text:
Facilities Manager - Hard & Soft FM

London, South East England
23 Jul 2017
22 Aug 2017
Contract Type
Full Time

This is a fantastic opportunity to further your Facilities Management career. We require an experienced Facilities Manager to oversee the delivery of both hard and soft services for a PFI School.

This is an excellent opportunity to showcase your technical knowledge and people management skills within a growing IFM business.

Main responsibilities
  • Act as the interface between the client and Contract Director, ensuring the efficient and compliant delivery of soft and hard services on site – Including catering, cleaning, planned maintenance, sub-contractors, caretaking and reprographics.
  • Lead and develop a multi service operation, including mobile engineers as well as external sub-contractors.
  • Deliver operational excellence across all Sodexo services
  • Management of the operational procedures and maintenance activities ensuring that all Statutory and Non Statutory planned activities are undertaken within agreed timescales
  • Ensure that corrective maintenance and reactive works are carried out within the contractual KPIs
  • Ensure that work is carried out in accordance with legislation, codes of practice, manufacturer’s recommendations, HSE recommendations and meets prescribed standards in the contract
  • Ensure the highest levels of Health and Safety and compliance are achieved across the site
Ideal candidate
  • Demonstrable experience in a multi service/TFM role, including both hard and soft services
  • Experience of leading a similar skilled team in a multi-disciplined environment
  • Technical/Engineering background, with proven track record on established maintenance practices
  • Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
  • Excellent client relationship skills
  • Broad commercial experience and business acumen and knowledge of external industry developments
  • Experienced in implementing company initiatives and change management
About the company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 35,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, defence and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business.

Sodexo and our clients are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults within a regulated activity. Certain roles will require applicants to undergo screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and/ or Disclosure Scotland.

facilities manager, general services manager, FM


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Senior Quantity Surveyor

Project Resource
£50000 - £55000/annum
24 Jul 2017
22 Aug 2017
Contract Type
Full Time
Position: Senior Quantity Surveyor
Package: Up to £55,000 DOE + package.
Location: Manchester
Consultant: Tim Cottrell

The Opportunity

Brand new opportunity for a Senior Quantity Surveyor to join an exciting development in Manchester, valued in excess of £50million. There is an unparalleled opportunity to progress and develop your career as a Senior Quantity Surveyor with no glass ceiling.

The role is to take joint Commercial responsibility for the development of a Mid-High Rise development in Manchester, comprising of both Commercial and Residential units. The successful Senior Quantity Surveyor will have a proven track record of running projects valued at £20million and upwards and be well versed in JCT contracts.

Key Requirements:

As a Senior Quantity Surveyor, you will:

* Have a minimum of 8 years' experience in the UK
* Have prior experience leading New-Build projects valued at £20million and upwards
* Strong communication and negotiation skills.
* Degree Qualified (BSc or equivalent) in a relevant field
* RICS chartered (or working towards) is desirable

The successful Quantity Surveyor has the opportunity to earn:

* Salary up to £55,000 DoE
* Exceptional Car Allowance
* Healthcare
* Pension Contribution
* Rewards Scheme

If this position isn't of suitability to you but you would like to recommend someone, please take a look at the following scheme we offer and see how it would be benefit you to refer someone to Project Resource (url removed)

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UI Developer

Sopra Steria Recruitment Limited
Up to £55,000 + Excellent Benefits
04 Oct 2017
03 Nov 2017
Contract Type
Full Time
Sopra Steria are working with a hugely reputable and growing organisation in Salfordin the search for an experienced UI Developer. - Location -Salford, Manchester - Salary - Up to £55,000 + Excellent Benefits - Type - Permanent You'll be part of a growing team that is responsible for system development, software and global connectivity, utilising the latest web technologies. You will also have a key involvement in future software platforms and technologies. This role is perfect for you if you are passionate about designing and developinghighly scalable single page applications in the aim of creating genuine, high quality UX/UI. You will be involved in the design and development of software user interfaces at all stages of the development cycle. Your role will involve developing scalable and maintainable SPA using HTML/CSS (SASS), JavaScript and Angular JS/2. You will also gain exposure to other technologies such as SignalR. Key Skills & Experience As the preferred candidate, you'll ideally have experience in the following. - Front end development and architecture (including Single Page Applications) - Strong JavaScript experience - Ability to deliver high quality UX/UI - Github/BitBucket - Angular JS (2) is extremely advantageous - Exposure to SignalR is desirable but not essential In return, you will receive a competitive salary and be part of one of the fastest growing areas of the organisation. You'll work with some of the brightest individuals in the industry and learn and develop your technical skills.
This job was originally posted as www.jobsite.co.uk/job/959061115


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Client Infrastructure Engineer

Reflex Computer Recruitment.
£45000 - £50000 per annum
01 Oct 2017
03 Nov 2017
Contract Type
Full Time
Client Infrastructure Engineer - Support Engineer - Windows Server 2012, VMware ESXi / VMware VDI, SQL, Capacity Planning. I'm looking for an Infrastructure Engineer / Hands-On IT Manager to primarily support the on boarding of new clients into the operations team, ensuring that the Operation Engineers maintain customer environments and configuration. You will flag any elements of the Project to Live Delivery process that have not been completed by go live.

If you are highly responsive and have a strong sense of urgency and follow through on commitments made then this is the right role for you. My client is an Award Winning multi-vendor environment who is a Microsoft Gold Partner, VMware Partner and Cisco Partners along with being accredited partners with most of the other leading technology providers / brands.

We require

VMware ESX / ESXi experience

VMware VDI / VDI Estate Health where applicable - Available VDI's, VDI's (Advantageous)

Microsoft SQL

Windows Server 2012 R2 experience

Capacity Planning / Health checks

Health / SRM Checks

DR Planning

Significant experience of IT Operations, Delivery, Problem and Change Management.

Salary and Benefits of up to £50,000 including on call allowance + Benefits - please apply now for a swift response.

This job was originally posted as


text:
Installation Manager

Recruitment Genius Ltd
£45k - £55k pa
26 Sep 2017
03 Nov 2017
Contract Type
Full Time
This family-run company established in 1987, sells and installs double glazing products predominantly in the Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey area. With an annual turnover of c.£7M they have earned a reputation for quality and reliability within their industry. They are seeking an Installation Manager to head up their busy Installation Department based in Basingstoke. The successful candidate will have full responsibility for managing and co-ordinating their on-site installation teams and office-based personnel, to ensure a high level of service is provided to their customer base. Key responsibilities of the role include: - Maintaining operational efficiency, ensuring that the financial aspects and impact of a contract are clear to all - Co-ordinating installation teams to meet the demanding quality and service requirements - Recruitment of sub-contract labour to provide an adequate fitter capacity - Communicating confidently with customers and staff at all levels, both verbally and in writing - Ensuring performance targets are achieved You will have the following qualities: - Knowledge of the replacement window industry - A minimum of three years' experience in managing fitting teams and office based staff - Computer literacy and ability to use Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and Outlook - Articulacy - Excellent attention to detail - Professional and positive approach You will also: - Be self-motivated - Be able to work under pressure - Have a hands-on approach - Have excellent organisational and time management skills The successful candidate could benefit from a career progression path to Managing Director status.
This job was originally posted as


text:
Support Worker (Driver Essential)

£15,600 per annum (pro rata) - £8.00 per hour
06 Oct 2017
07 Nov 2017
Contract Type
Full Time
  Are you caring and creative? Are you confident, patient and understanding? If yes, then our Support Worker job vacancies in Cornwall may be perfect for you! Due to the expansion of our services in Cornwall, we require Community Support Workers to join our existing highly motivated and enthusiastic team. Support Worker (Driver Essential) Reference number: 42218 Hours: Flexible hours Location: Community based across Cornwall Contract type: Permanent Salary: £15,600 per annum (pro rata) - £8.00 per hour About the role These roles are required to support individuals who access 1:1 support in all areas of Cornwall. We can be flexible as we have various hours available; staff members may be required to work some weekends, evenings and holiday periods. As a Support Worker you will support and enable people to live the life they choose: to make choices, to express themselves and live as independently as possible. Your patient support and encouragement will assist individuals to run their own lives as much as possible – helping with personal care, supporting someone to rustle up some breakfast, do the weekly shop or visit a local café. Sense also supports people to take part in some of our amazing arts and wellbeing activities – from dance to music making, swimming to rock climbing. Being a Sense Support Worker can be the springboard to your future career - and to all sorts of opportunities and management roles. A full UK driving licence and use of your own vehicle is an essential requirement for this role. About us Sense is a national charity that supports people who are deafblind, those with sensory impairments and those with complex needs, to enjoy more independent lives. Sense has a proven record of offering high quality, pioneering services. Working as a Support Worker at Sense can be incredibly rewarding; we offer the opportunity to work in a large, diverse and successful charity where people can develop their skills, knowledge and careers in a supportive and flexible environment. In addition we have excellent training and development, the opportunity for you to join our Group Personal Pension scheme and a generous annual leave entitlement. About you  Experience is not necessarily required for this role as we are able to support you and provide you with an excellent induction. However, it is really important that you are able to demonstrate the right values and behaviours to enable you to make a difference to people’s lives. Flexibility is needed as working times do vary and will include evenings, weekends and sleep-ins; we will however provide you with a rota in advance so you can plan your life accordingly. Our selection process aims to make sure that the role is right for you and you are right for us.  It involves completing an online application form, taking part in a value based interview/assessment process and visiting one of our services. Closing date: Sunday 15 October 2017 Interview date: Friday 27 October 2017 To start: To be discussed at interview  TO APPLY AND FOR MORE INFORMATION: If you would like to find out more about this position and to apply, please click the 'Apply on Website' button. You will be directed to our website where you can download the information pack and complete the application form. We would recommend that you read the candidate guidelines and job description (available on our website) before applying. If you are a disabled candidate and require a hard copy pack or a different format for example large print, Braille or audio, further details can be found on our website. Sense is an Equal Opportunities Employer and is committed to ensuring that all staff are motivated, skilled and rewarded by their work.  Sense is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable children and adults and expects all employees to share this commitment. Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to a number of checks including an enhanced DBS check where appropriate. No agencies please.


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Friday, February 26, 2010

India Best Escorts

We are India's Exclusive Best Escort Service, providing escort services for discriminating gentlemen. We are a well established agency catering to gentlemen for whom only the best will do. Our escorts are not only young, sensual and beautiful but sophisticated and articulate. The type of girl you would be proud to introduce as your lady.

At India Escorts you will find only the most refined and impeccable Indian female escorts. India Escorts has built an excellent reputation for delivering what we promise.

If you're a looking for a young, upscale, sophisticated girlfriend for a very memorable time you have come to the right place.

We have a portfolio of the most elegant and stunning Young Ladies, Models, Professional Ladies, Housewives, Students and Bollywood Actresses . Our models are not only selected for their beauty, but for their sparkling personalities, elegance, warmth and discretion.

At India Escorts the importance of our client is number one. We look forward to assisting you with your booking, or if you are unsure which escort to choose then we can help with suggestions and recommendations.


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Markets end all time high: Nifty above 9,400-mark

Sensex at an all time time. Nifty closes at 9,407.30 as the day ends.

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: May 10, 2017 4:43 pm
Sensex, Nifty all time high, 9400, BSE all time high, sensex open, nifty, market, shares, share market, sensex gain, sensex high, market news, indian express news, business news Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained 1% to touch 30,271.60, its highest ever.

Indian benchmark indices soared high throughout the day including the Nifty touching the 9,400-mark for the first time. Markets have gained momentum as shares of consumer goods and agriculture-dependent companies showed confidence after the India Meteorological Department (IMD)’s forecast of a better monsoon rainfall.

The NSE Nifty rose to a record high of 9,414.75, crossing its previous milestone recorded on 5 May. As the day ended, the NSE Nifty was pegged at 9,407.30. Today Nifty opened at 9,339.65 and gained 0.97% to reach 9,407.30. Also Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained 1% to touch 30,271.60, its highest ever.

The sentiments are fueled by the victory of Emmanuel Macron, a market-friendly centrist, in French elections. Despite FBI Director James Comey’s dismissal by US President Donald Trump, Markets showcased bullishness. Though there are still apprehensions from the North Korean front, but Markets performed better considering Indian domestic optimism.

Video of the day

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text:
Infiltration bid foiled, 3 militants killed in Kashmir

Army said that a group of infiltrators was spotted by their patrol team near Toutmar Gali.

Written by Mir Ehsan | Srinagar | Published:June 7, 2015 12:00 am
Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir, Line of Control, LoC, Army infiltration, infiltration in J&K, militants in J&K, J&K terrorism An Indian Army soldier

The Indian Army on Saturday foiled an infiltration bid in North Kashmir’s Nowgam sector killing three infiltrators close to the Line of Control. This is the second infiltration bid foiled by the army in Kupwara district in the past one week.

Last week army had killed four militants in Tanghdar sector soon after they sneaked into the Valley after scaling the LoC fence.

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Giving details of the fresh infiltration attempt of the militants, Army spokesman said that a group of infiltrators were spotted by the army patrol near Toutmari Gali.

“At 3 am the army patrol intercepted a group of militants, when they were challenged the militants opened fire resulting an encounter. In the operation three militants were killed and arms and ammunition was recovered from the slain militants,’’ said the Defense spokesman. He said that search operation is still in progress. “We have launched operation to trace whether there are any more militants roaming in the area.’’

Army said that Toutmari Gali where from infiltrators tried to sneak into the Valley is still covered with heavy snow. The militants have been using this route from past many years to infiltrate into the Valley due to its tough terrain. Officials said that militants this time where trying to sneak into Valley under the cover of fog as it was continuously raining in the area from past many days.

Last week, four infiltrators were killed in Tanghdar sector soon after they crossed the Line of Control. The militants had taken refuge in a house close to the LoC, one civilian was also killed in the encounter.

Last month three army men and a militant were killed in the same sector when militants targeted an army patrol on the LoC.

Army said that two infiltration attempts were foiled by the alert soldiers on the LoC since January this year in the Kupwara sector. Sources said that with melting of the snow the militants are trying to sneak into the Valley.

Recently Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar during his Kashmir visit was told by the formation commanders that infiltration on the LoC in Kashmir has come down drastically.

Video of the day

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    Live Cricket Scores & Results


text:
Independence Day: Red Fort, adjoining areas under unprecedented security cover

Thousands of security personnel, including 5,000 men from Delhi Police, have been deployed to ensure foolproof security

By: PTI | New Delhi | Published:August 14, 2016 2:16 pm
red fort, independence day, security, red fort security, independence day security, narendra modi, independence day celebration New Delhi: Security personnel during full dress rehearsal of the 70th Independence Day function at Red Fort in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan

Red Fort, the 17th century monument from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the 70th Independence Day on Monday, and adjoining areas have been put under an unprecedented air to ground security cover with hawk-eye vigil being maintained across the entire national capital.

Thousands of security personnel, including 5,000 men from Delhi Police, have been deployed to ensure foolproof security in and around the historic Mughal fort which will see the presence of senior ministers, top bureaucrats, foreign dignitaries and common people.

A multi-layer security has also been thrown around Rajpath where a seven-day-long cultural festival ‘Bharat Parv’ is underway. All the government buildings, including North Block and South Block, are being illuminated after sunset in the run up to August 15.

At Red Fort, a special team of NSG snipers and commandos will form the inner layers of the security cordon while anti-aircraft guns have been deployed to thwart any aerial intrusion by objects like drones and projectiles, senior police officials said.

Delhi Police has already prohibited aerial activities, including para-gliding, flying UAVs and hot air balloons, across the city till October 10.

Also, police are surveying the areas in the vicinity of the Red Fort and have collected details of over 9,000 people residing there. The buildings facing the Red Fort will be secured by police and paramilitary personnel.

Entry and exit to Metro stations near Red Fort will be closed till the Prime Minister is present at the venue.

Panoramic photography will be used to ensure a close watch on 605 balconies and 104 windows that open towards Red Fort. Security agencies have also marked out over 3,000 trees in the area, said the officials.

Army and NSG officials will run a special communication and command centre to keep a close watch on the proceedings of the day at Red Fort.

Special measures will be taken to meet “on-the-spot situations” such as the Prime Minister choosing to meet people at the venue as he previously did twice, officials said.

Security along the route to be taken by the Prime Minister’s cavalcade from 7 RCR to Red Fort will be monitored with the help of hundreds of CCTV cameras.

Besides, 200 CCTVs and two high-mast, high-resolution cameras, managed by three control rooms, will keep under observation the Red Fort premises.

Special spotters of Delhi Police and paramilitary will keep an eye on parking areas. Over 60 sniffer dogs of paramilitary forces and Delhi Police will also be part of the extensive security arrangement.

Preliminary security arrangements were made in July and senior police and intelligence officials have been regularly updating them to weed out any shortcomings and glitches.

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text:
Communications &
Marketing Associate (#061)

We're a software products company whose products (BuildMaster, ProGet, and Otter) are built for development and IT organizations. This means that our customers and end-users are not just developers, but passionate developers who want to change their company for the better. It's a sophisticated and enthusiastic audience, and we need marketing professionals who are up to the challenge of working in this space.

The Day to Day

We're looking for a motivated, entry-level candidate to work out of our Berea, Ohio offices (sorry, no telecommuting for this position). Your day-to-day would include things like...

  • Respond to basic inquiries regarding Inedo products
  • Answer non-technical questions
  • Prepare quotes and invoices as needed
  • Conduct correspondence with customers and representatives
  • General Administration tasks
  • Research competitor product and services
  • Other projects as assigned

About You

Your bullet points should be a fairly close match to these bullet points:

  • Bachelor's Degree
  • Resourceful and able to work independently with little or no direction from management
  • Solid organization and project management skills
  • Able to juggle multiple projects with multiple deadlines
  • Solid written and oral communication skills
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office (namely Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
  • Strong desire to learn and understand new technologies and methodologies
  • Interest in Technology products

Although we're a small team, we offer employees all of the standard benefits you'd expect (health care, retirement, etc.), along with a great environment to learn and grow.


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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Argentina: Police Report Documents 1978 UFO Teleportation

Source: VISION OVNI and Planeta UFO
Date: 01.28.2014

Argentina: Police Report Documents 1978 UFO Teleportation
By Andrea Perez Simondini with documentation from Daniel Lecomte

As we have often stated and written about the value of campaigns that serve not only to make people aware of a concept or an idea, they also allow us to find what we least expected, as occurred here: a document!

Researcher Silvia Pérez Simondini, CEFORA’s press officer, has among her functions contacting people who approach her with questions or any other information. In this manner, documentation was found that enables us to delve into the files of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police Department, containing hundreds of UFO reports.

Since the year 2012, Silvia has been in contact with Daniel Lecomte, interested in the UFO phenomenon and a resident of Buenos Aires province, who advised the researcher that he has in his possession a series of police files given to him by a retired officer.

Incredible though it may sound, this documentation was going to be discarded (literally thrown to the trash), but given that the officer was aware of Daniel’s interest in the subject, decided to save them and pass them along.

The documents, which include all manner of police reports from Southern Buenos Aires Province, contained within them a jewel, as far as our research is concerned, into the case of the Vuelta de America del Sur Rally on September 23, 1978. Unknowingly, the recipient of the file kept the information as it was given to him, unread. It was only recently that the protagonist decided to open the folder, coming across the famous case after a conversation with Silvia, who wanted to know what cases were contained within.

For those of you who do not remember or have never heard of the case, here is a chronicle, well documented, of perhaps one of the best known cases of the 1970s, involving two Chilean race car drivers during the first Rally de la Vuelta de America del Sur. Here are the details of the case through the excellent investigation performed by Guillermo Roncorconi in UFO Press No. 9, October 1978. ... archivos-desclasificados/

Technical Details of the Case:
Location: Intersection of Route 3 with the rural road leading to town through Cardenal Cagliero (now R1 – Carmen de Patagones – Viedma – Prov of Buenos Aires)
Witnesses: Miguel Angel Moya and Carlos Acevedo
Date: 23 September 1978
Time: About 3 a.m.
Investigating Authority: Police Department of [the town of] Pedro Luro – Inspecting Officer Daniel Osimi, Corporal Jesús García and patrolman José Bordenave.
Secondary Witnesses: Eduardo Forechesatto (service station watchman)

The Case:

On 17 August 1978, Carlos Acevedo and Hugo Prambs departed the city of Buenos Aires aboard a Citroen GS 1220 as part of the first leg of the Rally de America del Sur, organized by the Argentinean Automobile Club and the Banco de Intercambio Regional.
The competition was truly exhausting for men and machines alike: a marathon lasting a little over a month, during which they had to reach Caracas (Venezuela) from Buenos Aires, returning along the Pacific coastline of South America.

The crew of Citroen Number 102 faced countless problems, particularly in the last segments of the Rally, which caused them to realize they might have to quit the race altogether. However, thanks to Acevedo’s determination and the assistance of over racers, they were able to “hook up” with the race again after deserting it, with a view to reaching their goal.

On September 16, Hugo Prambs quit the race due to personal reasons, and was replaced by Miguel Angel Moya. In the early hours of 23 September, Acevedo and Moya were covering the last 1000 kilometers of the Rally. At approximately 2:00 a.m. they stopped at the ACA service station in Viedma (Rio Negro Province) where they took on fuel (filling up their standard 50 liter tank plus a 40-liter backup tank), drank coffee and spoke to other racers for a few minutes. A 02:30 hours, Citroen No.102 was enroute again to Bahía Blanca, after crossing the Rio Negro and crossing the town of Carmen de Patagones.

At around 03:00 hours, having left behind the intersection of Route 3 with the rural road leading to Cardenal Cagliero, near Salitral del Agarrobo and Salina de Pedro, some 30 kilometers north of Carmend de Patagones (approximate location 40* 29' North, 62* 49' West).

Carlos Acevedo was at the wheels of the Citroen when he suddenly saw a bright light reflected in his rear view mirror. It was a dense, yellowish light. At first it looked like only a dot in the mirror. However, its size increased as he watched.

Acevedo and Moya were driving at around 100 kilometers an hour at the moment. In spite of this, the light was closing in swiftly, causing Acevedo to believe that it was the headlights of one of the heavier vehicles (Citroen 2400s or a Mercedes Benz), causing him to slow down and pull over to the right edge of the asphalt in order to allow another Rally competitor to pass him by.

The light was already filling the rear view mirror and kept closing in. Suddenly, the passenger compartment in Acevedo and Moya’s Citroen became filled with light.

“Light flooded the passenger compartment and I couldn’t see beyond the hood of the car. It was a dense, brilliant light, yellow in color with some violet hues. I thought I’d lost control of the car at the moment. I looked through the window and saw were nearly two meters over the asphalt surface. I suddenly thought we had jumped over a speed bump and braced myself on the steering wheel, waiting for the moment we’d hit the surface again,” Acevedo explained.

However, far from descending, the car seemed to keep rising into the air, out of control. “After a few seconds, I don’t know, maybe some 5 or 10, I reacted and realized that something completely abnormal was going on. I wanted to look out the window again, but all I could see was that dense light. I remember I started screaming ‘what’s going on?’ but Moya wasn’t answering. When I looked to my right, my companion wasn’t there, or at least I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t even see the dashboard. I could only see that dense light that looked liquid, I don’t know, sort of viscous,” Acevedo recalls.

Miguel Angel Moya, on the other hand, was paralyzed by fear, and explained: “Initially I also thought it was a speed bump, and was scared at the thought of the vehicle overturning, but when I noticed that the car appeared to float in the air and wasn’t coming down, I became even more frightened. It was a situation I couldn’t really understand. I looked at Carlos and I saw him completely stiff, clutching the steering wheel with his arms outstretched and staring forward. It seemed like he was screaming but I couldn’t hear anything. I could see everything as if through a yellow fog, as if I was distant, somewhere else. I think my first reaction was to try and flee from there, but when I tried to open the door it wouldn’t budge, as if welded shut. I noticed the temperature was rising, although it could have been the result of my state of fear. Suddenly the light covered everything and I couldn’t see a thing, not even my hands, nothing.”

The witnesses lost all notion of time. They felt a sudden jolt and noticed the vehicle was on the road again.

“I think a minute or two went by, I’m not really sure, and I felt a shudder, but I had the immediate impression that the car was on the road again. The yellow light appeared to dim, and I was gradually able to see my surroundings, the dashboard, the hood of the car. I looked through the window and saw the ground. We were on the shoulder on the opposite lane of the road, fully stopped. Suddenly the light vanished from the passenger compartment and saw it fading away into the west, like a cone of yellow light, but one that didn’t end in a tip, it was somewhat truncated. I don’t know. It might have measured some five meters at the base and two or three at the cusp, measuring some six or seven meters in height. The base lit the ground, ahtough you really couldn’t see what it was lighting, that is to say, you couldn’t see through the light. A few seconds later, the light…how can I explain it? …retracted itself or drew up like a curtain, from bottom to top, and all that remained in view was an oval, whitish-yellow light that kept heading west until it vanished in the distance,” said Acevedo.

Moya took a few seconds to recover from the impression produced by the abnormal situation. “Suddenly it was all over, and we were alone on the road. Carlos and I exchanged looks, but couldn’t say a word. I was numb. My hands were shaking and there was a pressure on my chest. Breathing was hard.”

Acevedo and Moya remained silent for a few minutes, unable to engage in any action or activity. Finally, Acevedo got out of the car to “make sure everything was in place”, as he said. A minute later he boarded the Citroen and headed north along Route 3 at full speed.

Fifteen minutes later, the Chilean drivers of Citroen No. 2 reached the town of Pedro Luro, a community located in the Province of Buenos Aires some 123 kilometers north of Carmen de Patagones. They stopped at a service station in order to ask for the location of the police barracks. When checking the dashboard, they ascertained two anomalous events: the odometer showed that they had covered 52 kilometers from the city of Viedma to Puerto Luro, when the actual distance between both places is 127 kilometers. Moreover, they had reached Pedro Luro at 05:10 hours, having departed the city limits of Carmen de Patagones at 02:50 approximately. Driving at an average speed of 100 kilometers an hour, it shouldn’t have taken more than 75 minutes to cover the distance between both points, but they had in fact taken 2 hours and 20 minutes.

There was a third inexplicable event: when they decided to fill up the main gas tank, they noticed their backup tank was completely empty, despite having been filled with 40 liters of fuel in the city fo Viedma. These unexplained events added to the witnesses’ confusion. In spite of their growing fear, they decided to tell their story to the police at Pedro Luro, heading to the respective barracks.

They spoke with Inspector Daniel Osimi, to whom they told the details of the incident they had experienced, asking for police custody to the city of Bahia Blanca.

The press covered the story, including magazines like Cuarta Dimension, whose Number 58 tells the story, comparing it to an event of similar characteristics in Brazil.

[Readers of Inexplicata will remember an article on the 1978 Rally involving two Ecuadoran drivers who discussed Acevedo and Moya’s own experience:]

[Credits in Andrea Pérez Simondini’s article: Investigación Guillermo Roncoroni - Ufo Press, N° 9, octubre de 1978. Alejandro Agostinelli – Blog Factor 304 ... archivos-desclasificados/ Daniela Ciancia - Patagonia Ovni ... ica-caso-rally-de-la.html/ Investigador Rodrigo Fuenzalida - Organizacion AION - Chile Asesor Programa OVNI
Producción TVN de Chile, Programa OVNI/Royosobocoto:ónrally:

[Translation © 2014 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology with thanks to Guillermo D. Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Friday, January 24, 2014

Argentina: A Humanoid at El Rincón Viejo? (01.21.2014)

Argentina: A Humanoid at El Rincon Viejo? (01/21/2014)
By Luciano Mazzoni

The First Encounter

Around 21:30 on Friday, 17 January of this year, seven (7) people were traveling in a Ford F100 pickup truck at a speed of some 40 kilometers an hour. Franco and Javier were in the payload of the vehicle with their two siblings. Their parents and grandmother were inside the cabin. They were returning from San Eduardo, Santa Fe, and in order to reach the field where they live it was necessary to traverse the 15 kilometer stretch that separated them from their destination.

Amid the soybeans close to the barbed wire fence, about 2 kilometers before reaching their home, Franco, 15, and Javier, 13, noticed a exceedingly tall figure in a crouched position. When the entity noticed it had been spotted by the two boys, it took off running in the opposite direction, along the edge of the wire fence.

The IOVT team headed to the location to speak to the witnesses. We surveyed the sighting area and found no ground marks whatsoever or any other disarray of the natural environment.

The witnesses say that it was very slender and with a large head. Its back was some 20 centimeters wide and they saw it at a distance of about 15 meters. They were unable to observe any details, as it was a night of full moon and it was facing them head-on.

The Second Encounter

After 12:30 hours on Monday, January 20 of this year, Franco, 15, who was also a witness in the first case on Friday, went out to the back of his house to collect some basil leaves at his mother's request. At that moment, he saw the humanoid at a distance of 150 meters, walking along the edge of the barbed wire separating the corn plantation from his backyard. Franco told us that it walked in a hunched manner and that he saw it sideways on. At no time did the entity notice him. Franco entered his house quickly and the entity was not seen again.

This is how Franco described this figure to us:
Head: large; Skin: pale grey; Eyes: couldn't see; Mouth: couldn't see; Ears: had none; Nose: had none; Build: very slight; Hands: very large; Fingers: he saw three fingers with a "marble" on the tip of each; Hair: none; Clothing: none.

The IOVT team visited the site but no prints were collected due to the irregularty of the terrain and the dry chaff from the previous harvest.

It should be noted that the family is very frightened and feeling unsafe as a result of these events.

[Translation (c) 2014 Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Luis Burgos, Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía and Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO]

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Mexico: UFOs or Drones Over Reynosa?

Source: and Planeta UFO
Date: 01.16.2014

Mexico: UFOs or Drones Over Reynosa?
By Francisco Santibañez (photo credit: Francisco Santibañez)

REYNOSA, Tams. - For some months now, the skies over the city of Reynosa have been a source of polemics among citizens, as hundreds of witnesses claim having seen unusual red spheres traveling in threes in a triangular formation.

These strange spheres appeared sporadically during the first months of 2013, but alarm over the lights was unleashed in the last three months of this year. Sightings have once again become more frequent in the first days of 2014.

While some say that the UFO phenomenon is involved, others believe they could be U.S. surveillance drones flying over the center of this Tamaulipas city.

Using social media, Reynosans have started sharing the images and video recordings they have managed to take of this unusual phenomenon, asking for answers on the nature of these unidentified flying object.

Videos shared on YouTube and recorded by the residents of this border community show the three red spherical shapes, flying in a triangular formation, and becoming a source of bewilderment to those who saw them.

The photos and recordings were taken on different dates and places by witnesses in Reynosa. However, they appear to match perfectly, since the luminous spheres have the same hue and do not make any noise.

UFOs or Monitoring Drones?

Monitoring drones or UAVs are vehicles that fly without any crew whatsoever and are remotely guided. They are frequently employed for military surveillance exercises and are able to maintain a controlled flight thanks to a reaction engine, which makes a high-decibel noise.

There exists a wide array of drone designs. The most common ones are airplane-shaped, although there are some with blades similar to those of a helicopter. They also have a variety of classifications:

- Target drones: They simulate airplanes or enemy attacks for defense systems.
- Surveillance: These submit military information.
- Combat: These are armed and ready for high-risk confrontations.
- Logistical: Conveying items to a given area.
- Commercial: Manufactured for entertainment purposes, such as movie-making.

These vehicles are controlled from a distant base. However, others perform their missions autonomously, based on programmed systems that greatly aid their exploration missions.

You can draw your own conclusions: are these intelligent airplanes, created by the U.S. government? Or could these lights that cause Reynosans such disquiet actually be UFOs?

Reynosa 2013 - Christmas Eve UFOs
Reynosa 2014 - January 1st red lights
Reynosa 2014 - "UFO Over Reynosa" 14 Feb 2013

[Translation © 2014, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Francisco Santibañez, Hora Cero and Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO]

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Cattle Mutilations: “Some Animals Survive” - Interview with Daniel U. Padilla

Cattle Mutilations: “Some Animals Survive”
A Radio Interview with Daniel Ubaldo Padilla in Chepes, La Rioja – December 13 2013

[Intro omitted]

Daniel U. Padilla: Just let me clarify a few things. While I am identified as an ufologist within the UFO community in Argentina my specialty is the subject of mutilations. There is no question that the UFO phenomenon is tightly related with the cattle mutilations phenomenon, which I have been studying for eleven years, I want to be objective about this. While the ETH or the UFO theory of beings that may not be from here is involved in the matter of mutilations, and cannot dismiss this. Yet it is not the most important one. There exists a more important or transcendent aspect here, a tougher one, as I say, which is the impact on the cattle rancher. And I believe it is the most serious loss to us as a society, since the losses ascend to fifteen heads of cattle per person in some places. So, who refunds the cattleman for his loss as a result of this phenomenon? This is the reason that there is no official investigation [into the subject]. Here, the first thing that happens when you appeal to an official agency is the expert investigation. Our scientists are in agreement – or have been educated thus – that the limitations of their profession appear when they face an enigma, when science is unable to explain something. How then, can you summon an expert to a judicial proceeding when he or she is unable to explain what is going on? Do you understand me? However, in spite of all this, this enigma must be explained somehow, and we must reach what I have termed the “moment of mutilation” – the observation of the party causing the mutilation, because the mutilator is hitherto unknown. If it [was known], I wouldn’t be here in Chepes today. In other words, the day I find out who is responsible for the mutilations, I would cease my research. It is true that the UFO phenomenon is closely related, and has significant impact in the matter in some way, on the societal level. I remember six years ago when I was being asked from La Rioja: “What do you say about this? Are they aliens or what are they?” It’s the first question out of anyone’s mouth.

Interviewer: That’s first question, of course. Who is behind all this?

DUP: The fact is that there is a major enigma, which as you say, surrounds all mutilations and creates fear, perception by animals such as horses and dogs as these creatures approach, there are odors which add to the mutilation enigma, the mutilations themselves seen on the animal’s bodies, which astound scientists and country people alike. Beyond the veterinarian, who is the first scientist involved in the animal mutilation, country people are the ones who have the greatest moral opinion when saying that something unusual is at work here. When the cattleman sees a dead animal, he is saying, when he says: “This is completely uncanny, this had never happened to me before”, he has spent all his life in contact with animals and living from that business, shall we say. They are fully aware that a veterinarian will be unable to explain the situation. He or she will not be able to say that blackleg is to blame, or that it is due to a lack of vaccinations, or that parameters that correspond to a clostridium infection are found when performing a necropsy…all of these matters add to the nebulous quality of finding an answer to this riddle.

Interviewer: And what people are wondering, Daniel is what a mutilation is? How is this conceptualized?

DUP: Well, mutilations are what I have called “traditional mutilations”… traditional mutilations are the apparently sudden death of an animal in which the extraction of certain body parts is a feature. For example, lacerations on the mouth, not incisions, lacerations on the mouth, on the ear, eyes, genitals, for example the anus, vagina in the cases of cows or the male parts of bulls, the extraction of these organs, and in cases involving pregnant cows, [we notice] the extraction of the fetus. But the main objective is the genital area, beyond the pregnancy of the cow. In other cases I have ascertained that the fetus is not extracted, but in most mutilation incidents all of these things are missing.

Interviewer: Daniel, which animals are the most mutilated during these episodes? Cows, horses, goats…

DUP: Yes, bovines – in both the Hereford and Angus breeds – are the most mutilated.

Interviewer: Not all breeds then?

DUP: No, not all breeds. But Poll Hereford and Gardiner Angus are the most common in Argentinean livestock. We also find that dairy cows – Frisians - are mutilated to a lesser extent than Poll Hereford or Gardiner Angus cattle. We must mention both breeds, since we have the black ones and the red ones alike.

Interviewer: Yes…

DUP: These are the two predominant breeds subject to mutilations.

Interviewer: Yes, and bovines stand out the most among what you have researched. Are there other animals…?

DUP: Pigs have been mutilated to a lesser extent, for example. Deer have been mutilated, along with what we call “gasunchos”, a sort of deer. Those have also been found. I also took photos of a mutilated lizard – one of these really large ones, lagarto overo (tegu - Tupinambis merianae) - which you must have here too.

Interviewer: Iguanas. We call them iguanas.

DUP: Well, iguanas, then.

Interviewer: Chickens. Have chickens ever been found [mutilated]?

DUP: I want to separate this, too, Mauricio. I can personally attest that attacks on farm fowl aren’t the same kind of attack as we see on cattle. We have been able to establish a pattern of mutilations in bovine deaths in Argentina. There are two other researchers in Argentina who have looked into these matters seriously: one of them is Quique Mario from La Pampa and the other is Andrea Simondini, on the Buenos Aires side, which is Victoria, Entre Rios. These two people have researched, and tried to provide the livestock farmer with solutions and support, a solution to keep people from feeling foolish when they ask about mutilations, or step forward to make a formal complaint. We must incentivize the reporting of cattle mutilations, because this may not be exclusively related to the UFO phenomenon; it could be related with other situations.

Interviewer: So what you’re telling me, Daniel, is that when people come across an animal with these characteristics, they must file a report.

DUP: They must report it. This is the only way we can reach the truth. Why is this? Because the research I am involved in keeps statistics on the subject, specifying the days and prevailing weather conditions. But the most important thing is the day and the phase of the moon. The phase of the moon. The moon has a major influence here. I established a moon-based period of mutilations that goes from the end of the new moon to the start of the full moon. This is to say, going throughout the waxing moon phase. We are currently in a waxing phase and I paid no attention, as I was on vacation and I took off. I came here because there had been mutilation incidents and I believed the focus was here.

Interviewer: In other words, mutilations aren’t always occurring. In ten years of research you’ve determined this to be the case.

DUP: No, there is a period of mutilations.

Interviewer: The moon must be taken into account,

DUP: The moon, because it’s the only point of reference that leads me…because mutilations largely occur at night.

Interviewer: Can I ask you if you have some hypothesis...why does it happen at night?

DUP: Well, there is a broad hypothesis that I told you in person, but I would sooner not share it with the public out of a need for explanation, since many things could be misconstrued based upon what I say. Cattle ranchers who want to know – I can give you my phone number – can contact me and I can give them an explanation they can consider at that moment. We’re in December and statistically, mutilation events are few, and this lunar phase is the last one for the month, and the likeliest for mutilation episodes to take place. Temperature is also a factor. The temperature dropped today, for example. We don’t know what it might be at night, so a mutilation may occur, or one may have taken place days ago. So I believe there is a strong possibility that one may take place….

Interviewer: But look at all the factors you’re giving us. Moon, temperature, time of day, day or night, the number of animals, mostly bovines…all of this is important.

DUP: Exactly. Cattle ranchers shouldn’t take all of this as a psychosis – they should simply be mindful, nothing more. They shouldn’t set up night watches, shouldn’t arm themselves with shotguns, because we don’t know what we’re dealing with. The fact is that something is approaching animals and killing them.

Interviewer: The important thing is what you said. If the livestock farmer finds a dead animal, he must report it.

DUP: Very important, because the cattlemen usually say: “Why should I report it, if nothing will come of it?” but that’s the harsh reality.

Interviewer: Daniel, in our country, where have mutilations occurred? Overall, in the north, in the south, what does experience tell you?

DUP: Well, I’m going back to 2002, when initial media exposure of mutilations came about. Nearly 10,000 head of cattle where mutilated in Argentina. This is what was reflected in the media, in other words we know that many people did not file reports, and it is perfectly possible that this figure could have been exceeded within the country.

Interviewer: 10,000 within the country alone? These are registered?

DUP: Exactly, around 10,000. Afterward, in 2007, what brought me to Chepes was the cattle mutilation wave of 2007. In Entre Rios, there was a mutilation wave from south to north in Entre Rios. We came to Chepes because there were mutilations occurring in Chepes – not many, but we came because of the animals that were found alive here in Chamical. By the way, for those listening to me in Chamical, I’d like to thank Don Gonzalez who assisted us in the investigation of two animals who survived being mutilated. These are two out of seven living animals in my files. No one in the world has tested seven animals who survived mutilations. I’m not saying this out of egocentrism, but because if forms part of the information and is part of the disinformation made by other researchers, who don’t mention these seven animals in spite of the fact that it is well-known in Argentinean ufology, and researchers who don’t speak out for personal reasons, perhaps, about the research work I have carried out.

Interviewer: In other words, our listeners must know that it hasn’t all been deaths – some animals have survived.

DUP: They have survived. The least percentage, but they have survived. Let me go on with the story. What brought me to Chepes were these mutilations. When I arrived here in Chepes, I recall it was you, Mauricio, who told me there had been a mutilation in Santa Cruz. When we went to Santa Cruz to see the family that had experienced the mutilation event, what drew my attention is that their animal was a Hereford. So upon examining the local livestock – many Charolais and mixed Cebu cattle, breeds that are proper to this location, as they need to be hardy on this terrain, surviving amid the rocks and mountains – this detail stood out. So I asked them why no other [animals] had been mutilated. They said: “No, this was one of the last remaining Hereford animals brought by the landowner from elsewhere due to an emergency.” And where did he bring it in from? From the islands to the south of Entre Rios. When? This year, at the beginning of this year. Of course, 2007 had been an El Niño year and this phenomenon caused the Paraná River to flood, causing much livestock to be removed and causing the loss of others by drowning. And this cattleman brought these animals to Santa Cruz because he had meadows in Santa Cruz. But is it sheer chance that a Hereford brought from Entre Rios was mutilated here? No, it isn’t a matter of chance. This leads me to think that there is an identification of the animal, or an indication of sorts, prior, perhaps, when the cows were inseminated, or when the animal was young, or perhaps a lineage of animals that has been marked in a certain way. They don’t kill just any animal. For example, animals that are fed with chemical products are not slain or mutilated –

Interviewer: In other words, those animals that are in a feed lot aren’t killed…

DUP: In a feed lot? No, no. At least we have none recorded. Animals in the field are mutilated, those that are in the pastures. In many cases, like in Santa Cruz, in remote areas that are barely accessible to human beings. But it forms part of the cases, not all cases.

Interviewer: Is there any explanation you can put forth, Daniel? Why do [deaths] occur in the open range, not in the barn or feedlot?

DUP: Personally, I can tell you – and this is purely personal, based on experiences and research - I think that the search for these animals, in the middle of the wilderness where there is no access, no access to human beings, allows the animals to be fully mutilated. Not only can they extract organs, they can come back and mutilate it again over consecutive nights during this time period. When they have the chance, they return to mutilate the same animal. This tells me that it is a sort of nourishment, they are feeding on it.

Interviewer: But why? Why mutilate in such a way?

DUP: The surviving animals have given me the indication that tissue is destroyed and not extracted or taken away. Rather, the tissue is destroyed or deteriorates under the influence of something that we have been unable to bring in for analysis.

A photo of cattle mutilations researcher Daniel Ubaldo Padilla with the following text: "Five deaths with confirmed mutilations in July 2013. Two of them occurred at a ranch called La Celestina and antother in the vicinity of the cemetery of the town of Chelcos. Two pigs in the vicinity of Chepes Viejo. All of them in the southern end of the Province of La Rioja, Argentina."

[Transcription and translation (c) 2014 by Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology]

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Spain: Orange Sphere Videotaped Over Algeciras

Source: HORA SUR and Andalucía Misteriosa
Date: 9 January 2014

ALGECIRAS - It is no secret that the Bay of Algeciras, the Strait of Gibraltar or the Campo de Gibraltar have always been sites for UFO activity. However, the debate has been reactivated in recent days on social media due to the sighting of strange balls of intense orange hue, seen by residents of Algeciras. The objects moved slowly across the sky.

Witnesses claim that the spheres moved very slowly and gave off an intense color that was clearly visible despite the lack of stars in the night sky. Photographer Cesar Comino was able to record one of these strange spheres, and other witnesses state they have seen three similar lights in the vicinity of Secano, where some vehicles even pulled over to witness the phenomenon.

On Three Kings Day (January 6) similar spheres were allegedly seen in the German city of Bremen and recorded by an amateur cameraman – images also circulating on You Tube.

In October 2013, residents of a development in Almeria also witnessed orange-colored orbs coming close to the ground, stopping momentarily, and then heading out to sea. The spectators defined them as lights of intense orange color that moved slowly to the east.

According to the La Voz de Almeria newspaper, while this is the first time sightings of this kind have occurred in Almeria, it is not an unknown phenomenon, as it has repeated over the past three or four years in various parts of the world. There are eyewitness accounts describing these strange orange orbs in cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom and France.
Sightings of unidentified objects with similar characteristics have also been recorded over Spain in recent months, in the area of Cataluña or the Comunidad de Valencia. Witnesses, some of whom have photographed these orbs, stress the characteristics reported elsewhere in the world.

A hot zone. This how writer and researcher J.J. Benitez described the Algeciras region regarding UFOs during an interview by Dominguez Saucedo for the El Faro newspaper in 2007. Among his statements, J.J. Benitez noted: “For some reason, we don’t know why, this is a hot zone. Throughout the Algeciras area and the coast there are cases of UFO landings, encounters with occupants, abductions…all levels of society have been involved in sightings of these objects.”

Benitez even discussed some of the cases that drew his attention. “It’s very hard to choose, but I remember a case that took place at the entrance to Algeciras, near Pelayo. It was there, some 20-odd years ago, a craft descended in full daylight. A local resident was on his way to Cadiz in a station wagon and noticed the vehicle on the left of the national highway, on tilted terrain. Curiosity got the better of him; he pulled over, crossed the road, and approached a low wall that’s still there, crouched behind it and spied on the object – a typical one, with a dome, legs and bulls eye windows from which human-looking characters in uniforms stared back at him. He tried to light a cigarette and his lighter wouldn’t work. The man remained there for a few minutes and finally left. He described how the craft had some letter-like symbols on it.”

[Benitez] also spoke of a case in El Cobre. “This is among the first cases I researched in the area. It involved a pilot who’d gone hunting, and one night, saw a glaring light. He approached it and saw an object almost in contact with the ground. It was large, oval-shaped, and the man did not discuss the event for a long time. He finally told me about it for a number of reasons, and I understand this to have been a real experience. In the same area, further south, toward Getares, there was a doctor riding his motorcycle in broad daylight when he saw a very strange creature cross the road in front of him. He identified it first as an ape, but physician that he was, he realized it was no ape. The creature vanished into the brush. The doctor got off his bike, and over on one side, on a cliff, was a vehicle he managed to photograph. This is another eyewitness account I consider to be among the most interesting.”

[Translation © 2014, S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Angel Carretero Olmedo, Andalucia Misteriosa]

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Argentina: Light Formation Over Tucumán

A possible triangular UFO over Tucumán, Argentina?

Contributing editor Guillermo Gimenez provides us the following photo from Luis Burgos's FAO site. The image, taken by Javier Lopez Posse, is accompanied by the following text: "Attention, Tucumán! Today at 09:03 p.m. I captured three white lights in the shape of a triangle (possible triangualr UFO) flying from East to West at a 60-degree elevation. I was looking at it from North to South, apparently heading toward Cerro San Javier. It gave the impression of being translucent, with white yet opaque lights. If anyone else saw or recorded it, please advise me privately."

If it turns out to not to be a conventional object, this will be the first UFO photo received from South America in 2014.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Buenos Aires: La Chacarita Cemetery in Pictures

In preparing the Moonlight on Tombstones article I requested the assistance of journalist and photographer Marcelo Metayer, who most graciously agreed to provide photographs for the section on the La Chacarita Cemetery in his native Buenos Aires, whose landmarks and monuments he has chronicled in visual form. The photos of this extensive necropolis, housing the remains of politicians, artists and musical giants like Carlos Gardel, the best known Tango singer of the 20th century, truly deserve to be presented separately for the enjoyment of INEXPLICATA’s readers, so that the cemetery’s “poetry in stone” may be better appreciated. ¡Gracias Marcelo!
[For more of Marcelo’s work, please visit:]

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Moonlight on Tombstones: A Fright of Ghosts

Moonlight on Tombstones: A Fright of Ghosts
By Scott Corrales, Inexplicata © 2014

Anyone would reasonably suppose that with the proliferation of ghost-and-paranormal shows on television (Ghost Adventures, Dead Files, etc.) the average citizen would be completely inured to stories chronicles of hauntings and proof of survival beyond the grave. However, the ghost story still has the power to petrify the reader of viewer, not only in the United States but around the world. Cemeteries – as a rule – are places to be shunned or at least given a wide berth, despite efforts aimed at making them places where people can go for a quiet afternoon of jogging or even meditation, or just to look at some unusual and imaginative headstones, if nothing else. The fear is nonetheless hard to dispel, and medical science avails itself of the term “coimetrophobia” to describe the overwhelming fear of final resting places.

Yet, it may be possible that the fears of “coimetrophobes” are not unfounded…

Death Cab for Cutie

Buenos Aires’ La Chacarita Cemetery is among one of the largest in Argentina, and is, in fact, the country’s national cemetery. Renowned for its ornate mausoleums, La Chacarita preserves the remains of actors, writers and musicians and at least one president (Juan Carlos Onganía). The surrounding residential neighborhood that shares its name is also popular for its cafés and night life, but one resident stands out for its high strangeness – the Phantom Taxicab.

Stories of this improbable vehicle were first set down in written form by Guillermo Barrantes and Victor Coviello in their Buenos Aires es leyenda (Buenos Aires Is Legend, ePub, 2004) series of books, involving a seemingly normal liveried vehicle seen in the streets and avenues surrounding the massive cemetery, on duty and ready to collect a fare. A young woman – says one story – had gone to the La Chacarita to pay her respects at her mother’s grave and flagged a taxi outside the gate to return home. Saddened by her visit, the young woman paid little attention to the vehicle she had boarded until an intense sensation of cold chilled her to the bone. Glancing at the windows, she saw they were closed and turned to ask the driver about the less-than-comfortable temperature. In a mixture of surprise and dismay, she noticed that driver had a deathly pallor to his features, looking like a corpse. Catching a glimpse of herself in the rear view mirror, she was shocked to find that her own face was that of a cadaver…at the speed of light, a flood of half-remembered rumors overwhelmed her brain. The driver would only take her back to the cemetery, as she herself was already dead.

Logically, there is no way she could have told this story to anyone, being deceased, but it became one of the many stories surrounding the cemetery – another urban legend of a major metropolis. It may be that her narrative was confected to create a backstory of sorts to a real unexplained event: The death of a thirty-nine year old woman named Felipa Hospertatto, who was found lying on one of the graves early in the morning by another visitor. Forensic specialists had determined the likelihood that she had been there all night, “taken by a sudden heart attack, related to the loss of beloved relatives”.

The authors, however, managed to interview a character known only as “Old Sandoval” – a pipe-smoking, ragged army coat-wearing character who explained that when visiting his father’s grave on one occasion, he boarded a taxicab that brought him into contact with the unexplained. “Up to that day,” said Old Sandoval, “I’d thought the legendary taxi was a lie. If it hadn’t been for my old man…”

When asked to explain further, the man added he had been thinking about his late father’s favorite activities while still among the living: dancing the tango in the kitchen, roasting meats on Sundays. His reverie was broken by a voice calling him by name. He looked out the passenger side window and saw a person on a bicycle keeping pace with the car, smiling after having gotten Sandoval’s attention. It was his father. Overwhelmed by the vision, Sandoval turned to the driver: “Did you see that man on the bike? That was my father!”

His joy turned to horror as he noticed the driver’s skeletal hands resting on steering wheel.

“When I saw those horrible hands,” Sandoval told the authors of Buenos Aires es leyenda, “I was reminded of the living dead cabbie. In the rear view mirror I could see the driver’s skull face staring back at me, upset that I had emerged from my daydream; that I should have awakened at that precise moment.”

Reacting instinctively, Sandoval opened the vehicle’s door and bailed out, hitting the all-too-real asphalt with force and receiving serious injuries. Aside from road burns all over his body, he broke his legs and nose. “Let them say what they will about me, that I’m sick or insane. Anything they want. All I know is that my old man’s ghost saved me from the taxicab, from the claws of the Grim Reaper.”

The authors asked whether he’d ever seen the skeletal figure on other occasions. “Often,” came the reply. “When I realize it’s [his vehicle] I look at him from the roadside, and he looks back. He can’t bear losing his prey, but knows I’ll never board his taxi again. But he’s powerful and wants me to have an accident or something like it. He wants me in his world. He wants me dead.”

Curiously, he added that he wasn’t the only one to have escaped the death cab. A florist from the Chacarita neighborhood had boarded the taxi and managed to escape, telling him that she was now being oppressed by daily sightings of the phantom vehicle, whose cadaverous driver would stare her down. It prompted her to move her flower stand to Avellaneda, another neighborhood in Buenos Aires, where she was shot to death amidst an exchange of gunfire. “Want to know where she’s buried?” Sandoval asked the authors, knowingly. He pointed at La Chacarita. “Yes, right there. And that bastard wants to do the same to me. But it’s going to cost him dearly.”

Stories of cab drivers conveying passengers who turn out to be ghosts are common, but if there is the slightest shred of truth to the La Chacarita phantom taxi, it might be a unique event. The only other phantom vehicle that comes close would be the one employed by the dreaded “Zobop” – the magical gangsters of the Haitian tradition. This, however, was a very real car used for nocturnal raids with a sorcerous purpose. “A few years ago,” wrote Andre Metraux in Voodoo in Haiti (Oxford University Press, 1959, p.297) “there was much talk in Port-au-Prince of a ‘tiger car’ that took people away by night to eat them. This was no innocent folk tale, as a friend of mine was able to witness. He – Monsieur M.B. – was suspected of being the driver of the phantom car and was almost lynched by a crowd which surged around him, accusing him of having killed a child.”

Tango in the Night

Argentina’s El Tribuno newspaper recently published an article about a ghostly entity that has been striking fear in the hearts of residents of the city of Salta, which has enough to worry about with its long history of UFO sightings. Reporter Daniel Díaz looked into the curious situation, obtaining detailed descriptions of the bewildering entity: a tall, thin figure of a woman, walking upright, whose face is not fully visible, but whose eyes create an intense feeling of disquiet in those who approach her. The ghostly female presence has become known as “The Widow of Güemes Street”, at least to workers in a slaughterhouse by the cemetery.

Workers must report for duty in spite of the fear inspired by the figure. “When you see her, you don’t know if to go on or head back to town,” said one worker. “Seeing her made my hair stand on end and I was engulfed in overwhelming cold, but I plucked up my courage and pressed forward. Then she vanished. It isn’t something you can tell just anyone,” he told Díaz, “or something people will understand immediately. The fact is that this ghost appears and the fear she inspires is tremendous.”

The Widow appears not be alone. A driver motoring along Güemes Street in the middle of the night was startled to see the outline of a gaucho (the cowboy figure of the Argentinean pampas) standing in the middle of the road. “He was over six feet tall, wearing an elegant outfit with a wide-brimmed hat, perhaps the widest I’ve ever seen. He gave me a sinister smile and didn’t move from the road. I had to dodge him by the wire fencing, and then floored the accelerator,” said the driver, adding that he spent the following minutes in fervent prayer after seeing the figure was no longer visible in his rear view mirror.

The article in El Tribuno explains that the Widow is the wandering spirit of a woman who was badly mistreated and deceived throughout her life by her husband, a member of the landed gentry of Valle de Lerma. She prowls the night looking for revenge, seeing if an innocent passerby might be her husband. “Her preference is to get into the back seat of vehicles, whether it’s a motorcycle, a bike or a car,” writes Díaz, “but oftentimes she’ll weep by the roadside, waiting for someone to ask her what’s wrong.”

Salta is hardly the only Argentinean city beset by ghosts. The Buenos Aires suburb of Ciudadela has its own story to tell, this one involving a regular city bus making its way down Alvear Avenue one night. As the bus approached one of the town cemeteries (the Cementerio Israelita, in this version of the anecdotal account), passengers saw a "white cloud" rise up from the cemetery and approach the vehicle. As the cloud approached, its female features and outline became clearly visible. It accompanied the bus for a brief period of time, floating in the air, disappearing the moment the bus left the vicinity of the cemetery.

A Night at the Museum

Six thousand miles away, jumping across the Equator and back into the Northern Hemisphere, we find ourselves in Madrid, where an art museum – El Museo Reina Sofía, inaugurated in 1986 – has become the protagonist in a phantasmagoric odyssey.

The massive structure, remodeled in 2001 by French architect Jean Nouvel, dates back to the mid-16th century when King Phillip II (of Spanish Armada fame) decided it would be advisable to gather all of the hospitals, almshouses and other care-giving facilities in a single location, as the area, known as El olivar de Atocha (the Atocha olive grove) was already infamous as a place where the destitute were abandoned to die and left for subsequent burial. The task of building the giant hospital was left to Charles III and subsequent monarchs over the course of the next centuries, adding more buildings to the Hospital de Atocha yet never quite fulfilling the scope the original blueprint. At its peak, Atocha had a capacity of eighteen thousand patients.

The building was abandoned in the 1960s and languished in darkness until the decision was reached to turn it into an art center in the early Eighties. Grisly aspects of the behemoth structure soon became known as workers found skeletons, chains and shackles, and even the mummified remains of three nuns in one of the chapels. Alvaro Gariño, writing in the April 1995 issue of Diario 16 (“Los fantasmas del Reina Sofía”) described the strange phenomena reported by the museum staff, ranging from doors opening and closing of their own volition, wailing and screaming in empty chambers and strange phenomena playing out in the hallways. It emerged that even during the years of service of the hospital, patients had complained of unexplained noises and apparitions. Even darker information came to light about the structure having housed hundreds of bodies during the Spanish Civil War, a place of torture and executions.

These stories of the past offered no solace to current employees who witnessed processions of ghostly nuns through the courtyards, hearing only the sound of their heavy rosaries, or photographers who found extra, and unwanted, faces in their images of historic art, much less to the cleaning staff coming across ghosts seated on benches as they went about their morning duties.

According to the Diario 16 feature, at the request of the museum’s management, a group of researchers and paranormal experts known as the Hepta Group spent a night in the building, searching for an answer. The group included José María Pilón, a priest; psychic Paloma Navarrete and journalist Sol Blanco Soler, who is quoted as saying: “The first time we visited the structure was because the security staff was concerned about the elevators starting on their own at night, which caused them to make continuous rounds, fearing a break-in. On the first night we were able to ascertain how this phenomenon took place without any explanation whatsoever. The group’s physicists checked the machinery room and found the elevators were disconnected.”

On a subsequent investigative journey, it was Navarrete, the psychic, who had the worst experience. “The most awful sensation was entering a circular chamber on the ground floor, where I saw several men shackled to the wall. I could see one trying to assail another, biting his face.” The article goes on to say that this museum chamber had once been the psychiatric ward of the old hospital.

An array of entities from centuries past manifested during a Ouija session held by the Hepta Group members in the museum: Malú, a 16th century Jewish woman, said she had lived in the year 1594 and only wished to “give glory to God”; the prioress of a religious order which had operated in the ancient structure in the mid-1700 appeared next; and finally a self-confessed murderer named Ata, who had appeared in earlier spirit board sessions. Curiously enough, this entity had no idea when it had lived or under whose reign it was. He professed not being happy, but wanted no aid from the living, according to the feature in Diario 16.

Among the more enlightened entities appearing during the session was a pulmonary specialist who had served during the Civil War years and died in the building. Researchers were advised that the building was filled with entities going as far back as 1585.

The Hepta Group produced a final, nine page report known as "El Informe Ata" (Ata or “Ataulfo”, honoring the restless spirit contacted twice in the Ouija sessions) concluding that the paranormal events were the result "of the intense emotional burden inherited from the years when the structure housed a hospital." No further information on the hauntings was ever made public. It is to be assumed that they are still ongoing.

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8 Ways to Generate More B2B Leads at Ecobuild 2015

Posted by Kenneth Connolly on 24-Feb-2015 17:08:00

March 3-5 will see this year’s Ecobuild event take place at ExCeL London; and if last year is anything to go by, it’s going to be HUGE! The 2014 Ecobuild event had over 44,500 attendees, 787 exhibitors and 100+ conference and seminar sessions. Whichever way you look at it, this is a fantastic opportunity to generate leads and revenue for your business.

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Lakes District Health Board - Latest News [Page 1]

After hour health care for children a priority for Lakes DHB

Monday, 13 July 2015, 4:51 pm | Lakes District Health Board

After hours health care for children a priority for Lakes DHB Lakes District Health Board is committed to ensuring free after hours healthcare is available in Rotorua for children aged 6 to 12, so will provide the available government funding to the ... More >>

Lakes DHB statement about privacy breach

Saturday, 17 January 2015, 10:32 am | Lakes District Health Board

Lakes DHB chief executive Ron Dunham says it is deeply disappointing that an excel document containing coded patient information has been released to a member of the media. More >>

Celebrating Special Care Babies at Lakes DHB

Monday, 20 October 2014, 1:17 pm | Lakes District Health Board

Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) staff at Rotorua Hospital, are keen to celebrate premature babies and raise awareness of the challenges families face by recognising World Prematurity Day on Monday 17 November. More >>

New Maternity Service for Turangi Starting Up

Friday, 31 January 2014, 3:52 pm | Lakes District Health Board

Lead maternity carers Jo Toma and Toni Postlewaight will operate their new maternity service, Awhi Midwives, from a large house in Paekiri Street, Turangi. The powhiri for the new service was held at the new service’s premises in Turangi late this ... More >>

Getting the Message Out About Health Services In Turangi

Wednesday, 16 October 2013, 3:02 pm | Lakes District Health Board

Does your health or social services organisation or group provide a community service in the Turangi district? More >>

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Shift to Business Software

From the start the company wanted to make serious software. Games were used as a seed for the company in its first years. But now in 1982 the company had enough resources to pursue something more serious and ambitious.

The higher profit margins in business software also drove the decision to move beyond games. The customers of business software typically were willing to spend more money than mass consumers. Infocom could therefore charge more for its products. Whereas a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 listed around $495, each of Infocom's games sold for around $49.95. Furthermore, business software sells consistenly throughout the year, whereas game software sells mostly (around 75%) during the fourth quarter (christmas), something investors don't like.

Many of the founders also believed that Infocom needed to diversify its product line to continue to grow. In particular, Vezza believed that while the games made money, they would "not last forever." Consumers had fickle tastes. At any point, people might cease to enjoy Infocom's games, abandoning them in favor of something else. The business products market, however, differed in that respect. Customers of business software tended to invest heavily into applications and stick with them for a relatively long period of time.

To diversify its products, two options existed for Infocom: produce different kinds of entertainment software or tackle business products. Mort Rosenthal, Vice-President for Marketing and Finance, wrote up some of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.

Mort Rosenthal's "Two Strategic Alternatives" for the company to pursue, presented at the Board meeting on January 12, 1982.

In the end, it was decided to got with Business software.

"We didn't want to be a $10 million company. We wanted to be a $100 million company." Tim Anderson

So what was Infocom's first Business Software?


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A Tribute to Michael Jackson

Five years after his death, Kevin Mazur recalls one of the last time he photographed Michael Jackson at rehearsals for shows in London that were never performed.

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Bill Bly

Spring 1980

"But that's what she said!" Every once in a while, Brad tried arguing with his editor.

Shirley was nodding, frowning a little with what might have looked like concern from across the room. She'd pointed her eyes at his face, but they were unfocused, dull like well-fingered marbles. Brad knew if he demanded his way with enough bite in his voice, he might win, and the paragraph would stay. Or he might get jerked from the story. You never quite knew where the line was with Shirley.

"Word for word, I swear." The paragraph in question quoted a young woman who lived in the projects, who'd had to identify the body of her ten-year-old son at the Medical Examiner's office. The boy had died in a freak accident at a neighbor's home while his mother was at work. "Looks like him," she'd said. "But he ain't in there." The article itself was supposed to be on day care for working mothers, and it was due today. In fact, a copy boy was already jittering beside Brad's desk.

"Brad, love, we can't print that."

"Why not?"

"It doesn't sound real. It sounds as if you made it up."

"But that's what she said!"

"I believe you, sweetheart, it doesn't surprise me at all. Everybody says something like that. Ask the coroner."

"So why can't we print it?"

"I told you why. It sounds as if you're making fun of her."

"But I'm not!"

"I know that, but think of how it sounds. 'He ain't in there.'"

"But if everybody says something like that — "

Shirley's phone rang and she snatched it up with one hand, pulled off an earring with the other. "Yes?" She looked across the news room. Brad followed her eyes. Rankin was looking at her through the window of his closed door, also on the phone. Brad looked back at her. She was playing it discreet now, head down, rifling a drawer. "Uh-huh. Yes. All right." She tried to sneak a glance at Brad, caught him staring at her, resumed her search more vigorously. "Of course. Five minutes. Please. I will, I promise." She hung up, stirred the drawer once more, then slid it closed.

"Rankin wants the story, right?"

As if distracted, she blinked at him. "Mm?"

"That was him on the phone. He wants the story, or he wants my butt."

Shirley looked pained. "He wants the story. He also wants an explanation for why it's taking so long."

"The man has a stopwatch for a heart."

Shirley's eyes turned on like headlights. She looked at him hard for about ten seconds. Brad tried to return her glare, but he knew he couldn't manage it for long. He was beginning to think that just maybe this one precious paragraph wasn't exactly the keystone of the piece. He shifted his weight.

"Type it up please," she said. "And leave the paragraph out."

Even as Brad began to think, out of habit, about bucking it this time, he knew that he would lose. And he just wasn't up to the energy output. "Next time, Shirley."

"And when you're done I want you to take me out to dinner." This stopped him on the way to his desk. "I want you to explain something to me," she said to his back.

Brad turned around. "You want a date?"

Shirley didn't smile. "Later." She pointed at the copy boy, who was still jittering. Brad shrugged and turned back, making a face. The copy boy guffawed. As Brad threw a leg over the back of his chair to sit down, he saw Rankin in the same place, still on the phone, still looking out. Brad swivelled. Shirley was just taking off her earring again.

They sat in the corner booth. Shirley shoved the netted candle out of the way, then lit a cigarette, sighing out smoke. Her hair flopped on her forehead. She started trying to smooth away the circular dent the candle had made in the white tablecloth. Brad noticed how old her hands looked.

"I'm sorry about before, Shirley. You were right. More I thought about it — "

"No! I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"You're working too hard, Shirley."

"Oh, I know."

"So why don't you quit?" It was a stupid question, everybody knew the answer. Shirley was a widow with a teenage kid. Her husband had been a drunk who'd swilled them into the poorhouse before mercifully wrapping himself around a tree at ninety miles an hour. According to Brad's sources, the only thing left of him for Shirley to identify at the morgue had been his wallet. But that was a long time ago. While Shirley was beginning the long climb from receptionist to features editor, Brad was still in college, scrambling his brains with drugs. The only thing she ever said about it was, "Just another squalid little domestic tragedy. A bagatelle." So what if she was working too hard? Big deal. A bagatelle. Brad was ashamed he'd brought it up. All he was trying to do was make small talk. Since she didn't answer right away, but kept rubbing thoughtfully at the table cloth, Brad began to hope that she was thinking of something else.

Finally she looked up. "What's all this heart business, Brad? Are you in love or something?"

Brad tensed. He wasn't sure he could handle an earnest conversation. "I'm in love with you, but that's not news."

Shirley laughed as always, even though she must have been as tired of this routine as he was. "Don't change the subject."

"Maybe it's the spring, I don't know. Why? Am I more of a fuckup than usual?" She winced, and Brad rolled his eyes. "Really, Shirley, a hard-bitten old-hand reporter like you, still blushing at four letter words?"

"Six, unless you hyphenate it."

"And it's 'such as you,' not 'like you'". Brad gave her the eye. This embarrassed her, as it always did. "Well," she said. "I am an editor, you know." She looked positively girlish.

And I am in love with you, Brad thought. And if you don't stop being so goddam charming I'm gonna have to do something about it. Shirley was about two years younger than his own mother. But then his mother had been a teenager when he was born.

"You're evading the question, Brad."

"Sorry, I spaced out. What was it again?"

"Are you in love?"

"I'm a married man, however separated I may be."

"I got responsibilities. I can't go around falling in love."

"You're losing your cool, Brad."

"I never had much."

Shirley sighed. "All right. You don't have to tell me anything. If you're gonna make me play editor with you, fine. Whatever's bothering you is affecting your work. It began with grammar mistakes, then you started quoting Scripture, now this thing today, with that poor mother."

"That poor mother lost her child."

"So did the Virgin Mary, and that turned out all right, didn't it?"

Brad laughed, but he was shocked. "What are you saying?"

"Mothers lose children every day of the week. Children lose mothers, wives lose husbands, and on and on. It's only news, Brad, not the end of the world."

"But it's horrifying."

"So's everything else. Why did it upset you so?"

"It would upset anybody."

"Of course it would. Sooner or later everybody has to deal with the death of a loved one."

"But a child — "

" — is the worst, of course — Brad, you're not paying attention. What's bothering you ?"

He knew. He knew. But he was nursing it. Hoarding it. If he told Shirley, if he even tried to put it into words, he wouldn't be able to keep it to himself, hug it to his heart, get drunk and pass out, still weeping over it. He was staring, and his eyes began to sting. He blinked.

Shirley's eyes had narrowed. "It's your child, isn't it? Little girl, right? How old is she?"

"And your wife won't let you see her?"

"I can see her any time I want. I get to babysit all the time, while whatshername's out hustling her ass."

"Oh, Brad."

"I think she's hooked one this time."

"And you're jealous."

"Hardly. He's perfect. He's rich, he's divorced, he's got kids of his own. They'll be the fucking Brady Bunch. How can I compete with that?"

"They're getting married?"

"Looks like it. I'm actually holding my breath. He's a really nice guy. I even like him. Hell, I'm in awe of him. He's six-foot-six."

"And your little girl?"

"I like her too, but she's not quite so tall."

Shirley pursed her lips. "Does she like him?"

"I don't know. I don't care. I mean, I hope she does, or it'll be hell for her."

"But you'll be losing her."

"My wife? Well, yes, but like — as you said, it's only news, it's not the end of the world. This ain't even news."

"Your little girl."

There it was.

"You've already lost her."

Now it lay on the white tablecloth between their hands, twitching.

"That's what this is, grief."

Now it had a name. Brad stared at it so hard the air began to swirl around the edges of his vision. Shirley moved a hand, dropped it on one of his, grabbed on hard, hard enough to hurt.

Brad looked up at her. "I wonder why people do that."

"Take each other's hands."

Her smile was so sad his heart lurched. She said, "Doesn't help much, does it?"

"No, but it sure feels good." And he squeezed her hand back.

But the next morning it didn't feel so good. Brad woke up with that old familiar lead-in-the-guts, and he knew right off it was going to be a really bad day. Why do I let these things happen to me? he thought. He waited. Instead of getting an answer, the thought turned on him: Why do I do these things?

Shirley thrashed suddenly, slamming into his shoulder. They stared at each other in naked terror. Then she put her face on. "Morning. You hungry?"

Uh-oh, Brad thought. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't ever have been here. She was waiting to see if he'd pick up his cue. A deranged gnome was capering about in his brain, singing madly, "No way out! No way out! No way no way no way out!" to the tune of cartoon chase music. Acid squirted loudly into his stomach.

"Goodness!" Shirley said. "I guess you are." She turned away, groping over the side of the bed.

This was going to be the hardest part, Brad knew. Once they had some clothes on and could get more than arm's length away from each other . . . . Fortunately it was still dark.

Shirley turned back, a nightgown around her neck. "Don't look at me."

If she'd said it coy, Brad would have died on the spot. But she was looking at him earnestly, pleading. Oh, God, he thought as he rolled away, she's gorgeous. I'm in big trouble. He didn't know whether he'd remembered to smile.

The door opened and closed, and he sat up, casing the room. His clothes were all over the place. The little gnome began caroming off the walls inside his skull. The window, he thought. Fire escape. He got out of bed and went over to it.

Then he heard murmuring in the next room and froze. But the sound was so low and musical he realized it must have been Shirley humming to herself. Terrific, he thought. I'm having a heart attack and she sings. He stooped a little and pulled back a corner of the blind, peered into the darkness.

The door opened, light flooded the room, and Shirley's fourteen-year-old daughter charged in, curlers bouncing, braces flashing like lightning. She stopped dead when she saw Brad crouching like a naked thief by the window, then burst out laughing.

For the rest of that day, every time he looked at Shirley she would grin and roll her eyes, and Brad would do the same. By mid-afternoon people were beginning to notice, and would raise their eyebrows as soon as Brad's or Shirley's back was turned.

At quitting time they watched Brad stroll over and sit down on Shirley's desk, holding up one knee between clasped hands. One of the two must have said something, because they both started shrieking with laughter, and Brad fell sideways across Shirley's paperwork, jiggling helplessly. A hush fell over the news room, as one by one those who hadn't seen this little pantomime turned and joined the others in staring. A few gave each other the eye, as if they really knew what was going on, others started smiling and then giggling themselves, infected.

Rankin came out of his office and threaded his way through the onlookers. He stood for a moment in the silence surrounding the laughing couple, then said, "Any chance of you two sharing the joke?"

They made the mistake of looking at him. By this time they were so far gone that almost anything would have struck them as funny, and Rankin's expression of puzzled worry was so absurd and sad that both of them doubled up as if punched in the stomach, and Brad rolled off the desk onto the floor.

Rankin looked around the room for help, but all he got were shrugs and spread hands. Shirley slid off her chair and tried to wrestle Brad to his feet. After clutching at each other like a couple of drunks they managed to work up enough forward momentum to stagger across the room, the crowd opening a path for them as if they were on a royal progress. At the door Brad sang out "'Night everybody!" but Shirley jerked him around the corner out of sight.

They were sitting in the parking lot, still gusty with laughter, but sighing, winding down. It hadn't occurred to them that they could have hidden inside one of their cars — Brad had just plunked himself on the asphalt and pulled Shirley down with him. All around them were footsteps and doorslams and farewells called across car roofs. They huddled like children behind a bush in their back yard, playing a joke on Mother, who was trying to get them inside for dinner.

Gradually the parking lot emptied out except for the two cars they were hiding between. They had also stopped giggling and shushing. It wasn't exactly spring yet, and the asphalt was cold, but the air was mild, even now, at dusk.

Brad looked up at the sky, which was still bright as daylight at the zenith and to the west, but going deep and cold towards the other horizon, where streetlights were winking on and shimmering. It was growing still, too, though not silent — from beneath a blanket of distance there came a steady roar, punctuated by the monotonous kachunk of some mysterious pump or pile driver. He could feel the heat of this false spring day evaporating like the cruel illusion it was, and he knew that it was time to face the music.

Shirley must have felt the same thing; she was already looking at him when he turned his face to her. Once again she blessed him with that saddest of smiles, once again his heart tripped and fell on its face.

"You know," she said, "we can't print this either."

©1993 Bill Bly
This story originally appeared in The Antigonish Review, Volume 23, Issue 89.

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Nationalist parties win local elections in Bosnia

A Bosnian woman casts her ballot at a poling station in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. Bosnians are voting on Sunday in municipal elections marked by a battle in the Bosnian Serb half of the country between a pro-European Union coalition and the pro-Russia separatist party that has ruled that region for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
October 03, 2016 - 4:26 AM

SARAJEVO, Bosnia - Nationalist parties easily won local elections in Bosnia, including contests in the Bosnian Serb half of the country where victories bolstered the position of the region's long-time leader, preliminary results early Monday morning showed.

Voters picked mayors and municipal councils in both of Bosnia's two semi-autonomous regions on Sunday. Those areas — the Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation — each have their own governments, presidents and parliaments, but are linked by shared federal-level institutions.

Election officials said slightly more than half of the approximately 3.2 million eligible voters cast ballots, and in the Bosniak-Croat Federation, the respective nationalist parties almost completely defeated their non-nationalist rivals.

In Republika Srpska, the pro-Russian separatist party that has governed for more than a decade defeated a pro-European Union coalition that is no less nationalist. The Alliance of Independent Social-Democrats, led by Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, won 30 per cent more municipalities than in the last elections.

The party campaigned on a promise of Republika Srpska's secession from Bosnia — something many nationalist Serbs have been seeking since Yugoslavia collapsed during the 1990s.

Dodik's opponents — the Alliance for Changes — focused their campaign on bread-and-butter economic issues, while accusing him of corruption and of throwing the region into poverty.

But he managed to shift Serb voters' attention away from the corruption accusations by holding, a week before the election, a referendum in Republika Srpska over a disputed holiday celebrated in that region. Bosnia's constitutional court had banned the holiday because it discriminates against non-Serbs.

The court also banned the referendum, saying its rulings are final, but Dodik conducted it anyway, portraying the bans as attacks against the region's autonomy. This mobilized the Serbs and voters overwhelmingly approved the holiday, although non-Serbs mostly boycotted the vote.

"Republika Srpska won twice in just seven days," Dodik declared after the preliminary results were announced. "The response of our people was just impressive," he said.

Analyst Adis Arapovic said Dodik's referendum move helped carry him to victory on Sunday.

However, because he defied the top court in carrying out the referendum, the state prosecutor issued him a summons for Monday. Risking arrest, Dodik said he won't go.

Western countries have threatened him with sanctions, but he enjoys the support of Russia.

News from © The Associated Press, 2016
The Associated Press

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