Pope Benedict XVI looked to be on good form as he delivered his traditional Christmas message on Friday, urging tolerance for migrants, a day after falling during an assault at St Peter's Basilica....In his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message to the city and the world from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, the pope urged the world to rediscover the simplicity of the Christmas message and read Christmas greetings in 65 languages. As the pope spoke to tens of thousands of people in the square below, the Vatican remained focused on Thursday night's incident, which raised again the question of how the pope can be protected while still having close contact with people. Susanna Maiolo, 25, an Italian-Swiss national, shocked the Catholic world and Vatican security when she jumped over a barricade in the basilica, lunged at Pope Benedict, grabbed his vestments and caused him to fall to the marble floor. The Vatican said she was "psychologically unstable" and unarmed and the pope was not hurt in any way. She was taken to an Italian hospital for psychological treatment.
...In his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message to the city and the world from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, the pope urged the world to rediscover the simplicity of the Christmas message and read Christmas greetings in 65 languages.
As the pope spoke to tens of thousands of people in the square below, the Vatican remained focused on Thursday night's incident, which raised again the question of how the pope can be protected while still having close contact with people.
Susanna Maiolo, 25, an Italian-Swiss national, shocked the Catholic world and Vatican security when she jumped over a barricade in the basilica, lunged at Pope Benedict, grabbed his vestments and caused him to fall to the marble floor.
The Vatican said she was "psychologically unstable" and unarmed and the pope was not hurt in any way. She was taken to an Italian hospital for psychological treatment.
(The Pope's actual words about migrants weren't newsworthy for France24.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
a cardinal's leg got broken in the kerfuffle around her gesture of devotion.
it's understandable, ratzi is wicked cuddly...
dodgy time to be a public figure in italy, apparently. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
This modern era of moviemaking has plenty of peculiar challenges for actors -- on green-screen sets, for instance, they have to watch a ping-pong ball hanging from a string and convince the camera that they actually staring down some magical beastie -- but for the actors auditioning for "Avatar" the biggest challenge may have been reading a sheet of paper with words invented by a USC professor named Paul R. Frommer. Frommer, a linguistics specialist, was brought in by "Avatar" writer-director James Cameron to create an entire functioning language for the tribe of 10-foot-tall blue aliens who inhabit Pandora, the setting for the film's conflict. Frommer tackled the project with glee -- "How often do you get an opportunity like this?" -- but the actors who had bend their tongues around the invented vocabulary and syntax were slightly less charmed by the experience. (...)Frommer didn't start completely from scratch; Cameron had come up with about three dozen words of the Na'vi language at that point in his project document, which was like a quasi-script or a long treatment ("They called it a scriptment," Frommer said, "and that was a new word to me") but most of the words were character names. (...)Frommer prepared three "sound palettes," which were collections of words and phrases that did not have meaning but did have the cadence and feel of languages. Cameron mulled over the sound files and picked the third as the best fit for the world he wanted to hear. He did not want tonal differences and variations in vowel length, for instance, but he loved the ejectives. Then came the heavy lifting -- nailing down the sound system, word construction, the rule of syntax -- and Frommer immersed himself in the thousands of decisions required, many of them deciding what goes in and what goes out. The Na'vi language, for instance, does not have the sounds buh, duh, guh, chu, shu, and by restricting the sounds, Frommer said, a characteristic shape of the language begins to distinguish itself.
Frommer, a linguistics specialist, was brought in by "Avatar" writer-director James Cameron to create an entire functioning language for the tribe of 10-foot-tall blue aliens who inhabit Pandora, the setting for the film's conflict. Frommer tackled the project with glee -- "How often do you get an opportunity like this?" -- but the actors who had bend their tongues around the invented vocabulary and syntax were slightly less charmed by the experience.
(...)Frommer didn't start completely from scratch; Cameron had come up with about three dozen words of the Na'vi language at that point in his project document, which was like a quasi-script or a long treatment ("They called it a scriptment," Frommer said, "and that was a new word to me") but most of the words were character names.
(...)Frommer prepared three "sound palettes," which were collections of words and phrases that did not have meaning but did have the cadence and feel of languages. Cameron mulled over the sound files and picked the third as the best fit for the world he wanted to hear. He did not want tonal differences and variations in vowel length, for instance, but he loved the ejectives.
Then came the heavy lifting -- nailing down the sound system, word construction, the rule of syntax -- and Frommer immersed himself in the thousands of decisions required, many of them deciding what goes in and what goes out. The Na'vi language, for instance, does not have the sounds buh, duh, guh, chu, shu, and by restricting the sounds, Frommer said, a characteristic shape of the language begins to distinguish itself.
Oh, and everyone knows armsuits (as beloved by Japanese manga) are unworkable in the real world because they would shake their human operators too much -- as one could feel watching the least realistic visuals of the film. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I'd like to see it, just for the spectacle. I've never seen a 3D movie either, unless the Disney Captain Eo ride counts. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is an Australian animated feature produced by Kroyer Films, presented by FAI Films and released by 20th Century Fox on April 10, 1992. It was adapted from a book of the same name by Diana Young. It is a film with a strong environmental theme.
In my world a plot is a sequence of events culminating in some objective of one or more protagonists, a teleology.
Strike Voyage and Return, Quest, Comedy (wtf?), Tragedy (wtf?). Voyage and Return and Quest are definitions of plot. Comedy and Tragedy are genres of plot, apposition.
The basic plots are three, death (Monster), Rags to Riches (Rebirth), Union. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
re-mix
good times, good times... Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I watched the movie (suckered in by the marketing I was).
DoDo, was that a conscious Yoda-ism? "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
When George W. Bush moved back to Crawford, Texas, the locals organized a Welcome Home Bash for the ex-president featuring a Lone Star band that included drummer Josh Garner. During Secret Service background checks, Garner was asked, "What is your affiliation with James McMurtry?" It happened that Garner had played with McMurtry, the Austin-based rocker whom author Stephen King calls "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation" and whose searing songs blistered Bush and Bushism. McMurtry took the news in stride, celebrating the fact that he was "on the radar" and releasing a brilliant live album and a DVD featuring the sharpest of his Bush-battering tunes, "We Can't Make It Here."
wow ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
As some of you know, McMurtry is the son of Oscar winnning novelist/screenwriter Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Brokeback Mountain, etc.). James is an authentic product of the Austintacious (Austin TX) singer songwriter scene, where some of my oldest friends got their shit together. It was an honor to be nearly drunk under the table with him.
His band also included the keyboardist from Small Faces (whose name i will remember tomorrow) (Ian McLagen, hah, only took me 11 seconds) who didn't drink as much as us. When i woke up the next (afternoon) i realized i had seen one of the true descendants of Woody Guthrie, and was thankful to be able to spend personal time with him, sharing stories of Austin, and the horror that amurka has become.
You can find youtubes of him from that tour in Yurp, and there is now a live album. I'm not embarrassed to say i was honored to be nearly drunk under the table... but i only had to go around the corner to get home... and he had weeks of touring before him. What a treasure. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
AP Images Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) For a number of years now I have, with wise counsel from Nation colleagues, Washington watchdogs and grassroots activists around the country, worked up a year-end list of Most Valuable Progressives for TheNation.com. Begun during the Bush/Cheney era, the project initially highlighted dissenters against unnecessary wars, unfair economic policies and assaults on civil liberties. As the popularity of the online project grew, it expanded to recognize social and cultural interventions, especially those by activists and artists whose work was not as well-known as it should be. ... Although the MVP list, which makes its print debut here, focuses on individuals and organizations, it is really about issues and ideas. As such, the point is not to identify perfect players so much as to make note of activists and activist groups that may not get enough recognition but that are having a demonstrable effect--in Washington and around the country. That's even more important now that Bush and Cheney are gone and progressives are faced with the daunting task of assuring that Democrats govern with principle and an adventurous impulse.
AP Images Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
For a number of years now I have, with wise counsel from Nation colleagues, Washington watchdogs and grassroots activists around the country, worked up a year-end list of Most Valuable Progressives for TheNation.com. Begun during the Bush/Cheney era, the project initially highlighted dissenters against unnecessary wars, unfair economic policies and assaults on civil liberties. As the popularity of the online project grew, it expanded to recognize social and cultural interventions, especially those by activists and artists whose work was not as well-known as it should be.
...
Although the MVP list, which makes its print debut here, focuses on individuals and organizations, it is really about issues and ideas. As such, the point is not to identify perfect players so much as to make note of activists and activist groups that may not get enough recognition but that are having a demonstrable effect--in Washington and around the country. That's even more important now that Bush and Cheney are gone and progressives are faced with the daunting task of assuring that Democrats govern with principle and an adventurous impulse.
