to get the day started. We found a funny place not too far from our hostel. It's called Pancakes on the Rocks and it's open 24 hours a day. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was just before 6am when we arrived.
Having now been well slept and fed, our boat tour of the harbour wasn't until 10am. We had some time to kill. We just wandered along the waterfront taking in the sights. Eventually we made our way to the area we needed to be in for our boat tour and purchased our tickets. We then walked over to the Sydney Opera House since it was so close.
It was surreal standing there in front of it. After 2 years of planning, I was finally here! It's prettier in person than I thought it would be. Incredible, really. The day was warming up and we could feel the threat of the sun already bearing down on us. We decided to grab a coffee at one of the local cafes along the Harbour. Now for all you iced coffee lovers out there, this is a warning. When ordering an iced coffee in Sydney, it literally is coffee with ice cream in it. The waitress put it down in front of me and I was so confused. I stopped the next waiter and said to him, 'I just wanted an iced coffee, not this.' After he looked a bit confused, I had to clarify that I wanted coffee with ice in it, not ice cream. I eventually got my iced coffee. I'm not sure if every place serves them up like that, I didn't order one again until later in the trip (at a McDonald's where I knew they knew what an iced coffee was).
Anyway….it was time for our Harbour Cruise! But you'll have to wait until next time for that story 😉 .
Until next time….stay tuned for failing sunscreen and cruising through the Sydney Harbour.


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As filmmaker Paul Franco debuts his latest project narrated by the designer, the two discuss social media, reality, and why you can't really fake Vetements jeans
"I was looking for a clear understanding of what our time is composed of," explains filmmaker Paul Franco of his latest project FASTbeat, a short film captured over the course of a year in Paris featuring model Sasha Melnychuk. So, Franco reached out to interview the man whose work has played a key role in shaping today's fashion and youth cultural zeitgeist – Demna Gvasalia.
His speech (an extract from the full interview below) overlays the film, which Franco describes as more impressionistic than a traditional narrative. "I wanted to create a film that's a sensation and somehow, an archive piece that we may only really understand in ten years time," he says. "This movie is more of an emotion than it is a story."
The resulting piece comments on the way we live our lives simultaneously on and offline; the images' fast rhythm drawing a parallel to the overload of information in the digital world, counteracted by the slow pace of photographer Mark Borthwick's music.
"Today, we experience a lot in a short time span. I wanted to distort time to express this feeling and a fast information flux – we cannot grasp all of the images and have to focus on the slower pace of the spoken word," explains Franco. "It's basically what we experience in life every day, a constant flow of information online versus the slower pace of real life. The ending is about reality and how that is what matters most."
As the film debuts, read the full head-to-head with Franco and Gvasalia below.
Paul Franco: It seems our generation has developed a strong interest in reality in contrast to the 90s, which was more about fantasy or a dream. How do you think this happened?
Demna Gvasalia: I think reality has become very important today because of a lack of time. The dream requires time; it might feel like we were wasting it when trying to dream, or live in the dream. Now, there is no time for anything. You have to run, you have to rush, Insta-life – I feel that this will really bring us down to earth. More and more, I want to concentrate on pure things, and not drift away into the clouds. We live now – and that's the most precious thing.
Paul Franco: Would you think of the internet as such a cloud? Forever refreshing, we receive new information and content all the time. We can enter the most diverse realities from anywhere in the world.
Demna Gvasalia: Which is paradoxical. Because it's not reality, but on our screen.
Paul Franco: People seem to shift realities. Rather than an actual self, they build an online character.
Demna Gvasalia: Because there are many things a lot of people in real life don't even dare to try. People have complexes, people have fears. I think when it's on your screen you tend to lose these fears and complexes – that makes it so powerful. Once you're hidden, you can be whoever you want.
Paul Franco: Does that make it dishonest – does it strip us of sincerity?
Demna Gvasalia: Yes, in a way. People try to protect themselves physically and emotionally, and that defines a lack of sincerity. They wear a shield around them.
Paul Franco: I approached you on Facebook. If you think back in time, Cristóbal Balenciaga felt more like a studio than an actual person, even to some journalists. Now we can have a virtual conversation any time.
Demna Gvasalia: Which is amazing, I think.
"I approached you on Facebook. If you think back in time, Cristóbal Balenciaga felt more like a studio than an actual person, even to some journalists. Now we can have a virtual conversation any time" – Paul Franco
Paul Franco: We are all closer to each other. Via social media, people become more approachable.
Demna Gvasalia: Then again, I see myself as a person first of all. I have a Facebook, I even have a relationship with someone on Facebook, which is really strange… Talking about reality is quite ironic here. It really changes communication between people. In a way people have become more sociable in real life but on the other hand, online, things are so much easier – to approach someone, or have a conversation. Or to fall in love, even.
Paul Franco: Talking to people online can be liberating. We tend to reveal more, because we don't even consider meeting our virtual partner in real life.
Demna Gvasalia: Exactly, we are presented with freedom. Even half drunk at a party, there is still this filter in front of you – I guess because you're physically there. On the keyboard, it's a completely different sense of freedom. It makes interaction feel so honest and direct, which is fascinating about our times.
Paul Franco: Vetements in itself is a young brand, taking inspiration from youth – but given the price point it is not exactly directed at young people. Why do you think it still resonates with them?
Demna Gvasalia: I don't think of our target audience as adolescents. But I do think youth is the most interesting thing in the world; the kind of naivety, the braveness, doing it your way, and questioning things. That's the most inspiring. At Vetements, from the beginning, we realised that this was the conversation we wanted to have. The social conversation was with the youth, because that's where you discover a lot of things.
Paul Franco: What are the symptoms of a youth that disappears to make way for maturity?
Demna Gvasalia: When you talk to somebody who is 19, 20, in their early 20s, there is much less judgment toward things. With age we become judgmental very often. They see things the way they are, and accept that.
Paul Franco: We lose our naivety.
Demna Gvasalia: With age it disappears, unless you learn how to handle it. Still it remains very hard to keep. That's the most interesting thing about young people – they have an openness and passion towards things. They're passionate about having a hoodie and passionate about some new track that just came out. They can be passionate about those things.
Paul Franco: What I really liked from the beginning at Vetements was this sincerity of the process, and how you make this sincerity accessible. Which reminds me of the story when you found a pair of trainers in the medina of Marrakech, which said Nike on the side…
Demna Gvasalia: …and adidas on the top.
Paul Franco: I bring this up because I recently read an article with instructions to copy Vetements jeans just by cutting the hem.
Demna Gvasalia: Of course you can fake them.
"The most immense and incredible feeling I remember in the beginning of the 90s and for the people of my generation, was this notion of freedom" – Demna Gvasalia
Paul Franco: How do you feel about that?
Demna Gvasalia: Well, you can fake certain things, but you cannot make them the same. These jeans need a whole system of processing – it's about their fit and how they work. There is a lot of process behind them, though visually they are very simple. So for Instagram you can fake it but for real life, to wear them and feel flattered, to feel that your butt looks good – you can't really fake that by just cutting the hem.
Paul Franco: I have never been to Russia – I lived in Berlin, but…
Demna Gvasalia: That's nowhere near the same.
Paul Franco: I feel there is some kind of a new Russian avant-garde, which gives hope to many people. What's interesting about this Russian aesthetic is its roughness and authenticity. It feels relatable irrespective of social background or location.
Demna Gvasalia: Because all of these things have already happened in Western culture, they are something you can relate to on some level. In Russia everything happened much later, it was very much behind in terms of cultural and social developments. The part of this – what they call 'Eastern European' thing – that people can relate to here is almost nostalgic.
Paul Franco: I feel it can help people grow and give them an idea of everything being possible.
Demna Gvasalia: It rather is about being daring, in a way. 'Whatever, we don't care about those rules, we want to do it our way.' I think that's mood we had after the Soviet Union collapsed. That's when I was a teenager, and the people I work with now also come from there. It was a period we all know very well; this idea of suddenly having things available – suddenly you could do things, and that spirit is exactly what would present that feeling of hope. A kind of new European dream with its possibilities and freedom. The most immense and incredible feeling I remember in the beginning of the 90s and for the people of my generation, was this notion of freedom. Now we have lost it a little bit in Europe, in the exchange for Western culture. Russia today is the opposite of freedom, which is a paradox.
Paul Franco: To me as a European, this aesthetic feels like a new vision and hope. To be honest about our realities. Apart from it already being a trend, do you think it could become an actual sensibility for the youth of the world?
Demna Gvasalia: I don't know if it's a new vision – I mean, there is actually nothing new about it at all. It's all based on a certain period of time which is not even ten years ago. It might feel new for those teenagers who are 15 years old… they don't know about all of this stuff, so for them it is different from the things they have seen in the past decade. I don't think it's a vision, but rather a certain aesthetic that is easy.
Paul Franco: I like to understand it as a way of life.
Demna Gvasalia: It is a way of life too. At Vetements we are product oriented, but in the end we do create some kind of following in terms of people who like us or don't like us. For those who do, it is a kind of lifestyle at the end of the day – they're not likely to sit in college learning mathematics. It gives you a certain energy, and I believe that's the most important part of it. It's what I feel each time we do a show. For us, it's less important to show the clothes than to express an energy and their dynamics.
Paul Franco: Has Vetements changed your vision, your idea of our generation and culture?
Demna Gvasalia: It hasn't really changed. I think however, the brand has enhanced the impact our culture and our society have on us. We live in Paris and work here – the things happening today and what we see on the street, a certain aggression and maybe a fearful attitude, definitely have an effect on us. We translate that into our work. So I feel it's the opposite which defines us: we overcome fear by doing what we do.
Paul Franco: Would you mind if the movie features the line: 'From everything to nothing'?
Demna Gvasalia: From everything to nothing and back to everything, I would say. I think it's a circle that we are running in, it never ends. That's the nice part of it.
Paul Franco: I feel this sentence could mean a lot for Vetements.
Demna Gvasalia: More than that, it's a very accurate sentence in the wake of what's happening in the world. I think we need to go back to nothing to be pure again. I believe deconstruction is the meaning of creation.


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Filing Your Return -> Working income tax benefit -> 2011 factors for Quebec
Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) Factors for 2011 for Quebec
The following table summarizes the WITB amounts for Quebec. In this table the word couple refers to a person with an eligible spouse.
All amounts have been confirmed to the Quebec Schedule 6 from the 2011 personal income tax return.
Revised: November 28, 2021
Copyright © 2002 Boat Harbour Investments Ltd. All Rights Reserved. See Reproduction of information from TaxTips.ca


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*When I preached this homily, the irony of this opening sentence struck me. As a Dominican friar, I am a beggar!
"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVI
26 September 2010
On resenting beggars
*When I preached this homily, the irony of this opening sentence struck me. As a Dominican friar, I am a beggar!
8 comments:
Just plain ole "resent"–verb (used with object) to feel or show displeasure or indignation at (a person, act, remark, etc.) from a sense of injury or insult.ReplyDelete
I'll have to read the whole homily when I'm more awake....but interesting coincidence....we had a Franciscan Friar from Nicaragua begging at Mass today. I was struck by the concept of "We beg daily for all our food". Since my view of beggars is similar to what you describe here (I mean really, how many time has your house burned down?) it gave me pause for thought.ReplyDelete
- fragranceofgod4:30 AM
All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.ReplyDelete
Walter Benjamin
Great thoughts, Father. I resent the beggars in Rome who pretend to be paralyzed or have some other malady...then stand up easily and go to some other corner to beg from tourists.ReplyDelete
- fr. Dismas, OP1:54 PM
"Alms" comes from the same root as "mercy" in Greek: eleemosyne (e.g., Kyrie eleison!)ReplyDelete
I tend to point this out in homilies. If we want mercy from God, then it'd behoove us to give mercy as well (i.e., alms, spiritual or corporal works of mercy). How exactly, is up to Prudence, but sitting in our homes and doing nothing is not an option.
And for us moderns who think we're so advanced: the practice of giving alms to the poor in exchange for their prayers was an honored "exchange" in Medieval Europe.


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Dr. Rehana from the Art of Living came to Rajendranagar to give a lecture, to the beneficiaries, on stress and meditation. Many of the beneficiaries face a great deal of stress due to the lack of resources in their area such as, quality health care and adequate housing. Dr. Rehana will also conduct a medical camp this sunday, April 8th, for the women and children of Rajendranagar.
Dr. Rehana visits the Rajendranagar branch
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Farkas Conducts Beethoven
Philip Farkas conducts Beethoven's "The Heavens Are Telling" as arranged by Max Pottag. This is a participant ensemble from the 1974 symposium.
James Winter plays Arnold Cooke
From the 1974 International Symposium in Muncie, IN, here's hornist James Winter, with soprano Carol Nielson and pianist Michel Bourgeot, performing two of Arnold Cooke's Nocturnes, "River Roses" and "The Owl."
CSO Plays a Frippery
From the 1974 Symposium at Ball State University, here's the Chicago Symphony horn section (Dale Clevenger, Thomas Howell, Richard Oldberg and Norman Schweikert) play Lowell Shaw's Frippery No. 20.
Another Seasonal Favorite from 1974
Alan Civils' quartet (Alan Civil, Frøydis Ree Wekre, Dale Clevenger, Barry Tuckwell) perform a summer season favorite, arranged by Alan Civil.
Frøydis Plays Berge
Frøydis Ree Wekre plays Sigurd berge's "Horn-Lokk" at the 1973 Symposium.
Frøydis Plays Arutunian
From the 1973 Pomona Symposium, Frøydis Ree Wekre plays the second movement of the horn concerto by Arutunian.
A Quartet Arrangement by Alan Civil
From the Muncie Symposium, 1974, here is an arrangment for horn quartet of an exceprt from Mozrt's "The Magic Flute." Performers are Alan Civil, Frøydis Ree Wekre, Dale Clevenger and Barry Tuckwell.


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Government Rates
Hotel Carlingview Toronto Airport is proud to host Government travelers, offering the best value in the Toronto Airport Area with clean, comfortable and updated hotel.
Whether staying for a night or several nights, you will find great service and warm hospitality from our friendly team. Hotel Carlingview Toronto Airport is an approved Government Travel Hotel and is well within per diem.
While staying at Hotel Carlingview Toronto Airport, please ensure to visit The Bistro Restaurant for Starbucks Coffee and for breakfast and dinner at reasonable prices.
* Government ID required at check-in


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Hell, in many cultures and religious traditions, is a location where humans who are deemed to have been less than righteous during life are doomed to an eternity of severe punishment, brutal torture, and a far from pleasant time in general. In cyclic religions, hell is regarded as an unbearable intermediate period between lives, rather like regular periodic visits to the DMV. In linear religions, hell is considered to be the ultimate unending finality of a sinful person's existence, rather like working at the DMV. Typically these religions locate hell under the physical surface of the Earth or in New Jersey. Other afterlife destinations include Heaven, Purgatory, Valhalla, and Australia.
Still other traditions refuse to label the afterlife as punishment or reward, and instead describe hell as physical location where the dead can simply hang around and play shuffleboard, waiting for their loved ones to join them. Modern understandings tend to depict hell as an abstract state of loss rather than literal flaming torture, although the flaming torture approach is still practiced in extreme cases such as rowdy teenage hooliganism. Hell is often described as being populated with demons, goblins, imps, and all other manners of beasts who enjoy the scent of singed flesh and the sight of a good pitchfork in the bum. Many are ruled by a death god such as Hades or the Devil, while others practice a more representative government based on democratic elections and human-eating contests.
The modern English word hell is derived from the Old English hello. During medieval times, the standard greeting of "hello" was literally meant to damn the recipient to everlasting suffering, as people back then were just not very friendly. Hello is itself derived from the Proto-Germanic Helga, which is believed to refer to one single 4th-century Scandinavian woman whose intimate company was likened to a thousand lifetimes of agonizing torture.
It has been theorized that the word hell was used to transfer ancient penguin concepts to Christian theology. Historians have focused on the beliefs of the Norse penguins, including a mystical underworld location named Hal ruled over by a gigantic albino penguin (also named Hal). Opponents of such ideas contend that this is a mistranslation of a Norse word for 'pagan' (one of many groups of non-Abrahamic religions) to the incorrect 'penguin' (a comical flightless bird of the Antarctic). While it is far more logical that early Christians would borrow concepts from existing religions rather than tuxedo-clad poultry, so-called Norse penguinist historians remain a vocal minority in the field of ancient theology.
Religion, mythology, and folklore
Hell appears in many mythologies and religions as the permanent residence of demons, fallen angels, the souls of the damned, and a small number of thoroughly evil inanimate objects such as Hitler's car and much of Richard Nixon's wardrobe. While all dogs go to heaven, many of the more sinister animals such as hyenas and crocodiles are kept as pets by today's brand of active go-getter demon. One fable about hell which recurs across several cultures is the Allegory of the Spoons. This narrative involves the residents of both Heaven and Hell eating a meal using long spoons. Those ascended into Heaven gladly feed each other rather than eating food directly off of their own plate, while the denizens of hell predictably craft the spoons into improvised shivs and re-murder each other.
Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these punishments are specific, with damned souls suffering distinct repercussions for each living naughty act, but sometimes they are general and ongoing. The latter is the traditional image of hell with widespread burning sinners in separate chambers or levels and punctual monsters feasting on constantly regenerating organs. The depiction of hell is this graphically fire-ridden and painful in most religions, since milder forms of eternal damnation tend not to discourage rampant sinning. Despite the common theme of an almost comically fiery hell, some cultures portray a punishingly cold afterlife for sinners (a sort of frozen-over hell), particularly after the 2004 victory of the Red Sox in the World Series.
Ancient Polytheism
Early Egyptian records show the concept of eternal life arising as early as 3,000 BCE. In this belief system, a human's moral fitness determined their fate at the end of their mortal life. The righteous, such as nobles, looked forward to everlasting paradise under the supervision of the Bird-Man God. The wicked, which unilaterally included pyramid-building slaves, were doomed to eternal suffering (mostly additional pyramid construction) under the Dog-Man God. Other ancient religions continued to improve upon this concept. For example, the ancient Babylonians were the first to envision multiple levels of hell, and the Greeks put an uninteresting back story to their version of Netherworld Superintendent.
Some cultures describe the afterlife as more of a journey undertaken by freshly deceased souls, thus rendering hell a brief transition period rather than a physical place. Since these cultures have been systematically eradicated by other cultures, few of their beliefs are understood or cared about. Other religions involved hell having actual physical gates on Earth leading to fiery pits of torture and damnation. These concepts likely arose when pranksters faked their own deaths in order to come casually strolling out of "The Canyon of the Dead" claiming to have dramatically escaped, often adding their own details concerning horned demons or, in the case of the always-just-a-tad-deranged Mayan culture, rivers of jaguars.
Monotheism and Stereotheism
While early drafts of Judaism do include mention of an afterlife, modern Jewish doctrine does not mention heaven or hell. Instead, the concept of hell is described as an intense feeling of shame both during and following life. Contemporary Jewish texts, such as Woody Allen films, encourage insecurity and fretfulness, among other Jewish traditions such as huge horn-rimmed glasses. By being fully aware of one's own shortcomings by the end of life, Jews can be fully prepared for another potential short afterlife of shame (with brief breaks to change shame-yarmulkes).
Early Christian leaders decided to bring back the everlasting burning fire idea, and have really run with the concept. In fact, some sects of Christianity simply sent everyone to hell, the righteous and the sinners, as dying itself was considered very wicked (another carryover from Jewish tradition). This proved particularly effective as there existed a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where people would burn their refuse as well as the remains of those considered to have died in sin. Thus, when followers of early Christianity would question whether sinning actually had consequences, leaders could point to the nearby pile of flaming human bodies and say, "See the third grotesque corpse from the bottom? That was Carl six hours ago." The additions of specific details, such as having to be judged in front of Jesus himself for all of the naughty things done in one's life, were merely flourishes on an already rich tradition of infinite flaming agony.
Literature and art
Perhaps the two most well-known and accepted classical depictions of hell are Dante Alighieri's Inferno and the 86th episode of Matt Groening's The Simpsons. Dante's 14th century work is a first-person poem detailing a fictional guided tour of hell led by ancient writer Virgil. It is also considered to be the first instance of both fan-fiction and meta-fan-fiction, as within the work Dante's character describes his current project: a gritty re-imagining of the Battle of Troy. Virgil leads Dante through the nine concentric levels of hell, with each level becoming progressively more torturey. The levels are divided by sins. For example, all of those who committed adultery are continually battered by wind on level two, while those who neglected to clean up after their dogs are subject to loud, unpleasant noises on level four. Dante depicts the final central level of hell as the eternal prison of history's most treasonous villains, including Judas Iscariot and Scar from The Lion King. Inferno is widely regarded to be the least humorous of the components of Dante's Divine Comedy.
The most widely referenced modern vision of hell (including the first mention of ironic punishment) occurs in the Fox Network's cartoon series The Simpsons. In the classic episode "Treehouse of Horror IV", Homer Simpson sells his soul to neighbor Ned Flanders (Chief Operating Officer of the Underworld) in exchange for a donut. After consuming the pastry, Homer is transported to hell, where he is subject to torture and ridicule by goatee-bearing demons. Similar to Dante's work, there are separate specific punishments for different categories of sin. Thus, Homer's fatness and gluttony in life earn him the task of eating billions of donuts. This modern incarnation of hell is shown to be imperfect itself and also constantly adapting to a rapidly changing world. Thus, when Homer happily finishes eating all of the donuts, his head is removed and used as a bowling ball in punishment for the wicked act of participating in the most sinful of sports: bowling.
Hell has been a common subject for artists dating back to the very beginnings of culture. While early painters were forbidden from depicting human figures in the nude, religious paintings were an exception. Thus, many works featuring naked women in the throes of "agonizing pain" were passed off as religious in nature by adding a few flames along the bottom or a menacing horned figure in the background. In addition to proto-pornographists, early insane artists took a liking to the subject matter of rivers of burning souls. This resulted in many works such as Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (pictured to the right), which features a large number of perfectly rational things such as human-owl relations, a cornucopia of butts, and what appears to be a rather large pair of ears wielding a knife.
Circles of Hell (Dante)
According to Dante, Hell is composed of the following circles:
- Limbo: this is the part of Hell where people who did almost everything right, except pick the right religion, go to suffer in eternal agony.
- Lust: if you like sex as much as I do, you probably want to shoot for this circle.
- Gluttony: where fat and bulimic people go to be made fun of by exercise-addicted steroid bros. The idea is to make it as much like what they're used to as possible.
- Greed: let's face it, if nowhere else, you are probably going to end up here.
- Wrath: because there is no greater evil than making other people suffer because they did something wrong.
- Heresy: just kidding, you won't end up in Limbo after all!
- Violence: unless you have the blessing of the Pope, of course, or you are the Pope. Also, gay people end up here, too, for some reason.
- Fraud: but you can probably avoid ending up here if you put enough money in the collection plate.
- Treachery: I guess this one kind of makes sense, actually.
- Ronald Reagan: this one was added recently, because they couldn't figure out where else to put him. Margaret Thatcher joined him just a little while later.
Hell in popular culture
In many fantasy role-playing games, hell is a plane of existence from which demonic creatures can be summoned in order to do the summoner's bidding, usually battling other such summoned creatures or occasionally female characters with anatomically incorrect breasts.
Hell was the setting of one of the earliest viral stories on the Internet: that of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, an eight mile deep pit drilled by the Russians in the 1980s in an attempt to revive their slumping economy. The story involves a heat-resistant microphone being lowered to the bottom of the hole which recorded the sounds of the damned being tortured. This has been exposed as a hoax: the microphone was intercepted and destroyed by Morlocks, and never actually reached hell.
In modern English, hell is used as a curse word for added emphasis, as in: "Why the hell did I bother reading this entire article on hell?"
See also
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Yes. All rental properties must be inspected by a licensed Housing Evaluator. Rental inspections are valid for a period of three years. The City will also accept a Time-Of-Sale Inspection report in lieu of a rental inspection but must be dated one year from the date of the rental license application. A listing of Housing Evaluator can be found on the Rental Housing Licensing page.


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500 Solicitors avail of AXA's Online Claims Management System from pTools
Dublin, Ireland, March 30th 2009
Irish Enterprise Content Management (ECM) provider, pTools has delivered an online claims management solution for AXA Insurance which will be accessed by almost 500 solicitors and AXA staff. The system uses pTools CMS software to automate key claims management processes and procedures as well as cost calculations, delivering major efficiencies and cost savings.
AXA typically has thousands of claims outstanding at any one time, involving communications with tens of thousands of claimants. Padraic Mills, Director of IT, Administration and Procurement at AXA Ireland said the new system has made claims processing much more efficient and delivered substantial cost savings.
"Since integrating pTools, claims processing times have decreased substantially, standardisation of documentation has increased productivity and administration costs in the claims department have been substantially reduced," Mills says. "The system also provides the ability to manage the large volume of documentation generated by the department as well as having tight security features and compliance with existing systems."
Following a careful selection process pTools was chosen to provide its Content Management System (CMS) having satisfied the appraisal team's criteria and not suffering from the pitfalls of other systems examined.
"After a detailed selection process pTools was chosen because it ticked every box and already has a proven track record delivering highly effective content management systems for a number of other large organisations," Mills continues.
The Management Information produced by the system allows AXA to gather real-time information about the 'basket of claims' that are live as well as historical comparisons. Information uploaded integrates seamlessly with internal AXA systems, presenting claims information directly to the AXA staff desktop for further processing.
Tom Skinner, MD of pTools says: "AXA Atlas is a multi-tiered web-based application that allows solicitors to perform critical claims management tasks in a highly efficient manner. It uses pTools software to deliver a rich transaction content environment that is fully secure and presents a usable interface to professionals associated with the claims process. The resulting efficiencies and cost reductions were apparent from day one and have been significant. The system ensures a standardised and compliant process and real-time management information for AXA business."


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Exclusive: Dread Chats with Mirrors 2 Director Victor Garcia and More!
Having survived a buffeting Southern electrical storm en route from Los Angeles to Baton Rouge, this writer touched down in Louisiana on December 14 of 2009 and, following a rather eerie stroll through a seemingly abandoned airport and a ride with a cabbie whose previous fare had been arrested, arrived unscathed to the set of the then-shooting feature Mirrors 2.
With the written-by Matt Venne (White Noise 2) and directed-by Victor Garcia (Return to House on Haunted Hill) flick to debut this Tuesday, October 12th, at Screamfest LA (you can purchase tickets here) and set for a DTV release October 19 through Twentieth Century Fox, we thought it high time to bring you our chat with Garcia and co. as well as some stills from the set.
A sequel to the 2008 Alexandre Aja-helmed film Mirrors, the sequel stars Nick Stahl, William Katt, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Lawrence Turner, Stephanie Honore, Christy Charlson Romano, Jon Michael Davis, Evan Jones, Wayne Pere, Lance E. Nichols, Ann McKenzie, and Jennifer Sipes and revolves around the character of 'Max Matheson' (lead Stahl), a recovering addict, who takes a job as a night-time security guard job at his father's department store and then begins to see visions of a young woman in the store's mirrors. Unsure whether his visions are side effects of his prescription sleeping pills or actual reality, he begins to look deeper into the source of the images in the mirrors, and when employees of the store turn up dead and he subsequently becomes a suspect in those murders, he must expose the ghostly girl's connection to a scandal within the department store's walls in order to prove his innocence and put a stop to the supernatural rampage.
Filming at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux in the heart of Baton Rouge (a mixed-used space, part jazz club, part apartment housing), Mirrors 2 at the time was knee-deep in F/X shots (severed legs and heads were in abundance with KNB's Kevin Wasner and Alex Diaz on hand to bring the grue, returning from the first Mirrors to again provide the gore).
"I think this one has a lot of good gags in it," Wasner told us during a balmy 2AM rainstorm from a second-story gallery, "but what's different about this one is there are a lot of gags where we are mirroring visual effects with our effects, which I think is the way to go nowadays. We feel like with just practical that a lot of times it can be limiting, in hiding blood tubes and morphing heads onto things, and so in this film in particular we've been mixing in a lot of digital (with the practical), and it's been working out really well. A lot of the time makeup effects guys are all, 'Man, it's gotta' be only makeup effects,' and digital guys are all, 'Man, digital is the only way to go,' but I think digital and makeup guys really need to learn to work together (in order) to make it happen, and that's what we are doing here."
"We had only three weeks to prep for this one, which wasn't much," said Diaz of their time for practical FX pre-production, "but we got everything here, and we have a couple of great decapitations!"
Dread accompanied Wasner and Diaz to set (that particular sequence involved some horrific shenanigans in the cramped quarters of one of the building's apartments above), and sure enough, the blood flew, with actor Jon Michael Davis suffering a particularly gory slash of his Achilles tendons. Other grisly shots followed, although we'll keep those on the down-low so as to not spoil Mirrors 2's 'money shots.'
While we chatted with director Garcia, the man proved to be not only open, honest and affable but also very much a fan of the genre he was directing (the filmmaker is currently in post-production on Hellraiser: Revelations as well as in pre-production on the 'home invasion' film Torn Apart).
"I got the script from my agent, and I was pretty familiar with the original Korean movie (on which Mirrors 2 is based) and the previous Aja movie so I wanted to take a look at it to see what we could do with it," director Garcia told us of how he was signed to the project. "It was one of those weird jobs that you get through a Skype conference call with the studio. Normally it doesn't work like this – you have to really sell your idea, but (with this they) apparently already liked my work, and it was really cool. I wasn't expecting much to happen, but it did."
Having received the script only four months prior to the shoot (Mirrors 2 filmed for a total of twenty-three days commencing in November of 2009), Garcia said of his thoughts pertaining to the material, "It's brilliant, and the project was moving forward and they were looking at other directors, too, so everything happened really fast. Within a month I found myself in Baton Rouge prepping the movie. Prep actually didn't get started until I arrived here."
With the budget much lower than the original, "It was hard to fit all of our ideas into the script in such a short (pre-production) time and budget. It's kind of a stylized film. I'm trying to veer a little bit away from the look of the previous one. It was shot in Romania; they had all that great architecture, and it was really moody and Gothic and hardcore, and with Mirrors 2 I kind of wanted to do something new. One of our locations was a museum with different architecture, and it's kind of shiny and new and looks completely different (from the locations in the previous). The original stands alone and that's great, but we are making our own Mirrors (with this one)."
As for the casting of Nick Stahl (known to genre fans for his turns in Disturbing Behavior, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the series "Carnivale"), Garcia said, "He was the first to sign on! It happened within forty-eight hours (of going out to him), and that was great! Then it was time for the whole process of trying to bring more names, and my casting director did a great job. I'm really happy with the cast, and it makes things exciting."
Garcia was as equally thrilled with the acquisition of the talents of KNB FX.
"I was trying to get them from the beginning," stated Garcia. "I met Greg Nicotero (he of the 'n' in KNB) a few years ago, and they worked on the previous Mirrors, and I just wanted them to be involved. I knew that whatever (effect) they were going to deliver, that I could make it a close-up, and it would work, and so far that's what they have been delivering. My background is as a FX technician so you want to have people in the effects department (as a director) that you can really trust. It's like with my director of photography, Lorenzo (Senatore). I met him three years ago, and he was the DP on my first film (Return to House on Haunted Hill), and I know exactly what I can expect and can really trust him. It's the same thing with KNB. I don't have to worry about anything when it comes to them."
It took a while for the blood to run, however.
"Because of time issues and pre-production, we've had to push most of the gore to the very end," said the director, who at the time had merely four days of principal photography remaining, "so the first day we were shooting with prosthetics, Lorenzo came to me after the first take of that effects shot and said, 'We are finally making a horror movie!' It was so exciting! I was like, 'I know, dude. I need more blood here!'"
"It's been a really intense shoot," mused Garcia of Mirrors 2, which has been nominated in the category of 'Most Anticipated Non-Theatrical Coming to Disc' by the Reaper Awards, which takes place this coming Tuesday, October 12, at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. "It's going to be weird going back home when we wrap, kind of like it was all a dream. It's been like a family – people working like a family, all day and night and just really having fun. Everyone's been enjoying the process. I mean, we aren't saving lives; we are making movies, and we are lucky to get paid to make movies. Just enjoy it!"
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Dolores Park: A Poorly Reconstructed History
If you have passed Dolores Park lately you will have noticed that she is undergoing major reconstructive surgery. But while her lower half looks like it was struck by a small meteor, her upper half is open and will remain open throughout the summer. The upper leisure area is noticeably more cramped now but is still a nice place to relax and sip a beverage next to SF locals and tourists alike.
This Fall, the new tennis and basketball courts should be finished along with the entire lower section of the park. This includes new bathrooms, a designated off leash dog area, as well as a multi-use field area that promises to have fewer pot holes and weird puddles in it. Once the lower half of the park is finished, the upper half of the park goes under the knife.
Summer of 2015, Dolores Park's upper and lower sections are scheduled to be completely finished and open to the public. This includes even more new bathrooms, a picnic table area, new walking paths, trash cans, and bike racks ect. But for some, the most exciting addition to the park will be San Francisco's first open air urinal, or "pPod". They're installing it at the very top of the hill in the "gay beach" section of the park, which could mean wonderful views for stand up pee-ers. And for everyone else…you may continue quietly glancing downhill.
All these changes to the park inspired me to learn about the history of Mission Dolores Park and the changes it has undergone over the years.
(Make sure to click all the photos below to see them bigger!)
1860 – 1904 The Spooky Years
Dolores park was a Jewish Cemetery for 44 years. Yes, that's right. If you were ever wondering if it were haunted you can stop, there's a 98% chance it is. When the population of the Mission began to really boom, they commissioned for all the bodies to be moved out, it was just like today's gentrification of the area, only instead of moving out low income families it was dead Jewish people.
Dolores Park when it was Home and Peace Jewish Cemetery from 1860 – 1904
When half the city burned down following the 1906 earthquake some 500 temporary cottages were built on Dolores to house the refugees, (there were 10 other refugee camps built in other parks around the city, but it's widely known that Dolores Refugee Camp was the coolest)
1909 – 1915 Mission Dolores Gets Parky
Did you know that where the fancy playground is today, there used to be a large wading pool? I suppose for fine dandies to roll up their knickers and get their feet wet. In the 1920's the fun police got rid of it and built the first rendition of a playground. This area of the park has been lousy with children ever since. It was also during this period that the tennis and basketball courts were built.
The playground we know today was built in 2012 and named for the bay area philanthropist Helen Diller.
1925 – 1939 A Black And White Version of Mission High School Was Built
Shortly after the Wizard of Oz came out in 1939, Mission High School was colored in and it still looks great today.
1940– The First Bi-Rite Market Opens on 18th St. near the park. Neighborhood Self-Satisfaction Skyrockets
Bi-Rite Market, Dolores Park's local grocery is like, amazing
1960 – 1966 Viva Dolores!
While the hippies were getting Golden Gate Park ready for the summer of love, the Latino community was busy erecting a replica of the Mexican Liberty Bell and a statue of Miguel Hidalgo the Jesuit-trained Leader of the Mexican War of Independence.
1970's – 1980's No Park Construction Happens
There is a noticeable increase in crushed velvet in the park, and then a period of sequin was observed, but outside of that no major changes to the park's infrastructure occurs.
1996 – 2013 The Tech Years
Dolores Park starts to see upwards of 10,000 visitors a weekend, local residents complain that the "kids these days don't respect anything". Journalist from abroad come to the park to write 3 articles a day about San Francisco's gentrification problem.
2015 – The Era Of Decent Bathrooms
Dolores is getting a 21st century make-over, which means more manicured cement pathways and areas 'designated' for particular activities over others. This does strike a bit of a blow to the general disorderly chaos that Dolores park has enjoyed over the last century. But, if we must lose some of the park's quirky characteristics, we at least gain an interesting place to go to the bathroom. And don't worry ladies the new bathrooms promise to accommodate thousands on a daily basis which will be a well received improvement from the long bathroom lines in the past. Below, compare the past to sketches of what the future holds in store for us.
1865 Parisian "pissoir" 2015 San Franciscan "pPod"
For more in formation about Dolores Park these are some great sources:
A Thorough And Well Documented History Of Dolores Park Commissioned By SFRPD
Official San Francisco Recreation And Parks Site
Shout-out to Sf Public Library for taking care of all the amazing black and white photos used in this article.
title pic from FunCheapSF
2 Comments
[…] to the historic Dolores Park, which has actually been around for centuries. There have been several Dolores Park renovations and new additions, but the history behind the park remains the […]
Could we rename Dolores Park" Scott Wiener, whom pass ruling closure of city parks least going install public toilets! Why landscaping in private contracts, no longer city employee's lame bureaucracy of Ed Lee!


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Ball State-Central Michigan: 3 things to watch
MUNCIE, Ind. — After missing an opportunity to knock off a winless Northern Illinois squad, Ball State travels to Central Michigan with a sense of urgency.
The Cardinals (3-2, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) head to Mt. Pleasant, Mich., as 12.5-point underdogs looking for a win in the MAC West. An 0-2 start in division play wouldn't be ideal, but it certainly wouldn't push bowl eligibility out of reach. It's easier to say that from the outside looking in, of course, because players certainly have bigger goals than a bowl game — they want to push for a league title.
Four-year quarterback Cooper Rush and the Chippewas (3-2, 0-1) present as good an opportunity to prove themselves as the Cardinals will have until Western Michigan comes to Muncie Nov. 1.
Here are three things to keep an eye on at 3:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN3, WLBC):
Breaking down Riley Neal's sophomore season
Ball State's ability to slow down the pass
The Cardinals struggled mightily against the Huskies' Anthony Maddie, who passed for just short of 300 yards while leading all rushers with 163. The performance is highlighted by the fact that Maddie was listed at wide receiver before the team's starting quarterback got hurt and the second stringer underperformed.
The defense surely will have its hands full against Rush, who is passing for 306 yards per game. He's got a few legit receiving options in juniors Corey Willis, Tyler Conklin and Mark Chapman. Last week, it was really tough for corner Marc Walton to keep up with Huskies' wide receiver Kenny Golladay. On the other hand, Rush isn't quite the mobile threat Maddie is.
It's not just about the secondary, though. Northern Illinois consistently picked up Ball State's pass rush. After notching 17 sacks through the first four games, the Cardinals were shut out last week. The defense will either have to produce up front or find another way to help the secondary moving forward.
How about James Gilbert?
Despite limited production from Darian Green and Teddy Williamson this past week, Gilbert picked up 119 rushing yards on 22 carries. He's currently second in the MAC with 449 rushing yards and leads the way with six touchdowns.
He leads the Cardinals with 96 carries, while Green has 40 and Williamson has 16. Freshman Malik Dunner continues to struggle with ball security, as he got pulled against Northern Illinois after fumbling on his only carry of the game. It seems more and more like Gilbert is taking a larger piece of the pie in the backfield. Neal has 49 carries, too, though he was ineffective against NIU.
Gilbert's big day against ex-Tech teammates
Central Michigan's rush defense, by the way, is allowing 135.6 yards per game on 4.1 per carry. The Chippewas are holding opponents to 218 yards per game passing, so if the Cardinals don't have to play a ton of catch up, Gilbert could have another big day.
A break for the O-Line?
Ball State's offensive line was solid through the first four games, but gave up five sacks against Northern Illinois. Neal took some of the blame for a couple misidentified blitzes, but he also was under more pressure than he had been all year.
Central Michigan only has seven sacks through five games, which is tied for ninth in the conference. The Chippewas have just 30 tackles for loss (Ball State has 45).
On the other hand, the Cardinals could be without fifth-year right tackle Steve Bell, who was in a boot during Thursday's practice. Head coach Mike Neu said he would be a game-time decision. If Bell can't go, he'll likely be replaced by redshirt sophomore Kadin Booker.
Contact Ball State sports reporter Dakota Crawford at email@example.com and find him on Twitter: @DakotaCrawford_.
Ball State at Central Michigan
• Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Shorts Stadium.
• TV, radio: ESPN3, WLBC-FM (104.1).
• Line: Ball State (+12.5).


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2021 Branch Award Winners
Matt Salmon, P.E.
Professor Hai "Thomas" Lin, Ph.D., P.E.
Joshua Olivier, E.I.
Chad A. Bacas, P.E., MBA
Herodotos A. Pentas, Ph.D., P.E.
Herodotos A. Pentas, Ph.D., P.E.
2020 Branch Award Winners
The Branch Award winners for this year are:
Lifetime Achievement: Chris Knotts, PE
Wall of Fame Award Nominee: James Webb, PE retired
Outstanding Civil: Rudy Simoneaux III, PE
Outstanding Young Civil: Alicia Sellers, PE
Outreach: Robb Jewell, PE
Civil Engineering Educator: Brian Wolshon, PhD, PE., PTOE
2019 Branch Award Winners
Pictured Left to Right:
Roger Seals, Gregory Mattson, Mary Danka, Alicia Sellers, Jesse Arnold
ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineer Award: Mary C. Danka, PE
ASCE Outstanding Young Civil Engineer Award: Gregory Mattson, II, PE
ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator Award: Chao Sun, PhD
ASCE Outreach Award: Alicia R. Sellers, EI
ASCE Lifetime Achievement Award: Roger K Seals, PhD, PE, F.ASCE
ASCE Wall of Fame Award: Jesse L. Arnold, PE
2018 Branch Award Winners
Outreach Award: Stokka Brown
Mr. Brown joined the "Engineer It" team and held a workshop at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum. He designed and built a stream table to teach children about stream meandering, sediment transport, and delta formation. Stokka performed demonstrations and interacted with kids of all ages, describing the physics and imporatance of these processes.
Outstanding Young Civil Engineer: Ben McArdle
Mr. McArdle received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University in 2009. He has served on the ASCE Baton Rouge Branch Board at several positions over recent years. Ben is engaged with the community, serving on an engineering panels at a high school career day, allowing high school students to shadow him on the job, and volunteering as a Reading Friend with Volunteers in Public Schools. Mr. McArdle is licensed in four states (LA, TX, ND, and KY). Some of the projects Ben has been able to work on include an $80MM new Flare Gas Recovery Unit, the replacement of a diamond interchange with a four-level, fully-directional interchange in Mississippi, and performing complex bridge inspections on 24 bridges in Mississippi.
Outstanding Civil Engineer: Cindy M. Hall
Ms. Hall received her bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University. She has served on the APWA Baton Rouge Branch since 2012, and has served on the Board of the State Chapter of APWA since 2018. Ms. Hall is a member of The Chapel in the Oaks church, serving in children's ministry and community outreach capacities; and she has volunteered for numerous fundraising efforts, such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society's MSWalk. Ms. Hall was the Project Manager of the first turnkey roadway project for LADOTD (US 165 Grayson to Columbia) and the second Continuous Flow Intersection in the United States (Airline Highway at Siegen Lane), and she has participated in three Design-Build projects for LADOTD. She enjoys taking on new challeges, makes an effort to be innovative, and tries to pass on what she has learned over the years to the younger engineers she works with.
Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator Award: Clinton S. Willson
Dr. Wilson is the Mike N. Dooley, P.E. Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at LSU, where he has been teaching and conducting research since 1998. Clint received his bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1985 before serving as an Officer in The United State's Marine Corps. After seven years of service, Dr. Wilson earned his master's degree in Environmental Health Engineering in 1994 and his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1997, both from the University of Texas at Austin. He has had a great impact on many students over the years. He also currently serves as the Director of LSU Center for River Studies.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Glen R. Landry, JD, PE, LS, M.ASCE
Lifetime Achievement Award: Hunter C. Thom, PE, M.ASCE
Lifetime Achievement Award: Roy A. Waggenspack, PE, M.ASCE
Wall of Fame Recipient: Ronald J. Rodi
Mr. Rodi has been involved with number aspects of the profession and community of engineering over the course of his career. He has held membership in ASCE, WEF, LES/NSPE, AWWA, and ACEC for much of his career, serving in many leadership positions and being involved with government relations. In 2008, Ronald and his wife, Renee, established the James & Margaret Mohn Scholsarship in Civil Engineering at LA Tech University throught the Louisiana Engineering Founcdation. Mr. Rodi initiated discussion within the LSU Dean's Advisory Group at LSU regarding the implementation of a Master's Degree in Coastal Engineering, eventually leading to the first Master of Science in Coastal & Ecological degree being awarded in 2012. He has been committed to serving in a voluntary capactiy on various public and community boards and comittees to advance the educational, technical, and professional development aspects of our profession.


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LeBron scores season-high 39 as Lakers beat Pacers in OT
LeBron James scored seven of his season-high 39 points in overtime, and the Los Angeles Lakers closed their five-game road swing with a 124-116 defeat of the Indiana Pacers Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Los Angeles trailed early in the second leg of a back-to-back and spent most of the game playing from behind.
The Lakers chipped away at the deficit, pulling ahead in the late fourth quarter. James scored seven of Los Angeles' points in a row to power the Lakers to a six-point lead with 1:17 left, but Indiana responded when Justin Holiday and Chris Duarte each hit a 3-pointer in the final 27.3.
Duarte's off-balance jumpshot from the corner, part of a 17-point night for the rookie, forced overtime.
Los Angeles controlled the extra period, holding the Pacers to just four points. James, who missed the would-be game-winner at the end of regulation, connected on a step-back 3-pointer and fadeaway jumper in the waning moments to keep Indiana's rally efforts at bay.
James added five rebounds and a team-high six assists. Russell Westbrook scored 20 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished five assists in the win, which came without Anthony Davis.
Davis missed Wednesday's game due to a non-COVID illness.
The Lakers bench responded, scoring 53 combined points. Malik Monk set the pace with 17, while Carmelo Anthony and Wayne Ellington each chipped in 14 points.
Malcolm Brogdon scored 28 points, leading the way among seven Pacers scoring in double-figures. Holiday hit four 3-pointers en route to 16 points, T.J. McConnell and Caris LeVert each scored 10 points, Myles Turner added 12 points and Domantas Sabonis recorded his 14th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
With the loss, Indiana remained without three consecutive wins at any point in the season. The Pacers came into Wednesday's game with blowout wins over New Orleans and Chicago in their previous two games.
Los Angeles finished its road swing 2-3 with Wednesday's win.
--Field Level Media