The government uses fear to control you. Show no fear, and they will destroy you.Still raw from the death of his parents, eighteen-year-old Tommy Bailey isn't sure if he wants to live—until he meets complex and intriguing Careen. He comes to her aid during a terrorist gas-strike, sharing his last dose of the government-mandated antidote that, they've been told, is key to their survival.
Without enough antidote, the teens expect to die. Instead, they discover the terrorist attack wasn't real, and the antidote was never meant to protect them—it was meant to dull their thoughts and make them easy to control. As he and Careen search for the truth, Tommy learns that his parents were operatives in an underground resistance group that's fighting to overthrow the government. The Resistance expects him to continue his parents' crusade. The government's hunting him down. Which side will get to him first?
If you like a gripping dystopian thriller, then you don't want to miss Book One of the Resistance Trilogy by Tracy Lawson. Counteract is a great read, and its main characters, Tommy and Careen, are easy to like. What puts this above many other dystopian thrillers is that the events Lawson portrays could easily happen to us. The fear she weaves throughout is palpable and makes the reader wonder....what if?
The author has a clean, clear writing style that makes this an easy-to-read novel. And while she does an excellent job of wrapping up the first story, there's plenty of cliffhanger left to make you long for the story to continue.
Just how much power will the government have over us when 2034 arrives? Will we have any personal freedoms left at all? The scenario proposed by this novel could be exactly what we're facing. I just hope I'm as courageous as Careen when the time comes.
I'm ready for the sequel!


Create a great accessory for the only mouse you want scurrying around with a personalized mousepad for your home or office! Choose from fun kawaii panda, animal, mermaid, monster and other fun designs. You can coordinate with a wireless mouse to match.


Ash Wednesday, a day in which we remember that "from dust we came and dust we shall return" brought forth an all-too-real reality of this statement as the tragedy unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As reported by Fox News host Shepard Smith, yesterday's deadly event increased the number of fatal, active school shootings to 25 since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. I join with my fellow bishops as we seek Jesus during these times of grief and mourning.
Our prayers go out to the families of those killed and wounded, as well as the students, staff, and families.


Yesterday I bought a new hosting service for IndianMoneyPlus.Com as I finally decided to shift to Wordpress from Blogger.
Wordpress is a clean tech blogging platform. It is easy and very good as it has various plugins.
Hope IndianMoneyPlus.Com also get some good traffic in a month or so!


text:
"Court Martial" is the twentieth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It was written by Don M. Mankiewicz and Steven W. Carabatsos, directed by Marc Daniels, and first aired on February 2, 1967.

In the episode, Captain Kirk stands trial on charges of criminal negligence after jettisoning an occupied research pod during an emergency.

Plot
The USS Enterprise is at Starbase 11 for repairs after an ion storm. During the storm, Captain James T. Kirk was forced to eject a research pod containing Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney to prevent the destruction of the ship. A search party was unable to find Finney. Commodore Stone, commander of the base, reviews the ship's records and discovers that Kirk ejected the pod while the ship was at Yellow Alert and not Red Alert as Kirk claimed. Stone accuses Kirk of perjury and warns him that he may be subject to court martial.

Stone first interviews Kirk privately, asking about his history with Finney. Kirk had served with Finney aboard the USS Republic and reported a mistake Finney had made, causing Finney to be reprimanded and sent to the bottom of the promotion list. Ever since, Finney has blamed Kirk for hindering his advancement. Stone asks Kirk to voluntarily step down as captain of the Enterprise, but Kirk disputes the allegations and demands a trial.

At the trial, both Spock and Dr. McCoy defend Kirk's character, but testify to the facts that Kirk had reason to resent Finney and it is impossible for the ship's computer log to be wrong. Finney's daughter Jame looks on. Samuel T. Cogley, Kirk's attorney, puts him on the stand, but again, Kirk's testimony contradicts the computer logs, which include a visual recording that shows Kirk ejecting the pod while the ship was on Yellow Alert. During a recess, Kirk tells Spock that he might be able to beat his next captain at chess, giving Spock an idea.

Mr. Spock discovers that he is able to beat the Enterprise computer several times at three dimensional chess, despite having given the computer all his knowledge of the game. He concludes that the computer has been tampered with as his best outcome should have been a draw. Spock arrives with his findings before the court-martial verdict can be handed down, and Cogley, makes an impassioned speech on the rights of man versus the machine, demanding that the court reconvene aboard the Enterprise. Once there, Spock notes only three people could have altered the computer records aboard the Enterprise: Kirk, himself, and Finney. Cogley suggests that Finney is not dead.

After most of the crew is beamed down to Starbase 11, Dr. McCoy uses a sensitive auditory device tied into the computer that can detect a human heartbeat aboard the ship, and masks out those of all known to remain aboard. One heartbeat remains, coming from Engineering. Kirk goes there to find Finney, who draws a phaser and informs him that he has sabotaged the ship so she will drop out of orbit, killing everyone aboard. Kirk reveals that Finney's daughter Jame is also aboard, confusing him and giving Kirk time to wrestle the weapon away. After Finney is secured, Kirk repairs the damage.

Captain Kirk is cleared of all charges and restored to duty.

Production
The script was originally entitled "Court Martial on Star Base 11." Star Trek commentator Keith DeCandido, writing for Tor.com, observed, "This episode was originally commissioned by producer Gene L. Coon as a cheap single-set episode, and Don M. Mankiewicz gave him a court martial story, intending it to take place entirely in the courtroom. However, the final version of the script required several new sets to be built, not to mention a matte painting of Starbase 11." For the final version four new sets were built: Kirk's quarters on the starbase, Commodore Stone's office, the starbase bar, and the courtroom itself.

Elisha Cook Jr. had difficulty memorizing his long dramatic appeals to the court. Many of his speeches in the script are not present in the aired version, and some of those that were filmed frequently cut away from him to court and spectator reactions.

This is the first episode to refer to the organization the main characters are part of as Starfleet and the top of the hierarchy being Starfleet Command. It is also the first appearance of a starbase in the series. Previously, the name of the Enterprise's service had varied, such as in "The Conscience of the King", where it was referred to as "the Star Service."

Reception
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B−" rating, stating that the potential of holding Kirk to high standards in the story is lessened as his "fallibility is never really the issue".

DeCandido found many of the episode's actions to be procedurally incorrect.

Reviewer Darren Mooney had mixed feelings about "Court Martial" as the first episode in the Star Trek universe to serve up a courtroom story: "While its influence is absolutely massive, Court Martial is still a problematic episode." Among its flaws, Mooney wrote, is the "mess" of a script which had to be rewritten.

Michelle Erica Green wrote that the episode "won't win any Emmys for legal drama, but it holds up quite well."

Io9's 2014 listing of the top 100 Star Trek episodes placed "Court Martial" as the 89th best episode of all series up to that time, out of over 700 episodes.

In 2019, Nerdist included this episode on their "Best of Kirk" binge-watching guide.

References

External links

"Court Martial" Review of the remastered version at TrekMovie.com

Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) episodes
1967 American television episodes
Courts-martial in fiction
Military courtroom dramas
Television courtroom dramas
Television episodes directed by Marc Daniels

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Phillip Sutton RA is a major artist who is famous for his brightly coloured oils of single figures, sometimes his family, like this one of his Mother or or clowns, girls in flower hats, jolly men, but always uplifting. Phillip Sutton R.A. uses colour and bright light to create a jolly mood, just like Chagall, Miro, Dali and even Picasso. These great artists use the forms around them to generate an impression of what the artist wants to convey. David Hockney paints in more detail but achieves the same effect.


Why not just put the IPI pipeline to rest?
It's a bad idea to interlock India's energy supplies with Pakistan. Period.
It was a stupid idea right from the start. Of course, it looks a lot more stupid now. Swaminathan Aiyar points out why the IPI gas pipeline project should now be officially declared dead. But you don't have to read Mr Aiyar's article at all if you had been reading The Acorn during the halcyon days of the 'peace process' when it was unfashionable to point out that ideas such as "creating mutual dependencies" with Pakistan are masochistic and that the risk premium will junk the business case in any case.
After explaining why involving Pakistan in a gas purchase deal with Iran is such a bad idea, Mr Aiyar inexplicably proposes a shallow undersea pipeline with a different architecture. It might be better than the overland pipeline but it still carries the risk of a Pakistan hurting itself to hurt India.
It makes far more sense to invest in LNG. This calls for investing in the technology, processing and domestic distribution infrastructure required to handle the imports. This calls for developing a maritime strategy that ensures that India's LNG supply routes are secure, around the world. And it calls for foreign policy that ensures that LNG becomes the predominant way to ship the world's natural gas, and the global market becomes competitive.
Of course all this is tall order. But let's face it—its better than letting Pakistan hold us by the…you know what.
Author Nitin PaiPosted on 29th December 2008 Categories Foreign AffairsTags energy markets, energy security, gas pipeline, India, infrastructure, Iran, maritime security, natural gas, Pakistan, realpolitik, trade7 Comments on Why not just put the IPI pipeline to rest?
The 218-km road connecting Delaram (on the Kandahar-Herat highway) to Zaranj, on the border with Iran has been completed (via Swami Iyer). The strategic importance of this road—as news reports never fail to mention—is to provide landlocked Afghanistan an alternative access to the sea, allowing it to break free from Pakistan's traditional stranglehold.
Since this route passes through several hundred kilometres of Iranian territory before connecting to Chabahar on the Persian Gulf, it remains to be seen if Iran will prove to be a better neighbour than Pakistan. From a purely economic standpoint though, Afghanistan should benefit from the competition between the two routes.
There is a lot of hope pinned on this alternative route. For Afghanistan, this is an opportunity to regain better access to the Indian market that it lost in 1947. For India, it is an opportunity to regain better access to Central Asia that it too lost in 1947. To the extent that Pakistan remains wedded to its traditional strategic rent-seeking behaviour it is likely to attempt to foil these plans. And as the attack on the Indian embassy has shown, it remains wedded to old tactics as much as it is to old strategies.
This being so, it is strange that the India should be considering withdrawing four companies (around 400 personnel) of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police currently deployed in Afghanistan. There is a case for a robust Indian military presence in Afghanistan; with force levels carefully calibrated, on the one hand to secure Indian interests, and on the other, to avoid being seen by the local population as an 'occupying' force. Reducing India's military presence at a critical phase in Afghanistan's counter-insurgency war is uncalled for at this stage.
Where is the financial superhighway?


General Contractor Donohoe Construction Co.
One of the most high-profile projects in Tysons Corner, Va., the $96.6-million, 360-ft-tall VITA Tysons Corner Center was also one of the safest jobsites in an area booming with new construction.
The LEED Silver, 30-story apartment building with 429 units and 13,000 sq ft of retail space had a full-time safety manager on site. Daily safety efforts included training in rigging, fall protection and personal protection equipment. The project achieved zero lost-time accidents during 1.2 million worker-hours.
The safety culture on site was impressed on workers at safety preconstruction meetings, weekly onsite safety sessions and through inspections and audits performed throughout the project.
The project team also stayed safe even though the tower crane typically was active 21 hours a day and six days a week.


text:
More info on Chucky (Child's Play)
Chucky (Child's Play): Quiz
Child's Play (film series) quiz
Tiffany (Child's Play) quiz
Child's Play 2 quiz
Child's Play quiz
Bride of Chucky quiz
Seed of Chucky quiz
Categories: Horror film characters | Fictional dolls and dummies | Fictional serial killers | Fictional puppets | Fictional characters from Illinois | Fictional characters from New Jersey | Fictional immortals | Fictional ghosts | Fictional demons | Fictional characters with superhuman strength
Question 1: His evil laugh can be heard during promos of the 1998 ________ PPV.
Fall Brawl SuperBrawl Halloween Havoc The Great American Bash
Question 2: Chucky made a cameo appearance via satellite during an episode of ________, promoting Bride of Chucky.
Hulk Hogan Monday Night Wars Eddie Guerrero WCW Monday Nitro
Question 3: Slappy the Dummy, a well-known antagonist from the Goosebumps series by ________.
Stephen King Nickelodeon (TV channel) Columbus, Ohio R. L. Stine
Question 4: Tiffany sews Chucky back together and summons Ray's soul from ________ to reunite with his body.
Intermediate state Heaven Hell Afterlife
Question 5: Chucky appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Plastic Buffet" voiced by ________.
Mark Hamill Batman: The Animated Series The Batman (TV series) The New Batman Adventures
Question 6: A Yuppie-style couple with no children of their own who have often fostered children, Mildred and George Simpson (________ and Gerrit Graham), agree to foster Andy until his mother is able to look after him again.
Joanna Miles Pamela Brown (actress) Gail Fisher Jenny Agutter
Question 7: Most recently, Devil's Due Publishing have started an eponymous series which will include a ________ crossover.
2004 Hack/Slash Cassie Hack BUMP (comics)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Take a woodland stroll, enjoy therapeutic gardening or get the heart pumping with a conservation workout – and more!
Get in touch with our team and we'll put you in contact with activities in your area.
Promoting the strong link between our local green spaces and the health of our communities.
Over the last three years nearly 2,000 people took part in 'Nature4Health' – and our evaluation shows that on average they saw a big boost to their wellbeing and an increase in their everyday physical activity.
The results of the evaluation show that people who took part increased their levels of walking and moderate physical activity by over a third by the end of the twelve weeks. Participants also saw a significant improvement in their mental wellbeing, recorded by before and after surveys. The results are particularly significant because of the large number of participants.
The findings are in line with growing evidence that the natural environment is important to our health and wellbeing. The government calls for more 'green prescribing' in its recently published 25 Year Plan for the Environment. The plan encourages the NHS to work more closely with environmental organisations to offer therapies such as gardening and outdoor exercise in natural settings to people with mild to moderate mental health conditions and who may be struggling to overcome loneliness and isolation.
Following a prize draw to celebrate the end of 'Nature4 Health' two lucky winners have received 'Go Outdoors' vouchers, enabling them to purchase equipment designed to help them continue to enjoy the benefits of the great outdoors and mindful contact with nature that they gained from their involvement with the project.
If you live in the Mersey Forest area and feel inspired to get out and explore click here for some more ideas.
Sue (centre) with husband Ken and Suzanne Londra from The Mersey Forest.
After three years and many great successes The Mersey Forest's Nature4Health project has come to an end.
Funding from Big Lottery's Reaching Communities Fund has meant that we were able to work with a really diverse range of partner organisations to improve the wellbeing of nearly 2,000 people across Merseyside and North Cheshire through using contact with nature, their local communities and green spaces.
And, thanks to funding from Cheshire West & Chester Council, we are continuing to work on Cheshire's Natural Health Service for people living in Cheshire West.
An impact report will soon be published, detailing research and analysis of Nature4Health carried out by our researchers, together with colleagues at Liverpool John Moore's University and the University of Liverpool. We all know that contact with nature is probably a good thing, but this research will highlight exactly why that's the case. In the meantime, watch these films about some of our key projects with 'The Reader' and 'Change, Live Grow St Helen's' , which show the human impact of our work with communities.
Raymond reciting poetry to the group.
The group, comprised of residents and staff from nearby care homes, as well as a number of dedicated volunteers is called 'Reading for Nature', a poetry group for people with dementia run by The Mersey Forest as part of their Nature 4 Health programme in partnership with The Reader.
The Reader is a national organisation which uses the concept of Shared Readingto change lives, reduce social isolation and build stronger communities. Working with the Mersey Forest on 'Reading for Nature' creates an obvious opportunity for the two agencies to collaborate on their shared objective of improving peoples' well-being.
Stephen Ward from the Mersey Forest said, 'This is part of our 3 year, Big-Lottery Funded Nature4Health programme. We're looking to get communities across the spectrum more active and gaining the passive benefits of being in the outdoors and in contact with nature as a way of improving their well-being'.
Katie Clark from the Reader explained that the park itself was an ideal setting for sharing poems about nature which then prompts discussion amongst the group. As communication can be a challenge for people living with dementia the words, thoughts and images created by the poems and the natural surroundings can prompt memories, emotions and sometimes, as in Raymond's case, simply a connection in the resonance of the poetic language itself.
Diane 82, who has Parkinsons, found herself a little shy at the start of the group but grew in confidence through the session; 'There are some situations where you wouldn't normally open your mouth', she says, 'but I feel comfortable here. I try and make sense of the words. It's certainly food for thought and I'm looking forward to coming again'.
Rachel Duffy, who has been a volunteer with The Reader since 2014, says as she gains a lot from the feeling of connection with other people. 'Not everyone is what you might have thought of as a 'poetry person', and maybe they don't say much about the poem but they enjoy reading them together. Even people who don't express any thoughts or feelings seem to like the peace and satisfaction of reading together. Even if their communication is little disjointed and they suddenly say 'Did you come in the car?' or 'how old are you?'. You're just creating a little bond with them or putting something a bit different into their minds, or perhaps giving them the words for something they are no longer able to express themselves'.
It was clear that this was a refreshing and enlightening experience for so many of the participants today. A real privilege to be part of.
Nature4Health with Change, Grow, Live (CGL) St Helen's.
Yet another glorious summer day as Hannah Petrie visits a group that forms part of the Nature4Health success story thanks to Big Lottery funding.
'Today I'm at Ashton's Green Community Allotments in Parr, St Helen's. Here, as part of our Nature4Health programme, the Mersey Forest is working in partnership with Change, Grow, Live (CGL) St Helen's on a course all about planting, growing and making organic produce.
The people attending the group have a range of social needs including social anxiety and depression. Many are in recovery from substance misuse.
Some people are new to the group today, others are regulars and many are returning to support new people in peer-to-peer sessions. There's a friendly welcome for everyone in the classroom.
Soon after bacon butties and numerous cups of tea have been consumed Alec begins his regular task of breaking up pallets for the upcycling scheme CGL runs as a social enterprise. "I find it really satisfying!", he says, as he gets to work on with his hammer and crowbar, carefully breaking the wood apart.
The pallets are recycled into garden furniture designed by the group with many pieces having already been sold to local businesses, supporting another of the group's aim of increased community interaction.
John, a returning group member who has since become a volunteer, has his porridge in the chair he made from recycled pallets.
The atmosphere is relaxed and supportive as volunteer co-ordinator Mandy chats away to volunteers working in the kitchen with her, whilst project worker Shirley introduces me with visible pride to Linda and urges me to hear her story.
Linda is in recovery from a dependency on alcohol. She tells me: "I have a lot of alcoholics who have died in my family. I've lost a lot of people. I became dependent on alcohol because of my mental health, I had problems with anxiety and depression. So, one day I just thought 'enough's enough'. I had a key worker and went to numerous groups, tried counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I did go back to drinking after a while, but then I went back to trying the group sessions and eventually I heard about the allotments.
Linda (or Lin as everyone here knows her here), is now studying Health and Social Care as well as an IT course. She admits it can be hard for the people running the courses as: "Us addicts are not very reliable!" she laughs. "We can be a bit chaotic and so trying to get someone to turn up to a group every single week is very hard as there is always something else going on in their lives.
A deeply inspiring story and not the one I was expecting to hear when Linda began to talk to me. This project is changing peoples' lives as we speak. It's a testament to the power of horticultural therapy as a key aspect of Nature4Health, as well as to the bravery and determination of participants like Linda'.


text:
Waylay Appoints David Hettinger as President Waylay North America Accelerating Growth and Expansion Plans
First Waylay office based in USA will further energize growing North American business ambitions
GHENT, Belgium–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Waylay, a leading Enterprise software company at the forefront of the unified IT-OT digital transformation has today appointed David Hettinger as President of Waylay North America. In this new role, he will be leading Waylay's business development, commercial and customer support operations.
David Hettinger brings a broad range of expertise to Waylay and has over 30 years of experience in business development, executive level sales and marketing for high growth technology organizations.
"David is joining Waylay at what we think is a perfect moment as we move into our first high growth phase," said Leonard Donnelly, CEO of Waylay. "He is an exceptionally accomplished technology executive with deep industry domain experience that is rare. As a company, we cherish knowledge and as our new President of Waylay North America, David will build the organization in a manner that enshrines our deep commitment to the value systems and needs of our customers and partners in many industries across North America. Welcome from all at Waylay!"
Today Waylay is recognized by its enterprise customers as an unrivaled leader in the complex field of digital transformation, building new digitally enabled elastic companies. In doing so, Waylay is becoming renowned for its "everything can be simple" approach to unifying IT-OT data worlds via its low-code orchestration, automation and analytics solutions.
With a significant number of customers based in North America, Waylay kickstarts its expansion plans and will open its first US office in Denver, Colorado, as a subsidiary of Waylay. This new office reflects Waylay's commitment to further strengthen business activities and to better serve customers and prospects in North America. Waylay's US customers will also get local access to the same level of expertise and support as currently provided to customers globally from its European headquarters in Ghent, Belgium.
"So many companies are struggling to leverage their connected devices, and operationalize the data," said David Hettinger, President of Waylay North America. "Waylay is an incredible product that brings the OT and IT worlds together, making two worlds as one. When you get a chance to experience the Waylay platform, you will be able to connect the dots of your IT, OT & IoT strategy. I am excited to join an amazing team and look forward to seeing our product widely adopted in the coming years!"
Learn more about Waylay at www.waylay.io and schedule a demo with [email protected] to fully understand the power and flexibility of the IoT automation platform.
ABOUT WAYLAY
Waylay is a leading Enterprise IT-OT digital unification software company delivering low code based orchestration, automation and analytics software solutions. Waylay has a passion for supporting citizen developer communities and ensuring it puts all valuable data to work for developers, data scientists and domain experts. Most importantly, Waylay guarantees its customers a significant reduction in cost and time to market of new digital transformation projects to eventually make their enterprises become one.
Find out more at www.waylay.io
Elly Schietse
CMO, Waylay
Previous 75 Schools Awarded for Addressing Social Justice, Food Insecurity and Pandemic-Related Issues in Samsung's $2 Million National STEM Competition
Next Optomec Introduces New 3D Additive Electronics Printer for Inline Production


My Client had a weird issue recently on 1 of the production vSphere 4.1 host. Error message shown on summary tab as " DRS is not able to function normally cause by insufficient resource".This is not the exact message as I can't remember the full error message, but it represent the similar meaning of the error. This message had been alerted for more than a week as we thought the mgmt-ware restart command should able to fix this. The system is currently in production, therefore we are suggesting to vmotion out all the production VMs, and put the host to maintenance before we issue the command.
Recently I had gone through a lot of posts from the internet as well as some discussion I had with the persons I met, some of them are concerns about the increasing number of virtual machines into a single physical host which generally putting too much eggs in 1 bucket. They could be right in certain extend, but I will not say they are absolutely correct. They are few missing items that they had forgotten how the IT suppose to run before the virtualization came in to the market with all the capabilities they demostrated VS traditional physical systems.
You may have 30 to 50 VMs into single host today due to high density server with more CPU core or more memory per single system. In the next second, you may face the hardware failure on 1 of the host, there will be around 50 VMs down at 1 time and require another 20 mins before all the virtual machine could be successful restarted on the surviving host. Some of them may consider this is high impact, therefore you decide to restrict the number of virtual machine in single host around 10 to 20 VM per ESX. What happen next, the TCO is high, and ROI is not efficient. Is a tough point for most administrators to choose in this scenario. I will urge you to backward a little bit and look at the scenerio again. Before Virtualization, all the business system that only invested with standalone server without physical clustering, they do not entitle any HA as the aware off. If they want a HA in physical system, they will had to invest extra CAPEX and OPEX to maintain a same set of hardware and operating system, just for failover purpose. Again, even the operating system clustering does not provide 100% uptime.
We see the growth in the market to be more aggressive for consolidation in the data center for both physical and virtual server from time to time. There are plenty of solutions in place allow blade to support virtualization today such as virtual connect from HP, pass through module, infiniband integration Xsigo, Cisco UCS and etc. This had significant resolved the I/O interfaces require per blade to host the virtualization host server. CPU and memory per blade and significant increase with the latest release from all the major server vendors, the CPU, memory and disk I/O are no longer the concerns for virutalization.


text:
Posted on December 28, 2018 August 13, 2020 by admin
The Moment and Weaponize: The Top Words of the Year 2018 for Global English
For more information call 1.737.215.7750, or email info@languagemonitor.com or tweet to @Languagemonitor
The Moment: The Top Word of the Year 2018 for Global English (#WOTY)
Weaponize: The Top Word of the Year 2018 for the United States, alone.
Christmas - New Years Holiday, 2018, Austin, Texas — The Moment is the Top Word of the Year for 2018 (#WOTY) for Global English according to the Global Language Monitor, while Weaponize is the is the Top Word of the Year (#WOTY) for the United States, alone.
"This is the first time GLM's analysis has determined two top WOTY. This is because of the disparity between English-language usage between the US and the rest of the world especially in the language of politics," said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst, Global Language Monitor.
This is GLM's nineteenth annual analysis since the turn of the century. Following The Moment and Weaponize were opioids, nukes (N.K.), woke, family separation, trade war, fake news, PyeongChang, and Represent. Other words in the running for the preeminent Word of the Year for 2018 included Collusion, ICE, World Cup, Twitter Storm, Wild Fires, Migrants, Fact Check, Volatility, Resistance, and Brexit.
GLM is the only WOTY, based upon global statistical analysis of the English -Linguasphere. English is the world's first truly global language with some 2.53 billion speakers as a first, second or business language. (GLM has recently launched an effort to help better understand the number and composition of Global English speakers.)
The purpose of GLM's Word of the Year lists is to provide an on-going account of the 21st century as it unfolds. This is a Big Data analysis, with the English language as the medium of choice.
"Today The Moment represents a larger than life experience, the convergence of, perhaps, fame, fortune, and happenstance representing a time of excellence or conspicuousness. More importantly, it can be seen as where we now stand in the evolution of the flow of information," Payack said.
"While news professionals were once intimidated by the prospect of a 24-hour News Cycle, with the accompanying 'Fifteen Minutes of Fame', the flow of information has increased a thousandfold or more." Payack continued. "Now 'having a moment' means standing astride the apex, an instant when all stars and light must pass through your gravitational field (or bend around it). It also has evolved from an instant to an indeterminate length".
"The Moment defines a unique confluence of social and media forces where a person is elevated to a perceived pre-eminent position in their fields, situations, or positions. For example, Meghan Markle had 'her moment' with her royal wedding to Prince Harry earlier this year," Payack continued. "Weaponize rose to the top of the US list, signifying the historically bitter level of the political invective, where any word, thought, or phrase is immediately weaponized and, in turn, catapulted back across the partisan divide. "It has gotten to the point where even the absence of language — absolute silence — can and is being weaponized in the effort to silence the opposition.
Even Emojis have been 'weaponized'. Here is the 'silence' emoji
Previously, GLM announced that the Global English Word of the Year for 2017 was Truth, while the blood-soaked image of Omran Daqneesh, five-year-old, sitting in an ambulance while awaiting treatment in Allepo, Syria was the WOTY for 2016 (The first time a meme was chosen as a WOTY.)
The Top Words of 2018 for Global English follow:
The Moment — A confluence of fame, fortune, and happenstance (Worldwide).
Weaponize — In today's bitterly partisan infighting, any word, action, or deed can and will be weaponized (US alone).
Opioids — 60,000 Americans or more will die this year from overdoses: more than from the entire Vietnam War — every year.
North Korean Nukes — The threat appears to have subsided — for now.
Woke — Being awakened to the causes of social justice
Family Separation — Any number of worldwide challenges to the nuclear family.
Trade War — Mr. Trump vs. the World, again.
Fake News — Analysts are now pushing the origin of fake news backward into the past. Anyone remember Leni Riefenstahl?
PyeongChang — The Winter Games turned out to be the most politically consequential in decades.
Represent — 'Showing up' or 'representing' at 'resistance' events and activities.
Collusion — Collude's etymology dates back to the early 1500s and literally means 'to play together' with no hint of the sinister undertones in the word's present incarnation.
ICE — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
World Cup — The quadrennial, global celebration of football (The 2018 FIFA World Cup, won by France, was the 21st FIFA World Cup.)
Twitter Storm — President Trump early on realized that he had a direct connection to his sixty-million 'followers'.
Wild Fires — Representing all worldwide natural disasters.
Migrants (Worldwide) — Citizens have come to understand that national boundaries are quite malleable (for better or for worse).
Fact Check — By abandoning philosophy and the liberal arts, this generation actually believes that there is only one point of view and a single set of facts.
Volatility — The global markets are volatile, the citizens are restless, and the Singularity is heading our way.
Resistance — Those who resist and will mince no words in informing you …
Brexit (Soft or Hard Exit) — Nation-states are in a desperate race to save their national identities.
Top Phrases
'Shame! Shame! Shame!
Cajun Navy
Breaking the Internet
Not My President
Top Names of 2018
M/M George H.W. Bush
Brian Kavanaugh
Stephen Hawkins
Jack Ma (Ali Baba)
Methodology: The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 2.35 billion speakers (January 2018 estimate) GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 300,000 print, and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.
The Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the 21st century follow.
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, Opioids
Top Phrases: No 1. Weinstein Effect (and #MeToo), 2. Nuclear Option (North Korean version.), 3. Deep State
Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, #Resist
Top Phrases: No. 1 Make America Great Again No. 2 When they go low, we go high No. 3 The Electoral College
Top Words: No. 1 Microaggression
Top Phrases: No. 1 Migrant Crisis
Top Names: No. 1 Donald J. Trump
Top Words: No. 1 The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love), No. 2 Hashtag, No. 3 Vape
Top Phrases: No. 1 Hands Up, Don't Shoot; No. 2 Cosmic Inflation, No. 3 Global Warming
Top Names: No. 1 Ebola, No. 2 Pope Francis, No. 3 World War I
Top Words: No. 1 '404', No.2 Fail, No.3 Hashtag
Top Phrases: No. 1 Toxic Politics, No. 2 Federal Shutdown, No.3 Global Warming/Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1. Pope Francis, No. 2 ObamaCare, No.3 NSA
Top Words: No. 1 ApocalypseArmageddon, No.2 Deficit, No. 3 Olympiad
Top Phrases: No. 1 Gangnam Style, No. 2 Climate Change/Global Warming, No. 3 Fiscal Cliff
Top Names: No. 1 Newtown and Malala Yousafzai, No. 3 Xi Jinping
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Arab Spring, No. 2 Royal Wedding, No.3 Anger and Rage
Top Names: No. 1 Steve Jobs, No. 2 Osama bin-laden and Seal Team Six, No.3 Fukushima
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 "Yes, We Can!"
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: 'Lets Roll'
Top Name: The Heros
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
For More Information, go to LanguageMonitor.com or call 1.737.215.7750 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.
In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.
Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its 'algorithmic services' to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include 'brand audits' to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.
These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print, and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.
As the AustinWordWrangler, GLM designs and creates websites, and 'content:' Public Relations, brand naming, corporate affairs and communications, and technical brochures, data sheets, SEC materials.
PJJP
Paul JJ Payack
President & Chief Word Analyst
pauljjpayack@gmail.com Email+1.737.215.7750 Phone
@LanguageMonitor Twitter
@pauljjpayack Personal Twitter
Metafiction.org
Tracking Global Trends Through Big-Data Based Global English Analysis
stest Rising
CategoriesTop Word of the Year, Top Words of 21st Century, Top Words of the Year Tags#WOTY
Previous PostPrevious Number of Words in the English Language
Next PostNext Bookstore


Welcome to Bike to Work & School Week Tofino 2019.
For those of you who haven't got your bike on the road yet this year, now is the time! Many locations in our small town are within biking distance, and you'll find that the fresh air on the way to your destination feels great. Our bike friendly Multi-Use-Path connects down town Tofino all the way out to Cox Bay, eliminating biking on the side of the highway. We encourage everyone to get on their bike as much as they can this week, with the longer, brighter days that are here, there's really no excuse not to!
Make sure to sign your team up and record your daily trips. There's an opportunity to win prizes.
Come jazz, bedazzle, and accessorize your two-wheelers with us!
WHO: The Tofino Recreation Department and you!
We'll bring the decorations, you bring your bikes.
Click here to register! Log your km's, make a team and challenge others, and win a cycling trip to Croatia!
The beginning of the cycling season is a good time to tune up your bike. Perform regular maintenance and safety checks yourself or take your bike to a qualified bike mechanic to prevent mechanical breakdown.
Plan your route before you set off, give yourself plenty of time and choose bike lanes and paths whenever possible. If you're new to cycling, choose routes with less traffic.


CNP Pro Mass is a high quality calorie dense mass gain drink. In order to gain muscle mass and bod..
CNP Pro Peptide is our flagship protein product, developed over many years by world leading protei..
Fuel up your body to the max with CNP Porridge. This warm tasty breakfast delivers a great source ..


Come out and support your friends and family as they test for compete in forms, weapons and fighting at the U.S. WDU's annual tournament in beautiful Cape Cod, MA.
Our annual summer training camp turns 34 this year! Be sure to join us for another great training event.
Join us to support your fellow dan (black belt) members and dan candidates as they test to promote to test for their next black belt level.


I should be very much obliged to you if you would send me The Vocabulary of Words of the same terminations in French, English, and dutch, which Mr. Searle had.
I am very impatient to see Pope's works. I should be very glad also to see my old acquaintance.
Our master desires me to send his respects to you.
This, though attributed to Professor Hemsterhuis, may in fact be a MS in 104 folios that remains among JQA's papers entitled "Dictata Celeberrimi Valckenarii ad Analogiam Linguae Graecae" (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel 217). JQA dated his copy at the head "January 21st. 81," and at the end "January 31st. 81." It seems doubtful that he was copying still another treatise on Greek at the very same time.


text:
Bruce Fein
Author, "American Empire Before the Fall"
Bruce Fein is a nationally and internationally renowned constitutional lawyer, scholar and writer.
He was appointed as Research Director for the House Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran from 1986-87 — and the General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission from 1983-1984.
In 1981-1982, Mr. Fein served as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice and supervised the Department's litigation and vetting of candidates for the federal judiciary.
He has served as a Visitor Scholar for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation, an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and taught as an adjunct professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Between 1985 and 2009, Mr. Fein wrote weekly Commentary Columns for The Washington Times on legal and international issues.
He regularly appears on national television and radio, including MSNBC, FOX News, C-SPAN, BBC, Reuters, and NPR.
Mr. Fein graduated from Harvard Law School with honors in 1972.
View all posts by Bruce Fein →


text:
Walkthroughs »
Majora's Mask 3D
The Wind Waker HD
More Walkthroughs
Fanfiction »
Anything For You
Story of Ganondorf
More Fanfiction
Site »
Link's Hideaway
'Cause Even Heroes Need a Place to Hideaway!
The Zelda Cycle - Iwata Asks
Published on 9/19/2013 3:10:00 AM by Austin Dickson
Label: Undefined
Category: Undefined
Legendary New Nintendo 2DS XL System Coming Exclusively to GameStop Stores on July 2
Nintendo recently sent out a press release announcing the Hylian Shield Edition version of th ...
Aonuma: "Possibility of Another Zelda on Nintendo Switch"
Coming from an interview with IGN, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has talked about the possibility of ...
The Adventures of Linkle
Many fans have been asking time and time again for a female version of Link to be in a Zelda game ...
Spectacle Rock - A Zelda Memoir
The rain poured in like a million little missiles. Never missing their target. My lante ...
The Legend of Zelda Inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
The Legend of Zelda was recently inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame located in ...
Home > The Zelda Cycle - Iwata Asks
Have you heard of the Zelda cycle? Well, in a recent Iwata Asks we learned about the "Zelda cycle". The Zelda Cycle is defined as negative opinions during the announcement of new Zelda games turning into positive opinions a year or several years later after the product has been released. Be sure to check out full quotes after the break...
Aonuma
There's a "Zelda cycle."
Yes. Bill Trinen-san12 at Nintendo of America—who always plays a big role in preparing the overseas versions of The Legend of Zelda games—always talks about the Zelda cycle.
Basically, as time progresses, negative opinions about The Legend of Zelda turn into positive ones. At first, I wasn't sure about that, but seeing the response to The Wind Waker HD, I think it may be right.
And it isn't restricted to The Wind Waker. Every time a new Zelda title comes out, there's no shortage of negative opinions, but a year or two later, people are revising their opinions, and its reputation goes up.
About the Author: Austin Dickson
Austin Dickson has been around the Zelda fandom for years. He started Link's Hideaway as a small personal project, which later turned into something of which he never thought possible. He enjoys writing articles, guides, walkthroughs, and developing the different Concealed Gaming network sites.
Content from the Concealed Gaming Network
All original content copyright Link's Hideaway 2008-2019. All trademarks are property of their respective owner.


text:
Australian PM Wants Steve Smith Be Removed. 3 Reasons Why He Should Be Sacked!
Cricket was, is and will never be a gentleman's game, that is also the worst myth about the game
Ankit Banerjee
No doubt, Australian captain Steve Smith is an asset for the game of cricket. But when he plays party to cheating or breaches the ICC's Code of Conduct, you are put in a state of a conundrum over Smith. So does cricket require a Steve Smith? Surely the fans will stand divided over this one. Cameron Bancroft was caught ball tampering during the 3rd Test against South Africa, which he later admitted. In the press conference he confessed to his guilt, but what was more startling was the fact that Smith and the top leadership of Cricket Australia were in cahoots with this idea. Smith goes on to say that they had discussed it during the lunch break. That takes audacity to own up.
ALSO READ: Ball Tampering Row: Cricketers, Fans Want Stringent Action Against Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft!
Meanwhile, following this scandal, the Prime Minister of Australia has called for the sacking of Smith. So will he step down or won't he? Here's a list of reasons why cricket would be better without Steve Smith:
Wrong Timing:
The timing is critical, this comes at a time when the world cricket is facing a lack of trust deficit from its fans. It also comes at a time, when world cricket is pointing fingers at the big three countries India, Australia and England. As these countries are known to work in tandem to make the bulk of profit out of the game, forgetting the principles of the game would be set a bad precedent.
Serial offender:
Smith is no stranger to such petty cheating, remember him asking for DRS after consulting the dressing room, which is not in accordance with the laws of the game. Smith has in a way encouraged this sort of game, anything-for-a-win-culture.
"Today was a big mistake on my behalf and on the leadership group's behalf" – Steve Smith #SAvAUS pic.twitter.com/VVIsSnJWsl
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 24, 2018
Zero Tolerance To Set The Precedence Straight:
It is time one feels ICC takes the zero-tolerance policy route to set an example for the future. If that is not done, people will lose faith in ICC as well, which is already happening. A ban here and there will not help, a life ban will most certainly do.
Cricket was, is and will never be a gentleman's game, that is also the worst myth about the game.


text:
Les Phyllodactylidae sont une famille de geckos. Elle a été créée par Tony Gamble, Aaron Matthew Bauer, Eli Greenbaum et Todd R. Jackman en 2008.

Répartition
Les espèces de cette famille se rencontrent dans le Nord et à l'ouest de l'Afrique, en Amérique du Sud, en Amérique centrale, dans le Sud des États-Unis, en Europe et au Moyen-Orient.

Liste des genres
Selon  :
 Asaccus Dixon & Anderson, 1973
 Gymnodactylus Spix, 1825
 Garthia Donoso-Barros & Vanzolini, 1965
 Haemodracon Bauer, Good & Branch, 1997
 Homonota Gray, 1845
 Phyllodactylus Gray, 1828
 Phyllopezus Peters, 1877
 Ptyodactylus Oken, 1817
 Tarentola Gray, 1825
 Thecadactylus Oken, 1817

Classification phylogénétique
Selon Gamble, Bauer, Greenbaum, & Jackman, 2008 et Vidal & Hedges, 2009.
            o Gekkota
            │
            ├─o Pygopodoidea
            │ ├─o Carphodactylidae
            │ ├─o Diplodactylidae
            │ └─o Pygopodidae
            │
            ├─o Eublepharoidea
            │ └─o Eublepharidae
            │
            └─o Gekkonoidea
              ├─o Gekkonidae
              ├─o Sphaerodactylidae
              └─o Phyllodactylidae

Publication originale
 Gamble, Bauer, Greenbaum & Jackman, 2008 : Out of the blue: a novel, trans-Atlantic clade of geckos (Gekkota, Squamata). Zoologica Scripta, , ,  (texte intégral).

Liens externes

Notes et références

Famille de sauriens (nom scientifique)
Phyllodactylidae


text:
Becky Hammon is getting the success she deserves
Hammon's decision to leave the NBA to coach in the WNBA has paid off greatly.
By Jesus Gomez Sep 11, 2022, 8:00am CDT
Share All sharing options for: Becky Hammon is getting the success she deserves
Photo by Joshua Huston/NBAE via Getty Images
Becky Hammon took a big chance recently. After spending eight years as an assistant coach with the Spurs, she decided to get to the next level, accepting a head coaching position with the Las Vegas Aces.
To say that the risk paid off for her would be an understatement, as she was named Coach of the Year and has led her team to the WNBA Finals.
In hindsight, it seems like Hammon's success was almost predestined, but the move came with plenty of scrutiny at the time. Hammon had interviewed with several NBA teams but even she at times felt like they never seriously considered her, and with Gregg Popovich still coaching, her path to the big chair was blocked. Other WNBA teams had reportedly reached out, but she refused them until she got an offer that allegedly made her the best-paid coach in the league and gave her front office input. Her reported salary didn't sit well with some WNBA stars. While she had clearly shown her worth before, a lot of eyes were going to be on her as a rookie coach to see if she was worth the hype.
No one should still be doubting now.
Hammon's first challenge with the Aces was to modernize an offense that had ranked dead last by a country mile in three-point attempts the year before her arrival. This season, they took the third most outside shots in the league while remaining efficient. With the team's second-best rebounder and third-best scorer in 2021, Liz Cambage, gone Hammon was going to have to empower stars Kelsey Plum and A'ja Wilson, and did just that. Wilson won her second MVP Award this season while Plum made her first All-Star team. Hammon also promoted 2021 Sixth Woman of the Year Dearica Hambry to full-time starter, and the forward made the All-Star game for a second time. Up-and-comer guard Jackie Young won Most Improved player and made got her first All-Star nod, while Chelsea Gray remained a fantastic on-court leader who took care of setting up others.
The Aces were loaded with talent, but Hammon proved great at managing it, and the success of the regular season, where Las Vegas tied for the best record in the league, translated to the postseason. The Aces easily dispatched a depleted Mercury and recently took down Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, and the Seattle Storm in the conference semifinals. Now they will battle the Connecticut Sun, and they are favored. It's possible Hammon will lead the Aces to the first title in franchise history as a rookie coach.
For some Spurs fans, Hammon's success can feel bittersweet. She was with the franchise for a long time and looked like a fantastic potential successor to Pop, the type of hire that would signal the interest in continuity that has characterized the Spurs while also showing that they were looking for market inefficiencies by getting talent from a pool others ignored, just like they did in the past by scouting Europe. It didn't hurt that Hammon was also simply well-liked by most. She was a legend of San Antonio basketball after her time as a player with the Stars, she coached an extremely fun Spurs Summer League team to a title, and she legitimately seems like a good, genuine person. It's fully understandable to want someone with those credentials to stick around as much as possible, but there's no reason to be anything but happy for Hammon and be cheering for her, even if she's not in San Antonio anymore. She deserves it.
After dealing with some questionable hiring practices from NBA teams, watching the Aces franchise value her for her skills and in turn be rewarded for that trust is heartwarming. Hammon dealt with the scrutiny that came with being the first full-time female assistant coach with grace, and did the same with all the questions that came with her move to the W, so it's impossible to be anything but impressed by her character. In a more self-serving view for the Spurs' faithful, her success is a also good thing for the franchise. Anyone coming from the Popovich coaching tree doing well makes a spot on the bench in the AT&T Center more appetizing for young coaching talent. And for those who are still holding out hope that Hammon will take over for Pop when he's gone, it would be convenient for her to check the "win a WNBA title" box as soon as possible.
Hammon was a fantastic player for the Stars and a great assistant for the Spurs. Her path has taken her elsewhere for now, and it's good to see that she's still thriving, especially after enduring some bad experiences. Hopefully she will find her way back to San Antonio, but for now, she should know that the city and the fans of the teams she helped make great are still rooting for her. For the next few days, we are all Aces fans, because we are all Becky Hammon fans.
Game 1 of the WNBA Finals will be played today at 2 p.m. CST and will be televised on ABC.


text:
Fox Valley educator, author shares his vision for family learning
Fox Valley educator and author William Russell is a strong advocate for learning outside the classroom. Courtesy of William Russell
Dave Heun
Posted5/1/2020 6:00 AM
For the better part of two decades, William Russell made the pitch through a newspaper column that parents should extend learning beyond school walls by educationally engaging with children in the home.
Russell grew up in St. Charles and now lives in Aurora. Still, he lived in Menlo Park, California, in the late 1980s and turned his first short columns in the Sacramento Bee into a syndicated column called "Family Learning" for parents of children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
When he moved back to St. Charles in the early 1990s, his column was syndicated nationally, and I added it to the content mix of the newspaper where I worked.
Russell says those columns, along with his doctoral work at Northern Illinois University, were designed to inspire "some forward-thinking principals and superintendents toward creating programs and relationships that would encourage out-of-school learning in their districts."
Today, it almost rings like a prophet seeking to help others understand a core value and need -- that a family atmosphere should encourage learning at every turn -- for use at a time when it is needed.
That time is now, with families quarantined and schools closed. And Russell's not just a voice in the wilderness. He's been a teacher at Oswego High School and assistant principal at Faith Christian Academy in Geneva. Those jobs made him more clearly see the vital connection -- and need -- for parents to be more engaged.
"Don't you think every school district wishes it had developed some of these cooperative learning arrangements with parents before this COVID-19 pandemic closed their schools?" Russell asked. "If schools had recognized parents as the powerful force for learning that they are, or can be, today they would be able to take advantage of the relationships they built and the guidance they gave in developing the 'adjunct faculty' of parents that exists in every community."
One could easily argue that the vision Russell had of a family more than 30 years ago has changed quite a bit, and that time and job demands on both parents and kids have increased dramatically.
But Russell has long known that "learning" is not the same as "schooling" that is dictated through specific time slots.
The premise behind his whole concept is stressing "learning attributes," which he outlines thoroughly in his 1997 book, which has been updated into e-book form and available through Amazon. The 364-page e-book includes his numerous columns and other learning ideas as well as a directory of different materials and internet links.
"Learning can happen anywhere inside or outside of school," Russell said. "In fact, the goal that we, as parents, should have for our children's education is that they grow to be competent, principled and lifelong learners."
That's not the same as being lifelong "schoolers," Russell added. "If we encourage them to know the joy of learning while they are young, they will want to continue feeling that joy as they grow."
You could sum up Russell's reasoning this way: No matter how long the current pandemic lingers, it will be wise for parents and school officials to keep communication lines open as to how to complement each others' efforts. As opposed to sometimes contradicting each other or trying to find fault for failures.
After all, late-night TV comedian Jimmy Fallon, now at home with his daughters, summed it up well when saying, "If we have learned one thing from this pandemic, it is that teachers should make a billion dollars."
More than at any other time in our recent history, parents have essentially been in charge of getting their young children through school studies. The tools of family learning would be vital now.
"It's not just in preparation for a pandemic, but also to restore some joy to learning and to diminish the annual 'summer slide' in student understanding and for schools to start restoring the cooperative relationship with parents they once enjoyed," Russell said.
Anyone interested in the Family Learning book, with the subtitle of "How to Help Your Children Succeed in School by Learning at Home," can do so by typing "Family Learning" and Russell's name into a bookseller's site to obtain info and make a purchase.
Document this pandemic:
With events celebrating its 60th anniversary falling victim to the coronavirus pandemic this year, the Batavia Historical Society is instead focusing on what this quarantine has meant to residents.
It's encouraging residents and organizations to record daily thoughts or actions in a 30-, 60- or 90-day format, or whichever process works best, as part of a Share Your Story project to preserve that history for future generations.
"I recently came across an article in the Smithsonian magazine that showed how people living during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1917-1918 wrote journal entries, and letters to friends and relatives in chronicling their experience during that time," historical society president Dan Hoefler said. "We think it would be a great idea to do this now in Batavia to see how everyone's lives are being impacted by this.
"There are many good stories out there about how people are helping each other," Hoefler said.
While the Batavia History Museum will be the place for future generations to research this time, the society is encouraging all organizations, government agencies and citizens to participate in documenting their experiences.
"We ask individuals to do the same, especially diaries from children, with artifacts like chalk drawings, artwork, photos and displays of what they did," Hoefler said.
Send questions to Hoefler at dhoefler1408@comcast.net.
The society is asking that entries be digital files sent to museum curator Amber Foster at amberf@bataviaparks.org.
Clearing the way for new coroner's office:
Residents in the Fisher Farms subdivision in Geneva may be wondering what the construction trucks are doing on a parcel of land off Bricher Road at Fisher Drive.
About a year ago, the Kane County Board approved $10 million toward the design and construction of a building that would also house a new coroner's office on the Kane County Judicial Center campus south of Route 38.
Coroner Rob Russell has long pitched the need for a new office/morgue in the county, and the land just southeast of the judicial center is earmarked as the spot for this undertaking.
More ways to engage:
In continuing the theme of family learning and parents engaging with kids, St. Charles author Jay Payleitner has taken parts of his various books on parenting and turned it into an e-book called "10 Ways to Engage Your Kids During Quarantine."
It's a free download for parents that Payleitner is touting as a cure for cabin fever. It's available at jaypayleitner.com/free-downloads/ Rex Bohn of Geneva created the clever cover illustration.
dheun@sbcglobal.net
Heun, Dave