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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/7922 | Sunday, June 23, 2019
A book review of “Tails From Rainbow Bridge 2: Tributes and Observations”
By Wylie Hudson
Foley Monster, the author of the book Tails From Rainbow Bridge 2: Tributes and Observations, is a judge at Rainbow Bridge, bringing justice and freedom to pets’ immortal lives. Her stories about the afterlife show how every pet either continues a flourishing life or gets a better deal if its mortal life had been a letdown. With help and support from each other, the pets work hard to lessen the pain of pets and humans separated by Rainbow Bridge and to lift their spirits.
I enjoyed reading about the manners, quirks and interests of my friends at Rainbow Bridge, some habits they took over from their mortal lives, others they developed later, and got a kick out of the antics they pulled. Their love and dedication to each other and to their families and friends on the mortal side hold a special place in my heart since we pets are champions for family ties and friendships that last forever and ever. Pets and pet lovers will sense this special bond throughout the book.
Foley Monster took a lot of effort and care to write such a wonderful collection of stories as she kept up with all of her friends’ lives. The book will delight readers and will bring back beautiful memories to those who know pets across Rainbow Bridge.
The book is available at
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
And I thought I was having a nightmare
By Sabrina Hudson
Our mom almost got killed by a kitchen cabinet, and I slept through the whole ordeal, right next to it in the dining room. I was taking my beauty siesta and heard a thunderous crash. Peeking through one eye, I saw a black monster run like the devil and thought I was having a nightmare.
I later learned it had been my kitty brother Tiger. He had witnessed from his chair opposite mine at the dining room table Mom desperately holding on to the kitchen cabinet. It had come crashing down on her when she opened its door, smashing to smithereens pottery and glasses. Tiger had hightailed it at the first sound of the boom and clatter and watched everything from a safe distance.
Mom’s desperate shouts for Dad to come and rescue her tore into my sleep, but as I said, I thought it was a nightmare in which the devil was after Mom when in fact, it was the kitchen cabinet that was after her.
Dad arrived just in time before Mom’s arms gave out. He took over holding the cabinet sitting with its edge on the kitchen counter. After Mom and Dad pushed it all the way on top of the counter, they stared in disbelief at the broken glasses and whatever, scattered all over the floor. Then, they carefully removed the broken pieces still inside the cabinet.
Listening to what had happened, I was thankful that mom came out of that disaster unscathed. She was shook up but only had a scratch on her wrist. Surprisingly, a few of the drinking glasses were still in one piece, even without cracks or chips.
We are all proud of our mom who had put her life at risk to save the kitchen cabinet and the floor.
The kitchen cabinet sits on the countertop
after crashing down from the wall.
About Hobo
This was Hobo Hudson, my doggy brother, a little terrier mix with black fur. He became famous after his first attempt at writing stories, which was an article published in the newsletter of our local animal shelter, the same shelter in which I ended up years later before Hobo and his parents adopted me. Hobo’s fame quickly spread as he made a name for himself as a business dog and an adventurer. To keep his memory alive, my doggy sister, my three kitty siblings and I, Wylie Hudson, are continuing his blog. Our mom, the blog’s editor, is publishing a Hobo Hudson adventure in sequences. Click on: Foreign Business Affairs, and enjoy a different kind of pet story that combines suspense, lightheartedness and quirk.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/7939 | Attitude, Desserts and The New Normal
Do you know what the links are between attitude, desserts and living in the “new normal”?
A Globe and Mail/CTV/Ipsos-Reid Poll created a flurry of Stress articles in our October, 2001 newspapers. You may remember headlines such as:
“Work Life Stress Mounting for Canadians”
“Canadians Feeling Weight of the World”
“Tension between Work and Home Growing”
“Fighting the Fear Factor: How Can We Cope?”
“Poll Finds Rising Stress and Fear in Canada”
This poll reports that one in four Canadians always or often feels stressed since Sept. 11th. One in three are now more anxious and irritable. Another poll, conducted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, reports two thirds of Canadians fear more for their personal safety and that of their families, and 57% are experiencing “severe or significant stress since the terror campaign began”.
On-the-Job Stress has been a subject of conversation (and of some of my workshops, too!) for over the past decade. This isn’t new. What is new is that larger numbers of employees are working with increased levels of stress. Stressed employees impact workplace results.
Are your employees more anxious and irritable now? Do they have shorter fuses with external clients and colleagues? How is that affecting customer service and inter-departmental communications?
If employees are having trouble sleeping, they may make fatigued, inaccurate and damaging workplace decisions.
How much room for error is there in the product or service your organization provides?
There is a growing body of research that shows a direct link between stress and physical unwellness, which then leads to lost productivity and absenteeism.
What have you noticed in your organization over the past two months?
In addition to the workshops employers are arranging for their staff, to deal with attitude and behaviour around change and stress, here are six very simple, cost efficient strategies to “keep it together” at work, and elsewhere:
1. Drink: Water…that is!
Drink six to eight glasses of room temperature water, or a little warmer, daily; starting with two in a row first thing in the morning. Distracting, mid-afternoon headaches are often caused by dehydration. Drink your water before you’re pained and parched. By the time you’re so thirsty that you’ve just “gotta hava drink”…it’s too late; you’re already dehydrated (and reaching for the aspirin)! 2. Come Together: Bring your team together for some lighthearted bonding. How about a year end / festive team breakfast? Team lunches run long and interrupt your stride. A team breakfast can invigorate and energize your team for the entire day!
3. Talk About Anything Else besides “the war” for a whole day!
I found myself talking about the “War on Terrorism” at every dinnertime, after Sept. 11. It took my 15 year old daughter saying, “Mum, you’ve talked about the war every day this week. Can we have one meal where we talk about anything else besides the war?” Out of the mouths of teens!
4. Sing with Gusto: Research shows that singing shifts the emotions and reduces fears.
It helps focus our thoughts on things other than worries and stress. On November 1st, CBC One Radio’s “Ideas” program reported that the de-stressing power of music is so important that major teaching hospitals staff full time music therapists! The next time you’re on your way to work, bring along your most inspiring and favourite songs. Provided that you’re in a car, sing your songs out loud…with gusto! Yeah, it sounds a little silly and outrageous, and perhaps you couldn’t ever imagine yourself doing such a thing, but consider how the potential benefits out weigh the risks! Yeah, someone might see you (but they won’t hear you) and they won’t even see you if you don’t look! By the time you arrive at work you’ll feel absolutely exhilarated! You may even have those uplifting lyrics running around your head the entire day, to keep you motivated!
5. Decide to be Kinder with Coworkers, Customers, Neighbours, Friends and Family, too.
Many of us wear our professional “bibs” all day, and then, when we come home, have our first irritable thoughts or words before we’re even out of the front hall! A few years ago a little piece of physical serendipity happened for me that I’ve kept in its place ever since. I use a lot of small, happy faced stickers. One of these stickers mysteriously landed on the floorboard of my front door. As I went to remove it, that happy face looked up at me. I thought about the “coincidence” of this sticker being at my door step…that physical symbol of transition from “work life” to “family life”. My intuition told me to leave it there, to act as a reminder to give the very same “best” to my family that I easily give to my clients, audiences and workshop participants. It’s been there ever since. That little yellow faced symbol has reminded me, many times, of how I want to be and act with my loved ones in the next moment. Plant your own subtle symbols at work and home (and even in your car) to remind you of how you want to be and act. External reminders help…especially if we’re so stressed that we’re not thinking with our “higher brains”.
6. Practice Positive Self Talk: Optimistic and positively focused people frequently use negative words without even knowing it!
Do you express what you do want by articulating what you don’t want?” I f so, you are using negative talk. You’re using it with others and you’re probably using it on yourself. For example, do you say, “Have I caught you at a bad time?”, drawing attention to the idea of “bad time”? Use the positive alternative of, “Have I got you at a good time?” They’ll still tell you if it isn’t, but positively focused words help influence your desired results. “Getting” this is so important and powerful that I will devote an upcoming edition to expanding on this very subject.
We all have the capacity to choose and direct ourselves to be peaceful inside regardless of what is happening outside. All we really have to do is exercise that choice. These six simple strategies can make a terrific contribution.
And just what are those links between attitude, desserts and the “new normal”?
If you create a numeric equivalent for each letter of “A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E” (example, where A = 1, T = 20), the word “Attitude” equals 100.
Desserts are delicious and most people would rather have them than not! “Desserts” reversed is “Stressed”. In which direction would you rather go?
And the “new normal” merely is what it is.
It takes 100% of your positive, focused attitude and effort to choose “desserts” over “stressed”, to successfully work and live in the new normal. Do yourself and those around you a big favour, and treat yourself to a metaphoric, and literal decadent dozen fine quality truffles! Now there’s a dessert! And now, more than ever, you deserve it!
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/7955 | Looking Through the Isobaric Mirror
Reactions that add or remove a proton or neutron from a nucleus are a powerful way to probe wave functions of individual nucleons. A standard tool is the (d,p) reaction where a neutron is transferred from the deuteron to the nucleus of interest.
Proton elastic scattering off a nucleus, populating the so-called isobaric analog states, related to isospin symmetry of the strong force, is an alternative method. At NSCL/FRIB, we can now perform such experiments using rare-isotope beams scattering off protons and detecting the scattered protons by 3D imaging of their tracks using a novel detector called the AT-TPC (Active Target Time Projection Chamber).
The aim of such first experiment with a rare-isotope beam was to study the evolution of the N=28 neutron shell gap in neutron-rich nuclei.
The investigations of neutron wave functions in Ar47 from the study of analog states populated in 46Ar+p proton scattering (Phys. Lett. B 778 (2018) 155-160) is the first result obtained with this method on a medium mass radioactive nucleus, and the first scientific result from the re-accelerated beam program at NSCL/FRIB. The experiment used an Ar46 radioactive beam produced from the projectile fragmentation of a Ca48 stable beam at the Coupled Cyclotron Facility. The fast Ar46 beam was then stopped in a gas cell, before being re-accelerated at the ReAccelerator facility ReA3 to an energy of 4.6 MeV/u and transported to the AT-TPC. The result obtained shows that the core Ar46 is more strongly modified by adding the extra neutron than expected.
This successful experiment with ReA3 and AT-TPC opens up a large part of the nuclear chart far from stability for such studies. They can now be performed with a beam intensity as low as 1,000 particles per second.
Figure 1: The photo shows Clémentine Santamaria next to the AT-TPC detector and electronics. The AT-TPC detector is placed inside a large bore solenoidal magnet that applies a magnetic field inside the active volume of the detector. The plot shows a typical proton scattering event recorded by the AT-TPC: the proton is emitted from the reaction vertex location and follows an helicoidal trajectory as it is slowing down in the gas volume and bent by the action of the magnetic field. The blue spiral is the 2D projection of the trajectory on the sensor plane of the AT-TPC. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/7983 | Online Enterprise Integration Patterns Diagram Tool
Draw Enterprise Integration Pattern Diagram online, with an Easy-to-Use online Enterprise Integration Pattern Diagram tool
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The Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP) diagram tool provided by VP Online makes it easy to configure your own EIPs. It includes a rich collection of EIP tools and shapes that let you create EIP with drag-and-drop. It also comes with a rich collection of EIP templates and examples. You can easily develop your patterns and then output and share them via formats like PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG and PDF.
You may start with a blank diagram or a EIP template. Followings are few of the templates. Click the Edit button to start editing straight away. It's free and no registration needed.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/7986 | Miradore Management Suite Portal
Knowledge base, self-service support
2018-04-11 Release notes - Unknown sources for work managed devices
Unknown sources for Android work managed devices
We have added a setting for allowing Unknown sources on Android work managed devices. This allows installation of applications (and updating existing) from sources other than Play store. By default this is denied.
Please note, that by allowing this only activates the setting in Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources, and users must turn on the setting in to actually enable Unknown sources.
This setting requires Miradore Online client 2.6.5 or newer (released in December 2017).
Please send comments to [email protected]. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8014 | Music Fans
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PlayYou Can Never Say
by Laura Shay
That's just it -- he couldn't say.
Uploaded: November 11, 2009
Duration: 4m 12s
Comments for You Can Never Say
Portrait of kdbeech
Love it!
Moving vocals and a beautiful arrangement. This tune has continued to pop up in my mind since the first listen. I'm hooked.
Incredible artist!
Portrait of Beholdereye
Absolutely love it - which is likely why I bought the album *grin*
Portrait of mkat22
Love it!! Says it all!
Laura is the best!!!
Love it, Laura! Best of luck!
Now I'm holding my guitar and riffing over the tune. I'm inspired to rip it up tastefully. Nice groove!!
Smooth and breathy vocal leads, subtle, well arranged harmony, and a pulsating groove with soulful acoustic riffing leaves me bobbing my head and taking in the tune from beginning to end. Well done...
Portrait of jloveable
Lacking in vocal range and lower vocals need work. Need to project a little more too. Song itself is good though.
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Portrait of Laura Shay
Laura Shay |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8020 | For startups
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8034 | “But I don’t like borscht” and other opinions I don’t care about
My family doesn’t really like borscht. Even my husband (whose main positive attribute, in my view, is that he’ll eat anything I decide to cook) shakes his head a little when he hears that it’s on the menu. But I keep serving it for two reasons. First, it’s good for them, full of vitamins and fiber. Second, I happen to love borscht and I figure since I do 110% of the cooking we ought to eat what I like.
If you’re running a business and managing employees, you likely run into situations on a regular basis that make you doubt your judgement. There are plenty of things for employees to disagree with and in a small business, they often feel it easier to express their opinions to you and to their co-workers.
I once had a client who, after much consideration, moved to a direct deposit payroll system. She knew that not only would she get some efficiencies from this move, but it would be easier and faster for her employees to get access to their earnings. But despite her careful preparation and extensive communication, when the first direct deposit payroll rolled around she nearly had a mutiny. She received enough negative feedback that she called me to ask if she should revert to her old system.
My answer? “Absolutely not.” Why? Because despite the fact that the employees reacted to the change, it was still better for the business and better for the employees to continue. And additionally, since her name was on the building, she got to decide.
Last night as I ladled up steaming borscht I encouraged my 7-year-old (also known as “He Who Eats Almost Nothing”) to give it another chance. “You like cooked celery,” I said, “cooked cabbage is even better.”
He apparently was in a mood to humor me and gave it a try. “It’s not bad,” he said, and he took another spoonful, not only validating my decision but giving me something to hold over the heads of the rest of the family – a huge bonus!
Trust your instincts and be willing to take charge. Nobody said leadership was going to be easy but if I can get my kid to eat beet soup you can surely win over your employees.
Have you ever second-guessed one of your decisions? Send your stories to [email protected]. If I use it I’ll feature your business.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8035 | Parker Naturals - Journey to a Better You — hormonal balance
3 Natural Ways to Support Your Body During Menopause
Menopause is a natural part of the aging process and occurs for most women somewhere between the ages of 48 and 55. As women transition into this new stage of life, the hormone oestrogen, which regulates ovaries and periods gradually stops being produced. The word menopause refers to...
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8070 | Skip to main content
Physics LibreTexts
16: The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse
• Page ID
• The Sun puts out an incomprehensible amount of energy—so much that its ultraviolet radiation can cause sunburns from 93 million miles away. It is also very old. As you learned earlier, evidence shows that the Sun formed about 4.5 billion years ago and has been shining ever since. How can the Sun produce so much energy for so long?
The Sun’s energy output is about 4 × 1026 watts. This is unimaginably bright: brighter than a trillion cities together each with a trillion 100-watt light bulbs. Most known methods of generating energy fall far short of the capacity of the Sun. The total amount of energy produced over the entire life of the Sun is staggering, since the Sun has been shining for billions of years. Scientists were unable to explain the seemingly unlimited energy of stars like the Sun prior to the twentieth century.
• 16.1: Sources of Sunshine: Thermal and Gravitational Energy
The Sun produces an enormous amount of energy every second. Since Earth and the solar system are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this means that the Sun has been producing vast amounts for energy for a very, very long time. Neither chemical burning nor gravitational contraction can account for the total amount of energy radiated by the Sun during all this time.
• 16.2: Mass, Energy, and the Theory of Relativity
Solar energy is produced by interactions of particles—that is, protons, neutrons, electrons, positrons, and neutrinos. Specifically, the source of the Sun’s energy is the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. The series of reactions required to convert hydrogen to helium is called the proton-proton chain. A helium atom is about 0.71% less massive than the four hydrogen atoms that combine to form it, and that lost mass is converted to energy (with the amount of energy given by the formula E = mc2).
• 16.3: The Solar Interior - Theory
Even though we cannot see inside the Sun, it is possible to calculate what its interior must be like. As input for these calculations, we use what we know about the Sun. It is made entirely of hot gas. Apart from some very tiny changes, the Sun is neither expanding nor contracting (it is in hydrostatic equilibrium) and puts out energy at a constant rate. Fusion of hydrogen occurs in the center of the Sun, and the energy generated is carried to the surface by radiation and then convection.
• 16.4: The Solar Interior - Observations
Studies of solar oscillations (helioseismology) and neutrinos can provide observational data about the Sun’s interior. The technique of helioseismology has so far shown that the composition of the interior is much like that of the surface (except in the core, where some of the original hydrogen has been converted into helium), and that the convection zone extends about 30% of the way from the Sun’s surface to its center.
• 16.E: The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse (Exercises)
Thumbnail: It takes an incredible amount of energy for the Sun to shine, as it has and will continue to do for billions of years. (credit: modification of work by Ed Dunens) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8076 | Interpreter Information
Role of the Interpreter
A court interpreter is a language conduit whose participation allows an individual who does not speak or understand English to participate meaningfully in a judicial proceeding
Modes of Interpreting
• Consecutive interpretation: The interpreter listens and speaks in a sequential manner after the speaker has completed a thought.
• Sight translation: The interpreter reads and translates a written document orally in court.
• Simultaneous interpretation: The interpreter speaks contemporaneously with the speaker. This mode of interpreting is often used when the court interpreter is seated at the counsel table assisting a non-English speaking party.
Difference Between Interpreting & Translating
Interpreting is the conversion of speech (spoken language) while translation is conversion of text (written language) from one language into another.
Interpreter Invoice form
Language Assistance Plan
Interpreter Services Complaint Report form
Code of Contact for Interpreters - GR 11.1
Preamble: All language interpreters serving in a legal proceeding, whether certified or not certified, shall abide by the following code of conduct. A language interpreter who violates any of the provisions of this code is subject to a citation for contempt, disciplinary action or any other sanction that may be imposed by law. The purpose of this code of conduct is to establish and maintain high standards of conduct to preserve the integrity and independence of the adjudicative system. Interpreters will abide by the following:
• A language interpreter, like an officer of the court, shall maintain the standards of personal and professional conduct that promote public confidence in the administration of justice.
• A language interpreter shall interpret or translate the material thoroughly and precisely, adding or omitting nothing, and stating as nearly as possible what has been stated in the language of the speaker, giving consideration to variations in grammar and syntax for both languages involved. A language interpreter shall use the level of communication that best conveys the meaning of the source, and shall not interject the interpreter's personal moods or attitudes.
• When a language interpreter has any reservation about ability to satisfy an assignment competently, the interpreter shall immediately convey that reservation to the parties and to the court. If the communication mode or language of the non-English speaking person cannot be readily interpreted, the interpreter shall notify the appointing authority or the court.
• No language interpreter shall render services in any matter in which the interpreter is a potential witness, associate, friend or relative of a contending party, unless a specific exception is allowed by the appointing authority for good cause noted on the record. Neither shall the interpreter serve in any matter in which the interpreter has an interest, financial or otherwise, in the outcome. Nor shall any language interpreter serve in a matter where the interpreter has participated in the choice of counsel.
• Except in the interpreter's official capacity, no language interpreter shall discuss, report or comment upon a matter in which the person serves as interpreter. Interpreters shall not disclose any communication that is privileged by law without the written consent of the parties to the communication or pursuant to court order.
• A language interpreter shall report immediately to the appointing authority in the proceeding any solicitation or effort by another to induce or encourage the interpreter to violate any law, any provision of the rules which may be approved by the courts for the practice of language interpreting or any provisions of this code of conduct.
• Language interpreters shall not give legal advice and shall refrain from the unauthorized practice of law.
Find Out More
Now that you know how interpreter services operate, find out how to actually use an interpreter to communicate your case. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8095 | ‘Red Hen’ and other poems by Shirley McClure
I want to have poems
by Caesarean section
wearing my Infallible lip gloss
and counting on my designer
I will keep my bump discreet,
drink litres of San Pellegrino,
strive to avoid striae gravidarum,
laser them later if it comes to it.
I want to live a normal life
despite the media,
and when it’s time,
my lines will glide out raring
to open their lungs and wail
as true as any natural birth.
Published in Clifden Anthology 35, 2013
Red Hen
We know nothing
about hens, yet find ourselves
in charge of half a dozen.
The odd girl out –
you call her Mrs.One – loses
her footing in the mud.
You carry her
into the hen-house
with piano player hands.
Still there the next day,
she has turned her blunt
red beak to the wall.
We talk to neighbours
about red mites, infections,
wonder if she’s egg-bound.
We fill her bowl
with cabbage-leaves,
stroke her tight wings.
Her sisters cry out,
foul her water,
shit on her plumage.
We are told you’d get
a new hen for the price
of the vet. For the first time
I want to crack a bird’s neck.
Instead we hand her back,
ailing but alive.
Weeks later you find me
in quick tears
for the red hen;
you brush the rust
of my feathers, fill up
my hopper with oyster shells.
Published in Orbis, 2014
Yoga class
I skipped my yoga class
because the man was due
to fix the curtain rail.
Upstairs, he poised in heavy boots
on the edge of my bed,
but not before prudently
peeling back the elegant blue
Brown Thomas duvet.
Beneath him I stood
at optimal angle to flaunt
my cleavage, to hand him screws.
Smoothly he inserted the rawl plug,
then with slightly quicker breath
he drove it deep
into my freshly painted, trembling
Orchid White walls.
Threading the hoops unto the pole
we lifted it together,
our fingers touching
as he tenderly
completed the work.
Later we did yoga together
dreamt up new asanas
and held them, and each other
until light began slinking through
my brand new curtains.
From Who’s Counting?
Text Sex
Text messaging,
the first hot Sunday in May-
he: I hope you’re doing something
wild. I’m
busy with lambing.
She: Sun-bathing
out the back,
does that count as wild?
He: That depends
on how naked you are…
She pictures him delivering,
in placenta,
imagining her nakeder, fuller,
redder than she really is, outside
on a blue rug holding
a silver mobile phone.
She turns over, pale still,
unhooks her bra;
they joke about his sad life
chatting to sheep
phone dating,
dreaming of nakedness
in Edenbrook Heights.
If she were less prudent,
She’d ask him over now,
shower him, sponge each finger carefully,
massage his neck and armpits
with apricot soap;
but it’s not like that with them,
his wedding band has left a mark
that no lamb’s blood can cover.
She dresses, texts goodbye
and phones
the take-away.
From Who’s Counting?
ShirleyPhotoBoyle12_smallShirley McClure’s (1962-2016) Stone Dress was published by Arlen House in August 2015. Her CD Spanish Affair, with her own poems plus poetry and music from invited guests, was launched in June. All proceeds from the CD go to Arklow Cancer Support Group, where she facilitates a writers’ group. Her first poetry collection, Who’s Counting? (Bradshaw Books) won Cork Literary Review’s Manuscript Competition 2009. She won Listowel Writers’ Week Originals Poetry Competition 2014. Shirley lived in Bray, Co. Wicklow. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8113 | Web ‘to go’ – Blogging on the Train
2 07 2009
I am writing this blog post from the discomfort of a hot train carriage en route from Grantham to Manchester. Why do you need to know that? The answer is quite simply that you don’t. My point is that it is now possible to blog or upload content, any time, any place, anywhere.
There is no air conditioning in my carriage but I do have a laptop with me and Internet access, although it is courtesy of a 3G mobile stick rather than having been thoughfully provided by the train operator. Although to be fair many train operators now offer wifi (usually the same ones that manage to provide aircon).
We are increasingly moving to a point where web access is an expected utility rather than a welcome exception. The iPhone even has a dedicated WordPress application that lets you blog directly from your phone with considerable ease, making live blogging easier than ever. The carriage isn’t getting any cooler and I’m still an hour and a half from my stop. I wonder what’s happening on twitter?
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8136 | MarcosPMA's picture
By: MarcosPMA, Marcos Rodriguez
Apr 25 2019 11:00am
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Sealed Success! When War of the Spark was officially completely spoiled it ended up happening just as my dad's birthday and Easter happened, so that gave me less time to look at the set as a whole than I would have liked. It also meant I had less time to record as I spent 3 of the 5 possible days with family instead of pacing myself on these videos. All this means is the extra time I gave myself wasn't fully utilized and that's a bummer. That said, I still took a good look at War of the Spark and made conclusions about the set that alleviated previous concerns over the Limited environment. Of course, let's not waste any more time and dig into War of the Spark.
• 5/2 - War of the Spark Limited
• 5/9 - War of the Spark Limited
• 5/16 - War of the Spark Limited
• 5/23 - War of the Spark Limited
War of the Spark Planeswalkers
Having a Planeswalker in every pack and having them show up in the uncommon slot is definitely new and makes you realize how powerful Planeswalkers are in general. A lot of the removal and creatures in this set have been designed to account for Planeswalkers being in play (see Spark Harvest and so the fear of games being taken over by Planeswalkers has mostly been subdued. In fact, I believe more often than not a Planeswalker is going to die quickly, which makes sense flavor wise as a lot Planeswalkers are going to die during the conflict.
As far as the uncommon Planeswalkers go I do believe they function more like Sagas than they do traditional Planeswalkers since instead of winning the game via ultimate, they follow a very specific path and specialize in doing a certain thing. With a Saga you know in advance what's going to happen and once it hits the third lore counter, it's done doing whatever it was doing. These uncommon Planeswalkers generally have 2 activations and then they sit with a passive ability, so once the activations are done you don't have to worry as much.
For example, I see Teyo as a Planeswalker you can avoid attacking since he doesn't do much in play and you can certainly overcome 0/3 Wall tokens. The play pattern for Teyo is to make 2 0/3 Wall tokens and then have him sit in play doing nothing else. It still feels cool to have a Planeswalker and being able to activate loyalty abilities, but since the power is capped it can only do so much to an opponent. Once you up the rarity you can worry more about them and certainly the mythic Planeswalkers are much more powerful and deserve to be killed on sight.
War of the Spark Mechanics
Amass X - Put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first.
A lot of cards in blue, red, and black have the keyword mechanic Amass. This allows you to take control of a Dreadhorde army by first creating a token, then over time adding more and more +1/+1 counters on it to make an ever growing offensive force. If you don't have an Army token when you Amass, first you create the token then add those +1/+1 counters on it. However, if you already have an Army what you do is instead put more +1/+1 counters on the creature you already have. You can't go wide with this mechanic, instead you go tall.
Proliferate is a returning keyword with a slight tweak made, for each permanent and/or player you choose you give them another counter of each type there. This won't matter much in War of the Spark Limited but has some minor implications in other formats (mostly Commander). You can choose any permanent and/or player to get counters if they already have counters, and note this does not target anything so you could give a Hexproof creatures an opponent controls more counters if you wanted to. You'll generally want to proliferate each time you can, but make sure you have counters already i in play before you do so.
War of the Spark Card Rankings
War of the Spark Sealed Set Review
Some of my key takeaways after looking at the set as a whole:
• Removal is pretty good, likely to account for the fact you need to attack certain Planeswalkers on the spot and/or more Planeswalkers in decks makes the average deck more powerful.
• Uncommon Planeswalkers function more like Sagas than normal Planeswalkers. Most uncommon PWs aren't worth killing/investing resources to go after.
• Fixing is very scarce in this set, splashing will be more difficult but 5c green is an option.
• It's easier to deal with a Planeswalker without having to attack it (counters, Spark Harvest, burn spells, etc)
• Rare/mythic Planeswalkers should be dealt with as quickly as possible.
• The Gods are powerful but can be dealt with via mill, exiling them from the graveyard when the trigger is on the stack, or countering them. Note if you use Prison Realm on one the owner can put it back into their library.
• Splashing black for Spark Harvest might be a thing if you really need a card to deal with a Planeswalker.
• Gut feeling is this format will rely a lot on combat. It is a plane at war after all.
What do you think about the set as a whole? I'm pretty excited about it and can't wait to play with the cards as soon as possible. Next week I'll be back with my first taste of War of the Spark Limited. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please leave them in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading/watching! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8143 | It’s My Oppression and You Can’t Have Any
For Christmas, I got the latest hipster craze: an old-timey retro phone thing that plugs into my smart phone, so that anyone playing “Crazy or Bluetooth?” can feel alive again as they gaze upon my curled cord descending into my purse (Kidding! I don’t have a freakin purse).
Some day soon, a friend in need will call on me; I will pick up the headset. “Yessenia, you’re needed. A flamewar is ongoing, yet we have no enlisted trolls. Those trolling the good fight are mere amateurs, and they’re getting pummeled.” And I’ll go VOOM with a rainbow trailing behind me.
This happened a couple months ago, on a flamewar that went down in response to a panel discussion of the role of lesbian transwomen in the San Francisco Dyke March. The panel itself went really well, but self-proclaimed ‘radical feminists’ descended on the facebook page for the march, and proceeded to vomit hatred like they’d washed down the enterovirus sandwich they had for lunch with a bottle of ipecac.
The basic gist of their argument, a gist I’d like to unpack, dismantle, put back in the box and sell without a crucial lynchpin to some unsuspecting craigslist schmuck, is as follows:
1. Gender is not something that proceeds naturally from one’s sex.
2. Feminine genders are forced upon female-bodied children from a very young age, for the purpose of oppressing them.
3. All gender is performance.
4. Transwomen are performing feminine genders.
From 1-3, at least where this formerly self-identified radical feminist is standing, proceeds the unassailable conclusion that transgender people are not just possible, but inevitable. If gender is not inherent, but socialized, and all children regardless of sex are exposed more or less to the same pool of gender socialization pressures then of course some female-assigned children are going to identify with the masculine messages. (By which I mean, you can’t watch a Disney movie about a prince rescuing the princess and not see messages about both masculinity and femininity; it’s the tireless work of authority figures and peers to make sure that the girls only pay attention to the princess and vice versa.
I was very much obsessed with this movie as a toddler, and wanted the Rose to appreciate how much the Little Prince loved her.
Backed up by the threat of violence and ostracism, these pressures work to suppress the “wrong” identifications and create the illusion of women=feminine, men=masculine. For a biological analogy, we all have an inherent capacity to grow breasts; what determines which people do is which people are exposed to estrogen). And of course some male-identified children are going to identify with the feminine messages.
Isn’t that the whole point? Isn’t that why gender has to be so vigorously policed – to ensure that children identify with the ‘right’ gender messages?
I’m going to set aside the issue of biology, because Julia Serano in Whipping Girl addresses it way better than I can. But I do study languages and for me, gender is a lot like language. I strongly believe that rather than gender being “hardwired,” it’s innate in the sense that it is acquired in some sort of critical period in early childhood (i.e., long before the brain has any idea what sex it will be or is supposed to be). And while you can suppress your accent or manner of speech later in life, it’s hard, and there’s always going to be that one set of intonations/diction/morphemes that feels ‘native’ to you.
I am an English speaker. Specifically, I am a Los Angeles native California dialect English speaker with eight years of bay area intonation exposure under my belt. I can speak other languages intelligibly, but it’s more difficult. I do not have native fluency.
It is much more difficult to make myself understood in languages I don’t speak natively. I was not born an English speaker, but it’s hardwired into me for all intents and purposes. Barring a stroke, I will always be an English speaker, even if I move and have to speak in another language all the time, every day. I was not born identifying as either masculine or feminine, but my brain saw the prince and decided, “That’s me!” and I’ve been transmasculine ever since.
Like gender, language is entirely performative. It’s all just a series of sounds, of fluctuating levels of voicing, of ever-shifting tongue shape, of patterns of lip rounding. But that does not mean that all things I say are equally true. It does not mean that I don’t have a way of speaking that I default to in a comfortable setting, surrounded by friends. Language is a social construct, but that does not mean I can wake up tomorrow and speak Arabic. It’s still real.
So, with that in mind, consider the case of the rad fems who, though ostensibly operating under the above premises, argue that trans people (and especially trans women) are somehow less ‘real’ women than they are. What the fuck, you ask? I know. I know. But they do.
Now, unfortunately the entire page for the SF Dyke March was deleted, along with all the threads, but several of the antagonists were sent over from RadFem Hub. Without further ado, some quotes. A trigger warning is probably appropriate here:
. The subtext of this linguistic choice is: A) Superficial appearance and hormonal balance comprise a distinct state of being, and B) that state of being, when adopted by a user, renders them “other”, a change into a literal different entity. But what is truly being changed into something different through this process? A male becomes a male taking estrogen who has disguised his secondary sex characteristics into a visual approximation of female.
From A), it looks like the author will argue against superficial appearance and hormonal balance comprising a distinct state of being. But not one sentence away, the author somehow concludes that therefore, “a male becomes a male taking estrogen.” Huh? If hormonal balance and superficial appearance do not comprise distinct state of being, certainly that person simply changes from a person producing testosterone to a person taking estrogen. Or is taking estrogen and having breasts some sort of “distinct state of being” after all? It appears the author, “Gallusmag,” has never encountered the idea that they were women before they changed their superficial appearance and hormonal state, and that trans people transition socially; their internal gender stays the same.
This article includes yet another idiot trying to play armchair linguist: “There is no such thing as a “transgender person” in the English language, as there is no such thing as a “left-hand person” or a “divorce person”.” Yes, some adjectives are inflectional. But a lot aren’t. There are no “femaled,” “lesbianed” or “dumbfucked” persons either, because some adjectives are just adjectives, not inflected adjectival derivatives of verbs or nouns. I’m certain this person could have puzzled it out for herself, just like I’m sure Julie Burchill isn’t so natively unintelligent that she believes all words that rhyme with bad words are also bad. Hate makes you stupid.
“‘Whose’ Biology is Destiny Around Here Anyways?
Men’s ‘feminine side’ can only ever be a part of masculinity, but perhaps one that is difficult for men to accept in their own identity – the male’s concept of the ‘Other’ is a part of their own Self. This ‘Other’ or ‘twin’ of the male Self may be a softer, gentler version of masculinity, but it is not femaleness.
Femaleness may not exist, and femininity is just something that’s forced on FAABs from birth to oppress us, but somehow, it’s something that we called dibs on, and we’ll be damned if some man who could only ever be masculine attempts to mimic our mimicry.
My head hurts.
This other quote is also pretty mind-boggling:
The message to all is that men make ‘better’ women than born-women do, and one part of the process of becoming a “real woman” (and worthy of being man’s “Other half”) is to deny, remove, minimise, or reconstruct all uniquely female biology (and the social constructions as well) to fit the image of his ‘Other’ Self.
So transwomen remove all their uniquely female biology to be better women than “born-women” (de Beauvoir is spinning in her grave).
Defining WOMAN graces us with some more armchair linguistics.
For example, WOMYN or WIMMIN is used by radfems to indicate that wo-men are not merely a variation on the default “man.”
The word ‘man’ used to really mean just person. A male person was a wereman (same ‘were’ in ‘werewolf’ – meaning male person-wolf) and a female person was “wifman,” the ‘wif’ later becoming ‘wife’ and narrowing to refer only to married women. The argument does actually hold true for the words male/female. Originally female was spelled femelle, but was changed to look more analogous to ‘male.’ The larger point being, we’re not dealing with writers who put a strong emphasis on background research.
Trans woman — as contrasted with natal woman — means a male-assigned-at-birth (MAAB) human who subsequently internalized and aligned himself so intensely with the results of being female, aka “womanhood,” that he seeks to be treated as a female is treated. He does so by applying the term “woman” to himself, despite the fact that he has not experienced the female conditioning of compulsory heterosexuality from birth.[…]Born-women have no choice about their role in the play of compulsory heterosexuality; it is simply expected of us.
The author really highlights inadvertently the problem of using words like ‘heterosexuality’ that imply both a sex of the desirer as well as of the desired. Of course MAABs experience compulsory heterosexuality. They just perhaps did not experience a compulsory heterosexuality that was oriented towards men (though I would argue that they most certainly did, just as I absorbed a lot of the messages of how to interact with women as a male despite being female). But it’s not like men get the message growing up that it’s totes cool to be gay, because they have all the choices in their role in the play of compulsory heterosexuality. The opposite actually.
This article about a Baltimore Sun Article also makes the mistake of letting hate blind them to a glaring contradiction in their reasoning:
Dear Sun Reporter – Females make less money than Males on average. If Jenna now makes less money because Jenna mimics Female reality, perhaps the bigger story might be how Females as a class make less than Males? Oh, and Females use public transportation at greater rates than Males. It’s not a “civil rights violation” that Jenna has to take the bus – it might be other things (such as economic oppression) but it’s not “her gender identity” that necessarily causes that.
So in other words, it makes a lot of sense that after transitioning, this woman would make less money than men, and thus not be able to afford a car. But at the same time, the fact that she makes a lot less money after transitioning has nothing to do with her now being a woman. LOGIC!
Then there’s the weird paranoia that if a particular transwoman expresses femininity in a particular way, she is therefore saying that all women must act this way or else.
Fischetti emphasized that gender expression is not about sex or anatomy. She shows gender in the way she moves her hands, in her soft voice.
That’s right – the way you move your hands “shows gender.” The sound of your voice “shows gender.” Gender identity – the way your hands move and the way your voice sounds, “regardless” of your biological sex. If it’s that easy, who needs surgery!?
Stereotype, stereotype, stereotype.
What’s frustrating about this example is the conflation of cissexism of reporters’ describing trans people, with how trans people describe themselves.
I encountered this as an undergraduate writing about my experience with my trans-feminine partner, who was denied access to a support group for polyamory that marketed itself as “open to all women, including self-identified women.” I wrote that if the facilitator was so worried about other women in the group “feeling safe,” she should exclude me, because I am the one likely to talk over someone, to be contemptuous, to be aggressive. I get crap for being aggressive six times a day before breakfast (though I suspect my sex has a lot to do with why that’s considered a bad thing). My partner, whom I’ve had the extreme pleasure of learning from, is one of the calmest, most patient and compassionate people I’ve ever met.
I got comments on my draft to the effect that by saying that his femininity was expressed in these ways, I was reinforcing sexism by saying that all females act in these specific feminine ways, and that all males act in masculine ways I described, since I identify as masculine.
But I’m female! Clearly I’m NOT saying that all female people acted in the way my male-bodied partner expressed femininity! But it didn’t matter.
This is what I don’t understand. It’s a terrible horrible thing to be assigned female at birth, forced into femininity and womanhood; it’s all fake and performance and mimicry and pantomime; it’s not inherent and our gender expression has nothing to do with our sex.
But somehow, when a trans-woman does the same thing as a cis-woman, she’s just a copy. The cis-woman is the original fake, and she’s not lettin’ anyone have a bite of her nasty worm-filled patriarchy crumpet.
*In a related story, a man called me motherly recently when I asked him to wash his dishes, and I called that sexist. I then got a lengthy email explaining that it wasn’t sexist because “motherly is an adverbial.” “No, it’s actually an adjective.” “SAME THING! The point is I was not saying you were literally a mother, just that you acted like one.” Thus began one of the most epic mansplanations of my young life, to be addressed in more detail in a later post.
Featured image, which is from Washington
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1. If you argue with anyone else about what they “really” are, you’re Doing It Wrong, and I wish we as a culture could just get together and agree on that… but then the world would be that much closer to actually making sense, and I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.
As I was reading, I found myself speculating on what the big trans-exclusive sticking point actually is for most of these radfems – Yessenia or anyone else: what would you say it is (or they are)? Like, is it primarily a fear of having their identity associated (and thus themselves conflated with) the Scary Transwomen, is it more about “shit, if they’re part of this people will dislike us even more,” or something else entirely? I don’t feel like I have a good handle on it because the one time I stuck a toe into a radfem space, the water was too hot for me, and that is saying something.
Oh, and I am so stealing that llama meme.
• From talking to them, it seems like the big issue is they cannot separate transwomen from men in their minds. And men, in transphobic (because there are branches of trans-radical feminism that aren’t like this), radical feminist theory, are the oppressor class. In their perspective, transwomen exist as part of a conspiracy on the part of men to invade and dominate radical feminist spaces, because radical feminist spaces are a threat to patriarchy. Some go so far as to construct lesbian transwomen as a sneaky way for men to undermine lesbian identity.
Now, I think their understanding of patriarchy can be useful to a point, but that it falls on its face with its insistence on seeing sexism as a conscious, conspiratorial exercise on the part of men. Do men have a lot of investment in patriarchy? Sure. They benefit as a class immensely. Do men as individuals have sexist attitudes towards women? You betcha. But are men generally aware of how these two facts are connected? To the point where they’d have the self-awareness to be like, “Let’s make an exception to our usual gay-bashing, femininity-in-men-punishing modus operandi, and allow some men to wear dresses so we can infiltrate women’s spaces and thereby keep the sex class oppressed!”? I just don’t think so.
At one point on the SF Dyke March thread, one of the rad fem hub posters, I believe it was Bev Jo specifically because she authored this article where she makes the same point, argued that transgender people are actually very conservative and anti-gay because Iran allows sex-change operations but executes LGB people:
It says something about what a threat transsexualism is to patriarchy if fundamentalist Iran kills Lesbians and gay men, but pays for transsexual surgery and hormones. If patriarchy can’t kill us outright, then they co-opt and confuse us.
It was a bizarre argument, where she really did seem to think trans people were in charge of setting the rules in Iran, and that Iranian theocracy and trans activists were conspiring together to force gay and lesbian people back into the rigid sex-gender binary.
• You’ll notice how one of the more frequently brought up “concerns” over trans people are that they’ll immediately all run out and try and get into woman’s locker rooms and bathrooms in order to oogle them (or something).
The idea of how dangerous trans woman are is something that is also echoed in Hollywood films from Psycho to the Silence of the Lambs. Notice how not only in films where the villein is a trans-woman (or a man who somehow defies gender norms,) the victims are also (usually) female.
In a weird way, Radical Femists are doing a really good job of reinforcing the patriarchy, which kind of demands gender norms for it’s very existence…
• One thing I didn’t go into as much is that they really do use the same conservative arguments used against gay people of yesteryear. I’m specifically thinking of the argument that trans people are “recruiting” young gay women into their “lifestyle.” E.g. Bev Jo writes in the linked article, “Even worse, young girls are now being pressured into having surgery and hormones, affecting them irreparably.” This article says: “After the Festival, my fear turned to anger as I learned more about the pressure that many young butch women are now under to transition, and about what I’ve come to think of as a Transgender Borg that has slowly but surely co-opted each of the footholds that we “second-wave” feminists struggled so hard to establish, particularly in academia. Not only are we are losing a whole generation of butch womyn, but every transition further marginalizes those of us who have spent much of our lives learning that being butch and being female are not mutually exclusive.”
2. This is probably fairly pedantic, but since you’ve brought up some theoretical issues I wanted to comment. I think we’ve talked about this sort of stuff before, but not in this context.
But by definition that means it’s not innate (inborn, inherited). Hardwired does not have to be equated with innate. We don’t stop developing right as we’re born, we continue to develop and culture plays a large role in how we develop physiologically (Anne Fausto-Sterling’s work gets into this in detail). So if gender is hardwired, it’s entirely possible that the wiring is done by culture which makes it *feel* natural/innate, but it’s actually still an enculturated trait.
You said: “Like gender, language is entirely performative.”
I think this gets back to how we are using the word “performative.” Language is not entirely performative in a linguistic sense. Some utterances are performative because the utterance actually performs an action (e.g., “I now pronounce you husband and wife” is a performative utterance because it actually performs the act). Other utterances are constative in that they are declarative statements (e.g., “It’s raining outside” is a declarative utterance, not one that performs an action). Performatives are neither true nor false, while constatives can be demonstrated true or false.
The theory of gender performativity a la Judith Butler, then, isn’t so much about how we “perform” gender for others, but it’s about the repetitive and largely non-conscious practices (discursive and non-discursive) that we do that produce series of effects that we recognize as gender. Performative gender is mostly involuntary and non-conscious.
As for the list of traits that you gave that I think accurately portray the radfem position (and nicely point out the inherent contradiction in their position), I do not #1 to be problematic at all. I agree that feminine gender is associated with female-bodied children from a very young age (like, before they’re born), but I’m not sold on “forced” (not everyone forces it, and many women enjoy their femininity), and I don’t think the purpose of feminine gender is to oppress female-bodied people (that assumes that our ideas of oppressing female-bodied people preceded our ideas of feminine gender, and I’d be more willing to bet that they came about at the same time because, as Butler and Fausto-Sterling have pointed out, our ideas of bodies come already wrapped up in ideas of gender such that gender actually precedes sex).
On the point that “all gender is performance” I don’t agree; however, I do think that all gender is performative. It’s an important difference that I think many people do not understand about Butler’s theory. Following that, I do not agree that transwomen are performing feminine genders; rather, transwomen are performatively doing “woman” just as ciswomen are performatively doing “woman.”
As for point 5, yeah they’re fucked in their heads.
Aside from my nitpicky theoretical stuff, I love that you’re pointing out the contradiction and absurdity in their reasoning. I especially love this point:
I totally agree! For people who feel that femininity is FORCED OPPRESSION, they sure as shit are super attached to the concept. Is it radfem stockholm syndrome??
3. Transgender has been difficult for me to understand, but I have always been open to learning and understanding. I remember being drawn to a book in my hometown local library that argued that gender was a social construct by describing various ways that people could be socialized to be one gender in spite of their own reality. I read this book shortly after my mother read a different book that argued that maleness and femaleness were biologically defined, so I ended up mostly using the book to argue the nurture position in the nurture vs. nature debate about gender. I understood the basics about people who were transgender, but certainly not everything.
Years later, I bought a book of Annie Leibovitz photos of women and there was one photo of a woman who was born male, and later transitioned to female. I felt dismayed about that photo’s inclusion in this book because of one of the arguments that you called out – that FAABs, uniquely and separately, are conditioned to be female gendered, and MAABs cannot understand that experience. What I hear you saying is that people, regardless of the gender they are assigned, pick up on and internalize whatever messages they want to see, based on how they see themselves. I’ve been learning from transgender people for over a decade now, but that argument is presenting me with a new ah-ha moment – one that is a big duh for you, but not for cisgendered me.
• So I just read my comment, and I’m not sure that I made my point well enough after all of the backstory about me. What I’m trying to say, I think, is that the way you defined how we socialize gender in the excerpt below really resonated with me and gave me a better understanding of the whole concept.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8173 | Should I Watch..? 'The Thing' (1982)
Updated on July 29, 2019
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Ben now has a Twitter account for this blog - follow him at @shouldiwatch2 so you can stay up to date with all his latest content and more.
Promotional poster
Promotional poster | Source
What's the big deal?
The Thing is a sci-fi horror film released in 1982 and is based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. Director by John Carpenter, the film tells the story of a remote scientific research base in Antarctica that is terrorised by a shape-shifting alien creature. The film stars Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley and Keith David and features the special effects work of Rob Bottin to create the Thing itself in its various guises. Initially, the film was slammed by critics who criticised the film's lack of characterisation as well as claiming the effects were too repulsive. Only earning $19.6 million in the US, the film found true success in the then-burgeoning home video market and has since gone on to become a cult classic. Today, it is regarded as not just one of Carpenter's best films but also one of the best horror films of all time as well as a pioneer of what would come to be called 'body horror'. It would be followed by a prequel, also called The Thing, in 2011 which received a mostly negative reception as well.
5 stars for The Thing (1982)
What's it about?
At a remote scientific research base in Antarctica, the American crew spot a low-flying helicopter in pursuit of a runaway sled dog. As it nears, the Norwegian helicopter appears to be shooting at the dog and even deploys grenades in an ill-fated attempt to kill it. After the chopper crashes, a survivor escapes the wreckage and continues firing at the dog - accidentally wounding one of the Americans. Eventually, the shooter is taken down by the base's commander Garry and the rest begin to tend to the injured man as well as bringing the dog in for safety.
As the base's pilot MacReady and medical doctor Copper fly off to the Norwegian base to discover what happened, dog handler Clark befriends the sled dog and kennels him with the rest of the base's dogs. MacReady and Copper discover the Norwegian base has almost been burnt to the ground and uncover numerous corpses, some twisted and malformed while others appear to have commit suicide. Recovering some of the bodies as well as some of the Norwegian research notes, they fly back to their base where they witness something truly horrifying emerge in the dog cage...
Main Cast
Kurt Russell
R.J. MacReady
A. Wilford Brimley
T.K. Carter
David Clennon
Keith David
Richard Dysart
Dr Copper
Charles Hallahan
Vance Norris
Peter Maloney
George Bennings
Richard Masur
Donald Moffat
Joel Polis
Thomas Waites
Technical Info
John Carpenter
Bill Lancaster*
Running Time
109 minutes
Release Date (UK)
26th August, 1982
Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Razzie Award Nomination
Worst Musical Score
*based on the novella 'Who Goes There?' by John W. Campbell
Russell proves an adept leading man, leading his ragtag bunch of scientists into battle against a seemingly unstoppable enemy.
What's to like?
I've never been a huge fan of horror films because in the majority of cases, they simply aren't scary enough to get me jumping in my seat. But The Thing doesn't tend to go for jump scares but instead, it attempts to slowly creep into your subconscious and then chill you to the bone. The film is far more aggressive and dark than the original adaptation (1951's The Thing From Another World), focusing far more on the effects than its human cast. But the effects are a huge part of the film's success - with a lack of CG, the film's reliance on physical puppets and mechanical creations make the Thing far more scary than it has any right to be. It's more nightmarish and disgusting than the Xenomorph from Alien which is saying something and with each appearance, it becomes an even more grotesque blend of teeth, claw and spindles and an otherworldly alien scream.
The brilliance of the narrative is that it remains relevant, whenever an adaptation appears. Not only is The Thing a parable about Cold War paranoia but also the potentially apocalyptic threat posed by the AIDS virus which was a very real fear at the time. Russell delivers a performance that underscores Carpenter's faith in him (Russell was only just beginning to shape his career as a leading man after floundering in Disney comedies in the Seventies), portraying a flawed individual trying to lead his colleagues to survival while realising that survival may be a step too far. He's supported with good performances from David (who doesn't get enough screen time for me) and Dysart as the doctor who soon realises exactly what they are up against. And while it didn't work for the Razzie committee, I felt the minimalist electronic score composed by Ennio Morricone fit the film perfectly although it is a bit too reminiscent of the type of score Carpenter himself usually composes.
Fun Facts
• Rob Bottin, who was only in his early twenties at the time, had a team of over 35 people working with him in creating the Thing while the Dog/Thing creature was developed by special effects wizard Stan Winston, who declined credit for his work. Bottin spent so much time on the film that he was taken ill during filming with exhaustion and pneumonia.
• Carpenter was particularly hurt by the film's failure as he considered The Thing as one of his best films. He was stung by one critic who called him a "pornographer of violence" which made him consider quitting being a director altogether.
• Two of the characters in the film are called Mac and Windows which later drew parallels with the battle between tech giants Apple and Microsoft although this is purely coincidental. Incidentally, it was Waites who insisted that his character be called Windows due to his glasses during rehearsals - nobody knew why Carpenter agreed to the change.
• Unused music from Morricone's Razzie-nominated score would eventually be used as part of the soundtrack for The Hateful Eight where, ironically, it would win Morricone an Oscar.
What's not to like?
I fully understand why critics at the time were put off by the incredible effects in the film. Yes, they do look and move in a crude manner but such is their design and the amount of slime and goop deployed that they do bear a high degree of realism. There is no doubt in my mind that these hideous creations will haunt your dreams, especially if this is your first horror film, so their repugnance is to be applauded and not demonised.
However, the film does neglect some of its characterisation and feels deliberately vague and ambiguous at times. Half the time, we don't see characters attacked by the Thing (so when they do change, it's something of a what?-shock) and one character's fate is never even explained. Even the ending still has questions floating up from the nihilism in the air. I wanted to learn more about these characters, what they were doing in the Antarctica and why a research base needed quite so many guns, flame-throwers and grenades. It feels more jaded and much less optimistic than The Thing From Another World and is more focused of scaring its audience than entertaining it. But at least The Thing works very well indeed as a horror.
The effects may have dated a little but the lack of CG somehow makes the imaginative and otherworldly transformations all the more terrifying.
Should I watch it?
The Thing is a laser-focused horror, designed to get under your skin and haunt my mind in the traditional of a psychological horror but also churn your stomach through its incredible effects work. It's the most complete horror film I can think of, working hard to provoke a reaction from any kind of horror fan - even at the expense of characterisation. It's cold, bloody, bleak and utterly effective.
Great For: horror fans, Antarctica scientists, owners of Alaskan Malamutes or Siberian Huskies
Not So Great For: the squeamish, horror newbies, the under 18's, anyone suffering from night terrors
What else should I watch?
While it wasn't the first body-horror film, The Thing did help to usher in a new era of films that centred on various mutilations, mutations and deformations of the human body to gross out its audience. Films like Videodrome and the 1986 remake of The Fly became synonymous with the subgenre, both of which were directed by horror maestro David Cronenberg whose earlier films Scanners and Shivers also helped bring body-horror back to the masses.
According to Wikipedia, the first recognised body-horror film was 1958's The Blob, one of numerous teen-orientated B-movies featuring monsters emerging from scientific experiments gone wrong. Another is the original version of The Fly from the same year which one critic at the time described as "certainly one of the most revolting science-horror films ever perpetrated". While body horror is more common in cinema these days, possibly the best exponent of the craft is author H.P. Lovecraft whose Cthulhu mythos has inspired numerous works of art including this very picture.
Questions & Answers
© 2019 Benjamin Cox
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Benjamin Cox
6 months ago from Norfolk, UK
Thanks once again!
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6 months ago
Good review! This film has fantastic special effects. I loved the scene where the doctor gets his hands bitten off while using the defribulator. Truly creepy and repulsive!
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Listen to most recent episode of Road Signs
In terms of raw numbers, the November 2018 election brought the highest level of voter involvement in a non-presidential election in our nation’s history, but, host Dan Ronan wonders, what will it mean for trucking's future? Is this the time where President Trump, who calls himself a dealmaker, is able to sit down with his opponents in Congress and negotiate a grand deal to begin the long process to repair our crumbling infrastructure? Ronan sits with two Capitol Hill correspondents to seek answers.
Eugene Mulero is the congressional reporter at Transport Topics where he writes about major regional and national infrastructure projects, covers the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and analyzes developments in commercial intermodal connectivity.
Kellie Mejdrich joined CQ Roll Call as a policy reporter in January 2015 where she first covered transportation and was then promoted to a budget and appropriations reporter. Before that, she covered transportation at the Orange County Register. Mejdrich started her career in public affairs reporting in her home state of Arizona, where she also worked as a journalism fellow at the Arizona State Legislature.
Eugene Mulero
Kellie Mejdrich
EP. 1
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Guest One, Mike Roeth
Episode Transcript
Roadsigns S1E4.mp3
[00:00:02] From Transport Topics in Washington D.C., this is Roadsigns. This podcast is brought to you by International Truck. Now here is your host, Seth Clevenger.
[00:00:14] Welcome to Roadsigns, the podcast series from Transport Topics that investigates the trends and technologies that will shape the future of trucking. In this episode we're going to explore the promise that blockchain technology may hold for the transportation industry. The potential for blockchain extends well beyond cryptocurrency. It could represent a better way of conducting business in many industries, and trucking is no exception. The application of these shared digital ledgers that keep immutable records could lead to much greater transparency, efficiency and trust in the supply chain. But when and how will blockchain appear in trucking? We'll set out to answer those questions in this episode. The possible use cases for blockchain within the transportation industry range from freight transactions and fraud prevention to regulatory compliance, vehicle maintenance and more. To help us decipher what all of this could mean for our industry, we're going to bring in Jack Legler, technical director at the Technology and Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations. But first I'm excited to welcome a guest who is playing an important role in preparing the transportation industry for the move toward blockchain. Ken Craig is vice president of special projects at McCleod Software and a co-founder and board member at the Blockchain in Transport Alliance, a consortium of fleets and other industry players who are developing standards for the use of blockchain in transportation. Thanks for joining us, Ken.
[00:01:28] Thanks Seth. Good to be with you today.
[00:01:30] So in the technology world everybody is talking about blockchain as the next big thing. But as soon as you step outside the usual tech circles I get the sense that there's still a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding about what blockchain really is. Does that seem fair to say?
[00:01:44] Yes, unfortunately that's still the case. It's a complex technology to start with and hard to grasp and everybody, many people, grab an idea that they first grasp from the technology and they think that’s what blockchain is and so you got a lot of different ideas. And there certainly is no standard definition of that as well. But a big part of the confusion, of course, is still the bitcoin effect—that it's used synonymously often with bitcoin, that bitcoin is blockchain and vice versa, as opposed to recognizing that blockchain is a technology that bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies are based on. And a lot of this is exploited and fueled by disingenuous marketers and you often see this when a new technology comes out on the market, it's exploited and things are offered to the market that really have no meaning or are not sustainable. And we're seeing that here as well, so those two things still create quite a bit of confusion and hype and you know in the market.
[00:02:55] Sure. So a very good starting point of course is that blockchain does not equal bitcoin. It was originally devised to support bitcoin but the real reason everybody's talking about blockchain here is because of this universe of possibilities it could hold for many other industries, including transportation, but ultimately you have this distributed digital ledger that keeps a permanent record of transactions. So Ken, I ask you: what's so great about that? Why is this a better way? Why should the transportation industry be interested in blockchain?
[00:03:29] Well blockchain, the technology of blockchain, is very good. You know it's really a mash up of a lot of different technologies that have improved over the last few years. The key, key features that would apply to the supply chain is not just having a permanent record of transactions. I mean you can do that now with relational database technology. The key is if you insert the word securer or immutable, you know a permanent immutable record of transactions, so that when things are put into blockchains they’re cryptographically hashed so that they can't be modified, they can't be changed later, so you get an immutable record and then you got the whole distribution of the blockchain to every node, every person in every group that's participating all have their own individual copy of that. So you get those kind of features so where we need and can find use cases that need that type of security, autobility, immutability those type of things, blockchain will have a place in that. Plus the other side of it too is the additional feature, the smart contract feature which allows you to actually put executable logic in the blockchain. It can be triggered based off of certain events and those things really are where the potential and the promise of blockchain come from, where we can really get the benefit that can be used by the use cases that need that.
[00:05:13] Okay. And let's go ahead and talk about some of those potential applications within the trucking industry. Some of the possibilities out there, you know you mentioned contracts, freight contracts, their invoices and payments, tracking preferred delivery, maybe even recording vehicle maintenance and warranty information, and the list goes on. So Ken, I want to ask you what you see as the most promising use cases for blockchain in trucking.
[00:05:40] That's a good question. There are several. The ones you hear about quite often though, is taking some of the real key features of blockchain like its immutability and its security and everything to set up IDs that are completely verifiable, so that fraud detection would become a very good use case, so that drivers, people coming up trying to pick up loads that aren't theirs and things like that would just absolutely be shut down. You'll be seeing payments where, you know, when something's delivered it can be paid immediately. That's the type of thing that can happen: proof of delivery. The provenance effect will be very, very important in food safety and things like that. We've already seen several good proof of concepts on that. And as we look at cold chain custody, and the farmer requirements for high value items and things like that, they will bring a lot of great supply chain visibility in for the shippers and consignees of those type of products as well. So it's like, you know, cold chain custody and those things will be like a provenance on steroids type of effect for blockchain.
[00:07:10] And let's just consider a, you know, just a typical freight transaction between shipper and carrier. How might blockchain improve just the efficiency and reduce the friction of doing business with a basic freight contract?
[00:07:25] Well if you look at how things work now, everything, every transaction, it's all single to single, it's business to business, it's transaction by transaction, in that it's one to one. Blockchain will really provide an environment where it'll be a many to many business transaction. So when we look at like for instance, the provenance effect, you're tracking fruit, it's picked in South America and it's being placed on a blockchain, so that it’s tracked every step of the way. Well now you'll have that blockchain interacting with many different vendors and suppliers and people that touch that all along the route. So you get this many to many effect and that in itself will greatly improve efficiencies, and when you talk about reducing friction that will really make a big difference.
[00:08:58] And you mentioned the, you know, the potential to prevent fraud and eliminate errors such as double charging through blockchain’s collective bookkeeping approach, the shared digital ledger. Any other examples of how that can play out in the transportation industry?
[00:09:15] That's how we come into this, this effect of being able to use the general ledger to set up absolutely verifiable I.D.s and things like that. Fraud will become much, much more difficult to do, at least in the ways it's being done now. You know like in the computer industry we’ve seen as technology has increased it's become harder and harder for bad actors to break in through the computer system. So what they're doing now is they’re finding different ways. They’re coming out now and doing phishing attempts and social media penetration and things like that. And so it's going to make fraud much harder to do in the ways that it’s been done in the past. And they'll certainly have a lot harder time doing it and they'll have to find other ways to do it.
[00:10:10] OK. And blockchain might also play a role in vehicle maintenance in the future, perhaps by keeping an immutable record of maintenance work performed, when parts were replaced, when parts will likely need to be replaced and component warranty information. Can you see the value in moving some of that maintenance data to a blockchain network?
[00:10:37] Yeah I think that would be a very good application and use case for blockchain. Once a tracker comes off the line it's immediately placed into a blockchain environment and everything that touches that from then on is recorded. So you get this kind of like the “super Carfax effect.” Every single thing that has occurred there is recorded so that becomes again, it decreases fraud, it makes everything very visible, and I think we’ll definitely see that being used in the maintenance world.
[00:11:12] So let's also look at blockchain’s potential for regulatory compliance. So driver hours-of-service information is one possibility that’s out there; another example that seems promising to me is the potential to document compliance with food transportation requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act. You mentioned that a little bit before, but Ken, what opportunities do you see for blockchain to improve regulatory compliance in trucking?
[00:11:39] Well I think this is another great example of a good use case that’s going to, could really exploit the technology. When you look at the requirements that are coming down now from the FDA and the Food Safety Modernization Act, those things are pushing the requirements on the cold chain custody. I think it'll reduce counterfeiting and all those type of things and you know blockchain has the ability to not only read and exploit the Internet of Things that are all around the tractor itself, in the truck itself, but also with smart contract, you can do more monitoring of things and reacting to things as well. So I think all of these are going to be a very, they'll be driven by and be able to exploit the modernization of the regulatory environment.
[00:12:34] Sure. And this notion of smart contracts you mentioned, you know where shippers and carriers can track each other's obligations from the initial bid to the final payment, what will it really take for shippers and carriers to come together and really begin doing business this way?
[00:12:51] Well to me that's really a simple answer that it's all going to be up to the shippers. You know the shippers are going to be the 500 pound gorillas in this whole environment and you know when Walmart comes out and says here's our blockchain guys, and here's what it takes to work with us and that's what we'll be doing and the same thing with the big Amazon or anything like that and that's where the standards that BITA is trying to do is really so important because if we can try to get everybody on the same page we can, you know, create, we can avoid creating another EDI environment. But the shippers are going to be the ones that drive this when they come out and say: this is what we need, this is what it should look like. That's what we'll end up doing in my opinion.
[00:13:43] Sure, and for our listeners who might not be familiar with BITA, which is the Blockchain in Transport Alliance, this is really a consortium of fleets, trucking technology suppliers, and other industry stakeholders that are working to develop those standards as the industry moves forward with blockchain. So Ken, can you tell us a little bit more about BITA’s membership: who all is participating in this effort?
[00:14:06] Well we’ve got a great coverage of this supply chain, and remarkably we have, I guess, close to 2,800 applications to be members of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance and nearly 600 members already. So we've got a great coverage of the supply chain and some big names, you know FedEx and UPS and SAP and just all kinds of you know, Delta Freight just joined us, and so we’ve got some great players all across the supply chain. So, you know, we're trying to develop market standards, we're trying to bring together all elements across the supply chain: the shippers, the brokers, the trucks, the telematics providers, you know, and so if we can accomplish that in my opinion we'll have a great chance to respond and accomplish some of the promise and potential that blockchain has for the supply chain. And we've got a good start on that.
[00:15:14] So as we've heard, lots of people and companies are planning ahead for the use of blockchain in trucking. But where we stand today, Ken, how soon might we really see shippers and carriers start to migrate some of their processes and transactions to blockchain that works?
[00:15:28] Well I think you'll see some more, by definition right now just about anybody building blockchain, it’s a private blockchain. And that's what many companies are doing now to develop proof of concepts and things like that. And I think that's a good idea. You know we're doing some of those ourselves, but not to really go out to the commercial market with them, because we're really waiting on the standards to evolve and become mature so that when we build these, so you know, we go earnestly into the commercial market there’ll be, we'll have good stable standards and we can build things with confidence. If you build something right now, you’re probably going to have to rebuild it or redo it later. So right now you only want to be doing that if it's, you know, part of a learning cycle to validate use cases and things like that. You see like Maersk, for instance, just complete a big proof of concept for their container shipping and they got such great results from it, they went ahead and moved it into production, from what I understand, because it was saving them so much money. So you'll see some things like that right now. But in the meantime it'll largely be driven by the evolution and the maturity of the standards that are taking place and that's going to be probably a three to five year process at least to get all that in place before we can really start getting major impact into the supply chain in my opinion.
[00:17:02] OK, well I think that's a great place to leave it. But thanks again for all your insights Ken, we really appreciate you taking the time.
[00:17:09] Well thanks for having me. Hope it was understandable and useful.
[00:17:14] Certainly was. Thanks again.
[00:17:15] Thanks.
[00:17:54] Next on Roadsigns we're excited to welcome Jack Legler, technical director for the Technology and Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations. Welcome, Jack. Thank you. Good to be here. So Jack what do you see as the potential advantages of blockchain for the trucking industry and how could this improve transactions?
[00:18:10] Seth we've been looking at blockchain ever since it popped up in the general business community with great interest. Trucking has got a number of transactional scenarios that would be perfect for blockchain. Anything that lends itself to large volumes of data, for example manifesting, load matching, driver data, all the telematics we have in the systems that just produce many terabytes of data on a regular basis, anything that’s consistent and repetitive can always be amenable to blockchain and we're looking at it with great interest.
[00:18:47] And what do you think about the notion of putting a traditional freight contract on the blockchain to turn it into a smart contract that automatically records each step really from the initial bid to a final payment? What are the opportunities and what are the challenges there?
[00:19:02] Well the opportunities, first of all, are increasing the speed of transactions and any time you increase the flow of capital, you increase wealth all across the supply chain, reducing the transactional costs that are associated with that. Because if your people that actually physically have to do something to make a piece of freight move through the system from a paperwork standpoint that is, it’s going to translate into more, bottom line. Again it's a penny at a time but it's an awful lot of pennies when you apply it to the number of transactions that happen in trucking.
[00:19:39] Sure. And blockchain really works well when the transactions are routine, predictable because the terms are defined in advance. So those create some limitations right? When conditions are unpredictable?
[00:19:50] It's the one-offs that are the things that just can't happen in blockchain. Blockchain requires a high degree of trust, a high degree of repetition, a high degree of predictability. And when you do get into the one-off situation where things change at the last minute, where you're changing conveyances and destinations and placement in vehicles at the very last minute to accommodate a client, that's when things become inconsistent and that is the challenge. Biggest challenge I guess of making things in blockchain, because when you isolate part of the chain it just doesn't work well.
[00:20:27] Sure. And as we mentioned earlier there are lots of different potential applications for blockchain in trucking but some of them actually touch on the maintenance side of the business which, of course, is right in your wheelhouse at TMC. So Jack how could blockchain help with truck maintenance?
[00:20:42] Well anything that can be specified in a contract with great precision, as warranties for example, parch core management transactions where you’re just talking about large volumes of items that are handled in a very legalistic way. All of those things can be converted to blockchain. For example warranty claims: If the conditions of the warranty are met and they can be documented then that would automatically trigger the warranty process to happen without human intervention. It's when, of course, you have the arguments that have to take place between humans that you would not want that have or would not be able to convert that into a blockchain. But anything that literally falls into a formula, an algorithm, where if A happens then B happens and if B happens then a payment happens and if that payment happens it automatically goes from account A to account B and parts move back and forth and it's what happens on a regular basis every day, it's just somebody checking off a box. Now the box will just be checked automatically.
[00:21:45] Sure, potentially could make things a lot easier, a lot simpler, and kind of streamline the way of doing business, if this does indeed come to fruition in some of the many facets of trucking where this could apply. But what are some of the other uses for blockchain that you believe could hold some real potential in trucking, some other applications?
[00:22:06] Well I certainly, I'm thinking the recording of ELDs as it relates to the transaction of transportation. For example where there are long wait lines at terminals particularly when you're dealing with government traffic, for example, where you are working off a very specific contract, but if time delays come in there, then it triggers a secondary charge back. Right now it's very difficult to do because you have drivers have to make statements and fill out reports and paperwork needs to be done, and the paperwork needs to be argued about between managers. If these things can be translated for example to the ELD, you know if the vehicle's moving you know if the drivers rest so it's automatically recorded. And if that's related to a GPS location in a terminal where that delay is happening, then you can automatically document it back to the contractor, trigger whatever contract provision payment, additional payment, may happen to be required or activated by that clause.
[00:23:13] Blockchain enabled detention pay. That's of course a real pain point for the industry so the opportunity to apply some technology and make that easier I'm sure would be appealing to a great many people in transportation.
[00:23:26] Not that anybody has ever argued that records would be fudged but certainly where you try to put idle time into detention time, it's always a matter of subjective analysis, shall we say. The ELD takes all the liar’s poker out of the game.
[00:23:42] And the immutability of blockchain is really what enables this trust in this verified information that we know we can count on.
[00:23:54] We talked about actually the challenges and the word immutability actually goes back to the challenge side of it too. Once that piece of data goes in the system it is inviolate as far as blockchain is concerned. So you can't go back and there's no pencil with an eraser like in golf, theoretically. You can't change the score once it's entered and it’s the same thing with blockchain, once the trusted data element is in the system it passes through the system and cannot be corrected. So if you have a higher degree of errors in your freight system and whatever, your maintenance system, whatever you happen to be dealing with in the blockchain environment, it’s going to present a lot of problems because then you can, because of the error rate, you might very well lose your key to the blockchain and you throw it out of the chain, and then how do you get it back? That's actually one of the interesting arguments that I see going on out there is how do you get the key back if you've been disqualified? What do you do, what do you have to do to re-earn your trust?
[00:24:49] Lots of considerations as we move forward and also lots of possibilities for transportation. And as we consider how blockchain might be used in the future let's also take stock of where we are now. We certainly see a lot of discussion about this within the transportation industry at least over the last year or so and we've also seen some activity. To give an example, Maersk the world's largest ocean shipping line, partnered with IBM to introduce a blockchain shipping platform that's designed to improve the efficiency and security of international trade with blockchain smart contracts. So Jack how much interest in blockchain have you seen on the part of trucking and logistics companies?
[00:25:34] Well we know that they're all looking at it because the very system you just mentioned, of course, the international shipping community is going to pretty much drive this into the 3PL, 4PL all the way down to any motor carrier who is participating in that system. You're not going to be able to participate effectively and competitively unless you are part of the blockchain environment. One of the, of course, challenges on that issue, is you know we've got EDI, we've had that for many years, but EDI is not standard, everybody's got their own little take on EDI and part of blockchain is you're going to have to voluntarily commit yourself as an industry, as a company, to a standardized process that may not be your proprietary take that you've always run all these year and that is going to be one of the challenges: is how do you convert legacy systems and legacy data quickly and enable them to be competitive in blockchain.
[00:26:32] So how quickly do you think this can happen? How soon do you think shippers and carriers will really come together and begin doing business on blockchain networks?
[00:26:40] Well I would suggest it's probably sooner than you would think. Certainly there's some load matching companies that are talking about doing it this year. And once you start seeing the advantages in the marketplace, I think it's just simply going to be a snowballing effect. When somebody starts losing business to somebody else because they will be more effective and can pass those pennies along to the consumer and get a bigger market share, I think it's just going to add one on top of another. I think probably the bigger challenge is how the small carriers are going to adopt into the system. Are they going to give themselves into larger management schemas where they don't have the ability to invest in a blockchain environment, they’re going to have to give themselves over to some type of a new system that would develop, that’s going to let them play competitively with the big logistics companies.
[00:27:33] So in summary, Jack, what do you see as the three most important factors to enable blockchain to really work in transportation?
[00:27:40] Well Seth, we kind of touched on these throughout the interview but really there’s three things. First of which is the ability to give yourself over to trust both in accuracy of the data you're submitting but also being able to give yourself over to trusting other people's data as a basis of a transaction unquestioningly. So that once the data is in the system it makes the transaction happen without any additional human intervention. That's the first thing. Second thing is standardization. Talked about the EDI issues coming up with a standard shipping form that everybody uses that can be electronicized and put into those algorithms. We talked about, so everybody is using the same methods to record an order and assign loads to various carriers. That's probably the most critical part of the process. And then the third thing is how do you involve all these numbers of small carriers in the system. That's actually a vast majority of trucking is in less than 10, even less than five, trucks that are out there. And how do they play as part of this larger blockchain driven system.
[00:28:51] Okay great. And I think it's a great place to leave it, thanks again Jack.
[00:30:09] Before we wrap up let's reflect on what we've heard and try to answer our original question of how and when blockchain will appear in trucking. At this point, the transportation sector, like most other industries, is still in the early stages of exploring blockchain’s potential but interest is clearly growing and the possibilities are vast. Before blockchain can truly become widespread, companies will need to agree to industry standards and that important work is already underway. Moving forward, shippers will play a very large role in determining how quickly blockchain spreads across the supply chain. When shippers make the move to blockchain carriers will follow. But this industry, which relies so much on trust among business partners, also will need to put trust in this technology platform and its immutable data. It may take several years but it appears very likely that we’ll see shippers, carriers and other parties come together to do business through blockchain applications. Roadsigns will return in October to examine the emergence of digital freight brokerage and On-Demand freight networks. Until then I'm Seth Clevenger. Thank you for listening.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8228 | Snapshot: August PECFA Financials
The Remediation and Redevelopment Program provides monthly updates on the status of Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Funds Award (PECFA) program claims and the overall PECFA budget.
Below are the updated PECFA number for August, 2019.
Number Value
Claims Received 67 $439,185
Claims Paid 70 $452,642
Claims in audit line (as of 8/31/19) 20 $79,663
Total paid FY20 $933,751
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8254 | 1. I have created a managed package "SamplePack" in my developer edition "Dev1".
2. SamplePack is installed in another developer edition "Dev2", It's working fine too.
3. Now i Uninstalled SamplePack from "Dev2". Again I'm trying to re install same package into "Dev2".
4. It's throwing an error "This app can't be installed. Package Not Found: "The requested package doesn't exist or has been deleted. Please contact package publisher"
What actually stopping to re install SamplePack Managed package
Can't we re install a manged Package Once we Uninstalled
• If the destination org is on a different pod than the packaging org and you tried to install soon after creating the package, it may not have propagated to all the pods yet. Wait a little bit and try it again. Could also be that you copied the installation URL incorrectly? – Eric Jun 30 '16 at 4:55
The error seems to suggest me that ,your Publisher org has depreciated the package or deleted .
Because this error only pops if you no longer have the package in your Publisher org .
And to answer we can certainly uninstall and install managed packages as many times as we need .
• Thank you for reply @Mohith I forgot to mention One point, i.e.., the same package able to install in new Developer edition for first time. It means Package exists I hope soo. AND more over depricate button disabled for that package version. – Rock SFDC Jun 30 '16 at 4:45
• This seems timing issue .Also can you try with different browser and some delay like half an hour – Mohith Shrivastava Jun 30 '16 at 4:59
• I have tried to install yesterday, error came. I'm trying today also getting the same error. – Rock SFDC Jun 30 '16 at 5:07
• Sounds like you will need support case on this . Thanks – Mohith Shrivastava Jun 30 '16 at 5:08
Check if package is managed-release or managed-beta. managed-beta package cannot be upgraded.
• The user is installing and uninstalling the app not upgrading – Mohith Shrivastava Jun 30 '16 at 4:46
• i..e.., ** managed-release**. and I'm not upgrading the package. I have Uninstalled the package and trying to re install the same package there I'm getting above error – Rock SFDC Jun 30 '16 at 4:54
• Exactly @Mohith, The user is uninstalling and installing the app not upgrading – Rock SFDC Jun 30 '16 at 4:56
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8268 | Nowadays, the demand for certain metals can shift on relatively short notice. The reason being, for example, that electric cars require three to four times as much copper as cars with combustion engines; Car manufacturers like BMW replace large amounts of steel previously used for the car bodies with fibreglass-reinforced plastics; large battery packs, depending on which kind of battery technology, require significant amounts of lithium, cobalt, graphite, and nickel. Therefore with industry and technology driven changes, the demand for certain materials make it necessary to develop new mineral deposits and build new production facilities.
As a new, lean and agile enterprise that does not have the burden of uneconomical legacy investments, SBI can rapidly adjust to shifting demands and focus on current demand while preparing for the demand of tomorrow. In addition, shareholders can tell us what their expectations are for the coming years so that we can focus on meeting our stakeholders’ future needs.
The Australian subsidiary, 100% owned by SBI Germany, allows SBI to direct activities at the future exploration, testing and proving site in NSW in Eastern Australia. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8273 | • Readers
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• Language: Русская версия
Section: History
Cities Built by... Nomads
Cities Built by... Nomads
A traveler exploring the endless Mongol steppes occasionally sets his eye not only on fanciful weathered rocks, fields of rounded boulders bringing to mind glacier activity, stone statues and mounds… Sometimes he can see ruins of towers and high walls or almost invisible hillocks hiding remains of ancient constructions. Local inhabitants know next to nothing about the residents of these ancient settlements. Our memory has not preserved neither the names of the builders nor of the peoples who used to inhabit these derelict ruins…
Medieval towns in Central Asia were first discovered in the early 19th century by the Russian connoisseurs of the relics of the past G. I. Spasskiy, A. K. Kuznetsov and V. Parshin, who described the ruins of the site of an ancient settlement on the river Khirkhira in Cis-Argun area and “the Konduiski town” in East Transbaikal area. Explorers of South Siberia A. V. Adrianov and, after him, S. A. Teploukhov found, on Tuva’s territory, ruins of towns that were subsequently dated from the time of the Mongol Empire.
Nevertheless, proper scholarly discovery of the ancient towns of Central Asian nomads took place at the end of the 19th century, when the expedition of the East-Siberian Department of the Russian Geographic Society headed by N. M. Yadrintsev came to Mongolia. In the valley of the Orkhon River in northern Mongolia, the explorers found, apart from stone steles with inscriptions and vast burial grounds, ruins of the ancient Uigurs city of Khara-Balgasun and of the Mongol capital Kharakhorum.
In 1890 the expedition headed by the well-known archaeologist specializing in Turk studies V. V. Radlov, later referred to as the Orkhon expedition, went to this region and discovered numerous archaeological artefacts which later became a true sensation in the academic circles. The findings made by this expedition included ruins of cities buried in the earth.
Search for Central Asian ancient cities continued in the following century. Thus, in 1907 P. K. Kozlov’s expedition made a discovery of Khara-Khoto *, a large city of the Tangut state of Xi Xia, where thousands of manuscripts written in many languages were found. The most valuable contribution to these explorations, however, was made by the Soviet-Mongolian expedition headed by Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences S. V. Kiselev in the 40s and 50s of the last century. In Mongolia, Transbaikal region and Tuva, the scholars found and examined ruins of dozens of cities dated from various epochs. The expedition’s most impressive achievement was excavations of the capital of the Mongol state, the city of Kharakhorum.
Following the nomad empires
Archaeological excavations produced tremendous results which evidenced that the settled way of life was an ancient and well-established tradition of Central Asian nomad communities. And yet, archaeological data alone cannot explain the reasons why settled life took root with the nomads or what made them build monumental palaces and solid defense constructions. To gain an insight into this problem, we have to turn to written sources that contain information on the history of nomadic peoples.
European missionaries were the first to study the history of Central Asian peoples. They only dealt with ancient Chinese manuscripts and did not have the faintest idea of the level of material culture of the nomads or of their skills to erect buildings and fortifications. These manuscripts, however, were a source of valuable data about the peoples who inhabited Central Asia in the ancient times. Russian history got access to the data contained in the ancient Chinese documents thanks to N. Ya. Beechurin (Father Iakinph, head of the Orthodox mission in Beijing in the 18th century).
Judging by this written evidence, chiefs of the nomads of Central Asia, virtually throughout its history, fought violently for power. Glory and power were won in wars, during which blocks of nomadic tribes formed and fell apart. Under favorable circumstances, some ambitious leaders could unite under their banners practically the entire population of the Mongol steppes, which gave rise to nomad empires — a big challenge for scholars — that could affect the course of the world history. The majority of modern explorers believe that such a level was achieved by the political blocks of Khunnu, Syanbi, Zhuzhan, Turks, Uigurs, Kidan and, of course, Mongols.
Encouraging the formation of such steppe states was an elaborate tangle of objective and subjective factors and circumstances, the true content of which we can only conjecture. A visible consequence of the complicated processes of formation of the nomad empires was the construction of cities.
The capital of Kharakhorum
The first brief evidence on Mongol cities can be found in medieval travel notes left by educated people who made a journey to various uluses of the Mongol empire. The famous Venetian Marco Polo visited the Mongol empire during the reign of Khubilai, Chinggis Khan’s grandson, when the political and economic center of the empire had shifted from Mongolia to China. In his book he gives a short description of Kharakhorum, probably based on the stories told to him by his father and uncle.
The sources testify that in 1235 the great Khan erected a wall around the city and constructed the Van-an-gun palace. To make the capital look properly, a decree was issued to the effect that “each of the brothers, sons and other tsareviches attached to him build a magnificent house in the vicinity of the palace. Everybody obeyed the decree. When those houses were completed and adjourned one another, there proved to be a great multitude of them.” (Ancient Mongol Cities, 1965, p. 136).
The most complete data about the capital can be found in the work The Journey of William of Rubrouk to the Eastern Parts by Guillaume de Rubrouck, who lived in Mongolia in 1253—1255 as an envoy of the French King Louis. “It is known about the city of Kharakhorum <…> that, with the exception of the palace, it is even inferior to the suburb of St. Dionysius, and that the St. Dionysius monastery is ten times more expensive than the palace. There are two quarters: one for the Saracens, where bazaars are held and many merchants gather because the court is always nearby and ambassadors are abundant; and the other quarter is that of the Katays, who are all craftsmen. Outside these quarters there are big palaces belonging to the court secretaries. Twelve joss-houses of different peoples are located here, two mosques in which Mohammed’s law is proclaimed, and a Christian church at the outskirts of the city. The city is surrounded with a wall made of clay and has four gates. At the eastern gate they sell wheat and other grain, which, however, is not often brought here; at the western gate they sell lambs and goats; at the southern gate they sell oxen and carts; and at the northern gate they sell horses.” (Rubrouck, 1997, p. 161).
Even though this description is complete and detailed, it is not satisfactory for researchers to rely on the only written evidence of a city that no longer exists. So far we can make conclusions about the architecture, construction techniques and materials used for erecting the buildings of the Mongol capital only basing on the artefacts excavated by the Kiselev expedition. Members of the expedition also found trace of a variety of craft industries clearly oriented toward commerce. The need of the population in craft goods was also met thanks to the goods imported, mainly, from China. These data confirm the information found in the written documents about the Chinese and Moslem merchants who controlled trade inside the Mongol state and also about the crop-growing occupation pursued by a part of its population.
Moslem travelers of the 13th—14th centuries (the best known among them was probably Ibn Battutta) mostly left notes about the cities situated within the territories of Iran, Middle Asia and the Golden Horde.
Mongol bureaucracy and the cities
Intensive construction of cities in the steppe areas of Eurasia became possible only when the economic situation of the Mongol state reached a relatively high level. Cities could be built only after important administrative and economic reforms had been carried out, which helped the ruling circles to concentrate in their hands huge material values and human resources.
It must have been impossible to govern the country having a vast territory, a highly intricate ethnic and social demography and varying economic potential without appropriate administrative personnel. A high number of officials of various ranks were concentrated at the Great Khan’s headquarters, at chiniguizids (owners of uluses) and at the courts of local rulers of principalities.
An urgent need thus appeared to set up stationary points from which the empire could be governed. Actually, first settlements of this kind date back to the time when Temüjin became the Great Khan. And yet, conversion of these settlements into cities became possible only in the early 30s of the 13th century, when Chinggis Khan’s son and successor Ugedey carried out economic reforms and exerted strict control over the population of the countries conquered. In all probability, it was for the economic and political reasons that cities sprang up and grew in the steppe, where before the Mongol invasion there had been no urban culture, like, for example, in southern Russian or Kazakh steppes.
After the capital was completed, cities began to be built all over Central Asia. All of them demonstrate a remarkable similarity in architectural designs and construction materials, which implies that urban construction was under the state’s control. At least, a special department must have been set up to supervise compliance with the construction rules. Testifying to this fact are results of excavations of various archaeological monuments, such as the building of the Mongol epoch discovered in Buryatia in the vicinity of the town of Narsatuy. Remains of the construction materials found there coincide in shape, size and manufacture technologies with the tiles, bricks and terracotta ornaments of the roof excavated at the sites of other Mongol cities.
Today, we know over 30 cities dated from the time of the Mongol Empire, which are situated in modern Mongolia, Transbaikal area, Tuva and China. And yet, we are not confident whether traditions of urban culture, which contradict so much our ideas about the nomadic way of life, were conceived in the womb of the Mongol society or adopted from other peoples such as Hunnu, Uigurs and Kidans… Large-scale excavations involving specialists of various profiles and interests are a must — most ancient cities are still waiting for their explorers.
*You can read about the Dead City of Khara-Khoto in SCIENCE First Hand, № 6 (11) 2006.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8288 | Coke (fuel)
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Raw coke
Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high caurbon content, usually made from coal. It is the solid caurbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is synthetic. The form known as petroleum coke, or pet coke, is derived from ile refinery coker units or other cracking processes.
Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of caurbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen (N2). Producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke. Coke is also used to manufacture water gas. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8291 | We’re now a few months removed from the Gilmore Girls revival, as well as “preliminary” talks of a continuation, and prospects aren’t looking great. Star Lauren Graham once again questions the need to return to Stars Hollow after those final four words, though A Very Gilmore Christmas down the line is at least a possibility.
Even as FOX opted not to proceed with Graham’s new sitcom Linda From HR, the erstwhile Lorelai isn’t keen to return for more Gilmore Girls just yet. In a long conversation with IndieWire, Graham suggested “there’s far more risk to continue,” though the possibility of a one-off special in the future hasn’t escaped her:
It’s also worth noting that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Amazon drama The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel got a two-season pickup, likely precluding any immediate return. And while Netflix is taking a more stringent approach these days, they were seemingly the ones leading the charge, tweeting out a familiar science experiment to tease the father of Rory’s child.
It took Arrested Development a full four years to earn its latest pickup, so might Gilmore Girls be worth revisiting down the road? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8306 | How are critical security updates installed on systems which you cannot afford to reboot but the update requires a reboot. For example, services/businesses that are required to run 24x7 with zero downtime, e.g. Amazon.com or Google.
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What makes you think that Google cannot afford to reboot their servers? They don't have to reboot them all at once you know. – Dmitry Grigoryev Oct 24 '18 at 7:49
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Today, any hardware availability uptime above 95% is deems expensive and obsolete. Most web services simply distribute their services in cluster to enable a near 100% availability which is less costly than the requirement on the OS and hardware counterpart.. – mootmoot Oct 24 '18 at 8:18
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@DmitryGrigoryev Correct, they don't all need to be rebooted, and that's the core of the question here. Redundant systems is a common approach for High Availability or "zero downtime" (to steal a description from OP) systems. – Strikegently Oct 24 '18 at 14:40
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Redundancy and load balancing are key concepts here – Marco A. Oct 24 '18 at 20:59
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I suggest reading landing.google.com/sre/books (for free) if you are particularly interested in how Google does reliability engineering. While a lot of that is about conceptual and cultural components around the job of site reliability engineering, there is also a fair bit of technological info in there. – MvG Oct 25 '18 at 0:43
There are various utilities in different operating systems which allow hot-patching of running code. An example of this would be kpatch and livepatch features of Linux which allow patching the running kernel without interrupting its operations. Its capabilities are limited and can only make trivial changes to the kernel, but this is often sufficient for mitigating a number of critical security issues until time can be found to do a proper fix. This kind of technique in general is called dynamic software updating.
I should point out though that the sites with virtually no downtime (high-availability) are not so reliable because of live-patching, but because of redundancy. Whenever one system goes down, there will be a number of backups in place that can immediately begin routing traffic or processing requests with no delay. There are a large number of different techniques to accomplish this. The level of redundancy provides significant uptime measured in nines. A three nine uptime is 99.9%. Four nine uptime is 99.99%, etc. The "holy grail" is five nines, or 99.999% uptime. Many of the services you listed have five nine availability due to their redundant backup systems spread throughout the world.
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Once you have all the HA infrastructure in place you are actually better off avoiding live patching. Live patching becomes a risk to your reliability. 1. The bug could have already caused badness in your data structures in memory, and though you have applied the live patch you are still affected due to previously introduced badness. 2. There could be subtle differences between applying the live patch and booting a real patched kernel causing your application to only work on the former. Next time you reboot you will be hit by a bug which by then will be hard to mitigate. – kasperd Oct 24 '18 at 12:31
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@kasperd Also, 3. live patching is much more constrained and requires careful thought and testing and adds additional indirection at runtime. Why bother when you can reboot systems one by one? Which you're probably already doing periodically anyway, because by the time you have a cluster like that, why wouldn't you? – Luaan Oct 24 '18 at 14:18
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For completeness' sake, it might be worth mentioning in the answer that "five nines", or 99.999% availability, corresponds to a downtime of just over 5 minutes 15 seconds per year. Six nines (99.9999%) would be just under 32 seconds downtime per year. – a CVn Oct 24 '18 at 14:50
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@immibis: Stack Exchange has had way more than an hour of downtime in the past several years, so definitely nowhere near 99.999% – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Oct 24 '18 at 21:36
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@pipe Are you implying that government websites are important? Commercial websites have more focus on reliability because if the site is down, the users can switch to a competitor. Government websites don't have the same competition, and they don't lose any money on the bottom line if users stop using their site. That may mean you as a user feel those sites are more important. But at the same time it means the government doesn't have incentive to prioritize reliability as high. – kasperd Oct 25 '18 at 11:34
I watched a presentation at a security conference by a Netflix employee. They don't patch at all. Instead, when a patch is required, they stand up new instances and then blow away the unpatched ones. They are doing this almost constantly. They call it red-black deployment.
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Interesting. That looks like a variation of a rolling deployment - maybe we could call it "bulldozer deployment" - raze and rebuild :-). – sleske Oct 24 '18 at 8:24
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I think it is called red-green deployment but at Netflix they call it red-black. – mcgyver5 Oct 24 '18 at 8:27
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At least in my experience, red-green deployment is if you have two redundant, complete server clusters that you switch between (in one go), while with rolling deployment you have a single cluster that is updated piece by piece. But I'm not sure that everyone uses the terms like that. – sleske Oct 24 '18 at 8:55
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It's "blue-green", not "red-green", but @sleske's explanation is correct. (I think "blue-green" is used because "red-green" sounds like the "red-green-refactor" TDD approach.) But yes, Netflix calls it "red-black" because those are their company colors. – Captain Man Oct 24 '18 at 13:43
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Maybe they should rename it to "orange-(is-the-new-)black"? – Doktor J Oct 25 '18 at 14:02
The short answer is:
They do reboot.
You seem to assume that Amazon and Google run on a single server, and if that is rebooted, the whole site/service is down. This is very far from the truth - large services typically run on many servers that work in parallel. For further reading, look at techniques like clustering, load balancing and failover.
Google, for example, has over a dozen data centers across the globe, and each holds a huge number of servers (estimates are 100,000-400,000 servers per center).
In such environments, updates (both feature and security updates) are typically installed as rolling deployments:
• pick some subset of servers
• install updates on the subset
• reboot the subset; in the meantime the other servers take over
• repeat with next subset :-)
There are other options, such as hot patching, but they are not used as frequently in my experience, at least not on typical large websites. See forest's answer for details.
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Heck Netflix servers will inexplicable reboot and crash just to keep you in your toes. They call it Chaos Monkey. – Aron Oct 24 '18 at 9:06
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@kasperd The other day I found out there is a Chaos Kong. He takes out entire Availability Zones. Only a red button can achieve the same effect. – Aron Oct 24 '18 at 14:18
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You could add 3.5: check that nothing broke. Applies more to other kinds of updates, but the ability to revert the rollout at early stage is important reason to make it slow. Great answer, IMO it should be the accepted one. – Frax Oct 24 '18 at 22:07
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@Aron Google has DiRT, which is kind of Chaos Monkey at scale - simulated outages are usually about losing whole clusters or even datacenters and offices. – Frax Oct 24 '18 at 22:08
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Also sounds like the OP assumes they're running Windows 10... – Mazura Oct 25 '18 at 5:29
You can check "Deployment Activities" under "Software Deployment". A common method is to use a Load Balancer in-front of your services and redirect traffic accordingly. In a technique called "blue-green deployment", you redirect traffic from "blue" to "green" servers. This does not have any user-side downtime, provided of course that the application can handle this properly, e.g. through stateless services.
Say your application runs v1 on the blue server and your load balancer directs traffic there. You can upgrade the green server (which does not receive any traffic) to v2. You then reconfigure the load balancer to direct the traffic to the green server. So, you have upgraded from v1 to v2 without downtime.
You can use the blue-green technique also as part of testing. For example, you configure the load balancer to direct 95% of traffic to the blue server (v1) and 5% to the green server (v2). This way you can test your new version, under less traffic and having less impact on users in case it has bugs.
Its pretty easy when things are clustered and proxied. Because you have many nodes capable of doing the same job (or several in the case of data repositories such as search engines, Hadoop file systems etc.)
Take a web search. You hit www.altavista.com. The DNS entry lists a half dozen IP addresses and your client hits one at random. Each IP is a Cisco router, which fans that trafic out to a random one of 8 physical front-end servers (48 total) on internal IP addresses. That server normalizes your query (removes whitespace etc.) then takes an MD5 hash of it. The MD5 decides which of 300 proxy servers that query goes to. That query is sent on to the proxy via a standard protocol like SOAP.
The front-end servers are interchangeable because they handle only transient demands of a single query. Outside worst case, a customer gets their query dropped. You use RRD data or other data collection to watchdog when a front-end server starts failing, and you reroute its traffic to a standby server. Same can be said of the Cisco routers.
The proxy first checks its cache. For a cache hit, it does localization blending and sends the answer back; done. If it's a "cache miss", the proxy fans out the query to the search clusters.
If a proxy goes down, again another physical machine can be swapped in for that proxy. It's a little more critical now, because the proxies are not interchangeable; each one "owns" a little slice of the search result spectrum. So if the 0x0000-0x00d9 machine goes down, the substitute must know to step in for that range. And worse, that substitute machine will have an empty cache, so every search query will be a cache miss. That will increase load on the search clusters proper by a tiny bit per downed proxy. That means if you bounce all the proxies at the same time, don't do it during peak search hours!
The search clusters have similar layering and redundancy, of course, and each segment of the search database resides on several nodes, so if a node goes down, other nodes can serve up that slice of the results.
I'm focusing on the proxy as an example. Communication into it is via SOAP, communication out of it is via some similar high-level protocol. Data in and out of it is transitory, except for the cache which is important to balancing search engine cluster load. The point is, that it can be swapped instantly at any moment, with the worst case result of a few searches timing out. That's something the front-end server would notice, and could simply send its query again, by which time the new proxy would be up.
So if you have 300 proxies, and it takes 1/2 hour for a proxy to recover its cache, and you can stand to have search engine load increase 20%, then you can swap 1 proxy every 30 seconds, so in any sliding 30-minute period, 60 proxies (20%) are rebuilding caches. Assuming there's even a pressing need to go that fast.
That example takes 2-1/2 hours to rollout, and if an emergent threat required a faster response, then you either endure the pain of more cache misses, or you down your service long enough to patch (but in the search engine example the cache misses will still be a problem when you come back up. I've watched the RRD graphs after an emergency DB reload and necessary cache flush, it is something to see.)
Of course usually the process can be patched, stopped and restarted without a full reboot. I have seen uptime of 2 years on production nodes.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8310 | Quantum twist could kill off the multiverse, and Boltzmann brains
via Quantum twist could kill off the multiverse – physics-math – 14 May 2014 – New Scientist.
Boltzmann brains are an interesting, and somewhat disturbing concept. Basically, as I understand it, the idea is that in a universe of infinite space and time, matter would at times randomly coalesce into a temporary functional brain. This brain might have memories (false ones) of an entire life and have what it thinks are ongoing sensory inputs. The brain might only hold together for a few seconds, but during that time, it might believe it lifetime of experience behind it, that it lived in a world, and that it had a future.
The kicker is that in this infinite universe, Boltzmann brains are believed to outnumber brains in evolved creatures. (I think the reason is that the portion of time that will allow the evolution of intelligent life is a literally infinitesimal portion of the time line of an infinite universe.) In other words, there is a higher probability right now that you are a Boltzmann brain, that your memories are all false, and that you will momentarily dissolve after a brief flash of consciousness.
Still here? Okay, you might be good then. Unless of course your memory of reading the above is itself false and you still will dissolve in a few seconds. Obviously this line of reasoning borders on solipsism. Still, if we do live in an infinite universe, this is a logical possibility.
Apparently, Sean Carroll has found a way to banish infinity and as a result, Boltzmann brains. I’m sympathetic, but I don’t think that’s sufficient reason to justify a scientific theory. Of course, I doubt it’s Carroll’s only reason, and it does have some interesting consequences for multiverse theories. Like all multiverse theories, this is playing with mathematics and logical concepts but remains well outside of observational testing, at least for now. (Must…resist…urge…to mention philosophy 🙂 )
13 Responses to Quantum twist could kill off the multiverse, and Boltzmann brains
1. Ignostic Atheist says:
Interesting, but the business of ending like it begins brings to mind conformal cyclic cosmology.
But try this on for size: existence beyond a Bolzmann brain relies upon continuity of experience. If the multiverse really is infinite, there is a Bolzmann brain out there that is thinking your next though. If you cease to exist, it will think that thought, and pass it on to the next. Does location really matter? Hell, does time even matter? Every moment of your life would be accounted for at some point in the multiverse.
I still think evolution is much more versatile for creating brains.
Liked by 1 person
• That’s a fascinating insight. It’s like the fact that in an infinite universe there are an infinite number of copies of us, a portion of which live on despite how improbable it might be. “We” continue, provided we’re content to regard “us” as the configuration of atoms, the patterns that make us up. It’s a pity that our instinctual need to survive is intensely focused on our current instantiation.
• John says:
No it will not think the next thought.
The BBrain is just a random fluctuation with no rhyme or reason to the next thought in a sequence. In fact it is not even technically a thought..its just mimicking the precise configuration of the totality of all that has come to bear at that precise moment. What happens next is not based on, in any way, what came before it. In short..BBrain are not thinking.
The BBrain should be instruction only in that in shows us unequivocally that we are real and there are no multiple “instantiation” of us. All of this type of pointless reasoning is nothing more than an attempt to further distance yourself from that truth to preserve your worldview. The very fact that you have an opinion on it–that YOU reasoned out and produced the thoughts you typed prove the futility of arguing for your position. Its simply self refuting to think you have any point at all if there are more of you or that you do not possess freewill. Unless you’re willing to imagine your Boltzmann Brains next thought will be in total disagreement with you, rendering your conclusions as random as a poop stain on the universe.
The Mutiverse is nothing more than a corner to hide in. Any reasonable and unbiased thinker will realize its incoherence if they remain in that comer for more than a few minutes. When you come to see that every single person whose opinions you trust, including your own, have myriads of doppelgangers that have at a this precise moment, in a separate universe exactly like ours, changed their minds and have now come to the conclusion that multiverse is the comic book explanation we all knew it was…you will jettison the idea as a reality destroyer–taking logic, reason, argumentation, scientific results, and probability and flushing it down the toilet. You have to see that’s too high a price to pay–and if you dont…that’s OK…..none of your doppelgangers agree with you.
2. Howie says:
Must…resist…urge…to mention philosophy
Be careful – Neil deGrasse Tyson will not approve! 😉
This is fascinating stuff. I first learned of Boltzmann brains watching Sean Carroll debate William Lane Craig. I am also at a loss at explaining the whole justification of a theory based on eliminating Boltzmann brains. I don’t think it matters too much though, because I’ll likely disappear in seconds…. later. 😉
Liked by 1 person
• That’s where I first heard of them too, although the debate didn’t give a good description, and I found the Wikipedia article at the time unhelpful. Tegmark gave a good description in his book, ‘Our Mathematical Universe’.
…at least that’s what I remember, assuming I’m not about to disappear.
• john zande says:
Me too, Howie…. the bit about first hearing about brains during that debate. I disappeared three seconds ago. 🙂
3. “(Must…resist…urge…to mention philosophy 🙂 )”
That means this wasn’t philosophy the whole time? I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about multi-verse theories (my formal training is mostly ancient, medieval, and political philosophy), but I’m sort of baffled that this “counts” as science after all the comment section arguments I’ve been reading in the wake of dGT-gate 2014.
Liked by 1 person
4. “Boltzmann in Wonderland”, by one Carroll again…
5. Steve Morris says:
Beware of infinities … that’s my advice.
Your thoughts?
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8345 | Canon (official)
cleric; member of certain bodies subject to an ecclesiastical rule
A Canon in a church is an official. He may or may not be a priest. The Chapter of a cathedral is an official group made up of the Dean and Chapter of canons, who meet in a chapterhouse. They run the cathedral, especially the business affairs of the cathedral. They are the body which has legal responsibility for the cathedral, and for electing the (arch)bishop.[1]
Originally, a canon was a cleric who lived in the precinct of the cathedral. The word meant a priest who was under (ruled by) a bishop.
In the Anglican church, some canons are laypersons (not ordained). The title is also given to some senior or retired priests as an honorary title.
1. Elections of Archbishops in the Church of England are in the hands of the monarch, under advice from senior clergy. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8346 | Continuum hypothesis
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The continuum hypothesis is a hypothesis that there is no set that is both bigger than that of the natural numbers and smaller than that of the real numbers. Georg Cantor stated this hypothesis in 1877.
There are infinitely many natural numbers, the cardinality of the set of natural numbers is infinite. This is also true for the set of real numbers, but there are more real numbers than natural numbers. We say that the natural numbers have infinite cardinality and the real numbers have infinite cardinality, but the cardinality of the real numbers is greater than the cardinality of the natural numbers.
This hypothesis is the first problem on the list of 23 problems David Hilbert published in 1900. Kurt Gödel showed in 1939, that the hypothesis cannot be falsified using Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. The Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory is the set theory commonly used in mathematics. Paul Cohen showed in the 1960s that the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory cannot be used to prove the continuum hypothesis, either. For this, Cohen was awarded the Fields Medal. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8347 | Nobel prize medal.svg
Jim Peebles
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Jim Peebles
Jim Peebles.jpg
Phillip James Edwin Peebles
(1935-04-25) April 25, 1935 (age 84)
Alma mater
Known forCosmic microwave background radiation
AwardsEddington Medal (1981)
Heineman Prize (1982)
Bruce Medal (1995)
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998)
Gruber Prize (2000)
Harvey Prize (2001)
Shaw Prize (2004)
Crafoord Prize (2005)
Dirac Medal (2013)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2019)
Scientific career
InstitutionsPrinceton University
Phillip James Edwin Peebles OM FRS (born April 25, 1935) is a Canadian-American physicist and theoretical cosmologist. He is currently the Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus of Science at Princeton University.[1][2]
Peebles was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019 for his theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.[3][4] In November 2019, Peebles noted, in his award presentation, that he does not support the Big Bang Theory, due to the lack of concrete supporting evidence, and stated, "It's very unfortunate that one thinks of the beginning whereas in fact, we have no good theory of such a thing as the beginning."[5]
References[change | change source]
1. "Princeton University Physics Department". Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
2. "Princeton University News". Archived from the original on April 13, 2016.
3. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019". Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
4. Chang, Kenneth; Specia, Megan (8 October 2019). "Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Cosmic Discoveries - The cosmologist James Peebles split the prize with the astrophysicists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, for work the Nobel judges said "transformed our ideas about the cosmos."". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
5. Couronne, Ivan (14 November 2019). "Top cosmologist's lonely battle against 'Big Bang' theory". Retrieved 14 November 2019. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8350 | 1. Home
2. Docs
3. Simpods MVC
4. Basic Components
5. Parent and Child Theme
Parent and Child Theme
Simpods MVC is set up as a parent & child theme. We’ve set up a blank child theme with some sample files for you to edit so that you can get started straight away without any hassle. You can download the blank child theme here.
Why use a child theme?
Child themes allow you to add your code (or overwrite some of ours) without the worry that your code might go missing when we update Simpods MVC. Since Simpods MVC uses a particular file structure, we’ve created a blank theme so you don’t have to, you can find that here.
Where do I add my code?
We will be updating Simpods MVC over time with extra functionality and options (as well as fixing any bugs that get through!), so your code is best suited going into the child theme we supply. As previously mentioned, Simpods MVC uses a particular layout with folders for certain areas (admin folder for admin content, controllers for controllers etc.). We’ve kept these folders named appropriately, but to help you along, we’ve documented the folder structure as well which can be found here.
Simpods MVC Structure
Figure 1 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8366 | Beethoven and the Illuminati
How the secret order influenced the great composer.
Ludwig van Beethoven
In 1779, a composer, writer, teacher, and dreamer named Christian Neefe arrived in Bonn, Germany, to work for the Electoral Court. Neefe (pronounced nay-fuh) was the definition of what Germans call a Schwärmer, a person swarming with rapturous enthusiasms. In particular, he was inflamed with visions of endless human potentials that the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment promised to unleash. Like many progressives of the time, Neefe believed that humanity was finally coming of age. So he had picked the right place to get a job. Bonn was one of the most cultured and enlightened cities in Germany; the court supported a splendid musical and theatrical establishment. Before long in his new post, Neefe found himself mentoring a genius. Meanwhile, in his spare time, he signed on with a plan to, as it were, rule the world.
One of Neefe’s first students was a sullen, grubby, taciturn 10-year-old keyboard player named Ludwig van Beethoven. He was the son of an alcoholic singer who had more or less beat music into him. The kid seemed more like a charity case than a budding musician, but Neefe soon discovered that his talent could put him in the league of the musical phenomenon of the age, a child of freakish gifts named Mozart.
Ludwig was named for his grandfather, who had been Kapellmeister, head of the court musical establishment. Old Ludwig’s son, Johann van Beethoven, was a tenor in the choir; when his father died, he had made a bid to become Kapellmeister. Everybody but Johann understood that was ludicrous: He was a competent singer and music teacher, otherwise hopelessly mediocre and a devotee of the bottle. As often happens, the full ferocity of the father’s blighted ambition landed on the son. Johann van Beethoven intended to make his oldest child into another Mozart, or else.
Neighbors used to see tiny Ludwig standing on a bench to reach the keyboard, his father standing over him shouting and threatening, the boy weeping as he played. When Ludwig was 7, his father put him on display in a concert and for good measure advertised him as age 6, the same as Mozart when he became famous. Johann was hoping for a sensation, but nothing came of it (except that Beethoven was confused about his age for the rest of his life). At 7 he had been a terrifically precocious keyboard player, but he wasn’t another Mozart, at least not yet.
By the time Christian Neefe arrived in Bonn and started teaching Beethoven organ and composition, the 10-year-old was as good a keyboard player as anybody in town. Soon Neefe got into print some variations Ludwig had written, one of his first pieces—slight and conventional, still not Mozart but impressive for his age. In a newspaper article, Neefe cited the variations and said the magic words: With proper nurturing, this boy will “surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.”
By his midteens, Beethoven was a court musician in various capacities and making huge strides as a composer. His father had pulled him out of school after a few years so he could concentrate on music. (Beethoven learned to add and subtract but never learned to multiply. If he had to multiply 65 by 59, he wrote 65 in a column 59 times and added it up.) Meanwhile his father was promoting him relentlessly, mounting concerts in the house and taking him on tours around the Rhineland. By that point, there was little question in Ludwig’s or anybody else’s mind that he was headed for big things. One day when his landlord’s daughter accosted him with, “How dirty you’re looking again! You ought to keep yourself properly clean,” he told her, “What’s the difference? When I become a gentleman, nobody will care.”
Which is to say that Beethoven was a prodigy and had the classic prodigy’s trouble: He knew all about music, but he didn’t know how to live. He had only a hazy sense of the reality of other people. Throughout Beethoven’s youth, a row of mentors would attempt to civilize and socialize him, with mixed results.
In those years, his first serious mentor, Neefe the Schwärmer, was in an especially perfervid phase of his spiritual life. For some time he had been a Freemason, a group then in its first century as a progressive, international, secular, semisecret order open to men of all faiths. (As such, the Masons were loathed by churches and regimes alike.) But Neefe was tired of the Masons’ endless chatter of liberty and morality. He wanted a more ambitious and active kind of brotherhood—say, a new world order. That took him to one of the more bizarre sideshows of the Enlightenment: the Bavarian Illuminati. A Bonn lodge of the Illuminati formed, and Beethoven’s teacher became head of it.
For every Illuminatus, the perfection of society started with the perfection of one’s own moral character. Aspiring members were given piles of text to read, required to write a rigorous self-examination and to undergo ritualized interrogations:
In practice, the Illuminati amounted to a kind of activist left wing of the Freemasons, from whom they drew most of their members. The numbers were never large, but they included people like Goethe (briefly) and Christian Koerner, a close friend and confidant of Friedrich Schiller. Koerner’s influence seems to be why some Illuminati-tinged ideas—universal brotherhood and the triumph of happiness bringing humanity to Elysium—turned up in Schiller’s famous poem Ode to Joy, which was often set to music and sung in Masonic and Illuminati circles. The poem would later enter history via the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Not only Neefe, but then and later most of Beethoven’s other friends and mentors and patrons were ex-Illuminati or Freemasons. Did those influences have an impact on his life and art? Among many other things, certainly. By the time Beethoven left Bonn, he was already planning to set Schiller’s Ode to music, and he had a good idea what that poem was about, from its humanistic surface to its Masonic and Illuminati depths. By then Bonn had helped give him ideas and ideals about being a composer that no one ever had before. He wanted to be something more than an entertainer. He wanted to be part of history.
As for the Illuminati, call them one more example of the Enlightenment’s excesses of hope for human perfectibility. Since Beethoven’s day, the secrecy and world-ordering agenda of the Illuminati have made them a natural magnet for conspiracy freaks. The Illuminati actually existed only some nine years, but there are still lots of folks, including many on the American religious right and the John Birch Society, who believe the Illuminati are the mother of all conspiracies, a Jewish-dominated international cabal that has more or less run the world since they incited the French Revolution. My saying they were a short-lived and a bit pathetic phenomenon makes me, of course, part of the conspiracy—along with Beethoven. I’d like finally to meet some of my fellow conspirators. They seem like interesting people. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8372 | Fourth Grade
Fourth Grade Art Studio
Contour Line Drawing
Students use their sneaker or shoe to create a contour line drawing of their leg inside of the sneaker of shoe walking somewhere. The children have their choice of mediums to complete the drawing.
art art
art art |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8382 | Thought you guys might like this. This music video has a mix of humor and truth. The shirt that Matt Best wears in this video speaks volumes in today’s society. It seems in today’s day and age people rush to conclusions and get their panties in a bunch too easily and too quickly. Matt Best is a former Army Ranger and Combat Veteran. He owns and operates ART 15 Clothing. As a way to deal with the effects of PTSD and other combat-related injuries, Matt and the crew use humor as a means of therapy. Enjoy!
(Featured image courtesy of Mbest11x YouTube Channel) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8392 | I know it would be awfully weak, but it's present even where all other power sources would be unavailable - could cosmic level radiation be used to power minimal set of systems of a probe, say, a clock to "wake it up" after reaching destination (in a couple hundred years) and activate more efficient energy sources "hibernated" for duration of the travel? What orders of magnitude of power input could be expected, per some unit (mass, surface?) of the "harvesting" apparatus?
Specifically, it appears the cosmic background - specifically, CMB - is not uniform.
heat map of CMB
The variance is only ±0.00057 K but the features (hot and cold spots) seem to remain mostly persistent over time, so the device, while needing to pivot to maintain orientation relative to CMB, doesn't have to reconfigure 'absorber' and 'radiator' layout on the fly.
The question remains, how can one use such tiny variance, especially with total input of 400–500 photons/cm$^3$ - and how much (...how little) energy could be gained that way?
As clarification what I'm asking for - any external energy source; it doesn't need to be CMB specifically - that is available during intergalactic travel, where you can't depend on solar wind, light of nearby stars or similar; you must depend on what's available there: thermal cosmic background radiation, cosmic microwave background, high-energy cosmic rays, whatever means are available in intergalactic space, other than what you brought with the craft.
• $\begingroup$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage Feb 24 '17 at 15:43
• $\begingroup$ Sorry for the confusion, everyone. I made a mod flub and converted an answer to comment instead of migrating comments to chat. It is fixed now, but there are duplicate comments across the chat rooms. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage Feb 24 '17 at 15:44
• $\begingroup$ I think the ±0.00057 K "variance" is not the range of temperatures, but the total uncertainty in the average temperature value, combining data from many experiments and including all uncertainties in each, AND correcting for the 600 km/s doppler shift from our galaxy's motion. See last sentence of section 4 in arxiv.org/abs/0911.1955 According to the caption from your image and here also the range of the plot is +/- 0.0002 K. But this plot has been doppler shifted. $\endgroup$ – uhoh Feb 28 '17 at 6:10
• $\begingroup$ The main dipole moment of +/-0.0035 K peak-to-peak is from the 600 km/s motion of our group of galaxies, and has been subtracted before your plot was made. As I've mentioned here and thereabouts, the theoretical maximum efficiency for a Carnot cycle with such a small temperature difference is about 0.26%, or a few nano-watts per square meter theoretical thermodynamic maximum. Your milage will vary. $\endgroup$ – uhoh Feb 28 '17 at 6:18
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$\begingroup$ @Pelinore: Unfortunately it'snot the cosmic microwave background radiation it captures, just mostly human-made EMI noise many, orders of magnitude stronger. $\endgroup$ – SF. Oct 26 '19 at 18:49
I'm guessing you mean cosmic microwave background radiation.
A radio tuned to an empty frequency hears "static" noise. A small fraction of the static received by an analog television is in fact the CMB. Could an antenna system collect some of this, and with a diode or something similar, convert some of it to a small amount of useful electricity? CMB detectors are usually bolometers - antennas + resistors + temperature sensors, but in this case they could be diodes, as you've pointed out here, which can provide some DC power from the original AC.
tl;dr: nope! Thermodynamics always wins, unless your spacecraft and electronics are below 2.7 K.
But let's see what we lost:
To get a rough idea of the amount of power potentially available, without considering the actual functioning circuit which would need to be fairly broadband to make efficient use of the spectrum, here's a quick calculation of the power available incident microwave power. It is only an upper limit to what would be possible to collect.:
Instead of integrating the thermal distribution, let's just use the full width of 200GHz and a heigh of 400 MJy/sr (see below). The data is available here also.
MJy is 1E+06 Jansy. One Jansky is 1E-26 Watts per square meter per Hertz.
Let's say the antenna has some directionality (they always do unless they play tricks with polarization) and call the acceptance 1/2 of a sphere, or 2$\pi$ sr.
400E+06 Jy/sr * 2$\pi$ sr * 200E+09 Hz * 1E-26 W/m^2 ~ 1E-06 W/m^2
So that's 1 micro Watt per square meter possible. Your milage may vary.
To double check that, use the Stephan-Boltzman equation $P=\sigma T^4$. With $\sigma$=5.67E-08 watts per square meter per degree Kelvin^4, that gives 3E-06 W/m^2. Remembering the factor 0.5 for the antenna acceptance, it works out nicely.
But can a hot (say 273 K) crystal radio (diode rectification) actually extract power from a cold thermal distribution? No, heat flows from hot to cold unless you are using energy to drive a heat pump. From a radio point of view, random electrical fluctuations in your radio's electronics will also be broadcasting microwaves back into the cosmos.
So you'd have to cool your radio down below 2.7K to get any power. And at that point, you've just built a thermal collector and a cold, radio-black plate could do roughly as well as the radio. But you wouldn't be gaining energy because you'd be doing more work cooling it.
So in a word, nope! Thermodynamics always wins, unless your spacecraft and electronics are below 2.7 K.
enter image description here
above: Spectrum of the CMB from here.
enter image description here
above: Spectrum of the CMB plotted with x-axis units converted from 1/cm to GHz, data from here.
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• $\begingroup$ You seem to be doing analysis for "naked" antennas, which is fine, but don't forget we could focus a large area of incoming rays to a spot, like with a parabolic reflector. See my answer for the details. $\endgroup$ – DrZ214 Mar 5 '17 at 0:52
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$\begingroup$ @DrZ214 For an essentially isotropic source, focusing provides no help. I know that this is hard to believe at first, but remember while increasing the area by a factor X you decrease the solid angle (cone of light) by X at the same time. The simplest way to demonstrate this is to go outside during the day with a magnifying glass and try to "focus" blue sky on to a piece of paper. A collimated source like the sun will give you a dangerous blindingly bright hot spot, but there is barely any change in blue sky at all. $\endgroup$ – uhoh Mar 5 '17 at 1:01
• $\begingroup$ @uhoh nonsense. particles moving parallel can be reflected with the parabola, which has the exact geometric property we want. It is just a way of collecting all the photons in one area so we can have a smaller receiver. Either the receiver itself has to be very large or the dish has to be very large. Are you thinking of the odd photovoltaic property of photon intensity (amplitude) has no effect on the electricity produced? That much is true, but we are still focusing/collecting more photons, so more watts. $\endgroup$ – DrZ214 Mar 5 '17 at 1:09
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$\begingroup$ @DrZ214 Please do the experiment with the magnifying glass. If you get a bright blue spot, photograph it and post it here. The principle can be called called conservation of phase space or Liuville's theorem or conservation of etendu to get around it would violate the 2nd law Thermodynamics so it's pretty much the law $\endgroup$ – uhoh Mar 5 '17 at 1:19
Yes! If we assume that you have access to a large black hole and materials that probably can't exist, you can run a heat engine off of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Reasonably sized black holes are cold. Very cold. Billionths of a Kelvin for a stellar mass black hole, which is numerous orders of magnitude colder than the CMB. The temperature of a black hole is called the Hawking Temperature.
That means you could take a heat engine using helium as working fluid. Your cold sink will be a large radiator facing the black hole that you're orbiting very closely. Your heat source is a similar plate facing away from the black hole. You will need some sort of multi-layer insulation between them for optimal performance. At this point it should be noted that if any matter is falling into the black hole it will be producing radiation and you won't be able to use it as a cold sink.
How much energy will you get? Not much, but since the helium would not be a gas I don't know how to calculate it. As an upper limit though, the Stefan-Boltzmann Law limits it to less than 3.1 microwatts per square meter.
Honestly though it would probably be easier to use the Penrose Process if you can do real engineering that close to a black hole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process
• $\begingroup$ that would awfully increase the dry mass of the craft though :) $\endgroup$ – SF. Mar 1 '17 at 21:12
• $\begingroup$ It's fine. Just leave then engine where it is and beam power to your spacecraft. $\endgroup$ – Schlusstein Mar 1 '17 at 21:13
• $\begingroup$ Brilliant! +n! In this case, a reflector might in fact help. While one can't focus the diffuse CMB hot source, one could use a reflector to give the radiator a much larger solid angle "view" of the cold source. That would allow a larger distance from the black hole. It would have to be a low emissivity reflector, but in this case that turns out to be OK (good reflectors are indeed low emissivity at their high reflectivity wavelength). $\endgroup$ – uhoh Mar 5 '17 at 1:23
You probably want to harvest usable energy, a physicist would rather call that low entropy. Harvesting energy would mean you heat up indefinitely. Accepting that thermodynamics drives deterministic technical processes (as well as life on earth) is is the key to understanding this problem.
Most of your field of view, the cosmic microwave background, is almost perfect black body radiation with a temperature of 3.7K. Once your spacecraft completely cools to this point, your entropy balance will be even.
You can however use small fluctuations in the spatial distribution to harvest usable energy by exposing the "hot-end" of a harvesting apparatus to the hotter-than-average parts of the sky, the "cold-end" to the other parts. A temperature gradient would build up and can be used.
Any electromagnetic radiation that deviates from a planck spectrum can also be used by reradiating it as thermal radiation with higher entropy (solar panels do exactly that, if you think about it). Visible light and quasar radiation would be a good source. Unfortunately, point sources and sources of narrowband radiation only take up a very small part of your field of view. Quasars are rare and power decays with inverse square law, so visible light from stars may be easier to obtain.
Can a clock oscillator be powered from solar panels in outer space? Depends on surface area. Low entropy reservoirs, like RTGs, are far easier solutions.
(some of the comments below may refer to the previous version of my answer , which was quite different)
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$\begingroup$ I was more thinking in terms of antenna - a detector radio uses no power supply; all its power is gathered through the (sizable) antenna and sufficient to move an earphone - but tune it to no radio station and you hear the white noise of cosmic background radiation; its energy moving the earphone membrane. It requires good grounding besides the antenna though, and considering it's to be on a probe in space, this approach doesn't really work. $\endgroup$ – SF. Feb 23 '17 at 21:24
• $\begingroup$ if anything, I'm more interested in electric power than thermal. $\endgroup$ – SF. Feb 23 '17 at 22:32
• $\begingroup$ @SF. Electrical power is governed by thermodynamics after all, like all other forms of power. There is no electric perpetuum mobile, because electricity is governed by the thermodynamic laws. But your response gave me new insight, I was never aware, that the spectrum of radiation would play a role. Quasar radiation can be harvested, because it is narrow-band. $\endgroup$ – Andreas Feb 23 '17 at 22:49
• $\begingroup$ Can you explain what is mean (in reality) by "exposing" a surface to one hemisphere? What temperature is the other side of that surface exposed to - in reality? There is a dipole moment in the distribution of 0.0035K, so do you mean the intermediate surface facing the "insides" of both surfaces would be spot-on average, and the CMB non-uniformity thermodynamic extractor would be using this difference of +/- 0.0035K? What is the theoretical efficiency of that Carnot Cycle? $\endgroup$ – uhoh Feb 28 '17 at 0:53
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$\begingroup$ @uhoh Assuming a dipole moment of +/- 0.0035K and a mean of 2.726K, the theoretical upper limit for efficiency would be 0.0026 . This means that only 1/380 of the energy you receive on the hot end can be used to do work (= to drive irreversible processes). Formula from here. (Corrected factor 10 error, blush...) $\endgroup$ – Andreas Feb 28 '17 at 6:40
Yes, you can theoretically harvest the CMBR. However...
The other answers seem to be describing the (tiny) limits for "naked" antennas. But don't forget you can gather a large area of incoming photons and focus them, say, via a parabolic dish.
How big of a dish? That's up to you and your spaceship. You quoted about 450 photons per cubic centimeter so I think you can figure out how much you want. For reference, the CMBR frequency is about 160 GHz, in the microwave range of the spectrum. It is definitely possible to build a smooth enough dish that will reflect microwaves. (We have such dishes on Earth.)
Edit: Nevermind that. It appears the CMBR is actually a diffuse source of photons (not parallel photons), so a parabolic dish will not focus them.
You mentioned:
The external energy source I think would be best is nearby starlight. Imagine you have a gigantic parabolic dish on your spacecraft, trying to collect the tiny CMBR. Instead, it would collect a lot more starlight from nearby stars.
How much starlight? Let's just simplify with average stars at average distances. The sunlight near Earth, but not yet hitting the atmosphere, comes in at about 1.36 kW per square meter. The nearest star to our Sun is about 4 lightyears away.
So let's pretend your spaceship, during its journey, is always within 2 LY of a star. 1 LY is about 63,241.1 AU (1 AU = distance from Sun to Earth). Therefore, the starlight is coming in at 1.36 / 63,241.1^2 = 34.005 nanowatts per square meter. But there are probably several nearby stars. Let's say on average, your ship is surrounded by 8 stars each 2 LY away. So you have about 272 nanowatts per square meter.
Not a lot but I'm pretty sure it's orders of magnitude above what you could get with the CMBR. It also does not include light from more distant stars. Just from knowing the mathematical series of 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 ..., I know that sums to 1. So I'll just guess that all the other stars farther away add up to another 272 nanowatts per sq meter. Total is 544.
So if you want 1 watt, you need a solar panel that's about 1.85 million square meters big...or a parabolic reflector taking 1.85 M sq m and focusing it onto a solar panel of just 1 sq m.
Keep in mind, tho, that you'll hafta point the solar panel or its parabolic focuses at the nearest star. You could have many such things surrounding the ship, each capable of swiveling. There have been some creative ideas about large lightweight reflectors for this purpose, like the unfolding solar sail that reflects and focuses light back to the towed capsule.
To be clear: do you actually mean "cosmic microwave background radiation" or simply "cosmic radiation"? Because the two are two very different things (although the answer is the same for both, but the reason different). Cosmic radiation consists of GCR (galactic cosmic radiation), a weak flux of very high energy particles, and solar, which is a stronger flux of weaker particles.
While such radiation is very damaging to the body, the flux doesn't represent much total power. Or to put it another way, it can kill you, but you're not going to feel any warmth in the process. While the power (watts) of the flux is tiny (and no, your immediate reaction of "what about a big...".... I'll just stop you right there, the answer is "no"), it's damaging because it releases the energy inside of your cells, not on the protective epidermis layer. By the time a single particle of GCR, some insignificant number of joules, is full decelerated, the energy has generally been split into many other particles, and each has left trails of destruction through your cells like microscopic bullet paths.
There are some GCR particles that can have significant energy - see the "Oh My God Particle" (a single particle measured with the energy of a fast-pitch baseball) for an example. But such things are exceedingly rare. Plus it takes basically a whole atmosphere to stop them.
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$\begingroup$ I'm meaning any kind of radiation / energy available in interstellar/intergalactic space, other than light/radiation of distant stars/galaxies. $\endgroup$ – SF. Feb 24 '17 at 10:08
• $\begingroup$ Can you add some numbers, and links to support your statements? Weak , strong, tiny, big, not much, significant, exceedingly... are subjective. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but this many 'value judgements' without any sourcing, and actually without any numerical values makes this an "exceedingly" weak answer. Let's see if we can nail down how much power is available from cosmic rays outside the Earth's magnetic field's influence. $\endgroup$ – uhoh Feb 24 '17 at 10:09
Your Answer
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8395 |
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has often been portrayed as the Tea Party’s ideological mirror image: a left-wing response to the global economic crises that began in August 2007. Initiated with a tent city in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in mid-September 2011, spinoff “Occupations” soon spread across the United States and then to cities across the globe. These protests, which targeted the federal government’s cozy relationship with the banking interests that caused the economic collapse, channeled the mounting anger of those most devastated by the economic meltdown, especially debt-ridden students, the unemployed, and people who lost homes in the subprime mortgage crisis.
But this mainstream-media view tends to gloss over the involvement of right-wing and conspiracist groups in Occupy. In the perception of many participants, the Right’s presence was largely limited to a lone homeless man who paraded antisemitic signs around Zuccotti, which became the basis of a right-wing “smear” campaign. More recently, venture capitalists like Tom Perkins have slandered Occupy, absurdly comparing its attack on wealth inequality to the Nazi persecution of Jews. Because of this, many progressives plug their ears when they hear about right-wing groups and Occupy.
Read the rest of the article at the Political Research Associates website. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8406 | The Gunas and the Qualities of Happiness
The “pursuit of happiness” is considered by many to be one of the primary directives of human life, and is even enshrined as a guiding principle in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Happiness, however, is not something that can be understood universally, as there are different forms and definitions of happiness. To the Upanishadic sages, true happiness was determined to be a state of bliss, achieved by overcoming the force of desire! For most of humanity however, happiness is a much more qualified state of consciousness, and its character is determined by the predominance of one or another of the three Gunas.
Sri Aurobindo describes these differences: “…the tamasic mind can remain well-pleased in its indolence and inertia, its stupor and sleep, its blindness and its error. Nature has armed it with the privilege of a smug satisfaction in its stupidity and ignorance, its dim lights of the cave, its inert contentment, its petty or base joys and its vulgar pleasures. Delusion is the beginning of this satisfaction and delusion is its consequence; but still there is given a dull, a by no means admirable but a sufficient pleasure in his delusions to the dweller in the cave.”
“The mind of the rajasic man drinks of a more fiery and intoxicating cup; the keen, mobile, active pleasure of the senses and the body and the sense-entangled or fierily kinetic will and intelligence are to him all the joy of life and the very significance of living. This joy is nectar to the lips at the first touch, but there is a secret poison in the bottom of the cup and after it the bitterness of disappointment, satiety, fatigue, revolt, disgust, sin, suffering, loss, transience.”
“What the sattwic nature seeks, therefore, is the satisfaction of the higher mind and the spirit and when it once gets this large object of its quest, there comes in a clear, pure happiness of the soul, a state of fullness, an abiding ease and peace. This happiness does not depend on outward things, but on ourselves alone and on the flowering of what is best and most inward within us….it has to be conquered by self-discipline, a labour of the soul, a high and arduous endeavour.”
“The self-exceeding of the sattwic nature comes when we get beyond the great but still inferior sattwic pleasure, beyond the pleasures of mental knowledge and virtue and peace to the eternal calm of the self and the spiritual ecstasy of the divine oneness. That spiritual joy is no longer the sattwic happiness…, but the absolute Ananda. Ananda is the secret delight from which all things are born, by which all is sustained in existence and to which all can rise in the spiritual culmination. Only then can it be possessed when the liberated man, free from ego and its desires, lives at last one with his highest self, one with all beings and one with God in an absolute bliss of the spirit.”
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8413 | Never Give Up!
David Wilkersonby David Wilkerson
In Revelation, Christ refers to Himself as HE WHO OPENS AND SHUTS THE DOORS” (see Revelation 3:7). This was in a letter sent to the believers in ancient Philadelphia, a church the Lord complimented for having kept the word of His patience and never denying His name. Simply put, in their most trying times, these people stood faithfully on God’s Word. They did not accuse the Lord of neglecting them or turning a deaf ear to their cries.
Evidently, Satan had come against them with lies. His principalities and powers of darkness, lying spirits pouring out of the very bowels of hell, say that God has shut every door, that He isn’t worthy of worship and faith. But these believers, whom Jesus said were of little strength, kept on trusting, waiting patiently for God to put the key in the door and open it. He holds the key to every shut door — and He alone sets before us open doors.
Here is what the Lord promised them, and it is our promise as well:
But you — because you still trust His promises, and are willing to die in faith even if you do not see the promises fulfilled — you will be kept from this worldwide temptation to fall into unbelief. God has heard your cry, and He knows the timing, the very hour, to open all doors.
So, never give up. Never doubt. Stand on His promises. He will not fail you!
by David Wilkerson |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8416 | I am trying to compare OLR, ridge and lasso in my situation. I could calculate SE for OLR and lasso but not for ridge. The following is Prostrate data from lasso2 package.
fit.lm = lm(lpsa~.,data=Prostate)
(Intercept) 0.669399027 1.296381277 0.5163597 6.068984e-01
lcavol 0.587022881 0.087920374 6.6767560 2.110634e-09
lweight 0.454460641 0.170012071 2.6731081 8.956206e-03
age -0.019637208 0.011172743 -1.7575995 8.229321e-02
lbph 0.107054351 0.058449332 1.8315753 7.039819e-02
svi 0.766155885 0.244309492 3.1360054 2.328823e-03
lcp -0.105473570 0.091013484 -1.1588785 2.496408e-01
gleason 0.045135964 0.157464467 0.2866422 7.750601e-01
pgg45 0.004525324 0.004421185 1.0235545 3.088513e-01
fit.rd = lm.ridge(lpsa~.,data=Prostate, lamda = 6.0012)
#summary(fit.rd)$coefficients, doesnot provide SE
lfit = l1ce(lpsa~.,data=Prostate,bound=(1:500)/500)
Value Std. Error Z score Pr(>|Z|)
(Intercept) 2.43614448 2.130515543 1.1434530 0.2528505
lcavol 0.03129045 0.125288320 0.2497475 0.8027826
lweight 0.00000000 0.274549270 0.0000000 1.0000000
age 0.00000000 0.018287840 0.0000000 1.0000000
lbph 0.00000000 0.095587974 0.0000000 1.0000000
svi 0.00000000 0.390936045 0.0000000 1.0000000
lcp 0.00000000 0.149824868 0.0000000 1.0000000
gleason 0.00000000 0.260274039 0.0000000 1.0000000
pgg45 0.00000000 0.007285054 0.0000000 1.0000000
I have a couple of questions:
(1) How can we calculate Std. Error in case of ridge regression ?
(2) Is it valid to compare Std. Error for deciding which (ridge, lasso or OLS) method to use ? Or there are other methods ? If so how can I get them ?
• $\begingroup$ For question 2): I've never heard of using the standard error of the estimates for model comparison. What you want to do with the data? Variable selection? Prediction? $\endgroup$ – Zoë Clark Jul 19 '14 at 22:14
• $\begingroup$ I would like to do model prediction ... $\endgroup$ – Ram Sharma Jul 19 '14 at 22:54
• $\begingroup$ So you want to predict an outcome (lpsa, for example) using one of these three models (OLS, Ridge, & Lasso) according to prediction performance? $\endgroup$ – Zoë Clark Jul 20 '14 at 0:17
• $\begingroup$ yes, I would like to select which method to use for prediction based on some unified criteria $\endgroup$ – Ram Sharma Jul 20 '14 at 2:38
Since the goal is prediction you can choose some distance measure and then calculate the distance between your predictions $\hat{Y}$ and the true values $Y$, choosing the method with the minimum distance. The most common distance measurement for this setting is the mean squared error: MSE = $\sum_{i=1}^n (\hat{Y_i} - Y_i)$. The hardest part is appropriately choosing your training and testing sets and then performing model selection procedure required by the Lasso and Ridge regularization.
First, split your data into two parts: training $X_{training}$ and testing $X_{testing}$. A common choice is 66% training, 34% testing but the choice of proportion is influenced by the size of your data set. Now forget about the testing set for a while. Train, or fit, the three models using just the training data. Model selection for the regularization parameter $\lambda$ should be chosen via cross-validation since prediction is your goal here. Finally, using the best $\lambda$, perform prediction on the testing data to obtain values for $\hat{Y}$. I haven't used the Lasso2 or MASS implementations of regularized regression but the glmnet package makes the process very straightforward because it provides a cross-validatiion function. Here's some R code to do this on the Prostate data:
data(Prostate, package = "lasso2")
## Split into training and test
n_obs = dim(Prostate)[1]
proportion_split = 0.66
train_index = sample(1:n_obs, round(n_obs * proportion_split))
y = Prostate$lpsa
X = as.matrix(Prostate[setdiff(colnames(Prostate), "lpsa")])
Xtr = X[train_index,]
Xte = X[-train_index,]
ytr = y[train_index]
yte = y[-train_index]
## Train models
ols = lm(ytr ~ Xtr)
lasso = cv.glmnet(Xtr, ytr, alpha = 1)
ridge = cv.glmnet(Xtr, ytr, alpha = 0)
## Test models
y_hat_ols = cbind(rep(1, n_obs - length(train_index)), Xte) %*% coef(ols)
y_hat_lasso = predict(lasso, Xte)
y_hat_ridge = predict(ridge, Xte)
## compare
sum((yte - y_hat_ols)^2)
sum((yte - y_hat_lasso)^2)
sum((yte - y_hat_ridge)^2)
Note that the sample() function randomly chooses the rows for training and testing so the MSE will change every time you run it. And since the Prostate data is really just meant as a demonstration dataset, no clear winner is likely to emerge.
Your Answer
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8420 | Living the Promise.
The mission of the UCR Stem Cell Center is to advance the stem cell field by fostering basic and translational research and engaging in education and outreach.
Research at the Center focuses on understanding the basic mechanisms that control stem cell function and deciphering how the tremendous potential of stem cells can be used to improve human health.
Researchers at the Center have expertise in many different fields including developmental biology, cancer biology, endocrinology, aging, nanotechnology, neuroscience and bioengineering.
Keen Hall
Stem Cell Core Facility
Biochemists study life at the chemical, molecular and cellular level. The Department of Biochemistry includes the following areas of concentration: molecular biology, physical biochemistry, molecular endocrinology, plant biochemistry & molecular biology, signal transduction and biomedical research.
Learn More
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IE Stem Cell Consortium
One of the oldest and largest departments on campus, the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences is unique in its integration of basic and applied plant sciences. It has particular strengths in plant cell biology, plant responses to environmental stresses, plant ecology, genetics, genomics and evolution, as well as strong programs focusing on subtropical crop plants. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8433 | Divine Union: Decrees for a Heavenly Marriage - Book/E-Book PDF
God's desire is to co-labor with you to bring about the marriage you have always wanted – whether you are believing to meet your special someone, are on your way to the altar with the one the Lord has for you, or are currently married but want to strengthen your relationship; Put the decrees in this book to work on your behalf and watch as all of heaven moves to bring forth the Divine Union the Lord has for you a supernatural marriage framed by His word and filled with His blessings.
"I am so excited for my dear friend Robert to compose a book on Divine Union! Having had a marriage built on friendship, prayer and core values, I applaud this valiant effort to put simple tools into couples hands so they too can have a piece of heaven on earth!"
Dr. James W. Goll, Encounters Network / Prayer Storm
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8442 | From StrategyWiki, the video game walkthrough and strategy guide wiki
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At an unknown location, the Eternian forces predict that the wind vestal's next destination is Ancheim. They request the help of an organization called the Khamer & Profiteur Merchantry to capture her.
Ancheim, Land of Sand and Time[edit]
You begin in the northern end of the Harena desert. There are several new enemies here, including the very common Venomous Snakes and the rare Sand Worm. Venomous Snakes can easily inflict Poison with their Venomous Fangs, so Poisona and Antidote is very handy here. Sand Worms are more threatening, as their Sandstorm damages and Blinds the whole party, so have a trained Black Mage in your party in case you encounter one. Most of these monsters are weak to Blizzard.
Head south until you reach a city with many windmills. Move along the straight pathway until you reach the outside of the Ancheim palace. As the Crystal of Wind has been consumed by darkness, wind no longer blows and the city employs forced manual labor to sustain its industrial power. Enter the palace to have an unhelpful chat with the king, Eloch Quentis Khamer VIII. Agnes suggests heading to the Temple of Wind so that the Wind Crystal may be restored.
Reenter the palace and search around the posts below the throne to find a Phoenix Down. Outside, head down the nearest staircase and inspect the lamp at the end of the corner to get a Hi-Potion. Finally, head west from the palace to the scroll shop. Inspect the door to the left of the guard to find an Ether.
Weapons Armor
Name Cost Name Cost
Long Sword 500 Round Shield 300
Mace 300 Iron Helm 200
Oaken Pole 250 Tricorne 150
Kukri 350 Feather Hat 100
Iron Knuckles 280 Iron Armor 500
Accessories Silk Robe 350
Gauntlets 100 Bronze Breastplate 400
Iron Bangle 75
Star Pendant 100
Silver Glasses 100
Spells Trader
Name Cost Name Cost
Protect 400 Potion 20
Shell 400 Hi-Potion 150
Aero 400 Phoenix Down 100
Silence 400 Antidote 10
Poison 400 Eye Drops 20
Sleep 400 Echo Herbs 25
Slow 200 Teleport Stone 100
Regen 200
Quake 200
Sub-scenario: The thief and the corrupt merchant[edit]
Upon exiting the palace after talking to the king, you will receive a tutorial on Sub-scenarios, which are sidequests that let you earn new asterisks. You can attempt this first sub-scenario before exploring the Temple of Wind as it is slightly easier, and you'll have your characters well-trained by the end of the scenario.
Costly water[edit]
First, enter the building closest to the right exit. This is the Khamer and Profiteur Merchantry's building, where Chairman Profiteur lives. Before talking to him, look around to find a Golden Hourglass and a Teleport Stone hidden near the Chairman. After talking to Profiteur, you will be kicked out of the building. Now, inspect the water well beside the building. It turns out that Ancheim is charging a fee for drinking water, forcing the poor to travel to the oasis for a drink. Exit Ancheim and head to the oasis to witness a thief robbing a poor denizen of Ancheim. After that, move northwest to find a cave where the thieves are hiding: Harena Ruins.
Harena Ruins[edit]
Harena Ruins aren't too difficult to navigate, but they contain a new threat: dungeon hazards. There will be traps laid around, usually near treasure chests, which will Blind the whole party if you get caught in it. The gas activates for a set period, and there is a delay before the trap activates again. You can time your movement to evade it, but if you have the Freelancer's Dungeon Master support command, it will render you immune to the traps. As for the enemies, you'll find that they are the same as on the overworld, except for the Greater Cait, which can raise another enemy's critical rate. All of them are weak to Blizzard, so a dedicated Black Mage will help you a lot when traversing the ruins.
After you enter, ignore the right path and go along the left corridor until you come across another split path. Head right and travel to the end of the hallway to find some stairs. They take you down to an isolated chamber of a lower floor that contains a Star Pendant, an accessory that grants immunity to Poison. Back upstairs, go down the left path this time. Follow the pathway to a chest. The chest contains only 1 pg, and there is a trap set right before it. If you really want to open it, hug the south wall past the trap and open the chest from the opposite side. Continue down the corridor until you arrive at the steps.
On floor B1, watch out for the trap immediately below the steps. Head west to reach a chest containing Echo Herbs. Return to the middle and head down. Go east when the path splits to reach a chest containing 1500 pg, guarded by a trap. Move close enough to activate the trap, stay out of range, then quickly grab the contents of the chest the moment the trap deactivates. Both corridors leading south converge, and have traps at the end. At the southern corridor, head right to find a chest with a Sleep-preventing Clothespin, then left for the steps.
Deeper into the ruins, head south when you get the chance. If you go west, you'll end up at what seems to be a dead end, but is actually the entrance to a hidden passage. Move through the false wall to the west and head north, then west again until you reach a chest. Inside is the Thief's Knife. Watch out for the trap as you progress to the east. A branch up north leads to a chest with Ether inside. Head south and west, then south again, ignoring the blue chest. Now, you'll be flanked by gas traps at both ends. Race down the left path and quickly duck into the southern passage to find a chest with an Iron Bow. Carefully head north to the end of the passage, dodging traps until you find another chest with Thief's Gloves inside. Run past the traps back to the center, then dodge another corridor of traps as you dash east. Follow the path until you see an Adventurer. Restock and save for the boss fight ahead.
Boss: Khint and the Jackal[edit]
Head to the end of the path to exit into the thief's hideout. The robber is known as The Jackal, a misanthrope that justifies his actions with his miserable life. He is angered by the party's lecture and challenges you to an asterisk battle! However, he doesn't fight alone, paying his bodyguard Khint to battle alongside him.
The Jackal fights like you would expect a ruthless thief to. He relies primarily on physical attacks, occasionally using Brave to strike multiple party members. He can also rarely steal one of your items and use it for himself. Khint is much more dangerous due to his powerful sword magic. He can use Sword Magic Fire to deal increased elemental damage, but you'll really want to watch out for his Sword Magic Silence. It let's him Silence targets with regular attacks, and can render your mages useless very often. If you have obtained the White Cape from Lontano Villa, now is a better time than ever to equip it for your White Mage. Fortunately, Khint will ditch The Jackal if either of their HP drops below half. Without Khint, Jackal will start using Brave recklessly in desperation.
Khint is much more disruptive than The Jackal, so your goal is to force him to leave as quickly as possible. Obviously, the fastest way to win the battle is to focus on The Jackal. Fight as you would against a normal boss with careful use of Default and Braves to wear him down. Have Echo Herbs ready when Khint activates Sword Magic Silence. Once you get Khint to leave, the battle is a cinch. The Jackal's Brave spam will leave him wide open for several turns. Use Default whenever he can attack to block his Brave combos, then attack him mercilessly while he is vulnerable. Soon, you'll witness The Jackal curse his tragic life with his dying breath.
The Jackal carries the Thief asterisk. True to its name, the Thief job gives you the ability to steal items from enemies. Thieves are very agile and evasive, so you can build them as glass cannons if you want. As the group celebrates their victory, Ringabel makes a startling recovery: The Jackal is part of a conspiracy by Khamer & Profiteur Merchantry to drive up water prices. It's time to confront Profiteur and put an end to Ancheim's water issues.
Boss: Erutus and Khint[edit]
Back at Ancheim, enter the Merchantry building and walk up to the chairman. He does not deny causing the conspiracy, and intends to kill the party then and there. Khint returns and joins him for another asterisk battle!
Khint is the same as before. You still have to deal with his annoying Sword Magic Silence, and you can make him leave by reducing either character's health to half. The Merchant of Death is your main worry. He is more strategic with his attacks, often choosing to use Default to nullify damage and set up safer Braves. His Takeover is a deadly attack, always doing 300 damage with each strike regardless of your armor or stat buffs, and he will not hesitate to use it during Braves. At this point in the game, two Takeovers will likely result in a KO, so you absolutely to have a Silence immune White Mage on constant support duty.
Once again, your first objective is to get Khint out of the picture. This will be harder than in the fight against The Jackal, since Profiteur is very fond of using Default to dampen your attacks. Use Brave to wear him down with care, and always have your White Mage ready on every turn to heal off Takeover damage. Even if the party is healthy, have your White Mage Default to save up BP for Brave heals that you'll inevitably want. Unlike The Jackal, Profiteur's tactics do not change drastically when Khint abandons him, so continue with your current strategy until the Merchant of Death meets his end.
Erutus Profiteur drops the Merchant asterisk, granting you one of the more unique jobs in the game. Merchants are all about amassing and using money for attacks and buffs, but they'll need careful financial management if you don't wish to go broke. After Profiteur's defeat, Ringabel finds a memo to enter the Grand Mill Works. It seems that the mastermind of this sinister plot is still undiscovered, but only after restoring the Wind Crystal can you get to the bottom of this mystery.
Temple of Wind[edit]
Heading south from Ancheim, you'll find a spiraling tower. This is the Temple of Wind, home to the wind vestal, now in ruins. Each floor's layout is rectangular, but the debris on the floor will force you to take alternate routes. Aero Lanterns appear here, as do Gargoyles and Golems. The Aero Lanterns can heal themselves and are immune to wind magic, while the Gargoyles can inflict Sleep. The Golem is a straightforward attacker, with a powerful Megaton Punch that has low accuracy.
From the entrance, go north into the hall and look for an opening to the left. Go into the narrow corridor and move south to find a chest containing a Wind Charm, which grants a resistance to wind magic. The rest of the 1st floor is straightforward. Move east and follow the linear path to the stairs. You can inspect the room with shelves for some backstory if you want.
The arrangement of debris makes the basement of the temple a labyrinth, but as long as you check the map on the lower screen, you should find your way around with no trouble. Travel along the winding path and you will find a chest with a Remedy on your main route. Head north until you reach a split path. Go south to the end of the pathway for a chest containing a Turbo Ether, then go into the rooms up north to find one containing a Hi-Potion. Go east to progress, making a U-turn around the northeast corner of the floor. Ignore the path directly to the south and head down the west path to reach the steps.
This is another straightforward path leading to the next set of stairs. You can inspect the dining room along the way if you want. Head south down the passage. Before the hallway transitions into a room, move east to enter a secret corridor. Head south to the end to find a Peace Ring that grants Confuse immunity. Back on the main path, head west to a dead end. You will find a chest containing Ether there. Head north, west and north again, ignoring all of the side paths, until you come to a series of three rooms. The leftmost room contains a Mythril Rod, the middle room has a strange figure that won't help you at this stage in the game, and the right room has the stairs leading downward.
Back on the first floor, go down the hallway and head north into the room with fabric strewn around. Inspect the room and Agnes suggests to visit the altar. As you continue down the corridor, be sure to pull the sparkling lever to open the door to the south, creating a massive shortcut from the entrance to the altar. Continue to head east until you reach another narrow corridor. Head south to find a Mythril Dagger.
The presence of an Adventurer might make you cautious of what awaits in the altar, but when you go through the door to the north, all you'll find is the inactive Wind Crystal. Agnes must wear a special gown to perform a rite that will awaken the crystal. Exit the altar and head back to the room you inspected before. A dismayed Agnes finds the vestment torn and tattered. You'll need to get her a new vestment to restore the crystal. A sage living in Yulyana Woods could know how to create one, so head back to the Eschalot and head northeast for Yulyana!
Yulyana Woods Needlworks[edit]
After landing in Yulyana, go straight to the closest building to enter the sage's residence. After exchanging greetings, the sage says that rainbow thread is needed for the vestment, and the vestal must retrieve it herself from the Vestment Cave, which requires you to trek around the lake to the other end of Yulyana.
For the time being, the Needleworks will serve as your base of operations. It's a small area, but has all the standard amenities a city can offer. You can rest for free in the east room of the Needlworks by checking the beds. Beside the flowing river, you can also find a fox that will sell you various items and an Adventurer. The weapons and armor the shop carries are a bit expensive, but they're better than the ones found in Ancheim. Inspect the room opposite the one with the beds to find a Peace Ring, then look around the area near the talking fox for an Antartic Wind.
Weapons Armor Accessories
Name Cost Name Cost Name Cost
Mythril Sword 1000 Mythril Shield 600 Mythril Gloves 200
Mythril Axe 1200 Mythril Helm 400 Mythril Bangle 150
Mythril Spear 900 Cat-Ear Hood 220 Mage Shell 300
Mythril Rod 750 Tiger Mask 250 White Cape 1000
Mythril Staff 600 Mythril Armor 1000 Clothespin 100
Mythril Dagger 700 Tabby Suit 700
Mythril Bow 850 Mythril Plate 850
Mythril Knuckles 500
Trader Spells
Name Cost Name Cost
Potion 20 Cure 200
Hi-Potion 150 Poisona 200
Phoenix Down 100 Blindna 200
Ether 1000 Fire 200
Antidote 10 Blizzard 200
Eye Drops 20 Thunder 200
Vestment Cave[edit]
The path to Vestment Cave is quite long, so you'll likely encounter some overworld enemies along the way. Blood Bats are annoying as they can drain your HP, but Zombie Wolves are the true damage-dealers, as they can raise their P.Atk at the cost of their health. Greater Caits are also common around the forest, and can make Zombie Wolves quite deadly. Inside the Vestment Cave, Dark Lanterns join the mix, and they can easily inflict your party members with dread status.
From the entrance, follow the path around a bend, then take the top route. Continue along the route until you see a branching path. Head down it to a dead end with a Hi-Potion. Back on the main path, go north until another branching passageway appears. Head west and north to find a chest with a Phoenix Down. Return to the center and continue north until you reach a split path. Both lead to the steps downward and take roughly the same time, so pick either one and head on down.
Now that you're on floor B1, head down the passage to a dead end to get 500 pg from the chest. Backtrack a bit and travel west. Ignore the branching passage north as it leads to a locked blue chest. Head west until you reach a junction, and head north to find a chest with a Remedy. Now head south down the path until you reach a dead end with some steps. You'll end up on an isolated section of the lower floor, with one chest containing a Mage Shell. Head upstairs, get to the center and travel south from there to reach the stairs leading to the rest of B2F.
The southern half of this floor is quite linear until you reach the western end. Head south from here to reach a chest containing Echo Herbs. Head north and follow the path until you reach a junction. Go west to arrive at a chest with an Ether. Now keep heading east, past a junction, until you reach a dead-end, where you'll find a Teleport Stone. Return to where the path splits and head south, then west to reach a chest containing 1000 pg. Go north then east this time to reach the steps downward. Finish up your preparations with the adventurer, then move toward the clearing up north.
Boss: Dragon[edit]
At the deepest level of Vestment Cave, the beautiful rainbow thread can be found. However, it is guarded by a ferocious Dragon, so you have no choice but to take this dangerous beast out. The Dragon is a brute, but its sheer power makes up for its simple tactics. Other than its normal attacks, it can use Mow Down to strike your whole party, and Bully to target your lowest HP target. It will often use both out of a Brave, which can likely incapacitate one of your party members in one turn, so keep an eye on everyone's health. The dragon is vulnerable to Blizzard, but resists Fire.
Your main concern in this battle is simply keeping your health up, as the Dragon lacks any disruptive debuffs or tricky combat tactics. Timely uses of Default will prevent you from taking too much damage, as with liberal use of Protect. A Black Mage is also of good offensive help, as Blizzard will chip away a lot of health. As long as you can keep your party members alive and well, you'll be able to slay the dragon with a bit of effort.
The new vestment[edit]
With the Dragon defeated, you can take the Rainbow Thread back to the Needleworks. That night, Tiz wakes up to chance upon Agnes talking to the sage about the vestal of water, Olivia, and her mysterious pendant. The next morning, Agnes and Sage Yulyana present the finished vestment. It's time to head back to the Temple of Wind and restore the crystal! Fly back to Harena on the Eschalot, then head straight for the temple.
Boss: Othros[edit]
Return outside the altar using the shortcut you opened from before. Make your preparations and save with the Adventurer before entering. Inside, the crystal is surrounded by a fog of darkness. It turns out to be a monster thought to only exist in Crystalist scriptures, the two-headed Othros!
Both of Othros's heads count as one enemy, so it can attack twice per turn, not counting Braves. The blue head is weak to Fire and does water elemental damage with Deep Freeze, while the yellow head is weak to Blizzard and does fire elemental damage with Hellfire. When both heads have used their respective elemental attacks, they can perform the devastating Blazzard, which strikes your entire party. Stop this from happening by attacking one of the heads with their weakness after they used Deep Freeze or Hellfire. Once one head dies, the other will start using Brave more for aggressive attacks.
Concentrate your attack on one of the heads first. Taking it out means one less enemy to deal with, and removes the possibility of a Blazzard. A Black Mage is very helpful here, as you can target Othros's weakness directly, which can also shut down Blazzard. Due to Othros's fondness for magic attacks, White Mage's Shell should also be used for more protection. After killing a head, you should have an easier time with the other. Defeat both heads and claim the Tempest Braid!
The Wind Crystal awakens[edit]
With Othros out of the way, it's finally time to proceed with the Awakening ritual. Simply mash X button until Airy tells you to stop. The restored crystal glows with a bright green light, and a shield now prevents anyone from tampering it. All of your party members can now equip an additional support command, so adjust your Abilities accordingly. With the winds blowing again, you should return to Ancheim.
The wind has not blown to Ancheim yet, and King Khamer is using this opportunity to vilify the vestal. Agnes interrupts his speech and presents proof of Othros's defeat, as the winds begin to turn Ancheim's windmills once more. The people's regard for the vestal is restored, and the citizens of Ancheim are free from their forced labor. As you try to leave the city, you will be stopped and thanked by Prime Minister Harena. Your next destination is Florem to the north, but the only route there Harena knows about is through the dangerous Miasma Woods. Perhaps you should take the airship to Sage Yulyana and inquire about an alternate pathway.
Sub-scenario: The pompous king's downfall[edit]
If you might recall from the previous sub-scenario, you've obtained a note from the Merchantry regarding a meeting at Grand Mill Works. This building is located next to the magic shop, and until you have restored the Wind Crystal, a guard will prevent you from entering it. Even after the guard leaves, you can only enter the building at nightfall. Wit on the overworld for the sun to set, then reenter the city. Head into the mill and up through the door to find...a maze-like dungeon!
Grand Mill Works[edit]
This building is patrolled by many of the Merchantry's goons. The Merchantry Blade is the least threatening of the minions, but they can lower your M.Def with Carotid Slash. This can be dangerous when fighting alongside a Merchantry Mage, who can cast Fira and also inflict Sleep on your party members. However, your top priority should be on Merchantry Thugs. They can use Eye Gouge to inflict Blind and has an immensely powerful Strong Strike that can likely incapacitate a party member if it hits.
After rounding a corner, you'll quickly be presented with a choice of three paths. Take the lowest route to reach a dead end with a Remedy in a chest. If you want some extra loot, go north at the intersection and head up the stairs. Head down the corridor and take the first bend east. Travel to the end of the pathway and then go east for a Phoenix Down. Head west and go down the stairs to find a treasure room. You can get the items from two of the chests, Thumbing Claws and an Earthing Rod. Backtrack to the junction on the 2nd floor and use the steps on the middle path this time.
On the 3rd floor, head down the hallway to the central junction. You can see an Adventurer to the north, but the lift beyond is not working. Go east and round the corner to a side room where a lever is located. Turning the lever activates the gears to the right of the lift, and you'll have to pull the lever on the opposite side to get it moving. Head south from the junction and go downstairs. There's only one branching path in this section of the mill. Go west for an X-Potion, then go east to find the steps leading up.
Back upstairs, head down the branching corridor to the west to get the Hi-Potion. After that, travel to the end of the main hallway to find the stairs. The lower floor is even more straightforward, as you only have to make a short detour to get an Ether from the chest. Head upstairs again at the end of the steps to find the left lever. Now that the lift is operational, return to where the Adventurer is. After preparing and saving with the Adventurer, pull the lever on the lift to head up. You'll wind up outside on a high balcony. Travel to the right until you reach another door. Head inside to find yourself in the Ancheim palace!
Boss: King Khamer and Ciggma Khint[edit]
King Khamer is quite peeved about being upstaged by Agnes, and laments his failed plan to spread Anticrystalism within Ancheim. He also fantasizes about killing the wind vestal to take control of the winds. Since the vestal is already here, it's time for an asterisk battle!
Khint is back, and his tactics haven't changed much. He'll still use Sword Magic Fire and Sword Magic Silence, the latter of which still requires some preemptive prevention. However, now he's more aggressive, occasionally using Braves for multiple attacks. He is also more loyal to the king than to his former employers, so you can't force him to depart. King Khamer is a Time Mage, and will use a variety of new spells. Khamer's main form of dealing damage is with Quara, a powerful Earth elemental attack that hits your whole party. His other spells are used for support only; he can use Veilga to increase him and Khint's evasion, or use Stop, which disables a party member completely. Stop cannot be removed by yourself, it can only wear off after a random turn.
Since you have already fought Khint twice, you should already have the equipment and tactics to nullify his attacks. While you aren't aiming to force him out of the battle, you should still concentrate on Khamer, as his spells are more disruptive. Quara damage can be reduced with group cast Cure, so keep your White Mage healthy for this. Be prepared to work around the inevitable Stop, and have an able Black Mage so you aren't too reliant on physical attackers when Veilga is casted. Once Khamer is defeated, you can focus fully on Khint. His Sword Magic is much less threatening than Khamer's Time Magic, so you can fight more conventionally until he falls.
Your reward for winning is two new asterisks. Khint leaves behind the Spell Fencer asterisk, a job that lets you imbue your sword with Black Magic spells for a variety of effects. As long as you have the corresponding Black Mage's spell scrolls, you'll be able to use them on your Spell Fencer as well. Meanwhile, Khamer's asterisk gives you the Time Mage job, which can learn a variety of speed-affecting buffs and debuffs as well as Earth elemental attacks. You can finally use the three cheapest scrolls from Ancheim's spell shop: Slow, Regen and Quake.
With the king of Ancheim dead, Prime Minister Harena will temporarily take his place as ruler, who plans to eventually pass the power to govern on to the people. With a benevolent leader in charge, you've fully eliminated all of Ancheim's woes. It's time to move on to another region!
An unexpected passenger[edit]
While everyone is on the airship, Ringabel decides to get some air and heads out. A while later, a black armored figure comes in and incapacitates Tiz. Edea recognizes him as the Dark Knight Alternis Dim, a member of the Council of Six, the highest governing body in Eternia, who she seems to have some history with. Alternis doesn't wish to fight against Edea and retreats, but not before shattering the Skystone powering the Eschalot. Without it, you're seabound, so the only way to go to Florem now is to enter the Miasma Woods. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8448 | Discussion Questions
1. Describe the processes of fermentation and distillation. Which alcoholic beverages are produced through these methods?
2. How is alcohol metabolized? How does this process vary because of genetic factors, experience with alcohol, and amount of alcohol in the body?
3. Why might some people assume that alcohol is a stimulant?
4. What adverse health consequences are associated with chronic, heavy alcohol use?
5. Compare the types of tolerance that develop with alcohol use? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8455 | Browsing Tag
infant sleeping schedule
9 month feeding and sleeping schedule
Elie’s 9 Month Feeding and Sleeping Schedule
Motherhood is funny... just when you think you have things under control and you're confident in everything you're doing, life throws you a little curve ball. The truth is, no one has this motherhood thing mastered. We are all learning and trying our best…
October 30, 2018 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8466 | Can an HMO Be Sued For Medical Malpractice Based on Its Coverage Decisions?
A Recent Federal Appeals Case Says Yes
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003
On February 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit delivered an opinion addressing an important question: Can an HMO be sued for malpractice on the theory that it acted like a doctor when it made a particular coverage decision?
The court said yes. In so doing, it opened the door for a lawsuit against an HMO that refused to pay for an experimental treatment, and suggested its own alternative treatment instead.
Was the court correct in its conclusion? Or, put another way, does it make sense to say that an insurer practices medicine when it makes coverage decisions?
The Facts of the Cicio Case
In 1998, Carmine Cicio was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1998. Because Cicio did not respond to chemotherapy, his oncologist, Dr. Edward Samuels, wrote to Cicio's HMO, Vytra to request approval involving a "tandem stem cell transplant."
Vytra refused this request. The reason it gave was that the treatment was classified as "experimental" for Cicio's illness, and was therefore not covered by Cicio's policy.
Cicio could not afford to pay for the treatment himself, and so Dr. Samuels appealed to Vytra again, by phone and letter. Among other points, Dr. Samuels noted that "single stem cell treatment" had convinced oncologists that tandem stem cell treatment would be effective in cases like Cicio's. In Vytra's final communication with Dr. Samuels, it noted that it would approve a single stem cell treatment for Cicio. But by that point Cicio was, in Dr. Samuels' opinion, no longer a candidate for single stem cell treatment. Cicio died soon after.
Cicio's widow sued Vytra in state court, alleging various state law claims. Then defendant then removed the case to federal district court in the Eastern District of New York.
There, Judge Thomas Boyle dismissed all the claims. He reasoned that they were preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a federal law designed to regulate employee benefit plans. ERISA was applicable, Judge Boyle held, because Cicio had purchased his health insurance policy through his employer. (For more on ERISA and HMO litigation, see my prior column.)
Under the doctrine of "preemption," a federal law can effectively preclude the application of overlapping state laws. Here, Judge Boyle held that the federal ERISA statute precluded the state law claims Mrs. Cicio was trying to bring. So he applied ERISA's own rules instead. But for Mrs. Cicio, that was a disaster.
ERISA allows only certain remedies. It allows a court to order the terms of a health insurance policy to be performed. Alternatively, it allows the insured to get reimbursed for medical services he'd paid out of his own pocket, and for premiums paid.
The problem was that Mr. Cicio had never ended paying for the tandem stem cell procedure, which he could not afford, so reimbursement was out of the question. Meanwhile, now that he was deceased, a court order forcing Vytra to fund the procedure would be totally useless.
The option of a refund of premiums still remained. But Mrs. Cicio, quite reasonably, hadn't just wanted to get her husband's premium back. She'd wanted to challenge the insurer's decision to deny her husband's the tandem stem cell procedure, and to try to recover for her husband's pain and suffering, and to receive punitive damages.
The Argument on Appeal: Does ERISA Apply In the First Place
So Mrs. Cicio appealed. On appeal, she argued that, although ERISA governed the decisions Vytra made as a health insurer, it did not govern the decisions Vytra made as a health care provider. And when Vytra made the counterproposal that Dr. Samuels treat Mr. Cicio with a single, not tandem, stem cell treatment, it was making just such a decision. Accordingly, with respect to that decision, ERISA did not apply, and Vytra could be sued for medical malpractice (and other torts).
To assess this argument, it's important to know a little bit of background. When an HMO employs a physician, it can be sued for medical malpractice based on the doctrine of respondeat superior, which makes employers liable for torts their employees perform in the course of their duties. ERISA does not prevent that. The twist here, however, was that Dr. Samuels did not work for Vytra. Instead, his only connection to them was that, as Cicio's insurer, they paid him for his services to Cicio.
The Controversy over the Pegram Precedent
Judge Robert Sack wrote the opinion for the two-judge majority of the Second Circuit panel. It accepted Mrs. Cicio's argument. But Judge Guido Calabresi - a former Yale Law School Dean and leading torts scholar - wrote a powerful dissent.
The disagreement between the majority and the dissent turned on the meaning of Supreme Court's recent decision in Pegram v. Herdich. That case, itself, is complex and thus the judges' conflict is understandable.
In Pegram, a plaintiff tried to sue her HMO for breach of fiduciary duty, a state law claim. She alleged the HMO had breached its duty to her when it failed to tell her that it provided financial incentives to doctors for meeting cost-saving goals. And she suggested that these incentives had led her doctor to conclude that her insurance policy did not cover a particular procedure.
The Court rejected the argument that it could be a breach of a fiduciary duty for an insurer to encourage cost-savings. The Court deflected attention away from the insurer by stressing that the plaintiff's treating physician made the mistake that harmed her. If she wanted, the Court suggested, the plaintiff could sue her doctor under the malpractice laws. When a physician makes a decision about whether the terms of a health insurance policy cover the patient's symptoms, the physician is making a medical decision. A bad decision - including a decision whose motive is solely to keep costs down - can thus be medical malpractice on the doctor's part.
None of this, of course, directly resolves the question at issue in Cicio: Does an HMO, like a physician, make a medical decision when it denies coverage, and hence can it, like a physician commit medical malpractice?
Who's Right About Pegram? A Difficult Call to Make.
Judge Sack interpreted Pegram to mean that sometimes, the decision whether an insurance policy covers a medical condition or treatment is a "mixed eligibility and treatment decision." In that instance, no matter who makes the decision, it's a medical decision that can be challenged as malpractice.
In addition, Judge Sack suggested that the decision about Cicio's case was just such an instance of a "mixed eligibility and treatment decision." If it were not, Judge Sack suggested, then why had Vytra responding not just by denying coverage, but by suggesting an alternative treatment? And if eligibility decisions are not frequently also treatment decisions, why are they often the most important decisions seriously ill people face in the U.S.?
If Vytra "treated" Cicio, then so would, for instance, a loan officer trying to decide whether Cicio would live to repay a loan that would have paid for the treatment.
Coverage decisions, Judge Calabresi suggested, are not medical treatment decisions, though they may depend on medical facts. Rather, they are decisions about whether a contract's language covers a particular (medical) set of facts - decisions that often have profound medical consequences, but yet are not treatment decisions.
Who's right? It's difficult to say. And that's because tort law has not yet evolved to reflect a sea change in the nature of medical treatment in modern America - the advent, and influence, of HMOs.
Tort Law Has Failed to Catch Up with Modern Medicine and Medical Insurance
Medical malpractice law was devised in another, simpler, era. It envisioned that patients would trust their doctors; that doctors would have a heightened obligation to look out for the interests of their patients; and that doctors, together with patients, would make treatment decisions will only those interests in mind.
That's no longer true, of course. HMOs play a huge rule in deciding what treatments patients actually receive, based on the way they interpret their policies. They look to their own interests, not just the patients'. They may employ doctors whom they control, and even if they don't, they may try to incentivize non-employee doctors to keep costs down, as allegedly occurred in Pegram.
In either situation, doctors may feel torn in their loyalties - wanting to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath, but feeling their financial interest tug the other way. And HMO employees, too, may want to do the right thing, but feel their own tug, knowing that they may be fired if they pay out too much in claim monies.
It may be time for the foundations of medical malpractice to shift. Once, this area of law was based on the special relationship between doctor and patient. Now perhaps it should be based on the fraught economic relationship between the patient, the doctor, and the insurance company.
Anthony J. Sebok, a FindLaw columnist, is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches Torts, among other subjects. Professor Sebok's other columns on torts - including a recent column concerning another health insurance company case - can be found in the archive of his columns on the site. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8472 | Back to all updates
almost 3 years ago
Submission Reminder - DEADLINE APPROACHING!!!!!
Hey SXSW Hackers
Just a reminder to make sure you submit here before the 1pm deadline. One person on each team needs to submit here:
When submitting your project make sure to select all the sponsor prizes you are applying for!
Come over to the Devpost desk if you have any questions!
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8482 | on the screen
On the Screen
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Short Synopsis
The young adult adaptation of the epic memoir of an Alaskan pararescue jumper, Special Forces Operator, and decorated war hero.
Full Synopsis
“That Others May Live” is a mantra that defines the fearless men of Alaska’s 212th Pararescue Unit, the PJs, one of the most elite military forces on the planet. Whether they are rescuing citizens injured and freezing in the Alaskan wilderness or saving wounded Rangers and SEALS in blazing firefights at war, the PJs are some of the least known and most highly trained of America’s warriors.
Never Quit is the true story of how Jimmy Settle, an Alaskan shoe store clerk, became a Special Forces Operator and war hero. After being shot in the head during a dangerous high mountain operation in Afghanistan, Jimmy returns to battle with his teammates for a heroic rescue, the bullet fragments stitched over and still in his skull. In a cross between a suicide rescue mission and an against-all-odds mountain battle, his team of PJs risk their lives again in an epic firefight. When his helicopter is hit and begins leaking fuel, Jimmy finds himself in the worst possible position as a rescue specialist—forced to leave members from his own team behind. Jimmy will have to risk everything to get back into the battle and save his brothers.
From death-defying Alaskan wilderness training, wild rescues, and battles against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, this is the true story of how a boy from humble beginnings became an American hero.
Never Quit
How I Became a Special Ops Pararescue Jumper
Author Jimmy Settle, Don Rearden
Narrated by Ramon De Ocampo
Publication date Oct 30, 2018
Running time 8 hrs
Available Formats
Let us know! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8496 | Column 'ItemChildCount' does not exist on an External List
Occasional Visitor
A rather strange change has occurred within one tenancy in SharePoint Online. All external lists connected to an Azure SQL database are returning the same error message "Column 'ItemChildCount' does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user."
The same external content type is set up in another tenancy and is being consumed without any problems. I've tried recreating the content type and the list in both the current site and another site within the tenancy, but the problem reoccurs.
All of these lists where previously working and no changes have been made to either the content types, connection, secure store or underlying data structure within SQL.
Any ideas?
1 Reply
Best you can do here is to open a support ticket. It seems something is wrong with that tenant and the BCS Service
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8523 | The international climate report in three diagrams: The world at a crossroads
On October 6, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (known at “SR15”), looking at the benefits of keeping global warming under 1.5 °C, as compared to 2.0 °C, and the potential pathways to get there. The report was commissioned after the Paris Agreement of 2015, which subjected nearly every nation in the world to voluntary goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are already at 1.0 °C and climbing, so this is a late-in-the-game analysis.
The results, based on the latest science, are sobering. While past IPCC reports were known for being rather conservative, largely due to political pressure, this one is more direct, practically screaming for a radical reduction in fossil fuel use (which must fall to near zero by 2060 even with a technological breakthrough in carbon sequestration). When it was approved, participating scientists cried tears of joy that their report, dire as it is, was allowed to be published as it was.
The full report, a little over 1,000 pages, is available in chapters here. It provides important details regarding the effects of climate change from region to region.
A 34-page summary for policy-makers is available here.
But even that summary is full of technical jargon that most politicians and members of the public would find cumbersome. Here I’ve taken some of the most important diagrams from the summary and modified and annotated them. Here is the report in three diagrams: |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8575 | Write With Me Wednesdays: Tell Your Readers a Story
“Write With Me Wednesdays” is a series of blog posts, YouTube videos, and iTunes podcasts that is designed to help get you writing and also thinking about the craft of writing. Thanks to the Jeremy Vogt Band for providing this weeks music for the video and iTunes published podcast. I’m filling this post with relevant links despite my own personal goal of trying to stay focused on what I am reading online without just mindlessly clicking around. If you’re just getting started with us, you might consider the writing territories activity as a way to look at all the possibilities for your writing.
In this weeks’ installment we’re going to look at the ways in which writers can tell a story to open a piece of writing. I remember when I heard young adult novelist Walter Dean Myers speak at a New Jersey Council for Teachers of English Conference. I had been feeling uneasy about the way I’d been doing readings of Love on the Big Screen at conferences, book stores, and in libraries, and not liked how I’d kept my nose in a book for much of my talks. It used to be that I’d followed a guideline I’d heard Rick Pitino share at one of his coaching clinics: when you give a talk, don’t check your notes. Pitino said that he’d rather look his audience in the eye and interact with them than to remember every little thing that he’d intended to say. I’d always subscribed to that philosophy, but the publication of my book led me away from eye contact and back to the pages of my notes.
When I heard Walter Dean Myers, he told us the stories of his books: where the ideas came from, how he researched them by visiting prisons, and homes for children, and when he was finished–after not reading a page from any of his books–people were moved by the stories and went running over to the book table to purchase one of his novels. I think he had something like three books coming out that year.
So your instruction for this week is to open a post by telling a story. In many cases, the story might be the entire post. The story is relevant because it is somehow connected to what you write about on your blog. Here are some first-line examples from writers who opened their texts by beginning a story:
I think it was the penny loafers that started it all.
–appeared in article entitled “From Candy Girls to Cyber-Sista Cipher: Narrating Black Females Color,” written by Dr. Carmen Kynard and published in the Harvard Educational Review.
When I think about my writing within the context of other writers’ work, I often ask myself questions. “When did it all get started for me?” I might ask. And this could be connected to anything. When did I first think I might write a novel? When did I think I wasn’t going to be a fireman (as I’d wanted to be as a kid) and when did I start thinking about being a college professor? I also love Carmen’s text for the ways that it challenges definitions about what it means to do academic writing. This is a text that, after all, that alludes to the 80s band New Edition. I can hear some who’d say New Edition doesn’t belong in academic writing, but I’d say it depends on the purpose of the writing and what it is about. Evidently, the Harvard Educational Review thought New Edition belonged in this case.
I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this.
by Langston Hughes in “Salvation”
Notice Langston’s fragment. Notice also the interest he creates with this idea that he was saved but not really. What does he mean? We have to keep reading to find out. He’s also got that great phrase, “It happened like this.” And as a reader we know we’re going to hear a story from when Langston was a boy.
Last week a blogging friend and I were talking about comments and community.
Deb Ng’s blog, Kommein
What Deb Ng’s sentence has me thinking about is the way in which we can give our subconscious an assignment: find blog posts! Or our subconscious gets used to the fact that we write blog posts, and then we’re standing on the street talking to a friend, and we realize we are in the midst of what will become a future post or text that we want to write. Not sure that’s how it worked for Deb in this case, (maybe she’ll tell us?) but it’s often how it works for me.
A Good One: Hornby's Juliet, Naked
This way of the subconscious (or the product of habit) reminds me of a writer I like named Nick Hornby. I recommend his High Fidelity or Juliet, Naked to you. Not so long ago he collaborated with another favorite artist of mine: the musician Ben Folds. Nick wrote the lyrics and Ben did the rest. I’ve heard Hornby talk about the subconscious (he didn’t use that word) by saying at first he had little stories he’d give to Ben, but what ended up happening was that he’d start to “see” or “find” songs. He’d be walking down the street and think, “there’s a song for Ben.” So once you start writing, your mind will get to working all the time on what is coming up. Where will you put these ideas as they come? A voice memo on your phone, a notebook, or perhaps as some sort of digital text? As I’ve moved from being a writer’s notebook kind of guy to an iPhone user, I find myself missing a lot of ideas as they go whizzing by. If you’ve got suggestions, I’d love you send them to me via a comment on this post.
Deb Ng knows her subject matter. Her everyday life is full of topics for writing just like yours. You just have to develop the habit of looking for them. A conversation becomes a post.
If any of this prompts some thinking on your part, I’d love to hear from you via a comment. Maybe consider leaving me and any potential readers a link to where you’ve tried to open a piece of writing by telling a story. Thanks again to The Jeremy Vogt Band for providing the music for this weeks’ YouTube video and iTunes podcast. You can find the podcast by typing in “Digital Book Club” on iTunes. You can listen to podcast online here. There’s a video version also included below: |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8598 | the todra valley
most climbing spots have only a few hours of direct sunlight per day, but you can easily go from one to another, following the sun. in november the sun already sets around 6:30 in the evening. at the base it's often cold and breezy, especially in the canyon itself. the best time to go is between march-april and september-november. this is the average weather for tinerhir/tinghir. it should be more or less the same in the todra canyon. careful if you go to todra in the winter, it can happen that the tichka pass is closed because of snow. ask at one of the police checkpoints outside marrakech.
the most common language in morocco and especially in the atlas is the berber. but most people in the towns and bigger villages, especially the younger generations, will speak a bit of french. people working with tourists usually also speak english and spanish. if you speak french it's perfect but you also get along pretty well with english or spanish.
it also helps knowing a few arabic words, here the most important:
- hello: salam aleikum
- goodbye: masalamaa
- thank you: saha
- sorry: asif
- my name is...: ismi...
- what is your name?: maa ismuka?
the currency in morocco is the dirham, dh. one euro equals more or less 11 dh. usually the best thing to do is to get dirhams from an ATM, it has the better exchange rates. there are some exchange offices where they don't take commission, like the one under the hotel ali on the jamaa el fna. euros are accepted in most hotels and also in some shops.
the spice market in the souk of marrakesh
there is some great food in morocco. the national dish is the tajine, cooked in a special pan with all sorts of vegetables and meats. in the markets they sell most varieties of vegetables, fresh and dryed fruits and in the small shops you get bread, delicious olives and canned meat and fish. bread costs 1-2dh, a big bottle of water 10-20dh and a small can of beer (250ml) 20dh. there is no alcohol in todra, only sometimes in the hotel dar ayour. you can find beer and some other drinks in supermarkets in tinerhir. be careful when eating salads and other uncooked vegetables or fruits, if they are not washed properly you'll risk getting ill.
the tajine, the classic food for dinner
photo by lara briz
the climber's lunch...
photo by lara briz
people in morocco are used to tourist with big cameras and irritated by it. you can always make pictures from shops in which you are buying from or from the salesman, if you ask politely. but it's rude to take pictures of people on the street or in the fields without asking and they'll probably shout at you. if you ask nicely, maybe even in arabic they normally consent... for the price of 5dh! this is quite common and an understandable reaction to be photographed all the time.
or be sure they're fast asleep... |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8608 | A Mere or Merecaster is a special kind of numenera. Merecasters allow the Last Castoff to enter the memories of other castoffs and alter them, however doing so retroactively alters history so that the castoff the Mere is from did what the Last Castoff wanted. This can alter the castoffs memories, although they will possess both sets of memories from before and after the changes, or even kill them in the past so they do not exist in the present. Using a Mere can create a Lacunae of a castoff inside the Castoff's Labyrinth.
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8612 | Edgewall Software
Opened 8 years ago
Closed 8 years ago
#10576 closed defect (invalid)
Unable to create mixed output frame rates in a smooth output group in Server
Reported by: adamt@… Owned by:
Priority: normal Milestone:
Component: web frontend Version:
Severity: normal Keywords:
Cc: Branch:
Release Notes:
API Changes:
When setting up a group of smooth output streams with different output frame rates in Server the job does not validate. It looks like all frame rates need to be the same within each job. If you want to set up a smooth stream with a different output frame rate a new job needs to be configured. I have attached an XML of what I am attempting to do. Ignore the GOP settings!
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Change History (1)
comment:1 by Remy Blank, 8 years ago
Resolution: invalid
Status: newclosed
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as closed The ticket will remain with no owner.
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Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8616 | TED Translator Resources: Main guide
From TED Translators Wiki
Revision as of 14:12, 17 August 2016 by Symbolt (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
This article serves as a guide to the core TED Translator resources on OTPedia and otherwise, useful for volunteer translators and transcribers from their very first day into their trajectory within the TED Translator program. Below, you will find information on how to join, transcribe and translate, edit this Wiki, how to get support and report issues, how to collaborate with the TEDx community, and how to keep up with TED Translator news on social media. Use the index to navigate directly to the section you are interested in.
Where to start in the TED Translator Program?
TED's TED Translator program (formerly TED's Open Translation Project / OTP) is a community of volunteers who translate TED Talks, TED-Ed videos and TEDx Talks into their languages and transcribe TEDx Talks in the original language, to help spread ideas to a global audience. If you're just getting started, check out this page, which explains how the program works and how to sign up. We recommend that you also watch our series of short tutorials, and then come back here to OTPedia, where you will find multiple other helpful resources.
TED Translator program structure and workflow
Volunteers have 30 days to complete each task. At the review or approval stage, the reviewer or Language Coordinator may send the task back to the original contributor, explaining what additional edits are required before the review or approval can be completed. Volunteers are required to collaborate while working on a review or approval. To learn more about our rules for collaboration, see this article.
We have a lot of resources for volunteers who wish to learn about transcribing and translating in the OTP. The TED Translator program section on TED.com and the OTP Learning Series tutorials are a great introduction, but you will want to read the more detailed guides to learn about very useful tips and strategies that will make your volunteer work in the TED Translator program much easier. Below, you will find resources divided into 5 sections: Amara (how to use the Amara subtitling interface), Transcription (how to transcribe TEDx Talks), Translation (how to translate subtitles), Reviewing (how to review subtitles) and Editing OTPedia (how to create new content on our Wiki).
TED Translators use Amara as a subtitling tool. Here are some resources to help you master its easy interface.
Amara tips and guidelines
Image shows the controls box in the Amara interface.
Users can review controls and guidelines right from the subtitling interface
Making sure the video is on the TED team
Advanced Amara tools
Volunteers subtitle talks using an easy online interface at Amara.org
Here are some resources that can help you in transcribing talks:
Transcribing tips and guidelines
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8619 | Currently, US citizens are somewhat banned from going to Iran. Even while US citizens are not banned, it is still a generally dangerous place to go as a US citizen. Switzerland, however, does have good consular relations with Iran and their citizens are not banned.
This leads to my question: if (theoretically of course) a US and Swiss dual-citizen who is of no persian descent wants to travel to a country such as Iran strictly as a tourist, can he/she go with that Swiss passport legally, and can he/she remain safe in that country? Would Iran be able to figure out that you are a US citizen?
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Banned by the US or banned by Iran? – gerrit Aug 17 '17 at 9:44
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What is ‘safe’? It can mean a lot of things. Please elaborate. Depending on what you mean by safe, this question could be opinion-based or not. I’m sure, however, that there is a definite legal answer to the first part (can they go to Iran legally). – Jan Aug 17 '17 at 9:58
• legally you can go there as long as you don't take/show/tell about your US passport because what I know is Iran doesn't allow US citizens to enter. But being safe? You need to tell what factors you've got in mind – Newton Aug 17 '17 at 11:18
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If US citizens are not allowed in Iran (I'm not sure that's the case), then you are a US citizen whether or not you enter on your US passport, and you are not allowed to enter. You could be detained if you are discovered to be a US citizen, even if you entered as a Swiss one. You'd have to renounce your US citizenship to work around this, which is permanent. If US citizens are not allowed to go to Iran, then Iran won't care but the US might, and again, you are a US citizen whether or not you use your US passport to enter. – Jim MacKenzie Aug 17 '17 at 15:58
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@Newton Iran doesn't allow US citizens to enter? Really? Where is your information from?! – Meysam Aug 17 '17 at 21:33
In answer the general question in the title:
No, it is illegal. Yes, it is possible.
If a country as a law forbidding another one's citizens from entering, and you're a citizen of the forbidden country, you're not allowed to enter. It doesn't matter what passport you present when entering.
Of course, when you enter a country they look at your passport, and base their decision on what they see. If you have a passport from a "good" country, you'll be admitted.
However, as I wrote above this is illegal, and if it's found out you'll be in trouble (anywhere between deportation and trial for espionage). For example, if you carry the forbidden country's passport in your luggage, and for some reason it's searched. But there's no database they can search and find your other nationalities.
For an example other than USA-Iran, Israeli citizens are banned from most Muslim countries, yet there are occasionally news stories by Israeli journalists travelling to these countries, with a foreign passport.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8643 | Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode
Jan 23, 2014
Author research Robert Schroeder says science is close to cracking the mysteries behind UFOs. He shares the science with us on this edition of UFO Encounters.
Solving The UFO Enigma: How Modern Physics is Revealing the Technology of UFOs |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8665 | 1. Angels vs demons
Rules: Everyone picks if they want to be an angel or a demon They can change whenever they want BUT you can only post again if there have been at least 3 posts before your next post. The score starts at 100 angels count up ^ demons count down I'll start demon 98 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8672 | Monday, December 14, 2009
Stars and Stones—Sermon notes, 12/13/09
December 13, 2009—Bruce Hess, "The Star That Becomes a Kingdom"
(All references NASB unless otherwise noted.)
Sermon text: Matthew 2:1-11
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
This week's message was a meditation on the incarnation, but one rather unlike our normal meditations. Bruce summed up the entire sermon in two words: "domino effect." The Son of God entered the world in a moment that was both much louder and much quieter than anything we might have done ourselves. But from that shining star, from the angels singing, from a baby in a manger, came a stunning transformation in all the world that is still ongoing.
Bruce noted that the star shining to guide the coming wise men has a significance that reaches beyond its own life. It represents Christ: a light of revelation that spreads to to all the world (compare Luke 2:21-32, John 8:12, Matthew 13:31-33 and Daniel 2:31-45, especially vv. 31-35 and vv. 44-45). "The ultimate result of this—that one day, the kingdom of Christ will fill the whole earth—begins with a star," Bruce said.
Bruce then asked two important questions that this raises:
1. Who is included in the kingdom?
The answer is straightforward: according to Acts 4:12, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Jesus Christ, and He alone, gives us entrance to the kingdom of God. We come only by believing in Him (see John 3:36 [NIV]). For our part, we are completely incapable of earning our own salvation by sheer good deeds, and cannot pay the cost for our own sin.
2. What are the children of the kingdom to do?
Bruce opened his answer by noting that "the dominos haven't all fallen yet." We, he said, are the dominos: the light that began in the star now spreads through us. In Matthew 5:14-16 [NLT], Jesus told his disciples that they were the light of the world. We are to show the world our good works with one aim: all people glorifying the father. His two takeaway points here were:
I really appreciated how Bruce drew attention away from the manger and to the whole picture of history. The manger was a stunningly powerful moment, but part of its power is how it informs all history before it and transforms all history after it.
1 comment:
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8673 | Archive for July, 2015
Sending Messages to Slack From Go
Jul 27
Slack is a great communication tool for teams of international developers who need to keep in sync. I personally use it every day and I find it to be much better than some of the other alternatives out there. While working on another project, I came across the need to send notifications to Slack from my Go application. Utilizing Slack’s awesome API, I wrote a quick package to easily send messages to a Slack channel.
GoSlackOff was born! To use it, simply create an instance with your Slack username, hook token, the default username to post as and the default channel to post in:
And then call the SendMessage() method. You can also override the channel or username for each message.
The SendMessage() method will return a success boolean and the HTTP response object from the API call.
For more information, check out the README on github!
Filed Under: Dev |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8679 | “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of Love”
Love is the essential existential fact. It is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning doesn’t lie in things. Meaning lies in us. When we attach value to things that aren’t love…the money, the car, the house, the prestige…we are loving things that can’t love us back. We are searching for meaning in the meaningless. Money, of itself, means nothing. Material things, of themselves, mean nothing. It’s not that they’re bad. It’s that they’re nothing.
Denying love is the only problem, and embracing it is the only answer. Love heals all of our relationships–to money, the body, work, sex, death, ourselves, and one another. Through the miraculous power of pure love, we let go our past history in any area and begin again. The past is over. It doesn’t matter who we are, where we came, from, what Mommy said, what Daddy did, what mistakes we made, what diseases we have, or how depressed we feel.
The future can be reprogrammed in this moment. We don’t need another seminar, another degree, another lifetime, or anyone’s approval in order for this to happen. All we have to do is ask for a miracle and allow it to happen, not resist it. There can be a new beginning, a life unlike the past. Our relationships shall be made new. Our careers shall be made new. Our bodies shall be made new. Our planet shall be made new
Marianne Williamson, “A Return to Love”
There is no such thing as a grey sky. The sky is always blue. Sometimes grey clouds come and cover the blue sky and we think the sky is grey. But there has never been a storm that hasn’t past. Grey clouds never last forever, but the blue sky does.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
Love never fails. I Corinthians 13:4-8
Charles Swindoll
Faith is belief in the unseen, the quietly held conviction that even though you can’t imagine how, at sometime, in someplace, in the right way, the thing you desire will indeed come to pass.
Daphne Rose Kingman
Inside the tiny acorn is an oak tree. It can sit around for years, but once the conditions are right, once it’s planted in the soil, given sunshine and water, it will grow into a towering tree…guaranteed Unknown
Vivian Greene
“Forgiveness is the answer to almost everything”
A Course in Miracles |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8680 | A blessing for taking up space
The Torah rolls, the two trees moving from side to side in parallel, their spool of parchment unrolling from one side and rolling up on the other. There's a rhythm to rolling a Torah: stretch and pull and glide, stretch and pull and glide. I am standing in front of the scroll, though the text is upside-down to me. Opposite me is the Torah reader who is rolling. Stretch and pull and glide.
I've been watching as others came up to Torah to blindly choose a verse and receive a customized blessing. At first when people said I should go up too, I demurred. I'm a visitor in this synagogue, it's not my place to seek blessing now! They wouldn't take no for an answer. So here I am, eyes closed. I breathe, and after a while I say, "There." I point the yad at the scroll.
The rolling stops. I open my eyes.
Though I don't know it in the moment, I've landed in parashat Terumah. The yad is pointing at a verse about the dimensions of the enclosure around the mishkan, the portable sanctuary our ancestors were instructed to build and to carry with them in the wilderness. It's Simchat Torah and I've just chosen the words that will become my blessing for the new year. I feel a pang.
I've landed at the start of the building of the mishkan, among endless weeks of measurements and dimensions. What if there is no blessing for me in these words? But I should've known better than that. The blessing that I receive is exactly the blessing I most need, rooted precisely in the phrase where my yad fell: 100 cubits. It's a blessing for taking up enough space in the world.
Life teaches many of us, in so many ways, not to take up space. Not to be loud. Not to be visible. Not to shine too brightly, lest our light provoke jealousy. If we're flowers, we'd best not grow too tall, lest the lawnmower chop us down. Women in particular learn this lesson in insidious ways about our bodies (only desirable if they are small in appropriate ways) as well as our souls.
Anavah, humility, is sometimes rendered as "no more than my place, no less than my space." I understand the spiritual value of making sure I'm not taking up all the air in the room. But the value of making sure I'm not shrinking too far? Making sure I'm not hiding my light? Making sure I'm able and ready to take up space in the world? The thought is literally breathtaking.
I don't remember the words of the blessing. I do remember the room receding, the whole world seeming to shrink for a moment to the intimate space of encounter: the giver of blessing, the scroll between us, and me. I remember wondering what it would feel like to truly take up the 100 cubits to which I am entitled. I remember laughing, joyously, with tears of gratitude in my eyes.
With gratitude to the giver of blessing, and to the Giver of Blessing, and to my spiritual director for evoking this memory this week.
A mother and a mystic -- during school vacation
I am reading the second essay in Cynthia Bourgeault's The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice. She is talking about the difference between the nondual, in Eastern thinking, and the unitive in Christian thinking.
I am thinking about Jewish parallels to the Christian theology of mystical union to which she alludes. Remembering Reb Zalman z"l saying that we can relate intellectually to the transcendent, but the heart needs a God with Whom the heart can be in relationship. I'm thinking about my own spiritual life and how frequently my awareness of holiness is in yetzirah, the realm of the heart.
"Mom! Mom! Mom!" My nine-year-old wants my attention. He is building a LEGO set and wants to show me something cool about how it works.
As I set down the book and try to listen whole-heartedly to his explanation of this LEGO Minecraft set and how the lever works to raise and lower the Iron Golem, my mind offers me the core question of spiritual direction as I have learned to practice it: where is God in this?
My answer, of course, arises in synchronicity with the passage I was just reading about the unitive and the relational. God is in relationship -- or can be, anyway. The challenge of the divorced-parent mystic during winter vacation is precisely finding God "in this" -- in baking and decorating cookies, in reading Harry Potter aloud. The work is finding the God-presence, the holiness, in the laundry and the LEGOs -- or more specifically, in the relationship with my kid that lies behind the laundry and the LEGOs.
It's not the "union with the divine beloved" that Bourgeault describes. (And it's surely not the transcendence of the binary between lover and beloved, between us and God, to which she alludes -- I can't even see there from here.) But I resonate with her suggestion that there can be a "rewriting of the 'operating system'" that can allow one to see "from oneness." That has to be one of the deep purposes of spiritual practice, to rewrite the operating system of the mind and heart.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's Nurture the Wow makes the point that our received spiritual traditions were largely codified and written down by men who had wives whose job it was to care for the children and the household. They didn't have the experience of trying to enter into a theological text while also listening with one ear to a cartoon, or putting the book down to admire creations built out of plastic bricks.
But I feel like my work right now is embracing that tension, bringing the theology into the parenting and vice versa, glimpsing the unitive from this place of relationship. Torah instructs me to love God "with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my being." Surely one of the ways I fulfill the mitzvah of loving God is through being in relationship with reflections of the Infinite right here.
On Joseph, and faith in dark times: new commentary at My Jewish Learning
Crop-gb-vayashevThis week’s Torah portion takes us into the “Joseph novella,” which will continue through the rest of Genesis. As Joseph’s story begins, he’s tending sheep with his brothers and reporting on their behavior to their father Jacob. The Torah doesn’t tell us what exactly Joseph related to Jacob, or whether it was true, though the commentators Rashi (11th-century France) and the Radak (12th-13th-century France) suggest that his brothers were behaving unethically and treating each other poorly.
Joseph’s brothers hate him. In part because their father made him a fancy tunic. Joseph, for his part, is willing to name their ugly behaviors. And then, in what could be attributed either to arrogance or to naivete, he tells them his dreams — for instance, the one where their sheaves of wheat bow down to his. So they throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery...
...As a rabbi and spiritual director, one of my core questions is, “Where is God for you in this?” Spiritual direction invites us to discern divinity in whatever’s unfolding. But Joseph doesn’t need to be prompted with that query. Joseph feels God with him even while being unfairly maligned and punished. And because his sense of God’s presence is so strong, his sense of self isn’t shaken. That’s the quality in Joseph to which I most aspire: his deep connection with God...
That's from my latest Torah commentary for My Jewish Learning. Read the whole thing here: Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Faith.
The people who partner with God
ElshaddaiIn this week's Torah portion, Jacob is given a new name -- twice. Or maybe even three times. (It's the same name each time.)
The first time comes on the cusp of his meeting with his estranged brother Esau. He is alone; he wrestles all night; as dawn is breaking he tells his opponent "I will not let you go until you bless me," and the angel with whom he has grappled all night tells him his new name will be Yisra-El, Wrestles-With-God.
The second time comes later in the parsha. God appears to Jacob and says, "You whose name is Jacob: you shall be called Jacob no more, but Israel shall be your name." Then Torah reiterates the name yet again, adding "and thus, God named him Israel."
What's up with the triple reiteration of this name? One answer is that the redactor wasn't paying attention and he repeated himself, and said the same thing twice, and also conveyed something in multiple ways. But I think that's a cop-out. Our tradition invites us to find meaning in these repetitions. If Torah says it three times, it must be important. What is it telling us?
It's interesting that immediately after the third reiteration of Israel's new name, God introduces God's-self to Israel, saying, "I am El Shaddai; be fertile and increase, for nations will descend from you..."
Notice the juxtaposition of introductions. First God tells Jacob who Jacob is: one who wrestles with the divine. (This is one of our people's names to this day.) And then God tells Jacob who God is: אֵל שַׁדַּי / El Shaddai. In Hebrew, names have meanings: they aren't just sounds. So what does this divine name mean? "El" is pretty straightforward; it simply means "God." But "Shaddai" is less clear.
El Shaddai is often rendered as "God Almighty," but I'm not sure that's a good translation. Some argue that the word relates to mountains or wilderness. Others, that it relates to a root meaning "destroy." But in modern Hebrew, "shadayim" are breasts. I like to understand "El Shaddai" as a name that depicts God as the divine source of nourishment and flow. God as El Shaddai is the One Who nurses all of creation, Whose abundance flows like milk to nurture and nourish us.
In a related interpretation, Shaddai is seen as related to the word meaning "sufficiency" or "enoughness." (As in די / dai, "Enough!" -- or dayenu, "It would have been enough for us.") El Shaddai is the God of Enoughness, the One Who gives us everything we need and then some. Perhaps the name El Shaddai can remind us that we too -- made in the divine image -- are "enough" just as we are.
There's a sense of gender fluidity to this divine name, because "El" is a masculine word, and "Shaddai" (if you accept the shadayim connection) connotes femininity. Fluidity seems appropriate; after all, we call God the source of divine flow. The discipline of spiritual direction invites us to discern together where and how God's flow manifests in the life of each seeker. God flows into our lives in different shapes and forms.
El Shaddai is only one of our tradition's many names for God. The names we use for divinity change, as the faces of divinity we seek change. Sometimes we need God to be the All-Mighty, our defender. Sometimes we need God to be All-Merciful. Sometimes we need God to be Friend, or Beloved, or Parent. For me, the name El Shaddai is a reminder that I can relate to God as the nursing mother Who aches to bestow blessings.
As the sages of the Talmud wrote, "More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow yearns to give milk." More than we yearn and ache -- for love, for abundance, for sweetness -- God yearns and aches to give those things to us. Think of someone you deeply love, to whom you want to give every good thing. Feel how your heart goes out to them: you just want to give! The name El Shaddai describes a God Who feels like that toward us.
This piece of Torah reminds us who God can be for us -- and who we can be for God. The name Yisrael says it's our job to be in relationship with God. To dance, to push back, to waltz, to fight, to suckle: the wrestle takes many forms, but the relationship is always there. Even when we're angry with God, or when we feel as though God is angry with us, the relationship is there. The centrality of that relationship makes us who we are: the people Yisra-el, the people who partner with God.
Cross-posted to my From the Rabbi blog.
Related: El Shaddai (Nursing Poem), 2009. (Also published in Waiting to Unfold, Phoenicia 2013.)
Visions of Renewal: Vayera and renewing our Judaism
Shabbat shalom! Thank you for welcoming Rabbi David and me into your synagogue and into your community this weekend.
We named our weekend together "Visions of Renewal." I want to unpack that a bit. Why "vision," and what's "renewal"?
Over the last few years, as Rabbi David and I have traveled the U.S. and Canada, we've noticed that Judaism we all inherited often feels like a Judaism of receptivity. We've all received a tradition that others created. Receiving can feel passive – like we receive the news on TV, or receive the family constructs into which we're born. It just happens.
But this week's Torah portion, Vayera, is about a quality of vision that's not passive but active, literally a making-seen. "God caused [Avraham] to see, on the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the opening of his tent in the heat of the day."
"God caused Avraham to see." As we'll learn in tomorrow morning's Torah study, this Torah portion is about how Avraham sees, how we see, what he saw, what we see and why. The upshot is this: in changing how he sees, Avraham changes his life.
We can spend a lifetime talking about Avraham, but I want to talk about us. What do we see and tend not to see? What covers our vision? What can we do to make our vision clear? That's the work of spiritual life: clarifying and renewing our vision so we can act in the world.
When we look at spiritual life, do we see something obligatory? That's the classical view -- we do things because God commands us to do them. Or we don't, because those who brought us Reform Judaism rejected that paradigm. I serve a Reform shul not unlike this one, and most of my congregants tell me they don't feel "commanded." But then do mitzvot simply become irrelevant? (Spoiler alert: I'm going to say no.) Whether or not we see mitzvot as obligatory, they can renew our hearts and spirits.
The Hebrew word מצוה / mitzvah is related to the Aramaic צוותא / tzavta, "connection." Whatever your beliefs or disbeliefs about God, to me the key thing is how we connect – to God (whether far-above or deep-within), our ancestry, each other, our hearts and souls. If we see the connection hiding in each mitzvah, might that change how we feel about doing it -- or how we feel while doing it?
What about prayer: do you see liturgy as something you do because it's written in a book -- or something you don't do because it's written in a book? Do you see holidays as something you do because they were given to you -- or something you don't do, because they don't speak to you? Do you see spirituality as something that the rabbi and cantor give to you? Whether or not you were raised Jewish, do you see Judaism as something you either keep, or let go?
What if we could see all of this -- mitzvot, prayer, holidays, spiritual life writ large -- as something we actively make our own? The practices we name as התחדשות / hitchadshut, "Renewal," are about doing just that: making it our own, renewing and being renewed. Renewal isn't a brand or label. It's a way of living our Judaism, refining our capacity to see the richness and authenticity of spiritual life hiding in plain sight... and actively making it our own, so both our souls and our traditions can shine.
Take a step back and look at tonight's prayer service. Maybe you noticed chant, weaving of Hebrew and English, uses of silence, a focus on joy, themes popping out of the words – like vision, chosen for this week's Torah portion (Vayera) – a mix of ancient music and modern music. These reflect the spiritual technology we call "davenology" -- from the Yiddish "daven," to pray in meaningful ways attuned to spirit and heart. Renewal seeks to infuse prayer with heart -- and to infuse our hearts with prayer.
To use a metaphor I learned from my teacher, Rabbi Marcia Prager, prayer is a meal and liturgy is a cookbook. We can't eat a cookbook. Renewal teaches: what matters is what helps us have a spiritual experience that actually connects us. That's why we'll use Hebrew words, English words, sometimes no words. Classical words, contemporary words. Poetry, music, dance... This isn't experimentation for its own sake: it's for the sake of deepening our experience of prayer.
Judaism is more than prayer, and Renewal is about more than "just" renewing our prayer lives. We bring this experiential approach to everything. One tool we use for that is hashpa'ah: in English, "spiritual direction." The Hebrew hashpa'ah comes from the root connoting divine flow. A mashpi'a(h) helps others experience the flow of divinity in the real stuff of their lives – family, work, faith, doubt, health, illness, sex, you name it. About everything in our lives, we ask, "where is God in this?"
It's a big question. When I began my training as a spiritual director -- both Rabbi David and I hold that second ordination -- my teachers asked me about my spiritual practices, and I started making excuses. "Well, I know I should be praying three times a day, but life gets in the way..." And my mashpi'a stopped me, gently, and said: I'm not asking you to tell me what your spiritual practices aren't. What are you doing in your life that opens you up?
We can vision our spiritual lives negatively, in terms of what we don't do – we don't come to services "enough," or meditate "enough." But then our spirituality is negative, based on what we lack. What if we actively vision it positively, based on the lives we actually live? If we're washing dishes, if we're folding laundry, driving the carpool, buying groceries: where is God in that? (We'll talk more about infusing ordinary practices with holiness in Sunday morning's session "Spirituality on the Go.")
Another of our tools is the collection of teachings, texts, and perspectives that come to us from Zohar and kabbalah and the Hasidic masters. These exquisite teachings can change the way we read Torah, how we experience time, how we live our lives. We'll use these tools to study Torah tomorrow morning, tomorrow night when we enter into Jewish angelology, and on Sunday morning's session on "Mitzvah and Mysticism." All of these are about connecting, actively changing how we see.
Davenology, spiritual direction, and mysticism are among the Renewal spiritual technologies especially near and dear to our hearts. And here's the thing that's most important to me – not as a rabbi, but as a seeker like you: you don't have to be a rabbi for Renewal to enliven your spiritual life. You don't even have to be Jewish. These tools can help all of us transform our vision: whoever we are, wherever we're coming from, whatever we do or don't "believe in."
That's what this weekend is about. "God caused Avraham to see." It's about seeing different, and being changed for the good.
On this Shabbat Vayera, this shabbat of active vision, may our eyes be opened to see what's been hiding in plain sight. May the Holy One cause us to be active partners in seeing the Judaism we yearn for, and bringing it into being in a world that needs us more than ever.
Offered at Temple B'nai Chaim in Wilton, Connecticut, where Rabbi David Markus and I are scholars-in-residence this weekend.
Breathing space
88dc79_be21bf798a984fed8baeddb3760a59f4To be fully alive and fully human, we need space, or room to breathe. This need is fundamental: it is rooted in our everyday experience. We all know what it is like to feel crowded, pressed, or overwhelmed. We know what it is to face deadlines, expectations, demands. We know these pressures can originate from outside us as well as from within us. And we know the relief, release, and freedom that come from outer and inner space -- room to breathe and to be ourselves. We owe it to ourselves, individually and communally, to find such room, such space.
Those words come from Father Philip Carter, in his essay "Spiritual Direction as an 'Exchange of Gifts'," in the March 2017 issue of Presence: an International Journal of Spiritual Direction. From time to time I pick up back copies of that magazine and leaf through them, and often I find that an idea or a quotation leaps off the page and demands my attention. Today it was Carter's words that grabbed me.
"To be fully alive and fully human, we need space, or room to breathe..."
Shabbat is supposed to offer precisely that breathing room: one day of the week during which we can let go of our to-do lists and obligations, a day when we can focus on being rather than doing. Of course, that breathing room can be hard to come by -- especially for those who dedicate their days to caring for young children or aging parents, for whom Shabbat may not offer a genuine respite of any kind.
But this isn't just about our obligations. Even someone with a daily to-do list the length of my arm can still seek the internal and spiritual spaciousness that allows them to draw a full breath. This is the space the soul really requires: space to grow, space to change, the space of the freedom to become and in so doing to discern what would bring joy. Our souls need these things the way our bodies need air.
And without room to breathe, the soul can't flourish. Without space to grow, and maybe more importantly space to just be, the spark of divinity that enlivens us flickers and dims. A soul that is constantly constrained will be damaged by that constriction, in the psycho-spiritual equivalent of the maiming once experienced by women who endured having their feet bound and reshaped.
There are all kinds of circumstances that create constriction. Some of them are internal: grief, or depression, or personal struggles. Some are external: emotionally and spiritually abusive workplaces, or family relationships, or systems of oppression. The challenge lies in not internalizing the messages that tell us we either don't need to draw a full breath (spiritually speaking)... or, worse, don't deserve to.
You deserve to draw a full breath. You deserve to have room to breathe. You deserve to change and grow. You deserve to take up space in the world. You deserve to be honored, and valued, and treated like the precious soul that you are. Anyone in your world who tells you otherwise does not have your best interests at heart, and they have a vested interest in keeping you small, and they are wrong.
Falling Upward
DownloadOne day recently, two friends from completely different quadrants of my life sent me a gorgeous Rilke poem that Father Richard Rohr had posted on his website. I had run across the poem myself a few months before, and had already tacked it up over my desk. But when two people sent it to me within an hour of each other, I couldn't help feeling as though someone wanted me to be paying attention -- both to that poem once again, and to Richard Rohr who had posted it.
Then my friend and teacher Rabbi Jeff Fox, with whom I was privileged to study a few weeks ago, recommended Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by the same Richard Rohr. I ordered the book right away.
Rohr writes:
There is much evidence on several levels that there are at least two major tasks to human life. The first task is to build a strong "container" or identity; the second is to find the contents that the container was meant to hold.
The basic argument of Falling Upward is that most of us get caught up in "first half of life" issues and struggles and never make it to the work of the second half of life -- work that can only be done after one has done the internal work of the first half. Of course these two halves don't necessarily map to chronological age, and Rohr acknowledges that; it's possible to be quite young and already be doing one's second-half-of-life work, and vice versa. (If these ideas resonate, I recommend From Aging to Sage-ing, by Reb Zalman z"l.)
One of the challenges of spiritual life is staying open to being changed. Father Rohr writes:
The familiar and the habitual are so falsely reassuring, and most of us make our homes there permanently. The new is always by definition unfamiliar and untested, so God, life, destiny, suffering have to give us a push -- usually a big one -- or we will not go. Someone has to make clear to us that homes are not meant to be lived in -- but only to be moved out from...
The Hasidic masters had an aphorism for that one: ירידה לצורך עליה / yeridah l'tzorech aliyah -- descent for the sake of ascent. That's a frequent theme in Torah (the Joseph story is a paradigmatic example), and it's a frequent theme in spiritual life. Often we have to fall in order to rise. We descend or fall further from God (the language of distance is of course metaphor, but it's a good way of describing internal experience, even if we know that God isn't any "further away") and that descent itself sparks the yearning to ascend and seek closeness.
Reading this book during the Three Weeks, I was struck by how Rohr's teachings suit this season in the Jewish calendar year:
By denying their pain, avoiding the necessary falling, many have kept themselves from their own spiritual depths -- and therefore been kept from their own spiritual heights... The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling or changing or dying
Of course the ego wants to avoid falling or changing or dying -- that's the ego's job. Part of our work is ensuring that one has enough ego to be able to live healthily in the world, without necessarily allowing the ego to be in the driver's seat, as it were. It's natural to resist change and loss and "falling." And yet all of those things are built in to the rhythms of human life. As I learned recently in a beautiful text from R' Shlomo Wolbe, our times of distance and sorrow are an important part of spiritual life too. If we deny our pain and avoid falling, we're slipping into the trap of spiritual bypassing, and that's not a path of genuine growth.
If change and growth are not programmed into your spirituality, if there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage -- as if it were God! ... This resistance to change is so common, in fact, that it is almost what we expect from religious people, who tend to love the past more than the future of the present.
Change -- or one might say התחדשות / hitchadshut, renewal -- is core to spiritual life. One of my tradition's names for God is אהיה אשר אהיה / Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, "I Am Becoming Who I Am Becoming." God reveals God's-own-self to us through the unfolding of perennial change. The voice of revelation always sounds from Sinai, and it's our task to be attuned so that we can continue to enliven the world. That's the work of renewing Judaism, and the work of my rabbinate, and it's the work in which I believe Rohr is engaged, too, on his Christian path. And... I resonate deeply with his words about the profound irony of religious people, who should be pursuing growth, becoming attached instead to the status quo and fearing change.
There's much in this book that puts me in mind of my spiritual direction training and my experiences in spiritual direction, both as someone who has worked for many years with a spiritual director and as a mashpi'ah myself. The Hebrew term for spiritual direction is השפעה / hashpa'ah, which comes from a root connoting divine abundance or flow. In Rohr's words:
More than anything else, the Spirit keeps us connected and safely inside an already existing flow, if we but allow it... Like good spiritual directors do, God must say after each failure of ours, "Oh, here is a great opportunity! Let's see how we can work with this!"
I love the idea of God as the ultimate spiritual director, sitting across from me and helping me grow. Often on long drives I imagine God sitting in my front seat -- a practice I learned from Reb Zalman z"l, who spoke of imagining Shechinah "dressed down" in blue jeans as his listening passenger -- and I pour out my heart to the One Who always hears me. Sometimes I even hear a response in return. (The title poem of my next collection of poetry came out of that experience...) On that note, the final quote I'll share here is one about being in I-Thou relationship with God, and being wholly seen. Rohr writes:
Many of us discover in times of such falling the Great Divine Gaze, the ultimate I-Thou relationship, which is always compassionate and embracing, or it would not be divine. Like any true mirror, the gaze of God receives us exactly as we are, without judgment or distortion, subtraction or addition. Such perfect receiving is what transforms us.
On the Jewish liturgical calendar we will shift soon (at the end of this Gregorian month -- erev Tisha b'Av is July 31) from the Three Weeks of mourning and brokenness to the Seven Weeks of consolation that lead us from Tisha b'Av to the Days of Awe. The challenge now is to let ourselves experience the "falling" of these Three Weeks, and to let ourselves be fully seen and fully known not despite our falling but even in and through it, so that our falling can be what Rohr might call "falling upward" -- descent for the sake of ascent, and for the sake of growth, and for the sake of becoming who we are most truly meant to be.
Stop hiding: let yourself go free
_91021013_thinkstockphotos-517519673The festival of Purim (coming up this Saturday) is a holiday of concealment. At Purim we read the Scroll of Esther, a delightfully bawdy Persian court soap opera which doesn't appear, at first glance, to have much to do with spiritual life or with God. Jewish tradition doesn't shy away from this oddity -- we embrace it and find meaning in it.
The quintessential act of Purim is להתחפש, a reflexive verb which means to dress oneself up or to conceal oneself. We do this when we dress up in costumes on Purim. Esther does this when she hides her Jewishness (until the moment comes for her to reveal herself and in so doing save the day). God does this in concealing God's-self entirely; God is never even mentioned in the megillah (though to the discerning eye God's presence may be subtly manifest even so.)
Purim is about the self-reflexive act of hiding. But what happens when we shift that verb and make it no longer reflexive? We get the verb לחפש - to search. And searching is one of the quintessential moves we make before Pesach. On the night before Passover begins, there's a tradition of lighting a candle and searching our homes for "hidden" hametz (leaven), a physical hide-and-seek game that represents a deeper inner searching. We read in the book of Proverbs (20:27) that our own souls are God's candle -- just as we search for hidden leaven by the light of a physical candle, God uses our souls as candles to illuminate all that's hidden in the world.
When we search for hametz, we're not just looking for bread crusts. We're also seeking spiritual leaven, the puffery of pride and ego, the sour old stuff within us which needs to be discarded in order for us to move toward freedom.
The shift from להתחפש to לחפש, from concealment to searching, is the fundamental move we're called to make as spring unfolds, as we move from Purim (festival of masks and concealment) to Passover (festival of searching and liberation). At Purim, we may be hiding -- from others, and even from ourselves. Maybe it feels dangerous to let ourselves be known. Maybe there are truths we don't want to admit. Maybe we think there are parts of ourselves we have to hide in order to move freely in the world. Maybe we think we are better off if we conceal the parts of ourselves of which we are ashamed, or the parts of ourselves which don't meet others' expectations.
But in order to move toward freedom, we have to turn the reflexive verb outward: we have to move from hiding (from) ourselves to searching for what's been hidden. If God hides in order that we might seek, then it stands to reason that so do we. We have to unearth precisely our own stuff which we have hidden from the world. We have to unearth precisely our own stuff which we have hidden even from ourselves. The hopes and yearnings that we've tried to keep under wraps, the sorrows and fears that we've tried to hide, from others and from ourselves.
May we do that unearthing through therapy, or hashpa'ah (spiritual direction), or a writing practice, or a prayer practice. Maybe we do that unearthing through conversations with a trusted friend who can help us see ourselves more clearly than we could see on our own. Maybe we do that unearthing through studying texts and delving into the passages that resonate with us. There are many ways to do the work of searching for who we really are. What's important is that we light the candle and we do the searching. Passover will come in the fullness of time no matter what, but the journey of the Exodus will mean more if we're willing to do this inner work.
The hametz we need to root out is not our imperfections (because everyone is imperfect) but the way we try to hide our imperfections, the way we shame ourselves for our imperfections. The internal narrative which says that we are only lovable, or only worthwhile, if we keep parts of ourselves -- our quirks, our mistakes, our tenderest places -- hidden. The need to conceal oneself can become a kind of Mitzrayim, a place of constriction. In order to emerge from the tight places in our lives, we need to stop hiding. We need to move from concealing ourselves to searching for ourselves in order to let ourselves go free.
And the journey takes us one step further. We move from concealment (Purim) to searching (Pesach) to revelation (Shavuot.) Purim's reflexivity primes that pump: first we own (and prepare to relinquish) our own hiding. Then we search for our deepest truths and begin to experience the freedom of wholly being who we truly are. Only then can we be ready to receive revelation anew. The journey to revelation begins right now. The places where we've hidden our hearts from others or from ourselves aren't impediments to the journey: they are the spark that will ignite the inner spiritual journey of our transformation.
Dedicated to Rabbi David Evan Markus, from whom I learned this teaching.
Image: hide-and-seek, from the BBC.
Our spiritual work is our life as it is
Here-and-now_0"I would be more spiritual if my circumstances were more perfect."
That's the "first illusion" cited by Ward Bauman in "Letting God be God," an article in Presence about lessons learned from Meister Eckhart. (And wow, is it a familiar illusion to me!) Bauman writes:
Meister Eckhart is emphatic that our spiritual work begins where we are right now, because God is in our circumstances as they are....
Eckhart goes to the heart of the matter when it comes to spiritual work. The sense that there might be perfect circumstances that would allow us to be more spiritual is simply an illusion. We cannot escape our circumstances for some better or more spiritual condition. Our spirituality is never dependent upon the exterior conditions but rather upon the inner condition of our heart....
Our spiritual work is our life as it is.
I read the article while sitting with my sick kid who was curled up on the couch watching cartoons and found it surprisingly relevant. I know that Meister Eckhart was a Christian monastic. Rearing children was not part of his life's work or his spiritual practice. But his point that "our spiritual work is our life as it is" can be a deep teaching about spiritual life and parenthood.
There's a temptation to imagine that if I hadn't been home with my sick kid, I might have done something lofty and "spiritual" with my day. But I know that in truth, spiritual elevation arises in the attention and intention I bring to whatever is at hand. That's true whether I'm leading my community in prayer, or checking my son's temperature for the umpteenth time today.
The struggle to remember that spiritual life is "our life as it is" (not as we imagine it could or should be) isn't limited only to those who are rearing young children. Anything can feed the illusion that if only my circumstances were more ideal I would lead a "more spiritual" life. If only I had the perfect job, or if only my relationships were in better order, or if only life were different.
"If only I could afford to hire a cleaning service, I would spend more time praying" -- so goes the fantasy, anyway. But the real work is what my Hasidic forebears call avodah b'gashmiut, "service in / through corporeality." Can I find God's presence even in cleaning my house or tending my kid? Can I remember that spiritual life is always and only ever right here, right now ?
The place to encounter God's presence is this place. The time to open to God's presence is this time. Not the imagined place-and-time when all the obligations will be taken-care-of, when all the tangles will be untied, when all the obstacles will be surmounted. The "obstacles" themselves are opportunities to search for meaning, to open to something greater than myself.
As this week's Torah portion reminds us, God can be in this very place! It was true for Jacob who dreamed of a ladder linking heaven and earth, and it is true for me in my living room with the LEGOs and the in-ear thermometer and the kids' Motrin. My circumstances will never be perfect, and neither will I. The work of spiritual life is finding holiness in the here and now.
Writing one's own deathbed prayer
It's a strange experience, writing one's own deathbed prayer.
The vidui is the confessional prayer which some recite every night before sleep, and some recite every weekday / non-festival morning during tachanun (the penitential prayers), and some recite every month during Yom Kippur Katan (the "little Day of Atonement" which precedes new moon), and some recite every year on Yom Kippur, and some recite before death. (I blogged about this, and especially about the bedtime prayer of forgiveness, earlier this fall: the vidui prayer of Yom Kippur...and of every night.)
The daily variant, the Yom Kippur variant, and the deathbed variant are slightly different -- but only slightly. In each of these, we reach out to God (whatever we understand that term to mean) and we ask forgiveness for our misdeeds and offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us, so that the karmic baggage of our actions won't follow us into the world to come.
There are classical texts for the deathbed vidui, and they are lovely. Here's one (from the Reform Rabbis' handbook:)
My God and God of all who have gone before me, Author of life and death, I turn to You in trust. Although I pray for life and health, I know that I am mortal. If my life must soon come to and end, let me die, I pray, at peace. If only my hands were clean and my heart pure! I confess that I have committed sins and left much undone, yet I know also the good that I did or tried to do. May my acts of goodness give meaning to my life, and may my errors be forgiven. Protector of bereaved and the helpless, watch over my loved ones. Into Your hand I commit my spirit; redeem it, O God of mercy and truth.
But nothing says that one has to use the traditional text. So as part of the Sage-ing class I'm taking (in my final months of the ALEPH Hashpa'ah / Spiritual Direction program), I've been charged with writing my own vidui. My own deathbed confession. The prayer I imagine saying to God as I prepare myself to die.
On the one hand there's something more than a little surreal about this. I don't expect death to be coming for me soon; how can I honestly write a deathbed prayer when I have no intention of dying in the next several decades at least? But on the proverbial other hand, there's no telling when death will knock on one's door. We read in the Babylonian Talmud that Rabbi Eliezer declared: "Repent one day before your death," whereupon his disciples asked: How does one know which day that is? "Exactly," answered the sage. "For that reason, we ought to live our lives each day as though it were our last."
Writing one's own vidui is a way of following Rabbi Eliezer's advice, a way of making teshuvah (repetance / returning-to-God) one day before my death. And if I do not die tomorrow, as I sincerely hope not to do, then tomorrow I will be tasked with making teshuvah again. And again. And again. Preparing for dying in this way, I think, is really a way of choosing how to live.
So I've drafted my vidui. Per my teachers' suggestions, I will keep it, and will aim to update it over the years as needed and as my life changes. In it, I address God in the ways which are most meaningful for me; I thank God for my life and my relationships; I ask forgiveness for the places where I have missed the mark, and express my intention to let go of my regrets so that they will not encumber me wherever I am going. I close by asking God to help me release this life and to help me through the contractions of the dying process, contractions which will release me into something I cannot now imagine, something none of us can know.
Writing it was a powerful experience for me. Imagining reading it at my own death, or perhaps hearing it read by a loved one if I am not able to read it myself, is equally powerful. What an amazing meditation.
This is part of what I'm finding most meaningful about the Sage-ing work I am beginning to learn to do: the way it takes the daily and weekly and monthly and annual cycles of teshuvah and stretches them to span an entire lifetime. Over the course of my whole life, what will sustain me? Where will I miss the mark? What will I need to forgive, and for what will I hope that others can forgive me? How will I want to take my leave of the life that I have known?
How do I want to be remembered?
This morning I wrote my own obituary. It was homework for the Sage-ing class I'm taking during this final semester of the ALEPH Hashpa'ah (spiritual direction) program. And wow, was it a fascinating experience.
Writing the story of my life to date, in condensed but meaningful form, was thought-provoking. What are the details I would want to share about my growing-up, about my formative relationships, about my childhood and my college years and my journey into poetry and the rabbinate?
Then, of course, the obit became more of a "here's what I hope the rest of my life might look like." I hope to live for many more decades; I'm only 36. So I spun out a fantasy of what the next fifty or sixty years might hold for me, and then wrote about it in the past tense, as though it had happened exactly the way I'm imagining.
If, God willing, I live into my nineties, how would I want to be able to describe my life? How would I want to be able to describe my relationships, my work, my impact on the world? How do I want to be remembered?
It's an amazing spiritual exercise. And, not for the first time, I'm struck by the additional power this class has for me because I'm taking it during a fall semester, as the Days of Awe approach. We're well into the month of Elul, the month which offers the opportunity for reflection and discernment before the New Year comes.
This obituary exercise is a powerful thing to do just before the Days of Awe. The Unetaneh Tokef prayer which we recite on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (see Everyday I write the book) teaches us that God opens the book of memory, which reads from itself, as each of us has signed our name through our deeds. What are the actions which I've recorded in the book of memory this year? Who am I, and what do I want my time on this earth to be?
Before you ask: sorry, but I'm not going to share that obituary here! The part which describes the life I haven't yet had feels too personal and revelatory. (Besides, I don't want my advance obituary to show up as a google search result.) I am saving it on my computer, though. Maybe I'll take the time to revise it over the years to come as my life unfolds. If nothing else, someday it will give my descendants a glimpse of how I saw myself while I was still here.
This is spiritual life
Spiritual direction from both sides now
This month I begin seeing spiritual direction clients -- a.k.a. "directees" or, in Hebrew, mushpa'ot. (The name for a spiritual director in Hebrew is mashpi'ah; the two words share the root שפע which denotes divine abundance or flow.) As I've mentioned this milestone to people in my life, many have asked, "what exactly is spiritual direction?" And I've thought: aha! A blog post is in order!
Spiritual direction is a relationship, a process through which one person helps another discern the presence of the sacred in their life. This discipline exists in many religious traditions (I know, for instance, that Jesuit priests in formation are required to be in spiritual direction -- as are ALEPH rabbinic students.) In my corner of the Jewish world, this relationship is called hashpa'ah (which, again, derives from the root meaning abundant flow from God.) In the words of my training program, "Hashpa'ah is the traditional term for the relationship with a spiritual director or mashpia who offers guidance and teaching on matters of Jewish faith and practice, and on a personal relationship with the Divine."
(As the wikipedia entry on spiritual direction notes, this Hebrew term is common in the Chabad-Lubavitch community and also in the Jewish Renewal community. Among Orthodox Jews who come from the less mystical and more rationalist end of the spectrum, a spiritual director is more likely to be called mashgiach ruchani. A mashgiach is someone who advises on the kashrut of a kitchen, and a "mashgiakh ruchani" is someone who advises on the spiritual lives of others.) In English, the name for this process or relationship is spiritual direction.
A variety of answers to the question "what is spiritual direction" can be found here at Spiritual Directors International. Among those answers, my favorites are Liz Bud Ellman's assertion that "Simply put, spiritual direction is helping people tell their sacred stories everyday" and James Keegan's assertion that "Spiritual direction is the contemplative practice of helping another person or group to awaken to the mystery called God in all of life, and to respond to that discovery in a growing relationship of freedom and commitment."
Continue reading "Spiritual direction from both sides now" »
Our first four days of hashpa'ah
My small stone heart. Apologies for the blurry cameraphone picture.
The first intensive of the ALEPH Hashpa'ah program will end tomorrow at 2pm, just in time for the Shabbaton to begin around 4. I've been trying to figure out whether/how I can write about the hashpa'ah intensive; it's been an amazing few days, but I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to describe.
I can tell you that there are nineteen of us in the program: some rabbis, some rabbinic pastors, the rest student clergy like me. I can tell you that we've been meeting at the Solstice Center, a ten-block walk from the Boulderado, in a carpeted room with a big round skylight. That our group includes half a dozen people from my DLTI cohort, as well as several other people I already knew, so walking in for the first time already felt like coming home.
Our faculty this week has included two rabbis and a psychotherapist, each of whom has spoken at length about how she came to be a spiritual director and about how she does the work of spiritual direction. We've experienced some amazing davenen with fundamental principles of hashpa'ah woven in: holy listening, speaking directly to/from the heart, sacred silence. We've done some powerful work in hevruta, delving into our spiritual autobiographies and exploring what called us to this work. Today we attempted our first sessions of hashpa'ah, and then talked about what worked and what didn't and where we tripped ourselves up and where we feel like we actually connected with the presence of God.
But all of this feels like I'm talking around what we've been doing, not about it. The truth of the matter is, most of what we've been doing has been personal and spiritual and kind of tough to verbalize. The internal work is (and needs to be) confidential; the "professional development" piece isn't all that blogworthy without the emotional and spiritual underpinnings which I either can't discuss without breaking confidentiality, or can't figure out how to describe without sounding purple and overblown.
It's been a really good intensive so far, though. I'm getting a lot out of it, and I think that spiritual direction work will be a meaningful piece of my rabbinate. I'm looking forward to our spring semester (we'll fill two sections of a telecourse called "Issues in Hashpa'ah," so I'll get to hear at least half of my classmates' voices on a weekly basis) and to the summer intensive. Based on my experiences with DLTI, I'm guessing that week two will quickly become even more intense than week one because we'll have all of this week's relationships and experiences to build on.
For now, I'm looking forward to our last session in the morning -- and to seeing how the learning we've done over these incredibly dense four days will percolate in me and through me in months to come.
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Middot through text and practice
"Stand where you are and serve in love: refining our middot through text and practice" was the second class I took at smicha students' week, taught by Rabbi Elliot K. Ginsburg (a.k.a. Reb Elliott, with whom I had the deep pleasure of spending Yom Kippur a few years ago) and Rabbi Shohama Wiener (Reb Shohama, the head of the ALEPH Hashpa'ah/spiritual direction program). As the syllabus explains,
The physicist Neils Bohr once said that the opposite of a simple truth is a falsehood, but the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth. In our spiritual lives we are often called to balance opposing truths: the need to cleave to those we love and to let go; as Jews to simultaneously embody Yisrael (one who wrestle with God) and Yehuda (one who practices gratitude); to be open to moments of breakthrough and to cultivate the slow, subtle movement of soul. In this course, we will explore some key psycho-spiritual moments in the life of the spirit, drawing on classic kabbalistic and hasidic texts.
Middot can be hard to explain. The term "middah" literally means "measure," and middot are at once divine qualities or attributes, and attributes / qualities / character traits of the human soul. (Here's one list of middot, drawn from Pirkei Avot.) In this class we looked at the spiritual practice of refining our middot -- a theme that runs both through our texts and our lives.
Themes [of the class] include: tsubrokhnkeit, breaking open the heart and keeping the heart open when it isn't being smashed open; discerning what is being birthed and what is dying; and when to leap and when to attentively wait -- how in short to work with the ratzo va-shov, the ebb and flow of the holy spirit. We will also explore some practices of spiritual friendship, and key teachings on anger and equanimity, forgiveness, and self-acceptance / self-worth.
All that in five short days. (No, really.) It was a pretty amazing week.
Continue reading "Middot through text and practice" » |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8705 | Why Wakdjunkaga
First, before we explore today’s topic—the title of this blog—I should acknowledge that last night was the first of two performances of Peace Pipe Players’ production of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Tonight will be the closing performance (at 7:00 PM at the Ohnward Fine Arts Center in Maquoketa.). I play one of the crazies in the insane asylum, Scanlon, the bomb nut. I’ll talk about the show is a future post, but you’re all welcome to come…
Furthermore, we topped 2000 hits on the blog yesterday—an inconsiderable amount in the world of big-time blogging, but I was pleased. I hope you all keep reading—and tell your friends (or enemies).
But back on topic: why do I call it “Wakdjunkaga’s Blog?”
Why indeed?
My friend Sharon asked in a comment about the name of the blog. Was it some local thing? Local, if you live in northern Wisconsin, maybe. But that element has only a little to do with me and this blog.
Wakdjunkaga is a kind of alter-ego for me, a false identity on no occasion but a pen name for most of my plays in their original productions at Andrew Community School. Many of those plays, and most of the choral reading and readers theatre pieces we developed ourselves were presented as “by Durwood Wakdjunkaga.” I think the first official use of that name happened at a district individual events speech contest when a girl of great talent received an unfair rating (aren’t all the judgments with which we disagree unfair?) and would have been unable to advance to state. However, in my youthful ineptitude, we had an open spot for a poetry reader, scheduled to perform later in the afternoon (or at least an hour or so after the maltreated girl had received her II rating). We had just one problem (other than no performer, but of course this girl was going to be the substitute)—no poem to read. So I wrote one (fortunately, I believe it may only exist in the poetry files at the school or you might be reading it in one of these posts, and I have an otherwise embarrassing poem slated for tomorrow). Needing an author’s name for her to announce as she read the thing (and she did receive a I this time), I quickly settled on “Durwood Wakdjunkaga.”
Not as catchy as “George Orwell,” probably, certainly less memorable than “Mark Twain.” But my own.
So where did it come from? That’s where the story gets going…
In college one semester, I took a creative writing class, taught by the president of Iowa Wesleyan and former head of the English department. His was not the normal career path for an English professor, but Dr. Louis A. Haselmayer seemed to me then everything a college president should be (and, as I would later find out, then some). Naturally, everyone in the class wrote poems, including me (at least for the first couple of sessions). But I grew bored with uncritical reception of my verse (most of us were also members of Sigma Tau Delta, the English fraternity, at meetings for which we also exchanged writing—usually poetry—for discussion and critique as well as publishing a magazine every spring). So I decided to try writing a novel (I’d tried that several times previously in junior high and high school—all very incomplete), working up a chapter for each class session. I haven’t seen any of those pages, for which I was too ignorant to create carbons, in many years, so I assumed they’re long lost (we worked on typewriters in those days, a manual for me).
However, the story was titled The Book of Seasons, with reference to a pretended magical grimoire Liber Tempestatum (“The Book of Seasons” in Latin—me showing off my high school language study), in emulation of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle’s many hideous volumes of eldritch lore, particularly the nefarious Necronomicon. In what I wrote, a young person has inherited an old manse in which he finds this eerie ancient tome (straight copying of more than one Lovecraftian plot). I don’t think the actual story got much further than his discovery of the book. Evidently, not Dr. Haselmayer nor anyone in the class was familiar with Lovecraft, who was still pretty obscure and disrespected as a pulpster in those ancient days of 1971-75 (I don’t now recall in which year of my college career I took this class). I was unaware of the derivative nature of my story, so even after the class ended, I kept plugging away desultorily at it.
I own such a photojournalist’s vest
Actually, I jettisoned everything I had done for the class and started fresh. After my student-teaching stays at the antiquated, rundown, now-demolished, but beloved Hotel Allison in Cedar Rapids—first for a week in August and then during the longer second stay when I actually student-taught in November and December 1974—I came up with a more original plot. A character (as always, much like myself) was staying in the Hotel Allison (I don’t think I ever specified a reason), when one day literally out of thin air, a strange older man, dressed in strange clothing, popped into existence in the young man’s room and promptly passed out. I remember (the text is lost, I am pretty sure) the young man was cooking a can of beans in the can on a hotplate, contrary to all the regulations for residents at the Allison Hotel—as I had frequently done myself. Almost immediately, the young man went through the bald, old guy’s pockets (and he had many, wearing some strange kind of a multipocketed vest—all this written at the latest during my years in Ft. Madison, therefore long before I ever purchased a photojournalist’s vest, regardless how well-known I am for wearing them always now). Young man found several things of interest—some rods of various woods, powders and containers of other substances, and a strange book—not exactly a paperback because both the cover and pages seem to be either made of or encased in plastic.The book was poetry entitled A Book of Seasons by…
—I needed a name, and after a long process of calculation (which I will discuss in much greater detail later), I devised Durwood Wakdjunkaga.
When he had revived and received some food, the older man revealed he had come from the future, and was here to rewrite his own history. He was the author of the book of poems, so he was Durwood Wakdjunkaga. I think I intended for him to be a magician or wizard, having acquired the other Book of Seasons (the magic book from the earlier version of the story) in his youth, probably in the same way that I had developed for the creative writing class (I never got much past the old guy’s arrival and eventual introduction of himself). I intended these two to hang around Cedar Rapids and do various things the old guy wanted accomplished, with the youngster acquiring experience and wisdom from this future-elder, until the young man had to return to… well, I never had a good reason for him to be at the Hotel Allison, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him student teaching, so we have a hole in the plot outline here.
The old guy helps the young man meet a woman, prevents him from receiving a letter, and then vanishes, having left behind a message for the young man, who falls in love with the young woman and eventually marries her. The message reveals that Durwood and the young man are the same person: Durwood is the young man’s older self from the future, who regrets the path his life had taken (mostly because he received the mysterious letter, acquired the Liber Tempestatum, became interested in black magic or whatever, and never properly fell in love with the young woman—or perhaps he viciously sacrificed her, a virgin, to acquire his thaumaturgical powers; I liked the second version better, and I never did write any of this, just imagined it, so it’s all open-ended). As an old, lonely man, he realized that love would have been preferable to magic, so he used the magic powers he had acquired (by killing this young woman so many years before) to travel back in time and prevent himself from ever becoming a wizard (and her from dying). By succeeding, he extinguished himself.
Ta-daaah! There’s never been anything like that plot before. Not.
The book never got further than chapter two, as the old guy wakes up in the Hotel Allison, but the name and the sense of Durwood Wakdjunkaga being a kind of alter ego for me (after all, who else was the youngster in the Hotel Allison but my surrogate?) have never gone away. In fact, I am going to play with the older-looks-at-younger-looks-at-older self for tomorrow’s post.
So it’s “Wakdjunkaga’s Blog” because it’s my blog, and pseudonymously I am Durwood Wakdjunkaga. In fact, if the students who have asked did as I suggested, I have even foisted the pen name on my replacement to use as the author of their choral reading piece, performed today at the Iowa High School Speech Association district large group contest in Monticello. (I hope they did well, especially since everyone was probably as excited—or more excited—about the Andrew Homecoming Dance tonight.)
I hope that explains why this is “Wakdjunkaga’s Blog.”
However, we still don’t know where or how I came up with Durwood Wakdjunkaga as a name. As this post is definitely long enough, you will just have to wait for the rest of the story (along with waiting for the rest of “Details, Details”). Both will be forthcoming…
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8731 | 10,000 evocative words about Uganda.
As my Ethiopian Airways jet pulls up and away from Entebbe, Uganda, I’m sitting with my nose pressed against the glass, already missing the ubiquitous banana plantations, the smiling faces of the children, the beautiful grace of the men &women, and the ever-striving energy of Africa.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here are 10,000 to remember Uganda by:
Church isn't the same without a sweet sound system...
Could you walk to school 5 miles in these shoes?
Yep, that's putting your scooter to good use.
Smart girls rock!
My hands got tired from waving so much.
Looking so much like Joan of Arc....
Now this is extreme biking...
Big Billy of Nyaka
One month is all it takes to weave a basket.
A puzzle is a marvelous thing.
Until we meet again, keep jumping for joy! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8743 | Cchost/concepts/Query Engine
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Revision as of 11:16, 12 November 2008 by Fourstones (talk | contribs)
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All user generated or uploaded content and all topics are displayed in ccHost using the Query Engine and it's API. That means any and all features associated with content display is built on top of the Query API.
A detailed reference guide for the Query API can be found at every ccHost installation at <your_installation_root>/query-api
The graphic above shows a high level overview of how other components and data interact with the Query API.
The best way to understand to most common case usages of the query is to study the query templates walk-through. For more advanced features make see the Ultimate Template tutorial. |
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Revision as of 22:26, 18 May 2019
This page is about playing Version 4.0 of D&D on Roll20.
The 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons (hereafter referred to as 4e) is perfectly suited to being run on Roll20. With the emphasis of tactical combats and simple dice mechanics 4e is very easily adapted to playing on a virtual tabletop.
Macros and Attributes
The structure of rolls in 4e is very formulaic, which makes setting up a character's attributes and macros very simple. Below is a sample set of Attributes that can be used:
For Bars:
• Hit Points (26)
• Healing Surges (4)
• AC (15) <--Temp HP is also a good one for here
For Macros:
• WISDOM-MOD (2)
• Enhancement
• Half_Level
• Weapon_Proficiency (5)
• Implement (Enchantment bonus of character's Implement)
• Ranged_Proficiency (3) (Proficiency bonus of character's ranged weapon)
• Init_Bonus (4) (for initiative rolls with the Improved Initiative feat)
• Action_Points (1) <--this number changes so rarely it does not need to be a bar item-->
Useful Macros for Players
The following Macros utilize the above attributes.
Powers and Attack Macros
Melee Basic Attack
Macro name: "mba"
Invoked using: #mba
Macro Contents:
/roll 1d20 + @{STR_MOD} + @{Weapon_Proficiency} + @{Half_Level} + @{Enhancement} vs AC
/roll 1d8 + @{STR_MOD} + @{Enhancement damage}
Macro name: "cleave"
Invoked using: #cleave
Macro Contents:
/roll 1d20+@{STR_MOD} + @{Weapon_Proficiency} + @{Half_Level} + @{Enhancement} vs AC /roll 2d6+@{STR_MOD} damage, plus @{Str_Mod} damage to one additional enemy
The idea is to give as much information about the attack as possible in the roll so you don't have to look it up during play.
Leveraging the 4E Character Sheet and Rugged Reroll "targets"
The character sheet for D&D 4E is quite good, but it doesn't use rugged reroll "target" functionality. Here is example code (that works in either the "power" section of the character sheet, or in the "Abilities" tab (where you can make it a token action).
/me fires his @{power-3-name} at @{target|target1|token_name}
/roll d20 + [[ @{strength-mod-level} ]][Str+level] + [[ @{weapon-1-enh} ]][Enh]
vs @{power-3-def} [[ @{target|target1|AC} ]]
/roll (@{power-3-weapon-num-dice})d@{power-3-weapon-dice}+ [[@{power-3-damage}]] Damage
Utility Macros
Initiative Roll
/roll 1d20+@{DEX_MOD}+@{Init_Bonus} &{tracker}
Saving Throw
Here are a few macros for rolling saving throws and having it show pass, green and red fail.
First the simplest with nothing added.
Will show green for 10 and above and red for 9 and lower.
If you want to add in a bonus for like a +2 bonus to charm effects, etc.
[[1d20cs>[[10 - (?{Bonus|0}) ]]cf<[[ 9 - (?{Bonus|0}) ]] + (?{Bonus|0})]]
With this a box will show up and ask for your bonus, that is this part (?{Bonus|0}). It will only ask once, the |0 will make it default to 0.
Useful Macros for GMs
As a GM properly utilizing macros can greatly speed up play. Below are some useful macros for GMs. First, however, some set up is required.
Tips for game set up
First, set up your monsters with character sheets like you would for player characters. Unlike player characters, they need significantly less detail.
For Bars
• Hit Points (30)
• Bloodied Value (15)
• AC (15)
For Macros
• Init (5)
• Atk (6)
• Dmg (1d6+5)
Now follow these steps to set up the monster sheet:
1. Choose tags for the monster. Typically all monsters should have at least the "NPC" tag so they can be easily distinguished from player characters, but using the creature type, level of the creature, role (soldier, brute, artillery, etc.), and encounter number are all useful tags so you can easily find the monster character sheets during play.
2. Create a token for the character and put the monster's hit points in bar 1, the bloodied value in bar 2, and the monster's AC in bar 3. This lets you easily reference these values during play.
3. Choose "Represents Character" under the token options and choose the character sheet for your new monster. Do not link any of the bars to attributes as this will cause reducing one token's hit points to reduce all similar monster's hit points. Useful Tip: By using the "Represents Character" option, you can now shift+double-click (or hold shift and click the gear icon) the token to open its character sheet, useful if you have many monsters.
4. Select the token, open the monster's character sheet, and click "Use Selected" under the default token option. This will allow you to drag copies of the monster set up for play onto the map at any time.
You are now ready to create some global macros that will speed up play.
GM Global Macros
Be sure to place these macros in your bar to speed up access. You can also choose to name them something short and use #init and #atk, for example.
Note:These macros make heavy use of the inline rolling system in order to reduce chat spam for GM monster rolls. You can simplify these by removing the "/emas @ selected|token_name} rolls" and the brackets and using /roll instead.
Global Initiative
/w gm @{selected|token_name} rolls [[1d20+@{selected|Init} &{tracker}]] initiative.
Note: The reason for using /w gm is to hide the initiative roll from the players. This is useful when you are rolling initiative for hidden monsters or ones in other nearby locations that the players haven't revealed yet. If you prefer to keep it out in the open, replace "/w gm" with "/emas"
Global Attack
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls [[1d20+@{selected|Atk}]] to hit.
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls [[@{selected|Dmg}]] damage.
Skill Macros
Using Macros and “Selected icon” for Character Skills and Abilities
All D&D 4 characters have the same list of skills. Instead of entering Abilites for each character for all skills, you can leverage shared macros. Players (including the DM) will need to click-select their character icon before using the shared macros.
This keeps the character sheet from being cluttered, and is less prone to error. My players don’t mind this, because they are used to selecting their tokens in order to get their token actions to appear.
Create the following attributes for each character (or better yet, one character sheet you later copy) and populate them with values.
Attributes for all characters
STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA (In this example, these will have the actual ability score, not the modifier.)
Then, add attributes for all skills:
(Repeat for other skills)
Internal macros:
The following macros have no commands (e.g., /roll) so they don’t do anything interesting if called directly. They are meant to be called by other macros or abilities. To keep them from cluttering up auto-complete lists, you can begin them with an underscore.
Name: _Half_Level
floor( @{selected|Level} /2 )
Show as Token Action: Leave unchecked
Visible to Players: All Players
Ability Mod macros (Repeat for other abilities)
Name: _STR_MOD
Show as Token Action: Leave unchecked
Visible to Players: All Players
Skill macros:
Name: Acrobatics
@{selected|token_name} tries an acrobatic manuever.
/roll d20 + [[ @{selected|Acrobatics-trained}*5 ]][training] + [[ @{selected|Acrobatics-misc} ]][misc] - [[ @{selected|Armor-penalty} ]][Armor] + [[ #_DEX_MOD ]][Dex] + [[ #_Half_Level ]][lvl]
Shows as Token Action? : Your choice
Visible to Players: All Players
Ability Check Macros:
Name: STR_check
/roll 1d20 + #_STR_MOD + #_HALF_LEVEL
Shows as Token Action? : Your choice
Visible to Players: All Players
Name: Escape - Acrobatic
@{selected|token_name} attempts an acrobatic escape of @{target|target1|token_name}'s grab
#Acrobatics vs [[ @{target|target1|REF} ]][REF]
Shows as Token Action: Your choice
Visible to Players: All Players
Advanced Features Rugged Reroll
These are tips for a more advanced set up that utilizes two advanced features of the Rugged Reroll update: token actions and targeted macros.
Monster Specific Abilities
With token actions it becomes feasible to incorporate monster specific macros into character sheets. To do so, make an ability on the monster character sheet and select the "Show as Token Action" option. Any tokens that use that monster's character sheet will then pop up a context-sensitive list of abilities when you select the monster.
Monster Example: Fledgling White Dragon
As an example, take this fledgling white dragon:
HP 128, AC 15, Fort 15, Ref 11, Will 13, Init +0
Bite +6 vs AC, 1d12+11 cold
Claws +6 vs AC, 1d12+4, can attack twice
Breath Weapon +4 vs Reflex, 2d8+4 cold, recharge 5/6
Tail Slap +4 vs. Fortitude, 1d12+4 and push target 3 squares
This is a lot of abilities to handle with just the "Attack" macro used above. The attacks often deal different damage, with a different bonus to hit, and against different defenses. Instead, create a character ability for each attack:
/emas @{selected|token_name} bites for [[d20+@{selected|Atk}]] to hit vs @{target|token_name}'s AC @{target|bar3} and deals [[@{selected|Dmg}]] cold damage.
/emas @{selected|token_name} claws for [[d20+@{selected|Atk}]] and [[d20+@{selected|Atk}]] to hit vs @{target|token_name}'s AC @{target|bar3} and deals [[1d12+4]] and [[1d12+4]] damage.
Note: It is not currently possible to select multiple targets in the same macro; you'll have to check the second target's AC manually.
/emas @{selected|token_name} breathes for [[d20+4]] to hit vs @{target|token_name}'s Reflex @{target|Ref}.
Note: You have to type in the '4' manually since it is different from the standard attack. You could also subtract two or even create another attribute specifically for the breath weapon.
/emas @{selected|token_name}'s breath deals [[2d8+4]] cold damage and target is slowed (save ends).
Note: In 4e, damage is rolled once for area attacks while to hit is rolled individually, which is why there is a separate macro for hit and damage with the dragon's breath weapon.
/w gm @{selected|token_name} rolls [[1d6>5]] to recharge breath weapon.
Note: This sends a hidden message to you so you can check each round whether or not the dragon recharged their breath weapon. If yes, the value will be 1, otherwise 0. You can leave out the '>5' to just get the raw value of the d6 roll.
/emas @{selected|token_name} tail slaps for [[d20+4]] to hit vs @{target|token_name}'s Fortitude @{target|Fort} and deals [[1d12+4]] damage and pushes the target up to 3 squares.
Now whenever you select the dragon a list of abilities will show up at the top left of your screen. Clicking one of them will give you the option to choose a target (typically one of the PCs) and will then output a in-character hit and damage values vs. the character's defenses for the monster. This lets you play something as complex as a dragon without ever having to reference its character sheet in combat or that of the players.
Monster Abilities that automatically adjust to level
D&D 4E makes it easy to adjust a monster’s level. Roll20 abilities can be created so they adjust to hit and damage rolls automatically. ( So only attributes need to be manually changed when changing a monster level.)
1. Create a character template for monsters with the following attributes:
Attribute Value
Level Desired Monster Level
Base_Level Value from monster listing
2. Add the ability definitions.
Enter the modifiers from the monster listing, plus the code for adjusting to hit and damage rolls, as follows:
Example 1: Basic ability with no target
/emas @{selected|token_name} thrusts its spear
/roll d20 + 6 + (@{Level}-@{Base_Level}) vs AC
/roll d8 + 2 + ( floor((@{Level}-@{Base_Level}) /2)))
Example 2: Rugged Reroll style, with target.
(NOTE: Target’s “AC” attribute must be defined.)
/emas @{selected|token_name} thrusts its spear at @{target|target1|token_name}
/roll d20 + 6 + [[ (@{Level}-@{Base_Level}) ]][lvl] vs AC: [[ @{target|target1|AC} ]]
/roll d8 + 2 + [[ 0d1+( floor((@{Level}-@{Base_Level}) /2))) ]][lvl]
Example 3: Using attributes from the 4E character sheet
This is based on a power created automatically by the character sheet, but adds target name and defense, and shows the actual dice rolls.
/em shoots @{target|target1|token_name} with his @{weapon-2-name}
/roll d20 + [[ @{dexterity-mod-level} ]][Dex+level] + [[ @{weapon-2-enh} ]][Enh] vs AC [[ @{target|target1|AC} ]]
/roll @{weapon-2-num-dice}d(@{weapon-2-dice}) + [[ @{dexterity-mod} ]][Dex] + [[ @{weapon-2-enh} ]][Enh]
Dynamically controlling number of dice rolled
Some powers get more dice based on character level. The dice usually increase on a mathematical basis, so can be built into an ability or macro formula. The following increases the number of dice rolled every five levels: [[ ( ( (@{Level}-1)/5 ) )d6 ]].
This formula reports the new HP total for a healed character, the lower of the full value of the healing word, or the character's max hit points.
/me utters a Healing Word to @{target|target1|token_name}
/roll { [[ @{target|target1|HP} ]][hp] + [[ @{target|target1|Surge_value} ]][surge] + ( [[ 1+ floor( (@{selected|Level}-1)/5 ) ]] )d6 , 0d1+ @{target|target1|HP|max} }kl1
Here is an example using the attributes from the 4E character sheet:
/em lays hands on @{target|target1|token_name} @{selected|token_name} spends a healing surge to heal @{target|target1|token_name} , who gains /roll 0d1 + [[ 0d1 + floor(@{target|target1|hp|max}/4)+@{target|target1|surge-value-bonus} ]] + [[ @{target|target1|HP} ]][current HP] + [[ ( 3 * ( 1 + floor( @{selected|level}/10 ) ) ) ]][tier bonus] , 0d1+ @{target|target1|HP|max} }kl1
Here is an example that lets you roll a multiple number of dice (in this case, 2 or 4).
/me wants to cast Magic Missile at @{target|target1|token_name} (AW)
/roll d20 + [[ #INT_MOD ]][Int] + [[ #Half_Level ]][lvl] + [[ @{Implement} ]][item] vs REF: [[ @{target|target1|REF} ]]
/roll [[ ( 2* floor( 1+@{Level}/21 )) ]]d4 + [[ @{INT_MOD} ]][Int] +[[ @{Implement} ]][item]
Bloodied effects
Some powers increase in effectiveness when the monster/character is bloodied. This can be calculated automatically by comparing current hit points to max hit points.
This macro subtracts twice the current hit points from the total hit points, resulting in a negative total or zero for non-bloodied characters, and a positive number for bloodied characters. Use keep-lower and keep-higher to round these down to zero or one.
Define a macro named: Is_bloodied Visible to players: All players.
{{ @{selected|HP|max} - ( 2 * @{selected|HP}) , 0}k1, 0d1+1}kl1
Then use #Is_Bloodied to modify the result as appropriate. (Multiplying any result by #Is_Bloodied will zero it out if the character is not bloodied.)
The following power gets a +2 to hit and does an additional die of damage when the character is bloodied.
/roll d20 + 3 + [[ (#Is_bloodied * 2) ]][bloodied] vs AC: @{target|target1|AC}
/roll d6 + 3 + [[ (#Is_bloodied + 1) ]]d6
Dynamic Lighting
You can find D&D4e specific vision and lighting examples in the Dynamic Lighting Style Guide.
Character Sheet
You can find information specific to the character sheet on the DnD4e Character Sheet page. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8745 | Information for "IRC Transition"
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Display titleIRC Transition
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Page ID1848
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Page creatorArkan (talk | contribs)
Date of page creation14:16, 16 January 2015
Latest editorArkan (talk | contribs)
Date of latest edit14:16, 16 January 2015
Total number of edits1
Total number of distinct authors1
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Recent number of distinct authors0 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8761 | Check out our Fabulous Prizes!
There are nearly too many to list, but let us start with the fabulous, local food and drink items on auction this April 8th. Donations from the following august establishments will be yours for the bidding:
From Bel Air Markets, a $25 gift card
From Black Bear Diner, $20 in BearBucks
From Country Waffles, Breakfast for 2 and Lunch for 2
From El Patio, a gift card
From Food For Less, $50 gift card
From Good Humus Produce, a box of organic produce
From the Kitada Family, 2# fresh-roasted coffee
From Ludy’s, $100 gift certificate
From The Melting Pot, $50 gift card
From Riverdog Farm, 4 weeks of organic produce boxes
From Sudwerk, 1 case of beer and 4 22oz beers
….and our event will feature Brownie Bites from local bakery Zest West.
Getting hungry?
Thank you to our generous sponsors. You are our community.
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Articles & Stories
Mobile house built by German sawmiller
Norbert Grabinger from Steinberg am See, Germany built this mobile house with larch and pine cut on his LT15 sawmill.
German carpenter completes project by cutting oak on LT10
German logger expands into sawmilling with LT15
Visit a small German fencing company - MR Holz - and find out how they diversified their logging company into a wider range of products and services with an LT15 sawmill.
LT15 sawmill helps German logger expand opportunities
In 2000, Maik bought a Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill to cut the timbers he needed to remodel his house. After the remodeling project was completed, Maik realised that the sawmill...
German estate revitalised with additon of an LT20B
The LT20B sawmill was intended to solely serve their own needs, but a year later, fifty per cent of its time is taken up with sawing timbers for customers.
Welcome to the stories and articles section of our website.
Paulina Lewandowska - PR Coordinator
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8775 | I'm looking to learn how to write good short stories, what are some good instruction manuals I should use to learn from?
I like the Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch. It's not limited to Short Stories, it covers fiction in general. But it's small and approachable and full of helpful ideas.
For writing short stories try this one:
• Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway
I also found it really helpful to read a lot of short stories. Two anthologies I really liked were:
• Points of View edited by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny
• The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Shorter 7th Edition by Richard Bausch and R. V. Cassill
A couple of authors whose short stories I found inspirational were:
• Anton Chekov
• Leo Tolstoy (his novellas e.g "Kruetzer Sonata" and "Death of Ivan Illyich"
• O' Henry
• Guy DeMaupassant
• Edgar Allan Poe
For more recent short stories you can pick up the last couple years of "Best American Short Stories" - which collects the best short stories by year.
This one's kind of "out there", but unbeatable if you'd like to take the organic, from-the-heart, not-the-head kind of approach: Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction. Rather than old-fashioned, technique-based instruction, Butler really encourages you to go to your "dream space" (almost becoming the character) to the point where you are walking around in your fictional world. You will soon "discover", he says, what is supposed to naturally happen next.
Another excellent one, which is more practical and down-to-earth: Ron Carlson Writes a Story. I love this one not just because it's a short read, but because Carlson actually takes you through pretty much the exact thought process he used to write one of his most popular stories. He pauses and tells you what he was thinking at each moment of the story-writing process, and tells you where he added content, debated about character choices, etc. One of the most unique elements of this book though, is that he also gives tips about your external environment, not just the story itself. He tells you how he got rid of distractions, set himself up in a good place to begin writing, and importantly, when he let himself take a break.
Two more suggestions:
Rick DiMarinis -- The Art & Craft of the Short Story
Rust Hills -- Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8781 | Driveline Simulation
Simulation performance, troubleshooting simulation issues
Understanding how Simscape™ Driveline™ simulates a driveline can help you build models that simulate without performance issues. If you do encounter performance issues, to resolve them, you can identify and eliminate conflicting constraints for degrees of freedom, clutch states, and initial conditions in your model.
Driveline Simulation Performance
Optimize simulation performance by adjusting Simscape Driveline and Simscape solver settings and model fidelity.
How Simscape Driveline Simulates a Drivetrain System
Learn how a Simscape Driveline simulation differs from a Simscape simulation.
Driveline Degrees of Freedom
Identify and define driveline degrees of freedom.
Driveline States — Effect of Clutches
Determine the overall state of a driveline by identifying the clutch states.
Troubleshoot Overconstrained and Conflicting Degrees of Freedom
Identify and eliminate issues with conflicting constraints.
Troubleshoot Clutch and Transmission Errors
Identify and eliminate issues with dynamic constraints.
Troubleshoot Inconsistent Initial Conditions
Identify and eliminate issues with motion conflicts.
Troubleshoot Pulley Network Issues
Learn how to solve initialization and motion issues in pulley networks.
Troubleshoot Engine Issues
Learn how to solve motion issues in engine-driven systems.
Resolve Partitioning Solver Simulation Issues for Simscape Driveline Models
Resolve numerical issues that can occur for Simscape Driveline models during simulations that use the Simscape Partitioning solver. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8800 | Indicating disagreement — Additional dialogue
កូនម៉ាក់ ង៉ៃហ្នឹងមិនបាច់ធ្វើម្ហូបអេ៎ណាទៅញ៉ាំអីនៅក្រៅម៉ងម៉ាក់ឯងចង់ញ៉ាំអី?
ម៉ាក់មិនបាច់អេ៎អី? នាំតែអស់លុយ
កូនយូរម្ដងតាសទៅហាងង៉ៃមុនទៅ ម៉េចដែរ?
ម៉ាក់អត់ទេសហាងង៉ៃមុនហ្នឹង អត់សូវឆ្ងាញ់ហើយថ្លៃទៀត
កូនអីចឹង ទៅណាវិញ?
កូនហ៊ើយ ម៉ាក់ឯងនេះយ៉ាប់ម៉ងទៅកន្លែងណារៀងឡូយតិចទៅ
Link to overview page
Link to dictionary
2. animal baby, young
ម៉ាក់ mak mom, mommy
Notes: colloquial
ង៉ៃហ្នឹង ŋay nɨŋ spoken form of ថ្ងៃនេះ = today
មិនបាច់ mɨn bac to not have to, not need to, to be not necessary {មិនបាច់ទេ = [that’s/it’s] not necessary}
ម្ហូប mhoup food, meal
អេ៎ ʔee 1. spoken form of the question particles ... អត់? or ... ទេ?
2. spoken form of the negation particle ទេ
3. hey!
Notes: colloquial
ណា naa final particle to soften a statement or request
2. towards
ញ៉ាំ ɲam to eat, to drink, to consume {ញ៉ាំបាយ = general term for 'to eat' (neutral form for younger persons and persons of the same age)}
Notes: variant of អ្វី
នៅ nɨv 1. in, at
ក្រៅ krav 1. outside, out
2. foreign
ម៉ង mɑɑŋ 1. immediately, at once, right away
2. all of a sudden
3. generally, in general
4. totally
Notes: spoken form of តែម្ដង
ឯង ʔaeŋ 1. you
2. self, oneself, by oneself
3. used after personal pronouns or names to make the address more polite
4. surely, obviously
ចង់ cɑŋ 1. to want/wish/desire (to do something)
2. to flirt with, court, woo (a girl)
3. to approach, draw near
4. about to (do something), on the point of
5. even if
អេ៎អី ʔee ʔəy as a question: maybe ...? {ញ៉ាំអីខុសអេ៎អី? = Maybe you’ve eaten something wrong?}
នាំ noam 1. to bring, lead, take to, guide, take along
2. to cause, bring about/produce (a result)
តែ tae 1. but, however
2. only, just
3. tea
អស់ ʔɑh 1. to consume, use up, run low/short (of something) {អស់ហើយ = [a product, food etc.] finished/sold out}
2. to end, finish, terminate, come to an end
3. entirety, completeness, wholeness
4. to be complete, whole
5. entirely, completely
6. all (of), the whole (of)
7. to have to spend {អស់ម៉ាម៉ឺនទទេ = I had to pay 10’000 for no reason!}
លុយ luy 1. money
2. small change, coin
យូរ yuu 1. slow
2. (of time) long
3. late
ម្ដង mdɑɑŋ 1. one time, once
2. for a change
Notes: ជើង ដ; contraction of មួយដង
តាស taah 1. particle in final position when giving a positive answer to a yes/no question {កន្លែងនេះអង្គុយបានអេ៎? ចា៎ស បានតាស។ = Can I sit here? Sure!}
2. particle in final position used to affirm the preceding {ល្អតាស! = Sounds good!}
3. particle in final position after a negative response: expresses that the preceding is a correction of what the other person has said {ធារីមែន? អត់ទេ ខ្ញុំកញ្ញាតាស។ = You’re ធារី, right? No, I’m កញ្ញា!} {ឯងទៅសាលាមែន? អត់ទេ ខ្ញុំទៅផ្សារតាស។ = You’re going to school, right? No, I’m going to the market!}
Notes: colloquial; spoken form of ទេតើ
ហាង haaŋ store, shop
ង៉ៃ ŋay spoken form of ថ្ងៃ = day
ម៉េចដែរ məc dae 1. How is it? How is it going?
2. What's up?
3. How is that? What do you think about that?
Notes: colloquial
អត់ទេស ʔɑt teeh emphatic variant of អត់ទេ = no, not
Notes: BCF; colloquial
អត់សូវ ʔɑt səv 1. not so much
2. rather not
ឆ្ងាញ់ cŋaɲ tasty, delicious
ហើយ haǝy 1. to be finished, ended, completed
2. enough!
3. final particle indicating completed action, already, by now
5. and, afterwards, next, then, after that
ថ្លៃ tlay 1. expensive, dear, valuable
2. cost, price, value
2. to be different, other
អីចឹង ʔəycəŋ 1. like this, like that, in that way, then {គិតម៉េចទៅអីចឹង? = What are you going to do next?} {ធ្វើមុខអីអីចឹង? = Why are you making such a face?}
2. really?
Notes: variant: អ៊ីចឹង
ណា naa 1. which, any
2. where, somewhere, anywhere
វិញ vɨɲ again, back, instead
គុយទាវ kuy tiev kind of noodle soup
ធម្មតា tʰoam meaʔ taa 1. to be natural, habitual, usual, ordinary
2. usually, ordinarily
ជិត cɨt 1. to be close, near
2. tight
3. close-set, dense, thick
4. closely, tightly
5. almost
7. to cover completely, be completely/firmly covered
ហ៊ើយ hǝǝy 1. exclamation to express boredom, frustration, or not wanting to do something
2. exclamation expressing relief
Notes: BCF
នេះ nih 1. this, these
យ៉ាប់ម៉ង yap mɑɑŋ to be annoying, bad, a nuisance
កន្លែង kɑnlaeŋ 1. place, location, region
2. clf. for locations
រៀង riəŋ 1. រៀង + adj. + បន្តិច/តិច = a bit + adj. {រៀងពិបាកបន្តិច = a bit difficult} {រៀងប្រៃបន្តិច = a bit salty}
2. to arrange in series, ranks, rows, order or style
3. in sequence, in order, in rows
4. all, each, every
ឡូយ looy 1. cool
2. arrogant, proud
តិច təc 1. to be few (in number), small (in size or extent), less
2. a little bit, somewhat
3. phrase-final: makes a request more polite {ចង់ពឹងឲ្យជួយលើកអីវ៉ាន់តិច = Can you please help me carrying these things?} {ខ្ញុំសុំលអាវនេះតិចបានអេ៎? = Can I try on this shirt here, please?}
4. phrase-initial: expressing concern {តិចមានបញ្ហាអីទៅ បង? = Will this be a problem?}
ស្រេចតែ srac tae to depend un, to be up to (prep: + លើ)
ថា tʰaa 1. to say, tell, pronounce
2. that (introduces a question or indirect discourse)
អត់ ʔɑt 1. no, not
2. to be without, lacking
3. to restrain oneself, abstain from
4. particle to form yes/no questions
ឲ្យ ʔaoy 1. to give
2. to let, to allow
Notes: also written អោយ, ឱ្យ
2. mostly, often
អញ្ចេក ʔɑɲcek 1. like this
2. this, this much
Notes: alternative pronunciation of អញ្ចេះ |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8815 | What does BBIB mean?
Your Search of BBIB returned the exact results from our database.
Possible meanings of abbreviation, acronym BBIB.
Meaning of BBIB
Below is explained the meaning of BBIB, furthermore categories from where this acronym comes.
List of the other meanings of BBIB can be found with the help of 'Search bar' of this website.
Building Blocks Information Base
BBIB Building Blocks Information Base
Category Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BBIB Building Blocks Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
TBB Threading Building Blocks Computing, Software
LBB Logistics Building Blocks Business, Logistics
BBL Building Blocks Lacrosse Sports, Lacrosse
OBB Optical Building Blocks Miscellaneous, Unclassified
MBB Modular Building Blocks Governmental, Military
CABB Chlorine Acetyl Building Blocks Miscellaneous, Unclassified
GABB Graph Algorithms Building Blocks Miscellaneous, Unclassified
SMBB Solution Modeling Building Blocks Business, General
BYB Building Your Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BMB Base Maintenance Building Governmental, NASA
RIB RAN Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
IB Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
ISB2 Information Sciences Building 2 Academic & Science, Universities
BIM Building Information Modeling Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BIM Building Information Modelling Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BIS Building Information Search Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BIM Building Information Model Academic & Science, Architecture
BIS Building Information System Miscellaneous, Unclassified
MIB Management Information Base Computing, Drivers
CIB Cluster Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
PIB Policy Information Base Governmental, US Government
BII Base Information Infrastructure Governmental, Military
DIB Directory Information Base Computing, Software
RIB Routing Information Base Computing, Networking
TFIB Tag forwarding information base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
FIB Forwarding Information Base Computing, Networking
LIB Label Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BING Building Information Neighborhood Group Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BRIM. Building System & Information Management Business
MISB Medical Information Sciences Building Academic & Science, Universities
TBIS Tall Building Information System Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BCIS Building Cost Information Service Business, General
BCIS Building Code Information System Academic & Science, Architecture
BCSI Building Component Safety Information Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BRIK Building Research Information Knowledgebase Internet, Websites
BASIC Building A Secure Information Community Computing, General
ISBL Information Systems Base Language Computing, Software
RIBT Regional Information Base on Terrorism Governmental, Military
DMIB Digital Media Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
SMIB Security Management Information Base Governmental, Military
CRIB Computer Resources Information Base Computing
MIKB Management Information Knowledge Base Business, Management
RIBD Routing Information Base Dictionary Computing, Networking
BOIS Base Operating Information System Miscellaneous, Unclassified
PSIB Performance Standards Information Base Miscellaneous, Unclassified
BSRIA Building Services Research and Information Association Community, Associations
BIDDS Base Information Digital Distribution System Governmental, Military
GDSII Geometrical Data base for Information Interchange Computing, Unix Commands
BCITS Base Communications and Information Technology Services Computing, Technology
SBIS Sustaining Base Information Services (or System) Governmental, Military
RABBIT Real Actual Business Building Information Technology Computing, Technology
USHIK United States Health Information Knowledge Base Governmental, FDA
HERBIE Hybrid Education and Research Base for Information Exchange Academic & Science, Research
ASIMS Army Sustaining Base Information Management System Governmental, Military
BLKS BLocKS Community, Housing
TBFTE Two Blocks From the Edge Community, Music
BPM Blocks Per Game Sports
BB Basic Blocks Miscellaneous, Unclassified
ABC All Blocks Covered Governmental, Military |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8839 | Building Your Mobile App Quality Strategy: STARWEST 2015 Interview with Jason Arbon
In this interview, TechWell speaks with the CEO of, Jason Arbon. During the show, he gave two presentations titled, "Testing the Internet of Things" and "Building Your Mobile App Quality Strategy."
Jennifer Bonine: All right, we are back with our last of our grouping of interviews before you guys are put back to one of our presentations. I'm fortunate enough to have Jason here with me again.
Jason Arbon: You're very lucky.
Jennifer Bonine: Nice to have you here.
Jason Arbon: Nice to be here. Good luck.
Jennifer Bonine: I've gotten to talk to Jason before. For those of you not here, poor Jason, we sit under these very bright lights here when we do this.
Jason Arbon: It's like I'm being interrogated.
Jennifer Bonine: Right? A little bit. A little bit. It can be a little scary but you'll do just fine. Jason what are you talking about here at the conference this time? How's things going?
Jason Arbon: It's okay.
Jennifer Bonine: Okay? Just okay?
Jason Arbon: Just okay.
Jennifer Bonine: Oh no.
Jason Arbon: No, they got me booked, I did a three-hour tutorial on mobile app quality and strategy. They also got me hooked in to do a talk on IoT testing, that was pretty cool. I've also been talking about the new company I started that you're going to ask me about.
Jennifer Bonine: You started a new company?
Jason Arbon: Yeah.
Jennifer Bonine: Very cool, you're always on the bleeding edge. I know last time we had talked you were doing one of our keynotes, for those that haven't seen it you did a keynote and my most memorable thing about Jason is you left your cell phone up on the podium, I think.
Jason Arbon: Yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah.
Jason Arbon: I had another one, another incident this time. During the mobile app testing presentation, my ringer went on. I set a timer on there for the break, except the time was set to play back that song that starts with "I'm on a boat in an ocean" and it was super loud. That was kind of embarrassing.
Jennifer Bonine: A little bit, but you've got to do stuff like that, it's okay.
Jason Arbon: I tried to blame the kids, but no one let me do it.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah. No. Since we last spoke you have a new company.
Jason Arbon: Yes. Great question.
Jennifer Bonine: That's awesome.
Jason Arbon: I've got a new company, it's called, it's A-P-P-D-I-F-F dot com. Basically what we're doing is we're solving the two biggest problems in mobile app testing today. Because I hear when I'm at the conferences, what are people talking about all the time? They want to do mobile automation, it's hard, it's painful, it's expensive, and then testers go "How do I test and keep up when I get new builds every day?" Right?
Jennifer Bonine: Right.
Jason Arbon: Because you can't finish your test cycle. Basically what AppDiff does is just like Google crawls the web, it basically crawls your app. It crawls the app store. Automatically, a robot walks through your app, auto-magically, you just upload your app and it crawls through it, it automates everything. Then it will tell you if there's any performance issues automatically, it will send you a picture so you can't hide and pretend you don't understand the graph of performance data. It sends you a picture with the sign up button highlighted in red and says "Super slow. It's three seconds to take a click. You need to fix it."
Jennifer Bonine: You can't ignore it.
Jason Arbon: You can't ignore it, we make it super obvious and easy. Secondly, the magic happens when you send in a second build. This is where I get excited, I get excited about this stuff.
Jennifer Bonine: I know, I can tell.
Jason Arbon: When you send a second build the diff-robots walk through it again, super smart, walk through the entire app just like an end user would, and then it identifies everything that changed. If a new button was added in that build or an image was removed or the flow changes or something got slower, it sends you a text or an email and it says "Yo, this is what changed in the build." Just moments after your build. Manual testers and release managers know what changed, so they can go in and attack it.
Jennifer Bonine: Quickly.
Jason Arbon: It's either free bug, a super easy bug, or it's something new they need to test.
Jennifer Bonine: Which I love, it's like the play on for mobile apps for the diff functionality where you take two word documents and you look at the differences.
Jason Arbon: Exactly.
Jennifer Bonine: But now it's for mobile apps.
Jason Arbon: Yeah. It's for the entire run time of the app, just like the end user does it and auto-magically.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, which is perfect.
Jason Arbon: We are free and pay for advertising space. It's free for one app through the end of the year. Email me or go to and send us your app and we'll analyze it.
Jennifer Bonine: Very cool. That's a great thing to know. For all of you out there go to, through the end of the year it's free to put an app out there.
Jason Arbon: This is what I hear, all I heard this morning, or yesterday morning during the app testing presentation, were these questions. I got fed up but I said I'm going to try to solve it.
Jennifer Bonine: That's awesome. Now have you guys seen ... How long has AppDiff been around now, officially?
Jason Arbon: Officially, it's been about three months, three or four months.
Jennifer Bonine: Wow.
Jason Arbon: We've got a team going.
Jennifer Bonine: Good.
Jason Arbon: Running around and all that kind of stuff.
Jennifer Bonine: Awesome. How many apps do you guys currently have that are being crawled through?
Jason Arbon: It's interesting a mix, we have a bunch of pilots, we have about ten pilots in progress right now, but we also crawl the app store so there's a good chance we've already crawled people's apps. I can just pull them off of Google Play and we automatically, because of just magic,we basically already automated I think about 3,000 applications. Your app has probably already been automated, which is kind of awesome.
Jennifer Bonine: Cool. Jason already helped you out and you didn't know it.
Jason Arbon: Exactly, exactly.
Jennifer Bonine: That's awesome.
Jason Arbon: Yeah.
Jennifer Bonine: What a neat feature, though. How are you advertising or how are people finding out about it? Just through these conferences?
Jason Arbon: Just here right now.
Jennifer Bonine: Just here right now?
Jason Arbon: Coming out right now.
Jennifer Bonine: Just you guys.
Jason Arbon: Yeah, that's actually been really word of mouth. We've been very quiet during the early beta because basically we've had enough inbound to keep us busy. We're building everything, it's in beta and stuff like that, so we've been pretty quiet until basically this week.
Jennifer Bonine: That's awesome.
Jason Arbon: We're ready for a bunch more people to try it out and give us feedback and test it, right?
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, this is great. What a great thing, because that is. You're absolutely right, when you come to these conferences there's common themes of what people are concerned about, how do I do this or what's a good way to do it? That is a gap, there's clear gaps.
Jason Arbon: Like you said, I'm bleeding edge, I'm the kind of crazy guy who would jump, try to go build it.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, you are. You're always bleeding edge.
Jason Arbon: I'm not sure my wife appreciates it. But yeah, I try.
Jennifer Bonine: But you know, one day, when Jason's super famous and won't sit down with me anymore and talk about stuff.
Jason Arbon: Whatever.
Jennifer Bonine: It will be ... One day we'll see how it goes.
Jason Arbon: Actually, I'll get in trouble with her. You know what she says? I'll be working late at night and I'll call her, "Do you want me to come home for dinner?" You know what she says?
Jennifer Bonine: What?
Jason Arbon: She says "Come home when you exit."
Jennifer Bonine: Come on when you exit.
Jason Arbon: If I'm going to jump, I'd better jump.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, exactly. You've got to go all in. I love the concept, I'm sure folks out there are really interested in it too, because it is, it's a huge challenge for testers. We didn't get a chance, the person who was here right before you, where he was a developer on the mobile app side. A common thing I'm hearing from testers now is things like "Gosh, it's kind of unfair, developers in a click of a button can push code to multiple devices. I'm a tester and if I have to manually test all those same devices it takes me way longer than it does for that developer to push a piece of code that's perpetuated to all these things."
Jason Arbon: Exactly. Diff is really a tool that developers have been using forever on source code like you know.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah.
Jason Arbon: Bringing that into the test world and that technology around the idea of Google crawling the entire web and solving the problem and indexing on that data. We're doing that and bringing that forward in the testing world too. It's crazy we don't have the same tools and technologies.
Jennifer Bonine: No, I know. You see it like you said on the developer side they have lots of things to speed them up but getting tools out there to testers and the people who are responsible, it is so critical.
Jason Arbon: These days it's all about speed of iteration.
Jennifer Bonine: It is, yeah. Because it's coming so fast.
Jason Arbon: It's why you need that automation.
Jennifer Bonine: Yep, it is. You just have to have strategies to keep up with it. You also said you talked about the internet of things. With all that connectivity and all the connection points.
Jason Arbon: Yeah. It's going to be crazier. You've got to deploy to environments ... We were talking yesterday about it a lot. The future of that world is going to be almost like dedicated zones, like Paul was talking about in the keynote yesterday, in the cities where you can actually test all these technologies in a city context. There's going to be apartments for rent where you basically rent time and the lab is going to be an apartment in some building.
Jennifer Bonine: Right, where all the things are.
Jason Arbon: It's got Nest, you've got all the Samsung TVs, you've got everything in there. You load your little code, your little app up in there, run it inside that environment. That's going to be your lab, but it's a very, very real world lab. I think it's the future of IoT testing.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah. How interesting though, right? Yesterday we had Bart and the Test Lab guys in here talking about our laboratory that we have out here, some of the folks are virtually doing the lab, but to think about that lab's now going to move from what we've traditionally thought of as a room with some TVs and it has some devices and cell phones, and then it has some laptops and stuff. But now it's literally going to be made into a real world lab with an apartment.
Jason Arbon: Awesome. Right. Okay, cool. Like a little apartment world.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, exactly.
Jason Arbon: Real devices, you can sit probably on the couch or something.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah, exactly. Because that's what it's going to be, to your point of you've got to see it perform how it interacts, which is all connected in that space.
Jason Arbon: The only way to really verify it at the end of the day, you can emulate and automate a lot of stuff but you've got to put it out in the real world.
Jennifer Bonine: And see how it all works together. Pretty exciting stuff though, just a lot of neat stuff.
Jason Arbon: Absolutely, I almost feel anxious because I like to be on the edge.
Jennifer Bonine: I know.
Jason Arbon: It's all I can do to contain myself, not to start building these apartments and then renting out access to the space.
Jennifer Bonine: To the space so people can test.
Jason Arbon: I've got to focus on mobile apps right now.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah. Focus on this one and then next time I talk to you you'll have apartments you're renting out for space for test labs.
Jason Arbon: Yeah, exactly. The lab will get bigger.
Jennifer Bonine: Next you'll be renting test labs from Jason.
Jason Arbon: Right.
Jennifer Bonine: After you get your apps crawled through. This is awesome, Jason, we're already out of time, it goes so fast.
Jason Arbon: Okay, cool. Great, thanks for letting me advertise.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah.
Jason Arbon: And bug you again.
Jennifer Bonine: I know. Then again, just to make sure where they can find you if they have more questions.
Jason Arbon: I'm not on Twitter. Actually I am, I don't use it, I'm too old.
Jennifer Bonine: Yeah.
Jason Arbon: I'm [email protected], just visit
Jennifer Bonine: Perfect.
Jason Arbon: Put your contact info in there and I'll get a hold of you.
Jennifer Bonine: They will be able to find you.
Jason Arbon: Yep.
Jennifer Bonine: Awesome.
Jason Arbon: Yeah.
Jennifer Bonine: Perfect. Thanks Jason.
Jason Arbon: I'd give you my personal Gmail but I don't read it. People noticed I had three thousand unreads yesterday.
Jennifer Bonine: Oh no.
Jason Arbon: But if you email me at the company, I'll actually get back to you.
Jennifer Bonine: You'll actually get back.
Jason Arbon: Yeah.
Jennifer Bonine: That's the best way to find him then.
Jason Arbon: [email protected]
Jennifer Bonine: Thanks Jason.
Jason Arbon: Thank you much.
Jennifer Bonine: That was awesome.
Jason Arbon: All right, I'll see you around.
Jason ArbonJason Arbon is the CEO of, focused on automagically identifying differences in mobile app UI, UX, and performance. Jason is also the creator of the new mobile web search and discovery app mobo ( Jason was formerly the director of engineering and director of product at, where he created the App Store data analytics service and led overall product strategy to deliver crowdtesting to top app teams via more than 100,000 community members. Jason previously held engineering management and innovation roles at Google and Microsoft. He coauthored How Google Tests Software and authored App Quality: Secrets for Agile App Teams.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8850 | Saturday, 20 August 2016 18:17
A New Era Of Search Is About The Answers, Not Just The Links
Editor’s note: The following guest post is written by Shashi Seth, the senior vice president of Search products at Yahoo! Previously, Shashi worked at Google where he developed the monetization strategy for YouTube and was also the product lead for search.
Search is about to change quite radically. For more than a decade, search has been stagnant: the core product has not changed much. Users have changed radically in that time frame. Even though the kind of content users consume is different, search engines are still focused mostly on web pages. Users have become less patient and have less time on hand, while search engines still require users to dig through and extract information from the web pages to find what they’re looking for. In addition, users are spending more and more time on their mobile phones and other connected devices, which require a completely different kind of user experience for search.
When we talk about Search, keep in mind that Search, Discovery, Recommendations, and Serendipity are all essentially the same thing. Why? Well, to start with, one would need a comprehensive index of content for each of these things to work. This gives you a world view, so to speak. How that index is created has changed over time, and what goes into that index has changed. About ten years ago, the index only consisted of HTML pages, but that information has been changing. How the index was created was heavily focused on signals provided by HTML pages, links, consumption, etc.
Today, many social signals are consumed, including how often and how quickly an entity or URL is being embedded elsewhere, whether it is with positive or negative intent and sentiment, and is it trending up or down since last week/month. Search engines have mostly focused on the backend and infrastructure, and rightly so, because search requires a delicate balance between some of the most complex technologies, and a vast amount of infrastructure. Solving today’s user needs requires a different focus: a special blend of science, a finely tuned user experience, cutting-edge design skills, and a slightly different mix of engineering and infrastructure.
The question now is—how do search engines respond to this new world?
The answer, to put it simply, is to re-imagine search. The new landscape for search will likely focus on getting the answers the user needs without requiring the user to interact with a page of traditional blue links. In fact, there may be cases where there are no blue links on a search results page at all.
Search engines will keep assimilating content from many different sources and aim to provide immediate and rich answers. You ask a question and you get answers, nothing else. The user may not even type the full question. Search engines will have to become more and more personal, understand the individual user’s preferences, location, type of content preferred, context from previous search and browse behavior, signals from social graphs, and much more.
Search has been a pull mechanism for information and content, while social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are push. For search to succeed in today’s world, it has to become more push, which is why we at Yahoo! have been so focused on what we call contextual searches. A contextual search is when a user happens to be away from a search box, maybe reading an article on Yahoo! News, and comes across a name, or place that he/she wants more information on, yet they don’t want to spoil the reading experience and leave the page, open a new tab, and do a search.
With Infinite Browse, Yahoo! currently enables users to highlight the term and get a small pop-up search result out of that action, without leaving the page. Yahoo! also identifies and underlines interesting terms/entities on the page, so when the user hovers over the word or words, additional information is provided.
Imagine a future where this information is entirely pushed to you without prompting the search, so engagement with the content you want is immediately at your fingertips. This will prompt more and more searches to happen away from traditional search results pages, and will happen more in context of wherever the user may be—reading a news article and wanting to know more about a topic or entity, accessing information on a commuter train, getting recommendations pushed while writing an email or social conversation on that topic, and much more.
In the near term, innovation in search will provide more in-depth answers. For example, if someone types the name of a Major League Baseball team, they get a search results page with the team’s homepage and likely a couple pieces of recent news. In the next phase of search, you will type the name of that baseball team and without hitting the search button or leaving the search box, you will be presented with an interactive display that includes a link to their homepage, recent news, the results and box score of their last game, their overall record and standing in their division, a schedule of upcoming games, photos, videos, and social media streams.
How about searching for a restaurant? In search today, you find links to the restaurant’s homepage, address, phone number, and rating. In new iterations of search, you will type the name of that restaurant and be provided with its address and map, a view of its menu, the option to reserve then and there via OpenTable, see its ranking on Yelp, CitySearch, Zagat—along with photos, tweets, what your friends have said about it in your private social networks, and a quick and simple way to compare it with other similar restaurants.
The next chapter of search is going to be about providing answers and not just answers from Q&A sites (although Yahoo! Answers hit a billion Q&A last year). We obviously believe in these types of “answers” and leverage it heavily, yet there are plenty of other types of real-time answers.
Most search indexes are in the 10s of billions of URLs, trending towards 100s of billions of URLs. Information is dynamic and changes frequently. For example, the movies running in a theater next to you are changing every week, and the timings may change even more frequently. The San Francisco Giants score changes frequently too, as do the players stats. So, while Q&A sites are really interesting in solving a certain set of needs for users, they are only a piece of the puzzle.
But the rise of Q&A sites across the Web speaks to the underlying need for better answers. A new era in search is just around the corner that will make it easier to access the information, services and answers people are looking for. A list of links just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Source : https://techcrunch.com/2011/05/07/search-answers-not-just-links/
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Altova StyleVision 2020 Professional Edition
When creating elements in the design, the way you create the elements determines how Authentic View will respond to user actions like pressing the Tab key and clicking the Add... prompt. The basic issue is what elements are created in Authentic View when an element is added by the user. For example, when the user adds an element (say, by clicking the Insert Element icon in the Elements sidebar), what child elements are created automatically?
The most important point to bear in mind is that Authentic View follows the structure specified in the underlying schema. In order to ensure that Authentic View implements the schema structure correctly there are a few design rules you should keep in mind. These are explained below.
Unambiguous content model
A content model is considered unambiguous when it consists of a single sequence (with maxOccurs=1) of child elements (with no choices, groups, substitutions, etc). In such cases, when the element is added, the sequence of child elements is unambiguously known, and they are automatically added. In the screenshot example below, the three child elements are all mandatory and can occur only once.
When the element parent is added in Authentic View, its child elements are automatically inserted (screenshot below). Pressing the tab key takes you to the next element in the sequence.
If the e2 element were optional, then, when the element parent is added in Authentic View, the elements e1 and e3 are automatically inserted, and the element e2 appears in the Elements sidebar so that it can be inserted if desired (screenshot below). Pressing the tab key in e1 takes the user to e3.
The above content model scenario is the only scenario Authentic View considers unambiguous. All other cases are considered ambiguous, and in order for Authentic View to disambiguate and efficiently display the desired elements the design must adhere to a few simple rules. These are explained below.
Ambiguous content model
For Authentic View to correctly and efficiently display elements while an XML document is being edited, the SPS must adhere to the following rules.
Child elements will be displayed in the order in which they are laid out in the design.
In order for Authentic View to disambiguate among sibling child elements, all child elements should be laid out in the design document in the required order and within a single parent node. If the sibling relationship is to be maintained in Authentic View, it is incorrect usage to lay out each child element of a single parent inside multiple instances of the parent node.
These two rules are illustrated with the following example.
We consider a content model of an element parent, which consists of a single sequence of mandatory child elements. This content model is similar to the unambiguous content model discussed above, with one difference: the single sequence is optional, which makes the content model ambiguous—because the presence of the sequence is not a certainty. If you create a design document as shown in the screenshot below, there will be ambiguity in Authentic View.
The Authentic View of the parent element will look like this (since the sequence is optional):
Clicking add... pops up a menu of the three child elements:
If you select one of these elements, it will be inserted (screenshot below), but since Authentic View cannot disambiguate the sequence it does not insert any of the remaining two elements, nor does it offer you the opportunity of inserting them:
The correct way to design this content model (following the rules given above) would be to explicitly create the required nodes in the desired order within the single parent node. The design document would look like this:
Note that all three child elements are placed inside a single parent node. The design shown above would produce the following Authentic View:
The Authentic View user clicks the respective add element prompt to insert the element and its content.
If an element can occur multiple times, and if the rules above are followed, then the element appears in the sidebar till the number of occurrences in Authentic View equals the maximum number of occurrences allowed by the schema (maxOccurs).
Creating each child element inside a separate parent node (see screenshot below) not only creates isolated child–parent relationships for each child element so instantiated; it also increases processing time because the parent node has to be re-traversed in order to locate each child element.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8886 | Junko's 'Kiss Him, Not Me' Shōjo Romantic Comedy Manga Gets Live-Action Film
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Manga ended in 2018, inspired TV anime in 2016
Kodansha revealed on Friday that Junko's Kiss Him, Not Me (Watashi ga Motete Dōsunda) manga is inspiring a live-action film that will open in Japan on July 10.
The cast includes: (Top row, left to right in image above)
• Nonoka Yamaguchi (E-girls) as Kae Serinuma (after slimming down)
• Hokuto Yoshino (THE RAMPAGE from EXILE TRIBE) as Asuma Mutsumi, Kae's cool and intelligent senior who falls in love with her
• Asahi Itō as Nozomu Nanashima, a "bad boy" type who is prone to teasing
(Bottom row, left to right in image above)
• Miu Tomita as Kae Serinuma (before slimming down)
• Fuju Kamio as Yūsuke Igarashi, a serious but kind classmate
• Sō Okuno as Hayato Shinomiya, a cute, tsundere first-year student
Norihisa Hiranuma (High & Low film series) is directing the film, and is also co-writing the script with Nami Kikkawa, Shōhei Fukuda, Kei Watanabe, and Daisuke Kamijō.
Crunchyroll released the manga as chapters were published in Japan, and Kodansha Comics publishes the manga in print. Kodansha Comics describes the manga:
Hi there! My name is Serinuma Kae. I'm the kind of girl who loves checking out boys and fantasizing about them getting friendly (and more) with each other - I'm what you might call a fujoshi. One day, my beloved (yes, he's an anime character) died, and the shock of it all was more than I could have ever prepared for! My grief over his passing resulted in some ridiculous weight-loss!
And you won't believe what happened next! Soon after my change, the four most divinely gorgeous boys in my school asked me out on dates! I accepted them all, and you'd think I'd be happy with my sudden popularity, but the truth is, my heart only yearns for a prince to be next to his prince. Ahh, yes, boys, I'd much prefer that you turn your affections elsewhere and Kiss Him, Not Me!
The manga began in Kodansha's Bessatsu Friend magazine in 2013 and ended on February 13, 2018. Kodansha published the manga's 14th and final compiled volume in Japan in March 2018. Kodansha Comics published the manga's 14th volume in English in July 2018. The manga inspired a 12-episode television anime that premiered in October 2016. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub.
Source: Comic Natalie
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8887 | PHP 5.4.12 and 5.3.22 x64 (64 bit) for Windows
PHP 5.4.12 and 5.3.22 were released on 21 February, 2013. As usual they are bug fix releases. The complete official changelog can be found here.
Below you will find 64 bit binaries of PHP 5.4.12 and 5.3.22 for Windows. They were compiled with Visual C++ 2008 (MSVC 9). Also, there was a bug in the previous 64 bit 5.4 releases, which would cause php cli to crash when trying to start the built in web server. This has now been fixed.
5.4.12 (Thread Safe) (Mirror 1) (Mirror 2)
CRC32: B25819E8
MD5: 063A9A25D7BAB1C1356D7D0745C0C3E4
SHA-1: 42FB0C90290A0036C29EEAE876FC4514BE13D916
5.4.12 (Non Thread Safe) (Mirror 1) (Mirror 2)
CRC32: DF38C292
MD5: 6A5F2705E66B9EAFFDE7C1CE2F1CC208
SHA-1: 7598F2E7B9E03D55172E58F3A399D700427877BA
5.3.22 (Thread Safe) (Mirror 1) (Mirror 2)
CRC32: F6EB49D6
MD5: 48D861B4ECD14D5CFE5FA2A808281996
SHA-1: 8D39D04373C45161871083CBDD0FDD405819C3D8
5.3.22 (Non Thread Safe) (Mirror 1) (Mirror 2)
CRC32: F204ECC4
MD5: 4CD0ABDA3558C61AB11749C019947DF4
SHA-1: 682F0FD03275E57311D04AB2B7BA36A0FEDE91C6
Additional Extensions
Additional extensions can be found here –
Please check the 5.3 and 5.4 sub folders for newer versions.
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1. victor
Gracias Anindya, te agradezco mucho tu tiempo y esfuerzo.
2. John
Can’t get APC to work on Win 7 64bit. Downloaded php TS 5.4.12 + apache 2.2.23 x64 installer. php works, but as soon i add php_apc.dll apache won’t start. Tried all available versions from mediafire and without success.
+ php build-in server ckrashes on start:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: php.exe
Application Version:
Application Timestamp: 511569dc
Fault Module Name: php5ts.dll
Fault Module Version:
Fault Module Timestamp: 51156a40
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000000000011a8f0
OS Version: 6.1.7601.
Locale ID: 1062
Additional Information 1: 8864
Additional Information 2: 8864286369440d6623a272778e4db0b2
Additional Information 3: 1c32
Additional Information 4: 1c32f4ebc8449f77c8baa380fd60a1a0
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3. zmcjs
4. Anindya
You are welcome. 😀
Google translated:
Usted es bienvenido. 😀
Doesn’t look like you are using 5.4.12. Also, looks like you are using Windows 7, so please use the php_apc.dll from the following archive.
Yes, I have noticed that too.
Google Translated:
5. zmcjs
6. Scott
I can’t seem to find the thread safe version for x64 APC extension for versions 3.1.13, I tried the nts one posted in the comments, but it doesn’t seem to agree with my setup for some reason.
7. sam
How about SQL SERVER drivers for windows? any change to shim that in to work?
Having a bigint would be nice too but seriously how about Microsoft SQL SERVER drivers?
8. zmcjs
php 5.4.13 and 5.3.23 is release !please modfily x64 packages!
thank you
9. Jan Ehrhardt
@sam: try the php_sqlsrv.dll in my PHP 5.4.13 compilations:
10. Jan Ehrhardt
That is only in the x86-versions…
11. Pitoziq
Thank you for your hard work! Is it possible to add php_gmagick to php extensions list?
12. Jan Ehrhardt
To my surprise I found a lot of x64 extensions on
13. Johnny
I installed this version on Windows Server 2008 R2 standard. When testing if PHP is ok using PHP -info
Got the error below:-
C:\PHP>php -info
The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is in
correct. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.e
xe tool for more detail.
Event Viewer:-
Activation context generation failed for “C:\PHP\php.exe”. Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture=”amd64″,publicKeyToken=”1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b”,type=”win32″,version=”9.0.21022.8″ could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.
Pls help.
14. Jan Ehrhardt
PHP 5.4.14 (and 5.3.24) are already available:
My x64 build uses ICU 51.
15. Jan Ehrhardt
Official x64 (!) VC11 builds of PHP 5.5.0 beta 3:
My builds with more extensions:
16. zmcjs
php 5.4.14 and 5.3.24 is release !please modfily x64 packages!
thank you!
17. Jan Ehrhardt
18. kssbsr
How to build php x64 edition myself? I’d like to try php 5.5 on Apache 2.4(x64) MySQL(x64) on Windows Server 2012. Thanks.
19. Jan Ehrhardt
PHP 5.4.14 (and 5.3.24) are available:
The x64 builds now contain php_opcache.dll and php_apcu.dll
20. Jan Ehrhardt
Oops. That must have been 5.4.15 (and 5.3.25)
21. zmcjs
php 5.4.15 and php 5.3.25 is release please modfily x86 and x64 package是！
22. Mirek
Please, build SQLite version 3.7.11 or higher, where you can insert multiple rows at once
23. Jan Ehrhardt
PHP 5.4.16 and 5.3.26 are released.
24. zmcjs
php 5.4.16 and 5.3.26 is release!
please modfily x64 installer packages!
thank you!
25. vicmx
@Jan Ehrhardt Where is the PHP 5.3.26 package?
26. Jan Ehrhardt
27. Jan Ehrhardt
Just change the 5.4.16 in the URL in 5.3.26 😉
28. vicmx
Oh!! Thank you very much 🙂
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8890 | Permanent Hair Removal
Technology has made Permanent Hair Removal Hassle-free and Pain-free?
Especially in summer when hairy situations are impossible to ignore, hair removal is the one important part of beauty routine. All thanks to transformations in technology hair removal is now easier than ever before. Technology has brought about different latest hair removal methods and products from a flexible razor that will get you your closest shave yet, to permanent laser treatments that will tackle every last stray.
For a quick fix
Shaving – You can always trust the shaving method which for a super smooth touch removes the hair at the surface of the skin. These days there are tons of lady-friendly options of razors to choose from. It comes with a flexible ball that makes it easier to glide over curves and tricky areas like the ankles and the back of the knees. In addition your skin will stay moisturized long after shaving because of the attached serum.
Depilatory Creams – A depilatory cream is another popular and fairly inexpensive choice. On this method, for a quick removal that can last for days hair at the surface of the skin is dissolved. This method is typically longer than shaving. But depilatory creams has a disadvantage of containing chemicals that sometimes have an unpleasant odor and can irritate sensitive skin types which means you have to carefully follow instruction like time instructions to avoid redness and stinging.
For a permanent solution
Answering the above question on the heading, YES Technology has made Permanent Hair Removal Hassle-free and Pain-free. This has been achieved by the hair removal method which is called Laser hair removal. This is a process of removing unwanted hair by means of exposure to pulses of laser light that destroy the hair follicle. For about twenty years before becoming commercially available in the mid-1990s Laser hair removal had been performed experimentally. In the dermatology community the efficacy of laser hair removal is now generally accepted. In homes using devices designed and priced for consumer self-treatment Laser hair removal is used and also in clinics laser hair removal is widely practiced. For laser hair removal there is At-Home Laser Hair Removal, Professional Laser Removal and Electrolysis.
At-Home Laser Hair Removal – A laser hair removal device can help you if you prefer tackling unwanted hair in the comfort of your own home. It destroys hair at the follicle and prevents it from growing back thanks to its advanced light-based energy. To see the full results this device needs about up to eight sessions and it is to see the full results. Those with light hair might not respond to the treatment and this particular product isn’t suited for dark skin also. It is very unfortunate that a gadget like this isn’t for everyone.
Professional Laser Removal – Using a concentrated beam of light to target unwanted hair on all parts of the body, including the face, bikini line, legs, and even the underarms professional laser removal is another long-term option. Pain and endless appointments are problems are a thing of the past if you’re worried about. Norman Rowe, MD a plastic surgeon said that “The newer lasers are much quicker, have less pain, require fewer sessions and do not require the use of a messy gel that most of the older generation lasers require.
Electrolysis – Electrolysis is another technique Abramowitz recommends. It is a minimally invasive procedure that destroys one hair at a time. Abramowitz says that directly killing every hair follicle the specialist treats this method involves sticking needles into each individual hair follicle and delivering an electrical charge. This method is better for light peach fuzz, grey or red hair and it is also preferred for the treatment of small areas such as the eyebrows, upper lip, and chin. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8891 | Comprehenson Strategies Essay
949 WordsJul 14, 20134 Pages
Comprehension Strategies Essay Teresa Hughes-Fox Grand Canyon University EED-475 Haydee Serena-Masters June 30, 2013 Facilitating comprehension of different kinds of reading literature such as narrative, expository, and poetic text. Teachers would need to teach, discuss, and help the students to learn the material that are handed to them. Even though the teacher is teaching the material it does not mean that the students are comprehending the material or the literature. The text of narrative, expository and poetic, would need some strategies to develop activities that would help with the comprehension of the material. There are several different kinds of strategies that would facilitate with comprehension for the students. One of the strategies that would help with the expository text structure within the grade third and up. The strategy would include of the use of graphic organizers, organizational patterns, the analysis of text structures by students, and independent writing. (Akhondi, 2011). This strategy would help the students to understand the structure of expository text. Expository text is the challenging text to comprehend because they are not just reading for fun, but reading informational text. The other strategy for this type of text is the K-W-L chart. The students would write down what they already know of the informational text, what they want to know and what they learned from the text. This would help the students to find the information in the structural text. Questioning the author is a strategy that would help the reader to discuss and reflect of what the author is trying to say in the text. The strategy for the poetic text is to help the students find a real life event or real life experience that would help them understand the text in poetics. When students are having troubles understand some poems because they are too
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8903 | The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has laid out the timeline for banks to gradually make themselves Basel III compliant. BCBS expects implementation to begin in 2013 and foresees banks being fully Basel III compliant by 2019.
We propose to prepare the banks for the gradual implementation process, making sure the progress adheres to the regulatory timelines.
• We help banks develop templates to track the Leverage Ratio and the underlying components
• We help banks develop templates and supervisory monitoring of the Liquidity Ratios
• We will make sure banks begin incorporating the higher minimum capital requirements in 2013 and ensure their full implementation by 2015
• We will ensure that banks begin gradually phasing in the Capital Conservation Buffer of 2.5% in 2016, which is to be included along with the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) ratio. We aim towards full implementation of the Conservation Buffer by 2019
• From a Liquidity point of view, we advise banks on the required generation of short term and long term capital for calculation of LCR and NSFR |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8942 | You are here
Angela Duckworth, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Angela Duckworth
Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her career in research, Angela founded a non-profit summer school for low-income children which won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts and was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study. Angela has also been a McKinsey management consultant and, for five years, a math teacher in the public schools of San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 2013, Angela was selected as a MacArthur Fellow.
Angela received a BA in Neurobiology from Harvard in 1992 and, as a Marshall Scholar, a Masters in Neuroscience from Oxford. She completed her PhD in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Duckworth, A.L., Gendler, T.S., & Gross, J.J. (2014). Self-control in school-age children. Educational Psychologist, 49(3), 199-217.
Theory of Well-Being |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/8992 |
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How To Reinstall Your Minecraft Client
Please refer to the Minecraft Wiki on how to reinstall Minecraft for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX:
Reinstalling your game client is a good way to bug test if you have modded it before (which can cause problems such as glitches, FPS lag, and being dropped from servers).
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9000 | [CHEM 235] Organic Chemistry II
Reactions and properties of aliphatic and aromatic compounds of carbon. Considerable emphasis on modern theoretical interpretation of structure and of reaction mechanisms. Laboratory: basic techniques and synthetic procedures and modern spectroscopic methods of structure determination; as part of the laboratory experience, each student is required to prepare an independent laboratory project and carry it out under the supervision of the instructor. Three class periods and one laboratory period per week.
Course Title
Organic Chemistry II
Course Code
CHEM 235
Fulfills Domain/Capstone Requirements
Prerequisite: Chemistry 230.
Offered each spring.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9022 | Psalm 30
American King James Version
Mourning Turned into Dancing
1I will extol you, O LORD; for you have lifted me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.
2O LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.
4Sing to the LORD, O you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
5For his anger endures but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
7LORD, by your favor you have made my mountain to stand strong: you did hide your face, and I was troubled.
8I cried to you, O LORD; and to the LORD I made supplication.
9What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? shall it declare your truth?
Section Headings Courtesy
© 2013, 2014 Used by Permission
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Psalm 29
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9023 | Galatians 4 The People's Bible by Joseph Parker
Galatians 4
The People's Bible by Joseph Parker
Amended Expressions
Galatians 4:9
In the course of his writing the Apostle said, "After that ye have known God, or rather—." That is the point. The subject is Amended Expressions, self-correction in the use of language. Sometimes we are too fluent, and we are halfway through a sentence before it occurs to us that we are on the wrong track. We start sentences from the wrong end. However skilful we may be in the use of words, sometimes we are halfway through a sentence before we see that the sentence might have been much better if we had started it from the other end. The Apostle was a tumultuous speaker. The one thing he lacked was polish—a fatal lack in the estimation of pedants and of people who have nothing to do. Hear him:—"After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God"—which I ought to have said at first but did not. We have seen instances in which inspired writers have corrected themselves and have corrected public impression. Thus:—"It is Christ that died, yea rather." Why, that is the same man, the same tone, the same word. Is he going to correct himself? He is going to correct himself by enlargement. "Yea rather, that is risen again,"—the greater including the less. This would seem then to be part of the Apostle's habit of writing and talking, to begin in a small way and then, with almost startling abruptness, to put the same thought before us on the largest lines. "After that ye have known God"—no, no, no!—"rather are known of God": "It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again." This man always ascends; he never withdraws a great thought that he may replace it with a little one. He surprises himself into enlarged interpretations, into completer meanings. It is well therefore that the Apostle should always be allowed to finish his own sentences. Never interrupt a speaker of this sort, eccentric as he may appear to be in his mode of speaking; when he has launched out his expressions, then judge him, but not until then. It was very important to correct such an expression as is used in the text, considering the people to whom the Apostle was writing. They were a foolish people; they were Celts, Gauls, verily Gaulatians, a Frenchified and Hibernised people, French-Irish folks, who were most impulsive, taking up an idea before it was fully laid down before them. The Apostle knew them well, and adapted his ministry accordingly. The Gauls, east and west, have always been celebrated for this mobility of mind. Cæsar noticed it in the Western Gauls, hence we have his expression in speaking of them mobilitas et levitas animi. Such has been their character all through the ages and all over the world,—too quick, without reserve power; a flash, and they do not know what they have said, or done; and they may in one moment be sorry for the action in which they have taken part, and may humbly apologise. One moment they will give their very eyes to the Apostle; the Gauls were never inhospitable; when they were excited eyes went for nothing, and hands and tongues; and the next moment the evil eye had bewitched them, and they were going after all manner of frivolity and emptiness. O foolish Galatians! who hath cast the evil eye upon you? Having to deal with people of this kind, the Apostle swiftly corrected himself. He has said in his easy and generous manner, "ye have known God," and then suddenly he exclaimed.
"or rather": O ye volatile Galatians, or rather; O ye effervescing Celts, I must bind you down to the real sequence of things—"or rather are known of God."
The distinction is important. In the first instance taking the words "after that ye have known God," we might be led to suppose that the Galatians had discovered God. This indeed is not a Galatian sophism only; this is the sophism that underlies a great deal of orthodox thinking. It is difficult to get away from the notion that we have discovered God. We think we have something to do with our own theology; we suppose that intellect has been out early in the morning ere the dew had gone up from the meadows, and has actually come back with the discovery of God. Nothing of the kind. "The world by wisdom knew not God." A discovered God is an idol, a thing in which you have rights. You say there is a law of discovery upon the land, there is a law of flotsam and jetsam; there is a law of the rights of adventure:—we discovered this river and we claim it, we discovered this island and we plant our flag upon it. No man ever discovered God. The Apostle states the right sequence when he says, "or rather are known of God": God discovered you, God found you out; the true conception of God is the conception of revelation; if you think you had anything to do with the discovery of God, then you will have all manner of tricks in words and phrases; but if you begin to feel that God first loved you, discovered you, came after you, redeemed you, then you will give glory to God.
Even in so simple a change as this we have whole worlds of philosophy. Here is a true view of inspiration. The Apostle corrects himself. The Apostle does not correct the truth, but he corrects the way of putting the truth. Men should distinguish between these things, vitally. The key of reconciliation may be found in that distinction. Paul's mind does not change, but quickly remembering the kind of mind to which he was writing, he set the same doctrine in another form or aspect, that there might be the less mistake made about it even by volatile critics, like the Galatians. We lose much by having a false idea of inspiration. We have often to maintain a forlorn cause, for the reason that we do not start our statement from the right point. The Apostle says, There is a better way of saying this, I will therefore withdraw the first expression and replace it by another; there has been no confusion in my mind, I have not misrepresented the Holy Spirit, but I have so used words that you may mistake them, therefore I do in effect withdraw these words, and put others in their places. Have I lost any part of my Bible by that concession? Nay, rather I have gained the Bible, more intelligently, more reverently, more trustfully. Here are writers who come after me and accommodate themselves as far as possible to my capacity and my intelligence and my temperament; they are so anxious that I should not mistake the Divine truth that they take my infirmities into consideration; they will work at the sentence until they get it right. Have confidence in writers and speakers who so treat their material. We may be right in our meaning yet not right in our first expression of it, but seeing that we are consciously right and that we are honest men we seize the very first words that come to us, always reserving the right to say, "or rather." Such liberty every teacher must claim; such liberty the Holy Ghost accorded in the case of the most illustrious Apostle.
Here also we see the distinction between Christianity and every other religion. What has every other religion been doing? Seeking God. What does Christianity do? It represents God seeking man. It required inspiration to state that truth; it never occurred, so far as we know, to unassisted human reason to represent God as seeking the sinner, the creature. All Pagan philosophies represent man as almost finding God. Some mythologies represent man as making up for one true God by a large number of imperfect deities; there shall be a deity of the sun and the moon and the stars, and the water and the woods and the seasons, yea, there shall be deities representing various mental moods; and surely when we totalise this pantheon we shall have God. The search is noble, the quest is to be spoken of with respect, and not with contempt even when its action is eccentric and fantastic; whenever the soul is seeking God it is to be encouraged in the pursuit, though that pursuit be marked by much stumbling, and by many mistakes every day. At that point the Gospel should be preached, namely, that man cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection, but that God has come to seek the creatures, the child, the sinner, the wanderer, and he will not return until he has found him. Behold your evangel, that is your charge, ordained and consecrated men of God.
We have not only a view of inspiration, and a distinction drawn between the religion of paganism and the religion of Christianity, but we have here established the right of the Church to seek out and represent the largest meaning of Divine words. This is the business of the true student. Here it is that criticism finds its function and its sanction. We do not want a new writing, we want a new reading. We want larger reading, more music in the soul, therefore more melody in the voice. There is an inspired reading. Lord God the Holy Ghost open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law; touch our tongues that thy words may fall from them like music from an appointed and skilfully played instrument, so that no tone may be lost, so that every syllable may be as the facet of a diamond throwing out the light of higher suns. When I find men who can read anything but the Bible I find men whose education has been neglected. They may call themselves ministers and teachers; I judge them by two things: first, how do they read? secondly, how do they pray? Their manuscripts I care nothing for, their elaborate mechanised discourses on subjects they cannot handle I despise: but when I hear my preacher read I know whether he has been closeted with the Master, when I hear him pray I know what length of time he has spent in the upper and inner sanctuary, where the light never dies down into eventide. We do not want a new Bible, we want a new reading of the old Bible. We must always take care that our meaning is the larger meaning. If ever we make the Bible say less, we are on the wrong track of exposition. When we confine the root to itself we are mistaking the purpose of the Creator of the root; when the Lord gave us the root he said, Put that under such and such conditions and relations, and out of it there shall come a colour, a beauty, that will shame the garniture of Solomon. Thus we may always know whether our criticism is true or not. If it be a large, grand criticism, filling all heaven with light, then it has been given to us of God; if it is a little criticism, powerfully sustaining "our sect" it is a lie.
We might take an example of what is meant by turning a sentence round and thus finding the larger meaning. Thus:—"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Romans 6:17). Is that clear? Yes. Then if clear what does it mean? Why obviously it means that sundry persons were appointed to deliver sundry documents to the churches; they came like letter-carriers and in effect said, "We deliver the doctrine to you," and then they vanish: can anything be clearer? No: and hardly anything can be falser. How then? Why contrariwise, just as this same Apostle corrects himself in the text. The Revised Version gives the true reading:—"Ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered." The delivery took place at the other end. We are not critics, we are delivered men, we are handed over. Now we begin to see the meaning of religious inspiration and religious enthusiasm. What, forsooth! is this it? that the documents have been delivered to me, and I have to read them and pronounce an opinion upon them? Contrariwise, the documents are not delivered to me, I am delivered to the documents, bound hand and foot and head,—the slave of truth, the bondman of God. You thought the Bible was to be handled by you, whereas you have to be handled by the Bible. You thought you were called upon as respectable citizens to pronounce an opinion upon revelation! It is extremely humiliating, but the truth stands exactly in the other way. The Bible comes to judge us.
Or take an instance of the larger translation from this epistle. The Apostle, in a tumult of excitement, in what we might call a divine rage, says, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." What does he mean? Why obviously an act of excision; he would have the knife drawn as between the Galatians and their tormentors, and he would cut off the tormentors and let them fall into any place that would receive them. That is clear? Yes, too clear; it has about it the clearness of shallowness. There is not one word of truth in it. The Apostle's meaning is larger and more precise and more crushing in its practical application. These Galatians were not converted Jews, they were converted Pagans, and they or their ancestors were the worshippers of the earth-goddess Cybele, and that earth-goddess was served by priests who were self-mutilated, who had done some wild cutting upon themselves. These priests were always known by the Romans as Galli—almost Galatians you see again. The Apostle says, These men are not waiting to bring you to Judaism, which is a religion which was true, but they want to bring you back to your old paganism: I would God that they would be consistent, that they would carry out their own reasoning to its logical issues, and show you what kind of circumcision they want you to undergo; I wish they would be self-consistent and would come right down to the square end of their own logic and say, This is what we want to be at; then you would see their meaning and repulse it. But evil teachers often conceal their meaning; they are very clever in the use of ambiguity. The double entendre is their great weapon. When you believe them in their first meaning and go a mile or two after them and remind them of the acceptation you put upon their words, they say, Nothing of the kind; that is not what we meant; you have mistaken us; your interpretation is imperfect: what we really did mean to do with you was to thrust you into everlasting darkness. Beware of the awful avalanche; beware the awful subtlety and the insidiousness of the man who will lecture to you in an innocent way, simply asking you to follow the light of reason, lift up your head and be as sunny and trustful as you can, and go with him along the flowery road. When you are ten miles along that road he will tell you that he never meant what you thought he signified; when it is too late for you to return he will tell you his original meaning. Beware! resist the devil, and he will flee from you; be sober, be vigilant; for your adversary in many a form, lion and serpent and angel of light, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.
The People's Bible by Joseph Parker
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
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Galatians 3
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9024 |
Priscilla_117017 - 10 months ago
That's not fair that The Lord would have Men, Women and children killed so his People can take over their Land!! How is that right?? It's Evil. But I know nobody will answer this
Noah_655150 - 10 months ago
There are plenty of biblical scholars who will say that Deuteronomy received its present form after the exile, when the Jews in Babylon and elsewhere were working out what had gone wrong and how to put things right. Some of them clearly came up with the idea that they'd need to fight their way back and drive out or, if necessary, kill people who'd come in and taken their lands over. So, scholars might say, they put these genocidal verses into their compilation if the Pentateuch, to justify in their present what God might seem to have condoned in the past. Same, for instance, with the rule on not taking foreign wives. So they could hit people with Scripture; say, "We weren't sufficiently ruthless 1500 years ago, let's not make the same mistake twice"
Bringing the Bible to life
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9025 | 1. Alleluia! How good it is to sing to our God, how sweet and befitting to praise him!
2. The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel;
3. he heals their broken hearts and binds up their wounds.
4. He determines the number of stars, he calls each of them by name.
5. The Lord is great and mighty in power; his wisdom is beyond measure.
6. The Lord lifts up the humble, but casts the wicked to the ground.
7. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make music on the harp for our God.
8. With clouds he covers the sky, and provides the earth with rain; he covers the hills with grass, and with plants for man to cultivate.
9. He provides food for the cattle, even for the young ravens when they call.
10. He is not concerned with the strength of a horse; nor is he pleased in the speed of a runner;
11. The Lord delights in those who fear him and expect him to care for them.
12. Exalt the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion!
13. For he strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.
14. He grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain.
15. He sends his command to the earth and swiftly runs his word.
16. He spreads snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
17. He hurls down hail like pebbles; who will stand before his icy blasts?
18. But he sends his word and melts the snow; he makes his breeze blow, and again the waters flow.
19. It is he who tells Jacob his words, his laws and decrees to Israel.
20. This he has not done for other nations, so his laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9038 | Schönfelder Office brillant - Kopierpapier
Currently there are no detailed product information provided by company.
Benefits to the Environment
1. low use of energy and water in the manufacturing process
2. made from 100% waste paper
3. particularly low level of harmful materials
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Product images | Schönfelder Papierfabrik GmbH |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9071 | Monday, July 29, 2013
Weierwei VEV-789 and VEV-889: Pricing
I got an e-mail back from the folks at Weierwei Radios with pricing for single units of the VEV-789 and VEV-889.
VEV-789VHF and 898UHF = $163
Also, the VEV-768 is $146. I just noticed the model on the site is actually listed as a VEV-768+. I don't know if that changed or I missed it.
1 comment:
1. That's certainly more affordable than the Leixen VV-808. Hopefully TX and RX are decent. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9072 | Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Baojie BJ-218 Software
In the comments on the original Baojie BJ-218 2M/440 Mini Mobile post, some folks were looking the programming software. Someone posted the link to the Baojie downloads page that includes the software.
It also looks like you can use CHIRP:
Yes, the BJ-218 works with the Luiton LT-725UV CHIRP driver as well as the factory software. I have one of each, an LT-725UV and a BJ-218, factory software and files are interchangeable, and I was able to write my LT-725UV CHIRP .img file into the BJ-218 without issue. My only question is when will the LT-725UV driver go from 90% to 100% and leave the Beta stage?
1 comment:
1. i use chirp but i got an error ,tried also luitun 725uv error still |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9131 | Festival Finland Jazz Music Pori
Pori jazz 2020
The Jazz festival of Pori is known as one of the oldest music festivals in Finland. The festival, which first began in 1966, preserves its tradition, and...
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9148 | Creating a password enables you to log in to access/edit your user profile and email preferences.
PC Number
Please enter the letters in the picture into the box.
Selecting 'No' will allow you to customize the type(s) of emails you receive. You can select multiple types by holding down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard while making your selections. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9154 |
As organisations receive more funding, the value of extra funding changes. This is relevant for donation decisions. People have used various concepts to discuss this feature:
• Room for more funding
• Funding gaps
• Diminishing (marginal) returns
I want to dig into what people mean when they use these terms.
I ground these terms by distinguishing between two families of models: returns functions and funding gaps. It is usually best to be explicit about which model you are using.
True returns
Every dollar an organisation receives has some impact, which I will call the ‘true returns’ to additional funding. Impact as a function of funding might look like Figure 1 below.[1] If we could observe these true returns, we would be able to know the impact of an additional dollar when $X have already been donated. It is simply the slope of the true returns curve at $X.
True returns
Figure 1
However, the true returns curve is normally impossible to observe directly, and often too complicated to use even if we could observe it. We therefore have to use models which incorporate our uncertainty. Thus when we talk about the returns to funding, we are normally discussing some model of the true returns, rather than the true returns.
Models of true returns
Normally, the returns from additional funding diminish in expectation beyond a certain point. One concept which implicitly appeals to this fact is funding gap (sometimes called room for more funding). It is based on the assumption that that funding is significantly less impactful (or not impactful at all) beyond a particular point.
The other main approach instead specifies some returns function of how impact increases with donations.
These approaches are closely related: indeed, funding gap models could be seen as a special type of returns function model. However, funding gaps, unlike returns functions, emphasise that there is an optimal level of funding. In what follows, I will set out the two approaches and explain how they relate to each other.
Returns functions
Returns functions specify a functional relationship between an organisation’s funding and its expected impact.[2]
Two desirable features of returns functions are:
1. Closeness of fit: The function should match our evidence about what true returns look like. In practice this normally means:
1. Increasing: The function should be non-decreasing, since additional funding normally don’t reduce the impact of the organisation, and generally increases it (at least in expectation).
2. Concavity: The function should be concave, since it is normally assumed that as total funding increases, each additional dollar provides slightly less impact than the last. This is empirically supported, but also what we expect theoretically if organisations take their most cost-effective opportunities first.
2. Clarity: The form chosen should be easy to use and understand. One tenet of clarity is:
1. Simplicity: Simpler functions are easy to use and understand
Some functional forms are particularly common:
Logarithmic returns function
One common form is the logarithmic relationship, y=a + logb(x). This form appears to be a good approximation for returns in areas such as research, and there are also some theoretical reasons to expect this functional form. This form also has some properties that make analysis easier.
Power/log laws
Figure 1
Root returns function
Another common form is to have impact related to some root of x: Root formula, where b>1 so that returns are positive but decreasing. Again, this functional form is easy to use.
Holden Karnofsky writes “I might roughly quantify my intuition by saying that (at the relevant margin) giving 10x as much would only accomplish about 2x as much.” If we extrapolate this idea to a range of scales, this implies a root function, where b=log2(10)~=3.3.[3]
Piecewise linear
With a piecewise linear function, impact is a linear function of funding, but the slope coefficient is different for different ranges of x. For instance:
y=a +bx for 0<x<c
y=d + ex for x>=c
If returns are increasing and concave, b and e are positive, with b>e. We might instead have multiple slope changes. These linear functions are easy to explain to less technical audiences.
Piecewise linear
Figure 3
Funding gaps
The ‘funding gap’ notion emphasizes that organisations should not be funded beyond a certain point. A literal or strict interpretation of the term ‘funding gap’ may suggest that organisations produce no value beyond a certain funding level. However, this strict view seems so harsh that I suspect that no-one believes it. A more plausible interpretation assumes that there are other charities that one can give to. The presence of these outside options implies that there is an optimum funding level for each organisation. We may define a weaker notion of a funding gap based on that idea.
Strict funding gap models
On the strict funding gap approach the returns curve is flat beyond some value, $X*. Now the strict funding gap is defined as the amount that the charity could usefully spend ($X*), minus the amount of funding it has received to date ($X).
This model is a special case of the returns function approach, where the returns curve is flat beyond a certain level of funding. But this upper bound on impact generates an important feature, namely that there is a clear optimum funding level $X*. Since $X* is clearly defined, the funding gap is X*-X.
Strict funding gap
Figure 4
This model is the most literal and naive interpretation of the term, so it is worth setting it out, alongside more plausible funding gap models.
Relative funding gaps
Suppose there is some clear alternative option for buying impact: the ‘next best’ giving opportunity. Call the social return (impact) per $ of donation to this alternative the ‘relative price’—since optimal funding decisions are made relative to this alternative.[4] Given the other opportunities available, we should fund the organization when that is the cheapest alternative, and cease funding it when other opportunities are cheaper. This implies that, in the figure below, it is optimal to fund the charity to the level of exactly $X*.
Relative model
Figure 5
Note that the returns function is identical to that in Figure 3 above. The difference is not in the shape of the returns function, but in the fact that there is a price that the donor is willing to pay for impact.
Since it is optimal to fund the charity to level $X*, it makes sense to speak of a ‘relative funding gap’ equal to the difference between the optimal funding level given the relative price, and the current funding level.
However, this funding gap is not absolute, as in the strict funding gap model: if the relative price changes, so will the relative funding gap. Therefore, the funding gap of one organization may change if another organization gets more competitive, or if the amount of funding to other organisations increases. In particular, if the returns curve is strictly concave, then if the relative price decreases (more impact per marginal $), the relative funding gap will decrease. If the relative price increases (less impact per marginal $), the relative funding gap will increase. This is shown in figure 6:
Relative model price changes
Figure 6
Despite this difference, both strict and relative funding gap models imply that there is some level beyond which the organisation should not be funded.
Robust relative funding gaps
Suppose instead that there is some inflection point in the returns function: some point beyond which, returns diminish steeply, but do not disappear. Figure 7 shows such a returns curve. Since there is an inflection point at $X*, then for many different prices, including the three prices shown, $X* is the optimal amount of funding for this charity. We might say that $X* is the robust optimal amount of funding for this charity, and so that $X* - $X is the robust relative funding gap.
Robust relative model
Figure 7
Note that for some prices, $X* is not the optimal level of funding, so unlike in the strict model, the funding gap depends on the efficiency of alternatives. However, unlike the relative model, the funding gap is somewhat resilient to changes in the efficiency of alternatives.
The relationship between returns functions and funding gaps
The relationship between these families of models is somewhat nuanced.
In one sense, the funding gaps models are a special cases of returns functions models, since they are based on returns functions. On this view, funding gaps models are simply special returns functions with a particular clear inflection point, beyond which returns diminish steeply. This implies that the difference between funding gaps and returns functions is simply a matter of degree. This is certainly one aspect of the difference between the models: funding gaps models normally have more of an inflection point than returns functions do.
However, plausibly funding gaps models are more than just a special case. By explicitly noting the presence of alternative organisations (or an upper bound on returns in the case of the strict model), they reach a different practical conclusion: that there is some upper bound on how much funding organisations should receive. Funding gaps say something about the optimal funding level for the organisation. Whilst returns functions could imply optimal funding levels, they don’t make the additional assumptions needed to do so, so their import is different. This greater prescriptivity of funding gaps models makes them a different kind of model than returns functions, rather than simply a special case.
Other/hybrid models
GiveWell use a model that appears to be some hybrid between these two accounts. In particular, they appear to use something like the strict funding gaps model, but with uncertainty over the size of the funding gap, which means that the expected value of funds diminishes as it becomes more likely that the gap has been filled. This can therefore either be viewed as some form of probabilistic funding gap model, or as a concave returns function in expected value.
There may be other hybrid models, or even totally different approaches to modeling diminishing returns, that I am not aware of, or that have not yet been invented.
Concluding discussion
Thinking explicitly about what we mean by ‘returns curves’ and ‘funding gaps’ should allow researchers to be clearer about how they are modelling true returns. Also, by explicitly acknowledging the variety of possible models, we highlight that ‘funding gap’ and ‘logarithmic returns’ are concepts used to talk about models of reality, rather than reality itself.
Explicitly stating which model you are using allows you to communicate with less ambiguity. There are costs to being so explicit: it involves using more formal language, and may be offputting to a general readership. However, in general it seems better to be explicit about the way you’re modelling diminishing returns, and be explicit that you are only discussing a model of reality.
The second post in this series will discuss how to select the best model for different returns, and will argue that returns functions are generally preferable to funding gaps.[5]
1. Impact might be measured in DALYs. The true situation is, of course, dynamic: both impact and funding are happening roughly continuously over time. The dynamic situation is hard to analyse, so I will simplify to considering a static situation, where ‘funding’ means ‘funding this calendar year’, and ‘impact’ means ‘counterfactual impact facilitated by funding this calendar year, regardless of whether it occurs this year or later’. ↩︎
2. Note that this is expected impact: claiming that expected returns are normally diminishing is compatible with expecting that true returns increase over some intervals. I think that true returns often do increase over some intervals, but that returns generally decrease in expectation. ↩︎
3. Note that Karnofsky does not commit himself to this: he clearly states that this is only an intuition, and that he is only considering work “at the relevant margin”, rather than over the full range of possible funding values. ↩︎
4. In order for the arguments below to go through in full generality, we need to assume that this alternative option allows us to buy many units of impact for the same price. It seems unlikely that our ‘next best’ option will have truly linear returns to additional funding. However, if there is an efficient market in philanthropy, there will be so many giving options with the same price that returns will be approximately linear over all practical scales (but still not strictly linear). ↩︎
5. Owen Cotton-Barratt suggested the idea of writing this article, and gave the framing of having ‘true returns’, ‘returns functions’, and ‘funding gaps’ as the three paradigms. Thanks to Owen, Stefan Schubert and Ben Garfinkel for helpful comments. ↩︎ |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9169 | Writing skills for Technical Support staff survey
We’re planning a writing skills course for people working in Technical Support departments. If you work in a Technical Support department, you can help us develop this course by completing this survey. There are 12 short questions below (or you can use this alternative link to the survey):
Podcast 58: Writing a presentation for a conference
Podcast 42: Note taking – techniques and technologies
In Episode 42 of the Cherryleaf Podcast, we asked technical communicators which techniques and technologies they use to capture information in meetings and interviews. Links: https://lifehacker.com/5989980/ive-been-using-evernote-all-wrong-heres-why-its-actually-amazing https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/notability/id360593530?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/penultimate/id354098826?mt=8 http://fordshorthand.com/ http://blog.goptg.com/creating-and-emailing-one-note-templates https://slite.com/templates http://www.bear-writer.com/ https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209126827-Capture-pages-using-the-Evernote-camera https://www.amazon.co.uk/Livescribe-3-Smartpen-Black-Edition/dp/B0195Y00Y2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1535531089&sr=8-2&keywords=livescribe https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/office-lens/id975925059?mt=8 https://www.cherryleaf.com/2016/12/new-notetaking-methods-for-technical-communicators/
Topic-based writing: what is it, and why should I care?
In this episode of the Cherryleaf Podcast, we take a look at topic-based writing. We explore: What is a topic? Features of topics Why use topics? Why not use topics? Where can you use them? What happens if you don’t use it? Tools for topic-based writing What do you need to know Interacting with others |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9170 | When Will Maverick be “Launched”?
I see over on CCC Pawel Koziol has launched Rodent 1.0. Big Congrats! I was intrigued by Pawel’s “launch criteria” (i.e. 1.0 status). He says he would only go to “1.0” status when Rodent beat Fruit 2.1 in a 100 game match. This is an interesting criteria for launching a chess engine!
It got me thinking!
So here’s what I’m going to do for Maverick. The first version, Maverick 0.1 will be launched only when it beats Monarch 1.7 over a 100 game match. Version 0.2 will be launched when Maverick reaches 2100 ELO, version 0.3 at 2200 ELO, version 0.4 at 2300 ELO, version 0.5 at 2400 ELO and finally 1.0 at 2500 ELO (i.e. Grandmaster level!). |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9182 | Church Finder New Way to Find a Church
Find a Church In Monterville, West Virginia
Are you searching for churches in Monterville, West Virginia? brings the following church directory to you for free. If you belong to one of the Monterville, West Virginia churches on our list and notice any errors, please let us know. If your church in Monterville is missing from our directory, please add it.
Monterville Churches
Be the first to add your church to the Monterville, West Virginia directory of Churches.
Church Finder New Way to Find a Church |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9216 | May 5, 2016
What's in your grooming box?
This blog hop is so old, I can't even remember who started it. My apologies to the author! When I was spending as much time as possible at the barn on Sunday, I decided it was a good time to clean mine out and show mine off.
My grooming tote is actually a toolbag. Like, from the hardware store. And it's seriously the best grooming tote I've ever owned.
In the front, I keep my sweat scraper and hoofpick. Next to them, there's a pocket I keep a small amount of treats in (most of my treat stash is in a rodent-proof plastic jug).
Mrs. Pasture's, AKA Connor Crack
There are two sides to this tote, both big enough to hold an entire full size bottle of fly spray, although I don't currently have mine in there now. Side 1 contains mostly non-brushes:
Here are its contents laid out:
Quicbraid, the brush I use for applying W.O.W, mitt, face brush, spare sponge.
Epona shedding curry, Connor's favorite rubber curry, sample size bottle of fly spray, bot knife
Side two contains all of my brushes neatly arranged on their sides, as well as my mane pulling comb, wide tooth comb and some other stuff in the loops on the "wall".
Here are side two's contents:
There's a zippered pocket on the back which is where I keep my shedding block - which is in teeny tiny pieces right now, sad.
Also on the back are four pen slots where I keep my dry erase marker and a permanent marker. You never know when you'll need one around the barn!
The middle of the tote contains a small parts box held in place by the sides of the tote and by a velcro strap which I undid for the photo below. Right now I just have bands in it.
It has both handles and a padded adjustable carry strap, which makes it great for shows, and best of all (I didn't plan this): it's the exact size of the bottom of my tack locker.
If you're interested in getting one of these bad boys for yourself, you can buy this exact bag for $29.96 and free Prime shipping from Amazon here.
1. There have been multiple versions of this blog hop so i don't think you need to worry :P
2. I have a similar bag for actual tools. I love the plastic container in the middle. You're much more organized than I am. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9223 | Giving Calculator
How Much Should I Give?
The average American contributes 3.4% of her annual income to charities. Coloradans, in comparison, gave 3.1% of their annual income to charities.* Help Colorado meet or exceed the national average!
Calculate the Percentage of Your Income You Could Give Annually
1. Input your annual income.
2. Enter what percentage of your income you'd like to donate annually.
3. Click "calculate" and see what your annual donation amount would be.
Annual Income ($)
x Average Donated (%)
Annual Donation Amount
Calculate How You Could Distribute Your Annual Donation Throughout the Year
Since you know how much you'd like to donate each year to charities, use the calculator below to help you determine how much you could give each day, week, month, or quarter.
1. Input your annual donation amount (you can calculate it above if you're not sure).
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3. Click "calculate" to see how much to donate each day, week, month, or quarter.
Annual Donation Amount ($)
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* The State of Giving 2008: A Profile of Individual Charitable Giving in Colorado, Colorado Nonprofit Association |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/9269 | Safety Pin Controversy
CRAZED! Bonus Essay October/November 2016
The Safety Pin Controversy:
I’m a GenX Punk. Safety Pins Mean Protest And Solidarity, NOT “Virtue-Signaling” Or “White Privilege.”
Excuse Me, But What The Fuck People!
It's a Safety Pin! It's not a swastika! Plus last time I checked, those of us left of the extreme right are not happy that Trump won the Presidential Election in the United States, and the Brexit results in the U.K., right? So guess what? Fighting with each other on whether or not it's OK for some of us to wear a subtle visual display of the fact that we are a group of diverse individuals who don't identify as racist, misogynistic, ablest xenophobes, and who come from a multiple ethnicities, races, religions, genders, levels of ability, etc, who didn't vote for Donald Trump in the form of a safety pin, is a complete waste of time.
What we should be doing is mobilizing at the grass roots level, running for office locally, including in our towns/cities, counties, and states. We should be unifying together as a whole right now. All this arguing about safety pins is just helping the “alt-right.” It accomplishes nothing.
Of Course You Have A Right To Voice That You're Offended
I’m not saying that if you're offended, you can't complain. It's just when you complain publicly at the wrong time, it becomes a distraction. It gets used against us.
Also just because you are triggered by seeing safety pins, doesn't mean that everybody is. Just because you view them as a symbol of the myth that guilty white leftist elites think they need to save everybody who isn't white from the evil white racist bastards that have existed throughout history, doesn't mean that's how everybody that isn't white interprets it.
Plus what about women of all races? What about disabled people of all races? What about non-white people who wear the safety pin as a symbol of solidarity? Are they de facto white people now to you by virtue of the safety pins they display which are hardly visible anyway?
What about the fact that the word ally, doesn't always mean “white ally,” but solidarity of people, a group of people or groups or countries that stand together and agree to help each other. That means white men helping black women, sure, but also Muslim women helping disabled Asian men. The safety pins shows that we’re safe with each other. If you notice it on a person regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, belief system, disability or ability, that they aren't going to attack you, call you names, or turn you in to the immigration authorities.
I’m not claiming that's there's no such thing as “white guilt,” or that there isn't a huge problem in films and other narratives that depict a lone white dude saving a bunch of non-white people, or a group of women, or one woman, etc. Those are real issues. However, Safety Pins aren't necessarily a symptom of those things.
Punk Rock Girl Wearing Safety Pins
To Generation X, The Safety Pin Signals Rebellion, Punk Rock, And Anti-Authoritarianism
I’m a Gen X punk. As a tween, the first movement I identified with was Punk. One of the visible symbols of Punk is the Safety Pin. It stands for the pulling apart and reassembling of everything. It stands for rebellion, revolution, solidarity, freedom, and anti-authoritarianism. We used it to create our own fashion and style from old clothes that we’d rip apart and put back together. We used it as jewelry. We used a version of it to attach badges to our clothes. Badges displaying the slogans of our beliefs and the Punk philosophy.
To a Punk, the safety pins, hand written shirts, badges and buttons weren't “virtue signaling.” You'd probably get punched in the face if you accused one of us of something like that. To us, although we never coined such
Grace Jones
useless double speak terms as “virtue signaling,” and “trigger warning,” or “post-truth,” “virtue signaling” was what the elite rich did with their insistence on designer labels, their branding. And as to “trigger warnings,” fuck you! Part of the Punk philosophy is about triggering people, waking people up, shocking people into thinking for themselves. That's what the Safety Pin means.
So you know what, fuck you! This disabled, part Cheyenne female will wear one or more Safety Pins if I want to. If you're shocked or offended, then good. Wake up! Be loud! Run for office! Rebel! Fight! Write! Create Art! Read a book! Do something! Wear Safety Pins if you want!
Annette Sugden is a writer, artist, dancer, actor and the editor of CRAZED! She writes both serious and comic articles on feminism, politics and life as a survivor of abuse and assault, and on being a recovering love and sex addict as well as articles on literature, art and entertainment. She also writes fiction and poetry.
CRAZED! accepts submissions of essays, articles, reviews, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. We are also always looking for people to interview and material to review. Send queries to Annette Sugden at: Keep in mind the tone and scope of CRAZED! when you submit. It's suggested that people read all past CRAZED! posts before composing their queries.
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