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The Forced Birth Movement Hates Real Religious Liberty – How to Use That Against Them by Making Abortion a Religious Right; Part 1
Posted on October 28, 2021 January 7, 2022 by Gregory S. Paul
(This being a big subject that has been largely ignored it needs a lot of explanation, the essay is split into two parts. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow)
It has not worked.
The pro-choice movement opposed by the religious right has been making an enormous mistake. We know that because it is facing disaster. That when a solid majority of Americans favor abortion rights. It is all too clear that what it has been done in support of women being full class citizens has been gravely defective. It follows that it is time to move on to a more effective strategy.
Roe v Wade rests largely upon the 14thAmendment principle of privacy as a legal and societal expression of individual freedom from invasive state control in favor of personal responsibility. The thesis is valid, but it is a defensive posture that has proven insufficient to fend off assaults from a dedicated forced birth campaign. The situation is so bad for the sovereign rights of American women that even as Catholic heritage nations like Mexico and Ireland place their trust in the gender to make the best choice, the USA is reverting to the paternalistic misogyny of the early 1900s.
The women's right movement must go on the offensive to regain the legal and moral high ground over the force birthers. Doing that requires utilizing two interrelated lines of argument.
The Big Medical Lie
One issue that has for reasons obscure long been oddly underplayed is women's health. The ant-abortion conspiracy promotes the anti-scientific disinformation that first trimester feticides are artificial and therefore bad for mothers, while child birth is natural to the point that the government must force all pregnant women to do what is good for their health physical and mental. Law enforcement must protect an apparently gullible gender from a diabolical abortion industry that is so clever that it somehow seduces many hundreds of thousands of each year — a third of the national female population over time – to commit a dangerous unnatural act that is against the wise ways of God's benign creation. That when not getting an abortion is as easy as simply not going to a provider. Yet many go to great lengths to get to such, sometimes traveling long distances if necessary, knowing exactly what will happen when they do so, yet only a small percentage report having significant post procedure regrets [https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416421/five-years-after-abortion-nearly-all-women-say-it-was-right-decision-study].
The hard truth is that nature is not always the best. Modern medicine is the artificial practice that has saved billions of lives from the deadly side of the biological world, including the many risks of pregnancy. Early term abortions surgical and medicinal are over a dozen times less lethal than going through the months long complexities and risks of pregnancy [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271]. And because the latter pumps lots of mood altering hormones into mothers, they are highly likely to experience serious mental distress before and especially after birth, post-partum depression being very common and often serious. Early pregnancy does not involve such hormone loads, and mental trauma is much less frequent after termination. That is why the regrets are rare, of the many women I know who have had abortions none was gravely upset about it. Which makes sense since a woman is making the safest decision when ending a pregnancy as early as feasible. Legally sentencing a woman to bear her pregnancy violates her core medical rights. It's like preventing someone from taking say statins, or forcing them to smoke or use mind altering drugs.
But there is another major right that the anti-abortion project violates big time. the one that the pro-choice forces have been resisting despite its potential potency.
Religious liberty.
Forced Birth, it's a Religious Thing
Here's the fact that is as screamingly obvious as it is irrationally paid much too little attention by the body politic. Almost the entire movement to render women second class citizens by making them reproductive slaves of the state once pregnant, stems from one source. The religious right. That is a historically rather novel entity formed by a once unimaginable collaboration of evangelical Protestants with the Church of Rome. The anti-abortion project is the core engine of a brazen attempt by one religious clique that constitutes about a third of the population to impose their hardline faith-based beliefs on everyone else. Outside of the religious right who opposes abortion rights? Nontheists against women's full reproductive rights are as scarce as hen's teeth, I personally know of only one. Polling suggests that one in ten atheists are forced birthers, but the sample is small and the figure appears inflated. Many if not most Christians — Protestants, Orthodox, Catholics, etc. of the center-left — favor reproductive choice, along with most Jews and other theists. That alliance of nonrelig0ious and believers form the solid majority who want broad abortion rights to remain in force in all 50 states.
The overwhelming and narrow religious basis of forced birth differs strikingly from other conservative causes such as limited government size and power regarding guns and economics, and heavy law enforcement against crimes and drugs. Those secular theses enjoy substantial support outside theoconservatism, including many nontheists — advocates of laissez faire capitalism for instance have included such prominent nonbelievers as Herbert Spencer, Ayn Rand, Milton Freidman, Penn Jillette and Michael Shermer.
No God Opposes Abortion
That feticide has become such a fixation of the religious right is remarkably ironic for a reason too few are aware of. The startling fact is that forcing women to bear pregnancies to term lacks theological justification. The central motivating claim by theoconservatives that they are sincerely merely obeying the dictates of a prolife creator is patently false both on real world and scriptural grounds. Our lovely but child toxic planet provides the proof that a prolife creator cannot exist. In the academic journal Philosophy and TheologyI was the first to calculate and publish the telling and terrible statistics that remain scandalously ignored [http://www.gspauldino.com/Philosophy&Theology.pdf. I further detail the problem in Essays on the Philosophy of Humanism https://americanhumanist.org/what-we-do/publications/eph/journals/volume28/paul-1 & http://americanhumanist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/03_Paul-SkeptoTheoPt2.pdf]. The stats start with how it is well documented that about 100 billion people have been born to date. To that add how medical analysis indicates that about three quarters of conceptions naturally fail to come to term — about half failing to implant in the first place usually due to rampant genetic defects, the rest are later term miscarriages, many of which go unnoticed. The human reproductive complex is a Rube Golbergian mess that usually fails – far from the womb being a safe refuge for fetuses, it is where most lives come to a natural early end. As geneticist William Rice states, accidental abortion is "the predominant outcome of fertilization [and] a natural and inevitable part of human reproduction at all ages." [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326485445_The_high_abortion_cost_of_human_reproduction] That means something like 300 billion pregnancies have been spontaneously aborted to date. Currently, somewhere in the area of 30,000 spontaneous abortions occur every day in the US, over ten times more than those that are induced. After birth half those born have died as children from a vast array of torturous diseases that infest our biosphere, so some 50 billion kids have not grown up. It is the artifice of medicine that has driven juvenile mortality down to a few percent, less can be done about our deeply dysfunctional reproductive system. As I detail in the P&Tand EPHstudies, it is demonstrably impossible for a supernatural creator that allows hundreds of billions of preadults to die to be prolife.
The mass loss of immature humans helps explain a stark scriptural truth birth enforcement adherents evade as much as they can. Neither the Jewish nor Christian texts come anywhere close to banning abortions. The only direct mention of the issue instructs that if someone accidently causes a miscarriage involving a woman who is not their wife, then the negligent party can be sued by the father who owns the fetus – feticide is a civil property matter, not criminal murder in the Holy Bible. That the Biblical God orders the Israelite warriors to kill captive children as well as women even when pregnant reinforces the indifference of the deity to the lives of youngsters. The Gospels of Jesus have nothing to say about the topic. The abject absence of scriptural condemnation against abortion illuminates why most Bible believing Protestants, including the most popular evangelical of the day, Billy Graham, had no comment in the immediate wake of Roe v Wade. Then famed Southern Baptist leader W. A. Criswell did opine that he had "always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed." The sanctity of preborn life was largely a Vatican thing — it cannot be overemphasized the degree to which the Roman and Lutheran churches despised one another; a few years ago a couple of evangelicals standing right in front of me bemoaned how a relation who had gone Catholic was now worshipping the clergy, not Jesus. So why the ensuing great evangelical Protestant switch — Graham and especially Criswell evolved into staunch forced birthers — to sociopoliically weaponizing abortion as murder via a new found alliance with the heretical Catholic clergy? First a little history.
Abortion was the norm in largely Protestant colonial and early independent America — for that matter, early term feticide has always been very common in societies whether legal or not. The Puritans of yore were not as super repressive and chaste as usually thought, oops pregnancies outside of marriage were fairly frequent. And there were women who after having birthed a bevy of babies did not want to go through thatagain. All the more so because childbirth was very dangerous, about one out of fifty pregnancies killed the mother. "Mother" nature is not much kinder to mothers than their young ones. Early term termination with herbal toxins had its dangers, but to a lesser degree. Such abortions were not a concern to the authorities if it was done before quickening. When the all-male founders, nearly all Protestants and Deists, were assembling the Constitution that instituted separation of church and state they never imagined considering feticide, that being a women's affair outside their manly concerns. The only faction that might have been interested in the issue were the few Catholics. That they made no attempt to mention much less ban abortion was logical because the rest of the patriots would have slapped that down as an attempt to subvert the intent of the 1stAmendment to keep specific religious cliques from seizing control of governmental policies and vice-versa. Duh.
In the 1800s going into the early 1900s repression of sexuality and women reached a peak in tune with Victorian culture. Also of growing concern was that abortions were killing women, albeit less often than pregnancy. At the same time the all-male profession of medical doctors wanted to suppress competition form midwives who often aborted the much bigger money to be made from full term pregnancies. And the nativist eugenics — based on agricultural selective breeding — favored by Protestants (but not Catholics) called for WASP women to bear as many children as possible to prevent the others from dominating the population. Laws banning abortions appeared for the first time, and quickly became the national norm. (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/abortion-in-american-history/376851.)
The result. A little over a century ago the religious right owned these United States. Well over nine out of ten were Christians, nearly all conservative. It was a culture of imposed Judeo-Christian "virtue." A pious repressive hyper misogynist patriarchy in which women were second class citizens required to wear heavy clothing even at the beach, and mandated to remain nonsexual until marriage in which husbands could legally rape their wives and she had no legal choice but to bear the child – that by the way helps elucidate why modern forced birthers are often not concerned about if a pregnancy resulted from nonconsensual sex. The draconian Comstock laws banned mailing information on contraceptives in flagrant contradiction of the Bill of Rights. The culture of repressed sexual liberty had to have a heavy government hand to it. Lacking the force of law to keep people in reproductive line, most folks feel free to have way too much fun for the likes of the power craving forces who enjoy imagining they know what it best for all of us, feckless women especially. Note that the Dour Culture was to a fair extent a white matter, black culture was less uptight, as reflected in the advent of the "sex music", jazz that quickly gained a following among white youth.
The rather Taliban like mainstream Christian scheme began to unravel what with women (mainly white) getting the vote, and the first sexual revolution of the Roaring Twenties. That unprecedented loosening of sexual habits was never entirely beaten back by the right, but as late as the 1950s women were still expected to be virgins on their wedding nights who then became stay at home housewives, access to contraceptives remained limited, and abortions forbidden. With blue laws keeping most retail closed on Sundays three quarters of American were church members according the Gallup, as virtually all professed a belief in God.
Since then it's all gone to theocon hell. Even in the 50s the hot black culture continued to infiltrate the white majority via the first wave of rock-and-roll – previously black slang for intercourse. What was Elvis doing up there on the stage with his pelvis? Seeing the way things were going Billy Graham started his mass crusades to try to restore America to its righteous ways.
That did not work.
Nowadays, with women being emancipated, first class citizens free to have sexy fun, sinfully tempting females strut down streets in minimal clothing. Sex outside marriage is actually the accepted societal norm. Marriage rates are down while divorce rates are sky high – that started with the WW 2 generation in the late 60s BTW — including among conservative Christians. Birth rates are below replacement level – that when many on the right oppose the immigration of nonwhites that's needed if an expanding population is to help grow the economy. On the networks people can say screw when not talking about hardware. Then there is cable and the web. Most women have careers. The grand corporate project to convert pious frugal church goers into hedonistic materialists and digital social media addicts has succeeded spectacularly as Gallup tracks church membership plummeting from 70% at the beginning of the 2000s to 50% today [https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx] as white Protestants are a fast shrinking minority, the religious right the once ran the country has been reduced to a widely disparaged subgroup, and the nonreligious balloon by an amazing tenth of the population each decade [for a look at that see http://americanhumanist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/art-1-Paul-The-Great-and-Amazingly-Rapid-Secularization-of-the-Increasingly-Proevolution-United-States.pdf]. Even Republicans are becoming less religious for Christ's sake — listen to how the Trumpites swore like sailors as they stormed the capital, and denounce Biden with vulgarities like Richard Pryor.
Their Real Goal
That is what the forced birth movement is really about. Having lost the mainstream culture big time over the last century theocons have no viable means to recover it by persuasion, and deep down they know that bitter fact. All those crusades, religious TV channels, megachurches, and Christian rock are getting nowhere with the mainstream. What are they to do in their desperate power trip to return the country to the good old days of largely white righteous Christian domination?
It's obvious. Try to do what worked up to the 1920s, and see if reapplying governmental coercion will get America back to its straighter laced Godly ways. There is nothing else for them to. This invidious strategy to employ laws to achieve religious aims requires the high grade hypocrisy of theoconservatives who love to proclaim individual liberty while decrying government power when the latter promotes what they see as ungodly secular-liberal values, but to without batting a cynical eye deploy said government power to lever America back to something like it was in the 1950's. When father knew best and subservient women properly behaved themselves sex wise and raised their many kids and heaven forbid could not terminate their sacred pregnancies and the churches were packed on Sunday mornings rather than folks hitting Walmart and Home Depo.
It is not like it is a carefully hidden secret. The president of the U. S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Jose Gomez has railed against secular liberal movements such as social justice, wokeness, intersectionality, and critical theories that have arisen in recent years as part of a effort to "suppress any remaining Christian influences" and replace "traditional Christian beliefs." That's a clear enough clarion call of the dire need to try to recapture the culture by desperate means as necessary.
So. How to get the government back under the blessed control of the theocon minority? You have to be fairly sneaky about doing that. Openly admitting that the ultimate goal is to use the state to bring back the good old theoconservative days by banning abortion et al. would intensify majority opposition, while fatally undermining the legal case for making a private procedure that the Puritans were OK with into murder.
To try to rewin the culture wars via the law they have smartly gone on the sociopolitical offensive by putting a peculiarly lethargic prochoice side on the public relations defensive, to the degree that even liberals agree that the feticide that has always been common should somehow become uncommon. A hard and sad choice consistently avoided by preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place, rather than by barring terminations. It's the abortion should be legal but rare line, rather than rare because it's illegal. Both are naive fantasies that have never been achieved and never will be. Early term abortions are the norm in all societies because they involve a modest collection of cells whose humanity is problematic and mainly propounded by extremist theocons, they are fairly easy to do, in secret if necessary, and are not as dangerous as is pregnancy to the mother. At least a fifth of observed pregnancies are terminated, whether that being in advanced democracies with excellent safe sex programs, or where the procedure is illegal and riskier [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343147586_Unintended_pregnancy_and_abortion_by_income_region_and_the_legal_status_of_abortion_estimates_from_a_comprehensive_model_for_1990-2019]. This is in stark contrast to murder, which is rare in many nations including most democracies — that these gun laden United States are the exception is pertinent because most who claim to be prolife support the widespread distribution of firearms that is the primary people killing device. Because murder involves a patent human being, can be difficult to do, produces an awkward corpse that is hard to secretly dispose of, and those who have been born are usually noticed to have gone missing, outlawing intentional homicide is correspondingly practical because only it renders only a tiny fraction of the population criminals while keeping the event highly atypical – there are under 4000 homicides in western Europe per annum for instance, many dozens of times less than feticides. Whatever success is or is not achieved by criminalizing the latter, it does not make much actual difference because the great majority of conceptions will continue to naturally abort, so what is the point? That when making abortion illegal means turning a fifth or more of knowingly pregnant women into lawbreakers each year, and a quarter to a third of all women over their lives, while not saving many preborn, but injuring or killing a number of pregnant women in the punitive process. It is probably not possible to drive yearly American abortions below a few hundred thousand whatever the methods used. Prohibiting abortion works about as well as banning alcohol, and we know how that worked out. A basic legal tenant is that all legitimate laws must be reasonably practicable to implement — the stop the abortions folks like to compare themselves to the abolitionists, but mass slavery can be ended simply by eliminating all laws that enforce bondage, leaving all slaves free to up and walk away from their masters — birth enforcement does not meet that feasibility criterion. Pro-choicers, use that fact.
The theocon grand Godly plan to try to overturn modernity is simple enough. Having concocted the notion that abortion is against the will of a prolife Lord Creator contrary to all worldly and scriptural evidence, make the private procedure illegal. Hopefully eventually nationwide as a form of outright murder if enough hardcore theocon justices can be plopped into SCOTUS and extend personhood to conception – the alternative is revision of the Constitution, perhaps via a constitutional convention dominated by theocons via the electoral manipulations they are working on. That doing so is not likely to actually protect enormous numbers of preborn is not the critical necessity. That would be nice if it happened in the opinion of many theocons, but the true activism driving societal hope of most forced birthers is that by making those who terminate pregnancies into criminals or at least subject to financial suits, that fear of having abortions will help tame wanton American women to be less willing to be get it on with men outside of holy matrimony. The idea is to discipline women into being both more chaste and fecund as the arrogant power hungry theocons want them to be. It's the fear and shame factors of the rights massive national social engineering project. To that add putting strictures on contraceptives to further boost the righteous mission to reChristianize America – Catholics especially like that. That doing so may well increase induced abortions due to more unintended pregnancies is not the theoconservatives driving concern (with supreme irony, another side effect of protection reduction is a great increase in the rate of natural abortions).
The schemes of the right to push women into being proper theists are not just aspirationally hopeful via making forced birth a deterrent to women not being divinely virtuous. There are growing efforts to set up forced birth enclaves in which single pregnant women who cannot get legal abortions and desperately need maternity help will be pressured by their circumstances to retreat to (http://thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx). There they are and will be the target of heavy duty theocon propaganda designed to make them into women of God. State power will be used to boost church power.
The prochoice side often wonders – often with breathtaking naivety — why those opposed to abortion want to also cut back on the use of protection that can suppress said abortions. That is because abortion reduction is not the real point, lifestyle alternation is. Get that? That women will be injured and killed by unsafe outlaw abortions and by forced pregnancies is not a great concern of the birth forcers — those wayward women should have known better than to get pregnant out of wedlock in the first place, and if raped oh well, the growing soul inside them takes priority to its reproductive vessel who needs to understand their Godly prolife duty. If a woman who would have gotten a legal termination if she could because it is safer than not having one happens to die from what seemed like a normal pregnancy oh well that's too bad, it's God's Will anyhow, and if she was right with Christ she is in a better place so what is the big problem. The wastage of pregnant women is well worth the glorious aims of the prolifers.
(Part 2 to continue 10/29/21)
Posted in religion and politics, society & culture


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Visit Royal Palaces in Seoul
Historical Places in Seoul
The most fascinating point about visiting Seoul is that you can feel the dynamics of Korean heritage and city vibe at the same time. Korea has a beautiful nature and a wealth of priceless cultural heritage as befits its five thousand year history and traditional culture. Visit 4 royal palaces to imagine your royal palace life in the Joseon Dynasty.
Gyeongbokgung Palace Changdeokgung Palace Deoksugung Palace Changgyeonggung Palace
How to Enjoy the Palaces Even More?
1. Free entrance to the palaces by wearing Hanbok
[WHAT IS HANBOK?]
Hanbok is the traditional attire of the Korean people.
Nowadays, it is only worn on special occasions or anniversaries. It is a formal wear and many Koreans keep a Hanbok for such occasions.
There are several Hanbok rental shops around Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Wear Hanbok and enter Royal Palaces for free!
2. Royal Guard Changing Ceremony in front of Palace
The Royal Guard Changing Ceremony reenacts the guard-changing procedure that took place during the Joseon dynasty, along with the reproduction of costumes and weapons, based on historical records.
Check out the Royal Guard Changing Ceremony schedule.
In Front of Gyeongbokgung
[Royal Guard Changing Ceremony]
10:00, 14:00 / 20 minutes per ceremony
[Ceremony of Guarding Gwanghwamun Gate]
In front of Deoksugung
Check out below websites to find out more information about safe travel to Korea.
Feel the Rhythm of K-Pop, K-Drama and Hallyu
Hallyu K-Star ROAD
Featuring the latest Hallyu trend, visitors will be able to discover restaurants and attractions frequented by popular Hallyu stars while walking along the Hallyu K-Star Road.
The road is separated into four zones :
Zone A the area between Dosan Park Sageori Intersection and Hakdong Sageori Intersection
Zone B the area between Hakdong Sageori Intersection and Cheongdam Sageori Intersection
Zone C the area between Cheongdam Sageori Intersection and southern crossroad of Yeongdongdaegyo Bridge
Zone D the area between Dosan Park Sageori Intersection and Sinsa Station Sageori Intersection.
In particular, Zone D includes Sinsadong Garosu-gil Road, a popular spot in Seoul
Hybe Insight
Located in Yongsan, Hybe Insight is a space where people can share the power of music through communication.
Basement floor 2 provides five different areas where music can be interpreted in different ways, while basement floor 1 provides a space to enjoy music in a whole new level.
K-Style Karaoke
Noraebang (노래방), formed by norae (song or sing) and bang (room), literally means a room to sing.
Nowadays, you can find norebang everywhere in Korea, especially in recreational areas or student areas.
You can look at the signboard and you'll see the word 노래방, the Korean name of norebang.
Taste of Korea, Hansik
It is said that to truly understand a country's culture, you must first experience its food. There are many things to enjoy in Korea, including Hansik, the Korean cuisine. The Korea Tourism Organization has chosen the following 14 best dishes that are rated "must-eat" foods when in Korea. Let's learn more about these dishes that are sure to impress!
Rice with nutrient-packed flavor
Chicken soup to rejuvenate in summer
Marinated grilled beef
Cool and refreshing noodle soup
Over 1,500 years of fermented tradition
Sundubu jjigae
Korean traditional dumpling
Galbi jjim
Soft and tender braised beef short ribs
Jeyuk bokkeum
Sweet and spicy marinated pork
Pajeon
Perfect snack paired with makgeolli on a rainy day
Glass noodle stir fried with vegetables and meat
Rice roll filled with various vegetable and meat
Tteokbokki
Spicy and sweet rice cake stew, the soul of K-street food
Dak gangjeong
Fried chicken and great with all drinks
Visit here to find out more about Hansik.
Learn more about K-Food by making it yourself:
KTO (Korean Tourism Organization) introduces diverse cooking classes how to make popular dishes like Kimchi, bulgogi, bibimbap, tteok, and royal cuisine. Check out more information for cooking classes by visiting Korean Cooking Classes
Written History of Korea, Hangeul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangeul is the modern official writing system for the Korean language.
Hangeul was created in 1443 CE by King Sejong the Great in an attempt to increase literacy by serving as a complement (or alternative) to the logographic Sino-Korean Hanja along with the usage of Classical Chinese.
Hangeul is believed to be the most scientific writing system because its characters are based on the shapes of the parts of the human body used to enunciate.
For example, the first alphabet, ㄱ, is shaped like the root of the tongue blocking the throat and makes a sound between /k/ and /g/ in English.
The National Hangeul Museum was established to preserve, spread, and develop the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. The museum is comprised of the Hangeul library on the first floor, a permanent exhibition hall, "ㅎ Café", and cultural product shop on the second floor, and a planned exhibition hall and Hangeul playground for children and foreigners on the third floor.
Visit National Hangeul Museum to find out more about Hangeul!
Address: 139, Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 용산구 서빙고로 139) / Hangeul Library (1F)
Directions: Walk approx. 5 min from Ichon Station (Seoul Subway Line 4, Gyeongui Jungang Line), Exit 2
Operating hours: Sunday-Friday & Public holidays 10:00-18:00 Saturdays, the last Wednesday of every month 10:00-21:00
Closed: January 1 (Lunar New Year's Day) & Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day)
<Sources from Korea Tourism Organization>
It was in 1395, three years after the Joseon Dynasty was founded by King Taejo (Yi Seong-gye), when the construction of the main royal Palace was completed after the capital of the newly founded dynasty moved from Gaeseong to Seoul. The Palace was named Gyeongbokgung Palace, the "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven."
With Mount Bugaksan to its rear and Mount Namsan in the foreground, the site of Gyeongbokgung Palace was at the heart of Seoul and, indeed, deemed auspicious according to the traditional practice of geomancy offices.
http://www.royalpalace.go.kr:8080/html/eng_gbg/main/main.jsp
Changdeokgung Palace
Changdeokgung Palace was the second royal villa built following the construction of Gyeongbokgung Palace in 1405. It was the principal palace for many kings of the Joseon dynasty, and is the most well-preserved of the five remaining royal Joseon palaces.
Though it has been treasured by Koreans for centuries, Changdeokgung Palace was recognized as a World Cultural Heritage site by the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Committee in December of 1997 during the committee meeting in Naples, Italy.
http://www.cdg.go.kr/eng/
Deoksugung Palace
The name Deoksugung Palace means "Palace of virtue and longevity" in the spirit of praying for long life for Emperor Gojong.
Located at the corner of Seoul's busiest downtown intersection, Deoksugung Palace is famous for its elegant stone-wall road.
Deoksugung Palace is virtually two palaces in one-a Korean traditional complex blessed with numerous examples of late-Joseon palace architecture, and a Western-style palace complex comply with two imposing neoclassical structures and Korea's first Western-style garden.
http://www.deoksugung.go.kr/en/
Changgyeonggung Palace
Located in the heart of Seoul, Changgyeonggung Palace was originally built as Suganggung Palace by the 4th ruler of the Joseon dynasty, King Sejong for his retiring father, King Taejong. It often served as residential quarters for queens and concubines.
During the reign of King Seongjong , the palace was renovated and renamed to Changgyeonggung Palace. It later became a park with a zoo and a botanical garden during Japanese colonial rule.
http://english.cha.go.kr/html/HtmlPage.do?pg=/royal/RoyalPalaces_3.jsp&mn=EN_02_03_04

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Every new, expanded feature in tech has both the potential for BENEFIT and the potential for HARM.
Apps and websites meant to positively connect people are also used to spread hate, plan crimes, or connect predators to their victims. Smart technology can make our home entertainment options vast and convenient. That same smart technology, however, can also be hacked, leading to a massive breech of our privacy.
Every new technology app, feature, and advancement tests our CHARACTER and VALUES.
One of the latest under scrutiny is Apple's Airpods "LIVE LISTEN" mode. This feature elevates the time-old mischief of eavesdropping to an entirely new level, testing the honesty and integrity of everyone who posses it.
The Bluetooth-enabled wireless Airpods can be in the user's ears, their phone left in a room (with all appearances that it is not in use) and the user can then listen in on everything in the room although not present. Perhaps even worse, you can see a live feed from an Apple Watch when the phone is hidden inside a room.
Call it spying, eavesdropping, or surveillance – the point is: this is dangerous.
Those of upright, honest character, wouldn't consider eavesdropping like this an option.
But then there is everyone else. Most especially those who love technology and who easily fall into temptation. And let's be honest – this can be a really tempting feature when in the throes of say Middle School or High School.
Imagine spying on and exposing a friend/enemy at school. Or listening in on parents or siblings' conversations at home. Whether its used for malicious purposes or to satisfy boredom with this kind of 'entertainment' – this feature (meant to benefit those with hearing disabilities) has massive potential for HARM.
What must PARENTS do next?
1. Talk to your children about the feature.
Chances are they already know about it because word travels fast on the internet and with teens. Ask them if they find it disturbing, creepy, or cool. Listen without reacting to their response to gauge their heart. Together, consider ways that this tech feature could be used by "friends" or random strangers to hurt them . Would they want to do that to someone else? How could it hurt their future or discredit their character?
2. Promise them you will never use the feature on them. Ask them to never use it on others.
Unless you communicate this clearly, there will ambiguity and perhaps unspoken permission.
Affirm the trust you have in your child. Acknowledge that their private, spoken conversations will always be just that – private. This may sound obvious and maybe embarrassing to even admit to your child but you must validate your trust and honor to their privacy. Your confirming refusal to not use this feature will role-model the character you desire to see in them. Your words can echo in their heart in mind if ever tempted to use Live Listen themselves.
3. Know where the feature is located on the iPhone. Periodically check to maintain accountability.
Remember, this is a feature that works with Apple iPhones and most specifically Apple Airpods (wireless earbuds).
Inside Customize, tap the green (+) Hearing to include this control.
You can then find it on the "Included" list with a red (-) to take it off.
From the home screen or even the lock screen, locate the control center by scrolling up from the very bottom of the screen.
Tap the EAR icon. This feature is enabled with AirPods connected over Bluetooth and in the user's ears.
Tap OFF to toggle ON.
Knowing where to find this, you can periodically check your child's control center to see if they have activated this functionality. If so, start a new conversation about whether they've used it or why they added it.
There are NO PARENTAL CONTROLS to disable this feature. Additionally, there is no way to know if it was added to the control center, used, and then removed. This is why CONVERSATION is key!
Ultimately, the late adolescence and teen years are the time when character is most solidified. Honesty, truthfulness, and integrity are what parents must model, mentor, and then expect from their children. If they aren't taught good character at home, the world gladly leads them to do what is right in their own eyes – to live their "own truth".
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A long time ago, when I was still in school in Toronto, I became fascinated with an obscure form of surround sound recording known as Ambisonics. In researching a paper for school I became smitten by the approach conceived by English mathematician Michael Gerzon. It's a truly elegant system, something beyond the commercially successful surround sound approaches that we all know.
I was especially impressed with the Cowboys Junkies 1988 album, The Trinity Session. It was recorded in a old church on King Street in Toronto, in a single day. The band played in this place with incredible acoustics, ringed around a single Calrec Soundfield microphone. The Soundfield microphone is the surround microphone design based upon the theory originally published by Michael Gerzon at Oxford University.
The trouble is that beyond the basics, Ambisoncs becomes very deep and mathematical. That makes it difficult to share my enthusiasm for the technology with others. Nonetheless, that enthusiasm keeps me reading the excellent SurSound Mailing List run by Virginia Tech. That list includes some of the finest and most experienced minds in audio, including some of the folks who wrote the very text books I used when I was in school.
It was there that I recently encountered a very interesting thread. This thread referenced some AES documents that are not freely available to the public. It also included a link to an excellent presentation by Rozenn Nicol of Research & Development at Orange in France.
This document is the most straightforward introduction to various advanced surround sound systems that I've ever encountered. While this PDF of 45 slides is purely introductory, it touches on everything from stereo theory, high-order Ambisonics (HOA)and wave front synthesis (WFS), without being overly mathematical. Highly recommended!


This may not come as a shock to you, but human beings were not designed to sit in small cubicles and stare at computer screens for 8 hours a day. Sedentary behaviour is bad for your health, causing back pain and increasing your chances of developing any number of potential conditions. As much as we'd all love to avoid this and be happy and active in our jobs, unfortunately, it isn't always practical.
Of course, you can combat this lack of workplace activity by purchasing a gym membership, but it can be hard to motivate yourself; after a long day at work, most of us just want to crash on the sofa and binge watch Stranger Things. So what about keeping fit and active during the working day? It's a pipe dream, right?
Well, actually it isn't. Whether you want to keep fit or lose weight, achieving your goals during the 9-5 is entirely possible. You don't need any specialist equipment either – just a little bit of motivation and ingenuity. And possibly strong deodorant. Check out these ideas to find out how.
Annoying name aside, exercising at your desk – or 'deskercising' – can be very beneficial. While you may get a few strange looks (particularly when your boss walks in to find you leaning diagonally over your desk like a corporate Michael Jackson), stretching your proverbial legs will help to keep you in shape and tone up those key muscle groups.
You can do most of the exercises while standing too, or with the aid of your chair and desk. If you're feeling particularly active, you can even substitute office props for kettlebells – plant pots are particularly handy for those overhead raises.
So whether you're looking to sculpt your guns, tighten those abs, or tone that booty, don't hesitate to improvise on the job. Just make sure you're still able to type afterwards.
If you're reading this in China, chances are you're wondering what the fuss is all about. This is because callisthenics (basic aerobic exercises) have been a compulsory part of the working day there since 1951, with the government wary of the health consequences associated with a sedentary population.
The idea has spread to Japan too, where large companies such as Honda have adopted and developed the concept. Indeed, the idea that productivity is directly linked to the mental and physical health of employees is a central part of the workplace culture and is known as 'kaizen'.
Following the rapid economic growth of those countries, western companies are now beginning to realise the benefits of paying workers to exercise too. This has been backed up by research from the American College of Sports Medicine, where studies showed that employee performance was boosted by as much as 15 per cent after a 30 to 60 minute workout.
Major organisations such as Google and Facebook are capitalising on this, installing on-site gyms at their offices, while the idea of temporarily downing tools for a spin circuit or a Tabata class is becoming the norm for many progressive employers.
Going for a run or hitting the gym before work might mean getting up an hour earlier, but you'll definitely feel the benefits. In fact, it is scientifically proven that exercise is most effective in the morning, with the metabolic effects resulting in a higher number of calories being burnt throughout the rest of the day.
Exercise also releases endorphins that make you feel good about yourself, so you'll have that glowing sense of achievement before you've even set foot in the office. This is a great foundation on which to build the rest of your day, and you will see the benefits not just in your health but in your work too.
One of the best things about exercising with a friend or colleague is that you can help each other stick to your routine, especially when one of you is tempted to give up. When you exercise with a group of colleagues, you're even less likely to give up.
Many companies already promote schemes like this, but if yours doesn't, set one up. The key is to try and get management on board, which makes it easier to secure a workout space and hire class instructors. Alternatively, many private gyms offer corporate and group discounts; your company may be able to take advantage of one of these.
Aside from the health benefits, it could help your career too: your proactivity and enthusiasm certainly won't go against you on your annual appraisal review.
The easiest form of exercise you can get without stepping foot in a gym is walking. Just by standing up and putting one foot in front of the other, oxygen is pumped around the body giving your muscles a chance to grow and get stronger. And of course, the best part is you it's free!
During your lunch break, don't go to the Starbucks around the corner – go to the other one that's a fifteen-minute walk away. Or instead of eating your sandwiches in the canteen, take them to the park. If your office is in a suitable location, go for a stroll with a colleague and have a gossip, or plug your headphones in and get lost in your surroundings – as long as you're on the move, it doesn't matter.
If you really want a daily challenge, don't get the lift up to your fifth-floor office – take the stairs instead. Even by doing this a couple of times a day, you will see the benefits. While you might arrive at your cubicle as a sweaty, panting mess the first few times, you'll soon realise that you can do it without even getting out of breath. You can give yourself an extra challenge by taking two steps at a time if you want, or if your office building is particularly tall, try and walk all the way up to the top.
Additionally, instead of driving or taking the bus to work in the morning, why not cycle? Nobody likes being stuck in traffic jams, and the money you'll save on petrol or bus/train tickets will very quickly cover the cost of a bicycle. Look at your working day, and ask yourself where you can make things a little bit more physically challenging for yourself.
Even though a couple of exercises at your desk might not seem a lot, don't neglect the importance of stretching before and after. You don't want to spend the next three days barely able to lift your arms, or have to explain to your boss that you're going home early because you pulled a hamstring at your desk. It only takes a few minutes to warm yourself up and down, so if you're going to exercise, you may as well do it properly.
The same goes for nutrition. You don't have to whip up a protein shake every time you do a few push-ups, and nobody is saying you should have a George Foreman Grill next to your computer, but exercise is going to be irrelevant if you're first in the queue at Krispy Kreme every day. There are plenty of ways you can adjust your diet and eat more healthily at work, and the benefits will stand you in good stead regardless of your exercise regime.
Of course, if none of this is enough, and being glued to a desk is just simply driving you crazy, you could always mix things up and change your office. There are plenty of jobs that require you to be on your feet all day, such as healthcare, teaching and construction; you could even pursue a career where physical fitness is a requisite, such as the police, the fire service or the military.


Find the best foreclosure homes listings for sale — bank-owned, government (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, etc.) and others — in and near the Bryans Road, MD area at Foreclosure.com. Get information on foreclosure homes for rent, how to buy foreclosures in Bryans Road, MD and much more. Save thousands at closing with home foreclosure listings in Bryans Road, MD — up to 75% off market value!
Bryans Road is a census-designated place (CDP) in Charles County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 7,244, up from 4,912 at the 2000 census.
Bryans Road was named after Oliver Norris Bryan, a 19th-century farmer and scientist who owned and operated Locust Grove Farm near Marshall Hall, Maryland. The area consisted mostly of tobacco farms until the establishment of the Naval Proving Grounds at Indian Head in 1890. Some commercial establishments came about by the early 1920s, when the name "Bryans Road" first appeared on maps. The construction of Maryland Route 210 (Indian Head Highway) during World War II brought new traffic. By the early 1960s, Bryans Road became an established bedroom community for both Indian Head and Washington, D.C..
At the main intersection of Bryans Road, a shopping center includes supermarkets, gas stations, and assorted retail stores that serve the community. Local residents commute to work at the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center, while others commute to employment centers throughout the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In 1998, plans for a massive housing development project at Chapman's Landing were thwarted by the Maryland state government, which bought the property to preserve green space under its smart growth policy.
Marshall Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and Mount Aventine was listed in the Register in 1996.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 15.380 square miles (39.834 km2), all of which consists of land. The central part of the community is now dominated by a large water tower just behind the fire department.
There are currently 12 red-hot tax lien listings in Bryans Road, MD.


notes = "C.-H. Wu and H.-J. Chou are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan, R.O.C. W.-H. Su is with the Department of Information Management, Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung 82445, Taiwan, R.O.C.


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20 pieces from Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in Monaco, to be auctioned soon in Paris
"Studies of the Human Body" triptych (Working Document)
The sale will take place on 24 October at Sotheby's, the prestigious auction house.
The Majid Boustany Foundation in Monaco is organising an auction of twenty exceptional pieces on 24 October to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the British painter Francis Bacon, The sale will take place at Sotheby's in Paris.
Called "Inside the World of Francis Bacon", the sale will include a number of different items, including a major 1949 painting, "Figure Crouching", estimated at 3.5-5 million euros.
« Figure Crouching » – Francis Bacon
Bidders will also be vying to acquire a very rare rug, signed by the artist in 1929 (estimated at 90,000 – 140,000 euros), two magnificent works on paper, or historical objects, such as a plate that the painter used as a palette (estimated at 20,000 – 30,000 euros), as well as other pieces from Bacon's Parisian studio.
Artist's palette (plate)
« Composition » rug – Francis Bacon
The collection also includes works by friends of Francis Bacon, such as painters Graham Sutherland, Louis Le Brocquy and Roy de Maistre, as well as an original letter from Francis Bacon to the writer Michel Leiris and portraits of the artist by photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Don McCullin and Peter Beard. All proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Foundation.
SEE ALSO: Majid Boustany: "When Bacon came into my life, I was fascinated by the unique giant"
The painter will be honoured on Saturday 8 October, at the Mouans-Sartoux Book Festival. The film Francis Bacon / Ernest Pignon-Ernest : Échanges, by Alain Amiel and produced by the Foundation, will be screened free of charge at 5.15 pm at the La Strada cinema.
The film deals with the written correspondence between the two artists, who never met. Francis Bacon is said to have asked Ernest Pignon-Ernest, an emblematic figure of the Mouans-Sartoux Book Festival, to send him several enlargements of his drawings. The screening will be followed by a discussion between the artist from Nice, the film's director, and the writer Gérard Mordillat.
News What's on


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The Last Jews of Cochin, India
Rachel Reed, Pacific Standard, September 21, 2017
Josephai "Babu" Elias, in Kadavumbhagam Synagogue's prayer hall. (Photo: Rachel Reed)
"How do I get to the synagogue?"
A woman steps into a candy-green shop in Mattancherry, a neighborhood known around here as "Jew Town." Outside, the street bustles with tourists and sellers arguing over the prices of pashmina scarves and harem pants. But inside, the newcomer, Aviva Kelly, an Israeli-American woman visiting from D.C., takes off her glasses to admire colorful items for sale including sparkly kippahs, multi-colored challah covers, and gold menorahs. Once inside, she seems to forget she's headed for Paradesi Synagogue. "Who takes care of this shop?" she asks.
The cashier leads her into an adjacent room where old black-and-white photos hang on faded yellow walls. There, Sarah Cohen, 95, sits with prayer book open, her late husband's hot-pink kippah perched on her head. The women introduce themselves, and soon decide to sing a prayer together in Hebrew.
Sarah Cohen, 95, one of five remaining Paradesi Jews in Mattancherry, Cochin, in her bedroom. Every morning, she enjoys a range of Kerala and Jewish dishes (dosa, idli, challah bread) and then spends the majority of her day sitting by the window, singing prayers and people-watching.
(Photo: Rachel Reed)
Sarah Cohen with her caretaker Thaha Ibrahim (left) and her cook Celine Xavier (right).
"Your tune is slightly wrong," Sarah says shortly after they begin. Aviva laughs, insisting she knows the Iraqi version of the tune. Sarah seems skeptical, but after they reprise the song, she begins grinning widely, clearly satisfied.
Cohen is one of five Paradesi Jews left in Mattancherry, a colorful neighborhood in India's coastal city of Cochin, located in the southern state of Kerala. She opened this business—an embroidery shop—out of her home in 1984. Soon after it opened, she invited Jews and non-Jews alike to sing and learn about Jewish heritage from her, and over time it became a hub of Jewish culture in the community. Today, her shop is one of the only traces of Judaism left in the area.
Thaha Ibrahim in the doorway of Cohen's embroidery shop. On his right is an embroidered map of India, encapsulating the unique mix of Jewish and Indian influences in the shop. A Muslim, he became interested in Judaism as a boy helping his uncle sell postcards outside of Cohen's shop. "Sarah never had children," he says, "so I'm her children."
Cochin, a majority Hindu and Christian city, has a rich history of Judaism. Historical accounts hold that Malabari Jews came to Kerala in the 11th century B.C.E., while Paradesi Jews arrived from Europe in the late 16th century. But when Israel and India gained independence in the 1950s, most of the Indian Jewish population migrated to Israel. Now, only 28 Jews remain in Cochin, scattered and holding onto their traditions as a minority religion.
Nevertheless, their longtime peaceful co-existence with the Hindus, Muslims, and Christians of Kochi continues to resonate. "It is from the history of Jewish people in Kerala that we understand religious tolerance," says Karma Chandran, a retired history and government professor at C. Achutha Menon Government College. Upon arriving in Kerala, Jewish refugees were given land and materials from the local government to construct synagogues. "Inter-religious cooperation is seen more here than anywhere else in India," Chandran says.
Paradesi Synagogue, India's oldest active synagogue, sits at the end of Mattancherry's "Jew Town." With the Jewish community dwindling in Mattancherry, the synagogue's main visitors are now tourists.
Paradesi Synagogue, quiet after a day of tourists bustling in and out. At the front of the building, a sign asks visitors to remove their shoes before entering. Entering a synagogue barefoot is not a common Jewish practice; it's adopted from Indian traditions.
The last tombstone left standing in a Jewish cemetery in Mattancherry. Residences and streets were built on the cemetery over the last 50 years, reducing its once-impressive size.
Cohen's home exemplifies the religious synergy that has come to characterize her neighborhood. Her caretaker who now runs the shop, Thaha Ibrahim, is Muslim, and her cook, Celine Xavier, is Catholic.
"The Jewish tradition is special to Cochin," Ibrahim says. "Many communities came together in Kerala for trade. That supporting culture is felt everywhere. We are all just people."
Kadavumbhagam Synagogue peeks out from behind thick green vegetation. Josephai "Babu" Elias transformed the front room of the synagogue into a plant and fish nursery when he took the building into his care in 1977.
Across the Kollam-Kottapuram Waterway in Ernakulam, the commercial hub of Cochin, Josephai "Babu" Elias, 62, shuffles among bird cages to serve a customer. Babu takes care of the Kavumbhagam Synagogue on Ernakulam's own buzzing "Jew Street"; at the front of the building he also runs a plant and fish nursery. Upon entering the synagogue, one can see both fish swimming in neon-blue tanks and, just beyond, a glittering prayer hall lit by pink chandeliers—a surreal, striking entrance for a place of worship.
Elias laughs when I ask if people are surprised to see tanks of fish abutting a Jewish synagogue. "Fish are Jewish!" he exclaims, referring to the significance of fish in the Jewish tradition. "In biblical times, fish meant prosperity, so it kind of makes sense."
Fish swim in neon blue tanks just in front of Kadavumbhagam Synagogue's glittering prayer hall.
A Malabari Jew, Elias says that, when his family left for Israel in the '70s, he stayed behind to watch over the synagogue. He remembers his childhood fondly: "More than 150 people filled the synagogue. I was the last of my family to feel the identity of the community. Rituals, prayers, and ceremonies keep the community together. When there's no community, these fall apart." The diminishing Jewish community in Cochin rarely gets together even for events, Babu and his wife say. Babu adds that he finds himself praying alone in the synagogue every Friday.
Babu hopes to hand over the synagogue to an international trust in the next couple of years, and then migrate with his wife to Israel, where his daughter already lives. "Leaving India is unbearable," he says, "but it is inevitable because every Jew believes the last days of his life shall be in Israel."
Babu opens his prayer book and starts singing the prayer he said his grandmother made him sing before breakfast every morning. "We had to sing from here," he says, turning three pages, "to here. And only then we could have breakfast."
Ofera Elias, Babu's wife, stands at her grandmother's grave in the Ernakulam Jewish Cemetery. She points out the weeds growing tall around the tombstones. "No one is taking enough care of this site." She says that, in the absence of a Jewish community, she and Babu have made their own community of Hindu and Muslim friends.
But first, he is overseeing synagogue renovations. He re-tiled the floor in May, and, next, he hopes to install new oil lamps and chandeliers.
"It is Indian responsibility to protect Jewish monuments," Karma, a Hindu, tells me. "Tolerance has a history, tolerance has a tradition, tolerance has a heritage. It's the heritage of Hindus, Muslims, and Christians: the monuments are Jewish but it's everyone's heritage. Once it's preserved it can be an example for the rest of the world."
Karma Chandran stands in the empty Mala Synagogue, 50 kilometers from Cochin. He is fighting to preserve the Mala Synagogue and Jewish cemetery, two sites that have been heavily neglected for decades. When the Mala Jewish community migrated to Israel in 1955, they made a written agreement with the local government to protect the sites, but, in 2012, the local government made plans to build a stadium on cemetery land anyway. Now, the blue-and-red stadium looms over the remaining tombstones, the stadium left empty and half-constructed because of ongoing court cases between the government and the departed Jewish community.
Originally published here: https://psmag.com/social-justice/last-jews-of-cochin
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Read more on these topics:
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The Uses of Books in Geography
by Miss C.N. Heath
This is probably referring to the five-volume geography series that Charlotte Mason wrote for use in her schools, called The Ambleside Geography Books, written between 1880-1892:
I. Elementary Geography Book I for Standard II (1881) view page images
II. The British Empire and the Great Divisions of the Globe Book II for Standard III (1882) view page images
III. The Counties of England Book III for Standard IV (1881) view page images here
IV. The Countries of Europe Their Scenery and Peoples Book IV for Standard V (1883) view page images
V. The Old and New World: Asia, Africa, America, Australia Book V (1884) view page images
Miss C.N. Heath (Ex-Student of the House of Education) then read her paper on The Uses of Books in Geography
In former days, geography, at any rate as taught in schools, was a mere matter of memory; so many names and facts to be learnt by rote from text-books and repeated the next day, with occasionally a few maps laboriously copied from an atlas. In this way the pupil, at the end of a term, had gained no more real idea of places outside his personal knowledge than he possessed before.
This can hardly be considered an educative or intelligent method of using a book, nor in all likelihood were the books themselves educative or intelligent. From the beginning it must be realized that all outline or text-books are to be avoided as in no way tending to realize our aims of intelligence and education, which we should always bear in mind.
What then, we may ask, should be the aim and end of a geography book? It should be to give children living ideas connected with the world around them, enabling them to understand by the aid of books, the scenery, climate industries, and manners and customs of lands other than their own. To accomplish this we see at once that the outline book will not suffice, but that a "Reader," more or less in the style of a book of travels, is required; such a Reader should be as the padding to the framework, serving the double purpose of welding the structure together and rendering the dry facts easier of remembrance. It is of Readers thus written, which are used in the practicing school, that I would say something to-night. The Readers are five in number, the first one dealing with the elementary facts of geography, such as the shape of the earth, its movements, the use of maps and how to make them. Before the book can be made use of, however, the children must have thoroughly mastered, by means of oral lessons and practical demonstration on the part of the teacher, the methods adopted in making a map, and what is meant by drawing a map to scale. This they easily understand if they are taught to make plans for themselves, beginning, say, with a simple one of their own schoolroom, then one of the house, and so on till they can even draw a map of the local district. In like manner the teacher must demonstrate the movements of the earth, the causes of day and night, or the seasons, till difficulties are overcome and the pupils ready to study the Reader for themselves.
It must be borne in mind that the oral lessons are not to take the place of the Reader or to remove all need for mental effort on the part of the child, but should be used to prepare the mind so that it is ready to digest the mental food in its new form; then to continue our former metaphor, having firmly fixed the framework it is possible to put on the padding.
Readers II to V are devoted to accounts of our own and foreign countries; and here we notice that before the reading is begun the map questions at the end of a chapter must be dealt with first. This may seem a backward proceeding but the principle that applies to the oral lessons holds good here, the map questions in this case representing the framework. These questions are, of course, put by the teacher (who must if necessary invent them herself), and should be answered by the pupils from the map only. As an example of the style of questions, I will read you a few on the maps of Holland and Belgium:—
(1) Describe carefully the situation of Holland and Belgium,—between what parallels they lie; in what part of Europe; surrounded by what lands and what seas? (2) Holland is much broken into by the sea,—name the openings. Name the largest of the chain of islands which hems in the Zuider Zee. (3) North Holland forms a peninsula,—what is its northern point? What opening nearly cuts it off from the mainland? Name two towns upon this opening. How is the Y connected with the North Sea? (4) Holland is the delta of the Rhine,—into how many branches does this river divide in its course through Holland? Name any of these. In company with what other two rivers does the Rhine discharge its waters? From what country does each of these three rivers enter Holland? (5) What province is formed by the islands of the delta? Name half-a-dozen towns in the south of Holland.
When these have been satisfactorily mastered the pupils then study the Reader until they are able to describe the landscape, the industries, etc., of that country, whilst filling in the towns, rivers, etc., on blank map sketched on the blackboard.
It is not only necessary to give frequent oral lessons on the fundamental principle facts of geography, such as the direction of mountain chains, the courses of the rivers, etc., but also a strict watch must be kept against any possible relapse into ignorance: otherwise the children will inevitably fall into such errors as making tributaries flow from the streams they join, the rivers to flow from the sea, or confusing the left and right banks of a stream. The information contained in these Readers should again be supplemented by lessons on such subjects as will help maintain the interest of the pupils in geography, to give them general principles and to increase their knowledge of the country in question. The book studied for Physical Geography in Class III of the practising school is Geikie's volume in the Science Primer series. In dealing with this book the scientific principle that must guide us throughout, is that the knowledge to be acquired must be gained by the experiences and discoveries of the children themselves. Therefore, here also, the reading must be accompanied by practical lessons, these being founded on the features of the surrounding district; for this, out-door geography is most necessary; the children during their daily outings should observe for themselves the action of wind, frost, and rain, the alteration caused to the landscape by a flood.
Let a child once see for himself the action of ice on the rocks, how the windings of a stream are due to the peculiarities of the land, that the formation of a lake is similar to that of a roadside puddle, and there will be no more difficulty in learning or remembering the scientific terms which at the outset seemed hard. Moreover, instead of being dependent on their book for diagrams, the children will be able to draw these from their own observations, thus assuring full comprehension of the subject studied. Another branch of geography that must not be forgotten is the knowledge to be gained from a study of the daily papers; it is most important that children should know something of the various places of interest mentioned in the newspapers, that they should be able to follow the great trade routes, the march of our army, or the progress of any explorer, on the map, and in fact take an intelligent interest in the events of the present day. How necessary it is not to neglect this branch of geography is shown by the fact that lads of seventeen to eighteen, asked in a general knowledge paper to state where and what was the Yukon, gave such replies as-a port in China-a river in Japan; and this too in the year when the rush to the Yukon after gold was at its height. An education that allows such ignorance of daily affairs as this to exist, seems indeed faulty, and one might almost say useless.
I will now give as an example of the information and style to be found in the Readers, a resume of a chapter on Switzerland, from Reader II, studied by the second class. The information given may seem somewhat limited, but it must be remembered that the Reader is designed for use in the lower classes, and that the same ground is gone over and amplified in a more advanced book. The pupil is supposed to be well acquainted with the map of Switzerland and to be taking a journey through the country, starting from Basle, where we have a graphic description of the Rhine scenery and of the town itself with the storks' nests on certain house-tops. From thence the traveller passes on to Geneva, with its watch trade (may I add that my watch was looked at with deep interest on account of its being "a real Swiss one"?) its wonderful blue lake, and the Mont Blanc always towering in the distance. Next came Lucerne, including an ascent of the Rigi, in order to see the famous sunrise, which enabled us to learn the names of a few Alpine peaks. The beautiful mountain flowers, the glaciers, the terrible avalanches, the cows with their tinkling bells, are all described in a bright manner rendering it impossible to be uninterested or to forget the facts thus learnt. It added greatly to the children's interest in the lesson that I had myself been to Switzerland, had seen the wonders described, and had also many photographs to show them.
This study of map and book was followed by an oral lesson, recently published in The Parents' Review, on "The Lake Dwellers of Switzerland," and the lesson was excellently received, proving of great interest to the class, and not only maintaining the children's interest in that country, but also arousing a new interest in the phenomena of the home district, the particulars of which were used to illustrate the lesson.
The lesson consisted mainly of information about the subject merged buildings, their position in the lake, the objects found embedded in the mud, the methods used in building, and the materials, the whole being illustrated by diagrams and a map on the blackboard.
In order to draw as much as possible from the children themselves, the deductive method was employed in questioning, the local lakes and floods serving as a basis on which to build their answers.
Naturally, material for a lesson of this sort will hardly be found in ordinary geography Readers, but it is merely an indirect method of using books for the study of geography, requiring a wide reading acquaintance on the part of the teacher as well as discretion in making use of her knowledge. Thus the greater part of the information given in the foregoing lesson was gained from the volume on Switzerland, in the series entitled "Stories of the Nations."
Much of the matter in their geography books requires no more than attentive and intelligent reading on the part of the class, as for example the following passage:—
"More frightful source of danger than all the rest, much of Holland lies below the high-water level of the sea! Along part of the coast there is a bulwark-the only natural defence which Holland enjoys-the 'dunes' or sandbanks, which extend along the coast from Dunkirk to the Helder. These vary in breadth from one to three miles, and rise sometimes to a height of forty or fifty feet, and they are formed entirely by the action of the wind blowing up the sand on the seashore. These dunes are sowed, year by year, with a kind of a reed grass, whose roots spread and hold fast the shifting sands."
"But, elsewhere, it has been necessary to raise tremendous granite walls and dykes; for the west wind drives the sea against Holland, and it is hard for any works of man to stand against it. Think of it; think of standing inside such a sea-wall and hearing the sea roar without, high above your head, with nothing but the strength of the sea-wall between you and death!"
To explain or illustrate what is so easily within comprehension of the children would be an educational error. Let them describe fully without the help of questions how Holland keeps out the sea, themselves drawing a diagrammatic map on the blackboard to show the sea-defences.
But here is a passage from the same volume, Reader IV, quoted from Ruskin:—
"The longer I stayed among the Alps, and the more closely I examined them, the more I was struck by the one broad fact of there being a vast Alpine plateau, or mass of elevated land, upon which nearly all the highest peaks stood, like children set upon a table, removed, in most cases, far back from the edge of the plateau, as if for fear of their falling. And the result of this arrangement is a kind of division of the whole of Switzerland into an upper and lower mountain-world; the lower world consisting of steep, wooded banks of mountain, more or less divided by ravines, through which glimpses are caught of the higher Alps; the upper world, reached after the first steep banks of 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height have been surmounted, consisting of comparatively level but most desolate traces of moor and rock, half covered by glacier, and stretching to the feet of the true pinnacles of the chain.
"It can hardly be necessary to point out the perfect wisdom and kindness of this arrangement as a provision for the safety of the inhabitants of the high mountain regions. If the great peaks rose at once from the deepest valleys, every stone which was struck from the pinnacles, and every snow-wreath which slipped from their ledges, would descend at once upon the inhabitable ground, over which no year would pass without recording some calamity of earth-slip or avalanche. Besides this, the masses of snow cast down at once into the warmer air, would all melt rapidly in the spring, causing furious inundations of every great river for a month or six weeks."
This passage, on the contrary, will require much illustration by sketches on the blackboard with careful diagrams.
It would be well to let the class show their comprehension of this passage by making a clay model illustrating what they have read.
I need not dwell on the necessity of reading extracts from books of travel to the pupils, amplifying their knowledge of the country or region they are at work upon.
I would suggest, in conclusion, that much use may be made of photographs, or even the picture postcards so easily obtained nowadays, to interest the children in their studies. There are few of us who have no friends in foreign parts, and think of the added joy of a lesson when there are the new cards to be looked at, the places they illustrate to be searched for on the map, and the description of the same to be read in the book. The "Perry Pictures" too are useful for this purpose, and might be distributed among the class at the finish of the lesson, thus encouraging the children to form art collections as well as helping them in studying geography. I feel that it has been a difficult task in the limited time at my disposal to do full justice to the subject of my paper, but I trust I have been able to set forth a little of the teaching methods of the House of Education, and to indicate the Use of Books in Teaching Geography.
Proofread by Leslie Noelani Laurio, August 2008


text:
The Power of Regret
How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward
by Daniel H. Pink
"The world needs this book." —Brené Brown, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead and Atlas of the Heart
An instant New York Times bestseller
As featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post
Named a Best Book of 2022 by NPR and Financial Times
From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of When and Drive, a new book about the transforming power of our most misunderstood yet potentially most valuable emotion: regret.
Everybody has regrets, Daniel H. Pink explains in The Power of Regret. They're a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and bring greater meaning to our lives.
Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the "no regrets" philosophy of life. And using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey—which has collected regrets from more than 15,000 people in 105 countries—he lays out the four core regrets that each of us has. These deep regrets offer compelling insights into how we live and how we can find a better path forward.
As he did in his bestsellers Drive, When, and A Whole New Mind, Pink lays out a dynamic new way of thinking about regret and frames his ideas in ways that are clear, accessible, and pragmatic. Packed with true stories of people's regrets as well as practical takeaways for reimagining regret as a positive force, The Power of Regret shows how we can live richer, more engaged lives.
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Excerpts-
From the cover
The Life-Thwarting Nonsense
of No Regrets
On October 24, 1960, a composer named Charles Dumont arrived at the posh Paris apartment of Edith Piaf with fear in his heart and songs in his briefcase. At the time, Piaf was perhaps the most famous entertainer in France and one of the best-known singers in the world. She was also quite frail. Although she was just forty-four years old, addiction, accidents, and hard living had ravaged her body. She weighed less than a hundred pounds. Three months earlier Piaf had been in a coma because of liver damage.
Yet despite her wispy presence, she remained notoriously mercurial and hot-tempered. She considered Dumont and his professional partner, lyricist Michel Vaucaire, who had joined him on the visit, second-rate musical talents. Earlier in the day, her secretary had left messages trying to cancel the meeting. Piaf initially refused to see the men, forcing them to wait uneasily in her living room. But just before she went to bed, she appeared, swaddled in a blue dressing gown, and relented.
She'd hear one song, she told them. That's it.
Dumont sat down at Piaf's piano. Sweaty and nervous, he began playing his music while softly speaking the lyrics Vaucaire had written.
Non, rien de rien.
Non, je ne regrette rien.
No, nothing at all.
No, I regret nothing at all.
She asked Dumont to play the song again, wondering aloud whether he'd really written it. She assembled a few friends who happened to be visiting to hear it. Then she gathered her household staff for a listen.
Hours passed. Dumont played the song over and over, more than twenty times, according to one account. Piaf telephoned the director of L'Olympia, the premier Parisian concert venue, who arrived just before dawn to hear the work.
C'est payé, balayé, oublié.
Je me fous du passé.
It's paid, swept away, forgotten.
I couldn't care less about the past.
A few weeks later, Piaf sang the two-minute, nineteen-second song on French television. In December, when she performed it as the rousing final number of a concert that helped rescue L'Olympia from financial ruin, she received twenty-two curtain calls. By the end of the following year, fans had purchased more than one million copies of her "Je ne regrette rien" record, elevating her status from chanteuse to icon.
Three years later, Piaf was dead.
One cold Sunday morning in February of 2016, Amber Chase awoke in her apartment in the western Canadian city of Calgary. Her then-boyfriend (and now-husband) was out of town, so the previous evening she had gone out with some girlfriends, a few of whom had slept over. The friends were talking and drinking mimosas when Chase, propelled by some combination of inspiration and boredom, said, "Let's go get tattooed today!" So, they climbed into the car and rolled to Jokers Tattoo & Body Piercing on Highway 1, where the resident artist inked two words on Chase's skin.
The tattoo Chase got that day was nearly identical to the one Mirella Battista decided on five years earlier and 2,400 miles away. Battista grew up in Brazil, and moved to Philadelphia in her early twenties to attend college. She...
Regret "clarifies. It instructs. Done right, it needn't drag us down," writes Pink (When) in this pragmatic guide to harnessing the power of the past. He draws on the largest survey ever conducted of Americans' regrets, as well as his own poll of thousands of respondents in 105 countries, to reveal the four most common types of regret: foundational (the failure to be responsible regarding education, finances, or health), boldness (the chances not taken), moral (taking "the low road"), and connection (fractured or unrealized relationships). Rather than despairing over regrets, Pink urges readers to think of them as opportunities for growth and learning, and offers a program for doing so. First, one should acknowledge the regret to "reduce some of its burden," then grant oneself "the same... understanding offer another," and finally, create some distance by talking about it in the third person, which can turn it into a lesson. Pink assembles an impressive array of research and includes some moving stories of people dealing with mistakes, as with one woman whose regret at not having spent more time with her grandparents "helped her to see her own life as a puzzle with meaning as the center piece." Readers looking to shake their shame should start here.
A study of regret based on a series of international group behavioral studies. Culling responses from an expansive questionnaire, bestselling author Pink analyzes the cumulative benefits of hindsight to inform future decision-making. His surveys encompassed hundreds of personal stories from respondents who were able to absorb the sting of regret and channel it toward better quality of life. The author believes that while optimism is essential to improved well-being, negative emotions like regret bring clarity, meaning, and much-needed alertness. Throughout more than a dozen illuminating chapters, Pink cites examples from decades of research on the psychology behind high-stakes negotiations and the resultant regret that often followed. Dubbing regret the "quintessential upward counterfactual--the ultimate If Only," the author isolates four core categories: foundation (failure to be responsible in financial, educational, or health matters), boldness (forgone opportunities), moral (the temptation to behave poorly), and connection (unrealized potential relationship). Arguing that the open acknowledgment of regret is key to repurposing it toward the greater good, Pink gives close scrutiny to two research projects that he personally developed and championed: the World Regret Survey and the American Regret Project. The companion website for these initiatives amassed thousands of reflections from 105 countries and across a collage of cultures. Examples include a woman who regrets not climbing into her ill husband's hospital bed on the night of his death; a Saudi Arabian businesswoman who laments a tendency to downplay her intelligence and inventiveness "to please/not upset others"; and a man who, 60 years later, still mourns not taking a college classmate up on the opportunity to join the 1964 Freedom Summer project. In the final chapters, Pink offers practical guidance on how readers can thrive beyond their mistakes, molding them into learning opportunities, and how to flip the negative connotations inherent with regret into positive experiences: "By making us feel worse today, regret helps us do better tomorrow." An insightful and rewarding glimpse into the emotional pathways of human contrition.


Mosha the elephant, a permanent resident of the hospital run by the Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation in Thailand, is the first elephant ever to receive an effective and functional prosthetic leg.
Mosha was just 7 months old when she lost her leg to a landmine on the Burmese border, according to the FAE's website.
Click here for more from ABC News.


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Privacy is a fundamental human right. We are building Tutanota to enable you to send secure emails to anyone. To fight for our right to privacy - to protect journalists, whistleblowers and human rights activists around the world - this has been our mission since we have started building the encrypted email service Tutanota, and it is a value shared throughout our community. Support Tutanota and help us to build the Internet of the future: private and secure! Together we will stop mass surveillance.
AMP is an attempt by Google to colonize free platforms such as web and email. Google does not want to make your mailbox faster, but they want to control every aspect of it. Google's excuse is that the mobile web is too slow and because of that we need a special Google-designed web: AMP. This is not true.
The privacy-friendly email service Tutanota relies entirely on green electricity. You can now use your Tutanota mailbox, knowing that all your emails are secure and green!
Keeping personal data safe online is hard. As we at Tutanota are committed to securing everybody's private data, we have compiled a quick guide on how to keep your emails safe from hackers. By following this guide, you will not only safeguard your private emails, but you will also protect your online identity as most services, such as Amazon, PayPal, Twitter etc., are linked to your email account.
The European GDPR requires companies to protect sensitive personal data of EU citizens. Tutanota is a secure email service with built-in encryption. Whenever necessary, you can easily send end-to-end encrypted emails to any email address so that your business can achieve GDPR compliance for all emails.
Politicians regularly demand that companies add encryption backdoors to their end-to-end encrypted cloud services to enable law enforcements to easier persecute criminals. By demanding backdoors to encryption, Politicians are not asking us to choose between security and privacy. They are asking us to choose no security. This post explains why a backdoor is - and will always be - a stupid idea.
For many the Internet is Google: Search, email, videos - Google is the major player in all these fields. But Google uses all data it gathers across its services to post targeted ads, and to massively profit from the data many share so freely with the Internet giant. The time has come to stop this unlimited data mining and to take back our right to privacy! Here's a quick guide how you can use the Internet without sharing all your data with Google and Facebook.
Stop using email services that don't respect your privacy.


Join the Women's Health Workgroup!
Our Women's Health Workgroup joins forces to raise awareness for the special needs of women in the field of lipidology, by creating knowledge, enhancing education and recommending special treatments to achieve improvements for women's health.
If you would like to join this workgroup please contact NLA Staff.


Step 1. Mark the width and height of the picture. Add two ovals: the head and the trunk of the dog. And a line to mark the center of the head.
Step 2. Circle the ovals to shape the head and body of the dog, and draw another smooth line, which is the tail.
Step 3. Add guide lines for the legs, eyes, ears and mouth.
Step 4. Draw the shape of the legs, paws, ears and jaw.
Step 5. Add details and sketch the collar guides.
Step 6. Pay attention to the lower jaw, tongue, dog collar and paws. Finish the shape of the ears and eyes.
Step 7. Look at the shape again and add details.
Step 8. Circle the outline, controlling the thickness and saturation of the lines.


Our Stands are Backed by a 3-Year Warranty.
Gator Frameworks is dedicated to producing the highest quality stands and accessories. We back up that commitment with a 3 year Warranty on any manufacturing defects in material and workmanship. This warranty applies to the original owner and requires proof of purchase. Our warranty entitles the original owner repair or replacement of the product, or replacement with a comparable product of similar value and condition at our discretion. This warranty is limited to Gator Frameworks products only and excludes loss of personal property, loss of use, accidental damage, misuse, or normal wear and tear.
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Any Gator Cases products are used in a rental capacity.
Procedure for Warranty Claim Resolution-Warranty Claimants will be required to provide a copy of their original receipt as proof of purchase along with photos of the defect. Defective items will be returned to the nearest Gator Cases Service Center. All inbound shipping will be the customer's responsibility including, but not limited to, the cost of packaging, shipping and applicable taxes. Upon receipt, your product will be inspected by one of our Gator Cases Service Technicians. The Service Technician will determine whether or not the problem is covered by Gator's warranty. Assuming the warranty applies, the customer will be notified as to whether the Gator Cases Product will be repaired or replaced. Replacement product will be of equal, or better condition compared to the customer' product. Any such repair or replacement will be at Gator's sole expense, including any costs required to return the repaired or replacement product. If the Product must be replaced and the product is no longer available (within one year of its discontinuation) Gator Cases will substitute the defective item for a comparable Gator product. If it is deemed that the warranty does not apply due to the exclusions listed above, the customer will be contacted by Gator Cases to determine an appropriate resolution.
This warranty is subject to change and can be modified at Gator Cases Inc. discretion.


This spacious apartment on the 5th floor of a prestigious residence with a beautiful view of the sea. All 5 rooms of which 3 bedrooms, are equipped with panoramic windows that connects the whole of the interior elegance with a charming view of the Cap d'Antibes.
Air Conditioning System, Double glazing, Electric blinds, alarm system, electronic lock, Janitor.
Near Bus Stop, City Centre, cinemas, shops, schools (primary) school, railway station, bus station, train station TGV, Sea, Beach, Port.


text:
Home BURGUNDY & PROVENCE WITH PARIS AND NICE (WINE APPRECIATION)
BURGUNDY & PROVENCE WITH PARIS AND NICE (WINE APPRECIATION)
With paris and nice (wine appreciation) extension
Tour: WJLYW PARIS NICE
Take a delightful river cruise through France along the Rhône and Saône Rivers with guided sightseeing in well-known French treasures and some hidden gems too!
This French river cruise adventure begins in style with two overnights in Paris—one of the world's most romantic and vibrant cities! See the landmarks of the "City of Light", including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre Museum with its elegant glass pyramid contrasting its ancient architecture. A Master of Wine will accompany you on your French river cruise with presentations, tastings, and wine pairings along the way.
Board your Avalon Suite Ship on the Saône in St Jean de Losne, and cruise to Mâcon for an excursion to a Chardonnay wine cellar. Take in the beautiful countryside, quaint villages and towns, as you sail through the most captivating views of France. Visit Lyon, France's gastronomic capital, founded by the Romans in 43 BC, which sits at the junction of the Rhône and Saône Rivers, and is a showcase of medieval and Renaissance architecture. See the popular Place des Terreaux with its lively cafés and monuments, and stand in front of the famous fountain seen on postcards. Take a culinary walk and enjoy a tour to Beaujolais, in the famous wine region. Beautifully nestled among vineyards, is the city of Tournon a medieval treasure with plenty of Roman ruins and a fascinating 16th-century castle. Enjoy a guided walk with a wine-and-chocolate tasting or a walk in the vineyards. Continue your river cruise through France to historical Avignon and see the 14th-century Palace of the Popes—the largest Gothic fortress in the world– and take a guided tour to Châteauneuf du Pape. Enjoy your last two nights in captivating Nice on the French Riviera. Relax along the remarkably blue water of the Mediterranean Sea—a perfect ending to this once-in-a-lifetime European river cruise!
Please note: Itinerary is based on 2022 and is subject to change. Full details will be confirmed in 2022.
*Price per person, based on Twin occupancy for 29 October 2023 departure


text:
Q: Solve in integers Solve in integers

$2^x = y^2 + 1$

So, functions are generally different. And we can see that $x,y = (1,1),(1,-1),(0,0)$

A: Clearly $y$ is odd  for $x\ge1$
and $x\ge0$ to keep $y$ an integer
So, $y^2\equiv1\pmod4$
Now $2^x-1\equiv-1\not\equiv1\pmod4$ for $x\ge2$

A: Modulo $4$, $y^2\equiv0 $ or $1$, so $y^2+1\equiv 1$ or $2$.
But for $x\ge2$, $2^x\equiv 0\pmod 4$.
So if $2^x= y^2+1$ then $x<2$.
Can you take it from here?

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