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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49157 | Gaming music is nothing new. Video games and hip hop have been practically inseparable since their birth in the 1970s. Here are 50 songs spanning four decades, showcasing the fruits of this Atari teenage riot.
Video games and rap music have been practically inseparable since they both sprang to life in the 1970s. The former served as one of the most popular distractions for the teenagers who invented hip-hop in the later part of that decade, and you can feel how hip-hop absorbed video games' deep mythologies, colorful characters, and — once Afrika Bambaataa hit the planet — their epileptic bloops, as well. In 2012, it's the same as it ever was, especially since the best-selling video game of 2011 (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) pushed about three times as many copies as Lil Wayne's chart-topping The Carter IV (which, we might add, had a song called "MegaMan"). Here are 50 songs spanning four decades, showcasing the fruits of this Atari teenage riot.
The Chilly Kids "Ice Arcade" (1983)
Surveying the then-relatively short history of video games, youthful rap crew Chilly Kids weave the sounds of Jeff Spicoli coin-operated classics like Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Berzerk (1980), Pac-Man (1980), and Donkey Kong (1981), around a classic Sugar Hill Records sing-rap. "I flunked my test, the teacher's annoyed / But we rock the ice arcade, playing Asteroids!," a disturbingly chipper voice exclaims. Try to imagine a song a little too tailor-made for rollerskate parties as performed by a miniature version of the B-52's, and you're almost there. BRANDON SODERBERG
4. GALAXIAN (1979)
U.N.K.L.E., feat. Kool G Rap “Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Pt. 1)” (1998)
Slicker than Space Invaders, Galaxian took the same single-screen, alien-annihilating formula and spruced it up with color graphics and elaborate attack patterns. Queens gangsta rap hard-nut Kool G Rap never copped to misspending his youth hanging around arcades shooting space-blobs, but U.N.K.L.E. head honcho James Lavelle has always been tuned in to Japanese pop culture (plus Futura 2000's U.N.K.L.E. cover art would have been a smart fit on the side of a Galaxian cabinet). For "Guns Blazing," a sample of the Galaxian ship's laser cannon adds closing atmospherics to G Rap's ferocious waves of rhymes. PHILIP MLYNAR
5. PAC-MAN (1980)
The Packman "I'm The Packman (Eat Everything I Can)" (1982)
Released within a year of Buckner & Garcia's cult novelty single "Pac-Man Fever," Enjoy! Records contrived a hip-hop electro take on that blipping hit. Despite the song's cynical origins, it's an excellent example of early rap's no-rules, figuring-it-out-as-we-go-along spirit. "I'm The Packman (Eat Everything I Can)" is an ominous alien transmission, with vibrating vocodered vocals that recall an oversize insect chanting. Meanwhile, chomping sound-effects mimic Pac-Man's lo-fi munching, though they sound more like brash, primitive Jam Master Jay-style scratches. B.S.
6. PAC-MAN (1980)
Lil' Flip "Game Over (Flip)" (2004)
On "Game Over," Houston's Lil Flip and producer Nick Fury — named after a Marvel Comics character, so we're already in nerd territory, here — connect the sonic dots between Pac-Man's simple 8-bit melody and the burgeoning synth-crunk of Lil Jon. Flip's pissed-off raps make no canny nods to the sample's fun-loving, pizza-parlor origins; instead, he grits his teeth and treats the beat like any other fight-rap party-starter. Namco actually ended up suing Flip and his label Sony BMG for this jack, but eventually settled out of court. Hopefully they did not pay in quarters. B.S.
7. PAC-MAN (1980)
Rich Boy "Da Pacc" (2009)
Alabama scrapper Rich Boy made his name with "Throw Some D's," a song that Polow Da Don curled into an arcade-sounding plink-plonk on the verses and a soaring slab of symphonic '80s soul, on the hook. For "Da Pacc," produced by proud gamer Supa Villain — in this interview with the blog Space Age Hustle, the Mississippi beatmaker gave out his Xbox Live screen name — Rich Boy just went straight to video games for that cheap-but-triumphant electronic ambience. Once more, Pac-Man inspires talk about "packs," and another unlikely ode to drug-dealing is born. B.S.
8. GALAGA (1981)
People Under The Stairs - "Gamin On Ya" (2008)
PUTS dropped the nostalgic "Gamin On Ya" on their retro, summer-loving mixtape Funner Than Leather, dusting off the oldster's shooter almost 30 years after Galaga first blew minds in pizza parlors across America. "Up, up, down, down, left, right": The song's not just about sampling the arpeggiated robot soundtrack, but actually jammin' in the arcade in the '80s. (Spyhunter and Double Dragon get namedropped, too. People Under the Stairs are nerds.) At the time, the alien-shooter platform was enjoying a resurgence thanks to that same nostalgia, plus geek-irony hitting critical mass — you can still cop logo tees off eBay with corny taglines like "You Complete Me" — so PUTS' track hit a nerve with their relative age group, though never explained why the upper levels never change aside from speeding up, a bummer of then-limited technology. JULIANNE ESCOBEDO SHEPHERD
9. DONKEY KONG (1981)
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince "Human Video Game" (1988)
Always one to speak up on edgy issues, Will Smith penned this cautionary tale to warn morally panic-stricken parents about the dangers of video-game addiction. Finding himself unable to quit pumping quarters into a Donkey Kong arcade machine, Smith wards off impending ruin by finding salvation in Ready Rock C, who can perform a beatbox rendition of the game's opening riff on demand (coincidentally, one of the greatest beatbox performances ever put to wax). Without this important interjection, the early-'80s would have been blighted by rampaging youths leaping over barrels and saving princesses. P.M.
10. MS. PAC-MAN (1982)
Beanie Sigel "Mac Man" (2000)
The Roc's former head hard-ass turns the 8-bit universe of Pac Man's wifey into the gritty streets of Philadelphia: "Yo, I cop power pellets (and y'all call them bricks) / I make little dots (and y'all chop rocks to flip)." As Sigel keeps the arcade-game-as-the-corner wordplay going, it grows more absurd and charming: "I got a worker named Frogger / When I say 'jump,' he leaps." And in a tribute to one of video gaming's greatest sequels, Beans' cadence on the song was ultimately lifted for Jay-Z's similarly list-based single "Girls, Girls, Girls." B.S.
11. SUPER MARIO BROS. (1985)
Cocoa Brovaz - "Super Brooklyn" (1998)
"Imma Brooklyn survivor / These streets is hotter than lava": When Cocoa Brovaz dropped this crucial BK track over Super Mario Bros.' "Underground Pipe" theme, they were doing more than paying homage to one of the best video games ever made — they were embodying its existence. Imagining themselves as errant Super Marios on a quest through the mean streets of Brownsville, they rap about busting heads and running the streets, though instead of a Princess at the end, there are several models namechecked in the last verse. Rap crews had referenced video games before, but this was around Game Boy Pocket-fever time, and "Super Brooklyn" was one of the illest. J.E.S.
12. SUPER MARIO BROS. (1985)
Saigon "Get Busy" (2010)
"Get Busy" first emerged in video form, which featured actual clips from someone playing Super Mario spliced in with narrative scenes from Saigon's track — which sampled the video game's main theme and actually flipped its storyline into a hood tale. In Saigon's version, Luigi's a 'shroom-popping adversary who kidnaps Mario's girl, but Mario's also a tough dude who threatens Luigi with his cigarette. From there, the tale fizzles off but eventually Saigon's the hero, saying he can spit fireballs, do the Roger Rabbit, and bump with your girl "like a joystick." For murder music, it's remarkably cheery, and impresses how indelible Super Mario Bros. has been through the years: For those of a certain age, the theme song will forever inspire warm feelings in the most hardened heart. J.E.S.
13. SUPER MARIO BROS. (1985)
Curren$y "Star Power" (2009)
The invincibility round in Super Mario Bros. had the best music of the whole damn game — when the Mario avatar hopped on a little smiling star, the tune would switch into this fortissimo Brazilian jazz number. So it was smart for Curren$y producer N.O.L. to nab it for a juiced boom-bap comeback, cut on the fly while they were in Austin for SXSW. (Hey, that festival's basically music-industry day camp with booze, so they can be forgiven for looking back to their youths for inspiration.) It preceded his track "Wave Race," which sampled the Nintendo 64 game, and his Grand Theft Auto-themed This Ain't No Mixtape. Clearly, dude was in the zone. J.E.S.
14. KID ICARUS (1986)
Tonedeff "Round 'Em Up" (2001)
If you had a NES in 1987, by default you surely played Kid Icarus, a great reminder of how gloriously goofy games used to be. Ostensibly based on Greek mythology, you played as a winged lad who could not fly, used credit cards, and battled wizards who could turn you into a walking eggplant. Though he's attempted to distance himself from it since, early-aughts rapper Tonedeff's appreciation for Kid Icarus' jaunty chiptunes was at one time very apparent, as on "Round 'Em Up" where the Queens rapper masterfully used the games' bouncy grooves to construct a vehicle for his own overclocked flow. RYAN RAYHILL
15. CASTLEVANIA (1986)
U-N-I "Castlevania" (2008)
It's remarkable how infrequently actual goth music has been sampled in hip-hop — you could argue that Mobb Deep's darkest music is basically that, but still, mean basslines and boom-bap should go hand in hand. In lieu of a Sisters of Mercy/Shawty Redd collabo, U-N-I's "Castlevania" is about as close as it gets, with producer Diaba$e copping the spooky 8-bit theme for maximum ominousness. Though U-N-I opts to pay homage to practically every video game but Castlevania, they still turned out a classic analogy between gaming and their careers in hip-hop, claiming, "This rap shit be the code of life, it's like up, down, up, down, A, B, left, right." Not to nitpick, but Konami Code is actually "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, select, start," guys. Still, we got the point. J.E.S.
Statik Selektah, feat. Big Shug "Punch Out" (2008)
Top-notch pixel pugilism! Video-game lore has it that Mike Tyson was asked to endorse an American release of the NES game after a Nintendo executive was so struck by the upcoming boxer's power in the ring. Twenty years later, revisionist boom-bap producer and '80s baby Statik Selektah invokes a hearty swab of the title theme for his own take on "Punch Out," although Gang Starr associate Big Shug might be taking a more expansive view of the Queensbury Rules by bragging about doling out a "slap to the face, kicked in the ass, and punched-out." P.M.
17. DOUBLE DRAGON (1987)
Fat Tony & Tom Cruz "Double Dragon" (2012)
Producer Tom Cruz and rapper Fat Tony joined forces for an entire album of beats sampling the classic beat-'em-up game Double Dragon. But Cruz all but eliminates the potential for shtick, taking a sensitive Dilla-like ear to these blips and bloops, pulling out ominous melodies, and using blown-out digital noise for bizarro low-end. On the title track, Cruz and Fat Tony trade bro-boasts about scoring chicks together. And "Bad Habits" features Bun B, marking the second time the UGK legend has gone multiplayer over a video-game beat (in 2004, he appeared on the remix to Lil' Flip's "Game Over"). Nerdcore, this is not. B.S.
18. CONTRA (1987)
Percee P, feat. Diamond D "2 Brothers from the Gutter" (2007)
Contra is a product of the oozing-with-machismo '80s: Shirtless, buff dudes with big-ass guns are inserted into one of Reagan's South American invasions to fight rip-offs of H.R. Giger's famous alien creation. And who better to transport this male power fantasy shoot-'em-up to hip-hop than New York rhymers Percee P and Diamond D? Over a Madlib loop of the game's start-up screen music, these hardheads grit their teeth and fire threats and insults in all directions, with the reckless abandon of Contra's coveted power-up, the spread gun. B.S.
19. GOONIES II (1987)
cLOUDDEAD "JimmyBreeze (1)" (2000)
While there was no shortage of games based on movies in the '80s, Goonies II for the NES was one of the most confounding. Was there a Goonies II movie that Spielberg swept under the rug? Why is Mikey fighting rats with a yo-yo? Was the game the only true way one could continue to enjoy the hi-jinks of shimmying fat kids and the mentally challenged? The real answer was that Goonies II was simply a sequel to another Goonies game that existed in only a handful of arcades, ensuring hardly anyone ever played it. Often just as confusing were Anticon's avant hip-hoppers cLOUDDEAD, whose "Jimmy Breeze" included a sample of the Goonies II 8-bit version of Cyndi Lauper's "Goonies R Good Enough," all before steering their One-Eyed Willies into a sea of abstract psychedelia. R.R.
20. TETRIS (1989)
Extended Famm "Line Drop" (2002)
Tetris' theme song essentially sounds like the tinny theme for a Medieval court, which is cool for a platform that was once called "the Soviet Mind game." Extended Famm was an underground mini-supergroup featuring CunninLynguists' Tonedeff, and they were not good. But they used the Tetris theme really creatively: As a player moved up in levels, the song played quicker too, and Extended Famm adhered to the tempo change, rapping faster and faster over the course of three-and-a-half minutes until the track was essentially drum'n'bass. "Line Drop" satisfied underground hip-hop's early-aughts fascination with super-fast rapping — plus, Extended Famm predated a million Tetris dubstep remixes by about eight years. J.E.S.
21. TETRIS (1989)
Shady Nate, feat. T-Nutty and Mitchy Slick "Cuzblood (Remix)" (2011)
Who would have thought the Tetris theme would pair so perfectly with trap shit? DJ Fresh, apparently, who tricked out the beat on this Oakland track that gives new meaning to the idea of "stacking chips." Chosen more for its eerie, ominous sound than its gamer cachet, Fresh underscored the Tetris theme by running it through an echo chamber and adding a few tuba bleats like a funeral procession. But you've got to appreciate the conceptual parallels between stacking up blocks to clear out your screen and, you know, amassing cheddar. Next time might we suggest sampling Mouse Trap? J.E.S.
22. TETRIS (1989)
Gucci Mane, feat. 2 Chainz "Get It Back" (2012)
Gucci's version of the Tetris theme is more locationally trap than Shady Nate's take — it's off the Trap Back mixtape, after all. Slowed down and pried apart for Gucci's plainspoken flow, its harpsichord style assumes a sing-song melody, a Gucci-trademarked jingle in the spirit of "Lemonade." The song's about burning through money because there's so much to be had, so the Tetris arpeggios function as cheeky flossing, the ATL version of screaming, "in your face." There are many versions of the "Tetris dance" on YouTube, but the one below, starring the Twerk Team, is the only one that many rap blogs reposted as "Sexy Spandex Chicks Doing the Tetris to Gucci Mane." J.E.S.
Oh No, feat. Medaphor "The Ride" (2004)
Video-game fanatic Oh No claims to own practically every video-game console under the sun — including the highly coveted Bandai Pippen. For his debut album, he freaked a sample from Castlevania III, with edgy aplomb, for this Medaphor team-up. Endearingly dusty and digital. P.M.
Prodigy "Catch Body Music" (2008)
Seeing how Prodigy often rants about the Illuminati, demonic owls, and how New York prisons are plagued with bats, we'd like to think he's talking about being a descendent of the vampire-battling Belmont clan when he raps, "This is how we kill shit / Slice 'em, dice 'em, carve 'em up real nice." Alas, Banana Clip P is just running through his usual threat list, although producer Sid Roams' liberal use of the Castlevania III music gives his words an eerie menace. P.M.
25. GOLDEN AXE (1989)
Jay-Z, feat. DMX "Money, Cash, Hoes" (1998)
It's a bit of a coup for gamers that one of Jay-Z's most iconic songs samples the "Thief's Theme" from Golden Axe (don't tell Nas!). Leave it to art-nerd Swizz Beatz to flip something so obvious into something so brilliant. It's really just the trill from the beginning of the track, run backwards, but it transformed a bit from a game about a bunch of sword-wielders saving a kingdom into a song that defined the blingy late-'90s, digitizing a cash register ch-ching for the coming millennium. J.E.S.
26. ACTRAISER (1990)
Kool G. Rap - "Gangsta Nigga" (2007)
Producer Yogi (from late-'90s Def Jam footnotes Cru) hooks up a beat based around a piano riff from Actraiser, a SNES game that fused side-scrolling 2-D platformer sections with early "god-game" and world-building overtones (and, allegedly, a Christian subtext and end-of-level bosses representing various religions). For his part, G Rap decides to cast himself as a non-playable Queens deity who rolls through with "Teflon on the chest, steel on the hip." P.M.
Charles Hamilton "Where's My Fucking Genesis" (2008)
A classic case of a man coming of age and incorporating the thing that defined his pre-pubescence into his art: Sonic the Hedgehog might have had more of an influence on Charles Hamilton's career than, say, The Warriors had on any rapper ever. As he says on this song, which intros his 21st-birthday mixtape,Sonic the Hamilton, "Am I going to take my morning piss, or go with my insatiable need to play Sonic the Hedgehog?" You can bet which he chose by the Sonic coin trill that embellishes the track. J.E.S.
Wiz Khalifa "Ms Rightfernow" (2009)
Wiz really recognized the emotional potential in the Sonic the Hedgehog theme song, which slips in a couple melancholy minor keys when you're not looking, perhaps to express empathy after "SONIC HAS DIED." Turning the track into an ode to a freaky one-night stand, the Pittsburgh rapper Auto-Tuned his face off (it was 2009, after all) and bragged about leaving the lights on. He also dropped the line "Imma hit it in high definition," perhaps not the most romantic come-on ever, but certainly appropriate for a sex song set to a video-game theme. Good job on getting a girlfriend, Wiz. J.E.S.
Big Sean "Intro" (2011)
This appetizer from Big Sean's UKnowBigSean mixtape samples the original Sonic the Hedgehog's theme from the bonus round — which approximate how we feel about the fact that this run-of-the-mill rapper still has a vaguely A-list career. Still, he made good on the somber, sweet strings of Masato Nakamura's original, doing his Drake-y emo-brag thing, wondering if he really needed an intro. It's a good reminder that these video-game themes are actually written by real composers, not just generated by some magical computer phantom. J.E.S.
Dizzee Rascal - "Street Fighter" (2004)
The most beloved of 2-D fighting games, Street Fighter II dominated arcades and the home-console scene in the early '90s. U.K. loudmouth Dizzee Rascal might not have been tall enough to see over the cabinet during the game's peak years, but he rapped over a cacophony nicked from Chun-Li's theme song for his homage "Street Fighter." Young Dylan loses marks for not referencing the part in the game where you can see Ms. Li's underpants, though. P.S.
Madvillain "Do Not Fire" (2004)
At some point, the Jackson family caught console mania, with both Madlib and brother Oh No dipping into the digi-stash for samples to embellish their productions. Here 'Lib's in tandem with MF Doom and the duo use Dhalsim's calling card to compliment the mystic vibe of "Do Not Fire." Doom earlier accepted his nerd side by rapping about games like Spy Hunter, Pitfall, and Robotron on the Molemen's "Put Your Quarter Up." P.S.
Lil B & Soulja Boy "Sonic Boom" (2010)
In case the world was unconvinced about their collective genius, Internet kids Lil B and Soulja Boy invoked Guile's "Sonic boom!" holler to push home the power of their raps on this subdued track. Think of the vocal sample as a plucky exclamation point amping up their vocals. P.S.
33. MORTAL KOMBAT (1992)
SPACEGHOSTPURRP "Get Ya Head Bust" (2011)
Self-described "trillwave" producer SpaceghostPurrp is a clever curator of dark, ridiculous popular culture from the early '90s. Coming from the same aesthetic world as skull'n'crossbones goth-hop of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia is the ultraviolent (for its time, at least), blood-spraying fighting game Mortal Kombat. Echoing through many of SpaceghostPurrp's productions, and adding one more chunk of nostalgia to his blenderized version of occult regional rap, is MK's ominous, iconic "FINISH HIM!" — the impetus for the game's brutal "fatality" moves that lead to decapitations and spines getting ripped out. B.S.
34. MORTAL KOMBAT (1992)
Yo Gotti, feat. 2 Chainz "Cases" (2012)
Forever on-the-verge Memphis hero Yo Gotti and rap's of-the-moment cameo kingpin 2 Chainz take on a slightly tweaked version of the trap-music stomp made famous by Lex Luger. Atlanta producer Mike Will Made It mixes tried and true Luger-isms — glitching drums, tinny treble — with the gabber-influenced theme from Mortal Kombat, allowing the contrasting sounds to battle it out. B.S.
Wiz Khalifa "One Way" (2009)
Here, Wiz Khalifa lifts from, of all places, Kirby's Adventure, a 1993 game about a puffy, pink denizen of Dream Land who inhales nightmare enemies and spits them out in weaponized form. Though we imagine his lung capacity is far below that of Kirby at this point, "One Way" is no doubt an interpretation of his own life and those who stand in his way, painting a portrait of a rapper on the rise, and "up" being the only direction he knows to go. R.R.
36. DOOM (1993)
MF Doom "Pennyroyal" (2004)
In the most meta moment on this list, Doom samples Doom! On the masked rapper/producer's glorified beat-tape series, Metal Fingers Presents: Special Herbs Vols. 5 & 6, a rickety loop of Galt MacDermott's "Cathedral" stumbles around while, in the background, guns fire and demons wail. The addition of sounds from the pioneering, first-person shooter game provide a witty commentary on what so many blunted beat-freaks do with these Doomstrumentals CDs: They put them on while playing a video game, and bliss out.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - "Eternal" (1995)
Eazy-E's Cleveland kids tenderly use the suitably mournful Eternal Champions character bio song. The game itself was as frustratingly tricks-y as their hyperkinetic rhymes, and the 2-D fighter that came with a loopy list of characters that kind of sounded like rapper names. Jetta Maxx was a Russian aristocrat-turned-acrobat whose nomenclature begged to be taken up by one of the Wu-Tang Clan's extended '90s family members. P.M.
Childish Gambino - "Eat Your Vegetables" (2012)
But of course Childish Gambino, the smarty-pants tongue-in-cheek rap incarnation of actor Donald Glover, has rapped over a video game sample. In fairness to Glover, when he raided Nintendo's resurrected mid-'90s Donkey Kong franchise he looped up the subtle, atmospheric, seapunk-foreshadowing "Aquatic Ambience." Possibly due to the game's Brit-based coding team, Rare, the song sounds like it could have hailed from a Mo Wax trip-hop comp. P.M.
Del the Funkee Homosapien ft. Khaos Unique - "Protoculture" (2000)
Easily the most gleefully geeked-out song about video games on this list, Del and Khaos Unique's "Protoculture" bandies around references to former Sega CEO Bernie Stolar, the Saturn's optional external RAM, and video game conference E3. The production has them rapping over victory music that accompanies the character Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers, one of Capcom's sterling series of 2-D fighters. At the time Del was a confirmed Sega junkie and even put in an appearance at the Dreamcast's U.S. launch party! P.M.
Wiz Khalifa - "Never Been" (2010)
When literally giving himself ulcers to produce the soundtrack to one of the most important RPGs of the '90s, we can't imagine that a young Yasunori Mitsuda considered that his efforts on Chrono Trigger might one day result in a smoothed out ode to "bad bitches and good weed." On his 2010 mixtape, Kush & Orange Juice, Wiz Khalifa's "Never Been" took "Schala's Theme," a delicate, morose bit of melancholy for a doomed princess, and laced it with indo-infused rhymes and the smell of one dollar bills. While a few vocal video game purists were incensed at the idea of a soundtrack giant being flipped for hip-hop, "Never Been" remains a strong, haunting tribute to the SNES days. Oh, and strippers. R.R.
Dom Kennedy - "Locals Only" (2010)
Getting love from hip-hop once again, Yasunori Mitsuda's Chrono Trigger soundtrack traverses the epochs and finds yet another fan in L.A. rapper Dom Kennedy. A twinkly piano piece meant for a serene forest setting in Chrono becomes a laidback hymnal on the virtues of 24/7 hustle. Again, probably not what Mitsuda had in mind, but the workaholic can no doubt relate. R.R.
42. GOLDENEYE 007 (1997)
Indo-G & Three 6 Mafia - "Throw Dem Thangs" (1998)
GoldenEye 007 for the N64 was perhaps the first non-PC game to make multiplayer shooters viable on home consoles in 1997. Less than a year later, Memphis rapper Indo-G and his cohorts in the Three 6 Mafia decided to shake and stir a little Bond into their own kind of game on crunk classic "Throw Dem Thangs," which featured several of Goldeneye 007's sample-ready beats and effects. R.R.
43. GOLDENEYE 007 (1997)
Young Jeezy ft. Akon - "Soul Survivor" (2005)
In more recent years, artists have been keen to acknowledge Goldeneye 007 as a multiplayer classic, as evidenced in 2005's "Soul Survivor," a late night battle from Young Jeezy and Akon. The duo managed to take a disquieting xylophone riff from a tense bunker area of the game and turn into the crucial element of this bleak street banger. R.R.
Cam'ron - "Troublemakers" (2008)
Composing utilitarian music for video games is anonymous work. But due to his ornate Final Fantasy scores over almost two decades, Nobuo Uematsu is something like a rock star to gamers. One of his most ambitious songs is "One Winged Angel," a Hendrix-quoting, digi-symphonic epic from Final Fantasy VII. If a video game can have a "hit single," this is it. Cam'ron and company speed it up, rip it apart, and turn it into another one of their screaming, street anthems, like the Carl Orff flip of "Get Em' Girls" or the Rick Wakeman-sampling "Girls, Cash, Cars." B.S.
Danny Brown - "Lincoln Continental" (2011)
Brandun DeShay who produced "Pac Blood," "Radio Song," and "Party All The Time," from Danny Brown's breakthrough XXX approaches Nobuo Uematsu's theme to Final Fantasy VII like a good, old fashioned loop-digger. Almost three minutes into the slow-building song, DeShay locates a swell of strings. He slows them up, piles on fake vinyl grit for atmosphere, and lets the sample wobble drunkenly, turning roleplaying melodrama into a maudlin d-boy desperation that's better suited for Danny Brown's poverty poetry. B.S.
46. SOULCALIBUR (1998)
Eminem, J-Black, and Masta Ace - "Hellbound" (2001)
Rapping is like lyrical fighting! So runs the thinking that has Eminem, Masta Ace, and the lesser-spotted J-Black spitting fire over a beat culled from Namco's 3-D spar-fest Soul Calibur, a one-on-one fighter that received an arcade-perfect port to the Sega Dreamcast. Adding to the nerd connections, "Hellbound" was originally featured on Game Over, a compilation of rappers rhyming over video-game-sampling productions, while Masta Ace used to compete in Madden Bowl, a tournament pitching hip-hop artists against each other at John Madden Football. P.M.
Randam Luck ft. Vinne Paz - "Raw (Remix)" (2009)
Despite becoming entirely overwrought and completely daunting to actually play over the last decade, the Final Fantasy series was still excelling in 1999 thanks to the tremendous tunesmithery of Nobuo Uematsu. Fully aware of this, Randam Luck and Vinne Paz's borrow Final Fantasy VIII's liberal use of ominous choral arrangements and booming timpanis — shorthand for "epic" — for this portentous powerhouse.R.R.
48. NAVY FIELD (2000)
Fat Joe - "Take a Look at My Life" (2002)
Brassy and full of good ol' American moxie, the theme from free-to-play MMO Navy Field somehow managed to find its way down to Bronx don Fat Joe. There's some dispute about whether producer Buckwild dug deep into some Korean crates during the game's early stages (it made it to the States a few years later) or it's just some shared public domain fun, but he took the same big, blaring horns from the game's main menu screen and made them a triumphant call to action. R.R.
49. FINAL FANTASY X (2001)
Lil B - "I Love You" (2012)
The Based God, forever stretching hip-hop's limits and testing his audience's patience, doesn't even rap on "I Love You," the gloriously goofy closing tracks from his 34-song, nearly two-hour long mixtape, God's Father. Over the twinkling sounds of the "Besaid Island" theme from Final Fantasy X — which sounds not unlike one of his iconic bliss-rap productions from Clams Casino or Keyboard Kid — Lil B thanks his fans in a pleasant, Barney the Dinosaur voice. It is ridiculous. It's also pretty damned touching. B.S.
XV - "When We're Done" (2011)
Even in the realm of video games, the Kingdom Hearts series is a bit of a weird bird. It takes Disney regulars like Donald Duck, throws them in a sword-and-sorcery world with the ultra-pretty ladyboys of Final Fantasy, and mixes it all up with equal parts darkness (think Malificent) and syrupy schmaltz (think the "power of friendship!"). Gamers love what they love, however, and rapper XV clearly loves Kingdom Hearts II as he built his 2011 track "When We're Done" around the soaring arrangements of Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada's "Sanctuary," the game's main theme and all-around inspirational jam. R.R.
J. Cole - "Dollar and a Dream III" (2011)
Heart-spilling rapper J. Cole chose to use a lush section of music from the Disney and Square collaboration Kingdom Hearts II to spark his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story into life. Casting himself as something of a book-smart college-grad, it's not exactly hard to imagine Cole settling down to engross himself in an epic RPG — although the Roc Nation penny-pinchers may have simply decided it was cheaper to sample an orchestra (the score is performed in part by the Tokyo Philharmonic!) than to ask Jay to move his in-house orchestra from out of Blue Ivy's playroom. P.M.
Lil Wayne - "She Will" (2011)
The video game equivalent of Jay-Z riding for some indie rock band, Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery is an artsy independent iOS game scoured from the depths of the iTunes store. The soundtrack to this musical adventure was recently tapped up by producer T-Minus to bed Wayne's "She Will." But you can currently buy the Weezy-less Superbrothers score (by Jim Guthrie) on a limited vinyl release. P.M. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49180 | Criminology 102
On December 14, 2015 from 2:00 to 3:30 PM (Eastern), the Smart Policing Initiative presented a webinar on "Criminology 102: Busted Myths in Criminology". This webinar was presented by Dr. Scott Decker, SPI Subject Matter Expert and Foundation Professor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. The past two decades of research have challenged many conventional assumptions about crime and criminal justice. These include such things as “nothing works”, that crime is going up, that simply providing more resources affects crime and that prevention doesn’t work. These assumptions are largely based on old or public misconceptions about criminal justice. Addressing these myths is important because progress can be made against crime by using current research and data about crime problems and criminal justice responses. The webinar identified ten of these “myths” and discussed the evidence that suggests that indeed these are myths. Most importantly, the webinar examined how the research evidence can lead to data-driven solutions.
• Sense and Nonsense about Crime, Drugs and Communities. Samuel Walker, Cengage Learning. 2014.
• The New Criminal Justice John Klofas, (Ed.). 2010. New York: Routledge |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49190 | Sunday, April 23, 2006
What's a distribution?
The first question most people have when they start working with Linux is "what's a distribution?"
Here is my simple explanation of what a Linux distribution is:
A distribution is a collection of applications and configuration utilities built around the GNU/Linux Operating system.
But, what does this really mean? Why not a single distribution with all the same applications and configurations?
Different people need their computer to perform different tasks: Some write programs some others write documents and prepare presentations some others use them as a web server or to unfold the human genome.
A home computer needs different programs than a web server. Home users are used to GUIs while a web server may not even have one.
What's more even among home users some are experts and some are novice. Some have new and fast computers while some others have older and slower computers.
So, if you want to configure your computer exactly as you want or need, you could search for all the applications you need and install them. In practice only a few curious (and maybe a bit masochist) people dare to start from zero. Some people have already prepared a collection of applications for different "user profiles". They distribute this collections, some free, some commercially. These are the "Distributions".
That does not mean that you can only use the applications provided. Think of a distribution as your starting point. The better you choose your distribution according to your needs, the closer you will be to have a computer configured specifically for you.
As an example of distributions, RedHat (the company) has the following ones:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS : This is a distribution geared to enterprise servers with all the tools to administer a network and its applications
- Red Hat Enterprise Desktop : This one is geared to Desktop users in an office environment.
- Fedora Core : This is a general purpose distribution assembled with 100% free software.
There are 'purpose specific' distributions, for example your TV top-set may be using Linux. Many cell phones use Linux as their underlying OS. There are distributions to configure computer clusters (Groups of computers working as if they were a single one)
Here you can find a list of distributions. Search based on your needs or curiosity and read the descriptions:
No comments: |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49203 | Virgo Love Horoscope for October 2015
Listen to your heart
Once Venus enters your sign on October 8, you'll feel more beautiful, confident and alluring. Use all of your extra mojo to attract whomever it is you've got your eye on! If you're already in a relationship, you might feel insecure about what a relative has to say to you about your love life on October 10.
Listen to your heart, not your family. Then, it's possible you'll feel overly optimistic or even blinded by love on October 16. As long as there isn't anything you or your partner has to hide from one another this will be a day of unconditional romance. The enchantment continues on October 23 and October 25. Love is divine!
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49205 | Time to Line Up! FREE printables
One of the best ways I found to line up students is in number order. Each student is assigned a number at the beginning of the year. It's their order for lining up. Each week there is a line leader and caboose so there are 2 students who aren't in the correct order. This stops all of the "he's cutting in line" complaints that you normally hear. Initially students may complain about the order. Once they figure out that everyone will eventually be the line leader and everyone will eventually be the caboose, they don't complain about the fact that #2 is always closer to the front of the line than #18. It is much easier to see if you are missing students when you pick them up from recess using this system. Your students will have the line order memorized before you will, so they will quickly tell you who is missing. We don't line up in number order to walk to our spots for the fire drill. But, once we are outside, we get in our proper order so we can see if anyone is missing.
You can use die cut numbers or numbers from a bulletin board set like the ones in the picture. The red and green set are from Dollar Tree.
I use calendar numbers for many different things in the classroom. Calendar numbers are colorful and small. Use these to add to your theme or to add some seasonal fun.
• Label coat hooks
• Label cubbies
• Label students' spot to line up
You can add a little math when you line up your students if you tape numbers on the floor. This shows students where they are going to stand. Add a seasonal touch by changing the number order each season.
I like to change the color, too! In the fall I used orange / yellow, in the winter use red / green, in the spring use pink / red, and at the end of the year use orange / green. Sometimes I use one color for each number. Example: in December all of the odd numbers would be red and all of the even numbers would be green. When lining up ask students with an odd number to line up first. Your students will quickly learn odd and even numbers. Another example: in February, make all of the numbers in the ones place red and all the numbers in the tens place pink. When lining up you can give different problems like: When lining up you can give different problems like:
•If your number has an odd number in the tens place, you may line up.
•If your number in the ones place is equal to 3 + 4, you may line up.
•If your number is odd you may line up.
•If your number is even you may line up.
•If the sum of 4 + 2 + 3 is your number you may line up.
•If today’s day is your number you may line up.
Your students will quickly become mental math wizards!
How do you line up your class? Click HERE to try out this FREE system.
Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE.
Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
No comments |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49207 | DailyDirt: No Accounting For Taste?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Quantifying how our taste buds react to different ingredients isn't an easy task. It's hard enough to get 4 out of 5 dentists to agree on a toothpaste, so it's understandably difficult to get untrained taste testers to agree on what kind of flavors they prefer. The assumption that there is a single "best-tasting" formula for a particular food is unrealistic in many cases, anyway, as Malcolm Gladwell's popular TED talk on spaghetti sauces discusses. Still, food science has to take some kind of measurements, and here are just a few examples. If you have some more free time, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Hide this
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: flavors, food, palate, recipes, scoville heat unit, senses, spicy, taste
Companies: ajinomoto
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1. identicon
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 6 Jul 2012 @ 5:01pm
Taste Is Actually (Mostly) Smell
Most of the flavour you pick up from food and drink is actually through your nose, not your tastebuds.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49208 | chore chart template
Chore chart template excel is simply a daily constant to-do list, which assigned in group of people. Chore chart template can be used for personal household chores, school or organization cleaning schedule. It can be used for menial work scheduling too. Chore chart template excel can be turned for habit tracker too.
chore chart template
chore chart template
Chore chart template excel consist only one menu: Chore Schedule to records the chores and their status.
Chore Schedule design and purpose for weekly chore chart template. You can turn it into monthly chore chart template excel by copying the sheets into 4 or 5 for each week in a month.
Chore Schedule has some elements:
1. Start Date. The field to determine the first week date. It automatically set for Today date, which can be seen on formula bar. To turn the Start Date from formula into value, you can manually input the date. You turned the value to Today Date press F2, F9, and Enter in your keyboard.
monthly chore chart template excel
monthly chore chart template excel
1. Date Column. There are 7 columns for each day. The top rows describe the Day name, while the bottom rows display the Date number. The Date following the Start Date.
weekly chore chart template
weekly chore chart template
1. Task List. Enter the task name or description here. If you need to add new task, insert the row inside the chore table. The task supposed to be menial task performed daily, e.g. household chores. You can freely enter task name depends on how you turned the Chores template into.
household chore list template
household chore list template
1. Chore Checklist. List for enter the task status. Consist of Who and Done columns. Who column is for the one responsible with or assigned for doing the task. Done column is for chore status. You can input Yes/No (like the example below), filling color, percentage, or other options for status name.
blank chore charts printable
blank chore charts printable
It is necessary to turning the Start Date formula into value. This is because if not changed, the chore chart template excel will have the Date Column changing. This will mess up the chores checklist status. E.g. The Start Date is on 2 June 2017. On Friday 2nd column, you enter the task status. On the next day (June 3rd), the first column will turned into June 3rd and the value in checklist will stay on June 3rd column.
Related Template: Expense Report Excel Template
If you have several names list into chore chart template excel, you can set up the Who field into drop down menu. To do that, follow the instructions:
1. Create a table for the person list in new sheet or you can import person table. Create the list in a row or column only. This is because the Data Validation only support for only a row or only a column.
2. Select all Who fields or columns.
3. Click Data tab > Data Tools group > Data Validation.
4. On the dialog box > Setting tab, follow this parameter:
Allow: List
Source: Click the icon on right. Then, drag to select the Person List table. You can manually input the field codes contains the Person Name List. E.g. =$A$1:$A$20.
1. Click OK.
NOTE: you can add Done Status option by following the same steps.
The blank chore charts is printable in A4 paper with Landscape format, you can use it for manually writing and pinned it. You can redesign the interface into more interactive.
It can be used for project tracker in software development or event task tracker. Additionally, you can use it for personal used, such as personal freelance work chores (but may need to remove Who field). If you want to achieve something (diet plan, exercise or workout plan), you can turn household chore list template into habit tracker.
Further modifying, you can add priority, time shift or finished time, or comments fields. You can add filter too. To download the chore chart template excel, please hit one of these buttons:
Related templates
By rita
Leave a Reply
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49210 | Monday to Wednesday, 10am - 4pm, ET
1.855.281.5499 (toll free)
Backing Up Your Data
Tools and strategies for protecting your organization against data loss
By: ONE/Northwest and Kevin Lo
January 18, 2007
How effective would your nonprofit be if your email, word-processing documents, and contact databases were wiped out completely? How many hours would it take to rebuild the lost information from scratch?
Best Backup Practices
All backup routines must balance expense and effort against risk. Few backup methods are 100-percent airtight — and those that are may be more trouble to implement than they're worth. That said, here are some rules of thumb to guide you in developing a solid backup strategy.
1. Develop a written backup plan that tells you:
• What's being backed up.
• Where it's being backed up to.
• How often backups will occur.
• Who's in charge of performing backups.
• Who's in charge of monitoring the success of these backups.
2. Your database and accounting files are your most critical data assets. They should be backed up before and after any significant use. For most organizations, this means backing up these files daily. Nonprofits that do a lot of data entry should consider backing up their databases after each major data-entry session.
3. Back up your core documents (such as your documents folders) and email files at least once a week, or even once a day. Each organization needs to decide how much work it is willing to risk losing and set its backup schedule accordingly.
4. Store a copy of your backups off-site to insure against a site-specific disaster such as a fire, break-in, or flood. Ideally, you should store your backups in a safety-deposit box. We recommend rotating a set of backups off-site once a week. Another rule to follow is the 2x2x2 rule: two sets of backups held by two people at two different locations. Although it may sound overly cautious, you will be glad to have a system like this in place should disaster strike.
5. It is not usually necessary to back up the complete contents of each hard drive — most of that space is taken up by the operating system and program files, which you can easily reload from a CD if necessary. The only exception is if your organization has a dedicated file server; in this case, it's a good practice to conduct a full backup of your server before every major update so that you have a way to restore its entire hard drive. A proper file server should also be running a server-class operating system, with software or hardware RAID.
6. Remember to back up data on your laptops and handheld devices as well, which, depending on how you use them, may contain pertinent information. In some ways, a Palm or Windows Mobile handheld device is already like a backup of your contacts; still, refer to your device's manual for specific data-transfer instructions.
7. Test your backups before you need them. Make sure your backup software has full read-back verification. Design a recovery plan, and try restoring a few files to a different computer at a different location so you can test your plan before you actually need it.
Choosing Backup Hardware
1. Choosing appropriate backup hardware is key to an effective backup strategy. As with any technology, there are probably several "right" solutions for your organization. Here are some guidelines for choosing backup hardware that will work for you. If you are interested in learning more about online backup solutions, read Remote Backup for Your Organization
2. Determine how much data you need to back up. Take a look at the machines on your network — or at least a representative sample. How big is each user's documents folder? How big is the email file? How much data is in your organization's primary shared folder? Add up the totals for all your machines, or multiply the average by the number of machines in your organization. Be sure to leave room to add a few new staffers, and to plan for growth — it's not impossible to add 1 GB of data per person per year.
3. Choose a backup device that uses media with a storage capacity of at least twice the total amount of data you need to back up. This will give you room for growth, and will also allow you to perform "incremental" backups on the same tape with a "full" backup. For many organizations, tape drives are a great choice, combining high reliability and reasonably fast speeds with large storage capacities. Tape drives have become the standard in backup media, and with the proper backup procedures in place they are a reliable alternative. For larger organizations with an IT infrastructure in place, tapes are a great choice.
4. Consider your drive's speed and how it interfaces with your computer. When you have a large amount of data to back up, a big storage device isn't much good if you can't write data to it quickly.
• Internal Drives. IDE and SCSI are common internal-drive interfaces. All PCs have built-in IDE connections, and devices using these interfaces are usually less expensive. Keep in mind that there are also different standards for IDE. Older IDE drives are now called PATA (Parallel ATA) and the newer standard is called SATA (Serial ATA). Be sure to verify compatibility with existing hardware when making a purchase.
• External Devices. Although ultra-wide SCSI is the fastest, you will also encounter devices that use USB and IEEE 1394 (Apple FireWire). Most PCs don't include built-in SCSI adapters, so you may need to add an SCSI card to use an SCSI device. Higher-end server-class hardware comes with a built-in SCSI or the newest standard SAS (Serial Attached SCSI).
Choosing Backup Software
Having cost-effective and reliable backup hardware is only half of the equation. Many backup devices come with backup software that works for most data-storage needs. Windows comes with its own backup software under Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup, and is adequate for individual users. For an organization-wide backup strategy, however, a dedicated program such as Symantec's Backup Exec or EMC's Retrospect should be used. Consult the software documentation for details to determine specific needs. Microsoft offers an in-depth description of the most common types of backup — full, incremental, and differential.
Locating Files for Backup
Once you have the hardware and software in place, you need to know the location of the data you wish to back up. While most Windows users store data in their documents folder, there is also a tendency to keep files and folders on the Desktop, which you'll need to back up as well. Special database- or financial-software packages may store files in their program directories, so be sure to make copies of these, too. Finally, be sure to understand how your email is set up and where your messages (sent and received), calendar (if your email application has one), and contact information are stored.
Check with your email service provider - which may offer backup services - on its backup and restore policies. Email messages may also contain copies of sent attachments. Locally, mail data files should be backed up, and their locations vary by program. In Microsoft Outlook, mail data files are commonly located in:
If you have an extensive bookmark collection in your browser, be sure to back that up as well. You may choose to periodically export your bookmark file from within the program, or point to the bookmark file itself in your backup software. Check the application's Help tool or consult the Web for details.
Additional Backup Tools
What about CDs, DVDs, flash drives, and external hard drives?
As organizations' content and data needs grow exponentially, data storage costs are also decreasing. CDs, DVDs, USB flash memory devices, and external hard drives are becoming increasingly affordable.
With that in mind, should you use these devices as your primary means of backing up? Here are a few considerations.
• Low cost aside, the main advantage to using these devices is their ubiquity and accessibility. If you made a direct copy of your files to a disc or flash memory device, for example, they can be easily be read by any modern operating system on another computer (Windows 2000 and above; Linux kernel 2.2.x and above; Mac OS X) with a DVD or CD drive or functioning USB port. This means you can "restore" your data, even without specialized backup hardware. Moreover, in the event of a disaster, you can often recover data more quickly from a CD, DVD, flash memory device, or external hard drive than from a specialized tape format or device.
• CDs only hold about 650 MB of data per disc, while DVDs store about 4.7 GB for a single-layer single-side disc. That's plenty of space to back up your database, or a single employee's documents and email, but it may not be enough to store every file at an organization with five or more staff members. Flash memory devices are also impractical for the same reason. Moreover, external hard drives, though convenient and cost-effective, may not always be conducive to best backup practices, such as making routine off-site copies or conducting incremental backups.
• Since it is easily readable, from a data-security point of view, direct copies of data stored on CDs, DVDs, flash memory devices, and external drives pose more of a problem in the event of loss or theft. Even with password encryption, this data is less secure than it would be in a harder-to-read backup archive.
Although discs have fewer compatibility issues overall, the data stored on these may not be readable on every workstation, especially if your nonprofit has older hardware or donated machines with varying specifications. With writable DVDs, for example, there are a plethora of standards (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-RW, to name a few). For a guide to formats, read Webopedia's DVD Formats Explained.
Does that mean that CD, DVDs, and flash memory devices, and external hard drives are useless? Absolutely not! Here are some ways to use them:
• Use CDs and DVDs to archive old data. Old information — such as audit records or historical data — may still be of value to your organization. CDs and DVDs are also appropriate for storing data that you won't need to modify, such as photos and finished printed materials. Both generally involve large files that you may need to refer to but aren't likely to go back and change. Archiving old data files to discs is also a great way to supplement your tape-based backup strategy, because it lets you save resources by backing up big chunks of files that won't change. Plus, disks make your archives portable — and it's easy to store a copy off-site.
• Use flash memory devices for transferring files, or as a secondary backup. Flash memory devices are great for making quick, easy, redundant backups of super-critical files such as databases and accounting files. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49212 | Instructions for PRINCE2 Foundation Practice Test 4
This page shows the instructions for PRINCE2 Foundation Practice Test 4. Please read it carefully before attempting the test.
Number of Questions:
The test has 20 questions for practice
Type of Questions:
This test format is multiple choices. Each question has 4 to 10 options.
30 minutes
Passing Marks:
80% Marks
1. The passing score does not mean that you must answer 80 percent of the questions correctly in order to pass the exam. The actual percentage varies from exam to exam and may be more or less than 80 percent.
3. Attempt all questions since there are no penalties for guessing. No points are deducted for incorrect answers.
4. You must answer each question before proceeding to the next question.
5. If you leave the test midway through your session, you cannot resume it where you left off by returning to this page.
Click below to start:
The test is best viewed using Internet Explorer 6.0+, Mozilla Firefox 2.0+ or Google Chrome. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49262 | Quiz Number 035 with a Famous Redheads Picture Round
Quiz 035s Featured Image is from the Famous Redheads Picture RoundTeasing questions ranging from Norseman Lager to American Sniper. The Picture Round is Famous Redheads and the Wild Card is a stat on the biggest audience for an American TV show.
Sample Questions
Q04. Which now defunct brewery produced brands such as Norseman Lager and Lorimer’s Scotch? Reveal Answer...
Q12. Les McKeown was the lead singer of which 1970s boyband? Reveal Answer...
Q25. What does 1976 Decathlon Gold Medal winner Bruce Jenner prefer to be known as these days? Reveal Answer...
Q34. Who directed the 2015 movie American Sniper? Reveal Answer...
Famous Redheads Picture Round
Famous Redheads
Quiz 35s Famous Redheads Picture Round… can you name these 12 famous people with ginger mops?
Here is a low-res sample of Quiz 035s Famous Redheads Picture Round. Can you put a name to these famous ginger folk? The Picture Round download is a two page high quality PDF with the answers on page 2.
The Wild Card
Quiz 035s Wild Card is an intriguing stat on the biggest audience for an American TV show.
Add to Cart |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49283 | TLZone Forums banner
1. Help Forum
Any one have trouble with worm cam shafts on a TLS. The local Suzuki dealer thinks the exhaust cam is worn causing a louder than normal tapping sound an the cylinde to stop firing from time to time. The bike has done 64000km. How long should the engine last on these bikes? |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49288 |
TBF to #4, the abuse directed at Diop is gross and unfair and reflects an ugly side of fandom that we need to work on, AND I didn’t actually state my opinion, so for clarity: Lead Raven, yay! Diop as Starfire, cool. Dove, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, no Cyborg, boo!
hope that helps
Hey, I've seen the film and I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you explain?
Quick update, just a leetle bit more reseach reveals Glen Murakami is responsible for the swining lamp reveal of Batman in a Croc-Suit.
Superman vs. the Myth of Aristocracy
@thehost55, Sure, Pharaoh is the ruler and the Jews are the slaves, but the Egyptians are also gentiles while the children of Israel are God's Chosen People, who Moses re-joins and then kicks Pharaoh's ass. Again, the point is that Moses's true heritage is his special biological one, even though he was unware of it until he became a man.
The Four Questions Everyone Asks at Conventions
I think maybe twenty people would have gotten what I meant if I called it the DB.
The Four Questions Everyone Asks at Conventions
Hmm, perhaps The Jackass is actually a variant of the Non-Question, because yeah, it's basically the same phenomenon.
The DC Comics Revamp: A Reaction
Note, this post is ALREADY out of date, as DC just announced 9 more titles. And if Cliff Chiang is drawing it, I have to buy Wonder Woman again. Especially if it's this Wonder Woman.
#NOT MINE: Rendezvous with Mama Bangers in Spain Perdildo Street Station The Sex Toys of the Torturer And Poon (by Frank Herbert)
Hey Kids! Comics!
I went to Forbidden Planet last year fairly early in the morning, and it was neither mobbed nor particularly uncool, but really go to the store you like best!
Fox Cancels Joss Whedon
"omg.. stop posting this. yes we get it. it's april fools. can't we get back to our lives? post some real news! " ... You seem to think that "regular operations on Tor.com" = "real life". You are mistaken.
Kress’s Steal Across the Sky another great first-contact novel
"Wait a moment. What's happened to my name? " And people wonder how writers get their ideas.
Dan Meth’s Trilogy Meter
The third Bond film is "Goldfinger," which is the only example I can think of where the third film seriously improves on the previous two.
Rorschach Test
Nick, Rorschach is in fact paranoid: he "distrusts others, sometimes to delusional proportions, and believes that certain individuals, or people in general, are "out to get him."" Also he's wrong, for most of the book, in a particularly paranoid fashion. He believes the Comedian was killed by a "mask killer," someone targeting superheroes, assuming one crime means a threat against himself. Rorschach sticks to this theory through issue 10, despite being given a huge clue in issue 2, that the Comedian saw something on an island that shook him to the core. Rorschach never follows up on that. Ozymandias even exploits Rorschach's paranoid theory by staging his own assassination attempt, giving himself an alibi. Yes, Rorschach apologizes to Nite Owl, but that's a huge moment for him, stepping away from his paranoid life and trying to be human. But before that, Rorschach knew Nite Owl for twenty years and never told him his real name, or showed him his real face; all while breaking into his home and eating his sugar. That's not trust.
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2008 Results
You make excellent points, and no, Bulwer-Lytton was certainly no worse a writer than Cooper. In fact, I'd say the contest is named after him because he was a good writer and particularly because he had such skill with turns of phrase. Like "the pen is mightier than the sword" and "the almighty dollar", "It was a dark and stormy night" is highly evocative and almost poetic, to the point it has transcended attribution and simply become part of the English language. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of time" and "Call me Ishmael" are famous opening lines, but both are attached to particular novels and writers. "It was a dark and stormy night" is famously the opening line, separate and apart from any particular book. Thus, it is the sign of a bad novel if it starts with "It was dark and stormy night", because it shows a lack of creativity in the author (Unless that book was in fact written by Bulwer-Lytton. ... or I guess Madeleine L'Engle). The Bulwer-Lytton contest is really about finding a line that inspires even less confidence in the writer than a line unconsciously stolen from a novel written almost two hundred years ago. Also, Jess (and Colin), I invite you to actually sign up for the Tor.com community. I'd be interested to read any discussion you would want to start with the sci-fi, fantasy, and genre fiction community.
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2008 Results
Jess Nevins? Of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen annotations Jess Nevins?
Man in the Mirror
"it is entirely possible to read WALL-E as female"
That's a... bold statement. How do you read Wall-E as female?
|
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49290 | An Móinín Rua is in the Electoral Division of Moneenroe, in Civil Parish of Caisleán an Chomair, in the Barony of Fásach an Deighnín, in the County of Contae Chill Chainnigh
The English name for An Móinín Rua is Moneenroe
An Móinín Rua is on An Móinín Rua.
It is located at 52° 50' 0" N, 7° 10' 18" W.
An Móinín Rua has an area of:
Nationwide, it is the 1291ú largest townland that we know about
Within Co. Contae Chill Chainnigh, it is the 27ú largest townland
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We don't know about any subtownlands in An Móinín Rua.
Genealogy / Ancestry / Records Search
Curious to see who lived in An Móinín Rua in the past? Maybe even seeing scans of their handwritten census returns?
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An Móinín Rua was added to OpenStreetMap on 30 Márta 2015 by Teester. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49294 | Trafag revolutionises the measuring of highly dynamic pressure curves
Trafag has succeeded in unifying the highly dynamic response behavior of a test bench sensor and the extreme robustness of a mobile hydraulic pressure transmitter by combining thin-film-on-steel measuring cells and an ASIC developed in-house. The Trafag ASIC TX with an innovative parallel mixed-signal structure is the key to a response behaviour at nearly unlimited speed.
In many applications, above all in the testing field, the aim is to record highly dynamic pressure curves, e.g in order to analyse the opening and closing performance of valves, track pressure curves of explosions and explosive pressure expansions or to examine brief pressure peaks in hydraulic systems. Transmitters for industrial applications on the market are generally not capable of adequately capturing such high-frequency signals, be it because the internal electronics are not efficient enough or because the signal is deliberately dampened so that the control system is not overloaded with unnecessary information. That is why special pressure transmitters are offered on the market specially developed for high speed applications. These transmitters are designed with cut-off frequencies (see box) of 5 to 50 kHz and have certain advantages and disadvantages often originated in the sensor technology which is used.
The piezoelectric sensor technology has always been most common for measuring highly dynamic pressure curves. In purely theoretical terms, this physical measuring principle is the most appropriate one because it only provides a signal during dynamic pressure curves, but with a very good signal-to-noise interval and for high frequencies. Another advantage is the principally high rigidity of the construction that allows very high natural frequencies. On the other hand, disadvantages of this technology are the high costs due to the very sensitive and sophisticated production and the complex signal evaluation (charge amplifier) as well as the drifting vulnerability of the zero point, which is often accepted by many users because of a lack of suitable alternatives.
A significantly less expensive alternative is the piezoresistive measuring principle, which allows for relatively simple amplifier electronics thanks to a very good signal-noise ratio, which is however inferior to the piezoelectric principle with respect to dynamic and above all rigidity as a result of the sensor construction which is filled with oil. Yet the main disadvantage of the piezoresistive technology is the drifting vulnerability which is particularly apparent at high temperatures.
Dynamic comparison measurement of transmitters with cut-off frequencies from 1-10 kHz from various manufacturers compared to reference transmitter with 50 kHz (gray line). The blue line shows the measurement of the Trafag prototypes with a 10 kHz cut-off
Alternative: thin-film-on-steel technology combined with ASIC
With respect to drifting, thin-film-on-steel technology is without a doubt the best, allowing high frequencies but having a very small signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to the other two. Particularly when it comes to the evaluation of highly dynamic signals, this places such high demands on the evaluation electronics in the transmitter that most manufacturers of high-speed pressure transmitters fall back to one of the other sensor technologies. Trafag, one of the pioneers, with nearly 35 years of experience, has a different approach: by using the self-developed ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), tailored precisely to the requirements of the Trafag sensor technology with specific amplifier and filter functions, the disadvantages of the low signal-to-noise ratio could be eliminated and the sensor technology, superior with respect to robustness and long-term stability, can be used even in situations where other manufacturers reach their limits. Because of the coordinated development of the two core technologies - the thin-film-to-steel sensor element and the ASIC- Trafag can combine the responsiveness of a high-speed pressure transmitter with the robustness of a pressure transmitter built for the harshest environments.
During production each pressure transmitter is individually adjusted by calibrating against high-precision pressure standards. During this process, correction parameters for the linearization, zero point and span correction are saved on a chip in the transmitter, in this case directly in the Trafag ASIC. The sensor element consists of sputtered thin-film resistors in a Wheatstone bridge arrangement which are compressed or expanded depending on the pressure induced membrane deformation. Every input signal of the sensor element resulting from the deformation induced change of resistance, is corrected accordingly to the parameter saved in the ASIC, particularly with regard to linearity, zero point and span as well as temperature compensation above or below 25°C.
Trafag´s thin-film-on-steel technology stands out with its amazingly low drift behavior. The low signal-to-noise ratio is compensated by the matched ASIC TX. This is how the sensor technology wins people over with regard to robustness and long-term stabil
Unlimitedly fast pressure transmitter
The Trafag ASIC TX, that joins more than 100,000 transistors on an area of just 2x2 mm, consists of two central elements: an extremely high-performance analogue amplifier part and an ideally matched digital part. The input signal of the sensor element is corrected by the analogue amplifier up to 98–99 % and then transmitted to the signal electronics in real time. The digital part is only necessary for the remaining 1–2 % of the correction value which then mixes with the analogue amplifier signal. The strength of this concept is the very high signal processing speed (except for the digital part correction), that is completely independent from the sampling rates of Analogue-Digital (A/D) and Digital-Analogue (D/A) converters; only slightly limited by the analogue part of the electronics. This makes a Trafag pressure transmitter generically extremely fast, and it is normally electronically dampened in order to be suitable for the corresponding applications and resistant to interferences (e.g. EMC).
In normal industrial applications without special requirements for signal speed, engineers aim for an optimal compromise between robustness and sufficiently fast responsiveness to get the desired measuring results. Regardless of the chosen sensor principle, high signal speeds generally require an extensive wiring effort as specially shielded cables must be used. Generally, the shielding must be done very carefully in order to avoid for example feedback, which due to supply voltage ripple appears on both the transmitter and the evaluation unit.
On the other hand, there are also applications where high signal dampening is desired, usually in normal industrial pressure transmitters: for example in order to smooth out high frequency signal ripples from mechanical liquid pumps already at the transmitter instead of in the control.
The Trafag ASIC TX with parallel mixed-signal structure (left). The fine structures of the chip are visible under a microscope (right).
Schematic design of the ASIC TX
The conventional design (diagram above) with fully digital signal processing is limited by the speed of the A/D or D/A converter. The Trafag design (diagram below) consists of two signal components, provided that the main path (about 98 % of the signal) is purely analogue in amplification and zero point and span correction and therefore very fast. Only the correction signal (temperature and non-linearities) is comparatively slow. This part is not time-sensitive since temperature changes also exhibit response times in the minute range. Only the non-linearities correction is relevant in this part, which in the case of Trafag sensors makes up only about 1 % of the signal. Therefore only about 1 % of the signal depends on the speed of the converter.
Conventional signal chain consisting of a single path
Trafag parallel mixed signal ASIC signal chain comprising separate pathes for amplification and compensation
Pressure transmitters NAH 8254: For rough applications
Based on the proven industrial transmitter NAH 8254 in the miniature size of 19 mm width across flats, Trafag offers special versions for which the desired cut-off frequency can be selected from various levels of over 20 kHz (this corresponds to 18 µs rise time, 10…90% nominal pressure) for highly dynamic pressure measurements down to 11 Hz for a maximum signal smoothing. Both, the thin-film-on-steel sensor element and the basic design of the transmitter have been proven under extreme conditions (vibration, shock, temperature change, high pressure peaks, etc) in the harsh environment of construction and forestry machinery and guarantee a robustness and reliability that is unsurpassed in the measuring and testing field.
Pressure transmitter NAH 8254 with cut-off frequency 20 kHz for measuring highly dynamic pressure gradients: It combines the robust design of a mobile hydraulic transmitter with refined, extraordinarily fast electronics.
Data sheet:
Response behavior of the pressure transmitter NAH 20 kHz compared with a standard transmitter.Response behavior of the pressure transmitter NAH 20 kHz compared with a standard transmitter.
Cut-off frequency
For amplifiers, the cut-off frequency is the frequency at which the original signal amplification becomes 3 dB smaller than the maximum amplification. A signal with a higher frequency than the cut-off frequency is still rendered but is significantly less dynamic and accurate.
Sampling rate
The frequency with which a digital signal processing unit samples and processes a continuous, analogue signal. If the sampling rate is not twice as fast as the highest frequency occurring in the original signal anymore, aliasing effects can occur which can lead to signal distortion (Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem).
Rise time
The time that elapses until an output signal level reaches a predefined value after an ideal, rectangular input signal pulse, e.g. 90% of the actual value. Rise time conversion (tr = rise time) in the cut-off frequency (fg): fg = 1 / (2π∙tr/2.2)
The frequency spectrum between the lower and upper cut-off frequency, for pressure transmitters generally between 0 Hz and the maximum cut-off frequency. |
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Sr Full-Stack Engineer, IAM platform
Engineering Security, Safety, Security & Insurance
in Sunnyvale, California
About the Role
Uber's Identity and Access Management team provides seamless and secure identity experiences at scale for Uber personnels, internal services and workloads.
You will directly impact Uber user's trust and account security by defining and providing anyone at Uber a single pane of glass to self-service their IAM needs.
This will manifest as a single modern web UI console that encompass capabilities to build, manage and monitor access control policies, configuration of our Single Sign On, Secrets and PKI infrastructure.
What You'll Do
• Design and develop a web framework and the platforms unified UI console that makes it easy to follow IAM best practices leading to an improved security posture of Uber infrastructure and services.
• Design and implement product features in UI, Rest API, and backend that have a direct impact on our user experiences, business growth, user trust, and security across Personnel and Workload Identity Systems.
• Support metrics for Access health analytics, security, and customer experience.
• Collaborate with multiple engineering teams for integration into our platform
• Champion best software engineering practices such as continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.
• Write quality code and documentation which can be used as an example for your company
• Mentor other engineers and build a strong culture of quality, handle conflicts well and help build consensus
Basic Qualifications
• Experience with Node.js, Javascript / Typescript, Node.js, React/Preact, Web Components, HTML, CSS
• Experience in Java or Go
• Experience with developing PWA (Progressive Web Applications)
• Expertise in open-source technologies, modern web standards, best practices, and the JavaScript ecosystem
• Familiarity with principles of good user experience
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in web security/authentication
• Ability to decompose complex business problems and lead a team in solving them
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49366 | Students will develop a plan to achieve personal goals by applying the problem-solving process. Students will find a balance between their wants, needs, and values as well as differentiate between long and short-term goals.
Goal Setting & Decision Making
Decision Making Cover Page
Goal Setting & Decisions
Teens Setting Goals
Smarties Goal Setting
Values Wordsort
Goals Wordsort
Wish List
Graduation Goals
Personal Values
What I Really Want
Problem Solving
Personal Goals
Making Decisions
Matching Resources
Keys to My Success
Goal Setting/Decisions Puzzle
Charting Happiness
Rate Your Week
Goals Quiz
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49411 | Hand Fracture
The bones of the hand serve as a framework. This framework supports the muscles that make the wrist and fingers move. When one of these hand bones is fractured, it can prevent the use of the hand, wrist, and fingers.
• There can be different vary of fracture, including:
• Stable fracture, when the bone pieces are aligned
• Unstable fracture, when there are bone fragments that have shifted
• Comminuted fracture, when the bone is shattered into many pieces
• Open fracture, when a bone fragment breaks through the skin.
Symptoms of fractured hand can include:
• Pain and stiffness
• Difficulty moving the hand, wrist, and/or fingers
• Deformities such as crooked finger
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49412 | Make an appointment
031 741 45 45
Bleaching | Teeth whitening
Your aspiration is for whiter teeth? Consider teeth whitening, whereby the process of bleaching teeth lightens your normal tooth colour. We offer at-home teeth whitening treatments, where the patient applies bleach onto a custom-made, prefabricated whitening tray, and wears it overnight until the desired result is obtained. This usually requires 2-3 applications.
Veneers | Crown
In the case of advanced tooth damage, a dental crown is needed to restore the tooth. This may be necessary in a number of situations. For example, in the case of chipped teeth (dental injury), extensive caries, advanced acid damage, root-treated teeth, or when the anterior region of the teeth has an unattractive appearance.
If an improved aesthetic is your main concern, we can occasionally only achieve this by applying ceramic shells or veneers to the anterior teeth.
Pictures Veneers
CEREC is a computer-assisted process used to produce durable and highly aesthetic ceramic fillings, or ceramic crowns. The acronym CEREC stands for CEramic REConstrution, a method developed in 1980 by Professor W. Mörmann and Dr. Med. M. Brandestini at the University of Zurich. Unique to the CEREC method is the ability to produce restorative ceramic parts for the patient’s immediate use in a single treatment session. This eliminates the need for a dental impression and a temporary crown, thereby reducing the cost of treatment by almost half. Initially, three-dimensional images of the teeth are created with a camera. Afterwards, the images are displayed on a computer screen, using computer-aided design (CAD) processes, and the fillings or crowns are software generated. Subsequently, a milling unit carves the restorative piece completely automatically from a prefabricated ceramic block using CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) processes. Finally, the ceramic restorative piece can be fitted and bonded at once.
Pictures CEREC
In dentistry, a bridge refers to a fixed, orthodontic replacement of missing teeth. A gap in your teeth can be closed by using a bridge, which spans the space. In this case, the adjacent teeth serve as abutment teeth to which the missing tooth (intermediate member) is secured by crowning.
Prerequisites for the longevity of a crown, or a bridge, are a healthy foundation and good oral hygiene.
Pictures bridges
If numerous teeth have been lost or replaced, a removable denture can help. Partial dentures are attached to the remaining teeth by a choice of anchoring systems, for example, by means of a clasp or a denture push-button system.
In the completely edentulous (toothless) jaw, full dentures are employed to restore function and aesthetics. Stabilization in the upper jaw is achieved by way of suction. It can be difficult to support a full denture in the lower jaw, even if the jaw has well-shaped ridges, due to its anatomical shape. In these cases, adequate support can be provided by inserting a small number of implants, to which the prosthesis can be anchored.
The advantages of a prosthesis are, firstly, the relatively low costs, and secondly, cleaning the prosthesis and teeth is uncomplicated. Disadvantages, however, include a reduced degree of comfort for the wearer, and an increased susceptibility to caries in the abutment teeth.
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07.00 - 19.00
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You can reach us Mon–Fri 07.30–12.00 and 13.30–17.00.
Bernstrasse 12a 3175 Flamatt |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49431 | How is the Nervous System
Did you know that every person from birth is endowed with 15 billion nerve cells?
And despite the fact that during the life we lose 1–2 billion cells, the number of remaining ones is still huge. Every day we lose about 100 thousand cells, and this means – our nervous strength, mental potential decreases. And therefore I will try to show how important it is to appreciate the most important human organ – the brain, as well as the entire complex system of nerves, with which it controls the body.
For the nervous system is characterized by a clear subordinate structure, where the main is the brain, and the performer is the peripheral nervous system. All of these components are in a harmonious relationship, which is why the coordinated work of the entire system depends on each of its departments.
Its operation resembles an electrified den. On billions of ways, electric messages are sent every few seconds, that is, the thought is literally electrified. At the same time, the connection between cells has not an electrical, but a biochemical basis.
The signal of one cell, coming up the appendix (each cell is equipped with it) to the body of another, reaches a small gap (it is called synoptic), and chemical mediators are thrown into it – neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, adrenaline, norepinephrine, etc.) ). They all have their own action and their point of application. They serve as a kind of “lubrication” for our thoughts.
Neurotransmitters are essential for the normal functioning of the nervous system. With a lack of dopamine, for example, there is such a terrible disease, like Parkinson’s disease. LSD-induced hallucinations are associated with serotonin metabolism. The stimulating effect of amphetamines (psychostimulants) is associated with the concentration in the body of adrenaline and noradrenaline (they consist of molecules and atoms). A deficiency or excess of these biochemical compounds affects the functioning of the nervous system, and consequently, the behavior, well-being and mood of a person.
Each cell can receive a signal from 10 thousand of its “colleagues”. These endless contacts form the basis of all higher processes characteristic of our consciousness.
This system is the structure of the nervous system, essentially very simplified, I led to make it obvious how complex the processes occurring in it. And therefore it is very easy, without knowing and not adhering to very simple rules, to bring your nerves to exhaustion and illnesses, sometimes very serious.
How To Eat To Strengthen The Nervous System
According to scientists, human health is only 10% dependent on the possibilities of medicine, 20% on heredity, 70% on food consumed by a person and his lifestyle.
Improper nutrition, bad habits, we ruin our nervous system, our inner potential is not a secret to anyone. And therefore, from time to time we rush to the other extreme, going on a diet.
Diet is a very fashionable word now. We are starving or becoming vegetarians. But if everything was so simple! A person, after reading a book about vegetarianism, gets rid of all the “extra” products, forgetting that a sharp change in the nature of food can do him a disservice. I remember such a case from my practice. A woman of 47 years old set out to live to old age without a single disease. As a result of malnutrition, the constant feeling of hunger, she became aggressive, earned a powerful neurosis. I managed to help her regain her health. But how long will the relatives of this woman remember her irritability, aggression? No, I am in no way trying to prove the harmfulness of vegetarianism or another diet. However, I want to note that any diet is a shake-up for our body and, above all, for the nervous system. This is especially noticeable when, after sitting on a diet, we begin with double strength to lean on gingerbread and other goodies. Such drastic changes lead to stress, and sometimes to depression.
local_offerevent_note April 13, 2019
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49441 | The War of the Public Intellectuals: A Review of “Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal” (2015)
When and how did the polarization of political opinion become so mainstream in the US? When was acrimony institutionalized? When did it become acceptable to deny a political opponent’s right to exist, and to commit oneself to the destruction of one’s opponents? When was incivility validated? Why are personal attacks, smears, and character assassination legitimized as normal tools of debate? Why have “passionate” expressions of “emotion” come to be taken as signs of credibility, as being worthy of attention? When did it become alright to shoot the messenger? When did the practice of talking over others become encouraged as a normal part of debate? Who popularized the “culture war” and made it a canon of American political discourse?
Though never a stable, cohesive society free of divisions, the US seems to have been so much at odds with itself at least since the 1960s that for some it resembles the prelude to war if not war itself. One film provides some important clues as to when and how the art of political attack became not just normalized, but institutionalized, even professionalized—specifically in the mass media. For many in academia today the figure of the “public intellectual” is deemed worthy of applause and emulation—but there is a film that shows public intellectuals in an altogether sobering light, with all of their “waspish bitchery” as one reviewer wrote in the late 1960s, or their languid elitism as another put it. Public intellectuals are shown as scripted breakers of public consensus, which sounds like a paradox. The status quo has tried to shield itself by appointing and promoting designated representatives of specific orthodox and heterodox thinking, and set them against each other in carefully orchestrated theatres of conflict. “Dissent” can not only be predicted and controlled in such venues, it can be created and therefore contained. Political debate, especially of the partisan kind, can operate in the same way as an authorized carnival. To this day the public is presented with iconic representatives of this or that political camp, with little question as to how these individuals came to prominence in the first place, and without investigation of the conditions that made their careers as public intellectuals possible. The media themselves directly point to this or that activist, and tell us that they are worthy of attention, even support. Meanwhile the public intellectuals train us in the art of “critique,” the identical twin of complaint, and lead us in an endless airing of grievances that sets individuals and groups against each other in what some call the culture wars.
Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal is a 2015 documentary by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, co-written by Gordon, Melville, and Tom Graves. The film runs for one hour and 28 minutes. The voices of John Lithgow and Kelsey Grammer are used to read documents by the film’s two main antagonists, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Gore Vidal. Otherwise the film consists mostly of archival footage and interviews. Relatives and friends are among those interviewed, plus a long list of journalists and academics. All of the reviews I have read have evaluated the film very positively, and my review will not differ on that front. This is a seriously engaging documentary, that excelled at being focused and maintaining an organized chronological structure, while achieving a difficult balance between opposed and competing views. The film informs and provokes questions, the way a good educator would. From the way the film has been organized and narrated, one gets little sense of where the directors and writers stood with respect to the contest between the film’s two main antagonists, Buckley and Vidal. If objectivity and neutrality are really impossible, then this films comes close to realizing the impossible.
The Documentary
The objective of the film appears simple and succinct: to revisit a key period in US media history, focusing on the very prominent and controversial debates between Buckley and Vidal in a series of ten televised encounters, mostly around the time of key party conventions. The climax comes at the 1968 Democratic party convention in Chicago, following the Republican convention in Miami. The film aims to tell us about the biographies of Buckley and Vidal, extensively reviewing their public and private opinions of each other, while briefly trying to assess their impact, that is, the legacy they bestowed on subsequent media coverage of political contests. The film is thus also about the media, and about the culture wars.
William F. Buckley Jr. passed away in 2008. He was the founder of the National Review in 1955, and authored more than 40 books. Buckley’s own television show, Firing Line, was hosted by him for about three decades. One of the film’s interviewed experts declares that National Review was America’s most influential magazine in the 20th century. Gore Vidal passed away in 2012. Related to Jackie Kennedy, he was a frequent guest in John F. Kennedy’s White House, but had a bad falling out with Bobby Kennedy. Vidal was born into a political dynasty: his grandfather was a mayor, and his father served in the Franklin Roosevelt administration; Gore Vidal entertained ambitions of one day running for the presidency. Vidal authored numerous novels, a number of which became Hollywood films, and was a prolific author of articles in the media and a frequent guest on many of the hit television talk shows of his time. Both Buckley and Vidal had a high profile in the media, both were military veterans, and both were also failed political candidates (both in New York state). Also, both men were members of the same class, whose families had joined the elite Eastern establishment but had no antique roots in that establishment. Buckley was educated for a time in England. Vidal had never gone to college.
The film takes us through the events leading to the climax of the Buckley–Vidal confrontations, and what followed. The film begins with a clip of an interview with Gore Vidal at his seaside villa in Italy, and here we see he was unable to even chat casually without indulging his compulsion to attack Buckley, as if he had been permanently scarred by the encounters. Buckley appears thanking someone for an introduction to his speech, saying how nice it had been, then adding: “On the other hand if it hadn’t been I would have smashed you in the goddamned face,” and then he smiled. The audience laughed uncomfortably, slow to realize that Buckley was mocking his own famous eruption against Vidal. Vidal is shown again, boasting that he had left “the bleeding corpse of William F. Buckley, Jr., on the floor of the convention hall in Chicago”.
In 1968, ABC News hired William Buckley and Gore Vidal for 10 televised nightly debates during the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, in Miami and Chicago respectively. They had clashed in person once before. As for the conventions, the Chicago Democratic convention is remembered as the most historic of the two conventions, with many failed attempts by activists to re-enact it in the last two decades. The Republican convention in Miami was not peaceful either, with a race riot occurring in Miami. Everything seemed to be at stake: war, revolution, riots, racism, sexism, and so forth. These were two tendentious characters, with heavy axes to grind, put into the same pit with general discontent and conflict as their backdrop. Any semblance of centrism in that social context would have seemed highly artificial and sterile, so if anything ABC read the writing on the wall accurately, and then pandered to it and profited from it.
Buckley was selected as the supposed representative of conservative opinion, while Vidal presumably represented the liberal viewpoint. Thus the media continued training their audience into thinking in “right” versus “left” terms, inventions that many still treat as if they were meaningful categories. Todd Gitlin, media studies professor at Columbia University, appears in the documentary and states, “the institution in which Americans had the greatest confidence, was television news”. Trust in the news media has become a virtual article of faith in American public discourse now, even a branding device. Any sign of distrust is treated as somehow fatal to democracy itself. One is required to speak with reverence toward the media, lest one be accused of nurturing the bogeyman of “fascism”.
Brooke Gladstone of NPR predictably asserts that television news in America in the 1960s was “white, Anglo-Saxon, there were never any vowels at the end of the names,” returning us to the superficial identity politics obsessions of the present while pretending to forget that what she described was also the majority of Americans, and the majority of television viewers, and still is. However, it’s convenient for some professional media “critics” to speak as if there was some alternative, better America, perhaps also of different racial stock not stained by any sin, kept hidden somewhere by a vast conspiracy of silence.
A couple of speakers describe US television news in the 1960s as a “big, bland centre”. Centrism becomes a leading organizing principle, the fabled “middle ground”—just as invented as “left” and “right”. It’s a simple and outmoded way of categorizing politics, and eventually the habit will pass. Richard Wald, the former president of NBC News (thus not an impartial source), emphatically asserts that the networks were not dealers in controversy, they did not invite controversy: “they were in the centre…they were cementers of idea, not disruptors of idea [sic]”. That also suggests the media then, like today, actively filtered out anything they considered disruptive to the preferred narrative. This is press freedom for the sake of censoring the public.
The filmmakers’ narrative subtly implies that the centre was occupied by NBC and CBS, but one outlier—ABC—was struggling for market share and was thus driven to take desperate measures, i.e., inviting controversy. The suggestion then is that the media only became sensationalist in 1968, thanks to an aberration that then became the norm.
In other words, the film begins in troubling ways. Fortunately it gets better once Buckley and Vidal are left alone to speak and viewers are more often (not always) left alone to think for themselves without being told, as above, about how to frame the whole thing.
Of course, there were singular aspects to Buckley and Vidal, that made the nature of their encounter different, and that established a new pattern—that much seems obvious. But what Buckley and Vidal did was to innovate with what was already available, merely shifting words from one context to another, from where these words were acceptable to where they had been previously unacceptable. Nor did Buckley and Vidal create the context that called them forth as the system’s appointed actors, scripts in hand, conclusions predetermined. Buckley himself was perhaps a bit of an innovation, breaking with the common understanding of intellectuals as only being liberal or leftist. Here instead was a serious intellect, one that could not simply be dismissed, who had a lot of important and interesting things to say. The absence of such intellectuals in contemporary academia has reduced universities to deserts of conformity and repetition.
The film has a historian at the Heritage Foundation tell us that Buckley went into the first debate with an interest in debating issues, policies, and party platforms. Vidal, on the other hand, hired a researcher to investigate National Review for its allegedly racist and anti-Semitic tendencies, with the aim of destroying Buckley’s reputation. As one of Vidal’s friends explains, Vidal considered Buckley to be evil, anti-democratic, and in need of being taken down before he destroyed America. Ironically, as Dick Cavett points out, Vidal’s assault on Buckley years before (in 1964) had itself helped to make Buckley into a celebrity.
Vidal’s problem is that Buckley was not just an expert in making an argument, as one of the film’s commentators explains, but was even better at dismantling an opponent’s argument. Frequently we see Vidal almost gulping for air, scrambling for words, smiling nervously, searching for a comeback among the quips he had rehearsed and scripted in advance. Vidal was also taken aback—though one of the speakers in the film claims he was unfazed, despite what we see in front of our eyes—when Buckley presented a note sent to him by Bobby Kennedy, which he ended by writing “let’s give Gore Vidal to the Vietcong”. Vidal had little to say, except to allege that Bobby Kennedy must have been a “manic depressive,” based just on his analysis of his handwriting.
Their confrontation, as explained by a commentator in the film, was about “lifestyle, what kind of people we should be”. Their “real argument” was to be who was the better person. The best explanation for their animus, which I heard in the film, was that each saw in the other an exaggerated image of his own anxious version of himself. The supposed “extremes” are more alike and in greater agreement than one might think, as we shall see below. The way a “centre” is constructed is by positing the existence of at least two “extremes”; if the extremes should turn out to be more alike than different, then the centre itself also ceases to exist. We are then dealing with a single political field and, at most, multiple competing factions.
Finally, anyone who remembers the Buckley–Vidal debates will understand that the film’s climax is the famous attack by Buckley:
Did 1968 Make 2018 Possible?
The film’s narrative is that the fault lines of contemporary American politics, whether about race, religion, or sex, were decided in the 1968 election, and that what we now call identity politics were being formed then. That would make Buckley and Vidal something like “the classics,” as authors who articulated the foundational perspectives dividing the US. This sense of existential crisis in 1968 seems to be repeated today. The film, released in 2015, could not have been more prescient than when it featured a clip of then presidential candidate Richard Nixon declaring, “let’s make America first again”.
It would seem obvious that anything that happened in the past could be credited with making something in the present possible, just because one thing happened before another. Here one is assuming that everything in the present is an effect, and all causes are in the past. Because X happened before Y, did X cause Y to happen? The makers of this documentary do not seem to resort to this sort of casual historicism. Instead, their focus is on a narrow slice of social life: political debate in the televised news media. With the aim kept narrow like that, one can make a plausible argument that political debate on television news channels, as we know it today, owes its origins to the Buckley–Vidal debates, because when they happened nothing like them had been seen or heard before, on television. Television is itself relatively new, and within that sphere reviewers reacted as if “innocence” had been lost thanks to Buckley and Vidal. Polemical rhetoric is otherwise quite ancient, and identity politics in the US long precede 1968. The film presents the precursors to the kind of mass mediated political dialogue that has become the norm today in North America. (Social media are no different: users of those sites tend to mostly repeat and amplify what they consume from the mass media, lobbing links to news articles at each other as if they were wielding some magical grenades bursting with what is presumed to be incontestable “truth”.)
The more dramatic way to look at 1968 is to see it as the opening of the gates of media hell. The stage was set then. Buckley and Vidal became the moulds for a generation of political “pundits” that followed, largely aping them, and necessarily translating them into colloquial speech since few today have the kind of command of Latin that these two aristocrats boasted. In key ways, Buckley and Vidal wrote the code for what would become the new norm of political debate, a new illiberal liberalism, a liberal intolerance for the very virtues it once championed. In the process the “public intellectual” became little more than an uncivil militant, whose words were chosen to have the maximum destructive impact on opponents.
“Incivility” is not new in 2016–2018. What the film understandably does not do is to provide us with a sort of theory to explain why in some periods civility is dominant, and in others the opposite holds sway, though it would seem obvious now why that is: the crashing of the liberalist project.
But if 2018 in certain ways seems like a direct descendant of the events and processes unleashed in 1968, how might 2018 still stand as different, as revealed in this film and in the figures of its two key actors?
Buckley and Vidal, Seen from 2018: The Identity Politics Problem
Buckley and Vidal are acknowledged as patrician figures, New Victorians in their own way, most easily identified as members of a cultural elite. They speak with maximum affectation, making ostentatious displays of their erudition. They speak slyly toward each other, smugly relishing their silky slander, both taking the tones of an aloof yet abrasive monarch. They are duplicitous, hoping their calm tones might be mistaken for diplomacy while using the worst possible words for describing each other: sodomite, fag, queer, Nazi, traitor, racist, war-monger, etc.
Homosexuality plays such a prominent role in the Buckley–Vidal conflict that one might easily be excused for thinking these two launched the culture war on television, both indulging in what we today call identity politics—the film’s narrative says as much. There is a lot of evidence to support such a conclusion, but I think it is a bit misleading. Both seemed to wet their hands with identity politics, but in the end it seems to be with the aim of shaking off such politics.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Buckley’s excursions into identity politics appear in his extensive discussion of “faggotry” and accusations by pro-gay publications that he engaged in something undefined called “faggot logic” or a “faggot dialectic”. In a debate around the morality of segregation, Buckley early on refused to characterize it as “immoral” (his argument might be more nuanced than some might admit). Buckley also debated Vidal on whether Truman had asserted that Eisenhower was an anti-Catholic and anti-Semite, and that the latter allegedly upheld beliefs in racial superiority. Race, religion, and sexuality are thus prominent.
Yet the great irony is that both Buckley and Vidal fundamentally agreed with each other on a basic point concerning homosexuality: neither one viewed it as “normal”. Since they were so busy spitting venom in each other’s faces they never faced their own consensus on this point. Thus Buckley wrote:
“I was prepared, should the subject arise, to attempt to state the case, biological, cultural, and religious, for heterosexuality (that sounds funny, doesn’t it?)—prepared to go so far as to defend its ‘normalcy’; to defend, even, the idea that normalcy in this instance at least is related to what is normative: to defend, one might say, the conservative position”.
There Buckley is suggesting that homosexuality, unlike heterosexuality, is not normal. But Vidal also wrote:
The film never mentions this basic agreement between Vidal and Buckley, that homosexuality is not normal. Nor does the film suggest the possibility that both men authored attacks on what we today demarcate as identity politics.
Thus Buckley’s apparent attacks on homosexuality are not on homosexuality itself as such, but on what he perceived as the attempts of some political manipulators to use homosexuality to disrupt normal family life: “In order to establish the abnormality of normality, the vehicle is homosexuality”. Buckley quoted Time magazine: “the remedy for overpopulation might be homosexuality”. Buckley accused Vidal of proposing “the dissolution of the family” and of reducing breeding to a procedure best reserved for laboratories. Yet on some of these same points what we read from Vidal is more agreement again: “It is true that at one point Myra makes a case for homosexuality on the ground that it might help contain the population explosion. That was a joke”. (Myra is a reference to the main character in Vidal’s novel, Myra Breckenridge, which was made into a movie.)
Though he is misunderstood by some as a champion of gay liberation, Vidal—who never came out of the closet and frequently resorted to homophobic slurs against opponents—had this to say:
Gore Vidal
“Buckley indicates that I prefer homosexuality to heterosexuality. Now I want to make one thing absolutely clear, as Richard Nixon would say: I do not prefer homosexuality to heterosexuality—or, for that matter, heterosexuality to homosexuality. Unhappily, somewhere along the way, those who write for newspapers decided that since I thought homosexuality as natural as heterosexuality, I must then hate heterosexuality and love homosexuality. One of the sad characteristics of popular journalism is that what ought to be true is true. Contrary evidence is not admitted, including the two million words which I have published in the last twenty-five years, nowhere stating that homosexuality ought to be the preferred form of sexuality”.
Vidal objected to labelling and categorizing sex, sexual orientations, and any and all sexual practices. This was probably the most revolutionary aspect of his thinking, and it’s a contribution he made that would put him directly at odds with today’s identity politicians, turgid with fastidious worry about labels and even pronouns, melodramatic about the urgent need to institutionalize their recent linguistic concoctions lest “genocide” breaks out.
On other areas of identity politics, Vidal sounds almost like Buckley, if not worse. Vidal was critical of mass immigration. As for what might have then become a #MeToo movement, revolving around an underage female raped by Roman Polanski, Vidal said: “I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?”.
What really stands out then as the dividing line between Buckley and Vidal is their perspective on the American empire. Buckley, were he alive today, might be perceived as a “neocon”—he ardently defended the US war in Vietnam, and was outraged against Vidal’s anti-imperialism. But if Vidal was an anti-imperialist, it was not without its own ambiguities. For example, Vidal was an avid supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and said that the latter would have made a “wonderful president”. Otherwise Vidal’s foresight came in his comments, in a debate with Buckley shown in the film, when he said that there was a danger in the US not recognizing that it was time to let go of empire before it wrecked the US, generated all sorts of social divisions, and redistributed resources away from social welfare and towards foreign warfare. Buckley’s brother, Reid (appearing in the film)—a conservative and no fan of Vidal—agreed that Vidal was correct in characterizing the US as an empire.
Pressed to be Nasty: Buckley & Vidal on the Media
Buckley, like Vidal, may have had a bottomless reservoir of spleen, but if anything the networks did not resist that trait in both men; the networks instead seemed to actively encourage them to do their worst. Buckley suggested that he felt some pressure to be nasty from the networks:
“Bent on promoting their forthcoming programs, the people at ABC set up a lunch for me to meet the area’s television critics, and subsequently did as much, I assume, for Vidal. Such meetings, as every writer knows, are something of a strain: because you are generally made to feel that you can only please by being viperish”.
ABC was desperate for attention, as Buckley noted, referring to one writer who commented on the “the vaudeville-team approach to interpretative journalism employed by ABC television”. In response to public shock resulting from Buckley’s famous attack on Vidal, ABC official Elmer Lower insincerely asked: “what can you do except talk to the individuals and ask that it not happen again?”—except as Buckley tells us, ABC did nothing of the kind. ABC’s reaction to Buckley’s attack on Vidal, and the conflict between the two that night, was to say nothing to either of them about it. One can assume ABC was satisfied with the heightened ratings bonanza—the film itself presents evidence of ABC’s soaring ratings.
Vidal for his part might bring to mind Hillary Clinton, for thriving on media attention and yet having a jaundiced view of the same media—here is Vidal:
“The unique mess that our republic is in can be, in part, attributed to a corrupt press whose roots are in mendacious news (sic) magazines like Time and Newsweek, aided by tabloids that manufacture fictional stories about actual people. This mingling of opinion and fiction has undone a media never devoted to truth….The habit of lying is now a national style that started with ‘news’ magazines that was further developed by pathological liars that proved to be ‘good’ Entertainment on TV. But a diet of poison that has done none of us any good”.
As far as Vidal was concerned, the media were always purveyors of “fake news,” and were most certainly enemies of the people. Nothing about the present would be in the least bit surprising to him, and perhaps would be completely uninteresting as well.
The documentary ends with a barrage of images from today’s news media, showing Bill O’Reilly, Rachel Maddow, Paul Begala, and others, engaged in fierce and noisy argument, sometimes with contorted faces. The film’s narrative is that today the US is divided into factions, “communities of concern,” that do not share the same media since there is a proliferation of media niches (cable channels, groups online, etc.). Without shared images and messages, without the willingness or ability to listen to each other, America ceases to be a nation.
The Film’s Personal Challenge
Then there is a personal challenge—whether this was the intention of the film is not known to me, but it was one important consequence of viewing this film, as it might be for others. The film may thus be a useful device for deprogramming partisan militants, or at least for encouraging calm reflection by critically examining the roots of one’s indulgence in hysterical oppositional hyperbole. Who made you so angry? What makes you speak out the way you do? Who benefits from your being the dog that constantly runs after bones thrown by unseen others from on high? Why keeping running around the same track without ever stopping to ask: Who made me run? Who laid this track? Where am I going?
Thus with all of the flattering talk of individual agency that the neoliberal era ushered in, propagated especially by academics in universities, there is very little manifestation of that ultimate form of agency which inquires into the roots and conditions of one’s supposed agency. What made one’s agency possible to begin with? What makes it knowable? What makes what we say or do a manifestation of “agency”? Is everything we say or do a demonstration of our agency? When did certain actions become thinkable to us as realistic, possible, or necessary? What made us think that we found the right way to express ourselves, the right decision to make, the right action to take? Where did our motivations come from, what made the motivations seem like compelling ones, and what gave shape to those motivations? And lastly for now, does everyone have the same level of agency, or do some have more than others?
This documentary would be an excellent resource for those teaching courses in American history, media studies, sociology, and political science. Given its many virtues, and thanks to the sheer mass of information that the filmmakers sourced from dozens of archives, and the great volume of questions that this film provokes, I would give it a score of 9/10.
(This documentary review forms part of the political analysis series on Zero Anthropology. Each documentary is viewed at least four times before a written review is published, as was the case here.)
Recommended Reading
Buckley, Christopher. (2012). “Christopher Buckley on His Father’s Old Nemesis, Gore Vidal”. The New Republic, August 1.
Buckley, William F., Jr. (1969). “On Experiencing Gore Vidal: Can there be any justification in calling a man a queer before ten million people on television?Esquire, August 1.
Editors. (2004). “Vidal Discredited!National Review, December 14.
Grunwald, Michael. (2018). “How everything became the culture war”. The Week, November 22.
Grynbaum, Michael M. (2015). “Buckley vs. Vidal: When Debate Became Bloodsport”. The New York Times, July 24.
Meroney, John. (2008). “A Conversation With Gore Vidal”. The Atlantic, October.
Murphy, Jarrett. (2004). “Buckley and Vidal: One More Round”. The Village Voice, December 20.
Pareene. (2008). “Gore Vidal Does Happy Little Jig Upon William F. Buckley’s Grave”. Gawker, March 21.
Rosen, James. (2015). “Buckley, Vidal, and the Long, Hot Summer of ’68”. National Review, August 27.
Scott, A.O. (2015). “Review: ‘Best of Enemies’ Recalls Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.’s TV Battles”. The New York Times, July 30.
Teeman, Tim. (2013). “How Gay Was Gore Vidal?Daily Beast, July 31.
Vidal, Gore. (2008). “Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the Dead”. Truthdig, March 21.
————— . (1969). “A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley Jr.: Can there be any justification in calling a man a pro crypto Nazi before ten million people on television?Esquire, September 1.
One thought on “The War of the Public Intellectuals: A Review of “Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal” (2015)
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49476 | Kurdt and Courtney
The author's copy. Held on to for a long time.
The author's copy. Held on to for a long time.
The author’s copy. Held on to for a long time.
There’s something to be said for the cultural importance of artifacts not belonging to a well-substantiated narrative, but instead, remaining a random, weird hodgepodge of often misinterpreted but nonetheless dearly savored objects. Sometimes they’re better that way. Take Sassy magazine’s seminal, April 1992 “Ain’t Love Grand? Kurt of Nirvana and Courtney of Hole” cover. For me, this cover is a sort of fetish object, I guess: something I’ve held on to, for a long time, while mostly ignoring its underlying conditions of production.
By now, so much has been written about Sassy that it’s become almost clichéd for American women in their thirties to talk about what it was like reading it while growing up—a kind of communally recognized, easy shorthand to simultaneously signal a number of things: an early affinity towards feminism, a precocious interest in publishing culture, an abiding affection for My Own Private Idaho and leggings under everything. Still and all, it’s the case that when I was first reading it (and I’m sure this is true, I should note, for many other women in non-cosmopolitan settings), the magazine seemed to me a totally singular entity presenting totally singular people doing totally singular things.
In fact, the singularity that I thought Sassy represented is not unlike the singularity I thought Nirvana represented. Remember how much it used to matter that you were the first person in your tenth grade class to own Nirvana’s Nevermind? Er, I do, even though now, of course, it seems a little funny: first, that quaint pitting of rocker authenticity against its nemesis, corporate pop (and how cute, in retrospect, that I truly believed I was an early adopter of Nirvana’s?); but, too, the fact that my own particular situation was, from the start, not exactly the definition of urban indie savvy. Even though I did spend the ur-Grunge school year of 1990-91 living in Seattle, by the time September 1991 and Nevermind arrived, I was already back home, in Haifa, Israel.
This felt like being driven from hub to colony, and an enormous part of my self-perception, and self-presentation, depended on worrying over that lapsarian descent. In the early 90s, Israel was just beginning to move from a historically socialist, culturally centralized model to a more Americanized, capitalist model (the first McDonald’s opened in Israel around that time). The process was slow, however, and in the meanwhile, there was a vacuum to be filled with important cultural knowledge. For the rest of high school, I took it upon myself to provide my fellow natives with crucial nuggets of information about Bret Easton Ellis, Heathers and Kurt (“Kurdt”) Cobain. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.
I, myself, now have a baby!
The thing is, though, I didn’t really know a whole lot. In fact, I knew hardly anything at all. Part of it was probably just being a teenager, when one tends to not only misunderstand one’s body (That thing I just experienced can’t be what they call an “orgasm,” can it?), but also to misapprehend the cultural artifacts that surround one (These black Guess jeans make me look “alternative,” right?). But, since I happened to live in a middle-eastern backwater, that sort of baseline confusion became even more amplified.
In those pre-Internet days, specialized knowledge tended to arrive in the provinces piecemeal. A translated article here, imported posters there, tapes somebody who used to live for a year in a London suburb got from a friend at school. From that relative meagerness emerged a weird collage of elements, which probably didn’t have a ton to do with how the cultural field organized itself originally. Clues were guessed at, puzzled together, misunderstood: I remember, just for example, how a friend got a tape of a live Velvet Underground show where Lou Reed could be heard calling Doug Yule his “brother;” we all thought this meant an actual brother, and so my tape’s handwritten liner notes came to include the name “Doug Reed.” It took me like a decade to realize the mistake. We had no one to ask.
When they arrived, it was an event.
So when the Kurt and Courtney Sassy arrived, it was something of an event. They seemed, as everything in Sassy seemed, so singular. Not many men in fuzzy, light blue cardigans or platinum blond, lipsticked kinder-whores could be seen walking around the town of Haifa at that point in time (nor, for that matter, at this point in time, as a visit earlier this year confirmed). It really didn’t matter to me then that while in the cover image, Kurt and Courtney looked really great, smooth skinned and clear eyed and mutually infatuated, in the snapshots that accompanied the feature inside the book they looked really bad, junkie-pockmarks-and-stringy-hair-of-the-strung-out bad. Even with what bits of evidence were available to me, I disregarded that gap, refused to understand it, willfully continued to imprint the cover in my mind as a model for everything I imagined a good adult life might include—cool clothes, slight-boned, concave-chested men with Manic Panic hair, etc. etc.
It also doesn’t really matter that looking at the cover today, we all obviously know a lot more, way way more than we did then, and no amount of willfulness can now repress the suicide, the plastic surgeries, the court battles, the nutso twitter wars with the estranged daughter. Still, now that we know everything, I like to reflexively go back to a time when I didn’t know anything. And this I do almost every time I recall that cover image’s double punctum of cardigan and lipstick, and perhaps this is why I still find myself, wiser but still not knowing much, putting on a sloppy red lip or an ugly, oversized man sweater, preferably together.
Naomi Fry: Would one day like to live in LA. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49481 | If you’re hesitant about the effectiveness of SEO, it’s safe to assume you don’t have much technical experience with website development or programming -- and that the prospect of technical SEO intimidates you. Panda and Penguin are algorithm updates by Google, focused on serving more quality websites in their search result pages. Panda focuses on thin content and banners, among other things, where Penguin checks if the links to your website are natural links that make sense. Adding a single search bar to the top of a website, one which shows up on every page throughout that website, is a good way to allow users to search through a website for whatever particular content they want, whenever the urge to search hits them. A number of challenges have to be successfully passed in order to create a successful multilingual site that ranks well with Google. Social platform optimization - Yourlinkeraiti and my linkeraiti are two entirely separate groups that find content on two entirely different platforms. Whether it's Twitter, LinkedIn, or a niche news site (ex. Inbound.org), you need to find the right place that gets your content in front of the right people.
Organize headings and subheadings with H1, H2, H3 tags
While variety is the spice of life, changing things up too much on your website won’t help it rank in search engines. Of course it’s important to regularly refresh and update your content—in fact, it’s vital, but making too many changes all at once will certainly impact ranking stability. For advanced users, the information an analytics package provides, combined with data from your server log files, can provide even more comprehensive information about how visitors are interacting with your documents (such as additional keywords that searchers might use to find your site). Linking to authority sites helps send trust signals to Google. The link relevancy is important and should be done in a proper manner. Make sure your website is optimised for mobile. When someone is searching for something on a mobile device, Google will now promote websites which are mobile friendly ahead of ones that aren’t. Like anygood SEO campaign, your optimization strategy should be dictated by your campaign goals. If your top level goals are straight-forward, such as increase revenue, then decide which optimization path is going to be the most effective based on your business.
Effective Use Of Guest Blogging
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could find out exactly which keywords your competitors are ranking for AND how much search traffic those keywords are bringing in? The nature of having competitors mean that they will always be looking to beat you, gain ground if they are falling behind, or pull further ahead where possible. To do this, you have to accept that there is always opportunities, whether you are thinking outside of the box, improving content that has been created by a competitor or your own resource. It’s a common misconception that the internet is the ultimate learning environment. Yes, you can find everything you need, for free, but the information you end up with is not always trustworthy. It’s scattered, often outdated and sometimes contradictory. So, how does Google determine site quality? Every website page, including your blog, should have at least one call-to-action above the page’s fold -- in other words, don’t make your website visitor scroll down to see the call to action. Calls to action can help SEO by creating an internal link on your website to a specific landing page. Most calls to action are images; therefore you can optimise the image filename and alt text for the primary keyword you’re targeting on the page. There’s no clear formula, or single answer for the minimum amount of content a page should have. Some sources suggest having at least 600-700 words of content on every page.
Become a source of quotes to boost SEO
Gaz Hall, a Freelance SEO Consultant from SEO Hull, commented: "There’s not a one-size-fits-all, or quick-and-easy way to rank fast in Google. SEO secrets boil down to creating great content that will naturally earn authority and that is optimized for both users and search engines, and wrapping that content in an experience and quality website design that fosters engagement." Whether it is writing the most useful article about a certain topic, or ensuring that your eCommerce system is easy to use, it is important to make sure site visitors have a positive experience, because only then will they stick around. All sites have a home or "root" page, which is usually the most frequented page on the site and the starting place of navigation for many visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content. Backlinks are absolutely key to boosting your site’s position in search engines, moving you from page 50 to page 5, from page 5 to page 1. But why? Well, according to most search engines, a site that is being talked about and recommended a lot online must be doing so for good reason. The key to quality SEO is all about research research research.
Technical aspects of search engine marketing
The quality and quantity of links you have pointing to your site has a direct bearing on how highly it ranks in organic search results. Structured data is essential these days. It’s your page summary in re-usable chunks of content that Google loves. Be careful not to focus too much on one single key phrase otherwise your site could grow repetitive, and earn a penalty. Expect increased conversions, particularly those from visitors who arrived via organic search. Google is now extremely advanced and answers around 15 percent of its search queries with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). This AI is called “Rankbrain” and consists of machine learning algorithms. The fact that search engines are getting smarter has very practical consequences for SEO.
How can you find out, whether your domain has been penalized by Google and why?
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Print Version Main Index : Commentaries : Wesley's Notes : Ezra Index : Chapter 1
Ezra, Chapter 1
Introduction to Ezra | Chapter 2
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View Ezra 1 in the note window.
The proclamation of Cyrus, for the release of the Jews, and building of the temple, ver. 1 - 4. The return of many of them, ver. 5, 6. Orders given for restoring the vessels of the temple, ver. 7 - 11.
1: Fulfilled - Nebuchadnezzar carried many of the Jews into captivity in the first year of his reign (the fourth of Jehoiakim). He reigned forty - five years, his son Evil - merodach twenty - three, and his grandson Belshazzar, three years, which make up the seventy years foretold by Jeremiah. First year - Of his reign in Babylon: for he had been king of Persia for many years.
2: All, &c. - In those parts of the world; all that vast empire formerly under the Assyrians and Babylonians. The gift of which he ascribes to the great God; by that express prophecy of Isaiah concerning him, (Isa 44:28,45:1,13), so long before he was born; which prophecy the Jews had doubtlessly shewed him, which also carried a great evidence with it, especially to him who was so highly encouraged by it: or by a special illumination which God vouchsafed to him, as he did to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and some other Heathen princes.
5: Then rose up, &c. - These being a new generation, went out like their father Abraham, from this land of the Chaldees, not knowing whither they went.
6: Strengthened their hands - God can, when he pleases, incline the hearts of strangers to be kind to his people; yea, make those strengthen their hands, who formerly weakened them.
8: Sheshbazzar - Zerubbabel; the Chaldeans called him Sheshbazzar, that is, Joy in tribulation, but among his own people he was called Zerubbabel, a stranger in Babylon. So he looked upon himself, tho' (Josephus says) he was captain of the life - guard.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49490 | Thursday, November 12, 2009
Monday September 8th - Loo roll!
The church bells rang at 4am in Rosport. In continental Europe you get used to bells ringing at 6am or sunrise, but at 4 it was still very dark and I'm not sure what sane person would need or want to hear church bells at that time.
At a slightly more sane hour I set out into another damp and hazy morning, continuing along the river valley. A few miles down the road, a huge structure loomed out of the mist above me - it was the motorway passing high above the valley, supported by enormouse concrete columns. I've never seen a motorway look so beautiful!
At Wasserbillig, I left the bike path for a while to pick up some goodies in the town. I bought the world's tastiest plum tart and some bread from the bakery, a couple of chicken legs and, triumphantly, some loo roll. I've never been so happy to see toilet paper!
After spending quite a lot of time in the town I decided to put in some real miles before lunch. The road was flat so it was easy to set small targets - for example, getting to 25 miles by 11:30am.
The cycle path disappeared for a while and became a red strip at the side of the road. Vineyards became the dominant scenery, and the sun burned away the mist. The Our river flowed into the Moselle and the valley widened out a little.
I reached the 30 mile mark a few miles short of the French border and stopped for a chicken sandwich and to hang my washing on the back of the bike.
I arrived in Schengen, home to all good shared border agreements, shortly after that. There's probably a good reason for the choice of Schengen for that particular treaty - it stands close to the meeting point of three countries. In the space of a couple of minutes I left Luxembourg, crossed the bridge to Germany and turned the corner into France.
A small model of the Eiffel tower marked my passage into France. The cycle path vanished in the town of Apach and all of a sudden fast lorries and cars were whooshing past my shoulder. Then I remembered the first rule of cycling on N roads in France - don't! I dug out my trusty Michelin atlas pages to plan a nice D-route.
Things got hilly that afternoon. I huffed and puffed my way up a tiny little road, across open farmland and through tiny villages in which stood numerous closed and abandoned cafes. It also happened to get very hot, which was nice but also meant a lot of sweat and a lot of suncream. I reached Bouzonville, a reasonably sized town which didn't appear to have any accommodation but at least had a boulangerie where I was able to buy food and water, and a tabac whose owner directed me to the nearest campsite.
I double checked outside by Googling the place on my phone. I hope that doesn't seem like a rude or mistrustful thing to do. I've been sent on a few wild goose chases before, usually unintentional I'm sure - and whereas locals are normally an excellent source of general information about what's in the area, I don't expect the average person to keep a working and up to date knowledge of campsite opening dates and finer details. However, it looked as if the campsite existed and was open so I headed off in that direction.
An hour later, the sun was getting low in the sky when I reached the campsite, a pretty place beside a lake near the small village of Burtoncourt. It was good to pay single digit prices for camping again!
Distance: 59 miles (361 miles so far) • Day 8 RouteDay 8 Photos
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49491 | Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Disable "Research" feature in MS Outlook
In Outlook 2003, when alt click on any words, it brings up a Research pane. This could be a better feature but it actually freeze the outlook for various amount of time and so it becomes very annoying.
For users who often use alt-tab combo, it becomes even more annoying....
There is no way to disable this feature in Outlook but it can be configured so it does not freeze the outlook.
The reason it freeze outlook is because the Outlook requires resources such as network connection, CPU cycles to bring up the research pane. This becomes much time consuming when Research Pane are configured to do many things. So naturally, the way to decrease the startup time of the pane is to reduce the options Research does. In other words, removing all options from Research equals virtually disabling this feature.
Here is how to do it:
1. Bring up the Research pane by Alt + Left Click on a word
2. Find and click "Research Option" at the bottom of the pane
3. Uncheck options that is not required, all simply uncheck all
4. Save the changes by clicking "Ok"
Hope that helps.
1. This is due to Word being your editor. To disable the Reseach pane in Word (and subsequently Oulook):
1) Open Word
2) Press Alt-F11 (opens the VB Editor)
3) Press Ctrl-G (opens the Immediate Window)
4) Type this following line:
Application.CommandBars("Research").Enabled = False
5) Close VB editor and Word
You may need to restart Outlook.
Good luck!!
John Merrill
1. Thanks John. Just saw your tip.
Tried it but gave me the following error:
Run-time error '5':
Invalid procedure call or argument
I'm still using word 2003. Any idea?
2. After pressing ctrl-G immediate window is not open
3. Great Article android based projects
Java Training in Chennai
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2. Besides, if you suspect that a virus-carrying email has caused your Outlook program to hang, look for it and remove it from your mailbox. microsoft support number
4. Hotmail sign in Beaver says I also have such interest, you can read my profile here:
5. Thank you for the advice it worked perfectly:) |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49493 | Thursday, July 22, 2004
Laugh or Cry?
Don't know if I should laugh or cry at this? It looks so much like Playmobil. You wonder what they're thinking over there at The LEGO Group, sometimes.
And this bothers me. Why the hell would you name a set, exactly the same as the classic? Makes no sense at all.
Update: I've come to really love the Duplo Castle sets. In 2006, LEGO stores were clearing out Duplo dragons... I ended up buying 3-4 of them in different colors, and made sort of a wizards vehicle with one, for a floating rock MOC.
No comments: |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49517 | Las Vegas Gambling
Throughout its turbulent history the United States has vacillated between total or partial prohibition to regulation of the gambling and gaming industries.
The Puritans and the Punters
As far back as the 1600’s the early settlers were split as to their stance on gambling. There were the normal settlers, who happily indulged in gambling, as they had always done in England – it was considered a ‘gentlemanly pursuit – and then there were the Puritans, who had left England to start a new, better life. Gambling was not part of the plans for the Puritans.
Gambling soon began to cause serious problems in the colonies, reflecting a lifestyle of sloth and vice. It was generally frowned upon, and either went underground or ceased altogether.
The colonies began to cost England a lot of money, and in an effort to raise funds to sustain these far flung settlements, lotteries were introduced. This idea was flawed, however, as large amounts of money were leaving England, much to the disgust of the local population, and lotteries soon ceased.
Their popularity continued in the US however, and lotteries were used to raise money for some of the earliest and most prestigious universities in America – Harvard, Yale and Columbia were all established and sustained with the help of lottery winnings. Gambling on the horses was also big at that time, but casino gaming started relatively slowly.
Gambling in the Deep South
By the 1800’s gaming was again a popular pastime particularly in the south, and New Orleans soon established itself as the gambling capitol.
Professional gamblers, known as ‘sharps’, or ‘sharpers’, put the lid on the growth of the industry as they were innately dishonest, and the general public soon took umbrage, and pushed the sharps out of the south. Lynch mobs were even formed, and many professional gamblers lost their lives due to the lure of filthy lucre.
Added scandals in the industry and religious beliefs led to a complete turnaround. Lotteries and many other forms of gambling were banned in most states by the 1840’s.
Then came the heady days of the Californian Gold Rush, and with so much money around, all forms of gambling began to flourish and authorities turned a blind eye, and even legalised it in some states.
San Francisco replaced New Orleans as the primary gambling destination, and all was well until the industry was again wracked by unscrupulous operators. Public sentiment changed yet again and by 1860 all banking games (where a player bets against the house) were banned. By 1910 all forms of gambling were a no-no.
Gambling never ceased, it merely went underground and the illegal gaming houses began to flourish. Tragedy struck in the form of the Great Depression and contrary to what one might have expected the ‘powers to be’ saw gambling as a means of sparking the shattered economy. In 1931 the State of Nevada legalised gambling, and the rest is history! |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49523 | Explanatory Pluralism
The central concern [here] … has been with the de facto multiplicity of explanatory styles in scientific practice, reflecting the manifest diversity of epistemological goals which researchers bring to their task. But I also want to argue that the investigation of processes as inherently complex as biological development may in fact require such diversity. Explanatory pluralism, I suggest, is now not simply a reflection of differences in epistemological cultures but a positive virtue in itself, representing our best chance of coming to terms with the world around us.
Evelyn Fox Keller, Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development With Models, Metaphors, and Machines (Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 300.
Iin facilitating multiple interpretations of the same artifact, the PECE annotation module supports another design logic, the promotion of explanatory pluralism. Interpretive differences are a signature feature of most humanities research, as they are in the tradition of cultural anthropology in which PECE is situated. The expectation in the humanities is that different researchers will develop alternative understandings of the same object or event; the expectation in the natural sciences is that researchers will converge on a single, “best” perspective. In actual fact, however, such convergence either takes an inordinately long time, or is forced by reasons other than Reason. Feminist philosopher and theoretical biologist Evelyn Fox Keller has shown that the capacity to entertain and develop multiple theories for complex objects and phenomena has historically been crucial to the vital growth and development of the life sciences. Yet most digital infrastructure in the natural sciences has an implicit or explicit goal of conveying researchers as quickly as possible to a single possible answer. By design, PECE encourages the creation and assembling of multiple interpretations, hypotheses, and theories in the firm belief that such explorations of multiple possibilities is necessary for the kinds of complex conditions PECE researchers seek to understand.
The image is Jean Metzinger's Danseuse au café (1912). Wikipedia:
Turning his attention fully towards the geometric abstraction of form, Metzinger allowed the viewer to reconstruct the original volume mentally and to imagine the object depicted within space. But this wasn't the space of Euclidean geometry and its associated classical one-point perspective in use and unquestioned since the onset of the Renaissance. This was an all-out multi-frontal attack on the narrow limitations of academicism, on pre-20th century empiricism, on positivism, determinism and the untenable notions of absolute space, absolute time and absolute truth. It was a revolt inline with those leveled by the mathematician Henri Poincaré and the philosophers William James, Friedrich Nietzsche and Henri Bergson. This was an embrace of Riemannian geometry, of the relativity of knowledge, of realities hidden by human vision, an embrace of the world that surpassed material appearances. Poincaré, in Science & Method, The Relativity of Space (1897), wrote: "Absolute space exists no longer; there is only space relative to a certain initial position of the body."[32]
Thus the characteristic property of space, that of having three dimensions, is only a property of our distribution board, a property residing, so to speak, in the human intelligence. The destruction of some of these connections that is to say of these associations of ideas, would be sufficient to give us a different distribution board, and that might be enough to endow space with a fourth dimension. [...] It quite seems, indeed, that it would be possible to translate our physics into the language of geometry of four dimensions. (Henri Poincaré, 1897)[32]
Now liberated from the one-to-one relationship between a fixed coordinate in space captured at a single moment in time assumed by classical vanishing-point perspective, the artist became free to explore notions of simultaneity, whereby several positions in space captured at successive time intervals could be depicted within the bounds of a single painting.[33]
This picture plane, write Metzinger and Gleizes (in Du "Cubisme", 1912), "reflects the viewer's personality back upon his understanding, pictorial space may be defined as a sensible passage between two subjective spaces." The forms situated within this space, they continue, "spring from a dynamism which we profess to command. In order that our intelligence may possess it, let us first exercise our sensibility."[38] |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49525 | The Pagan Path
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Spiritual But Not Religious
You have doubtless heard this phrase used by many people ( acquaintances ). You may have even used it before, in referring to yourself, but what does it really mean? Most, I fear, when they claim that they are 'spiritual but not religious', have cut most, if not all ties with what is traditionally known as 'Christianity'. They claim, to one extent, to have the work of the Spirit ( ? ) in their 'heart', but have not much if any fruit to show for it! Now, to be fair, not all who make this claim have taken on a 'lone-wolf' stance, and distanced themselves ( purposely ) from 'Christianity' in general, and the institutional church in particular ( can't say I blame them for that! ) Some of those, I believe, who say that they are 'spiritual, not religious', have simply become fed up with the antics that go on in much of the institutional church, and have thus withdrawn, taken a step back, so to speak, if not cutting all ties, whether by choice or not, from traditional ( orthodox ) Christianity.
Many, though, whether consciously or unconsciously, have molded their lives to this phrase, 'having a form of godliness but denying its power'; these claim the work of the Spirit in their lives, as we saw above, but disdain to show the fruit of that Spirit in their lives.
The online version of Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines the term 'religious' as 'relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity', 'a religious person'. Here is what the Wikipedia article that I read had to say on the subject of 'religion'; 'Religion is a collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values'. Even apart from these 'secular' definitions, not to mention injunctions from Scripture itself, like 'Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees' ( Hebrews 12:12 ), to those who are spiritual, as Paul had written in his letter to the Galatians ( 6:1 ); 'Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who [ are ] spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted'. James wrote, most famously, 'faith without works is dead' ( 2:26b ). As intimated earlier, though, many who claim to be 'spiritual, not religious' ( in fact all of them; everybody is religious, just not all follow good religion ) are actually very religious about it, allowing their spirituality to flow out through their lives into the 'world' around them!
So then, a very pervasive and wide-spread misunderstanding of 'religion' is the real culprit! Although some that claim to be 'spiritual but not religious' will fall into the category of those who claim to be followers of Christ ( Christians ) but whose works do not show it, as many or more make that claim simply because of the belief that to be religious, one must follow some sort of institutionalized 'religion', or belong to some 'church'. For whatever reason, these people seem to have difficulty understanding that to be religious is to, as James, again, put it, 'Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, [ and ] to keep oneself unspotted from the world' ( James 1:27 ).
Religion, as we have noted previously, is ( or can be ) a good thing; it just depends what you base your religion on, and how your religion affects your actions. If you believe, as Hitler reportedly did, that only blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans ( no Jews, gypsies, or commies ) should inhabit his Third Reich, and based on that belief ( his religion ) begin to exterminate any and all who did not fit those criteria, then yes, that religion would be wrong, and not to be followed. If you believe, on the other hand, that all men are created equal ( with equal rights ) in the eyes of their Creator, and act according to that belief, religiously visiting ( giving aid to ) widows and orphans in their time of need, then that is a religion to be followed, and is worthy of great commendation!
To be truly spiritual is to be religious! According to James' words at the end of chapter 2 of his letter, one who is not religious about their beliefs ( faith ) is spiritually dead! It is possible to be religious with being spiritual ( this happens too often ), but it is quite impossible to be truly spiritual without being religious!
Let us all do our best to be spiritual AND religious ( for otherwise, we are spiritually dead )!
Charles Haddon Shank
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The 'Heart" of the Matter ( Guns don't kill people; people with guns kill people )
I became acquainted with this phrase ( Guns don't kill people; people with guns kill people ), about 25-30 years ago. The same holds as true with rocks, and the principle behind this phrase holds true, as well, of the fist, the foot, or anything at all that could be used as a weapon to hurt or kill someone else. A 1973 Oldsmobile comes to mind........awesome weapon!
The news media, as usual, has moved on to splatter our front-pages with the latest ( worst ) news. The Sandy Hook tragedy now past, the news media has been covering, though not to the same extent, interestingly enough, an old enemy, the debate on whether or not to, and even to what extent to ban guns. I say 'an old enemy', because this debate has been raging, though usually in the background, for decades now. Although this seeming 'solution' to a symptom has convinced many of its effectiveness, this debate, and the accompanying legislation ( some of which is already in effect ) has been shown to be, in reality, ineffective at the least, and downright dangerous ( insidious ) at worst!
Many questions could be asked in regard to this legislation, questions like, 'if good, law-abiding ( though ignorant ) citizens 'dutifully' ( ? ) obey this legislation and get rid of their guns, and criminals, who are usually not thought of as law-abiding, disobey it; who has the guns?'
Among many gun-owners, the more freedom-minded in particular, there is a notion that has been circulating for years that the reasons behind all this anti-gun legislation are especially insidious. The theory, and I had been inclined to believe it, is that this is what happened in Nazi Germany right before its takeover by the National Socialist Party under Hitler. One can read all the propaganda on both sides and decide for themselves, but I think it is far from clear that this is what happened! ( And please don't get me wrong; I am NOT advocating Nazism, Socialism, or saying that Hitler was a nice guy, really! )
Back to the issue at hand, Solomon tells us, in Proverbs 4:23, 'Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it [ spring ] the issues of life': Jesus told the multitudes that listened to Him, that 'out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies' ( Matthew 15:19 ). History, and not just Scriptural history ( think of Sampson's jawbone 'incident' in Judges 15 ) makes abundantly manifest the fact that if someone wants ( or needs ) to kill another human being, he's going to do so with whatever weapon first comes to hand, even his bare hands if that'll 'do the trick'! Sure, a gun, because of the element of surprise and the longer-range effectiveness ( sometimes ) makes it easier to kill, but history is clear; if someone wishes to kill another, he ( or she ) is going to do so, even if it means just giving them a push ( over a cliff )!
So; as we have seen from the two quoted Scriptures, and honestly, we can all personally attest to this, the 'heart' is where it all starts! Sure, we can blame our failings ( and we usually do ) on anything but ourselves, whether it be our environment, a fallen 'spiritual' being named 'Satan', on video games, or even the way the news media seems to 'glorify' violence, but when it comes down to it, we're the ones who make the choice. That's why Solomon said in his wisdom that we should guard our 'hearts'. Even though they didn't have video games back then ( to say nothing of guns ), there was plenty of wickedness and violence that they needed to guard their 'hearts' from.
Banning guns will never stop the killings! You may have heard the saying, 'if we can save just one life, it'll be worth it'. Sounds almost worthily self-sacrificial, right? Wrong!!! Besides being a forced ( legislated ) sacrifice ( our freedoms for the possibility of saving 'just one'? ), we can simply point back to a fact that was pointed out earlier; if criminals are the only ones with guns, how long do you think it would take for that 'one' to be saved by an outright ban ( unless the 'one' was a criminal )?
One may postulate that if the Sandy Hook murderer had only been able to get a 7-round clip for his Bushmaster rather than the 30-round, that 20 less people may have died: that's entirely possible, but not likely, and really, truly, it's beside the point ( WAY BESIDE THE POINT )! Oh wait; ban all assault weapons, especially ones that can hold more than five rounds; that way not as many will die next time!
Charles Haddon Shank
Friday, December 21, 2012
The Gathering Storm
As I write, it is December 21st, the day, according to many ignorant persons, the Mayans had predicted that the world would end. I just heard on the news that, since the 21st has come, and in certain parts of the world, gone, people are wondering if maybe this day just signals the end of an epoch or era, and the beginning of a new one! ( Sounds almost strangely familiar, huh? )
I agree ( I have been saying this all year ); this year ( 2012 ) could well spell the end of the 'world' ( question is; 'what 'world'?' ). In fact, I have more than once gone so far as to predict that very thing. Now, before you condemn me as being a false prophet, or prognosticator; remember that this year has signaled the end of many different things, the most recent probably, and no doubt indelibly etched in the memory of anyone with a heart, is the recent massacre of nearly 30 'innocents' ( mostly children ) in a small town in Connecticut.
While this, and other similar tragedies are just that; tragic, they also reveal the hypocrisy, particularly in the media, that has become rampant, and downright deplorable and abominable in this country. Without going to any great lengths; 'why are they so quick to condemn the murder of 20 children when they say nothing, unless it's in support, of the murder of the 3,000 plus ( statistically ) children who were murdered that same day in their mother's wombs?' ( Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not condemning the doctors any more than the mothers who selfishly conspired to murder their own children! )
This tragedy, conveniently enough, has served to raise the ire of the more ignorant citizens of this nation, against gun violence, and paving the way, no doubt, for further restrictions, if not an outright ban on guns ( which is what 'they' want, if you believe the conspiracy theorists ). And speaking of gun bans; this is not the only freedom that has been threatened, or even quietly ( and insidiously ) come to an end in the past year.
At this moment, the leaders of the country find themselves locked in a struggle to retain ( or regain ) the economic 'stability' of this nation. In the past few decades, if not the last century or so ( and much of this, for the average 'Joe', is hindsight ); much of our freedom, whether individual or corporate, has been slowly and almost silently eking away.
There is a 'storm' gathering, and the only way to either avert it ( this hardly seems possible ) or to make it safely through, is to call upon the Master of Seas and Tempests. The Gospel according to Mark, in chapter 4, verses 35-41, records the instance where Jesus significantly calmed the raging waters of the sea and stilled the gathering storm; He is the only who can still this tempest or guide us safely through it!
Sure; one may point out that we have averted many such 'storms' in this country in the past, and one may have a point there, of sorts, but how long does the respite last? A few decades, maybe? A few years ( at most ), before the problems crop up again and come back to haunt us!
Getting back to the main reason, and there are others, for this gathering storm; 'how long can a nation that has murdered over 55 million children ( and counting ) since 1973 ( and that's JUST since 1973 ) expect the blessings of a just God?' There is no doubt that this nation, to some extent, has enjoyed the blessing of the Almighty, due in large part to the fact that there is a remnant who have remained faithful to the Christian principles on which this nation was founded! It could also be said, that although the leadership of this nation has departed from those principles, there is still a semblance of those principles beating in this country, though you might say that it is long past time to 'get the paddles out'!
Though, as I will freely acknowledge, those tragedies, as the most recent one in Connecticut, are saddening, and most deplorable; they are nothing when compared to the losses this country has sustained over the last 39 years ( since Roe v. Wade ). Again, though this tragedy, and others like it, are deplorable, and much to be condemned, they are merely significant of the sickness that has overcome this nation as a whole. Sadly, especially, this includes many Christians, who, for whatever reason, have become almost fully immersed ( and entrenched ) in 'state-worship'. This sickness is caused by a stubborn self-reliance and a refusal to acknowledge and embrace a saving relationship with their Creator. Sadly, many Christians seem to have fallen into this trap, as well, and embraced the state as their 'worldly' savior, largely because of a misinterpretation of Scripture, along with a growing sense of apathy and laziness!
Can this 'storm' be avoided? Many think that through a re-education of the people of this nation it can, and indeed will be avoided! It will take a complete re-education, not only of the principles that our fore-fathers established, but of our relation to our Creator, and the re-establishment, in the hearts and hands of the people, of the truth and absolute necessity of that relationship. We have seen where simply following our fore-fathers has gotten us, particularly in the past 150 or so years! It would be good no doubt, and helpful, to return wholeheartedly to those principles, but there must be a repentance, a turning again to the One who established those principles in the first place, our Almighty God, Creator and Father!
With a growing apprehension, and yet peace.
Charles Haddon Shank
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Born to Live!
Many Christians seem to almost be proud of the notion that 'Jesus was 'Born to Die', yes, that we might live, but there is so much of a focus, especially around this time of year, on the fact that He came to die ( for the sins of His people ), that we often seem to forget that, more importantly; He came to live, and to bring Life to those trusting in Him!
A friend was telling me just the other day that Christmas has become a bigger holiday than Easter. This is sadly true, and while much of this is due to commercialism and greed, this is as sadly true among many Christians who have also become caught up in the greed and idolatry so rampant around this time of year! I believe that another reason that so many Christians, even, have placed more importance on the birth of Christ than on His resurrection is the fact that most Christians do not believe that His resurrection has truly been effective yet, and related to this, there is also the 'ghost' of individualism that haunts them.
Don't get me wrong; it is good and right to celebrate the birth of our Savior! This is something; however, that we should be doing everyday, and not just around this time of year! The same goes, in all actuality, for Easter, or, to be more correct, Resurrection Day, where we celebrate the fact that death could not hold, and in fact, was defeated by Him. This leads us back to the sad fact that many Christians believe that His resurrection has not yet finally been effective, because of the belief that the death He died was to reverse the effects of physical death, rather than the metaphorical, or separational ( relational ) death that our first covenant ( federal ) head died in the day that he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We celebrate the fact that He was born into this world to take away the sin of His people, and then, on Easter Sonday, or Resurrection Sonday, we celebrate the fact that He rose from the dead, defeating death, but we don't realize, sadly, that in actuality, death has been defeated! Too many Christians, and this is where the haunting 'ghost' of individualism arises, are expecting that their physical bodies will be raised again after they die. Maybe this is why Christmas has long had a more important 'air' about it than Easter, or Resurrection Day ( we can't forget the greed & idolatry thing, either )!
That He came to live, and to bring Life, that we might live, while not a totally overlooked fact, should have more impact on our daily lives than any separate celebration of His Birth, His Death, or His resurrection, for that matter.
Was Jesus born to die?
Yes, in a sense, He was, but it is so much more than that! He lived, most importantly, that He might, by His Life, reverse the effects of Adam's disobedience. He did this by fully satisfying the requirements of the Law ( since His people could not ) throughout His Life on earth, and then, yes, He did die for the sins of His people, and to defeat death forever by bringing His people back into Communion, and in fact Union with His Father, their Creator!
As we celebrate, to varying degrees, the birth of our Savior, let us always remember that He was born to live, and because He brought us Life, being the Resurrection and the Life, and remembering always this glorious fact, let us live the Life that He brought us, not as in hoping ( waiting ) for some future life! With the realization our Life, the Life of His covenant people, is in Him; let us celebrate that Life, and live as those who have been freed from the bondage of sin and death!
Gloriously alive,
Charles Haddon Shank
Monday, December 10, 2012
Oh, Worship the King!
Worship the King on His Throne
Not the Baby in a Manger!
Galatians 4: 4 & 5
At this time of year, especially, the vast majority of Christians, and even some non-Christians, like to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it seems that many of those like to keep Him in the manger, so to speak, the rest of the year, just like they seem to do over this holiday season!
Most Christians are quick to acknowledge the fact that He IS ruling and reigning, but only in our 'hearts', and that He IS on the Throne, but only in 'Heaven', not on earth; I mean, all you have to do is take a look around you at all the evil in the world, to see that He must not be reigning ( yet ) on the earth, right? WRONG!
Much of the reason that there IS so much evil in the world is that too many Christians do not acknowledge that God, through Jesus, IS ruling and reigning on this earth, and though, at Christmas-time, and even sometimes throughout the year, they celebrate His coming into the world, most of them live the rest of the year as though He is still a baby, not yet having inherited, and not yet reigning in His Kingdom!
Ask of Me, and I will give [ You ]
The nations [ for ] Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth [ for ] Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.
The vast majority of Christians, though, I believe, this number is gradually lessening, stubbornly cling to the traditional and orthodox ( ? ) notion that Jesus has not yet returned to claim His inheritance, and that while He IS King in our 'hearts', He has not yet taken up those 'reins', or that 'rod' that His Father promised He would rule with! Because they believe this way, many Christians live this way, and so have neglected their duty as His people to extend that reign and rule, keeping it to themselves, 'behind the eyes and between the ears', so to speak. Now, this is not to say that ALL Christians who believe, or say they believe thusly, live consistently with their proclaimed beliefs, praise God, but too many, for to long, have acted this way, and allowed the evil to overcome the good!
'Just wait', you might hear these Christians say, 'till Jesus comes back; He will set everything right again!' Has He not already set everything right again, as He promised in the Scriptures? Are we not a new creation, as He tells His people through Paul in that most famous passage, II Corinthians 5:17? 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me', These famous words from Paul's letter to the Church at Philippi are probably among the most over-used, as well as misapplied and misunderstood phrase quoted by many Christians today. We are new creatures, who can do all things ( through Christ ), but we can't overcome evil with good? 'Well, sure', you might hear, 'but we can't force others to do right, we can only live our own lives'. That's true, we cannot force anyone to do right, but by living our own lives according to God's Word, and by NOT keeping 'behind the eyes and between the ears', we, as the people of God, the Body of His Son, Jesus the Christ, CAN overcome evil with good, we CAN do all things through His Spirit within us, and as new creatures, we CAN set things right! In fact, THAT is the whole reason that we were made new creatures in the first place!
There should be no doubt that we can accomplish this, that through our true worship of the King on His throne, we may influence the evils that beset us on every side, and turn them to good;
The question is, 'will we?'
In the worship and service of the King,
Charles Haddon Shank
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Life, Liberty, and the Soveriegnty of God
generations do ordain and establish this constitution.'
In the past decade or so; we have seen the apparent decline of the greatness of our nation, as more and more laws are passed, to varying degrees of lawlessness, whether blatant or subtle. Many of these laws are so insidious as to be hidden ( buried ) in other seemingly harmless and even almost helpful legislation, but for those who have seen through this facade; these regulations have been revealed for what they truly are; one more step on the downhill slide into a Godless and socialistic society! Well, on second thought; maybe 'godless' isn't quite the word we should use here, because there is a multiplicity of gods that our society in general, and our civil governments in particular, are guilty of exalting!
The sacred volume of Scripture has much to say on the topic of 'Life, Liberty and the Sovereignty of God', and this is the foundation, needless to say, for which our founding fathers, those 'forgotten heroes' of our nation's gloried and storied history, unselfishly gave up their lives, liberty and property, and upon which their actions were based.
True freedom is that found in God alone! As our Creator; He has endowed each of His creatures with certain inalienable rights, among which are the pursuit of happiness, including the right to life, liberty and property. When we misuse, abuse, or just totally ignore ( neglect ) these God-given rights, we, to one extent or another, are stripped of these rights, whether lawfully or unlawfully. I say 'lawfully or unlawfully', because, as in the case of criminal misuse or abuse, these rights are regulated, or else, because of national judgment or just discipline, these rights are removed out of hand. This is not to say that, even when we are being judged as a nation, for whatever cause, we should not resist the tyrannical 'power' that seeks to strip us of these rights, for we should resist tyranny in all shapes and forms, to the death if necessary, wherever it rears its ugly head! We must, however, realize that, in His total and complete Sovereignty, our Creator 'has a Purpose for every petty dictator' that man, in his vanity, deems to set up! God told that pettiest of dictators, the Pharaoh of Egypt ( Exodus 9:16 ), 'indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth', and revealed in Psalm 2, verse 6, 'Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion'! Whether we want to admit or not, whether we acknowledge it or not; our Creator has His purpose for all His creation, and His will is done; always!
Our liberties, insofar as our own do not encroach upon those of another, are inherent; that is to say, they have been given us by our Creator, and are ours by very virtue of our being. When our liberties are threatened, or altogether taken away, whether it be 'piece-meal' or all at once, 'in one fell swoop', so to speak; it is our right, our duty, to fight for those liberties, as it is not our liberties alone that stand in jeopardy, but those of generations to come: this is why our fore-fathers fought so long and so hard, and often to the death, for our freedom. I say 'our freedom', for it was this they realized; they fought and died for our freedom!
As we have, in many ways, far removed from the ideals of these 'forgotten heroes'; we have lost many, if not most, of the freedoms for which they fought! Many of these freedoms have all but vanished with a graduality which is purposefully deceptive in its insidiousness, but almost as often they have been stripped in blatant disregard of the Pillars upon which this country was founded, that of Scripture itself, and of our fore-fathers stalwart adherence to those biblical principles ( as they understood them ).
Our Creator, He who covenanted with His creation, and upholds it by its every breath, has entrusted weak, susceptible and fallible human beings with their own government, and the government of the rest of His creation, both the human and animal, as well as natural, or material creation. We read in Genesis 1:26, after God had finished the act of creating man in His Image, 'let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' Man, whether he admits it or not, whether he follows his lofty calling or not, has been given the dominion, and when he freely gives that right, or blessing up to someone or something else; he is telling his Creator, in other words, just what Adam & Eve told Him on that fateful day in the Garden, and which their descendants, the children of Israel under the first ( typical ) covenant continually asserted: 'we know better!'
Our God-given liberties, which have seemingly been transferred out of our possession over the past several hundred years ( in this country ), have likely all but disappeared for several reasons. One is that men have told their Creator, 'we know better than You' ( and this may be the most important, as well ): secondly, our liberties have been encroached upon in this manner because God's people have allowed it to happen.
National judgment is not something that we can easily overlook, either!
With over 55 million children having been murdered in the past 35-40 years, the fact that we have lost so many of our covenant blessings, through the natural consequences of our actions, or else inaction, should really not be shocking in the least.
Deuteronomy 28 is most famous for its description of the blessings and cursings of the covenant. Some may protest at this point, saying something like, 'we are no longer under law, but under grace: we are in the new Covenant now, not that first covenant'! This is likely the greatest misunderstanding that the people of God treasure today! There is one Covenant; there has always been One Covenant, that Covenant being embodied in our Lord, Jesus the Christ, as prophesied in Isaiah 42:6 & 49:8!
that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Deuteronomy 28:15
It is true that we, as the covenant people of God ( and this includes all who confess the Name ), have been 'conveyed........into the kingdom of the Son of His love', so that we are 'not under law but under grace', but even though we are allowed to pursue life, liberty and happiness through the good graces of our heavenly Father, He, through His most excellent Father-hood, has ensured that we reap what we have sown, so it is through our disobedience, whether out of ignorance or pure rebelliousness, that we have brought these curses upon ourselves!
If you look carefully at the wording of Deuteronomy 28:15 above; it is not saying that God would bless or curse, as has often been thought, depending on our obedience or disobedience, but simply, that these blessings or curses would come upon us ( happen ) as a result of either reaction. Just as these curses came upon the children of Israel, as we read in the pages of Scripture, so they now have happened to God's covenant people as a result of our disobedience. We may experience the blessings of the Covenant once again, only by repenting of our unfaithful disobedience, and returning to the faith of our fathers, 'lock, stock, and barrel', exercising the dominion, and thus, the liberty that we have been given!
There is much talk of revolution, whether armed rebellion or quiet, subversive sedition, in this country today, and it is all well and good to speak of returning this country to her roots as a foundling nation, as the 'forgotten heroes' mentioned above envisioned her. Some, even many, probably many more than we would think, are ready to take up arms and fight ( on our own soil ) for the freedoms that 'big government' has wrested from our cold dead fingers! This sounds like it could work, and talking to those that are 'rarin' to go'; you might begin to think that it would, but as they say, 'freedom ain't free': it would be a long, hard, bloody battle, and if 'freedom' won out, which is very possible, even against the seemingly greater odds; in another 100 years, maybe less, we would have it to do all over again!
'Why', you may ask, would we prophecy such an end? Well; simply put, when mere humans are in control, something is bound to go wrong! Throughout history, this has been proven over and over again. Humanly speaking, the saying is abundantly true and verifiable, 'power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Human beings have shown that they cannot be trusted with power, unless and insofar as they realize and acknowledge with their whole heart, mind and strength, where that power comes from. Until men realize the fact that God is the only incorruptible Power, and that it is in His strength alone that we rule; there will be no true and lasting freedom. We may enjoy a sort of temporal freedom for a time, but only until the next petty dictator comes along!
Reading through the book of Kings, and even earlier, in the book of Judges; it quickly becomes very clear that, even though God's people enjoyed freedom from slavery or persecution for a time, after God had raised up a deliverer for them, more often than not, they returned to their slavery under some kind of tyranny as soon as that deliver had died.
and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
II Chronicles 7:14
This verse has been quoted so often, by so many preachers of God's Holy Word, that many, I'm sure, have grown tired of hearing it, but hear and heed it we must! If we are ever to be the nation that our forefathers envisioned, and which we can become, by the grace of God, there must be a heartfelt and active repentance of the wickedness perpetrated in and upon this nation, by those who claim to know better, firstly, and secondly, by those who do not know better. There needs to be a national turning again, an active repentance, bowing our heads to the earth, and raising humble hands to our Heavenly Father, our Creator, and as children saying, 'abba Father! We need to humbly repent of our sins of omission as well as those of commission, whether committed in the folly of ignorance or the vanity of wicked rebellion, which is as the sin of witchcraft.
The sin of child-murder ( abortion ), and that most ancient of sins ( which is related ), Molech-worship, the selfish offering ( sacrificing, really ) of our children on the altar of state-craft, should be foremost in our minds when thinking of the needed repentance. As we heard earlier, over 55 million children have been murdered in this country ( that we know of ) since the supreme court judged Roe vs. Wade, and opened the gateway for child-murder, otherwise known as abortion, to be legalized. This is not something that can, or should, be easily passed over, or forgotten. With all this innocent blood on our hands, not to mention all the meaningless massacres and needless wars that have been perpetrated by this once-great nation, it is shocking, really, that we have seen the blessings that we have in this country!
Some may say, and this has been tried for centuries and it has failed as miserably for centuries; 'we just need better legislation', or, 'more legislation, better laws', but as history has manifoldly attested to; this is not the answer. The Answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind; the Answer is the Solid Rock upon which this nation was founded, 'one nation under God'!
Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
“Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”
Psalm 2:1-6
For years, men have sought to exalt themselves, believing that their power lies in their own strength, and not willing to acknowledge that their Creator has granted them the very breath they breathe, have set themselves up, in many cases, as gods. We may look at the historical figure of Alexander the Great, of Macedonia, or Greece, as a glaring example of the Sovereignty of God. It is very clear, looking back through history, that God did use this meglo-maniac to accomplish His purposes, to advance civilization to hither parts, and to spread the knowledge of Himself throughout the known world of the time, but it is also very clear that Alexander built himself up to the point that, without his acknowledgement of where his power came from, there was no way but down. Shortly before his thirty-third birthday, Alexander died, having accomplished the domination of much of southern Asia, from the River ( Euphrates ) to the ends of the earth, as far as the Himalayan Mountains in northern India. Although he had enjoyed great success in his military campaigns, and built one of the greatest empires the world has ever known; even his kingdom was crushed under that Stone that Daniel ( 2:31-45 ) foresaw as crushing everything before it.
Today, we face another such empire, built by the vanity of man. This empire, which may be called 'The American Empire', is not simply the machinations of one man, as Alexander's, but is the brain-child of many wicked men, at varied points throughout history, of which the British Empire, and before that, the Roman and Ottoman, were simply forerunners, and is simply the latest iteration of the vanity of men who exalt themselves against God!
I daresay, and without prejudice, that some of our founding fathers may not have been unfriendly to this notion of empire-building, but for the most part, I believe we can say with certainty, it was the furthest from their minds at the founding of this nation, 'under God'. This nation was founded as such, and as such, was secured through the blood, sweat, and tears of these 'forgotten heroes'!
And you, Ezra, according to your God-given wisdom, set magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who [ are in the region ] beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach those who do not know [ them].
Ezra 7:25
Even heathen kings, such as Artaxerxes of Persia, under whom this command was given, recognized, through the Sovereignty of God, that His law was good, not only for His special covenant people, but for all His creation. Before Artaxerxes gave this command, probably one of the most widely known foreign kings in the biblical record, and famously, rather than infamously, was the king, namely Cyrus, that had given the original command to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. In Isaiah 44:28, God called this heathen king ‘My shepherd’. In Isaiah 45:1, we read ‘Thus says the Lord to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held’. We have already seen how God, through biblical history, has used even those who had not made a covenant with Him, saying of this Cyrus, ‘he shall perform all My pleasure’, and of the Pharaoh of Egypt, ‘for this [ purpose ] I have raised you up, that I may show My power [ in ] you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth’.
David king of Israel wrote, in his 24th Psalm, ‘The earth [ is ] the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein’. He, recognizing, affirming, and ascribing that, as Creator of all; all belongs to God and all rests in His mighty hands, laid down most clearly in Scripture the fact that God does reign over all, and that He does rule over the affairs of men, righteously judging and having mercy in that judgment. This most wise and merciful God, our Creator and Father, has bestowed upon men the governance, first of themselves, then their families, those who have entered into covenant with Him willingly, and of their own accord, and finally of what is known as the civil realm. It is most obligatory upon us, as those that He, through the will of the people, has set to govern, to represent those who have elected us to these several offices according to His law, first of all, then according to the will of the people as set down in our State Constitution.
All things were created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16 & 17
The sovereignty of God is incontestable! Any honest study of science, and of Nature itself, will prove the existence of a Creator, and though vain men have tried to deny this for years, they have found themselves stymied at one point; no matter how minute or microscopic ( atomic, even ) a 'particle' may be, there is no way, naturally speaking, that something could come from nothing; it had to start somewhere, with something! There is much talk in the news today about the 'Higgs boson', AKA the 'God particle', but the question here, as well, is 'where did that come from?' Everything, physically speaking, had a beginning, and everything, in the same sense, will have an end!
Much more may be said about the above truth, but now may not be the time to broach such a subject. What is before us, is that our God, and His son, Jesus the Christ, is, as the Creator of all things, absolutely sovereign over all things. It is from this Sovereignty that our own limited sovereignty, or liberty, emanates, and to which can be our only recourse in the face of tyrants who would wrest these inalienable liberties from our feeble grasp. We have not the strength, on our own, as much as we would like to believe it so, to stand up and, repulsing those oppressors and persecutors, to take back what is rightfully ours. Our 'founding fathers', to a greater extent, anyway, understood this, and when the time came to throw off the chains of oppression, and to stand and fight; they knew to raise their arms to 'Heaven' crying 'Abba, Father', for they knew well enough that their Creator is the only Provider, Sustainer and Protector!
We today, and in the days and years to come; have such an exalted and heady choice before us: 'Will we throw up our arms, like those of old, crying 'Abba, Father', relying wholly upon Him for the redemption of our liberties, and stand in His Strength to fight our battles, be they against principalities or powers, or will we bow the knee to the statist gods, those who do not acknowledge the Reign of Heaven, and continue to flounder in our pit of despair?
Through a recognition and realization of this sustaining fact, and through the active ascription of these foundational principles, we may yet again, begin to see the blessings of liberty for which our forefathers fought and died, and coming to fruition, may bless our children and grandchildren with the inherent freedoms which we all possess.
'Oaths do not in themselves produce a new and particular obligation, but are added as a sort of accessory bond to an obligation in itself valid. For always in swearing we suppose something, failing to perform which, we call down upon us the Divine punishment. And this would be foolish, if it were not unlawful to fail to perform the thing in question, in other words, if we were not already bound. Hence it follows that formal arts, to which attaches a defect nullifying the obligation, do not become obligatory by the addition of an oath. In the same way a previous valid agreement is not destroyed by a subsequent oath, nor is a right which another had thereby acquired now taken away from him. Therefore it is vain to swear that one will not pay one's debt to another. And an oath is not binding when it is established that the swearer supposed some fact which in reality was not such, and would not have sworn, if he had not so believed; especially if he was led into error by a trick on the part of him to whom he swore. Also the man who by an unjust fear makes me take an oath acquires in consequence of that oath no right legally to demand anything of me. Of no effect also is an oath concerning the performance of an unlawful act; or even that which concerns the omission of some good deed enjoined by laws divine or human. Finally, an oath does not change the nature and substance of a promise or contract to which it is added. Hence it is in vain that one swears to impossible things. And a conditional promise is not changed into an absolute or simple one by an oath. And acceptance is required just as truly in the case of a promise under oath.'-Samuel von Pufendorf-On the Duty of Those Who Take Oaths
The Duty of Man & Citizen According to the Natural Law
( A note to legislators, and those elected by 'we the people' to protect our God-given rights and to ensure the free reign of liberty; it is your duty before God, not only as oath-takers, to uphold your vows, but as sovereign citizens yourselves, to realize, recognize and uphold 'the Reign of Heaven', that is, God's sovereign rule, even in the affairs of mere mortals! )
Charles Haddon Shank
Biblical Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the New Covenant Era ( for Prabhu Das )
and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24
When Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees on the topic of divorce, he told them, 'Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so' ( Matthew 19:8 ). He went on to give them then, a bit of instruction which has become a quick-gauge for this matter; 'I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality,[d] and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery'. From here; we traditionally go to I Corinthians 7: 10-16, where Paul wrote such things as, 'A wife is not to depart from [ her ] husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to [ her ] husband. And a husband is not to divorce [ his ] wife', and 'the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband'. There are at least two things that we must consider when reading the first statement, and this could be applied to the second as well; first; we must remember the context in which Paul wrote these instructions, and the situation that he was likely dealing with when he penned these words. At the time of writing; Paul and the early Church were dealing with new converts to Christianity, men and women, who had spouses who, in many case probably, did not share their paradigm shift, and remained ensconced in their Jewish upbringing. We may note too, that Paul wrote that a woman was not to depart ( separate ) from her husband ( we may refer here, to the story of Hosea and Gomer, in Hosea 3 ), but that if she did, she must be reconciled to her husband, or at least remain celibate during the separation. The husband was by no means to divorce his wife, except for the reason Jesus had given. Secondly, and this flows right from the first, and might seem almost unnecessary; they were to remain together, not only because of vows which they had made before God, but that the believing spouse might have a saving effect on the unbelieving.
Do a man and woman literally become 'one flesh' when they are joined together in holy matrimony? They remain two separate and distinguishable people, do they not? Yet, God calls them 'one'! Obviously, this oneness of 'flesh' with which they were blessed was not a reference to their physical status! This statement could only refer to their spiritual status, especially as we see Paul, again, making such a statement as this, in Ephesians 5:22-33; 'This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church'.
Marriage, as an institution, is simply a picture, a moving picture, you might say, of the bond between Christ ( God ) and His Bride ( His People ). As such, unity in the marriage was to continue as a testimony to our spiritual unity with our Husband, our Creator and Father. When a divorce occurs, and this is an undeniably ugly fact, there is an adultery involved, whether it be the actual physical act, or whether it be a spiritual one. There is an idolatry, a worship of or clinging to, other gods!
Divorce, and this is a fact that I can personally attest to, is ugly! Especially so when children are involved, but even when it happens where there are no children involved; divorce tends to tear at the very heart of all those involved, even if both are unbelievers, particularly when they have been together a long time.
In the gospel according to Mark ( 10:9 ), in the parallel passage to that first quoted, Jesus said, 'Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.' We may refer to the last part of the section on marriage as to why a man and woman should remain in the holy estate of marriage in which they were placed: it is because their marriage bond reflects the unity between God and His people, and when divorce occurs, especially ( maybe only ) between believers, it reflects a spiritual adultery, a worship of something other than the one true God. This is why God came down so hard on the children of Israel under the first, or old covenant!
Marriage, as it is designed, and as was already pointed out, is meant to be a reflection of the unity of God and His people, but, physically speaking, it is so much more than that! Wise King Solomon had a few words to say on the subject, not of marriage, precisely, but of relationship: he wrote, 'Two [ are ] better than one,
because they have a good reward for their labor
', and '
if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
but how can one be warm [ alone ]?
( Ecclesiastes 4:9 & 11 ) These words really almost describe the epitome of the real, actual purpose of marriage. When divorce occurs, this bond is broken and no longer ( depending on the marriage ) do you have that same warmth ( especially here in Montana! ), nor do you have as great a reward for your labors!
Divorce, like it or not, is a fact of life, not only among the unbelievers, but also, and even more disturbingly, among believers, Christians! This should not be, especially among those who claim the Name, but the sad fact is, that just as most everyone else, even some Christians seem to forget, or ignore, their marriage vows, and separate for whatever reason, because they can't get along anymore, don't love one another any longer, etc: it happens! When this happens, and it is not always inevitable, sometimes reconciliation is possible, one party, or both, will often, somewhere down the road, think of getting married again.This is only natural, and among most Christians especially, it's the only way, lawfully, to follow Solomon's wise advice.
Some Christians have tended to take the words of Paul quoted earlier, and apply them today, in a very strictly literal, rigid way, and totally forbid ( or shun ) anyone from remarrying after a divorce, or from marrying one who has been divorced. As we saw earlier, though, this was not quite what Paul was saying, or dealing with when he wrote those instructions. He was dealing, not so much with divorce, although that was certainly in the picture, but because of separation ( division ) caused by this 'new' religion.
God's purpose, as shown in the institution of marriage, has always been to reflect the Oneness, not only of Christ and His Bride, God and His people, but the unity within the Godhead itself! Marriage, though not the only picture, is most likely, humanly speaking, the best representation of this unity! When this bond is broken; it must be either restored or renewed. If it cannot be restored, and often, humanly speaking, it cannot be, it should be renewed, forged again, that God's purpose in this matter may be fulfilled!
The concept of remarriage may cause some people, in particular if they were scarred by their divorce or marriage ( or both ) to say, 'What am I thinking; didn't I learn my lesson the first time?!' These thoughts, while they are only natural to many people, even Christians, are way off the mark, and missing the whole point!
Aside from King Solomon's wise and astute observations above; the point, as we have noted, of marriage, is to reflect the unity of Christ and His Church and to glorify Him through that marriage by shining the light of that oneness into every dark shadow, and turning it into light!
Sure: it's possible to be of service to God and His Kingdom if one remains celibate, in fact, sometimes wisdom seems to tell us that we can be of better service this way, but with a good marriage, I believe that the service rendered to the Kingdom can be so much more and better!
Prayerfully and introspectively,
Charles Haddon Shank
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Shameless: Life in the New Covenant Age
'Who told you that you [ were ] naked?'
Genesis 3:11a
First of all; I would like to thank a friend of mine ( In Facebook-land ), Robert Rutherford by name, because this post stems from a status that he recently posted to Facebook, or Gracebook, as I like to call it!
Several years ago, I had begun to write a series of articles on 'The Gospel Typified in the Book of Beginnings'. In the third article in this series, I wrote, 'Did Adam & Eve have any idea that they were naked, before they sinned? I dare say that they did; but before they 'acquired' the knowledge that they had been forbidden; they probably thought nothing of it ( Genesis 2:25 ). ( Let me again remind my readers; although it may seem like I am assuming a strict historical understanding of this chapter; I am simply showing you that, as I believe, this is not so much a literal, scientifically accurate account of what actually transpired in a geographical location called the 'Garden of Eden', as it is significant, or representative of the greater spiritual truth of our need for the true wisdom, the righteousness of Christ! ) We can speculate about such matters until we're 'blue in the face', but until we realize that this story, like so many others, is prophetic hyperbole, significant of, and typifying the fact that we cannot gain wisdom on our own, and that we are naked, and 'destitute of the truth', without Christ and His righteousness; I believe that we miss the point of many such passages!'
Since writing these words, I believe that I have progressed somewhat in my understanding, but the basic principle outlined here still holds true; I believe that the story in Genesis 3 was not about Adam & Eve's lack of clothing, but rather was a prior revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness that He has clothed us with.
Many or most of us, like myself, were probably brought up believing that when God asked the question quoted above, he was condemning Adam through this rhetorical question ( He well knew ) by saying that their nakedness was something that needed to be covered, especially after they fell, or disobeyed. Now most, if not all of us, have been brought up to believe that nakedness is shameful, that it is wrong to be naked, except in certain situations ( example-husband and wife ), but RoberTRUTHerford's recent post started me thinking. Is the Bible telling us that it IS shameful to be naked, or was God saying, with a slightly different emphasis, ( and slightly different words ), 'Do you think there's something wrong with the way I made you?' ( 'What up?' ) Now, Genesis 2:25 does say, 'they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed', but it was not that they saw nothing wrong with their 'nakedness', and were thus not ashamed of it; there WAS nothing wrong with their 'nakedness'! That was the way God had made them, and pronounced them good! The problem came when they disobeyed God's Law, and they became aware of their 'nakedness' before their Creator and were ashamed.
Much of the problem with viewing ( reading ) this passage out of its covenant context, and with a physically literal understanding of the words, is that now we're tempted to think that since Adam & Eve were created naked ( and pronounced good, by the way ), and that it was only after 'The Fall' ( Genesis 3 ) that God clothed them; now that the curse has been reversed, and we need no longer be ashamed of our nakedness, it is not only okay to be physically naked wherever and whenever ( or just in nudist colonies ), we can also flaunt it, and tempt the passions of others who may not enjoy the Righteousness of Christ!
Nakedness, though Adam & Eve were, traditionally speaking, created perfect, was not a reference, as most people seem to think, to their physical state, but was rather a reference to their covenantal status. As the true Tree of Life ( remember God's words in Genesis 3:22-'And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever' ), the Righteousness of Christ was the true ( and only ) clothing ( no fig leaves ) that would cover the shame of our 'nakedness' before a righteous God!
Nudity, or physical nakedness, can pose quite a problem! It has been much degraded among those who do not enjoy the Righteousness of Christ, and has seen much abuse in both camps, Christian and non-Christian alike. Physical nakedness, we are told, is for the marriage-bed only, and for good reason; it has certain effects on members of the opposite sex, and while these effects are not necessarily wrong, they are not all good and righteous either. The exploitation of human nakedness, physically speaking, has led to the downfall of many a marriage relationship as well, and thus Wisdom tells us that it should be reserved thusly, for the marriage-bed.
Although we should not be ashamed of our nakedness ( that IS the way God made us, after all ); Wisdom tells us that we should not share it with just anybody, but only with the wife of our youth, as the Scriptures say. This article, though, is not about physical nakedness, because I don't believe that Genesis 2 & 3 are about physical nakedness! Genesis 2 & 3 are about the fact that, before the Revelation of Jesus the Christ as the Son of God, and the clothing of covenant man with the Righteousness of Christ, covenant man was 'naked' before God, and thus his shame for the sin of disobedience was uncovered at every turn!
'If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself'
II Timothy 2:13
As we read in Genesis 3:7b, 'they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings', but the 'fig leaves' obviously could not do the job, for, as Adam admitted, 'I was afraid because I was naked' ( verse 10 ). Until our true Righteousness was revealed, in Christ, there was no covering available to cover the 'nakedness' of man, although the many different 'coverings' commanded in the Hebrew Scriptures were typical of this Righteousness.
It is because God Himself, as typified in the book of beginnings, clothed the nakedness of (covenant ) man that we need no longer be ashamed! It is through His Righteousness that there are 'No More Tears', and, as in the quote above, it is His clothing ( righteousness, faithfulness ) which covers our unfaithfulness, our 'nakedness'.
Let us live trusting in the true clothing, The Righteousness and Faithfulness of our God and Father; let us live unashamedly in this New Covenant age, not trying to cover our 'nakedness' with 'fig leaves', but resting in His Righteousness, His Covering!
Let us recognize that we are not naked and move past any vain attempts to clothe ourselves, and let us go and love our neighbor as ourselves, as we were given!
Charles Haddon Shank
Friday, November 16, 2012
All God's Children, Too; Vile Passions
Leviticus 20:
Romans 1:27
There is a lot of talk in Christian circles today about how evil homosexuality is! If you were brought up in a traditional home, whether it was Christian or not, you most likely grew up believing that homosexuality was a sin. I was brought up in such a home, and in fact; I still live among that group, and am of the opinion that it is not only unnatural, it is not what God intended for wedded bliss: as I've quoted before, 'God brought Eve, not Steve to Adam'!
Yes; I believe homosexuality is wrong, but what do I know?! Can a man love another man, and live with him as with the traditional marriage partner? Is not a marriage more than sexual relations? I have somewhat painstakingly, in a previous article, shown how it is not even remotely possible for two men to have sexual relations as a man and woman would, much less produce offspring from such a 'union'. However, it IS possible for two men, as non-traditional as it may be ( and repulsive to many ), to live together as life-mates, if you will, to love each other with as much passion and fierce loyalty as a man could ever love a woman, and though they could never produce natural offspring, they can always adopt! I must say, though, that the same people ( not just Christians ) that bristle at the thought of two men living together in 'union' also shudder ( and usually say bad words ) at this notion too!
Christianity, in general, condemns homosexuality, based on their understanding of the Scriptures, such as those above, which seem to reveal very clearly their abominable quality! I'm not saying that their understanding of these passages is wrong, but neither am I ready to condemn homosexuality without a clear understanding of it's 'ins & outs', so to speak!
Anyone can see very clearly that, contextually speaking, there is a lot more in the surrounding passages, particularly of the Leviticus one, that requires death ( by stoning ) and even more that is spoken of as 'an abomination to the Lord'! There is much of this that goes on, right under our noses, so to speak, but do we ever lift one stone to hurl at them? 'No'; I dare say that we do not ( well, maybe some of us do )! Much of the reason that such behavior is allowed to 'slide' ( and I'm not saying that it should be ), I believe, can be explained in several ways. First of all; we are not living under that 'first' covenant ( most Christians call this the Covenant of Works, or 'Law' ); we are no longer under stringent requirement to follow those laws 'written in stone', and secondly, related to the first, we are now constrained by the Law of Love, because that Law has taken up residence in our innermost being, our 'heart', if you will! We naturally know that, to love our neighbor as our self, we will not murder him, steal from him, bear false witness ( this can include, but is not limited to lying ), and if we love God with all our heart, mind and strength, we will worship no other beside Him!
I believe that another thing that must be understood when reading these passages is that they were given in the context, the Romans passage in particular, of the adverse judgment of adulterous and idolatrous old covenant Israel. Now, it could surely be argued that we are Israel, God's covenant people as well, and these laws are as applicable today as yesterday. Some actually try, I believe, to do this, at least with certain of the commands, but I digress; I'm starting to get off the subject, and am starting to climb onto another soapbox!
You will get no argument from me that there is much that goes on in society today ( even Christianity ) that should not be, but we have chosen to put aside, if not ignore completely, the question of adultery, idolatry, and many of the wrongs that are committed on a daily basis, and focus our scriptural hatred and misplaced abhorrence on ( the crime of? ) homosexuality! Is homosexuality wrong, or even condemned by the Scriptures? You may judge for yourself as to that matter, but I believe that if we are to voice our abhorrence of this sin, then we should as loudly, and vociferously, condemn all those other sins that take place right under our noses on a daily basis!
All God's Children?
I have previously written on the subject of the children of God, and toyed with the notion that now, in the New Covenant, all are the children, though some are estranged, of our Heavenly Father. I acknowledge that this term, 'children of God', has more of an adoptive connotation, and is used Scripturally only of those who keep the Covenant, but I am not yet convinced that this should be used as a wholly exclusive term!
I see a lot of argumentation everyday, and I'm sure this has an effect on my own reasoning, that a loving God would not create some human beings to enjoy His Presence forever, and others not to ( I'm sure you have heard arguments along this line, too ). Although this argumentation is likely based on the notion that we are now under Grace and not Law ( wait, that DOES sound familiar! ), and even that there is no more Law, but that the Grace of God now covers ALL transgression ( Wait............. )!
Yes, according to Scripture, I John especially, the children of God ( as opposed to the children of the 'devil'-John 8:44 ) are those who abide in Him ( I John 2:4-6 ), but, although these passages are fairly clear that it is those who follow His command ( to love ) and abide in Him who are known as His children, they are not as clear that these alone are children of God.
As one must take into account the whole of Scripture, the 'meta-narrative', if you will, it can also be ascertained that, the second natural son of Abraham, the one by Promise, was called 'your only [ son ] Isaac' by God Himself. As you can see, though, the word 'son' is bracketed, and thus, does not appear in the original Greek ( at least, in certain manuscripts ). This might cause one to wonder if God was just making clear to Abraham that it was Isaac, and not Ishmael that was to be sacrificed.
Ephesians 1:3-6
This 'adoption as sons' is yet another argument that has been presented, and while it is clear, from the apostle Paul's writings in the 8th and 9th chapters of the book of Romans and in Galatians chapter 4, that the adoption of the Gentiles was most certainly the major aspect of their being united with Israel as God's covenant people, or children, it is also clear that this adoption was for a certain purpose, that of bringing all God's people together.
Can or should we go around telling the homosexual next door, or the pervert who is blatantly thumbing his nose at the Law of God, that they are God's children, just as we are? Is there, in this New Covenant, an all-inclusive, universal aspect to the Fatherhood of our Creator? You be the judge, but whatever your judgment, remember that they are, at the very least, creations of our heavenly Father, and under His Grace ( and Love ) as well as we!
Thoughtfully and prayerfully,
Charles Haddon Shank
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Fire & Water; Blizzards, Too!
he will have whatever he says.
Mark 11:23
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw [ it ] into the sea, saying,
Revelation 18:21
Although I'm sure that those most, or even least affected by the most recent natural disasters would say that these events were 'of biblical proportions' ( and import, no doubt ), while they do emanate from the same Creator, the writer of this article does not follow this notion!
Hurricane Sandy met up with a winter storm-front coming in from the west, which also collided with a cold-front coming down from the Arctic. This recipe for disaster resulted in one of the costliest natural disasters in United States history. It rivaled and possibly even took the honors away from 'The Perfect Storm' of 1991! Not only was north-eastern West Virginia devastated by a pretty decent blizzard around the same time, a blizzard spawned by the collision, most likely, of the three storms, to top it all off, the East Coast was hit by a follow-up ( 'one-two punch' ) nor'easter just over a week later, causing heartache on top of heartache, !
Earlier this fall, New Orleans was once again hit by the effects of a hurricane, this time named 'Isaac' ( interestingly, the name of one of my nephews ), and according to most accounts, suffered more severely than under Hurricane Katrina, back in 2005!
To say nothing of the worldwide natural disasters which have hit in the last decade, and continue to grow in frequency and fury, it seems, one might be tempted to say, on one hand, that the end is near, on the other that man has caused a global warming effect ( might be something there ), but somewhere in between these two horrifying propositions is the notion that God is using these disasters to cleanse His 'landscape', not only physically, but spiritually speaking!
One writer observed that 'Even before Sandy struck the East Coast Monday, an observation was gaining hurricane force: What if Sandy had struck a week later? What if, on Election Day, tens of millions were without power, with mass transit shut, roads flooded, polling stations shut or inaccessible? Would states or the federal government postpone the voting?'
This writer went on to describe another storm that's brewing, and this is one that been brewing for a long time, a political fire-storm! Not only have these natural disasters brought a lot of discomfort to those who were in the midst of them, they also brought not a small disruption to the political machine!
These 'disasters', both natural and political, real and imagined, may have a seemingly deadly impact in the world around us, but we know that all these things are happening for our good and God's glory! Many lose their lives during 'natural disasters' such as those few mentioned above, and, this is deplorable, especially to those closely related, but through it all, we can rest assured that a greater purpose is being served!
'If you don't want to be crushed by falling idols, don't bow down to them!
Many people, Christians included, tend to look at the political fire-storm that has been raging over the past decade especially, at least in this generation, and think that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket! If this candidate rather than that one becomes the next 'leader' ( ruler ) of 'the free world' ( HA! ), then all our freedoms go down the drain, and the best thing to do is either hope Jesus comes back soon and raptures us out of this mess, or take up arms and lead our neighbors in a revolt! Okay, so the first will not happen ( He's already here, in us! ), and though the second may become necessary in the not-too-distant future, we must remember that the political process, while somewhat necessary, is not our savior. Although we are responsible, as a body politic, to follow certain guidelines and to obey certain rules, it is God's Law, the Law of Love that we are constrained to follow!
Before the elections were held several days ago, I remarked to several people that our current president may be the best thing this country has ever endured! After they were done choking on their own saliva, or pulling their eyebrows out of the ceiling, I went on to explain what I meant. Especially since the terrorist attacks ( ? ) of 9-11, the financial heart of this country has taken maybe the biggest, and most devastating hit of all! With these last few storms that have hit the East Coast; New York's financial districts have seen some major flooding. With this, and with the recent political storms, the stock market has been going crazy! The economic system in this country, while probably the biggest fiasco the world has ever seen, is also one of our biggest idols, and it is toppling fast!
We must do what we can and must to survive these 'storms', but we must realize, all the while we are preparing, that there is only One Master of Storms, and only He can save us!
Charles Haddon Shank
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
( We Have ) 'No King but King Jesus!'
And the Lord told him:
Listen to all that the people are saying to you;
it is not you they have rejected,
but they have rejected Me as their king.
'The crisis of the ages demands that we renew the historic battle-cry of our Christian Forefathers: 'We Have No King But King Jesus!'
The way things are going, that this is 'the crisis of the ages' could almost be said of the current situation in this nation, which IS and was founded under God! When our forefathers made this their battle-cry, we must understand that the context was freedom from the tyrannical rule of the despotic king of England. As the forefathers were, for the most part, at least heavily influenced by Christian principles, naturally this would be their revolutionary motto!
In the quoted passage, I Samuel 8, God, through the prophet Samuel, told the errant children of Israel what they should expect of the king they asked for. This was not because all men are necessarily evil, though the point could be argued, but because He knew that, humanly speaking, power corrupts! He knew, that because of their rejection of Him as their true King, any human king would eventually become corrupted by power and would fall into despotism. As we can read throughout the history of Israel, in fact, throughout the history of the world, this happened sooner with some than with others!
Arguably, it IS necessary for the people to have a leader, someone who's example they can follow, and understanding this, and the nature of man, our forefathers instituted a set of rules by which to set up such a government. This set of rules, known as The Constitution of the United States, was ordered and principled, again, for the most part, after God's Laws ( as they understood them ). Though this was the case, because it was a human document, it still allowed for the corruptibility of man, and as time went by, even though amendments were hastily made, it became almost passe', and subject to change, or at least disregard!
When this nation was awakened, almost 250 years ago, the president was a representative of the people; he bowed to the people's wishes ( so long as they accorded with our charter ) and was their servant! As things stand in America today, though we still have representatives in Washington, DC, our president has become more of a ruler than a representative ( though one must admit that he is representative of the people's wishes ! )! Because the people of this nation have not been careful to follow the principles of, not only our founding fathers, but more importantly Scripture as well, those we have chosen to represent us have taken the reins themselves, and have driven us to the depths of tyranny ( though we have long been blind to this sad fact ) and, in some cases, despair!
In essence, our problem in this country is no different than the dilemma which Israel of Old faced; we want a king, a ruler that we can see, one that will guide our affairs, and lessen our own responsibilities. Although it would seem, now that we have a king like the other nations, our responsibilities have been lessened; we cannot afford to ignore those responsibilities much longer! With every responsibility that is ignored, or relegated to someone else, there also goes more and more of our freedom! Our responsibilities ARE our freedom, just like our freedoms are our responsibility; we cannot have one without the other!
Our current situation in this country, especially as regards the most recent elections, may seem to be cause for despair, and even for some, a call to arms! While there IS call for alarm, and though the call to arms may prove necessary, as Christians, who should have 'no king but King Jesus', we cannot despair, for 'This is Our Father's World', and 'though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet'!
'The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them'; 'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill', He says in that most famously comforting Psalm 2! They have no power except it is given them: they are mere mortals like we! Why do we shudder and shake at their every whim, their every false command? Should we not acquit ourselves like the men ( and women ) of God that we are, and accept the responsibilities and thus freedoms that God has given us?!
Let us all forever say, like our fathers of old, 'No king but King Jesus!'
Let us rule our own lives according to the Revelation of His Word, and spread that rule of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all those around us!
Charles Haddon Shank |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49536 |
Integer overflows were discovered in the functions grub_cmd_initrd and grub_initrd_init in the efilinux component of GRUB2, as shipped in Debian, Red Hat, and Ubuntu (the functionality is not included in GRUB2 upstream), leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. These could be triggered by an extremely large number of arguments to the initrd command on 32-bit architectures, or a crafted filesystem with very large files on any architecture. An attacker could use this to execute arbitrary code and bypass UEFI Secure Boot restrictions. This issue affects GRUB2 version 2.04 and prior versions.
Assigning CNA
Canonical Ltd.
Date Entry Created
Phase (Legacy)
Assigned (20200714)
Votes (Legacy)
Comments (Legacy)
Proposed (Legacy) |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49537 | Boundaries of Human and Machine - Where Does One End, and Another Begin?
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Maureen McHugh that "soon, perhaps, it will be impossible to tell where humans end and machines begin".
Most technological forms can only be accessed through the liminal transitional period. When a cell phone user leaves their earpiece in more than they leave it out, they exist in a constant state of potential liminality. I observed many instances of this at a business conference I attended in 2007.
The Bluetooth device is an example of a cell phone device that allows cell phone use without non-verbal cues.
What differentiates the Bluetooth user from the normal cell phone user is the reduction of the liminal state that signals the transition between face-to-face interaction and cell phone use to an almost instantaneous moment. The absence of liminality catches observers off guard, because they don't see the normal transition period that characterizes the hybridization of the human to a technosocial actor. Bluetooth users experience shorter distances between pure technology and pure 'humanness' when they accept a call.
Norwegian cell phone researcher Richard Ling (2002) used Erving Goffman’s theories of gesture to study the nonverbal cues that signaled a cell phone user's transition into technosocial conversation. Goffman points out that
"a set of significant gestures is also employed by which one or more new participants can officially join the talk, by which one or more accredited participants can officially withdraw, and by which the state of talk can be terminated" (Goffman, 1982:34).
With normal cell phone use, the actions of withdrawing and termination of the states of talking can easily be seen.
When an average cell phone user engages with the device, a change in posture signals the entrance into the liminal state. The subject must first grab the cell phone, open it or press a button to accept the call, and then press the phone to the ear. Once placed, subjects tend to turn inward, lean the head towards the cell phone, and look away from the public.
These nonverbal actions signal to the onlooker that a subject is about to begin a cell phone conversation.
The Bluetooth use does not require any of these actions in order to enter into a hybrid technosocial state. The Bluetooth device is already attached to the ear. There is no need for the user to hold anything or press any buttons. Thus, a Bluetooth user can simply speak into the device without turning away or touching anything.
This difference is what causes cell phone users to seem more introverted and take more ‘spacemaker’ poses, while Bluetooth users are more likely to be seen in ‘speakeasy’ poses, since they are able to carry hands-free conversations while walking down the street. They face forward, their shoulders and heads up. They can participate in movements unique to non-cell phone users while maintaining a conversation.
Source: [1] |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49538 | pondělí 11. března 2013
Hippie Killer - ST (2003)
Hippie Killer were a great crust hardcore band from Vranov nad Topl'ou, Slovakia. As far as I know this is their only recording and it's probably from 2002/2003. Members also have other bands such as Roxor or Haarp.
Stáhnout - Download
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49542 | Publicité ▼
voir la définition de Wikipedia
North Germanic languages
North Germanic
Northern Europe
Linguistic classification: Indo-European
Proto-language: Proto-Norse
ISO 639-5: gmq
Nordiska språk.PNG
North Germanic languages
Continental Scandinavian languages:
Insular Scandinavian languages:
The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages, the languages of Scandinavians, make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish, Swedish and Norwegian scholars and laypeople. In Scandinavia, Scandinavian languages is also used as a term referring specifically to the mutually intelligible languages of the three Scandinavian countries, and is thus used in a more narrow sense as a subset of the Nordic languages. The term Scandinavian arose in the 18th century, as a result of the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement, referring to the peoples, cultures and languages of the three Scandinavian countries and stressing their common heritage.
The term "North Germanic languages" is used in genetic linguistics,[1] while the term "Scandinavian languages" appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia.[2][3]
Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries have a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue,[4] including a Swedish minority in Finland. Languages belonging to the North Germanic language tree are, to some extent, spoken on Greenland and by emigrant groups mainly in North America and Australia.
Origins and characteristics
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North Germanic.[5] Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible to some degree during the Migration Period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from Proto-Germanic in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age.
From around the year 200 AD, speakers of the North Germanic branch became distinguishable from the other Germanic language speakers. The early development of this language branch is attested through Runic inscriptions.
Features shared with West Germanic
The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations shared with West Germanic:
• The retraction of Proto-Germanic ē (/ɛː/, also written ǣ) to ā.[6]
• Proto-Germanic *jēraN ("year") > North/West Germanic *jāraN > North Germanic *āra > Old Norse ár, and > West Germanic *jāra > Old High German jār, Old English ġēar /jæːɑr/. Compare Gothic jēr.
• The raising of /ɔː/ to /oː/ (and word-finally to /uː/). The original vowel remained when nasalised *ōN /ɔ̃ː/ and when before /z/, and was then later lowered to /ɑː/.
• Proto-Germanic *gebō ("gift", /ˈɣeβɔː/) > North/West Germanic *gebu > North Germanic *gjavu > (by u-umlaut) *gjǫvu > Old Norse gjǫf, and > West Germanic *gebu > Old English giefu. In Gothic, the result was a low vowel instead: giba.
• Proto-Germanic *tungōN ("tongue", /ˈtuŋɡɔ̃ː/) > late North/West Germanic *tungā > *tunga > Old Norse tunga, Old High German zunga, Old English tunge (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic tuggō.
• Proto-Germanic *gebōz ("of a gift", /ˈɣeβɔːz/) > late North/West Germanic *gebāz > North Germanic *gjavaz > Old Norse gjafar, and > West Germanic *geba > Old High German geba, Old English giefe (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic gibōs.
• The development of i-umlaut.
• The rhotacism of /z/ to /r/, with presumably a rhotic fricative of some kind as an earlier stage.
• This change probably affected West Germanic much earlier and then spread from there to North Germanic, but failed to reach East Germanic which had already split off by that time. This is confirmed by an intermediate stage ʀ, clearly attested in late runic East Norse at a time when West Germanic had long merged the sound with /r/.
• The development of the demonstrative pronoun ancestral to English this.
Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects:[7] North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely
1. North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic, ancestral to Anglo-Frisian and Low German)
2. Weser-Rhine Germanic (Istvaeonic, ancestral to Low Franconian)
3. Elbe Germanic (Irminonic, ancestral to High German)
Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from the North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by language contact among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia.
Unique North Germanic features
Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic such as:
• Sharpening of geminate /jj/ and /ww/ according to Holtzmann's law
• Occurred also in East Germanic, but with a different outcome.
• Proto-Germanic *twajjôN ("of two") > Old Norse tveggja, Gothic twaddjē, but > Old High German zweiio
• Word-final devoicing of plosives.
• Proto-Germanic *band ("I/he bound") > *bant > Old West Norse batt, Old East Norse bant, but Old English band
• Loss of medial /h/ with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel and the following consonant, if present.
• Proto-Germanic *nahtuN ("night", accusative) > *nāttu > (by u-umlaut) *nǭttu > Old Norse nótt
• /ɑi̯/ > /ɑː/ before /r/ (but not /z/)
• Proto-Germanic *sairaz ("sore") > *sāraz > *sārz > Old Norse sárr, but > *seira > Old High German sēr.
• With original /z/ Proto-Germanic *gaizaz > *geizz > Old Norse geirr.
• General loss of word-final /n/, following the loss of word-final short vowels (which are still present in the earliest runic inscriptions).
• Proto-Germanic *bindanaN > *bindan > Old Norse binda, but > Old English bindan.
• This also affected stressed syllables: Proto-Germanic *in > Old Norse í
• Vowel breaking of /e/ to /jɑ/ except after w, j or l (see "gift" above).
• The diphthong /eu/ was also affected (also l), shifting to /jɒu/ at an early stage. This dipththong is preserved in Old Gutnish and survives in Modern Gutnish. In other Norse dialects, the /j/-onset and length remained, but the diphthong simplified resulting in variously /juː/ or /joː/.
• This affected only stressed syllables. The word *ek ("I"), which could occur both stressed and unstressed, appears varyingly as ek (unstressed, with no breaking) and jak (stressed, with breaking) throughout Old Norse.
• Loss of initial /j/ (see "year" above), and also of /w/ before a round vowel.
• Proto-Germanic *wulfaz > early North Germanic wulfaz > late ulfz > Old Norse ulfr
• The development of u-umlaut, which rounded stressed vowels when /u/ or /w/ followed in the next syllable. This followed vowel breaking, with ja /jɑ/ being u-umlauted to /jɒ/.
Middle Ages
Old West Norse dialect
Old East Norse dialect
Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility
After the Proto-Norse and Old Norse periods, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish and Swedish; and a West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.[8] Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland and the Faroe islands around 800 AD. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language.[9] An additional language, known as Norn, developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800 AD, but this language became extinct around 1700.[4]
In medieval times, speakers of all the Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century by some in Sweden[9] and Iceland.[10] In the 16th century, many Danes and Swedes still referred to North Germanic as a single language, which is stated in the introduction to the first Danish translation of the Bible and in Olaus Magnus' A Description of the Northern Peoples. Dialectal variation between west and east in Old Norse however was certainly present during the Middle Ages and three dialects had emerged: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian, and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Norwegian settlements in Normandy.[11] The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia,[12] England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East.
Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic point of view,[4] dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) and a continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Scandinavian (önordiska/ønordisk/øynordisk)[13] and Continental Scandinavian (Skandinavisk)[14] is based on mutual intelligibility between the two groups and developed due to different influences, particularly the political union of Denmark and Norway (1536–1814) which lead to significant Danish influence on central and eastern[citation needed] Norwegian dialects (Bokmål or Dano-Norwegian).[3]
Number of speakers
Language Speakers Notes
Swedish 10,000,000 300,000 Swedish-speaking Finns
Danish 6,000,000
Norwegian 5,000,000 approx. 85-90 % prefer Bokmål as their written standard, 10-15 % Nynorsk
Icelandic 320,000
Faroese 70,000
Jamtlandic 45,000
Elfdalian 3,000
The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
North Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.
In historical linguistics, the North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic) and East Scandinavian languages (Danish and Swedish), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect group of Old Norse, respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish branch spoken on the island of Gotland. The East Scandinavian languages (and modern Norwegian, through Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during the period of Hanseatic expansion.
Currently, English loanwords are influencing the languages. A 2005 survey of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages showed that the number of English loanwords used in the languages has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2%. Icelandic has imported fewer English words than the other Scandinavian languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most.[15]
Another way of classifying the languages — focusing on mutual intelligibility rather than the tree of life-model — posits Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as Continental Scandinavian, and Faroese and Icelandic as Insular Scandinavian.[3] Because of the long political union between Norway and Denmark, moderate and conservative forms of Norwegian Bokmål share most of the Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was virtually identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Bokmål and its unofficial, more conservative variant Riksmål is sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk West Scandinavian via the West-East division shown above.[16]) However, Danish has developed a greater distance between the spoken and written versions of the language, so the differences between spoken Norwegian and Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between the written. In writing, Danish is relatively close to the other Continental Scandinavian languages, but the sound developments of spoken Danish include reduction and assimilation of consonants and vowels, as well as the prosodic feature called stød in Danish (lit. "push; thrust"), developments which have not occurred in the other languages (though the stød corresponds to the different tones in Norwegian and Swedish, which are tonal languages). However, Scandinavians are widely expected to understand the other spoken Scandinavian languages. Some people may have some difficulties, particularly older people who speak a dialect, but most people can understand the standard languages, as they appear in radio and television, of the other Scandinavian countries.
Sweden left the Kalmar union in 1523 due to conflicts with Denmark, leaving two Scandinavian units: the union of Denmark-Norway (ruled from Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden (including present-day Finland). The two countries were taking different sides during several wars until 1814 and made different international contacts. This led to different borrowings from foreign languages (Sweden had a francophile period), for example the older Swedish word vindöga (“window”) was replaced by fönster, whilst native vindue was kept in Danish. Norwegians, who spoke (and still speak) the Norwegian dialects derived from Old Norse, would say vindauga or similar. The written language of Denmark-Norway however, was based on the dialect of Copenhagen and thus had vindue. On the other hand, the word begynde (“begin”, now written begynne in Norwegian Bokmål) was borrowed into Danish and Norwegian, whilst native börja was kept in Swedish. Even though standard Swedish and Danish were moving apart, the dialects were not influenced that much. Thus Norwegian and Swedish would still be similar in pronunciation, and words like børja would be able to survive in some of the Norwegian dialects whilst vindöga survived in some of the Swedish dialects. The minority written standard of Norwegian (Nynorsk) incorporates a great portion of these words, like byrja, veke (Swedish vecka, Danish uge) and vatn (Swedish vatten, Danish vand) whereas Bokmål has kept the Danish forms (begynne, uke, vann). This way Nynorsk is causing trouble for the above model, as it shares a lot of features with Swedish. According to Norwegian linguist Arne Torp, the Nynorsk project (whose goal was to re-establish a written Norwegian language) would be much harder to carry out if Norway had been in union with Sweden instead of Denmark, simply because the differences would be smaller.[17]
Mutual intelligibility
See also Germanic languages#Vocabulary comparison.
The mutual intelligibility between the Continental Scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. Various studies have shown Norwegian-speakers to be the best in Scandinavia at understanding other languages within the language group.[18][19] According to a study undertaken during 2002–2005 and funded by the Nordic Cultural Fund, Swedish-speakers in Stockholm and Danish-speakers in Copenhagen have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Nordic languages.[15] The study, which focused mainly on native speakers under the age of 25, showed that the lowest ability to comprehend another language is demonstrated by youth in Stockholm in regard to Danish, producing the lowest ability score in the survey. The greatest variation in results between participants within the same country was also demonstrated by the Swedish-speakers in the study. Participants from Malmö, located in the southernmost Swedish province of Scania, demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish-speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen over the Oresund Bridge and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Oresund Region contribute to a better knowledge of spoken Danish and a better knowledge of the unique Danish words among the region's inhabitants. According to the study, youth in this region were able to understand the Danish language (slightly) better than the Norwegian language. But they still could not understand Danish as well as the Norwegians could, demonstrating once again the relative distance of Swedish from Danish; and youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Oresund connection was mostly one-way.
The results from the study of how well native youth in different Scandinavian cities did when tested on their knowledge of the other Continental Scandinavian languages are summarized in table format,[18] reproduced below. The maximum score was 10.0:
City Comprehension
of Danish
of Swedish
of Norwegian
Århus, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmö, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Bergen, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Faroese speakers (of the Insular Scandinavian languages group) are even better than the Norwegians at comprehending two or more languages within the Continental Scandinavian languages group, scoring high in both Danish (which they study at school) and Norwegian and having the highest score on a Scandinavian language other than the mother tongue, as well as the highest average score. Icelandic speakers, in contrast, have a poor command of Norwegian and Swedish, even slightly worse than Stockholmers' command of Danish. They do somewhat better with Danish; they are often taught Danish in school, but unlike in the Faroes, it is not compulsory. When speakers of Faroese and Icelandic were tested on how well they understood the three Continental Scandinavian languages, the test results were as follows (maximum score 10.0):[18]
of Danish
of Swedish
of Norwegian
Faroe Islands
The North Germanic Languages share many lexical, grammatical, phonological, and morphological similarities, to a more significant extent than the West Germanic Languages do. These lexical, grammatical, and morphological similarities can be outlined in the table below.
Language Sentence
English It was a moist, grey summer day in late June.
Danish Det var en fugtig, grå sommerdag i slutningen af juni.
Icelandic Það var rakur, grár sumardagur í lok júní.
Faroese Tað var ein rakur/fuktigur, gráur summardagur síst í juni.
Norwegian (Bokmål) Det var en fuktig, grå sommerdag i slutten av juni.
Norwegian (Nynorsk) Det var ein fuktig, grå sumardag/sommardag i slutten/enden av juni.
Swedish Det var en fuktig, grå sommardag i slutet av juni.
Language boundaries
Given the aforementioned homogeneity, there exists some discussion on whether the continental group should be considered one or several languages. [20] The Scandinavian languages (in the narrow sense, i.e., the languages of Scandinavia) are often cited as proof of the aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy". The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be classified into Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. The generally agreed upon language border is, in other words, politically shaped. This is also because of the strong influence of the standard languages, particularly in Denmark and Sweden.[20] Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo region, can be considered to be quite normative. The formation of Nynorsk out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent of Denmark in 1814 added to making linguistic divisions match the political ones.
The Nordic Council has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as the "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in the "Scandinavian language".[21] There has been some low-key speculation that future spelling reforms in Norway, Sweden and Denmark might opt for one unified written language, [22][23] but there are currently no official plans in that direction.
Family tree
All North Germanic languages are descended from Old Norse. Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not.
Beside the two official written norms of Norwegian, there exist two established unofficial norms: Riksmål, similar to, but more conservative than Bokmål, which is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and Høgnorsk "High-Norwegian", similar to Nynorsk, used by a very small minority.
Jamtlandic shares many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Norse or the East Norse language group.[24]
Älvdalsmål "Älvdalen Speech", generally considered a Sveamål dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered as a separate language by many linguists.[25]
Traveller Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are varieties of their respective language with Romani vocabulary, or Para-Romani, known as the Scando-Romani languages.[26] They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.
Other languages in Scandinavia
Sami languages form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory.[27] Sami, like Finnish, is part of the group of the Uralic languages.[28] In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.[29] During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa.
The North-Germanic languages are majority languages in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. Another language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic, the official language of Greenland.
In southernmost Denmark, German is also spoken, being an official language there[citation needed]. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark-Norway.
See also
1. ^ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Language Family Trees Indo-European, Germanic, North. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International
2. ^ Scandinavian Dialect Syntax. Network for Scandinavian Dialect Syntax. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
3. ^ a b c Torp, Arne (2004). Nordiske sprog i fortid og nutid. Sproglighed og sprogforskelle, sprogfamilier og sprogslægtskab. Moderne nordiske sprog. In Nordens sprog – med rødder og fødder. Nord 2004:010, ISBN 92-893-1041-3, Nordic Council of Ministers' Secretariat, Copenhagen 2004. (In Danish).
5. ^ Hawkins, John A. (1987). "Germanic languages". In Bernard Comrie. The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 68–76. ISBN 0-19-520521-9.
6. ^ But see Cercignani, Fausto, Indo-European ē in Germanic, in «Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung», 86/1, 1972, pp. 104–110.
7. ^ Kuhn, Hans (1955–56). "Zur Gliederung der germanischen Sprachen". Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 86: 1–47.
8. ^ Bandle, Oskar (ed.)(2005). The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages. Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-017149-X.
9. ^ a b Lund, Jørn. Language. Published online by Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Version 1-November 2003. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
10. ^ Lindström, F. & Lindström, H. (2006). Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse. Albert Bonniers Förlag. ISBN 91-0-011873-7 p.259
11. ^ A. J. Johnson Company, Johnson's universal cyclopedia: a new edition, pgs. 336, 337, 338; 1895 D. Appleton and company & A. J. Johnson company
12. ^ Article Nordiska språk, section Historia, subsection Omkring 800–1100, in Nationalencyklopedin (1994).
13. ^ Jónsson, Jóhannes Gísli and Thórhallur Eythórsson (2004). "Variation in subject case marking in Insular Scandinavian". Nordic Journal of Linguistics (2005), 28: 223–245 Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 9 November 2007.
14. ^ Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva (2006). The Changing Languages of Europe. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-929734-7.
15. ^ a b "Urban misunderstandings". In Norden this week – Monday 01.17.2005.The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
16. ^ Victor Ginsburgh, Shlomo Weber (2011). How many languages do we need?: the economics of linguistic diversity, Princeton University Press. p.42.
17. ^ http://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2005/03/nynorsk-noe-for-svensker.html
18. ^ a b c Delsing, Lars-Olof and Katarina Lundin Åkesson (2005). Håller språket ihop Norden? En forskningsrapport om ungdomars förståelse av danska, svenska och norska. Available in pdf format. Numbers are from Figure 4:11. "Grannspråksförståelse bland infödda skandinaver fördelade på ort", p.65 and Figure 4:6. "Sammanlagt resultat på grannspråksundersökningen fördelat på område", p.58.
19. ^ Maurud, Ø (1976). Nabospråksforståelse i Skandinavia. En undersøkelse om gjensidig forståelse av tale- og skriftspråk i Danmark, Norge og Sverige. Nordisk utredningsserie 13. Nordiska rådet, Stockholm.
20. ^ a b Nordens språk - med rötter och fötter
21. ^ http://www.norden.org/en/analys-norden/special-issues/september-2010-elections-in-sweden-pure-power-game
22. ^ Movement to Create a Samnordisk
23. ^ Finlandssvensk som hovedspråk
24. ^ Dalen, Arnold (2005). Jemtsk og trøndersk – to nære slektningar. Språkrådet, Norway. (In Norwegian). Retrieved 13 November 2007.
25. ^ Sapir, Yair (2004). Elfdalian, the Vernacular of Övdaln. Conference paper, 18–19 juni 2004. Available in pdf format at Uppsala University online archive.
26. ^ LLOW – Traveller Danish
27. ^ Sammallahti, Pekka, 1990. "The Sámi Language: Past and Present". In Arctic Languages: An Awakening. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Paris. ISBN 92-3-102661-5, p. 440: "the arrival of a Uralic population and language in Samiland [...] means that there has been a period of at least 5000 years of uninterrupted linguistic and cultural development in Samiland. [...] It is also possible, however, that the earlier inhabitants of the area also spoke a Uralic language: we do not know of any linguistic groups in the area other than the Uralic and Indo-Europeans (represented by the present Scandinavian languages)."
28. ^ Inez Svonni Fjällström (2006). "A language with deep roots".Sápmi: Language history, 14 November 2006. Samiskt Informationscentrum Sametinget: "The Scandinavian languages are Northern Germanic languages. [...] Sami belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family. Finnish, Estonian, Livonian and Hungarian belong to the same language family and are consequently related to each other."
29. ^ The Nordic Council's/Nordic Council of Ministers' political magazine Analys Norden offers three versions: a section labeled "Íslenska" (Icelandic), a section labeled "Skandinavisk" (in either Danish, Norwegian or Swedish), and a section labeled "Suomi" (Finnish).
Further reading
External links
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49557 | Steepster is glitching for me, so I can only access it using my laptop, which I don’t use very often, so I unfortunately will not be as active on here as I prefer to be.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49567 | From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
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Corvus' badge made by Sparksreactor
Corvus' suit, picture made by Venture
Corvus, also known as CorvusFox (born August 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark), is a fursuiter. He attends school in Denmark and likes to travel a lot, is totally into 3d printing and likes Dönerboxes.
Fandom involvement[edit]
Corvus joined the furry fandom actively after attending Eurofurence 22 in Berlin, Germany. He purchased his current suit in 2017 and wore it for the first time in public at Eurofurence 23.
The nickname "Corvus" is based (partially) on his real-life name and is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the Corvidae family.
Corvus's fursona is a roughly 6.5 feet tall (2 meters) orange-black-white colored anthropomorphic fox.
Convention attendance[edit]
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49581 | Minicon 40
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Minicon 40 was a convention held March 25 - 27, 2005 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel (formerly known as the Radisson South) in Bloomington, MN. Guests of Honor: Terry Pratchett, Fastner and Larson, and Jim Young.
Chaired by Greg Ketter. Attendance was 460 pre-registered and 630 total. The convention theme/motto was "Minicon Fortean."
Minicon 39 Minicon Minicon 41
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49594 | Howdy, Stranger!
Share trigger using EQ2 macro file?
I would like to make an EQ2 /do_file_commands macro that performs a "/g <Trigger ... />".
First problem is quotation marks. EQ2 seems to strip all double quotes in a macro file /g command. I can replace double quotes with single quotes, e.g. <Trigger R='regex' ... /> but then possessive single quotes don't work, e.g. C='Aurelian Coast: Maiden's Eye [Heroic]'. Can't use " because 1) the semicolon is an end-of-command in a macro, and 2) it doesn't decode it anyway. Tried \x0027 for the possessive but that ends up in the trigger verbatim.
There might also be a problem with back slashes, but that won't matter if quotes won't work.
So, impossible? Or am I overlooking some other method?
• edited January 27
If it were just text in the log, " or other XML entities should work... but since macros and the UI use that as a command delimiter, you seem stuck without it. I don't think XML really supports other escape sequences. Internally, it is treated as UTF8 XML.
I'm guessing that in-game macros aren't sufficient?
• In game will not do what I want, though those do work.
I'm working on a plugin that provides an alternate interface to the Custom Triggers tab. I thought it would be useful to be able to select a category and build a macro that would share all the triggers in that category with one /do_file_commands.
I might still leave that in but enable it only if the particular triggers are not problematic.
Sign In or Register to comment. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49596 | While readers of this blog may think that computer vision and neural networks have a long history together, the fact is: they don’t. Machine vision encompasses far more than Hot Dog or Not a Hot Dog. Here’s an interesting look at how deep learning has changed machine vision forever.
Underneath this hyperbole, however, describing the underlying science behind such concepts is more simple. In traditional machine vision systems, for example, it may be necessary to read a barcode on a part, judge its dimensions, or inspect it for flaws. To do so, systems integrators often use off-the-shelf softwarethat offers standard tools that can be deployed to determine a data matrix code, for example, or caliper tools set using graphical user interfaces to measure part dimensions.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49602 | Is the Transgender Discussion Exposing Our Hypocrisy?
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This article is co-authored with our associate pastor John Henderson, PhD.
According to a recent New York Times article, the Department of Justice is planning to issue the following statement to public schools across the United States:
According to this thinking, chromosomes and biology should not determine the sex, gender, and bathroom assignment of a person. Rather, each person is to lean upon his or her own understanding to make the determination.
Another New York Times article reports that gender binary thinking, which assumes there are only two distinct genders, male and female, is becoming a thing of the past.[2] People can now decide to be whatever they sense they really are. Apparently, when it comes to gender and gender identity, biological determinism is being shown the door.
This should raise questions for all us. For many years now we have been told that biology actually determines a ton of stuff. Alcohol abuse, according to various scientists, has “key biological causes.”[3] Scores of scientific studies claim that Bipolar disorder, Major Depression, and other experiences we call mental illness are in some way caused by our genetic and biochemical makeup.
Most notably, the argument that homosexuality is not a choice or preference, but a genetically and biochemically determined reality, saturates the scientific literature today. Each new study along this vein is simply, “the latest in a growing scientific literature suggesting that sexual preferences may be not simply a matter of personal preference but part of our ingrained biology.”[4]
Am I the only one who finds this confusing? If gender and gender identity is no longer biologically determined, but a matter of choice, then we have some questions to answer.
1. Do we plan to say the same about sexual identity?
Are we now saying we choose to be heterosexual or homosexual? Previously we accepted a direct link between genes, biological, anatomy, and gender, but now we’re saying that link does not matter when it comes to gender. Perhaps this is fine, but for the sake of consistency, do we plan to say the same about sexual identity, which has no direct genetic or biological link anyway? Are we saying that just as we choose gender preferences, we choose sexual preferences?
1. Do we plan to say the same about alcohol and drug abuse?
No reasonable person doubts that biology plays a role in alcohol and drug abuse. Biochemistry is involved. But the social sciences have taken this concept much farther. Alcohol and drug abuse, as taught in hundreds of psychology, sociology, and psychiatry programs all over the world, has biological causes. Not merely influences, but determining forces inside the body and somehow connected to genes. Is this no longer true? Again, for the sake of consistency, are we supposed to apply the gender identity rubric to the abuse of substances?
1. Do we plan to say the same about Bipolar Disorder and Major Depression?
Once more, there are scores of studies and articles placing responsibility for various “mental illnesses” at the doorstep of biology. According to those studies, the experience of mania and depression are not about the conscious thinking of the person or layers of life decisions, but almost solely about underlying biochemical forces. Is this approach to understanding mental illness now wrong and cast aside?
1. Or do we plan to use biological determinism only when convenient?
In other words, do we apply biological determinism when talking about something for which we do not want to be held responsible and then reject biological determinism when talking about something for which we want full control?
Are we far more interested in moral flexibility and political convenience than fidelity to the truth and consistency?
Among the various things discussed on this page, none is more biologically determined than gender. There are actual chromosomes (XX, XY) that link directly to actual anatomy (ovaries, testes, etc.) that we call “female” and “male.” If we’re saying those links no longer matter, then it only stands to reason the less tenable links in other areas of human experience be severed in the same fashion.
If this is the case, then everything that has no direct link to genetics and biology should be left to preference as well. If a person can go against their genetics and biology when it comes to gender, then how much more able is a person to go against any and all genetic or biological forces when it comes to sexual identity, drug abuse, and mental illness?
1. Do we just make stuff up so that we can do what we want to do?
I mean, this seems like what is really going on. Is it that we just don’t want someone, anyone, telling us how to live if it goes against what we desire? Do we just want to do what is right in our own eyes? I’m not sure how familiar you are with history, but cultures where everyone did what was right in their own eyes always ended in a pile of rubble. Can we just admit that our desire to do what we want might be driving this brave new world agenda? And is it possible that it is driving it off a cliff?
1. Do we want our children to be the experimental guinea pigs while we figure out these kinds of questions?
One of the most terrifying things in all this is how flippantly we are treating our children. We are heading down a road of experimentation and using our very own children as lab rats. We have no idea what kinds of affects these measures and others like them will have on young, developing, and perplexed children. Are we really willing to drive political and personal agendas at the expense of a confused child who is trying to figure out their bodies and desires and sexuality? If this open-ended experimentation isn’t child abuse, then I’m not sure what really is.
1. Can we admit we have no idea what we are doing?
Is it possible that we have reached a point where it is blatantly obvious that we have no idea what we are doing? Can we admit our hypocrisies, even as it has been displayed in our contradicting approaches to biological determinism? Are we really just using science as smoke and mirrors to allow us to justify whatever we feel like doing?
Is it possible that our culture’s mantra of do not judge has caught up with us and led us to the place where we can receive no instruction, even if it would rescue us from the destruction of our own lives and the lives of our families? At the end of the day, is self-determinism really our god?
Might it be time for us to humble ourselves and realize that leaning on our own understanding has taken us down a dangerous road and that we need help? My hope for us is that God might show us mercy and that we will stop being wise in our own eyes and look to Him who made us and loves us and stands ready to rescue us.
Friend, this is the hope God promises in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is no flip-flopper. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever more (Hebrews 13:8). He came into our world and proclaimed, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Let us step out of the darkness and into the light. We may not know what we are doing, but He does. Look to Him.
Picture courtesy of Nick Cimarusti | Daily Trojan
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34 thoughts on “Is the Transgender Discussion Exposing Our Hypocrisy?
1. Joshua Shankles
Your argument presupposes that the power of the human spirit is not capable of working counter to biological imperative or disposition. As a pastor I think you would agree that there are many things humans are biologically predisposed to do (have multiple sex partners, put their own needs above all others, eat and drink in excess, etc.) and that your belief structure coaches personal responsibility and lends supernatural will to those who share those beliefs in thier wish to overcome such vices.
By that same token, all human biologic predispositions are likely to also be able to be governed and or overridden (or not) by the will power and desires of that individual…based upon their belief structure and desires (not withstanding the obvious notion that some persons are more successful at this than others, and many human traits are good and should be unchanged). That’s in fact what makes us human (able to choose) and not animals (unable to choose).
1. garrettk Post author
Thank you for your comment. Our argument is not about what actually causes, determines, and shapes human experience and expression, but rather the inconsistency of saying the gender is not biologically determined, while all the other things are biologically determined. Does that make sense? God bless.
1. Anonymous
There is more than one science other than biology. Your chromosomes determine your sex and what sexual organs you have. Your brain determines your gender. It is not a choice, any more than I had the choice to be a woman and female. I never made a choice. I just was. A simple psychology class (also a science) will help you understand the brain vs biology.
2. Nick
The flaw in your debate is that you have the misconception that being transgender is a choice. Do you know any transgender people personally? The choice to present the identity that you are internally is not the same as choosing to being something different. You make the argument sexual orientation isn’t a choice and I might agree but people do make the choice to be open with their sexual orientation even when it doesn’t match what society says it should be. Think of it like this (to use your own example) and alcoholic is biologically an alcoholic but they can choose to be open about it publicly and live their life accordingly or they can choose to lie about it to themselves and everyone else. So again the choice is only to publicly be transgender. I understand based on your belief, you have an issue with things that don’t fit into prefect little boxes but maybe work on some logic and reasoning to make your point.
Also, maybe it would help to understand that things as simple as hormonal imbalances (which can be biological) can determine a lot about a persons perception of self. A women with extremely high levels of testosterone could have male mannerisms and even features. The same goes for a man with an imbalance of estrogen.
So I don’t think that anyone is arguing that being transgender is a choice.
1. Jeff
As a Pastor, Joshua. I am disappointed that the overcoming of such issues is simply the “coaching” of human willpower by one’s belief system. Scripture points out that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that goes far beyond coaching.
2. D. V. Flyer
I can agree with your theory if you are willing to apply this to all forms of non- society approved behavior. The murderer did it because he/she had no inner choice. The rapist did it because of an inner pleasure to control another. The wife beater has an inner desire to blame the wife for his problems. etc., etc. If there are no absolutes; which is where this theory is headed; we have chaos. Isn’t it bias to only accept gender identity as a thing to be protected and accepted and leave all these others out to dry.
1. Laura
D. V., over time society has disapproved of a lot of things that we do not now regard as sinful. Some of these have even been established (civil) law. Marriage between people of different races, for instance. I think that if you try to conflate righteousness with societal acceptance, and sinfulness with societal disapproval, you are going down the wrong path.
2. Joshua Shankles
I take your point. I’m suggesting (and I think the central argument of those who you are accusing of inconsistency is) that gender, like all other human traits, has a biologically predisposed component that is (or at least is capable of being) shaded by cultural factors and the choices of the individual.
So it (gender identification) isn’t arguing one stance, then the other (nurture vs nature). But rather a nuanced, highly personal thing that has many contributing factors including biology and culture and personal decisions.
3. K
I would suggest you consider a new line of thinking; perhaps your definition of the word gender and the definition now being proposed are not the same. I assume when you assign gender you do so strictly on outward appearance of anatomy i.e. he parts or she parts. The approach now to be considered is your anatomical sex does not equate with societal constructs of gender. This is where the spectrum can exist. One does not have to be a lady to feel like one, act like one, or dress like one. Boys do not have to play with trucks, guns, and balls. Now, might some folks choose to take radical steps to physically align themselves more closely with how they feel? Obviously some do. Does this preclude biology’s part in our existence? No, but it may in certain aspects of our society. Tangentially there certainly are people born with various abnormal genitalia who are often surgically assigned as a newborn who might later feel more a woman than man (as in most cases these babies are assigned masculine features).
Now, as a believing person I assume you understand there are a great many things which occur and exist that might differ from their outward appearance. Is it so unfathomable then for gender identity to fall within this purview?
4. Josh G
The author\’s point isn\’t strictly confined to the topic of gender identity alone. I think the point he\’s trying to make is that there is an inconsistency with the way society is currently applying biological determinsim depending upon the subject. For example, we\’ve constantly heard the argument that it is wrong to call homosexuality a sin because \”no one chooses to be gay; it\’s biologically determined\”. Now, the argument is being flipped to say that gender should be a fluid based on a person\’s feelings, regardless of what his/her individual biological construction is. So basically, we\’ve reached a point where we say biology is king when we don\’t want to be responsible for our own actions/choices, and yet still want to have the sovereignty to ignore it whenever we please. That\’s the hypocrisy. If you say biology can be overridden by will, then that argument has to be applied consistently.
1. garrettk Post author
Josh G, I think you captured and summarized the point of the post quite well. We truly need the Lord and His unchanging Word to help us.
1. Carl
Another comment I saw recently on the inconsistency of these gender arguments:
“If a teenage girl has anorexia, bulemia, or some other form of body dismorphic disorder, she’s viewed as having a mental illness and given therapy to help her accept her body and to realize her inherent self worth. The standard of care does not include giving her diet pills and a gastric bypass. Why should a boy who thinks he should be a girl any different. Why are the rest of us expected to accept, support, and celebrate his delusion and not hers?”
1. Doge
Being transgender isn’t another type of bdd. It’s gender disphoria, which I think you are confusing with dismorphism. Bdd is an anxiety disorder.
These are quite different, but I suppose what they have in common is that a solution is to resolve the negative feelings. This can be accomplished for transgender people by figuring out how they identify. Remember, it’s not as cut and dry as people think. People are born with female chromosomes but male anatomy (one of many examples of conflicting biology) , and they are left figuring it all out.
5. Danny
We are all created male or female. There is no way to get around that fact. Anatomy determines your sex which includes your gender. To say that you can change from male to female is a lie, one may want to be the opposite sex but that does not make that person the opposite sex. No surgical procedure can turn a male into a female or a female into a male.
1. Doge
Sorry but that’s just completely wrong. Some are born with female chromosomes but male anatomy. Some have both a uterus and a penis. In no way is it clear cut. Some females have a lot more testosterone than is typical. Just look up intersex.
6. Laura
I think the hypocrisy exposed here might be that Christians say that we believe our treasures, our immortal souls, are more important than the clay vessels we house them in, but too many of us think that whatever shape the clay vessel has, speaks to the essential person in a way that what the soul knows itself to be does not. IOW, I have a female body and I know myself to be a woman. (Lucky me.) If I had this body, but knew myself to be a man, then to reject transgenderism would be to say that my body that defines me, and not my soul. I do not believe this is what Jesus came here to tell us.
Also this:
In a school in which a transgender student was made to use an individual-user facility, what would Jesus do? He’d use the same facility as well, so that perhaps this already troubled person could feel just a little less freakish and outcast.
“Can we admit we have no idea what we are doing?”
As opposed to making pronouncements about biology when we have not studied it and have no intention of approaching it with an open mind and really trying to understand it? Admitting we have no idea what we are doing would be a GREAT alternative.
1. Jeff
Hi Laura
I hope you don’t mind if I focus on one statement: “What would Jesus do?” Our fundamental concepts of how Jesus would act and behave are found in the Bible particularly the Gospels which were written either firsthand by people who knew Jesus the best and were closest to him, or individuals who either talked with the disciples in depth and or were very close to them and got their accounts from the disciples.
It looks like your position is that we should be able to chose our own sexual identity and Jesus will go along with that choice. If I have misunderstood your position please accept my apology.
These are the scriptures which seem to relate to that subject. If you have others to back up your position, please share them. The scriptures I would like to start off with are in Matthew 19 starting with verse 4 and the end of verse 6 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’. and Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
This would seem to indicate that what God has created or done, people shouldn’t try to change or undo. Again if you have a different interpretation that seems to fit the passage please feel free to share it.
If you keep reading in that chapter you come to an interesting interchange between a very rich man who loved and wanted to hang on to his riches more than he wanted to belong to God and Jesus. We don’t see Jesus respecting his beliefs, or choices, but requiring him to submit everything in his life even the most important things (his money) to God and give God total control.
In verses 16-22 we read:
It looks to me like Jesus would ask people to Give everything in their lives to God and put Him (Jesus) in total charge of their lives including their sexual identity
Paul met Jesus much later after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Paul used these words and offered this admonition to people who would want to follow Jesus.
In Romans 12:1-2 we read.
Jesus had great compassion on people who wanted to come to God and were told they couldn’t because of this or that. He died and came to life that the way would be open to everyone regardless of sexual identity or any other factors. But the cost is a giving up of our lives and identity and control of that identity to God by following Jesus that we might totally belong to God.
Again if you have verses from the Bible which suggest Jesus would say or do something different I would love to hear them. Thank you for your patience and consideration in reading this and for bringing this into the discussion as I agree with you that what Jesus would say and do is very relevant.
1. Laura
My position there was that Jesus would first see that transgender person as a deeply unhappy individual and would love that person enough to want to ease his pain.
I am not convinced that to be transgender is to sin. I know we may be made uncomfortable by the thought. But reading accounts of the attempts to change a child’s gender strike me as unbearably sad. I am not convinced that it is necessary.
And here’s Lianne Simon. She has mosaic Turner syndrome: some of her cells are XY, and some are missing the Y. As a baby, a decision had to be made which sex to raise her as – and this probably happens more often than you think – and the decision was made to raise her as a boy. But she knew this wasn’t right and eventually began to live as the correct gender. Do you think God is pleased with this? Displeased?
1. Jeff
Hi Laura
Thank you for the reply and sharing those articles so I can better understand your position. I apologize for misunderstanding you, and for not focusing more on the love of Jesus in my reply, you are right in that is a very important part of who Jesus is and how he treats people. My favorite song actually talks about that. It is called Better than I Know Myself by Cliff Richard
You can listen to it here.
The song seems to be taken from Psalm 139 and talks about how God knows us inside and out, who we are, our past present and future, and Loves us and still wants to guide our lives anyway.
Psalm 139 starts out with God’s knowledge of us, but then goes into our desires to hide parts of our lives from Him. It then looks at the Wonder that is God and his creation including us, the foolishness of those who want to live parts of their lives apart from God and concludes with a desire that God make all we say, think and do pleasing to Him.
You also reminded me of something very important in the story about the rich young ruler I had left off but should have included. Mark 10:21 adds this part: Jesus looked at him and loved him. “ One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
I don’t remember seeing that exact phrase anywhere else in the Bible.
Jesus had expressed love for the young ruler, but that love asked that all things in the young man’s life be given to God especially his money since that is what was keeping him from God. In the end all the love Jesus had and showed the young man didn’t mean anything.
It reminds me of a line from a song that goes “If you aren’t Lord of all my life, you’re not Lord at all.
As to whether having a particular gender identity is sin, we need a working definition of sin. For this I am going to modify John Piper’s definition of sin. He defines sin as is any feeling or thought or action that comes from a heart that does not submit to or treasure God over all other things.
I would modify the definition to actions resulting from areas of the heart which are not submitted to God.
As such I think you are right when you said that ones gender identity isn’t sin, but failure to submit this area of your life to God or any other area of our lives, could lead to sin.
We are all asked to present everything in our lives to God, to keep change, enhance, replace or transform as He sees fit.
When I bought my house it was terrible to look at but it had potential. The carpet was ugly, the paint and cabinets were too, many parts didn’t work and had to be replaced. We tore out part of it, took away the carpet, put on a new floor and paint, replaced several things and added several new things. In the end it didn’t look like same house, but in a way it still was. I think those who belong to Jesus are a little bit like that house.
There is a song called Something Beautiful by Bill Gaither .
It goes like this:
Something Beautiful, Something Good
All my confusion, He understood
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife.
But He made something, beautiful out of my life.
I think this is what God wants to do for each of us. The song doesn’t say something, simple, easy, or painless, but it could very well have added something very special.
I appreciate the articles you posted, especially Lianne’s site. What a beautiful testimony. I would like to read more about her. I think in these cases people need to work out their identities with God as she did. Others sometimes go too far or go in the wrong direction trying to help. It doesn’t mean they don’t care but we are all human and all flawed. It looks like Lianne is a unique and special lady and I am glad things worked out for her. It also looks she is an important ear and a voice for many others.
Thank you again for the conversation, your concern for others, the information you shared and your corrections.
2. dawn
You are incorrect according to the Mayo Clinic: Turner syndrome, a condition that affects only girls and women, results when a sex chromosome (the X chromosome) is missing or partially missing. Turner syndrome can cause a variety of medical and developmental problems, including short height, failure to start puberty, infertility, heart defects, certain learning disabilities and social adjustment problems.
1. Laura
Dawn, that’s not actually true. It is true that if all chromosomes are X0 you have a female with Turner syndrome. What sometimes happens, and it happened with Liane, is that the embryo starts out XY and then as cell division happens some cells drop the Y. That is called mosaic Turner syndrome. The same thing can happen, of course, with female children who have mosaic Turner, but in their case they always present as girls.
Here is a case where an embryo began as XY. Upon division, some cells dropped the Y, and then the embryo twinned. The resulting twins are both mosaic XY/X0. One developed as a boy and one as a girl – yes, monozygotic (identical) twins of different sexes.
Here is a different situation, also monozygotic twins with mosaicism, in this case Klinefelter syndrome (XXY/XX), also one apparently male and one female.
All kinds of things happen in nature. I have to conclude that God’s plan allows for a range of outcomes here. I think he means for us to accept differences among us, not reject or deny them. There’s really no theological reason to.
When Jesus told Paul, on the road to Damascus, that it’s hard to kick against the pricks, he was telling Paul to stop fighting the truth of his (Jesus’s) divine nature. I think we need to stop kicking against the pricks of the natural world here. Intersex people exist who were born that way. We do not come in two and exactly two distinct physical sexes that are based on everyone having XX or XY in every cell, period (and having receptors that appropriately use sex hormones.) That being the case, there’s no real reason to think that psychologically we all come in two and only two models.
2. Ryan
May I kindly suggest that the view you present of our immortal souls vs. our “clay vessels” is a view called gnosticism that is counter to the Bible. Scripture affirms that it was good when God created our physical bodies, and that our bodies will be resurrected in eternity, not just our souls. In truth, there is no great distinction between body and soul, and to create such a distinction is to say that what God made is not good.
I do think Jesus might use the individual-user restroom, and would hang out with transgendered, homosexual, and all other kinds of people. I don’t think his purpose would be to just make anyone feel less like an outcast or freak though. He didn’t spend time with drunks and prostitutes to affirm their drunkenness and prostitution.
1. Laura
Ryan, what of people who are born with severe, disabling, painful defects? Are they going to have to bear those defects through eternity? We know our bodies will decay and die. Even if we don’t die from accident or illness eventually our bodies will wear out. So if a choice must be made, why would the body’s sex trump the soul’s gender, if the two don’t agree?
I don’t think Jesus’s purpose, if he used the individual restroom, would be JUST to make anyone feel less like an outcast or a freak. But I think that would be a huge concern. People with gender dysphoria are miserably unhappy when the people in their lives can’t accept them. The first thing Jesus would want that person to understand is “I love you and care about you. You are a person to me.” Until the person hears that, from him or from you or me, they’re not going to hear anything else.
7. doug sayers
You make a fair point, Garrett.
God has delegated to mankind a good deal of freedom but we keep grasping for the whole enchilada of unlimited autonomy. Nothing new here. The unbelieving world has always despised and resented the sovereignty of God. They want His job so badly they are happy to dispense with common sense, honest science, and human decency to pretend they are in control, and not culpable for breaking His laws.
Our job, as salt and light , is to keep their conscience functioning, by word and by deed.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
It is God that decides prior to our being born whether we are male or female. Gender has nothing to do with how we feel or what we think, if this were the case how would any parent know what their child was at birth?
9. Doge
Your argument that chromosomes determine anatomy is incorrect. It is perfectly possible for someone with XX chromosomes to have a penis (look up “intersex”). Would you criticize this person for identifying as a male? Or as a female, for that matter? It is not anywhere near as black and white as you think it is. There can be many different combinations or mixes of anatomy (testes, ovaries, penis, vagina, levels of estrogen, testosterone, etc). Scientists have also identified specific receptors in the brain contributing to gender identification, and twin studies support the notion that is more related to genetics than environment. Do some research, and try to be as objective as possible without letting what you want to be true taint your perception.
Considering the extremely high amount of suicides and depression rates of transgenders (and the LGBT community in general), wouldn’t it make sense to at least do a little more research before you propagate an idea that is harmful to many people?
1. John
Thank you for you comment. You are correct, there are cases where chromosomes, anatomy, and genitalia of a person do not match up, and the post did not state that this was possible or impossible. Of course, the point of the post was not to state or debate the actual causes of gender, gender identity, or anything else, but the inconsistency that exists in explaining people according to genetics or biology or chemistry, especially in the social sciences and popular discussion, using or maximizing biology when convenient, and discarding or minimizing it when inconvenient. There are far stronger connections between chromosomes and anatomy in matters of gender when compared to connections between chromosomes and alcohol abuse. I think the primary point was that when it comes to gender, sexual identity, alcohol abuse, and Bipolar disorder, the clearest case for biological determinism would fall to gender, but the genetics, biology, and chemistry is not being given near as much weight in the conversation as what the person wants to identify as, whether male or female. What the authors of the post actually believe about causes of gender and causes of gender identity and causes of alcohol abuse and causes of Bipolar disorder would require a very different kind of approach and post, with much more nuance and detail. But that was not the goal. This post simply called attention to the peculiar inconsistency in how these areas are related to genetics and biology, and how much we need something or someone beyond human wisdom to understand and explain the truth.
Again, thank you for your comment and insightful feedback.
1. Doge
Your post DID state that it was impossible for them to not line up – “Among the various things discussed on this page, none is more biologically determined than gender. There are actual chromosomes (XX, XY) that link directly to actual anatomy (ovaries, testes, etc.) that we call “female” and “male.”” This is incorrect.
Your argument about biological determinism is a misunderstanding. It is true that the variables that make up gender are biologically determined, but it is determined INDIVIDUALLY. In transgender cases, there is no cohesive answer of their gender, because the biologically determined elements conflict with each other, leaving the person to deal with the aftermath.
Sometimes certain biology outweighs the others. This could mean that their sex organs align with their gender, it could mean their chromosomes do, or it could mean their testosterone levels do. In these cases it’s not overtly obvious how they identify.
But sometimes the conflicting signals cause them to be right in the middle of the spectrum. They have to try to figure it out and decide, yet we criticize them for this even though they were dealt this tough hand. Who would choose to be in this position, given all the difficulties of ignorance, discrimination, and insensitivity (as well as gender dysphoria)? Since God made them this way, he knew they would have to figure this stuff out and choose, and he also must have known they would be ostracized by his own disciples. I doubt he approves of this behavior.
Side note: Scientists have determined that being gay is a combination of genes, in utero development, and early life experiences. Our current evidence for transgender people seems to point to this same pattern.
There is no scientific conflict or hypocrisy here. Science is just doing its best to uncover truth. That’s its job. It has many methods in place to ensure human bias isn’t inserted to taint the truth. It’s not science minded people that are hypocritical. The people I see most who use science only when it suits them are people who believe evolution didn’t happen and that man made climate change doesn’t exist.
1. John
Hey Doge,
Grateful for your interaction and pushing on parts that require more clarification. Since gender chromosomes and gendered anatomy reportedly line up in roughly 99.9% of cases, and when they don’t it is considered an anomaly, it seemed plausible for us to say, “Among the various things discussed on this page, none is more biologically determined than gender. There are actual chromosomes (XX, XY) that link directly to actual anatomy (ovaries, testes, etc.) that we call “female” and “male.”” From our point of view, the existence of roughly 0.1% of cases in which the gender chromosomes don’t match the gender anatomy does not in our minds erase the link, especially when the primary point was to compare this link to the lack of a clear or direct link related to sexual identity, drug abuse, and various mental illnesses. We expected the conversation about gender to be the most biologically determined and biologically rooted of all these conversations when we have found, in practice, it is not.
This does not mean we there are not people who consistently apply biological determinism to everything, or people who consistently reject biological determinism in all forms. Nor does it mean the actual causes and determining factors in these situations is always clear and easy. The point of the post was more focused: there seems to be a trend where we apply biological determinism in forms and doses that are convenient to our desired outcome. We need help from the outside. We need the Word of God to humble our hearts, reveal our inconsistencies, and lead us to Jesus Christ, not simply to correct our thinking, but to reconcile us to God through Jesus Christ and give us new hearts. Unfortunately we did not state this more clearly from the outset, but we sometimes do not know what sounds confusing until someone points it out. Your comments are appreciated.
10. Tim Brockway
No hypocrisy at all. Biologically, the gender identity doesn’t always match the plumbing that we were born with. Both biologically determined or applied on the human assembly line depending on one’s view of the workings of the Almighty. Sometimes he machine assigns male plumbing to a girl, is what this is pointing out. Your argument, in fact, is the self defeating one. You argue that plumbing MUST match the identity as both are biological. That is like saying all those who are blind have blow eyes. This is about tolerance. OT isn’t about our children. They instinctively do not care about the wrapper, just ones content. We, on the other hand, obsess about the wrapper. Just as the Pharasese did. How can he he the Son of God? He’s so poor and works with scum?!
11. Shelley
I see several points of view here, some which I agree with and some I do not. But my comment is that it is refreshing to see courteous, respectful responses all around with no name calling or accusing people of hate and blind prejudice. We could certainly use calm heads such as these in the broader pubic arena.
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Corse (French)
Corsica (Corsican)
Corsica (Italian)
Region of France
Flag of Corsica
Coat of arms of Corsica
Coat of arms
Country France
Prefecture Ajaccio
• President Paul Giacobbi (PRG)
• Total 8,680 km2 (3,350 sq mi)
Population (Jan. 2013)[1]
• Total 322,120
• Density 37/km2 (96/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code FR-H
GDP (2012)[2] Ranked 24th
Total €8.17 billion (US$11.43 bn)
Per capita €25,523 (US$35,712)
NUTS Region FR8
Website .fr.corsewww
Corsica (; French: Corse ; Corsican and Italian: Corsica ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the Italian island of Sardinia. Mountains make up two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain.
Corsica is one of the 27 régions of France, although it is designated as a territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale) by law. As a territorial collectivity, Corsica enjoys some greater powers than other French régions but is referred to as a région in common speech and is almost always listed among them.
The island formed a single department until it was split in 1975 into two departments: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica), with its regional capital in Ajaccio, the prefecture city of Corse-du-Sud. Bastia, the prefecture city of Haute-Corse, is the second-largest settlement in Corsica.
After being ruled by the Republic of Genoa since 1284, Corsica was briefly an independent Corsican Republic from 1755 until it was annexed by France in 1769. Due to Corsica's historical ties with the Italian peninsula, the island retains to this day many elements of Italian culture. The native Corsican language, whose northern variant is closely related with Tuscan, is recognised as a regional language by the French government. This Mediterranean island was ruled by various nations over the course of history but had several brief periods of independence.
The French emperor Napoléon was born in 1769 in the Corsican capital of Ajaccio. His ancestral home, Casa Buonaparte, is today used as a museum.
• History 1
• Prehistory and ancient age 1.1
• Middle Ages and Modern Age 1.2
• Struggle for independence and French annexation 1.3
• Corsica in the 19th century 1.4
• Modern Corsica 1.5
• Geography 2
• Major communities 2.1
• Climate 2.2
• Ecology 3
• Zones by altitude 3.1
• Zones by region 3.2
• Parc Naturel Régional de Corse 3.3
• Extinct animals 3.4
• Demographics 4
• Immigration 4.1
• Culture 5
• Languages 5.1
• Cuisine 5.2
• Art 5.3
• Sport 5.4
• Administration 6
• Economy 7
• Transport 8
• Airports 8.1
• Railway 8.2
• Seaports 8.3
• Politics 9
• See also 10
• Notes 11
• Bibliography 12
• External links 13
Prehistory and ancient age
The medieval influence of Pisa in Corsica can be seen in the Romanesque-Pisan style of the Church of Aregno
The origin of the name Corsica is subject to much debate and remains a mystery. To the Ancient Greeks it was known as Kalliste, Corsis, Cyrnos, Cernealis, or Cirné. The latter Greek names are based on the Phoenician word for 'peninsula' (kir).
Corsica has been occupied continuously since the Mesolithic era. It acquired an indigenous population that was influential in the Mediterranean during its long prehistory.
After a brief occupation by the Carthaginians, colonization by the ancient Greeks, and an only slightly longer occupation by the Etruscans, it was incorporated by the Roman Republic at the end of the First Punic War and, with Sardinia, in 260 BC became a province of the Roman Republic.[3] The Romans, who built a colony in Aléria, considered Corsica as one of the most backward regions of the Roman world. The island produced sheep, honey, resin and wax, and exported many slaves, not well considered because of their fierce and rebellious character.[3] Moreover, it was known for its cheap wines, exported to Rome, and was used as place of relegation, one of the most famous exiles being the Roman philosopher Seneca.[4] Administratively, the island was divided in pagi, which in the Middle Ages became the pievi, the basic administrative units of the island until 1768.[3] During the diffusion of Christianity, which arrived quite early from Rome and the Tuscan harbors, Corsica was home to many martyrs and saints: among them, the most important are Saint Devota and Saint Julia, both patrons of the island. Corsica was integrated by Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305) in Roman Italy.
Middle Ages and Modern Age
In the 5th century, the western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, and the island was invaded by the Vandals and the Ostrogoths.[3] Briefly recovered by the Byzantines, it soon became part of the Kingdom of the Lombards: this made it dependent from the March of Tuscany, which used it as outpost against the Saracens.[5] Pepin the Short, king of the Franks and Charlemagne's father, expelled these and the Lombards and nominally granted Corsica to Pope Stephen II.[5] In the first quarter of the 11th century, Pisa and Genoa together freed the island from the Arab danger.[5] After that, the island came under the influence of the republic of Pisa.[5] To this period belong the many polychrome churches which adorn the island, and in that time Corsica experienced a massive immigration from Tuscany, which gave to the island its present toponimy and rendered the language spoken in the northern two-thirds of the island very close to the Tuscan Language.[5] Due to that, then began also the traditional division of Corsica in two parts, along the main chain of mountains roughly going from Calvi to Porto Vecchio: the eastern Banda di dentro, or Cismonte, more populated, evolved and open to the commerce with Italy, and the western Banda di fuori, or Pomonte, almost deserted, wild and remote.[5]
The crushing defeat experienced by Pisa in 1284 in the
• Costa, L.J.; Cécile Costa (2005). "Préhistoire de la Corse" (in Français). Kyrnos Publications pour l'archéologie. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
• "TerraCorsa,I Muvrini and much more Corsican music". TerraCorsa. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
• Corsica at DMOZ
• "National Geographic Magazine: Corsica Map". National Geographic Society. 2003. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
• "Corsica rejects autonomy offer by Paris". CNN. 6 July 2003. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
• Keyser, Will. "Corsica from the inside!". Corsica Isula. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
• jabro. "Getting around in Corsica by bicycle". Retrieved 28 August 2009.
• Guiderdoni, jf. "A different visit of Corsica". corsica_experience. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
• Ferries to Corsica Detailed technical specifications of the various ferry vessels, history, deckplans. (Italian)
• Audio recording of the traditional Corsican folktale 'Goldenhair' (in English)
• 3-minute video "The Workout the World Forgot," filmed in Corsica, 2008
• Corsica: a mountain in the sea – Official French website (in English)
External links
• Bertarelli, Luigi Vittorio (1929). Corsica. Guida d'Italia (in Italian). Rome: CTI.
• Loughlin, John. 1989. "Regionalism and Ethnic Nationalism in France: A Case-study of Corsica". Thesis. San Domenico, Italy: European University Institute.
• Loughlin, John, and Claude Olivesi (eds.). 1999. Autonomies insulaires: vers une politique de différence pour la Corse. Ajaccio: Editions Albiana. ISBN 2-905124-47-4
• Ravis-Giordani, Georges. 1991. Le Guide de la Corse. Besançon: La Manufacture. ISBN 2-7377-0262-3
• Saul, John Ralston. 1992. Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West. New York: Free Press; Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 0-02-927725-6
1. ^ a b
2. ^
3. ^ a b c d Bertarelli (1929), p.41
4. ^ Pais, Ettore (1999). Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica durante il periodo romano (in Italian). Nuoro: Ilisso. pp. 76–77.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Bertarelli (1929), p.42
6. ^ a b Bertarelli (1929), p.43
7. ^ a b Bertarelli (1929), p.45
8. ^ Bertarelli (1929), p.46
9. ^ "Ancient Corsica beckons with deserted beaches and historic structures". The Baltimore Sun. 1 March 1992
10. ^ Bertarelli (1929), p.48
11. ^ Howard, John E., Letters and Documents of Napoleon: Vol. 1 Rise to Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.
12. ^ "Wanderings in Corsica: its history and its heroes". Ferdinand Gregorovius (1855). p.196.
13. ^ a b Ravis-Giordani (1991), p. 112-4
14. ^ Azéma, Jean-Pierre; Wieviorka, Olivier (1997). Vichy, 1940-44 (in French). Paris: Perrin. pp. 231–33.
15. ^ Paletti, C. (1999). Un'operazione riuscita: Corsica settembre 1943 (in Italian). Rome: Ufficio Storico Stato maggiore Esercito.
16. ^ "Jacques Massu obituary". Retrieved 2012-10-27.
17. ^ Mouillot, F. (2008). "Corsica". Mediterranean Island Landscapes: Natural and Cultural Approaches. Springer. pp. 223–225.
18. ^ a b Price, Gillian. Walking on Corsica: Long-Distance and Short Walks. Cicerone Press Limited. p. 9.
19. ^ Keyser, William (2005). "Corsican Villages and Towns" (PDF). Corsica Isula. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
20. ^ "Climatological Information for Ajaccio, France" – Hong Kong Observatory
21. ^ Gregory, Desmond (1985). The ungovernable rock: a history of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom and its role in Britain's Mediterranean strategy during the Revolutionary War, 1793–1797. London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 16.
22. ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2009. ,, ed, N. StrombergHooded Crow: Corvus cornix
23. ^ MacPhee, R.D.E.; Hans-Dieter Sues (1999). Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences. Springer. p. 179.
24. ^ a b
25. ^ a b
26. ^
27. ^ "Euromosaic-Index1". Retrieved 2012-10-27.
28. ^ Bertoni, Giulio (1916). Italia dialettale (in Italian). Milano: Hoepli.
29. ^
30. ^ Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1997). Romance Languages. London: Routlegde.
31. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Glottolog 2.2".
32. ^ Enciclopedia Treccani - Dialetti liguri
33. ^ How Greek were the Greeks of Corsica? - Nick Nicholas
34. ^ "GDP per inhabitant in 2006 ranged from 25% of the EU27 average in Nord-Est in Romania to 336% in Inner London" (PDF). Eurostat.
35. ^ The Chestnut Tree in terracorsa.
36. ^ The Grocer's Encyclopedia – Encyclopedia of Foods and Beverages. By Artemas Ward. New York. 1911.
37. ^ [2]
38. ^ For a detailed description of the railroad system see Simms, Wilfrid S., "The Railways of Corsica" (1997)(ISBN 0952888122).
39. ^ "EU transport in figures - Statistical Pocketbook 2012" (PDF),
40. ^ Corsica Ferries - Official Website
41. ^ SNCM - Official Website
42. ^ Compagnie méridionale de navigation (CMN) - Official Website
43. ^ Moby Lines - Official Website
44. ^ "89 % des corses opposés à l’indépendance de l’île" [89% Corsicans are opposed to Corsican independence],
45. ^ Enquête: la Corse vue par les Corses - Rue89, Le nouvel observateur
46. ^ Blackwood, Robert J. (2008). The State, the Activists and the Islanders: Language Policy on Corsica. Springer. p. 164.
47. ^ "France Moves to Crush Corsican Separatists". The New York Times. 15 January 1997. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
48. ^ "Corsican". UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
49. ^ "French Cabinet Split Over Corsican Autonomy". The New York Times. 30 August 2000. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
50. ^ "A worrying result". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 10 July 2003. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
See also
In a referendum on 6 July 2003, a narrow majority of Corsican voters opposed a project from the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that would have suppressed the two départements of the island and granted greater autonomy to the territorial collectivity of Corsica.[50]
In 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to grant increased autonomy to Corsica. The proposed autonomy for Corsica would have included greater protection for the Corsican language (Corsu), the island's traditional language, whose practice and teaching, like other regional or minority languages in France, had been discouraged in the past. According to the UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct.[48] However, plans for increased autonomy were opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly, who feared that they would lead to calls for autonomy from other régions (such as Brittany, Alsace, or Provence), eventually threatening France's unity as a country.[49]
Organisations started to seek money, acting like the Mafia, to fund violence. Some groups that claim to support Corsican independence, such as the National Liberation Front of Corsica, have carried out a violent campaign since the 1970s that includes bombings and assassinations, usually targeting buildings and officials representing the French government or Corsicans themselves for political reasons.[47] A war between two rival independence groups led to several deaths in the 1990s. The peaceful occupation of a pied-noir vineyard in Aléria in 1975 marked a turning point when the French government responded with overwhelming force, generating sympathy for the independence groups among the Corsican population.
Corsican nationalists have used means such as the removal of French names on road signs.
In 1972, the Italian company Montedison dumped toxic waste off the Corsican coast, creating what looked like red mud in waters around the island with the poisoning of the sea, the most visible effects being cetaceans found dead on the shores. At that time the Corsican people felt that the French government did not support them since it did not complain to Italy to make this situation change. To stop the poisoning, one ship carrying toxic waste from Italy was bombed.[46]
The French government is opposed to full independence but has at times shown support for some level of autonomy. There is support on the island for proposals of greater autonomy, but polls show that a large majority of Corsicans are opposed to full independence.[44][45]
There are several nationalist movements on the island calling for some degree of Corsican autonomy from France or even full independence. Generally speaking, autonomist proposals focus on the promotion of the Corsican language, more power for local governments, and some exemptions from national taxes in addition to those already applying to Corsica.
The ferry companies serving Corsica are Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries (from Savona, Livorno and Piombino in Italy; Toulon and Nice in France), SNCM (from Marseille, Toulon and Nice in France), CMN - La Méridionale (from Marseille in France) and Moby Lines (from Livorno and Genoa in Italy).[40][41][42][43]
Corsica is very well connected to the European mainland (Italy and France) by various car ferry lines. The island's busiest seaport is Bastia which welcomed more than 2.5 million passengers in 2012 [39] Second busiest seaport is Ajaccio, followed by L'Île-Rousse and Calvi. Propriano and Porto Vecchio in the south also have smaller ferry docks and are seasonally served from France (Marseille), while Bonifacio's harbour is only frequented by smaller car ferries from the neighbouring island of Sardinia.
There is a third line along the east coast that is not in use due to heavy damage during World War II. There has been talk of restoration, but no progress has occurred.
The island has 232 kilometres (144 miles) of metre gauge railway. The main line runs between Bastia and Ajaccio and there is a branch line from Ponte-Leccia to Calvi. Chemins de Fer de la Corse (CFC) is the name of the regional rail network serving the French island of Corsica. For a list of stations, see Railway stations in Corsica. The railroad retains the air of a friendly local railroad and is an excellent way to get around the island, for both the inhabitants and tourists.[38]
All airports are served by regional French airline Air Corsica, as well as Air France which mainly offers connections to Paris-Orly. Low-cost carries such as EasyJet and Ryanair offer seasonal connections to different cities in Europe.
Corsica has four international airports:
Corsica's main exports are granite and marble, tannic acid, cork, cheese, wine, citrus fruit, olive oil and cigarettes.[37]
In 1584 the Genoese governor ordered all farmers and landowners to plant four trees yearly; a chestnut, olive, fig, and mulberry tree. Many communities owe their origin and former richness to the ensuing chestnut woods.[35] Chestnut bread keeps fresh for as long as two weeks.[36] Corsica produces gourmet cheese, wine, sausages, and honey for sale in mainland France and for export. Corsican honey, of which there are six official varieties, is certified as to its origin (Appellation d'origine contrôlée) by the French National Institute of Origin and Quality (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine – INAO).
Corsica is the least economically developed region in Metropolitan France.[34] Tourism plays a big part in the Corsican economy. The island's climate, mountains, and coastlines make it popular among tourists. The island has not had the same level of intensive development as other parts of the Mediterranean and is thus mainly unspoiled. Tourism is particularly concentrated in the area around Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio in the south of the island and Calvi in the northwest.
Corsica's coastline is a major driver for tourism – coastline by the town of Propriano
A local referendum held in 2003, aimed at abolishing the two départements to leave a territorial collectivity with extended powers, was voted down by a narrow margin. However, the issue of Corsican autonomy and greater powers for the Corsican Assembly continues to hold sway over Corsican politics.
In 1992, three institutions were formed in the territorial collectivity of Corsica:
On 2 March 1982, a law was passed that gave Corsica the status of territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale), abolishing the Corsican Regional Council which had existed before. Unlike the regional councils, the Corsican Assembly has executive powers over the island.
Before 1975, Corsica was a départment of the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In 1975 two new départements, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, were created by splitting the hitherto united departement of Corsica.
Map of Corsica
AC Ajaccio and SC Bastia are the two main football teams, which have played the Ligue 1 frequently since the 1960s and contest the Corsica derby. Since 2015, Gazélec Ajaccio, the city's second term, has began playing in the Ligue 1. The Tour de Corse is a rally held since 1956, which was a round of the World Rally Championship from 1973 to 2008 and later the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and European Rally Championship.
Corsica has produced a number of known artists: Alizee, Martha Angelici (opera singer), A Filetta (polyphonic chant group), Canta U Populu Corsu (band), Laetitia Casta (model/actress), Baptiste Giabiconi (model/singer), Julien de Casabianca (cineast), Jérôme Ferrari (writer), Patrick Fiori (singer), Petru Guelfucci (singer), José Luccioni (opera singer), Gaston Micheletti (opera singer), I Muvrini (band), Jenifer (singer), François Lanzi (painter), Ange Leccia (visual art), Henri Padovani (musician, original guitarist from the Police), Thierry de Peretti (cineast), Marie-Claude Pietragalla (dancer), Jean-Paul Poletti (singer), Robin Renucci (comedian), Tino Rossi (singer), César Vezzani (opera singer).
From the mountains to the plains and sea, many ingredients play a role. Game such as wild boar (Cingale, Singhjari) is popular. There also is seafood and river fish such as trout. Delicacies such as figatellu (also named as ficateddu), made with liver, coppa, ham (prizuttu), lonzu are made from Corsican pork (porcu nustrale). Characteristic among the cheeses is brocciu (similar to ricotta), which is used as a fresh ingredient in many dishes, from first courses (sturzapreti) to cakes (fiadone). Other cheeses, like casgiu merzu, casgiu veghju are made from goat or sheep milk. Chestnuts are the main ingredient in the making of pulenta castagnina and cakes (falculelle). A variety of alcohol also exists ranging from aquavita (brandy), red and white Corsican wines (Vinu Corsu), muscat wine (plain or sparkling), and the famous "Cap Corse" apéritif produced by Mattei. The herbs which are part of Maquis (Corsican: machja) and the chestnuts and oak nuts of the Corsican forests are eaten by local animals, resulting in the noticeable taste in the food there.
It should also be noted that fewer and fewer people speak a Ligurian dialect, known as bunifazzinu,[32] in what has long been a language island, Bonifacio. In Cargèse, a village established by Greek immigrants in the 17th century, Greek (Ελληνικά) was the traditional language:[33] whereas it has long disappeared from spoken conversation, ancient Greek is still the liturgical language and the village has many Greek Orthodox parishes.
The language is divided into two main varieties: Cismuntanu and Ultramuntanu, spoken respectively northeast and southwest of the Girolata - Porto Vecchio line. This division was due to the massive immigration from Tuscany which took place in Corsica during the lower Middle Ages: due to that, the Cismuntanu became very similar to the Tuscan dialects, making part of the Italo-Dalmatian language group, while the Ultramuntanu could keep its original characteristics which make of it a Southern Romance language belonging to the Sardinian (Sardu) family.[28][29] Therefore, due to the differences between the main dialectal varieties, many linguists classify Corsican as an Italo-Dalmatian language,[30] while others consider it a Southern Romance one.[31]
Corsica is one of the few French regions in which its own minority language has a better prospect of survival compared to the others: in fact, alongside French (Français), the most widely spoken language is Corsican (Corsu), which is closely related to medieval Tuscan (Toscano). However, since the annexation of the island by France in the 18th century, Corsican has been under heavy pressure from French, and today it is estimated that only 10% of Corsica's population speak the language natively, with only 50% having some sort of proficiency in it.[27]
Chart of the dialects of the Corsican language, which also extends into northern Sardinia.
Place of birth of residents of Corsica
(at the 1982, 1990, 1999, and 2011 censuses)
Census Born in Corsica Born in
Continental France
Born in
Overseas France
Born in foreign
countries with French
citizenship at birth¹
2011 56.3% 28.6% 0.3% 5.0% 9.8%
from the Maghreb3 from Southern Europe4 from the rest of the world
4.3% 3.8% 1.7%
1999 59.5% 24.8% 0.3% 5.5% 10.0%
from the Maghreb3 from Southern Europe4 from the rest of the world
5.3% 3.3% 1.4%
1990 62.0% 21.3% 0.2% 6.0% 10.5%
1982 61.6% 20.4% 0.2% 6.0% 11.8%
¹Essentially Pieds-Noirs who resettled in Corsica after the independence of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, many of whom had Corsican ancestry.
3Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria
4Portugal, Italy, Spain
Source: INSEE[24][25][26]
The majority of the foreign immigrants in Corsica come from the Maghreb (particularly Moroccans, who made up 33.5% of all immigrants in Corsica at the 2011 census), and from Southern Europe (particularly Portuguese, who made up 22.7% of all immigrants in Corsica at the 2011 census, and Italians, who made up 13.7% of all immigrants in Corsica at the 2011 census).[25]
At the 2011 census, 56.3% of the inhabitants of Corsica were natives of Corsica, 28.6% were natives of Continental France, 0.3% were natives of Overseas France, and 14.8% were natives of foreign countries.[24]
Corsica has a population of 322,120 inhabitants (Jan. 2013 estimate).[1]
The globally extinct species are the Sardinian dhole, Megaloceros cazioti, Corsican giant shrew, Tyrrhenian mole, Sardinian pika, Corsican-Sardinian vole, Corsican-Sardinian wood mouse, Bubo insularis and Athene angelis. Birds were especially hard-hit. Some that were eradicated from the vicinity are Haliaeetos albicilla and Aquila heliaca.
Corsica, like all the other Mediterranean islands, was home to indigenous animals of the Pleistocene, some endemic to it and some to it and Sardinia (as Sardinia was joined to Corsica for much of the Pleistocene). After the proliferation of humans in the Mesolithic, these began to disappear, partly from extinction of the species, and partly from eradication only in Corsica. However, it is now known that many species managed to survive the Mesolithic, and many were still present well into recorded history.[23]
Extinct animals
The island has a natural park (Parc Naturel Régional de Corse, Parcu di Corsica), which protects rare animal and plant species. The Park was created in 1972 and includes the Golfe de Porto, the Scandola Nature Reserve (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and some of the highest mountains on the island. Scandola cannot be reached on foot, but people can gain access by boat from the village of Galéria and Porto (Ota). Two endangered subspecies of hoofed mammals, the mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) and Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) inhabit the park. The Corsican red deer was re-introduced after it was extinct due to over hunting. This Corsican subspecies was the same that survived on Sardinia, so it's endemic. There are other species endemic to Corsica especially in the upper mountain ranges, i.e. Corsican nuthatch, Corsican fire salamander and Corsican brook salamander and many plant subspecies.
Parc Naturel Régional de Corse
Zones by region
From 1,800 to 2,700 metres (5,900 to 8,900 ft) is a high alpine zone. Vegetation is sparse. This zone is uninhabited.
From 600 to 1,800 metres (2,000 to 5,900 ft) is a temperate montane zone. The mountains are cooler and wetter, and home to the Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, which supports diverse forests of oak, pine, and broadleaf deciduous trees, with vegetation more typical of northern Europe. The population lives predominantly below 900 metres (3,000 ft), with only shepherds and hikers at 600 to 900 metres (2,000 to 3,000 ft).
There is considerable birdlife in Corsica. In some cases Corsica is a delimited part of the species range. For example, the subspecies of hooded crow, Corvus cornix ssp cornix occurs in Corsica, but no further south.[22]
The island is divided into three major ecological zones by altitude.[21] Below 600 metres (2,000 ft) is the coastal zone, which features a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The natural vegetation is Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrubs. The coastal lowlands are part of the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion, in which forests and woodlands of evergreen sclerophyll oaks predominate, chiefly holm oak (Quercus ilex) and cork oak (Quercus suber). Much of the coastal lowlands have been cleared for agriculture, grazing and logging, which have reduced the forests considerably.
Zones by altitude
Native name: Corsica
Nickname: L’Île de Beauté
The Isle of Beauty
Topography of Corsica
Corsica is located in France
Corsica (France)
Location Mediterranean Sea
Area 8,680 km2 (3,350 sq mi)
Length 184 km (114.3 mi)
Width 83 km (51.6 mi)
Coastline 1,000 km (600 mi)
Highest elevation 2,706 m (8,878 ft)
Highest point Monte Cinto
Région Corsica
Largest settlement Ajaccio (pop. 63,723)
Population 322,120 (as of January 2013)
Density 37 /km2 (96 /sq mi)
Climate data for Bastia, north-eastern part of island
Average high °C (°F) 13.6
Daily mean °C (°F) 9.1
Average low °C (°F) 5.1
Average precipitation mm (inches) 67
Mean monthly sunshine hours 134 158 192 214 268 296 345 304 232 176 133 128 2,580
Source: Quid 2004, page 618 and Météo-France, data for 1981–2010
Climate data for Ajaccio, central-western part of island
Average high °C (°F) 13.3
Daily mean °C (°F) 8.6
Average low °C (°F) 3.9
Average precipitation mm (inches) 73.8
Average precipitation days (≥ 1 mm) 8.9 8.7 8.3 7.2 5.7 2.8 1.3 2.4 4.3 7.3 8.6 9.1 74.6
Mean monthly sunshine hours 133.3 145.0 189.1 225.0 282.1 321.0 365.8 331.7 264.0 210.8 150.0 127.1 2,744.9
Source: Hong Kong Observatory[20]
Under Köppen climate classification: hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).
In 2005 the population of Corsica was settled in approximately 360 communities.[19]
Major communities
The island is 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Tuscany in Italy and 170 kilometres (110 mi) from the Côte d'Azur in France. It is separated from Sardinia to the south by the Strait of Bonifacio, a minimum of 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) wide.[18]
Approximately 3,500 km2 (1,400 sq mi) of the total surface area of 8,680 km2 (3,350 sq mi) is dedicated to nature reserves (Parc naturel régional de Corse), mainly in the interior.[18] Corsica contains the GR20, one of Europe's most notable hiking trails.
It is 183 kilometres (114 mi) long at longest, 83 kilometres (52 mi) wide at widest, has 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) of coastline, more than 200 beaches, and is very mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2,706 metres (8,878 ft) and 20 other summits of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Mountains comprise two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain. Forests make up 20% of the island.
It is also the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus.
Corsica was formed approximately 250 million years ago with the uplift of a granite backbone on the western side. About 50 million years ago sedimentary rock was pressed against this granite, forming the schists of the eastern side. It is the most mountainous island in the Mediterranean, a "mountain in the sea".[17]
The Bay of Calvi: Corsica is the most mountainous Mediterranean island.
In 2013, Corsica hosted the first three stages of the 100th Tour de France, which passed through the island for the first time in the event's 110-year history.
Between the late fifties and the seventies, the project of building a nuclear polygon in the mines of Argentella, the immigration of 18,000 former settlers from Algeria ("Pieds-Noirs") in the eastern plains, and continuing chemical pollution (Fanghi Rossi) from mainland Italy increased tensions between the autochthonous inhabitants and the French government. Tensions escalated until an armed police assault on a pieds-noirs-owned wine cellar in Aleria, occupied by Corsican nationalists on 23 August 1975. This marked the beginning of the armed nationalist struggle against the French government. Ever since, Corsican nationalism has been a feature of the island's politics, with calls for greater autonomy and protection for Corsican culture and the Corsican language. Periodic flare-ups of raids and killings culminated in the assassination of Prefect Claude Érignac in 1998.
During the May 1958 crisis, French paratroopers landed on Corsica on 24 May, garrisoning the French island in a bloodless action called "Operation Corse."[16]
After the collapse of France to the German Wehrmacht in 1940, Corsica came under the rule of the Vichy French regime, which was collaborating with the Nazis.[14] In November 1942 the island, following the Anglo-American landings in North Africa was occupied by Italian and German forces. After the Italian armistice in September 1943, Italian and Free French Forces pushed the Germans out of the island, making Corsica the first French Department to be freed.[15] Subsequently, the US military established 17 airfields, nicknamed "USS Corsica", which served as bases for attacks on targets in German-occupied Italy.
Corsica paid a high price for the French victory in the First World War: agriculture was disrupted by the years-long absence of almost all of the young workers, and the percentage of dead or wounded Corsicans in the conflict was double that of those from metropolitan France. Moreover, the protectionist policies of the French government, started in the 1880s and never stopped, had ruined the Corsican export of wine and olive oil, and forced many young Corsicans to emigrate to mainland France or to the Americas. As reaction to these conditions, a nationalist movement was born in the 1920s around the newspaper A Muvra, having as its objective the autonomy of the island from France. In the 1930s, many exponents of this movement became irredentist, seeing as the only solution to the problems of the island annexation to fascist Italy, which under Benito Mussolini had become one of the main goals of Italy's imperialist policy.
Monument to the French Resistance during WWII in Solaro (plaine orientale).
Modern Corsica
Despite all that, during those years the Corsicans began to feel a stronger and stronger attraction to France. The reasons for that are manifold: the knowledge of the French language, which thanks to the mandatory primary school started to penetrate among the local youth, the high prestige of the French culture, the awareness of being part of a big, powerful state, the possibility of well-paid jobs as civil servants, both in the island, in the mainland and in the colonies, the prospect of serving the French army during the wars for the conquest of the colonial empire, the introduction of steamboats, which reduced the travel time between mainland France from the island drastically, and - last but not least - Napoleon himself, whose existence alone constituted an indissoluble link between France and Corsica. Thanks to all these factors by around 1870 Corsica had landed in the French cultural world.[13]
After the restoration, the island was further neglected by the French state. Despite the presence of a middle class in Bastia and Ajaccio, Corsica remained an otherwise primitive place, whose economy consisted mainly of a subsistence agriculture, and whose population constituted a pastoral society, dominated by the national struggle which was taking place in nearby Italy in those years: several political refugees from the peninsula, like Niccolò Tommaseo spent years in the island, while some Corsicans like count Leonetto Cipriani took active part in the fights for Italian independence.
Despite being the birthplace of the Emperor, who had supported Paoli in his youth, the island was neglected by Napoleon's government.[11] In 1814, near the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Corsica was briefly occupied again by British troops. The Treaty of Bastia gave the British crown sovereignty over the island, but it was later repudiated by Lord Castlereagh who insisted that the island should be returned to a restored French monarchy.
Corsica in the 19th century
Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Pasquale Paoli was able to return to Corsica from exile in Britain. In 1794 he invited British forces under Lord Hood to intervene to free Corsica from French rule. Anglo-Corsican forces drove the French from the island and established an Anglo-Corsican Kingdom. Following Spain's entry into the war the British decided to withdraw from Corsica in 1796. Corsica then returned to French rule.
The Corsican Republic was unable to eject the Genoese from the major coastal fortresses (Calvi and Bonifacio). After the Corsican conquest of Count of Vaux at the Battle of Ponte Novu. This marked the end of Corsican sovereignty. Despite triggering the Corsican Crisis in Britain, whose government gave secret aid, no foreign military support came for the Corsicans. However, nationalist feelings still ran high. Despite the conquest, Corsica was not incorporated into the French state until 1789.
In 1729 the Corsican Revolution for independence began, first led by Luigi Giafferi and Giacinto Paoli, later by the son of the latter, Pasquale. After 26 years of struggle against the Republic of Genoa (plus an ephemeral attempt to proclaim in 1736 an independent Kingdom of Corsica under the German adventurer Theodor von Neuhoff), the independent Corsican Republic was proclaimed in 1755 under the leadership of Pasquale Paoli and remained sovereign until 1769, when the island was conquered by France. The first Corsican Constitution was written in Italian (the language of culture in Corsica until the middle of the 19th century) by Paoli.
Seafront boulevard in Ajaccio, the island's capital and Napoleon I's birthplace
Struggle for independence and French annexation
In the 16th century, the island entered into the fight between Spain and France for the supremacy in Italy.[7] In 1553, a Franco-Ottoman fleet occupied Corsica, but the reaction of Spain and Genoa, led by Andrea Doria, reestablished the Genoese supremacy on the island, confirmed by the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis.[8] The unlucky protagonist of this episode was Sampiero di Bastelica, who would later come to be considered a hero of the island. Their power reinstated, the Genoese did not allow the Corsican nobility to share in the government of the island, and oppressed the inhabitants with a heavy tax burden: on the other hand, they introduced on a large scale the chestnut tree, improving the diet of the population, and built a chain of towers along the coast to defend Corsica from the attacks of the Barbary pirates from North Africa.[9] The period of peace lasted until 1729, when the refusal to pay the taxes by a peasant sparked the general insurrection of the island against Genoa.[10]
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49614 | Circuit Analysis
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Another method that can be deployed is by a combination of impedances.The impedances should be connected in a series format. Using Norton’s theorem, the transformation of the voltage generator to the current generator is possible. The main purpose of the experiment was to make users be familiar with the features of the oscilloscope that are advanced. The advanced oscilloscope is quite useful for measuring many different electrical quantities and components. There are measurements that are supposed to be measured and they include. the fall of the current electrical current, the rise of electrical current-voltage in RL circuits, voltage of RC circuits, respectively. The calculation of these values theoretically is also very important as they will be compared with the values that are measured.The oscilloscope has many different applications. The oscilloscope is used in the measurement of time and voltage. The horizontal and vertical scales are normally calibrated and they are calibrated in position (Schindler 88). This kind of measurement requires a practical approach and an interpretation that is advanced in nature. This information is usually presented on the oscilloscope’s screen. When this information is presented on the screen, scales will be quite necessary as they will be used for calibration.For any electrical quantity, the rise time is defined as the time that is required for a signal to rise or go up from its value of 10% to a value of 90%. On the converse, the fall time is when the time that is required for the value to fall from 90% value to 10%bof the value. Fall and rise time are very important as they are used in the measurement of for instantaneous step change when voltage is applied in a circuit. What people normally associate this with is with the opening of the switch or its closing. This procedure is quite difficult to measure in an oscilloscope because there is no storage scope at all. With these tests, a repetitive event I usually employed in the procedure. For further exploration of the circuit, a square wave is used to determine instantaneous voltage change is determined. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49630 | What A Storm 93 Million Miles Away Means For Your Power
Our most important piece of infrastructure–the grid–is also the most vulnerable to an unpredictable, strange kind of weather. Severe solar storms could knock out power to millions of Americans. And critics say new regulations don’t go far enough to protect the grid. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49665 | [plug] Google web search sanitiser
Bret Busby bret.busby at gmail.com
Tue Oct 23 00:14:45 WST 2012
On 21/10/2012, Brad Campbell <brad at fnarfbargle.com> wrote:
> G'day all,
> I'm getting increasingly frustrated by the way google wraps its search
> results in a tracking url. I've found several useful Firefox plugins
> which fix that on my desktops, but I want to go a step further.
> Before I go and re-invent the wheel, has anyone seen a plugin or
> otherwise for squid that will automatically scrub and rewrite tracked
> urls as they pass the proxy?
> I started with the idea of the old "upside down ternet" and looked from
> there, but I've not really found anything other than a lot of people
> complaining about the problem.
> Anyone anyone?
> Brad
I have just tried it, using konqueror with javascript disabled.
Using google.com (bookmarked, and therefore going to google.com
instead of the defaulty google.com.au), searching on the term "monster
raving loony party", when I do a mouseover of the hypertext link in
the results, I get all the crap displayed in the bar down the bottom
of the screen, complete with the tracking and the ridiculously long
sessionid, but, when I click on the hypertext link for the search
result, what opens in the new tab (I click to "Open in new tab"), is
the site, with only the pure URL (http://www.omrlp.com/) in the URL
Sop, it appears that the simple answer is to disable javascript in the
web browser (javascript is malware, anyway, as is all client-side
processing in web browsing).
Bret Busby
West Australia
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
More information about the plug mailing list |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49673 | TanishaKurt ass squirt pussy
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49684 | Q3 2019 Newsletter
Algorithm for Managing Patient Balances
1. Identify patient responsible balance
2. Determine if the patient can pay at the time of service
• Yes – Collect
• No
1. Re-schedule if issue is merely logistical
2. Refer the patient to another facility able to provide charity care if they are unable to pay.
• Identify payment source
1. Credit card
2. Funding company
• Differentiate between those who truly cannot pay and those who do not want to pay
• How to Assist Patients in Paying
1. Credit cards
2. Medical Credit/Funding Companies
• Credit Cards
1. Accept them
2. They facilitate payment at time of service
3. Comparison-shop for discount rate and fees
4. Develop an on-line credit card payment portal
• Simply take the payment on-line
• Interfaced into your practice management system
5. Be aware of the liabilities in retaining credit card numbers
6. Avoid taking on the role of a bank. Do not put your practice in the position of extending credit. There are entities (see #5 above) that will do that for you
When all else fails, arrange a payment plan. Here is sample verbiage your practice can use: |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49689 | Evolution of stars and stellar populations by Maurizio Salaris
By Maurizio Salaris
Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations is a entire presentation of the speculation of stellar evolution and its program to the research of stellar populations in galaxies. Taking a different method of the topic, this self-contained textual content introduces first the speculation of stellar evolution in a transparent and available demeanour, with specific emphasis put on explaining the evolution with time of observable stellar houses, corresponding to luminosities and floor chemical abundances. this is often by way of a close presentation and dialogue of a huge diversity of similar strategies, which are commonly utilized by means of researchers within the box to enquire the formation and evolution of galaxies.
This publication may be necessary for undergraduates and graduate scholars in astronomy and astrophysics, and also will be of curiosity to researchers operating within the box of Galactic, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology.
* complete presentation of stellar evolution theory
* introduces the concept that of stellar inhabitants and describes "stellar inhabitants synthesis" ways to learn a long time and famous person formation histories of famous person clusters and galaxies.
* offers stellar evolution as a device for investigating the evolution of galaxies and of the universe often.
Show description
An introduction to celestial mechanics by Forest Ray Moulton
By Forest Ray Moulton
An unmatched textual content within the box of celestial mechanics, Moulton's theoretical paintings at the prediction and interpretation of celestial phenomena has no longer been outdated. through offering a basic account of all components of celestial mechanics with no an over-full therapy of any unmarried element, through pointing out the entire difficulties upfront, and, the place the adjustments are lengthy, giving an summary of the stairs which has to be made, and by means of noting the entire locations the place assumptions were brought or unjustified equipment hired, Moulton has insured that his paintings can be important to all who're drawn to the subject.
The textual content is split into ten chapters which development logically when it comes to the trouble in their subject material. they're: basic rules and Definitions, Rectilinear movement, primary Forces, the capability and points of interest of our bodies, the matter of 2 our bodies, The selection of Orbits, the overall Integrals of the matter of n Bodies, the matter of 3 our bodies, Perturbations ― Geometrical concerns, and Perturbations ― Analytical procedure. very important subject matters cove pink comprise normal equations, movement of falling debris, the warmth of the sunlight, simultaneous differential equations, examples the place J is a functionality of the coordinates by myself, the universality of Newton's legislation, choice of the orbit from the legislations of strength, sights of straightforward solids, power and points of interest of straightforward our bodies and ellipsoids, Ivory's procedure and point surfaces, parts of orbits, expansions and positions in orbits, variations of coordinates, the Laplacian and Gaussian equipment of deciding on orbits, movement of middle of mass and quarter integrals, movement of the infinitesimal physique, surfaces of 0 relative speed, results of the parts of the demanding strength, lunar thought, approach to computing perturbations, and the perturbative function.
Each bankruptcy is by means of a historic caricature and bibliography relating that topic. Over 2 hundred difficulties seem at key issues within the textual content, a lot of them answered.
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Instabilities in Space and Laboratory Plasmas by D. B. Melrose
By D. B. Melrose
This introductory account of instabilities in plasmas concentrates on laboratory plasmas, equivalent to these encountered in fusion study, and the gap plasmas studied in physics of the magnetosphere and sunlight surroundings. This account bridges the space among a graduate textbook on plasma physics, and really expert similarities among astrophysical and laboratory plasmas which are typically considered as relatively separate. the writer, a professional in plasma astrophysics who has written a two-volume e-book at the topic, treats the fabric obviously, lending a broader point of view to the topic. this is often an academic textual content for graduate scholars and pros in magnetospheric and mathematical physics, radiophysics, sun and theoretical astrophysics and radio astronomy.
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By Jack Martin
Are you prepared for a distinct approach of the celebs? do you need to appreciate extra approximately what you're seeing via your telescope?
Painstakingly researched, with the information compiled over a long time via the writer (an beginner astronomer for forty five years), this convenient hassle-free pocket-sized box atlas comprises the spectra (spectral diagrams) of over seventy three vibrant stars within the northern hemisphere and is meant to be used by means of different amateurs, scholars, and academic associations as an creation to the attention-grabbing and demanding technology of stellar spectroscopy.
Professional atlases are way more complicated. before, not anything was once on hand at an novice point. This booklet fills an enormous hole because the first beginner spectroscopic atlas to be released. The reader won't should have any previous wisdom of the topic or figuring out of complicated arithmetic so as to use this booklet. Written in undeniable English and with out tricky equations, it will possibly make the topic available to a person. it may well even function a consultant to the celebs at astronomy membership conferences or megastar events.
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Physics from planet Earth - an introduction to mechanics by Joseph C. Amato, Enrique J. Galvez
By Joseph C. Amato, Enrique J. Galvez
Expose Your scholars to the dependent global of Physics in an attractive Way
Physics from Planet Earth - An advent to Mechanics presents a one-semester, calculus-based advent to classical mechanics for first-year undergraduate scholars learning physics, chemistry, astronomy, or engineering. constructed from classroom-tested fabrics subtle and up-to-date for over ten years at Colgate collage, the ebook publications scholars on a trip past commonplace techniques that use blocks, projectiles, and prone planes to grander issues regarding interplanetary commute, exoplanets, asteroid collisions, and darkish matter.
Beginning scholars are usually bewildered via the rapid-fire presentation of actual ideas, arithmetic, and problem-solving options in conventional introductory textbooks. against this, this text:
• Introduces the 3 conservation legislation (momentum, strength, and angular momentum) as primary legislation of nature from which secondary innovations, corresponding to strength and torque, are derived
• Organizes issues round the conservation legislation, averting the common "math overload" that confronts scholars at the beginning of ordinary courses
• Motivates and illustrates many issues via genuine, modern purposes in astronomy, planetary technology, and house travel
After reviewing the fundamental mathematical instruments had to examine mechanics, the textual content addresses the conservation of momentum and purposes, resembling gravity-assisted area trip and rocket propulsion. It subsequent discusses Newton’s legislation and various house- and astronomy-based functions. The textual content then provides facts for a moment conservation precept, power, which permits us to explain movement as a functionality of place instead of time. The ebook additionally explores the conservation of angular momentum and quite a few functions, together with pulsars, orbital eccentricity, and gyroscopes. The textual content concludes with a dialogue of darkish topic, darkish power, and the final word destiny of the universe.
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The Night Sky, Updated and Expanded Edition: Soul and by Richard Grossinger
By Richard Grossinger
Ever considering the fact that Homo sapiens first seemed up on the stars, we as a species were searching for which means within the mysteries of the evening sky. Over the millennia, as our wisdom, technology, and expertise built, the tales we instructed ourselves concerning the universe and our position in it built in addition. within the evening Sky, Richard Grossinger strains these advancements, overlaying a number of features of humanitys advanced dating to the cosmos. masking not just astronomy but additionally cosmology, cosmogony, astrology, and technological know-how fiction, he bargains us a revelatory examine the firmament via his personal telescope, outfitted with an anthropological lens. all through his explorations, Grossinger continuously displays at the deeper which means of our altering strategies concerning the universe and production, providing perception into how every one new discovery motives us to redefine the values, moralities, and aesthetics wherein we are living. He additionally calls into query the self-aggrandizing suggestion that humanity can and should overcome all, and injects our strident self assurance in technology with a hearty dose of humility and beauty. jam-packed with poetic remark and profound questions, The evening Sky is a superb mirrored image of humanitys courting with the cosmos--a dating fed via longing, doubt, and awe.
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Impact Craters in South America by Rogelio Daniel Acevedo
By Rogelio Daniel Acevedo
A entire and up to date catalogue of impression craters and buildings in South the US from 2014 is gifted the following. nearly 80 confirmed, suspected and disproven constructions were pointed out by means of a number of resources during this continent. the entire influence websites of this huge continent were exhaustively reviewed: the proved ones, the potential ones and a few very uncertain. Many websites stay with no transparent geological "in situ" affirmation and a few of them may be even rejected. Argentina and Brazil are best the checklist containing nearly every thing detected. In Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay and Venezuela just a couple of have been saw. merely Ecuador is awaiting new discoveries. to this point, the most important good acknowledged influence web site remains to be the Araguainha constitution in Brazil with its forty kilometers in diameter. in spite of the fact that, attainable effect buildings are greater than Araguainha: Malvinas, (with 250 kilometers in diameter) and Vichada in Colombia, (50 kilometers). This learn additionally stories the lifestyles of a few Tertiary-Quaternary glassy impactite layers: the "escorias" and "tierras cocidas" of the pampas in Argentina.
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New Light on Dark Stars: Red Dwarfs, Low-Mass Stars, Brown by Neil Reid, Suzanne Hawley
By Neil Reid, Suzanne Hawley
There was very enormous development in study into low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets prior to now few years, quite because the fist edtion of this e-book used to be released in 2000. during this new edtion the authors current a accomplished evaluate of either the astrophysical nature of person pink dwarf and brown dwarf stars and their collective statistical homes as a huge Galactic stellar inhabitants. Chapters facing the observational properies of low-mass dwarfs, the stellar mass functionality and extrasolar planets were thoroughly revised. different chapters were considerably revised and up-to-date as acceptable, together with very important new fabric on observational thoughts, stellar acivity, the Galactic halo and box big name surveys. The authors element the various discoveries of latest brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets made given that booklet of the 1st variation of the booklet and supply a state of the art evaluation of our present wisdom of very low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets, together with either the newest observational effects and theoretical paintings.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49718 | Submit a New Listing
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49722 | Tag: autel maxisys ms908 cv
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49728 | Snip calculate field value at point
From OpenFOAMWiki
Revision as of 02:58, 13 March 2006 by Wlzkjg (Talk | contribs)
The original question (as posten on the Message board) was: Given a position as (x,y,z), I want the u or p value in this point by using interpolation.
1 Doing the interpolation by yourself
vector probePoint(x,y,z);
label probeCell = mesh.findCell(probePoint);
const labelList&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; probeCellNeighbours = mesh.cellCells()[probeCell];
forAll(probeCellNeighbours, cellI)
// Do your stuff
2 Using OpenFOAM's interpolation classes |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49746 | Browsing by Subject 커큐민
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2007-06Study on the Attributive Channel Theory by the Pharmacodynamic Research of I-131 Labelled Curcumin윤홍일; 함인혜; 조정혁, et al |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49770 | What Makes CBD Gummies
There is a reason CBD gummies have gotten so well known in the USA. They give a exceptional experience for CBD customers, combining dosing with portability and pleasure. best CBD gummies attempt CBD and give a simple means to experiment.
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Dizziness: Many users encounter dizziness because of a temporary fall in blood pressure immediately following accepting CBD solutions. We recommend visiting a physician for those who have blood pressure difficulties or people taking certain medicines. Diarrhea: Extremely substantial doses of CBD can upset the gut and cause diarrhea. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49784 | Topic: Moving photographs to new location.
I am reorganising my PC and have a wish to move the folder that contains the photographs in the slideshow I am working on. I tried to do this in file explorer, but of course all my slides came up with a file missing message. Is there any way in which I can do this, either from within the software, or via file explorer and then relinking the folder from its new location?
Re: Moving photographs to new location.
You can export your projects together with photos. In this case, the pictures won't disappear from projects, even if you move the images folder.
To export the project, open it in SmartSHOW 3D, then go to File > Save project for other computer
The software will create a folder containing all the materials from your project: images, sounds, .pskp, music, clipart, etc. Once you're done re-arranging files on your PC, simply open the project from this folder. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49785 | Showing results for
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Tuned Listener
Posts: 26
Registered: 06-28-2010
Error Message
I just started getting this error message when I tried building my project:
ERROR - C:\Users\ejeffries\AppData\Roaming\Sage\Platform\Output\templates\,0) : error : Error running transform: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Sage.Platform.Orm.Entities.OrmCodeSnippetProperty.get_CodeSnippet()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating.GeneratedTextTransformation64534205.TransformText()
at Mono.TextTemplating.TemplatingEngine.Run(Assembly assem, String type, ITextTemplatingEngineHost host, CultureInfo culture)
at Mono.TextTemplating.CompiledTemplate.Process()
I get a ton of these and have absolutly no clue what they mean or how to go about fixing them. It happens right after it attempts to Generate a Server Entity for each of the components of the project such as attachements, contacts and accounts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Nickel Contributor
Posts: 92
Registered: 03-30-2009
Re: Error Message
I do not have a specific instance where I have seen this error, but have you tried to delete the contents of the output folder and perform a rebuild?
Did you do anything just before this starting? Which version are you on?
Tuned Listener
Posts: 26
Registered: 06-28-2010
Re: Error Message
I tried to delete the output folder to no avail. I am on version
There was nothing changed that I was aware of.
I actually gave up and reverted back to an old copy. Though this is an odd issue it seems to be a bug of sorts.
Nickel Contributor
Posts: 59
Registered: 07-30-2010
Re: Error Message
[ Edited ]
I too had this issue, I managed to get around it by a full rebuild, i've only had this issue once, and never again since that full build. I'm not sure why a full build fixed it.
Richard Anderson
CRM Consultant
Nickel Contributor
Posts: 92
Registered: 03-30-2009
Re: Error Message
Good point. A build->rebuild might do the trick.
In class this week I have seen something similar and simply opening the snippet (business rule, event, whatever) in question resolved the issue. Just open the item that is failing (using the menu on the left -- not a double click on the error) and then a rebuild may let you progress.
I know it is strange, but something seemed to get corrupted and this resolved it.
We might have to add this to the boot camp presentation on debugging SalesLogix --
Bronze Super Contributor
Posts: 236
Registered: 03-30-2009
Re: Error Message
Try a “Nuke and Pave” with the re-generate ModelIndex file option:
1. From Application Architect, choose ‘Tools -> Build Settings’ from the menu and note the Build and Assemblies paths
2. Close Application Architect
3. Issue an IISRESET
4. Delete all files and subdirectories from the following folders:
a. The Build path from Step 1 above
b. The Assemblies path from step 1 above
c. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage\Platform\WebPortal\Design\SlxClient
d. Your deployed website (Usually C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SlxClient)
e. C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\slxclient
5. Determine if you project is stored in the database VFS or on the Local Disk (LFS):
a. Open the Project Explorer window in AA (left dockable window)
b. Open the Project Workspaces window in AA (bottom dockable window)
c. Look at the name of the current project in the Project Explorer window and find that name for the corresponding project in your Project Workspaces folder
i. If the working path is “VFS:\Model”, then you are working in the database VFS.
ii. Otherwise, you are working in an LFS (path will read something like “C:\MyProject\Model”) – note this directory as you will need it in the step below
6. Delete the ‘ModelIndex.xml’ file.
a. If you’re working in a VFS:
i. Start Application Architect
ii. Open Virtual File System Explorer (left dockable window)
iii. Expand the root entry
iv. Expand the ‘Model’ folder
v. Delete the item ‘ModelIndex.xml’
vi. Exit out of AA
vii. Re-start AA
b. If you’re working in a LFS:
i. Exit out of AA
ii. Navigate to the directory from step 5c
iii. Open the ‘Model’ subdirectory if you have not already
iv. Delete the file ‘ModelIndex.xml’
v. Re-start AA
7. Do a build and deploy.
8. Note that these steps will force a full rebuild of your project and cause the ModelIndex.xml file to be re-generated.
Mike LaSpina
Professional Services Consultant
8800 N Gainey Center Dr Ste 200
Scottsdale AZ 85258
Tel: 480-383-5344
Cell: 480-321-6637
Fax: 480-556-4090
Your Business in Mind.
Nickel Contributor
Posts: 51
Registered: 07-31-2008
Re: Error Message
I thought I would add to this post in hopes that it would save someone else some grief.
I had this same issue and spent many sleepless nights working it out. All of the above tricks didn't help.
What I finaly found, is that all of my C# Code Snippet Properties on my entity got corrupted. If I tried to open the property in the editor window, it threw an error.
I dropped and readded my code snippet properties, and everything was right in the world again.
Posts: 63
Registered: 08-06-2009
Re: Error Message
I can think of two possible reasons why you might get a null reference exception on a code snippet property. A code snippet property is composed of a *.method.xml file, a *.codesnippet.cs file (or *codesnippet.vb file), and a reference to the method file in the *.entity.xml file. If the snippet file or the method file are missing, you could get a null ref. There's no good way to fix this except remove the remnants (copy out the snippet content if it still exists) and start over.
The other possibility is that the in-memory snippet object didn't get initialized correctly and the references between the entity and the snippet objects couldn't be resolved, resulting in a null ref exception. I don't really know why this would happen, except I fixed a few similar types of issues in some related areas. Maybe the snippet was left open in a previous AA session and in the following session it was opened automatically, but not correctly initialized. Resolution may just involve touching the snippet in a different way - a full build, opening the entity and then the snippet, etc.
It sounds like both resolutions have been used successfully, so this may actually be two different defects and not one. In either case we'd like to fix the underlying issue. If you can provide steps to reproduce the issue, PLEASE share so we can get this resolved.
Jason Boyce
Nickel Contributor
Posts: 51
Registered: 07-31-2008
Re: Error Message
The issue is very easy for me to replicate, but it only occures with certain Entities. they happen to be a large entities with just over 100 properties, 10 code snippet properties, and a dozen business ruels and events.
I've determined that if I attempt to modify the entity by adding a new field or modifying an existing one, the issue occures. It seems the best way to trigger the issue (every time), is to change the size of a property on the Entities "Propertyies" collection. On saving the changes, the Entity appears to rebuild. It appears that the size of the entity causes an issue with resources, and I get an "Out of Memory Exception" almost every time. My guess is that it is unable to complete the build, and the code snippet properties are the victim. Deleting the CS properties and readding them is the only means for resolving the issue that I've been able to find.
The Out of Memory Exeptions, seem to be the source of most of my issues. I can replicate these in our dev environment, as well as at at a clients site. One has Windows 2003, the other has Windows 2008 R2.
I have gone as far as completely logging out of AA, and then loging back in, just to do the Entity change. This will be successful about half of the time. I get the same memory exception error when working with a large smart part (100 or so controls), and attempt to move them arround. There seems to be certain opperations that cause a complete rebuild of the underlying XML that don't have much success with large operations. To put it another way, there seems to be limit on the size of an entity or smart part that effects stabiltiy.
I'm more than happy to demonstrate the issue if you would like.
Please let me know if there's any additional detail you would like.
Jeremy Couzens
Posts: 63
Registered: 08-06-2009
Re: Error Message
Thanks for the info!
It sounds like you really have more of a memory usage issue rather than specifically a code snippet issue.
That's just as serious, if not more so, so let's try to figure out what is going on.
Saving an entity shouldn't trigger a build.
Are you sure a build was being performed or did you just notice a lot of disk I/O?
Did you see build messages in the output window?
Were you saving a single file or multiple items?
Your large entity sounds pretty close to the out of the box Account entity. Do you think a few more properties would push Account over the edge to manifest the problem?
Are you working with a limited amount of memory on the AA machine?
It might be very helpful if you could provide a video (maybe using something like Camtasia) starting from a just logged in AA though your usage to the out of memory exception. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49797 | Blood Throne Series AMAZON
A bit about Blood of the Ruby Throne. This is a ‘tale’ I that came to me in segments as if the players were sneaking out of their world after curfew. The duel between Zera and Sarc materialized first closely followed by the swearing of fidelity to the victor highlighting the tension between them. The villain, the pirate lord, Kudious, resided in his dark world…plotting and sadistically maneuvering his subjects. Keeping him reined in was tricky and remains so. The sections began to come together over a period of time while I wrote other stories, the characters whispering to me at the oddest times. Never once they get confused with other people. Their stories are yet unfinished and the secondary characters, especially Zera’s sister, Teriana, Sarc’s brother Phorx and the mysterious daughter of Kudious, Leila are very vocal and their futures undetermined. Aluora, the treacherous heir/ruler of Luitha were men are pleasure objects and who allies herself with Kudious, remains bossy and much intent on retaining her rule of that women’s world.
I’m working on the second book now and look forward to presenting to you, the reader, soon. In the meantime, please, enjoy Blood of the Ruby Throne and the mystery that flows around the Seti Solar System and that part of the unknown universe. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49843 | How Does Film Streaming HD Work with Conspicuous Interest?
Since the coming of the web, doing numerous intelligent things including movie streaming has gotten conceivable. The intensity of dynamic web permits an individual to send both sound just as video at high speeds; with the goal that things like movie streaming and remotely coordinating become conceivable. Fundamentally, movie streaming is simply taking a video and sound sign at the source and sending over the web. This permits you to send any intelligent video transfer to any site that can get dynamic information. The site that is showing the video transfer must have a unique content that can show your video and sound transfer. You can undoubtedly make movie streaming with just a basic receiver and a webcam or you can utilize further developed gear to create the necessary sign. Likewise, you will require a type of an encoder programming that will assist you with changing the sign into a nonstop stream. So as to accomplish this, the streaming information must be broken into bundles and every parcel should be checked right now of streaming so as to ensure that the information honesty is kept up.
streaming Cinema
In the event that there is an encoding issue, this can cause the loss of the intelligibility of the visual information, which can cause issues at the gathering end also. In any case visual casings just as, sound parcels will be dropped during transmission and this can cause the transmission to lose its general coherency. For the most part, the sign uprightness can rely upon your web association speed, just as the nature of the line itself. Your web association ought to be sufficient so the information bundles are additionally being sent to your ISP with insignificant misfortune. Furthermore, your association ought to have a general dependability for expanded timeframes since web broadcasting o streaming will ordinarily occur for quite a while. An unsteady association can cause parcel of dropped outlines in your video transfer.
The most famous kind of encoding in Guardare Film in streaming is streak. The best bit of leeway of glimmer streaming is that it tends to be played back in any sort of a program. You can without much of a stretch use Internet Explorer, Firefox Mozilla, Google Chrome or even Opera to play back any blaze streaming paying little mind to the PC or the working framework that is being utilized. Consequently, regardless of whether the client is utilizing an Apple PC or an exemplary PC won’t make any difference and, in any event, utilizing Windows or Linux won’t have any kind of effect in playing back the stream. In any case, the principle issue with streak streaming is the way that it will utilize a bigger measure of data transmission and this can make it an issue regarding transfer speed accessibility. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49846 | Meeting Notes/20111206
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Weekly Meeting of the Membership - 12/6/2011, 7:30PM
Space Cleanliness
Marshall has taken the job of organizing the chores, so he can delegate that at will. He wants to reward people for cleaning, and suggests a person/staff can have a dedicated desk at the space in reward for keeping the place clean. Another idea might be a dinner for the volunteers, or a small kit, material, etc. Possibly a party dedicated to the people involved with cleaning. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49847 | Virgin Austrawia
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Virgin Austrawia
Virgin Australia logo.svg
IATA ICAO Cawwsign
Commenced operations29 August 2000 (as Virgin Bwue)
Focus cities
Freqwent-fwyer programVewocity
AwwianceVirgin Austrawia Regionaw Airwines
Fweet size73
Parent companyVirgin Austrawia Howdings
HeadqwartersSouf Bank, Brisbane, Queenswand, Austrawia
Key peopwe
RevenueIncrease A$5.4 biwwion (2018) [2]
Operating incomeIncrease A$109.6 miwwion (2018) [2]
Totaw assetsDecrease A$6.2 biwwion (2018) [2]
Totaw eqwityDecrease A$1.1 biwwion (2018) [2]
Virgin Austrawia, de trading name of Virgin Austrawia Airwines Pty Ltd, is an Austrawian-based airwine. It is de wargest airwine by fweet size to use de Virgin brand. It commenced services on 31 August 2000 as Virgin Bwue, wif two aircraft on a singwe route.[3] It suddenwy found itsewf as a major airwine in Austrawia's domestic market after de cowwapse of Ansett Austrawia in September 2001. The airwine has since grown to directwy serve 33 cities in Austrawia, from hubs in Brisbane, Mewbourne and Sydney.[4]
The airwine's headqwarters is based in Souf Bank, Queenswand. It was co-founded by British businessman Richard Branson (de founder of Virgin Group) and former CEO Brett Godfrey.
In 2011, de airwine went drough a massive transformation—de changing of its brand to Virgin Austrawia.[5] This incwuded de introduction of a new aircraft wivery, new uniforms, and new onboard menu options. New wide-body aircraft were acqwired for use to compete wif Qantas, and de roww-out of business cwass across aww de Virgin Austrawia network.[3]
On 21 Apriw 2020, Virgin Austrawia Howdings went into vowuntary administration, due to de impacts of de COVID-19 pandemic and financiaw troubwes in de years weading up to de pandemic.[6] On 26 June 2020, it was announced dat Bain Capitaw had entered into a sawe and impwementation deed wif administrator Dewoitte to acqwire Virgin Austrawia.[7] Creditors agreed to dis proposaw on 4 September 2020, wif de reorganisation and change of ownership compweted on 17 November 2020.
Earwy years as Virgin Bwue (2000–2006)[edit]
Virgin Austrawia was waunched as Virgin Bwue, as a wow-cost airwine in August 2000, wif two Boeing 737-400 aircraft, one of which was weased from den-sister airwine Virgin Express.[8][9] Initiawwy offering seven return fwights a day between Brisbane and Sydney, dis has since been expanded to cover aww major Austrawian cities and many howiday destinations. The Virgin Bwue name was de resuwt of an open competition; it was a pway on de predominantwy red wivery and de Austrawian swang tradition of cawwing a red-headed mawe 'Bwue' or 'Bwuey'.[9]
Virgin Bwue's 50f Boeing 737 Virgin-ia Bwue was de onwy aircraft in de fweet to be actuawwy painted bwue. This aircraft is now in Virgin Austrawia wivery.
The timing of Virgin Bwue's entry into de Austrawian market was fortunate as it was abwe to fiww de vacuum created by de faiwure of Ansett Austrawia in September 2001. Ansett's faiwure awwowed Virgin to grow rapidwy to become Austrawia's second domestic carrier, rader dan staying just a cut-price awternative to de estabwished pwayers. It awso gave Virgin access to terminaw space widout which growf wouwd have been significantwy wimited. Deways in negotiating access to de former Ansett terminaw at Sydney Airport however, forced Virgin to use its originaw terminaw dere—a cowwection of prefabricated buiwdings widout aerobridges—wonger dan was needed. As de airwine grew, it acqwired new eqwipment, enabwing it to phase-out its owder 737-400s in favour of 737-700 and −800 series aircraft wif modern gwass cockpits, wingwets and greater fuew efficiency.
Virgin Group's howding in Virgin Austrawia has since been reduced, initiawwy via a sawe of a hawf interest to Austrawian wogistics congwomerate Patrick Corporation, and water by a pubwic fwoat. In earwy 2005 Patrick waunched a hostiwe takeover for Virgin Bwue. Patrick had been unhappy for some time wif de company's direction, uh-hah-hah-hah. By de cwosure of de offer, Patrick hewd 62% of de company, giving it controw. Virgin Group retains a 25% share.
In May 2006 Toww Howdings acqwired Patrick and became de majority owner of Virgin Bwue. In Juwy 2008 Toww sowd its majority howding via a speciaw dividend to howd 1.7% of de company. In June 2013 Air New Zeawand owned 23% of de company.[10]
Boeing 737-800 in de owd Virgin Bwue red wivery at Perf Airport in 2004
Virgin Bwue previouswy used a famiwiar formuwa pioneered by airwines such as Soudwest Airwines and Ryanair of ewiminating costs such as incwuded in-fwight meaws and printed tickets in favour of sewwing food on-board and using tewephone and internet booking systems. It awso cut costs in de past by wimiting de number of airports serviced and by operating one type of aircraft, de Boeing 737. This strategy changed wif de introduction of a second type into de fweet. The airwine ordered 20 Embraer E-jets, in a mix of six E170s and 14 E190s.[11] These were ordered specificawwy so dat de airwine couwd re-enter de Sydney–Canberra market dat it abandoned in 2004, and to fwy to wess popuwous areas.[11][12] The first E-170 arrived in Austrawia in September 2007 and by de end of de year de dree on initiaw order had been dewivered. These were pwaced on wimited-freqwency services before fuww-scawe operations were waunched on 4 February 2008 wif services from Sydney to Canberra (branded as 'Capitaw Jet' services),[11] Mackay in Queenswand, and de New Souf Wawes regionaw centres of Port Macqwarie and Awbury, which were promoted wif a one-cent fare.[13][14] The fwights to Canberra and de regionaw centres signified an effort to compete more directwy wif Qantas and its subsidiary QantasLink operation, which fwies to aww dree cities, and wif independent Regionaw Express Airwines.[11]
Codesharing and network consowidation (2006–2010)[edit]
The first Virgin Austrawia Boeing 737 to wear de airwine's new wivery arrives at Sydney Airport for de waunch of de new brand
At its inception in 2000, Virgin Bwue did not have interwine or marketing awwiances wif oder airwines. However, after de cowwapse of its domestic competitor Ansett Austrawia, it began a codeshare agreement wif United Airwines. This awwowed United customers to fwy from de United States to any of Virgin Bwue's Austrawian destinations dat United did not awready serve. In 2006, in an effort to compete wif Qantas, Virgin Bwue started expworing dese rewationships, forming freqwent fwyer agreements wif Emirates, Hawaiian Airwines and Mawaysia Airwines. Virgin Bwue awso has an Interwine Agreement wif Regionaw Express Airwines for travewwers to and from smawwer regionaw centres in de eastern states of Austrawia, and operates its own two routes wif Virgin Austrawia Regionaw Airwines in Western Austrawia. In November 2007, de airwine announced an agreement wif Garuda Indonesia, offering easy transfer from a domestic Virgin Bwue fwight to an internationaw Garuda Indonesia service departing from Perf, Mewbourne, Sydney or Darwin. Since den Virgin Bwue awso announced an agreement wif Vietnam Airwines which awwows passengers to fwy from Mewbourne and Sydney and connect wif Vietnam Airwines' destinations drough its fwight network.[15]
Cwose-up of de new Virgin Austrawia titwes on Boeing 737 Bondi Beach, at Sydney Airport for de waunch of de new brand
The former Virgin Bwue wogo, used untiw May 2011
In 2008, premium economy cwass was introduced droughout its entire fweet. New seating was instawwed in de first dree rows of de cabin, uh-hah-hah-hah. These couwd be converted from dree seats in economy configuration to two seats for premium economy. The premium product offered priority check-in, warger baggage awwowance, wounge access, priority boarding, increased wegroom and aww-incwusive in fwight entertainment, meaws and beverages on board. The product was aimed at business and corporate customers. The airwine began charging economy-cwass passengers for checked baggage in September 2008. The airwine furder announced its intention to operate Airbus A330 aircraft between Perf and de East Coast, starting in May 2011.[16]
In December 2010, Virgin Bwue entered into awwiances wif Etihad Airways[17] and Air New Zeawand[18] for code-sharing, reciprocaw wounge and freqwent fwyer access and oder co-operationaw projects.[19] Virgin Bwue awso entered into tawks wif Dewta Air Lines about de possibiwity of joining SkyTeam, one of de top dree awwiances in de worwd, as V Austrawia and Dewta sought approvaw for an agreement between de two airwines to co-operate on trans-Pacific services.[20] The agreement was rejected by de United States Department of Transportation under United States antitrust waw.[21] Upon review de agreement was approved by de United States Department of Transportation on 10 June 2011.[22]
On 20 January 2011, Air New Zeawand announced it wouwd take a sharehowding stake of between 10% and 14.99% in Virgin Bwue. Air New Zeawand chief executive Rob Fyfe described de investment "as part of Air New Zeawand's strategy to devewop scawe and reach in dis region" but said de airwine had no intention of making a fuww takeover.[23]
Launch of V Austrawia (2008–2011)[edit]
In earwy 2006, Virgin Bwue announced its intention to operate up to seven fwights a week to de U.S. drough eider Los Angewes or San Francisco. At de time, onwy Qantas and United Airwines competed in de Austrawia-US transpacific market. The airwine was given permission for ten fwights a week to de U.S. by Austrawian reguwators on 24 Juwy 2007. The pwans were approved by US reguwators on 15 February 2008, due to de signing of an open skies agreement between Austrawia and de US.[24] Instead of using its existing brand, Virgin Bwue waunched a fuwwy owned subsidiary wif a separate Air Operator's Certificate, named V Austrawia as de resuwt of a pubwic naming competition, wif a fweet of five specificawwy branded 777-300ERs.
The airwine waunched fwights between Sydney and Los Angewes in 2009, fowwowed by fwights from Mewbourne and Brisbane since obtaining permission to operate an unwimited number of fwights between Austrawia and de U.S. by de Austrawian Internationaw Air Services Commission.[25] V Austrawia awso appwied to de United States Department of Transportation to operate services to San Francisco, Seattwe, Las Vegas, and New York, but dese pwans never materiawised. V Austrawia water waunched fwights to Nadi, Phuket and Johannesburg (aww of which were discontinued prior to de brand being absorbed into Virgin Austrawia, awdough Virgin Austrawia continued to operate to Phuket untiw 2015, and stiww operates to Nadi), and Abu Dhabi to consowidate Virgin Bwue's codeshare agreement wif Etihad Airways.
Reorganisation and rebranding (2011–2019)[edit]
Airbus A330 Cabwe Beach arrives at Sydney Airport in de new Virgin Austrawia wivery, 4 May 2011. A Boeing 777-300ER of sister airwine V Austrawia is in de background
On 7 May 2010, Brett Godfrey officiawwy stepped down as Virgin Bwue CEO after steering de company drough its first 10 years.[26] John Borghetti, former Qantas executive generaw manager, took over as de new Chief Executive.[27] Fowwowing Borghetti's arrivaw as CEO, a number of key Qantas staff moved to Virgin Bwue whiwe key Virgin Bwue staff departed de airwine.[28] causing much specuwation regarding a fordcoming rebrand or reorganisation of de airwine.[29] In February 2011, de re-brand was confirmed when de airwine announced dat de word 'Bwue' wouwd be dropped from its name as part of a campaign to attract more business travewwers away from rivaw Qantas. This came shortwy after de unveiwing of new crew uniforms and business-cwass seats. The airwine stated dat de re-brand wouwd proceed in stages and wouwd reportedwy incwude a new fweet wivery and de renaming of de oder Virgin Bwue Group airwines as weww.[30]
On 4 May 2011, de former Virgin Bwue reveawed its new name, Virgin Austrawia, as weww as its new wivery. In addition to de new name, branding and wivery, de airwine awso showed off its new fwagship de Airbus A330 wif new domestic business cwass. Boeing 737 business cwass seating was awso reveawed, to be introduced on aww of Virgin's jet aircraft by de end of 2011.[31] Pacific Bwue and V Austrawia were bof fowded into de new Virgin Austrawia brand, fowwowing an agreement wif former Virgin Atwantic sharehowder Singapore Airwines, which ever since de estabwishment of Virgin Bwue in 2000 had previouswy prohibited use of de Virgin brand outside Austrawia.[31][32]
Earwy in 2011 it was announced dat Virgin Bwue had signed a ten-year deaw wif Perf-based regionaw airwine Skywest Airwines, for Skywest to operate up to 18 turboprop aircraft weased by Virgin, in order to better compete in east coast regionaw markets served by QantasLink and Regionaw Express Airwines. The turboprops wouwd suppwement de existing Embraer E-190s and repwace de E-170s, which wouwd be phased out due to deir being uneconomicaw on de routes operated by Virgin, uh-hah-hah-hah.[33]
In October 2011, de Austrawian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approved a proposed code-share awwiance between Singapore Airwines and Virgin Austrawia, subject to oder reguwatory approvaws in bof countries.[34]
On 31 May 2016, Chinese aviation howding company HNA Group agreed to purchase 13% of Virgin Austrawia Howdings for A$159 miwwion, subject to audorisation from de ACCC, a stake which HNA Group uwtimatewy intends to increase to 19.99%.[35] The deaw awso created a codeshare partnership between Virgin Austrawia and Chinese airwines in which HNA Group howds shares, on routes between Austrawia and China. Virgin intended to waunch fwights between Austrawian destinations and Beijing and Hong Kong by 2017 to consowidate de agreement.[36]
By October 2016, Air New Zeawand was no wonger a Virgin Austrawia sharehowder after sewwing its remaining 2.5 percent stake for A$65.7 miwwion to investors incwuding de Nanshan Group.[37] On 4 Apriw 2018, Air New Zeawand announced de end of de code- and revenue-sharing partnership wif Virgin Austrawia, effective 28 October 2018.[38]
On 12 June 2018, Virgin Austrawia CEO John Borghetti confirmed dat he wouwd weave de airwine before de end of his contract in January 2020. Borghetti, who became CEO in May 2010, mentioned dat his initiaw pwans were to stay in de position for dree to four years, however, de company's growf and success prompted him to say on, uh-hah-hah-hah.[39] In February 2019 Pauw Scurrah was announced as Borghetti's successor, wif Scurrah commencing as CEO on 25 March 2019.[40]
On 2 Juwy 2018, Virgin Austrawia waunched a Sydney to Hong Kong service.[41] It ceased on 2 March 2020.[42]
COVID-19 impact and administration (2020–present)[edit]
Virgin Austrawia aircraft parked at Perf Airport. After it entered vowuntary administration in 2020, Virgin pwanes were temporariwy seized by Perf Airport.[43]
On 18 March 2020, Virgin Austrawia CEO Pauw Scurrah announced de grounding of de eqwivawent of 53 pwanes due to de ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, effective 30 March.[44] This had de effect of temporariwy returning Virgin Austrawia to being a domestic-onwy airwine.
On 31 March 2020, Virgin Austrawia confirmed it had asked de Federaw Government for a $1.4 biwwion woan to hewp it drough de COVID-19 crisis. The airwine said its baiwout proposaw was "subject to approvaw by de Virgin Austrawia Howdings board and de Austrawian Government" and "may or may not incwude conversion to eqwity in certain circumstances". Qantas responded by noting its revenue was dree times higher dan Virgin's, meaning dat if Virgin was baiwed-out dey shouwd be given a $4.2 biwwion woan as to not distort de market.[45]
On 4 Apriw 2020, de Austrawian Government announced it wouwd be subsiding a bare-bones internationaw network operated by Qantas and Virgin Austrawia for four weeks in Apriw. Virgin's began operating water dat monf to Hong Kong twice weekwy and once weekwy to Los Angewes.[46] On de same day, it became known dat Virgin Austrawia had decided to shut down its New Zeawand operation permanentwy, resuwting in 600 jobs in New Zeawand to be wost.[47]
On 9 Apriw 2020, it was announced dat aww services, except one Mewbourne-Sydney return fwight six times a week, wouwd be suspended from 10 Apriw.[48]
On 14 Apriw 2020 Virgin Austrawia Howdings was granted a trading hawt on de Austrawian Securities Exchange pending a company announcement or to start trading again on 16 Apriw 2020.[49]
On 16 Apriw 2020, de Federaw Government announced it wouwd spend $160 miwwion subsiding a minimum number of services operated by Virgin Austrawia and Qantas.[50] The domestic minimaw network announced is effective 17 Apriw untiw 8 June 2020 and invowves 64 fwights weekwy. It serves Brisbane, Sydney, Mewbourne, Adewaide, Perf, regionaw WA and regionaw Queenswand.[51]
On 18 Apriw 2020, de Queenswand Government offered $200 miwwion to hewp baiw out Virgin Austrawia, however, de baiwout had a number of conditions incwuding Federaw Government backing, debt restructuring, sharehowders and bondhowders contributing, headqwarters remaining in Brisbane and ongoing regionaw fwights.[52]
On 21 Apriw 2020, Virgin Austrawia confirmed it had gone into vowuntary administration, citing its inabiwity to continue operations widout a Federaw Government baiwout.[53] However, dere are no changes being made to which fwights are being operated.[54]
Virgin Austrawia Howdings, Ltd. and 39 affiwiated debtors fiwed Chapter 15 bankruptcy in de United States District Court for de Soudern District of New York. The primary case is #20-11024.[55]
In June 2020, it was incwuded in de purchase of Virgin Austrawia Howdings by Bain Capitaw.[56]
In August 2020, Bain Capitaw announced de pwan for a new 'Virgin Austrawia 2.0', signawwing dat de move was more focussed towards streamwining and refocussing Virgin Austrawia, rader dan a compwete overhauw.[57] The announcement incwuded de immediate retirement of de remaining ATR, Airbus A330 and 777 fweets, in addition to de retirement of de Tigerair brand.[58]
On 15 October 2020, as a resuwt of numerous restructuring measures by Bain Capitaw, Virgin Austrawia CEO Pauw Scurrah announced dat he wouwd resign, uh-hah-hah-hah. Jayne Hrdwicka was announced as Scurrah's successor, wif Hrdwicka commencing as CEO on 18 November 2020.[59]
Corporate affairs[edit]
Head office[edit]
Virgin Viwwage, de previous Virgin Austrawia head office in Bowen Hiwws, Brisbane
Untiw its move to Souf Bank in September 2020, Virgin Austrawia's head office was de Virgin Viwwage in Bowen Hiwws, Brisbane.[60][61] The buiwding, wif about 13,220 sqware metres (142,300 sq ft) A-Grade office space, was tripwe net weased to Virgin Bwue.[62]
As de airwine started operations, it decided to pwace its head office in de Brisbane area. Brett Godfrey, de airwine co-founder and Chief Executive for 10 years, said in 2006 dat de decision "was a wong considered one and has worked weww."[63] The airwine originawwy had its head office in Fortitude Vawwey, Brisbane. The airwine purchased a $61 miwwion site in Bowen Hiwws for its new head office. The firm Sunwand Group, which had acqwired de Bowen Hiwws site for $8 miwwion in 2005, had scheduwed to compwete de new head office in March, and de airwine wouwd be ready to move into de new head office by August of de fowwowing year.[64] The Virgin Viwwage formawwy opened on 17 October 2008.[65] As of 2008 1,000 empwoyees worked at Virgin Viwwage.[60]
Sister airwines[edit]
In September 2003, Pacific Bwue was set up to offer a wow-cost service between New Zeawand and Austrawia. Pacific Bwue aimed to position itsewf as a wow-cost competitor to Air New Zeawand and Qantas on trans-Tasman routes. Pacific Bwue awso operated services on behawf of de Powynesian Bwue joint-venture wif de government of Samoa. Pacific Bwue has since been rebranded under de Virgin Austrawia name and wivery.
In earwy 2006, Virgin Bwue's parent company announced its intention to operate up to seven fwights a week to de United States using eider Los Angewes Internationaw Airport or San Francisco Internationaw Airport, saying dat de route was needed to make de airwine as profitabwe as possibwe. On 25 Juwy 2007, it was announced dat "V Austrawia" wouwd be de name of de new carrier.[66]
On 30 October 2012, Virgin Austrawia Howdings announced it had purchased a 60% stake in Tiger Airways Austrawia for $35 miwwion, uh-hah-hah-hah.[67] Tiger wouwd continue to operate as a wow cost subsidiary for 20 years. In October 2014 Virgin took fuww controw of Tigerair for one dowwar.[68]
On 11 Apriw 2013, Virgin Austrawia Howdings compweted its acqwisition of regionaw airwine Skywest Airwines. Skywest was den renamed Virgin Austrawia Regionaw Airwines.[69]
Marketing and sponsorship[edit]
Virgin Bwue's "Rabbitohs" Boeing 737 'Bondi Babe' at Sydney Airport
View of aircraft aft fuselage showing advertisements against a red background. The tail contains the underlined word
Virgin Bwue Boeing 737 wif speciaw scheme to advertise de Austrawian DVD rewease of de movie Avatar
Since its inception, Virgin Bwue had sponsored many sporting teams in a bid to promote its brand. In February 2007, Virgin Bwue signed a two-year sponsorship deaw wif NRL team de Souf Sydney Rabbitohs. The Rabbitohs were de first rugby weague team Virgin Austrawia sponsored.[70] One of de airwine's Boeing 737-800s had swight changes to its wivery to commemorate dis sponsorship; de Austrawian fwag hewd by de "Virgin Girw" was repwaced by de Rabbitohs' fwag. Virgin Austrawia is awso de officiaw sponsor of de Nationaw Basketbaww League (NBL), and de titwe sponsor of NBL team de Brisbane Buwwets.
In November 2010, de Austrawian Footbaww League (AFL) decided not to renew its marketing contract wif Qantas, instead choosing Virgin Bwue for a deaw worf A$5–8 miwwion, uh-hah-hah-hah.[71][72]
Virgin Bwue gained extra revenue (and pubwicity) by painting two aircraft as "fwying biwwboards". One promoted a brand of men's razor, de oder a Queenswand Government campaign to attract businesses to de state.[73] Bof aircraft have since been widdrawn from de Virgin Bwue fweet.
In 2007 Virgin Bwue introduced an advertising campaign wif de swogan "Get What You Want", named after de song by Queenswand band Operator Pwease dat featured in its TV advertisements. In 2009, Virgin Bwue introduced an aww new advertising campaign entitwed "Now dere's an idea". TV Commerciaws showing comparisons between fwying in Austrawia in 1999 as opposed to 2009 were screened, to de tune a song by The Cat Empire. New biwwboard advertising was waunched, showcasing Virgin Bwue's variety of products and on-time performance records.
In 2011, wif de airwine's rebranding as Virgin Austrawia, de airwine's swogan was changed to "Now you're fwying".[74]
Virgin Austrawia became a sponsor of de newest AFL cwubs, de Gowd Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants, in 2011 and 2014 respectivewy. Virgin Austrawia awso appear as a sponsor on de guernseys of de Carwton Footbaww Cwub since June 2017 initiawwy due to de woss of a sponsor of de cwub, but Carwton announced in August 2017 dat de partnership wiww be extended untiw de end of de 2022 AFL season, uh-hah-hah-hah.[75] In 2016, de airwine reached an agreement wif V8 Supercars to rename de annuaw motorsport series to de Virgin Austrawia Supercars Championship starting 1 Juwy.[76]
The airwine has won a number of awards since its inception, uh-hah-hah-hah. It and certain of its empwoyees won five 2009 service excewwence awards of de Customer Service Institute of Austrawia.[77] Since being named as best wow-cost airwine in de Asia/Pacific region in de Skytrax 2002 Airwine of de Year Survey, de airwine has been voted best airwine in a number of different categories and by a number of different organisations.[77]
As an empwoyer, Virgin Austrawia was recognised as de most attractive empwoyer in Austrawia in 2015 at de annuaw Randstad Award. It awso pwaced in de top 3 for de previous five years, incwuding a top spot in 2011.[78]
The airwine's freqwent fwyer program, Vewocity Rewards (now Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer), won de 2009 Freddie Awards for best freqwent fwyer program, best award redemption, best affinity credit card, best member communications and best website. This was de fourf consecutive Freddie Awards dat Vewocity won, uh-hah-hah-hah.[79]
Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer won de 2018 Freddie Awards for program of de year, best ewite program, best customer service, and best redemption abiwity. This was de sixf consecutive year dat Vewocity won de best redemption abiwity award.[80]
Codeshare agreements[edit]
As of January 2020, Virgin Austrawia has codeshare agreements wif de fowwowing airwines:[81]
Current fweet[edit]
As of August 2020, de Virgin Austrawia Airwines fweet consists of de fowwowing aircraft:[85][86]
Virgin Austrawia fweet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
J W Y Totaw
Boeing 737-700 2 8 120 128
Boeing 737-800 71 8 168 176
Boeing 737 MAX 8 23
Pwanned to be dewivered from February 2025.
Boeing 737 MAX 10 25 TBA Pwanned to be dewivered from Juwy 2021.
Totaw 73 48
Initiawwy, Virgin Austrawia weased its aircraft, but recent additions to de fweet have been purchased outright. Virgin Austrawia-owned Boeing 737s are indicated by de Boeing customer code FE in de modew suffix. Aircraft formerwy owned by V Austrawia are indicated by ZG in de modew suffix.
Boeing 777-300ER at Los Angewes Airport
In November 2006, Virgin Bwue announced pwans to purchase 11 Embraer 190 and dree Embraer 170 aircraft wif options for six more E-jets, which water became orders for an additionaw dree E170s and dree E190s.[87] In February 2008 a furder four E190s were ordered, weaving six options and ten purchase rights.[88] Virgin Bwue received its first Embraer 170 in earwy September 2007 at a speciaw ceremony at de Embraer pwant in Sao Jose dos Campos.[89] A revised wogo was introduced on de taiw, bringing de Virgin Bwue brand into wine wif de wogos of oder Virgin-branded companies.[11]
Like Virgin Atwantic, Virgin Austrawia gives de aircraft in its fweet names, previouswy incorporating femawe names and words connected wif Austrawian cities and wocawities or oder qwintessentiawwy Austrawian demes. Recent additions to de fweet have featured names of famous Austrawian beaches. Names on Virgin Austrawia aircraft incwude 'Brissie Lizzie' ("Brissie" being an Austrawian swang name for Brisbane, and "Lizzie" being swang for Ewizabef), 'Sassy Sydney' (Sydney is a femawe name as weww as de name of Austrawia's wargest city), 'Prue Bwue' (incorporating de name Prudence and awso a pun on de Austrawian phrase "true bwue", meaning "patriotic"), 'Tassie Tigress' (incorporating bof de swang name for Tasmania and de common name for de dywacine) and 'Mackay-be Diva' (a pun on de city of Mackay, Queenswand and Makybe Diva, a famous Austrawian racehorse). Beaches which have aircraft named after dem incwude Cabwe Beach, Cotteswoe Beach and Bondi Beach. Each aircraft in de Virgin Austrawia wivery (some were painted in Pacific Bwue wivery for cross-promotionaw reasons) awso features a "virgin girw" as nose art, compwete wif a wide-brimmed Aussie hat, traiwing an Austrawian fwag.
On 24 October 2007, Virgin Austrawia announced de introduction of premium economy on aww domestic fwights. As de e-jets awready have four-abreast seating, de number of seats on dese aircraft remained unchanged after de rowwout of premium economy.[90]
Virgin Austrawia began wong hauw internationaw operations as V Austrawia, commencing its first passenger fwight operations on 27 February 2009.[91] V Austrawia was re-branded as Virgin Austrawia's Long Hauw Internationaw Operations on 7 December 2011.[92]
Regionaw expansion[edit]
Virgin Austrawia ATR 72 Mission Beach
On 10 January 2011, Virgin Bwue entered a 10-year strategic awwiance wif Perf-based Skywest Airwines (now Virgin Austrawia Regionaw Airwines), to operate up to 18 new Virgin-branded turboprop aircraft from mid-2011.[93] On 23 February, it was announced dat de aircraft wouwd be ATR-72s, to enter service beginning in May 2011; dey wouwd awwow Virgin Austrawia to bof repwace its fweet of Embraer 170s and introduce new regionaw routes. The turboprops wouwd be operated by Skywest Airwines under a wet wease agreement.[94] The May in-service date was not met, and in wate Juwy de first announcement was made concerning routes to be served. It was reported dat de ATR-72s wouwd be initiawwy empwoyed on services between Brisbane and Gwadstone, Queenswand; from Brisbane and Sydney to Port Macqwarie in New Souf Wawes; and on additionaw services between Sydney and Canberra.[95]
On 25 January 2012, Virgin Austrawia announced additionaw services between Brisbane, Proserpine, Rockhampton and Cairns.[96] It wet weased two Fokker 100s from Awwiance Airwines to operate dese services.[97] On 26 February 2013, Virgin Austrawia announced it wouwd start fwights between Brisbane and Bundaberg on 4 May 2013.[98]
Former fweet[edit]
The airwine has removed de fowwowing aircraft types from passenger service:[99]
Virgin Austrawia former fweet
Aircraft Totaw Introduced Retired Notes
ATR 72-500 6 2015 2020
ATR 72-600 8 2015 2020 Aww Stored
Airbus A330-200 8 2011 2020 6 Stored, 2 disposed to Azuw Linhas Aereas
Boeing 737-300 1 2001 2004
Boeing 737-400 6 2000 2003
Boeing 777-300ER[100] 5 2011 2020 Aww Stored
Embraer E170 6 2007 2012
Embraer E190[101] 15 2008 2018
An agreement was signed wif Boeing on 1 Apriw 2010 for an order of fifty firm Boeing 737-800 aircraft, wif fwexibiwity to convert to eider Boeing 737-700s or Boeing 737-900ERs; as weww as 25 additionaw options and 30 future purchase rights. Dewiveries were scheduwed to be compweted in 2017.[102] In Juwy 2012, Virgin Austrawia announced an order for 23 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, wif dewiveries pwanned to be between 2019 and 2021.[103] Virgin converted its outstanding order for 17 Boeing 737-800 aircraft to de MAX modew in 2015, bringing de totaw order for dis type to 40 aircraft.[104] In August 2018, Virgin converted 10 of its 737 MAX 8 orders for de warger MAX 10 variant. Dewiveries of de MAX 10 were to begin in 2022.[105] In Apriw 2019, de airwine deferred dewiveries and converted 15 MAX 8 orders to de warger MAX 10 variant. Dewiveries of de MAX 10 were scheduwed to start in 2021, whiwe MAX 8's are not expected untiw 2025, however due to worwdwide groundings and suspensions of dewiveries and production of de 737 MAX aircraft temporariwy stopping fowwowing two fataw crashes, dewiveries are wikewy to be dewayed.[106]
One of two Pionair British Aerospace 146 cargo aircraft operating for Virgin Austrawia
Virgin Austrawia Cargo was waunched in Juwy 2015 after de airwine's contract to carry freight on behawf of Toww expired and was not renewed. The airwine signed a five-year carriage contract wif TNT in 2016 and operations of dedicated freighter aircraft commenced on 4 Juwy de same year.[107][108][109]
Virgin Austrawia Cargo fweet
Aircraft In Service Orders Notes
Boeing 737-300F
Wet weased from Airwork
British Aerospace 146-200QC
Wet weased from Pionair Austrawia
British Aerospace 146-200QT
Wet weased from Pionair Austrawia
Domestic and short-hauw internationaw operations[edit]
Business cwass[edit]
Virgin Austrawia offers a business cwass service on most of its jet aircraft. The seat pitch on de Airbus A330 aircraft was 150 cm (59 in); and is 95 cm (37 in) on its Boeing 737-800 fweet. It awso offered an internationaw suite-stywe experience on de Airbus A330 wif 20 Suites in a 1-2-1 wayout which ewectronicawwy converted to a wie fwat bed. This service was offered on coast to coast services between Perf and Brisbane, Mewbourne or Sydney.
Premium economy[edit]
Premium economy seats were fitted to a smaww number of de airwine's Boeing 737-800 aircraft fwying Trans Tasman routes, featuring an 85 cm (33 in) seat pitch. These have been phased out in favour of business cwass since Apriw 2015.
Economy seats offer 80 cm (31 in) seat pitch.
Internationaw wong-hauw operations[edit]
Virgin Austrawia offered a dree-cwass service on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft: Internationaw Business Cwass, Internationaw Premium Economy Cwass and Internationaw Economy Cwass. Aww dree cwasses featured ambient Mood Lighting rewative to de time of day or night, simiwar to dat of sister airwine Virgin America.
Internationaw business cwass[edit]
Internationaw business cwass[110] had a 1–2–1 configuration wif fuwwy horizontaw fwat beds dat were 188 cm (74.0 in) wong wif a seat pitch of 77 in (195.6 cm). There was a personaw workstation wif waptop power, USB swot and reading wight. Business cwass in-fwight entertainment featured a 12.1 in (30.7 cm) touchscreen PTV wif AVOD on every seat. This was phased out in 2016 and repwaced by "The Business" Suite offered on its A330 fweet. 'The Business' service was offered on internationaw services between Sydney, Mewbourne or Brisbane and Los Angewes, as weww as seasonaw services to Fiji.
Internationaw premium economy cwass[edit]
Premium economy cwass[111] had a 2–4–2 configuration, uh-hah-hah-hah. Premium economy had aww-weader seats wif a 38 in (96.5 cm) seat pitch, 20 in (50.8 cm) seat widf and a 9 in (22.9 cm) seat recwine. The seats were eqwipped wif adjustabwe headrests and footrests. There was a personaw workstation wif waptop power, USB swot and reading wight. Premium economy cwass in-fwight entertainment had a 10.6 in (26.9 cm) touchscreen PTV wif AVOD on every seat.
Internationaw Economy cabin on Virgin Austrawia 777-300ER
Internationaw economy cwass[edit]
Internationaw economy cwass[112] had a 3–3–3 configuration on de Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, whiwe a 2-4-2 configuration was used on de smawwer Airbus A330-200. Economy seats had a 32 in (81.3 cm) seat pitch, 18.8 in (47.8 cm) seat widf and seat recwine up to 6 in (15 cm). USB swots were avaiwabwe to power smartphones and oder personaw devices (MP3 Pwayers etc.). Economy cwass in-fwight entertainment featured a 9 in (23 cm) touchscreen PTV wif AVOD on every seat.
In-fwight amenities[edit]
Food and beverages[edit]
Virgin Austrawia offered business cwass passengers a "sophisticated" gourmet menu created by Austrawian chef Luke Mangan, uh-hah-hah-hah. For wunch and dinner dis incwuded a fuww dree-course meaw prepared on board by de crew.[113]
The food menu is accompanied by a premium range of Austrawian wines, beers and spirits and non-awcohowic beverages, incwuding barista-stywe coffee.[113]
In Economy Cwass, de airwine serves compwimentary snacks & non-awcohowic beverages to aww passengers on aww domestic Virgin Austrawia fwights, in addition compwimentary beer and wine is offered on aww services between capitaw cities departing between 5pm and 7pm.[113][114] On fwights between de East Coast and Perf, and aww internationaw fwights, compwimentary hot meaws and beverages are offered to aww Economy passengers.[115]
On aww domestic fwights and on short-hauw internationaw routes, a buy on board service wif additionaw food and drinks avaiwabwe for purchase was offered from a separate menu by Luke Mangan which incwuded a gourmet range of snacks, meaws and beverages. The menu was avaiwabwe on aww domestic & short-hauw internationaw fwights and on sewected fwights passengers awso had access to hot snacks, hot meaws and speciawity products such as gourmet ice cream.[113]
In-fwight entertainment[edit]
In December 2006, Virgin Austrawia (as Virgin Bwue) announced a partnership between Austrawian cabwe tewevision providers Foxtew and Austar, to introduce a "Live2Air"[116] service on most fwights by mid-2007. The Live2Air system was onwy avaiwabwe on sewected Boeing 737 aircraft, and was phased out beginning in 2012.
Virgin Austrawia's Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A330-200 aircraft's in-fwight entertainment RED was based on de Panasonic eX2 system. RED was fuwwy touch-screen and handset controwwed. There was no fee for use. RED featured an extensive video on demand wibrary dat incwudes new rewease fiwm, TV series and TV programmes. Destination guides were avaiwabwe. Oder functions avaiwabwe drough RED incwuded music on demand (approx 200+ CD wibrary) and video games. Seat-to-seat chat was avaiwabwe as weww as in fwight map and fwight information, uh-hah-hah-hah.
In December 2012, Virgin Austrawia introduced an in-fwight Wi-Fi system to provide music, movies and TV shows to tabwets, smartphones, waptops and simiwar devices. The system, which does not offer internet access, is estimated to be fitted on aww de airwine's pwanes widin 2 years.[117]
In 2018, Virgin Austrawia began upgrading de in-fwight Wi-Fi system in order to offer wirewess internet access. The Boeing 777 fweet was expected to be rowwed out by de end of 2018, whiwe de Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 fweets are expected to compwete rowwout of internet access by de end of 2019.[118][119] The regionaw fweets of Airbus A320s, ATR 72-600s and Fokker 100s wiww not be rowwed out wif internet Wi-Fi access.[120]
Lounge service[edit]
Virgin Austrawia's wounge at Mewbourne Airport in 2014
To capture a share of de business travewwer market, Virgin decided to provide a members' wounge faciwity for travewwers. Originawwy dis was cawwed The Bwue Room and provided faciwities to members and guests on a pay-as-you-go basis. Many of dese faciwities became avaiwabwe when Virgin rewocated into de former Ansett terminaws across de country, wif de defunct Gowden Wing cwub wounges weft behind being used as Bwue Room wounges, compwete wif furnishings.
In 2006, Virgin revamped de wounge faciwities and re-waunched de product as The Lounge, which offered aww-incwusive faciwities on a membership fee or casuaw fee basis. Upgraded faciwities provided incwuded buffet food and refreshments, newspapers, showers, computers, and WiFi internet access for travewwers.
In May 2011, Virgin again renamed de wounge simpwy referring to it as Virgin Austrawia wounge – designed to be a premium experience, wif spaces designed for specific uses and 'moods'.[citation needed]
Membership can be purchased onwine by wogging into a passenger's Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer account. Membership fees vary depending on de ewite status wevew. Lifetime memberships are awso avaiwabwe for purchase.[121]
Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer Program[edit]
Virgin Austrawia waunched its freqwent-fwyer program Vewocity Rewards in 2005, wif partner Nationaw Austrawia Bank offering a companion credit card. By 2007, points cowwected from sewected Westpac, American Express and Diners Cwub cards couwd be transferred to Vewocity Rewards, and effective September 2008, ANZ reward visa card points as weww. The program reached 4 miwwion members by de end of 2014.[122]
Status wevews were introduced to de program in wate 2007 as part of continued efforts to attract business travewwers. Awongside de entry-wevew "red" status, freqwent travewwers were given de opportunity to attain "siwver" and "gowd" status, each wif its own set of benefits.
Initiawwy, Vewocity was different from most oder freqwent fwyer programs, as points were earned rewative to de cost of a fwight, rader dan distance. Vewocity members originawwy earned 6 points per dowwar spent on Virgin Austrawia fwights. This was water awtered due to de introduction of status wevews; Red members now earned 5 points per dowwar, Siwver members remained at 6 points, and Gowd members earned 7. Points accruaw on V Austrawia, as weww as de majority of Vewocity's airwine partners, have awways based on distance.
Vewocity was de first freqwent fwyer program in Austrawia to offer "any seat, any time" reward fwight avaiwabiwity. The number of points reqwired to redeem an award seat directwy corresponds to de current fare of dat seat, awwowing any seat currentwy avaiwabwe to be redeemed. Qantas introduced a simiwar feature to deir freqwent fwyer program in May 2008.
In August 2011, de program was rewaunched as "Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer" and a pwatinum status wevew was introduced, among oder changes.
In Juwy 2013, Vewocity introduced de Gwobaw Wawwet function, which was de first prepaid travewwer card in Austrawia.[123] The key feature of dis card is it awwows you to woad your money and store it in oder supported currencies before travewwing. You can access to ATMs around de worwd as weww as shop at anywhere where visa is accepted. Supported currencies incwude Austrawian Dowwar (AUD), Canadian Dowwar (CAD), Euro (EUR), Pound Sterwing (GBP), Hong Kong Dowwar (HKD), Japanese Yen (JPY), New Zeawand Dowwar (NZD), Singapore Dowwar (SGD), Thai Baht (THB), US Dowwar (USD) and Souf African Rand (ZAR). You awso earn 1 Vewocity Point per $1 spent overseas and 1 point per $2 spent in Austrawia.
In 2015, Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer won de 'Program of de Year" in de Middwe East & Asia/Oceania District category at de Freddie Awards.[124]
• In 2003, a man wif a disabiwity and having incompwete qwadripwegia was removed from a Virgin Bwue fwight because staff dought he was drunk or a terrorist. He subseqwentwy settwed a wawsuit against de airwine.[125]
• In October 2005, de airwine wost a discrimination case over de age of fwight attendants dey empwoyed.[126] Eight former fwight attendants aged over 34 previouswy empwoyed by de cowwapsed Ansett Austrawia had appwied for empwoyment wif Virgin Bwue but none had gained work.[126] They cwaimed dey were discriminated against because of deir age and won compensation in March 2006.[127] The airwine's appeaw against dis decision faiwed and de company was ordered to pay costs.[128]
• In May 2006, a controversy arose over Virgin Bwue's powicy wif regard to passengers wif disabiwities. Former Chief Executive Brett Godfrey affirmed de powicy of de company dat passengers who were "unabwe to wook after demsewves on board shouwd travew wif carers".[129] After a hearing in de Austrawian Human Rights and Eqwaw Opportunity Commission, Virgin Bwue backed down from dis powicy, agreeing to wimit it to passengers weighing over 130 kg.[130] However de chair of de ACT Disabiwity Advisory Counciw, Craig Wawwace, who uses a wheewchair, was refused passage on a Virgin Bwue fwight booked for 8 October 2006.[131] In a media rewease on 29 September, ACTDAC cwaimed dat "Virgin Bwue has awso refused to refund $418 in fares from de fwight for Mr Wawwace or Counciw staff. Ironicawwy, dey have wisted dese fares as a 'credit' – a credit Mr Wawwace or oder peopwe in his situation are prohibited from accessing by Virgin's own powicy".[132]
• In January 2007, Virgin Bwue attracted controversy when its staff at Adewaide Airport ordered a passenger to remove a T-shirt bearing de swogan "Worwd's Number One Terrorist" above an image of George W. Bush. The wearer, Awwen Jasson from London, was informed dat de garment was potentiawwy offensive. Jasson had awso experienced difficuwty on earwier fwights wif Qantas. A spokeswoman for Virgin Bwue defended de decision, uh-hah-hah-hah.[133]
• In January 2011, de airwine was fined $110,000 after breaking anti-spamming reguwations.[134] Consumers compwained dey were unabwe to unsubscribe from de airwine's maiwing wist.[135] The Austrawian Communications and Media Audority said de airwine wouwd "Engage an independent dird party to doroughwy assess its emaiw marketing processes and to impwement any recommended changes."[136]
• Virgin Austrawia's powicy of not awwowing mawe passengers to sit next to chiwdren travewwing awone for fear of chiwd mowestation has been criticised by persons concerned as act of discrimination against men (Airwine sex discrimination powicy controversy).[137] Fowwowing a pubwic outcry, de company announced it wouwd review its powicy.[138]
• In mid-2014, de Austrawian Competition and Consumer Commission took wegaw action against Virgin Austrawia in respect of drip pricing.[139][140]
1. ^ From deir foundation untiw January 2013, Virgin Bwue/Virgin Austrawia and Pacific Bwue used de IATA code 'DJ'. From its foundation Virgin Austrawia Internationaw Airwines (formerwy known as V Austrawia) operated under a different IATA code, 'VA'. Use of de two codes continued from de May 2011 company reorganisation and rebranding untiw January 2013, wif de wong-hauw fwights operated by de Boeing 777 fweet using de 'VA' code. In January 2013, use of de IATA code 'DJ' was discontinued and aww fwights now use de code 'VA'.[1]
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71. ^ Sheahan, Mike (18 November 2010). "AFL dumps Qantas as its officiaw carrier, set to sign deaw wif Virgin". The Herawd Sun. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
72. ^ Kitney, Damon (18 November 2010). "Virgin Bwue steaws AFL officiaw airwine contract from Qantas". The Austrawian. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
73. ^ photos of Virgin Bwue speciaw paint scheme aircraft. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
74. ^ Now You're Fwying, Virgin Austrawia, 4 May 2011.
75. ^ "Bwues soar wif Virgin Austrawia for five more years". Retrieved 6 Apriw 2019.
76. ^ "Get ready to fwy". V8 Supercars. 26 Apriw 2016. Retrieved 26 Apriw 2016.
77. ^ a b Virgin Bwue – Our Awards. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
78. ^ "Popuwarity soars: Virgin Austrawia is de most attractive empwoyer in Austrawia". Randstad Austrawia. Randstad Austrawia. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
79. ^ "Vewocity voted de worwd's favourite rewards program!". 16 February 2009. Archived from de originaw on 11 May 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
80. ^ "Partner Update". Vewocity Freqwent Fwyer.
81. ^ "Airwine Partners". Virgin Austrawia. Virgin Austrawia. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
82. ^ "Airwine Partners". Virgin Austrawia. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
83. ^ "Virgin Austrawia and Hainan Airwines waunch codeshare". Retrieved 5 June 2018.
84. ^ "Hong Kong Airwines and Virgin Austrawia to Launch Codeshare Partnership". Hong Kong Airwines. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
85. ^ "Aircraft register search". Retrieved 4 August 2019.
86. ^ Virgin Austrawia Aircraft Seat Maps
87. ^ Virgin Bwue Orders Embraer E-Jet Aircraft (The Austrawian: 2 November 2006)
88. ^ "Embraer Receives New E-Jets Order From Virgin Bwue" – Virgin Bwue Media Rewease. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
89. ^ "Virgin Bwue takes dewivery of its first Embraer E-170 airwiner" Fwight Gwobaw, 04/09/07
90. ^ "Virgin Bwue > News and Press Reweases". Archived from de originaw on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
91. ^ "Austrawia's New Internationaw Airwine Takes Off" (Press rewease). V Austrawia. 27 February 2009. Archived from de originaw on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
92. ^ "VBA Financiaw Resuwt for Fuww Year Ended 30 June 2011". Retrieved 3 Apriw 2013.
93. ^ "Virgin Bwue and Skywest to team up on regionaw routes | Austrawian Aviation Magazine". Austrawianaviation, 10 January 2011. Retrieved 3 Apriw 2013.
94. ^ "Virgin Bwue's new ATR72s to arrive from May". Fwight Internationaw. 23 February 2011. Archived from de originaw on 23 February 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
95. ^ Steve Creedy. "Virgin ups east coast offerings". The Austrawian.
96. ^ "Virgin Austrawia announces furder capacity increases to meet demand". 25 January 2012.
97. ^ "Virgin on de unfaidfuw for freqwent Queenswand fwyers". 25 January 2012.
98. ^ Prain, Emiwy (26 February 2013). "Virgin to fwy to and from Bundy, Qantas wewcomes competitor". News-Maiw. Bundaberg. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
99. ^ "Virgin Bwue Fweet Detaiws and History".
100. ^
101. ^ "Virgin Austrawia's Embraer era comes to an end, accepts wast 737NG dewivery". austrawianaviation, Retrieved 3 February 2018.
102. ^ "Austrawia's Virgin Bwue to buy 105 new Boeing pwanes". BBC News. 1 Apriw 2010. Retrieved 1 Apriw 2010.
103. ^ "Virgin Austrawia orders 23 Boeing 737 Max aircraft – Chicago Tribune". Reuters. 4 Juwy 2012. Retrieved 3 Apriw 2013.
104. ^ "Virgin converts 737-800 orders to de MAX". Austrawian Aviation, uh-hah-hah-hah. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
105. ^ "Boeing Wewcomes Virgin Austrawia as Newest 737-MAX-10 Customer". Boeing. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
106. ^ "Virgin Austrawia deways Boeing 737 MAX order, adds more MAX 10s". Austrawian Business Travewwer. 30 Apriw 2019.
107. ^ "Virgin Austrawia's freighter aircraft take off". Austrawian Aviation, uh-hah-hah-hah. 11 Juwy 2016.
108. ^ "Ex-European BAe 146/Avro RJ Regionaw Jetwiners Find New Homes and Appwications". BAE Systems Regionaw Aircraft. Regionaw Aircraft. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
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110. ^ "Internationaw Business Cwass". Archived from de originaw on 9 November 2011. Retrieved 3 Apriw 2013.
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113. ^ a b c d "Virgin Austrawia on Board Menu". Virgin Austrawia Airwines. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
114. ^ "Compwimentary food on aww fwights across de Austrawian domestic network" (Press rewease). Virgin Austrawia. 15 Apriw 2015. Retrieved 17 Apriw 2015.
115. ^ "Internationaw Short Hauw Onboard" (Press rewease). 15 Apriw 2015. Retrieved 17 Apriw 2015.
116. ^ "Virgin Bwue – Live 2 Air". Retrieved 3 Apriw 2013.
117. ^ "Virgin Austrawia to Provide Infwight Movies, Music via On-Board WiFi". 24 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
118. ^ "Virgin Austrawia waunches Wi-Fi on internationaw fwights". 5 June 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
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124. ^ "2015 Annuaw Freddie Awards (27f) Resuwts". Freddie Awards. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
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127. ^ "Eqwaw Time Newswetter of de Anti-Discrimination Board of New Souf Wawes" (PDF). Eqwaw Time Newswetter of de Anti-Discrimination Board of New Souf Wawes. Number 66 Autumn: 4. 2006.
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129. ^ "Virgin Bwue defends wheewchair powicy". The Age. Mewbourne. AAP. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
130. ^ Pewwy, Michaew (2 June 2006). "Virgin backs down in disabiwity row". The Sydney Morning Herawd.
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Externaw winks[edit]
Media rewated to Virgin Austrawia at Wikimedia Commons |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49849 | South more bellwether than backwater
Don’t look now, but the South may be leading the nation into the 21st century. The data seem to say so, even though most Americans haven’t seemed to notice.
The U.S. can be divided into four cultural/geographic regions: the Northeast with 11 states, the Midwest (12 states), the Pacific/Mountain West (13 states) and the South (14 states).
This division excludes Washington, D.C., puts Alaska and Hawaii in the West and divides the border states as follows: Kansas and Missouri in the Midwest, West Virginia and Kentucky in the South and Maryland in the Northeast.
The Northeast enjoys a rich history of cultural, educational and economic leadership. The Midwest is known for fertile farmlands and great industrial cities. The West has spectacular natural beauty and is home to many high-tech industries. And the South is best known for racial strife, conservative politics and rural poverty.
Which of the four regions has the smallest population? Which has the smallest percent of the country’s gross domestic product? And which has the least influence on presidential elections? If you accept the common wisdom, you might be surprised.
In percentage of U.S. population, as of 2003, the regions rank as follows: South (33.64 percent), West (22.90 percent) Midwest (22.53 percent) and Northeast (20.92 percent).
The percentage of U.S. GDP in 2001 was distributed as follows: South (30.41 percent), Northeast (24.13 percent), West (23.77 percent) and Midwest (21.69 percent).
On the political front, from 1952 to 2004 the regions ranked as follows in number of presidents elected from each: South (5), West (2), Midwest (1) and Northeast (1). That is, five of the last nine men elected president established their political identities in the South.
Do the data surprise you? In population, production and political clout the South leads the nation, and the lead has been increasing in all three categories.
In the middle of the 20th century, Southerners were leaving the South in record numbers to find jobs in the Midwest. Southern economic planners realized that for the South to catch up with other regions, it had to attract more industry.
Initially progress was slow as the South struggled to escape its past, but decades of planning finally paid off. South Carolina brought in BMW, Tennessee got Nissan and Volkswagen, Geogia got Kia, and Alabama attracted Mercedes, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.
Critics complained that these automotive giants went south to find cheap labor, but in fact the wages paid at the new factories were very good–and looked even better when the recession brought GM and Chrysler to the brink of collapse. And it wasn’t just automobile manufacturing that came south.
As Joe Hollingsworth pointed out in 2003 in “The Southern Advantage,” the South not only has more business startups than any other region, a larger percentage of them succeed. listed American’s “hot” entrepreneurial large and mid-sized cities for 2005. Six of the top 10 large cities and eight of the top 10 mid-sized cities were in the South. In other words, 60 percent to 80 percent of the nation’s top entrepreneurial cities are in the South.
If you still have “Yes, but …” on your lips and are loathe to miss an opportunity to assert that the South trails the nation in education, per capita wealth and productivity and average standard of living, then you have missed the point. The South is leading in population, production and presidential politics in spite of its historical problems and handicaps.
The stereotype of a red-state South may lead conservatives to take heart in the South’s political power, but in fact the South has often supported liberal presidents. John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton did well in the South. The South rejected Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis as too liberal but so did most states outside the South.
The core of the national conservative movement is still centered in the Midwest and West, not the South. Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and Virginia are the only states that voted against Kennedy in 1960, Carter in 1976, and Clinton in 1992. Only the last two of these states are in the South.
People who still cling to the stereotype of a rural, backward, divided and conservative South that is slipping further and further behind in an otherwise productive and progressive nation, are missing one of the biggest stories of our day. An industrial and culturally diverse South has emerged as the nation’s economic and political engine. The voices of the South may still be slow and soft, but southern progress is not. |
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Origins of Mountain Biking - Joe Breeze
"Who 'invented' the mountain bike? Where was the birth of dirt? Who was the first to throw a bike down a hill? A bunch of hippies from Marin County California, that's who. Here, Outer Edge magazine speaks to Joe Breeze, one of the so-called Godfathers of mountain biking..."
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49891 | So we finally have snow! It feels like it has been a long time coming, but it looks like we’re into snow season (for the next few days at least). So what can you do in the snow with your kids?
Most of us will start with building a snowman. If you have younger kids then they might also want to build a Snowdog!
Kids love sledging. Can you build a ramp to sledge down in your garden or in the park? If you have a slide then maybe just pile snow at the bottom of it and then slide down into it! Younger kids might enjoy being pulled around in the slegde (by a parent or older sibling), or might enjoy pulling their toys around in the sledge.
Making snowballs and having a snowball fight is fun, but could you build a fort too?
Have you got to clear your drive to get the car out? Let them ‘help’!
Make tracks in the snow and then take it in turns to follow them and step in each other’s footprints. Lie back and make snow angels in the snow. For pre-schoolers, use sticks or your feet to make large letters in the snow (or smiley faces etc).
Where are all your sand toys? They can be used in the snow too – scoop and dig and make snow-castles or a snow construction site!
Fancy a snack, then get out the kitchen utensils and do some play cooking by mixing snow around in your pots and pans.
Get creative by painting the snow. Just mix a little food colouring with water and add it to a sprayer (or put it in a jar and then drop onto snow using a baster)
And when you have finished having fun and need to get inside and get warm, why not try these stories to read and films to watch together.
Stories to read – The Grufallo’s Child by Julia Donaldson and Axel Schleffer, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.
Films to watch – The Snowman, The Snowman and the Snowdog, Frozen. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49896 | Twin-Hunt Methods - some different paths
In the first part, we looked at twin-hunt methods in which both hunt bells ring plain hunt in the plain course. However, there are plenty of methods where this is not the case.
The first point to note is that, in any method, a hunt bell doesn't have to ring plain hunt. A hunt bell is just any bell that gets back to the same place at the end of every lead. And, for that matter, it doesn't have to be the treble either.
Little Dunham Little Alliance Minor St Hilda's College Minor Very Little Bob Minor
We shall first look at methods where the treble plain hunts, but the other hunt bell doesn't. Some of these can be very useful for a practice night, where the ringer of the second hunt bell can practise some work repeatedly, or if one of the ringers doesn't want to learn the whole of a new method. For instance:
Derbyshire Bob Doubles Woodton Bob Minor Jobus Bob Minor Poyle Bob Triples
Note that, until the advent of the Framework for Method Ringing in 2019, Woodton and Poyle were known as Slow Course methods. These were methods where the treble plain hunted, while the 2 was the other hunt bell, making seconds at the lead end. This class has now been dropped, but some methods keep the "Slow" as part of the method name. The above methods were chosen to show a variety of hunt bell lines, but here are the blue lines for the working bells, just for interest.
Derbyshire Bob Doubles Woodton Bob Minor Jobus Bob Minor Poyle Bob Triples
Picking up on that pattern of the former Slow Course methods, there are several methods that can be easily derived from familiar Minor methods. These come from the group of methods, like St Clements and Double Oxford, which have triple-dodging on the front. The dodges are then replaced with places. In St Simon's and St Martin's Doubles, this process still gives a single-hunt method, but in Minor, the result is that the 2 stays on the front for the whole lead, then makes seconds, and becomes a hunt bell. Meanwhile 4ths place bell goes onto the front, but then comes back out again to dodge 3-4 up.
St Clement's Maplin Double Oxford Cottesmore
And this is the effect that change has on the blue lines:
St Clement's Maplin Double Oxford Cottesmore
You can do a similar trick with the Doubles methods, like St Simon's, with a pair of bells working together on the front. The simplest way is to make the frontwork symmetrical, using a 125 place notation at the half-lead. So, the 2 ends up being taken off the lead by the treble and making seconds. Here is what happens to St Simon's, St Martin's, St Osmund and Eynesbury, respectively. You can also do the same with the St Nicholas group of methods.
Rugby Bob Slapton Slow Bob Merton Bob Caunton Bob
That's 8 blows in lead and 6 blows in 2nds place in Caunton! You can also use leads of these methods in place of calls in St Simon's (etc), swapping a pair of bells over. Using 4 leads of Rugby (etc), you can get a true 120, without any Bobs or Singles.
You can also have Doubles methods with three hunt bells, leaving only two working bells. This means they have a short plain course and need lots of calls to get a 120. For instance, in St Dunstan's Bob Doubles, the 3 and 4 are both hunt bells.
St Dunstan's Bob
Here are some final examples of twin-hunt methods, showing more different paths for the second hunt bell:
Aussie Heroes Surprise Minor Big Cold Wet One Surprise Minor Gorhambury Alliance Major London Little Surprise Major |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49902 | My latest book is The One Who Swam With The Fishes.
Sign up for my newsletter: The Internet Personified
3 June 2011
I write this from a friend's flat in Bandra. She's in a high rise on a street full of old style Bandra buildings, so to my left, if I peer out the balcony, I can see tiled roofs and beyond the tiled roofs, even more high rises. In the flat immediately below this one, a group of girls has been practicing a dance performance for what seems like years, the same music on a loop and I do wish they'd get on with it, instead of stopping at 5..6..7..8 and bursting into giggles. Oh goodie, they seem to have gotten it down perfectly.
I know I haven't written in a bit, but real life is both happening and not happening. Life slowed down and while normal, regular things happened, there was nothing I felt particularly like writing about. Stuff like "oh, I went to a party" and "oh, this is what I bought when I went shopping", nothing very interesting, nothing life changing in any sense. And even though nothing life changing has happened to me on this trip, my "summer vacation" as I'm calling it, the fact of being in Bombay is reason enough to blog.
Okay, so interesting things:
Interesting Thing One is the fact that I am slowly teaching myself to cook. I felt like having a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, a real, where I feed people things other than take out and booze dinner party. I've never been a kitchen whiz, never been a foodie, even, but this overwhelming need to nourish suddenly came upon me. Is this what happens when you're almost thirty? So I went to this food blog and picked out this recipe, served it with L'Opera crusty bread and good butter and it all finished up! Not a leftover in sight, and it was such fun hearing people say I was a good cook, because it's not a skill I thought I had at all. Since I was now hooked to the praise and the feeding, I decided to try something a bit more complicated for my second round of dinner guests and made this. It was a bit more complicated and required lots of prep time, and I froze my fingers trying to mould the semi frozen mince, and the sight and smell of the raw meat and the blood made me gag, but I did it! I was so proud of my burgers, even as they "set" in the fridge, I made everyone admire them before I cooked them and not a leftover again. We even had one left over, which someone ate. And they weren't small burgers either.
So, now, I have a reputation of being a good cook. Isn't that weird? In the past, quite proudly, I declared that all I could do was instant food, cheese maggi and so on. But I think Indian food is a lot harder to do well than Western, also, while cooking simple Indian food is great, I like to experiment. I like to plate my meals, to offer bread instead of roti, to basically only cook the stuff that you wouldn't normally eat at home. Individual portions, measured out per guest. Then, at some point in the future, I will sit down with my mother and get her Andhra recipes, and my father and get his Malayali recipes, but in the meanwhile, I'm enjoying my "fancy food" phase. Up next: risotto with mushrooms, leeks and bacon!
Interesting Thing Two is actually a direct reaction to thing one. I'm moving. I need a larger, less slummy space (and my little hole in the wall is getting quite slummy this summer). In the past, it was winter and pretty with the sunshine shining in, now, with only one tank of water for the whole building and two new families downstairs and a counter top for a kitchen, well, I got to thinking, I should have a space I'm proud of, no? Especially since I entertain so much. I think I might have found the place of my dreams, but since all is up in the air at the moment, I'm not going to blog about it till I actually move and have pictures I can show you.
So, that's my list of interesting things. I'm loving being in Bombay right now, the monsoons sort of started yesterday, my fifth time watching it explode over the city. Might've been a false alarm, because it hasn't rained since. Oh well. Delhi's been nice and coolish too, over the past two weeks, so it's nice. Life is nice.
1. the burger thing looks quite yummy! I still think I wont ever reach a stage to cook at all :)
but hey never say never I guess...
keep cooking ! :)
And Delhi seems to be confused about its weather...
2. I discovered cooking when life forced me to start doing it myself. Until then I too prided myself in being utterly un-domestic. But when I did start, boy, i discovered it make me really happy! And you sound happy, so Im happy for you :)
3. Missed your blogging & glad to see you're back, even if there's no Big Stuff to write about -- you've had enough drama this year already. Looking fwd to reading your next post & photos.
4. Quick (silly?) question....are we talking raw mangoes or ripe ones?
5. Great recipes from great blogs ! Even cooking is my new found love. Nice to hear the same from u .All the best with ur new place !
6. Maybe people were just lying to you that you were a good cook for whatever their motives were.
Talking about meat, its interesting to eat every non-endangered species once - but thats all. Tick it off the list. Human meat should be the ultimate one. Once one has ticked it off, there will not be any need to tick off any other creatures. One would have attracted enough attention to himself by announcing at a party that he/she has eaten human meat.
Remember an anthropologist working with some tribes in Indonesia mentioning eating human meat with one tribe.
7. hey I long time reader. I know you have thousands of readers, but more readers is always good :)
Your blog could reach thousands more of Mumbai readers. Interested?
A one time submission of your blog RSS url in is all you need. Then sit back and watch how automatically brings Mumbai readers.
PS: Create an account in and submit your blog url here
8. Hey, first visit to this blog and I admit I haven't read your book yet. Though I have flipped through it in Crossword many a times.
I was expecting something heavier than cooking and weather but this is fine too. Bombay rains can make any writer lose his/her words to the weather.
Anyhow, that coffee cup on the header is extremely tempting. Will come back again :)
9. Plzz post often! its just been a week since I started looking up ur blog and am all ga ga over it..
Jc / Tc /small make my drowsy work hours splendid :P
Boss if u are reading this,I still do keep up with dead lines :P
10. Hey eM, good to know you've started cookin! I took up cooking some time back and yes, it feels great when people praise your food! :D
I like making all the 'fancy food' only so you might want to check out my blog:
I made a seven course meal stretched over seven days - one course each day. It was fun and din't stress me out! You should try doing it!
Good luck with your new apartment! :)
11. i love cooking for friends too! Love the compliments and the "mmmm" noises! :P
I'm looking to move as well, and all I can think about is my living room, filled with people, just chilling and enjoying themselves.
*fingers crossed* (for you as well!) Good luck!
12. cooking always gives pleasure nd makes u happy....m saying so based on my personal experiences,so keeep up the good work....practice makes man perfect;)
13. Hmm. Nice yummy posting.
14. Nokia Mobile Price List
15. I've been meaning to try the recipes on this blog, and think it might be right up your alley:
It has Indian-Mexican fusion recipes and they sound awesome.
16. I have always been a foodie and love cooking but while in college found very little time except on Sundays...then moved out and relied on outside food...but finally after many years, now i have set up my own kitchen and i love experimenting with dishes.
Even i have this urge to feed people, so whenever i cook something special give it for sampling to my landlady and she praises it dil khol ke :)
|
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49933 | 5 January 2017
Mark Crossley
When listener Ashley Connick suggested the topic of penalties for this week's Football Fives Podcast, three of us were delighted. The other? Shocked that one of our listeners opened up a subject that wasn't bloody awful. So we went with it, and this week's show is all about the art of the spot kick and its assorted other odds and sods.
Par example, how would they be replaced if FIFA binned them in favour of another football match tie-breaker? Can a penalty ever truly be saved? And, most importantly of all, is the penalty shoot-out in any way a lottery? (Spoiler: of course it's not, stupid.)
And, of course, we talk about our favourite penalty takers as well as our favourite and least favourite ever shoot-outs. Because it wouldn't be Football Fives without us just talking about stuff we remember, would it?
Submit a question:
Listen to the show:
Click to play / right-click to download (MP3)
Import to podcatcher of choice (feed)
Subscribe in iTunes |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49945 |
Sunday, November 14, 2010
High heat...
Day 376:
I was working the lunch shift again and we weren't that busy so I was able to get a lot of stuff done. The burners were on full blast and I was cooking up some heat. This is the view from under our kama. This is precisely why our soup only takes hours and not days to be ready to serve.
Anyway, I decided to try the tsukemen from Rokurinsha that Boom got me for my bday.
The noodles were thick like udon.
And they took more than 10 minutes to cook.
But they were incredible. I still can't believe I haven't been to Rokurinsha yet.
I need to go there soon.
After work I went to go visit Uno-san to catch up over a shot of beer.
And a shot of homemade umeshu. After one or two of these, you will probably feel like the sumo dude sat on you. It's deathly strong.
Remember the bowl from Ippudo, Setaga-ya, and Nakamoto that I had at the Tokyo Ramen Show? Well here's the 7-11 version.
As you might have guessed, it wasn't as good, but it was still good.
The noodles were especially very different from what I remember.
But I wasn't complaining. Only in Japan can you eat something like this while sitting on the sidewalk in the middle of the night.
1. OMG Is that cabbage in the ramen! Love it. Now I want to try umeshu..
2. Looks a hell of a lot better than a Go-Go taco from our State-side 7-11s!
3. @Pepper: you've never tried umeshu?
@MRatito: i want a Go-Go taco. haha. |
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49971 | IQL Indian Quiz League – Episode 10
Questions from Episode 10 – Semifinal 2(1 Mar 2013) of India Quiz League (IQL) being shown on National Geographic Channel India.
All the questions from KBC Season 6
Play the Online Quiz Game
(R1)Professor Charles Xavier is known as the founder of which of these?
a. G.I.Joe b. The Avengers c. The X-Men d. Justice League of America
Ans. The X-Men
(R1)The Alphonso Mango is named after Afonso de Albuquerque, who belonged to which of these empires?
a. French b. Spanish c. Portugese d. English
Ans. Portugese
(R1)With which of these products if the 7X formula associated?
a. 7UP b. Sprite c. Coca-Cola d. Pepsi
Ans. Coca-Cola
(R1)If one crosses the Bering Strait, from where to where are you likely to go?
a. USA-Russia b. Australia-NZ c. Malaysia-Indonesia d. Turkey-Greece
Ans. USA-Russia
(Entertainment)Which filmmaker has worked as a scriptwriter for the films Satya, Kaun and Mumbai Cutting?
a. Vishal Bharadwaj b. Anurag Basu c. Anurag Kashyap d. Ram Gopal Verma
Ans. Anurag Kashyap
(Sports)Swiss Tennis Start Martina Hingis has won her only grand slam event in mixed doules with which of these Indian players?
a. Mahesh Bhupathi b. Rohan Bopanna c. Leander Paes d. Prakash Amritraj
Ans. Mahesh Bhupathi
(Mixed Bag)What does the Scoville Heat Index measure?
a. Relative Temperature b. Crime Rates c. Population Heat Signature d. Hotness of Chillies
Ans. Hotness of Chillies
(History & Mythology)Legendary traveller Marco Polo used the term Cathay for which of these present day countries?
a. Mongolia b. China c. Tibet d. Bhutan
Ans. China
(R3)In Arabic, what does the word Sahara mean?
a. Lake b. Mountain c. Grassland d. Desert
Ans. Desert
(R3)In terms of medals won, which is India’s most successful sport at the Olympics?
a. Shooting b. Wrestling c. Hockey d. Boxing
Ans. Hockey
(R3)Part of which James Bond film was shot in Udaipur?
a. Tomorrow Never Dies b. Golden Eye c. Octopussy d. License to Kill
Ans. Octopussy
(R3)All banknotes issues in India are guaranteed by which body?
a. World Bank b. Central Government c. RBI d. Ministry of Finance
Ans. Central Government |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/49990 | It’s Good to Have Haters (Once in a While)
Tuesday, July 15, 2014 Stef dela Cruz 10 Comments
Haters are every person’s bane. Haters stalk you online, post anonymous comments on your Facebook page or blog that are rude or sarcastic, and become a source of annoyance. But having haters is not always a bad thing. In fact, it may be good to have haters once in a while.
Always remember that hatred is not the opposite of love and admiration; indifference is. So, if someone hates you, it means they feel strongly for you and their hatred may just be a form of defense mechanism called reaction formation.
Haters: An Example of “Reaction Formation”
In reaction formation, when a person knows he admires or envies you but he can’t handle that fact, he develops the exact opposite reaction of what he really feels. The typical example of reaction formation is a spiritual person who happens to be a pedophile: although he loves children (in a sick sense), he knows it’s wrong, so he forms a reaction and overtly starts hating pedophilia instead. He may even go to the extent of joining rallies against known pedophiles or lobbying for a heavier punishment for pedophiles… despite the fact that he is one.
So, if you have haters, they are most probably people who have one defense mechanism in common: reaction formation. They secretly envy and admire you but they can’t live with it.
Haters: Why It’s Good To Have Them
We should avoid fights and arguments, acting as peacemakers whenever possible; however, we can never avoid having haters if we are in the public eye. As explained above, haters are a mutated form of fans – and they will always be part of the package.
Do not fret; having haters can actually be a good thing! Here are a few reasons why it’s good to have haters once in a while.
• Haters are mirrors that show the mistakes you might have overlooked. Having a busy life, even when it is dedicated to noble causes, may distract you from noticing some of your mistakes. Haters are one of the first people to point these mistakes out, serving as a sort of moral checkpoint. And yes, we all need those checkpoints.
• Haters are fans, in a twisted way. A normal person who hates a public figure will not go out of his way nor spend extra time just to stalk or annoy his object of hatred. An admirer-turned-hater, on the other hand, will do exactly that. Haters usually obsess about the person they hate. Their worlds may revolve around the person they so hate – and really, isn’t that a little flattering? Read on for more.
• Haters give your life more spice. Can you imagine how boring your life would be if all you have are loving admirers and friends? Haters give life to your social networks and websites. They post such snarky remarks that get other people to react, post, and repost what happened. And before you know it, your haters have helped make you even more popular.
• Haters bring out your true admirers. Whenever a hater attacks a public figure, admirers and friends come to the rescue. Where there is hatred, love also springs forth. It’s the yin and yang of social politics!
So, if you have haters (or “frenemies” who act like friends but hate on you when your back is turned), don’t be upset. Some people can’t help but obsess about you, even if it’s in a twisted way. Don’t let it get to you. Let the obsession (and the envy or the hatred) lie in their hands, not yours. And if you do get hateful comments on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, here are useful tips on how to handle negative comments.
Be flattered that your haters are following your every move! Believe me, haters may be doing you a great service. Speaking of which, feel free to visit my Facebook page (whether you’re an admirer or a hater). And feel free to share your “hater” experience below!
Stef dela CruzAbout the blogger
1. Haters gonna hate... hahaha :)
I have a "hater" before who pretended to be an NBI agent and threatened to take it down.
I assume he was one of the peeps who's dreams were shattered upon reading that the Bourne Legacy shoot was cancelled.
Haven't heard from him ever since hahaha :)
Great post Stef! :)Keep it up!
2. i just had a 'FRENEMY' lately.:))It takes one to be a tough cookie to have them because you really don't know what's on their mind about you. Well, what I did now is just let her be what she wanted to do. I have nothing against her besides it's a waste of time for me.
3. I got my first negative comment in my blog just a few days ago from of course an anonymous hater, at first I really felt bad. After reading it I told myself I will not comment back until my annoyance is gone which is good.. Hehe. I do realize too that anonymous has a point he just chose the wrong words, he mentioned something like my commentors are giving me "false praises". Hmmm but I learned something from it and that's what's important.
4. Yep, having haters can't be all that bad. They'll be in agony, but you don't have to be! ;)
5. Haters are mirrors that show the mistakes you might have overlooked- very true. one mistakes and they'll raise hell,lol
Haters are fans, in a twisted way- they probably are fan because they keep staling you
Haters give your life more spice- I can relate here.
Haters bring out your true admirers- I remember back in Qatar, when I was still one of the admins of the biggest Filipino group site .I have lots of haters who attacks below the belt.I don't have to defend myself coz there are lots who did it.they just told me to keep quiet and they'll handle it.
And because of the haters, i got a lot of friends who loves me and consider me their mother ,sister,friend. thank you haters!
6. I hate you for posting this hahaha, I love my haters that is why, I am now using my real name in every social media flatform, because they are always chasing me, hahaha again, and you've got another visitor just to read my comments here. Anyway you can google my name and find me on LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, MySpace, and you can visit my personal website :), but really i love the way you presented this post. See you!
7. I have one!
She stalks me all over the web, but by doing so, she actually boosts my blog stats! Haha!
A giveaway sponsor even found my blog through her, lol! :)
8. Oo nga naman. Mga haters na nageeffort, mya bahid na obsession na rin sila, sa effort pa talagang magcomment at magpoint out.
9. Well, we all have haters, i think. what's important eh wag magpaapekto sa kanila:)
10. I once had a critic, but I still haven't had a hater both online and IRL. True, it's boring without one.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50028 | Extra Evolution
Prerequisites: Animal companion class feature.
Benefit: The alchemist’s animal companion gains 1 evolution point as if the alchemist selected the Extra Evolution feat, even if he doesn’t have the prerequisites. The animal companion can assign this point to any evolution available to a summoner’s eidolon. Once assigned, the choice is set. The companion must conform to any limitations of the evolution. For instance, only companions with wings can take the wing buffet evolution. If the alchemist gains a new companion, his old companion loses all evolutions, and the new companion gains those evolution points and can expend them immediately in new evolutions. This discovery can be taken more than once, but no more than once for every 5 levels the alchemist possesses. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50037 | Posted: Nov 15, 2016 12:55 pm
by chairman bill
You could simply say that you have no interest in their superstitious beliefs. If they say their beliefs aren't superstitious, point out that superstition is the belief in supernatural agency, and if they believe a god created everything, that is by definition a superstitious belief.
I've twice left preachers thinking about how to respond, and as I've walked away, reminded them not to step on any cracks in the pavement. On a remote coast path in Wales, I might be tempted to check that nobody is watching, then give the buggers a quick shove :-) |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50053 | Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books I'm going to devour in autumn 2016
top ten tuesday fall
Hosted by The Broke and Bookish.
Want to help support your broke blogger so she can host more giveaways and give swankier prizes? Click the book covers. If you like the book and choose to purchase it from Amazon, a little bit of the proceeds goes to Sarcasm & Lemons!
This fall will rock.
c.j.'s selections ten ten ten
Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo
As of when you're reading this, my copy will be on its way. I will arrive home from work and it will be waiting to tear my heart out. If you haven't read Six of Crows yet, you're missing a hardcore adventure with some kickass characters.
Still Life With Tornado - A.S. King
I've never met an A.S. King book I didn't like. Her last couple have been so fantastically weird, I can't wait to see where this one goes. Girl seeing her past and future selves? Yes.
Caraval - Stephanie Garber
I've been waiting for this one, guys, to savor it. I'm a sucker for fantasy lands with deadly games and pretty, pretty covers.
Gemina - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
After Illuminae killed me and left my heart in ruins, I'm finally ready for another chapter in this freaking amazing space opera of wonder and death.
Fate of Flames - Sarah Raughley
Diverse fantasy with elemental magic. Please, hold me while I swoon over here. I'm super excited to hang out with the Effigies.
The Female of the Species - Mindy McGinnis
Yeah yeah, everyone already knows about this and I'm late to the party, but I want to join the party! I'm psyched for something dark and vicious and poignant.
Aerie - Maria Dahvana Headley
I can't believe Magonia isn't a sensation. It's so beautiful and magical and ethereal, with a smart sassy heroine and adorably nerdy love interest. And magic bird people! Sky whales! I'm pining for the sequel.
The Weight of Zero -
I'm really hoping this one is good, because I'm all about amazing mental health rep. This main character struggles with her disorder in personified form, which is pretty cool.
The Diabolic - S.J. Kincaid
I've heard from trustworthy sources that this book is mindblowing. I mean, it has a steel butterfly on the cover and it's about intergalactic political schemes. So... yes. Grabby hands.
The Blazing Star - Imani Josey
Badass black girl road trips to ancient Egypt with her sister and a fellow classmate. Just let that sink in.
1. Crooked Kingdom and Gemina are two of my most anticipated releases too. :) Hopefully they meet our expectations! Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous choices! <3
1. Thanks! I hope you love them too. Come tell me when you finish. <3 :D
2. I'm also late to reading The Female of the Species, and I'm hoping to get to it someday. But I think my next read will most likely be Crooked Kingdom, and everything will just be pushed back...until someday
3. These are fantastic picks! I just grabbed The Female of the Species today. :)
4. YES to GEMINA! OMG I can't wait to dig into that book!! Fate of Flames and Carnival both sound amazing too :D Hope you get to all of these this Fall^^ xx |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50057 |
Bars where Pete has had a drink
Sunday, June 06, 2010
#1123 #S671 - Daniels (Lake Union), Seattle - 5/31/2010
I generally don't have high expectations for bars in steakhouses, but I extended my visit at Daniels Lake Union beyond the planned quick lunch. This was thanks to some great conversation with customer Tim, the bartender Nick, and the fact that Daniels, like many upscale restaurants over the past 2 to 3 years, have seriously upgraded their game in cocktails.
809 Fairview Place N, Seattle, WA 98109 - (206) 621-8262 - seattle times - the stranger - yelp - seattle pi
No comments: |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50061 | I have just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s new novel, The Ministry for the Future. It is one of Robinson’s best books. It is a near-future novel, starting a few years from now, and continuing for several decades thereafter. It is about global warming, and the possibilities for alleviating climate catastrophe.
The novel begins with a real punch to the gut. The opening chapter depicts in excruciating detail a disastrous, and all too plausible, weather event. Recent scientific studies demonstrate that human beings cannot survive a wet-bulb temperature of over 35 degrees Celsius. (Wet bulb temperatures measure a combination of heat and humidity). The worst extreme-heat events across the world have almost reached this threshold; it is not unlikely that the threshold will be crossed sometime in the near future. When it gets that hot and humid, human bodies are unable to cool themselves any more; people die, even when they are in good health, have access to drinking water, and do nothing but sit motionlessly in the shade. Robinson’s opening chapter extrapolates such an event, imagining it taking place in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and killing 20 million people in the space of a couple of days.
After this harrowing opening, the novel looks at responses to, and ramifications of, a gathering awareness that something has to be done about climate change. The novel focuses on two protagonists. Frank May is an American aid worker in India, one of the few survivors of the opening chapter’s climate event. Unsurprisingly, he is both traumatized by PTSD, and weighed down with survivors’ guilt. Mary Murphy, the other protagonist, is an Irish politician who is named head of the eponymous Ministry for the Future, a UN agency founded in order to enforce the Paris Agreement and other international climate accords. It is underfunded, and has no military or police power to punish nations or corporations that violate the agreements, but it has some room to give financial support to modest climate initiatives, and to exercise moral pressure on governments and banks.
The Ministry for the Future is far more loosely organized than most of Robinson’s previous novels. Though it keeps on coming back to Frank and to Mary, it also offers a wide range of other voices and perspectives. Robinson is not interested in exploring bourgeois interiority, in the manner still typical of literary novels today (and even of literary novels that flirt with science fictional conceits). Rather, these two central characters are by design fairly flat and generic. Even their particular personal characteristics are forged in a kind of feedback response to the economic, social, political, and technological forces in the world they live in.
(I have to say that, personally, I find the novel of bourgeois interiority insufferable in the 21st century; which is why I prefer straightforward genre writing, like Robinson’s, to most varieties of more ‘literary’ science fiction).
In any case, the lives of Frank and Mary are (aside from the initial catastrophe Frank suffers through and witnesses) not all that dramatic. What’s dramatic are the events that unfold around them — world-scale in their impact, but most often local and small-scale in their enaction. The book is divided into over a hundred chapters, all of them relatively short (on the average, each chapter is 3 pages long or so; though individual chapters range in length from a single paragraph to fifteen or so pages). Though some chapters give third-person accounts of the lives of Frank and Mary, most of them come from other voices. Some are fairly straightforward infodumps; others describe local happenings in a wide range of voices, usually anonymous and often collective (“we” rather than “I”). Here we learn of the experiences of, among others:
• climate refugees who flee ravaged developing countries, and spend years in refugee camps in Switzerland and other western countries;
• engineers in Antarctica, experimenting with various techniques to slow down the melting of the glaciers;
• economists and lawyers seeking to convince the world’s central bankers to adopt more climate-friendly policies;
• terrorists who carry out targeted assassinations of oil company executives and other megarich people who are directly responsible for ruining the climate in the interest of short-term profit;
• exploited workers who rebel against neo-slavery conditions in extractive industries like mining;
and many others. These many chapters give the novel a diffuse feel. Robinson is juggling many threads, but he has no interest in combining them all into a tightly organized narrative. This is in part, at least, because the world we live in doesn’t work that way. It is unimaginably complex, and it is at least potentially open. The Ministry for the Future is dedicated to Fredric Jameson, and it offers an elegant and effective solution to the dilemma that Jameson outlined in his discussion of postmodernism several decades ago: how to “endow the individual subject with some new heightened sense of its place in the global system,” when this system is dense and interconnected in ways that defy ordinary forms of representation. Robinson knows that a Spinozian understanding of this system sub specie aeternitatis, or a Hegelian grasp of the system in its dialectical totality, is impossible — the world system cannot be captured experientially, nor can it be cognized completely. Therefore, Robinson gives us multiple, and only loosely interconnected, perspectives — each of them is grounded in particular, incomplete sorts of experiences; but all of these actions and passions have global ramifications, well beyond the immediate experiences of the people who act and undergo them. The novel is filled with close descriptions of places and of actions, that are filled with local detail — but that also have implications that reach well beyond their immediate contexts. The book as a whole is discontinuous rather than synthesized into a perfectly shaped whole — but part of Robinson’s demonstration is that anything that were so well-shaped, would be, by that very fact, representationally inadequate. It is precisely this sort of open, indefinitely extensible, and never-completed endeavor that makes science fiction writing into “the realism of our time,” as Robinson insists in numerous essays and interviews.
(Side note: I find this sort of approach much better than the more common one that sees science fiction as utopian and/or dystopian. Fiction like Robinson’s doesn’t estrange us from contemporary social reality; rather, it gives us a “heightened sense,” to use Jameson’s words of that social reality, both in its hard actuality and in its still-open potentiality).
In a certain sense, The Ministry For the Future is almost a guidebook to how we may overcome the horrors of global warming, and avert a climate apocalypse. The novel does not offer us a messianic and utopian vision of revolution. Such a depiction would be useful in itself, by giving us a sense of what we need to fight for. But here Robinson is doing something different. The novel is filled with careful discussions of pragmatic policies that actually could be implemented in the world as we know it today, and that would have important positive effects. These are things like introducing a blockchain-regulated “carbon coin,” that would be paid to states, corporations, and individuals who succeed in sequestering carbon instead of spewing it into the atmosphere; geoengineering to make the waters of the Arctic, once they are unavoidably melted, more reflective of sunlight so as to decrease global heating; drilling in Antarctica to extract liquid water from underneath glaciers, where they lubricate fast motion of the ice above them into the ocean, but which, when extracted and refrozen on the surface increase the bulk of water trapped in ice form; setting up rewilding corridors in areas around the world, so that animal populations increase, and biotic products circulate without releasing carbon into the atmosphere; the replacement of gasoline-fueled airplanes with airships (essentially, large helium- or air-filled balloons), and of tankers with new sorts of clipper ships that move by a combination of air in the sails and motors whose generating power comes from sunlight via photovoltaic cells; a replacement of predatory private platforms like Facebook and Google with an organization of the Internet that is publicly owned and that preserves people’s privacy; and many more.
None of these technologies (using this word in the broadest possible sense) by themselves will save us from climate catastrophe, but deploying so many of them, together with creating a social atmosphere that is conducive to their continued discovery and development, can alleviate the otherwise runaway processes of global warming, and perhaps even reduce it to some extent. The point of giving us such detailed descriptions of all these processes is to make us aware that they are achievable in the actual world, with our current levels of technology and social and political organization. Robinson does not shy from the fact that getting these entirely plausible policies enacted will require, not only mass political protest around the world, but also some judicious doses of environmental terrorism. For instance, the transition over the course of the novel from fuel-consuming airplanes to carbon-neutral airships is prompted by eco-terrorist drone attacks that take down the former vessels frequently enough that even the rich are scared to fly in jet planes any longer. More broadly, central bankers (who are, the novel suggests, closer than any other group to being the actual rulers of the world) need to be bullied and threatened, as well as cajoled, into moving the world’s economies into more beneficial arrangements — they will only do so when they are convinced that current capital-accumulation policies can lead only to worldwide economic collapse and the loss of value of all the world’s currencies.
In a powerful sense, The Ministry for the Future is a remarkably optimistic novel. It assumes that our capitalist rulers can somehow be forced, or convinced, to accept the reforms necessary to save the human world from ruination. The novel is, as I have already suggested, a reformist rather than a revolutionary one. It seems resigned to the fact that capital will never entirely relinquish its hold; but holds out the hope that it might agree to social changes that somewhat diminish its power and wealth, in order to avoid what Marx and Engels called “the common ruin of the contending classes.” It also depicts an improvement of the international situation. Robinson says little in the novel about the United States, implying (probably accurately) that conditions here are so vile and degraded as to be totally irreparable. He does depict some positive ecological initiatives that take place at the state level. Though at one point Robinson imagines the catastrophic flooding of Los Angeles — something for which a precedent exists in the Great Flood of 1862 — he also sees a California that is progressive enough to pioneer rewilding initiatives despite the hostilty of the US federal government. (There is even a short passage about surfing towards the end of the novel, though it is set in Hawaii rather than California).
But in the novel’s vision, other parts of the world do considerably better than the United States. The climate disaster in India leads to the total discrediting of Modi and the Hindu nationalists, and the election of a new government whose main object is to make sure that such a catastrophe never happens again. The novel also envisions a China that continues with its relatively (compared to the rest of the world) climate-friendly economic policies, while giving up on its heavy-handed totalitarian governance (not out of goodwill, but simply as a result of discovering by experience that it doesn’t really work very well) and according more rights to its currently hyper-exploited working class. And in the various countries of Europe, though the rightwing anti-immigrant parties still exist forty years from now, they fail to take power or to disrupt the semi-enlightened internationalism of the more liberal European tradition.
All in all, The Ministry for the Future gives us a best-case scenario. It is not without loss — there are also policy setbacks, murders and bombings by revanchist rightwing terrorists and venal governments, and so on. But nevertheless, by the end of the novel, the world seems to have drawn back from the precipice of climate catastrophe — although the improvements in both the climate situation and the social situation, remain precarious. The world has not been saved, and hard work and massive international solidarity will still be needed for an indefinite future. But the worst has been averted, at least temporarily. Arguably, we need more quasi-optimistic (but not mindlessly optimistic) speculation like this, if only as a counterweight to our seemingly endless diet of dystopian horror.
And yet, and yet… I called The Ministry for the Future a best-case scenario. If precarious survival is the best that we can hope for, what will we face in a non-the-best case? It remains extremely unlikely that as many things will go right as the novel needs to have going right in order for it to present its case. The novel demonstrates that a better world is truly possible, and attainable, on the bases of the resources and technologies we have now. But I cannot help also realizing that without all these technologically possible, and yet all-too-politically-unlikely developments, we are, in fact, well and totally fucked.
Charles Soule, ANYONE
Charles Soule’s recent science fiction novel Anyone was published in 2019, but I only got around to reading it in early 2020. If I had read it in time, I would certainly have included it in my roundup of my favorite science fiction of the year. Anyone has a brilliant premise that is worked out through an exciting thriller plot. I won’t go into the details of the narrative, except to say that it is quite exciting, with lots of surprising twists and turns. But I do want to think through the implications of the novel’s central premise or novum, and that requires a certain amount of plot summary, including a consideration of the (amazing) ending. Therefore I have a WARNING: there are SPOILERS in what follows; I cannot really discuss the book without them.
The novel’s premise is an old science-fictional idea, but it is worked through in a fresh and highly original way. The idea is: transferring your mind into somebody else’s body. In the book, this technology is extrapolatied from the actually-existing practice of optogenetics, in which neuroscientists use flashes of light to manipulate the brain. In the novel, if you see the right sequence of flashes, you suddenly find yourself in somebody else’s body. Your own body enters into a coma, or a vegetative state, until your mind returns to it. The person whose body is inhabited loses consciousness, and only regains it when the intruder departs; they have very little sense of what is happening when somebody else is acting and experiencing with their body; they retain no memory of it when they awaken. This technology is, unsurprisingly, called the flash; the company that markets it is called Anyone, since the promise of the procedure is that you can become anyone at all.
This set-up might seem, at first glance, to be a Cartesian, dualist one: mind and body are entirely separate. But it’s not that simple. Mind never exists separately from body; your consciousness needs to be embedded somewhere, embodied in an actual brain. If the body you are in dies before you can transfer somewhere else, then you die mentally as well. Your mind is never entirely free and unconstrained; it is both limited and shaped by its physicality. The body you find yourself in makes a difference to what you can do, and how you think and feel. When you transfer, you always have to make adjustments, because the body you newly find yourself in is shorter or taller, older or younger, heavier or lighter, and perhaps differently enabled and/or differently gendered, than your “prime” (your original body).
This means that inner and outer cannot be cleanly separated. On the one hand, a character reflects that every person “had his [sic] own secret self that came to the surface no matter which body he was wearing.” There are tell-tale signs that signal your mental presence, no matter which body you inhabit at the moment. But this is only true to a certain extent. At the same time, your facial expressions and physical gestures just feel different when you are embedded in a different body; the way they come out is subtly but unavoidably changed.
This ambiguity is inherent to the nature of consciousness. Gabrielle White, the scientist who discovers or invents the flash, reflects that “the self-model was utterly complete and bounded in the human mind — a person’s sense of themselves was a conceptual object, transferable from one brain to another relatively intact.” But this is only a limited observation; since the novel also insists that your identity is more than just your self-model. Who you are also depends on the body you have (or should I rather say, “the body you are”?). Your personhood is mediated by gender, bodily habits, aging, disease and injury, and so on: that is to say, by factors that are at once physical (rather than exclusively mental) and that are socially mediated (rather than being entirely innate). Gabrielle also quickly realizes that,
even after only ten minutes inside another physical self, it was obvious to her that a great deal of human experience had nothing to do with the brain. It was the body. Each parcel of flesh and its particular configuration of pluses and minuses created a unique reality. In other words, it wasn’t just the software — it was the hardware too.
When you flash into another body, you retain psychological continuity with your past self; but you also inhabit the world differently (something that will not surprise the phenomenologists). And this happens in ways that you could not have predicted, let alone understood, in advance. All this makes me wonder if Soule got the term “self-model” from the philosopher Thomas Metzinger). For Metzinger’s whole point in using this term is to point out that the “self-model” is in fact a model of who one is, rather than being the entire content of who one is. I use my self-model to navigate the world, but it remains the case that who and what I actually am, as a physical and animal being in a physical world, leaks out far beyond the boundaries of the self-model. The self-model is a representation that does not fully contain, and does not fully map on to, that which it represents. Metzinger draws the nihilistic conclusion from this that the “self” does not exist; but I am rather inclined to think that Metzinger’s argument in fact gives us clues to a positive understanding of what the “self” actually is, as a limited and finite, but entirely positive, entity. It is not a question of debunking the mind’s powers of self-reflection and meta-reflection, but rather one of situating these powers.
In any case, I think that this latter alternative better explains what is going on in Anyone. As the novel recounts it, my self-model can continue to exist in a different body from its initial one; but adjustments are always necessary due to the physical nature and social positioning of the substitute body. A corollary of this is that not all bodies are equally suitable. Soule does not flinch at this prospect. The novel goes so far as to imagine horrific scenarios in which human beings have their minds flashed into the bodies of rats, and in which an adult’s mind is flashed into the body of an infant. In these cases, you find yourself in a body whose neural architecture is inadequate to the mental capacities of your self-model. The result is a sense of suffocating imprisonment. The characters who are flashed into rat bodies have terrifying experiences; they suffer full-fledged psychotic breakdowns once they are restored to their primes.
The novel reaches out from these metaphysical speculations in order to consider the social, ethical, and political implications of the flash. Gabrielle initially has utopian hopes for the technology. It has the capacity to change social attitudes on a vast scale. Everyone could experience, from the inside, what it is like (in Thomas Nagel’s famous phrase) to have a body that is differently gendered, aged, or abled from their own. At the same time, the technology would prevent us from categorizing other people on the basis of first impressions, which is to say judgments about gender, race, and so on:
If you can’t tell who’s inside the skin of the person you’re talking to, maybe you can’t judge them so quickly based on the color of that skin… Black, brown, white, gay, straight, boy, girl, trans, young, old, disabilities… none of that would work as it does now, with the world putting you in a box from day one just because of your face, your hair, whatever.
The novel suggests, however, that these hopes are, well, a bit naive. This is because the potentialities unleashed by any technology are themselves dependent upon, and tied up with, the ways in which the technology is implemented. In Gabrielle’s case, she doesn’t own the rights to her own discovery. A venture capitalist has funded all her research, and he gets to control all the results. Gabrielle at first tries to hide her discovery of the flash from him. She wants, not to make money from it, but to develop it further; and she rightly fears that the venture capitalist will not do this in the right way. But this only ends up making things worse. Gabrielle is unable to escape either the ironclad provisions of “intellectual property” law, or the violence of the venture capitalist’s hired thugs.
The novel is divided between two plot strands. The first one, set roughly in the present, tells the story of Gabrielle’s discovery, and how she loses control of it. The second is set 25 years later, and shows us a world in which the flash has become the dominant technology, and changed world society in all sorts of ways. Some of the consequences are unequivocally good: the climate crisis has been alleviated, because people have largely abandoned air travel and other fossil-fuel-intensive technologies. Why bother halfway around the world, when you can just flash into the body of somebody who is already there? Others are more ambiguous: there does seem to be a reduction in racism and sexism, if not to the entire extent that Gabrielle had hoped for.
But monopoly ownership of the flash technology has its downsides as well. Some of these are reminiscent of the ways that, today, the liberating potentialities of digital technologies have been compromised by corporate control. The Anyone corporation (also known punningly as NeOnet Global) does not charge exorbitantly for its flash services, because it wants everyone in the world to use the technology. But much like Google et al. today, only even more so, it engages in full-time surveillance of everything that takes place over its network, and as a result it owns immense quantities of data about everyone. (There is also an illegal, underground “darkshare” flash economy, in which the technology is used by criminals and others who want to do things undetected; but the police’s top priority, in collusion with NeOnet, is to suppress this). Anyone also extends its control over users by enforcing limitations to the flash technology:
The first of the Two Rules of the flash: if one dies, both die.
The second: no multiple jumps. If you’re in a vessel, you can’t move to a second without flashing back to your prime first.
The Two Rules are supposed to apply to everyone; people are told that they are intrinsic to the flash technology. But in fact this is not the case; they have only been added on arbitrarily. Certain people are secretly exempt from the Rules: they are, in effect, able to live indefinitely, perhaps forever, by continually jumping from one body (once it is injured or gets too old) to another. Stephen Hauser, the CEO of NeOnet, reserves this unlimited use of the technology for himself, for his chief thug/enforcer, and for a global elite known as the “Centuries.” He bribes prominent people with the prospect of immortality, in order to get them t0 serve his interests (and he can take the gift away again, if they don’t cooperate).
There is also the crucial question of the flash’s one-way structure. What happens to somebody whose body is taken over by another mind? It is actually a vampiric process. Usually, the “vessel” is just unconscious for the interim; they awaken once the occupation is over, without a clue as to what the user of their body did — but with whatever physical injuries might have been incurred. The question is why anyone would consent to this in the first place? Though the novel doesn’t go into great detail on this, it is evident that the answer is economic. If I am affluent, I can take a vacation by paying to inhabit someone’s body in a distant location. But if I am poor, my only hope of earning money may be by renting out my body to the rich tourist. Labor seems to operate in this way as well: skilled workers are flashed to a workplace, where they inhabit the bodies of unskilled locals, who are paid even less than they are. It’s even worse with the victims of the Centuries: a older person takes over a younger, healthier body, and never gives it back. The ultimate form of exploitation is murder. Flash technology seems to perpetuate, and even intensify, economic and colonial exploitation — a situation that is far indeed from Gabrielle’s utopian dreams.
In all these ways, the flash technology ultimately works as a kind of dystopian panopticon — much as the contemporary Internet already does, only even more so. And it sets in place a power structure that is almost impossible to dislodge: there is really no way to touch either the corporation as a structure, or Hauser and the other individuals who run it. In the first, near-present plot strand, Gabrielle is definitively dispossessed when the venture capitalist not only takes the technology from her, but also uses it in order to imprison her consciousness in the body of her infant daughter. In the second, 25-years-in-the-future plot strand of the novel, the now-grown-up Gabrielle-in-her-daughter’s-body looks for a way to disrupt the tyranny that she has inadvertently created. There are lots of great plot twists along the way, but the upshot is that she cannot do it. In one particularly notable sequence, she manages a media takeover. She demonstrates, in real time, over the network with billions of people watching, that the Two Rules are lies, and that it is possible both to flash into a succession of bodies, including into a new body when your prime dies. But despite her demonstration, nothing happens. The very next day, her stunt has been entirely erased from the media archives, and nobody else remembers that it happened.
Fortunately, the book does not leave us just with the bleakness of this unsurpassable impasse. But the sheer, brilliant extremity of how the novel ends testifies to how difficult it is to disrupt the control society, and to unleash the liberatory potential of (actually-existing, as well as extrapolated) digital technologies. In the novel’s final pages, everything that we have understood so far is pretty much blown to smithereens. Gabrielle manages to radically alter the flash technology, so that now it works in both directions. Everybody finds themselves in somebody else’s body. You no longer render somebody else unconscious when you flash into their body, because they simultaneously flash into yet another person’s body as well. Everyone becomes someone else. And this is a completely random process: “Everyone would be a traveler, everyone would be a vessel. At random.” Gabrielle’s final stroke of genius abolishes the restricted, vampiric, capitalist economy of flash usage, replacing it with a sort of Bataillean general economy — or perhaps with something like Nietzsche’s Eternal Return as re-interpreted by Pierre Klossowksi. The world is opened up to a universal promiscuity of circulation and exchange. There is no restriction and no control; no stability, and no foreknowledge of who you will become. This also means that there can be no mechanism for payment, or for the accumulation of wealth:
Lawyers become soldiers. Dancers become farmers. Men become women. Young become old. Women become men. Old become young. More than seven billion people, all over the world, become someone new…. *All of humanity is all of humanity*. There is no rich, no poor, no light, no dark, no young, no old…
Instead of the naive (or merely wishful) utopianism of Gabrielle’s initial thoughts about the flash, we get at the end of the novel a much more radical utopianism, one in line with Fredric Jameson’s dictum that “utopia is not a positive vision of the future so much as it is a negative judgement of the present” — and a disruption of that present. Or as Soule’s narrator puts it: “It may not last, but it begins, and that is something.”
There is one important corollary to this vision. Even as she frees the world, Gabrielle abolishes her own selfhood, sending her mind (or her self-model) to the flash equivalent of /dev/null in Linux. This final stroke is a gift to the future.For it allows Gabrielle’s daughter, whose body she has used as a mere vessel for twenty-five years, to awaken and become fully conscious and fully embodied on her own — as she had not been since infancy. We learn from this final twist that when you are reduced to being a vessel, your consciousness isn’t entirely absent; the daughter’s consciousness has existed for all this time in a virtual, nascent state. She is now an adult mentally as well as physically, by virtue of having for so long observed everything that her mother has thought and done. Now this consciousness has finally been actualized. The last line of the novel reads, referring to the daughter: “You are you.” The identity of the self-model is only achieved through the radical contingency of bodily exchange. Where can she go from here? Nobody knows, and that is the novel’s achievement.
Favorite science fiction, 2019
Here are my favorite science fiction novels (or in a few cases, collections of stories) from 2019. As before, I make no pretensions toward completeness or towards numbered or objective rankings — these are simply the new SF books I liked most this year, among whichever ones I have read. I am mostly oriented towards what might be considered science fiction proper, as opposed to other speculative fiction genres like fantasy; as well as towards overt genre writing, as opposed to speculatively oriented literary fiction. But of course, these sorts of distinctions are unavoidably inexact. The list therefore includes a number of books that would more likely be classified as fantasy rather than science fiction, but that were sufficiently SF-adjacent to hold my interest.
• The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders. This dazzling novel takes place on a tidally locked planet; one side always faces its sun and is extremely hot; the other side faces away and is extremely cold. Human colonists can only live on the terminator between the two sides. It is always twilight for them; the lack of any solar cycle, or indeed any variation in the light, makes it hard to establish regular sleep patterns. There are two cities: one is harshly authoritarian, and has legally enforced regular sleep times. The other is ostensibly anarchist — which means, in practice, that it is controlled by Mafia-like gangs that violently enforce their supremacy. With no fixed sleep times, there is very little in the way of scheduling; people just go to sleep whenever they feel tired or find it convenient, and lots of people are permanently sleep-deprived. From this starting premise, Anders engages in unusually rich and complex world-building, raising all kinds of issues along the way, including reflections on gender and class, on power and aspiration and inventiveness, on technological dependency, on ecological relations among humans and between humans and nonhumans, and on hybridity and transformation. There are great sentient aliens, as well.
• The Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie. This is a fantasy novel from an author whose previous novels have all been science fiction (most notably, the gender-bending Ancillary trilogy). It operates through a highly original conceit that I can only call a theory or theology of multiple gods (and emphatically not of a singular, capital-letter God). The multiple gods of Leckie’s world in this novel are effectively immortal, yet materially circumscribed. They are bound to — or perhaps one could better say — particular physical objects, and their powers are vast, yet finite and localized. Each is a solitary being, though they communicate with one another, and often with human worshippers who feed them energy and in turn receive favors from them. I have never read anything quite like this book, but its conceptualizations are not far from those of a panpsychist power metaphysics.
• Infinite Detail, by Tim Maughan. This brilliant near-future novel is divided between alternating “Before” and “After” chapters – that is to say, before and after the actions of an anonymous hacker group that takes down the entire Internet, thereby disrupting globalized supply chains, along with much else, thus putting an end to most commodity production along with the ubiquitous surveillance that we have become all too used to. The “before” chapters show us the dystopian mechanisms of control that have come alongside digitally-maintained affluence (for some) and deprivation (for others). The “after” chapters present what might at first glance be dismissed as just another post-technological dystopia – but which at closer examination is something else. Yes, the post-Internet society, as Maughan describes it, is decidedly non-affluent, with fascistoid armies rampaging across the landscape and locked-down localites dominated by petty gang bosses and warlords. But actually there is more than meets the eye, including forms of democratic cooperation and artistic production, and minoritarian or non-totalitarian uses of digital technologies. Maughan asks us seriously to consider that the deprived future world he presents to us might in fact be less oppressive than the consumerist, high-surveillance and micro-managed digital dystopia that we actually live in today. Orthodox science fiction criticism regards the genre as essentially utopian; Maughan redefines what this might mean. Much as I am attracted to the ideal of fully automated luxury communism, it may well be that such a vision is total fantasy, and that Maughan in fact offers us the best possible alternative to neoliberal global domination.
• The Rosewater Insurrection and The Rosewater Redemption, by Tade Thompson. These are the second and third volumes of Thompson’s amazing Rosewater trilogy – I discussed the first volume, which came out several years ago, at greater length here. An alien invasion takes place, not in the so-called developed world, but in near-future Nigeria. The US has devolved into an overt police state, and hidden itself behind a paranoid firewall. The UK has disintegrated due to alien intrusion effects. But Nigeria remains as ground zero for the encounter between human beings and the alien life forms. The second and third volumes of the trilogy are entirely worthy of the first; we get a complete and interconnected narrative that combines sociological observation and social criticism with bio-cybernetic technologies and much else. Lots of my favorite science fictional tropes are here, but transposed into a new key.
• The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley. This is the second sf novel by an author whose other works can be categorized as harsh, bracing feminist fantasy. (The first was the brilliant The Stars Are Legion from 2017). This novel is Hurley’s revisionist take on military science fiction, combined with an inventive time travel premise. Military sf has both obnoxiously idealized (e.g. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers) and unsparingly displayed the horrors (Haldeman, The Forever War) of organized militarism with its endless conflicts. Hurley’s book is an updated entry in the latter category; it takes place in a fully neoliberalized and technologically heightened society in which corporations have overtly displaced nation-states as the units of conflict. Soldiers are transformed into pure energy so that they may be transported at light speed to the interplanetary battlefields at which they are rematerialized. But the protagonist is unmoored in time as a result of this process, so that she experiences her different military missions in nonlinear order. (So you could think of this novel as The Forever War meets “Slaughterhouse-Five*). The time loops ultimately provide an escape from what is otherwise endless neoliberal/imperialist horror. The book’s final vision is therefore both poignant and hopeful, even as its time-paradoxical nature leaves us uneasily aware how unlikely such an escape from the neoliberal time prison actually is.
• Radicalized, by Cory Doctorow. This book contains four unrelated novellas, all compellingly political in their implications. The first one is about immigrants who, even when they are finally allowed into the United States, face harsh exploitation, enforced by proprietary digital technologies — until they find ways to hack the technologies for themselves. This story folows lines that are familiar from much of Doctorow’s earlier fiction. But the other three novellas are much more fresh and surprising. One is about older white men who are radicalized into acts of domestic terrorism, except that their targets are not the imaginary ones that propel right-wing terrorism today, but rather health insurance companies that have refused payments for medical procedures that could have saved their loved ones. Another one gleefully deconstructs the ruling-class fantasy of retreating into a bunker in order to sit out (and survive, unimpacted) political/economic/environmental catastrophe. And best of all, there’s a story which is basically Superman meets Black Lives Matter; the story movingly but unswervingly demonstrates the inability of liberal empathy and fair-mindedness to fight against, or even minimally deal with, the systematic and socially-embedded structures of police violence under white supremacy.
• Waste Tide, by Chen Qiufan. This is the English translation of a powerful, near-future Chinese SF novel. It takes place in a Chinese city, based closely on the actual city of Guiyu, that has become a world center for the recycling of electronic waste. Junked computers, cell phones, etc., as well as worn-out biological prosthetics, are disassembled so that rare metals and polymers can be recovered for re-use. The workers are overworked and poorly paid, while the corrupt post-communist ruling class, combining hyper-modern and old-fashioned forms of oppression, appropriates the profits. The processes of disassembly also result in massive toxic waste, and the workers have short life spans as a result of poisoning and infection. In such conditions of hyper-exploitation, it’s nearly impossible to accumulate enough savings to be able to afford to move elsewhere. All this becomes the setting for a dazzling high-tech thriller involving artificial intelligence, and both computer and biological viruses. The novel reminds those of us in the West of aspects of the current global world order that we tend to overlook; beyond this, it is brilliant for the way that it raises and recombines technological issues, socio-political ones, and conditions both of political economy and of the way new forms appropriate and transform old traditions.
• Exhalation, by Ted Chiang. Chaing is one of our finest contemporary science fiction writers; this volume, his second collection of short stores, contains pretty much everything he has written since the previous volume, Stories of Your Life and Others was published in 2002. The stories in this new volume range from just a couple of pages long to novella-length. They are all treasures, and I cannot here comment on all of them. I will just mention that I wrote at great length about one of the stories here, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” in my 2016 book Discognition.
• Sweet Dreams, by Tricia Sullivan. This was actually released in the UK in 2017, but I am including it in this list because it only received its first US publication in 2019. I wrote about it here.
• Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is a sequel to Tchaikovsky’s 2015 sf novel Children of Time. That book dealt with the remnants of humanity trying to terraform distant worlds, inadvertently leading to a society of upraised (boosted to human-level intelligence) Portia spiders. This book takes a mixed crew of humans and spiders to another terraformed world, this one inhabited by upraised octopuses. They also encounter a non-Earth-originated intelligent lifeform, more or less like a sentient, and highly computationally efficient, sort of slime mold. This volume, like the previous one, is brilliant in the way that it imagines and articulates the nuances of intelligence in nonhuman form. Spider intelligence is very different from mammal intelligence, and cephalopod intelligence is different from both. All the intelligences in these books ultimately operate on underlying forms of computation, which is what makes communication between them possible at all. But these intelligences are always embodied, and remain radically distinct from one another because of their different biogenetic and sociocultural characteristics. These novels explore the rich terrain in between the fantasy of total communication and communion, on the one hand, and the opposed fantasy of absolute, radical otherness, on the other.
• Walking to Aldebaran, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky is an alarmingly prolific author; the majority of his books are fantasy, none of which I have read. But this year he published a second science fiction book in addition to Children of Ruin. This one is much shorter, just a novella. It is totally unrelated to the Children series, but mind-blowing in its own way. A alien, clearly constructed labyrinthine structure is discovered in the outer solar system that seems to provide shortcut transit (through interdimensional wormholes? we never find out) between solar systems and worlds that are otherwise inaccessibly distant from one another. Our narrator is an astronaut who is separated from the rest of his team, and finds himself walking through and exploring the folds and caverns of the structure. I don’t want to give away the plot here; let’s just say we have an unreliable narrator, and a story that combines old-fashioned science-fictional “sense of wonder” exploration with plot twists worthy of Edgar Allan Poe.
• Stealing Worlds, by Karl Schroeder. This novel is a powerful thought experiment that considers the utopian and dystopian potentialities of combining the technologies of augmented reality glasses, massively multiplayer role playing games, ubiquitous networks, and artificial intelligence. At worst, this could lead to a new form of surveillance-based extractive capitalism, with corporations controlled by self-perpetuating algorithms that have optimized themselves for rent-seeking. This is just a small extrapolation from the ways that, already today, both banking and financial institutions, and high technology companies, are trying to create conditions under which they can extract payments from all transactions (even ostensibly non-economic ones) in which human beings take part. But against this dystopian situation, Schroeder proposes a vision of cooperative networking, an economy decoupled from the imperatives of finance, and most importantly, the input of nonhuman actors (trees and forests, rivers, ecosystems) into decision-making processes. (This vision was first sketched out by Schroeder in his 2014 short story “Deodand”). This is the first science fiction novel I have read that contains a shout-out to the philosophy of speculative realism (Levi Bryant and Tim Morton are explicitly mentioned).
• The Iron Dragon’s Mother, by Michael Swanwick. This is the third and final volume of Swanwick’s “Iron Dragon” trilogy of deidealized fantasy. All three novels take place in the parallel reality of Faery – but Swanwich envisions a Faerie whose magic entirely coexists with the uglinesses of Victorian Era capitalism, and the overload of 20th-century-and-following branding and consumerism. The first volume of the trilogy, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (1993), is IMHO one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written – it is brilliantly imagined, and ferociously nihilistic in tone, sort of like the punk rock cover version of traditional fantasy. I didn’t like the second volume, The Dragons of Babel (2008) anywhere near as much, though it has its powerful moments. This new (final?) volume strikes me as better than the second, though not as good as the first. But it is still rich and powerful, and it gives us an admonition on the next to last page that we ought to keep forever in mind: “The world is choking on old stories. Tell new and better ones.”
• And Shall Machines Surrender?, by Benjamin Sriduankaew. Whatever you might think about the author’s past activities in fandom, she has undeniably become a powerful author of posthuman BDSM-lesbian fairytales. She writes both science fiction and fantasy; I prefer the former (as in this book) because there is also lots of stuff about artificial intelligence, cyborg beings with non-binary genders, and the pleasures (as well as limitations) of living in a total-surveillance, algorithmically-governed society. In any case, Sriduangkaew writes in a highly-wrought prose that I find irresistible.
• The Future of Another Timeline, by Annalee Newitz. The author has recently described this novel on Twitter as “a book about angry Jewish girls traveling through time and kicking the ass of the white supremacist patriarchy.” I can’t really better that description, so I won’t try. I will just note that in this book we get, among other things, a glimpse of the Great Columbian Exposition held in 1893 in Chicago, riot grrl rock in an alternative timeline, a vision of the ancient kingdom of Petra, and even a visit back to the Ordovician Period, when trilobites were the world’s dominant life form. The book is an inspiring feminist vision, behind which we get troublingly reminded of the fragility even of the greatest human accomplishments, and therfore of the need to continue struggling. I wrote about this novel at greater length here.
• Beneath the World, A Sea, by Chris Beckett. Chris Beckett is one of my favorite contemporary science fiction writers, but this beautifully mysterious book is different from anything else I have read by him. (A chapter in my forthcoming book Extreme Fabulations discusses Beckett’s Dark Eden trilogy, and I published review of his novel before this one, America City). Beneath the World, A Sea is about a remote region in South America, the Submundo Delta, where biological forms, and maybe even the laws of nature, are different from anyplace else on Earth. What seems to happen in the Delta is that your most repressed and unwelcome unconscious thoughts and desires emerge, and you are forced to confront them. It’s a realm of truth, but also (and therefore) a realm of neurotic misery and depression. Moreover, even to get to the Delta, you need to pass through another region, the Zone of Forgetfulness, whose nature is such that, whenever you leave it, you are unable to remember what you did or what happened while within it. It appears, as far as we can tell, that here people cast off their inhibitions entirely, and do things that they would never countenance were they able to remember having done them. So the novel is really about people of various white European mindsets — the narrator is a hard-headed cop; we also meet scientists, anthropologists, artists, hippies, colonialist administrators, and capitalist entrepreneur types — all of whom attempt, and all of whom fail, in their various ways, to come to grips with the disconcerting otherness of the Zone and the Delta. The novel recalls both Lem’s Solaris (with its alien intelligence that repels our efforts to understand it) and the Strugatsky Brothers’ Roadside Picnic (with its Zone where noramal Earthly categories do not quite seem to apply, and which less discloses anything about itself than it responds to those who would explore it and exploit it by reflecting back their own prejudices and limitations to them). But Beckett brings to this novel a sense of metaphysical and psychological disquiet and displacement that is more in tune with our neoliberal present than is the case with those novels written under conditions of “actually-existing socialism.”
• The Deep, by Rivers Solomon. The Detroit techno band Drexciya invented the mythology of an underwater realm, inhabited by the descendants of pregant African women who were thrown overboard from slave ships during the Middle Passage. The children of these women continue to breathe in the water, as they did in the womb, and they create a utopian, high-tech society, safely apart from the horrors of land and air. The experimental hip hop band Clipping revised and extended this mythology, with a 2017 song that imagined the Drexciyans no longer safely apart from the surface world – for now they have to deal with worldwide ecological catastrophe, and with current efforts by large corporations to mine the seabed. Rivers Solomon picks up the story and again reimagines it in this novella, which turns on the dilemma that the Drexciyans can afford neither to forget nor to remember the traumatic history from which they originated: to remember the traumas is ti be crippled into inactivity, but to forget them is to lose any sense of what defines them as a community with a common history. I wrote at greater length about this powerfully affecting novella here.
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers. Chambers writes science fiction that is exuberantly multicultural — her galaxy is filled with wildly different species, different genders, different social/familial/reproductive arrangements, different forms of intelligence (both biological and computational), and so on. At the same time, her novels have a decidedly retro emotional feel — they are entertaining, and even comfy, in a way that recalls Golden Age science fiction (if only that older sf hadn’t been so white, patriarchal, and heteronormative). It’s a peculiar affective combination, and I know people who have been turned off by Chambers’ upbeatness and utter lack of cynicism or even irony. This has never been a problem for me, but YMMV. In any case, To be Taught… is my favorite book of hers so far. It’s a standalone novel, apart from the Wayfarers series of her other books. There is very little plot or drama; a group of scientists simply examines the various life forms (none of them reaching human-scale sentience) on a number of planets in a solar system 14 light years away from Earth. The novel succeeds in imagining forms of life that are truly different: they don’t fit into anthropomorphic (or mammalomorphic) categories at all. Yet they are also free from any tinge of the uncanny (such as we find in “weird fiction” from Lovecraft a century ago, all the way to VanderMeer or Mieville today). To my mind, this is not a flaw, but a positive accomplishment, and an important one.
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. This book is kind of a spy romance, in the form of an epistolary novel. Two women are ruthless agents on opposing sides in a universal war that involves time travel — it is fought by both agents going back or forward in time in order to change the very shape of the timeline. The two spies are always setting traps for one another, and outwitting one another. It reminded me, actually, of Antonio Prohias’ Spy Vs Spy comic strips, that appeared in MAD Magazine when I was a kid. In any case, the spies leave letters for one another, each taunting the other for defeating her plans. As things progress, the spies gradually fall in love with one another, and look for ways to defect from the war they are both involved in, in order to be with one another. I found this novel cute and engaging. It was fun to read (though I didn’t love it quite as much as many people on the Internet seem to have done).
• Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. This book is ostensibly a mix of space opera and horror-cum-murder-mystery, but it is actually lesbian goth fanfic of a very high order. The prose is lively (or deathly, if you prefer), the plot twists are outstanding, and the highly emo love/hate relationship between the two protagonists (one woman a magician, the other a fighter/bodyguard) intensifies without ever letting go, and gets resolved in the most weirdly twisted manner imaginable.
• Interference, by Sue Burke. This is the sequel to Burke’s previous novel Semiosis. These books are about sentient plants, the dominant life form on a planet that has been colonized both by human beings escaping the ecological and political catastrophes on Earth, and an equally intelligent arthropod-like species. Where the first novel was mostly about how the human settlers both learn about the sentience of the native plants, and learn how to coexist with them, this second novel widens the scope, giving us a multispecies variety of viewpoints and (often unreliable) narrators, and a wide range of different forms of intelligence, and different sorts of social and political arrangements. I wrote about the novel in greater depth here.
• The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman. The second volume of the Book of Dust trilogy picks up the story of Lyra ten years after the end of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Wonderfully inventive, as Pullman always is; and deeply expressive of Pullman’s own sort of vital materialism (in clear opposition both to the dogmatism of organized religion and to any sort of eliminativism and reductionism). Pullman is still exploring his great theme, “the amorous inclinations of matter” (to quote from his early masterpiece Galatea), with a lively and inventive narrative of an alternative world. Also, the book ends on a cliffhanger — Lyra, and a number of other characters towards whom we have become affectionate, are all in deep trouble — and I cannot believe I will have to wait several more years for the third volume, with the resolution.
• A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. The author of this novel is (in ‘real life’) an historian of the Byzantine Empire; and she puts her knowledge to dazzling use in this novel, focused on a galactic empire reminiscent both of Byzantium and of the (long dominant, but now declining) American imperium. The protagonist is the newly-appointed ambassador from a distant space station, sent to the center of the Empire, and needing to negotiate her way through a dizzying complexity of social rituals, political infighting, and plots and counterplots, all the while striving to somehow maintain the independence (or at least, semi-independence) of her home, which the Empire is anxious to absorb. Besides being tense and thrilling, the novel plays powerfully with the way that different cultures have different customs and rituals, and different underlying assumptions. The narrator is somebody who has grown up entirely fascinated with the Empire’s art and culture — much the same was as people today, in far-flung parts of the world, have been fascinated by American movies, music, and sports. But she is uncomfortably aware that this sort of fascination is very different from being an insider of the culture one is fascinated with. She needs to learn how to negotiate the vast complexities and unexamined assumptions of the Empire, which are alien to her despite her lifelong fascination with them. In addition, she needs to grasp how the Empire is not a monolith, but riven by political and economic privileges and by class conflict. And above all, she also needs to come to terms with her increasing realization that she is in fact a colonized person whose obsession is with her colonizers. The different cultures do not meet on anything like equal terms, and no matter how many of the Empire’s arts, sciences, and general assumptions she adopts, she will never really be one of them, but rather always seen as a barbarian outsider. Add to this artificial intelligence and other cybernetic technologies, and the novel as a whole involves cognitive estrangement (often said to be the defining characteristic of science fiction as a genre) to the max.
• Escaping Exodus, by Nicky Drayden. Drayden’s previous novels are best be described as something like magic realism, set in an African context (Drayden is African American, but she lived for several years in South Africa). The present novel, however, is full-blown space opera. Human beings of various nationalities and backgrounds live in an interstellar flotilla; Earth is only a very distant memory. The humans have outgrown the generation starships that originally brought them to the stars, and they haven’t found any planets around other stars that are sufficiently Earth-like to live on. So instead they live in the innards of gigantic (Moon-sized) spacefaring beasts; they are essentially parasites, drawing sustenance and shelter from the animals within which they live, and from the animal’s other intestinal fauna and flora. The animals are mortal, however, and whenever one of them dies the human beings have to evacuate, and capture and colonize another one. Add to this the social arrangements, involving rigid class hierarchies, poly-marriages arranged for political or economic advantage rather than love, gender-role inversion, and revolutionary stirrings among the lower classes that are viciously repressed by the ruling class. And cap it all with a forbidden (because cross-class) love between two young women. What’s most remarkable about the novel is its squishy biotechnology; Drayden imagines in discomforting detail what it might be like to live within another organism’s vascular systems. In addition to the politics of race, class, and gender, ecological politics plays a central role, as the people gradually realize that they are killing their hosts, and thereby destroying themselves, through the unchecked exploitation of their resources. The novel is wildly inventive in its particulars, and compelling in its overall bio-ecological vision.
Bats, Dogs, and Posthumans
Here’s an essay I have written for a compilation of essays to be published in 2014 entitled Turborealism, following an exhibition with the same title curated by Victoria Ivanova and Agnieszka Pindera at Izolyatsia, Donetsk, Ukraine.
What is it like to be a bat?
The philosopher Thomas Nagel asked this question in a famous essay, first published in 1974. Most people today would assume that bats, like dogs and cats and other mammals, are not mere automata. They have experiences, which is to say that that have some sort of inner, subjective life. In other words, Nagel says, it is “like something” to be a bat. And yet, bats are so different from us that it is hard for us to imagine just what being a bat is like. How can we find a human equivalent for its powers pf echolocation, or its experience of flight? In comparison to human beings and other primates, Nagel says, bats are a “fundamentally alien form of life.” In particular, “bat sonar, though clearly a form of perception, is not similar in its operation to any sense that we possess, and there is no reason to suppose that it is subjectively like anything we can experience or imagine.” We cannot easily think ourselves into the mind of a bat.
Nagel’s question is really just a vivid example of a problem that has long been a matter of concern for Western thought. Even since Descartes, philosophers and artists alike have worried about the problem of other minds. Descartes makes subjective experience the ground for all certainty. I think, therefore I am: this means that, even if all all my particular thoughts are delusional or false, the fact that I am thinking them is still true. But how much of a reassurance is this, really? I do not experience anyone else’s feelings from the inside, in the way that I experience my own. Descartes worries that the figures he sees through the window might not be actual human beings, but “hats and cloaks that might cover artificial machines, whose motions might be determined by springs.” However absurd or paranoid such a hypothesis seems, there is no way to absolutely disprove it. Modern science fiction works — think of Philip K. Dick’s novels, or The Matrix movies — still take up this theme: they express the disquieting sense that the world, with all the people in it, is nothing more than an enormous virtual-reality simulation somehow being fed into our minds.
The best answer to this sort of paranoid skepticism is the argument from analogy. Other people generally act and react, and express themselves, in much the same way that I do: we all laugh and cry, groan when we are in pain, agree that the wall over there is painted red. On this basis, I can presume that other human beings must also have the same sort of consciousness, or inner experience, that I do. Of course, this is not an absolute logical proof; and it leaves open the possibility that other people might be shamming or acting: pretending to be in pain when they are not. And yet, the argument from analogy works pragmatically. As Wittgenstein put it, despite his own skepticism about the language of inner experience: “just try — in a real case — to doubt someone else’s fear or pain!” Only a sociopath would do so.
The real problem with analogy lies in the opposite direction: in the fact that we tend to extend it further than we should. We are so good at discerning other people’s feelings, desires, and intentions, that we tend to believe that these things exist even where they do not. We discern patterns in random bits of data. We attribute intention to deterministic mechanisms. We decipher messages that in fact were never sent. We assume that everything in the world is somehow concerned with us. Paranoid credulity is a worse danger than paranoid skepticism.
If we fail to grasp what it is like to be a bat, then, this is less because we fail to recognize it at all, than because we tend to anthropomorphize it unduly. We all too smugly assume that bats are just like us, only not as smart. We tend to subsume a creature like the bat under our own image of thought, forgetting that it might think and feel in radically different ways. For how else could we hope to understand the bat at all? But if we have a hard time grasping the mind of a bat, then how can we even hope to grasp the mind of a much more distant intelligent organism — for instance, an octopus? And what about — to extrapolate still further — the minds of intelligent beings from other planets? Peter Watts’ science fiction novel Blindsight tells the story of a First Contact with aliens who are more advanced than us by any intellectual or technological measure, but who turn out not to be conscious at all, in any sense that we are able to recognize or understand.
Watts imagines his aliens by inverting the argument from analogy. His novel’s title — Blindsight — refers to a well-documented medical condition in which people are overtly blind, but able to see unconsciously. Blindsight sufferers are not aware of seeing anything. But if you throw them a ball, they are often able to catch it; and if you ask them to “guess” the location of a light that they cannot see, they are usually able to turn in the right direction. Apparently their brains are still processing visual stimuli, even though the outcome of this processing is never “reported” to the conscious mind. Such nonconscious mental activity provides the analogy on the basis of which Watts imagines his aliens. In doing so, he manages disquietingly to suggest that consciousness might well be evolutionarily maladaptive, reducing our efficiency and our ability to compete with other organisms.
Watt’s speculative fiction is not an idle fantasy. In fact, nonconscious mental processes are not just confined to people who suffer from blindsight or other neurological disorders. Contemporary neurobiology tells us that most of what our brains do is nonconscious, and even actively opaque to consciousness. At best, we are only aware of the results of all our complex mental activity. The price we pay for conscious access to the world is an inability to grasp the mechanisms that provide us with this access. We cannot “see” the processes that allow us to see. As the neurophilosopher Thomas Metzinger puts it, “transparency is a special form of darkness.”
This puts the whole question of “what it is like” on a different footing. If I do not know what it is like to be a bat, this is because I also do not know what it is like to be a human being. Indeed, I do not even really know “what it is like” to be myself. My consciousness is radically incomplete, and it never “belongs” only to myself. Descartes’ “I think” is generated, and driven, by all sorts of nonconscious (and non-first person) mental processes. Other things think through me, and inside me. My own thought is merely the summation, and to some degree the transformation, of all these other thoughts that think me, and of which I am not (and cannot ever be) aware. Such nonconscious thought may well include — but is surely not limited to — what has traditionally been known as the Freudian unconscious. My thought processes are not self-contained, but broadly ecological or environmental.
In part, this is because all thought is embodied. As Alfred North Whitehead once put it, “we see with our eyes, we taste with our palates, we touch with our hands.” Today we might add that we see with our neurons and cortex, as well as with our eyes. But even this does not go far enough. We should also say that we see with the objects that reflect photons into our eyes. We hear with our ears, but we also hear with the things whose vibrations are transmitted through the air to us. We sense and feel by means of all the things in our surroundings that incessantly importune us and affect us. And these include, but are not limited to, the objects of which we are overtly aware. For the greater part of our environmental surround consists of things that, in themselves, remain below the threshold of conscious discrimination. We do not actually perceive such things, but we sense them indirectly, in the vague form of intuitions, atmospheres, and moods.
This vast environmental surround also subtends our use of analogy in order to grasp “other minds,” or to imagine “what it is like” to be another creature. Degrees of resemblance (metaphors) themselves depend upon degrees of proximity (metonymies) within the greater environment. Consider, for instance, the dog instead of the bat. Dogs are not intrinsically any more similar to us than bats. They operate largely by smell; if anything, this is even more difficult for us to imagine than operating by sound. Blind people can often learn to echolocate with their voices, or with the tapping of their sticks. But it is unlikely that any human being (at least as we are currently constituted) could learn to olfactolocate as dogs do.
Despite this, we feel much closer to dogs than we do to bats. We are much more able to imagine what they think, and to describe what they are like — even on points where they differ from ourselves. This is because of our long historical association with them. Dogs are our commensals, symbionts, familiars, and companions; we have been together with them for thousands of years. We share much more of a common environmental background with dogs than we do with bats. This means that many of the things that think within us also think within dogs — in a way that is not at all true for bats. Evidently, neither visual objects nor olfactory objects affect us, or think within us, in the same way that they affect, or think within, dogs; nonetheless, their common presence helps to bridge the gap between us and them.
No thought is possible without, or apart from, what I am calling the environmental surround. Doubtless this has been true as long as humanity has existed — indeed, as long as any form of life whatsoever has existed. But why is this situation of special concern to us now? Or better: why has it become so urgent now? I think there are two reasons for this, which I will discuss in turn.
In the first place, recent digital technologies have allowed us to grasp and account for the environmental surround, more thoroughly and precisely than ever before. Media theorist Mark Hansen writes of how digital microsensors, spread ubiquitously within our bodies and throughout our surroundings, are able to compile information, and give us feedback, about environmental processes that are not phenomenally or introspectively available to us. We can now learn — albeit indirectly and after the fact — about imperceptible features that nonetheless help to shape our decisions and our actions: things like muscles tensing, or action potentials in neurons, but also subliminal environmental cues. We can then use this information to reshape the environment that will influence our subsequent decisions and actions.
The science fiction writer Karl Schroeder pushes this even further. In his near-future short story “Deodand,” he envisions a world in which ubiquitous microsensors break down the distinction between subjects and objects, or between human beings, nonhuman organisms, and lifeless things. “Fantastic amounts of data” are not only collected for our benefit, but also “exchanged between the sand-grain sized sensors doing the tagging,” and ultimately between the “things themselves.” Once an entity has a rich enough datafeed, it implicitly declares its own personhood. Objects are able to speak and respond to one another, and thereby to assert, and to act in, their own interests. Schroeder’s story tell us that we must reject “the idea that there’s only two kinds of thing, people, and objects.” For most entities in the world are “a little bit of both.” This has always been the case; but today, with our microsensing technologies, “we can’t ignore that fact anymore.”
The second reason for the current importance of the environmental surround is a much more somber one. Our technologies — both industrial and digital — have devastated the environment through pollution, global warming, and the extermination of individual species and whole ecosystems. This is less the result of deliberate actions on our part, than of our unwitting interactions with all those factors in the environmental surround that imperceptibly affect us, and are themselves affected by us in turn. Climate change and radioactive decay are prime examples of what the ecocritic Timothy Morton calls hyperobjects: actually existing things that we cannot ever perceive directly, because they are so widely distributed in time and space. For instance, we cannot experience global warming itself, despite the fact that it is perfectly real. Rather, we experience “the weather” on particular days. At best, we may experience the fact that these days are warmer on average than they used to be. But even the coldest day of the winter does not refute global warming; nor does the hottest summer day “prove” it. Once again, we are faced with things or processes that exceed our direct perceptual grasp, but that nonetheless powerfully affect whatever we do perceive and experience.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s science fiction short story “The People of Sand and Slag” addresses just this situation. The narrator, and the other two members of his crew, are posthumans, genetically engineered and augmented in radical ways. They have “transcended the animal kingdom.” But their bodies and minds are not the outcome of any sort of Promethean, extropian, or accelerationst program. Rather, they have been altered from baseline human beings in order to meet the demands of a radically changed environment. They are soldiers, guarding an automated mining operation in Montana. The three of them share a close esprit de corps; but otherwise, they seem devoid of empathy or compassion. As befits their job, they are extremely strong and fast; when they are hurt, their wounds heal quickly and easily. Sometimes, during sex play or just for fun, they embed razors and knives in their skin, or even chop off their own limbs; everything heals, or grows back, in less than a day. For food, they consume sand, petroleum, mining leftovers, and other industrial waste. They live and work in what for us would be a hellish landscape of “acid pits and tailings mountains,” and other residues of scorched-earth strip mining. And for vacation, they go off to Hawaii, and swim in the oil-slick-laden, plastic-strewn Pacific. They seem perfectly adapted to their environment, a world in which nearly all unengineered life forms have gone extinct, and in which corporate competition apparently takes the form of incessant low-grade armed conflict.
In the course of Bacigalupi’s story, the soldier protagonists come upon a dog. The creature is almost entirely unknown to them; they’ve never seen one before, except in zoos or on the Web. Nobody can explain where it came from, or how it survived before they found it, in a place that was toxic to it, and that had none of its usual food sources. The soldiers keep the dog for a while, as a curiosity. They do not understand how it could ever have survived, even in a pre-biologically-engineered world. They take for granted that it is “not sentient”; and they are surprised when it shows affection for them, and when they discover that it can be taught to obey simple commands.
The soldiers are perturbed by just how “vulnerable” the dog is; it needs special food and water, and incessant care. They find that they continually “have to worry about whether it was going to step in acid, or tangle in barb-wire half-buried in the sand, or eat something that would keep it up vomiting half the night.” In their world, a dog is “very expensive to maintain… Manufacturing a basic organism’s food is quite complex… Recreating the web of life isn’t easy.” In the end, it’s simply too much annoyance and expense to keep the dog around. So the soldiers kill it, cook it over a spit, and eat it. They don’t find meat as tasty as their usual diet of petroleum and sand: “it tasted okay, but in the end it was hard to understand the big deal.”
From bats to dogs to posthumans: philosophy and science fiction alike explore varying degrees of likeness and of difference. The point is not to achieve certainty, as Descartes hoped to do. Nor is the point to conquer reality, or to think that we can master it, or even that we can really know it. The point is not even to “know thyself.” But rather, perhaps. to come to terms with the multitudes that live and think within us, which we cannot ever live and think without, but which we can also never reduce to ourselves.
Near Future — Reading List
Just a short reading list of plausible looks into the near future, selected from among books I have read recently:
• Lauren Beukes, Moxyland
• Charles Stross, Halting State
• Richard K. Morgan, Market Forces
• Ken MacLeod, The Execution Channel
• Matthew De Abaitua, The Red Men
• M. T. Anderson, Feed
• Tricia Sullivan, Lightborn
• Scott Bakker, Neuropath
• Paolo Bacigalupi, The Wind-Up Girl
• Jack Womack, Random Acts of Senseless Violence
• Bruce Sterling, The Caryatids
• Mark Wernham, Martin Martin’s On the Other Side
• Walter Jon Williams, This is Not a Game
• Cory Doctorow, Makers
Sex + Love With Robots
David Levy’s Love + Sex With Robots aims to persuade us that, by 2050 at the latest, it will be a common thing for people to fall in love with robots, have committed relationships with them, and have sex with them. The author wants both to shock us with the extravagance of this claim, and yet demonstrate to us carefully that such a prospect is entirely likely, and that his extrapolation is entirely rational. And indeed, Levy’s thesis is not all that extreme, when you compare it with, for instance, Ray Kurzweil’s claim that the Singularity will overtake us by 2049.
Still, I think that predicting the future is impossible, and therefore inherently ridiculous. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speculate and extrapolate; what it means is that we should read futuristic predictions in the same way that we read science fiction novels. As Warren Ellis recently put it, science fiction is “a tool with which to understand the contemporary world.” More precisely, SF (and nonfiction futuristic speculation as well) is a tool with which to understand those aspects of the contemporary world that are unfinished, still in process, and therefore (as it were) redolent of futurity. SF and futurism are vital and necessary, because they make us stop and look at the changes going on all around us, breaking with the “rear-view-mirrorism” (as Marshall McLuhan called it) that otherwise characterizes the way we tend to look at the world. That’s why I find it indispensable to read people like Bruce Sterling, Jamais Cascio, Charles Stross, Warren Ellis, and so on. The line between science fiction and futurist speculation is an extremely thin one (and some of the people on my list, most notably Sterling, explicitly do both). Extrapolating the future is necessarily a fiction-making activity; but we can’t understand the present, or be ready for the future, unless we go beyond empirical fact and turn to fiction.
That said, I fear that Love + Sex With Robots struck me as being more symptomatic than truly thoughtful, much less informative. There’s a certain (willed?) naivete to the book, as when Levy cites all sorts of dubious scientific studies and surveys — mostly conducted since 1985 — in order to prove that, for instance, “one of the stronger reasons for falling in love is need — the need for intimacy, for closeness, for sexual gratification, for a family” (p. 40). This is the sort of thing that gives (or at least should give) supposedly “scientific” research a bad name. Is a psychological research team really needed to verify cliches that have wide circulation throughout our culture? “Research” of this sort, which reproduces what everybody already “knows”, is entirely solipsistic: it is pretty much equivalent to telling somebody something, and then asking them to repeat what you told them back to you.
I suppose the idea that people crave intimacy, or sexual gratification for that matter, was merely “folk psychology,” with no objective status, until it was scientifically verified, by research summarized in an article published in 1989 in The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (as mentioned on Levy’s p. 38). It’s remarkable how — if we accept Levy’s research sources and citations — we knew nothing whatsoever about human nature a mere thirty years ago, and now we know almost everything about it that there is to know; we have gotten, for instance “a definitive answer to the question” of whether men or women have a stronger sex drive (the answer — surprise, surprise, is that men do — pp. 294-295).
Sarcasm aside, it seems obvious to me — in line with what I said above about science fiction — that one can learn a lot more about “falling in love,” and the intensity of sexual drives, and so on, from reading romance novels, for instance, than from slogging through “scientific” studies of the sort Levy cites on nearly every page of Love + Sex With Robots.
But leaving that aside — and also leaving aside the most entertaining portions of Levy’s book, such as the one where he goes through the history of vibrators and other sex toys — Love + Sex With Robots presents us (inadvertently perhaps) with an odd paradox. On the one hand, Levy argues that we will soon be able to fall in love with robots, and have sex with them, because the experience will essentially be indistinguishable from falling in love with, and having sex with, other human beings. He advocates something like the Turing test for emotions, as well as for cognition: “the robot that gives the appearance, by its behavior, of having emotions should be regarded as having emotions, the corollary of this being that if we want a robot to appear to have emotions, it is sufficient for it to behave as though it does” (p. 120). This, in itself, is unexceptionable. SF has treated the question of androids’ indistinguishability from biological human beings in numerous works, Blade Runner being the most famous but far from the only example. And Levy is not far from SF in his assertions that robots will be able to do everything that we do, only better.
Of course, that still leaves the question of how we get from here to there. Levy tends to elide the difficulty of jumping from what is possible now, to the point where robots can actually pass the Turing test. He doesn’t seem to think that this gap is such a big deal. He blithely asserts, for instance, that programming robots, not only to “imitate human sociability traits,” but also “to go further and create sociability traits of their own” is a task “possibly no more difficult to program than the task of composing Mozart’s 42nd Symphony or painting a canvas that can sell in an art gallery for thousands of dollars — tasks that have already been accomplished by AI researchers” (pp. 166-167). One may well question whether the music-writing program he cites (by David Cope of UC-Santa Cruz) really makes works that have the power and originality of Mozart. But we get this sort of assertion again and again. Levy writes that “I am convinced that by 2025 at the latest there will be artificial-emotion technologies that can not only simulate the full range of human emotions and their appropriate responses but also exhibit nonhuman emotions that are peculiar to robots”; the sole evidence he offers for this assertion is the fact that “research and development in this field is burgeoning” (p. 86).
Levy suggests, as well, that the problem of robots’ intellectual knowledge is a trivial one: “one example of a similarity that will be particularly easy to replicate is a similarity of education, since just about all of the world’s knowledge will be available for incorporation into any robot’s encyclopedic memory. If a robot discovers through conversation that its human possesses knowledge on a given subject at a given level, its own knowledge of that subject can be adjusted accordingly — it can download more knowledge if necessary, or it can deliberately ‘forget’ certain areas or levels of knowledge in order that its human will not feel intimidated by talking to a veritable brain box” (pp. 144-145). Forgive me for not sharing Levy’s faith that such a thing will be “particularly easy” to do; judging from the very limited success of programs like Cyc, we are nowhere near being able to do this.
If I find Levy’s claims extremely dubious, it is not because I think that human intelligence (or mentality) somehow inherently defies replication. But such replication is an extremely difficult problem, one that we are nowhere near to resolving. It certainly isn’t just a trivial engineering issue, or a mere quantitative matter of building larger memory stores, and more powerful and more capacious computer chips, the way that Levy (and other enthusiasts, such as Ray Kurzweil) almost always tend to assume. AI research, and the research in related fields like “emotional computing,” cannot progress without some fundamental new insights or paradigm shifts. Such work isn’t anywhere near the level of sophistication that Levy and other boosters seem to think it is. Levy wildly overestimates the successes of recent research, because he underestimates what “human nature” actually entails. His models of human cognition, emotion, and behavior are unbelievably simplistic, as they rely upon the the inanely reductive “scientific” studies that I mentioned earlier.
Much science fiction, of course, has simply abstracted from these difficulties, in order to think through the consequences of robots and AIs actually being able to pass the Turing test. But this is where the paradox of Levy’s argument really kicks in. For, at the same time that he asserts that robots will be able to pass the Turing test, he still continues to treat them as programmable entities that can be bent entirely to our will. There are numerous rhapsodic passages to the effect that, for instance, “another important difference [between human beings and robots] is that robots will be programmable never to fall out of love with their human” (p. 132). Or that a robot who is “better in the bedroom” than one’s “husband/wife/lover” will be “readily available for purchase for the equivalent of a hundred dollars or so” (p. 306). Or that, in the future, you “will be able to go into the robot shop and choose from a range of personalities, just as you will be able to choose from a range of heights, looks, and other physical characteristics” (pp. 136-137). Or, again, that a robot’s personality “can be adjusted to conform to whatever personality types its human finds appealing… The purchase form will ask questions about dimensions and basic physical features, such as height, weight, color of eyes and hair, whether muscular or not…” and so on and so forth (p. 145 — though interestingly, skin color is never mentioned as a variable, even though eye and hair color are a number of times). In short, Levy asserts that robots will be loved and used as sex partners not only because they are just as ‘real’ emotionally and intellectually as human beings, but also because they have no independence, and can be made to entirely conform to our fantasies. They will sell, not only because they are autonomous agents, but also because they are perfect commodities. They will be just like Tamagotchis, only more “realistic”; and just like vibrators, only better.
Actually, the weirdness goes even further than this. The imputation of agency to robots, while at the same time they remain commodities serving our own desires, leads to some very strange contortions. The book is filled with suggestions along these lines: “A robot who wants to engender feelings of love from its human might try all sorts of different strategies in an attempt to achieve this goal, such as suggesting a visit to the ballet, cooking the human’s favorite food, or making flattering comments about the human’s new haircut, then measuring the effect of each strategy by conducting an fMRI scan of the human’s brain. When the scan shows a higher measure of love from the human, the robot would know that it had hit upon a successful strategy. When the scan corresponds to a low level of love, the robot would change strategies” (pp. 36-37). I must say I find this utterly remarkable as a science-fiction scenario. For it suggests that the robot has been programmed to put its human owner under surveillance, the better to manipulate the owner’s emotions. The human being has purchased the robot, precisely in order that the robot may seduce the human being into doing whatever it (the robot) desires (leaving open the question of what it desires, and how these desires have been programmed into it in the first place). Such a scenario goes beyond anything that Philip K. Dick (or, for that matter, Michel Foucault) ever imagined; it extrapolates from today’s feeble experiments in neuromarketing, to a future in which such manipulation is not only something that we are subjected to, but something that we willingly do to ourselves.
So, the paradox of Levy’s account is that 1) he insists on the indistinguishability of human beings and (suitably technologically advanced) robots, while 2) at the same time he praises robots on the grounds that they are infinitely programmable, that they can be guaranteed never to have desires that differ from what their owners want, and that “you don’t have to buy [a robot] endless meals or drinks, take it to the movies or on vacation to romantic but expensive destinations. It will expect nothing from you, no long-term (or even short-term) emotional returns, unless you have chosen it to be programmed to do so” (p.211).
How do we explain this curious doubleness? How can robots be both rational subjects, and infinitely manipulable objects? How can they both possess an intelligence and sensibility at least equal to that of human beings, and retain the status of commodities. Or, as Levy himself somewhat naively puts it, “today, most of us disapprove of cultures where a man can buy a bride or otherwise acquire one without taking into account her wishes. Will our children and their children similarly disapprove of marrying a robot purchased at the local store or over the Internet? Or will the fact that the robot can be set to fall in virtual love with its owner make this practice universally acceptable?” (p. 305).
I think the answer is that this doubleness is not unique to robots; it is something that applies to human beings as well, in the hypercommodified consumer society that we live in. (By “we”, I mean the privileged portion of humankind, those of us who can afford to buy computers today, and will be able to afford to buy sexbots tomorrow — but this “we” really is, in a sense, universal, since it is the model that all human beings are supposed to aspire to). We ourselves are as much commodities as we are sovereign subjects; we ourselves are (or will be) infinitely programmable (through genetic and neurobiological technologies to come), not in spite of, but precisely because of, our status as “rational utility maximizers” entering the “marketplace.” This is already implicit in the “scientific” studies about “human nature” that Levy so frequently cites. The very idea that we can name, in an enumerated list, the particular qualities that we want in a robot lover, depends upon the fact that we already conceive of ourselves as being defined by such a list of enumerable qualities. The economists’ idea that we bring a series of hierarchically organized desires into the marketplace similarly preassumes such a quantifiable bundle of discrete items.
Or, to quote Levy again: “Some would argue that robot emotions cannot be ‘real’ because they have been designed and programmed into the robots. But is this very different from how emotions work in people? We have hormones, we have neurons, and we are ‘wired’ in a way that creates our emotions. Robots will merely be wired differently, with electronics and software replacing hormones and neurons. But the results will be very similar, if not indistinguishable” (p.122). This is not an argument about actual biological causation, but precisely a recipe for manipulation and control. The robots Levy imagines are made in our image, precisely because we are already in process of being made over in theirs.
Science fiction update
This is rambling and all over the place, but I think I will post it anyway, as it tries to make sense of a lot of the reading I have been doing lately, and which I haven’t previously mentioned in this blog.
SF writer Chris Moriarty, whose excellent novel Spin State I have just finished reading, notes on her website that the most fundamental distinction in science fiction as a genre is “the division between writers who view sf as being primarily about science and writers who view sf as being primarily about politics.” She goes on to note that, of course, this polarity is really a “continuum” rather than an absolute divide; but I think that the major point is well taken.
Actually, I might want to substitute “technology” for science in Moriarty’s formulation, because, even in the “hardest” SF the scientific knowledge is embodied in technology; and also because more metaphorical technologies, like those used in certain types of fantasy writing, are sometimes (though, obviously, not always) closer to the technologies that hard SF provides. (Think, for instance, about the use of artificial intelligence, alongside several kinds of flat-out magic, in China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. So it might be best to state the division as between SF that looks at the imaginative possibilities unleashed by potential or future technology, and SF that looks at the political consequences of such technology. Though, of course, most good SF has elements of both.
I’m thinking about this because I want to work out more of the way that SF moves in between these two poles, and helps us focus on the ways that politics inflects technological development (and even scientific discovery) and the ways that scientific discovery and technological change inflect, divert, and alter socio-political possibilities.
For instance, Moriarty’s Spin State is premised on extrapolations from current quantum mechanics. There is a lot of stuff about correlated particles (providing for a loophole in the absolute restriction of movement to the speed of light or lower), and about the many-worlds implications of certain branches of quantum theory (though, thankfully, Moriarty never uses this as a mere plot device to bring alternative universes in contact with the one in which the novel is set). And Moriarty even provides several pages of bibliography at the end of the book, in which the real physics underlying the made-up physics of his novel is grounded and explained.
And yet, Spin State is, in a certain way, more about (old-fashioned) class struggle than it is about quantum theory. The action takes place mostly on a planet where workers are employed in horrific conditions as coal miners, digging up the “Bose-Einstein condensate” that is necessary for superluminal communication and travel, and that is buried amidst the coal. The miners’ conditions are every bit as bad, and even as ‘primitive’, as those of mine workers in, say, South Africa today. The flashy newer technologies that make up the world (universe) of the novel are overlaid upon the older technologies that in fact, already exist today. It is symbolically indicative that, several centuries from now, people are still watching the Mets take on the Yankees in the world series, and government troops are still being brought in to break strikes and keep the workers in line. The novel is split between the hell of the coal mines, where workers routinely die in cave-ins, or — if not — succumb to black lung by the time they are forty, and the paradise of completely immersive virtual worlds in which the illusion of physicality is complete, and material objects are as palpabe, and can be transferred, as easily as occurs in the physical world. We meet emergent artificial intelligences possessing superhuman computing power, quasi-human beings who have been genetically engineered and cloned to provide certain exploitable physical and mental characteristics, and people whose bodies have been extensively wired to give them strength, computing power, prosthetic memory, ability to interface directly with machines, and so forth. Yet these transformations,as well, are not universally available, but tied to power and privilege and economic status.
The thriller plot of Spin State involves contact with an alien form of intelligent life (so alien, that for a long time human beings were unable even to recognize it as either alive or intelligent), together with a love story between a quasi-human “construct” and an AI who can only instantiate itself physically by “borrowing” (actually, paying for use of) the bodies of physical human beings. Though the novel is partly committed to the sort of naturalistic “character development” that is sometimes considered requisite in genre fiction, it does at least to some extent speculate on what it might mean to speak of the “psychology” of an intelligent and communicating entity which, yet, is not entirely human, and not even a unified subject in the ways that we expect human beings to be. Moriarty doesn’t go anywhere near as far in this respect as Justina Robson does in Living Next Door to the God of Love, a book which is mind-blowing in the way that it imagines the depth psychology of entirely nonhuman subjects, and the emotional relationships such subjects might enter into with other nonhuman, as well as with more or less ordinarily human, beings. But Moriarty, unlike Robson, links this sort of strange emergence — something beyond what we might be capable of actually experiencing today — to socio-political conditions that are continuous with our rapaciously capitalistic present.
Well, I seem to have introduced a third category: nonhuman psychology, or (as I would prefer to call it) the affectivity of nonhuman beingss (including transhuman beings, genetically modified human beings, hybrid/cyborg human beings, and artificial intelligence beings), which is as separate from (and as influenced by) either science/technology or politics/economics as these two are separate from, and yet strongly influenced by one another. Nonhuman affectivities are an important part of science fiction, because they are part of the investigation of how “we” (taking this pronoun in the broadest possible sense) could be otherwise, and indeed how we are already (since SF is always about the futurity that is already implicit or incipient in the present) in process of becoming-otherwise. The key principle here, of course, being McLuhan’s, that as media (an even wider term than “technologies”) vary and change, so our very percepts, affects, and concepts vary and change.
But I digress. I wanted to mention, as a contrast to Moriarty, Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End, which just won the Hugo for best SF novel of 2006. (I am looking forward to Vinge’s visit to my university’s campus later this year). Rainbows End is near-future SF; it extrapolates trends in “social software,” in wearable computing, in ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous networks, and massively parallel computing involving scores of people only virtually connected, etc., in order to suggest how these technologies are radically reshaping our social world. It is much more on the science/technology side of the continuum than the political; and I tend to distrust Vinge’s politics to a certain extent, I must say, as it seems (from what I can gather from his fiction) to trend libertarian-capitalist; not to mention that Vinge is the originator of the concept of The Singularity, which I think has subsequently (in the hands of others, at least) been greatly oversold.
Nonetheless, Rainbows End is quite brilliant both for the ways it integrates into a seamless whole its various technologies, all of which are floating around right now, but isolated from one another and only in incipient versions; and for the way that the book offers a vision in which the surveillance of the national security state, vigilantly on guard against terrorism and against any violation of so-called ‘intellectual property’ rights, has become so ubiquitous and taken-for-granted that the chance of getting away from it doesn’t exist anymore — the loss of civil liberties and of privacy is so established that it isn’t even an issue. The scariness of this is only mitigated by the fact that “freedom” of business entrepreneurship and of entertainment “choices” is left intact — i.e., you are entirely free to swear your allegiance to either of the two popular fantasy authors who have ripped off and updated Terry Pratchett, each in their own way. That is pretty much the way Vinge paints it, though I don’t think he is quite as snarkily ironic about the commerce part of it as I just was. (Disclaimer: I have nothing against Terry Pratchett; I am only objecting to his future imitators).
And, oh yes, Vinge’s book also has some interesting bits about a sort of mental virus that, spread by a combination of biological and net/informational infection, can cause an extremely high percentage of those exposed to suddenly want to buy a given product, or support a President’s rationale for waging war. And, also, the novel contains one mysterious character who (it seems — this is never explicitly spelled out) just may be an emergent AI, having arisen out of the Net itself, with its own somewhat alien agendas/interests and affects… That again.
But, for really hitting that point on the continuum where the social and political blends imperceptibly into the scientific and technological, and vice versa, the best SF I have read in quite some time is Warren Ellis’ new comic book series, Doktor Sleepless. Only two issues have come out so far, so it is hard to know quite where this is heading — it is as if I were to review Moriarty’s or Vinge’s novel on the basis of only reading the first fifty pages — but already we have been hit with an extraordinarily high density of new ideas, innovative concepts per page. One theme, at least, is the contrast between the shiny, high-concept SF of the past, and the way that technological innovation is already, much more quietly and unassumingly, worming its ways into our lives in ways that are far more profound, precisely because they are less spectacularly noticeable. In the world of Doktor Sleepless, people complain, “where’s my jet pack? where’s my flying car?”; but they fail even to notice how much they have been altered by stuff they take for granted, like (just barely beyond what we actually have today) ubiquitous instant messaging. Now, making fun of the grandiosity of Golden Age SF is nothing new; William Gibson did it twenty-five years ago in his short story “The Gernsback Continuum.” But Ellis is pointing, beyond this, to the increasing sense we have, in our globalized network society, that futurity itself is used up, that its horizons have shrunk, that we have nothing to look forward to. Our future hasn’t changed in, what, twenty or thirty years? The future we imagine today is no different from the one that Ridley Scott imagined in Blade Runner twenty-five years ago, just at the same time that Gibson was mocking the future that had been imagined twenty-five years before that. So we would seem to be in a stasis, where futurity has decayed, melted into an infernal, eternal present.
Against this malaise, Ellis’ Doktor Sleepless has a “terrible perscription” — though we do not know, after only two issues, what it is yet. But it does seem to involve DIY low tech, of the sort that has already changed our world, more profoundly perhaps than we have even noticed. [This really does ring true to me. My students are always surprised — not only that I grew up in a time before the Internet, even before personal computers — but, more stunningly, because it is something much more mundane — that I can remember the first time that I saw and used an ATM, and that — prior to that moment — I managed my bank account for many years without one].
Anyway.. Issue two of Doktor Sleepless introduces us to the “Shrieky Girls” — young women who have tiny haptic devices on their hands or arms, connected to the ubiquitous instant-messaging system that they can access through their contact lenses. The result is that they can share, not just words, but perceptions and sensations. When one of the Shrieky Girls takes a boy (or a girl) home with them, then the next morning “it’s all of them who share the modemed sensation of a warm arm closed softly around them.” So “Shrieky Girls are never alone; they live in an invisible web of constant secret conversation, transmitting raw feelings like they were texting notes.” What’s brilliant about all this is that it’s barely even SF; it’s only a step beyond what is already technologically feasible; and, in the world of the story, it isn’t even spectacular, but is something cobbled together cheaply and easily, out of already-obsolete components and second-hand networking links. Which makes it nearly invisible, even as it meses with our ideas about selfhood and privacy, and the boundaries between self and other, more profoundly than the more flashy technologies of science fiction past had ever done.
Ellis’ Global Frequency of several years ago already toyed with the making-mundane of the most extravagant SF visions that recent technologies have given us. And his novel (prose, not graphic) Crooked Little Vein, released this past summer, made the point that categories like “perversion,” and distinctions between the normal and the pathological, no longer make any sense in our society of what Baudrillard calls “transparency” and Jodi Dean calls “communicative capitalism” — and emphasized this with humor and relief, rather than with the horror of Baudrillard, or the moralistic fervor of those who bemoan the so-called “decline of symbolic efficacy” (the only “perversions” in the novel that are truly odious and objectionable are the ones that stem from the privileges and life-and-death powers that the extremely rich and well-connected exercise against the rest of us). Doktor Sleepless seems to be starting out from where these other works left off, and heading into uncharted territories. Ones in which the micro-affects and micro-politics of technologies that have insinuated themselves within our lives pretty much without a splash (albeit with lots of marketing hoopla) are exposed, dramatized, subject to the harsh scrutiny of genre fiction.
I mean, I’ll never have a jet pack, but won’t the iPhone change me? Why do I want one so badly, even though it won’t do anything for me “as a person” that my current phone (albeit using the disgustingly ponderous and irritating and user-unfriendly Windows Mobile platform) doesn’t do already?
Software and Hardware
Now that Apple has completed migrating its laptops to Intel chips, I really want to get a new one; I really want to replace my aging (in computer-age terms, i.e. it is 2 1/2 years old) 12″ PowerBook with a new 13″ MacBook… Except for one thing. My PowerBook weighs 4.3 lbs, which is way too heavy. The new MacBook — the lightest and most compact Mac laptop model, just announced — weighs 5.2 lbs, it is almost a full pound heavier. If I got one, and took it around with me, it would break my back! I really want Apple to introduce a new, lightweight subnotebook, 3 lbs or less, something that I could carry about with me everywhere.
The laptop — like the Treo (phone/PDA), the iPod, and the digital camera; or for that matter, like my eyeglasses — is really part of my body.These are all prostheses that augment my ability to act in and with the world, to affect and be affected, as Spinoza would say, they are parts of my distributed cognitive (and affective) network, as Andy Clark would say. So these ergonomic considerations are really important; they are equally as important as, and should indeed be considered a part of, the design aesthetics that Steve Jobs so (justifiably, in other respects) vaunts himself on being concerned with. Why can’t Apple come out with something comparable to the 1.9 lb Sony Vaio, which is a beautiful and reasonably high-powered machine (even if not quite as beautiful as Apple’s laptops) machine, whose only major defect is that it runs Windows instead of the Mac OS?
Since I am harping on my techno commodity fetish obsessions — all I want to do is buy! buy! buy!, but the product has to be just right, and that just-rightness includes a brand or corporate identification — let me ask an open question about software. I am looking for some sort of Mac OS program that I could use as a sort of database of writing fragments. That is to say, a program that just connects short notes I write, snippets of questions or half-formed paragraphs, i.e. text fragments from a few lines to a few paragraphs in length, together with a bunch of web and article citations on various subjects — all this to collect material that I could use as raw material for later or more concerted writing.
I already have a fine program, Yojimbo, that I use to collect miscellaneous web snippets, texts, images, links, and so on (sometimes I just keep the urls for pages I have found interesting; other times I keep the entire contents of the web page). But here I am looking for something different, something that I would use mostly for text fragments I write myself. So being able to handle formats other than plain text wouldn’t be that important. (As long as I can hyperlink to bibliography sources, to images, etc., I wouldn’t need them in the database itself). I need something that is not too hierarchically organized (I cannot group these fragments into categories and subcategories, which is why certain programs I’ve tried, like Circus Ponies Notebook, aren’t quite right for me), but that allows for powerful searching. I’d like to be able to associate each fragment or entry with an unlimited number of metadata tags, and be able to search both by those and by full text content. It would be even better if the program could interpret LaTeX and BibTeX, since most of my entries would be in this format
Has anyone reading this tried either DevonThink or TAO, and are either of these along the lines of what I am looking for? Or can anyone recommend another program, that would be more suitable for my needs? Thanks…
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50075 | Hacking a Car remotely with $20 iPhone sized Device
Hacking Smart Car with CAN Hacking Tool kitIn the era of Smart devices, we have Smartphones, Smart TVs, Smart Fridges, and even the Smart cars! We have made our life very easy and comfortable by providing the master control of every task to such smart devices.
But imagine if an attacker wants to take revenge or hurt someone, now they can just hack cars, rather than failing their breaks in the traditional way. Sounds Horrible !
WELL, Two Security researchers - Javier Vazquez-Vidal and Alberto Garcia Illera have developed a homemade gadget called 'CAN Hacking Tools (CHT)', made up of a tiny device smaller than your Smartphone, which is enough to hack the Cars.
The Kit costs less than $20, but is far capable to take away car's entire control from windows and headlights to its steering and brakes.
Till now their device is capable to communicate via Bluetooth only, which is limited to minor range, but by soon they will upgrade it to use a GSM cellular radio that would make their device possible to control from miles away.
Fonte: Copia e incolla da: http://thehackernews.com/2014/02/hacking-car-remotely-with-20-iphone.html
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50082 | London Gazette index entry detail
Publication details:
Publication date: 28 Feb 1877.
Issue: 24426.
Page: 133.
Person details:
Name: Richard Upfold.
Marital Status: Not given.
Occupation: Gentleman.
Address: Cross Bush, Lyminster, Arundel.
Inland Revenue, Somerset House. Copy of Bankers' Returns, made in pursuance of the Act 7th and 8th Victoria, cap. 32. Name of Firm: The London and County Banking Company. Persons of whom the Company of Partnership consists.
Transcribed by:
Michael Metcalfe.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50094 | 15 ways to ask your kids if they enjoyed school today without saying, How was school today?
It can be very hard to get answer from our kids when we ask what you might say is a closed question. Usually response might be, “fine” or “ok” or “great” or even just “good”, which doesn’t really give us the information we want.
1. What or who made you laugh? (Who’s the funniest in class and why are they so funny?)
2. What was the funniest thing that happened at school today?
3. Who did you sit beside in class? (who don’t you like sitting beside in class and tell me why?)
4. Who did you help today?
5. Who helped you today?
6. If I spoke to your teacher today, what would she say about you?
7. What did you learnt today?
8. What made today a happy day for you?
9. Did you do PE today and tell me about some of the fun things you did?
10. Who do you like playing with the most? (and the least, why?)
11. Who in your class could be nicer and who could you be nicer too?
12. Where do you play the most at break time?
13. What games do you like playing the most at break time? (How do you play that game?)
14. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you like school?
15. If you were the teacher what subject would you like to teach?
As our kids get older it becomes harder to get them to engage with us and therefore we need to be a little more imaginative with our questions. One thing I’ve learnt from being a coach and life coach is ask searching questions and never stop being curious.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50137 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne-kilometers of cargo annually, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.
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EarthYP Edge Conference 2019 in Maui, Hawaii |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50144 | Yelp has a secret! It isn’t so much that they get traffic but that they use search engine optimization to get traffic and THAT is people find you on Yelp. When you let Yelp be your only search engine listing, you give them complete power to wipe you out. To make your mark you have to out optimize for your keyword and target audience. It’s not rocket science, and it is necessary to survive online. Here’s a little video that shows you how! |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50156 |
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Super mario 64 Wet Dry World
Super mario 64 Wet Dry World
this is my second level replica and this time it is on the Wet Dry World level, it includes the first and second part of the level
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50179 | Interactive resources for schools
Select an age range to seek interactive content for...
Circulatory system
Transport system of the body made up of the heart, the blood vessels and the blood. Also known as the cardiovascular system.
Blood vessels
The tubes through which blood is carried around the body eg arteries, veins and capillaries
Very small blood vessel with walls made of a single layer of epithelial cells. Exchange of materials, such as nutrients, oxygen and carbon dioxide, takes place between the blood and the cells of the body across the capillary walls.
The spreading out of the particles of a gas or any substance in solution down a concentration gradient
Blood vessel(s) which carries blood away from the heart
A list of often difficult or specialised words with their definitions.
Blood vessel which carries blood to the heart
The poisonous waste compound produced when excess amino acids are broken down in your liver
What is the circulatory system?
The circulatory system is the transport system of your body. It delivers food and oxygen to your cells and removes the waste products such as carbon dioxide and urea. It is made up of blood (the transport medium), the blood vessels which act as the pipes and the heart which pumps the blood around the body.
The circulatory system
Your cells need a constant supply of food and oxygen to provide the energy needed for all of the reactions of the body. At the same time the cells are constantly making waste products which are poisonous if they are allowed to build up.
Food is absorbed from the digestive system and oxygen is picked up in the lungs to be carried in the blood around the body. The food molecules and oxygen move into the cells from the blood by diffusion.
Waste products also move from the cells into the blood by diffusion. They are removed from the body in the lungs or by the kidneys.
The blood is carried around the body in a system of blood vessels which vary in size and structure. The main types of vessels are the arteries, veins and capillaries.
To transport substances the blood must be moved around the circulatory system and this is the function of the heart. Your heart is a muscular pump which starts beating long before you are born and continues to beat throughout your life around 70 times every minute.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50180 | During one of my undergraduate semesters I was pretty depressed (for various personal reasons) and was struggling with completing my coursework. One class in particular didn't have a final exam, there was a just a final essay to turn in worth 25% of the grade. I was really out of it, and in the end I couldn't meet the deadline and didn't even turn it in, I was so unable to concentrate that I was willing to just accept my fate.
For whatever reason, my professor gave me a B- in the class, which is just impossible. Though I did do reasonably well on the rest of the coursework, the highest I could've gotten was 75%, not to mention if there was some bigger penalty that my university had for not attending/doing a final assignment (like getting an incomplete or something, I have no idea). It's unlikely the class was curved that much either...I don't know whether it was a grading entry error, whether the prof accidentally swapped my grade with another person's, or if she just took pity on me (I had mentioned that I was going through some personal issues when I turned in an assignment late during the semester), but for whatever reason I got a B-.
At the time, I was surprised and just accepted it. But as I started to feel better I felt extremely guilty about not turning in the essay, and months later (I've since graduated) I sent my professor an email with the paper attached basically saying "Really sorry I didn't turn it in, I was feeling depressed at the time, I should've turned it in back then, here it is", to which she just hasn't responded. I'm fairly certain she doesn't care at all, but it's been bothering me for a while now.
I'm not sure what to do - should I turn myself in to the school? I feel guilty about the whole thing, but what's worrying me as well is that I also don't want this to bite me in the ass down the line later in life. Can I be punished for not turning the essay, or not telling my professor the grade might have been too high? Was it a mistake to email my professor at all afterwards, maybe I'm causing a problem for her? All in all, I'm really not sure what to think or do.
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Some people are just easy graders. B- could be her personal minimum. – user37208 Jan 12 '16 at 16:56
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You don't know what the grading scale was. (This past semester, for example, students who got an overall score of 55-65 in my class got a B-.) – ff524 Jan 12 '16 at 17:01
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"Merry Christmas" (My typical response to students that get a higher grade than they think they deserved). In all seriousness, either (A) you really did deserve it, or (B) the professor, upon not finding your paper, presumed they lost it and made a best-guess as to your performance. Both are quite likely. – user0721090601 Jan 12 '16 at 17:31
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Also, unfair grading happens both ways. You may find in some later class that you do what you feel is your best work and are given a D for it. The grace with which you respond to such things is more important than worrying about what you feel you deserve. Getting credit and blame you don't deserve is going to happen from time to time for the rest of your life, if my experience is any guide. Sometimes accepting credit you feel you haven't earned is actually more emotionally difficult than accepting blame you don't deserve. – Todd Wilcox Jan 12 '16 at 18:20
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I think it could be useful to you to read about imposter syndrome. – ErikE Jan 14 '16 at 6:40
15 Answers 15
Don't worry about it. No one's going to come after you for failing to turn in an essay in some random course. No one's ever going to check and, if they did, they probably won't care too much.
Should you turn yourself in? No. There's absolutely no reason to turn yourself in. You've done nothing wrong. The professor is the one responsible for assigning your grade correctly. For all you (or we) know, they felt you deserved a B-.
Should you have emailed your professor the essay? Probably not, but mostly because they probably don't care. I doubt they read it and I very much doubt that you caused any problems for them.
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• What you've said certainly makes sense Ric...but I still feel a little guilty - perhaps with time, it'll sink in. I particularly wanted to send my professor the essay, I felt I had to do it to move on (as I, around the deadline emailed her to say I was working on it - but then didn't end up turning it in). But you might be right, it just might not matter. – Apollofresh Jan 13 '16 at 1:32
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There's no real harm in having sent it. My advice would be to try and not worry about it. Though that's easier said than done. – Ric Jan 13 '16 at 1:41
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I think this 'feeling guilty about things' is causing all the stress and depression. I would hope you try to change your thoughts and not over think about everything. If we all think it's not worth worrying about than it's just you who is putting pressure on yourself. I feel concerned about it. Hope you feel better. – User56756 Jan 13 '16 at 23:18
• -1 "mostly because they probably don't care. " I would guess as someone who was himself an educator and knew a number of professors that most would care. A LOT? Maybe not. But that's distinct from "don't care". – Chan-Ho Suh Jan 14 '16 at 4:56
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The best cure for guilt is penance. Work off your guilt by doing some extra-good essays this year, and turning them in early. Then you will feel like you don't need to feel guilty any more. (This is a psychological phenomenon that the Catholic church has cleverly adopted - it really works). – Max Williams Jan 14 '16 at 9:51
As others have said, professors have a lot of flexibility in assigning grades.
It's not unusual for professors to have a policy of dropping a worst assignment and averaging the rest. I've even seen this on final exams ("Happy with your grade going into the final? Don't take it." or the variant "If you have an 'A' going into the final, you don't have to take it.").
If your professor had any clue that your outside-class troubles were preventing you from doing the final project, it's quite possible that she elected to use such a calculation for your scores, even if she wasn't doing so class-wide. While at first glance this may seem unfair to other students, remember that the goal is to accurately evaluate your mastery of the material, not to make you do busy-work, and there's much more information about your performance in the assignments you did turn in than the ones after you got distracted. The principle of "measure mastery, not busywork" appears in other ways too, such as credit-by-examination.
Your late submission of the assignment isn't likely to result in any sort of regrade, assuming the professor is comfortable with the calculation she used. She might read it if she's interested, and your diligence in following up could lead to benefits beyond the course grade (recommendation letter, for example), but she's already decided she didn't need it to determine your grade.
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I see other people are saying don't worry about it, and I completely agree. At the same time, I think it's worth acknowledging that your feelings are legitimate and that you have some valid reasons to feel discomfort about getting a grade you don't feel you've earned. Like many of us, you probably want to be judged and achieve success based on your real hard work and achievements and not due to some random error or act of charity. There is also an issue of fairness. For example, this grade might improve your GPA in a way that gives you a small but real advantage over another student who also didn't hand in their final project but was not so lucky to have such a compassionate (or absent-minded) professor. None of us who has any sense of fairness wants to benefit from this kind of injustice, so I completely understand why you find this troubling.
With that said, if this concerns only one grade in an undergrad class, the whole thing is really too trivial to spend any time worrying about, for the following reasons:
1. It is the professor's responsibility, not yours, to determine the grade you deserve. It's quite possible she saw your potential and sincerely believed you deserved a B+ even knowing that you hadn't completed the final essay.
2. Grades only contain statistical information anyway. It's quite possible and even likely that in other courses you got grades that were lower than you deserved (either in the sense that a concrete, measurable error or misjudgment of on the part of the professor occurred, or in a more abstract philosophical sense that the grade did not reflect your true knowledge of the material), or that in the course of your life you will suffer some other minor injustices. In the end those small injustices will more or less cancel each other out. In fact, suffering from depression is certainly its own much more major form of injustice.
3. You mentioned that later when you emailed the professor you actually sent her the essay you had completed. If in fact you did end up completing the assignment, then you got the educational benefit of the class and the assignment and demonstrated your knowledge, even if belatedly. So in the end you probably completely fulfilled the professor's expectations that caused her to give you the grade in the first place. So really, what do you have to feel guilty about, other than some technicality?
4. Lots and lots of students get grades that are higher than what they deserve, whether it's due to outright cheating, grade grubbing, or being intellectually lazy and just studying for the test without knowing or caring about the material. The injustice that you are describing (to the extent that it is one) seems to me like a pretty microscopic one that -- I'm sad to say -- drowns in an ocean of much worse injustice.
To summarize, I've often thought that guilt, while certainly a useful emotion, can at times be quite a counterproductive thing, and it is important not to obsess about it or let ourselves be paralyzed by it. The best thing you could do both for yourself and for the world is to focus on leading a good life and finding ways to help yourself and others, rather than worrying about a grade in some long-forgotten college class. I'm sure that is precisely what your professor would want you to be doing.
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• I appreciate the very detailed post Dan (in your first paragraph, you've precisely described my concerns, by the way), your thoughts have been very helpful. Perhaps what's also adding to my discomfort is that, had I failed the class, I might've been put on academic probation or even a more severe penalty, as I didn't do stellar in my other classes that same semester. So if my professor wasn't so kind, I could've been in a worse situation. All of the reasons you've listed make sense...but I can't help but feel I got very (perhaps undeservedly) lucky in how my professor decided to grade. – Apollofresh Jan 13 '16 at 1:27
• 2
Glad I could help. Yes, clearly you got a bit lucky. I'm not a psychologist, but from a quick google search it seems that people feeling guilt as a result of being lucky or fortunate in some way is quite a common phenomenon. See for example here and here. Anyway, I really hope you'll manage to forget all the what-ifs and come to peace with what happened, enjoy your good fortune and pay it forward. – Dan Romik Jan 13 '16 at 9:43
• 2
@Apollofresh: As you realize, your late submission of the paper after already getting the grade is more for yourself than for your professor. After all, it is legitimate for you to want to complete what you felt you ought to have done, as Dan said, and since you have done it, that's good enough. If you really feel the need to, you can always find the professor to talk to her about it, but in my opinion you shouldn't ever say or suggest you think your grade should be changed, since you have essentially already made up for what you felt guilty about by completing the paper. Nobody's perfect. =) – user21820 Jan 14 '16 at 6:40
• +1 for #1. Often, the hardest part of grading is figuring out who gets the last B, and who gets the first C. Some professors choose to stick with a predetermined scale, but others give themselves some leeway. Many factors can play into this – overall effort, improvement over time, attitude and engagement in class, etc. Sometimes I'll cut a student some slack when most of their grades were very solid save for one outlier in the gradebook – like a paper that somehow didn't get turned in. In this case, I bet the prof felt a B- was the most accurate indicator of the student's overall performance. – J.R. Jan 16 '16 at 12:28
Not sure if there are any strict grading standards in the academic institution in questions, but in my experience, teachers usually have some liberty in deciding the grade the feel is appropriate for a student, in addition to the raw numbers behind it. Beyond plain sympathy, a teacher can bump a student's grade just to give them a better chance to keep going with their studies, when they see potential.
It is also possible the teacher based the final grades on the highest grade in the class. This basically means the highest grade (doesn't matter what it actually was) turns into A+ and mathematically recalculate all the other grades on a sliding scale based on it.
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Keep things in perspective here - you weren't accidentally awarded the Nobel Prize. You got (possibly, it's not certain) an extra letter grade in an undergraduate course. And you made a reasonable and honorable attempt to bring the matter to the attention of the instructor.
You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty or be worried about. Don't waste any more time or thought on it and put it behind you.
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• 1
Enrico Fermi, though undoubtedly brilliant and deserving, got the Nobel Prize for a misinterpretation of experimental results. Though he must have undoubtedly been deeply embarrassed, it did not tarnish his reputation, and his regard in the scientific community is nothing but glowing. In short: it happens to the best of us. Instead of feeling guilty, it's better karma if we work at becoming worthy of the good things that occur to us rather than feeling guilty of them. – Captain Emacs Jan 15 '16 at 10:08
Each individual must take responsibility for his or her own actions. From your description, you have done that. You did nothing to deceive anyone or to cheat in any way. You never asked for a grade you didn't deserve. While your guilt can't be ignored, you must realize and eventually accept that your grade was determined by your professor, who had all of the necessary information at the time to make a proper decision. Without seeing the grades of the other students and comparing their work to yours, it would impossible to say whether your grade is fair or not, so you'll never be able to definitively say what your grade should have been. But you should recognize that if the grade is not appropriate for the work you did, it is because of choices the professor made and not you. It's time to let this one go.
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Grades are often believed to be objective. They are almost never, except for some multiple choice tests, and yet, teachers can still weight answers.
I can only talk for myself as a teacher: I praise work, attention and effort. Some of my students have had grades they probably did not deserve, but I bet (experience?) that they have absorbed sufficiently from the lectures. I even have boosted grades when I thought they needed some self-confidence.
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A database that I touched a few decades ago tracked labwork for students and helped the professors assign grades (such things as having a photo and the name). It had a number of statistics that were available about the labwork.
Some of the information presented to the professor did some common hypotheticals that were asked of the data. Things like:
• what percent was turned in late?
• what would have been the average grade if everything was handed in on time?
• how many points from the grade boundary above? below?
• what would have been the average grade if the lowest scoring labwork didn't exist?
In more than a few cases, this gave the professor the ability to see "this one lab took an otherwise AB student to a BC grade because of the lateness and something going wrong," and make the corresponding discretionary choice to assign a grade other than what the pure numbers would suggest.
The linking of the face to the name and the grade also helped the professor recognize the student more easily and note the "the student was having issues that were outside of the immediate control, but otherwise showed a mastery of the subject matter from my experiences in other interactions." Again, helping the professor have a more complete view of the student than just numbers provide.
There are certainly professors who grade by just the numbers. I also had a class as an undergraduate where the entire grade was one oral exam at the end of the semester (talk about nerve-wracking - turned out I did very well in that exam, still... nerve-wracking). I had another professor who had me come in the day before grades were due (and two days before I was to leave for California) to review my answers to the final exam (which I did poorly on) with the book open which allowed my grade to be changed from an F to a D (and thereby having the necessary class to graduate).
The point I am trying to make is that professors do have the discretion to be able to assign a grade that may or may not be entirely based on numbers and that such situations are more common than you may otherwise expect (the stories of such are not widely circulated)... not necessarily common, but certainly not never nor rarely.
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If it would make you feel better, you should talk to the professor (if you still can). You could tell them about your situation before the essay was due and apologize for not being able to turn it in on time. Also say that you had sent them an email some time ago, with the incomplete essay, and ask if they had a chance to look at it. You could offer to complete the essay, not for extra credit or anything, but so that you feel better about the whole thing. Professors are also people, and they like a student who is honest. You could save yourself some guilt as well :)
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• 1
I wish I could upvote this more than once, it's such a sensible solution. Talking to the professor will relieve your guilt and might give you insight into where the mark came from. If it's actually a mistake, there won't be much consequence except the professor will be impressed by your honesty, but it's possible you deserve the mark in a way you don't know. It's not that you are obliged to look up the professor, but if you are still worrying about it, talking to them could only help! – Joanna Bryson Jul 24 '19 at 15:10
With all due respect to people's philosophical and ethical musings about your situation, you asked "what to do". And you don't seem like the kind of person who appreciates the "you got away with it, just let it go" approach. Well:
• You are facing a dilemma regarding your studies which is not about the subject matter itself.
• You are unsure what's the correct way to act.
• Action may involve the professor or the faculty/university administration.
The answer seems to be: consult them. Specifically, do one of the following (in order of my preference):
• Talk to one of the course's teaching assistants, if it has any, to learn about the grading policy and its exceptions, and to ask them whether you think you should approach the Professor about this.
• Talk to the Professor him/herself, as suggested in Arvind Mani's answer.
• Faculties/schools within universities typically have an academic staff member in charge of overseeing undergraduate student affairs, academically. Visit that person's office hours to ask him about this. I would suggest you begin by not mentioning the exact course and the exact numeric details, to make it a semi-hypothetical question first.
They might tell you it's alright and just to let it go, or they might say something else, but you would have certainly done the most fair and transparent thing you can and your conscience should be clear.
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• You're right in that it's been difficult for me to quickly let things though. With time, I may come to accept it...but I'm still struggling with things at the moment. – Apollofresh Jan 15 '16 at 14:42
• Sent prematurely^. I've certainly considered calling (I've graduated) my professor or the school...What's holding me back is: 1. I've already emailed my professor that I didn't turn in the paper...and she could've taken action at that point if she wanted to (e.g., if she assigned the grade in error). and 2. I don't want my professor to get in trouble if I go to the school - repaying her kindness by getting the administration mad at her (on off chance that the grade she gave was actually frowned upon) would just create more, perhaps deeper guilt for me. Any further thoughts? A conundrum. – Apollofresh Jan 15 '16 at 14:55
• @Apollofresh: Note you can delete your earlier comments. Anyway, option 1 then. And she has no TA, maybe a TA you know from another course - someone who's "part of the system" but who cannot directly act on anything you tell him. That's the best idea I've got, sorry. :-) – einpoklum Jan 15 '16 at 15:30
Sounds like it's less a question of grading, but more a question of closure. That undeserved grade is nagging you. Some thoughts:
1. As others have written, what the institution does is not your problem. Things are done and you create more problems trying to change it than by leaving it as it is (for yourself, the prof, the university).
2. It won't bite you later because you were open about it and did turn it in. Usually, the cover-up kills careers, not the mistake itself, and you did not try to cover it up. Furthermore, there are legitimate ground for turning in papers later. It's easy to see when a person gets hit by a car, not so easy with mental disorders or the like. It probably wasn't formally correct, but that can happen when unforeseen things happen.
3. If this isn't the only instance when an undeserved benefit bugs you (in itself a socially advantageous trait, although undoubtedly career-negative), find out what helped in these other circumstances. People can tell you that you did nothing wrong (because you did not, e.g., you did not try to game the system), but you have to accept it for yourself (i.e., gain closure). Personally, I would see the turning in as end point, try to extract a few lessons how to act in the future (e.g., talk to the prof after getting the grade, although difficult in that situation), and move on.
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As with Dan and LaurenT, I suspect there's a good chance the Professor saw something in you when you could not yourself see it. I think it's good that you're reflecting on this so deeply. Take it as a gracious, priceless gift. Don't squander it. And pass it on.
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LOL! Good to see your concern about your unfortunate semester. Professors often take quite a bit into account to raise grades, seldom to lower them. Most likely, the Professor looked very hard at the grades before the grades were ever turned in and asked if any of the grades might be higher. Perhaps yours was raised, perhaps the overall curve was lowered. It was all very carefully considered and you got what you got! Congratulations and please accept the good with the bad.
Over the years, I've seen a number of interesting situations. The older trucker, wanting to be an Engineer, struggling through Calculus. He had no Algebraic Discipline! The Professor helped him through problems, one line at a time for a while, citing Algebraic Discipline. The trucker struggled through tests with grades of D, then C, then B, with a near A on the final! Did the trucker learn Calculus? Yes! Did he learn Algebra? Oh, absolutely! He finally had motivation to observe Algebraic Discipline! The trucker argued that the Professor gave him too high a grade. The Professor pointed out that the grade was simply the mathematical average. After the trucker argued more for a lower grade, the Professor said, no, the only regret is that the class syllabus had no provision for raising the grade a letter! (At that point, the trucker seemed satisfied!)
Perhaps depression is not the same as not knowing algebra, but each student is very important and you did not accidentally receive a higher grade. On the other hand, the Professor may not be able to fully account for all the factors that go into the grading, so may not have a satisfying account for you!
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• 1
...The trucker, by the way, worked very hard. For example, he took three or four days of vacation, right before the final and worked on reworking all his homework problems, carefully observing algebraic discipline, ten and twelve hours a day! – Larry Paden Jan 14 '16 at 19:28
• What is Algebraic Discipline? – jakebeal Jan 14 '16 at 19:41
• When working Algebra, each succeeding line must be logically derived from the previous line. The professor seemed to come up with this as a humorous way to point out that a student screwed up the Algebra by saying that he'd lost his Algebraic Discipline! The class was small and started with one of three classes being with students at the board. In such situations, morale is very important to student performance and one does not want the students to fear going to the board! – Larry Paden Dec 16 '16 at 0:21
• The critique of Algebraic Discipline along with asking for a volunteer to help the lost student often works out to build morale, trust & friendships! – Larry Paden Dec 16 '16 at 0:21
• At least with that class, the technique worked very well. By the last half of the semester, students were requesting every other session be at the board. Moreover, the students were starting at the end of the problem sets and attempting the hardest problems first. Sometimes the book answers were not obtained, or only obtained by correcting the problem's wording! In any case, the students had a wonderful learning expeience! – Larry Paden Dec 16 '16 at 0:24
You may need to rephrase your concerns, in your own mind, to avoid this worry, and go forward.
Perhaps a better question for you, is "Do I understand the subject reasonably well, and will it allow me to do the work I want to do?".
Within a few years of working, the the particular grade of qualification will never be asked about, just like high school scores. Within a few years of that no one will even ask what course/degree it was.
Be wary of the idea that it's only hard work that counts, when you can work smart.
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I think that learning and education encompasses also a human interaction between the teacher and a student - it is much more than learning tasks or execute tasks.
Apart the fact that it is up to the teacher to evaluate and give a grade, it is so also in the society : let the other judge your work. And people build opinions also taking into account the effort, the struggle, the process a person undergoes to achieve something.
So, if you where pretty depressed, as you wrote, most problably others noticed it. I do not say that they give votes for charity to encourage people, but probably take into account also the difficulties that a person has in producing a result - which is a formation process.
Otherwise, we could ask to write essays to machines, and evaluate the essay on quality. But how would you evaluate the people who come to build the machines? Do you think a scale of marks would be appropriate and would reflect evenly all the different background and paths in their education? So enjoy that you are no more depressed, and kick-ass in your next essay, and proof yourself you deserve a good mark, or either you don't care that much about that subject.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50182 | Yellow onions are typically available throughout the year, grown between spring and fall, and then stored for the rest of the year. [4] It is the most commonly grown onion in northern Europe, and it makes up 90% of onions grown in the United States.They should be stored at cool room temperature in a dark place. Longer-term storage requires them to be wrapped in paper and placed in a refrigerator. Cut or peeled onions also need to be stored in plastic in the refrigerator, but they will only last a few days.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50191 | × 19th June 2020 AdoptOpenJDK to join the Eclipse Foundation!
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50208 | Quick Answer: Do Chinese Bow Or Shake Hands?
Is it rude to cross your legs in Japan?
Cross your legs Crossing your legs is considered very casual and improper even if you do your best to cross them tightly and stylishly.
Instead, experience the “seiza,” an excruciating form of traditional Japanese sitting (on your knees), invented especially to torture foreigners..
How do you show respect in Chinese culture?
Chinese customs, manners and etiquetteGreet someone by giving him/her a handshake, … Stand close to a Chinese friend when you talk to show politeness, trust and willingness to fit in.Hold your teacup with two hands while someone else fills it with tea to show appreciation.Avoid touching like hugging, backslapping, except for handshaking.More items…•
Can you hold hands in China?
In China, holding hands and walking arm-in-arm ith people of the same sex is not indicate of homosexuality. Instead, It is a sign of closeness among friends. … Similarly, it is also socilly acceptable for men to wrap arms around each others’ shoulders while walking down the street.
Is it rude to finish your plate in Japan?
The same is true about finishing your plate in Japan. The Japanese consider it rude to leave food on your plate, whether at home or at a restaurant. … If you don’t want to eat more food, consider leaving a little behind to let the host know you have had enough.
Is it rude to hug in Japan?
Best not greet a Japanese person by kissing or hugging them (unless you know them extremely well). While Westerners often kiss on the cheek by way of greeting, the Japanese are far more comfortable bowing or shaking hands. In addition, public displays of affection are not good manners.
What does a handshake mean in China?
Handshaking, is a kind of silent language, which is especially more important in China, although it is a popularly used form of greeting in many countries worldwide. It is the common propriety on most social occasions as an expression of courtesy and greeting when people meet or say goodbye to each other.
Why do Chinese Bow 3 times?
If you bow three times traditionally, it means you pay very great respect to the one you bow to. … In my father’s funeral, my neighbors let off firecrackers for mourning, and I was taught to bow to those who exploded firecrackers. I knelt down and knocked my head to the ground for tens of times that day.
Why do Japanese not shake hands?
Greetings are considered to be of extreme importance in Japanese culture. Students in elementary and secondary schools are often admonished to deliver greetings with energy and vigor. A lazy greeting is regarded with the type of disdain that would accompany a limp handshake in parts of the West.
How do you say hello formally?
Do Japanese bow or shake hands?
Bowing with your palms together at chest level, as done in Thailand, is not customary in Japan. Most Japanese do not expect foreigners to know proper bowing rules, and a nod of the head is usually sufficient. Shaking hands is uncommon, but exceptions are made, especially in international business situations.
What cultures do not shake hands?
Handshakes In some Asian countries, a hard handshake is considered rude. In Vietnam, you should only shake hands with someone who’s your equal in age or rank. In Thailand, instead of shaking hands, you’re more likely to bow with your hands together and up to your chest.
What does a limp handshake mean?
A limp handshake signals to the other person that you are nervous, uncertain, or uninvolved. A limp handshake can be particularly detrimental to your career. 3 If you are unsure whether your handshake is limp, ask to practice with a few friends until you get your grip right.
Why do Chinese bow instead of shake hands?
Bows are the traditional greeting in East Asia, particularly in Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. In China, and Vietnam, shaking hands or a slight bow have become more popular than a full bow. … Bowing is a gesture of respect. Different bows are used for apologies and gratitude.
What does a firm handshake from a woman mean?
The gesture, an open right hand proffered in greeting, is believed to have been used by men to show they carried no weapon. … In other words, a firm handshake can engender more positive feelings about a woman’s abilities than her promoting herself as a man would, which usually is perceived negatively.
Why is a left handed handshake disrespectful?
It is a sign of respect to grasp the right arm with the left hand when shaking hands. It is also disrespectful to have your free hand in your pocket while shaking hands. Related to a handshake but more casual, some people prefer a fist bump.
Do you call a Chinese person by their first or last name?
The Chinese will state their last name first, followed by the given name (may be one or two syllables). For example, Liu Jianguo, in Chinese would be Mr. Jianguo Liu using the Western style. Never call someone by only his or her last name. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50219 | Question: What Is Encoding Process In Communication?
What are the processes of communication?
The communication process is made up of four key components.
Those components include encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback.
There are also two other factors in the process, and those two factors are present in the form of the sender and the receiver..
What is difference between encryption and encoding?
Encoding: Reversible transformation of data format, used to preserve usability of data. Hashing: Is a one-way summary of data, cannot be reversed, used to validate the integrity of data. Encryption: Secure encoding of data used to protect confidentiality of data.
What are the barriers of communication?
Common Barriers to Effective Communication:The use of jargon. … Emotional barriers and taboos. … Lack of attention, interest, distractions, or irrelevance to the receiver. … Differences in perception and viewpoint.Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties.More items…
What are the 7 steps of the communication process?
It includes seven stages:Source.Encoding.Channel.Decoding.Receiver.Feedback.Context.
What are the 7 components of communication?
There are 7 major elements when we talk about the communication process. These are: sender, ideas, encoding, communication channel, receiver, decoding and feedback.
Why is communication a process explain?
The process of communication refers to the transmission or passage of information or message from the sender through a selected channel to the receiver overcoming barriers that affect its pace. The process of communication is a cyclic one as it begins with the sender and ends with the sender in the form of feedback.
What is a encoding?
Encoding is the process of converting data from one form to another. While “encoding” can be used as a verb, it is often used as a noun, and refers to a specific type of encoded data. There are several types of encoding, including image encoding, audio and video encoding, and character encoding.
What is decoding in the communication process?
The decoding of a message is how an audience member is able to understand, and interpret the message. It is a process of interpretation and translation of coded information into a comprehensible form. … Effective communication is accomplished only when the message is received and understood in the intended way.
What is the purpose of encoding?
The purpose of encoding is to transform data so that it can be properly (and safely) consumed by a different type of system, e.g. binary data being sent over email, or viewing special characters on a web page. The goal is not to keep information secret, but rather to ensure that it’s able to be properly consumed.
What is the purpose of base64 encoding?
Base64 is a binary to ASCII encoding scheme. It is designed as a way to transfer binary data reliably across channels that have limited support for different content types. Base64 characters only use the same 64 characters that are present in most character sets.
What are the 6 process of communication?
What are the 8 stages of communication process?
Above of the diagram, Communication Process has eight steps direction how ideas travel from sender to receiver. There are message, encoding, choice channel and medium, transmission, reception, decoding and understanding, respond and feedback.
What are the 5 process of communication?
What is an example of encoding?
When information comes into our memory system (from sensory input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with, so that it can be stored. For example, a word which is seen (in a book) may be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a meaning (i.e. semantic processing). …
Why do we use UTF 8 encoding?
Why use UTF-8? An HTML page can only be in one encoding. You cannot encode different parts of a document in different encodings. A Unicode-based encoding such as UTF-8 can support many languages and can accommodate pages and forms in any mixture of those languages.
What is an example of decoding?
Decoding is the process of turning communication into thoughts. For example, you may realize you’re hungry and encode the following message to send to your roommate: “I’m hungry. … Encoded messages are sent through a channel, or a sensory route, on which a message travels to the receiver for decoding.
What are the types of communication?
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50252 | SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public
2966923 - Label name used in input control could not be updated with change in HANA side
• Input control value cannot be updated automatically in case the objet label name changed from HANA side.
• Change of HANA view could not reflect on input control of SAC story
• SAP Analytics Cloud 2020.14.11
• HANA Live connection
Reproducing the Issue
1. Create a calculated view from HANA side with dimension objects "A", "B" and measure objct "C".
2. Set B as A's label column.
3. Create a SAC story basing on above view via HANA live connection.
4. Create a chart with dimension B and measure C.
5. Add input control on A and select a value.
6. Update B's value and go to SAC and refresh SAC story.
>>The B's change reflect on chart, but the input control still shows old value.
7. If click the input control, the list of value got updated. Click OK, then the new value displayed in input control.
The issue is under investigation by development team currently.
The issue is under investigation by development team currently.
sac, Cloud4Analytics, CloudforAnalytics, Cloud 4 Planning, BOC, SAPBusinessObjectsCloud, BusinessObjectsCloud, BOBJcloud, BOCloud., SAC, SAP AC, Cloud-Analytics, CloudAnalytics, SAPCloudAnalytics, filter, hana, live, update, autofreshed. , KBA , LOD-ANA-DES , Model, Story Design & Visualizations , Problem
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50264 | On Thursdays, we read reviews or news stories about art or design and study the language used in them. This week’s article is about a special style of black and gray tattoo art, and how it was started by an artist named Freddy Negrete.
Here are the first four paragraphs from National Public Radio, in italics.
Tattoos are no longer taboo. According to a Harris poll, about half of American Millennials say they have at least one, and so do a third of Gen Xers. Once you have one, data show, you’ll get more.
Today, an increasingly popular style of tattoo art is called black and gray. Black and gray used to be referred to as joint-style or prison-style, because of its roots in penal institutions, where inmates made homemade machines from ballpoint pens, guitar strings, needles, and parts from old boom boxes. The machines had one needle. No color ink was available in lock up, so the ink was black. But if you watered it down, it turned gray.
Rather than the thick black outlines and bright colors of traditional-style tattoos, black and gray tattoos have finer lines and subtle shading. These days, they’re so detailed, they look like hi-def black and white photos.
One of the people credited for mainstreaming black and gray style, is 61-year-old Freddy Negrete. He says it wouldn’t exist without “prison ingenuity.” And, he would know. Negrete’s been in and out of lock up since he was a teenager.
My comments:
In the first paragraph, we see the word taboo, which means something that you can’t talk about or do in some cultures. (For example, when I was a child, only motorcycle gang members and old military soldiers had tattoos. It was not ok for most people to have them, and I remember being a little nervous about getting my first one in college.) A Harris poll is a survey by the Harris market research company, and they measure public opinion about many topics. Millennials are people who were born between 1980-2000. Generation X (Gen Xers) are the people in the generation before Millenials, and they were born between 1960-1980.
In the second paragraph, we see the phrase increasingly popular which means becoming more popular. To be referred to means the same thing as to be called, so this style of tattoo was called joint-style or prison-style. (In American slang, prison is called “the joint.”) When we talk about the roots of something or someone, we mean their history so this style of tattoo came from prisons, also called penal institutions. Inmates are what we call the people in the prison, and we learn that they made their own tattoo machines from many strange objects. Homemade means something you make yourself, a ballpoint pen is a style of pen, and a boom box is a kind of radio/tape player/CD player that was popular in the 1980s because you could carry it around with you. To water something down is a phrasal verb that means to add water to it.
In the third paragraph, we see the phrase rather than which means instead of. (Also, hi-def is short for high-definition.) In the fourth paragraph, we’re introduced to Freddy Negrete who started this style of tattooing. The word credited means that you get noticed for doing something or people remember you for something, like an honor or recognition. We also see the phrase “prison ingenuity.” Ingenuity means skill or cleverness that allows someone to solve problems or invent things, so he’s saying that he had to be clever to invent this tattoo style while he was in prison and didn’t have real tools to use. Finally, we see the word lock up, which is another word for prison.
News and magazine articles that are written for native speakers of English can have a lot of slang or cultural references in them. A good language coach can explain the meaning of these phrases and help you learn to use them correctly. This kind of language can really help you to sound more fluent when you write or talk about your work with others.
To read the original article, written by Shereen Marisol Meraji on April 15, 2018, click the link below:
To see Freddy Negrete’s website, click the link below:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50268 | You probably don’t like to admit it, but the fact of the matter is that you wonder where God is some days. Sometimes, you feel this way because the huge problems the world is experiencing seem to get worse instead of better. At other times, it’s because you’ve done something you know disappoints God. And then there are those moments when something painful happens that leaves you feeling powerless and absolutely alone. But here’s reality. God has not given up on the world. God still loves you. God is always with you. And faith is choosing to believe that this God is present and at work even as you wonder where God is. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50274 | Ask Your Question
Potential bug on interacts using lists
asked 2020-04-04 13:37:46 -0600
dsejas gravatar image
updated 2020-04-04 13:45:13 -0600
Hello, Sage Community! While trying to solve this question, I have identified a potential bug. Consider the following code:
def test(xL=[]):
return xL
def _(x=slider(0,10,1,1)):
f = test()
This is a MWE of the problem presented in the question I mentioned. For what I understand, this code should show an slide, and print [1], no matter where the slider is positioned. However, the actual behavior is that it indeed shows [1] the first time the code is executed, but then, every time I move the slider, the list grows appending one more 1.
Even though the default value for xL in the first subroutine (test()) is xL = [], and I am calling it with no arguments, it seems that the previous value of xL (corresponding to the previous position of the slider) is passed every time the slider is moved. In particular, if I execute this code and move the slider three times, I get the output
[1, 1, 1, 1]
On the other hand, if I specifically pass the empty list [] to test(), like in
f = test([])
then, the result is always [1].
Can somebody confirm and explain this? Is this a bug?
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answered 2020-04-04 16:38:06 -0600
Juanjo gravatar image
updated 2020-04-04 21:15:44 -0600
It is not really a SageMath problem, but a Python one. I do not know why xL is not the empty list each time that test() is called, according to the default value of xL in your definition of test. However, this happens even if such a default value is not an empty list, as you can check with any Python interpreter:
>>> def test(xL=[0]):
... xL.append(len(xL))
... return xL
>>> for i in range(3):
... print(test())
[0, 1]
[0, 1, 2]
[0, 1, 2, 3]
However, if one uses concatenation instead of the append method, one gets the expected behaviour:
... return xL + [len(xL)]
>>> for i in range(3):
... print(test())
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
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One should not use mutable types as default arguments.
FrédéricC gravatar imageFrédéricC ( 2020-04-05 03:12:30 -0600 )edit
ortollj gravatar imageortollj ( 2020-04-05 05:36:56 -0600 )edit
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Asked: 2020-04-04 13:37:46 -0600
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50282 | Scroll down to .
David Gray
Thanks,Trevor, for your reply. I need the mechanism at the mast which turns the boom to set it winding up the sail.
Fortunately, Ian Pollard has volunteered a spare, which he reckons, though needing some repair, will probably do the job.
Thanks for your concern.
The C.Victor is now ticking over well, apparently lined up accurately. Cooling the exhaust is now my main challenge. If necessary, I shall take to the water with an outboard Regards David |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50291 | Posted in Lessons, Surrender
Saying Yes to What God Gives Me
On the path of spiritual growth and enlightenment, we are called to move away from resistance and toward a receptive posture of surrender. How can we look at the things we would otherwise consider challenging, or something we would choose to reject and instead offer a heart-felt YES!? We might be surprised at how this simple word can change our lives.
Words from Nowhere
Last Thursday I had a session with my Spiritual Director who just so happens to also be a Healing Touch Therapy practitioner. The beauty of this is that not only do I get the gift of Spiritual Direction, but I get to follow it up with a nurturing and healing session of Healing Touch. YUMMY! Before starting the Healing Touch session, my Spiritual Director always asks, “What is your intention for this healing?” Usually my answer is “Openness” or “Surrender” – something that has some sort of action to it. She asked me the question and before I even had a chance to think I heard the answer coming out of my mouth, “YES.” My Spiritual Director and I looked at each other with startled looks on our faces, “Yes?” What the heck does that mean? But who are we to question words that come out of nowhere, so we decided to go with it.
A Basket of Fortune Cookie Wisdom
After a relaxing and rejuvenating hour of Healing Touch, my Spiritual Director always closes the session with the Basket of Fortune Cookie Wisdom. Inside the basket are hundreds of little pieces of paper folded up with inspirational messages inside. I reached my hand into the basket….and this is what I drew:
Let me have new energy. Let me have a new sense of purpose. Let me know that I am on this earth to serve. Let me not feel guilty about the expression of my power. Let me no longer play small, regardless of other people’s reactions to me when I play big.
– Marianne Williamson
After reading this words, a big spark of celebration rose up within me and I did a little “YES” dance….YES YES YES YES YES….I say YES to all of this. So perhaps this is what the “Yes” that preceded the Healing Touch meant. Ha….I should know better than to think that would be all. Too easy. Too simple. Too direct.
The Words that Haunt Me
This all started on a Thursday and while I thought it might just be a simply yes to Marianne Williamson’s words, God had the last word. The invitation to “YES” would not leave me alone. It haunted my waking and sleeping hours. I accompanied me to my daughter’s choir performance, it joined me at the grocery store. “ALRIGHT ALREADY….WHAT DO YOU WANT?” I asked that darn yes. The reply?
Say YES to what God gives you.
Then I fell to my knees. As allowed myself to HEAR these words, I felt their energy pierce the crown of my head and shoot all the way through my body, bringing me (figuratively) to my knees. I felt humbled, awestruck and overwhelmed by the enormity of this invitation. Say yes to what God gives me. AND THAT MEANS EVERYTHING!!!!!!
What a difference a shift makes
Everything! Say yes to EVERYTHING God gives me. Say yes to a failed marriage. Say yes to grieving children. Say yes to kids fighting their heads off. Say yes to my bitchy moods when my kids are at each others’ throats. Say yes to loss. Say yes to death. Say yes to disease. Say yes to depression, anxiety, panic attacks. Say yes to not having a regular paycheck. Say yes to having to trust in God to provide. Say yes to the failure of capitalism, the Church, government, corporate power and greed, (ok, these are kinda easy to say yes to.) Say yes to co-dependency (ARGH!). Etc. etc. etc. It is easy to say yes to the “good” things in life, but is God really asking me to say “Yes” to the things I want to reject, purge from my body, work toward healing and ridding myself of. It seems the answer is “YES.” SIGH!
Yes as a posture of surrender and trust
“Yes” doesn’t mean we lay here like a victim and allow the world to trample us. It is really more about accepting a posture of radical surrender and trust. Can I greet the things in life that I would normally resist with an attitude and posture of welcome? Can I look at my depression and anxiety when they show up and say, “Welcome, I know you are here as something that will ultimately prove to work toward my highest good. I will not reject you, but hold you in a space of quiet acceptance and trust. Also knowing, this too shall pass.” What a difference this tiny shift in perception can make. Can we greet a diagnosis, a loss and betrayal with the same kind of acceptance? While we don’t have to like the diagnosis, can we hold it in a place of silent trusting….that something larger is at work….something that will ultimately serve as a vehicle of growth and transformation? While we instinctively want to say, “HELL NO,” it seems that we are being invited to explore the possibility of “YES” and see how it might transform our lives. I’m going to try it on for awhile and see what happens.
What are the things in your life that are easy to say yes to?
What are the things you like to reject, resist, would like to say “no” to?
How are you being invited to try on “Yes” for awhile?
Lauri Lumby
Authentic Freedom Ministries
|
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50293 | Google AIS Custom Search
As I was talking strategy with a good friend of mine who is a GM of two rooftops we got into a discussion about which strategy is most effective in the automotive internet sales world i.e. coordinators vs. floor sales people making the calls.
We all know that the hardest part in the Internet Dept. is getting people on the phone. As you know you have what is called connection percentage or ratios that prove that less that 20% of the calls that are made on a daily basis actually result in getting the customer on the phone. The day-to-day mission turns into e-mails and phone calls and some really progressive departments have implemented video e-mail.
As I discussed into detail with the GM it really takes a dedicated person to be on the floor taking ups and having the opportunity to have Internet leads sent to him/her. What happens unless this person is very dedicated is that he/she makes 10 phone calls in the morning if you're lucky and then an up walks through the door. Now doing fact finding with the customer, caring the customer up, building value, presentation/demonstration, silent trade appraisal and my favorite working numbers, F&i then a through delivery and hours have passed by. Equally relevant, while all this is going on Internet leads aren't waiting for him to get finished they're coming in while all this is happening and by the time the sales person gets back in front of the computer after taking lunch when the deal was complete his/her response time is around three hours!! Now I haven't even mentioned the follow up month to date that should be going on during this time.
My friend's response was the cost of having coordinators which I understand affects the bottom line. What is interesting to me is that we'll spend $150K on advertising for the month now when the sales person sells that customer we don't split the deal or put an additional pack on the deal to help recoup the cost of advertising. And even better yet we all know the customers that we don't sell that most of these customers are never logged into the CRM or they leave without a T.O. and if they are logged the notes read "showroom up" not detailed notes of why we couldn't put the deal together.
Having people who's job is to pound the phones all day with a experienced director there for a T.O. and/or to work numbers for the customer that want's the "best price" is the most effective strategy I have seen unless the sales people that get leads aren't allowed to take ups. I would rather have 5 coordinators making a total of 500 calls a day versus 5 sales people barely making 100 calls per day. The numbers don't lie the more calls you make the more people you're going to get on the phone, the more people you get on the phone the more appointments you're going to make, the more appointments you make the more people are going to show, the more people that show the more cars you're going to sell!! Appointments sell cars....
This is Internet sales 101 however, unless there is leadership in place that understands the dynamics of a E-Commerce Dept. there will be a struggle between the owners and those that understand the basics of Internet Sales. What's even more funny is when I asked how many appointments his sales people set per day he was angry and tells me that they don't set enough appointments and that's why they aren't selling more cars. Duh, how can they set more appointments they're selling cars, waiting for an up and making 10-20 calls a day. Sounds like a oxymoron to me.
Good luck and good selling!!
E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Join Automotive Internet Sales - BDC - Free Training Resources
• Thanks Anthony!! Stores that understand automotive internet sales will always dominate and also steal business from other markets....
• Great Article!
• Thanks Joe :-)
• Great Stuff!
This reply was deleted. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50294 | Phenergan Cream 2 Tube 10g - Phenergan Class Action Lawsuit
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global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50295 | The Concept of Refunctioning in Terms of “What,” “Why” and“How” Questions
İslamoğlu Ö.
New Approachesto Spatial Planning and DesignPlanning, Design, Applications, Murat Özyavuz, Editör, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., Berlin, ss.397-411, 2019
• Basım Tarihi: 2019
• Yayınevi: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
• Basıldığı Şehir: Berlin
• Sayfa Sayıları: ss.397-411
• Editörler: Murat Özyavuz, Editör
Architecture is a field which is influenced by social, economic and technological
developments. While on one hand structures that are appropriate to new conditions are built,
on the other hand structures that lose their current functions are demolished or they continue
to exist with different functions. At this point, it is significant to ensure the conservation of
the social, cultural and economic values of structures that continue to exist in order to form
urban identity and public memory. Especially in historical buildings, reuse as a way of conservation
is an important tool in protecting the values that structures carry. Within the scope of
the study, the concept of reuse in historical buildings that are concrete documents of notions
that form social memory and cultural values that are worth preserving have been discussed
under three main titles. What is refunctioning in this context? (Why?) Why is is necessary?
(Why?) How is it maintained? (How?) These are the questions that are discussed. Under the
title of “What” theoretical information regarding refunctioning and historical processes are
included. Under the title of “Why is it necessary?” conditions in which refunctioning is necessary
have been discussed. The title “How is it maintained?” contains inferences made by
selected sample structures. |
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50310 | One more rescue: B boy in Ohio
Can't keep looking because it's heartbreaking how many pups out there need homes, but here's a basenji boy in Ohio who's so handsome:
He is so cute!!! I hope they find him a good home.
|
global_05_local_5_shard_00002591_processed.jsonl/50322 | 6 Lessons on Repentance from King David
David was a man after God’s own heart. He was chosen by God to be the king of Israel. From his family tree came Jesus. But David wasn’t perfect. Far from it.
King David was a murder. King David was an adulterer.
In today’s reading (if you want to join me in reading through the Bible comment below and I’ll be in touch! Here is the plan I’m using this year. It is never too late to start!), the plan including Psalm 51, which King David wrote after he was confronted by a prophet, Nathan, about his adultery.
Psalm 51-1.jpg
I think there is a lot to learn in this chapter, by David’s example, about what to do when confronted with sin:
1. David admitted his sin.
2. His heart was broken because of his sin.
3. David asked God for mercy.
4. He asked God to cleanse him from his sin.
5. David asked God to create in him a pure heart and to renew a steadfast spirit.
6. He praised God.
Psalm 51-10.jpg
We have all sinned – whether its lying or cheating or gossiping. King David’s sin was huge – murder and adultery. But when confronted with his sin he admitted what he had done and his heart was broken. His heart wasn’t broken because he had been caught. His heart was broken because he had hurt God. He asked for forgiveness. He turned away from the sin.
God forgave him.
And God turned evil into good . . . as from David and Bathsheba’s family line came a baby named Jesus who would save the world.
Psalm 51-17 NIV.jpg |
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