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Home » Nintendo Switch » Nintendo Switch vs Switch Lite – Which Console is Best?
Nintendo Switch vs Switch Lite – Which Console is Best?
When the Nintendo Switch was first released the only big decision you needed to make when buying the console was what colors you wanted your Joy-Cons (controllers) to be. Now that we are a few years past the initial release of the Switch, Nintendo has a few different options out there for people to choose from including the new Nintendo Switch Lite.
So what are all of the different options available? What are the differences? How can we compare the Nintendo Switch vs. Nintendo Switch Lite? How are we supposed to choose which new Nintendo Switch console is best for us?
Don't worry. We have already done the heavy lifting for you. So let us point out the differences between the available options that are out there and explain what type of user is best suited for each option.
The Original Nintendo Switch Has Been Upgraded
How Can You Tell If You Are Buying the Updated Newer Version of the Switch?
Nintendo Has Introduced a New Nintendo Switch Console Called Nintendo Switch Lite
Nintendo Switch vs. Nintendo Switch Lite
Dimensions of Nintendo Switch vs Switch Lite
Screen Size of Nintendo Switch vs Switch Lite
Battery Life of Nintendo Switch vs Switch Lite
D-Pad is an Actual D-Pad
Price Difference
So Who Should Buy the Switch?
So Who Should buy the Switch Lite?
Current Nintendo Switch Consoles & Bundles
Current Nintendo Switch Lite Consoles
The first thing that you need to be aware of is that the original Switch has been updated. The big difference is that the upgraded Switch has a more efficient processor which allows it to have a longer battery life. The original Switch had a battery life that could last anywhere from 2.5 to 6.5 hours on one charge depending upon how you were using it. You expect to get between 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life from the updated version of the Nintendo Switch.
Unless you are getting a very substantial discount on the original version of the Switch there is no reason why you wouldn't want to get the updated Switch. After all, who wouldn't want the longer battery life?
So how can you make sure that you are buying one of the updates Switch consoles? To be honest, most retailers should be selling the updated console at this point, but there are a few ways you can tell for sure.
The updated Switch has a model number (HAC-001(-01))
The serial number will start with "XKW"
The updated Switch will have an all-red box
Here are both of the updated Nintendo Switch Consoles that are currently available for sale. The only difference between the two options is the colors of the Joy-Cons that are included.
Nintendo Switch with Neon Blue and Neon Red...
Nintendo Switch with Gray Joy‑Con...
In September of 2020, Nintendo released the Switch Lite. The Switch Lite is designed for people who are looking for a handheld gaming device. It isn't quite as versatile as the regular Switch, but its smaller size makes it ideal for people who are on the go. With the Nintendo Switch Lite, you can play all the Switch games that support handheld mode, which is most of them. Plus, the Switch Lite is priced $100 less than the Switch, which adds to its appeal.
The Switch comes with a gray console and you can choose the color of your detachable Joy-Cons. The Switch Lite currently comes in 3 colors and the Joy-Cons are built-in (not detachable).
Here are the turquoise, gray, yellow, and coral Switch Lite options.
Nintendo Switch Lite - Turquoise
Nintendo Switch Lite - Gray
Nintendo Switch Lite - Yellow
Nintendo Switch Lite - Coral
Learning that the Switch Lite was designed with portable gaming in mind might be kind of confusing because the Switch can be used as a handheld gaming system and is very portable as well.
So let's dive a little deeper into the differences between the Switch and Switch Lite.
The dimensions of the Nintendo Switch is 4 inches x 9.4 inches x 0.55 inches and weighs just 0.88 pounds.
The Switch Lite measures 3.6 inches x 8.2 inches x 0.55 inches and weighs 0.61 pounds.
As you can see the Switch Lite is a little bit smaller and lighter, but the difference isn't that much. However, if you are always on the go the more compact Switch Lite is probably a bit more attractive to you.
So if compact size important to you the winner here is the Switch Lite.
Knowing that both the Switch and Switch Lite can be used for handheld gaming screen size is something that is very important to think about.
The Switch has a 720p touch screen that measures 6.2 inches diagonally. By comparison, the Switch Lite also has a 720p HD touch screen, but it measures only 5.5 inches. The difference in screen size doesn't sound like much, but it is certainly noticeable.
The result here is a tie. If you like handheld gaming but usually play at home you will enjoy the larger Switch. If you are constantly on the go you will probably be willing to sacrifice some screen size for the more compact design of the Switch Lite.
When the Switch was originally released it had a battery life that ranged from 2.5 to 6.5 hours. So the Switch Lite was a modest upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless with its 3 to 7-hour battery life range.
However, the V2 of the Switch beats both the original version of the Switch and the Switch Lite with its impressive 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life, which is fantastic when you are on the go.
So if you are looking for the option with the longest battery life the winner here is the Switch.
One of the complaints some people have of the Switch is about the D-Pad, which consists of 4 directional buttons.
The Switch Lite has the more traditional connected D-Pad that many gamers prefer. You can see the difference in the pictures below.
That being said, a lot of serious gamers will get a Pro controller. Not only does it have the connected d-pad that many people prefer, but they love the feel of the Pro controller in their hands.
So the winner here for fans of the connected d-pad is the Switch Lite.
While the Switch Lite is a fantastic device for handheld gaming it is not as versatile as the Switch. There are a lot of things that the Switch Lite doesn't have or can't do:
It doesn't have a TV mode (can't be connected to or played on a television) and can't be used with the Nintendo Switch Dock
It doesn't have detachable Joy-Cons. Not having detachable controllers mean more wear and tear on the hardware for the Switch Lite.
The Switch Lite doesn't have the HD rumble feature or the IR motion camera like the detachable Joy-Cons on the Switch. So you will need to buy additional Joy-Con controllers to play games that require motion controls.
It doesn't have a kickstand to prop itself up like the Switch does for when it is being used in tabletop mode
It doesn't have auto-brightness sensors that tune brightness without having to go into settings.
The Switch Lite won't fit with much of the Nintendo Labo Kits.
When it comes to versatility the clear winner is the Nintendo Switch.
Another area where the Switch Lite wins is the price. It is typically priced $100 less than the Switch. You can be excited to pocket the savings or using it to buy a couple of games.
All of the things we just talked about should have helped you to understand the differences between the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch Lite, but you still may not know which new Nintendo Switch Console is best for your situation. So let's try to clear that up.
The majority of people will probably gravitate to the Switch. The fact that you can connect the Switch to your television to play it, which is something the Switch Lite cannot do, is reason enough for most people to choose the switch.
Its' versatility, longer battery life, and extra features make it worth the extra expense for most people. Plus, it is still very portable and its larger screen size and bigger dimensions will be preferred by many people.
If you are always on the go and are looking for a handheld gaming device the Switch Lite is a great choice. This is even truer if you want to keep the size and weight to a minimum. Some people who already have a Switch might also be interested in getting a Switch Lite to use for when they are on the go.
Hopefully, this helped to make your decision easier. Happy Shopping!
Nintendo Switch with Gray Joy‑Con - HAC-001(-01)
4.5-9 plus Hours of Battery Life Will vary depending on software usage conditions
Handheld Nintendo Switch gaming at a great price
For every member of your family, there's a member of ours
Optimized for personal, handheld play, Nintendo Switch Lite is a small and light Nintendo Switch system
Features a sleek, unibody design with fully integrated controls and a built-in plus Control Pad
Compatible with all physical and digital Nintendo Switch games that support Handheld mode
Optimized for personal, handheld play, the Nintendo Switch Lite is a small and light Nintendo Switch system
Meidase S3 Trail Camera Review
Meidase SL122 Pro Trail Camera Review


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Photo illustration by J.M. Giordano.
David Bowie's passing has brought about many tributes and appraisals of the iconic singer, actor, and artist's body of work. This is not one of those. This is a mere blip on the radar in Bowie's existence, but it's one that connects with the Baltimore music scene, through comedian, erstwhile talk-show host, and musician Ed Schrader.
For a time, before every famous person and journalist had blue check marks next to their names on Twitter, Schrader operated an account purporting to be Bowie's. A friend of Schrader's started the account, and in 2009, Bowie's camp had to refute a story put forth on Twitter that he was working on new material in Berlin, around the same time tabloids were reporting he would revive his Ziggy Stardust persona at Coachella. According to the NME, an official statement on Bowie's website ended with, "While we're about it, David Bowie does not have a Twitter account."
After that hoax, Twitter locked the account. Bowie would eventually go on to get a real, verified Twitter account, @DavidBowieReal.
But as anyone who knows Schrader will tell you, the singer has a deep admiration for Bowie. He's been doing a damn good impression for years, before and since his recording duped the A.V. Club. He went out tour with Wham City to perform routines in Ziggy Stardust makeup, and he most recently lent his impression to a Jan. 7 video promoting his and (CP contributor) Kevin Sherry's Cats On the Lake shirts. This morning on Facebook, when Schrader posted about Bowie's passing, several people said they thought of him once they heard. As Schrader tells it, his account hijinx and subsequent videos impersonating Bowie were the act of a "fanboy" sharing his favorite artist. Just read this post he wrote about his hero for the Talkhouse.
I caught up with Schrader on the phone to discuss his headline-making joke and love for David Bowie.
City Paper: Walk me through this. You started the Twitter account, right?
Ed Schrader: OK, well here's what happened. So a friend of mine was working for Twitter back in the day. And she worked with them before they launched, when they first started. And what they would do is they would make these test accounts, just to test the bugs of the system and whatnot. And she was a big fan of David Bowie, she's like, "Oh, I'll be David Bowie." Because "Twitter, how long is this gonna last for?" She was a software engineer, whose name will go off the record.
It was a different time and a different place. I was like 26, 27 and making some decisions I would probably think twice about now. But at that time I kind of went ahead and did it.
So I was working at the time at the Golden West washing dishes. And every night when I'd walk home I'd take out my tape recorder and record a Bowie routine. I would just imagine if Bowie was like Louie C.K. or if he was like Bill Cosby. What would he do? What would his stand-up routine be like? And I thought, that's the one thing he hasn't really done, except for the Ricky Gervais thing [in "Extras"]. Why not Bowie puts out a stand-up album? Wouldn't that be funny?
Yeah, and I put it up there, and what do you call it . . .
CP: I saw A.V. Club picked it up.
ES: Yeah, A.V. Club, which is ironic because The Onion's job is to fool everybody, and I somehow fooled The Onion into thinking it was David Bowie. What's hilarious about this is the link I tweeted out has the name "Ed Schrader" in it. And when you go on it, you can see that it's the podcast with me. The person that worked there, I think, just quickly put it up on the A.V. page, and it was a super positive response. "This is hilarious! He's turning over a new leaf! This is brilliant, great, wonderful!"
Then the next day when they realized it wasn't him, they're like, "Yeah, it's just this putz from Baltimore, this kind of like jack-of-all trades artist. We don't really know what he does. Has a talk show or something. Pasta The Gathering. Who cares." Then there was a video of a baby crying in response to it.
It was really fun. And then I went on tour with Wham City doing that routine for people. And most of the reactions, 90 percent of the time, were just people looking forward, at me, as if they just walked in on something they shouldn't have seen. It was kinda like that line between uncomfortable and funny, mostly uncomfortable. I thought it was hilarious, and I'm my own toughest critic.
And it was the type of thing where it really resonated with punks and noise people and weirdos and outsiders. They were like, "Man, that routine's crazy."
But [I remember when] we were right outside of Detroit, in Troy, and performed at like a bike shop. And it was a bunch of moms and dads and stuff, and I do this Bowie thing, and they all just looked at me like they were utterly horrified. Afterwards, they were like, "Hey man, if you ever wanna talk or need some help" or "How's it going? Do you talk to your family?" They were concerned.
ES: I came out with Ziggy Stardust paint on, and then I do a whole routine about pumpkin pie. In my mind, I thought, "Oh, this is gonna translate. Everyone is gonna love this." But it was so weird. It was one of those things where it had a sleeper effect, where like a few months later I'd go back to these towns where we performed with The Music Beat, and [people] would be like, "Man, I can't stop thinking about that Bowie thing you did. I didn't know what to think when you did it that night."
I think people didn't know how to process it. "OK, this guy's dressed up like Ziggy Stardust. He's doing a routine about pumpkin pie and these domestic home things." It was about being home and everyday stuff.
Then like three years go by, and then The Onion, all the sudden, posts that little article that was about "David Bowie at home. What's he doing today?" You know, completely jacking my idea with zero credit to me, which I didn't really appreciate that much. But I didn't want to make a big thing about that because I thought, You know what? That's a compliment to me.
CP: So now you ran the account too, right? What kinds of stuff would you send out? It's deactivated now.
ES: I kept it really minimal. I would just post, every once in a while, something like "Heading off to the studio today, pretty excited." Stuff that he would say—he would always keep the press baited by always keeping them guessing. "What's his next move gonna be?" And this was in reverence to him, this was like a labor of love. This was just because I was obsessed with Bowie, and I wanted to share that obsession in a really fucked-up, weird way. And you know, in kind of like a Warhol kinda way too. Why not mess with this iconic image a little bit? Why not hijack this meme or concept that people think they know and understand and mess with their expectations? It's like when people put another panel on the "Garfield" [strip] or it's like [in Bowie voice:] Warhol and those Campbell soup cans he's got.
It's just taking something we're used to and putting a twist on it. And that's what Bowie's all about.
And I'm sure he was a little bit concerned and freaked out by it, but he probably got a chuckle out of it too, I'm sure. 'Cause that's what he was all about, and all of the people he was inspired by, like Warhol and the surrealists, were all about taking these icons and demagogues in our culture and then reinterpreting them—and thereby, with that reinterpretation, kind of exalting the subject matter and maybe going a little bit deeper into it and going deeper into our reflections of what it is to us.
The fact that it's funny for us to imagine him in a domestic environment shows, I think, that old view of the rock star as an untouchable god. It'' juxtaposing this image of the rock god with a guy at home making pumpkin pie for his kid. And that's based on Bill Cosby's chocolate cake routine. And this was all pre-Bill Cosby's scandals. But I also wanted to do kinda like a Woody Allen-type, Catskill [Comedians] kind of self-deprecating thing. [Bowie voice:] "Oh, you know, I can't cook anything. I'm a klutz in the kitchen. Oy vey."
A Catskill comedian meets Ziggy Stardust, with a dash of "Everybody Loves Raymond." Because everybody loves Raymond.
CP: I saw that his camp eventually released a statement that said "David Bowie does not have a Twitter account." Did you hear from them at all?
ES: No, I didn't hear from any of his people, and then one day I went to get on the account and it was locked out. And then Twitter wouldn't let me back on and Twitter wouldn't explain what happened.
And that's the thing. Bowie's people made that statement so I assume, and there's part of me that kind of hopes, that he heard a little bit of it and saw some of it. In my mind, I'm sure he was like half disturbed, half amused, half "OK, I'm gonna make my eggs now. I've got other stuff to do."
"Who's this guy? Ted Schroder from Delaware? Who cares."
But for me it was a nod of reverence, and that's how I share my love of things. It's the same thing with Cats On the Lake. I love cats, but everybody's got a fuzzy cat sweater. That's boring. Why not do something a little bittersweet and macabre, and make a poster?
CP: I saw your Facebook post on Bowie's death, and people said they thought of you first. That has to be kind of interesting.
ES: You know, it's funny because when I was going to SUNY Purchase—and this is when I met all the Wham City people—we would hang out and watch old Bowie videos, and we'd clown on them. We'd be like, "Oh, these videos. This guy's crazy, man!" And then eventually we started becoming obsessed with him, and watching the videos over and over and being like, "Wait, this is amazing. Holy crap, there's something here."
At that time, when the obsession kicked in, kind of realizing his cultural presence and what he was, I was like, Well, that's not a bad thing to shoot for. Why not try to shoot for something like that? And even if I get a quarter of the way there, hey, not too bad, call it a day.
In my mind at that time, I was obsessed with Bowie the way people are obsessed with the queen or the Giza pyramids or Easter Island—this mythical, ethereal, untouchable thing. The thought of him even having people that would see something that I did, or a split second of him even thinking about it would blow my mind, which I doubt even happened.
Honestly, my whole point of showing my obsession with Bowie is to share it with other people so other people realize how great he is, and so that he can positively infuse into their lives the way he has in mine. It's like when you have a great recipe—you just want to share the love. For me, Bowie, there's so many positive, great things that I got from listening to his music and enjoying him as an artist and an actor. It's just about being a fan, and that's what fans do. It was just my way of being a fanboy—and you know me, I can only do things the weirdest way possible, and that was, I guess, my weird way of being a fanboy.
*Correction: In an earlier version of this post, the introduction implied Schrader had the Twitter account earlier than he actually did. It has since been updated. City Paper regrets the error.


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Home Literature Death Comes for the Archbishop Death Comes for the Archbishop By Willa Cather
Willa Cather is the author of the award winning novel Death Comes For The Archbishop written in 1927. She was born in 1873 near Winchester, Virginia and soon moved to Nebraska (Cather, 1927). During her childhood she was surrounded by foreign languages and customs. Even at her young age she felt a connection to the immigrants in Nebraska and was intrigued with their connection to the land. Willa also loved writing about the vanished past of the American Southwest where nature and Christianity is opposed to the modern urban life and society.
She was raised Episcopalian and later in life she joined the Protestant Church in search for spirituality while still being captivated with the grandeur of ceremonies performed in the Catholic Church. These fascinations were projected directly into to her writings, as seen in her book Death Comes For The Archbishop. This book was awarded the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1930.
This book is considered an American Classic due to its longevity in popular literature. It also provides the important historical background on the Catholic Church and its impact on the American Southwest. Willa emphasizes, through her writings, the hardships of the people involved in making this part of America what it is today. It points out the influence of the earliest Spanish missionaries of the 16th century through the latter part of the 19th century involving French missionaries and exposes the corruptness as well as the dedication of the missionaries of the church.
The book's main setting is in the 19th century, during the settlement of New Mexico and Colorado and recalls the journeys that a priest undertook and the hardships overcame in order to meet his and the churches goal of bringing the Catholic faith to Mexicans and native Indians. Through his travels and the spiritual work in the beautiful, yet rough environment he was radically transformed. He was especially influenced by the experiences of the westward movement of the agricultural frontier because of the impact of the native people.
The main character of this book is Father Jean Marie Latour. He was consecrated the Catholic Vicar Apostolic of New Mexico and Bishop of Agathonica in partibus at Cincinnati and was destined to reach his Vicarate (Cather 1927) and help the people of the land. When he was given his mission to retrieve the bishopric (Cather 1927) by the Vatican in Rome he accepted it whole heartedly. Father Latour developed a great love for the people and the land of New Mexico through his travels. He loved the Mexican and Indian customs and shared his faith with them; he devoted his whole life to the people and church.
At this point in history New Mexico was only explored by merchants, priests and natives. The land of the Southwest was filled with many different tribes, such as the Acoma, Zuni, Navajos and Apaches. This land was very dangerous to travel because of the rugged terrain and the Comanche Indian raids (along the Santa Fe Trail). These were a threat to all travelers, even other Indian tribes.
Through Father Latour's journeys he came in contact with many people both good and bad. During this period in history many natives did not want anything to do with foreigners, after all the "white" race took their land away from them and robbed them of their traditions and they way of life they had always lived.
One of the first stops was at a settlement under the authority of a corrupt Bishop who had refused to recognize Father Latour's authority. While continuing the journey he came to find many "hidden communities" along his path. Often times in these communities the Catholic Church is not always welcomed with open arms. However, there is one community that the villagers were especially joyful to see the priest. The village is known as Hidden Water and the members thought that the priest was sent to them by the Virgin Mary to baptize their children and sanctify the marriages. These community member "elders" were already Catholic, but were being pressured by the Protestant religion to convert their religion.
Throughout the novel there is a representation of miracles of the faith in a land so far away and far removed from the European culture of the Vatican. The Vatican gave Father Latour his mission to revive this portion of the world. The American Southwest, at that time, was full of prejudice, hardships and cruelty. Perhaps the most prevalent miracle is when Father Latour met Sada, an old Mexican woman who was held against her will by a Protestant family. He met her when his faith was wavering and he needed guidance. When he listened to her life story about the brutality she had endured because of her religion and race, he was reborn. Meeting Sada was a pivotal point in his mission, the story of her hardships pushed him to resume his mission.
Also through his journey he experiences a corrupt priest by the name of Father Martinez. While Father Latour is spending time with Father Martinez he realizes what an impact a truly evil person can have on the community. Father Matinez argues that celibacy may be the way of the French clergy, but it is not a way of the Spanish clergy (Cather, 1927). Additionally, Father Latour finds it disturbing is that Father Martinez despises his fellow clergy in Rome and had no interest in their authority; the Mexican priests live as they please, above everyone else's means. Priests of the Catholic religion live in the manner of their followers; they do not posses anything of monetary value what so ever. This was not the case with Father Martinez.
This book shows how powerful a person of religious faith, when practiced properly and in good intentions, can transform lives, civilize culture and serve as a merging agent between the religion and people. I believe that the mission Pope John Paul II is a mirror of the life of Father Latuor. Pope John Paul II is a man of the world and the church, his goal in life was to spread the Catholic faith and unite the people of the world. The Pope traveled extensively and touched many people's lives, regardless of their religious affiliation. Pope John Paul's greatest work was changing religion and political situations in Eastern Europe; just as Father Latour worked to change the religion and life in Southwestern America.
StudyBoss. (July 2019). Death Comes for the Archbishop By Willa Cather. Retrieved from https://studyboss.com/essays/death-comes-for-the-archbishop-by-willa-cather.html
"Death Comes for the Archbishop By Willa Cather." studyboss.com. 07 2019. 07 2019. .
StudyBoss. July 2019. Death Comes for the Archbishop By Willa Cather. [online]. Available from: https://studyboss.com/essays/death-comes-for-the-archbishop-by-willa-cather.html [Accessed 17 July 2019].
StudyBoss. Death Comes for the Archbishop By Willa Cather [Internet]. July 2019. [Accessed 17 July 2019]; Available from: https://studyboss.com/essays/death-comes-for-the-archbishop-by-willa-cather.html.
My Antonia, by Willa Cather
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My Antonia, by Willa Cather The Americian Dream Theme
Willa Cather's short story Paul's Case
"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner and "Pauls Case" by Willa Cather
William Cather's "My Antonia" Analysis
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Leave fossil fuels buried to prevent climate change, study urges | Environment | The Guardian.
Climate coverage soars in 2013, spurred by energy, weather — The Daily Climate.
Is North America The Next World Capital Of Energy? : NPR.
The business of a natural gas pipline in Vermont | Burlington Free Press | burlingtonfreepress.com.
J. David Hughes is a geoscientist who has studied the energy resources of Canada for nearly four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager. He developed the National Coal Inventory to determine the availability and environmental constraints associated with Canada's coal resources.
I'm very bothered by what Prof Muller is doing these days. He has been a very vocal climate change denier and has enabled congressmen (esp. Sen Inhofe) to delay solutions and to castigate and denigrate real climate scientists.
He has received funding from a Koch foundation whose record has made it plain that they expect certain outcomes to scientific inquiry.
All of the research done by real climate scientists has been available (and massively peer reviewed) for some time now. This epiphany of Prof. Muller's smells to me like a tactic change.
Most climate scientists have stayed out of the arguments over policies for addressing this real problem, but Prof. Muller jumps right into that arena with suggestions that border on demand that we accept fracking, and push for a move to natural gas. If the Koch brothers have conceded they are losing the argument on denial, might they want to set an agenda (fracking and natural gas) that would benefit them?
Further, what is the need for a book by Prof. Muller about his conversion? If it's to explain what evidence there is for human caused climate change, that's already been done very well by Michael Mann, among others. I can only think of two reasons for the book. One is for Muller to remain a prominent voice whichever way the discussion goes, and the other is to promote an agenda favorable to his Koch foundation backers.


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Home Features Reviews Review: She's Eclectic – Women Artists of the VGM Collection
Review: She's Eclectic – Women Artists of the VGM Collection
In the short time I have been living in Merseyside, I have already established a routine of popping into the Victoria Gallery & Museum whenever I am in Liverpool city centre. The reason for my visits is to spend a few minutes with Elisabeth Frink's potent sculpture, Gogglehead 1967.
It is usually located on the first floor landing – not an ideal position because one can't walk around it to see it from all angles, but great that it is always on show.
However, this time the Gogglehead was not in its usual location … momentary disappointment evaporated when I realised that, of course, it would form part of the exhibition I had come to see. And there it was, in the middle of the main gallery space so that, for the first time, it was possible to see the back of his head.
Frink said that the Gogglehead series became a symbol of evil to her. This is intriguing and why I like coming back to this sculpture because to me he looks vulnerable, another way in which Frink often portrayed men. The goggles do prevent eye contact and therefore confer an advantage over the viewer but instead of being sinister black, the goggles are polished to gold. This has the effect of softening this fiercely male head and leaving it rather exposed.
Many contemporary artists might take issue with the segregation implicit in the title of this show, but one of the 35 here is Susan Hiller and she had no problem with being categorised as a 'woman artist'. She evidences this in a quote from The Guardian's obituary of her (she died on 29 January this year): "To be a woman and an artist is a privileged position, not a negative one. When I speak of being a woman artist, I'm suggesting a position of marginality is privileged. If you are marginal, you know two languages, not just one. And you can translate and bring into language insights that have been previously unarticulated. So I consider, like being a foreigner, being a woman is a great advantage."
Hiller is one of several world-famous artists on show – others include Bridget Riley, Gillian Ayres and Fiona Banner. Sharing the space with them are artists who are less known, some who were lauded in their time and quite a few with a direct connection to Liverpool. The gallery notes are brief but spark interest, and further research into these women's lives reveals extraordinary stories of achievement outside of their art practice as well as through it – Hilda Watts Bernstein, for example, campaigned against apartheid in South Africa and was awarded for her work on gender equality and democratic freedom; and Elisabeth Vellacott who kept painting through hard times to have her first solo show in her 60's and was still producing work into her 90's, when she finally received acclaim. There is an etching of her in the show by Liverpool-born Evelyn Gibbs, who herself inspires admiration for all she achieved and campaigned for: painter, printmaker, portraitist, war artist, illustrator of children's books and pioneer art educationist.
The Curator of the Exhibition, Dr Amanda Draper, explains that she was keen to reveal the interesting lives behind these women artists, as well as showcasing their work.
Another impetus behind it was to pay homage to the late Linda Nochlin, whose 1971 essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? triggered a reappraisal of the male-dominated art world. Even so, there is still disparity; the VGM, for example, has 3,750 works in its collection but only just over 200 of them are by women. Dr Draper says that this representation, around 5.5 percent is quite a good average for a public institution.
The piece by Banner is Runway Show, 2017, which is visually compelling in its melding of materials – Letraset on a piece of aircraft fuselage. Anyone familiar with Banner's work will know that this combines two of the elements most identified with her practice. It also packs her customary punch, this time with the poem it carries – a scathing commentary on the fashion industry's use of very young and vulnerable catwalk models – thus making a play on the word 'runway'.
On the opposite wall is a huge, abstract oil painting on canvas, which Dr Draper tells me has not been exhibited since the early 1990's. Having retrieved it from the Gallery's store and removed the swathes of plastic, Dr Draper was delighted to find it in good condition.
She had to do some detective work to locate the artist, Dr Peggy Postma, who revealed that she had side-stepped her artistic practice to retrain as a Clinical Psychologist. She added that her art hasn't been completely left behind, that the two careers are inextricably linked because her creative way of thinking makes for a valuable tool in her clinical field. Dr Draper's wall note on her states that horses influenced her paintings. I was pleased to read this because the painting had echoes of the superb sculpture on another of the Gallery's first floor landings – Horse IV by William Tucker.
One of the rewards of going to wide-ranging exhibitions such as this is coming upon artists for the first time. So it was for me with Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe, whose striking inter-weaving tubular sculpture, Loose Strife (1951), is shown in the main gallery.
Internationally, she is most famous for being the sculptor who designed the golden BAFTA Award trophy in the shape of a theatrical mask.
Liverpool is fortunate to have examples of her work permanently on view at the University's School of Civic Design. There, the carved handles on the main entrance door are hers, as is the sculpture in a small courtyard at the rear of the building. It is called The Quickening (1951) and is a most tender rendition of a hand protectively holding a dove. The sculpture, carved from a single piece of white Spanish marble, is all sensuous curves and rounds, perhaps reflecting the title, which is a term most often used to describe the first foetal movements a pregnant woman feels. This feeling is also sometimes called "a fluttering", which anyone who has held a small bird will know.
It struck me again when viewing this exhibition how easy it is to take for granted that national museums and galleries would always be able to acquire artworks for everyone's enjoyment. But these days the commodification of art means an increasing number of works end up in private collections and once this happens there is the danger that they will never be seen in public again, except when they come up for auction to be sold at an even higher price.
Of course there is the argument that public galleries are also guilty of acquiring works that then hardly ever see the light of day but at least there is the possibility of them being shown – as in this exhibition where some of the works had not been on display for many years.
The piece by Banner is the gallery's latest major acquisition. Dr Draper explains that it was added to the collection last year (2018) with the support of the London-based Contemporary Art Society. A charity to which art institutions pay an annual fee and in return the Society purchases important works of art to be placed in public collections. Dr Draper says that in her opinion public institutions would find it difficult to continue acquiring new contemporary works without the help of the CAS.
This really is an eclectic exhibition, as its title proclaims, and as such it will appeal to a wide range of tastes. I've been to see it on several occasions and each time it has surprised me with a detail I hadn't registered before. It is well worth a visit, not least because you never know how long you might have to wait before some of the works are shown again.
On until end of April 2019.
Words, Lorraine Bacchus
Victoria Gallery & Museum
Previous articleArt in Liverpool Magazine, issue #13: March 2019 editorial
Next articleReview: Light Blue, at The Royal Standard
Review: Fearless Creatures, The Gallery
Review: Cross Pollination at The Atkinson
Review: Rembrandt in Print
Review: Inspired by Alice, The Atkinson
Review: Astronomy Photographer of the Year
Review: The Williamson Open, 2019


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Mashing it with the fab four
September 13, 2008 By urbanora in Mashups, Music Tags: Silent films
Let us continue with our examination of those creative meetings of silent films with modern music. Today's selection takes us that much closer to the borderline of copyright tolerance, and it's a surprise to find Beatles music still so prevalent on YouTube. So, upholding the spirit of validity in creative re-invention, and before they all get taken down by the strong, protecting arm of Apple Corps, here's a selection of silent montages imaginatively put to the music of the Beatles (or vice versa). Because the Beatles turn out to have inspired the masher-uppers in a number of imaginative ways.
We start with a relatively conventional fan video, but one very pleasingly done. YouTuber zuebee (who has a taste for adding pop songs to classic film clips) here gives us tribute to Clara Bow by matching clips from It to the Beatles"Honey Pie': "Oh honey pie my position is tragic / Come and show me the magic / Of your Hollywood song". It's an obvious choice of song really, and the lapse into the use of stills is not to my taste, but words, music and image are skilfully blended, and it captures the spirit of the It girl.
So, you have decided to create a mash-up of scenes from Metropolis and the Beatles – which song will you choose? Quite possibly you may not have thought of 'Birthday', but Rob Karg did, and the result is a joyous confection, though it's a shame the image quality is so very poor. It's a crazy mix that turns the film into a wild celebration for the sake of celebrating wildly.
Metropolis seems to be a popular choice for Beatles fans with a silent film fixation. Try sampling it with 'I've just seen a face', or this quite peculiar use of 'Lady Madonna' with the video creator's own, intertitled agenda.
Not every silent chosen for such treatment is a familiar one. KeyAliceSun has taken Hans Richter's 1928 avant garde work Vormittagsspuk and found the ideal accompaniment for it in 'Happiness is a warm gun'. The song was presumably first chosen because of the film's central gun imagery, but the song's fragmented structure and radical style suit the film's playful experimentation. Lennon would have approved.
KeyAliceSun has also given us The Great Dictator meets 'Because'. OK, it's not a silent film, but it is Chaplin and the sequence is shown without dialogue and is purely silent in spirit. It's the scene where Hynkel plays with the globe ("Because the world is round it turns me on"), and the song matches the scene's dreamy atmosphere perfectly, so that they seem made for each other.
There are other such examples to discover. 'I've just seen a face' turns up again, sweetly put to Buster Keaton and Margaret Leahy in The Three Ages, Harold Lloyd's boy-next-door persona fits well with 'Act naturally', while Chaplin eating his boots is put to the somewhat obvious choice of 'Old Brown Shoe'. And so on.
Back to serious stuff eventually, I promise.
« Bioscope Newsreel no. 6
Picasso & Braque go to the Movies »


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Dune II: Battle for Arrakis
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Dune II: Battle for Arrakis for the Mega Drive/Genesis port respectively is a Dune video game developed by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive in Jan 1, 1992. It is based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel of the same name. While not necessarily the first real-time strategy (RTS) game (elements of which previously appeared in Stonkers, The Ancient Art of War, Command HQ, and particularly Herzog Zwei), Dune II established the format that would be followed for years to come. As such, Dune II was the archetypal 'real-time strategy' game. Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, it was a huge success and laid the foundation for Command & Conquer, Warcraft, and many other RTS games that followed.
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Mirai DTL-832E600 review
A no-frills set with entry-level spec and a budget picture
By TechRadar Staff 02 April 2008
A fairly attractive option, whose fuss-free setup rewards with a lacklustre performance
Very cheap
Looks more expensive than it is
Disappointing performance
Poor build quality
Mirai DTL-832E600 deals
There are plenty of euphemistic ways in which to describe LCD sets like the Mirai DTL-832E600.
An optimistic marketeer or salesperson, for example, might opt for 'inexpensive' or 'affordable', while anyone who has seen the Mirai DTL-832E600 in action, however, might go straight for 'cheap'.
Not that you'd guess straight away, mind you. The restrained black finish, tastefully trimmed with a touch of silver running along its lower edge, lends this set at least the look of something slightly classier than is suggested by its price tag.
Dubious build quality
The illusion is broken as soon as you handle the thing: it's suspiciously light, the casing is horribly hollow-sounding and the flimsy, non-swivelling plastic stand feels like it might snap in a stiff breeze.
And attaching the latter to the screen is an infuriating procedure involving much poking of tiny screws into minute holes at the bottom of maddeningly deep grooves, a process which is practically impossible without a magnetic-tip screwdriver.
It's increasingly rare for HD Ready, bog standardness to be the most exciting feature of a flatscreen TV, which gives you some idea of how many bells and whistles to expect from the Mirai.
There is a standard-issue set of tweaks to pull the pictures and sound this way and that, but nothing that promises any radical improvements to either. Curiously, there is an inaccessible 'Geometry' control that appears as a kind of greyed-out ghost of an option in the video section.
Quite how this found its way into the software of an LCD set is a mystery, given that rendering an image without any bowing or bulges has been a given with flatscreens since they were invented.
Only one HDMI
The connections, meanwhile, do little to raise this set's credentials any higher.
If anything, in fact, they have the reverse effect: there's a single HDMI input where two might now be reasonably considered a minimum specification on a 32in LCD and there aren't any secondary sockets (S-video, composite and so on) to cater for camcorder fans or those with modest video demands.
There is a brace of Scarts, but these days that's hardly likely to leave anyone breathless with excitement and there are separate RF jacks (and a loopthrough) for analogue and digital signals that, bizarrely, are located on opposite sides of the rear panel.
Straightforward setup?
Our hopes weren't exactly soaring by this point and it's probably fair to say that they remained unsurpassed by the time we got the Mirai up and running.
Ostensibly, it's a reasonably friendly setup, with a logically laid out remote (with glow-in-the-dark buttons, no less) controlling a passably attractive and intuitive menu system.
We bet, however, that you won't think to select a specific RF input before starting the auto channel scan, so you will be annoyed to find that you have wasted five minutes of your life watching the set try to tune into a non-existent analogue feed when only the digital socket has anything plugged into it.
We'd also wager that you might expect the Freeview line-up, once you figure out how to get it, to include all the usual channels in the correct order; our sample ignored most of ITV's output and arranged everything from the BBC in strict numerical order, with BBC3 following BBC2, instead of ITV1, and with BBC4 where Channel 4 should have been.
Perhaps we are just fussy, though.
Average picture quality
There really isn't that much to say about the performance other than it's almost exactly what you'd expect from a set of this price. Which is to say, pretty average at best.
The colour palette, for example, is acceptably bold, but brighter hues tend towards garish, there isn't a massive amount of subtlety on display and the whole lot is blended together fairly crudely.
As with so many LCD screens, peak whites aren't at all bad, but blacks lack any real 'oomph' and tend to merge together into one, fairly uniform shade of 'dark' without much in the way of gradation to give the picture the kind of depth that you'd find on superior LCDs or plasmas.
Motion rendering is poor, even for the money, with any kind of slow pan or tracking causing all sorts of wobbles and shakes. This flaw, once noticed, is very difficult to ignore. It's not too bad with frenetic, fast-paced scenes, but you just can't ignore the way slower sequences are critically compromised.
These flaws are most evident with Freeview broadcasts and standard-definition DVDs, but feeding the Mirai high-definition material only slightly ameliorates its shortcomings. In fact, there isn't much to choose between either sort of movie disc, which rather defeats the purpose of buying an HD Ready set in the first place.
A good value LCD?
On the one hand, the Mirai DTL-832E600 is one of the cheapest 32in LCDs we've ever seen, but on the other, it just isn't very good.
Make of that what you will, but if you plump for this turkey, don't say we didn't warn you.


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'The Revenant' Is the Anti-'Martian'
The new Leonardo DiCaprio survival epic and Matt Damon's sci-fi thriller offer two different survivalist stories across centuries.
www.facebook.com/RevenantMovie and www.Facebook.com/MartianMovie
Alejandro G. Iñárritu's new film The Revenant is many things. A.A. Dowd's review for the AV Club called it a movie "perched between a kind of 19th-century Death Wish movie and a whispery Terrence Malick meditation on the relationship between man and nature." Peter Travers in Rolling Stone said it's a "a visceral punch in the gut." Alan Scherstuhl in The Village Voice described it as "a chilling, stirring, experiential immersion in what life-and-death drama might actually feel like." It isn't easily categorized, but perhaps the key to understanding The Revenant is to compare it to a survival-epic cousin of recent vintage. Iñárritu's wilderness survival movie is the near complete mirror opposite of Ridley Scott's outer space survival thriller, The Martian, released earlier this year.
The movies have much in common. They're both titled in a similar, unadorned fashion, and each title refers to their main characters as something otherworldly. Each movie is getting scads of Oscar buzz, and fundamentally both movies are about men cut off from civilization and left to fend against nature. Leonardo DiCaprio's mountain man lead character Hugh Glass may as well be an ancestor to Matt Damon's character Mark Watney in The Martian. There's nary a figurative difference between the vast open red wasteland that defines Watney's struggle for survival on Mars versus the harsh, unforgiving wilds that Glass must traverse to seek revenge.
Glass' eye-for-an-eye mentality forces him to crawl back and kill the man responsible for killing his son. Watney has no revenge motive, but he seeks absolution from the decisions he's made to get him to be stranded 250 million miles from home. Just as their basic situations are the same, the way they go about rectifying them are completely different.
The most popular line from The Martian is when Damon's character assesses his circumstances while stranded on Mars — not a lot of resources, no communication link with NASA, limited options — and blurts out that he's "Gonna have to science the shit out of this." And science the shit out of it he does. Watney learns how to grow food, to create oxygen, to establish transmissions to Earth, and (spoilers) eventually escapes Mars all by using his smarts. It's a completely by-the-numbers and rational approach to survival.
Watney solves each puzzle by relying on scientific thought and technology. And it was a damn crowd-pleaser. It was a boon for the NASA set who saw the possibilities of space travel dim in 2011 with the retirement of the Space Shuttle. The movie's release echoed our historical moment, when private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have made space seem nearer than ever.
The Martian's logical approach came at the right time, which is what makes The Revenant equally interesting. Its approach is obviously old-fashioned insofar as the story takes place in the early 1820s, but its lead character charges — or crawls — into the drama with an instinct so primal it's downright primordial. No government agencies or diplomats are working to bring Glass home. In The Revenant it's just one man, the Earth, and a lot of blood and animal carcasses. His decisions are based purely on staying alive, without thought, and the only way he'll stay alive is if he reacts to his environment.
If a hostile Native American tribe catches his trail, he must slink back into untamed river rapids to escape and pray he doesn't drown. If he must eat, he'll have to rely on scavenging meat from dead buffaloes or the kindness of a passing Native American ally. Glass is simultaneously the thrust of his own survival and at the whim of a forbidding environment. It's pure chaos, and any accrued knowledge that he has of that wilderness makes little difference in the rugged Wyoming backcountry. The only way to survive in The Revenant is to make the right decision at the right time.
Both The Martian and The Revenant present similar circumstances and two opposite ways to overcome them. One is driven by logic and deduction, the other by natural urges. There's no real way to determine which is better than the other, mostly because The Martian has an inherently optimistic outlook while The Revenant is almost excruciatingly dour. Yet they both convey that whether you're alone on Mars 60 years from now or in 19th century Wyoming, the human will to survive takes many forms.


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The RGH5 is designed for use as a confined space access harness. The front and rear attachment points can be used as standard fall arrest points and the rescue strap can be used for lifting and lowering. The rescue strap keeps the operative in a near vertical position when recovering an unconscious casualty.
The harness is fully adjustable and is fitted with rip stitch indicators. It conforms to EN361 and EN1497.


Dundee, UK, 7 July, 2015 – Vascular Flow Technologies, the medical device company using proprietary Spiral Laminar Flow (SLF™) technology to replicate natural blood flow for enhanced patient outcomes, today announces the issue of three new patents, expected to strengthen the Company's offering in both Asian and global markets.
Vascular Flow Technologies' has expanded its patent landscape with patents for a tubular conduit issued by the Japanese patent office, 2012-538404, a flexible bypass graft issued by the Chinese patent office, 201080052130.X, and a drug delivery stent issued by the European patent office, 05702119.8.
All three devices use Vascular Flow Technologies' SLF™ technology, a helical design clinically proven to replicate the natural spiral laminar flow pattern of blood. By promoting natural blood flow, SLF™ eliminates risk of turbulent flow and dead regions, which can lead to complications for the patient such as plaque formation, reduced blood flow and thrombosis.
The new patents will add to the existing suite of patents protecting SLF™ technology and Vascular Flow Technologies' portfolio of vascular products, supporting the Company's strategic growth plan.
Bill Allan, CEO of Vascular Flow Technologies, commented: "Japan is the second largest market globally for medical technology, and with an aging population, this is an important area for our investment.
Vascular Flow Technologies is a leading innovator focused on the research, development and commercialisation of devices to improve blood flow in compromised or diseased blood vessels utilising its proprietary Spiral Laminar FlowTM (SLF™) technology. Natural blood flow has a distinctive singular spiral flow pattern and the patented SLF™ technology is the only clinically-proven design to replicate this.
VFT has two CE marked and FDA approved devices commercialised in Europe and the US, the Spiral Flow™ peripheral bypass (PV) graft and the Spiral Flow™ arteriovenous access (AV) graft. The SLF™ technology is used to create a longer lasting graft or stent, producing a better quality of life for the patient due to reduced vascular complications and improved longevity of the implant.
VFT is a privately held company with headquarters in Dundee, UK.
Further information is available at www.vascular-flow.com.


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Home / Savings Accounts / How to spot a pyramid scheme
How to spot a pyramid scheme
By Emma Duffy on December 21, 2020
We've all seen them splashed across our social media feeds or been hit up with the dreaded "Hey!" on Facebook from some random you went to high school with who you haven't spoken to in ten years.
Yep, we're talking about pyramid schemes and you're just as likely to come across a post spruiking a "fantastic new business opportunity!!!!" while you scroll your Facebook feed as you are to see engagement pics or a million photos of your cousin's/coworker's/highschool acquaintance's new baby (nobody cares).
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australians have lost $348,657 to pyramid scheme scams so far in 2020. Last year, we lost a staggering $1.6 million.
Need somewhere to store cash and earn interest? The table below features savings accounts with some of the highest interest rates on the market.
Pyramid schemes are a booming business and have been thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic: Never has there been a better time to lure in someone recently unemployed by asking "How would you like to earn five figures a month working from home, no experience required?".
But as the old saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, and that's definitely the case here. Research by Jon M Taylor, founder of the Consumer Awareness Institute in the US, found that 99% of multi-level marketing distributors (MLM) lose money. That means that less than one in 100 MLM participants made a profit, and at least 99 out of 100 people who participate in an MLM not only make no money, they lose money.
Now before you start shaking your fists and shouting at your computer screen saying "but MLM's aren't pyramid schemes!!!!" we'll get into how they're (slightly) different in a minute: but if something looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck…. it's probably a duck. Get my drift?
What is a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme is an illegal money-making scheme that makes its money by recruiting people rather than actually selling any tangible products or services.
Members are usually recruited via word of mouth through friends or family and are asked to pay a sign-up and/or monthly fee to join. To make this money back, new members are promised they will be paid if they recruit more members into the scheme. Simply put, pyramid schemes rely completely on the recruitment of others to make money. But in order for everyone in the scheme to actually make any money, there needs to be an endless supply of new members. In reality, the ACCC says the number of people willing to join the scheme (and therefore the amount of money being made) will dry up very quickly.
Source: WikiCommons
It's called a pyramid scheme because the top 5% of promoters at the very top of the pyramid make their money by getting people to join the scheme, and then pocket the fees of everyone else below them.
For example, the first 20 members of a pyramid scheme each have to find 20 more people to join. Those 200 new members then each have to find 20 more recruits to make some money. So that group of 200 essentially have to find 2,000 more people to join. That group of 2,000 then have to get 20,000 more people to sign up in order to make a profit, and so on.
Eventually, it just becomes impossible for anyone at the bottom to actually make any money at all, and the very small minority at the top of the pyramid are rewarded at the expense of everyone below them.
Often, people are recruited into pyramid schemes by a family member or a friend (who often aren't aware it's a pyramid scheme either) so it's understandable that many people don't think it through properly before signing up. After all, you trust your family and friends so if your mum or your best friend is doing it, it must be okay… right??
Bah bow. According to the ACCC, here are some classic warning signs of pyramid schemes to keep an eye out for:
You are offered a chance to join a group, scheme, program or team where you need to recruit new members to make money
The scheme involves offering goods or services of little or doubtful value that serve only to promote the scheme, such as information sheets
There are big upfront costs, and
The promoter makes claims like "this is not a pyramid scheme"
Multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes
MLM stands for multi-level marketing and is also known as network marketing, referral marketing and direct selling or direct marketing.
Unlike pyramid schemes, MLM schemes do actually sell a tangible product. So in an MLM scheme, you sell a product in addition to recruiting new members. MLM representatives then make a commission on their sales as well as on the sales of the people they recruit. But when you drill down into it further, you'll find that MLM schemes make most of their money through the recruitment of new members - not from the products they sell. It's allllllll about recruitment!
So while MLM schemes aren't technically pyramid schemes, they are very similar. Again, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck… well, you know the rest.
MLM schemes are also completely legal in Australia, whereas pyramid schemes are not.
In an MLM scheme, consultants generally ply their wares by selling door to door, through their network of friends, or by hosting in-home parties. Remember Tupperware parties? Yep, they were pretty much the OG in the MLM world.
Mary Kay and Avon are two other really well-known examples of MLMs but lots of new companies have sprung up over the years, including the likes of doTERRA, Younique, Isagenix and Arbonne. You'll find that most MLM companies sell things like essential oils, weight loss products, beauty and skincare products, and kitchen appliances: All products that appeal most to women, who are often the ones being lured in.
Fueled by promises of "get rich quick while working from home!" and "be your own boss!", stay-at-home mums often are often the targets of these schemes because they're made to feel like they're being empowered when in reality they're being exploited.
As our old mate from the Consumer Awareness Institute found, 99% of MLM distributors end up losing money. Let's use US-based MLM Monat as an example. According to their 2019 income disclosure statement, a 'market partner' (the first rank which makes up 93.54% of Monat distributors) earned an average annual income of $119USD. That's $160 Australian dollars. Yep, 93% of Monat market partners only earned $160 buckaroos a year.
But even when you look at the first six ranks (all the way to 'associate market mentor'), they all earn less than $24,000 AUD in a year. This means 99.68% of Monat market partners earn less than what you'd make in most part-time jobs. Those annual income figures also include 36% of market partners who were considered 'inactive' meaning they weren't eligible for a commission. That means a third of Monat market partners earned zilch.
That's without even taking into consideration that these numbers don't include any expenses incurred. If you look at the fine print in the income disclosure statement, you'll notice it says:
"The above figures include only bonuses, commissions or other remuneration paid to Market Partners by MONAT Global. They DO NOT take into consideration any expenses incurred by Market Partners in operating their businesses or profits or losses when products are resold by Market Partners. Expenses incurred may include, but are not limited to, the purchase of a starter kit, payment of renewal fees, purchases of product samples or inventory, shipping costs, transportation costs, training and educational expenses, and travel expenses. In some cases, these costs and expenses may exceed the amounts earned by Market Partners. Monat Global makes no guarantee of financial success and you may lose money."
In other words, the annual income many people make is less than the money they spend on expenses, so they're literally paying to be a part of this MLM scheme.
Ponzi schemes, which like pyramid schemes are also illegal in Australia, are fraudulent investment scams that convince people to invest their money by promising high returns. But what's actually happening is that Ponzi scheme promoters are paying existing investors with money collected from new investors - your money isn't actually being invested in anything.
All Ponzi schemes eventually fall apart according to ASIC's Moneysmart website, because the promoter either spends the money too quickly or the number of people willing to invest dries up. Most people hear about Ponzi schemes through unsuspecting family members, friends or work colleagues.
How do you spot a Ponzi scheme?
Moneysmart says some classic warning signs to keep an eye out for is if the rate of return is suspiciously high (some promise absurd returns of 10% a month), if someone you trust tries to recruit you, or if that person trying to recruit you has already invested in the scheme and received great 'dividends'. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
What to do if you suspect a scam
If you think you've come across a pyramid scheme or other scam, the first step is to report the scam to the ACCC. It's also a good idea to check if that company is listed on ASIC's list of companies you shouldn't deal with.
Don't invest any more money and warn your family and friends if they've also been duped. You can find more information on where to get help if you've been scammed via the ACCC's Scamwatch.
Savings.com.au's two cents
There are some people out there for whom certain MLMs (like Tupperware) can work well for if it fits in with their lifestyle. If you're considering becoming part of an MLM as a side hustle, make an educated decision by reading their income disclosure statements first, using our breakdown above as an example of what to look for. If after this, you're still keen then go for it - just make sure you're completely informed of the risks first.
But in our opinion, if you're looking for a side hustle, you'd be far better off finding other ways to make money online such as through websites like Airtasker or Fiverr, or by selling your stuff on Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace. You could also consider signing up to Uber or any of these gig economy online platforms for some extra cash. If you're thinking about signing up to an MLM because you've lost your job and need an income, MLMs are definitely not the way to go.
At the end of the day, if you're going to put that much effort into spruiking someone else's products in an MLM scheme, you would be far better off starting your own business and promoting your own products - if you have a talent or a skill and are prepared to put in the time and effort.
If not, we strongly recommend staying away from MLM and pyramid schemes and reporting them to the ACCC if you come across one.
Photo by The World Hopper from Pexels
Xinja says farewell as all customer deposits returned January 19, 2021
Unpaid COVID-19 fines could appear on your credit report January 19, 2021
'Zero consumer benefit' in open banking so far January 19, 2021
12% could still be unemployed as calls for JobSeeker increase get louder January 19, 2021
Property sellers in Hobart and regional Victoria profit most January 18, 2021
Emma Duffy Emma Duffy joined Savings.com.au as a Finance Journalist in 2019 after spending a year as the editor of The Real Estate Conversation. She's passionate about empowering people to make smart financial decisions and improve the financial literacy of Australians by translating complex finance topics into understandable, relatable content.
Collections: Money Saving Tips
Xinja says farewell as all customer deposits returned
Unpaid COVID-19 fines could appear on your credit report
'Zero consumer benefit' in open banking so far
12% could still be unemployed as calls for JobSeeker increase get louder
GFC was worse than COVID: Treasury
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Identification of a Woman (1982)
Identificazione di una donna (original title)
Not Rated | 2h 10min | Drama, Romance | 15 November 1996 (USA)
The movie director Niccolo has just been left by his wife. This gives him the idea of making a movie about women's relationships. He starts to search for a woman who can play the leading ... See full summary »
Michelangelo Antonioni (story), Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay) | 2 more credits »
Tomas Milian, Daniela Silverio, Christine Boisson | See full cast & crew »
"Red Desert" & "Husbands and Wives": Two Visions from Carlo Di Palma
28 July 2017 | MUBI
How Michelangelo Antonioni Mastered the Art of Visual Geometry — Watch
16 April 2017 | Indiewire
New on Video: 'L'Avventura'
11 December 2014 | SoundOnSight
1982 : les meilleurs films de l'année.
Criterion Blu-Rays
Movies I Would Like to Own
Search for "Identification of a Woman" on Amazon.com
Title: Identification of a Woman (1982)
1 win & 5 nominations. See more awards »
The Mystery of Oberwald (1980)
One long decade after the assassination of her husband, a reclusive queen comes face-to-face with the deceased's doppelgänger and anarchist poet, and strikes a three-day pact; however, fate has other plans. What is the mystery of Oberwald?
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Stars: Monica Vitti, Paolo Bonacelli, Franco Branciaroli
Il Grido (1957)
A man wanders aimlessly, away from his town, away from the woman he loved, emotionally and socially inactive.
Stars: Gabriella Pallotta, Steve Cochran, Alida Valli
The Lady Without Camelias (1953)
A new starlet is discovered and has ups and downs in Italian films.
Stars: Lucia Bosè, Gino Cervi, Andrea Checchi
Le Amiche (1955)
A young woman returns to her hometown of Turin to set up a new fashion salon and gets involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy friends.
Stars: Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi
Beyond the Clouds (1995)
Made of four short tales, linked by a story filmed by Wim Wenders. Taking place in Ferrara, Portofino, Aix en Provence and Paris, each story, which always a woman as the crux of the story, ... See full summary »
Directors: Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders
Stars: Fanny Ardant, Chiara Caselli, Irène Jacob
I vinti (1953)
Three stories of well-off youths who commit murders. In the French episode a group of high school students kill one of their colleagues for his money. In the Italian episode a university ... See full summary »
Stars: Etchika Choureau, Jacques Sempey, Henri Poirier
I tre volti (1965)
A story with three segments that all adhered to the titular theme, The Three Faces of a Woman.
Directors: Michelangelo Antonioni, Mauro Bolognini, and 1 more credit »
Stars: Princess Soraya, Richard Harris, Alberto Sordi
Story of a Love Affair (1950)
Crime | Drama | Romance
Paola is a young, beautiful woman married to a wealthy entrepreneur. She meets her former lover Guido after seven years, but their relationship is marked by tragic events.
Stars: Lucia Bosè, Massimo Girotti, Ferdinando Sarmi
Red Desert (1964)
In an industrial area, Giuliana, an unstable woman, attempts to cope with life by starting an affair with a co-worker at the plant her husband manages.
Stars: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti
The Passenger (1975)
A frustrated war correspondent, unable to find the war he's been asked to cover, takes the risky path of coopting the identity of a dead arms dealer acquaintance.
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre
Zabriskie Point (1970)
At Zabriskie Point, United States' lowest point, two perfect strangers meet; an undergraduate dreamer and a young hippie student who start off an unrestrained romance, making love on the dusty terrain.
Stars: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Paul Fix
L'Eclisse (1962)
A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature.
Stars: Monica Vitti, Alain Delon, Francisco Rabal
Tomas Milian ... Niccolò
Daniela Silverio ... Mavi
Christine Boisson ... Ida
Lara Wendel ... Girl in swimming pool
Veronica Lazar ... Carla
Enrica Antonioni ... Nadia (as Enrica Fico)
Sandra Monteleoni ... Mavi's sister
Marcel Bozzuffi ... Mario
Giampaolo Saccarola ... The gorilla (as Gianpaolo Saccarola)
Dado Ruspoli ... Mavi's father (as Alessandro Ruspoli)
Arianna De Rosa ... Mavi's friend
Sergio Tardioli ... Butcher
Itaco Nardulli ... Lucio
Paola Dominguín ... Girl in window
Pier Francesco Aiello ... Young man at party (as Pierfrancesco Aiello)
The movie director Niccolo has just been left by his wife. This gives him the idea of making a movie about women's relationships. He starts to search for a woman who can play the leading part in the movie - but also in his own life... Written by Mattias Thuresson
female nudity | pubic hair | female underarm hair | cult director | female frontal nudity | See All (52) »
Not Rated | See all certifications »
MMr Bongo Films
Italy | France
Italian | English | French
15 November 1996 (USA) See more »
Identification of a Woman See more »
Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy See more »
Iterfilm, Gaumont, Rai 2 See more »
The last feature film Michelangelo Antonioni made before his debilitating stroke. See more »
Niccolo: It used to be the poor who wanted to emigrate from Italy. Now it's the rich.
Featured in Tonino Guerra: A Poet in the Movies (2008) See more »
Written by Fausto Cigliano
Identification of a Woman
30 December 2011 | by MartinTeller – See all my reviews
This feels a little bit like "Antonioni For Dummies". Although there are some mysteries and ambiguities, for the most part it's rather plainly laid out and not as enigmatic as his more highly-regarded works. Which isn't to say it's a bad movie. It drags quite a bit, but there are some intriguing parts. The highlight is the fog-shrouded centerpiece of the film... a rather blunt metaphor, but still eerie and compelling. The ending is also a treat. The cinematography by Carlo Di Palma is excellent, perhaps even surpassing his work on RED DESERT. And the soundtrack, though it will probably sound dated to most, is full of stuff I like -- OMD, Tangerine Dream, Steve Hillage. Overall, the film is engaging, but only intermittently so. The first half is more rewarding with all its paranoia... things fizzle out more in the second part.


We will provide a safe environment that fosters positive character and accountability and that values individuality by treating all members of the school community with dignity and respect.
We will conduct the business of education in a professional, ethical, and legal manner.
We will help to ensure an orderly atmosphere conducive to learning, in the classroom and on campus, by communicating school rules to students and parents and by modeling and enforcing these rules.
We will honor classroom instructional time and minimize classroom interruptions in order to maximize student learning.
We will demonstrate our belief and expectation that every student is capable of learning and should be held accountable for his/her performance and citizenship.
Through consistent, high expectations for teaching and learning, we will hold students responsible for thinking, creating, and problem solving and encourage students to recognize and transfer the aesthetics in each discipline.
We will design and implement standards-based lessons and assessments based on curriculum maps and California State Content Standards.
We will work collaboratively using data to develop, implement and reexamine lessons, activities and assessments to support students in reaching their potential.
We will vary methods of assessment both to evaluate student learning and to inform instruction.
We will be committed to the social, emotional, and academic development of each student by recognizing and nurturing their individual potential and talent.
We will commit to working with students and their families to achieve student success by providing timely and meaningful information on student progress and offering suggestions for assisting their academic growth.
We will model self-discipline, self-motivation, and commitment to excellence by being prepared, responsible and respectful.
We will recognize, celebrate and enthusiastically support student success and the contributions of our colleagues throughout the school year.
We will be accountable and knowledgeable and demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement through life-long learning and professional development.
We will work collaboratively to provide support and professional assistance to move students toward achieving intended outcomes.
We will develop an environmental ethic by committing to and initiating sustainable practices.
We will follow school rules and be responsible for our own actions.
We will be active, respectful, and supportive citizens in our school and community.
We will keep our campus clean, and will not litter or vandalize our school.
We will come to school every day, be on time, and be prepared and ready to learn.
We will be responsible for our own academic success by being organized, completing our assignments, and staying updated on grades.
We will do our best to participate fully in class by working with our peers and teachers in order to achieve academic success.
We will be dedicated to learning, and will make success at Wilcox and beyond our top priority.
We will engage in positive activities that promote healthy relationships while preventing conflicts, fights, and drama.
We will not engage in bullying, harassment, profanity, or any other activities that harm others physically or mentally.
We will promote a safe environment by dressing appropriately and proactively ensuring the safety of our surroundings.
We will work to manage our stress, to get enough sleep, and to lead healthy lifestyles.
We will utilize all available resources here at Wilcox, including teachers, counselors, psychologists, and administrators, in order to resolve conflicts and maintain our personal well-being.
We will respect ourselves, our peers, and our school by not cheating or plagiarizing.
We will use technology responsibly.
We will mentor our children, be attentive to their needs and be actively involved in all aspects of their life.
We will place the physical, social, mental and academic development of our children as a top priority, and will therefore continually be available to our children for help and support.
We will model responsibility, respect and tolerance at home and in the community and encourage our children to do the same.
We will maintain open lines of communication with our children so that we may know their successes and struggles at school, their interests and their friends.
We will communicate expectations, provide structure, and set appropriate limits for our children.
We will discuss with our children all necessary issues regarding their personal health, safety and well-being, and will do what is required to help them in these areas.
We will strive to not be discouraged by the difficulties of raising children, and will remember the importance and value of being involved in our children's lives.
We will value education and clearly communicate its importance to our children.
We will ensure that our children attend school every day and take their learning responsibilities seriously.
We will encourage our children to set goals and do their best so that they can reach their full potential.
We will model and promote a work ethic that values attendance, punctuality, preparedness and participation in and outside the classroom.
We will ensure that our children arrive at school on time and with the necessary supplies.
We will work in tandem with our children, their teachers and the school administration to prepare our children to be successful contributing members of the community.
We will proactively communicate to teachers and administrators any concerns or needs to help our children be more successful.
We will support the staff at Wilcox, and will remind our children that teachers and administrators are looking out for students' best interests.
We will stay informed of school activities by reading school newsletters and accessing electronic communications.
We will continually monitor our children's progress by regularly checking their grades on School Loop and/or contacting their teacher.
We will attend parent-oriented school functions such as Back-to-School Night and Open House.
We will support the Wilcox PTSA and ELAC (English Language Advisory Committee) by participating in these groups and their activities.
We will encourage our children to be involved in activities in and outside the classroom, and we will support these activities by volunteering time and/or providing financial support for such activities.
We will support and mentor new parents and students in the Wilcox community.


The most widely distributed of its genus, the Amethyst Woodstar is found in a great variety of habitats throughout its circum-Amazonian distribution. The male is mainly bronzy green above with a prominently forked tail, white sides to the rump, and a striking amethyst-colored throat, bordered by a white breast band. The female has a green-spotted white throat, orange-rufous sides to the underparts, and a narrow white line behind the eye. The Amethyst Woodstar has been recorded taking the nectar of a large number of plant species, and at least occasionally the species hawks insects in flight. This woodstar is probably largely sedentary, but local movements potentially occur, though have yet to be proven. The species is usually not uncommon, but is rather rare and has perhaps declined in northeast Argentina, and is very poorly known in Colombia.


From Cyprus to Herts, lost again – then found!
A cat owner who rescued a stray kitten from Cyprus was devastated after he went missing – but five months later, they have been reunited thanks to his microchip.
Karen Jarvis, 48, of Windsor Road, Pitstone, rescued black and white moggy Dave along with his 'stepsister' Fluffy from the Mediterranean isle in 2013 after falling in love with them on holiday.
But when the two-year-old cat went missing in June Karen's posters, leaflets, Facebook posts and daily searches proved futile.
Yet last week, Karen had a call from St John's Veterinary Surgery in Berkhamsted to say Dave had been brought in with an injured paw after being found by a gentleman called Phil Wood in Dagnall – five miles away from Pitstone.
IT project manager Karen, who lives with husband Adrian, said: "The reunion was really emotional – Dave was purring away.
"I had day-dreamed about that moment for months, and I never gave up hope.
Karen believes Dave could have jumped in a car or van and ended up in Dagnall because of his curious nature.
> Karen's neighbour Mary Humprhis is still searching for her tabby cat Tia, who went missing four days after Dave back in June. She is pictured above – if anyone has any information, please call Mary on 07814 566935.


Hermando de Soto, one of the leaders of the Legal Empowerment of the Poor movement (who also headed the original UN Commission together with Madeline Albright), has always been pushing the envelop with his theories of economic growth and legal rights. He was recently interviewed (and his work in Peru subjected to prodding) by BBC radio journalists, cumulating in a 30 minute report that you can listen here.
'Can an economist save Peru?
The world famous Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto believes that the key to ending poverty for countless millions is to give them the right to own the land that they live on. If a person owns the land, and has the paperwork to prove it, his theory says, they can use it as collateral to borrow money from banks to help build businesses and improve their quality of life.


text:
Noodling for Flatheads
Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts
By Burkhard Bilger
Burkhard Bilger vividly captures a world that lies outside the familiar images of life in the United States in the twenty-first century in eight superbly crafted essays about little-known corners of the South. It is a world in which grown men catch catfish with their bare hands, crowds of people cheer on chickens as they fight to the death, and a woman moves into a trailer home when her house burns down just so she can continue hunting 350 nights a year. Bilger records the eccentric and sometimes downright bizarre behavior he encounters with humor and wit but nary a whisper of mockery. In essays that combine history, anecdotes, and personal observations, he describes each activity, its origins, its dangers, and its pleasures. But Noodling for Flatheads is much more than a survey of unlikely pastimes. Through lively portraits of the participants, Bilger illuminates the obsessive individualism that is at the heart of the American spirit.
Burkhard Bilger
Publisher: Scribner (May 14, 2002)
Travel > United States > General
Travel > Essays & Travelogues
History > United States > State & Local
Ted Lee The New York Times A collection of powerful essays...[Bilger's] lyrical narratives thrum with energy and affection.
Jonathan Yardley The Washington Post Smart, clear-eyed, witty, and unsentimental, not to mention quite agreeably surprising.
Newsweek Meticulous reporting and graceful writing -- with zero condescension.
E. Andra Whitworth The New York Times Book Review A rare and sometimes surprising glimpse of the American backwoods... Bilger's folksy descriptions of these eccentric pursuits are charming.
Caroline Fraser Outside A fascinating look into rural America's intimate, uneasy relationship with the animal life that surrounds it -- both wild and domesticated.
Book Cover Image (jpg): Noodling for Flatheads