Regarding the article, I am opposed to the author's use of "spunky" as an adjective. For obvious reasons.
I wish their parents would have used Marky Ramone brand condoms!
“Look at Jewel,” added Mr. Nimmo, the guitarist. “She had that album, Pieces of You. That record sold millions and millions of copies, but they won’t pick her up for another album.”
What would the acoustics be like? I would think it wouldn't be as good as they say.
June 27, 2008
Whitehaven Journal
Take Out the Trash Precisely, Now. It’s the Law.
By SARAH LYALL
WHITEHAVEN, England — The citizens of Whitehaven try, really they do. They separate out their cans, their paper, their cardboard and their glass, and they recycle them all. They compost. They jump up and down on their trash to cram it into their government-issued garbage cans, and they put the trash out for collection at exactly 7 a.m., twice a month.
But when Gareth Corkhill, a bus driver, was fined $215 — and given a further $225 fine and a criminal record when he failed to pay — for leaving his garbage can lid slightly ajar this spring, Whitehaven’s residents banded together in dismay. They raised the money to pay the fine, and they began to complain.
“I consider the fine against Mr. Corkhill to be a matter of injustice, really, and as a Christian minister I’m required to speak out against injustice,” declared the Rev. John Bannister, the rector of Whitehaven, a seaside town in Cumbria, in the far northwest. Referring to the garbage cans residents here use, he said, “To be given a criminal record for leaving your wheelie bin open by three inches has, I think, really gone beyond the bounds of responsible behavior.”
Across Europe, residents are struggling to adjust to a new era of garbage rules. Britain, particularly, is in the midst of a trash crisis, with dwindling landfill space and one of Europe’s poorest recycling records. Threatened with steep fines if they dump too much trash, local governments around the country are imposing strict regimens to force residents to produce less and recycle more.
Many now collect trash every other week, instead of every week. They restrict households to a limited amount of garbage, and refuse to pick up more. They require that garbage be put out only at strict times, reject whole boxes of recyclables that contain the odd nonrecyclable item and employ enforcement officers who issue warnings and impose fines for failure to comply.
In an era of dwindling environmental resources, garbage-heavy societies like Britain’s are under growing pressure to change their profligate ways. “These are challenging times, and the U.K. is behind the game when it comes to relying on landfills,” said Beverley Parr, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Or, as Ian Curwen, a spokesman for Copeland Borough Council, which encompasses Whitehaven, said: “Ultimately as a country, we have to do more. We can’t just keep producing and throwing things away.”
But Britons do not like being told what to do. Encouraged by anti-government newspapers, they particularly resent government meddling, as they see it, in such intimate matters as the contents of their garbage cans. As regulations get more stringent and enforcement more robust, there have been reports across the country of incensed residents shouting and throwing trash at garbage collectors, illegally dumping and burning excess garbage, and even surreptitiously tossing trash in — or stealing — their neighbors’ garbage cans.
“It’s like something out of ‘Mad Max,’ ” Paul Nicholls, a resident of Cannock, near Birmingham, told the newspaper The Guardian recently, describing the free-for-all in his town at garbage-collection time. “Every man for himself, scavenging for an extra bin.”
The government says the new regulations are necessary if Britain is to adjust to the changing times. Along with the rest of Europe, Britain has been ordered to reduce the waste it puts in landfills — by 2015, to 50 percent of what it was in 1995 — or face untold millions of dollars in European Union fines.
That means that people have to completely rethink their relationship to their refuse, said Paul Bettison, chairman of the environment board of the Local Government Association.
“It’s a sad thing to have to shatter people’s illusions, but gone are the days when we could put all our rubbish and junk in a big bag and overnight the fairy would come and take it away, and that would be the end of it,” Mr. Bettison said. “The rubbish fairy is dead.”
The twice-a-month collection regime, now in use in more than half the country, is particularly unpopular and became a contentious issue in recent local elections, in which the ruling Labor Party was trounced by its opponents. Among other things, said Doretta Cocks, who runs the 22,000-member Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, having infrequent collections creates a health hazard, what with the smell, the maggots and the rats.
“It’s supposed to be environmentally friendly, but it’s not,” Mrs. Cocks said. “How can it be environmentally friendly to have two weeks’ worth of rubbish in your house?”
Whitehaven provides many of its homeowners with an array of recycling bins as well as government-regulation wheelie bins that are often modest in size, to say the least, holding perhaps four black garbage bags.
Into these they are expected to stuff their two weeks’ worth of garbage.
“My bin’s always full,” said a 62-year-old Whitehaven resident, who says that he can force five bags in there if he jumps on them vigorously enough. He is engaged in a running battle with the garbage collectors. Once he put an extra bag of trash on top of his bin; they refused to pick it up and left the garbage from the now-ripped bag sprawled on the street. Once, when he failed to close his lid properly, he received a “nasty note saying it was overloaded,” he said.
The note was followed by a sticker of shame affixed to the bin announcing that he was violating local garbage laws. The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is afraid of running afoul of the authorities, says he now regularly takes his extra trash out to an empty field and burns it.
Ms. Parr, the environmental department spokeswoman, said that in 1997 Britain recycled just 7 percent of its waste, compared with 33 percent now. (More than 60 percent of its waste ends up in landfills, compared with 55 percent for the United States in 2006.) Britain is poised to experiment with programs under which households would pay according to how much garbage they threw out, just as they pay for water or electricity.
Under one idea, people’s bins would be fitted with microchips, enabling local councils to record the weight or volume of garbage per household. Although such bins are used already in other European countries, even the prospect has critics in Britain muttering about Big Brother and creeping taxation.
In Whitehaven, the residents are annoyed enough about the rules they already have.
Claire Corkhill, whose husband received the fine for their open bin, is still recovering from the indignity of having two uniformed garbage enforcement officers, or “garbage police,” as they are known locally, show up at her house.
She said they were wearing protective vests. “My sister is a police officer, so we thought it was a joke, to be honest.”
Mr. Curwen, the local council spokesman, said the Corkhills had failed to respond to several warnings. “They got a sticker, and then a letter, and then another letter saying, ‘Would you like us to come round and discuss your waste situation with you, because we need to reduce our land filling and the fines are quite steep,’ ” he said.
Mr. Curwen said that people in similar situations — unable to close their bins because of too much garbage — should telephone the council. “We can give you tips on recycling and reducing waste,” he said.
Mr. Bettison of the Local Government Association said there would always be some people who needed extra prodding.
“To encourage people to do something, you start off by asking them ‘Please,’ ” he said. “Then you say ‘Pretty please.’ But if they don’t respond to carrots, you have to move a little more along the scale that has carrots on one end and sticks on the other. You have to make it a little more difficult for them not to recycle.”
(http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/Berlind-Future861H.jpg)
im waiting for her grinning face to eat concrete when she falls off the curb for standing like that in those heels.
The Fine Art of Rock 'n' Roll
KISS Front Man Goes from Concert to Canvas
Wentworth Gallery is pleased to present art exhibitions by artist, rock icon, and charismatic front man of KISS, Paul Stanley. He will make three special appearances at Wentworth Gallery in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Boca Raton, FL and Orlando, FL.
Paul Stanley's Wentworth Gallery Appearances
Friday – November 14, 2008 6-9 PM – Palm Beach Gardens
Saturday – November 15, 2008 6-9 PM – Boca Raton
Sunday - November 16, 2008 1-4 PM - Orlando
Friday November 14, 2008
Wentworth Gallery – The Gardens Mall
3101 PGA Blvd
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 561-624-0656 or 800-732-6140
Saturday November 15, 2008
Wentworth Gallery – Town Center Mall
6000 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 561-338-0804 or 800-732-6140
Sunday, November 16, 2008
1 – 4 p.m.
Wentworth Gallery - The Mall at Millenia K296
4200 Conroy Road
Orlando, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 407-903-9055 or 800-732-6140
Hmmm, there are approximately TEN THOUSAND music venues "in and around the New York town," I think these young bands can find a place to play.
The article states that Joe, real name Sam Wurzelbacher, has "just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances."No word on his new line of confections.
Wurzelbacher's new representative Jim Della Croce says he plans to extend the brand of "Joe the Plumber" beyond the allotted 15 minutes of fame. "He is a dynamic speaker and an everyman who has become an overnight celebrity," said Croce. "It's going to be our job to find Joe's strengths and give him some options."
"Everyone came at me to write a book. They had dollar signs in their eyes - 101 Things Joe the Plumber Knows or some stupid shit like that. Excuse me, I am sorry," Wurzelbacher told Fox News.
"You know I will get behind something solid, but I won't get behind fluff. I won't cash in, and when people do read the book they will figure out that I didn't cash in. At least I hope they figure that out."
More Joe the Plumber news (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/joe-the-plumber). He's got a book deal! Joe the Plumber - Fighting for the American Dream is due to hit bookstores on Dec 1st.Quote"Everyone came at me to write a book. They had dollar signs in their eyes - 101 Things Joe the Plumber Knows or some stupid shit like that. Excuse me, I am sorry," Wurzelbacher told Fox News.
"You know I will get behind something solid, but I won't get behind fluff. I won't cash in, and when people do read the book they will figure out that I didn't cash in. At least I hope they figure that out."
The Fine Art of Rock 'n' Roll[/quote]
KISS Front Man Goes from Concert to Canvas
Wentworth Gallery is pleased to present art exhibitions by artist, rock icon, and charismatic front man of KISS, Paul Stanley. He will make three special appearances at Wentworth Gallery in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Boca Raton, FL and Orlando, FL.
Paul Stanley's Wentworth Gallery Appearances
Friday – November 14, 2008 6-9 PM – Palm Beach Gardens
Saturday – November 15, 2008 6-9 PM – Boca Raton
Sunday - November 16, 2008 1-4 PM - Orlando
Friday November 14, 2008
Wentworth Gallery – The Gardens Mall
3101 PGA Blvd
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 561-624-0656 or 800-732-6140
Saturday November 15, 2008
Wentworth Gallery – Town Center Mall
6000 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 561-338-0804 or 800-732-6140
Sunday, November 16, 2008
1 – 4 p.m.
Wentworth Gallery - The Mall at Millenia K296
4200 Conroy Road
Orlando, FL
*call for details on Special VIP Reception with Paul Stanley 407-903-9055 or 800-732-6140
Clinton's Brand Of Diplomacy On Display In Asia
by Michele Kelemen
"I don't think there is any way to say 'this is how it is going to work,' " she said. "It is more like jazz. You've got to improvise. You've got to have people who are great individuals and ensemble players."
ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- Police say a central Florida woman nearly drowned when her husband held her face down in their dog's water bowl during an argument over frozen pizza.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal (http://bit.ly/SVJM79 (http://bit.ly/SVJM79)) reports the argument started as the couple sat down to watch TV Wednesday night and eat pizza. Richard Watson complained that the crust was raw and flung his plate into the front door. Debra Watson then tossed her plate on the floor.
Police say her husband tackled her and shoved her head into the dog bowl. Debra Watson broke free. But a police report says her husband tried to strangle her.
Richard Watson is charged with attempted murder and battery.
Deep Dish Boy tries to drown wife in dog's water bowl, police say (http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/14/3141845/fight-over-pizza-ends-in-near.html)QuoteORANGE CITY, Fla. -- Police say a central Florida woman nearly drowned when her husband held her face down in their dog's water bowl during an argument over frozen pizza.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal (http://bit.ly/SVJM79 (http://bit.ly/SVJM79)) reports the argument started as the couple sat down to watch TV Wednesday night and eat pizza. Richard Watson complained that the crust was raw and flung his plate into the front door. Debra Watson then tossed her plate on the floor.
Police say her husband tackled her and shoved her head into the dog bowl. Debra Watson broke free. But a police report says her husband tried to strangle her.
Richard Watson is charged with attempted murder and battery.
. . . he took a higher-paying job with a young British financier and his wife, who used [him] in her quest to become a famous actress. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring film crews to re-create scenes from Hollywood movies—only this time starring her. To shoot one scene, she booked a mansion in Kent and a crew of forty for a full week.
A mother who blogged about her 5-year-old son's chronic illness is accused of murdering the child with a fatal dose of sodium, delivered while he was in the hospital.
. . .
Spears concocted an elaborate framework of lies online, according to the Daily Mail. She wrote of Garnett's hero father, a policeman named Blake who died in a car accident. But Garnett's real father, Chris Hill, is still alive
. . .
Authorities believe Spears suffers from Münchausen syndrome by proxy, an illness characterized by injuring a child or making him sick to bring attention and sympathy to the parent.
The human toll of cryptocurrency scams are all too easily overshadowed by the industry's excesses. But a line was crossed this month, when a self-described “publicity stunt” apparently led to a man's death.
Earlier this week, we received a press release from ASKfm, a Ukraine-based social network planning an initial coin offering, or ICO. It said it had sponsored four Ukrainian “crypto enthusiasts” to climb Mount Everest and bury a hard drive holding cryptocurrency at the summit:
Of course, there were issues... two guys were stuck at above 7,000 metres with no reserve oxygen for all of that time. Under extreme temperatures and unable to descend, they had during the second day to call for a helicopter squad to rescue. Now they're both safe and receiving treatment. And strong having made such a move.
The release was a jarring one, as it came just hours after the news that famous Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki had died during his eighth attempt to reach the peak, taking the death toll to three so far in May.
Even more jarring was the promo video for the stunt, posted on May 17th, which encouraged crypto enthusiasts to go and search for the digital tokens, “if [they're] brave enough”.
It only got worse from there, believe it or not.
Because in crypto-land, appearances can be deceiving, we checked the company's version of events against the blog of Alan Arnette, a Colorado man who diligently covers the events of summiting season each spring.
To our surprise, he did mention a Ukrainian team on the mountain that day -- under a subheading called “Preventable Deaths”.
One of the local Nepalese guides assisting the group, called Lam Babu Sherpa, died making the dangerous trip, even though he was an experienced climber who had reportedly reached the mountain's peak many times before. A representative from Nepal's Ministry of Tourism told us he heard the guide had been struck by “snow blindness”, an extremely painful temporary loss of vision caused by overexposure to the sun's UV rays reflected by ice and snow.
To confirm this, we spoke to Taras Pozdnii, one of the four climbers who had recently returned to Ukraine from Nepal. He said they lost track of the Sherpa after he accompanied them to the summit, and that he didn't know how the man died (his English is slightly broken):
At the top of Everest the weather was very bad, and then we were coming down. We were going down to Camp 4, which is at about 7900m, and one Sherpa was dying. That’s all we know. My Sherpa coming. The last time I saw Dima’s Sherpa was at the top of Everest.
He [the Sherpa] was behind us so we don’t know what happened to him. We were going fast and the Sherpa wasn’t coming with us. He was coming behind so we didn’t see him.
The “Dima” to whom Pozdnii refers is Dmytro Semerenko, another of the four climbers. Also on the trip were Roman Gorodichny and Irina Galay, the first Ukrainian woman ever to climb Everest in 2016. While Galay features in the promo video, she did not actually climb Everest this time. That fact was excluded from the company's promotional push as well.
ASKfm, the sponsors of the trip, originally told us that there were four Sherpas on the expedition, one accompanying each of the climbers, which Pozdnii confimed on the phone to us.
But when we asked the company about the death of Lam Babu Sherpa, CEO Max Tsaryk told us:
The team sponsored by ask.fm was assisted on their expedition (which included climbers from other groups and projects), by over 100 Sherpas.
We have become aware that a Sherpa who successfully assisted one of our sponsored climbers on a part of their journey, prior to assisting other non related groups of climbers, later became missing.
The last official update we received was that the condition and location of the missing Sherpa was unknown and it was not our place to make public statements which could’ve resulted in false information being circulated.
This conflicts directly with the information they initially gave us, and with details provided by two of the climbers. Pozdnii told us that the Sherpa went missing between the summit and Camp IV, which was the camp at the highest altitude, so it is difficult to imagine when he might have been “assisting other non related groups of climbers”. And in a blog post about the climb, Gorodichny mentioned his disappearance as well, and said he “didn't return to the camp.”
The company also told us:
ASKfm had no updated information regarding the whereabouts of the missing Sherpa, as the group was always moving forward and were assisted by many different sherpas along the way. When Taras and other climbers were rescued by a helicopter and were evacuated after being injured. The last update they received about the missing sherpa was that other sherpas went to look for him. We don't know what happened next, as this was the last official update we received.
Yet there were reports of the Sherpa's death in both Ukrainian and English, along with Gorodichny's post that discussed the loss (in a somewhat nonchalant manner, along with lots of criticisms of the Sherpas).
Arnette has his own questions about the incident. In his blog post he wrote:
I find it hard to understand how the 45 year-old Sherpa developed snow blindness, was reported to be staggering and no one was able to help him. I look forward to obtaining more details on this sad event.
All for the sake of a meme
Along with the promo materials, the company sent us a link to a Facebook post by Pozdnii (excuse the messiness of the online translation):
Quill Cloud
Podznii wrote that he experienced a 10kg weight loss (about 22lbs), snow blindness and frostbite. Of course, it must have helped that “attention [had] not been deprived”, as he wrote, since the team was met by multiple officials after their rescue.
Attention might have been directed to Lam Babu Sherpa as well -- but the rescue team at Camp II was unaware of his disappearance for some time, Arnette reported.
All this to hype up ASKfm's pivot to blockchain. The company claims the tokens now buried in the snow at the top of Everest -- on a hard drive protected by plastic packaging -- are worth a total of $50,000. When asked how they reached that figure, a spokesman said:
It’s an estimate of their value once the pre-sale and ICO launch.
Just so we know where we've got to, this company is still encouraging climbers to search for some digital tokens that have no proven value whatsoever, even though one experienced person involved in their placing lost his life in the process.
From ASKfm's press release:
While others try sophisticated marketing techniques, these guys go out there and put themselves right on top of the tallest mountain on the planet.
An elegant way to boast ideological superiority to every other crypto. A method unexplored before.
Even meme-wise, think about the closest starting point to reach the moon. It seems so obvious. Yet no one has done it.
(A popular phrase in crypto-land, which HODLers use in an attempt to pump the value of the digital tokens they are holding, is “to the moon”, or “mooning”.)
We'll let you draw your own conclusions about the elegance and “ideological superiority” of the ASKfm ICO.
At the very least, you might think this harrowing experience had left the explorers scarred. Apparently not. We asked Podznii how he had found the experience. He told us:
It was very nice. It was the best trip of my life.