Pvt. Albert P. Kourie, son of Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Kourie, 2002 W. Second street, now is stationed at Fort Sumner army air field, Fort Sumner, N.M.
Bruce D. Klas, son of Dr. and Mrs. J. M. Klas, 4619 Country club boulevard, was graduated recently from the operational supply course at the naval supply depot, Bayonne, N.J. He now will go to Harvard where he will be sworn in as a midshipman and start on four months additional training.
Clarence J. Heppe, chief pharmacist’s mate, has reported to San Pedro, Cal., for duty on a new destroyer, after completing a 16-day leave with his wife and family, 3326 Sixth avenue; his mother Mrs. Lydia B. Heppe, 3436 Sixth avenue, and other relatives. He entered the navy at the age of 17, retiring after four years service. As a member of the naval reserve his service record includes four additional years on the east coast. His new assignment will take him to the South Pacific area.
Sgt. Earl H. Seaton of the marine corps is spending a 30-day furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Seaton, Mitchellville, Ia., former Sioux City residents. Sgt. Seaton spent 27 months in the South Pacific. He was graduated from East high school and joined the marines in June, 1942.
George Rarick, aviation machinist’s mate second class, has departed after a visit with Mrs. Rarick’s mother, Mrs. Frances Rancipher, 210 Ross street, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Rarick, 4403 Grant street. He is on duty at the fleet postoffice in San Francisco. He worked at the postoffice here before going into the navy.
Pvt. Harry L. Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert F. Smith, 3719 Indiana avenue, is spending a 20-day furlough with his parents. He has completed his training as a paratrooper at Fort Benning, Ga., and will return there at the end of his furlough.
Cpl. Leo L. Carroll is spending a 21-day furlough in the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Carroll, 109 Perry street, after serving 18 months in the Aleutian area. He has three brothers in the service.
Naval Aviation Cadet LeRoy John Ronning, son of Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Ronning, 3217 Fifth avenue, has completed his primary training at the naval air station, Glenview, Ill., and has been transferred to Pensacola, Fla. He is a graduate of East high school and began his aviation training at the preflight school at St. Mary’s college, Cal.
Robert L. Harling, seaman first class, has arrived at a base in the South Pacific, according to word received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Harling, 2715 S. Lemon street. He entered the Seabees in May, 1943.
Pfc. Wayne L. Skinner, 915 Pierce street, and Pfc. Earl F. Ely, 1623 Seventh street, are with the 713th railway operating battalion, which recently was commended by Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, commander of the Sixth army group. Now in France, this battalion was the first unit of the military railway service to arrive on the Riviera beachhead in the southern France invasion.
Cpl. William H. Olson has completed training at the radar school at Boca Raton field, Fla., and is spending a furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Victor Olson, 2923 Grandview boulevard. He will report to Salina, Kan., for assignment. Cpl. Olson’s twin brother, Pfc. Robert L. Olson, army air forces, is stationed on Galapagos islands, off the coast of Equador.
Our Neighbors in Service
Hawarden, Iowa – T. Sgt. Max Miller, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Miller of Hawarden, has arrived home from the Philippines, having received an honorable discharge on points. He flew to San Francisco from Manila in 40 hours. Sgt. Miller was in the army three years and seven months and served overseas for 41 months. During part of this time he was in Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters. The Hawarden youth has five combat stars and the presidential unit citation with an oak leaf cluster.
Hawarden, Iowa – Sgt. Richard L. Heeren, 19-year-old B-17 Flying Fortress waist gunner, has been awarded his fifth oak leaf cluster to the air medal for meritorious achievement while participating in Eighth air force attacks on vital targets and enemy held installations in Germany. Sgt. Heeren who entered the service in July, 1943, is the son of Mrs. J. C. Hendricks of Alcester, South Dakota.
Hawarden, Iowa -- M. Sgt. George Ross, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Earl Ross of Hawarden, suffered a fractured skull recently in a truck accident in New Guinea. His parents have been informed that he is recovering rapidly and soon will be able to leave the hospital.
Hawarden, Iowa -- T. Sgt. Willard Madson, son of Dr. and Mrs. William E Madson of Hawarden, is reported to be in a hospital on Mindanao, seriously ill with malaria and complications.
Hawarden, Iowa -- Pvt. Arthur Coleman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Coleman of Hawarden is home on a 30-day furlough, having recently returned from Germany after 11 months service overseas. Pvt. Coleman, who saw action in several battles, expects to go to the Pacific at the end of his furlough.
Hawarden, Iowa – Cpl. Kenneth Ruby, who recently returned from Germany, is spending a furlough with his wife at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Shoemaker of Hawarden.
Cherokee, Iowa – Sgt. John Anderson of the marines and Robert Melton, seaman first class, who were Cherokee friends, met recently on Saipan in the Marianas. Anderson has been overseas for 19 months and Melton’s ship docked at the island, so the two were able to meet.
Cherokee, Iowa- Technician Fourth Grade Darrell Olsen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Olsen, arrived home from northern Italy, making the trip as far as Miami, Florida by plane.
Cherokee, Iowa- Lt. Charles King, son of Mr. and Mrs. Perry King of Cherokee, was slightly wounded on Luzon June 22. His wife received a message from the war department giving this information, but no details. Lt. King has been in the south Pacific since February, 1945. Prior to that he was stationed in the European theater, where he was a prisoner in Italy. With the fall of Italy, he fled from an Italian prison camp and found his way back to the allied lines.
Cherokee, Iowa—Sgt. James H. Nielson, son of Mrs. Marie Nielson of Cherokee, was awarded a citation for exceptionally meritorious conduct. He served on the Fifth Army front in Italy with the 168th (Rainbow) infantry regiment. When his battalion’s ammunition supply became very critical during the tenacious defense of positions on a high mountain, Nielson and six others, volunteered to deliver vital supplies. Loaded down with ammunition, they traveled over a muddy, slippery trail constantly under fire to reach the troops on the mountain.
Cherokee, Iowa—Lt. Dale Curtis, glider pilot and copilot on a transport plane, is spending a leave with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Curtis, in Cherokee. Lt. Curtis recently returned to the States from Europe, where he was stationed for two years.
LeMars, Iowa – Sgt. Mathew Mertes, former LeMars youth, was in LeMars this week as a guest in the S. H. Luken home. Sgt. Mertes has just returned from one and a half years duty overseas. He has been officially discharged from the service and at present is visiting his wife and family in Sioux City. He has been in service the last 12 years. Immediately following D-Day he was wounded in France and was then flown to a hospital in England where he was confined for 10 months for treatment of shrapnel wound in his hip.
LeMars, Iowa – Lane VandeSteeg received a letter from his son, Sgt. Bill VandeSteeg which was written July 4 somewhere in the tropical Islands.
He has been in the Pacific area for the past 34 months and is looking forward to being sent back to the states soon. Sgt. VandeSteeg has been helping publish the Yank Magazine, a publication for service men.
Rodney, Iowa – Raymond E. Daniels, seaman first class, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Daniels of Whiting, Iowa, recently underwent an appendectomy in an army hospital on an island in the South Pacific. He has now recovered and is back aboard his ship.
Dorothy Anne Comstock daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Comstock, 2021 McDonald Street, has been promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. She is serving as a hospital dietician with the 197th general hospital in the European theater of operations.
Pfc. Herbert F. Marshall, grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Marshall, 1811 W. Palmer Avenue, is now returning home from Europe with the Eighth infantry division which participated in the Normandy breakthrough, the capture of Brest, the fight in the Hurtgen Forest and crossing the Roer River to launch the drive that reached the Rhine. He has been in service since April 1944 and has served overseas for five months. He was awarded the combat infantry badge. Before entering service he was employed by the Chesterman Company.
Ppl. Tony J. Letellier, reported to be from Sioux City, has been awarded the combat infantryman’s badge for exemplary conduct in action against the Japs in the Philippine liberation campaign He was previously awarded the expert infantryman’s badge for service in Dutch New Guinea and is a veteran of three campaigns, having served in the drive through central Luzon which was climaxed by the capture of Baguio, the Eummer capitol of the Philippines. He entered service January 29, 1942 and after serving in the Hawaiian Islands and New Guinea, he has been in the Philippines since February.
Cpl. Michael Moravian reported to be from Sioux City was one of eight men who spent three weeks in catching up to their outfit after getting separated during the attack on Dassau.
First Lt. Claude R. Wright, 2325 Douglas Street, is a member of the 219th field artillery battalion which held five battle stars, 98 individual awards and a nomination for the presidential unit citation. The group is now serving with the 15th army in Germany.
Pvt. Milton W. Gregg, whose wife lives at 1810 ½ E. Fifth Street, is an assistant automatic rifleman with the third battalion of the 239th regiment in Italy. This was the group which discovered a vast collection of priceless art treasures that had been taken by the Germans from all over Italy and hidden in a 15th Century Castle.
Cpl. Raymond E. Cook, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence R. Cook, 5702 Lorraine Road, recently spent a 30-day furlough with his parents. He has just returned from 16 months overseas duty in England and has now reported to a base in Alabama for further assignment.
Gilbert E. Tweet, gunner’s mate, second class and Wesley L. Tweet, gunner’s mate first class, both of 603 Eden Avenue, participated in the battle of Okinawa, they were on duty on the battleship U.S.S. New York.
Pvt. Einar N. Fuglemsmo, formerly stationed at Camp Hood, Texas, has reported to Fort Riley, Kansas, after spending 12 days with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. Fuglemsmo, 1218 Court Street.
Sgt. Chester J. Kudrle, whose wife, Helen, lives at 3108 McDonald Street, recently was awarded the Bronze Star medal for meritorious service in support of combat operations, while serving with the Fifth army in Italy.
Pvt. Doyle Stone, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. G Stone, 1113 Hill Avenue, has been enrolled in an A.A.F. airplane mechanics training course at Keesler field, Biloxi, Mississippi. His wife lives with his parents.
T. Sgt. James R. McCue, son of James R. McCue, 1301 Seventh Street, has received a medical discharge from the army hospital at Camp Carlson, Colorado. He has been in the army three years and was wounded twice in Germany for which he received the Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Star. He also has the European Theater of operations ribbon with three Battle Stars and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
S. Sgt. Raymond A. Hequist, 1316 26th Street, is a member of the 1132d engineer combat group now in Germany aiding in the military government of that occupied country. The group now is a part of the 15th army, in charge of German patrol border areas, construction and repair of roads, bridges and airfields, establishment of water supply depots for independent units, prisoner’s war camps and displaced persons centers. The 1132d arrived in France in February this year.
Lt. Donald D. Thatcher, 1716 Nebraska Street, is with the United States army’s transportation corps in the channel base section in France. The corps moved more than 1,000,000 tons of cargo monthly by rail, barge and motor and thousands of troops daily in supplying needs of the 12th army group in its drive against the Germans. These men now are engaged in redeploying troops and supplies from Europe to the China-Burma-India and Pacific theaters as well as directing the return of civilian personnel, troops and repatriated allied military personnel from forward areas to their home station.
Marine Cpl. R. E. Paul, who recently returned after 27 months overseas and his younger brother, Milford, apprentice seaman, who arrived Sunday evening after completing boot training at the Great Lakes naval training station, are visiting in the home of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. V. Paul, 4220 Central Avenue. A third brother, S. Sgt. Arthur Paul, is with the marines at Okinawa and a brother-in-law, Pvt. Leo Schmit, is a marine serving in the south Pacific.
Pvt. Joseph B. Roberts, son of Mr. and Mrs J. B. Roberts, 1311 W. 18th Street, has been graduated from a training school at Chanute field, Illinois.
While attending that army air force training command school he received instruction in power plant mechanics.
Marlin L. Clark, was graduated recently from a course in signalman training at service schools at the Great Lakes, Illinois, naval training school, his wife, Bonnie, lives at Waukegan, Illinois.
Pfc. Robert W. Wyant, whose wife, Mildred, lives at 107 W. Third Street, is being processed at Camp Atlanta in northeastern France, as a member of the first European theater of operations armored division to be ordered to the Pacific. Pfc. Wyant served with the 13th armored division, popularly known as the Black Cat Division in the battle of the Ruhr pocket and in the drive through Bavaria into Austria. He will be given a furlough before the division begins its training for action in the pacific.
Jack A. Krone, 4210 Perry Creek Road, has been promoted to technician fifth grade.
James Richard Coughlin, fireman first class, is stationed at the motor torpedo boat squadron training Center at Melville, R. I., training before joining a P.T. squadron. The Sioux Cityan, a graduate of Trinity High School and formerly employed by a construction company, attended basic engineering school at Great Lakes, Illinois and refrigeration school at Syracuse, New York. His wife, the former Dorothy Jane Knowles, and three children, Patrick, Michael and Timothy are living on Morningside Avenue. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Coughlin, 2805 Myrtle Street. A brother, William, is a signalman in the navy.
Sgt. Neyron R. Pomeroy, son of Mr. and Mrs Ray Pomeroy, 1226 W. Fifth Street, recently was awarded the bronze star medal for meritorious service in maintaining the efficiency and operation of the army vehicles in his organization. Sgt. Pomeroy, a member of Headquarters battery, 546th antiaircraft artillery battalion, was cited for the period from July 14, 1944 to May 8, 1945, during which time he served in France, Belgium and Germany. As an auto parts clerk, Sgt. Pomeroy’s principal duty was securing a proper supply of spare parts and units for the maintenance of motor vehicles and he had been commended for his efforts in establishing a steady flow of supplies essential to the proper functioning and care of the 123 vehicles in the battalion. Prior to entering the service he was employed by Neisner Bros. Inc., Rochester, New York.
Pfc. Lloyd H. Hoff, whose wife, Ann, lives at 813 Douglas Street, has been awarded the Bronze Star medal for heroic action during the Seventh army drive in the Vosges Mountains last January. Pfc. Hoff, a rifleman with the 110th infantry by volunteering to act as a letter-bearer over an uncharted enemy mine field. While the wounded were being evacuated from the mined area, one of the litter-bearers stepped on a mine, the explosion tearing off both of his feet. Pfc. Hoff rushed to the wounded man and after giving him first aid, carried him to safety. Returning and making several more trips across the mine field, he carried out wounded under intense enemy artillery fire.
Lt. Darwin Thorton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Thornton, 1901 W. First Street assisted Capt. T.B. Schwartz of Forrest Hills, New York, in leading a small detachment of the 84th medical battalion detailed to supervise a hospital at Ecksberg, near Muldorf, Germany. The patients of the hospital are under American care and gradually are recovering from the effects of Nazi brutality.
Sgt. Dale Harter, whose wife resides at 2401 S. Cornelia Street, is serving as a radioman in the signal corps with the 10th army on Okinawa, it was learned here. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. L.D. Harter, live at Bell, California.
Pfc. Francis B. Heilman, son of Clarence Heilman, 206 S. Rustin Street, recently was awarded the Bronze Star medal for “heroic achievement in connection with military operations against the enemy in Germany” while serving with the 290th infantry there.
Cpl. John W. Forrester, 1017 S. Glass Street, is serving with a transportation division in Antiverp, Belgium, which is aiding in the redeploying of troops and supplies for the European theater
M. Sgt. William P. Mahrt, whose wife, Elizabeth, lives at 206 14th street, was with special troops of the 339th “Polar Bear” regiment in the day it discovered many famous German political prisoners and immense caches of gold currency and art works in the Dolomite Alps in Italy.
Capt. David I. Caldwell, whose wife resides at 2237 Jones Street, is a member of the 474th fighter group of the ninth air force which recently was awarded the presidential unit citation. Capt. Coldwell has been overseas since February, 1944 and in addition to the presidential citation wears four battle participation stars.
Pfc. Dean C. Sluyter, son of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Sluyter, 4214 ½ Van Buren Avenue, recently joined the Ninth air force’s 416th bombardment group in France as a technical supply clerk. He has been overseas since March of this years.
Pfc. Edward Zenkovich, son of Mrs. Marie Zenkovich, 2611 Dodge Street, is serving at present with a cannon company, 395th infantry regiment of the 99th infantry division with the Third army in Germany. His decoration include the combat infantry badge and the E.T.O. ribbon with three battle stars.
Lt. (j.g.) Gerold E. Bammerlin, whose wife lives at 1508 Pierce Street, has returned to this country after flying 50 combat patrols as the pilot of a navy search plane operated from a base in the south Atlantic. He is the son of Edward H. Bammerlin, Burton, Nebraska.
Warrant Officer Roy Payne, 2609 Myrtle Street and Stephen A. Carter, Jr. aviation radioman first class, 512 27th Street, have returned to this country after a tour of duty with the navy’s fleet wing 11, which operated patrol planes from an Atlantic base.
Harvey Stowers, 19, seaman first class, son of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Stowers, 1704 George Street, has completed basic training at the submarine school, New London, Conn. A graduate of the Moorhead, Minnesota high school, he will be assigned to the underseas fighters. He has been in the navy since graduation.
Liberated prisoners of the Germans, PFC Lawrence E. Shoop, 720 Morgan Street, PFC Gilbert Wallenburg, Ireton, Iowa are now at the army ground and service force redistribution station in Hot Springs, Arkansas for reassignment. Both were home on 60-day furloughs after arriving in the States in May. PFC Shoop, combat infantryman who wears the distinguished unit badge, was a prisoner for 73 days after serving seven months in Belgium and Germany. PFC Wallenburg, a prisoner for ?6 months after his capture in North Africa, wears two Bronze Battle Stars.
PFC. Henry J. Holdenreid, with the Sixth division of marines on Okinawa has been promoted to that rank, according to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Holdenreid, 1501 South View terrace. A former pupil at Central High School, Pfc Holdenreid has been in the marines for more than a year and overseas for seven months. He recently was released from a hospital where he was treated for battle wounds.
Sgt. Michalsky, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Michalsky, 414 Lafayette Street, has been promoted to staff sergeant. His wife lives with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. L.E. Porter, 1615 Hamilton Street. S Sgt. Michalsky is a radio man with the Eighth air force and has been transferred from England to North Africa He has been overseas two years and has received a presidential citation and six service stars. S. Sgt. Michalsky has two brothers overseas, PFC Joe Michalsky with an infantry division in Italy and Tony Michalsky, gunner’s mate third class, in the south Pacific.
Merle J. Burns, watertender third class, son of Mr. and Mrs. John J. Burns, 706 Morningside Avenue, served aboard the battle cruiser U.S.S. Guam during six months of combat from Okinawa on the fringes of Japan’s Island Sea. The Guam, the American version of the pocket battleship, cruised off Japanese shores for 61 days and during the Okinawa invasion she was a carrier escort
Sgt. Harlan L. Hoffman Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Harlan L. Hoffman of Omaha, has been awarded the combat infantryman badge. He was graduated from Central High School here in 1939.
S. Sgt. Earl W. Lindgren, 1014 16th Street, was with the First Airborne Army Force which entered Berlin July 4 to assume control of the American sector there.
S. Sgt. Phillip F. Jauron, son of Mrs. Alda R. Johnson, 720 Hornick Avenue has been awarded the Bronze Star. A member of the V corps in Czechoslovakia, S. Sgt Jauron was cited for meritorious service in military operations during the period from June 9, 1944, to May 8, 1945 in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Czechoslovakia. He served with the 648th medical clearing company.
Emmett L. Keough, serving as assistant G-3 with the 11th armored division, has been promoted to major. He also has been awarded the Bronze Star for heroic conduct during the division’s attack from the Kyll River to the Rhine. Maj. Keough’s wife and daughter, Connie, reside at 2123 Pierce Street. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leo H. Keough, live at 2004 Grandview Boulevard.
Pvt. Gene Cook, son of Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Cook, Sergeant Bluff, has been graduated from the demolition school part of the parachute school, Fort Benning, Georgia.
Pfc. Albert D. Dallman, stationed in Prestwick, Scotland, with the European division of the transport command working in the servicing crew in the engineer action of operations, has been promoted to the rank of corporal. Cpl. Dallman, formerly employed by the navy as a truck driver, entered the service February 24, 1943 and was sent overseas after receiving basic training at a field in Texas. His mother is Mrs. J. J. Dallman of Sioux City and is wife, Margaret, lives at Prestwick.
Franklin LeRoy Coon, 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wilfred Coon, 12 W. Second Street, is receiving his naval indoctrination at the United States naval training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois.
Dave R. Nicklen, whose wife, Helen, lives at 721 Market Street, has been promoted to the rank of sergeant. He participated in the battle of central Europe with the 16th armored division.
Lt. (j.g.) James H. Alexander, Jr., and Lt (j.g.) George W. Brown, sons of Mrs. Pearl Alexander, 1619 W. Fifth Street and 182 other United States navy men who lost their lives while operating from a naval air station at Dunkeswell, England were honored by having their names permanently inscribed on a memorial dedicated at the air station by Fleet air wing 7.
Thomas E. Hanifan, ship-fitter third class, 2001 S. Newton Street and Joseph C. Orth, fireman first class, home address 2925 Beck Street are serving with a landing vehicle track repair unit at an advanced naval base on Saipan. Mrs. Orth and their daughter Sharon live with his mother at the Beck Street address. A brother, Glenn Orth, is a motor machinist’s mate in the navy
Capt. Ray C. Beermann, former owner of a mortuary at South Sioux City who served as supply officer at Camp Somerset, a prisoner of war base at Westover, Maryland has been awarded a certificate of commendation for exceptionally meritorious performance beyond the call of duty, according to a communication from the camp. Capt. Beermann has been transferred to service command head-quarters and now is director of mortuary operations for the Third service command which includes Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. He entered the army in October 1942 and after serving at posts in several states was assigned to Camp Somerset in June, 1944. He received his commission in 1935 and was a member of the officers reserve corps until called to active duty.
Robert L. Beck, seaman first class, has arrived from the Great Lakes naval training station for a leave with his wife and son, Roger Lee, 1519 Helmer Street.
M. Sgt. Richard H. Grubel, 3604 Fourth Avenue, soon will return to the United States with the veteran 459th bomb group, after serving in Italy with the 15th air force, according to an announcement from the commanding general. The veteran group will receive additional training and equipment before reassignment to the Pacific theater of war. During the 13 months service in Italy the 459th flew on 244 missions against strategic targets in German-held Europe.
T. Sgt. Howard, whose wife resides at 2731 Prospect Street, is a member of the 142d infantry of the veteran 36th Texas division and recently was awarded the bronze arrowhead to wear on his European theater of operations ribbon. The award was for participation in the Salerno-Riviera invasion when he made the D-Day amphibious assault.
Pfc. Wayne L. Bocain, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Bocain, 223 South John Street is a member of the Second battalion, 143d infantry of the veteran 36th Texas division and has been awarded a bronze arrowhead to wear on his European theater of operations ribbon. It was awarded for participation in the Riviera invasion when he made the D-Day amphibious assault.
Transcribed by Connie Swearingen, Mar 2019; updated Jul 2019


No one likes jury duty. Well, some people probably do, but one hopes they are smart enough to keep it to themselves. At the same time, the right to a trial by jury is a great thing about the American justice system, and everyone should serve at least once and see how it all works. If you've ever been stuck in a back room arguing over the particulars of a case, you will never again wonder about some of the baffling verdicts passed down by civilian tribunals in high-profile trials. It's harder to armchair deliberate when you know how sentencing instructions and the literal wording of the law can affect the outcome of a seemingly open-and-shut debate.
While juries I have served on have never been as articulate, or as heated, as the regular joes and uncommon men who populate the tiny room of 12 Angry Men, Reginald Rose's script captures the back-and-forth quibbling over legal minutia pretty well. Inspired by his own time on a jury, Rose first wrote 12 Angry Men as a teleplay broadcast live in 1955 (which is also included here), and then expanded the hour-long program into a full movie screenplay, which was directed by Sidney Lumet in 1957.
The movie begins after the trial is over. Outside of some short instructions from the judge and a lone shot of the accused, we have missed the proceedings. The camera travels the jury box, recording the faces of the jurors, before following them into a cramped room where they will be asked to stay until they can agree on a verdict. Most assume that the deliberation will be quick: the first vote is actually eleven for "guilty." The lone hold-out is Juror #8 (Henry Fonda), whose mind isn't made up. Maybe the boy killed his father, maybe he didn't. Despite pressure from the others to bend, #8 stays true to his insistence that if they are going to send a 19-year-old kid to the electric chair, they should at least spend some time exploring the realms of reasonable doubt.
Slowly, #8 works his way through the case. The testimony of the downstairs neighbor is questioned, then the uniqueness of the murder weapon, a switchblade knife. One by one, each juror is drawn into the discussion, and one by one they reveal something about who they are. #9 (Joseph Sweeney) is an observant old man, #5 (Jack Klugman) is from the same slums as the accused, and #11 (George Voskovic) is an immigrant who believes in America's sense of justice. On the stubborn side we have #3 (Lee J. Cobb), the father with an angry temper, and #4 (E.G. Marshall), the business man with the steady demeanor. There is also #7 (Jack Warden), who just wants to get out of there and go to a ballgame. And perhaps worst of all, the one that everyone else eventually turns against, is #10 (Ed Begley), a racist who believes the boy, who looked like he was maybe Puerto Rican, is a natural born liar, it's a byproduct of his skin color.
As the case disintegrates, personal feelings flare up, sides are taken, and threats are made. Rose has built a microcosm of American society, and also a sounding board for political ideas that were prudent to the American experience of the time. Civil rights, the vilification of unpopular or "radical" ideas, economic divides, the notion of might making right--these concepts are challenged just as the evidence is challenged. What would motivate a witness to lie? How much does an abused kid's background matter? What does it mean to be impartial and what constitutes reasonable doubt? For a locked room scenario, it's a surprisingly potent drama. Each man is given a rich background and each has an inner life. Nothing here is incidental. The writing is precise and dramatic and it's not afraid to be writing.
For his part, Sidney Lumet, who was transitioning out of television into this, his first feature film, keeps 12 Angry Men moving. Boris Kaufman's camera is agile and lively, moving through the room, capturing important expressions and gestures. The director and his cinematographer enact bold compositions, emphasizing the cramped space via contrasts of physical size. One man foregrounded may tower over the one in the background, but the power is often shifted: what the "smaller" man says weakens the "bigger" man. Live television had taught Lumet how to use a limited set to his advantage. If you think about it, it took TV to bridge the gap between stage and film, not just by putting together complicated one-time performances, but also by teaching a generation of new filmmakers to be economical and use confined spaces to their advantage. While the 1960s might have kicked down the walls of cinema and explored the open frontiers that new technologies allowed for, directors like Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer and others who first worked in l950s TV used restrictions to their advantage.
12 Angry Men had a profound effect on legal procedurals to follow. The notion that a criminal trial could be the basis for exploring bigger ideas has been exploited in most recent memory by the legal dramas of David E. Kelley and the whole Law and Order franchise. Even if those shows did move the action back into the courtroom, they still owe something to what Reginald Rose and Sidney Lumet (and Frank Schaffner, who directed the 1955 broadcast) did here. The whole strata of society passes through the doors of any given justice building, and for true justice to hold sway, they all must be honored the same.
Frank Schaffner's original 1955 broadcast version is thankfully included on this release, giving viewers a chance to witness the historic, Emmy-winning Studio One production. In some ways, this older version is somewhat superior. For one, the cast is not as well known, and having Robert Cummings (Hitchcock's Saboteur [review]) as Juror #8 instead of Henry Fonda makes the character more interesting. Fonda brings with him a certain moral authority, whereas Cummings' stuttering, unsure portrayal makes him less immediately convincing. Likewise, not showing the accused leaves that character up to our imagination, and a picture of him forms the more we learn. Lumet chose a scrawny, sympathetic looking kid that we make up our mind about right away. In general, the drama is more concise here. Having less time meant that Reginald Rose didn't have the opportunity to go off on as many personal tangents for each character, and one could argue that makes the dramaturgy less heavy handed. Both work for me, and I think in the spirit of this thing, we could make a case for either/or. (A 15-minute introduction by Ron Simon, from the Paley Centre for Media, adds further context.)
Most exciting, as well, is the addition of another live television drama, this one pairing Reginald Rose with Sidney Lumet a year before 12 Angry Men. The teleplay Tragedy in a Temporary Town features another mob of men, but this one isn't brought together by the legal system. Rather, it's vigilantism. The show stars Lloyd Bridges and two men that would go on to work for Lumet in 12 Angry Men, Jack Warden and Edward Binns (Juror #6). Set in a worker's camp, the story revolves around a young girl getting grabbed and kissed in the darkness. Failing to listen to Bridges' protest, Warden forms a posse to hunt through the camp, dragging the traumatized girl around in hopes she'll find her attacker. They barge into every home, writing down the names of any male age fifteen and over, until they land on a suspect that they can accept. It's not about finding the right guy, but about venting their restless anger.
Rose touches on the idea of personal "justice" in 12 Angry Men. The workers here are like the jurors unleashed. If the men in the other film could have gotten out of the room and been allowed to do as they wished with the accused, they very well could have resorted to violence. Here the misguided actions of the lynch mob threatens the safety of the whole community rather than making it more secure. Ironically, the men in the posse are looking for a threat within, not realizing they are it. Bridges is forceful in the lead, though his moral equivocations don't quite match Warden's menacing bluster.
Please Note: The images used here are from promotional materials and are not taken from the Blu-ray edition under review.
Labels: blu-ray, Frank Schaffner, sidney lumet


See more objects with the tag interior, domestic, communication, electronic, offices, black and white, contrast, coil, sleek, electronics, dials, rotation, handsets.
This was an Object of the Day.
Model 500 Telephone
This is a telephone. It was designed by Henry Dreyfuss and manufactured by Western Electric Manufacturing Company and made for (as the client) Bell Telephone Laboratories and firm: Henry Dreyfuss Associates. It is dated Designed 1953, this example ca. 1980 and we acquired it in 2009. Its medium is molded plastic, metal, rubber. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
The model 500 telephone was designed by American industrial designer, Henry Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss was among the first generation of American industrial design professionals. His career spanned nearly five decades and his designs ranged from the Big Ben alarm clock and Hoover vacuum cleaners to locomotives and airline interiors. What set Dreyfuss apart from many of his contemporaries was his interest in and contribution to the fields of ergonomics and anthropometrics (the study of human body measurements). His book, The Measure of Man (1960), featured two fictitious characters, Joe and Josephine, who represented the average-sized man and woman. The book contained detailed measurements of the human body on which designs could be based. Even before Dreyfuss began designing the model 500 telephone for Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL), a longstanding client, he pursued a five-point guideline for creating good design: safety and utility, maintenance, cost, quality, and appearance.
Dreyfuss began consulting for BTL in 1930. Working with the company’s engineers, he sought simplicity and unity of form in their telephone equipment. This resulted in the model 302 (1937), the first Dreyfuss design produced by BTL. The balanced form of the model 302’s black phenolic plastic body and handset was seen as a significant improvement over the heavier, larger, and more awkward telephones previously in use.
As demand for telephone service increased after World War II, BTL determined the need for a new design that would be comfortable, unobtrusive, attractive to a broad range of customers, more durable, and easier to service. After years of research and testing, the model 500 telephone made its debut in 1949. Dreyfuss’s care in designing a user-based object is evident in the changes he made to several features. He modified the angular body into a softer sculptural form in a lighter, more durable plastic. Unlike the 302’s numbers and letters, which were on the porcelain-coated dial directly under the finger holes, the model 500 placed the numbers and letters in a ring outside the finger wheel; this increased legibility and led to fewer misdials. The new handset, known as the model G, was flatter than its predecessor, making it more comfortable to hold and allowing it to be cradled against the user’s shoulder, freeing the hands. This handset design is still used on pay phones as of 2009.
In 1953, BTL and Dreyfuss updated the model 500, producing it in several colors and replacing the black metal finger wheel with a lighter, clear plastic version that could complement a phone of any color. The 1953 model also did away with the long straight cord, replacing it with a coiled one—a feature used until the advent of the cordless phone. Deeming the model 500 a success by the mid-1950s, BTL added a wall-mounted variant to the series and, in 1963, introduced a touch-tone version. The model 500 became the standard desk-style phone in the United States, with over 93 million units produced for use in offices and homes between 1949 and the divestiture of AT&T (the Bell System) in 1984.
Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1904. By 1923, he was apprenticing with Norman Bel Geddes, a theatrical designer and one of the founders of the newly-established field of industrial design. Dreyfuss soon became a consultant for Macy’s Department Store where he not only designed displays but showed a desire to collaborate with manufacturers on the design of their goods. In 1929, he opened his own office in New York; he later opened a second office in Pasadena, California. In 1965, he was elected the first president of the Industrial Design Society of America.
Cooper-Hewitt is the steward of the Dreyfuss archive. The model 500 is an important design in Dreyfuss’s prodigious output for its significance in American postwar industrial design. The museum also holds other examples of Dreyfuss’s telephone designs, including the model 302, the Princess (1959), and the Trimline (1965).
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Model 500 Telephone, Henry Dreyfuss.
It is credited Transfer from Exhibitions Department.
Rolodex Open Rotary Card File
bent tubular metal, molded plastic, rubber, paper.
Gift of Rolodex Corporation.
T-86 Round Thermostat
metal, molded plastic.
Gift of Honeywell Inc..
Panton Stacking Side Chair
injection molded luran s thermoplastic.
Gift of Robert Blaich.
Our curators have highlighted 11 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
#426 Child's Chair
bent enameled steel, woven wool upholstery.
Gift of Mel Byars.
Qwip 1200 Facsimile Transceiver And Acoustic Coupler
molded plastic, cast metal, foam, electronic components.
Gift of William W. Moore, II.
1994-56-1-a/c
Predicta Television
metal, glass, molded plastic.
Gift of Jan Staller in honor of Max Staller.
H x W x D (not including cord): 12.3 x 21 x 22.7 cm (4 13/16 x 8 1/4 x 8 15/16 in.)
It has the following markings
Molded in body under cradle, rear: in oval: "BELL SYSTEM / MADE BY / Western Electric"'; On underside of metal base plate: White paper label with "500DM / 12-80" printed in red. Off-white paper label with "Property Of New York Tel. Co. / NOT FOR SALE" printed in blue.
Model 500 Telephone; Designed by Henry Dreyfuss (American, 1904–1972); USA; molded plastic, metal, rubber; H x W x D (not including cord): 12.3 x 21 x 22.7 cm (4 13/16 x 8 1/4 x 8 15/16 in.); Transfer from Exhibitions Department; 2009-50-1-a/c
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions	Bob Greenberg Selects and Pixar: The Design of Story.
Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2E1AD/
Accession Number 2009-50-1-a/c
<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18732761/ |title=Model 500 Telephone |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=16 January 2022 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>


Château d'Aulnois
Château d'Aulnois Photo - François BERNARDIN - Wikipedia - lic. under CC BY-SA 3.0
Location: Aulnois-sur-Seille, in the Moselle departement of France (Lorraine Region).
Notes: Château d'Aulnois date of the eighteenth century and overlooks the Seille, in the heart of the village of Aulnois-sur-Seille. It is the subject of a classification as historical monuments since May 1963 and a registration in September 2013.Initially, this dependence of the Metz diocese was a medieval stronghold. It is found at the back of the castle, the towers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries integrated into the castle rebuilt in the classical style.The task of rebuilding the castle in the eighteenth century, the architect Boffrand decides to use the natural terrace on the Seille that constitutes the site. The facade is designed in 1726. On that date the count of Armoises governor ducal children and owner of the castle, is created "Marquis Aunoy" by Duke Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. Subsequently, the castle is undergoing major damage during the First World War but will gradually rebuilt from 1920 and historical monument in 1926. In 1934, the Marist brothers bought the castle and installed a school and a boarding school. During World War II, it was occupied by the Hitler Youth and suffered further damage during the fighting of the Liberation. From 1946 to 1979, various campaigns work partially restore the castle was then abandoned. In 1993, the SIVOM between Seille and Nied castle gate to rehabilitate the buyer, with the support of Europe, the State and the General Council of Moselle (cost of rehabilitation: € 2,686,000). In 1999 came the first school year in the castle whose owner and manager is SIVU the Seille valley of nine rural communes. It now houses a public elementary school, called the school Armoises, more than 150 students and an association (rural home of Armoises) that manages the after-school and canteen on site and it offers numerous cultural and sports activities as well as various events.
Château d'Aulnois Links:
Château d'Aulnois On Wikipedia


LA County Redistricting: Map debate takes an…
LA County Redistricting: Map debate takes an 11th-hour turn for San Fernando Valley
But what redistricting map works for the San Fernando Valley doesn't work for Pomona. And coastal communities are ramping up the noise.
By Ryan Carter | rcarter@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: December 4, 2021 at 8:17 a.m. | UPDATED: December 4, 2021 at 8:18 a.m.
San Fernando Valley residents found new hope this week that their collective voices could be better heard at the county level after a new map emerged that would redraw political boundaries to keep the Valley “united” and potentially represented by a single supervisor grounded in the area.
But the proposal — arising in the waning weeks of the county’s marathon redistricting process — runs counter to hopes elsewhere across the vast region, in such places as Pomona.
The 14-member redistricting commission has not yet settled on a final map that would redraw political power for the next 10 years. But as it nears a Dec. 15 deadline, the angst is building as the potential winners and losers of the process speak louder on their preferences.
L.A. City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents a swath of neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley — himself fresh off a contentious redistricting of his own City Council — made a plea for a new proposed county-level map dubbed Map 78.
“The Valley has for the last century had a distinctive identity, and today we have distinctive issues around public transportation planning, air quality, water quality, public health, housing — all issues that the Valley as a whole has common interests in, and yet we don’t have any guarantee that a resident of the Valley, despite having 2 million people living here, will have a representative on the Board of Supervisors or on the Metro board,” he said.
Proposed Map 78
For weeks, a sprinkling of San Fernando Valley advocates had been lobbying for at least baseline representation on a map they’d assumed would split the Valley.
Some had all but given up, given the direction the commission appeared to be headed. The panel was even contemplating breaking off Sylmar into District 5, a prospect that concerned local residents because the community identifies itself with other northeast Valley communities currently in District 3.
But the new proposal keeps the Valley “whole,” essentially carving it out on its own district, roughly spanning from Calabasas and Malibu on its most western and southwestern flank to Burbank and Glendale in the east.
Councilmember Paul Krekorian (File photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Krekorian was joined by a chorus of supporters for the new map — which would greatly increase the chances of a supervisor on the board being from the Valley.
The distinctions about where communities are on the final map are important for many communities in L.A. County. For years they have built up cultural, socioeconomic and political bonds with neighboring communities in the political battle for resources and services.
If Sylmar, for instance, went to District 5, rather than District 3 under a new map, local advocates and residents worry they would have to forge new bonds with a new supervisor.
The same kind of concern has sparked huge public input from Southeast L.A. and East L.A. residents, as well as those from the San Gabriel Valley, where in such places as Pomona, city officials and residents want to ensure the city is not lumped into a district it has no identification with.
A redrawing map might work great for one community, but not as well for another in terms of voting power.
“Map 78 might be good for the San Fernando Valley, but it screws Pomona,” said Henry Fung, a mapmaker who designed the original map F.
Under 78, for instance, Pomona would be moved into District 5, the county’s northernmost district, currently represented by Supervisor Kathryn Barger. But that’s exactly what many of its residents and leaders don’t want. They want to be in District 1, joined with other similar communities of interest that hug the 605 and 60 freeways, and which share common identities, resources and often pool together to fight together in the same political battles.
Moreover, it could change the political dynamic for Barger herself.
And therein lies the rub for the commission — which is required by law to make sure that roughly 2 million people populate each of the five supervisorial districts under a new map, as well as accounting for shifts in population growth, and ensuring that traditionally disenfranchised populations have a fair chance to elect a leader of their choosing. Moreover, this is the first time in the county’s history in which a citizens commission has done the redrawing — taking it out of the hands of members of the Board of Supervisors themselves.
On Wednesday night, during a mammoth public comment period, residents, elected leaders, non-profit leaders from the San Fernando Valley, East, South and Southeast L.A., the San Gabriel Valley and the South Bay all voiced distinct visions for what they say is the best version of what the redistricting map should look like in a region of 10 million plus.
But after four hours of public comment, the future was cloudy as the new proposal emerged, bolstering hopes of San Fernando Valley residents in gaining more political force. Supporters say the map also assuages concerns of other areas in the county, where concern was emerging about votes being diluted and communities split across districts.
But other proposed maps are on the table.
At issue for days have been three maps — and their offshoots. But the question of how various communities of interest in the county can achieve the most voting and political force has become intertwined with a conversation about race, the history of redlining in the county, and concerns about exclusion and inclusion of ethnic and socioeconomic attributes of populations based on shared historic, political, geographic and socioeconomic identities.
At the front of the table, the commission is considering a map that would join Southeast L.A. communities with South L.A. (Map B-2), another that would join Rancho Palos Verdes with Panorama City (Map F-1) and another that would stretch a historically Black district to the coast (Map G).
Map G
On Wednesday night there was continued robust support from the San Gabriel Valley for a derivation of Fung’s map — F-1 — which would keep Pomona in District 1, currently held by Supervisor Hilda Solis.
Residents and leaders in the Gateway City area showed support for Map G, also an offshoot of F. In both maps, communities such as Vernon, Huntington Park, Maywood South Gate and Downey are all kept together and two Latino-voting majority districts would be created, though for many the devils were in the details. F-1 also appeared to garner support — with requests for some tweaking — that would keep Asian-American and Black communities whole.
Monique Bacon, a community member and also a member of The Coalition of 100 Black Women/Los Angeles Chapter, said during public comment that the proposal “keeps our African American communities together, providing us with a real voice to be able to elect a supervisor that will work in our best interest.”
Map F-1
Many have been wary of Map G, which stretches District 2 to coastal cities, a point that has raised concern among critics in a community that the district’s traditionally African-American voting force could be diluted with the force of Whiter coastal areas, including communities within the Rancho Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Bacon said if the commission went with G, she’d want to be assured that the city of Carson and Cal State Dominguez Hills are included in that district.
The proposed stretch of District 2 was made with the intent of acknowledging the legacy of 20th-century red-lining and racially restrictive covenants that for decades kept African-Americans from living closer to the coast — in effect, helping to shape the political dynamics of the current District 2, which includes Inglewood, Athens, Hawthorne, Culver City and Ladera Heights.
Eileen Hupp, president and CEO of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, a longtime resident of the area, applauded B-2 because it kept seaside communities on the peninsula and others hugging the coast — including Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Long Beach and Torrance — squarely in District 4.
“It is extremely important to keep the Palos Verdes Peninsula aligned with the San Pedro community. Our history, our economy, our community organizations are inextricably linked and center on the fact that both the San Pedro community, and the Palos Verdes community are harbor communities. The impact of the ports is part of our development. Our communities have grown up together over 100-plus years,” she said.
Who will represent you on the LA County Board of Supervisors? With new maps, answer getting closer
Q&A: LA County redistricting is out of the hands of the supervisors. Here’s why that matters
Redistricting: Panel pushes LA County boundaries closer to final map; some bemoan missing voices
But it was the same argument from just about every region of the county — that splitting communities long bonded together with shared identities would hurt them — from Southeast L.A.’s “SELA” neighborhoods to Thai Town, Koreatown and Little Tokyo to East L.A to Sylmar.
Commissioners acknowledged that whatever the final outcome, not all will be pleased.
What seems apparent is that there will be at least two Latino voting majority districts, based on the growth of that population reflected in Census 2020. The commission appears to want to look more closely at F-1, G and the new map, 78. Commission Co-Chair Carolyn Williams appeared to hint at a push to drop the B map from consideration, but it didn’t happen.
The commission next meets for a special meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, with the next public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7.
You can find all proposed maps at https://redistricting-lacounty.hub.arcgis.com/.
Meetings are posted at https://redistricting.lacounty.gov/.
LA County Board of Supervisors
Ryan Carter | Reporter
Ryan Carter, a reporter and editor, is part of team covering COVID-19 in L.A. County and lead election and politics coverage in L.A. County.Ryan started his career writing obituaries at the Glendale News-Press, before working as assistant city editor for Times Community News (Division of the L.A. Times) and city editorfor the Glendale News-Press, San Bernardino Sun and L.A. Daily News. Ryan earned a BA degree in Political Science from UCLA and is working toward his Master's of Legal Studies at UCLA.
rcarter@scng.com
Follow Ryan Carter	@ryinIE


Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports
Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports is a collection of documents produced by JPRS, a unit of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), from 1957 – 1995. It contains English-language translations of foreign-language monographs, reports, journal and newspaper articles, and radio and television broadcasts from regions throughout the world with an emphasis on communist and developing countries. JPRS staffers prepared these translations for the use of U.S. government officials, various agencies, and the research and industrial communities. Reports cover socioeconomic, political, environmental, scientific, technical, and military issues and events.
JPRS was established in March 1957 as part of the United States Department of Commerce's Office of Technical Services. Initially, the reports were primarily translations rather than analysis or commentary, with an emphasis on scientific and technical topics. Over time, that scope expanded to cover environmental concerns, world health issues, nuclear proliferation, economics, narcotics trafficking, and much more.
1957-1995; some reports include translations of pre-1957 material.
History: Global
NewsBank


Kid Nichols
Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols (September 14, 1869 – April 11, 1953) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the Boston Beaneaters, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies from 1890 to 1906. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, he was listed at 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) and 175 pounds (79 kg). He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Nichols played minor league baseball for three teams until September 1889, when he signed for the Boston Beaneaters. After making his debut the following season and spending twelve seasons with the Beaneaters, Nichols spent a two-year sojourn in the minor leagues. He was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1904 and subsequently played for the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he played his final game on May 18, 1906. He is most famous for being the youngest pitcher to join the 300 win club.
Nichols was born on September 14, 1869 in Madison, Wisconsin. His parents were Robert and Christina Nichols. His father had worked as a butcher and owned a grocery store with several locations in Madison. Robert had at least four children from a prior marriage to a woman named Sarah, who died of tuberculosis in 1859. Robert and Christina had several children together. Nichols's four-year-old sister Fannie died several years before Nichols was born; she accidentally set herself on fire while playing with matches.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia -	https://wn.com/Kid_Nichols
Baseball HP 0828: Kid Nichols
source: Baseball History Podcast
Ep. 147 – The Comedy Spot Kid with Dane Nichols
source: Gag On This...Podcast
3 Things you should Never Do with Kids! with Heather Nichols
source: Questionable Conversations
Questionable Conversations ~ Dr. Glenna Rice MPT: 3 Things you should Never Do with Kids! with Heather Nichols
Rural Route Radio Oct 15, 2020 We Sow We Grow Natasha Nicholes is back describing that is about raising kids not just our food
source: Trent Loos Podcast
Nichole Bloom
source: The JV Club with Janet Varney
source: Harper Audio Presents
Nick Nichols
source: Playing Above The Line
Alex Nicholls
source: It's All Cobblers To Me
Nichole Michelson
source: What Problem Do You Solve?
John Nicholl
source: Little Miss Morfett Chats to Authors
Nichole Schoonover
source: Start Here Coaching Services Podcast
Gary Nichols
source: 30A Songwriter Radio
Christin Nichols
source: Musik-Interviews
Rob Nichol
source: Kiwi Yarns
BERNIE NICHOLLS
source: Gouche Live
Danielle Nichole
source: Brad Cooney Podcast
Peter Nichols
source: Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005
Crystal Nichols
source: CONVERSATIONS with RARE WOMAN
Nichols And Dimes
source: 100 Music


Momentum to regulate drug prices uncertain…
Momentum to regulate drug prices uncertain after Prop 61 defeat, Republican victories
Rudy Cuellar, 66, and his daughter, Pearl, 36, joined a Sacramento rally to support Proposition 61 the day before voters rejected the measure. If the measure fails, Rudy Cuellar said on Monday, policymakers should “just do it again.”
Republican control of the White House and Congress erodes the possibility of federal action to control the price of prescription drugs, health policy experts say.
Instead, policymaking to address the spiraling drug costs likely will be done on the state level. Yet the Election Day defeat of a California ballot measure to rein in drug prices may make local lawmakers less inclined to pursue that model of tamping down on drug prices, too.
“The prospect for a broad measure at the federal level for doing something about pricing is probably zero,” said Dr. Walid Gellad associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Although President-elect Donald Trump has indicated support for giving Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices, “what everyone thought was going to happen related to prescription drugs is just a lot less likely,” said Gellad.
Nearly 54 percent of Californians voted against Proposition 61, which would have pegged the state of California’s payments for prescription drugs to prices paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The measure — which helped fuel a nationwide debate over ways to alleviate drug price “sticker shock” over EpiPens and other lifesaving medications — drew support in early polls, but lost traction in the days before the election.
Gellad says states may continue their push for more transparency in how drugmakers price their medications, especially when it comes to price increases.
About 16 states considered some sort of proposal during the last legislative session to require manufacturers to disclose how they price their products or how much they spend on research and development, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Vermont’s proposal was signed by the governor this past June.
New Jersey and Virginia next year will renew consideration of drug price transparency legislation that had been in play this year but did not secure passage, said Dick Cauchi, the conference’s program director for health insurance, finance and pharmaceuticals.
But it’s too soon to tell whether other states where proposals stalled or were defeated will reintroduce drug price-related measures next year, he said.
“Based on the increased level of legislative interest in this year’s sessions, it would not be surprising to see similar measures filed when all 50 state (legislatures) convene for 2017,” Cauchi said. “By early January, this landscape may be much clearer.”
California state Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, who supported Proposition 61 and wrote one of two failed bills to require more drug price transparency, said he’s considering whether to introduce new drug price legislation next year.
“The issue will not go away until Californians and our country have some relief from skyrocketing drug prices,” said Chiu.
He said a range of groups have been approaching him since before the election to talk about what next year’s drug price policy proposal could look like.
“Everything is on the table,” he said.
Proposition 61’s defeat wasn’t huge, “but it was enough,” said Ken Miller, associate director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.
The complex approach taken to drug price controls — linking them to VA prices — may have been a factor in its demise. And voters may have been won over by the organized and well-financed campaign to defeat it, Miller said.
“Prop 61 was facing an enormous amount of negative attack ads on television,” said Miller. “The history is, if there is a huge amount of ‘no’ money, then typically the ballot measure fails.”
The drug industry had raised by far the most opposition funding — over $109 million dollars — to defeat the measure, according to California secretary of state records.
For 27-year-old Emily Taggart who voted early against the measure, Proposition 61 was just not the right time or policy to address prescription drug costs.
“It sound[ed] like it would be awesome if it worked, but … there were a lot of variables that weren’t addressed,” said Taggart, a supermarket clerk in the Sacramento area. She said the measure didn’t seem to address the problem of pharmaceutical companies being able to “jack up” prices.
A measure almost identical to the now-defeated California Drug Price Relief Act is on Ohio’s 2017 ballot. Local health care advocates in Ohio say they haven’t heard a lot about their state’s measure that was sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation based in Los Angeles.
“I’m still uncertain whether the policy is good from the standpoint of whether it can be implemented,” said Steve Wagner, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, a consumer advocacy group.
Wagner says most of what he has heard about the measure has been from opponents.
Taggart said she may support a different proposal to rein in prescription drug costs if one were brought before her again.
“I’m sure [drug prices] will be on the ballot again,” Taggart said. “Once they think it through a little more.”


“Nowhere, except in Egypt or at Pompeii, is a prehistoric settlement to be found, the streets, huts and even domestic furniture of which are in such perfect preservation”
Professor V. Gordon Childe. Letter to The Orcadian newspaper. (1928)
House One. Skara Brae. (Jim Richardson)
By Sigurd Towrie
Hailed the best-preserved Neolithic village in northern Europe, Skara Brae stands on the southern shore of the Bay of Skaill, in Orkney’s West Mainland – around 5½ miles, as the crow flies, to the north-west of the Ness of Brodgar complex
In the midst of an archaeology rich landscape, thousands of visitors flock annually to the site to view the consolidated remains of ten 5,000-year-old buildings.
Cocooned by sand for millennia, Skara Brae’s buildings, and their contents, are incredibly well-preserved. Not only are the walls still standing, and passageways roofed with their original stone slabs, but the interior fittings of each house give an unparalleled glimpse of life in Neolithic Orkney.
Discovery and excavation
‘The Weem of Scara Brae’ (sic) — an undated photograph of the site but given the vegetative growth visible, it must have been taken some time after William Watt’s efforts to clear the site.
(Picture courtesy of Orkney Library Photographic Archive).
Around 1850 [1], a violent storm, together with an exceptionally high tide, undermined part of the dunes at “Skerrabrae” [2] to reveal [3] an artefact-filled “kitchen midden”[4]. Investigation by William Watt, resident of the nearby Skaill House, suggested “the existence of extensive buildings” [4]. Watt wasted no time before digging into these and, by February 1851, it was clear there was “a small ruinous chamber” within an “immense accumulation of ashes, several feet in thickness, plentifully mixed with shells and the horns and bones of deer and other animals” [5].
By 1868, four structures and had been revealed and a “vast hoard of primitive relics” gathered [6]. Although Watt’s work was carried out “with loving care and almost with his own hands” [7] it was excavation only in terms of the dictionary definition. Were it not for the Orcadian antiquarian George Petrie’s plans and records of the site, documentation would be non-existent [8].
After Watt, the initial flurry of activity around Skara Brae waned and the site left to the elements for at least 45 years. It was revisited in 1913, when William Balfour Stewart’s “unmethodical excavations” [9] seem to have simply cleared out previously investigated areas.
Vere Gordon Childe (bottom left) pictured during his excavations at Skara Brae. The two women are now thought to have been students of Childe’s and part of a visiting group that included Margaret Simpson, Margaret Mitchell, Mary Kennedy and Dame Margaret Cole. (Picture courtesy of Orkney Library Photographic Archive)
Skara Brae was then left until 1925, when another storm damaged some of the structures. A sea wall was constructed and it was decided that the building remains should also be consolidated. A side benefit of this was an excavation, which ran from 1927 until 1930 and led by Professor Vere Gordon Childe.
Childe set to work “clearing out” the buildings [10] and “was reasonably successful” [11], in uncovering “an agglomeration of stone huts connected by covered passages and all partially buried in a huge midden heap” [12].
Childe’s interpretation of the site saw him create an inaccurate, but tenacious, vision of Neolithic life that remains in some quarters today. Perhaps the most persistent element being the sudden and “hasty desertion” of the settlement in the face of an apocalyptic calamity.
Childe originally thought Skara Brae represented an Iron Age settlement (early centuries AD) based on correlation be believed to exist between the carved stone balls found and Pictish symbol stones [13]. Some years later, when it became clear that the pottery was much earlier [14], Skara Brae was pushed back two millennia, firmly into the Neolithic.
Radiocarbon dating in the early 1970s confirmed that the settlement dated from the late Neolithic, suggesting the site was inhabited between 3200BC and 2200BC.
Plan of Skara Brae with the position of Clarke’s two excavation trenches in 1972-1973 marked.
(Clarke, D.V. 1976. The Neolithic Village of Skara Brae, Orkney: 1972–1973 Excavations. An interim report. HMSO: Edinburgh.)
Each house shares the same basic design – a large square room, with a central hearth, a “bed” on either side and a shelved “dresser” on the wall opposite the doorway.
Visit the site today and you will see structures from two stages of the settlement’s history. All but two of these are from the later phase of activity.
Dresser in House One from the entrance. (Sigurd Towrie)
Skara Brae followed the pattern since noted at other Orcadian Neolithic settlements – houses were built, inhabited, abandoned and rebuilt, frequently on the same site. Because of this, the early structures lie beneath the later constructions so can only be seen on the periphery of the excavated settlement (Houses Nine and Ten). These early houses were circular with the “beds” set into the walls at either side of the hearth. Excavation evidence suggests they were also freestanding and clad in turf jackets – as encountered at the Barnhouse Settlement.
The later houses followed the same basic design, but on a larger scale. The house shape changed slightly, becoming more rectangular with rounded internal corners. Also, the beds were no longer built into the wall but protruded into the main living area.
Today, visitors often think, not helped by over a century of accounts suggesting the same, that Skara Brae was an underground village, linked by a series of short, roofed tunnels. This is not the case. The houses were not sunk into the ground but built on it and, over their lifetimes, became encased in domestic refuse, sand and other materials [15].
Interior of House One, Skara Brae. (Sigurd Towrie)
Each house was accessed through a low doorway, which had a stone slab door that could be closed, and secured, by a bar that fitted into holes in the door jambs.
Despite the well-planned and executed drainage system serving the structures – including what may be internal toilets – Childe firmly believed the occupants lived in squalor, tolerating “a nauseating amount of filth on the hut floors” [10]. Behind his repeated references to the foetid living conditions was his incorrect belief that the settlement was abandoned, and the occupants fled, in the face of a catastrophe. To Childe, the condition of the buildings in 1928-30 was exactly as they had been left following his proposed Neolithic exodus.
Skara Brae. (Hugo Anderson-Whymark)
Because nothing survived of the structures’ roofs, we must assume that they were made of a perishable, organic material. Perhaps whalebone, or driftwood, beams supported a roof of turf, skins, thatched seaweed or straw. Seaweed, weighed down with straw ropes attached to stones, remained a roofing material in Orkney into recent history.
Until the discovery of stone roofing “tiles” at the Ness of Brodgar, it was assumed all Neolithic constructions had organic roofs. In light of this, re-reading the early excavation reports offers an intriguing possibility – were Skara Brae’s houses stone roofed too?
In July 1861, James Farrer wrote a letter to The Orcadian newspaper in which he stated that all the chambers and passages “were filled with sand and stones fallen from the roof…”
While this is far from definite evidence of roofing tiles, in 1931 Childe described House Seven at Skara Brae: “Scraps of bone and shells were lying scattered promiscuously all over the floor, sometimes masked by broken slates laid down like stepping stones over the morass” [9].
Had Childe unwittingly stumbled across roofing tiles? Unfortunately, we will never know.
The date and extent of Skara Brae
“Among those numerous remains of primitive dwellings of the early inhabitants of the Orkneys, which have been more or. less examined, a great mass of ruins on the shore of the bay of Skaill, in the parish of Sandwick, occupies a prominent place, and deserves particular notice.”
George Petrie. Notice of Ruins of Ancient Dwellings at Skara, Bay of Skaill, in the Parish of Sandwick, Orkney. (1867)
In 2017, a re-evaluation of Orcadian radiocarbon dates suggested that occupation at Skara Brae began around 2900BC but was abandoned a short time later and re-occupied between 2800-2700BC. The site was abandoned around 2500BC [16].
Passageway. (Sigurd Towrie)
These results seem to indicate a clear hiatus at Skara Brae but does this actually represent abandonment? Are we seeing something else – buildings or areas perhaps going out of use? This highlights a problem with Skara Brae’s interpretation – the assumption that the consolidated remains represent the entirety of the settlement. As we will see, what visitors to the Neolithic village see now is probably a fraction of the original. As Brend et al. stressed in 2020, “the extent of a Neolithic settlement in Orkney is seldom, if ever, the same as the area excavated [17]”.
Skara Brae has been said to have been a cluster of no more than ten to twelve houses, inhabited by a population of around 70 [18]. But the evidence now suggests that the village we see today was but one part of a more extensive settlement. As recently as 2009, David Clarke – who excavated Skara Brae in the 1970s – all but dismissed this possibility.
Conceding that any archaeological remains seaward of the village were long gone, he stressed that “archaeologists are fairly confident that landward, little, if anything remains to be discovered” [19]. Archaeological evidence suggests this is not the case. Not only do we have early activity on the outskirts of the consolidated village but a large eroding mound, 100 metres to the west, revealed at least two, if not three, major structural phases, separated by large deposits of windblown sand.
South of Skara Brae, fieldwalking has identified a scatter of flint, bone and a stone tool identified as Neolithic [17]. Supporting the physical evidence, geophysical surveys strongly suggest the excavated village is but one part of a much larger settlement [17].
A series of magnetic anomalies to the south and west of Skara Brae hint at a settlement that could be as much as five times the size of the known remains. Whether occupation extended to the north (i.e. seaward) and, if so, how far, is now impossible to tell. The fact that during the lifetime of Skara Brae the area occupied by the current bay was a mix of dry land, freshwater lochans and marsh, with encroaching sand and machair [20] makes a lost northern section very possible, if not probable.
Skara Brae and the Bay of Skaill. (Sigurd Towrie)
The idea that Skara Brae was abandoned overnight in the face of a cataclysm that caused the inhabitants to flee is entirely incorrect. Unfortunately, it is still often presented as fact.
As we have seen, this suitably dramatic end was proposed by the archaeologist Gordon Childe after his excavations in the late 1920s. Like a northern Pompeii, it immediately caught the public’s imagination but is complete fiction. Instead, Skara Brae’s decline was probably much more complex and gradual.
Although radiocarbon dating suggests an end around 2500BC, we must remember that this relates only to the excavated portion of the settlement. Because that section was probably just one part of a much larger settlement can we really say Skara Brae was abandoned? It may be that life went on at Skara Brae – but was focused in another area. Activity certainly continued around the Bay of Skaill throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages and beyond.
That said, evidence from across Orkney does point to a change in society around 2500BC [16] and with this it has been suggested that nucleated settlements, such as Skara Brae, went out of use [16] This, however, was certainly not an overnight phenomenon and may have occurred over a prolonged period of time.
Skara Brae. (Sigurd Towrie)
The second element of the name Skara Brae is the Scots word brae, meaning slope, but which is often found in Orkney referring to mounds. The first element, however, has long been pondered and remains unclear. But as we have seen, Skara Brae is a relatively recent invention. The older version, Skerrabrae, suggests the first element may relate to the Old Norse sker, meaning reef, which is found today in the word skerry. It is perhaps no coincidence that a large, rocky skerry lies at the southern end of the Bay of Skaill, a little to the west of Skara Brae.
This possibility is strengthened when we look at the name given by Orcadian George Marwick in the late 1800s. Recounting a folktale centred on the Bay of Skaill, Marwick explains that “Skerow Brae” was used as a navigation aid by those at sea [21]. In this form, the presence of -ow suffix could represent the Old Norse haugr, meaning mound and which is often found in placenames as -howe, -how or -ow.
If we follow the sker avenue, Skerow is simply descriptive, meaning skerry mound.
In a retelling of the same folktale, Marwick give the navigational mound a different name – Skawhowe.
Skaw is generally thought to derive from the Old Norse skagi, meaning headland or promontory, so we have promontory mound. The problem with this is that Skara Brae does not sit on a headland. While Marwick may be referring to a second, different navigation point, this seems unlikely as the instructions given for lining up the two points are the same. Instead, I wonder whether there was an error when Marwick’s handwritten article was transcribed for publication in The Orkney Herald in December 1891.
Interactive 3D Model: House Seven, Skara Brae
Interactive 3D Model: House One, Skara Brae
Interactive 3D Models: Skara Brae artefacts
[1] Every late 20th century account places the storm that revealed Skara Brae in 1850, but the earlier sources are less clear. Hugh Marwick placed it “in the year 1850, or immediately before…” (1929) while George Petrie was equally unclear: “About fifteen or sixteen years ago…” (1867). Depending on when Petrie wrote his paper, this places the storm between 1849 and 1851. What is without doubt is that by February 1851, Lieutenant Thomas had documented that there were archaeological remains on site.
[2] Skara Brae is a modern corruption of Skerrabrae or Skerrabra – the names by which the site was known until at least the 1950s. Writing in 1928, the Orcadian scholar Hugh Marwick explained: “An elderly Sandwick man, who has lived in the neighbourhood all his days, informs me that he had always hear it referred to as ‘Styerrabrae’, i.e. Skerrabrae, with the local palatalising of ‘sk’ before a front vowel.”
[3] The idea that Skara Brae was unknown until it was uncovered by the storm of 1850 is “a complete fiction”, according to Orcadian historian Dr Ernest Marwick. In an article in The Orcadian newspaper in 1967, Marwick said: “In his Observations made in a Tour of the islands of Orkney and Shetland in the year 1769, James Robertson wrote of the square catacombs in the Downs of Skail, and said that in one a skeleton was found with a sword in one hand and a Danish axe in the other.”
[4] Marwick, H. (1929) Skerrabrae. In Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society, Volume VII (1928-1929), pp 17-26. The Orcadian: Kirkwall.
[5] Thomas, F. W. L. (1851) XIII — Account of some of the Celtic Antiquities of Orkney, including the Stones of Stenness, Tumuli, Picts-houses, &c., with Plans, by FWL Thomas, RN, Corr. Mem. SA Scot., Lieutenant Commanding HM Surveying Vessel Woodlark. Archaeologia, 34(1), pp.88–136.
[6] Petrie, G. (1867). Notice of Ruins of Ancient Dwellings at Skara, Bay of Skaill, in the Parish of Sandwick, Orkney, recently excavated. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. 7, pp. 201–219).
[7] Old Lore Miscellany (1909).
[8] It was solely due to Petrie’s plan that Gordon Childe, who excavated Skara Brae in the late 1920s, realised that House One had been “restored” by Watt.
[9] Childe, V. G. (1931). Skara Brae: a Pictish village in Orkney. Kegan Paul: London.
[10] Childe, V. G., Paterson, J. and Bryce, T. (1929). Provisional Report on the Excavations at Skara Brae, and on Finds from the 1927 and 1928 Campaigns. With a Report on Bones. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. 63, pp. 225–280).
[11] Ritchie, A. (1995) Prehistoric Orkney. Batsford Ltd: London.
[12] Childe, V. G. (1931). Skara Brae: a ‘Stone Age’ village in Orkney. Antiquity, 5(17), pp.47–59.
[13] Childe, V. G. (1930) Operations at Skara Brae during 1929. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. 64, pp. 158–191).
[14] Childe, V.G. and Grant, W. (1938). A Stone-Age settlement at the Braes of Rinyo, Rousay, Orkney (First Report). In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. 73, pp. 6–31).
[15] Shepherd, A.N. (2016). Skara Brae life studies: overlaying the embedded images. In Hunter, F. and Sheridan, A. (eds) Ancient lives: object, people and place in early Scotland. Essays for David V. Clarke on his 70th birthday. Sidestone Press: Leiden.
[16] Bayliss, A., Marshall, P., Richards, C. and Whittle, A. (2017) Islands of History: The Late Neolithic timescape of Orkney. Antiquity, 91(359), pp. 1171–1188.
[17] Brend, A., Card, N., Downes, J., Edmonds, M. and Moore, J. (2020) Landscapes Revealed: Geophysical Survey in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Area 2002-2011. Oxbow Books, Oxford.
[18] Clarke, D. V. (2012) Skara Brae: Official Souvenir Guide. Historic Scotland: Edinburgh.
[19] Clarke, D. and Maguire, P. (2009) Skara Brae: Northern Europe’s Best Preserved Neolithic Village: The Official Souvenir Guide. Historic Scotland: Edinburgh.
[20] Leinert, A.C.D.L.V., Keen, D.H., Jones, R.L., Wells, J.M. and Smith, D.E. (2000) Mid‐Holocene environmental changes in the Bay of Skaill, Mainland Orkney, Scotland: an integrated geomorphological, sedimentological and stratigraphical study. Journal of Quaternary Science: Quaternary Research Association, 15(5), pp.509–528.
[21] Muir, T. and Irvine, J. (eds) 2014. George Marwick: Yesnaby’s Master Storyteller. The Orcadian: Kirkwall.
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2016 Holiday Gift Guide: Games
Posted by Bullz-Eye Staff (12/09/2016 @ 9:00 am)
The holiday season is the video game industry’s busiest time of year, with publishers saving many of their marquee titles to release on the public like an avalanche of digital goodness. It can actually be quite overwhelming with so many different options to choose from, so we’ve done our best to put together a collection of what we feel are some of the year’s finest games.
Click the links within the write-ups to purchase each product online, and for more gift ideas, check out the other categories in our Holiday Gift Guide.
Set 25 years after Marcus Fenix defeated the Locust Horde once and for all, “Gears of War 4” finds Marcus’ son JD leading a group of ex-COG soldiers against a mysterious new threat. Though the game is pretty much business as usual for fans of the series, “Gears of War 4” does introduce a few changes that improve and shake up the overall gameplay. In addition to several new weapons (including our personal favorite, the Buzzkill, which shoots circular saws that can ricochet off walls), the emergence of extreme weather phenomena called Windflares affect combat with strong winds, flying debris and more. Story mode is also a lot more difficult thanks to A.I. enemies that pile on the pressure instead of sitting back and waiting for you to attack. Of course, while the single-player (or co-op) campaign serves as a nice refresher course for those who haven’t played “Gears of War” in awhile, online multiplayer is still the game’s bread and butter. All of the usual modes are here, along with newcomers like Dodgeball and Arms Race to ensure you don’t get bored. Though “Gears of War 4” isn’t as groundbreaking as the original, it’s an enjoyable franchise reboot that keeps everything that was great about the previous installments and builds on it.
Batman: The Telltale Series
Telltale Games has been on a real streak lately with high-profile titles like “The Walking Dead,” “The Wolf Among Us” and “Game of Thrones,” but the company’s latest episodic game features perhaps their biggest IP yet. Though it’s not as instantly captivating as some of the aforementioned titles, “Batman: The Telltale Series” delivers the tried and tested combo of choice-based dialogue, puzzle solving and quicktime action scenes that we’ve come to expect. The game doesn’t explore the World’s Greatest Detective angle quite as much as it should, but that’s largely because you spend more time playing as Bruce Wayne, digging into his family’s secret history after it’s revealed that his father may not have been the saint he appeared to be. With that said, the Batman sequences are a lot more fun, whether you’re devising a plan of attack, stringing together clues at a crime scene or battling one of his many iconic villains. As with most Telltale games, the storytelling is stronger than the gameplay, but fans of their click-and-point adventures (and Batman in general) will find plenty to enjoy.
Posted in: Games, Stuff to Buy
Tags: 2016 holiday gift guide, gift guide, Holiday Gift Guide, video game gifts, video games
Kill Your Productivity with These Browser-Based Games
Okay, we’re not actually suggesting you abandon work and play these awesome games, but they are still handy to have for whenever you have a few minutes to spare. Browser-based games can be played from any browser, including the one on your smartphone. They are great for some quick entertainment.
To make it even better, browser-based games today are so much better than they were a couple of years ago. To help you get started with enjoying a relaxing time or having some fun in between meetings, here are a few games you definitely should try.
Posted in: Games, Lifestyle
Tags: online games
Unsaved Progress: The failure of video game adaptations in film
Posted by Rob Dean (06/06/2016 @ 9:00 am)
It should be a slam dunk – a known property with recognizable characters, an established story and plenty of excuse for spectacle. So why has it been so hard for Hollywood to successfully adapt a video game into a good film? Since 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.,” movie studios have tried to capitalize on the billions of dollars of success of video games by bringing them to the big screen. Yet time and again, what lands is a loud thud of a movie, boring to major audiences and befuddling to the devoted fanbase.
Despite the constant critical and/or financial drubbings the films take upon release, producers continue to attempt to adapt video games into successful franchises. “The Angry Birds” movie opened well, but was generally despised by critics, and soon there will be movie versions of “World of Warcraft,” “Assassin’s Creed” and a revamping of “Tomb Raider” franchise. It makes sense why filmmakers and companies are chasing these properties, for all the reasons stated above, but why have they always been such terrible dreck with only occasional flashes of innovation?
The first issue is that video games are immersive properties. Gamers are actively participating in these adventures, instead of watching them unfold passively on the screen. That creates the first hurdle for these films to overcome: how do you create something engrossing enough that it wraps people up in the events and makes it feel like it’s happening to them? Even the best blockbusters struggle with this ability to get audiences to identify and empathize with what’s happening on screen, let alone those made simply for cash-in purposes. Therefore, in order to do justice to these video game properties, filmmakers are already facing an uphill climb.
Posted in: Entertainment, Games, Movies
Tags: video game adaptations, video game movies
“Quantum Break” is a flawed but enjoyable slice of hybrid entertainment
We don’t cover video games on this site as much as we used to, but it’s difficult to ignore a title like “Quantum Break,” which was originally teased during the reveal of the Xbox One back in 2013. That’s because it’s unlike anything you’ve ever played before – a uniquely immersive experience that’s one part video game, one part live-action TV series. But to fully understand how the merging of these two mediums works, you first need to know what the game is about.
Set in a fictional Northeastern town that’s been overtaken by an enigmatic corporation known as Monarch Solutions, the story follows Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore), who returns home after years of trying to escape his past when he receives a cryptic message from his friend Paul Serene (Aiden Gillen) asking him to meet at Riverport University. It turns out that Paul has been secretly building a time machine, and with his investors threatening to pull the plug on the project, he needs Jack’s help to prove that it actually works. But when the experiment goes horribly wrong and causes a fracture in time, Jack and Paul are affected in different ways; Jack is granted the ability to manipulate time, while Paul can see into the future.
Forced to go on the run after he’s framed for the incident, Jack must team up with his physicist brother Will (Dominic Monaghan) and a Monarch security officer named Beth Wilder (Courtney Hope) to stop Paul – who has returned from the future a changed man – from exploiting the time fracture for his own personal gain. If that sounds incredibly ambiguous, that’s because saying any more would be wading into major spoiler territory.
Posted in: Entertainment, Game Reviews, Games
Tags: Aiden Gillen, Quantum Break, Shawn Ashmore
Posted by Jason Zingale (12/07/2015 @ 12:27 pm)
The holiday season is the video game industry’s busiest time of year, with publishers saving many of their marquee titles to release on the public like an avalanche of digital goodness. It can actually be quite overwhelming with so many different options to choose from, so we’ve done our best to put together a collection of what we feel are some of the year’s best titles, and ones that the gamer on your list will love.
Star Wars: Battlefront
If you’ve ever wanted to know what it would be like to be a part of the “Star Wars” universe, Electronic Arts’ “Star Wars: Battlefront” lets you live out your ultimate fantasy by dropping you into the middle of the action in some of the most famous locations from the original trilogy. Whether assuming the role of a Rebel soldier or Stormtrooper fighting on the ground, an X-Wing or TIE pilot engaged in a massive dogfight in the skies, or as one of the many legacy characters like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, this is “Star Wars” fan service at its very best. Boasting gorgeous, photorealistic visuals and addictive gameplay, “Battlefront” is the most enjoyable “Star Wars” game since “Knights of the Old Republic.” Though the single player/co-op modes aren’t very exciting (they’re mostly just a place to hone your skills and waste a few hours with a friend), the online multiplayer is where the game really shines. There are nine modes to choose from – including favorites like Fighter Squadron, Heroes vs. Villains and Supremacy – with each one delivering a unique experience from the others. “Battlefront” is the “Star Wars” game that fans have been waiting for, and with more content planned for the future, it can only get better.
How do you make a great game even better? That’s the challenge put forth each year to EA Sports and their “FIFA” franchise, and every time, they respond in brilliant fashion. Though there aren’t any major changes to the gameplay, “FIFA 16” has implemented some small but important refinements to deliver the most authentic soccer simulation yet. On the field, defending has been given a complete facelift, including the ability to defend better as a unit with enhanced AI awareness, goalkeepers who make less mistakes, and improved tackling mechanics. The EA Sports team has also added something called Passing with Purpose that allows you to ping driven ground passes to teammates in tight spaces, as well as No Touch Dribbling, which gives you more creativity on the ball. Off the field, the changes are even bigger, headlined by the announcement that you can now play as one of 12 Women’s National Teams in a variety of game modes. Career Mode has also received two of the most requested features – pre-season tournaments and player training to increase stats – while Ultimate Team has added a new mode called FUT Draft where you build a team by picking each position from a five-player draw and then compete in challenges to win rewards. This is the most definitive edition of “FIFA” yet, and it’s an absolute must-have for any soccer fan.


Katherine June Lilly
Katherine June Lilly, 95, a devoted wife, loving mother, and pianist/organist, was called home to the Lord on January 4, 2022. She peacefully passed at home, to now join her beloved husband Dennis of 48 years, who went on ahead of her in 2001. Katy was born March 25, 1926, in Fairmont, WV, as a daughter of George and Iva Ginkel Donham. Her great grandfather was George Adams, former street commissioner of Fairmont, after which the main thoroughfare downtown, Adams Street, was named. She graduated high school from Saint Peters Catholic School, then on to West Virginia University in Morgantown to complete her Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees in Music, with a concentration in piano and organ. As a student at WVU, Katy met Dennis, who was also in the Music Master’s program in voice, and she served as his accompanist. They were married in November 1952 at Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church. After having lived in Johnson City, they moved to Amherst, MA, and College Park, MO, finally relocating back to Johnson City in 1967. Katy taught private piano lessons from home and served as an organist for a number of local area churches, which include First United Methodist Church in Johnson City, and United Methodist Church in Elizabethton. She served as organist and later as music director at Erwin Presbyterian Church, retiring after having served 33 years. In addition to her parents Katy was preceded in death by two daughters, Marjorie Harvey and Susanne Lilly James, brother, John Donham, and daughter in law, Kelly MacFarlane Lilly. Survivors include her three sons, David and wife Sandra (Rast) Lilly of Johnson City, Mike Lilly of Cartersville, GA, Jason and wife Jani (Ahmad) Lilly of McDonough, GA; grandchildren, Ryan and his wife, Katherine Derise and husband Matthew of Memphis; Zach Lilly of Pinehurst, NC, Madison Scott and husband Alex of Sanford, NC, Nick Lilly of Atlanta, GA, Devin Lilly of Dallas, TX, Garrett Lilly of Statesboro, GA, Eric Harvey of Jonesborough; great grandchildren, twins George and Zoey Derise; son-in-law, Rigby Harvey of Gray; sister, Eleanor Timms and husband Delmar, of Wheeling, WV; several nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends on Friday, January 14, 2022, from 6:00-8:00 P.M. at Appalachian Funeral Home. The private family graveside committal will be conducted Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 10:30 A.M. in Washington County Memory Gardens with Pastor Stan Webster, officiating. Katy will be laid to rest beside her husband Dennis. Pallbearers will be chosen from family. In-lieu-of flowers, donations can be made to the music fund at Erwin Presbyterian Church, 105 N. Elm Ave. Erwin, TN 37650.
Katherine June Lilly, 95, a devoted wife, loving mother, and pianist/organist, was called home to the Lord on January 4, 2022. She peacefully passed at home, to now join her beloved husband Dennis of 48 years, who went on ahead of her in 2001.... View Obituary & Service Information
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When former WWE Champion broke the fourth wall after match with Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar vs Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 has been etched into the memory of the fans for many reasons. One being, McIntyre’s bold move to break the fourth wall to address fans directly after his historic win in the first WrestleMania held with no crowd.
WWE Superstars seldom go off script and it’s even rarer that they break the fourth wall. One of the most famous incidents of the fourth wall being broken in WWE is the ‘pipe bomb’ promo by CM Punk.
In March 2020, Drew McIntyre went off script and broke the fourth wall after becoming WWE Champion at WrestleMania 36.
WrestleMania has always been an event that is filled with the cheers and boos of a large number of people in the crowd. However, Drew McIntyre’s crowning moment came at the peak of the COVID pandemic when WWE had to organize WrestleMania at the Performance Center with no crowds.
The Scottish Warrior took on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. The Beast Incarnate proved to be no match for McIntyre as he was defeated in under 5 minutes. It was after the match that the new WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre, decided to do something out of the ordinary and broke the fourth wall to connect with the fans watching from home.
Stone Cold praised Drew McIntyre’s decision to break the fourth wall after beating Brock Lesnar
When Drew McIntyre joined Steve Austin as a guest on Broken Skull Sessions, Austin said it was the ‘right call’ by McIntyre to break the fourth wall after defeating Brock Lesnar. The Scottish star revealed that he thought it would be edited out considering how unconventional it was but they decided to keep it.
”I assumed it would be edited. They’ll take that out. I don’t care. This is what feels right, I wanted to say thank you to everyone but it’s weird, 90,00 people, same as the rumble… I would’ve lost my mind, jumping the crowd. But there was silence,” said McIntyre
Drew McIntyre directly thanking the fans at home


York St John University fake diploma the Lazy Man’s Way
2018-10-22 Lee, david England diplomas, Samples Leave a comment
York St John University fake diploma the Lazy Man’s Way. York St John University (originally established as York Diocesan College) is a public university located on a large urban campus in York, England. It achieved university status in 2006. York St John University fake diploma, fake certificate, fake degree, fake transcript. It is one of several higher education institutions which have religious foundations; others include Canterbury Christ Church University, York St John University fake diploma, fake certificate, fake degree, fake transcript, Liverpool Hope University, St. Mary’s University College, University of Chester, University of Chichester, University of Cumbria, University of Derby, University of Gloucestershire, University of Winchester, and Bishop Grosseteste University.
As of 2016/17, there were 5,940 students, reading a wide variety of subjects, in nine Schools: Art, Design & Computer Science; Education; Health Sciences; Humanities, Religion & Philosophy; Languages & Linguistics; Performance and Media Production; Psychological and Social Sciences; Sport; and York Business School. The university descends from two Anglican teacher training colleges, which were founded in York in 1841 (for men) and 1846 (for women). York St John University fake diploma, fake certificate, fake degree, fake transcript. In 1862, the women’s college relocated to Ripon. York St John University fake diploma, fake certificate, fake degree, fake transcript. Over the next century, the colleges gradually diversified their education programmes. The colleges, St John’s College and Ripon College, merged in 1974 to form the “College of Ripon and York St John”. In 1990 the combined institution formally became a college of the University of Leeds; this arrangement allowed it to award degrees in the name of the latter, while remaining in practice largely autonomous.
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