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Friday, July 20, 2012
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)0 comments Posted by EdWood at 20:13
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christin Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine, Cillian Murphy, Juno Temple, Aidan Gillen, Liam Neeson, Nestor Carbonell, Josh Stewart
At the time of Heath Ledger's death, when rumors already started to circulate about the possible plot of the third movie in Nolan's series, it was said that The Joker was supposed to be included in this film. Now it's easy to see why. The anarchy released in previous installments, as large as it had been, was only a prelude to the third act where pretty much every major villain in the series thus far shows up. Shit, they even bring back Neeson's dead Ra's Al Ghul. Kind of. Gotham's destiny is threatened even more than ever before. The stakes are up. Not only for the people of Gotham and our legendary caped crusader but also for Nolan.
The pressure was on Nolan to deliver a die hard ending to his acclaimed trilogy not only after The Dark Knight but also after the success of Inception and though Nolan doesn't quite reach the same absolute brilliance of those pieces, Rises is still a masterful, well thought-out conclusion to the series with the third act climaxing to a beautiful and valiant hint at the future. Especially the very last shot before credits almost brought a tear to my eye.
The Dark Knight Rises at IMDb
Thursday, July 19, 2012
THIS MEANS WAR (2012)0 comments Posted by EdWood at 14:45
Directed by McG
Starring Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon, Til Schweiger, Angela Bassett, Chelsea Handler
This Means War is a project I had high expectations for. Though honestly the director on the project didn't inspire much confidence, 'cause even though personally I loved McG's Terminator Salvation, the two Charlie's Angels films were fucking awful mostly because of his stupid directorial ideas. The thing that made me expect great things from this caper about two spy buddies falling for the same woman, were the two leading men. Chris Pine (Star Trek) has magnificent hidden comedic potential and Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises).. well he's just a master class character actor of our time and if he signed up, there must be something worth a look. And indeed, This Means War is a funny, laid back and well acted spy comedy. Witherspoon does her usual stint and is forgettable but as expected Pine and Hardy are on top form and even McG manages to hit the right notes in terms of comedy and action beats. Right on.
This Means War at IMDb
Saturday, July 14, 2012
BATTLEFIELD EARTH: A SAGA OF THE YEAR 3000 (2000)0 comments Posted by EdWood at 14:30
Directed by Roger Christian
Starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Richard Tyson
I'd be easy as shit to just give this film one statue but it simply isn't true. Battlefield Earth is waaay too funny to be the worst film ever made. In fact, I honestly think the straight-to-DVD market offers every month much more serious candidates for the Alan Smithee category. Those movies tend to be made only for the profit and offer next to nothing new to the genres they represent. Battlefield Earth at least was made with genuine enthusiasm, though very misguided. The production design of this film is naturally meant to give a feel of a post-apocalyptic world but it backfires since as a result the movie simply looks cheap. Add to that the stupid costume design (especially of the evil, earth invading psychlos), horrible home made special effects.. eh, I'd get a carpal tunnel syndrome if I'd actually attempt to list everything that's wrong with this fucking thing. Suffice to say Battlefield Earth is a camp classic right up (or down depending on your preference) with Plan 9 From Outer Space. But enough about Forest Whitaker.
As silly as this alien invasion is, I'd still love to see a film made of the true Scientology dribble which is of course the incomprehesible story of Xenu in which these people actually (claim to) believe in. Go on, look the damn thing up if you don't believe me. Then again South Park already did a wonderful job with it in the brilliant, infamous episode Trapped In The Closet (s9e12) which known Scientologist Tom Cruise tried to ban from American TV.
Battlefield Earth: A Saga Of The Year 3000 at IMDb
Friday, July 13, 2012
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)0 comments Posted by EdWood at 17:59
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Steven Berkoff, Joely Richardson, Goran Visnjic
Since the Millennium book trilogy written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson became such an international hit and especially after the Swedes did a very succesful and brilliant film trilogy of it, the Hollywood remake was just a matter of who, how and when. Well: the brilliant director of Se7en and Fight Club, filmed mainly on location in Sweden and fucking immediately.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at IMDb
Män Som Hatar Kvinnor at IMDb
Monday, July 9, 2012
VUOSAARI (2012)0 comments Posted by EdWood at 01:06
Directed by Aku Louhimies
Starring Amanda Pilke, Laura Birn, Sean Pertwee, Deogracias Masomi, Jasper Pääkkönen, Taneli Mäkelä
Vuosaari or Naked Harbour as it is internationally known is part of what could be called "the misery series" from director Louhimies. The film tells intertwining stories of bunch of characters and in part deals with cancer and it has been said that this is because Louhimies himself is a cancer survivor and the film was his way of letting out feelings concerning the experience.
Vuosaari at IMDb


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Whisper, an anonymous app that lets users share secrets, had a post today claiming actress Gwyneth Paltrow is cheating on her husband with entertainment lawyer Kevin Yorn.
The Whisper post started to get a lot of attention after the app's new editor in chief and Gawker's former viral news star Neetzan Zimmerman tweeted it earlier today:
Vanity Fair chickened out, so Whisper got the scoop: An anonymous source says Gwyneth Paltrow is cheating. http://t.co/KhMbq9ooVY
— Neetzan Zimmerman (@neetzan) February 18, 2014
Zimmerman's tweet refers to Vanity Fair's decision to kill a profile about Paltrow last year.
If the Whisper post is true, it marks the first time someone has used the app to break national news, and it draws questions about the future of the app and community-journalism. On the other hand, since users post anonymously to Whisper, there's no way to verify whether or not the post is true. The app has traditionally been used for making confessions about one's self, not gossip about other people. The Paltrow post makes Whisper more like Secret and other anonymous apps which let users post recklessly about others. Traditionally, those companies have all been shut down from lawsuits, libel, and defamation.
Whisper CEO Michael Heyward told Business Insider that while the app has always supported discussions around celebrities, it doesn't support ill-intentioned rumor mongering. Whisper's editors can remove posts that might be defamatory.
"We have, (and always will have) a zero tolerance policy towards bullying and personal defamation on Whisper," he said. "That said, we have always allowed honest and open discussion as it relates to public figures or other entities in the public domain. Our policies around moderation will never change and are in place to make sure that no user ever feels hurt by the actions of another user on the service."
Whisper users weren't impressed with the rumor about Paltrow. Most users responded with, "who cares?"

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
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text:
WATCH: The five month murder trial of "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius is coming to an end as closing arguments got underway in the case of the double amputee Olympic runner.
PRETORIA, South Africa – The chief prosecutor in Oscar Pistorius' murder trial said Thursday in closing arguments that the athlete repeatedly lied during testimony in a crude attempt to defend against a murder charge for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Trial end approaches for Oscar Pistorius
Family says Pistorius, free on bail, had altercation at nightclub
Defence closes case in Oscar Pistorius murder trial
Video footage shows Pistorius re-enacting killing
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel cited flaws in the defence, saying the Olympian's legal team floated more than one theory about what happened on the night that Pistorius shot Steenkamp through a closed toilet door in his home. Defence lawyers had argued that Pistorius fired in self-defence, fearing an intruder, Nel said, but they also raised the possibility that he was not criminally responsible and accidentally shot because he was "startled."
"It's two defences that you can never reconcile," Nel said as Pistorius sat behind him in the dock, occasionally flicking through documents. The once-celebrated double-amputee athlete appeared calm, in contrast to some past occasions during which he retched and wailed in apparent distress.
READ MORE: Family says Pistorius, free on bail, had altercation at nightclub
The prosecution has argued that Pistorius intentionally shot Steenkamp before dawn on Feb. 14, 2013 after a quarrel, and argued he knew she was in the bathroom.
Nel ended his closing argument by saying Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder because he then "made up his mind" to find his gun, walk through to the bathroom and shoot.
"That, my lady, is pre-planning," Nel said to the judge.
Yet Nel said Pistorius should still be convicted of murder even if the court accepts he did not know it was Steenkamp in the toilet cubicle, arguing the athlete intentionally shot at and killed a person with no reason to believe his life was under threat.
READ MORE: Video footage shows Pistorius re-enacting killing
Barry Roux, the chief defence lawyer, listened and checked files as Nel spoke for hours. Nel was occasionally questioned by Judge Thokozile Masipa and urged to speed up elaborations on written arguments of more than 100 pages that were submitted to the court last week.
Roux began his final arguments before Masipa postponed proceedings until Friday for the defence to finish. Masipa will then adjourn the trial to deliberate with two legal assistants on a verdict, with Pistorius facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the main charge of premeditated murder.
Roux noted that some of the evidence at the scene, which Nel referred to, had been moved around by investigators.
"We're not talking about a conspiracy," Roux said, calling it unintentional tampering. Roux also noted that Hilton Botha, the former chief investigating officer in the case, had acknowledged mistakes in police procedure but was not called by the state as a trial witness.
According to Nel, Pistorius was vague in allegations that police had possibly tampered with evidence around the scene of the shooting, including fans and a bedcover strewn on the floor of his bedroom. It was also improbable that the athlete, in his version, rushed with his gun to investigate a purported sound in the bathroom without first trying to talk to Steenkamp and confirm that she was safe, the prosecutor said.
"We cannot argue that he was the worst witness ever, that honour belongs to someone else," said the prosecution's written argument. "The accused was, however, demonstrably one of the worst witnesses ever encountered."
The prosecution said Pistorius also "used well-calculated and rehearsed emotional outbursts to deflect the attention and avoid having to answer questions."
A psychologist who examined Pistorius during a court-ordered observation period concluded that the athlete had become severely traumatized since the killing and could become an increasing suicide risk unless he continues to get mental health care.
The fathers of the Olympic runner and Steenkamp, a model and television personality, were in the Pretoria courtroom for the first time since the trial began in early March. They sat at opposite ends of a long bench in the gallery. Pistorius is said to be estranged from his father, Henke, and Steenkamp's father, Barry, has been ill.
Pistorius' older brother Carl, who has regularly attended court sessions, was in an intensive care unit in a South African hospital and was on a ventilator because of injuries suffered in a serious car crash last week, the Pistorius family said in a statement.
In addition to the murder charge, Pistorius faces three separate gun-related charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Because South Africa has no trial by jury, Judge Masipa will decide if Pistorius committed murder, is guilty of a negligent killing, or if he made a tragic error and should be acquitted. The runner also would be sent to prison for years if guilty of murder without premeditation or culpable homicide.
Masipa told Nel and Roux that they had only until the end of Friday to complete their final arguments in court.
"Unless, of course, you want to work on a Saturday and perhaps Sunday, after church," she said, smiling.
Imray reported from Stellenbosch, South Africa.


text:
This post first appeared on Damon Young's blog Very Smart Brothers, where it prompted 593 comments, one of which became the title of this post.
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If you happened to eavesdrop on a random group of black people having a free-flowing conversation — and this conversation could take place anywhere; a family reunion, a happy hour, a game night, a cafeteria table, wherever — there's a good chance that the discussion will eventually shift to our feelings about black people doing dumb shit in public.
The topic might be something someone saw on the evening news. If at a restaurant, it might revolve around a woman near the entrance who's dressed and acting a "hot ass mess." It might just be our hilarious thoughts about the latest episode of Basketball Wives.
While these discussions might seem innocuous and unnecessary, the need to frequently engage in conversations about cringe-worthy shit committed by people of color comes from a latent feeling that's never actually spoken aloud but understood by each.
We'd rather not air our "dirty laundry" around white people, and we're slightly amazed, shocked, and embarrassed by those who do.
This feeling, passed down to us by our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, has wide-reaching effects, as it influences the way we act, causes many of us to "code switch," and creates a certain level of collective racial hyper self-consciousness that (I'm assuming) white people never have to adopt.
I realize that many of them (white people) don't really "get" this way of thinking, not understanding why we'd be so reluctant to be candid and let our hair down around them. I mean, I'm pretty sure "White America" doesn't shake its collective head in disappointment and shame whenever Lindsey Lohan feels the need to show a homeless man her vagina (again). But, a recent experience I've had should help them understand why many of us feel the way we
A couple weeks ago, Lisa Hickey — publisher and CEO of Good Men Media — asked if I'd be interested writing something for an upcoming discussion of race at The Good Men Project. Now, this wasn't an out of the blue request. I've written for The Good Men Project before, and Lisa and I exchange emails regularly and have a pretty good working relationship.
But while I was definitely interested in contributing, I had a major mental reservation: I'd never written about race for a (predominately) white audience before.
Yes, I'm aware that VSB (VerySmartBrothas.com) has a large and multi-racial readership base. But, the majority of the people who frequent here belong to the same demographic (21 to 35 year old African-American), and that knowledge does influence word choice and tone. I might be a bit more conscious of some of the things I so freely discuss here if I knew I was speaking to a different audience.
Anyway, I got past the reservation and ended up writing a 1000 word piece about a "racial neurosis" that many of us carry, and how it affects the way we react to things.
"The overt and soul-crippling racism that plagued our parents and grandparents isn't nearly as prominent today. Anyone who'd argue otherwise is a fool. But, this history has resulted in a collective neurosis whose symptoms are similar to how dealing with a crazy girlfriend or boyfriend for too long starts to make you crazy as well. You start hacking into their email account just to make sure they haven't hacked into yours again. They accuse you of lying so much that you start to wonder "Wait, am I sure that happened? Did I really go to work today, or did I spend the entire day with my mistress?"
From a race perspective, a manifestation of this mindset is you wondering if all things that happen to you are somehow related to you being black; a too heightened racial awareness that makes it increasingly difficult to discern between legitimate racism and race-based discrimination — both of which definitely still exist — and mere happenstance."
I ended this essay with a paragraph or two about what often happens when we eat at restaurants. As many of you know, we have a stereotype of being bad tippers. This reputation may or may not be deserved, but I theorized that we might be bad tippers because we have a history of getting bad service, so we anticipate it now. I called this phenomenon "Eating While Black," and Lisa liked that term so much that she thought I should just make it the title of the article. I agreed.
"Eating While Black" was eventually published last Monday, and it was pretty well-received; ending the week as the 3rd most popular article at The Good Men Project that week. The comments it generated didn't really touch on the racial neurosis aspect, though, as most were focused on why Eating While Black occurs.
One commentator in particular — a guy who went by G.L. Piggy — shared a few of his thoughts as a white waiter who's had many experiences with black customers.
"I've been a waiter for 7 years at a second-tier Italian restaurant. In my experience, black do tip worse. Yes, white servers cringe when they see black people being seated at their tables. But the same is true of black servers as well. This has much less to do with the amount of the tip one is expected to receive though.
These are all generalities – not all black people are like this. But racial differences in restaurant behavior are noticable. Black people tend to be more needy, pickier, and quick to anger. They take much longer to order their food. We call it "being ran". Many servers get the feeling that black patrons are asking for extra things – napkins, ranch dressing, extra sauce – just to put us to work. They seem much less understanding about your time constraints and your need to take care of your other patrons. There seems to be, among blacks more than other races, a mentality of "I want it now". And while the "get shit for free" mentality transcends race, blacks tend to hold it more than other races of people"
Although I found the statement about black people and "getting shit for free" a little troubling, I appreciated his candor and willingness to share his opinions. We went back and forth a few times after that, cordially debating the root causes of Eating While Black, and the discussion eventually died down towards the end of the week.
This Monday, however, I received an email notification that "Eating While Black" had received another trackback. I clicked on it, and it took me to "Not Tipping While Black" — a 600 word long response G.L. Piggy's had just posted on his blog.
I read it, expecting to see a continuation of the discussion we had the week before. Instead, I noticed a shift in tone and direction, as it subtly started to become a critique of "black culture" in general.
"But it is ridiculous to grant poor tippers some sort of deep philosophical justification for their cheapness and/or hostility towards (white) social norms of any sort. The fact is that tipping is an American norm which means that black patrons who willingly flout it are free-riding on the rest of society."
Curious where this discussion was headed, I decided to stick around and read the comments.
From G.L. Piggy:
"But whenever they find hairs or plastic (at an amazingly high rate) or if their food isn't prepared to their liking, you pretty much have to drop everything to cater to them. It's really like waiting on infants"
From "a.nonny.mous"
"…black patrons of restaurants aren't oriented to the bill for their food, literally because their minds have trouble conceiving it. So they get it and are astounded because they never thought "how will this steak and wine affect my future bank account" in a way a non-black would."
From "EzE"
"Really, is it necessary to plumb the depths of evolutionary psychology to figure out why blacks are lousy tippers, rude customers? Do you really think that some alleged inability to consider future consequences comes into play?
Blacks are jerks, that's all. There's no need to science it all up. Also the infantile mind theory is no good, they're not infants, they are of below average intelligence often but above retardation. No, there's no big mystery here, they're just jerks is all."
The reluctance to freely share, to have open and honest discussions about anything race-related, is basically just us not wanting to provide any opportunity for "White America" to gather more evidence to support their latent belief that we're just not supposed to be here.
These are just a few of the 350 or so comments this topic generated, but they provide a good snapshot of the tone of the entire discussion there. What's jarring is the fact that these don't seem to be unintelligent people. Many of the people who frequent that site have well thought out and "researched" theories about why blacks are intellectually inferior, and they seem to be mentally, intellectually, and emotionally invested in proving this to be true.
Ironically, the comments in "Not Tipping While Black" actually prove why Eating While Black even exists. While they're interpreting our "pickiness" and occasional animosity towards (white) servers as entitlement and us trying to "get over on the man," it's really just distrust — distrust of white establishments, distrust of white people's ultimate intentions, etc — and statements like this "…black patrons of restaurants aren't oriented to the bill for their food, literally because their minds have trouble conceiving it." do nothing but fan that flame.
Anyway, I'm pointing this out because it's the exact reason why I — and many other black people— have serious reservations about being candid around most whites. Yes, I realize that not all white people share these views. In fact, I'm optimistic that the vast majority of them don't. But, more than enough of us share the belief that deep down, many of them do.
And, the reluctance to freely share, to have open and honest discussions about anything race-related, to "air our dirty laundry in public" is basically just us not wanting to provide any opportunity for "White America" to gather more evidence to support their latent belief that we're just not supposed to be here.
Strangely enough, this experience didn't depress or dishearten me in the least. Maybe I just anticipated it and braced myself for it. And, maybe the "losing sleep over what racists think about me" part of my brain is underdeveloped too.
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Gears of War: Judgement is the newest edition to the Gears family and is set before the events of the trilogy, following the events directly after Emergence Day. It follows Kilo squad which is the home of Baird and Cole from the original games as well as introducing two new people, Paduk and Sofia. All of whom you will play as during the campaign learning about each character as they tell their testimony through game progression.
Being an avid Gears fan having followed the story from the beginning in Aspho Fields during the Pendulum Wars to the end in Azura, it was nice to be able to play and see what happened with some of the characters before they were the saviors we expected. Having said that I know I may seem biased and that I will not be giving a fair review, but this game has quite a few downfalls so hear me out. I will keep this as spoiler free as possible.
What I liked about this game is that you have options for how the campaign will play out. You play as all four characters learning about their experiences while chasing down Karn, the antagonist in this game. But while you are doing this there are what is being deemed "declassified missions" where you will use different weapons or the enemies will be given different weapons, they can also be made harder or come in larger groups, there are also a few declassified missions where your vision or health regeneration is impaired to ramp up the difficulty. The reason this is cool is because the game plays as an interactive narrative while the squad tells their testimony in court so the "declassified missions" are allegations that would have otherwise been omitted. Though this serves no real purpose, it feels like a cool add-on.
Also they have included what feels like DLC for Gears 3 called "Aftermath" which is a small set of missions set in Gears 3 time and it has you playing as Baird with Cole and Carmine in a squad. They go in search of a boat and backup for their landing in Azura and decide to seek Paduk back in Halvo bay. This was a nice glimpse into what was unknown and looked over in 3 and is appreciated from both a fan and consumer stand point as it was not paid DLC, even though you can tell that was its original purpose.
Something else I like is that the weapons have been slightly redone so they feel more evenly powered, the first one that comes to mind is the sawed-off. In Gears 3, the sawed-off was introduced as a super powerful one shot weapon that will do maximum damage at very close range. While this is accurate I never felt like it was quite right until I got a hold of it in Judgement, it has been redone and now offers two shots while still feeling super powerful at a close range.
The new Overrun mode in the multiplayer is awesome, I love objective based multiplayer where you jockey with a team for control over something tangible. Also the new Survival mode is fun as hell, it is pretty much horde mode in Overrun and now that I have said that I feel a bit cheated.
So in this new iteration in the franchise there have been a rather large number of changes. The major of which (at least for me) is that the four weapon system is now gone so you only have a primary and secondary instead of being able to equip three guns and grenades. While grenades are still there, the third gun being taken away feels wrong. Though many people probably never got around to really using the pistol that was equipped it just feels wrong not to have it there. The game seems to make up for this by offering more ammo especially if the declassified mission you accept has the locusts using COG weapons then ammo is plentiful.
A few of the multiplayer modes have been removed as part of the changes like Horde and Beast mode. While Gears feels (to me) to have really defined the Horde mode I cannot seem to wrap my mind around why it is not included in the game, this mode has been one of the most influential from Gears and not having it in this game just seems, wrong. Since Gears 3 had introduced an awesome new mode that lets you play as the locust against AI COG opponents we all kind of expected to have it included with the new game, I even expected it to be better since most games upgrade with new versions being released. Overrun mode does let you play as the locust and break the fortifications and all that but it just does not have that same awesome feel that beast mode did.
One major downfall for the game is that it feels terribly short. While the Gears franchise is not exactly known for having super long campaign play, this just felt exceptionally short. While you play through the testimony of the Gears depicting what happened leading up to the court hearing, you catch up to modern time entirely too fast and the game ends shortly after.
Another issue I have is the character choice. Paduk and Sofia do not resonate with me what-so-ever, not that they feel tacked on or added in as fluffer to make to story longer or anything, they just seem temporary and like the relationship just does not matter. You play through each person and get to know them and their agenda (Paduk is an ex-UIR soldier and Sofia is an Onyx Guard cadet) and while that is a good aspect for the narrative and fits it well, you cannot really connect with them knowing that they have no other place in the storyline outside of this particular game.
My personal most hated thing about the game was that they included new enemies. While it was good seeing the Kryll again since it was dated before the lightmass bombing, I felt that adding new enemies did not fit into the series well because it raises questions such as "Well where were they in the other games?" and "How were those specific types killed off?" The new additions did add a bit more variety and that was fine but from a purist view I cannot justify their existence in this universe as there is no answer to the questions posed.
The main enemy you chase after is named Karn, as we learn from Paduk he is a very powerful and feared general of the locusts. But his great power is never actually shown, he is seen commanding a few groups of locusts but his destruction is hidden so he just seems like some guy riding a big bug. There are a few more issues I have with the addition of Karn but I want this to be spoiler free so I will just leave it at where it is for now.
I actually have a bit of a large probelm with Sofia. Before I delve into that though I would like to preface it with the fact that the person writing the Gears games and books, Karen Traviss, did not pen this one and boy does it show. The story throughout the games has been overlapping and arcing to show you what happened in older more important times as well as present day so you know what is going on when old battles or hardships are referenced. The characters always feel real with their distinct personalities and you can level with them on a few levels.
Judgement however, is not like that. Judgement was penned by two new guys and it shows, it shows in a bad way. The always hilarious and level-headed Cole was mostly silent until you played his testimony and even then he just did not feel like the same guy, he just seemed dry and unattached, almost broody. Baird, known for his razor tongue and quick sarcasm was more friendly and cheerful, that just is not the Baird we all know and love/hate. Then we have Sofia. Rather than incorporate one of the already established female characters (Anya, Bernie, Sam) the writers chose to go with a new conventionally attractive red-head who wears a skin-tight black catsuit under her armor; unlike Anya, Sam, and Bernie in Gears 3, Sofia does not cover much of her lower body with pockets or accoutrements, so the player gets a nice view of just how tight her pants are.
The most notable thing about this feisty red head is not her looks but that she is an inexperienced cadet that always seems to be needing a talking-to from another character. Everyone else in the game outranks her, out-ages her, and outweighs her by well more than half and yet she still tries to make her naive opinions heard. This theme continues up until the last lines of the game, which I will not give away.
Gears are meant to be strong and resolved in their actions and she just seems out-of-place constantly being corrected and letting her emotions get in her way, this is not what women Gears are meant to be. It is demonstrated that she has a history of letting her emotions get in the way, in the campaign you find yourself tracking down something to help with your objective that leads you to the mansion of one of her old professors whom had a crush on her even though he was married and had kids. Anyway so everyone gets into the mansion and find the professor dead which sounds like it would be a cinematic moment for Sofia right? Wrong! Not even a little bit, it is like there is a scene missing or something, she just moved on with no care to the man's demise. Maybe the writers were trying to show that she can be tough and not as cliche as she seems but they missed the mark by not acknowledging it at all after the lead-in. Or maybe we are just supposed to believe that she is now interested in someone else, perhaps an older man in the squad, perhaps Paduk.
Without getting into a complete diatribe over the whole situation, I dislike this premise because it is so very cliche, woman with a troubled past falls for squad-mate whom she is not supposed to be with blah blah blah. This feels like a step backward. Gears of War 3 gave multiple women guns, agency, and personality. Gears of War: Judgment gives its one woman a gun, an old lover who seemed like a jerk, a new lover who seems like a jerk as well, and then … off-screen torture, fade to black. All in a pair of sexy, skin-tight pants. I don't expect that much of my military shooters, but Gears 3 had knocked the bar up a few notches. Judgment failed to meet the level that its predecessor set. Had Judgment included at least one other woman (or more!), Sofia's hackneyed story-line might have stuck out less. I have no issue with women being sexualized in games, that is a certain style that people like including myself on occasion. But Gears is not the place for that.
Okay moving away from the sexism and cliche's to a final verdict! Overall I would say I like Judgement, I had fun playing the short campaign and plan on playing through it again on Insane and playing the multiplayer for a while as well. If you are interested in the story then it is a solid buy, if you are only kind of interested then wait until it drops to the $30 price.


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Fix the "App can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" Error in Mac OS X
Mac OS X defaults to preventing applications from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. You'll discover the message in OS X when you try to launch a Mac app that didn't come from a verified source or from the Mac App Store, and you'll get an alert dialog that says "[App name] can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer".
This new security feature is called GateKeeper, and it doesn't mean you can't run those unverified apps on the Mac, you just have to either temporarily skirt the security blanket of GateKeeper, or turn off the app limitations entirely.
Temporarily Get Around "App Can't Be Opened" Gatekeeper Alert Message
This is probably the best option for most users, since it maintains some security:
- Right-click (or control-click) the application in question and choose "Open"
- Click the "Open" button at the next dialog warning to launch the app anyway
You can do this with any third party app that gives you this warning dialog and open it anyway.
If you get tired of constantly right-clicking apps to open them, return to pre-Mountain Lion levels of app security by turning off Gatekeepers app verification completely.
Disable GateKeeper's Unidentified App Developer Prevention Completely
This is generally best for advanced users who know what apps to trust and not to trust:
- Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu
- Choose "Security & Privacy" and then click the "General" tab, followed by clicking the lock icon in the corner to unlock the settings
- Look for "Allow applications downloaded from:" and choose "Anywhere"
- Accept the security warning and allow
- You can now launch any app from any location or developer
This is the same in all versions of OS X with Gatekeeper support, including OS X Yosemite 10.10.x, OS X Mavericks, 10.9.x, and Mountain Lion 10.8.x, where the feature was first introduced.


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Tay Tay Says Nay Nay To $13.9 Million To Pose In Her Knickers
When we heard that Taylor Swift said no to posing in her undies for a new Armani campaign, the bunch of perves that we are at B&T were inspired to compile a list of celebrities who have appeared in their underwear.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has shut down the idea of posing in her undies for Armani because "showing too much skin" would "damage her image". The Bad Blood singer turned down a rumoured US$13.9 million offer to appear in a new underwear campaign alongside her boyfriend, DJ Calvin Harris.
Calvin Harris
Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg
Whalberg was the one of the first celebrities to model in Calvin Klein underwear.
David and Victoria Beckham
Justin Bieber
Megan Fox
Kellan Lutz
Got anyone else we should add to the list? tweet us @bandt
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Loraine Howard III doesn't just have the best name of any artist we've featured here on our concept art spotlight, he also has some of the most impressive 3D work, headlined by the incredible Balrog you see up top.
If next-gen pants don't look that good I'll be very disappointed.
Loraine has previously worked with CCP on upcoming shooter Dust514, as well as EVE Online and World of Darkness. You can see more of his work at his CGHub page.
To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".
Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!


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On War It's Not
Historical surveys of war and the way technological developments change the way it is fought are common—from the tours de force of major military historians like Martin Van Creveld and William O'Neill to potboilers marketed to 12-year-old boys. In his new book, Max Boot certainly aspires to be among the former, and the enthusiastic recommendations on the book's dust jacket from no less than Sen. John McCain, Robert Kaplan, retired Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, and Paul Kennedy certainly add to this impression. But War Made New is remarkably superficial and filled with the most extraordinary lacunae. It ignores—by accident or design—the most important developments in modern military technology.
Boot follows the familiar pattern of taking supposedly pivotal battles that changed military history, describing them in a dramatic and easily accessible outline, and then briefly discussing the forces that were their deciding factors. Yet his choice of battles is very bizarre. No chapter in his book covers any major battle of World War I. The Korean War and the Vietnam War are ignored, even though the former is a classic example of a theme Boot celebrates: the superiority of militaries with advanced technology.
With such technology in Korea, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps virtually annihilated the Chinese forces that vastly outnumbered them. Vietnam was different: there, the most advanced military technology, however profusely used, could not end a politically and tactically complex guerrilla conflict. Though the latter example is quite relevant to the United States' conundrums in Iraq, Boot attempts no significant discussion of the topic. Nor does he discuss any of the anticolonial guerrilla wars, which defined major conflicts for most of the second half of the 20th century, or the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, which demonstrated the vulnerability of close support aircraft and main battle tanks to handheld missiles fired by poorly trained conscript soldiers.
But Boot does include a stirring account—filled with simplistic martial clichés that would have made Richard Harding Davis blush—of the combination of horse cavalry and high tech that supposedly worked unprecedented wonders in 2001 to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan. The trouble is, as Boot never notes, that conquering Afghanistan is extremely easy. The British did so three times in just over 80 years. In 1979, the Red Army pulled it off 20 times faster than American and Afghan allied forces did in 2001.
There was nothing epochal or revolutionary about the way the 2001 campaign was fought. In fact, it was disastrously bungled. The squeamishness and incompetence of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his right-hand man, Paul Wolfowitz, meant that insufficient U.S. Special Forces were used in the Tora Bora and Anaconda operations, allowing the key command cadres of al-Qaeda to escape—a strategic development with most disastrous consequences for the long-term war on terrorism.
Boot's chapter on Iraq is even more inept, misleading, and downright wrong than the one on Afghanistan. The chapter's climax is May 1, 2003, the day President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln—which is like ending an account of World War II with the Nazis' conquest of France or cutting off "Hamlet" in the first act and claiming that the play had a happy ending. Since that day, of course, the unending violence in Iraq has confounded the Rumsfeld-neocon contention that super-advanced technology has indeed made war new, as Boot claims in his book.
Boot does add a half-hearted and vague discussion of some of the disastrous developments in Iraq since 2003. This is especially notable for its obfuscations clearly designed to get Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Boot's other neocon friends off the hook for failing to anticipate or prevent any of the developments he mentions. Boot bends over backward to argue that many senior American generals were on record agreeing with Rumsfeld that more troops in Iraq were unnecessary, so no one, as Boot sees it, can be held accountable. Boot neglects to note, however, that Rusmfeld ran the U.S. Armed Forces with more arrogance, hands-on micro-managing, and sheer bullying than any previous defense secretary in American history. Robert McNamara, justly excoriated in the Vietnam era, never came close. Compared to such excellent studies of the Bush-Rumsfeld policymakers' failure to deal with the developing guerrilla war in Iraq as Thomas Ricks's Fiasco or Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Boot's discussion is banal.
Throughout War Made New, Boot's historical examples of transformational military battles and campaigns are remarkably ill-chosen, capricious, or misunderstood. The battle of Köeniggrätz in 1866, for example, was not the first time rail power was used to achieve decisive concentration of force in war: the campaigns of Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War were. But neither the Civil War nor Köeniggrätz was the first example of irrepressible firepower massed in combat. In 1815, the 50,000 who died at Waterloo and the thousands of British soldiers slain for negligible loss by Gen. Andrew Jackson's numerically far inferior forces at New Orleans could attest to that.
Boot correctly notes in passing, but does not further explore, the fact that within four years of Köeniggrätz, artillery had replaced rifles as the main killer in the Franco-Prussian War. This proved to be a far more lasting and lethal development. Artillery, not rifles or machineguns, was the great killer of World War I, especially at the climactic battle of Verdun—which, again, Boot does not discuss. The same was true of World War II.
Boot does, however, rehash the apotheosis of aircraft-carrier power at Pearl Harbor, but even this is bungled. The battle that demonstrated the potency of such power in World War II was not Pearl Harbor but Taranto a year before, when British Swordfish torpedo aircraft knocked out three Italian battleships in their heavily defended home port, thereby wiping out half of the Italian navy's main striking power in a single blow. The Japanese navy carefully studied the Taranto attack and used it as a model for its attack on Pearl Harbor, making sure to follow the British navy's placement of wooden fins on its torpedoes to help them operate in the shallow waters of Taranto Harbor. Boot briefly references the Taranto attack but does not discuss the operational lessons that Japan learned from it. Neither does he reference the vulnerability of giant nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to anti-ship missile attack, or the Russian-built N-SS-22 Moskvit—also manufactured by China as the Sunburn—which is designed to sink American super-carriers operating close to shore.
Nowhere does Boot discuss the campaigns of the German U-boats against Britain in both World Wars and that of the U.S. Navy's submarines against Japan in World War II. Yet these were vastly more strategically important than the carrier battles he celebrates. Boot also excludes the key fact that America's 12 nuclear aircraft carriers have been sitting ducks for fast-attack submarines since 1968, when a fast Soviet nuclear-powered attack submarine matched the USS Enterprise at top speed in the Pacific Ocean. That moment, vividly and thoroughly discussed in Patrick Tyler's Running Critical, was as epochal a moment in the shift of the strategic balance at sea as Gen. Billy Mitchell's sinking of the former German battleship Ostfriesland in a trial attack off Hampton Roads on July 21, 1921. Boot has an excellent account of the latter event but says nothing of the humiliation of the Enterprise. Since 1968, U.S. submarines have routinely scored disabling hits on American carriers in U.S. Navy war games, and the hits, Navy insiders know, are routinely unacknowledged in the official assessments of the maneuvers.
In his discussion of Germany's blitzkrieg war that brought down France in 1940, Boot plumps for the obvious and gets even that wrong. It is clear that he does not even know what blitzkrieg is. He refers to the successful penetration tactics of the German army on the Western Front in March 1918, but only in passing. He is right to emphasize the importance of good radio communications—as he says, Gen. Heinz Guderian's experience as a combat communications officer was of great value in this regard—and the importance of close tactical air support. But he does not grasp that the success of blitzkreig did not depend on the massed use of tanks but on their co-ordination with German attacking infantry and air power simultaneously. The German army's emphasis on leaving tactics to small unit front line officers and the importance of using infantry to clear the way for tanks is nowhere mentioned.
Boot recognizes that France had better tanks than Germany in the campaign of 1940. (It also had lots more of them.) And he recognizes the long-established point that the key reason the French army lost in 1940 is that its ponderous command structure was still mired in the worst aspects of World War I. But he never refers once to the late U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd, the greatest of all American military strategists and certainly the most influential and important of any strategist in the world over the past half century. He doesn't mention Boyd's Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action (OODA) loop concept, despite its being essential to any successful understanding of the blitzkrieg operation. Nor does he mention, or appear to understand the difference, between a highly centralized second-generation army, like the French army in 1940 or the U.S. Army today, and a fast-reacting, decentralized third-generation army, like the German army in 1940. He also appears not to realize that in the course of the war, Hitler systematically stripped the Wehrmacht of its front-line initiative and tactical flexibility—its greatest strengths —and imposed a slow-reacting, ponderous, centralized decision-making structure focused on his person.
Despite being replete with key issues of the impact of technology on war and the lessons to be learned from it, most of them highly relevant today, Boot neglects to refer in any detail to the Russo-German War of 1941-45, the largest and bloodiest war in history. He wrongly claims that Stalingrad was the war's turning point in the east; serious military historians and analysts almost all concur that the great frontal clash at Kursk in July 1943 was far more pivotal. And he fails to discuss the impact on the war of simple, easily mass-produced but militarily effective weapons, such as the T-34 tank, the Ilyushin Il-2 Stormovik tactical ground support aircraft, or the BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket mortar that proved so important at Stalingrad and Kursk. (Updated versions of the Katyusha gave the Israeli army a nasty surprise as recently as last July when Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel with thousands of them.)
Furthermore, Boot is misleading in his chapter on modern air-war. As his example of the transforming efficacy of strategic air power—of war made new—he uses Gen. Curtis Le May's campaign with the USAAF's XX Bomber Command that burned down Japanese cities in the spring of 1945. But this was shooting fish in a barrel. Japan had neither sufficient technological resources nor the industrial base to create any effective air defense system. Once Le May worked out the tactics of sending in his B-29 Superfortresses flying low and filled to the brim with light incendiary devices, the outcome was inevitable.
In his brief discussion of the Battle of Britain, Boot pays tribute to the pioneering integrated fighter defense system put together by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding of the Royal Air Force. But he does not acknowledge the crucial role that low-tech human spotters, many of them teenagers or retirees, played in supplementing the experimental radar system and giving rapid and accurate observation information about the number of aircraft, location, and altitude of Luftwaffe attacks. He wrongly credits RAF Bomber Command with eliminating half of Germany's industrial potential by 1945. In fact, through 1943 and 1944, when the British and U.S. Eighth Army Air Force attacks on German industry were at their height, Germany's industrial production under the direction of Albert Speer soared to record levels.
Boot's discussion of the future of war and technology at the end of his book is even emptier and more vapid than what comes before. If accuracy in book titles were required, this work would have been called not War Made New but Clichés Made Old. Predictably, Boot sings the praises of DARPA, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency so beloved of Rumsfeld and neocon romantics. There is a brief discussion of net-centric war but absolutely nothing about the horrendous problems that the U.S. Army has experienced in trying to integrate its thousands of ad hoc-assembled systems into a new, supposedly fast-moving, and perfectly reliable one. Nor is there any discussion of all net-centric systems' inherent vulnerability to every kind of dislocation, or of the immense resources China in particular is devoting to asymmetrical warfare programs designed to paralyze American high-tech command and communications systems. The significance of electro-magnetic pulse, or EMP, a byproduct of any nuclear explosion in the atmosphere that can disable electrical systems for hundreds if not thousands of miles around it, is nowhere mentioned, even though the high-tech wonder systems Boot celebrates can be reduced to nothing by it in an instant. And Boot fails to refer even once to the concept of Fourth Generation war, its challenge to the integrity of the nation-state, or William S. Lind's prolific and valuable writings on it.
War Made New is significant in that it appears to represent an attempt by a prominent neoconservative to reclaim his and his friends' reputations for expertise on modern war that were so damaged by their repeated and documented incompetence in crafting U.S. policy and dominating public discourse on the Iraq War—not to mention the unfolding fiasco in Afghanistan. The enthusiastic recommendation of Sen. McCain, an acknowledged war hero and the clear Republican frontrunner for the 2008 presidential nomination, confirms that this bogus rehabilitation remains a very real possibility. The book is therefore of significance as a political and propaganda ploy. But as serious military history or any kind of useful guide to U.S. policymaking, it is simply farcical.
Martin Sieff is national security correspondent for United Press International. He has reported from more than 60 countries, covered seven guerrilla wars and ethnic conflicts and been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.


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Slo wrote:I came today by the Holy Season meditations to Atu VII and remember that Gunther put the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna practice in this chapter of his book "The Angel & the Abyss". Now, I don´t know if he put it there "archetypically" or "simbollycally" or something (some other things in his work could possibly indicate that it´s not the case, but well), but despite that this practice could be apparently atributed to the Abyss (by the ego shutting), it´s not much better atributed to the shutting down of Yetzirah and the coming into Briah/Tiphareth K&C, as a practice specifically atributed to the Practicus by Crowley and others (Jim among others in his "M&M system")?? Or there´s something I could be missing? Could this practice be somehow considered, too, for an upper level (the Abyss crossing)?
gurugeorge wrote:I wouldn't worry about the Abyss. Just think of it as a next step thing. Note that the Buddha said that Mahasatipatthana was a practice capable of taking you "all the way" (so to speak), and IIRC AC endorses that in the essay on marijuana, where he talks about the "levels" of the practice. So it will have a "level" (of revelation, of success) appropriate to your level if you practice it. (In a way all the practices are Mahasatipatthana, or maybe you could say that Mahasatipatthana was the Buddha's version of a concise encapsulation of the essence of all the practices - obviously so since it applies to everything you do.)
Slo wrote:That leads me to get that 10=1 application of this practice to the Neophyte by it´s "Osirian thing" and Path of Tau, I suppose.
Slo wrote:I don´t know, Gunther´s description of it as a sort of non-direct experience (more of a process) also doesn´t fit with that in particular. But on the other hand I´ve read descriptions of the Visions of other people and more commonly I have been able to recognize them as the same thing as mine, despite it´s more common widely difference regarding type (some visuals, some auditive, some in some sort of scene thing; mine was purely abstract).
Slo wrote:Then came the notion of that and the weird feeling of "otherness" just made me awake from that point and the thing stopped. It was in fact very quick.
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Sunday, May 20, 2012
Montrose McGillivray
Reel 3M91, D.5/28, Letters to Governor Simpson, HBCA
"Fort Colvile, April 18th 1850
"Sir George Simpson
"My dear father: The express being about to start for the east side affords me the opportunity of [sending] you a short letter and to acknowledge the receipt of your favor by Mr. [Eden] Colvile. The news from these parts are of so varied a description, that I will not attempt a detail, as you will doubtless have all from those who have been at the scenes.
"I am happy to inform you that Mr. Peers' new route to Langley has been tried last summer, and found to answer very well, the fact of the Colvile and Thompsons River men having made two trips without any mishap, is I should think a sufficient proof that the road is practicable.
"There has been a disease raging in the interior the past winter, which has swept off numbers of the inhabitants, with some of the companys servants and amongst the number Montrose McGillivray -- most of the best hunters of New Caledonia are no more, it has received a shock which it will never recover. The trade in that quarter has been very indifferent, Thompsons River as good as preceding years.
"I received a most welcome letter from my mother last fall, I understnad she is in poor circumstances, and it is my duty as a dutiful son to relieve her, she shall not want as long as I have the means....
"Your affectionate son, Geo. Simpson."
3 comments:
I find this most interesting, as the writer's mother is Margaret Taylor, my great-great grandmother. Gov. Simpson had arranged for her to be married to Amable Hogue after he married his cousin Frances. In Red River and Manitoba census returns for 1849 we find "Hogue, Amable, age 55, Canada, Catholic, 1 man and 1 wife, 5 sons under 16, 4 daughters under 15. 1 house, 3 stables, 1 barn, 1 horse, 2 mares, 3 oxen, 6 cows, 2 calves, 3 pigs ,2 ploughs, 1 harrow, 6 carts, 1 canoe, 20 acres." (HBCA MG2 B3 ) That doesn't sound like "poor circumstances" to me.ReplyDelete
Amable died in 1858. In Red River Census for 1870, HBC Archives, MG2 B3, 1870, No. 400.
Margaret is widowed and living with my great grandparents Thomas Hogue and Philomene McMillan (yes, she was the grand daughter of James McMillan of Fort Langley). In 1881 Canada Census, Assiniboia, Selkirk, Manitoba. Roll: C_13282, Page: 51, Family No: 208.
Margaret is listed as 60 years of age, widowed, living with her daughter Mary Anne and son-in-law Francois Welch, as well as 3 grandchildren. Margaret died 16 Dec 1885.
I would love to discover what led George to make that comment.
I would suspect that she told him she was not in good health but I don't know. Sorry.ReplyDelete
This blog post has been updated and is at http://nancymargueriteanderson.com/montrose-mcgillivray/ReplyDelete


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Kubota M110GX
Double tap to zoom
Clean and Powerful Performance
The Common Rail System (CRS) electronically controls the fuel injection timing and amount in stages rather than all at once for optimal combustion. The results are great efficiency, better fuel economy and less engine noise. Its combination with the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) Muffler reduces harmful emissions to make the Grand X Series Interim Tier IV-compliant.
Kubota Clean Diesel Engines
Kubota's compact 4-cylinder turbocharged Common Rail System (CRS) diesel engines with Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) Muffler combine tremendous power with outstanding fuel economy, and low noise and emissions. The V6108 engine for the M126GX and M135GX packs a whopping 125HP and 135HP respectively, while the V3800 for the M100GX and M110GX delivers an ample 100HP and 110HP respectively. And with maximum torque at low rpms, you can get the job done quicker and more efficiently. These engines also feature a powerful Waste Gate System turbocharger, for remendous lugging and recovery power.
Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) Muffler/4-valve, Center-Direct Injection System
Intelli-Shift Transmission
Intelli-Shift Transmission for maximum versatility, the 24F/24R Intelli-Shift transmission features an 8-speed powershift with a 3-speed, Hi/Med/Low range for 24 gears in forward and reverse. A convenient single lever operates both the powershift and range shift. Upshift and downshift are also at the touch of a button. A sophisticated microprocessor enables smooth, fatigue-free powershifting, and generous gear overlap means less changing of gears during operation.
Auto Mode
Auto Mode enables automatic shifting to maximize performance when your load or terrain changes. In Travel mode, the gears will be adjusted depending on road conditions and amount of acceleration; uphill and downhill. In Field mode, a downshift of 2 gears occurs once the three-point hitch has been raised. Field mode also keeps drops in PTO revolution to a minimum when the PTO switch is engaged.
Bi-Speed Turn
When the front wheels exceed a turning angle of about 35°, Kubota's Bi-Speed Turn rotates the front wheels at a rate of speed nearly twice that of the rear wheels. The result is a smoother, tighter turn, allowing you to turn into rows on your first attempt, or to easily maneuver around livestock yards or buildings.
Bevel-gear Front Axle
Another Kubota exclusive, the bevel-gear front-wheel drive enables the tractors to achieve a tight turning radius, thanks to a generous 50° wheel-turning angle, enabling easy handling in varying conditions. The bevel gear design eliminates open U-joints and all components are hermetically sealed in oil.
Electro-Hydraulic Differential Locks
Getting bogged down in mud will no longer slow you down with this feature. Simply engage the electro-hydraulic differential locks on both front and rear wheels to achieve positive traction—and you're up and out and back on the job.
Front Suspension System
The front suspension helps give you a comfortable ride and stable and precise operation. It works seamlessly with a shock absorber to smoothly negotiate rough terrain.(Available as a factory option for M135GX only)
Quad Front Lights
Two main head lights at the bottom and two work lights on the top of front mask increase visibility especially in dark and inclement conditions.
One-piece Full-open Hood
The one-piece hood fully opens for easy access to the engine for maintenance. The hood is also slanted to increase visibility.
Wrap-around Front Grille
The smooth, flat, and easy-to-clean front grille design prevents hay, straw, and grass from getting caught inside the tractor. And, by allowing a high volume of air to flow in, the engine stays cooler.
Easy Cleaning and Maintenance
For fast cleaning, the sliding, louverless-type AC condenser and condenser net can be removed in a snap. The flat surface of the battery and tray also makes serviceability easier.
Air Filter
Dual Element is standard equipment, the internal sa
High Crop Clearance
To offer one of the highest crop clearance in their class, the front axle propeller shaft passes through the engine oil pan to provide ample clearance.
Hydraulic Flow Valves and Auxiliary Control Valve
To ensure faster loader cycle times and instantaneous implement response, Grand X tractors have high-flow, 18.7 gpm (M100GX/M110GX) and 20.4 gpm (M126GX/M135GX) hydraulic pump. Two remote valves come standard—an SCD/Self-Canceling Detent and FD/Float-type valve. The maximum installation is 4 valves.
Individual Flow Control Valve (Optional)
The optional individual flow control valve allows the hydraulic flow to be adjusted independently for up to 4 auxiliary control valves so each valve together or the valves and 3-point hitch can be operated simultaneously. The oil flow rate is easily regulated by adjusting each flow control dial.
Live-Independent Hydraulic PTO
No matter what kind of work you need to do, you've got the power to operate a variety of rear-mounted implements with Kubota's 2-speed PTO (540 rpm and 1,000 rpm). To further increase productivity, our independent PTO can be engaged and disengaged by simply operating a control knob with automatic modulation for smooth engagement, and without stopping the tractor.
Live-Independent Hydraulic PTO
One snap ring, easy to change PTO shafts.
High Capacity 3P Hitch
Thanks to its large diameter outer cylinder, the 3-point hitch offers extra lifting capacity to easily handle jobs that require heavy implements.
Floating Lift Rods
The standard, both-side floating lift rods give these tractors a smoother ride and enhanced traction while using the 3-point hitch, especially on uneven terrain.
Quick Implement Hookup
The innovative design of the Category II 3-point hitch permits fast and easy implement attachment. The telescopic lower link ends, telescopic stabilizers, crank-style right-lift rod, and the left fender-mounted remote hitch switch all work together to make hookup a snap.
Drawbar Bracket
Ultra-durable and ultra-tough, the super sturdy drawbar bracket can handle the roughest hauling jobs, such as pulling heavy trailers.
Trailer Coupler (7-Pin)
An electric outlet is standard for use with a trailer or additional electrical implements.


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I have tried to solve this problem by adding the sum of the displacements during acceleration, constant velocity and deceleration, but it does not work out.
A car accelerates from rest to $20~\text{m/s}$ in $12$ seconds ($a =5/3~\text{ms}^{-2}$), it travels at $20~\text{m/s}$ for $40$ seconds, then retardation occurs from $20~\text{m/s}$ to rest in $8$ seconds ($a = -2.5~\text{ms}^{-2}$). As the car accelerates an RC car, moving parallel to the car, is moving at $14~\text{m/s}$. When will overtaking occur and what will the distance be? The RC car passes the car just as it starts to accelerate.
I can do this without a problem if acceleration is a constant. Is there a differential equation I can use to compute this as that is my better area or must I stick with the SUVAT equations?
Again, if I could be pointed in the right direction that way I can learn.


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Yankees Are Swinging, Red Sox Must Rise
This week Spiderman once again webbed his way onto the big screen and into our hearts. In just about two weeks' time, Batman will yet again make everyone say "oooohhhh" and "aaaahhhh" when "The Dark Knight Rises" hits theaters.
While Spiderman and Batman will be squaring off against their sworn enemies – the Lizard and Bane, respectively – the Yankees will do battle this weekend against their primary foes, the Boston Red Sox. The Yanks will travel into enemy territory tomorrow and play four games (including a doubleheader on Saturday; making up a rainout from April 22) in three days.
The Yankees are standing about as tall as the caped crusader on top of a Gotham City skyscraper at press time; 49-32, in first place, five games ahead of the second place Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. The Red Sox on the other hand look more like a defeated Joker, at 42-40 in fourth place in the east.
Tomorrow night Hiroki Kuroda (8-7, 3.17 ERA) will put on his cape and cowl, to do battle with one of New York's fiercest adversaries, Josh Beckett (4-7, 4.06 ERA). Kuroda has only faced the Red Sox once in his career – and it was a losing effort – but did not see many of Boston's current hitters in that game.
However, two hitters Kuroda must look out for are Adrian Gonzalez and Cody Ross. Gonzalez is .261 lifetime off Kuroda with two homers and five RBIs. Ross is just as pesky, as he is .263 in his career with a homer and four RBIs against him.
Beckett has to watch out for Robinson Cano, who currently owns a .302 lifetime BA against him with two homers and 10 RBIs. Curtis Granderson has also punished Beckett in the past, hitting .241 with three home runs and four RBIs.
If they want to escape tomorrow night with a win, the Yanks have to step up. Despite his poor numbers on Cano and Granderson, last year Beckett puzzled the Yankees, going 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA against the Bronx Bombers.
Although it hasn't been formally announced yet, Phil Hughes (9-6, 4.29 ERA) will throw on his cape and start one of Saturday's games, coming off his spectacular winning performance on Sunday over the Chicago White Sox. Hughes will likely go head-to-head with Franklin Morales (1-1, 2.50 ERA).
Hughes is in a groove right now, but does not have good career numbers against Boston (2-5, 6.65 ERA). He must be on the lookout for David Ortiz, who yesterday clubbed his 400th career home run. Two of those 400 came off Hughes, and he's knocked in seven runs off the 26-year-old righty – all while possessing a lifetime .471 batting average against him.
The Yankees haven't seen much of Morales, but Russell Martin does have an RBI on him.
Freddy Garcia (2-2, 5.94 ERA), almost playing the role of Robin filling in for Batman – helping fill the rotation void for a hobbled Andy Pettitte and an injured CC Sabathia – is slated to start the other game of the doubleheader.
Last time Garcia toed the rubber in Boston, it wasn't pretty. At least not to begin with.
The Red Sox put a hurting on him, lighting him up for five runs in just 1.2 innings pitched on April 21. With some super-duper heroics, the Yankee offense bailed him out though, rallying from a huge deficit to beat the Red Sox, 15-9.
Felix Doubront (8-4, 4.42 ERA) started Boston's losing effort on April 21, and will probably face Garcia again. Doubront has to beware of Granderson: he homered off Doubront last time and drove in two.
Who knows? Maybe Garcia vs. Doubront II will be another roller coaster ride; one that would put butterflies in the stomach of the Incredible Hulk.
Finally on Sunday night Ivan Nova (9-3, 4.05 ERA) will suit up to take on lefty Jon Lester (5-5, 4.33 ERA). Nova will look to get back in the win column on the road, having suffered his first loss away from Yankee Stadium since June 3, 2011 on Tuesday at the Rays.
No Red Sox hitter has numbers against Nova that jump out, except Dustin Pedroia, who has a .600 BA vs. the 25-year-old righty and two RBIs. Lucky for Nova and the Yanks, Pedroia has been ruled out for this weekend's series with a thumb injury.
Lester meanwhile needs to be careful with several Yankee hitters. Granderson, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira have each homered off Lester in their respective careers. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jayson Nix in the lineup Sunday, as he sports a .333 average against Lester with two homers and five RBIs.
When facing the Yankees Lester must feel like Lex Luthor, trying to beat Superman. But his biggest form of kryptonite has to be the Yankee third baseman.
Alex Rodriguez has three homers lifetime off Boston's southpaw, with six RBIs. A-Rod has a chance to add to that total and hurt the Red Sox ace even more to close out the series.
Like Spiderman, the Yankees are swinging. But the Red Sox need to be more like Batman – and rise – if they wish to keep their postseason hopes and dreams alive.
And this weekend could be their only chance.
If the Yankees were to unleash a Boston Massacre, and sweep these four games in three days, it would put the Red Sox in a position where they would need to do nothing but win after the All-Star break.


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It should be interesting, in addition for non-American quiz takers, because the cultural differences are so intriguing.
Anyway, here are my results:
Playbuzz wrote:The Midlands
The most oddly shaped nation of the eleven, The Midlands originate in Central Maryland and Pennsylvania, including Baltimore and Philadelphia, and stretch through Ohio, Indiana, and Ilinois before emptying out into Iowa. From there, it stretches south towards the Panhandle of Texas, and in the north, it wraps around Yankeedom, ending in Toronto, and Windsor, Ontario. Big cities include Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and St. Louis in the U.S. and Toronto, Canada.
This nation is the origin of the heartland culture, the middle America lifestyle that aims to benefit the middle class, but rejects top-down government intervention. It's history starts with the English quakers of Pennsylvania, but has been ethnically diverse from the beginning, harboring German and Dutch farmers. Although creating an ethnic, economical utopia was never a priority, they still side with Yankeedom on the belief that ordinary people should be the benefactors of society. Politically, this is a dramatic swing region, with battleground states such as Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa holding important votes for politicians. Usually, the more moderate politician is elected in these regions.
Opposites: Deep South, Yankeedom
Similar With: El Norte
This isn't surprising, since among my forebears are both ethnic English Quakers and German immigrants, and I was raised in the Midwest. Also, I have a strong conservative, communitarian streak that is also pro-labour (Rust Belt) and pro-agrarian. Anyway, I'd be interested in where other people get placed here!


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It doesn't get more local than your own backyard. As we get closer to August, the tomato plants are starting to produce along with everything else. We've had a tumbler offering somewhere between a grape and cherry tomato for a while now. This week, our red olive grape tomato plant is offering up some beautiful little fruits. They're sweet with a touch of tart and perfect for pasta. I would have liked to add more of these beauties to the pasta, however, the grape tomato monster (also known as the husband) likes to snack on the ripe ones out of the bowl I keep them in. I can't blame them, they're super tasty.
Angel hair pasta with grape tomatoes, garlic, and sausage
1/2 lb angel hair pasta (I used whole wheat)
3 links hot Italian sausage links, out of their casings (I use turkey, trying to be healthy here)
2 tbsp plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
1/4 chopped sweet onion (like vidalia)
5 cloves garlic, minced
grape tomatoes (or cherry, as many as you can put in there!)
Boil water and cook pasta according to directions, drain, set aside and keep warm. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan/skillet, add Italian sausage and brown, breaking up as you go along. Remove sausage to paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Over medium heat, add 1/4 cup olive oil. Add onion and garlic, and saute until fragrant and softened, about 3 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes, cook 1 minute. Add sausage back in and warm for about another minute. Add cooked pasta back in, salt and pepper to taste and toss until coated. Serve immediately. Serves 4-5.
Ah squash blossoms. Hard to find, don't last long, but while they're here, oh-so-tasty. Luckily I'm growing zucchini and there's always plenty to go around so I'll grab some of the blossoms at least once a season to fry them up in a Virzi family favorite. I don't discriminate, male or female blossoms are fine. If you're wondering the difference, the female is attached to a growing zucchini, the male is just a flower attached to the stem. I get so many squash every year, and pick so few blossoms, I pick at random. Both, by the way, are edible. Wash them, dry them, and trim the stem up before you go ahead and fry them. Also, I read somewhere that needle nose pliers gets the pistil out well. It works and allows more room for whatever yummy cheese you stuff the blossom with. I winged this frying experience with various previous attempts in my head. This one was worthy enough to share with all of you.
Fried Squash Blossoms
15-20 squash blossoms
1 egg beaten lightly
1/4 bottle of beer (darker tastes better)
2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flower
salt and pepper
enough small cubed monterey jack to fill your blossoms (ricotta works well here too)
vegetable oil
Wash, dry, trim, remove pistils of blossoms. Salt and pepper them. In a bowl, beat egg lightly, add 1/4 bottle of beer, the flour and a little more salt and pepper and whisk together. Stuff blossoms with cheese and dip in batter. Heat vegetable oil to frying temp (around 350 degrees or so) and dump blossoms in. Watch carefully and flip when they start to turn golden. Remove and put on paper-towel lined plate to catch the excess oil. Serve hot.