text:
Arabian (arabian) wrote,

8.07 - 'The Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You' (The Vampire Diaries)

At last, at last it's here!!! Just before the new episode!

I watched this the night it aired and had a few minor issues… OK, I am lying, I ranted a bit to a friend and in my notes. I had more than a few issues and they weren't minor. However, it was the mid-season finale and per usual I figured I probably wouldn't get to writing this up until shortly before the winter premiere. (Cutting it close I know.) I was actually glad that it fell that way because whenever I am not rah!rah!rah! about an episode, I always want to give it some time and another look. Generally, I find when I do so my takeaway the second time around is much improved. Such was the case with "Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You." (Gah, these titles… first the ridiculous song ones of season 6 and now these quotes. Originally I thought this would be a good idea, and a few of them work ("Hello, Brother," "Today Will Be Different" and "An Eternity Of Misery") but the others are too long and clunky as titles of episodes. So lame. Ugh.)

Moving on… so, yes, I rewatched this one and while I am still peeved about certain things, I have more substantial hope that they will be resolved before the end of the season/series {sobs}. One of those things that I don't expect to get "resolved" is OK with me because if a person isn't going to change after two plus lifetimes, it's probably never going to happen. Of course, I am talking about Stefan and his ever-present need to martyr himself while simultaneously suiting the narrative to fit what works best for him.

In this case, that not-quite-how-it-happened narrative would be the deal with Cade. Oh, Stefan. He tells Cade to let him out of their deal (yeah, like that's gonna happen) and doesn't mention his brother at all. Stefan, tsk, tsk! When you think about it, it's even worse than just not mentioning Damon in the ‘get out of the deal with the devil' plea. *Damon* is the one who came up with and arranged the deal that saved the twins. Stefan then took the credit for it essentially—otherwise, Ric wouldn't have, you know, killed Damon for endangering his kids. Now, Stefan is trying to get out of a deal that he didn't make, but took credit for, without even paying up… leaving that bit of it all for Damon. Dude, Stefan! He wants the reward of Caroline and Ric thinking that he's the bestest for saving their children, but have Damon do all the work before and expects him to do it after as well. However, as I said, certain aspects of people just aren't going to change no matter how long they live. I touched upon this after the last episode:

I was furious… with Stefan. [...] But, even in that aftermath of heat, I knew that it wasn't bad writing here. Nope, Stefan was 100% in character. And after calming down a bit, I can't even blame Stefan (still be mad at him, sure!), not when his entire existence he's been pretty much shown that his happiness, his wants, Stefan, Stefan, Stefan always come first. His mother, his father, even Damon from a young age taught him this. The townsfolk clearly considered Stefan the 'Golden Boy' over his older brother. Then Katherine came along and she preferred him to Damon; Lexi showed up in his life and made it clear that it was Stefan who was the special snowflake that must be protected and taken care of all the while just letting the OTHER newbie vampire just take off because, eh, screw him. And then Rebekah… and Klaus, and Elena and Caroline.

At this point in time, Elena is literally the only person who ever decided that Damon was worth all of the fuss too. But everyone else, during Stefan's entire time on this Earth, put Stefan first, the special snowflake that he be. So of course he thinks that way… how could he not? He certainly does care about others, but when it comes down to it, he thinks about his happiness and pain first because… well, that's what he has been trained is the most important thing ever.
What happened in this episode played off of that. When he doesn't like a situation, Stefan remembers it in his mind in such a way that he can (a) not blame himself (because everything is ultimately about Stefan and he only "blames" himself for things that make him look good because he's so sorry), and (b) blame someone tangible for something that interrupts his planned future. Because again… all about Stefan and what Stefan wants. That's just how the world turns; it revolves around Stefan Salvatore. It is what he has been shown as the truth his entire existence. Unfortunately, Damon—due to his proximity and willing to do the hard stuff—is often the "someone tangible" that Stefan chooses as his whipping boy. Sad, so sad… but we hurt the ones we love the most, right? Right, Stefan?! *sigh* I do love him, but I also don't see him through rose-colored glasses. Stefan slips into martyrdom whenever bad things happen and Damon (or another appropriate replacement, Klaus, Elena, Katherine…) nicely fills the culpability role. He always has; he always will. That doesn't mean that he doesn't love his brother. He does, he just thinks that his personal happiness matters more.

After all, at the end of the day, when he made the new deal with Cade, he did include Damon, working in his freedom as well. Again, he loves Damon, but he's also mad at him for taking away his happy (even though that was a consequence of saving Caroline's kids, but… whatever, right?) He was pissy with Damon throughout the episode and emo at the end when Damon picked him up on the side of the road. Oh, Stefan. So judgmental about your brother when you know you've done so much worse. OK, well, actually, I guess he doesn't "know" exactly. Yes… Monterey.

I know; I know. I have read many a person claim that the events described in this episode do not fit what we've heard in the past. However, I went back and looked at the transcripts for every reference to Monterey and… nope, they played true. Even Stefan not recognizing Monterey as the site of his attack on the migrant workers fits in with what has been previously said about his Ripper days. In Stefan's journals—that were read in "The End Of The Affair"—he specifically mentioned that he blacked out a lot during his Ripper phase. With Seline altering Stefan's subconscious enough so that he forgot on his own that makes sense that he would just imagine later that the attack was yet another one he blacked out. Plus, it's very plausible that Stefan only knows about the events of Monterey—and in the loosest sense—because of what other people have told him (like Klaus' reference to the migrant camp attacked in Monterey).

The only thing that I find a bit of a stretch is that no one ever mentioned that the attack took place on Christmas. Clearly, the show chose to do that in this telling of what happened in order to fit with the holiday theme of the episode. Still, other than knowing the year (1917) we've never heard anything to contradict that it took place on Christmas Eve. And, if one wants to be generous, it is not that inconceivable that the few who have mentioned that event to him just didn't mention the holiday if it was just a passing reference like ‘Hey, you're the Ripper of Monterey!' It's not like Stefan would want to talk about it in any circumstance. With his switch off, sure he would have no problem giving up the details… but he didn't remember (and, again, he wouldn't question that because: blackouts). Then with his humanity in full-mode, there is no way he would want to hear anything beyond the phrase "Ripper of Monterey" because the little bit that he has heard sickens him and has deepened his guilt. So, yup, nothing that we heard about Monterey in this episode contradicted what has been said in the past.

Now since it has been discussed more than once, I'm not surprised that the show decided (in their last season) that they were going to finally tackle what happened there. Sadly, the reveal stayed true to every other Stefan flashback episode that featured him as the lead focus (without a heavy dose of either Damon or Katherine). (Of course, except for the glorious "An End To The Affair," but that was written by my beloved Caroline Dries and introduced the always-awesome Rebekah.)

It just wasn't… dynamic, horrifying, compelling? I can't think of the right word... good as it could, or rather should have been considering the build-up. Other than seeing the children waiting for Santa in the pre-credits scene—which, of course, meant that Stefan killed them too—the flashbacks were just kinda there. Don't get me wrong, the fact that Stefan ripped apart kids—damn!—is horrific, but the overall story and script, as well as the direction, of those scenes just didn't get across any sense of chilling devastation or horror. For example… take Klaus' massacre of his sire-broken hybrids and the murder of Carol Lockwood. The script by Michael J. Cinquemani and Julie Plec, and the magnificent direction by Pascal Verschooris made those scenes memorable, chilling, haunting and damn good television. This is what I wrote about that sequence:

Klaus on a murderous rampage... oh boy! Klaus slaughtering hybrid after hybrid after hybrid and so on and so forth to "O Holy Night," and then drowning a drunk Carol Lockwood to a ghostly version of "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas" was all kinds of wrong. So very, very, very wrong. And so VERY, VERY, VERY awesome. SO FREAKING AWESOME! That was some sickly-twisted, beautifully-poetic work on display tonight.
We've heard enough about what happened at Monterey that we should have gotten something equally as terrible and awesome. Using Seline as they did in this episode would have still worked. Imagine that she came upon him writing his list of names—which he didn't do out of guilt, but rather out of savoring the kills—and thought he was this vicious creature of pure evil. And then when she entered his mind, she realized that at heart, in his soul, he is not evil. His switch is flipped because he can't deal with the incredible, overwhelming guilt that he is a vampire who rips when exposed to human blood. But he needs human blood to survive. Then have her react to this, not because he's a pure special snowflake, but because that was a conflict that she had felt growing within herself. Seeing it all lain out before her in such stark terms in Stefan's mind would naturally be a catalyst to her change of heart.

Instead, we didn't see a Stefan committing horrific acts. Instead, we saw Stefan writing the names on the wall as if in guilt—now, that was a retcon!—and warning Seline to stay away from him. Instead of seeing what Seline's dialogue told us she saw ("When I looked into his mind, I didn't see evil. I only saw anguish.") she saw anguish in his person, on his face, in his demeanor. It was all out there, of course, so that she could see Stefan (like so many others) as the special snowflake that he is. It was fucking Lexi all over again, but there was no Damon around to ignore and screw over this time.

More overt, though, was Cade's reaction to Stefan. He accepted Damon's deal (yes, Stefan, it was Damon who made the deal) just so that he could have Stefan Salvatore, Special Snowflake extraordinaire, under his control. Really, show? How is this not a repeat of Klaus wanting Stefan so desperately in seasons 02 and 03? Oh, and technically, Katherine (and Silas) too. The big bads just can't get enough of the Special Snowflake that is Stefan Salvatore. Yes, they all wanted him for different reasons, but come on already! This is the kind of stuff that upsets viewers and makes Stefan less a favorite than he should be.

I don't know if I'm bothered because this is such a repeat of Klaus and his desire to have Stefan be bad with him—forcing him to become a Ripper to save Damon's life, switch out Damon for Caroline's girls and not much different—or if it's because it's Stefan being the object of desire by the Big Bad again. Or maybe it's because this is the last season and it's the same old thing and I expect better. Or it could be because the set-up and direction of this aspect of the episode wasn't as strong as the (many) past times when Stefan's milkshake brought all the villains to the yard. I know! It's a combination of all of the above with a particular nod to the first point.

Overall, The Vampire Diaries has done a very good job of not repeating itself in bad ways. The parallels and callbacks are a different kettle… those are brilliant and enrich the show. But near-replicas of a story we've already seen? Not so much. *sigh* Still, it's happening, and at least Damon is along this time—although, still not the chosen one. I'm hopeful that the fall-out will be as awesome as the show generally is. I've said that I'm going to wait out any issues I have until the season and/or series is over, and I intend to stick to that plan. It has been the right call (mostly) so far.

An immediate reaction to something seemingly stupid and/or annoying doesn't give enough time to show where things are going. For example, when Cade accepted Stefan's deal to rip away for him in a shorter time frame—and Cade offered up a year as the marker—I thought it was ridiculous. Cade had his Sirens on call for millennia and he's willing to give up Stefan (and Damon) after just one year? Right. Ah, but there was more… Cade doesn't think that he'll only have him (and presumably Damon) for a year. He believes that Stefan, Ripper!Stefan, won't want to walk away and then he will have him forever. Aha! See, patience, grasshopper. I just will have to be a little more patient for a few other things that have me not quite as thrilled as I could be.

Like, oh, the continuing treatment of Damon that sucks. But… I get it. Trust me, I want to be the Damon fan-girl who just sees that they are being so mean to my precious Damon for no reason at all! So unfair! {pouts in the corner} Alas, there are reasons, and they make sense. Damon—with a few exceptions—has always presented himself to this group of people as an asshole. There isn't a nice way to put it… that's the simple truth. He's sarcastic, he makes nasty comments about their lives, their choices, their intelligence, their… well, everything. We know that he loves them. Elena knows that he loves them. We also know that they do care about him. The problem is that, as Damon told Elena, all the way back in late season 03:

Elena: Why don't you let people see the good in you?
Damon: Because when people see good, they expect good. And I don't want to have to live up to anyone's expectations.
This is the philosophy with which Damon has lived his undead life when his humanity switch is flipped to the on position. And this is partly why the others are having such a difficult time grasping that Damon is being *literally* controlled by the Devil (and his minion). Damon only turned his humanity switch off this time because he doesn't want to do the things that the Devil (and his minion) were/are making him do, and the only way he can deal with it is with his switch off. The reason they don't see this (obvious to us… and I'm sure it would be to Elena) is because when they first met Damon, his humanity was off. First impressions die really hard, especially when you carry one of the most unlikable aspects of that first impression (being a dick) throughout the course of a relationship.

The first time that we saw the group collectively not hold Damon accountable for terrible things that he was doing was at the end of season 07 when he and Enzo were taking over the 'evil in the vault.' Alas, with Enzo being able to withstand that evil and being free of it now, in addition to seeing Damon once again with his humanity off—not to mention killing one of their own—that defense is no longer working for them. Even though it should be. Still, human nature generally does the dance of one step forward, two or three steps back. Before judging them for turning on Damon, one must take several things into account along with the Damon they first met. There was all of the no good, very bad things that Damon did in the aftermath of losing Elena.

Stefan was right. Hellstone!Stefan was right. Damon has reverted to being a total dick who is crapping all over his life. The Damon that Valerie knows is a selfish, asshole brother and so of course she thinks he's the worst. Bonnie had every reason to write Damon off after what he did to her. […] We were told by everyone and their dog involved with the show that Damon would be like season 01 Damon. And it's true in many ways. He's been making rash decisions. He's been making selfish decisions. And he did desert Stefan and Bonnie... and in Bonnie's case, his plan was to not even tell her face to face. Going back to early on in the season you had Damon ripping Malcolm's heart, messing up Stefan's plan which did lead to Caroline (and Elena's coffin) getting kidnapped, playing his whole cold-hearted revenge against Lily that led to a lot more death and destruction, etc., etc.
Then to make matters worse, he coffin'd himself for three years and in that time frame everything was dandy* but for Bonnie's situation, but she had Enzo and their love. Damon wakes up and joins the fun once more and the first thing he did was almost kill his brother because he didn't want to give up being with Elena in the future. And Bonnie… remember, her only happiness was with Enzo? Yeah, after fixing his Stefan-screw up, he crapped all over Bonnie and her relationship.

* Even thought it was dandy because Damon got rid of Rayna (who actually woke up before he did and everything that happened would have happened anyway had Stefan not needed his brother by his side in his time of need). However… cause and effect. People just don't look too deeply and analyze the whys and wherefores if things are good. There was no Damon for three years and it was sunny skies and calm breezes for all. Damon came back, and the world turned to shit. But, but, but… he made up for that stuff with saving Stefan and helping Bonnie, right? And, hello! The Devil! Damon is literally being controlled by the Devil (and minion). Enzo broke free. That's what it comes back to. I wrote after the last episode:

The scenes with just [Bonnie and Enzo] could have been lifted out and it wouldn't have hurt the episode's arc at all. But it didn't have to be that way! Had Bonnie realized (or Enzo explained) that Damon's giving up happened while Enzo held on was because of Enzo's history, those scenes would have mattered in the scheme of the episode. Instead, the only mention of Damon was what we already knew Bonnie believed. Damon gave up and you didn't! How about after his explanation of *why* Enzo didn't, either one of them have a little flash of understanding about why Damon did.
I've been thinking on this some more.... what was the point of that scene? Viewers already knew that Enzo's decades of torture is what allowed him to fight Sybil; we were told that in an earlier episode. Sure, we didn't witness Bonnie specifically getting that information before, but why would we? It would just be a waste of time since we already knew. Also, as I stated in the previous write-up, what Bonnie said about Damon not giving up, but Enzo didn't was something that we knew that Bonnie already knew. So if they weren't going to figure why Damon wasn't able to, again, why that repetitive conversation? Unless… the point was to remind viewers about that very fact.

We'll see. Maybe I'm wrong, but Enzo being able to withstand the mind control and Damon not has been a repeated point both with explanation (via Enzo and Damon to Sybil) and without (Bonnie… and presumably the others). I go back to the fact that the others (including Bonnie, and Stefan) don't know the true horror of what Enzo went through. Only Damon does… and to a degree Elena because Damon told her. So they can't fathom why Enzo was able to resist Sybil since they can't fathom the level of torture that Enzo went through.

Hopefully, this will all come to light and get the Scooby Gang to realize how wrongly they have treated Damon. Another thing that may help is a potential act of redemption on Damon's part. There just has to be something coming up with Damon and/or Stefan redeeming themselves to get out of this deal and stay out of hell in the afterlife. Or else they wouldn't have brought it up twice now. Seline's mention in atoning as a path in "Detoured On Some Random Backwoods Path To Hell" and she talked about it more in this one. With no deal in play for her, she's relying on redemption. She specifically said: "Redemption is the only chance I have." That means… Damon and Stefan have a chance at redemption as well. The show has often given information that pertains to supporting and/or recurring characters as a set-up for that very thing making a bigger impact with one or more of the leads.

So exactly how will the boys redeem themselves? Well, I think that it's possible that Damon (or Stefan... but probably Damon since he was the one who did the deed) will make a deal with Cade to bring Tyler back. The reason I think this is possible was because we had that long-drawn out close-up of Stefan dying, him going all marbled, etc. This despite the fact that we knew absolutely that he would come back fine. This stuck out to me because we already got that moment with Damon in the previous episode, so why again?

Maybe to highlight that when a supernatural creature is dead, Cade has the power to bring them back. Maybe one doesn't go to Hell right away but stays in that "waiting room" before they enter Hell for eternity that Cade told Stefan the Boarding House happened to be during Stefan's down-dead time. Now, remember we also saw nice, clear close-ups of dead Tyler. Who may only be in the waiting room to Hell… uh huh. Being the reason that Tyler is brought back would definitely help Damon's position with the others, especially since he was under Sybil's control when he took out Tyler. You know, Sybil, the Devil's minion. That, along with the realization about Enzo likely being one of the very few people—possibly only one—who could have resisted Sybil's mind control will get them all to realize how bad they've done Damon. Especially Matt and Alaric.

I still get why Matt and Alaric did what they did to Damon. (I don't like it, but I get it.) Even in this episode, Ric clearly still doesn't know that Damon was the one who made the plan to save his girls. When Sybil said that she "cosigned Damon's plan," only Caroline and Stefan were there, not Alaric or Matt. Not to say that Matt wouldn't have signed onto Ric's plan just for Tyler's sake, but I'm just saying… he doesn't know either that Damon actually saved the twins. The one person who does definitively know though is Stefan. And my irritation about his lack of acknowledgement of what his brother did had me seething in this episode just as it did in the last. Why? Oh, maybe because when Damon told his brother that Ric and Matt had murdered him ("murder," Damon's word), Stefan's only response was to say that it was hard to be sympathetic about his death when Damon was right in front of him. And I get that. I get why there wasn't outrage from Caroline, from Bonnie, from Enzo, from Stefan since Damon showed up looking as fine as ever.

Still… show a little anger over what happened to your brother, Stefan! Tsk, tsk. Well, at least Damon is upset about it. I admit that when I first watched this I missed just how angry Damon was about his "murder." Damon was really, really not happy. He was clearly not only angry, but hurt—although, that he hid well. From his early complaint about Ric and Matt burying him to his rant to Stefan—cut off short by his brother's lack of sympathy—about what happened, his anger was clear. The following comments were sprinkled throughout the episode:

- "Yeah, he and Matt took a whack at me. They even buried me."

- "My murder, Stefan. They actually buried me in a shallow grave, not even in the family plot."

- "You know, Saltzman going all crazy on me did have an unexpected benefit."

- "Your baby daddy staked me and I don't have a scratch."

- "Now, unfortunately, I'm only gonna be able to give it to the most despicably evil person in the room, and that's gonna be a tough decision. But tonight, one lucky little elf is gonna get an all-expense paid, one-way trip, straight to hell."

- "What are you gonna do, Donovan, kill me again?"
Those references to what Ric and Matt did to him (murder… again, Damon's word) started when he first showed up, all the way to just about before he left the Boarding House. Oh, and then there was this doozy!

Matt: Why are you doing this?
Sybil: It's kinda his job
Peter: To murder innocent people?
Damon: {Looking intensely at Matt} Look who's talking about murder
Matt: {Standing up angrily} I never killed—
Damon: Oh yeah, your old flame Penny is pretty dead as a doornai--
Matt: I never murdered anyone--
Caroline: Matt, please {Matt sits back down}
Damon: You know, at least Ric looked a little torn up when that stake went in my heart. And you looked pretty psyched. But I forgive you, Matty. You've had a lot of tragedy in your life. Here's the deal. Ric was just doing the parental thing, much like what he's doing upstairs right now. Do I want to kill him? Yes, but that's personal. This should be principle.
Not that I don't understand why Damon is so angry, they did murder him, but Damon was wrong here about Matt being "pretty psyched" about murdering him. Again, Damon's word—I keep pointing that out, but the fact that Damon isn't using "kill" instead of "murder," I think highlights just how very wrong he found their action. Alaric Saltzman is supposed to be one of his best friends. Damon has been there for him, has looked out for him, protected him and Ric has been about as shitty a friend as you can imagine in response (since he came back from the dead). However, Damon has such low self-esteem that he accepted what he could get. But this… murder without even knowing all of the facts? That's a step too far, even for Damon. As for Matt, no, they aren't best buds (alas), but the last interaction that they shared was Matt saving Damon's life from Bonnie, and Damon opened up to him. Plus, as far as he believed, they were friends. Remember, in "I Would For You," Matt started to call him one. So, coming from Matt Donovan too… it had to hurt.

Going back to my earlier point, though, Damon was wrong when he said that Matt looked psyched. He so did not. He was just stoic, not happy about what was being done. On the other hand, I had missed this, but rewatching that scene again (ouch!), Ric did hesitate and there was a flash of regret there before he staked Damon. Still he did it. He staked Damon. He murdered him… and Matt stood over Ric while doing the deed and didn't try and stop him. So, yeah, if Damon hadn't turned his switch off before during any of this, after Ric and Matt murdered him, he certainly has it off now. Yet, that anger, and yes, pain, is still there… it's just slightly covered by his humanity-less sarcastic wit.

Another benefit of my rewatch was that I was able to see how I had misjudged Caroline. There was one line from her that still isn't my favorite ever, but overall, Caroline actually was not happy with what Ric and Matt did. (Obviously not for herself but for Stefan… and Elena.) She sounded not only shocked when Ric said he killed Damon, but it was also an angry sort of shock. Later she told Bonnie, "Don't even get me started on what Matt and Ric just tried to pull." The whole situation was not one of her liking. And after Damon took Stefan out for most of the day, she was freaking out just a little bit: "Damon's alive, as you can see. Bonnie and Enzo are late. And Stefan's dead! Merry Christmas. I've got gifts." And then she all but chugged from the bottle in her hand.

Her day looked like it was going to end on an even worse note. Thank goodness, Stefan woke up in time to give her one happy Christmas memory. But before that happened, *sigh* ... the girls were opening presents on the floor when Ric told her that they needed to get going soon. Oh, my… her face as she told him that she knew, as she looked at her daughters. It was a small moment, but featured some great acting by Candice King. She smiled and there weren't even tears, but her devastation was written all over her face.

Still, there was that one line that bugged. As she handed Damon his gift, she told him that he would ask for her forgiveness one day. I was like whu? Ask forgiveness for what? For saving her children? For saving them from being eternal servants of damnation for the Devil? The only way I can see it making sense—but I still don't like it because… yeah, he saved the twins—is that she was thinking about Stefan lying dead upstairs. Because Damon killed him, Caroline wasn't able to enjoy her last day in possibly forever with her fiancé. And, hey, at least it led to her giving Damon Elena's once-upon-a-time necklace. Ooh, you guys… there was SO MUCH ELENA in this episode, I loved it. Heck, I even was able to make a Damon and Elena icon! I don't care if it was a flashback… it was Damon and Elena and it was featured in this episode. So there! Not only was Elena so present, most of the stuff about her was awesome-sauce.

Let's talk about that good stuff first, shall we? So on The Vampire Diaries today, it was Stefan's turn to leave an entry for Elena. And… it was all about his love for Caroline. *sigh* I love that Stefan and Elena are so beyond anything resembling romance that not only do they discuss their significant others with/to each other, but they have no compunction in revealing how deep that love is. *double sigh*

Oh, and speaking of past tense, did you notice that when Cade showed Stefan the high school hallway right before he met Elena, Stefan said, and I quote: "I loved her." That's right, past tense, bitch! No, I'll never stop enjoying any and everything that clearly shows that Stefan and Elena romantically is so very much a thing of the past. Hmm, and the reason that they are the past is because they were never meant to be. It all started pear-shaped… and someone has finally (to some degree) acknowledged that. I was beyond thrilled to hear a character mockingly tell Stefan he was the reason that Elena's life took such a dark turn since he "had to know her" (and, yup, direct quote there). Seriously glory in this awesome:

Cade: She already had enough tragedy in her life. You just had to insert yourself. All because you "had to know her." You took a good girl whose life was headed down the right path and you veered her right into the median.
Stefan: That was never my intention. I tried to protect her.
Cade: Never meeting her... was the only way to protect her. But instead, you chose a total stranger and turned her into something dark.
Booyah! Cade calls it like he (and I) sees it. Uh huh! OK, two more specific things. I liked that Cade said that Elena was veered right into the median because that has got to mean that Elena is not going to Hell. Which is how it should be… she's a very good person who is not as good as she once was, but we can blame that on Stefan (as does Cade). It doesn't take away from the fact that she's still a pretty dang good person. She only killed twice as a vampire, and once was to protect her family against a ruthless hunter, and the other time was when her humanity switch was off. And she only turned her switch off because her brother was killed (and this was after her mother, her father, her birth mother, her birth father/uncle, her aunt and her technical step-father/guardian were already dead). Elena be good people.

The second thing is that while it's true Stefan did wrong by veering Elena into the dark path he did, had he not done so… she never would have fallen in love with Damon, the love of her life. The one who gives her true happiness. Uh huh. Now, let's go there, oh yeah! Damon and Elena! Damon and Elena! SQUEE! Just seeing Elena's necklace was enough to flip Damon's humanity switch. He saw it and he thought of her, of when he gave it back to her as an 18th birthday present. And thank goodness for that because, ugh, I thought that Damon was going to kiss Sybil and I was not down for that. So indeed, thank goodness that Caroline gave Damon that locket as a present. (Talk about re-gifting!) Oh, and having that coming back to Damon just re-confirmed my long-held belief that the necklace is a symbol of love for Damon and Elena. Despite being introduced as a gift from Stefan to Elena it was as early as "Rose" (the eighth episode of season 02) that the connection changed partners. From that episode to scenes featuring it in season 03 and 06, and now season 08, that connection has continued.

Awesome! Also awesome? Was when Damon returned to one of his favorite hobbies and ripped out Sybil's heart. I can't help it, I love her, but still... go Damon. And then, oh my, after he sat the heartless Siren down, he made sure to take that locket back. Of course, because it's Elena… and Damon loves Elena so much! *sigh* and *squee* My ♥ !

Erm, so you know how I mentioned above that everything involving Elena was mostly awesome-sauce? Well, here's the one part that was not. Yes, it led to all of the above with Damon (smart, Caroline!), but when Bonnie told her that Damon wouldn't be doing any of this if Elena were there, I threw my hands up in frustration. Duh! Elena wouldn't have given up on Damon so easily like you did, Bonnie! Yeah, and Elena would have fought for him and not stopped after just a few attempts like Stefan did... Although, hey, Stefan was the only one who at least did try. {grumble, grumble}

Of course, it's pretty clear that Bonnie isn't thinking straight right now. She's just enjoying her happy, sexytiems with Enzo to the point that the devastation her best friends are going through just isn't filtering through. 'Oh, joy, Paris!' That girl is all about Enzo to the exclusion of not caring about her friends' pain. Not just Damon, her actual best friend, but also Caroline, one of her long-time, since childhood, best friends. Caroline is losing Stefan for at least a year (and Bonnie didn't know that part, only that she was losing Stefan... forever possibly). On top of that, she's losing her daughters as well for however long.... I get that Bonnie is still somewhat in the honeymoon phase with Enzo, but still, this is not cool.

At least she and Enzo managed to pull themselves out of bed to find the tuning fork, and showed up to the Christmas party in time to save Peter's life. And, speaking of that tuning fork… hmm, so why is it affecting Bonnie so? The discussion she had with Enzo about the psychic basis of witchydom has got to be leading somewhere! Maybe it's just about Bonnie getting her powers back, or maybe it's something more… Hmm.

At last, at last, here are some random thoughts—

- OMG! Paul Wesley's "facial hair" was so not well done. No, no, no.

- On another shallow note but at the other end of the spectrum, I loved Caroline's dress.

- Speaking of Caroline, she helped set-up one of my favorite Damon lines of the episode. It made me laugh more than I probably should have, but even reading it here, it still makes me laugh:

Caroline: I didn't have time to poison it.
Damon: Well, you already poisoned the bourbon with milk and cinnamon, so...
- Another great line, although not Damon's was when Sybil chastised Stefan for not acknowledging that she saved the "munchkins" (TM Damon): "Put away your umbrella, Stefan. I don't need your shade."

- And on Sybil again, I don't know why watching her decimate that turkey was so hilarious, but it really was. Probably because Caroline's facial expression between moments of powerful bird-breakdown most likely mirrored those of the audience.

- One more Sybil… Hah! She looked so giddy and excited when Damon announced his plan to kill the most despicably evil person in the room at dinner. I love her. I know; I know… she has to die. She will, but in the meantime I will continue to enjoy her.

- As soon as I saw that Seline's list was of her victims, I did think of what we found out about Stefan and his list-taking so I wasn't surprised to see them go there.

- Georgie! You were gone too soon!

- OK, I was wrong. Seline telling a willing Tammy (the owner of the home where Seline was spending Christmas Eve) to sing showed that the Sirens can use their power over females.

- Bonnie sounded so surprised to hear that Stefan was responsible for the attacked work camp... what a shocker! Not. Only Damon, Elena, Klaus and Rebekah have a clue as to just how bad Stefan's worst deeds are.

- Ah, Caroline trying to keep the peace and have a nice holiday dinner. My favorite example of that was when she slammed the au gratin potatoes dish down on the table after Damon explained his new duties. With a tight smile, she told the group that "Stefan made them. They're a Salvatore recipe." Oh, my Caroline.

- Even though Matt was not being very nice to Damon, I still felt so bad for him finding out that his father had no reason to ditch him at all. He was just some loser who didn't want the responsibility of a family in a small town. I don't know if it's better that Matt knows the truth or not. Poor Matty (Damon called him that!), he has/had such crappy parents, his sister was a selfish druggie, he's lost every girl he's loved (either by dumping or death—although there's still Rebekah!) and all of his close friends left town or are dead. The supernatural has definitely caused problems in his life, but, really, his life has pretty much always sucked. Poor Matt, when will he get some happiness? (Calling Rebekah!)

- Another bit of dialogue that I really liked although not because it was funny; it was just a well-written. Cade telling Stefan why he wants him to get people who are good: "Good people who can be made wicked. They are evil at their core. Their souls are unusually potent. Those are the ones I want to feed on most of all."

- Hmm, so what does Sybil want from Peter? This was brought up way back in episode 04 and we still don't know.

- I so did not want it to happen, but I'm not gonna lie... that near-kiss between Damon and Sybil? Yup, of course Ian Somerhalder has chemistry with Nathalie Kelley too. Of course, he does. He's Ian Somerhalder.

- Aww, the Stefan and Caroline kiss under the mistletoe because Stefan wanted something he planned for that day to happen was adorable. I do love them even if Stefan can be a selfish, self-martyring poopyhead sometimes.

- The shot of the Mystic Falls city limits sign about to be in Stefan's rearview was cool.

- Paul Wesley did an awesome job showing Stefan flip his switch. The camera didn't move from his face, it was all on his acting. With a slow blink, he went from Saint Stefan to Ripper Stefan in an instant. And out came a chilling, heartless smile. Oh, Stefan.

- I am curious to see how they are going to get both brothers out of this. I'm not so worried about how Elena is going to come back—I'm thinking that the girls are the key to that. After all, Kai never would have not had an out in order to torture Damon and Bonnie with… he said that they couldn't use magic to break the spell. Well, Kai was a siphon, he wouldn't have used magic, but rather he would have removed it. As far as he knew, only himself and the Heretics—none of who were team!Damon or Bonnie at the time—would have been able to do that. He thought he killed Jo's babies, so there was no risk of either of them having the siphoning power. And that all happened so long ago—four years now—that it makes sense that no one would have thought of it yet.

So, yeah, no worries about how Elena will be awoken. (I could be wrong, yeah, but I think that's how it will happen. If not, well, it will still happen some way.) Still… how do the brothers escape from the actual Devil? There's no way that we're going to come back to a time-jump of one year… or are we? If that happens, a good remainder of the rest of the show might be trying to bring Stefan back from his Ripper self. Hmm… we'll see.

Well, that was the mid-season finale. It was very good, but it was not great—although there were definitely some great things in it. (Like so much Elena! And the Damon and Elena stuff of squee!) I look forward to what is to come. (Only nine episodes left! WAAH!)
Tags: alaric saltzman, bonnie bennett, caroline forbes, damon salvatore, damon/alaric, damon/bonnie, damon/elena, damon/matt, elena gilbert, ep discussion-tvd, matt donovan, rebekah mikaelson, rebekah/matt, stefan salvatore, stefan/caroline, the vampire diaries, tv

  • Post a new comment

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Type: response

text:
Elephant Coast Domestic tourism and beach access

Continue reading

Uncle Andrew is leaving us, but who will take his place ?

Andrew Zaloumis is apparently leaving the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) and we need to know who will be taking his place? ARBU - profile picA

Uncle Andrew has been the CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority since its inception as the Greater St. Lucia wetlands Park World Heritage site.  Andrew Zaloumis has done many things that please politicians and the elite who have benefited from his tyrannical rule, but the folks on the ground within the St. Lucia / Dukuduku area are not very happy with the IWPA and their attitude to the local tourism market.

The fact that so many folks lost their economic opportunity due to the #4x4ban and its long term negative knock on impact within the local tourism industry of the Elephant Coast is still a very sore point that needs some attention.  The new CEO will need to either fend these folks off some how, or allow some form of vehicle access to the Elephant Coast beaches.  Either which way this new CEO for the IWPA will be stepping into a very hot seat that was vacated due to some pressure of unknown origin.  Why did #UNCLEANDREW decide to leave this lucrative position of power?

The truth will come out soon enough, but in the mean time we do need to prepare for the coming actions.  The ARBU or Association of Recreational Beach Users needs your support in the form of a mandate, and you can read more about that here or go along and sign the petition here

What will Andrew be doing once he leaves the IWPA after more than 17 years as the undisputed tyrannical boss, who bulldozed folks over and got away with many political issues due to his personal relationship with #UNCLEJACOB the top man in the ring of politics.  Will the former CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park be prosecuted for his part in the wilful and deliberate neglect of the fish breeding grounds that come along with an estuary-system, or will the destruction of our heritage go unpunished ?

ARBU - profile picA

The fact that the central government, the provincial government and the local municipal government have not got their acts together and implemented the St. Lucia Estuary Management Plan is all in the hands of  #UNCLEANDREW , but now that he is stepping aside who will we blame for this ecological disaster ?

The Mtubatuba local Municipality and the Umkhanyakude District Municipality were continually sidelined and pushed out of the picture by the IWPA.

ARBU - profile picA

The KZN legislature gave Uncle Andrew Free reign

The central government just said  “YES SIR… YES SIR   THREE BAGS FULL SIR”

The department of Agriculture has not instituted an estuary management plan within the St. Lucia Estuary catchment zones because there is no such plan…. this is purely because the IWPA   under the direct leadership of Andrew Zaloumis made it difficult to achieve.  Without the direct input of the IWPA and the local residents of ST. Lucia the mandated Estuary management plan for the St. Lucia Estuary is set to fail and cause more harm than good.

The fact that the IWPA has not held meaningful public participation process meetings with the public to discuss the ecological disaster at hand is a very serious concern, and the CEO is leaving as the issue becomes a threat to tourism within the Umkhanyakude district Municipality.

Which way to go and where should this problem be attacked from?

ARBU - profile picA

We need to attend the IWPAPPP or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority Public Participation Process, and I will soon be writing more about that, along with where and how to register as an IAP or Interested and Affected Party.

Authored by #FRANKIE2SOCKS

ARBU seeks PUBLIC mandate!

The Association of Recreational Beach Users  (ARBU) is an informal Group of concerned people who have come together to tackle the issues of lost jobs, lost economic activity and serious decline of domestic tourism within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site along the Elephant Coast of KZN south Africa and the surrounding areas of the Umkhanyakude district Municipality due to the knock on impact of the 4×4 ban. Continue reading

ARBU seeks your mandate to tackle 4×4 ban issues

The ARBU requires a mandate from the public to take up the problems and issues associated with the 4×4 ban.

Continue reading

Membership Application

Click the link below to fill out a basic application for membership to the association of recreational beach users. When you click submit,  at the bottom of the form, your application will instantly published to our data base and a staff members will validate your application manually during office hours, Monday to Friday, o9 H 00 to 15 H oo and we are closed during public holidays and week ends.

ARBU?A1 — basic application for membership to the Association of Recreational Beach Users

Once your contact details have been verified you will receive our weekly news letter and info update with links to all our social media projects and other membership incentives such as but not limited to  lucky draws for prizes from our sponsors and specials at resorts that support our cause.

4×4 ban and tourism

The proposed new legislation found here is grounds for us as the ARBU (Association of Recreational Beach Users) to take up the issue afresh.

In the past we failed miserably even with the support of T-KZN which was ignored at central government level due to mining policies.

This time around we will be a little better prepared, but only if we can get your help or at least your moral support.

The ARBU has a few different social media profiles in place which are there to funnel visitors to our web pages at http://arbu.info4u.co.za

When we as the management of ARBU stand up at meetings we would like to say that we have a very large support base. To be able to do this the support base must be active, functional and accessible. The ARBU has a social marketing page at http://social.me/arbu which has links to all our social media profiles.

We thus ask that you visit our social media pages and help us by making use of these platforms and

    1. like
    2. share
    3. tweet
    4. circle
    5. promote
    6. or otherwise interact with our SMP’s (Social Media Profiles)

Your help in informing others of our plight and current lack of public interaction would be appreciated, so please get active and let others know of our situation.

We are busy with a membership drive and would like to include as many members as possible. Membership is free, and you will receive our regular (weekly) info update with links to all our posts and online efforts. You will be able to unsubscribe at any time, by following the instructions at the bottom of every news letter.

our social media profiles

Objection to proposed amendments to the 4×4 ban

forwarded copy of mail sent to Jpeter@environment.gov.za in terms of Notice 150 of 2013 as published in the Government Gazette No. 36183 of 1 MARCH 2013

http://social.me/arbu – our social media profiles all in one place, choose the one that suits your needs and communicate with us….

QUOTE  (Sent mail) <<<<<<

MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by with HTTP; Fri, 22 Mar 2013 02:04:52 -0700 (PDT)
X-Originating-IP: []
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:04:52 +0200
Delivered-To: admin@info4u.co.za
Message-ID: <CAKaEUSq6Hy9nu0rr1JepMi6ACJOS=eSbseWe1yEnq6L-HzLHQg@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Objection Notice 150 of 3013 -
From: Frank Gainsford <admin@info4u.co.za>
To: Jpeter <Jpeter@environment.gov.za>, Frans van der Walt <frans@qs2000plus.co.za>
Cc: Petrus Viviers <petrus@forafrica.co.za>, pretpeppie <pretpeppie@vodamail.co.za>,
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Attention Mr. Ryan Peters

All other recipients FYI (also please forward to whom ever you think
may have an interest in these matters, especially if you feel they may
support the |ARBU in our attempts to gain reasonable recreational
access to the Elephant Coast beaches)

Please reply soonest with acknowledgement of Receipt.

If you are not the person appointed to deal with objections to Notice
150 of 2013 in terms of the proposed legislation to close all beaches
to reasonable motor vehicle access please advise who is, as your email
address was listed as the official point of complaint - objection.

Your Notice No 150 of 2013 as published in the Government gazette No.
36183 dated  1 MARCH 2013 is a direct attempt at government to destroy
the  local tourism associated with recreational beach use, and we as
the Association of Recreational Beach Users (ARBU)  hereby object to
this legislation in the strongest terms possible.

The ARBU (Association of recreational Beach Users) will be doing all
within our power to gather the support of the people on the ground and
use all the tools at our disposal to enure that this legislation is
re-written and that it makes provision for recreational beach access
as the original document way back in 2001 had. You may visit our
social media promotional page at http://social.me/arbu where you will
links to our various social media profiles and web site

We will also enure that the gross economic losses associated with this
legislation are dealt with according to the ICMA (Integrated Coastal
Management Act) , the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act),
The WHCA (World Heritage convention Act) and the MSA (Municipal
Systems act) as well as other relevant legislation which is in place
to ensure that the environment is used to create sustainable
Eco-friendly jobs along our coast line.

We will also do all in our power to ensure that those who pursued this
legislation which violates our collective economic rights in terms of
section 24 of the South African constitution are prosecuted for their
part in this very corrupt legislation which in our view is in place to
ensure that the mining of the Elephant Coast sand dunes takes place.
Proof of this is that the legislation makes provision for mining
vehicles to access our beaches, but makes ZERO provision for
recreational beach use in any shape manner or form.

Attached bellow find some correspondence from our supporters. There
are many more people who feel the same way, and the ARBU (Association
of Recreational Beach Users) will be gathering their support, and
channeling their collective anger and frustrations to enure a larger
support base, which will be used to tackle this legislation at local
political level.

The people on the ground are also frustrated and upset that their
situation is not addressed, and that the issue (Read 4x4 ban) which
caused so many job losses, within the Elephant Coast local tourism
industry, is treated so lightly and flippantly by government.  In 2004
KZN tourism issued an objection to similar legislation which was also
just shrugged off by government. Read that objection here

The ARBU (Association Of Recreational Users) will be guided by public
opinion and the current trend is that this legislation needs to be
re-written to include recreational vehicle access to our beaches, or
else we must go for broke and ensure that this legislation is
completely over-turned.

This is how ever not the first choice, as we realise that the
environment needs protection, and that a sustainable plan must be in
place to ensure that our remote coast line does not become like Cape
Town and Durban with hard surface development right into the ocean.

It thus follows that the legislation needs some serious work, and that
the government needs to take the people on the ground into account.
The economic impacts of this legislation for the Elephant Coast  is
huge. in the --  BILLIONS OF RANDS

The minister has in the past claimed to have done economic studies,
and we advise you to verify that these studies were legitimate and
took into account the huge number of job losses as mentioned in KZN
Tourism Occasional paper 20 as well as the true economic value of the
coastal zones of the Elephant coast as a tourism draw card.

It would further be appreciated if your could arrange for the
minister, or a delegate of the minister,  to come to Mtubatuba and
discuss these losses at the Mtubatuba local municipality Integrated
Development Plan Public Representatives Forum  (IDP PRF) so that the
Mtubatuba local municipality could make suitable plans as part of
their IDP (Integrated Development Plan) to assist those made indigent
by the related legislation which this new draft desires to perpetuate.

Looking forward to working with you to have this legislation amended
so as to include provisions for recreational use areas with reasonable
motor vehicle access, so that the local economy of the Elephant Coast
may prosper as it once did.

Regards Frank

Frank Gainsford
072 505 5111

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "pretpeppie@vodamail.co.za" <pretpeppie@vodamail.co.za>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:24:33 +0200
Subject: Fw: Re: Emailing: St. Lucia 4x4-on-beach
To: frank@info4u.co.za

From: Louis Fourie
Date: 3/15/2013 11:47:38 PM
To: pretpeppie@vodamail.co.za
Cc: Nelius.Smith
Subject: Re: Emailing: St. Lucia 4x4-on-beach

St Lucia, Sodwana, Kosi bay South Africa are fishing villages. Most
residents live there because they could make a living from fishing or the
more wealthy live  there because they could drive on the beach to fish or
relax. That is the main recreational activity for locals.

Without consultation vehicles were banned from the beach eleven years ago.
The poor locals since suffer tremendously. Many of the more wealthy locals
relocated. We were promised many hotels and thousands of job oppertunities
but eleven years later nothing has happened and the mayority of locals are
poorer than ever and are suffering more than ever before. They are not
allowed to hunt or catch prawns and are shot dead when caught. They have  to
rob tourists to survive. It is dangerous for any tourist to visit Kosi bay
or Sodwana bay because you will be robbed. Crime is increasing in St Lucia
quickly. The poor locals have no other income or jobs. They are forced to
steal to survive.

The authority is backed and sponsored by the government and Unesco. Under
the name of conservation we are all made to suffer.

Eleven years ago there used to be twenty charter boats and everyone made a
living. Today there are three and they are hardly make a living. The town
has'nt grown at all in size. Not one street has been added!  There was about
fifty small boats for hire by the public........TODAY THERE IS NONE!!!!!!

Total filling station closed. Standard bank closed. Restaurants open and
close regularly. I can go on and on.

Only a handfull of individuals enjoy the money the few overseas tourists
bring in. Hundred thousands of poor locals are exploited, promised a piece
of the cake but nothing. So called illegal houses of local entreprenieurs
were bulldozed and wrecked in the park by officials with fat, fat cheques in
their pockets. No wonder there is so much crime in the park.

And somewhere UNESCO said us locals should'nt be worse off after they
declared an area WORLD HERITAGE

We can see that the authority try to promote overseas Eco tourism but at the
cost of us locals and local tourism. A few days ago on national TV it was
said " The authority does'nt want the brandy brigade in their park and the
overseas tourists' footprint is not so big"  I've seen some senior park
officials as drunk as can be in public.

We asked the minister of conservation as well as the public protector for
help but to no avail. The organs of government are just too strong.

----- Original Message -----
From: pretpeppie@vodamail.co.za
To: Louis Fourie
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:39 PM
Subject: Fw: Emailing: St. Lucia 4x4-on-beach

St Lucia.
Picture 1. The old days with the Estuary open to the sea and 4 x 4"s allow
to drive on the beach.
Photos 2 - 3 - 4 is with a person in the 4 x 4"s  with a disable permit. Feb

 Will it be possible to investigate matters regarding  rules and laws
applied to the the banning of driving and parking vehicles on the beach at
St Lucia.

------Original Message-------

Help !!!!

The country belongs to the people of South Africa and not to individual
people making rules and laws to suit them selves !!
It is our right as South African citizens to drive and park our 4 x 4"s  on
the beach. We stay in a democratic country, vote for a Government and pay
Taxes to keep the country going and on the world map.
We must be given a piece of beach for recreational purposes. Northern KZN,
St. Lucia.
The rest of the world are driving on their beaches  ( world heritage we
asked for in KZN ) except us in South Africa with 3000 km of beaches. What
is the reason for the 4 x 4 beach ban that was implemented by the government
 ( Mr. Moosa )
This law remind the RSA citizens of the apartheid regime !!
We want the president Mr. Zuma to do away with this unacceptable 4 x 4 beach
ban law.

M. Pretorius
RSA Citizen

Contact Info4u <http://www.info4u.co.za> for your internet based
information Technology queries!
We  help small businesses get their information in the cloud.
cloud-computing made
072 - 505 - 5111

Register for iSimanagliso Wetland Park Authority integrated Management plan public participation process (2012)

I have not written here for some time, as I gave up due to the great difficulty in getting the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) to take part in their mandated attendances at the local municipality IDP (Integrated Development Plan) process with any meaningful results.

Many of those who I have spoken to asked me to see what can be done, as they are now “GATVOL” of the disinformation that the IWPA (iSimangaliso wetland Park Authority) is feeding the public and government officials involved in the economic studies and ecological impact assessments as well as environmental impact assessments and other studies undertaken within the IWPWHS (iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site.

There are many acts, laws and a host of legislation which mandate the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority to hold meaningful public participation process meetings relating to the drafting and implementation of their IMP (Integrated Management Plan) and EMP’s (Environmental Management Plans)

The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has side stepped these issues, and this has been covered up at parliamentary level, so we have a big problem. our answer is to collectively force the issue from many angles and make such a big noise that they can not avoid the questions posed by international jounalists and international news publications covering the affairs of the IWPWHS (iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site)

To achieve this we will require your help and moral support. read this blog  http://iwpappp.blogspot.com/ and then decide if you want to register as a concerned citizen of the world and be informed of the public participation process and its results by registering at this site forafrica.co.za/forms/?p=128

many thanx for your time and efforts.

Press Preview – presentation to Mtubatuba Municipality Council

ARBU – Association of Recreational Beach Users is a socio – economic development initiative within the tourism industry of the Elephant Coast for the 4U branded Group and Info4u CC is the prime sponsor of ARBU

The Mayor of Mtubatuba has considered an initial verbal presentation by ARBU (Association of Recreational beach users) of some of the issues around the closure of the coastal zones within Mtubatuba Municipality to reasonable motor vehicle access and the very negative impact on the local economy of Mtubatuba as well as the district wide losses associated with the absence of domestic tourists from the Elephant Coast tourism market caused b the 4×4 ban, and subsequently requested ARBU (Association of recreational Beach Users) to put a presentation together to form a local municipality coastal committee and arrange a meeting of ARBU management committee and the Mtubatuba Municipality council to discuss this further.

Question! : How do we mitigate the considerable losses associated with the 4×4 ban if we are not represented on any committee or forum where these issues are debated and major decisions are taken on behalf of the Mtubatuba rates payers as well as other people living within the Mtubatuba municipal area without our consent or even concern over the potential impact of these decisions on us as a community?

The integrated Coastal Management act makes provision for these issues and puts forward the notion that the economy and people must be considered in all environmental impact assessments especially those associated with coastal management.

In the Intro to the ICMA (Integrated Coastal management act) it states very clearly that “ ensuring that development and the use of natural resources within the coastal zone is socially and economically justifiable and ecologically sustainable “ is one of the many purposes of this act.

The following issues are highlighted in the pre-amble of the ICMA (integrated Coastal Management Act)

  • • Constitutional rights (Section 24 of the South African constitution)
  • • Integrated Coastal Management • sustainable development
  • • Protection of environment
  • • Biophysical, economic, social and institutional considerations
  • • Rich natural heritage
  • • Economic and social benefits
  • • Conservation and sustainable use
  • • A new co-operative approach to coastal management

The last sentence in the pre-amble of the ICMA (integrated Coastal Management Act) states that integrated coastal management should be an evolving process that learns from past experiences, that takes account of the functioning of the coastal zone as a whole and that seeks to co-ordinate and regulate the various human activities that take place in the coastal zone in order to achieve its conservation and sustainable use,

Section 48 in chapter 6 part 3 of the Integrated Coastal Management Act (ICMA) informs us that a coastal Municipality must, within 4 years of the adoption of the Integrated Coastal management Act (ICMA), adopt a Municipal coastal management plan. This plan must be reviewed every 5 years and may when necessary be changed or amended.

Section 49 of the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) specifies the content and structure of a coastal management programme.

There are some special requirements that need dedicated and sincere efforts on our part (Mtubatuba Municipality and all residents) to ensure that our many local communities various needs are addressed. These considerations will include but are not limited to ensuring that our various interest groups and local communities social needs and environmental requirements are brought to the attention of

1. the national coastal management committee
2. the provincial coastal management committee
3. the IWPA coastal management committee
4. The Umkhanyakude district Municipality’s Coastal Management Committee
5. The Environmental Management committee established by the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act)
6. The minister of Environmental affairs
7. Other Ministers which have jurisdiction over any part of our local economy and / or social environment
8. Other forums and / or social structures that will assist the ARBU (Association of Recreational Beach Users) to achieve our purpose, aims and objectives.

This is vitally important for us as a municipality because history has shown us that these proposed and mandated structures and their predecessors have ignored our problems in the past, and treated us within the Umkhanyakude district Municipality, and Mtubatuba in particular like a bunch of grade 1 school children, ignoring all our pleadings about the lost economic opportunities and the many jobs shed within the local tourism industry due to the knock on effects of ROD A /25/8/7/3/2/4/ including the impacts of subsequent alterations to this said ROD which mandated the IWPA to enforce the so called 4×4 ban.

If The Mtubatuba Municipality does not have a Coastal Management Committee in place we have no chance of having our voice heard in the correct forums where our issues are discussed.

With no voice we will never be heard.

The following documents all discuss these issues and inform the reader of economic losses associated with ROD A /25/8/7/3/2/4/ and subsequent amendments.
1. Occasional paper 20 issued by KZN Tourism
2. SEED(Social, Environmental , Economic and Development) report
3. Tourism Report

As the Mtubatuba Town council is well aware, we (ARBU) have been trying to get the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) to discuss these issues and related reports which the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has been mandated to create on an annual basis at the Mtubatuba IDP PRF (Integrated Development Plan Public Representatives Forum).

This has not taken place due to political tactics and poor public participation procedures of the IWPA. The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is a state entity established in terms of the world heritage convention act, and their mandate is to look after the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park World Heritage site, which has been renamed as iSimangaliso wetland Park.

The NEMA (National environmental Management Act) states in chapter 1 section 2 (2) that Environmental management must place people and their needs at the forefront of its concern, and serve their physical, psychological, developmental, cultural and social interests equitably.

The NEMA further states in section 2 (3) that development must be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

History has shown us that the above 2 mandated points of view have not been put into practice and neither have they been considered by the Minister of environmental Affairs and his subordinates in terms of ROD A / 25 / 7 / 8 / 3 / 2 / 4 and its long term impact on the Mtubatuba local municipality’s economy and the serious economic losses within the Elephant Coast tourism industry.

It is thus imperative that the Mtubatuba Municipality establish a coastal management forum and a coastal management committee which will enable the Mtubatuba Municipality to fulfill it’s mandates in terms of
1 the ICMA (integrated Coastal Management Act),
2 the NEMA (National Environmental management Act)
3 the MSA (Municipal Systems Act)
4 the South African Constitution

This Coastal management committee and related forums will give the Mtubatuba Municipality’s residents a voice in the right forums, where our socio – economic issues can be highlighted and addressed in a manner that best suits all citizens of South Africa.

ARBU institutes procedings to establish a local municipal coastal committee

The Association of Recreational beach users has began the procedings to institute a local municipality coastal management committee as is required by the ICMA (Integrated CoastalManagement Act)

We have written a letter to the mayor of Mtubatuba Municipality requesting a meeting to discuss the setting up of this committee as soon as is practicaly possible so that we may proceed to establish the Mtubatuba local Municipality coastal management Committee.

If the Mtubatuba Municipalty does not have a Coastal management plan in place then one will be provided for us in which we will have no input or influence. If we have a committee in place the Act mandates

    the Minister,
    the MEC
    The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority)
    The national coastalanagement committee
    the provincial coastal managemenyt committee

to consult with the local municipality coastal committee on any matters effecting their coastal management plan.

This will alow us as the Association of recreational beach users to have some influence in the matters affecting our members and the potential tourism impacts which any changes to the mtubatuba municipal coastal management plan which may be forecd upon us by the higher levels of the coastal management system envisaged by the ICMA

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-31
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for July/August 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-216.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

text:
GameCube Mainboard

  • $24.99
    Unit price per

Only 1 left!

Original Nintendo GameCube mainboard. The DOL-001 revision includes the digital AV port where as the DOL-101 only had an analog AV port.

All boards have been fully tested and inspected and stored in anti-static packaging. Boards are also in their original state, meaning no work or repairs have been performed unless specifically noted.

There are a several revisions to this board but they are all compatible with the original DOL-001 model and accessories. If there is a specific revision you are looking for, please contact us.

We Also Recommend


text:
Is Architect easy to use?

Once you learn it, yes. It continually surprises even me how powerful, flexible and easy it is.

However, there is a learning curve. Architect is a design and development tool. It’s certainly recommended you have a good understanding of WordPress and its design concepts before using Architect.

Being all-in-one, it has a lot of settings, but that’s what makes it so flexible and powerful. To get familiar with Architect, you will most likely have to read the built-in help, and check out some of the tutorials.

And if you think Architect can be improved, please let us know.

Leave a Comment


text:
People come to us for computer generated imagery (CGI), architectural visualisation and animations, but we like to think that we are more than that.

Based in Bristol and Dorset, it is our belief to support the sales process and for our customers to understand the vision for a project. We help to tell stories and to interpret the ideas and perception for our customers. We support a host of sectors including: property, marine, museums and new product development.

Using the latest software technology it is our duty to bring ideas, proposals and schemes to life. We help create accurate 3D models, ‘walk through’ animations and augmented reality perspectives. The greatest reward is to help a customer sell and to build recognition before a project is completed.

Our role is to help others market and to assist our customers to educate an audience. Walt Disney said that ‘if you can dream it, you can do it.’ We like to think that we are the axis to provide projects with a sense of meaning and a visual interpretation.

Like to have a chat about your next project, click here.


text:
World War II
Discuss WWII and the era directly before and after the war from 1935-1949.
Hosted by Rowan Baylis
Bf 109s over the Mediterranean
Joined: December 23, 2007
KitMaker: 1,596 posts
AeroScale: 1,275 posts
Posted: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 08:07 PM UTC
Another new issue of miniTopColors is out from Kagero Publishing, this time from the warm area of Mediterranean area. Here Michał Sindera takes a look at the Messerschmitt Bf 109s from this theatre of war.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.


text:
Date: April 09, 2015
Author: Golf Australia

10 reasons to set your alarm clock, Australia

10. You’ve got a strange penchant for haunting piano solos.

9. You’ll have the TV to yourself – only golf fans are getting up this early!

8. You’ve gotta ride the rollercoaster with your boy! Most focus on the last nine holes, but to really appreciate the result and how your favourite managed to don the green jacket, you have to go the distance.

7. Go on, admit it. You want to be involved in the water cooler chats next week (yes, it WILL be about golf!!). And if Tiger can fire a shot, that conversation could get heated!

6. This is legitimate history in the making. There are umpteen fantastic storylines waiting to unfold this weekend and the tales will live forever.

5. Ian Baker-Finch. Just admire our man’s passion and knowledge – then remember he’s sitting on a purpose-built perch behind the 12th tee and that an Aussie is in control of commentary on THE real estate in world golf.

4. While we’re on the CBS coverage, take the time to appreciate Jim Nantz’s eloquent gold. The best in the business, by some distance.

3. There is NO better excuse to be late to work on Monday morning. If your boss has one patriotic bone in his body, you’ll be fine. And if we win, the Bob Hawke-style day off is well deserved.

2. All right, you’re not a gardener. But come on, they’re some mighty pretty shrubs and flowers and stuff they’ve got going on.

1. We can win the bloody thing! Seriously. Get around Day, Scott, Senden, Ogilvy and Murdaca. As Scott famously said on the 72nd green in 2013: “Come on, Aussie.”


text:
INN Index 2018: The state of nonprofit news

Other INN Index reports: 2020 DEI | 2020 | 2019

INN Index was originally released in October 2018 as the most comprehensive study to date of the nonprofit news media sector.

The report draws from a deep collection of data from nearly 60 percent of the INN membership in spring 2018. It found that opportunities for greater growth among news nonprofits include diversifying revenue sources, investing in business development and targeting audiences.

Below is the executive summary of the report. If you wish to read the full 24-page report, download it here. If you wish to read the Executive Summary as a PDF, download it here.

Click here for the current year's report.

Foreword: The growth of nonprofit news is a silver lining story.

Until 10 years ago, nonprofit news was generally mentioned as a footnote on the tax status of a few dozen investigative news outlets. Today, the U.S. has more than 200 nonprofit newsrooms and growth is accelerating. Through a decade of economic turmoil, a new kind of journalism has emerged.

From neighborhoods that want reliable local news to readers seeking expert coverage of complex national issues, Americans increasingly find some of their most significant journalism coming from nonprofit newsrooms.

This INN Index report offers the most comprehensive look so far at the state of nonprofit news. It is intended to be a replicable baseline study that can provide the sector with consistent, regular data. Our aim is to help nonprofit news leaders benchmark their performance, surface trends and speed adoption of successful approaches to supporting news. This report provides an overview of the findings. It is just a beginning, and we hope this data will lead to further research and be a resource for many who support and study media development.

Development of the INN Index was generously supported by the Democracy Fund and is a project of the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network supporting more than 180 nonprofit, nonpartisan newsrooms. Nonprofit news today covers many types of journalism, characterized by original, expert reporting and a mission to serve the public good.

Despite relatively small size, these mission-driven newsrooms are beacons of quality journalism. In the prestigious Online Journalism Awards, half of the 2018 news finalists came from nonprofit newsrooms, a stunning share for a sliver of the media industry. They increasingly win public support as well. In just one year-end fundraising campaign, NewsMatch 2017, the public donated $33 million to support nonprofit journalism, much of that from first-time supporters.

We are grateful for the generous time and openness of the 88 newsrooms that participated in the 2018 INN Index study. Through the information they share, we can strengthen the vital role their journalism plays in our democracy.

Sue Cross
INN Executive Director & CEO

No longer a novelty, nonprofit news has established itself over the past decade as a fast-growing field within journalism, producing original and in-depth reporting, according to the most comprehensive collection yet of data about its scope and composition.

The more than 180 members of the Institute for Nonprofit News have a total estimated staff of about 3,000 – including nearly 2,200 journalists – and combined annual revenue approaching $350 million.

They share with legacy media knotty challenges around audience development, distribution and finding new sources of revenue to support their reporting. But the field is starting to develop multiple sources of funding and diverse revenue strategies to fit the range in their missions and the types of communities they serve.

This INN Index is based on in-depth surveys of 88 news organizations and data from the full INN membership. All are 501(c)3 nonprofits whose primary mission is journalism, which can be characterized by their focus on original reporting and commitment to standards of editorial independence and transparency.

Among key findings:

Nonprofits focus on original reporting and deep coverage of civic issues

In-depth coverage of public affairs is a hallmark of the field: Forty percent of the in- depth coverage of public affairs is a hallmark of the field: Forty percent of the nonprofits are primarily investigative, and one in four regard their main mission as analysis and explanatory journalism.

They focus on topics in the public interest. About two-thirds cover government. Two-thirds cover the environment, and well over half cover education or social justice and inequality.

Single-subject news is one of the fastest-growing categories in nonprofit media: publications where specialized journalists cover a single topic, in-depth. A third of news nonprofits focus on a single subject such as health, education, environment or justice.

While tiny by the standards of legacy news companies, the nonprofit sector generates an outsize amount of original journalism and the types of reporting that require significant investments of time and expertise. In a troubled news environment marked by cutbacks at traditional outlets, information vacuums, and the rise of misinformation disguised as news, the nonprofits are providing original and in-depth reporting to many other media as well as directly to the public.

The revenue terrain is improving and stabilizing

The field has moved from precarious financial footing to a measure of stability and growth. Though many individual outlets remain financially fragile, more than half of the organizations generated revenues of $500,000 or more in fiscal year 2017 and well over a third generated $1 million or more. The entire INN membership is now generating an estimated $325 million to $350 million in annual revenue.

That is a much stronger position than in 2015, when INN found that slightly fewer than a third of its members topped the half-million mark, and the largest share, four in 10,were in the $100,000-$500,000 range.

In 2015, nearly a third were under $100,000; in the latest survey, fewer than one in 10 reported annual revenue at that level.

The nonprofit field is still highly reliant on charitable giving, with grants and donations accounting for 90 percent of total revenue. Efforts to diversify revenue streams, a key indicator of financial stability, are evident: More than half have three or more revenue streams, and one-third have four or more.

Still, individual donors and particularly major donors are relatively undeveloped revenue sources for news nonprofits, making up one third of total revenue for the organizations in the INN Index. By comparison, individual donors provide more than 70 percent of revenue for all nonprofits across the U.S., according to Giving USA.

Earned revenue efforts also are nascent and show significant room for growth. With just 10 percent of revenue from fees and services on average, most news nonprofits lag the leaders in their own field and the charitable world overall in developing earned revenue streams.

In a young field, age matters

The field is dominated by outlets that launched in the past decade amid major cutbacks by traditional news organizations. Three-quarters of the nonprofit news organizations launched since 2008. The typical outlet is 8 years old.

Time is a key factor: More mature organizations stand out for their higher revenue and greater reach online. But some young organizations now start out seeking multiple revenue streams, an approach that may prove advantageous as they mature.

Lean operations invest heavily in editorial

Nonprofit news outlets are lean operations that pour nearly two-thirds of their resources into editorial operations, their core mission.

However, they devote less than one-tenth of their budgets to revenue development. That represents an underinvestment by a young field that is working to establish itself, grow and diversify revenue sources.

The spending patterns are within normal or recommended benchmarks for nonprofits overall — to win Charity Navigator’s top financial fitness ranking, a nonprofit must attest that it doesn’t spend more than 10 percent of its budget on fundraising, for example.

However, the INN Index shows that maturity brings more aggressive investment in revenue generation: News outlets that are at least a decade old invest more than startups in building revenue, 15 percent or about double what startups spend in their first two years of operation.

Shifting resources to development is a challenge: Half of all news nonprofits have eight or fewer full-time equivalent employees. Independent contractors make up nearly a third of the labor force, which stands at an estimated 2,900 to 3,000 full-time employees across all INN member outlets.

Audience development poses a challenge

The nonprofits as a group face a dilemma: Do they rely on other publications to distribute their work or build a direct web audience from scratch? The answer may be to do both, and experimentation is likely to continue as media distribution patterns continue to shift.

About one-third reach most of their audience on third-party platforms such as newspapers, broadcast outlets or other online news organizations. Another third have developed their own audiences; they reach most of their readers directly via their own website. The remaining third fall somewhere in between or are pursuing both strategies.

As traditional media continue to lose audience and value as distribution partners, many publishers are looking to increase their direct connection with audiences and distance themselves from the turmoil in social media. As it is, the audience that comes directly to their websites is relatively small: Web traffic for the typical nonprofit newsroom is under 500,000 users per year. Email newsletters also are an area for growth, both as news products and a way to reach and develop financial supporters.

Nonprofit journalism is securing its place and helping create a new ecosystem for news while serving a critical role in American civic life.

News nonprofits are setting a strong course toward community engagement and collaboration. They deploy a substantial body of experienced, expert journalists at a time when other media are cutting back, and the nonprofits increasingly fill gaps in public information. They are starting to diversify the revenue streams that support this important reporting.

At the same time, the INN Index points to areas where the field can grow:

Doing more to nourish individual giving, from both small and major donors. Growing these revenue streams is not just good for sustainability, but also builds stronger ties between publishers and the people they serve. With plenty of programs, case studies and research about building and sustaining reader revenue and membership programs, publishers can draw upon the wisdom surrounding them and apply it to their own unique circumstances.

Investing more in business development. The data suggest that startups should not wait to add revenue-building positions, but invest in them early, and dedicate more than 10 percent of expenses to revenue generation. Journalism funders also could increase the impact of their philanthropy by making leveraged investments in news business development positions within the organizations they support.

Building more targeted audiences. Acquiring and growing broad or general audiences is complicated and costly for any media. For small publishers, it can spread staff and resources thin. Alternatively, more nonprofit newsrooms might move faster by building a base in a narrower specialized audience and then broadening from that to a general public readership, or building one niche or neighborhood base at a time, adding another as they grow.

For the many nonprofits that share their content, distribution beyond traditional media needs to be developed as legacy media audiences keep declining.

There are many other threads yet to be followed from this data, and trends that will surface as this survey continues in future years.

The good news is that the field is evolving and quickly growing as a significant source of original, in-depth journalism. These newsrooms have created a collective incubator for the future of public service journalism, finding new ways to share knowledge, include and engage people in civic life and strengthen our communities.

About the survey

The survey of members of the Institute for Nonprofit News was conducted online in March- May 2018. A total of 149 INN members were invited to complete the survey. This report reflects responses of 88 participants to an extensive questionnaire that yielded about 200 data points about each publication’s journalistic mission, revenue performance, budgeting, engagement and distribution practices. The responses reflect performance during each publication’s fiscal year ending in 2017. Following the field period, data were cleaned for inconsistencies, missing entries and reporting errors.

The survey sample reflects a 59 percent response rate and is representative of all INN members. It gives a robust picture of the general state of nonprofit news publishers. Because the total current population of U.S. based nonprofit news publishers can be estimated but is not fully documented, these data should not be taken to scientifically represent all U.S. nonprofit news outlets, not all of which belong to INN. A further note about the nature of the population being studied: While some public broadcasters belong to INN, the typical member is digital-born rather than a public radio or television outlet. As such, these findings should not be taken to reflect trends in the broader world of all public media.

The survey is the first phase of the INN Index initiative, which will track progress and trends in the field with periodic surveys and will enable INN members to compare their performance to that of similar publications.

INN Index Participants

INN expresses its gratitude to all who participated in the INN Index:

Adirondack Explorer
Alhambra Source
Anthropocene Magazine
Arizona CIR
Aspen Journalism
Austin Bulldog
Better Government Association
Birmingham Watch
Bridge Magazine
Carolina Public Press
Center for Public Integrity
Center for Responsive Politics
Center for Sustainable Journalism
Charlottesville Tomorrow
City Bureau
City Limits
CivicStory - NJ Arts News
Coda Media
Connecticut Health I-Team
East Lansing Info (ELi)
ecoRI News
Energy News Network
Georgia News Lab
High Country News
Highlands Current Inc.
Honolulu Civil Beat
Injustice Watch
Investigative Reporting Workshop
Iowa Watch
Maryland Matters
Migratory Notes
Milwaukee Neighborhood News
Mississippi Today
Mongabay Corporation
National Institute on Money in State Politics
New England CIR
New Haven Independent
NJ Spotlight
Oklahoma Watch
Phil. Public School Notebook
Pulitzer Ctr on Crisis Reporting
Rocky Mountain PBS
Rivard Report
Searchlight New Mexico
Solitary Watch
Solutions Journalism Network
The Chronicle of Social Change
The Colorado Independent
The Connecticut Mirror
The Hechinger Report
The Hummel Report
The Lens
The Midwest CIR
The Mountain Independent
The Nevada Independent
The Seattle Globalist
The Texas Tribune
The Trace
The War Horse
Voice of OC
Voice of San Diego
Wausau Pilot and Review
Wisconsin Watch
Youth Radio

About INN

The Institute for Nonprofit News is a network of more than 180 nonprofit, nonpartisan news media, together strengthening the sources of trusted information for thousands of diverse communities. INN was founded in 2009 to foster a new collective of newsrooms serving the public interest. Today it functions as an innovation network, helping members develop new ways to support journalism and engage communities, providing business, technology and leadership support and a framework for collaboration. INN’s work helps newsrooms bring investigative and civic news to more people, hold the powerful accountable and strengthen democracy.

Report Credits

Authors: Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb
Producer: Jules Shapiro
Editor: Howard Goldberg
Graphic designer: Michelle D. Wise


text:
HP15c LE emulator with unlimited number of activations

I just received an email from a dealer (Jose Gonzalez at TheCalculatorStore) whom I purchased some of my HP15c LE calculators from, indicating that there is a new version of the HP15c emulator that allows an unlimited number of activations, available by ftp from HP.

I was wondering whether there has been any official announcement from HP and do we still need to obtain activation codes from HP?

[...] do we still need to obtain activation codes from HP?

Mine didn't require a code at all, but has a limited activation count. Would you mind posting the link?

Emulator seems to have the PAUSE-bug too!!

With this in mind, Tim was once joking how well the emulation is ;-).

Any ARMed hacker could use it to debug the 15C LE, as I think the 15C emulating hardware inside the LE is emulated itself. Three CPUs involved!

...as I think the 15C emulating hardware inside the LE is emulated itself.

Those layers all add up to monumental wastes of battery energy and other disadvantages.

The HP 15C-LE with emulation performs a 2500-iteration Savage benchmark in 48 seconds. The HP 30b with no emulation layer and a similar processor and CPU speed as the HP 15C-LE performs the same benchmark with identical numerical results in 6 seconds. Thus HP 15C-LE emulation results in 8 times the run time and 8 times the energy usage to complete the same task as the HP 30b. As the HP 15C-LE has infamously shown, emulation adds another realm for introduction of bugs as well.

Emulation = Slow + Energy Inefficient + Buggy.

Emulation = Slow + Energy Inefficient + Buggy.

Certainly, but a small price to pay for HP to actually release what so many have asked for over the years. Could a more robust approach have resulted in a faster, more energy efficient, less buggy HP 15C-LE? I'm sure it could have done, but we'd never have seen it. The world has moved on, and the LE is a nice (albeit imperfect) nostalgia of days gone by. I use mine every day and appreciate that it was a labor of love to (more or less) satisfy a small crowd of dinosaurs, not a benchmark product.

Emulation = Slow + Energy Inefficient + Buggy.

Sorry as emulator developer I couldn't agree. ;-)

- Slow

Sorry, show me a real HP48 that is faster than a HP48 emulated on Emu48 using a PC as host (even if the PC is 10 or more years old).

- Energy Inefficient

I mainly agree, but you might also compare a LED driven HP35 from 1972 with a hardware like DM-15CC emulating a HP35. I'm mostly sure that the emulation would be more energy efficient than the real device.

- Buggy

Of course an emulator is also only software, so it couldn't be, from definition, bug free. 2nd, every description is incomplete. So the description of the original calculator hardware is also incomplete. In many situations a developer use undocumented features. When you ask why, you get answered like "I tested my solution and it works properly. For a documented way I had to spend much more time at development. Further my solution is faster". So the emulator developer must have a look behind the official documentation.

For Emu48 I wrote many test programs for analysing the behavior on non documented situations. Anyway, an emulator cannot emulate the original hardware into it's finest detail, if so you have the original hardware and not an emulation. So an emulator in real world is full of compromises.

Finally, every solution must be payable. It's a big difference if I spend hours of my free time on my personal projects like Emu28, Emu42, Emu48 and Emu71 and a company which have to earn money with their products.

But I agree, sometimes it would be better that companies in general would have a closer look to their products before selling them, than deliver products in poor quality. On the other side, what is better, a product with poor quality or getting nothing comparable?

Your choice. :)

I was...I think fairly obviously...addressing actual real calculator implementation in both its hardware and firmware.

I consider the emulation of a machine on a personal computer or smartphone to be a very good and positive undertaking. But for the real device that is to be sold to consumers, like the HP 15C-LE or the HP 49g+/50g, the emulation layer has only one positive quality...it gets some older legacy system out on the street with some upgraded qualities. Other than that, emulation running on calculator hardware has no positive attributes.

It's my understanding that HP's emulators are built natively from the C source code of the calculator software, rather than by emulating the ARM and running the object code.

If this is the case, the 15C LE emulator is native (x86) code running the Nut emulator, with no ARM emulation involved.

I am really annoyed by the 15C LE emulator. I was able to install it on my previous Windows Vista 64bit machine, but it won't install (or rather: activate) on my new Windows 8 64bit computer. The offline activation procedure (through activate.hpcalculating.com) does not work, because the website is inactive. While I understand (to a certain extent) the DRM obsession of HP in this regard, their implementation is crappy, thus barring legitimate customers from using the product they bought.

If you tell me the exact filesize (in bytes) and the date of your HP15C.exe, I guess I could help you with your activation problem. ;-)

I believe you are thinking of the old one that just wrapped a small bit of code around the exe. The one we've been using for 3 years comes in a dll...

Much easier just to contact support and they will be able to resolve the problem.

Edited: 17 Jan 2013, 7:23 p.m.

I believe you are thinking of the old one that just wrapped a small bit of code around the exe. The one we've been using for 3 years comes in a dll...

No, I don't mean the activation procedure at all. My solution to this problem is just patching the EXE a bit, so that it doesn't ask for (or need) any serial/code number at all. :-)

The size of the executable (HP15C.exe) is 20,408,657 bytes.

The size of the executable (HP15C.exe) is 20,408,657 bytes.

I didn't mean the size of the installer, what I would need is the size of the already installed HP15C.exe (should be something like 160 kB).

I'm sorry, the size of the installed executable is 163.640 bytes.

I'm sorry, the size of the installed executable is 163.640 bytes.

Ok, I've just sent you an email via the forum ... :-)

Apparently the online activation isn't working either, at least for me. I had installed the HP-15C Emulator only once on my HP notebook (Vista Home Premium 32 bits). After a hard-drive failure I've decided to updowngraded it to WinXP Pro (also because the System Recovering Disk wouldn't install Vista on the new hard-drive). The HP-15C LE Emulator is the only program I wasn't able to reinstall so far. I keep on receiving the message "Please check the serial number and try again".

If you contact support, they will be able to get you an updated installer that does not have any issues.

The issue is that the server was not hosted internally within HP and we could not renew the account hosting the activation/update mechanism we had been using for several years.

Edited: 17 Jan 2013, 7:22 p.m.

Thanks Tim, I'll do that.

Thanks, Tim, for your response. I will contact support.

Kind regards,

This emulator does not require activation. It does come with a very nice advanced functions handbook, re-written in full colour and new fonts, as opposed to the original roughly scanned one.

This handbook is also available on the hp website HERE.

Hi there. I have exactly the same problem, upgraded my laptop to Windows 8 recently but haven't been able to activate the 15C emulator. Contacted an HP representative (as listed in a support forum addressing this very same issue), but haven't heard back from her. Any further advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers from Costa Rica.

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Prime emulator number keys kris223 3 930 10-19-2013, 10:57 PM
Last Post: kris223
  1984 HP15C rattles Footloose (Illinois) 4 982 10-15-2013, 09:43 PM
Last Post: BobVA
  HP15c continued fraction for Ln(Gamma) Tom Grydeland 0 543 09-30-2013, 05:48 AM
Last Post: Tom Grydeland
  OT - A lucky find - Busicom Handy-LE LE-120A Cristian Arezzini 2 845 09-26-2013, 04:43 AM
Last Post: Cristian Arezzini
  HP 15c Unlimited Edition Michael de Estrada 7 1,293 06-20-2013, 12:31 PM
Last Post: Namir
  battery test for the HP15c Limited Edition Guido (Canada) 3 874 01-03-2013, 08:17 AM
Last Post: Jeff O.
  uRCL* on HP15C Csaba Tizedes (Hungary) 2 715 12-29-2012, 06:09 PM
Last Post: Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil)
  HP15C strange complex number behavior Mike W 5 1,059 09-11-2012, 04:36 PM
Last Post: Mike W
  HP15C Paul Averis ( Australia ) 1 610 06-18-2012, 03:33 AM
Last Post: Alexander Oestert
  HP15c LE - highest serial number over 23.000 Jose Gonzalez Divasson 1 638 05-16-2012, 03:19 AM
Last Post: Torsten

Forum Jump: