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Browse: Home / CITIZEN KANE: T for Technique and T for Tragedy
CITIZEN KANE: T for Technique and T for Tragedy
Posted By Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott	on November 18, 2020 in Features | Leave a response
Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made, but it's not the greatest movie Orson Welles ever made. In his lifetime, he described the movie as a millstone around his neck. No one could ever appreciate anything else he made because it was always held to that impossible standard. With some distance and critical reappraisal behind us, now we can see that he never really failed to live up to the promise of Citizen Kane. If anything, he surpassed it. Kane reinvented filmmaking, but it looks downright tame compared to later movies like Macbeth and The Trial. Welles never stopped blazing trails. The rest of the world just stopped following him.
But that shouldn't diminish what he did his first time out. In many ways, Citizen Kane was only possible because it was his first time out. Welles has said that coming from theater and radio, he didn't know what film could and couldn't do. He didn't set out to do the impossible. He just never realized it was impossible. He also says that's why cinematographer Gregg Toland volunteered to shoot the film. Toland was itching for chances to do something new, and he knew that working with an amateur would give him that chance.
And even if it isn't as raggedly experimental as those later, cheaper films, Citizen Kane still looks like something new even seventy years later. Like Sunil, I don't have any illusions there's anything new to say about it after all that time. And I think reading through what everyone's already said would just intimidate me from doing what I've signed on to do. Like Welles, I'm an amateur, and I can only hope that lets me do something as fresh as he did.
And anyway, Kane is so rich it's hard to imagine every startling moment has been covered as well as it deserves, even in all those shelves' worth of books. What about that match cut from the photo of the Chronicle staff to the flesh-and-blood Inquirer staff? What about the flashing lights and shadows coming from the newsreel editor's body as he blocks the window?
So much of what startled audiences at the time seems mundane after decades of imitation. It pioneered deep focus (where both the foreground and background are clearly visible) but that's become so standardized we're more likely to notice its absence than its presence. And yet…that scene of Joseph Cotten as Jed Leland walking across the long hall to see Kane at his typewriter (actually two shots composited together) is still dizzying.
Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper bafflingly dismissed the photography as "old-fashioned" at the premiere. That's hard to imagine, but maybe there's some truth to it. After all, the difficulty of adjusting to sound had made the movies of the past decade less daring than their silent predecessors. And like all of Welles' best films, Citizen Kane sits in the (figurative and literal) long shadow of German Expressionism — he insisted on watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the set. Maybe trying to do something new was old-fashioned in 1941.
And then there's the special effects. We wouldn't think of such an alien-and-explosion-free movie as an effects showcase, but that's only because the revolutionary aging prosthetics are so seamless they don't look like effects at all. Then again, the actors do most of the work here. Joseph Cotten's voice and body language make him almost unrecognizable, or at least no more recognizable than he needs to be, as the old Jed Leland in the framing sequence. And Welles moves just as laboriously at 25 as he really would have if he were 70. Tommy Wiseau's attempt in The Room to recreate Welles' iconic scene of Kane trashing Susan's bedroom has been mocked for how slow and nonchalant his "outburst" is. But Welles' version isn't so different, because Kane's body is too old to rage like his mind wants to. At one point, he's out of breath, and you really believe it.
When I signed up to write about Citizen Kane, I was planning to keep going for the whole time just like that. I still had the idea of saying something new, and I thought that since I had written twice about Welles' later films, putting Kane in the context of his filmmaking technique was the way to do it. I wanted to get away from the story with all its Big, Important Ideas and all that endless argument over who really wrote it. (And God, um, bless David Fincher for relighting that fire with Mank.) I had this idea that it was all irrelevant, because the script didn't make Kane Kane, Welles' direction did.
But as I actually sat down to watch the darned thing, I didn't find too many images that hadn't already been dissected to death. And that Big, Important Story, whoever wrote it, sucked me in.
I really wanted to avoid Rosebud. Everybody knows about Rosebud. Even Welles dismissed it as a "gimmick" (and he had no trouble giving Mank credit for that.) Jorge Luis Borges, in his past life as a film critic, was even harsher. "Citizen Kane (called The Citizen in Argentina) has at least two plots. The first, pointlessly banal, attempts to milk applause from dimwits: a vain millionaire collects statues, gardens, palaces, swimming pools, diamonds, cars, libraries, man and women….At the point of death, he yearns for one single thing in the universe, the humble sled he played with as a child!" (Spoilers, dude.) How am I supposed to argue with Borges?
And yet. And yet. Rosebud turned out to not be quite as banal as I thought. It's not just "a symbol of lost youth and innocence" like the Simpsons parody called it. Little Charlie Kane wasn't just happily playing with it when Thatcher came to take him away. He actually attacks Thatcher with it. Wealth and fame aren't just passively unsatisfying to Kane. He actively resents them. And that matches up with the rest of what we see in Thatcher's story, where Kane spends himself into the poorhouse trying to keep a failing newspaper afloat and uses it to attack his mentor every chance he gets. You don't have to be Freud to see daddy issues are at play.
But Kane's politics don't progress past adolescent rebellion. Now that I've run in more leftist circles since the last time I saw Kane, some of the policies he advocates start to sound familiar. But after Kane loses the election, Leland gives the most stinging critique of affluent liberalism I've ever seen out of Hollywood:
You used to write an awful lot about the working man. He's turning into something called organized labor. You're not going to like that one little bit when you find out it means that your working man expects something as his right, not as your gift! Charlie, when your precious underprivileged really get together, oh boy! That's going to add up to something bigger than your privileges! Then I don't know what you'll do! Sail away to a desert island probably and lord it over the monkeys!
In other words, Kane's just another Thatcher.
And whatever Linus may think, knowing the answer to that question that poor reporter keeps going nowhere asking enhances your understanding of the film. It's no coincidence that Kane meets Susan Alexander on his way to the warehouse to look through his late mother's things — that is, to look for Rosebud. She's his way out of the hole Thatcher dug for him. Their first night together doesn't play nearly as sleazy or seductive as it sounds on paper. That scene of them sitting on the couch playing shadow puppets is the only moment of true tenderness in the movie, maybe the tenderest Welles ever created. And you'll notice how important it is she doesn't know who he is or all the hollow success he's gained.
But just like with his political career, this escape attempt fails, maybe even more spectacularly. Kane thought Susan could be his Rosebud, but instead he becomes her Thatcher. If there's anything new to say about Citizen Kane, it's not about the tragedy of the great man, but the tragedy of the ordinary woman it contains inside it. She loses as much as he does, almost losing her life in a suicide attempt. (And isn't that a great scene that still hasn't been talked to death — the frantic, anxiety-inducing montage of the horrible frenzy of her opera career with that almost abstract recurring image of the stage light, finally fading out as the electronics relaying her voice to us wind down and die?)
And Kane loses her love because he's too Thatcherish to remember why he loved her to begin with. Instead of breaking the cycle, he starts it all over again, forcing her into a career she doesn't want and can't sustain because he's too saturated in his pride and class to let himself be married to an ordinary woman even though that's exactly what he really wants.
(The conventional wisdom is that this is all a thinly-veiled version of William Randolph Hearst's lover Marion Davies and her Hollywood career. Welles, a great admirer of Davies, vehemently denied it. And when you know that one of Hearst's contemporaries actually did build his wife an opera house, that interpretation seems much less likely. Either way, Welles has a lot more sympathy for Susan than he's often given credit for.)
In a way, Susan's story isn't a tragedy because she finds the strength to escape. Kane is the ultimate capitalist, who sees everything as personal property, even human beings. But she goes up to the most powerful man in the world and defies him, and there's nothing he can do to stop her.
But waiting for that moment can be excruciating. That's where Welles' technique comes back in. Kane is famous for its ceilings, Welles and Toland's use of unprecedented camera angles making them visible for the first time on film. They all look abnormally low or abnormally high, making characters larger than life or making the buildings themselves expressionistically enormous. Xanadu is the latter. Kane and Alexander try to hold conversations from opposite sides of the stadium-sized space, the sound design beautifully emphasizing its cavernous atmosphere. More of that "agoraphobic horror" Welles would bring to The Trial.
It's the famous earlier scene of Kane and his first wife at breakfast, going from a small, cozy kitchen to opposite sides of an enormous dining room, exaggerated past the point of literal reality. It's that sense of barriers Kane puts up, that even now that we have the skeleton key he'll never let us really know him, that echoes across the film. Before those famous dissolve shots towards Xanadu, the film opens with an almost abstract collage of different fences, from chain-link to chicken-wire to wrought-iron. And we see it again in that wonderful scene from the fake newsreel, simulating furtive footage of the elderly Kane shot through the fence or by a cameraman hiding in a tree. Maybe that's why there's still so much to say about Citizen Kane after all these years. In a time when Hollywood films were designed to be as simple and direct as possible, Kane is hidden behind layers of secrecy that we're still pulling back.
Posted in Features | Tagged 1941, BurgundySuit, Citizen Kane, Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, year of the month
Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
Sam is a features writer for Looper and studied writing under Kevin Wilson at Sewanee: the University of the South. He's been a staff writer for The Solute since its launch in 2014 and editor of the Year of the Month series since 2017.
I don't know how to put this, but he's kind of a big deal. He has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of rich mahogany.
Now on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/user/creators?u=23744950
Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of July 1996→
Year of the Month: Adriano Ferreira on TIDAL→
Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of June 1996→
Year Of The Month: Miller on ELECTRICLARRYLAND→


Aquatic therapy or pool therapy consists of an exercise program that is performed in the water. It is a beneficial form of therapy that is useful for a variety of medical conditions. Aquatic therapy uses the physical properties of water to assist in patient healing and exercise performance. One benefit of aquatic therapy is the buoyancy provided by the water to support body weight. This decreases the amount of weight bearing and therefore reduces the force of stress placed on the muscles, joints and bones. By decreasing the amount of stress on the body it is easier and less painful to perform exercises.


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Download the 5-Minute Multi-Channel Nurturing Primer and get started nurturing leads today.


Tabular and Power Pivot are starting to become more and more common place in organizations, but that doesn't mean it's always the clear (or right) choice. Tabular does have some limitations that can seem like a deal breaker when deciding between Tabular and Multidimensional. Brad explores some of the most common limitations in tabular and goes step by step on how to make each work with your model. Do you need a role-playing dimension, many to many relationships, composite keys or dynamic security? If so join Brad in this demo filled session and learn how to make all of these possible in your Tabular or Power Pivot models!
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Q: How to properly display records in a modal in React I am working with Atlassian Jira Storage API via react.
In the code below, I have successfully retrieved records from the Storage API.
Here is my issue. I want to display record fullname and email in a modal popup when a View Record button attached to each record is clicked.
I have tried displaying it in modal as per below but could not get it to work. When the modal pops up, fullname and email is not displayed on modal when clicked. How can I debug this?
Modal implementation:
          {isOpen && (
        <ModalDialog header="" onClose={() => setOpen (false)}>
          <Text>Display Records in Modal!</Text>

Fullname: {record.fullname}

Email: {record.email}

<Text>Pass Records also in a Form</Text>
<TextField name="fullname" label="Your Fullname" defaultValue={record.fullname}/>
<TextField name="email" label="Your Email" defaultValue={record.email}/>

        </ModalDialog>
      )}

Here is my effort so far:
//import ForgeUI, { render, Fragment,ModalDialog, Text, IssuePanel,Button, useState, Component, useEffect, Form, TextField, Heading, Table, Head, Row, Cell, rowsPerPage} from "@forge/ui";

  const fetchData = async () => {

// make api call
//const data = await storage.query().where('key', startsWith('my_keys')).getMany();
//console.log(`display record data: ${data}`);
//return data;

//or

const records = [
  {
    fullname: 'James Cool',
    email: 'james@gmail.com',
  },
  {
    fullname: 'Richard More',
    email: 'richard@gmail.com',
  },
];

 };

const App = () => {

const [ records ] = useState(fetchData);
fetchData();

// initialize Modal
const [isOpen, setOpen] = useState(false);

async function setData(fullname, email) {

    const fullname = fullname;
    const email = email;

};

  return (
    <Fragment>
    <Heading size="medium">Display Records</Heading>

      <Cell>
        <Text>Fullname</Text>
      </Cell>
      <Cell>
        <Text>Email</Text>
      </Cell>

  <Cell>
        <Text>Action</Text>
      </Cell>

    {records.map(record => (
      <Row>
        <Cell>
          <Text>{record.fullname}</Text>
        </Cell>
        <Cell>
          <Text>{record.email}</Text>
        </Cell>

        <Cell>
        <Button text="View Records" onClick={async () => { await setData(record.fullname, record.email); setOpen(true); }}
        onClick={() => setOpen(true)} />

        </Cell>

      </Row>
    ))}

          {isOpen && (
        <ModalDialog header="" onClose={() => setOpen (false)}>

          <Text>Display Records in Modal!</Text>

Fullname: {record.fullname}

Email: {record.email}

<Text>Pass Records also in a Form</Text>

<TextField name="fullname" label="Your Fullname" defaultValue={record.fullname}/>

<TextField name="email" label="Your Email" defaultValue={record.email}/>

        </ModalDialog>
      )}

    </Fragment>
  );
};

export const run = render(
  <Macro
    app={<App />}
  />
);

A: As fetchData is an async function, it's going to return a promise, which we could save its resolved value in a state.
const [ records,setRecords ] = useState([]);

useEffect(()=>{
               fetchData().then(records=>setRecords[records])
          },[])

Next I suggest you define a new state that keeps a single record to be shown in the modal.
    const [ selectedRecord,setSelectedRecord ] = useState({});

In return of the component, you do something like this:
   {records.map(record=><button onClick={()=>handleClick(record)}>Open Modal!</button>} // or any other way you render records

And handleClick being:
const handleClick=(record)=>{
         setSelectedRecord(record)
         setOpen(true) // or any other login by which you open modal

Finally, inside the Modal:
              {isOpen && (
        <ModalDialog header="" onClose={() => setOpen (false)}>
          <Text>Display Records in Modal!</Text>

Fullname: {selectedRecord.fullname}

Email: {selectedRecord.email}

<Text>Pass Records also in a Form</Text>
<TextField name="fullname" label="Your Fullname" defaultValue={selectedRecord.fullname}/>
<TextField name="email" label="Your Email" defaultValue={selectedRecord.email}/>

        </ModalDialog>
      )}

Things that are wrong in your code
Passing a function definition(fetchData) is going to do absolutely nothing for you.
Also fetchData is async, so its return value is a promise.
Also simply calling fetchData doesn't have any effect in your component.
const [ records ] = useState(fetchData);
fetchData();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


DALLAS - Dallas city leaders on Monday discussed what, if anything, will replace a juvenile curfew ordinance that expires this week.
The current curfew has been in place since 1991. It prohibits children under the age of 16 from going outside without an adult after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. On the weekends they cannot be out past midnight.
Critics say it unfairly targets minorities and underprivileged kids. But the Dallas Police Association defends the ordinance, saying it curbs crime and keeps kids safe.
"I think the last thing we need is young juveniles running the streets at 3 a.m.," said DPA President Mike Mata.
The juvenile curfew was put in place in 1991 when teen crime was on the rise in Dallas.
Longtime community activist Edna Pemberton helped put it together and she supports having a new and improved ordinance.
"We don't want to lose another young person, that's our goal," she told the committee.
Under the soon-to-expire curfew, police officers can charge juveniles with a Class C misdemeanor, which includes a fine.
But several councilmembers say the curfew is unfair to minorities and Dallas police officials said a new curfew would need to be revised and updated from its original version.
"We just want to make sure that we are approaching this a little differently," said DPD Chief Renee Hall while speaking to the City's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee on Monday.
If council votes on a new curfew -- after input from the community -- DPD wants to decriminalize violators. It would offer them written warnings and access to community services.
"We can have a better ordinance where we can not only engage youth out during the hours of the curfew, but provide them some options and get them help rather than write them a citation with a fine," said DPD Assistant Chief David Pughes.
Two public hearings are expected to be held in February. Members of the community can give the board their option on a possible new curfew. The city council could also opt to not put anything new in place, as well.
"With these town hall meetings were going to find out what's really going on and how can we help," said councilman Tennell Atkins.


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Wellsensing
Wellknowing
Peace Room
WordImage
Humanity Appeal
Whirlpool of Emotions.
Poet Clive Wilmer interviewed by Gil Dekel.
Gil Dekel: Hello, Clive… [1]
Clive Wilmer: Nice to meet you, Gil, at last… [2]
I wasn't sure if this is Cambridge Central Station, because it looks so 'open'; quite wide… [3]
Yes, it's an unusual lay-out here. This part of England is very flat, like Holland… [4]
In The Mystery of Things, your recent book, there are quite a few references to religion, using such words as God, Lord, Angels. [5]
I suppose if I am absolutely frank about it I would have to describe myself as a Christian. But I don't like having to too much, because I feel that I belong to a broader view of the spiritual realm. I don't mean that Christianity in itself is not broad, but I would not want to associate myself with a parochial view of the spiritual. Religion is fundamental to what I write, yet my religious convictions have not been consistent throughout my life. I have been through lots of different periods, including a period of atheism. Even in the period of atheism, religion provided the main symbolic system of my poetry, which I never lost. So it is a question of how fully you incorporate that symbolism into your life. Whether it's just a convenient system, or whether it's something that you profoundly believe in. And I think there are different degrees of commitment to that kind of system. I have been interested in other religions. I am not exclusively Christian. [6]
Have you also practised Buddhism? [7]
The Buddhism in The Mystery of Things was to do with somebody I was emotionally involved with at that time. [8]
Can I ask about the painting you chose for your book cover? [9]
Yes. It's The Resurrection by Piero della Francesca. It is possible to understand it in several ways. Obviously it is a Christian painting showing Jesus with the stigmata, but it also has a relation to Paganism. It wonderfully combines – as I try to do in my poetry – the spiritual and the physical. This is why the book is called The Mystery of Things. The painter, Piero della Francesca, gives a sense of the substantiality of the body, and yet he is a profoundly spiritual painter. I am interested in the way that the spirit communicates through things. In a way, the things are all we need; we don't need more than the things. What we call the spiritual – in the book I call it 'ghostliness' – seems to me to be in things. That is where I start from. So Christianity, for instance, is very profoundly a religion of the body. It is about the resurrection of Christ; about the death and resurrection in bodily form of a human being. [10]
Would you see the story of the resurrection as a triumph of the body? [11]
I suppose one would have to say it is primarily a triumph of the soul. But it is a triumph of the soul in the body. I don't really want to separate the two. For instance, the spiritual aspect of love cannot be separated from the physical aspect of love. At the same time I think they are different dimensions. [12]
Do you see the physical things as having a soul within them? [13]
In a way, yes… Can I come at it at a slightly different angle? I am very suspicious of any view of life which tries to devalue the importance of matter. It makes me a little anxious about the very word spirituality, because it is sometimes associated with people who try to suggest that what happens in our bodies is not important; that things are mere things. To me things are what I love much of the time. A picture, like this painting for my book cover, is a thing; it is made out of paint and wood. My furniture: these are things that were owned by my parents and my grandparents, and so they have a human connection for me. Food is a thing, but it's also what I need to nourish me, to make me fit and healthy and even happy. All those things are terribly important. [14]
Do things inspire you to write poetry? How would you start to write a poem? [15]
It varies a great deal. Sometimes a poem may take many years to happen. I might have the idea but the poem doesn't happen for – in one case I can think of – twenty years… At other times, you know, we may finish this conversation, I may think of something, and I may write it down, and have a poem. Very often I know that a particular body of subject matter is going to produce a poem. At other times it would be a word or a phrase or a line or even a rhythm or something like that, which would produce the poem. Let's take my poem Stigmata as an example. The poem is based on an analogy between the pain we suffer when love goes wrong and the pain of the Crucifixion: by extension, the suffering of God through the evil of human beings. That's an analogy. I was familiar with that analogy from other writers; it's not an original comparison. But I began to think about that analogy in relation to the situation I was in at the time. After a while I began to see that there was a poem in it. So I spent a lot of time reflecting on that analogy, and then quite out of the blue some lines came to me. The very first line of that poem was spoken to me by somebody else in a conversation, and I saw the words he used as a way into a poem. To me it is very important that a poem is a thing made out of words, just as a painting is a thing made out of paint. So I need words in order to make a poem. A painter can have an idea but he cannot do anything with it until he has a brush, paints, a piece of wood. Similarly, I need to have words, which are much less obviously physical, but still belonging to the human body. We speak with the breath, and the mechanism of the throat. The language that we have is not something that we have invented out of nothing; it is something that we share with other people. For me, words have a substantial presence, just as a painter's materials do for him. [16]
So, words are your tool to express something, but what is it that you express? [17]
Well, I'm not sure I'd even go as far as that, because I'm not sure I can separate words from the things they express. But perhaps the simplest way I can explain it is with the titles of my main collections of poetry: The Dwelling-Place, Devotions, Of Earthly Paradise, and the most recent, The Mystery of Things. These are all titles about being in the world, and about the attachments that we feel to things in the world; things including, of course, people. The world is mysterious, paradisiacal, a dwelling place where we live, and we feel devotion, attachment to it. [18]
One has to have a critical, analytical structure in language, and yet poetry can describe something quite different – the abstract. How do poets do it? [19]
Ezra Pound was interested in comparing poetry to other arts. He was particularly interested in comparing poetry to sculpture. If you are a sculptor, particularly if you are using stone, the creation of a work of art is an engagement between the artist and an object that already exists in the world, the piece of stone. It is a kind of struggle, a battle. But the heart of the work of art is already there. You need the artist to make it a work of art, but he is making a work of art out of something. That's what I think of poetry as being. We are making a work of art out of language. Language after all belongs to the race; it is not a private thing. Language already includes meanings. So when you talk about an analytical process in words, that analytical quality is already there in the words. Even when you are a child and you are using words, you are using them critically. Words are not private property; they are out there in the world. You manipulate their meanings, and discover meanings that you hadn't necessarily anticipated. You say things which you didn't necessarily mean to say, because the words say them. It is more than just you. When I write a poem it is recognisable as my poem, yet the poem is not just me. My poems are in language, and in a way language is already an art, a communal, collaborative one. When human beings speak, they are creating something. You and I sitting here, talking; this is a miracle. And even more than that, you, Gil, speak another language, Hebrew, and we can talk here in English. And somewhere in English, there is also what English has taken from Hebrew, after all. There are Hebrew words in English, and there is a cultural heritage. So, it is a very rich matter that we create as human beings. [20]
You write about angels in your poems, I believe one is Gabriel, which in Hebrew means the strong hand of God. [21]
It is interesting that you picked that one because my son's name is Gabriel… [22]
Your poem In The Library ends with the beautiful metaphor of words wanting to be read into the reader. [23]
That poem is very simple in a way: about a girl reading in a library, and rather consciously ignoring me… and I want to be like the words she is attending to. That poem is a good example of what we were saying earlier about the spiritual and the physical and whether words are things or not. That poem is an image of this. It has an erotic dimension to it and also a very spiritual dimension, the absorption of language. I can tell you that this poem's image fits rather nicely with what I am saying here, but the poem is entirely accidental. I wrote it quite quickly; it was provoked by a particular day, a particular incident on a particular day. [24]
Do you also write about things that are not triggered by events, things that come from somewhere else? [25]
What would somewhere else be? [26]
I am thinking here of the qualities of inspiration itself. For example, a few people can sit and watch the same movie, yet only the poet among them is inspired to write about something that all the others may have seen but perhaps not noticed. [27]
Let's take the poem Bottom's Dream. This poem doesn't have an obvious source event. Of course, when you've written a poem like that, you go on to discover that all kinds of events have gone into it unconsciously. But it didn't originate in an event. [28]
Bottom's Dream is about Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was asked by the editor of Around the Globe, the house magazine of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, to write a poem, and the only requirement was that the poem had to have something to do with Shakespeare. The name Shakespeare covers almost the whole of my life. I first encountered Shakespeare when I was eight or nine… When I was nineteen I acted in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I played the part of Peter Quince, who is a carpenter, and who writes the ridiculous play with which A Midsummer Night's Dream ends. He has this complicated relationship with Bottom, the main comic character. Bottom says: 'I will get Peter Quince to write me a ballad of this dream.' It is very characteristic of Shakespeare that this never actually happens; there are always loose ends in Shakespeare – things left unresolved at the conclusion. [29]
So, we played that production for quite a few nights. Every night I sat there listening to these lines, and I thought, 'I want to be a poet, I am Peter Quince, I should write this poem!' I even started to write it, but I was probably too young. So nearly forty years later, I got this commission from the Globe and sat down and wrote Bottom's Dream. And it is one of the key poems of my work. But I had no way of knowing that that would happen, because all I was doing was answering the commission. Is that what you meant? [30]
I guess I mean: how do words come to the poet? [31]
Well, maybe we can look at another poem with a Shakespearean title: Much Ado About Nothing. This is a much more abstract poem. It came about from my work as a teacher. I seem very often to teach that the word 'nothing' is a very rich and complex one. You think of it as just a negation, but it's actually enormously significant. Just think of how it occurs in a sentence. In English you can say, 'I don't know anything,' and you can also say, 'I know nothing.' Saying 'I know nothing' is a little like saying 'I know a thing which is called nothing.' Nothing is something… that paradox fascinates me. It is a paradox that Shakespeare plays with a tremendous amount. The pronunciation of nothing in Shakespeare's time was probably more like 'noting'. 'Noting' means to observe, to take note of, but it also has a sexual connotation. 'Naught' meant both zero and vagina, so 'naughting' – not very different from 'noting' – could mean having sexual intercourse. [32]
I am interested in the way that a word which appears to be of no particular significance can produce all these meanings. So, this poem came out of the fact that I was teaching these things… [33]
What do you think characterises the poet compared with other types of writer? [34]
I suppose there are certain things you need as a poet. Obviously you need to be fascinated by language, but that is not enough. While you are in love with language, you also have to be in love with what is beyond language. Language is, in a sense, an attempt to take possession of the world. A lot of what I write is an attempt to take hold of what I love but can't really have. What is beyond me. The poem about the girl in the library is a good example: it is about desire for something beautiful and unattainable. [35]
When my mother died I went with my sister to my mother's house to dispose of my mother's property, and we realised there was a danger of quarrelling over the possession of things because we knew we would want the same things… So, we made a deal: if one of us said, 'I want that,' then the other one wouldn't disagree. And it worked, surprisingly. In the kitchen there was a table which we both very much associated with our mother. The kitchen was her kingdom, but the table was a very ordinary working table. Anyway, my sister said, 'I want the kitchen table,' and so she got it. The next day I got on my bicycle to go to the school where I worked and, by the time I got to school, I already had this poem in my head, The Kitchen Table. It was unconscious; I didn't think I was going to write about the table. The poem is an attempt to take possession of the table. I hadn't been able to have the table, so my poem got the table, and there it is permanent. I now feel I have the table. It isn't just the table, but also the spirit of my mother in the table. I really feel I have it now. In a way, it is better than having the table. If I'd had the table, I don't think I'd have written the poem… [36]
Imagine all the poems that you don't write because you already have the things… [37]
That's right… There is a paradox about poetry which pleases me a lot. Poems are in language so they exist in time; language is temporal. You only understand what I am saying now by listening to me over a period of time. You don't know what point I am trying to make until I get to the end of the sentence. Therefore, the whole business of appreciating language is temporal. You read a poem, and it takes you a period of time to read it. But a poem is also a thing, it is a kind of monument. It has a shape on the page. You can look at the page and it always looks the same. Every time I open these pages, there the poem is, printed, still there, as if there was no such thing as time. The language that I am speaking now has gone as soon as I've spoken it. The poem is stable, monumental and fixed, and it will outlive me; and at the same time the process of reading it is dynamic, engaging in time. [38]
Why do you write poetry? [39]
Writing is at such a deep level of your personality that I think you can't really know what it is that makes you write. Often you write your best poems when you feel least engaged by the matter, and that's very odd. I think that in order for a poem to happen, we need to put a part of ourselves asleep. Then something else in the mind can start working. I often find that the best poems I write come about when for some reason part of my mind is occupied with other matters, such as riding my bicycle to work. It is very mysterious. Take the technical aspect of poetry; needing to give a poem a form – for instance, to make it rhyme. Why do we make things rhyme? It seems to me that rhyme does the job of occupying the mind, it takes care of the part of the mind that is good at playing chess, or doing crossword puzzles… The mind is occupied by that. It is effective then in enabling insight. [40]
What is the connection between words and images? [41]
There are some words that are not images, such as the function words: a, the, is. You can have a word without an image but you cannot have an image without a word attached to it. Function words do not represent anything. There is also the sound of words, which is independent of what they signify. Of course the sound tends to get associated imaginatively and emotionally with the significance. Nevertheless, the sound is independent. [42]
What about nonsense poetry? [43]
Well, they do have something we can imagine in them. But could you imagine making a poem that was entirely nonsensical, made up of words which just fitted together syntactically? It wouldn't be a poem, though it could be verse – you could fulfil the obvious technical requirements of a poem with gibberish. [44]
When I asked John Hegley he suggested that poetry does not necessarily have to be communicative. [45]
Poetry is inherent in language, so all language is potential poetry. Language as we speak it has all the characteristics of poetry: rhythm, music, richness of meaning, analytical and critical qualities. By being a poet one is foregrounding what is already in language. One is trying to take the potential of the language and make it manifest. [46]
What about emotion? Is it part of poetry? [47]
Yes. [48]
Is it part of language? [49]
Yes. Words are loaded with emotions. There are words that appear not to have any emotion in them. I am not sure that the word 'camera', for instance, comes to me with any emotion. Perhaps it does to you since you create films using cameras. [50]
What about words which come out of emotion, not necessarily words that carry emotion? [51]
If you use the word 'desire', you name the emotion, but it is unlikely that you are going to generate it in the reader's mind. That's the problem with abstraction. You have to generate the emotion through other words, which call upon the reader's experience. 'I am very angry today' is not a moving sentence. It is much more powerful to say, 'There is always something more important than trees' (to quote from my poem The Apple Trees), than to say, 'I am very angry about cutting those trees down.' [52]
The poet has to choose the right words to communicate emotions. [53]
Yes, because communication is not inherently poetry. Communication is practical, you have a message to deliver. The message is in the words. When you receive a parcel in the post with a present inside, you discard the wrapping. The words are the wrapping within which the message comes. You don't pay much attention to the words in communication. In poetry you do pay attention to the words. In the sense of just communicating a message… I think that is not what poetry is about. [54]
The poet and critic Donald Davie says that there is a misunderstanding about poetry. Poetry is not about addressing the audience, but about addressing the subject. The poet thinks about the subject, writes about the subject, and should not pay too much attention to the reader. The reader is not there to be talked to, the reader is there to hear the poet talking about the subject. The reader is listening. Poems which depend on a relationship with the reader become merely rhetorical. They become ways of moving the reader, deliberately trying to get to the reader's emotion. That is not how poetry should work. The reader should be moved by the poem just as the poet was moved by the experience that went into it. Not because somebody set out to move the reader, but because there is something intrinsic in the experience that is going to get to the reader. [55]
An intrinsic essence in experiences? [56]
Yes. The 19th century poet Robert Browning was notoriously obscure. Somebody wrote to him saying his poetry was interesting but why could it not be easier to understand his meaning? Browning replied that the poet's business was with God, not with the reader. I think he meant that the poet had a duty to what exists, to the nature of reality, and the reader's business was to listen if he wished to. The poet's duty is to what happens. The analogy would be if you went to the cinema and the characters in the film didn't talk to each other but talked to the audience instead. What you want is the characters talking to one another, and the audience listening to them. You understand what the film means not from what they tell you, but from appreciating the whole situation. [57]
» More interviews with artists…
22 July 2008. (c) Gil Dekel.
Interview held in Cambridge UK, April 2006 and via email correspondence July 2008. Clive on Carcanet website
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Music at St. Mary's is a vital component of our 10 am Sunday service as it not only enriches, but also illuminates our worship experience. The weekly selections are relevant to the liturgical season and are built around the talents of our choir and our magnificent Austin pipe organ. Our music is drawn primarily from the 1982 Hymnal. In addition to the organ, we have two Steinway pianos, a grand in the Nave and an upright in the choir room, as well as a six bell English Carillon to enhance this ministry.
Please see below for more information about the music ministries at St. Mary's. We are currently searching for our next Organist & Choirmaster. Click here to view and download the position description.
Our Adult Choir is comprised of four section leaders and additional volunteer members. The choir sings weekly from September through June, singing the anthems and leading the hymns for the congregation. They perform in a range of styles, from a cappella solos to choral works with organ, piano or even stringed accompaniment. During the summer months, the weekly music is led by one of our section leaders, performing solos, or other invited vocalists or instrumentalists. The Adult Choir also sings at special services throughout the year, most notably during Christmas and Lent, and participates in the annual Twelfth Night Benefit Concert for EpiscoBuild/Habitat for Humanity, one of our local Outreach projects.
Additionally, St. Mary's hosts several special concerts and recitals throughout the year. Our Christmas Eve and Easter services over the past few years have showcased superb string quartets and brass ensembles. These performances are funded in large part through special holiday offerings from parishioners. We have also hosted external piano and organ recitals at the church as well as The Rockland County Orchestra/Band.


2018 has lots in store for us at Borealis, and we are excited to share the ways we are growing and developing both our grantmaking, and our team.
The Racial Equity in Philanthropy (REP) Fund: The REP fund will support philanthropy serving organizations in centering intersectional racial equity within their institutions and broader spheres of influence.
Racial equity in non-profits fund: Through this fund, we will support capacity-building efforts to address issues of racial equity within the non-profit sector.
Community advocacy bail reform fund: This fund will support state-based and local community-led efforts to end cash bail.
Stay tuned for more information about each of these funds!
Of course, embarking on these new initiatives is only possible because of the powerful and strong foundation built by our existing funds and grantees, and thanks to the strength of our team.
Racial Equity Initiatives— Marcus Walton, former Chief Operating Officer of ABFE, will join Borealis as our Director of Racial Equity Initiatives, leading our work to advance intersectional racial equity in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. Kristell Caballero Saucedo will join him in those efforts as our Senior Program Associate. Both Marcus and Kristell begin their new roles with Borealis in March.
Immigration Initiatives—Heidi Dorow, who joined our team in 2017 to lead the development of our Immigration Litigation Fund, will step into a new role as the Director of Immigration Initiatives, opening up new opportunities to continue our work on immigration reform.
Strengthening Our Funds— In 2017, Julia Beatty, Nichelle Brunner, Ana Conner, Aldo Gallardo, Lana Lovely, and Tashie Sloley joined our team to lead and support all the important facets of our grantmaking initiatives.
Programs and Strategy—Rickke Mananzala, who has served as our Director of Programs, has been promoted to Vice President of Strategy and Programs and will guide our strategic plan along with ongoing programmatic development and oversight.
Impact and Learning—Monona Yin, our new Director of Impact and Learning, joined the team in December 2017 and will help us measure the impact of our funds, our grantees, and Borealis more broadly.
Communications—Zaineb Mohammed, our new Communications Officer, joined Borealis in December 2017 and will work to tell the story of our funds and grantees and will work closely with Monona to communicate our impact.
Finance and Operations—In 2017, we hired Rebecca Luxenberg as our Director of Finance and Operations. Our Chief Financial Officer, Ed Kegle, has been promoted to the position of Vice President of Finance and Operations.
We are also fortunate and grateful to continue drawing on the support and expertise of our Board, who offered essential guidance to us as we grew in size and scope. In 2017, we added two new board members, Alexander Lee and Garland Yates, and in 2018, we are adding two additional board members (board-elect) Davida Arnold and Jamila Brown.
2017 was a whirlwind for us at Borealis, and 2018 is shaping up to be equally as full of change, growth, and possibility. We look forward to continuing to learn from our donors, grantees, and partners as we embark on new challenges and opportunities together.
Have you read our 2017 year in review? Look back on what our funds accomplished in 2017.


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Home » Statistics » By Themes » Prices » Consumer Price Index Malaysia December 2020
Release Date : Friday 22, January 2021 1200
Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined 1.4 per cent in December 2020 to 120.6 as against 122.3 in the same month of the preceding year. The decrease in the overall index was attributed by the decline in Transport (-8.4%); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (-3.3%); Clothing & Footwear (-0.4%); Restaurants & Hotels (-0.2%) and Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (-0.1%) which contributed 48.6 per cent to overall weight.
Nevertheless, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 1.4 per cent to 135.8 as compared to 133.9 in corresponding month of the preceding year. This group contributes 29.5 per cent of CPI weight. Similarly, Miscellaneous Goods & Services inclined by 2.2 per cent, followed by Health (1.0%), Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (0.6%), Education (0.6%) and Recreation Services & Culture (0.2%).
Although year-on-year CPI decreased, CPI on a monthly basis increased by 0.5 per cent as compared to November 2020. The increase was attributed by Transport (3.0%) and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (0.5%).
Meanwhile, CPI for the fourth quarter of 2020 decreased 1.5 per cent to 120.3 as compared to 122.1 in the same quarter of the previous year. On a quarterly basis, the CPI increased 0.2 per cent as compared to the third quarter of 2020.
The CPI for the year 2020 registered a decrease of 1.2 per cent as compared to last year.
Index for Group Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Table 1: Percentage Change for Subgroup Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages
The index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased 1.4 per cent in December 2020 as compared to the same month of the previous year. Among the subgroup that showed an increase include Vegetables (3.6%), Food products not elsewhere classified (2.4%), Meat (2.2%), Oil & fats (1.9%), Fruits (1.2%), Fish & seafood (0.9%), and Rice bread & other cereals (0.7%).
Among the index of goods which recorded year-on-year price increase in most states were Ginger (24.3%), Bird's eye chilli (17.5%), Fresh chilli red (15.6%), Fresh chilli green (12.3%) and Round cabbage (12.1%).
Meanwhile, the index for Food away from Home increased 1.6 per cent in December 2020 as against December 2019. The increase in price of Cooked beef, Burger, Cooked fish and Satay contributed to the increase of the index of this subgroup.
The index for all states decreased between -0.9 to -2.2 per cent in December 2020 as compared to December 2019. The highest decrease was recorded by Kedah & Perlis at -2.2 per cent. This was followed by Sabah & Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan (-2.0%), Johor (-2.0%), Melaka (-2.0%), Sarawak (-1.9%) and Negeri Sembilan (-1.9%).
However, all states registered an increase in the index of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages. The highest increase was recorded by Pahang at 2.3 per cent. This was followed by Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (2.2%), Perak (2.0%), Terengganu (2.0%) and Negeri Sembilan (1.7%).
The CPI without fuel fell 0.1 per cent in December 2020 to 112.8 as compared to 112.9 in the same month of the preceding year. CPI without fuel covers all goods and services except Unleaded Petrol RON95, Unleaded Petrol RON97 and Diesel.
Chart 3: Percentage Change of CPI without Fuel, Jan 2019 - December 2020
Core index rose 0.7 per cent in December 2020 as compared to the same month of the previous year. Among the major groups which influenced the increase were Miscellaneous Goods & Services (2.2%), Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (1.2%), Health (1.0%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (0.6%) and Education (0.6%).
Table 2: Percentage Change of Headline CPI, Seasonally Adjusted Index and
Core Index by Main Group
Annex 1: Average Price for Selected Items in Malaysia, December 2020 (RM)
The full publication of the Consumer Price Index Malaysia, December 2020 can be downloaded from eStatistik portal.


The American Express® Corporate Card Program is used and relied upon by the world's leading businesses as their preferred expense management solution. You can put our customised Corporate Card programmes to work for your Company, and benefit from our rewards system, services and tools.
Specifically designed to help manage your business travel expenses and entertainment expediture, the American Express Corporate Card Program can be extended to manage everyday business expenses like electricity, telecom, office supplies and more.
It's time to discover the benefits of the American Express Corporate Card Program and put it to work for your business.
1. Late payment fee shall not be charged only upon payment of full balance each month. Actual credit free period will vary based upon the date of the charge and the billing cycle cut off date.


The Garden State Watercolor Society lost a long-time Signature Member this year - Allen Taylor.
Allen was a talented artist who was loved by his family and friends alike. We have giving a memorial award in his name this year.
We will not soon forget our fellow artist.
I am so sorry to let you know of the passing of Frank Perry on November 23, 2014.
Frank will be missed greatly not just as a conscientious member of the GSWS Board, for as we all know, he was a marvelous watercolorist. Frank was always willing to help in any way that he could and his wise council for the board was something we could all count on. Frank was such a pleasant man to know and work with.


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Sen. Ted Cruz: Tax reform may not happen until early next year
Published Fri, Oct 13 20178:08 AM EDT Updated Fri, Oct 13 20179:05 AM EDT
Jacob Pramuk@jacobpramuk
Sen. Ted Cruz believes tax reform will get done "late this year or early next year."
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have set a target of the end of 2017 for passing a tax bill.
Cruz says he wants bigger tax cuts than $1.5 trillion called for in the Senate budget resolution.
Sen. Ted Cruz expects tax reform to get done "late this year or early next year" — not sticking to the hard 2017 deadline set out by top Republicans.
The Texas Republican told CNBC on Friday it will take "at least a couple months" to iron out differences within the GOP, which has a narrow majority in the Senate.
"I do think virtually every Republican wants to get to yes" on overhauling the tax system, Cruz said on "Squawk Box."
President Donald Trump, top White House officials and House Speaker Paul Ryan have all set a target of this year to approve a tax bill. Ryan said Thursday he would keep the House in session through Christmas if necessary.
Late last month, Republicans released a framework for the tax proposal they hope to pass this year. It calls for major reductions in household and corporate income tax rates and a doubling of the standard deduction.
The framework left out many key details. The congressional tax-writing committees are expected to spell out specifics once Congress passes a joint budget, a key step in the process.
Already, the GOP has run into political hurdles. Some GOP lawmakers, like Sen. Bob Corker, have expressed concerns about the potential budget deficits generated by the cuts.
Cruz has no such concerns, saying he wants an "unapologetic tax cut." Next week, the Senate is expected to pass a budget resolution allowing for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts under the reconciliation process. That number does not include the estimated effects of economic growth.
Cruz contended Republicans should go "much bigger and much bolder" on cutting taxes, saying deeper cuts will spark more economic growth and make up for the lost revenue.
Republican lawmakers in high-tax blue states have also started to push back on a proposal to get rid of state and local tax deductions, a method to raise money to help offset tax cuts.
Cruz supports ending the deductions as long as middle-income people in the states see an overall reduction under the plan.
"We can end that deduction if we're lowering the tax rate enough that even people in those blue states are seeing a net tax reduction," he said.
One independent analysis of the GOP tax framework estimated more than a quarter of middle-class Americans would eventually see a tax increase under the changes. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Cruz's fellow fiscal conservative, raised concerns about tax cuts not being deep enough after the release of that estimate.
Cruz said the question he wants to ask as the GOP drafts the plan is, "Are we improving the lives, are we improving the take-home pay, are we improving the prospects of working men and women?"
Cruz waged a fierce battle against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.


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MJ Rodriguez Is First Trans Woman Nominated For A Lead Acting Emmy
Autumn Hawkins	July 13th, 2021
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 05: Mj Rodriguez arrives at Disney's "From Your Car" (FYC) Drive-in Series presenting FX and 20th Television's "Pose" at the Rose Bowl on June 05, 2021 in Pasadena, California.
POSE's MJ Rodriguez is making history being the first openly trans woman nominated in the "Lead Actress in a Drama Series" category for her role as house mama Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista.
"I do believe this is a pivotal moment. There's never been a trans woman who has been nominated as a leading outstanding actress and I feel like that pushes the needle forward so much for now the door to be knocked down for so many people — whether they be male or trans female, gender nonconforming, LGBTQIA+, it does not matter," Rodriguez told Variety. "A moment like this extends and opens and elongates the possibilities of what's going to happen and I believe the Academy is definitely making it possible and their eyes are more than open. Yes, I do believe they're going to continue, and I also feel like we're going to keep speaking and encouraging and informing and educating people around the world. I think that's the most important thing."
In a statement per PEOPLE, the GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis spoke out on Rodriguez's nomination calling it, "a breakthrough for transgender women in Hollywood, and a long-overdue recognition for her groundbreaking performance over the past three seasons of POSE."
POSE has been nominated for "Outstanding Drama Series" for its final season which concluded on FX in June.
Billy Porter, 51, who portrays Pray Tell on POSE, was also nominated for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series". The 51-year-old has been nominated twice before and won in 2019, making him the first openly gay Black man to win the category.
The POSE actress is nominated against Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country), Uzo Aduba (In Treatment), Emma Corrin (The Crown), Olivia Colman (The Crown), and Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale).
The 73rd annual Emmy Awards will air live from Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+.
2021 Emmy Awards,MJ Rodriguez


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Features:	The Workplace
How gamification can boost engagement and productivity
Many employees shy away from using internal digital platforms, either because they're too complicated – or just too boring. In many cases, gamifying these systems could encourage much greater employee engagement, whether staff need to complete compliance training or want to take advantage of the company's rewards and benefits.
Article by: Nicola Britovsek | Published: 23 September 2018
What's the Case for a 4-day work week?
According to a global survey of nearly 3,000 employees across eight countries, nearly half (45 percent) of full-time workers say it should take less than five hours each day to do their job if they worked uninterrupted, while three out of four employees (72 percent) would work four days or less per week if pay remained constant.
Article by: Joyce Maroney | Published: 18 September 2018
Why parenting team members can be so detrimental
As a leadership writer and researcher, I focus on the caring behaviours associated with management actions. One risk of this thinking however is that parental, controlling styles of leadership can often be mistaken for caring. The language of Transactional Analysis - a theory of communication and therapeutic interposition - is helpful in illustrating this.
Article by: Tracy Kite | Published: 15 August 2018
How to encourage a friendly culture at work
Work is better when you enjoy the company of your colleagues and co-workers, and having the right environment is a big part of that. One of the best ways to create a friendly culture at work is to improve the quality and quantity of social interactions between your colleagues – inside and outside of the workplace.
Article by: Conor McArdle | Published: 13 August 2018
Invoking the spirit of '78
Print – Issue 166 | Article of the Week
The year, 1978, was the year in which the world never had it so good. We had the perfect balance of wealth, work and happiness, according to some Australian experts. They used a novel method to track the social and economic progress of the world, taking into account various economic, lifestyle-related and ecological factors to come to their conclusion.
Article by: Marc Stigter | Published: 9 August 2018
A Guide to productive meetings
Eight tried-and-tested ways to make your meetings a success. Recent research suggests that unproductive meetings are costing the UK a staggering £582m a week, so if bad meetings are a regular occurrence in your workplace, it could be seriously damaging your bottom line.
Article by: Nick Pollitt | Published: 8 August 2018
The you at work and the you at home
Organisations want more people to behave at work the way they behave outside of work. Do you think you are different at work to how you are at home? Maybe the real you doesn't come out at work or may be your conscious that at work you are playing a role that restricts how you might otherwise behave.
Article by: Blair Mcpherson | Published: 3 August 2018
Nine types of people that ruin meetings
"Meetings can be useful, but we've all been in a meeting that's been ruined by some bad habits. Whether it's cutting people off mid-sentence, people twiddling their thumbs with their eyes on the clock or slurping down a late lunch, these habits — if left unchecked - can turn a good meeting into a bad one."
Article by: Steve Thompson | Published: 25 July 2018
How to survive the hot weather at work
As the hot weather continues in the UK, it pays to ensure a comfortable working temperature, whatever the elements throw at us. Many people are aware there is a minimum working temperature indoors (usually 16C, or 13C where the work being done is strenuous) but that there is no equivalent statutory level for how hot a workplace can be.
Article by: Chris Wood | Published: 24 July 2018
Workplace wow factors
Flexible working hours and a relaxed attitude are the 'Wow' factors that employees look for in a workplace when they are job hunting. Workers were asked what perks they would like in the office and a relaxed attitude topped the list followed by supportive colleagues and flexible working hours.
Article by: Helen Moran | Published: 18 June 2018
Sex discrimination continues to cost employers dearly
The Benefits of introducing Flexible Working


Niki specialises exclusively in family work, her practice being almost entirely divorce and financial remedies. Her financial work covers all levels but in particular she deals with medium to high income and asset cases and matters that contain complex legal or factual issues. She also has experience of cases concerning the issue of validity of marriage and divorce, especially where there is an international element.
Niki began her career at the bar in a mixed common law chambers undertaking all areas of law. For the first few years after call she undertook everything from criminal trials, where she learned a great deal about advocacy, to general civil work. Since 1996 she has focused on family law and become increasingly specialised and experienced in this area.
Her preparation is meticulous with great attention to detail, but she is also able to provide sound commercial and pragmatic solutions. She is regarded as having excellent judgment and clients feel instantly comfortable and confident with her.
Most of her work reaches resolution by settlement following negotiation but in court she is highly persuasive and can be tenacious when necessary.
Niki is a firm believer in the merits of ADR for the right cases and is a qualified Mediator and Collaboratively trained.
Niki is also available for private FDRs.
Niki is able to accept instructions on a Direct Access basis.
"Exceptionally good with clients, and a force to be reckoned with."
"Niki has a very fine legal mind, is very sharp-witted and is highly engaging. She has an excellent memory and superb attention to detail."
"Phenomenally bright, she can take in and retain a phenomenal amount of financial detail very quickly. She's extremely articulate, very clever and always immensely well prepared."
"She has excellent client care skills and a razor-sharp brain."
"Exclusively practises in the matrimonial finance sphere, handling moderate to high net worth financial remedy cases, many of which have fact-finding or tax issues attached to them. She is additionally a qualified collaborative counsel and mediator, offering services in ADR. "
"She's absolutely brilliant at big money cases and is on the ball in complex work. She's an excellent advocate and negotiator and her settlement success rate is second to none."
"She is formidable in court and gets to grips with issues with total ease."
"A fabulously accomplished advocate always willing to go the extra mile, she makes life for her solicitor so much easier." "Her ability to negotiate settlements with even the most entrenched parties consistently produces results."
"She is fabulous with clients and can easily change her style to that required for each client's individual needs."
"(Niki) practises principally in the field of international matrimonial finance, but also has extensive experience in private law children proceedings. She'll go the extra mile and I can always count on her. Clients really feel that she's fighting for them"
"...Niki Langridge's tireless hard work"
"Simply superb, with an excellent client manner"
"(Niki) has a background in common law generally but practises solely in matrimonial finance. Her peers consistently praise her for her ability to instil confidence in her clients and negotiate a favourable outcome in contested proceedings."


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Was Italy captured by Germany?
When did Germany occupy Italy?
Did Germany defeat Italy?
Why did the Germans defend Italy?
Which countries did Germany capture?
Did Italy switch sides in both world wars?
How bad was the Italian army in ww2?
Why did Italy join Germany in ww2?
How many Italians died in ww2?
What side was Italy on in ww2?
Why did Italy declare war on the US?
Did Germany invade England?
Did Germany invade Poland?
What countries did Germany not invade in ww2?
Did Germany invade Austria?
What country did Germany invade first in ww1?
On September 8, 1943, Badoglio announced Italy's unconditional surrender to the Allies. The Germans, who had grown suspicious of Italian intentions, quickly occupied northern and central Italy. German forces also occupied the Italian zones in Yugoslavia, Greece, and France.
Ever since Mussolini had begun to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans. On September 8, Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy.
Allied soldiers had pushed across the Po Valley in northern Italy when German forces in Italy finally surrendered on May 2, 1945, two days after the collapse of Berlin.
Germany could surrender all of Italy to the Allies, thereby avoiding the commitment of additional troops in what could only be a secondary theater of operations. Or Germany could defend in Italy along a geographic line that would prevent the loss of the Po Valley and its rich agricultural and industrial resources.
IT\'S FUN: Is Salsiccia the same as Italian sausage?
Germany defeated and occupied Poland (attacked in September 1939), Denmark (April 1940), Norway (April 1940), Belgium (May 1940), the Netherlands (May 1940), Luxembourg (May 1940), France (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941), and Greece (April 1941).
When the war started Italy declared neutrality; in 1915 it switched and joined the Triple Entente (i.e. the Allies).
Casualties. Nearly four million Italians served in the Italian Royal Army during the Second World War. Nearly one half of a million Italians (including civilians) died between June 1940 and May 1945. The Royal Army suffered 161,729 casualties between 10 June 1940 and 8 September 1943 in the war against the Allies.
On 22 May 1939, Italy and Germany signed the Pact of Steel joining both countries in a military alliance. … Rather, the pact was designed for a "joint war against France and Britain", although the Italian hierarchy held the understanding that such a war would not take place for several years.
Total deaths by country
Total population 1/1/1939
Italy (in postwar 1947 borders) 44,394,000 492,400 to 514,000
Japan 71,380,000 2,500,000 to 3,100,000
Korea (Japanese colony) 24,326,000 483,000 to 533,000
Latvia (within 1939 borders) 1,994,500 250,000
Italy entered World War II on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, as the defeat of France became apparent.
IT\'S FUN: Can I go to medical school in Italy?
On December 11, 1941, Italy declared war on the United States in response to the latter's declaration of war upon the Empire of Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor four days earlier. Germany also declared war on the U.S. the same day.
The Battle of Britain took place between July and October 1940. The Germans began by attacking coastal targets and British shipping operating in the English Channel. They launched their main offensive on 13 August. Attacks moved inland, concentrating on airfields and communications centres.
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital.
1.1.1 Estonia.
1.1.2 Iceland.
1.1.3 Ireland.
1.1.4 Latvia.
1.1.5 Lithuania.
1.1.6 Portugal.
1.1.7 Spain.
1.1.8 Sweden.
On March 11–13, 1938, German troops invade Austria and incorporate Austria into the German Reich in what is known as the Anschluss.
Germany entered into World War I on August 1, 1914, when it declared war on Russia. In accordance with its war plan, it ignored Russia and moved first against France–declaring war on August 3 and sending its main armies through Belgium to attack Paris from the north.
How long is the train from Venice to Ljubljana?
How far is Slovenia from Venice Italy? The distance between Venice and Slovenia is
Do Italian sizes run small?
Italian sizes run small: smaller than the American, but also of the French and
What was Venice like in the Middle Ages?
The Republic of Venice was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle
How many carbs are in a 6 inch Italian hoagie?
How many carbs are in an Italian hoagie? Hoagies Italian Hoagie (1 serving) contains
What is the difference between MA and Pero in Italian?
Where can I buy Italian sausage in London?
How much do Italy owe the EU?
How many hours is it from Georgia to Italy?
What was Florence Griffith Joyner famous for?
What age does kindergarten start in Italy?
How much does Italy get from tourism?


Lemme sit a spell and write a thing.
I was up half the night catchin up with a friend.
Slept pretty hard for about six hours.
Morning came early, but lusty.
I watched a documentary on trees while I drank my coffee. Moo thinks I am obsessed with trees just because I have watched that episode about ten times. I really, really love trees. I don't think my love for trees is interfering with my ability to life. If I climb up a tree to watch the tree documentary, feel free to stage an intervention.
The Mister learned to make pimiento cheese for me while I made him an omelet. Such strong hands, shreddin that block of cheese. I put extra love in his omelet, I did. Chopped it up real fine and sprinkled it all over.
I was to collect Sassy from Oaklandon and in a strange turn of events, she wanted to get out into nature, so I leashed the dog and off we went. We tried to go to the castle park, but there's no castle park there anymore. A castle park is often a castle, but they're basically enormous wooden playgrounds with bridges and lookouts and climb-y things. There's a standard plastic-coated playground there now. And an empty field, replete with the sadness of bygone days.
In those bygone days, the parking lot would be so full, sometimes we'd have to park illegally for our kids to play. There'd be 40-50 kids of all ages there on cool, sunny day like today. Now? Mine was one of two cars in the parking lot and there were maybe 10 kids total, half of them teens kicking around a soccer ball. Man, I'm glad all my kids had the castle park while it was still a thing. We were lucky. Good times.
Still, we walked around town, smiling at the spring and snapping pictures.
It was a beautiful day to stop and smell the spirea.
If your dog is trained to walk to the left of you, she gets very confused when you need to be left of her to snap a shot of her shadow. But y'all, how cute is her tongue shadow?!
Totally adorable, am I right? Floofy beast!
Walked into a sale. Bought two dozen eggs for a dollar.
I'm tellin you, it's rough, but that's how it is when there's no alarm and no schedule. So yeah, now that the sun's goin down, I can sit a spell and write a thing.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged A-Z for April, dog, food, gratitude, happiness, home, lifestyle, Moo, nature, Sassy, The Mister. Bookmark the permalink.
Beautiful experience to have. Glad that Sassy wanted to be out in it. I am sure that it was good for her.
Totes adorbs your floofy beast!
What a delicious day, Joey! This afternoon, not specifically for Earth Day, although it worked well, my husband and I picked up trash and recyclables at the small lake near our house. Got one good-sized section lookin' great. Quite satisfying. I'll sleep well tonight, I think, and I imagine you will, too.
Glad you had a good one.
Yep, totally adorable floofy and shadow and totally beautiful day! You made me chuckle (as you always do) with your tree intervention invitation. Nice to know I'm not the only one.
Sounds like you had a delightful day. Sometimes you just need to walk outside. Sad about your Castle Park, Everyone should have one of those in their life. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Lovin' the rollicking rhythm of your language in this one. You sit spells real good, gurl.
Good use of the prompt and it sounds like you had a great day. I love looking at dog shadows when I walk Maddie. Sometimes the shadow reveals details that are lost on the dog.
I like the picture of the wooden shed. All the pictures are good, but I really like that one.
I hope your Sunday is equally nice.
Inquiring minds: what is the name of the tree documentary?
Also, I heart spirea, but the kind I know is kinda stinky.
It's David Attenborough's narration on Planet Earth, episode 10, Seasonal Forests.
Here in spring, the spirea has a very subtle sweet smell, but in summer, it does get smelly! AND it brings flies.
I do enjoy a good Attenborough doc. I'll seek out episode 10 and watch it on your behalf.
Beautiful photos. Hoping that your Saturday weather and casual schedule continue on to Sunday. "Doing nothing" is wonderful!
It really is. We're having some people over tonight, but still casual 🙂 Enjoy your day, Ally Bean!
Sounds like you've been having a good time! I love the photos-of course dog pics have a special place in my dark heart, but also for the sunshine! It's been cloudy and rainy here for days. I'm over it.
Thanks! I hope you get some sunshine soon!
I never paid that much attention to dog tongues until we got Otto. He sleeps with his tongue out, and it's pretty funny. He tends to wake up slowly and waddles around with his tongue between his teeth. Never had a dog that wakes up slowly.
I love those kind of days, unhurried and spontaneous!
I love it when you write a thing. I like it even better when I have time to read it!!!
Haha! I like that, too!
I can relate to the castle park — we visited a park last week that I went to as a kid, and I was sorely disappointed that the castle-esque playground with the shaky wood bridge was gone. Had the best times running across that loud thing. But, they did have a zipline, and watching my husband try it out might've been worth the loss.
If you love trees, you do not want to read my latest post. It's a killer. Heartbreaking, really.
Next time I may try a stream of consciousness piece. It has a lovely go-with-the-flow vibe. And I'll leave (leaf?) the trees alone.
It sounded like a wonderful day to be out walkin' among the trees.
When I homeschooled my oldest he would take his history, and reading books up in our big ole Ash tree in the backyard and sit up there with his cat and read, study, and daydream for hours, and hours.
I loved reading about how you infused your husband's omelet with lots of love.
It's the weekend catch up time, Joey!
🙂 I'll drink to that!
Yes, I had my first Long island iced tea at Houlihans with my youngest daughter, Felicia. She introduced me to a co-worker at her real estate company. The woman, Regina, is 65 and never married. I enjoyed our get together but she isn't quite the same level of energy As I had hoped for a new girlfriend to hang out with from time to time. . . I miss my Anna who moved to Buckeye Lake with a man she met on match site. Enjoy and cheers to you!
I think this is a common problem for those of us who are still running circles around people — hard to find others like us.
Aww. Sorry you miss yours, but I suppose I am lucky mine is just longer distance from me. . .
I liked the dog shadow, Sassy smelling the spirea and how you gave us bright blue sky and flowers!
We had a huge elm tree in Broad Ripple Park all my life. It was so huge. I can't explain, describe how huge, but its canopy shaded the entire playground and then some. I was sad to see it had been cut down when we came back from Georgia. Thousands of people still enjoy the park, but for me, it'll never be the same.


text:
Maria Federici, née Anna Maria Agamben le  à L'Aquila et morte le  à Rome, est une antifascite, femme politique et députée du parti Démocratie chrétienne.

Biographie
Anna Maria Agamben est née dans une riche famille d'origine arménienne. Elle fait ses études dans la capitale des Abruzzes, puis obtient son diplôme de lettres à l'université de Rome La Sapienza. Elle se consacre à l'enseignement de la littérature et de l'histoire dans des établissements secondaires. À Rome, elle rencontre le dramaturge Mario Federici, qu'elle épouse en 1926.

Pour échapper aux contraintes culturelles du régime fasciste, en 1929, le couple émigre à l'étranger, en Bulgarie, en Égypte et enfin à Paris. Elle enseigne dans les instituts culturels italiens. Dans la capitale française, elle commence à aborder la politique, fréquentant les cercles antifascistes et féministes des exilés italiens.

En 1939, les Federici retournent en Italie et Maria fait partie de la Résistance de la capitale. Elle est également active dans les secteurs syndical et féministe, devenant déléguée de l'Unione Donne dell'Azione Cattolica italiana.

En 1944, elle est élue déléguée au congrès constitutif des Associations chrétiennes des travailleurs italiens (ACLI). Entre 1944 et 1945, elle participe à la fondation du Centro italiano femminile (CIF), dont elle est présidente jusqu'en 1950.

Élue dans la circonscription de Pérouse-Terni-Rieti, elle fait partie des 21 femmes élues à l'Assemblée constituante de la république italienne (les premières de toute l'histoire parlementaire du pays). Avec Teresa Noce, Nilde Iotti (PCI), Rita Montagnana (PCI), Lina Merlin et Ottavia Penna Buscemi, elle fait partie des cinq femmes à rejoindre la commission chargée d'élaborer un nouvelle constitution  présidée par Meuccio Ruini.

Aux élections législatives de 1948, elle est élue députée dans la même circonscription. Elle est membre de la Commission XI (Travail et Sécurité sociale) pendant toute la durée de son mandat et de la Commission parlementaire d'enquête sur le chômage à partir de mai 1951. En 1950, avec Lina Merlin, Angela Guidi Cingolani et , elle crée la Commission  italienne de défense morale et sociale des femmes pour lutter contre la prostitution féminine.

En 1947, avec d'autres personnalités féminines dont , elle fonde l'Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigrate (ANFE), dont le but est d'aider les familles contraintes d'émigrer de leur pays d'origine, et en est la présidente jusqu'en 1981. Elle publie en 1957 le livre Il cesto di lana, consacré à la place des femmes italiennes dans la société.

Ouvrage
 Maria Federici Agamben, Il cesto di lana, Roma, Sales, 1957.

Notes et références

Liens externes

Naissance à L'Aquila
Naissance en septembre 1899
Décès en juillet 1984
Décès à 84 ans
Décès à Rome
Étudiant de l'université de Rome « La Sapienza »
Femme politique italienne
Pionnière en politique
Personnalité de la démocratie chrétienne
Féministe italienne
Député de l'Assemblée constituante de la République italienne
Député de la première législature de la République italienne

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
What I read in October and November
Posted on 02/12/2021 by Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)
First of all, I managed another successful NaNoWriMo this November, writing 50111 words over the course of the month. Hopefully this will finally be the year I actually stick with the story and continue working on it. Because of NaNo, I didn't do as much reading as I usually might, but I still managed to read a couple of the best books I've read all year. Plus, plenty of reading from October. Choosing my end-of-year best-ofs is going to be tough this year for sure.
I've split them between fiction and nonfiction and put them roughly in order of how much I liked them.
Fewer mermaids brushing their long beautiful hair while perched on rocks; more crypid creatures that come from the depths to devour humans, please, especially if the result is going to be as good as this. Really atmospheric and creepy, with an array of great characters as well. Particularly adored Olivia, the cosplaying, autistic, lesbian, badass presenter and camerawoman who is determined to either share the story of what not-so-mythological creatures take sailors to their watery graves, or at least to leave a record if she follows them. Also loved Hallie, whose experience translating for her Deaf sisters might hold a key piece in communicating with the mermaids. In the story's elements, I love the incorporation of science and biology—loved the exploration of the evolutionary advantages the mermaids would have developed and why, rather than just a handwavy "they exist, somehow" explanation. And the way it leads to the climax is just perfect. Definitely a new favourite SF/horror novel.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
THIS is why I find it so difficult to DNF a book. I found this one really slow to get into, so slow that I almost decided it wasn't for me, despite the myriad of glowing reviews that convinced me to pick it up in the first place. I was nearly a quarter of the way through before it really grabbed me, but once it did, it refused to let go. Smart, funny, surprisingly tender, this book crept up on me and became one of my favourites of the year. Yes, it probably requires some handwaving on the science (or maybe not — but when some of the breakthroughs are conveniently based on hypothetical future technology that hypothetically exists in the future, I imagine this is the case), but I didn't read this novel to learn the intricacies of interstellar travel, so I can't complain. The protagonist is clever and likable, but the real star of the show (without giving away too many spoilers) is the friend he makes along the way. Probably one of my favourite depictions of an extra-terrestrial. Just a fun, fun, (fun) read, with enough heart behind it to elevate it to the next level
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Note to self: Oh what, you loved a book about self-destructive boys and the paranormal (and non-paranormal) things that haunt them? Where everyone is repressed and unhappy and bad at communicating? And it's a twisty atmospheric southern-gothic-dark-academia-family-secrets-and-curses story that at its only most optimistic can even be described as bittersweet? You loved that one? I, for one, am shocked.
This story requires an investment, it's not a light and breezy read. But it's lush and sad and raw and deep and visceral and worth the time. The pacing is off sometimes, and I could not bring myself to care about anything to do with the cars/car races, but it drew me in completely nonetheless.
Matrix by Lauren Groff
An expansive book that I felt hard to pin down yet enjoyed nonetheless. It takes place over decades, but moves between the vast and the minute in scenes that don't necessarily have an overarching plot except in the broadest sense that it tells the story of a 12th-century nunnery and the historical woman who comes to lead it (to my understanding, very little is known about her real life so the author takes endless liberties and benefits from not being beholden to a known biography in integrating fantastical details at times). Ambitious and surprisingly exciting, I didn't love all of this but I found it captivating throughout.
Asking for it by Louise O'Neill
This is a hard book to review because it's not "enjoyable" to read — there's nothing fun about a teenage girl getting raped at a party, having her town turn against her because "you're ruining those nice boys' lives with your accusations when you were probably drunk/wearing a short skirt/lying/asking for it."
One of the most important elements to me is that Emma is not a "perfect" victim. She's an absolute mean girl, and she eagerly participates in rape culture herself prior to her own rape — using slut-shaming nicknames for other girls she knows and telling a friend who is sexually assaulted herself that she should get over it and not make waves. This may make her difficult to like, but also shows the pervasiveness of rape culture and also how easily people will find reasons not to empathize with an imperfect victim.
As a book, the novel is somewhat uneven. O'Neill really captures Emma's psychological decline and her isolation. However, most of the other characters are flat and one-dimensional. In some ways, this reflects Emma's self-centeredness both before (when she is a completely self-absorbed teenager) and after (when she can't focus on anything but what happened to her), but it makes it hard to keep track of the various characters or care about their influences on Emma's life or their reactions to the events.
After the Silence by Louise O'Neill
The inspiration for this novel feels obvious — a murder in a small, remote area of West Cork, the prime suspect an English outsider who proclaims his innocence but revels in the attention, and remains in the area despite the suspicions and unhappiness of the locals, a documentary crew who comes some years later to dig up the past and attempt to find answers… however, instead of focusing on the suspect, the protagonist of the novel is instead his wife (who is native to the island but treated with equal suspicion by her neighbours due to her involvement with the suspect). The exploration of abuse in its various forms is more of the focus than the murder mystery itself (which, unlike Sophie's murder, is resolved by the end of the story, although not to anyone but the reader and the perpetrators), and although a bit heavy-handed at times was mostly very effective and powerful.
Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
I appreciated the viscerality (visceralness?) of the writing in this short novella. You can visualise the horrors to good effect for sure. However, I found the story and its characters to be too self-aware. All horror fans think about how they would react if they actually encountered a supernatural entity (rip to your fave but I would simply not go inside the spooky house on the hill in the middle of the night, etc. etc.) but this sort of fourth-wall-breaking trope discussion isn't actually as interesting on the page as it is in our hypotheticals. Incredible cover though.
A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
There are definitely moments of the uncanny, particularly the scene with the basement and the pool, that I think are enough to tip it into the horror, or at least horror/[insert whatever other genre you feel it is] genre. That said, it's not good horror. The couple are barely developed, their dialogue is stilted, and their "we won't ask how or why" pact seems more an excuse for the author not to flesh out his premise than to create an atmosphere of mystery. Also gotta love that they apparently go from never touching diving gear to flitting around twisty overhead environments without ever once running into trouble, silting the place out out, etc. Sure, sure, handwave, handwave. Would've DNF'd this one if it wasn't so short.
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith (audiobook)
This is a truly extraordinary book. Each chapter explores a location in the United States (and one in Africa) that looms large in African-American history in relation to slavery. Smith offers not only a history of the place itself, but a reflection on how that history is shared today — is it truthful or sanitized, laid bare or avoided? Who tells the story? Who writes the story? Smith is a poet, and it shows in both the writing style and in the richness of the emotion he evokes in his personal thoughts on each location in addition to the imagery he creates to explain the history and present-day settings of each place. An unbelievably well-written, thought-provoking, and important book.
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (audiobook)
This is just an extraordinary book. Hanif Abdurraqib is and has been one of America's great culture writers, and this collection of smart, rich, multidimensional, and poetic essays cements that with feeling. Weaving music, history, sociopolitical elements, biography, performance, memoir, and more into an absolutely stunning set of pieces that traces Black culture and performance through American history and through a variety of contexts and media. Not only sharp and insightful, but also beautiful. An expansive and essential work.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk
A fascinating and insightful book. I especially appreciated the way it explored the importance of the mind-body connection in a way that is actually compatible with science and medicine (e.g. not "just try yoga and your clinical depression will be cured" but instead "yoga can be used in tandem with other practices to create a well-rounded response to dealing with trauma and mental illness"; not "pharmaceuticals are bunk," but "pharmaceuticals are not a one-size-fits-all solution and are useful for many but can avoid addressing the underlying causes of trauma"). I found some of the descriptions of individual traumas to be unnecessarily detailed in places, almost to the point of feeling voyeuristic, but overall a well-written, accessible book on the topic of trauma-informed care and psychology.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
I've never met a Mary Roach book I didn't like, and Fuzz is no exception. Yet again tackling a broad and common topic, in this case the interaction between wildlife and human society, and delving into its more unexpected and quirky aspects with trademark humour and thoughtful reporting. As funny as it is insightful, this book looks at human-wildlife interaction through the lens of symbiosis, environmentalism, and yes, the law. Not my absolute favourite of her books, but still a worthy addition to her body of work.
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach (audiobook)
Everything Tara Brach writes and says is brilliant. A Doctorate in clinical psychology and longtime meditation teacher, she integrates her meditative learnings from Buddhist philosophy with elements of western psychology to explain concepts of self-reflection and acceptance in a spiritual yet accessible way. She doesn't advocate for passive acceptance, but active reflection and actively putting into practice methods of dealing with shame, discomfort, and of cultivating self-worth and self-love. With guided practices at the end of each chapter and personal reflections throughout, this is a solid and thoughtful book for those looking to practice radical love and kindness toward themselves and others.
Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination by Robert Macfarlane (audiobook)
Macfarlane's work is as endlessly astounding as his subjects. While it's obvious that this is one of his earlier books because the writing isn't as lyrical as some of his later works, it's still poetic and full of imagery, capturing the awe-inspiring nature of the places and things about which he writes. Capturing our human fascination with mountains and summits through a historical, artistic, and natural lens, he puts into words the pull toward these vast formations that so many feel.
An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang (audiobook)
This book doesn't necessarily say anything about Facebook that hasn't already been known or said, but it provides a thorough and well laid-out crash course on the history, aims, and issues of the platform, the company behind it, and the founder. Even if the information isn't groundbreaking, it remains angering. Also, reading it this week made the epilogue, in which the authors speculate that "by the time you are reading this book," Facebook could have morphed into something entirely new, perhaps shifting focus to AR technology, felt extremely prescient.
Posted in Books, ReviewsTagged book review, books, fiction, history, horror, nonfiction, reading, reading list, recommended reading, science fiction
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text:
%tutorial_Proximity_training_test

%how to get proximity values.
% 2 cases
% 1. Test Data only. i.e. proximity between test examples and training data only. You do get
%    proximity values for training examples but there is no proximity values
%    inbetween the test and the training
% 2. Test and Training data both. i.e. proximity between test and training.
%    Proximity values on test, training and inbetween them.

if strcmpi(computer,'PCWIN') |strcmpi(computer,'PCWIN64')
   compile_windows
else
   compile_linux
end
%load the twonorm dataset
load data/twonorm

%modify so that training data is NxD and labels are Nx1, where N=#of
%examples, D=# of features

X = inputs';
Y = outputs;

[N D] =size(X);
%randomly split into 250 examples for training and 50 for testing
randvector = randperm(N);

X_trn = X(randvector(1:10),:); %10 examples in training
Y_trn = Y(randvector(1:10));
X_tst = X(randvector(295:end),:); %5 examples in test
Y_tst = Y(randvector(295:end));

%%% use training and test as the same
%  X_tst = X_trn;
%  Y_tst = Y_trn;

% example 1: proximity of test cases
% First training and then finding the proximity on test separately
% proximity values in proximity_ts

% 1. Test Data only. i.e. proximity between test examples only. You do get
%    proximity values for training examples but there is no proximity values
%    between the test and the training

    model1 = classRF_train(X_trn,Y_trn,2000, 0);

    test_options.predict_all = 1;
    test_options.proximity = 1;
    [Y_hat, votes, prediction_per_tree, proximity_ts] = classRF_predict(X_tst,model1,test_options);
    fprintf('\nexample 1: error rate %f\n',   length(find(Y_hat~=Y_tst))/length(Y_tst));

% example 2: proximity of test cases
% Finding the proximity on training and test simultaneously

% 2. Test and Training data both. i.e. proximity between test and training.
%    Proximity values on test, training and inbetween them.
% just pass X_tst and Y_tst in addition to the training data with
% classRF_train

    clear extra_options
    extra_options.proximity = 1; %(0 = (Default) Don't, 1=calculate)
    model2 = classRF_train(X_trn,Y_trn, 2000, 0, extra_options,X_tst,Y_tst);

    Y_hat = classRF_predict(X_tst,model2);
    fprintf('\nexample 2: error rate %f\n',   length(find(Y_hat~=Y_tst))/length(Y_tst));

%this matrix has the proximity on the test, first Ntst x Ntst values are between the test the rest are for training
%i.e the size of this matrix is Ntst x (Ntst + Ntrn). Ntst=size of test, Ntrn = size of training
model2.proximity_tst

%this matrix has the proximity values between only the training examples.
%size of this matrix is Ntst x Ntst
proximity_ts

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


What the series tells us is that the people who run Facebook do not recognize the problems and are unwilling to make decisions to deal with it. All of the Facebook executives who talked with the Frontline reporters — there were six — essentially said the same thing, often using the same phrases. They were "slow to recognize" the problems that the Russian involvement in the 2016 election caused. They are going to have a "continuing conversation" about what needs to be done.