Art

Textile Artist Spins Wool Into Metaphors

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Raw material: Wool. Operating mode: the hook.

Nice, France textile artist Stéphanie Lobry frantically fashions her art with an unexpected yet satisfyingly fitting leitmotiv: feminism.

A Teacher when she’s not at the loft, where she created and exhibited her works, Stéphanie Lobry is busy hanging a crochet. Entitled 1.8 cubic meter, “parce c’est la taille qu’il fait”, lies in the piece, in the middle of a crowd of scattered bodies which share this small space with balls of yarn and needles.

If we pay attention to all red wires that surround and hang throughout her living room, we realize that they are, in fact, a gun.

“I wanted to divert the everyday objects. And to do so with needles and wool. No, no to knitting scarves for her daughters in some kind of ‘good housewife’ role, but rather to rediscover the woman inside, and then to discover humans in general.”

Why crochet? Rolled cigarette in mouth, she passes a nonchalant hand into blond spiky hair. She thinks… “This practice is also ancestral, but has potential for feminist messages and aesthetics when it is diverted from its original use and put towards the service of art. I’ve always been very creative and a little hyper active yet the only compliment I could expect from that was to be commended for being a good mother…”. I got fed up.”  Reduced once too often to the status of “the good historical female”, Stéphanie Lobry “lost it”and held her first exhibition.

Our compulsive crocheter remembers having hesitated….stalled somewhere between a choice of direction. Between science and art: “When I started my studies in molecular biology, my mother asked me if I was sure didn’t want to make fine art instead.” Would an academic focus on science bind her passions?  In her artistic process, she discovered that there was in fact a synthesis manifested through the act of the creation, which after all, begins with the cells inside the brain. Fittingly, her art work began with a small croqueted skull which “immediately went to Gallery’. The creative process then dissected and took over other parts of the body.

An Ariane of modern times

Sweeping my gaze around her workshop, it stops suddenly on the croqueted heart, “it was a participatory project I created shortly after Charlie.” Surely a way to re – unite people, to reconnect, “everyone needed it.” The artist put out a call using social media, letting all participants know that their name would be displayed at the bottom of the finished work. In a few weeks, she received 763 balls of wool, from more than 120 donors, scattered to the four corners of the world, from Paris to Noumea, the Chile, the Belgium and the Greece.


A Runaway success requires a lot of hard work.
It takes almost a month to sort the fabrics and create a ball that weighs more than 40 kg. As for the hook… 45 days are necessary for the realization of a typical piece of finished work: “the ball weighed a ton! I couldn’t do more than five knots without being exhausted.” It is a technique so grueling and time-consuming, but I feel like I’m really at the beginning, I still have a lot to say.” She seems to have found her way alright and is brimming with ideas to express her commitment.

Worried perhaps about her peers who see their emancipation sometimes as endangered, this knitter doesn’t fail to hang onto a hint of conviction to her works. I remember especially this sort of determined representation that she had given at the Théâtre National de Nice, last May, dressed in a full suit. Knitted of course. Delivering metaphors spun into all of her creations.  For the Silo, Marine de Rocquigny originally for Art and Facts www.artandfacts.fr 

*photos by Florian Lévy

Stéphanie Lobry accroche l’œil au crochet avec son cœur. Ledit, intitulé 1,8 mètre cube, « parce c’est la taille qu’il fait », gît dans la pièce, au milieu d’une foule d’organes éparpillés, partageant ce petit espace avec les pelotes de laine et les aiguilles.
Pourquoi le crochet ? Cigarette roulée au bec, elle passe une main nonchalante dans ses blonds cheveux en bataille. Elle songe… « Cette pratique aussi ancestrale soit-elle, prend des allures féministes quand elle est détournée de son utilisation pour se mettre au service de l’art. » Car c’est bien avec une volonté libératrice et féministe qu’elle s’est lancée il y a maintenant sept ans : « J’ai toujours été très créative et un peu hyper active pourtant le seul compliment que je pouvais espérer c’était d’être une bonne mère de famille… J’en ai eu marre. » Réduite une fois de trop au statut de BMF, Stéphanie Lobry « pète les plombs » et organise une première exposition.
Alors que les curieux s’aventurent dans ses appartements, elle les reçoit en nuisette, repassant chemise après chemise, la main collée à son fer. Et si l’on prête attention à l’ensemble de fils rouges qui l’entourent et parcourent son salon, on s’aperçoit qu’ils forment, en fait, un pistolet. « J’ai voulu détourner les objets du quotidien. » Elle se munie dès lors d’aiguilles et de laines. Non, pas pour tricoter des écharpes à ses filles en bonne femme d’intérieur, mais plutôt pour redécouvrir l’intérieur de la femme, puis de l’humain en général.
Rencontre logique. La crocheteuse compulsive se souvient avoir longtemps hésité entre la science et l’art : « Quand j’ai commencé mes études en biologie moléculaire, ma mère m’a demandé si j’étais sûre de ne pas vouloir plutôt faire les Beaux-Arts. » Alors autant entreprendre une reconversion qui pourrait lier ses passions et ses connaissances. Dans sa démarche artistique, elle revient donc à la genèse de la création, qui commence avec des cellules. Elle commence avec un petit crâne « tout de suite parti en galerie », puis dissèque et reprend toutes les parties du corps. Du neurone au pied. Du sexe aux poumons.


Une Ariane des temps modernes
En balayant du regard son atelier, elle s’arrête sur le cœur, « c’était un projet participatif que j’ai crée peu après Charlie. » Surement une façon de re-fédérer les gens, de renouer les liens, « tout le monde en avait besoin. » L’artiste lance alors un appel sur les réseaux sociaux, tous les participants verront leur nom affiché au bas de l’oeuvre. En quelques semaines, elle reçoit 763 pelotes de laines, provenant de plus de 120 donneurs, dispersés au quatre coins du monde, de Paris à Nouméa, en passant par le Chili, la Belgique ou la Grèce. Succès fulgurant. Travail titanesque en perspective. Il lui faut près d’un mois pour trier les tissus et constituer une pelote de plus de 40 kilos. Quant au crochet… 45 jours nécessaires à la réalisation de l’organe démesuré. « Les aiguilles étaient énormes et la pelote pesait une tonne ! Je ne pouvais pas faire plus de cinq nœuds sans être épuisée.
Une technique épuisante donc et laborieuse que la « quinqua » ne compte pas abandonner de si tôt: « J’ai l’impression que je ne suis vraiment qu’au tout début, j’ai encore beaucoup de choses à dire. » Sorte d’Ariane des temps modernes. Elle semble avoir trouvé sa voie grâce au fil et regorge d’idées pour exprimer son engagement. Inquiète au sujet de ses consœurs qui voient leur émancipation parfois en péril, cette tricoteuse ne manque pas d’accrocher un soupçon de conviction à ses œuvres. On se souvient notamment de cette représentation qu’elle avait donnée au Théâtre National de Nice, en mai dernier, enfermée dans une combinaison intégrale tricotée comme dans sa condition féminine, attendant qu’on tire sur les fils pendants pour la délivrer. Une cause qui lui tient à cœur, une métaphore filée sur l’ensemble de ses créations.
Marine de Rocquigny pour Art and Facts www.artandfacts.fr

Gaming

Why You Keep Getting Disconnected From Online Games

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It’s almost impossible to play a video game anymore without having to be online. Even single player games on consoles like the Playstation 4, 5 or Xbox One often require you to be connected in order to receive updates or be a part of leaderboards.

The problem with this is that if you don’t have a strong internet connection, then you could be constantly disconnected from your game without meaning to. This can be especially problematic for games meant to be played online like Fortnite or League of Legends.

One minute you’re happily in game and the next you’re disconnected and you’ve lost the match. This can seriously affect your gameplay which is why it’s important that you’re paying more attention to the kind of internet you have as well as who is providing it.

Choose the Right Provider

People often think that as long as they spend the big bucks for a decent computer rig or for a next gen console that they’ll be able to play their games without interruption. In the process, many forget the importance of having a reliable internet connection with a decent amount of bandwidth as well as upload and download speeds.

If you’re looking for unlimited usage with great upload and download speed options, you should check out internet packages in Canada from Poynt 360 for the best deals. They offer FTTN (fiber to the node) as well as cable packages that are both affordable and ideal for gamers.

FTTN stands for fiber to the node (or neighbourhood) and is the term used to describe providing internet to homes using fiber optic lines as opposed to traditional copper wires. Broadband connection and other data services are delivered to a common network box (often referred to as a node), and from there these services are delivered to individual destinations like your home.

One disadvantage of FTTN is that it is not available yet in every neighbourhood, so you may not have this option to begin with. You will need to check with your preferred service provider first to see they have fiber optic wiring in your area.

If You Can’t Get FTTN

If you can’t get FTTN in your neighbourhood you should still be able to get an internet package with cable that works for you. Though it’s possible to experience slowdowns using cable internet, you won’t be likely to notice them, especially if you get packages with the right speeds.

For instance, if you’re a gamer who also likes to stream, check out the option for 75 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds. If you have a large family, consider going higher with your download speeds at 150 Mbps.

Flexible, Affordable Options

When it comes to choosing your internet provider you might be tempted to go with one of the big guys, but they rarely have your best interests at heart. Consider signing up with a third-party provider who can get you the best deals and who will help you choose the best package for all your gaming needs.

Earth

Act Now Or Lose African Elephants Forever

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Elephants are super smart — as close to humans as apes, yet we are literally killing them to extinction.

And they are obsessed with their death. They understand what is happening to them and their families, even identifying elephant bones and spending hours crying over them. Poaching is so emotionally devastating that it can take a herd 20 years to recover!

Legal Elephant Hunting in Mozambique

100 elephants a day are dying — shot sometimes from helicopters, their faces cut off by machetes often while still alive — just to produce ivory trinkets. What’s worse is that this savagery is managed by organized criminals who help fund some of the most dangerous terror groups in the world.

But now there’s reason to hope: China just announced it will phase out its ivory industry and there is legislation in eleven US states calling for a ban on ivory trading. It’s a tipping point moment in this fight for these majestic animals and we can make sure demand everywhere dries up by funding a flood of campaigns in the US, Thailand and Vietnam to kill the biggest ivory markets anywhere.

Elephant hunts are big business and are even organized from outfitters in North America.
Elephant hunts are big business and are even organized from outfitters in North America.

Click here to pledge to fund species-saving work, pledges won’t be processed unless we raise enough to manage this ambitious goal.

Killing elephants is serious business — as wild elephants die out, the price for stockpiles of ivory skyrockets. Now poachers are on a race to kill as many elephants as they can. In 5 years, Mozambique has lost half of their elephant population. The clock is against us and if the current rate of killing continues, in little more than a decade, there may be no wild elephants, only graves.

The news from China could be our best chance to turn the tide and with top notch Avaaz campaigning in 11 states in the US, and in Thailand and Vietnam, we could help stop demand for bloody ivory, while supporting cutting edge anti poaching initiatives on the supply side. Here is what a dedicated global team could do:

  • Fund hard-hitting ad campaigns in SE Asia and the US to dissolve demand for ivory trinkets;
  • Launch online sites in SE Asia and the US to inform consumers of the suffering and carnage to help change the culture towards ivory;
  • Support and ramp up citizen campaigning in the consumer markets in SE Asia and the US;
  • Back ranger protection programmes in Africa and creative, ground-breaking initiatives like drones to monitor remote parks.

Avaaz has millions of members across the world, from the countries where conservation is critical to the countries where ivory statues are sold. If we each chip in we can finally help put the brakes on this cruel trade and move fellow humans to respect the other species that share this planet with us.

Outfitters and elephant hunters justify their hunts as a form of necessary conservation.
Outfitters and elephant hunters justify their hunts as a form of necessary conservation.

The choice before us is simple: act now or lose African elephants forever. Let’s not let ours be the generation that butchered these regal beings off the face of the earth. Let’s do what our community does best — pick careful battles, fight smart to ban the trade, and spread a culture of compassion.

SOURCES

African elephants could be extinct in wild within decades, experts say (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/24/african-elephants-could-be-extinct-in-wild-within-decades-say-experts

African forest elephants are being massacred into extinction (Salon)
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/05/african_forest_elephants_are_being_massacred_into_extinction_partner/

Wild African elephants on verge of extinction, say experts (Al Jazeera)
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/23/wild-african-elephants-on-verge-of-extinction.html

At this rate, elephants will be wiped out within 10 years (The Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/at-this-rate-elephants-will-be-wiped-out-within-10-years-9012557.html

Click to view on I-tunes
Click to view on I-tunes

Culture

Myths Surrounding The Scourge Of Excessive Sweating

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As people go about their daily lives, there’s a common but hidden scourge: excessive sweating.  In fact, a national survey conducted by the International Hyperhidrosis Society (IHhS)—the scholars of sweat—shows multiple millions suffer from extreme, uncomfortable, embarrassing, debilitating, and emotionally-devastating sweating. This type of sweating is a serious medical condition known as hyperhidrosis and nearly 367 million people of all ages struggle with it on their hands, feet, face, underarms, or body.

Hyperhidrosis can be particularly devastating. While many attempt to hide their sweating problems and suffer in silence, the impacts are often hard to cover up. Dramatic sweating in the presence of peers at work, or in extracurricular or social environments, can cause severe embarrassment, stress, anxiety, and other emotional issues. Even when people are alone, away from potential judgements, hyperhidrosis often takes a heavy toll—adversely impacting one’s productivity in a myriad of ways.

Those with hyperhidrosis struggle with disproportionate and random sweating that may drench clothing, ruin papers, damage technology tools, make playing sports and musical instruments impossible, promote hiding and isolation behaviors, degrade self-esteem, and prompt bullying at any age—among kids and adults. The holistic effect on life—workplace, marital, social and otherwise—is thus profound. In fact, research published in Archives of Dermatological Research indicates that the majority of those with excessive sweating confirm the condition has negative impacts on their social life, well-being, and emotional as well as mental health.

Lisa J Pieretti, Executive Director of IHhS, notes, “Excessive sweating is a dermatological disorder that can cause an otherwise healthy person to produce up to five times more sweat than is normal or necessary. The pressures of dealing with a ‘sweating problem’ around peers can be catastrophic to self-esteem and more. Too often, people become anxious about attending work or school, socializing with friends, or being out in public in general. But when those with hyperhidrosis receive support, understanding, and appropriate treatment, their lives can be dramatically changed.”

To that point, IHhS co-founder Dr. David Pariser urges that, while hyperhidrosis is the number one dermatological disease in terms of negatively affecting a person’s quality-of-life, it’s also number one in having the most positive impact when treated. “When hyperhidrosis is caught early, a person’s life can be transformed for the better in a multitude of ways,” he says.

With that in mind, the first step toward providing solutions for those who sweat excessively is to bust some common myths and misconceptions with facts from the experts at the IHhS, including these:

Myth: Sweaty people are out-of-shape, nervous or have hygiene issues.

Truth: The average person has 2 to 4 million sweat glands. Sweat is essential to human survival and serves as the body’s coolant, protecting it from overheating. Many athletes actually sweat more than other people because their bodies have become very efficient at keeping cool. Meanwhile, people with hyperhidrosis (which causes overactive sweat glands) sweat excessively regardless of mood, weather, or activity level—often producing 4 or 5 times more sweat than is considered “normal”.

Myth: Those with hyperhidrosis don’t suffer with workplace-specific activities.

Truth: In a recent 2017 study, 63% of those with hyperhidrosis reported interference in the performance of tasks at work or school due to their condition.

Myth: To have hyperhidrosis, one must be dripping and saturated with sweat.

Truth: Excess sweating can range from severe dripping to moderate moisture. Symptoms of hyperhidrosis can manifest differently and personally. But, what is consistent is the impact on life depending on areas affected. This can include damaged clothing, paperwork and shoes; obvious, embarrassing sweat marks on clothing; unappealing cold wet hands; discomfort due to dripping sweat or constant dampness; and skin slipperiness that gets in the way of sports, music, and day-to-day tasks. Excess sweating of the armpits, hands, feet, face, chest, back, or groin can result in substantial impairment, including limitations at work, in social and physical activities, and during hobbies. Emotional and psychological distress is also common.

Myth: People will grow out of hyperhidrosis.

Truth: Contrary to popular belief, research shows that hyperhidrosis does not go away or decrease with age. In fact, in one recent IHhS study, 88% of respondents said their excessive sweating had gotten worse or stayed the same over time. This was consistent across all the different age groups, from youngsters to older adults.

image: wyldraven-deviantart.com

Myth: Hyperhidrosis is “just” a summer thing, or it’s at least worse during the hot summer months.
Truth: Research from the IHhS also shows that profuse sweating is not simply dictated by the time of year. The majority of patients in one survey indicated that their sweating bothers them equally, no matter the season.

Myth: Kids and young adults are “resilient” and can deal with sweating a lot.
Truth: Medical journal citations substantiate that young people are known to be significantly impacted by emotional sequelae accompanying dermatologic disease and that psychiatric issues inherently accompany dermatologic disease in children and adolescents. Studies further show that most patients with hyperhidrosis—characterized  by excessive, spontaneous sweating beyond physiologic, thermal, or stress-reaction body requirements—describe their lives as “bad” or “very bad” due to the disorder.

Myth: Antiperspirants are for underarms only.
Truth: Think outside the pits! You can glide, stick, spray, and roll-on nearly anywhere that sweating is a problem (think hands, feet, face, back, chest, and even groin.)  Be smart and talk to your dermatologist first before applying an antiperspirant to sensitive areas and test new products on small areas of skin first.

Myth: Like caffeine, antiperspirants are best used in the morning.
Truth: Pick a p.m. perk! Skip the bedtime espresso but do use your antiperspirant in the evening as well as in the morning. Sweat production is at its lowest at night, giving the active ingredients in antiperspirants a better chance to get into your pores and block perspiration when the sun comes up and you really get moving.

Myth: Excessive sweating is less debilitating than other skin conditions people have to deal with.
Truth: According to Dr. Pariser, hyperhidrosis has the greatest impact of any dermatological disease. In fact, various investigations show the impact of hyperhidrosis on quality-of-life is equal or greater than that of in-patient psoriasis, severe acne, Darier disease, Hailey-Hailey disease, vitiligo, and chronic pruritus.

The extreme level of sweat production experienced with hyperhidrosis can disrupt all aspects of a person’s life, from academic performance, recreational activities and relationships, to self-image and overall emotional well-being. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are helpful resources available to help people with hyperhidrosis to not just “know sweat,” but to also achieve a more comfortable and happier life.  For the Silo, Merilee Kern.

Branding and consumer product trends pundit Merilee Kern, MBA is a wellness industry veteran, health advocate and influential media voice. Her ground-breaking, award-winning “Kids Making Healthy Choices” Smartphone APP for children, parents/caregivers and educators (iTunes) is based on her award-winning, illustrated fictional children’s book, “Making Healthy Choices – A Story to Inspire Fit, Weight-Wise Kids” (Amazon). She may be reached online at www.TheLuxeList.com. Follow her on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/LuxeListEditor and Facebook here: www.Facebook.com/TheLuxeList.

Culture

Signs That You Need A Drywall Repair

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If you notice anything on your drywall that doesn’t seem right, then it may be time to contact a professional who can help you identify the problem and ensure everything is repaired properly. 

Here are signs that you need a drywall repair

Cracks and indentations in walls and ceilings

If you notice cracks and indentations in your home’s walls, ceilings, and floors, it could be a sign of bigger problems. Cracks are often caused by settling or shifting. When this happens over time (and it can happen very quickly), there’s usually nothing you can do but patch up the crack as best as possible before continuing with other repairs on your home.

The same goes for indentations—if they’re too deep or wide-spread to fix easily with paint or filler material like spackle (which is designed to fill holes), then they may indicate that something more serious has happened, like water damage from pipes breaking under pressure inside them; this would require professional help from professionals such as an inspector who inspects homes after major storms pass through an area, so he knows what kind of work needs doing before further progress takes place on any given project!

Sticking doors or windows

  • Check for loose hinges or screws: If your door is sticking, you might notice that the door has been sticking for a while. This could be because of loose hinges or screws on either side of the door.
  • Look for cracks in the frame: If there are cracks in your frame, they could cause your doors to stick. Look at them close up with a magnifying glass (if necessary). If they look damaged, consider having them fixed by a wall repair professional so that they don’t cause any more trouble later down the road!

Water stains on ceilings or walls

If you notice water stains on your ceiling or walls, it’s a sign of a leak in your home. Leaks can be caused by many different sources, including plumbing and roofing. If you have leaks on both sides of the wall, two leaks are likely happening at once—and both need to be fixed!

If you find that one side of an area has been affected by rainwater and condensation (from heating or cooling), contact an expert to help determine what needs fixing before further damage occurs.

Paint chips easily off drywall

Chipping paint is a sign of drywall damage. If you notice that your paint chip easily, it’s time to call a professional. You don’t want to spend money on repairs when there are signs that could have been caught before the problem occurred.

If you have chipped walls or ceilings and wonder what caused them (and how long ago), pay attention! If the damage was caused by water seeping through cracks in the foundation or other parts of your house, then this is most likely the cause of your chipping paint problems—especially since ceiling panels tend to crack more than wall surfaces do due to their thicker construction material and weight distribution issues with hanging objects like lights fixtures and fans above them.”

Mold growth

Mold growth is a sign of water damage. Water can seep in through the smallest crack and cause mold to grow. If you notice that your walls are covered in black or white spots, it could indicate that your drywall has been affected by mold.

Mold can spread easily because:

  • It grows very fast; within 24 hours, it may be two feet thick!
  • It’s resistant to many cleaning products and chemicals (soaps, detergents) that are designed for other purposes, such as cleaning up spills on kitchen countertops or floors where kids have been playing soccer all day long without any protection whatsoever; these products don’t work well against molds because they leave behind residues which support continued growth once again.

Drywall repairs are more complex than you may be tempted to think, and that’s why you need an experienced repair company to do the work. For the Silo, Anna Kendrick.

Culture

Children Of India – Travel Excerpts

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Excerpts from my Journal-Kolkata, India

My head hits the pillow with little regard for the color of the sheets and the stains on the walls. Outside I can hear the bustling streets of Kolkata come to a standstill and in the far off distance I can make out the explosion of more fireworks, another festival. The mind turns to the weeks passed and again I can feel the slow process of realization and change occurring. Guilt is an awful feeling and more so when you are unable to identify that which you have done wrong.

The voices of those in the streets plague me as much as the faces and bare feet of their owners. “Please sir, no money, just milk for my baby.” I ignored the advances of another pleading mother. Why? Do I fear the scam of it? Not believe the legitimacy of such a plea? Not care that in her arms there lay a starving child screaming out from the pains of hunger? Or is it I am too overwhelmed to believe I am capable of doing anything in a country this size with a people this poor?

I lay for a long while as the moonlight casts its shadows upon my wall, not quite awake not quite asleep.

I see their waste high faces peering up at me, with no formal education, selling to me, begging me, joking with me. Those who I do speak with paint only the beginning of a picture; a life which I cannot ever fully understand, a life of struggle and hardship which exists to me only in the media and one they only know.

I see them playing cricket in the streets and asking me to join, happy to have a street to play in and a foreigner to practice English with. The simplicity in this humbles me.  As a child I remember hearing bed time stories of men on their travels. Now I am a man on his travels imagining the stories of these children. For the Silo, Joshua Winter.

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Earth

Your Electronic Goods Recycling Donations Become Bank Deposits

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Used and broken electronics such as computers, cellphones, dvd players, washers and dryers still hold intrinsic value because if you were to peer inside these things you’d notice a lot of wire and circuitry. There is a surprisingly substantial amount of copper, silver and gold waiting for “the recycling”.

Consumerism- the acquisition of goods, is largely based today on electronic devices- large screen televisions or smartphones for example. Many of us feel the need to upgrade regularly: bigger screens for our living rooms and faster and more powerful phones.  But in broad terms, our discarded electronic goods contain about the same amount of silver, copper, gold and platinum as the new items we are replacing them with.

How much value are we talking about?

It is difficult to determine an exact value of gold and other precious materials in an average cellphone. This is because no two models are exactly alike, no two batteries are exactly alike.

Lux Bringer from reddit.com:

All of a sudden these, “bring your old cellphones to us so we can recycle them for you” campaigns are making a lot more sense. Sneaky bastards.

 PtrN from reddit.com:PtrN                                                                                                         

I’m not sure. I’m seeing that the average cell phone has 1/8 a gram of gold in it from other comments. At the time of this writing, CNN currently has gold going at $1650USD per troy ounce. I crunched the numbers and am seeing that there is about $6.60USD worth of gold in a cellphone. Not too bad, but I don’t know how profitable it will be after you take into account the costs of transportation and the extraction process itself.

Thoust from reddit.com:

There are other materials in a phone they can salvage besides gold

professor_fatass from reddit.com:

According to the article you also get platinum, palladium, and copper. As well as the glass and plastic which may not be worth much but it can still be recycled.

Interesting isn’t it?

Let’s consider the price of copper. Right now in Canada it is just under 4$CDN per pound. If you’re keen and want to sell your own scrap copper you will need a lot of it. An average washing machine motor has about 8$CDN worth of copper wiring up for grabs. http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-get-tons-of-free-enameled-copper-wire/http://priceofscrapmetal.com/how-to-sell-scrap-copper-wire/

Gold!

There is gold and platinum inside computer circuit boards and hard drives. Most of the gold is an alloy or plated over another metal but at highs predicted to reach near $1,8000USD per ounce- a high volume recycling effort will pay off.

Bleepin’ Animinion from bleepingcomputer.com:

Any, true recycling effort that would be of a profitable nature needs to be EPA approved. Due to the multiple hazardous materials mixed in with the minute amounts of precious metals. As well as the highly toxic removal and heavy metals separations processes. Also as an example it would take an average of one ton of random circuit-board waste to generate one pound of gold. Add to that electronic grade precious metals are not the expensive jewelry grade high dollar metals. Therefore looking at the gold market is not the price you would get. So the profit you would make on the precious metals would be eaten up by the fees and expense of waste disposal of the one ton of hazardous useless waste product left behind after you reclaimed the precious and hazardous heavy metals. This is definitely not a a project to undertake on a small scale in your garage.

This last quote is an important thing to consider.

If you are considering dropping off your scrap electronics and appliances ask the receiving party if they are environmentally approved and a member of an Electronic Stewardship.  After all, your discarded electronics will earn a tidy sum of money for a large scale salvager. The least they can do is operate within the law and operate with an environmental conscience. But there is some worry.

The salvagers are looking for an uninformed public- they set up their marketing and advertising in a way that makes no mention of the economic benefits they stand to make.

They seldom if ever offer you a small stipend for your ‘donated scrap’ and perhaps even worse, many pose as “good deed” companies ridding us of our “broken goods” destined for the landfill. The Ontario Electronic Stewardship  is a non-profit group that overseas responsible recycling of electronics.  This Stewardship works with existing legal frameworks put in place by Waste Diversion Ontario and the 2002 Waste Diversion Act.  www.wdo.ca

Social impact in the developing world.

In Southern China over 100,000 people including children spend their lives dismantling discarded electronic devices for scrap metal and an unknown number are doing the same thing in Nigeria.  http://www.economist.com/news/international/21570678-growing-mounds-electronic-scrap-can-mean-profits-or-scandals-cadmium-lining

In this file photo from 2001, a migrant child sits atop a pile of unrecyclable computer waste imported to Guiya, China, from other countries.

Basal Action Network

Some players are keeping it real.

Not every electronic device recycling campaign is shady.  Increasingly, not-for-profit groups and volunteer fire departments are setting up large recycling bins with signage such as “your donated scrap metal and electronics helps fund X”. 

If you are considering dropping off discarded electronics to your local “recycling and scrap drive” ask a few questions. Where are the profits from the salvaged materials going? Is the company operating the drive aware of the Ontario Electronic Stewardship guidelines? What happens to your donated goods at the end of the cycle- are they destined for a landfill or for China?

Culture

This Century And Last Century Art Mastery By Yoko Ono

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“I would like to see the sky machine on every corner instead of the Coke machine. We need more skies than Coke.” – Yoko Ono, 1966.

Growing up the daughter of proud, British baby-boomer parents, the name Yoko Ono was not exactly revered in my household. In fact, she was considered a weird, controlling creature that somehow brainwashed John Lennon and systematically broke up the Beatles—the greatest rock and roll band of all time (according to my father). It wasn’t until art school that I began to learn who Ono really was and why she is considered one of the most iconic and mythological people in contemporary society.

Yoko Ono has been in the public eye for over 50 years, and she has been viewed as a muse, destroyer, widow, mother and artist. Granted, the fact that she is a household name is due largely to her late husband’s fame and legacy. However many are not aware of the her own accomplishments, innovations and her impact on the contemporary art world, beginning before her much publicized marriage and continuing until today.

Yoko Ono was born in Japan in 1933 to wealthy parents. Her family experienced much hardship during the Second World War, surviving the great fire bombings of Tokyo in 1945. They lost everything and were forced to beg and barter for food, which Ono credits as being the inspiration behind her imaginary/instructional art works or, as she refers to them, “paintings for the mind.”

After the war her family settled outside New York City, where Ono studied at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College. In New York she began visiting galleries and art “happenings” (a form of performance-art involving the participation of both artist and audience), and these experiences inspired her own emerging work. In the early 1960s Ono was closely associated with the Fluxis movement, which was more a state of mind than a style of art. Members valued social goals over aesthetic goals and their main aim was to upset bourgeois (ie: middle-class or materialistic) routines of art and life.

The Fluxus incorporated influences from Dadaist theory, a school that originated in Europe after the First World War when founding artists Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Jean Arp felt they could no longer trust reason and the established order of things. The intent of Dada artists was to denounce all previous attitudes and perceptions and to shock the audience. Similar to Dada and often described as anti-art, the Fluxis used mixed-media, mail art, actions and happenings to promote a new culture of performance-based, audience-interactive, and non-commodifiable art.

One of the most iconic pieces of performance art, and the one for which she is most renowned, is Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece” (c. 1964). Performed on several occasions and in a variety of venues, “Cut Piece” featured Ono alone on a stage, dressed in a black garment. Volunteering audience members were given scissors and invited to cut pieces from her dress. Like most performance-based artists, Ono could not have had a set purpose when she performed this work—or if she did it would be pointless—because it depended on the audience/viewer response and action.

For the most part, people were at first hesitant to come on stage, but as they lost their inhibitions participants began to cut bigger and bigger pieces of cloth until the dress was left in shreds (in one performance a young male actually cut off her undergarments).

Depending on where she performed “Cut Piece,” Ono received a different reaction. In Japan the audience was shy and hesitant. In London they became so violent security had to intervene. But even if no one had come forth to snip the dress, the performance would still have made a statement.

This is the strongest, most encompassing element of Ono’s catalogue as a whole: its participatory aspect. Everything she has done has been dependent on her audience or viewer. Her book Grapefruit is an excellent example of this. It contains instructions on how to perform her various imaginary pieces, such as “Painting to be constructed in your head,” and “Conversation piece.” In one of my personal favourites, “Painting for the wind,” the reader is instructed to “cut a hole in a bag filled with seeds and place the bag wherever there is wind” (1961, summer).

It is impossible to discuss Yoko Ono’s work without mentioning her late-husband and collaborator, John Lennon. After their extremely public romance and marriage, Ono found she was somewhat shunned or distanced by the contemporary arts community. But the couple decided to exploit their massive profile to forward their social agenda for peace. On their honeymoon, the two staged a “Bed-in for Peace” in Montreal, knowing the media would eagerly cover something so curious and provocative. John articulated his understanding of the potential of modern media very well; he knew that whatever he and Yoko did would end up in the papers.

“We decided,” he said, “to use the space we would occupy…with a commercial for peace and also for a theatrical event.” Life as art with social goals: very Fluxis.

After Lennon’s devastating assassination in 1980, Ono continued to manage his estate and advocate for world peace, eventually getting back to conceptual art in large galleries. Most recently she has exhibited and performed commemorative shows in honour of the 40th anniversary of “Cut Piece.”

In the movie “Imagine: John Lennon,” Lennon describes how he met his wife: “Yoko was having an art show at the Indica Gallery…I went down the night before the opening. The first thing that was in the gallery was a white step ladder and a painting on the ceiling and a spy glass hanging down. I walked up this ladder and I picked up the spy glass and in tiny little writing it just said, ‘Yes’…” Lennon also once referred to his wife as the world’s “most famous unknown artist. Everybody knows her name but nobody knows what she does.” For the Silo,  Eve Yantha.

Yoko On oand Sean Ono Lennon

For further contemplation:

Imagine: John Lennon- A startling film derived from over 200 hours of John’s own film and video footage, as well as stills & heretofore unpublished music from John and Yoko’s personal collection. (1988)

Grapefruit: A Book of Instruction and Drawing by Yoko Ono (c. 1964; 1970)

Featured image:

Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich. © Yoko Ono

This Room Moves at the Same Speed as the Clouds 

Fashion

The Painful Evolution Of Ladies Lingerie Underwear

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Lingerie, like any other fashion accessory, has undergone many transformations over the decades. From the agonizing apodesme used in Ancient Greece to the peculiar pantalettes of the 1800’s we have seen it all.

Sartorial Adventure — Ancient Roman apodesme, worn by both women and...
An apodesme was an ancient Greek brassiere made of a band of wool or linen wrapped across the breasts and tied or pinned at the back. The idea was that by tightly banding the breasts, women would prevent the development of large breasts- something the ancients deemed as undesirable and associated with aging.

Sex experts Katie Lasson and Tatyana Dyachenko from Dimepiece LA have created a couple handy infographics which delve into the changing fashion trends of lingerie over the last 100 years. Take a look and learn a bit more about lingerie through the decades.

“What I found most interesting whilst doing the research for the infographic is the concept that lingerie should be visually appealing didn’t come into effect until the late 19th century.” Katie

Lady Duff-Gordon of Lucile was one of the main pioneers for developing lingerie that freed women from the traditional restrictive undergarments such as corsets.

The famous Flappers of the 1920’s further cemented these ideals with their blatant disregard for society standards and desire for more free-flowing lingerie.

Both Katie and Tatyana understand the important role that lingerie plays in a person sexuality and sexual experiences.

The right underwear can transform the way you feel about yourself. It gives you a confidence boost that you never knew you needed.

Katie had this to say “Lingerie is a tool that, when used correctly, can help you to feel more sexy and confident. Everyone deserves to feel good in their own skin and sexy underwear has the power to transform the way you feel about yourself”.

Tatyana says “Remember to wear lingerie for you, if you feel good it shines through and makes you appear more attractive to others. Confidence is sexy so embrace your body, curves and all. It’s time for you to feel good and lingerie can help you achieve that”.

Earth

The Ugly Journey Of Our Trash

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It has been estimated that as much as 70 percent of all marine litter will end up on the seabed.

Marine debris comes from many land and ocean sources. Yet few of us understand that our trash can travel over land, down streams, rivers and storm drains to the ocean. That’s why Project AWARE is collecting marine debris data from divers. They’re painting a clear picture of the underwater trash that threatens ocean life and are building a case against ocean trash for all of us to see.

Vintage

Mission Possible: Find Classic Unrestored Cars In Tennessee Fields

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19 (!) 1957 Chevy cars in a Tennesee field

Once again I find myself Down in the Southern U.S checking out beautiful un-restored classic cars in their usual (usual here) worn out aged condition. With very little rust. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer quantity of classics down here. I look at such a wide array of any make or model. (people actually think that they have all been picked already!). One short cruise down one back-road down here and I guarantee that you will spot at least an old Chevy truck parked out back behind a house, in a barn, or just barely sticking out of an old garage that is coming down around it.

As an extreme car enthusiast, all I can say is that it is unreal.

This, not planned, but longer than expected trip to Georgia, brought me to see a sweet 1968 el Camino SS, with a 383 stroker engine and nice black interior. I almost got to look at an original, untouched 1963 split window Corvette, parked in a carport for like 20 years. Apparently under a couple inch thick layer of dust. Go figure it was gone before I even got there.

A teaser sneak-peek at the back end and side of the 1968 ElCamino. Complete with black interior and a 383 Stroker engine. 

A couple of the more odd-ball cars I looked at were a 1985 Corvette on 20inch 140spoke knock-off rims ( I don’t understand this one!), and a metallic orange 85 Monte Carlo SS jacked up about 14 inches sitting on 24’s, and featuring real bullet holes that it received in a police shootout (the guy who had it, bought it from a police auction). Neat looking car.

I also met a man down here who had to have had about 6 or 7, 58-60 Corvettes in different stages of repair. With one I believe, 1959 Corvette completely restored, in a high-gloss black, with a mint convertible top, and factory 4speed standard (manual to our UK and European friends) transmission. He also had one 1958, close to finished. They were both sweet cars. I must also add that the other 4 or 5 were scattered around his property among scrap, building supplies, and bushes. It was quite a sight.

These very rare cars in abundance on this property.

I walked out behind his shop and he had a 1957 Chevy 210 Station Wagon with no engine, but complete interior down to the factory radio! This car just parked, with bushes and weeds growing around it. (I think I am going to buy this one to build with my son and daughter and keep as the Sunday cruiser). I’m thinking a nice, loud, built small block, flat-black paint, and white wall tires on gloss-red rallys. I love these cars!

You probably noticed the first photo in this post right? Well, on a previous trip down here about two years ago I caught wind of a guy in Tennessee who apparently had 19, (that’s right!!! 19!) 1957 Chevy cars.

I couldn’t believe it when I got there and I don’t think too many people can say that they’ve seen nineteen 1957 Chevys all in one spot. It was incredible.

This guy had acres and acres of farm with cars tucked away everywhere you looked. 1951 Fords, A 59 Chrysler, 38 Chevy coupe, 59 International pickup, a 1929 Chevy Hot-rod, an I think 1930 Nash, all kinds of cars and trucks that you never see. In nearly original condition. My actual favorite here though, was his personal “parts getter” 1929 Chevy Truck Rat-rod, it was clever right down to the piston rad cap that stuck out of the hood. I really liked this one. The cool thing about finding all these cars is meeting their owners and hearing all of their stories. Car people are usually fun to hang out with, especially in the south.

1929 Chevy Truck “Rat Rod”.

I’m coming back with a friend who bought a 1966 Big back window, Chevy custom-10 short-box. Its not a half bad truck. He’s gonna fix it up. Maybe add a small block V-8. We’ll see. I’m heading back to Canada tomorrow. Goodbye t-shirt days in January, goodbye five dollar all-you- can eat buffets, goodbye three dollar smokes and goodbye constant, rare car sightings. Oh well, I always know that there will be future adventures in the deep south. Checking out sweet old cars for people, and telling them where they’re at. It’s always cool to have someone ask if I know of an old car they have been looking for and can’t find, and I can tell them “I can give you the phone number of a guy who’s got one of those”. It’s always very cool to have someone bring you a new project. So many possibilities with every car that rolls in…

For the Silo, Robb Price. Photos via the author. Check out Robb’s auto biz on Facebook.

Culture

For Many European Countries, National Flower Is Second Only To Flag In Importance

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Many non-native plants can happily survive in other regions of the world, which has given gardeners more choice than ever before. However, native flowers and plants can summarize the landscape of a nation, while communicating the identity of a country.

For many countries the national flower is second only to the national flag as the most important national symbol, while communicating the identity of a country.

European National Flowers Infographic

Did you work on this visual? Claim credit here.

Reviews

Jasmine m1 Turntable Cartridge Delivers The Goods

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In 1992 I visited Kowloon , Hong Kong and discovered a multitude of audiophile shops nestled into the nooks and crannies of the tech sector. My task at the time was to look for Laserdiscs and to purchase a fiber optic audio cable for said Laserdisc player. This task was accomplished in short order- there was so much to choose from unlike the scarcity of said items back home.

What surprised me was the number of China based brands and especially the fact that I was not familiar with any of them.

Today most North American consumer electronics are made in China or ‘overseas’ but 30 years ago this was not always the norm. Any stigma that may have existed has been eroded because quality has improved considerably and prices have dropped too- making very good quality audio equipment affordable for more consumers than ever before. And that’s a good thing.

Jasmine

茉莉花Jasmine®” is a hardware service provider specializing in the design and development of vinyl systems. It owns core technology of vinyl systems and provides a global, top HiFi turntable brand with R&D services for their entire product line of cartridges, tonearms, phono stages, turntables, etc.,

Jasmine has served well-known brands in more than 40 countries including the United States, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom, repeatedly reported by international authoritative media including the American authoritative audio magazine Positive-Feedback.Their mission is to cultivate and spread vinyl culture. Part of their plan is to succeed in this endeavor by offering quality turntable cartridges at affordable prices and so excitedly we got our hands on their new 24$ USD/ 32.69$ (at time of posting) CAD Jasmine M1 cartridge that surprisingly comes fitted with gold plated lead connectors.

Packaged carefully and arriving safely and quickly, our review cartridge made great first impressions. The box which holds the cartridge is no nonsense, attractive, easy to open and safely holds its contents including mounting nuts and washers. We wish more manufacturers would take this K.I.S.S. approach.

Impressions

The M1 is a very handsome moving magnet cartridge with a style similar to the Ortofon line of MM’s fondly remembered from the 1980’s and often found on West German Dual turntables of that era.

The elongated ‘pencil’ layout of the cartridge and stylus offers benefits of light weight, low 2.5 gram tracking force and ease of mounting to most headshells.

Because of the style throwback we decided to mount the M1 on a suitably vintage (though freshly serviced and calibrated) Dual turntable and dig out our favorite LP’s used for evaluating cartridges. In our experience the best judgment of equipment updates is to use our ears and a familiar record.

Budget cartridges have vastly improved over the past few decades. The M1 can be found online for as low as 30$ CAD

Though technical specifications and measurements are important (see below) it is quite illuminating to discover how changing your cartridge and stylus can affect what you are able to hear. For example, we found the M1 brought out more detail in the bottle percussion on Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough (Off The Wall original issue LP). We have always been able to hear them but this is the first time we were able to hear how LONG they play throughout the track.

The conical shaped stylus is to be expected at this price point but for those with well kept vinyl you will be very pleased with its superb tracking and quiet noise floor.

Bass response was also very solid. In our test room, we have dual Mono PSB Alpha subwoofers crossed over at 80HZ and our main speakers are Magnepan SMMG panels. Using Thomas Dolby’s The Flat Earth LP we were impressed with the solid yet warm bass response both on tracks featuring electronic synthesized bass (The Flat Earth original issue LP) and electric bass guitar (Dissidents).

The Jasmine competes against a number of affordable, yet decently performing cartridges- including the Audio Technica AT-3600L but to our ears and based on the manufacturer’s specifications, the Jasmine is the better choice. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

The Audio Technica AT-3600L
Politics

Indy MPP Brady Frustrated With Both Parties Re Bill 28

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Brady stands up for educational workers and students

QUEEN’S PARK –   Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady over the past two days, stood in the House and implored the government and CUPE to tone down the rhetoric, work together through negotiations, and stop using education workers and students as political pawns.

“To this government, to CUPE, stop using some of the province’s lowest paid education workers and stop using our kids as political pawns,” MPP Brady stated in the Legislature.

The government declared Bill 28 to operate the notwithstanding clause during the dispute involving school board employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.  The notwithstanding clause blocks the ability of the union employees to walk off the job and keep students from class.

As an Independent member of the Legislature, MPP Brady has the unique position of viewing legislation genuinely and providing honest feedback about how it will affect her constituents as well the rest of the province.   

Through her question and statement on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, Brady expressed her frustration with both sides of the House. She then questioned which side actually cares about education workers and students. 

“I’m a bit cranky with what is happening here.  Who here actually cares about our education workers? Who cares about our students?”

Brady is fearful that if the lives of students are impacted, education workers will be blamed by Ontario parents who are frustrated with kids being in and out of school the past few years. 

https://bobbiannbrady.com/

In a line of questioning yesterday, MPP Brady encouraged the government to do treat educational workers fairly and do what is right for Ontario students.

For more information, contact MPP Bobbi Ann Brady at [email protected] or 519-428-0446 Please mention The Silo when contacting.

Culture

Exploring Growing Popularity Of Party Buses

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When it comes to parties and get-togethers, one of the hottest new trends is the party bus. Surprisingly, this trend has grown in almost all age ranges. The appeal is understandable as a party bus allows a group of people to celebrate in one place while also traveling to one or more destinations. Why exactly has the party bus trend taken off? Let’s look at some of the primary reasons why they’re so popular today.

Convenience

Unlike having to hire a taxi or other ride service when people want to go out with their friends, a party bus is an inclusive party. After hiring the bus, they can enjoy drinks on the bus while going to and from their desired location. Some party buses may also come with their own entertainment such as a minibar, TV, dance floor, and more.

Cost Effective

If you’re trying to get a group of people together but don’t want to break the bank, a party bus is probably the way to go. Choosing a party bus Toronto based is more affordable than ever. There are usually several packages to choose from, and for an inclusive fee, you can enjoy a wide range of entertainment options. The party bus is usually a more cost-effective option than going to a restaurant or bar with a large group of people. People also have the advantage of knowing what they’re paying for instead of having to worry about extra costs.

High Capacity Buses

Although you may not need one of the larger buses, some party buses can accommodate up to a whopping 454 passengers. Not only does this have an economic advantage, people can easily party with a larger group. On the other hand, finding a restaurant or other space that seats this number of people is virtually impossible. However, many people are finding that a bus meets their needs for large or medium sized groups.

New and Exciting

When it comes to partying, everyone has been to a bar or club before. However, a party bus offers something new and interesting. From the fun decor to the added interest of traveling while partying, this popular new trend is an innovation. Chances are, party buses will only continue to become more popular over time.

Majestic Limo Services Toronto Party Bus Interior

Multi-Purpose Use

Another thing about party buses is that they’re not designed for one specific event. While you may think about them for bachelorette parties or birthday get-togethers, they’re appropriate for any number of events. From Christmas office parties to anniversaries and even wedding parties, you can find a number of reasons to rent a bus. This is also why people of all ages are choosing party buses.

There is no doubt that party buses are changing the industry and becoming more popular every day. They are perfect for any number of reasons, and who knows, maybe you could consider renting one for your next event. If you’ve been one of the many people who has partied in one of these buses, then you already know what the hype is about.

Featured image- Majestic Limos Toronto Party Bus interior. 

Culture

Day Of The Dead Is Unique Ecuador Halloween

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Thinking about celebrating Day of the Dead in a unique way? How about Quito, Ecuador.

The capital, also known as the Middle of the World, not only has the largest and best preserved historic center in America, but it also has one of the richest cultures in the continent and Day of the Dead or Dia de los Difuntos is no exception.

day of the dead quito ecuadorEvery November 2, cemeteries are decorated with flowers, freshly painted crosses, pictures and cards to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Quito.

Early in the morning, thousands of Ecuadorians remember their family members and friends who’ve passed away with prayers, vigils and songs. This popular holiday merges hundreds of years of traditions in a fusion of Catholic and indigenous rites, where faith and religion come to life in an act of profound significance.

The oldest towns in Ecuador have been celebrating the dead since before the arrival of the Spaniards, but with Christianity, the tradition was adapted to the Catholic calendar. Today, the streets near the cemeteries fill with locals selling flowers and prayer cards and food trucks providing typical cuisine such as colada morada and guaguas de pan, which represent the religious syncretism and culinary fusion of the holiday. At the Calderon Cemetery, about 30 minutes from Quito, indigenous communities visit the graves of their loved ones and share the favorite food of the person who passed away as a way to honor them and communicate with them, with the belief that the deceased live a similar life than the one they lived while alive.

colada morada blackberries-and-sweet-bread-guagua-de-panThe preparation of these dishes also serve as a reason for the entire family to get together. Colada morada, one of the typical beverages for the Day of the Dead, is a drink of indigenous origin and one of the most traditional delicacies of Quito’s cuisine. Prepared with a base of black corn, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, orange and other fruits and herbs, colada morada is accompanied by the traditional guagua de pan, sweet breads shaped into baby-like figures made with wheat flour and, in some places, with cornmeal from grains from the Ecuadorian Andes.

The guaguas de pan are reminiscent of the dead, especially children (hence the name guagua, which means child in Quechua). Its origin dates back to the nineteenth century and today are normally filled with guava, figs, chocolate, raisins and custard or tree tomato.  For the Silo, Luciana Soula.

Culture

Women Of 1970s & 1980s Punk Rock

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Z.Z. “Carrot Woman” Howell

The punk rock scene of the 1970s and ’80s in Southern California is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant and creative periods in rock and roll.

Over the years, many books have come out exploring this explosive time in music and culture, but none have exclusively focused on the vitality and influence of the women who played such a crucial role in this incredibly dynamic movement.

“Almost a decade ago- IN THE SUMMER OF 2012, I attended an oral history workshop by the social justice organization Voice of Witness. I’m a librarian and professor at Santa Ana College and I participated in the workshop to discover projects I could do with students. I ended up imagining something entirely different: interviewing other women like me, now in our middle or later years, who grew up in the punk rock scene in Southern California. Did punk rock influence the rest of their lives? What attracted them to punk rock and how did they get involved? What was it like being a woman in the scene?

What you can now hold in your hands is the final result of a project that took several years and countless hours to complete.

How did I do it? I created a flyer about the project. I posted the flyer a few places around Orange County and Los Angeles and on Facebook. Women started contacting me to participate. I wrote up a list of questions and bought two digital recorders. I emailed some women directly and asked if they would be willing to participate. Then I started calling women and meeting them, mostly in their homes. A friend called it “punk rock anthropology.” I had no idea what an amazing experience this would be.“

Stacy Russo has created a unique book about the punk rock era, focusing on the women who were such a huge part of it. We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women From the 1970s & 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene (Santa Monica Press/2017) captures the stories of women who were active in the punk rock scene in Southern California during this historic time, adding an important voice to the cultural and musical record. Recommended reading. For the Silo, Trina Kaye.

Travel

How I Met My Wife Halfway In Zhengzhou China

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Zhengzhou- "Once into the downtown, the pace slows somewhat."
Zhengzhou- “Once into the downtown, the pace slows somewhat.”

How I met my wife halfway…Elegant Confusion………Being delivered by car (my wife’s friend and a co-worker) to the Hotel in the downtown area of Zhengzhou, bursting along the byways and expressways from the Airport, cars around us dancing across the indistinct markings of the lanes in what could be described as a level of a video game in progress, I had no idea ( a horn honks and a bus switches lanes in front of us ‘sans’ signal..) that the “Art” of driving could manifest itself in such a reckless song trying so very hard to be a “ballet”.

My first impressions were to be made, however innocent, a misplaced fantasy.. As we made our way across the edge of this city of 8 1/2 million souls.., it was plain that this was far different than the large, ‘controlled’ infrastructures of North America.. A place where those, who in the faltering of the majority of their lives, seeking to maintain “control” of most aspects of their lives, would be shattered as if a piece of glass  hitting the concrete of this sudden reality. I believe that all this time seeking that ‘control’, having it slip through the grasps of their expectations, is the cause of so much anger, disappointment, and frustration in North Americans’ lives..

There is no “Road Rage” here.

If this is how you imagined driving in one of China's cities would look like you're mistaken. So says writer, farmer and traveler Bill Stewart.
If this is how you imagined driving in one of China’s cities would look like you’re mistaken.

Once into the downtown, the pace slows somewhat, taking time to congeal into something even more unexpected.. Now there are people, thousands of them,.. mixed with electric bikes, bicycles, motorcycles, pedestrians, carts of vegetables and fruit perched high on platforms innovatively connected to motorcycles, wagons of produce drawn by donkeys and cars.. All are dancing in and out of lanes of traffic, up onto sidewalks, threading the pedestrians walking different directions, the buses and taxis faster than the rest..

Cars and motorbikes making U-turns anywhere without notice.., a car honks, someone concedes the space, and life goes on.

The remarkable impression to be made here for a Caucasian in ‘Neverland’,… is that, there are no egos here to set off a clash of emotional diatribes leading to certain physical, or vocal, outbursts.. Just ‘focus’ of purpose.. There is only the destination to be sought.., nothing more matters.. It is not a matter of forgiveness, on the part of the conceded ,.. just a plain sense of infective respect.. An old woman, peddling a bicycle, weaves suddenly directly across the lanes of traffic.. I look away, fearing the sounds and images of her death.. A few impatient honks from the cars,.. all traffic stops.. as she slowly winds her way to the sidewalk on the other side of the street.., the motorbikes weaving around her, pacing in and out of the stopped buses, cars and taxis.. A woman on a motorbike with a child in front, one in back of her seat, sails by me on the sidewalk…It is ‘Elegance in Confusion’ at it’s finest.. For the Silo, Bill Stewart.

Here's what some folk are saying about the video above.
Here’s what some folk are saying about the video above.

Transportation

Thrilling Test Drive Of Rolls Royce Wraith

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Now THAT'S how you launch a new Rolls....and especially one called Wraith- smoke, vapor, mist, theatrics and a spooky performer. All images A. Maughan/The Silo
Now THAT’S how you launch a new Rolls….and especially one called Wraith- smoke, vapor, mist, theatrics and a spooky performer. All images A. Maughan/The Silo

A Silo look back article 🙂

It’s Fall 2013 and the “now brand new” Wraith from the Rolls-Royce car company is not something I get exposed to often. Let’s face it,  I’m a mid size car guy. Not high-end luxury.  I rationalize my affordability factor by saying that high end’s are too ‘heavy’ and shee-shee poo-poo. Up until now, that may have been as true.

Rolls had an unveiling of their new car The Wraith the other week here in beautiful Vancouver. And well, like the locale, the car itself did stand out even beyond the scenery. The Silo was invited to attend and I earned the assignment. Life is hard 😉

After entering the front doors of the party where a silver painted goddess of sorts and a sleek feather black wraith slowly and elegantly moved around the scene, one can only be sure to expect nothing short of the best attention to these prospective buyers.

There was jewelry set to the tone of $425,000 (Canada’s biggest pink Diamond); a price tag similar to the cars standing right next to them. The food was excellent and the company certainly discerning.

"Emily" or the Flying Lady is the venerable hood ornament for Rolls-Royce automobiles. The live actress seen here on the right captured the mystery and drama behind the creation of the emblem.
“Emily” or the Flying Lady is the venerable hood ornament for Rolls-Royce automobiles. The live actress seen here on the right captured the mystery and drama behind the creation of the emblem.

There was not shortage of demonstration of other models and those with mostly older not only in lineage but also in style, heralding a tradition one has come to know of Rolls Royce. Which is why when the time came for the unveiling of the new car, there was nothing short of a surprise. The car looked sleek and modern while maintaining the more discernable feature Rolls is known for. It looked like, well, not quite a Rolls. It seemed sporty even.

For those who wanted performance but still the luxury that comes with expectations. People actually gasped and well, they should have.

Once the shock settled opera singers belted out a song of elegance that matched the vehicle’s looks and appearance. I became transported and wanted to change careers all of sudden.

On hand for the North American launch of the Wraith? Only, the largest pink Diamond in Canada.
On hand for the North American launch of the Wraith? Only, the largest pink Diamond in Canada.

The show was a success, so now came the long shot that I would get to test-drive one of them. I am not a buyer, no sir.

 

“So when can I test drive one, ahahaha”

 

“Are you free tomorrow at 3pm?”

 

Ummm….yeah maybe sure….oh look at that I am free. Perfect” Gulp.

 

So on to the test drive.

I show up at the Rolls dealership in Vancouver and was met with nothing but interest and enthusiasm for someone who clearly was not in the market for such a car. That didn’t matter much as they were very excited to show off their new marvel. Ha! I thought. No way this thing can actually drive as cool as it looks. Well, my dear readers, was I wrong.

0-100 in 4.4 seconds. Quite. Handles like a dream. Smooth. Great suspension. 14 speaker sound system. Crazy navigation. Just crazy. The holographic road map was floating next to a virtual speedometer in/on (?) the windshield. Touch sensitive screen for drawing on. I mean the whole thing was about performance from interior to engine.

"There she is!" My first look at the Wraith and I'm getting ready to test drive this gorgeous machine. It looks fast.
“There she is!” My first look at the Wraith and I’m getting ready to test drive this gorgeous machine. It looks fast.

The camera system is a cool feature, however at the end of the experience I didn’t really know how to use them. What happens is a 5-camera system captures unique perspectives and through an algorithm creates a bird eyes view of the car. Very cool. However, I just used my mirrors and the over–the-shoulder-one-arm-on-the-back –of-the-passenger-seat to look behind me for the approach in backing up. Technology is great but it has to actually be effective or helpful. Give the user a certain level of confidence that she or he would never have alone otherwise.

And boy did I check my mirrors often when driving. I didn’t want to risk a dent or a scratch.

Just pulling out for the first time was nerve racking, but once you got the feel for it, which happens quick, you are instantly spoiled as a driver which is of course the point when dealing with luxury cars. And it seems Rolls still has been able to retain the  ability to spoil its driver no matter what. The wraith delivers. For the Silo,  Arthur Maughan.

Yes it was rainy and a bit wet that day. Yes, the Wraith had a secret umbrella compartment. Now where is that machinegun button ?
Yes it was rainy and a bit wet that day. Yes, the Wraith had a secret umbrella compartment. Now where is that machinegun button ?

Click to view on I-tunes
Click to view on I-tunes

Earth

Farmer Explains The Increase In Storms

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The Mechanics of World Weather Storm Systems 

A lot has been said, lately, about the increased activity and severity of storm systems around the World in the last 30 years.. Most will tell you it is because of the increased amount of  Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, some would even hazard the aberrations are caused by deities seeking retribution for our collective sins…

But the truth is, the balance maintained for millions of years in the weather patterns of this planet have been dented, impacted, and thrown off kilter by our own change of tastes.. The larger homes of today’s tastes often include “Exotic Hardwood” floors from non-domestic species imported from third World countries, just trying to make a dime from their only primary crop,.. timber..  Another reason for the felling of trees was to create farmland for the Third World’s bulging populations.. This has led to the clear-cutting of massive stands of Equatorial Forests on the order of hundreds of square miles, of of these massive trees, at a time..

One must consider the impact of this act.. The average large tree, in North America, has the cooling effect of 15 room-size air conditioners… The average large tree in the Amazon or Indonesian Archipelago can has the cooling effect of 100 or more air conditioners…

To demonstrate the physics, 1 pound of water, heated to increase the temperature one degree Fahrenheit, would take 1 BTU of energy… This is an even measurement throughout the change from a solid (ice) to a gas (steam), or, 212 degrees, Fahrenheit, OR, 180 BTU.. The amount of energy necessary to change the state of that 1 pound of water to steam, is 965 BTU… If you can imagine that an average North American tree can evaporate 30 gallons of water, an hour, or, remove 231,600 BTU’s per hour of heat energy from the atmosphere, and, an an average Equatorial Forest tree can remove as much as 180 gallons of water per hour, or, 1,389,600 BTU per hour.., THEN, you can imagine the effect of the removal of a Million of these trees on the stability of the moderation in the balancing of storm systems that these important Equatorial Forests have…

The loss of this amount of Equatorial Forest has had a devastating affect on the World’s weather systems over the last 25 years

Storms, particularly in Europe and the U.S., have been dramatically more severe… One never, ever, heard of a thunderstorm in Europe, some 30 years ago, packing winds of up to 125 miles per hour.. Now, they are almost a common occurrence.. One storm, in the South of France, in the Autumn of 1997, destroyed a forest of ancient oak and ash trees that were planted by workers under the auspices of King Louis the thirteenth..

Though a large part of the felled trees were salvaged by sawyers cutting board stock out of the logs, the forest was destroyed, and, only lately replanting efforts have made an impact on the landscape…

“WE are known by our acts, but suffer, our choices..”

For the Silo, Bill Stewart.

Transportation

Canada Makes Top Ten Best Places To Buy EV But Who’s Ahead?

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Canada is in the top 10 best places to buy an EV – from the cost of a Tesla versus average income to EV purchase incentives. 

According to research by our friends at Zutobi.com, the United States takes top spot and earns a total EV score of 8.19/10. The US offers the world’s most popular EV, the Tesla Model 3, at the lowest price, just over $39,000usd/ $53,540cad. The US also has one of the most generous incentives for EV purchases, placing in the top five for the factor. 

Germany and Luxembourg tied for second place, both scoring 7.67/10. The German government offers motorists over $9,000usd/ $11,552cad off the price of a new EV, and It also has one of the top 10 highest proportions of EVs. Luxembourg earns its place in the rating thanks to its great purchase incentives, as motorists in the country can get over $8,000usd/ $10,269cad off a brand-new EV. 

Next up is Norway taking third place in the index with a score of 7.42/10. The Scandinavian country takes the top spot for both the highest proportion of EVs and the cost of an EV as a proportion of the average income. 

The countries with the best tax incentives to buy an EV

Germany has the most generous incentive for buying an EV, offering a rebate of just over $9,000usd/ $11,552cad for EVs. On top of this, the country also has a reduced VAT rate when buying EVs, and EVs are exempt from some vehicle taxes. 

Luxembourg ranks second, offering motorists more than $8,000usd/ $10,269cad for their EV purchases. The country also charges the minimum tax rate for vehicles with very low emissions, which is excellent news for EV motorists.

Offering over $7,500usd/ $9,267cad in subsidies for EV purchases is Slovenia, taking it to third place. The Slovenian government also only charges its minimum rate of 0.5% sales tax on vehicles that emit less than 100 grams of CO2 per kilometre.  

What is driving the popularity of EV’s?

With the ever-present media message of climate change, more and more people are considering finding ways to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and shrink their carbon footprint. One of these ways is ditching traditional polluting gas and diesel cars in favor of electric vehicles (EVs). In fact, many people have already adopted electric cars and are using them to learn to drive.

Governments around the world are also encouraging people to make the switch, with the UK going so far as to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars from 2030, and the US from 2035.

So which countries are the best for electric vehicles? We’ve delved into the data to find out, taking into account purchase incentives, the proportion of EVs in each country, and the cost of one of the world’s most popular cars, the Tesla Model 3, as a proportion of average income too.

Art

Gilda Garza Pushing Boundaries Between Emotion & Art

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Venice, ITALY – Known as “the most influential artist in Mexico,” Gilda Garza is an internationally recognized painter constantly pushing the boundaries between emotion and art. This award-winning Mexico native prepares to make history with a moving collaborative collection by sculptural artist Mario Furlan in a live exhibition at New Murano, Atelier Muranese.

“I have always put my entire heart and soul into my work,” shares Garza. “I’m extremely grateful to create real world impact through art – the thing I love most. It is a true honor to see my influence and efforts reflected in a once-in-a-lifetime glass rendition by the historic New Murano Gallery in Venice.”

Widely regarded as the master of Murano Sculptural Art, Mario Furlan will transform Garza’s epic pieces into three-dimensional glass structures before a live audience of exhibition attendees. The finished works will then display at the more than 1,500-year old Atelier Muranese studio. Through the presentation of glass masters, fine art, conceptual art, and collectible design, the Venetian gallery supports the creative vision of Murano/Venetian artisan culture. The “Glass Queen” exhibition serves their ongoing mission to expose the creative art process, from interpretation to object, using centuries-old skills of muranese high manufacturing. 

In the US, Garza’s work can also be seen in an exclusive jewelry collection at Jason of Beverly Hills, Roberto Cavalli Haute Couture, and the House of Bijan on Rodeo Drive. Garza has been officially recognized for her cultural contributions by the Senate of the Republic constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union in Mexico City.

The Gilda Garza Pendant. 18kt Gold with 2.41 Carats of White Diamonds. $14,995 USD/ $20/566 CAD

She is also acclaimed for donating $80,000 USD/ $109,800 CAD from the sale of a Vice President Kamala Harris-inspired painting to the World Woman Foundation, committed to empowering one million woman by 2030. Gilda Garza is famously recognized as the first artist to have an art exhibition on Las Vegas strip. Since then, she has showcased various collections in the iconic Caesars Palace Hotel.

Gilda Garza poses with one of her paintings.

Featured image- Playboy magazine chose Gilda’s art for the cover for the first art special edition. 

Philanthropy

WFP BREAKS RECORD WITH FOOD SUPPORT IN SOMALIA AMID FAMINE RISK

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MOGADISHU – The United Nations World Food Programme is delivering life-saving food and nutrition assistance to record numbers of people in Somalia, with over 4 million people a month receiving urgent humanitarian support to prevent famine in the face of the region’s worst drought in over 40 years.

The scale-up has helped keep the worst outcomes of Somalia’s hunger crisis at bay so far.

But the situation on the ground remains dire, with lives and livelihoods being lost. WFP is racing against time to avert a projected famine and a death toll that could reach the tens or even hundreds of thousands.

Somalia, Baidoa, 12 October 2022 Nuuriya Ali Mohammed Nuur (30) and her baby Mohammed Nuur Mohammed (2 years old) travelled to Baidoa from a rural town in Southwest state. After four failed rainy seasons, all of Nuuriya’s livestock died due to the drought. She lost ten cows and one donkey which supported her livelihood. She has ten children and was only able to bring four children with her and the oldest stayed behind with their father. There were several stops on her journey to Baidoa, including walking on foot until she reached transportation to reach the camp. Her child was weak and malnourished when she arrived, but with WFP assistance he is starting to gain weight and become healthier. With no expectation to return and nothing left for her at home, she now lives in an IDP camp on the outskirts of Baidoa town, receiving both WFP relief assistance and nutrition services. She is receiving emergency relief cash assistance, each month receiving a mobile cash transfer to buy food. For nutrition, WFP is providing screening services for the baby, nutrition educational services for the mother on child nutrition, distribution of plumpy food for the baby, and referral to relief assistance receiving cash transfers. Photo: WFP/Geneva Costopulos

Additional information:

Somalia, Galkayo, Galmudug state, 6 August 2022 In the photo: struggling livestock goats and farmer in Qarqora, Galmudug. Photo: WFP/Geneva Costopulos
  • Nutrition prevention activities were almost entirely suspended from the second quarter of 2022 as WFP was forced to prioritize treatment services due to limited funds. The agency has resumed some prevention activities for children and pregnant or breastfeeding women and is working to do more.
  • WFP is reaching new rural areas, including in the famine risk districts of Baidoa and Burhakaba, with food assistance and cash transfers. WFP’s mobile money transfers are an efficient way to getting assistance rapidly to people in hard-to-reach areas.
  • WFP deployed a new helicopter in Somalia in September to deliver food assistance to hard-to-reach areas and get aid workers to the places they are needed most. The WFP-led Logistics Cluster is also using the helicopter to deliver humanitarian relief on behalf of other UN agencies and NGOs. The helicopter has so far conducted over 30 flights in September and October.
  • WFP is the largest humanitarian agency in Somalia, with 12 offices across the country providing coverage in every state.
  • WFP’s massive scale-up has largely been made possible thanks to timely support from key donors, particularly in recent months. It is essential that this is maintained. WFP has a funding gap of US$ 412 million / CAD$ 565.3 million across all activities for the next six months to March 2023, including a shortfall of US$ 315 million/ CAD$ 432.2 million for life-saving food relief and nutrition assistance.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Featured image: Somalia, Baidoa, 12 October 2022 Nuuriya Ali Mohammed Nuur and her baby Mohammed Nuur Mohammed travelled to Baidoa from a rural town in Southwest state. After four failed rainy seasons, all of Nuuriya’s livestock died due to the drought. She lost ten cows and one donkey which supported her livelihood. She has ten children and was only able to bring four children with her and the oldest stayed behind with their father. There were several stops on her journey to Baidoa, including walking on foot until she reached transportation to reach the camp. Her child was weak and malnourished when she arrived, but with WFP assistance he is starting to gain weight and become healthier. With no expectation to return and nothing left for her at home, she now lives in an IDP camp on the outskirts of Baidoa town, receiving both WFP relief assistance and nutrition services. Photo: WFP/Geneva Costopulos

Vintage

Six Landmark Films from the Columbia Pictures Library Debut on 4K

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Debut on 4K Ultra HD For the First Time October 25th 

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT ~ FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

TO SIR, WITH LOVE ~ THE LAST PICTURE SHOW ~ ANNIE

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Exclusively Available on 4K Disc in this Limited Edition Set,

Includes an 80-Page Hardbound Book on the History & Impact of the Films

and Over 35 Hours of New and Archival Special Features


TORONTO, ONT. (October, 2022) – Continuing the fan-favourite and award-winning series, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is proud to debut six more acclaimed and iconic films from its library on 4K Ultra HD disc for the first time ever, exclusively within the COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4K ULTRA HD COLLECTION VOLUME 3, available October 25. This must-own set includes films that have resonated and endured, with stars and stories that have reverberated through cinema history: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, TO SIR, WITH LOVE, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, ANNIE and AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and four of the films have all-new Dolby Atmos mixes.

The six films in the COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4K ULTRA HD COLLECTION VOLUME 3 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. Included with the collection is a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring in-depth sections about the making of each film within the set via six all-new incisive essays from renowned writers—including a special exclusive essay from award-winning writer/director James L. Brooks on his 1997 classic, AS GOOD AS IT GETS!

The set also includes a variety of rare related features and TV episodes, expanding the worlds of several of the included films—some of which haven’t been available in decades! From a 1932 cinematic incarnation of Annie to a nearly five-hour 1979 TV miniseries adaptation of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY—and much more!—these supplemental additions round out this must-own gift set, perfectly timed for holiday gift-giving.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

Synopsis:

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert team up for laughs as mismatched lovers in this 1934 screwball comedy classic. Spoiled Ellie Andrews (Colbert) escapes from her millionaire father (Walter Connolly), who wants to stop her from marrying a worthless playboy. En route to New York, Ellie gets involved with an out-of-work newsman, Peter Warne (Gable). When their bus breaks down, the bickering couple set off on a madcap hitchhiking expedition. Complications fly when the runaway heiress and brash reporter fall in love. Directed by Frank Capra, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was the first movie to be honoured with all five major Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Feature:

o  NEW: YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM IT – 1956 remake of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, starring June Allyson and Jack Lemmon. Newly remastered in HD!

§  Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o  Audio Commentary featuring Frank Capra, Jr.

o  Frank Capra, Jr. Remembers It Happened One Night Featurette

o  Screwball Comedy? Featurette

o  Original Live Radio Broadcast

o  Advertising Materials

o  Theatrical Trailer


IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT has a run time of approximately 105 minutes and is rated PG.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

Synopsis:

In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Winner of eight Oscars®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting awards for Sinatra in a career-defining role and for Donna Reed as a not-so-wholesome club hostess.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   NEW: Strength and Sacrifice: The Making of From Here to Eternity

o   NEW: Eternal History Revisited Featurettes

o   NEW: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY 1980 TV Pilot – the TV pilot starring William Devane and Barbara Hershey, presented in SD!*

o   Theatrical Trailers

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Dolby Digital Mono

·       Special Features:

o   Eternal History: Graphics-in-Picture Track

o   Audio Commentary featuring Tim Zinnemann and Alvin Sargent

o   Making of From Here to Eternity

o   Excerpt from “Fred Zinnemann – As I See It” 

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY has a run time of approximately 118 minutes and is rated PG.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE

Synopsis:

A novice teacher faces a class of rowdy, undisciplined working-class punks in this classic film that reflected some of the problems and fears of teens in the 60s. Sidney Poitier gives one of his finest performances as Mark Thackeray, an out-of-work engineer who turns to teaching in London’s tough East End. The graduating class, led by Denham (Christian Roberts), Pamela (Judy Geeson) and Barbara (Lulu, who also sings the hit title song), sets out to destroy Thackeray as they did his predecessor by breaking his spirit. But Thackeray, no stranger to hostility, meets the challenge by treating the students as young adults who will soon enter a work force where they must stand or fall on their own. Celebrating its 55th anniversary.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   NEW: A Tribute to Sidney Poitier

o   NEW: TO SIR, WITH LOVE 1974 TV Pilot – Hari Rhodes stars in this rare TV adaptation of the 1967 classic film, presented in HD!

·       Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Actor Judy Geeson and Film Historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman

o   Audio Commentary featuring Novelist E.R. Braithwaite and Author / Teacher Salome Thomas-El

o   NEW: TO SIR, WITH LOVE II – the 1992 TV-movie sequel to the 1967 classic, starring Sidney Poitier and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, presented in HD!

o   NEW: To Potter, With Love Featurette

o   NEW: Beginnings of an Acting Career Featurette

o   Those Schoolboy Days Featurette

o   Look and Learn Featurette

o   E.R. Braithwaite: In His Own Words Featurette

o   Lulu and the B-Side Featurette

o   Miniskirts, Blue Jeans and Pop Music! Featurette

o   To Sidney, With Love Featurette

o   Principal El: He Chose to Stay Featurette

o   Theatrical Trailer

TO SIR, WITH LOVE has a run time of approximately 105 minutes and is rated PG.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Synopsis:

Released in 1971 to critical acclaim and public controversy, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW garnered eight Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and was hailed as the most important work by a young American director since Citizen Kane. A surprisingly frank, bittersweet drama of social and sexual mores in small-town Texas, the film features a talent-laden cast led by Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Timothy Bottoms. Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson each won Oscars® for their work in supporting roles. Featuring both director Peter Bogdanovich’s preferred 1999 Definitive Director’s Cut and the 1971 Theatrical version on 4K Ultra HD.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW Disc Breakdown

·       Director’s Cut 4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Director’s Cut presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Theatrical Version 4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       1971 Theatrical version presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Director’s Cut presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

  • Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Director Peter Bogdanovich

o   NEW: A Tribute to Peter Bogdanovich

o   The Last Picture Show: A Look Back Documentary 

o   A Discussion with Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich

o   Location Footage

o   Promotional Featurette 

o   Theatrical Trailers

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW has a run time of approximately 118 minutes and is rated 18A. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW: DIRECTOR’S CUT has a run time of approximately 126 minutes and is rated 18A for sexuality, nudity and language.

ANNIE

Synopsis:

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, ANNIE is the story of everyone’s favourite plucky, red-haired orphan! One day Annie (Aileen Quinn) is chosen to stay for a week with the famous billionaire “Daddy” Warbucks (Albert Finney). One week turns into many, and the only person standing in the way of Annie’s fun is Miss Hannigan, the tyrannical ruler of the orphanage (played to hilarious perfection by Carol Burnett). Will Miss Hannigan’s zany attempts to kidnap the irrepressible Annie succeed? Sing along with the unforgettable songs and experience this beloved musical!

ANNIE Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Feature:

  • NEW: LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE – 1932 feature starring Mitzi Green as Annie, newly restored and presented in HD!

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

  • NEW: Cast Audio Commentary – featuring all-new reflections from stars Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry and Roseanne Sorrentino
  • NEW: Aileen Quinn: A Conversation
  • NEW: Behind the Music with Charles Strouse
  • NEW: Looking Back: Behind the Scenes
  • Annie’s Journey to the Screen
  • “Easy Street”
  • “I Don’t Need Anything But You”
  • Making a Finale (no audio)
  • Sing-Along with Annie!
  • My Hollywood Adventure with Aileen Quinn
  • Musical Performance by Play: “It’s the Hard-Knock Life”
  • Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots

ANNIE has a run time of approximately 127 minutes and is rated G.

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Synopsis:

Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding, Jr., star in James L. Brooks’ hit comedy, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, now celebrating its 25th anniversary. Nicholson gives a show-stopping Academy Award®-winning performance as Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive novelist with Manhattan’s meanest mouth. But when his neighbor Simon is hospitalized, Melvin is forced to babysit Simon’s dog. And that unexpected act of kindness, along with waitress Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt, in an Academy Award®-winning performance), helps put Melvin back in the human race. Nominated for seven Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (1997).

AS GOOD AS IT GETS Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       Original 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Original 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Director James L. Brooks, Stars Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear, Editor Richard Marks, Producer Laurence Mark and Composer Hans Zimmer

o   NEW: Deleted Scenes

  • Melvin Stalls Victor with Intro from James L. Brooks
  • “Kiss Her, Man!” Original Ending

o   NEW: Behind the Scenes Footage

o   NEW: The Making of As Good As It Gets Featurette

o   NEW: Archival Theatrical EPK Soundbites

o   Theatrical Trailer

AS GOOD AS IT GETS has a run time of approximately 139 minutes and is rated PG for strong language, thematic elements, nudity and a beating. 

EXCLUSIVE BONUS DISC INCLUDES:

·       FROM HERE TO ETERNITY – the nearly 5-hour 1979 TV miniseries starring Natalie Wood, William Devane and Peter Boyle, presented in high definition*

* Select instances of music have been removed for this presentation.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Gaming

Are Gaming Reviews Always Reliable? Keep These 4 Things In Mind

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Much like movies, gaming as an industry has grown to be a robust machine churning out titles, both big and small, at an obliterative pace. Suffice it to say that it is impossible to try and play all games that release every year. Moreover, considering that the price of games has been on the rise for the past few years, partly due to increased production cost and partly due to inflation, it is impossible to purchase and play all games.

So, in order to not get blown away in the confusing hype created by reviewers, here’s what you should keep in mind about gaming reviews.

1. The problem of big titles:

The issue with game reviewers is that they mostly expend time and effort praising AAA titles that release every year instead of lesser known artistic or Indie games. Not everyone likes major titles with repetitive gameplay. You would rarely see any famous gamers play with Online casino, Karamba, an indie mobile game, or let’s say the games that aren’t don’t get into enough limelight. We’re talking about the games that are niche and aren’t very popular in the industry of gaming reviewers.

Play Karamba on any mobile device with upto50GBP|Karamba Casino


2. Appeals vary widely:

The issue with gaming in general is that it is almost impossible to please everyone. In terms of narratives and themes, games tend to include only a limited number in their arsenal. However, with time, the expectation from games increases. It isn’t rare for reviewers to expect deeper political or social commentary from games, after the success of titles like Detroit Become Human.

However, it is impossible for games, like Assassin’s Creed that seek to be historically accurate to both portray the times while tending to demands of politically correctness. Two distinct possibilities arise here: Either the game sticks to its roots, and builds a good gaming but gets scathing reviews for not doing enough or for being problematic. Or, it can fit political pandering in its theme and make itself a terrible game, but get hearty praise from reviewers. An example for this is Assassins Creed: Odyssey, for which Ubisoft got rid of all its Assassins’ roots and made it a messy poor quality RPG, that looks like a poorly made copy of Witcher 3.

3. Mismatch between target audience and reviewers:

A big issue where the premise of reviews falls flat is that hardcore gamers usually do not fit the target audience of reviews. Gamers can be broadly classified into hardcore or serious gamers and causal gamers. And while most games are made with the former in mind, game reviews are made keeping the latter in mind. That’s because game reviews too, are a market that needs to pander to an audience to sell itself. While most reviewers are knowledgeable and competent enough to make detailed reviews, most of their audience wouldn’t consume such reviews.

Face-Off: Batman: Arkham Knight • Eurogamer.net
Batman: Arkham Knight

As sad as it is, most casual gamers just want to play a first person shooter for fun. They do not care about social commentary, or beautifully written characters or aptly composed music scores. When reviews are written keeping them in mind, blissfully average games like Call of Duty keep getting very high reviews. And while playing CoD is definitely fun, it fails to hold its own against impressive games like Witcher 3 or Batman: Arkham Knight.

4. The issue with influence:

A second issue with gaming reviews being a business is that these sites depend on developers for content for their channels. Reviewers that bring out reviews earlier obviously stand to gain since there is a flux of readers to their channels about the exciting new title, which earns them a lot of money. This in turn means review sites depend on developers to send them early and free copies of games for them to try out, and review. For every bad review they give, they turn off the developer from dealing with them in future, which in turn makes competing review channels benefit.

This creates a dangerous nexus between gaming review channels and developers. This in fact harms smaller developers more since they effectively make lesser games than bigger developers. Thus, an Electronics Arts, can utilize this nexus for their benefit much better than a CD: Projekt Red, although the latter is arguably a much better developer. And this means, very average EA games will get much better reviews than a fantastic game developed by CD:PR.

CD PROJEKT RED. : Gamingcirclejerk

In Conclusion

However, as we know, making video games are one of the most elevated forms of contemporary human art. And art, by virtue of interpretation, is extremely subjective.

Thus, in an effort to pick and choose games that are worth our time and money, we obviously tend to look at gaming reviews. Not only do they offer a valuable insight into what each title is about, but they also explain important details like the brilliance of narratives, character development, gameplay mechanics, multiplayer experience, presence of inhibitive micro transactions, and tend to give an overall suggestion on whether or not they recommend the game. 

Therefore, it is foolhardy to expect reviews to do a perfect job in terms of recommending games that you may like. For the Silo, Ritik Pandey.

Culture

Sci Fi Like Devices Part Of Queen’s Park Security Update

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Canadian director James Cameron projected into the future for 1986's Aliens radar motion tracker. Now this tech seems to be ready for Queen's Park.
1986 film- Aliens radar motion tracker. Now this tech is ready for Queen’s Park.

Eight years ago at Queen’s Park, the Cross-Border Institute (CBI), part of the University of Windsor, hosted an event to demonstrate advances in security, surveillance and fingerprinting technology. That technology had immediate application for border crossing screening, supply chain security and cybersecurity.

The CBI hosted the event as part of its mandate to support ongoing, practical research aimed at addressing numerous cross-border issues with the United States. The CBI works in collaboration with a number of University of Windsor departments, private sector partners and organizations and all levels of government, looking at making land border crossings work better.  The technologies demonstrated represented a number of research projects and initiatives currently being conducted at the University of Windsor as part of its strategic focus related to understanding borders. These projects and activities were also supported by the Department of Research and Innovation at the University of Windsor.

Queen’s Park staff and members had a first-hand opportunity to see the work of Dr. Roman Maev’s high-speed biometrics ultrasonic system for 3-D fingerprint imaging. This system allows reconstruction of fingerprint patterns from deeper layers of skin while embedding the internal parameters of these deeper layers as key features of the fingerprints. Also on display was Dr. Sazzadur Chowdhury’s 77GHz short range radar. At the time- the smallest and thinnest in the world and economical enough to be carried by an individual for mobile motion detection or used in multiples in such large surveillance application as airports. Cue the Aliens movie soundtrack.  Both Drs. Maev and Chowdhury are members of the University of Windsor Faculty.

The University of Windsor has developed an area of expertise in technologies that can detect threats and violations, provide positive identification and secure the transfer of data. The projects all have practical security applications and are at or approaching the commercialization stage. All of these projects have received support from the Federal Development Corporation for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) Prosperity Initiative Project 802390, which is administered by the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor.

Quick Facts: The Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor was founded in 2008 under the direction of Dr.  Bill Anderson.  The Centre approaches the study of border issues from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes economic development, geography, engineering, management science and political science.  The CBI has focused on initiatives, events and research that address ongoing challenges at land crossings between Canada and the United States. The CBI, as part of the University of Windsor, looks at the impact of trends in cross-border transportation and the impact of policy decisions by governments on both sides of the border. Currently, the CBI is working to launch Canada’s first university level certificate program in border management, Managing Borders and International Trade.

Technology Quick Facts:
Short Range Radar for Surveillance Applications – UWindsor engineering professor Dr. Chowdhury has developed the world’s smallest and thinnest short-range radar unit. Because it is inexpensive to build and completely weatherproof it can be used effectively in a variety of applications for motion detection, ranging from individual units attached to a soldiers uniform to arrays of units for border and perimeter surveillance.

High Speed Biometrics Ultrasonic System for 3D Fingerprint Imaging – World-renowned UWindsor physicist Dr. Maev has taken a new approach to fingerprinting using acoustic microscopy technology. This device generates far more detailed information from fingerprint images below the skin level, making it more accurate than conventional technologies, yet it is fast and practical.

Real Time Location System for Security and Indoor Location – Based on the novel indoor positioning method developed by Dr. Majid Ahmadi and Dr. Rashid Rashidzadeh at the University of Windsor, this system will identify, locate and track people in indoor environments. Its positioning algorithm takes advantage of various sensors on smartphones to improve positioning accuracy.

Automated Vehicle Identification – Cameras that can read license plate information are increasingly common. University of Windsor computer scientists Dr. Imran Ahmad and Dr. Boubakeur Boufama have taken this technology several steps farther, allowing the shape and colour of a car to be extracted from video feeds and stored in a database. This technology will be tested in the University of Windsor’s new parking structure in the Spring of 2015.

Data Encryption Using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) – Data encryption is an increasingly important function that normally requires the use of expensive add-on cards known as crypto-accelerators. UWindsor researcher, Dr. Roberto Muscedere has developed algorithms that make it possible to achieve the same kind of encryption using much cheaper GPU units typically found in laptop computers and game consoles.

Secure vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v) communications – Advanced vehicular communications technology has enabled such life-saving features as collision warning, collision avoidance and emergency vehicle signaling. However these systems may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks that threaten the privacy and safety of drivers and passengers. University of Windsor faculty researchers Dr. Mitra Mirhassani, Dr. Kemel Tepe and Dr. Wu and their students are working to fill security gaps in V2V systems.

Control, Monitoring and Surveillance in Wireless Systems – Large scale power and communications systems, manufacturing and process control plants, networked building energy systems and others are increasingly controlled by autonomous, sensor-rich, wireless systems. Given the consequence of failure in these systems and the danger of cyber-attacks upon them, UWindsor researchers Dr. Mehrdad Saif, Dr. Rashid Rashidzadeh, Dr. Alavi and Dr. Razavi-Far are developing methods to detect intruders and faults early.

Sensor fusion for concealed weapons detection – Conventional images are good for revealing a person’s identity, while infrared images can spot concealed weapons. But what if you want to both identify a person and know if they are concealing a weapon? A University of Windsor engineer, Dr. Jonathan Wu, has found a way to fuse information from different sensors to produce a clear image not only of a suspect’s appearance but also of any concealed weapon they are carrying. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker. 
Learn More: www.uwindsor.ca/crossborder

Finance

This Quiz Tests Your Knowledge Of Paper Money Faces

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You’ve likely seen paper money from all over the planet. Maybe you have an aunt living in Australia that sends you dollars in the mail every year for your birthday or perhaps on your commute to work each day you pass by a currency exchange kiosk- you know the type: colorful bills from all over the world decorating the walls. 

But how well do you know the faces of world currencies? Is it the King or Queen on the face of the Swedish Krona or neither? Which former US President is found on the five dollar bill?
Take this fun test and discover some pretty cool facts about paper money faces.

Long live hard cash!


Vintage

Collecting Videogames Is All About The Hunt

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A sample of Syd’s arcade and home platform collection. Note the original Sega Genesis retail display ‘arcade machine’

Most of us have hobbies.

When I was growing up stamp collecting seemed like it was on the verge of dying out but I started a collection anyway. I had a lot of fun with it and although I no longer have that collection (I really wish I did) it provided many hours of entertainment and gave my brain a chance to think.

Today, I collect video games.

It’s a hobby that is becoming more and more popular as more and more generations are born with gaming as a normal part of everyday life. One of the best things about game collecting as a hobby is that you can diversify your collecting in various ways.

For example, you can be an “everything” collector like I am. You collect all video game systems and games from the mid-1970’s to today. This is the most challenging (and dare I say it, expensive) of the choices but it doesn’t have to be. You could concentrate on the oldies, starting out with a system like the Atari 2600 or you could try to focus on the “16-bit era” and focus on systems like the Super Nintendo which came out in 1991 and produced a great library of titles.


Another great aspect of game collecting is that it can fit any budget. Frugal gamers can find the best of deals at garage sales and far, out of the way retailers or you can loosen your wallet a bit and find easier pickings at the bigger retailers.

With collecting, it’s all about the hunt.

It doesn’t matter where you live. You can take the family for a drive on the weekend while you look for buried treasures. For Canadians, there is even a website dedicated to classic game collectors where you can connect with like-minded individuals. Just head over to Canada’s Classic Game Collectors Website.

I think it’s important to define the parameters of what you are collecting (for example, are you collecting boxed items or “loose”) and so on. It gives you guidance when going shopping. I know some collectors who only buy sealed games (very expensive) and others who only collect certain game series (for example all of the Zelda games or all of the Pokemon titles). The possibilities are quite endless. Regardless of what approach you take, collecting can be almost as much fun as playing. For the Silo, Syd Bolton.  Featured image- Commodore Vic-20 computer and modem used by the author to conduct the world’s first tweet from a Vic-20. 

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