It's not always easy to take criticism, particularly if you feel it's unjustified. But, it's something you should expect to experience at some point during your career. So, how should you respond in those circumstances?
Whatever form of criticism you receive, it's important you handle it in a professional manner. You don't have to agree with it. You certainly don't have to like it. But you must be courteous, calm and respectful in your engagement, even if the other party chooses not to.
How you respond to these situations shows what kind of character you are in a work environment. Don't do anything that could make things worse. Be as professional as you can be and manage your emotional response. See it as an opportunity to learn. Even if you feel the criticism is not justified, you can see it as way of understanding someone else's thinking.
By seeking clarity, you can help create some objectivity. Focusing purely on facts can allow the situation to be about more than just personalities. It can also shine a spotlight on whether the accusation has any foundation or can simply be dismissed. By getting clarity you're removing the focus from your emotional reaction and putting it back onto the criticism itself.
Some criticism simply reflects someone else's perspective on a situation. That's why using language like "I can see why you might think that, but I probably haven't explained the situation well" can help show how you appreciate the critic's point of view. By doing so, this allows them to be open to your perspective as well.
This shows you as someone willing to listen and open to change, trying to do your best in the future.
It's always worth putting the comments from colleagues into context.
Do you tend to respect their opinion? Are they consistently critical about things at work? Is there any reason why they might want to undermine you to serve their own purposes? If the latter's the case, you'll probably find allies in helping to dismiss their comments.
But if your critic has sway in the company, it's worth meeting with them to clear the air in order to move the conversation forward. That could require eliciting management support, putting across both sides of the situation but arguing your point of view.
By being balanced in your discussions, you'll at least be seen to be working for the good of the company.
It's a tougher situation if your boss is your critic.
This is something you need to address in person, hearing your line manager's perspective. If you feel the criticism is valid, accept it and adapt. If you believe it's unfair, try to argue your case. Even if your boss still doesn't come around to your way of thinking you can still chart a course based on better understanding on both sides.
Once you articulate what you will do going forward, you may want to ask for a follow-up meeting to agree on the next steps.


According to American jeweler Carolyn Morris Bach, she has been making jewelry for more than thirty years. Considered one of the best jewelers in today's art, she studied jewelery and blacksmithing in Rhode Island School of Design. Today she works in her private studio, established in rural New England, on the personal site of 70 acres, overlooking the pastures and forests. This could explain the close relationship of artworks by this artist with nature. Jewelry made by Carolyn Morris Bach represents the spirits of the ancient soul and powers. In particular, sun, moon, wind, rain, stones, plants.
Original wearable jewelry by Carolyn Morris Bach – represented in many museums throughout the United States and around the world. In particular, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, and Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin. The materials Carolyn Morris Bach uses for creating jewelry pieces – sterling, pearl, quartz, cow bone, and fossilized ivory.


text:
[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/github/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa?branch=master)
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa)
[![Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com/github/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa/badges/gpa.svg)](https://codeclimate.com/github/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa)

# microsoft_rsa

Add support for Microsoft's `RSAKeyValue` XML keys to Ruby's `OpenSSL::PKey::RSA` class.

## Requirements

- Ruby
  - 2.4.x
  - 2.5.x
  - 2.6.x

If you require support for an older version of Ruby, please see [v1](https://github.com/jasonwbarnett/microsoft_rsa/tree/v1).

## Installation

```bash
gem install microsoft_rsa
```

## Usage

```ruby
require 'microsoft_rsa'

xml = <<-EOF
<RSAKeyValue>
   <Modulus>t6tLd1Wi7PEkwPfx9KGP1Ps/5F2saXnOsCE2U....</Modulus>
   <Exponent>AQAB</Exponent>
   <P>3LJ5y4Vla7cS3XgmbIH5dQgppUHa+aSWavEOCbDRS/M....</P>
   <Q>1QyGIAnjv4YLcRVdwXtxWkijc+aZ496qIBZnCAUUD/E....</Q>
   <DP>0821dc0f+LBKOqIEvj4+2kJrNV5ueQesFBYkEsjPFM....</DP>
   <DQ>ugSzX2oDJwjdGKG1OOiVcmUWAm6IU4PpOxcUYtY8TC....</DQ>
   <InverseQ>LDQIQu+LSB6CSZBrGxNQthWi9mkuPGVZyDDr....</InverseQ>
   <D>qZm2bXKH8WwbsJ8ZlT3S1TbgUifppLrqSRkb8XqEcMv....</D>
</RSAKeyValue>
EOF

rsa = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.from_xml(xml)
# => #<OpenSSL::PKey::RSA:0x007fcd851527c8>

rsa.to_xml
# => "<RSAKeyValue>\n   <Modulus>t6tLd1Wi7PEkwPfx9KGP1Ps/5F2saXnOsCE2U....</Modulus>\n   <Exponent>AQAB</Exponent>\n   <P>3LJ5y4Vla7cS3XgmbIH5dQgppUHa+aSWavEOCbDRS/M....</P>\n   <Q>1QyGIAnjv4YLcRVdwXtxWkijc+aZ496qIBZnCAUUD/E....</Q>\n   <DP>0821dc0f+LBKOqIEvj4+2kJrNV5ueQesFBYkEsjPFM....</DP>\n   <DQ>ugSzX2oDJwjdGKG1OOiVcmUWAm6IU4PpOxcUYtY8TC....</DQ>\n   <InverseQ>LDQIQu+LSB6CSZBrGxNQthWi9mkuPGVZyDDr....</InverseQ>\n   <D>qZm2bXKH8WwbsJ8ZlT3S1TbgUifppLrqSRkb8XqEcMv....</D>\n</RSAKeyValue>\n"

rsa.to_rexml.class.name
# => "REXML::Document"
```

## Contributing to microsoft_rsa

* Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet.
* Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it.
* Fork the project.
* Start a feature/bugfix branch.
* Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution.
* Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
* Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

Copyright
---------

Copyright (c) 2017 Jason Barnett. See LICENSE.txt for
further details.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Guest Announcement
RÖLI ANGELS hails from Nagoya, Japan and is an idol group that has performed worldwide. The two members are "Lemon" and "Shake". They began as 2.5D cosplay idols who leaped from an original animation in 2013. In January 2015 they debuted on the Space Shower Music label. RÖLI ANGELS is active not only just in Japan, but also performed at the 50,000 attendee "HELLO FEST" 2014 festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. They were invited again the following year, and gained an overseas…
Kento Kishigami is the CEO of MyDearest. Mr. Kishigami founded MyDearest in 2016. After developing primarily VR Light Novels and VR manga, he now serves as the executive producer for the Tokyo Chronos game project.
2019 Guest Announcement: LAM
LAM is an illustrator and the character designer for Tokyo Chronos. LAM worked in graphic design at ATLUS on projects such as Persona 5, before becoming a freelance illustrator. Working freelance, he has contributed Craft Essence illustrations for Fate/Grand Order by TYPE-MOON, worked on a commercial for the art and engineering training college HAL, as well as the arcade rhythm game WACCA by Marvelous. LAM is gathering more and more attention as an up-and-coming creator known for his signature bold…
2019 Guest Announcement: Hinata Sato
Born in 1998 in the prefecture of Niigata. Hinata Sato has been appearing in multiple acts from Anime to TV dramas. After her activities in Sakura Gakuen, she has made a debut in Revue Starlight as Junna Hoshimi, one of the main stage girls in the Student 99th Class.
2019 Guest Announcement: Kiyono Yasuno
Kiyono Yasuno is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She played a number of minor roles before her major debut in 2011 with the role Kizuna Todoroki from the Young Animator Training Project short anime Kizuna Todoroki. She has since held several iconic roles such as Megumi Kato from SaeKano:How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, Sakura Kitaoji from Aikatsu!, Natsuki Kimura from iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, Mayuko Inoue from Ushio & Tora, Kaname Buccaneer from Macross Delta, Nejire Hadou from My…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Inventory of State and Federal Corrections Information Systems
This survey summarizes the data elements maintained by state and federal corrections information systems that track adult, sentenced offenders, and assesses the severity of obstacles in reporting statistical information. Two instruments, an Inventory Questionnaire and an Obstacles Survey, were mailed to Departments of Correction in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Inventory Questionnaire asked 207 questions about data elements describing offenders, 15 questions about elements describing facility management, and 20 questions about the capabilities of the information system to process data electronically. For some elements, questions were asked to determine if more detailed information (subvalues) about the element existed. The Obstacles Survey asked departments to rate the severity of problems they may encounter when processing requests for statistical information. The items were grouped into five categories: legislative and institutional factors, hardware factors, software factors, staffing factors, and data factors. This was a one time collection conducted in 1998.
Telephone interviews were conducted with respondents within the departments of corrections in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. These telephone interviews provided vital background information for the design of the Inventory questionnaires, and also supplemented data on the capabilities of corrections information systems. In 1998 two surveys, the Inventory of Data Elements in State and Federal Corrections Information Systems (Inventory survey) and the Survey of Retrieval and Query Capacities of Corrections Information Systems (Obstacles survey), were mailed to information officers in 50 state departments of corrections, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Urban Institute staff collected, verified, and coded responses. Data entry and analysis, as well as the preparation of the final report was performed by Urban Institute staff. All 52 departments responded to the Inventory survey and 51 responded to the Obstacles survey.
1999 PDF (170 KB)
State and Federal Corrections Information Systems
MORGAN Data Management and Crime Analysis System - Executive Summary
Use of Management of Criminal History Record Information
One time collection


text:
Children of the Sea
A young girl and her supernaturally gifted friends go on a magical adventure under the sea in this anime adaptation of Daisuke Igarashi's manga.
"When Ruka is suspended from her school handball team, she decides to visit her father, who works at an aquarium. She soon meets and befriends Umi, a boy who seems at one with the ocean and has the ability to communicate with sea creatures. She also meets his older brother, the sickly and haughty Sora. Together they notice a song of the sea that's luring all types of sea creatures away from their natural habitats. And Ruka discovers that her affinity with the sea is far greater than she imagined." (Sydney Film Festival)
2019Rating: PG, Mild fantasy themes and infrequent coarse language110 minsJapanJapanese with English subtitles
AdventureAnimatedFantasyWorld Cinema
Ayumu Watanabe ('Space Brothers', 'Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Dinosaur')
Mana AshidaHiiro IshibashiAiru KubozukaWin MorisakiYû AoiSumiko FujiGorô InagakiMin Tanaka
Full of interesting concepts and accomplished animation, Children Of The Sea is less than the sum of its many parts and just seems to lose its way after a very promising beginning.
A lonely 14-year-old connects with two boys raised at sea in a gorgeous, sensitive anime movie that takes a wild out-of-this-world turn.
It leaves you with the sense that the art form's boundaries have been nudged a little wider as you watched.


I wrote a few posts recently on the implications of politics and context for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). See here, here and here. I've received a few offline comments about them. Some clarifying points are in order.
Yeah, just limitations. I could write a dozen blog posts about how RCTs are a great method for research and evaluation, and why their use is good for development practice and policymaking. But many others have already written about that. In fact, there are two recent books on the topic: Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo, and More Than Good Intentions by Karlan and Appel. I haven't read either yet but I recommend them anyway. These books also explore the limitations of RCTs: a review of Poor Economics notes that the book goes beyond RCTs, and uses other methods to investigate why and how certain things work.
Similarly, I tried to explore some factors that are often glossed over in discussions of what RCTs mean for development. An RCT does certain things very well. But there are boundaries. That doesn't change the fact that the RCT is the gold standard. As an analogy: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is the gold standard for identifying substances, but it only works if the substance can be converted into a gas. It's pretty important to know that. If you can't convert the substance into a gas, you'll have to use another method.
Failing to understand the limits of RCTs can result in to two kinds of errors: 1) believing we know more about the efficacy of a intervention than we do; or 2) concluding that an intervention is ineffective unless it's been affirmed by an RCT. Either of these errors could lead policymakers and practitioners to inefficient allocations of the resources available for development. Let's take each in turn.
Science brings a potentially inflated sense of our own expertise. RCTs, and the development industry as a whole, would benefit from less certainty and greater humility.
Two different people who regularly work on RCTs contacted me to share their thoughts on this issue. Both argued that academic researchers are the last people in the world to be over-confident. They are so worried about being critiqued by other academics that they cover their bases and fill their articles with caveats galore.
But the risk isn't really that academics would go too far (though I can think of a few professors with large egos). My main worry is the policymakers and practitioners who read the top-line results without delving into the nuance. The caveats get stripped away as you get closer to the decision maker. That's why the first section of most reports is called the "executive summary" — the person calling the shots on resource allocations often doesn't read the whole thing.
Those who recognize the nuance have a responsibility to reign in the advocates, policy makers and others in order to ensure the research findings are used well.
Error 2: Underconfidence in other methods, and in the interventions they evaluate.
There are certain types of interventions that are not conducive to rigorous testing through RCTs. There are several reasons this might be the case. Perhaps the intervention's unit of impact is too large to make randomization possible; e.g. doing an RCT on macroeconomic policies would require random assignment of entire countries. Perhaps the intervention takes too long or the expected impacts will only be measurable in the distant future, making an RCT incredibly expensive; e.g. some peacebuilding or community development projects.
We need other methods to evaluate these interventions, policies and programs. In the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analogy: these issues are the substances that cannot be converted into gases. The "gold standard" test simply doesn't apply. In development, these other methods include quasi-experimental evaluations (i.e. no random assignment). We should also look further afield to methods based on case studies of significant changes, such as participatory video evaluations and action research.
Proponents of RCTs would argue that these other methods don't give us the same level of certainty. I agree. We will never be able to measure the impact of these interventions with as much certainty as we can have for the simpler interventions. However, a lack of certainty is not the same as a lack of impact. There's no correlation between our ability to be certain about a result, and the marginal benefit of investing in it.
The main danger with RCTs is that, in development economics, they will lead to an excess focus on social engineering as a driver of development. They also will lead people to focus on problems which are amenable to success by piecemeal social engineering, which in turn will lead to biases in our understanding and a neglect of big picture questions about economic growth.
I concur, though I would amend Cowen's "big picture questions" to include economic growth as well as politics, governance, human rights, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and a whole lot more. The fact that we have less certainty when measuring our impact on these issues does not mean we should invest less in them.
Want to know more about RCTs? Check out the books I mentioned above: Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo, and More Than Good Intentions by Karlan and Appel. Also, there's a new Development Impact blog that promises to be very interesting.


text:
Mumbai gang boss gets life in jail for killing of journalist
Indian court convicts gangster over journalist murder
Indian YouTube singer has tearful reunion after 40 years
Mother of murdered Irish woman wants to face accused killer in India
crime Mumbai KILLING life imprisonment reporter Chhota Rajan
Indonesian police escort Chhota Rajan during his deportation in November 2015. File picture
DPA/New Delhi
A Mumbai gang boss and eight others were sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday in relation to the 2011 broad daylight killing of an investigative crime reporter in India's financial hub, Mumbai, a prosecuting lawyer said.
A Mumbai court found Rajendra Nikhalje, alias Chhota Rajan, guilty of ordering journalist Jyotirmoy Dey's murder, public prosecutor Pradip Gharat said.
Rajan and eight other accused, including four gunmen involved in the case, were given life sentences under various sections relating to murder and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and the Arms Act.
They were also fined 2.6mn rupees (about $39,000) each. They can appeal against their sentences in a higher court.
Two other accused, including journalist Jigna Vora, whom investigators accused of being in regular touch with Rajan and of being a part of the conspiracy to kill Dey, were acquitted. A 12th accused died in 2015.
Dey, the top crime reporter at Mid Day, a popular daily tabloid, was shot dead at point blank range by four unidentified gunmen riding two motorbikes in a Mumbai suburb on June 11, 2011. J Dey, as he was popularly known, died in hospital.
Ten people, including the gunmen, were arrested in November 2011. Rajan, who was a fugitive at the time of the crime, was arrested in Bali, Indonesia in 2015 and deported to India.
Rajan, who is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, attended court via videoconferencing. Asked if he had anything to say after the sentence was pronounced, he said, "Theek hai" ('That's all right' in Hindi), NDTV news channel reported.
Rajan headed one of Mumbai's crime syndicates and fled to Dubai in 1998 and had been hopping continents until his arrest in Bali.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation charge sheet, Rajan had ordered Dey's killing because Rajan was upset by some articles he had written, India Today news channel reported.
Rajan is facing trial in several cases of murder, extortion and drug trafficking. This is his first conviction.
Paulson Joseph, who was charged with providing mobile phone SIM cards to other accused, was also acquitted.
The court said there was not enough evidence to show they were involved in the crime. A total of 155 witnesses were deposed during the prolonged trial, Gharat said.
Dey had been reporting on the Mumbai underworld for two decades and had extensive contacts to the mafia and police.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 47 journalists have been killed in India since 1992. Most had been covering business and corruption, its website said.


Protection Positions at DOE Facilities.
Training for Supervisors, and Radiological Assessors Training.
and be completed by new personnel prior to formally assuming line supervision and management responsibilities.
Importance of keeping management informed.
HDBK-1110-97, ALARA Training for Technical Support Personnel.
ALARA Training for Technical Support Personnel.


text:
Rossignol ist eine französische, um 1907 gegründete Unternehmensgruppe (SA), die heute u. a. Skier, Snowboards und Wintersport-Accessoires herstellt.

Geschichte
Bis 1950 produzierte Rossignol auch Alltagskleidung.
1970 wurde gemeinsam mit dem italienischen Sportartikelhersteller  Nordica eine Tochtergesellschaft in den Vereinigten Staaten gegründet.

2005 schloss sich Rossignol mit Quiksilver Inc. zusammen. Der bisherige Hauptgesellschafter von Rossignol, Laurent Boix-Vives, wurde Aufsichtsratsmitglied bei Quiksilver und Präsident von Roger Cleveland Golf Company, Inc., einer auf Golf spezialisierten Tochter von Rossignol. Durch den Zusammenschluss der beiden Unternehmen mit ihren weltweit bekannten Marken und komplementären Aktivitäten entstand ein großer Anbieter im Bereich Outdoor.

Der Outdoor-Markt umfasst Ausrüstung und Kleidung für Sport- und Freizeitaktivitäten, die unter freiem Himmel betrieben werden. Quiksilver deckte überwiegend die Outdoor-Aktivitäten am Meer ab, wohingegen Rossignol in erster Linie für die Berge stand und die folgenden Marken gehörten mit zur Unternehmensgruppe:

 DC Shoes (bis 2008)
 Dynastar
 Lange
 LOOK
 Quiksilver (bis 2008)
 Rossignol
 Roxy (bis 2008)

Rossignol mit der angegliederten Firma Dynastar, Look und Lange wechselte im November 2008 von Quiksilver zur australischen Holding Chartreuse & Mont Blanc, die vom ehemaligen Rossignol-Vorstand Bruno Cercley gegründet wurde.

Rossignol musste 2009 etwa ein Drittel der Stellen streichen und holte 2010 einen Teil der Skifabrikation aus dem Ausland, etwa der Volksrepublik China, nach Frankreich zurück. 2013 wurde Rossignol mit damals etwa 1200 Mitarbeitern von der schwedischen Beteiligungsgesellschaft Altor übernommen.

2017 übernahm Rossignol den Fahrradhersteller Felt Bicycles, welcher im November 2021 an Pierer Mobility verkauft wurde.

Weblinks
 Offizielle Homepage
 frühe ROSSIGNOL-Boards beim Snowboardmuseum – einer Sammlung von über 400 Snowboards aus den ersten 30 Jahren

Einzelnachweise

Sportartikelhersteller
Unternehmen (Snowboarding)
Unternehmen (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Gegründet 1907

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: spectral clustering First off I must say that I'm new to matlab (and to this site...) , so please excuse my ignorance.
I'm trying to write a function in matlab that will use Spectral Clustering to split a set of points into two clusters.
my code is as follows
function Groups = TrySpectralClustering(data)
dist_mat = squareform(pdist(data));

W=  zeros(length(data),length(data));

for i=1:length(data),
    for j=(i+1):length(data),
    W(i,j)=10^(-dist_mat(i,j));
    W(j,i)=W(i,j);
    end
end
D = zeros(length(data),length(data));
for i=1:length(W),
D(i,i)=sum(W(i,:));
end
L=D-W;
L=D^(-0.5)*L*D^(-0.5);
[ V E ] = eig(L);
disp ('V:');
disp (V);

If I understand correctly, then by using the second smallest eigenvector I should be able to perform a partition of the data into two clusters - If the ith member of the 2nd eigenvector is positive, the ith data point would be in the one cluster, otherwise it would be in the other cluster.
However, when I try the following
f=[1,1;0,0;1,0;0,1;100,100;100,101;101,101;101,100]
TrySpectralClustering(f)

I would expect that the first four points would form one cluster, and the last four would form another.
However, I receive
V:
   -0.0000   -0.5000    0.0000   -0.5777    0.0000    0.4078   -0.0000    0.5000
   -0.0000   -0.5000    0.0000    0.5777    0.0000   -0.4078   -0.0000    0.5000
   -0.0000   -0.5000    0.0000    0.4078    0.0000    0.5777   -0.0000   -0.5000
   -0.0000   -0.5000    0.0000   -0.4078    0.0000   -0.5777   -0.0000   -0.5000
   -0.5000   -0.0000   -0.0000   -0.0000   -0.7071   -0.0000    0.5000   -0.0000
   -0.5000   -0.0000    0.7071    0.0000   -0.0000   -0.0000   -0.5000   -0.0000
   -0.5000    0.0000   -0.0000    0.0000    0.7071    0.0000    0.5000    0.0000
   -0.5000         0   -0.7071         0         0         0   -0.5000         0

Taking the 2nd eigenvector
  -0.0000   -0.5000    0.0000    0.5777    0.0000   -0.4078   -0.0000    0.5000

I find the one cluster includes the points 1,0;0,1;100,100;101,100
and the other cluster is made from the points 1,1;0,0;100,101;101,101
I wonder what am I doing wrong.
Note: I am working on the above as a part of a homework project.
Thanks in advance!

A: What you are getting is correct. Let U be the matrix containing the eigenvectors as shown above and let them be arranged such that the 1st column corresponds to the smallest eigenvalue and progressive columns correspond to the ascending eigenvalues. Then, take a subset of columns of U by retaining the eigenvectors corresponding to the smaller eigenvalues. Now, read these columns row-wise into a new set of vectors, call it Y. Cluster Y to get the spectral clusters. So, let us assume our subset is only the first column. We clearly see that if u were to cluster the first column, u would get the first 4 into 1 cluster and the next 4 into another cluster, which is what you want.

A: Take a look at the implementation on Prof. J. Shi's webpage. Pay close attention to discretisation.m function.
Moreover, your code is very inefficient. You need to take more advantage of Matlab's vectorization:
W = 10.^( - dist_mat ); % single liner of nested loop for comuting W
% computing the symmetric laplacian
d = sum( W, 2 ); % sum each row
d( d == 0 ) = 1; % avoid division by zero
d_half = 1./sqrt( d );
L = eye( n ) - bsxfun( @times, bsxfun( @times, W, d_half' ),  d_half );

A: Two observations:

*

*L=D-W; L=D^(-0.5)*L*D^(-0.5);
Why do you let him calculate the identity matrix? Just use the identity matrix eye(n) and substract D^(-0.5) * W * D^(-0.5) from that to calculate the Laplacian L

*eig returns the eigenvectors as columns, why do you take the row? Did you check the values of the corresponding eigenvalues in E, so you can be sure you are looking at a eigenvec corresponding to the 2nd smallest eigenval?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It was recently my birthday!! And I made myself a cake. Yep. A delicious, fancy layer cake.
Growing up, both my cousin Crystal and I really liked spice cake, and since our birthdays are only a week apart, we often had a shared celebration with our family. Spice cake was usually our birthday cake of choice.
As I celebrate this year, not only am I thankful for this delicious cake, but I am so thankful for my amazing, loving family and all of my wonderful friends! I recently had a bit of a personal self-realization and I am working on changing my life for the better. For that, I can't wait to see what lies ahead. This year is going to be a really good one and I am looking forward to sharing it with everyone!
It is important to make sure that your eggs, butter, and milk are at room temperature in order to have a fluffy and moist cake. You can put your eggs in a bowl of warm water for about 5-10 minutes before using them. I zapped my milk for about 20 seconds in the microwave before using it (it doesn't need to be hot, just not cold). If you forget to take the butter out of the refrigerator, cut it into small pieces (1 inch cubes works), and microwave for 10-15 seconds until softened, but not melted!!
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter or spray two 8" or 9" round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for about half a minute, until it's pale and creamy. Pour in the sugar and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl whenever it needs it. It may look separated – it's OK.
Stir the vanilla into the milk. Add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir it in by hand or with the electric mixer on low speed, just until it's combined. Add about half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour, mixing just until the batter is blended.
Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cakes are golden and their tops are springy to the touch. Cool completely before frosting.
Beat butter in your biggest bowl until light and creamy, or about two minutes. Add the sifted powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the bourbon, vanilla and salt and beat until smooth and spreadable, or about one minute more.
Bourbon makes EVERYTHING better! Sounds delicious, I have always been a huge fan of the spice cakes!
This cake looks delicious, I love spice cake too and the addition of bourbon is a great idea! Hope you had a great birthday!


text:
#ifndef _RETRANS_H_
#define _RETRANS_H_

#include "litedt_messages.h"
#include "litedt_fwd.h"
#include "list.h"
#include "rbuffer.h"
#include "timerlist.h"
#include "treemap.h"

typedef struct _retrans_mod {
    litedt_host_t   *host;
    litedt_conn_t   *conn;
    treemap_t       packet_list;
    list_head_t     waiting_queue;
} retrans_mod_t;

typedef struct _packet_entry {
    list_head_t     waiting_list;
    retrans_mod_t   *rtmod;

    litedt_time_t   send_time;
    litedt_time_t   retrans_time;
    litedt_time_t   delivered_time;
    litedt_time_t   first_tx_time;

    uint32_t    delivered;
    uint32_t    seq;
    uint32_t    length;
    uint32_t    fec_seq;
    uint8_t     fec_index;
    uint8_t     is_ready: 1,
                is_app_limited: 1,
                unused: 6;
    uint16_t    retrans_round;
} packet_entry_t;

typedef struct _rate_sample {
    litedt_time_t   prior_mstamp;
    uint32_t        prior_delivered;
    uint32_t        delivered;
    litedt_time_t   interval_us;
    uint32_t        rtt_us;
    int             is_app_limited;
} rate_sample_t;

int  retrans_queue_init(litedt_host_t *host);

void retrans_queue_send(litedt_host_t *host);

uint32_t retrans_packet_length(litedt_host_t *host);

void retrans_queue_fini(litedt_host_t *host);

int retrans_mod_init(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, litedt_host_t *host,
                    litedt_conn_t *conn);

void retrans_mod_fini(retrans_mod_t *rtmod);

int create_packet_entry(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, uint32_t seq, uint32_t length,
                        uint32_t fec_seq, uint8_t fec_index);

void release_packet_range(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, uint32_t seq_start,
                        uint32_t seq_end, rate_sample_t *rs);

void generate_bandwidth(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, rate_sample_t *rs,
                        uint32_t newly_delivered);

void retrans_checkpoint(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, uint32_t swnd_start,
                        rate_sample_t *rs);

int retrans_time_event(retrans_mod_t *rtmod, litedt_time_t cur_time);

uint32_t retrans_list_size(retrans_mod_t *rtmod);

litedt_time_t retrans_next_event_time(retrans_mod_t *rtmod,
                                    litedt_time_t cur_time);

#endif


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Fred Perry X Le Kilt Part II
Sabrina Soormally /
/ 13 · 03 · 2019
Wear, repair, repeat...
For the second time in less than six months, Fred Perry and cult British brand Le Kilt have collaborated on a limited edition capsule collection.
The line focuses on timeless designs, the idea of using, repairing and re-wearing, passing down from generation to generation, we can expect stemming from the punk heroines of the 1970s, think Kim Rogers meets Jane Birkin.
The iconic Fred Perry shirt, polo shirt and original track jacket are all reimagined with soft panelling, rough cuts and patchwork detailing, and each piece is finished with the signature Le Kilt safety pin for the spliced aesthetic.
Le Kilt founder and creative director Sam McCoach has named the Mixed Tartan Tennis Skirt as her favourite, adapted from the original sports style, mother-of-pearl buttons and with the aesthetic of a classic kilt, she describes the piece as "hard and girly at the same time – which is everything the post-punk movement was about."
Available now at fredperry.com
Take A Stroll With Raf Simons And Fred Perry for SS19
Raf x Fred Part I….


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Sirius (1974)
Filed under: Reviews | Tags: 1974, frantisek vlácil, sirius
Director: Frantisek Vlácil
Due to the political climate of the period, Frantisek Vlácil was restricted from making feature length films throughout much of the 1970s. In response, he completed a number of short films and, in the case of Sirius, a film intended for a younger audience. Frantisek, the young protagonist, has deified his Alsatian by naming him Sirius after the "Dog Star", the brightest star visible from Earth. The metaphor serves as a means to articulate resurrection, suggesting that, while the star will disappear below the horizon in a few thousand years, it will one day return. Setting the picture during the Holocaust also reveals that this is more than a simple allegory about grief – one might refer to Sirius as a stand-in for the casualties of war, whose memory will not be lost in time. Frantisek's father is captured by the Germans and, when the occupiers begin to round up the village dogs in order to train them as part of the Nazi patrol teams, Frantisek boards Sirius out of their sight. This material is hardly what one would consider to be child-friendly – despite the charming, almost telepathic connection that Frantisek has with his dog – but what makes the film so successful is Vlácil's ability to use a childlike subjectivity in dealing with war. Frantisek is awe-struck and confused by his surroundings, only having a vague awareness about what is transpiring around him.
Valley of the Bees (1968)
June 8, 2011, 8:38 pm
Filed under: Reviews | Tags: 1968, frantisek vlácil, valley of the bees
Frantisek Vlácil's second medieval period peace, filmed back-to-back with his oft-praised Marketa Lazarová, distances itself from Vlácil's earlier efforts with an episodic, sprawling narrative. Rather than capturing a modestly scaled, intimate relationship between two people within a confined space of time, Valley of the Bees concerns the growth of Ondrej, a young Teutonic Knight, who, having been brutally assaulted by his father early in life, has developed his own violent tendencies. This violence is contrasted heavily with the religious zealotry that we see throughout the film – in prayer, two knights lay naked on a beach and allow the tide to torture their bodies, and later Ondrej's step-mother is seen flagellating herself. With a reoccurring motif of dogs, who seem to represent the most carnal, uncivil desires of man, Vlácil criticizes religious doctrine as being a thinly-veiled disguise that distances us from animals only on the uppermost surface level.
The White Dove (1960)
Filed under: Reviews | Tags: 1960, frantisek vlácil, the white dove
The first feature film of the overlooked Czech director Frantisek Vlácil, The White Dove premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1961 and would help usher in the Czech New Wave of the 1960s. Nearly wordless, the film is a simple allegory about two young children in Belgium and Prague who are united by a white dove. Flight is a motif that would follow Vlácil throughout much of his career – in Glass Skies, one of his short films, a young boy aspires to become a pilot. In Vlácil's world, it quite often serves as an image of liberation – whether from sociopolitical bindings or inner anguish – and, although uplifting in The White Dove, it can be used to taunt his heroes, such as the doomed lovers-on-the-run in The Shadow of the Fern. Most memorable about The White Dove is its cinematography – much of the film is shot behind panes of glass or even a large fence that surrounds the boy's apartment complex, juxtaposing the flightless bird with the child's own isolation.
Serpent's Poison (1981)
Filed under: Reviews | Tags: 1981, frantisek vlácil, serpent's poison
Following the death of her mother, a young girl seeks out the father she never knew in a small, blue-collar village. Initially appearing to be little more than a film about the emotional awakening of a sullen laborer, the father's alcoholism becomes the central conflict of the latter half of the film. Although such a premise is at the risk of becoming implausibly over-sensationalized (as is the case with Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend), Vlácil's stark realism knows no ends and the father ultimately sinks further and further into his demons, never to be redeemed. Most memorable about the film is the black-and-white photography of the wintry, snow-swept landscapes, serving to cruelly taunt the father's inability to thaw from his crippling disease.
The Devil's Trap (1961)
Filed under: Reviews | Tags: 1962, frantisek vlácil, the devil's trap
The first of Frantisek Vlácil's three medieval films released during the 1960s (Marketa Lazarová being the most widely known), The Devil's Trap is a stunning interpretation of the conflict between science and religion. A Jesuit priest arrives at a small, drought-ridden village in 16th-century Bohemia. Despite the conditions, however, a miller continues to prosper due to his studied observations of the land. The priest, confronting the miller, suggests that in looking at the ground he is simply a dog, whereas a man would look to the sky and be led by God. Hypnotically combining the realistic with elements of fantasy – a hollowed underground lair contains three suspicious paths – Vlácil is a remarkable stylist who uses point-of-view shots as evocatively as any of this contemporaries. In one, for example, he sways the camera back and forth to capture the point-of-view of a dancing girl racked with fear and suspicion.


On February 13, 2017, at 1115 eastern standard time, a Bombardier DHC-8, operated by Commutair as a scheduled flight from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), encountered turbulence resulting in a serious injury to the flight attendant. The airplane was not damaged and there were no other injuries.
According to the operator, the flight was in smooth conditions during the cruise portion and initial descent. The Captain stated that as he finished the before-landing checklist at 4,000 feet, approximately 50 miles south of IAD, the flight encountered a "pocket" of moderate turbulence resulting in a descent rate of about 600 feet per minute and an altitude loss of about 400 feet. The Captain called to the cabin to check on the passengers and the flight attendant reported she injured her leg and could not walk.
The flight attendant reported that she was in the final stages of preparing the cabin for landing when the turbulence occurred. Passengers assisted her until landing and paramedics met the aircraft at the gate. The flight attendant was diagnosed with a broken ankle.
an inadvertent encounter with clear air turbulence.


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Three photography exhibitions to see in London this weekend
One of the photographs from Max Miechowski's Burgess Park (2018) series, which will be on show at Copeland Gallery for Peckham 24
© Max Miechowski
The fourth edition of Peckham 24 (until 19 May; free) continues the not-for-profit organisation's aim to highlight young and emerging photographers in south London and is the ideal counter to the fair fatigue that can befall even the keenest of visitors to Photo London. This year's edition is the biggest yet, with eight exhibitions in and around Copeland Park and the Bussey Building, featuring more than 35 artists and photographers. Among the highlights will be two projects charting journeys across Europe: Michal Iwanowski's Go Home Polish chronicles a walk from Wales—where he saw the titular xenophobic graffiti—to Poland, while Tom Hunter's Le Crowbar follows a double-decker party bus/café. Other highlights will include Max Miechowski's Burgess Park celebrating the south London park, and the group exhibition Rehearsing the Real curated by the photographer Tom Lovelace, which will include a live collaborative work that will unfold over the weekend inside a dodecagon-shaped structure.
The focus at The Photographers' Gallery this weekend will probably be the Deutsche Börse prize show, with the winner having been announced yesterday. However, do not miss the small but nonetheless powerful Dialogues with Solitudes exhibition (until 2 June; tickets £5, concessions available). This is the first significant exhibition of work by the US photographer Dave Heath in the UK and is named after his 1965 book that captured the feel of post-war American, which has been compared to the folk protest songs of the era. Heath would often hang around and photograph in the Seven Arts Coffee Gallery where the beat poets would be. The beautiful and intimate black-and-white portraits in the exhibition capture Heath's subjects seemingly unawares and lost in thought, taken with a long lens and trying not to intrude on these fleeting moments. Particularly powerful are the tender images of resting soldiers in Korea in moments of repose and contemplation.
The French photographer Bénédicte Kurzen and Belgian photographer Sanne de Wilde extend the duality of their professional collaboration to their latest subject in the Land of Ibeji (until 22 June; free) at TJ Boulting. The award-winning series examines the mythology of twins in the Yoruba region of Nigeria. The area is home to around ten times more twins than any other place in the world, allowing for those who share a womb to simultaneously occupy collective sites of fascination and widespread fear. Kurzen and de Wilde have travelled to several locations where the treatment of twins varies dramatically, from a town that touts itself as the "Twin Capital of the World", to an orphanage within an area where twins are routinely killed because they are believed to possess evil powers. The photos are otherworldly and sometimes edited heavily to produce ghostly looking figures. Metaphors of balance abound in the compositions and in many, the application of two colour filters over one another serves as symbol of duality—two competing yet inextricably linked halves producing one whole.
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Japanese Workers Are Freaking Out About Getting Extra Vacation Time
By Jason Lemon On 4/3/19 at 4:55 PM EDT
World Japan Emperor Akihito Parliament
Although an extra-long vacation may sound like a great thing to many people, a lot of Japanese workers are apparently unhappy with receiving such a break.
Japan's parliament has approved a 10-day long holiday—dubbed the Golden Week—to mark the abdication of the country's Emperor Akihito. However, a survey conducted by the country's Asahi Shimbun newspaper revealed that 45 percent of respondents "felt unhappy" about the long break, British news site The Independent reported Wednesday. Only 35 percent said they "felt happy" about the government's decision.
The Japan Times also reported that the travel site Expedia had conducted its own survey, revealing that 46 percent were "not happy" about the Golden Week. Many of those respondents cited having to deal with extra chores and taking care of children as the reason.
Pedestrians walk past calligraphy with the name of Japan's new imperial era, Reiwa, displayed in the Ginza district, in Tokyo, on April 1. Japan's parliament approved a 10-day long holiday—dubbed the Golden Week—to mark the abdication of the country's Emperor Akihito. Many Japanese workers were unhappy about it. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
"With after-school care services closed, there'll be no place to leave my children," Mutsumi Goda, a 40-year-old single parent, complained to The Japan Times.
Others are simply unsure what they should do with all the extra free time.
"To be honest, I don't know how to spend the time when we are suddenly given 10 days of holidays. If you want to go traveling, it's going to be crowded everywhere and tour costs have surged." Seishu Sato, a 31-year-old finance worker, complained to Agence France-Press (AFP). "I might end up staying at my parents' place."
A disgruntled parent working in the service sector, which would continue to operate, pointed out on social media that it would be difficult to find childcare. "For parents in the service sector, the 10 days of holiday is a headache. After-school care, nurseries—everything is closed," the individual wrote on social media, according to AFP.
Takeru Jo, a 46-year-old pizzeria worker, similarly lamented that he would be unable to take days off in his line of work. "On the contrary, we'll be super-busy," he pointed out.
Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko leave the stage after a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the monarch's coronation to the throne at the National Theater, in Tokyo, on February 24. The emperor's abdication will be the first to take place in Japan in two centuries. Pool/Getty Images
Shuichiro Sekine, an executive of the labor union Haken-Union, told The Japan Times that many workers who are paid by the hour or day would now see reduced paychecks as a result of the break. "I haven't heard anybody say they welcome the holidays," Sekine said.
Emperor Akihito will abdicate the throne as of May 1, when his eldest son Naruhito will officially take the throne. The holiday approved by Japan's parliament will start on April 27 and finally conclude on May 6. The emperor's abdication will be the first to take place in Japan in two centuries.
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Australian Politics / Politics and Religion / Queer Genders
Why Sex And Religion Matter In Australian Politics (Paul Tyson)
- December 31, 2019 December 31, 2019 - Roger Green
One might wish that sex and religion be left out of politics as much as possible, but this has not been the case in Australia in recent times. Recall the same-sex marriage plebiscite and various state legislations and Education Department policies around transgender issues for school students. Consider the forthcoming religious liberty legislation promised by our Prime Minister and the furore over Israel Folau's facebook posts about homosexuality and Folau's subsequent dismissal from Rugby Australia. There is a lot of noise and controversy in the public square about sex and religion, but surprisingly little serious investigation into why sex and religion generate such heat as public issues.
Sex and religion are flash points for both the Progressive and Conservative convictions of Australians. Yet it would be a mistake to think that this maps onto party political binaries. In broad terms, our party politics is characterised by a pragmatic, secularist and functionally materialist centrism that is all about economics, security and flag waving national identity.
The left wing of this centrism (the ALP) tacks on some electorally safe progressive social agendas which are also largely conceded as socially normative by the centre right. The right wing of this centrism (the Coalition) tacks on some electorally safe anti-progressive social agendas which are also largely conceded as socially normative by the left.
Of course the Greens and One Nation are less centrist, and more decisively Progressive and Regressive. But typically speaking, Australian politics has little interest in anything genuinely Conservative. There are interesting reasons for this that we will explore below. Yet clearly sex and religion in the public square give Conservatives some oxygen, and this is what makes these issues fascinating windows onto a kind of politically repressed subconscious in the Australian psyche.
It may surprise you to learn that Plato's most famous philosophical dialogue, The Republic, has a lot to say about sex and religion, and about Conservative and Progressive understandings thereof. The Republic is something of an Odyssean journey, in ten books, where the first five books set out on a voyage trying to construct various ideal cities in speech. Interestingly, the dialogue participants realise at the turning point (smack in the middle of the dialogue) that none of their supposedly ideal cities are remotely doable or desirable.
So the final five books more or less returns our Socratic Odysseus back home after a wild goose chase (like the Trojan war), with a much higher respect for the difficulties of trying to think about the just polity both philosophically and in any manner that can actually be applied. (People who accept Karl Popper's characterization of the meaning of Plato's Republic will not recognize my description here at all. This is not the place to go into it, but as a classics scholar I have my reasons for thinking Popper got Plato almost exactly wrong.)
Early in The Republic, Socrates identifies three reasons why political communities tend to support corruption and injustice: wealth, sex and relatives. Now the very heart of the Progressive idea is that we can do better (progress society) if we reform traditional and irrational customs by reason (philosophy) and in accordance with nature (science). So Socrates, in good Progressive form, imagines rational and natural solutions to these three problems. Remove personal wealth from those who rule, outlaw marriage, subtly mandate a eugenically controlled breeding program, raise children by 'the state', and thus make the partialities, privileges, superstitions and failings of traditional family ties obsolete.
This sort of radical reform should – so Socrates seems to imagine – make a truly just society possible. But Socrates is practical enough to recognize that he will need to reform civic religion as well if such radical progress is to be enacted. A noble lie must be told about the mythic origins of the ideal polity. Children must be fully indoctrinated in this noble lie by education. By such means the new citizen will be formed to believe that the distinctive ways of their ideal city (presumably imposed by force over the top of traditional customs) are unquestionably good and divine in origin.
That is, if you want to reform a society in accordance with reason and nature, you have to re-create the norms that govern wealth, sex, the family, education, and civic religion… and you will need sophisticated skills in surveillance, propaganda, and applied force to do this.
Nomos – the Greek word for customary law – cannot be left as it is by the Progressive reformer. It is worth noting here that the first great Western proponent of conserving nomos (this, actually, is what constitutes a Conservative) is Aristophanes. The brilliant Athenian playwright was staunchly opposed to progressive reform. To Aristophanes, nomos embodied insights that logic and science simply could not grasp. Equally, logic and science only fragmented society because they are unable to establish any decisive truths about the first-order unifiers of any society, and thus they turn politics into a dirty power game with no ultimate purpose.
Aristophanes' play Clouds lampoons Socrates as someone who disturbed the traditional order of the good society with his new science, his strange theology, his tricky arguing, and his fundamental questions. This play was not uninfluential in the eventual trail and execution of Socrates. But it is important to note that Plato had the highest regard for both Aristophanes and Socrates.
Plato's work dialogues a staunchly conservative conception of nomos as sacred, with first-order Socratic questioning. Plato's corpus makes it abundantly clear that he has no truck with the sophists (Progressives) of his day, who amply demonstrated a merely logical and reductively scientific disregard for the divinely un-mappable deep things of tradition. And yet, nomos is not in itself final. For Plato, there is a transcendent reality that gives nomos its life, and which is the true measure of where nomos itself is poetically right and wrong. Here Plato is very much with Socrates.
Progressives really don't like nomos. Nomos itself is culturally 'organic' and includes traditional religious piety, the established power structures and operational norms of families and community authority, and conventions and manners generally. Such things are all beneath the sophisticated reasoning and scientific musings of the Progressive social reformer. To improve society, nomos must be made firmly subservient to philosophy and science. Yet Plato's Socrates (in The Republic) finds that when he tries to imagine what an ideal rational and natural society would be like it is so incompatible with normal human values and meanings as to be, at best, a farce. Take sex, for example.
The thing that is distinctively human about human sexuality is its embedding in nomos (i.e. marriage, family, religion). If you try and treat human sexuality and familial structures only according to reason or nature, then the actual human texture of sexuality becomes unrecognizable. We do not 'do' sex like dogs. It is not simply a natural instinctive behaviour. And we do not 'do' sex like calculating scientists or industrialists — the rational breeding of humans, the monetizing of sex, and the professionalized rational rearing of children are all erotic distortions and profoundly relationally abusive.
You cannot instinctively 'downgrade' human eros to the level of a non-culturally situated animal. Neither can you rationally or instrumentally 'upgrade' human eros by state controlled eugenics, or via any financialized logic. But – coming back to the present – both this downgrading and this upgrading is precisely what Progressive reformers of traditional family norms aspire to.
The 1960s liberation of sexuality from the long standing cultural norms of (in our culture) Christian marriage, celebrated human sexuality as a merely natural, instinctive and hedonistic matter. Yet trying to pretend that it is simply natural and enlightened to be promiscuous, adulterous and experimental – provided, of course, you are responsible about not getting pregnant or passing STDs around – is, frankly, wishful thinking. Such behaviour is emotionally destructive and relationally damaging because we are not simply dogs or frogs.
In former Eastern-block countries, rationally upgraded child rearing was heavily imposed. The state – in long day care – would look after your children as soon as they were weened so that women could be equals with men as productive economic contributors to society, and get back to work. In this way children could be properly formed in the state ideology from the cradle. And, of course, we know about eugenics. In the early 20th century it was a policy truism, based on good eugenic science, that Australian Aborigines as a racially backward sub-group were going to die out, so that is why we took 'half-casts' (who, because they were partly White, might survive if they were incorporated into White Australia) from their families. Nazi human breeding, sterilization and extermination programs also horrifyingly illustrate where this 'upgrading' Progressive approach to human sexuality can take us.
By pointing out the 'rational' and 'natural' horrors that Progressive sexual reform agendas can be guilty of, I do not mean to imply that traditional nomoi should never be reformed. Indeed, it is a feature of nomos that it is not static, but undergoes change over time such that a great variety of specific nomoi result in different human societies, reflecting different traditions, meaning narratives, family structures and social organizations. But these are strangely organic norms, strangely divinely given norms, at the same time as being definitely cultural and poetically crafted.
Nomos defies any strict reduction to mere nature, or any clear justification in pure calculative reason. Human eros needs its grounding in nomos to be human so we can postulate radical social engineering projects that progress sexuality, but these will be destructive if they are just the product of logic and nature. Yet, as Socrates notes, education (the formation of the young in the desired civic mythos, as determined by the reformers) is the most important social engineering tool for Progressive reform.
If you have been educated in Australian since the 1960s, you will have been taught that reason and nature are opposed to the Western and Christian social, sexual and religious traditions that largely defined the respectable nomos of Conservative Australian society up until the 1960s. After the progressive sexual revolution we have now powered out of the regressive and oppressive customary roles and values of our past, though there can be no complacency as all those backward, irrational and anti-natural customs still seem to reside in the dark cultural underbelly of Australian life. Thus our education is vigilantly progressive.
The song our education institutions sing in a thousand subtle and a hundred explicit melodies, is that Progressive reform is good for us, and traditional Christian Conservativism is a bane. I am not making this up. Not only was I educated in Australia after the 1960s, but I have spent all my adult life being a secondary school teacher and a university academic, so I am very familiar with the strongly Progressive reform agendas of our education institutions.
Further, since the 1980s, we have had a political culture of relentless economic reform such that the very idea of preserving anything traditional is deemed obviously nostalgic, regressive and doomed. And, of course, consumerism has come on in leaps and bounds, resulting in what Shoshana Zuboff describes as surveillance capitalism, where google and facebook algorithmically form us to be motivated by the purely 'natural' primal drivers of fear and greed, 24/7.
Recreating humanity with powerful mass surveillance and influence IT tools priming our fears and desires in order to harvest our finances on one hand, and a progressive education reform agenda on the other hand, means that traditional nomos is pretty well pushed under in the swift and powerful currents of a very pragmatic and materialist liquid modernity. Conservatives – those trying to preserve their humanity as embedded in any form of traditional nomos – are drowning in the flood and feel unable to replicate their Conservative values and beliefs in their own children.
This is where sex and religion in Australian politics come in. On most matters of sexual liberalism, the ALP and the Coalition are pretty well on the same page. On most matters that concern the secular isolation of religion to the realm of private belief totally separated from pragmatic econometric public life, it is hard to distinguish between the Coalition and the ALP. On most matters of global, growth oriented economic reform, the Coalition and the ALP are pretty well on the same page.
On most matters of environment, immigration and foreign policy, despite the rhetoric, it is very hard to see any substantive policy differences in our 'two' political power blocks. On matters of education, Progressive State Education Departments govern all child-forming educational institutions, regardless of who is in power. So actually, politics itself has almost no direct interest in the manner in which more traditional nomos oriented Conservatives feel their very way of life is being suffocated, ostracised and eroded. But these unheard concerns come to the surface in any legislation concerned with sex and religion.
So sex and religion in Australia are not really about sex and religion. They are about the passage of relentlessly reforming rational and naturalistic Progress, replacing the old religiously inflected traditional Nomos. Conservativism is not actually politically represented in Australia, so Conservatives tend to rally around special interest lobby groups concerned chiefly with sex and religion.
The Coalition may look 'conservative' in comparison with an explicitly progressive ALP or Green party, but the differences are largely cosmetic, rather than substantive. Politics itself is relentlessly reforming, relentlessly social engineering, relentlessly tied to the 'rational' and 'naturalistic' game of Pubic Relations crafted electoral success, at the expense of any substantive commitment to traditional nomos.
Sex and religion matter in Australian politics because they are almost the only places where Conservative concerns gain some sort of public visibility in our polity. But one would be mistaken if one thought that only fundamentalist white male Christians are Conservatives. Anyone who respects nomos – be they Catholic, Islamic, Pentecostal, Indigenous, or Atheist – is going to be troubled by the relentless Progressive reform pressure being continuously applied to the human fabric of Australian society. And there are two pretty simple sociological reasons for this concern: anomia and the iron cage of instrumental rationality.
Nomos is breaking down, leaving people deeply disorientated about the meaning of their existence, and their role, vocation and station in life. Sociologists call this anomia, and it is a function of setting consumer society up to be uncompromisingly individualistic and competitively self-seeking. And then the rational management of human affairs produces the massive impersonal bureaucracies and policy machinery of the modern state, and the entirely instrumental commercial superpowers of the mass media IT and communications world. This crushes the human spirit that needs the organic, transcendently open framework of meaning that reason, science and technology cannot give us.
Conservatives with any religious faith tend to hold that the divine Logos has breathed life into the traditional nomos – however subject to human frailty, contingent distortion, and sinful corruption nomos genuinely is – such that religion and right social order should maintain some sort of natural linkages. This was true in Australia up until the 1970s. But 1965 to 1975 was the decade in which the Baby Boomers left the main-line churches in their droves. Before James Bond, sex and religion were organically embedded in a Christian nomos in mainstream Australia.
But the triumph of Progressive attitudes to 'reason' and 'nature', to the displacement of any traditional culturally embedded attitudes to transcendence, also came into its own in the 1970s via our universities and education departments. So the culturally Christian nomos of a tacitly moral realist transcendently overshadowed understanding of right and wrong and of the common good has more or less evaporated from our mainstream politics. But this does not mean that we have no Conservatives any more in the Australian polity, though it does mean that Conservatives have no political representation. Hence, sex and religion are now public issues of astonishing heat but very little light.
Actually, sex and religion are not really about sex and religion. They are about the displacement of a Conservative regard for nomos in the Australian polity and the resultant anomia and spirit crushing implications of that displacement. The anxiety, sense of loss in high meaning horizons, and perplexed uncertainty about what a transcendently referenced common good could actually now be, fuels the drive for our politicians to find enemies external to our Progressive pragmatic materialism on which to pin this deep spiritual insecurity.
Could it be that wealth, security and national identity policy agendas are actually means of bypassing the anomic and soul destroying dynamics of Progressive mainstream in both political party blocks? Maybe (reactively) Conservativism exerts a larger subliminal force on Australian politics than we are prepared to acknowledge?
Sex and religion in public discourse generate more heat than light because it is only in this context that we can even mis-recognise nomos as a real feature of the Australian polity. But sex and religion are not nomos itself (the mistake of 'Conservative' lobby groups). For our public discourse mis-recognizes sex and religion too. Sex as a merely natural or contractually and self-determinedly rational 'thing' that we can legislate about, and religion as discretely subjective personal beliefs, neatly isolated from public norms and common meanings that we can legislatively protect, are not the sex and religion of nomos. In reality, we have subjugated Nomos to the reforming Progressive principles of Secular Reason, Materialist Nature and Pragmatic Power, and this subjugation now defines Australia's political, educational and commercial environments. We have almost lost the ability to identify anything of nomos by its Conservative names. Progressives may rejoice in this but perhaps Plato is right. Perhaps the divine aspects of nomoscannot be reduced to the progressive reform agendas of merely rational and naturalistic reason. And perhaps, contra Popper, the liberal pragmatic materialist reformation of society is not going to produce freedom, but rather a soul-crushing, technologically-enabled tyranny the likes of which we have never seen before.
Sex and religion in the public square in Australia are but the twin visible tips of the nomos iceberg. There are very significant matters about the meaning of being human and the nature of political life that lie underneath that visible surface. Whether we can even speak of nomos anymore will determine if we can articulate why sex and religion themselves are politically important to us. If the progressive reform in Australian society has been so effective as to render nomos itself unsayable, then it has passed out of political deliberation, and all we will be left with is warring factional interest groups pressuring our politicians to construct laws to suit their own relational and meaning constructs. Whether speech and deliberative politics for the common good itself would be meaningful under such circumstances does not seem self-evident to me.
Dr Paul Tyson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. E p.tyson@uq.edu.au
"No Women Amongst Us" – Bare Life, Violence, And Gender in Byzantium (Jared Lacy)
Is Theological Education Becoming Post-Christian? (Roger Green)


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G. Willi-Food International (WILC) Downgraded From Buy to Hold
G. Willi-Food International (WILC) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from Buy to Hold with a ratings score of C.
TheStreet Quant Ratings
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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- G. Willi-Food International (WILC - Get Report) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from Buy to Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
"We rate G WILLI-FOOD INTL LTD (WILC) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed, some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and poor profit margins."
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
WILC's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.00 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with this, the company maintains a quick ratio of 12.25, which clearly demonstrates the ability to cover short-term cash needs.
Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 62.71% to $2.41 million when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of 37.77%.
G WILLI-FOOD INTL LTD has experienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. This company has not demonstrated a clear trend in earnings over the past 2 years, making it difficult to accurately predict earnings for the coming year. During the past fiscal year, G WILLI-FOOD INTL LTD increased its bottom line by earning $0.70 versus $0.50 in the prior year.
The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Food & Staples Retailing industry and the overall market, G WILLI-FOOD INTL LTD's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500.
The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Food & Staples Retailing industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 54.5% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $2.52 million to $1.14 million.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: WILC Ratings Report


Hampshire Constabulary plans to axe 1,400 posts - 20 percent of its workforce - including police officers.
The force is reducing its budget by £70m (25 percent) between 2011 and 2015. The job losses will see redundancies, positions left unfilled, redeployments and voluntary redundancies.
The force, which employs about 6,700 staff, also plans to share and sell buildings and increase collaboration with other forces, especially Thames Valley.
It has already approved plans to scrap its spotter plane and instead share two helicopters with the Sussex and Surrey forces. Plans for a new headquarters were put on hold amid the government cuts.
The plan would see the force restructured with locally-based PCSOs, police officers, special constables and police staff working to a local policing area based around council boundaries.


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February in American History
George Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Iwo Jima, and More
During the first half of this article, readers learned about some of the significant events for the early part of the month. The end of the French and Indian War, the conclusion to the heroic Great Race of Mercy, and the courage demonstrated by the participants of the Greensboro Sit-Ins are just a few of the memories seen in American history for February.
For the second half of the month, readers will reflect on the births of George Washington and Susan B. Anthony, the establishment of Judicial Review in the first major US Supreme Court case, the election of the first African-American US Senator, and the iconic flag-raising on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, among others.
Birth of a Movement: Women's Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony is born in Adams, Massachusetts. One of the most prominent suffrage activists and social reformers of the 19th century, she began to collect anti-slavery petitions as early as age 17. Before and during the Civil War, she was very active in the anti-slavery movement. She also assisted the Women's Loyal National League in collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of abolition.
In 1869, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. This occurred following the introduction of the 15th Amendment, which Anthony and Stanton opposed, unless it included the right for women to vote. In 1872, Anthony cast her first vote, defying the US suffrage law, and was fined $100, which she refused to pay. Women's suffrage would finally be added to the US Constitution in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. Anthony passed away on March 13, 1906.
Dawn of Submarine Warfare
The HL Hunley becomes the first submarine to sink a ship. Designed by Horace L. Hunley, this was a Confederate submarine, operated by a hand-cranked propeller. The Civil War is sometimes said to be the dawn of modern warfare, as it introduced various concepts which were later improved during the world wars.
Some of these include the submarine, repeating rifle, Gatling gun, ironclad ship, and others. After finding its target – the USS Housatonic – in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, the Hunley attacked. Operated by eight men, the Hunley sank the Housatonic, but also sank itself in the process, being too close to the blast radius, killing all on board.
President's Day became official when US Congress passed the Uniform Federal Holidays Act. Celebration of the day, however, is dated back to the 1880s, in celebration of George Washington's birthday. While many of our presidents are barely recognized by most of the American populace, all of them, no matter how large their role, have made some kind of impact on our nation's history. From Washington to Trump, all of our presidents deserve a decent respect for holding the highest God-appointed office in the world.
George Washington is born near Pope's Creek, Virginia. Gaining military recognition during the French and Indian War, here he participated in several of the conflict's notable operations, including the Battle of Jumonville Glen and the Braddock Expedition. At the start of the American Revolution, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from May 10 – June 15, 1775, and then as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army from 1775-1783.
During this time, he experienced much loss, but became renowned for his courage and leadership. He served as president from 1789-1797, and unaffiliated himself with political parties, in an effort to prevent division of the nation. Washington was unanimously elected president and has been renowned as the "Father of the Country." He passed away on December 14, 1799.
Jefferson Davis and the Start Of The Civil War
Jefferson Davis becomes the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Fairview, Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a representative from Mississippi in the US House of Representatives from 1845-1846; Secretary of War from 1853-1857; and US Senator from Mississippi from 1857-1861. Davis also fought in the Mexican-American War, leading a charge at the Battle of Monterrey.
Following the Civil War, he was captured by US troops and imprisoned for several years, where he awaited a trial that never occurred. After his release from prison, he wrote several memoirs, which were later combined and entitled, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." A planter and pro-slavery advocate, Davis was outspokenly pro-slavery before the Civil War. After the war, he stated that slavery "was in no wise the cause of the conflict, but only an incident." Davis passed away on December 6, 1889.
US Flag Raised, Iwo Jima
The US flag is raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. This soon became one of the most iconic photographs of all time, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Photography. The Battle of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945, and lasted five weeks. Over 30,000 US Marines fought in the battle against a Japanese force numbering roughly 22,000.
Six Marines would participate in the original flag-raising. The Stars and Stripes waving above the island provided hope that the long-awaited ending to the largest conflict in human history could possibly be nearing its end. In 1954, the Marine Corps Memorial, featuring the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, was dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review
The US Supreme Court establishes Judicial Review in Marbury v. Madison. The issue began when President John Adams, just two days before the end of his term in 1801, appointed several dozen Federalist judges. The Senate confirmed the judges, but a few of them were not commissioned by the start of Thomas Jefferson's presidency. One of them – William Marbury – filed a lawsuit.
Jefferson stated that the judges should have been appointed sooner, and his Secretary of State – James Madison – took on Marbury in court. This was the first major decision by the US Supreme Court, and has been considered one of the most important, as the court ruled that they had the power to declare a law unconstitutional. The court ruled that Madison was wrong in failing to deliver Marbury's commission, but that Marbury could solve the issue via a Writ of Mandamus.
Hiram Rhodes Elected to the US Senate
Hiram Rhodes Revels becomes the first African-American US Senator. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Revels was a member of the Republican Party, and represented Mississippi from 1870-1871. During the Civil War, he helped organize two Black regiments, and fought at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863.
Revels was also a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and preached throughout the Midwest. In 1845, he was arrested in Missouri for preaching to African-Americans. Prior to serving in the US Senate, Revels served in the Mississippi State Senate. He passed away on January 16, 1901.
Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union Address
Abraham Lincoln delivers his Cooper Union Address in New York City. Some claimed this is the oration which won Lincoln the presidency. During the speech, Lincoln expresses his belief that slavery should not be allowed to expand into the western territories. The beliefs of the founders echoed this position.
One memorable excerpt, addressing Southern Democrats, reads, "But you say you are conservative – eminently conservative – while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to and contend with the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by 'our fathers who framed the government under which we live.' while you, with one accord, reject, scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new."
End of The Gulf War
The Gulf War comes to an end. Beginning on August 2, 1990, this conflict consisted of the largest Allied coalition since World War II. When Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait to annex the nation for oil fields, many forces united, leaving Hussein and his forces virtually alone.
Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, which initiated the American phase of the war. On February 28, 1991, the conflict ended in a significant Coalition victory. The Gulf War was also the first to be featured on live television during combat.
Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Oscar. Known best for her role as Mammy in "Gone With the Wind," McDaniel starred in numerous other films, and also became the first African-American female to sing on the radio. Her Oscar won in 1940 was for Best Supporting Actress.
She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1975, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame inducted her into their hall of fame. According to the Hollywood Walk of Fame's website, McDaniel's father fought in the Civil War with the 122nd USCT. She passed away on October 26, 1952.
Remembering February
The month of February is one filled with heroism. We see the heroic advancements of many African-Americans, including Hiram Rhodes Revels, Hattie McDaniel, and many others. We observe the birthdays of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony.
Likewise, we are reminded of the courage demonstrated by US Marines on Iwo Jima, when they rose the banner of freedom to shine across the Pacific. America is the story of us, amid all of our struggles and successes, as February shows beyond the shadow of a doubt. May we never forget our heritage.
Birds of Prey: Shot Down by Wokeness
A Tribute to Elvis Presley's Oral Biographer: George Klein
Garrett Smith is a writer for NRN and recent graduate from Western Carolina University. He is a history major with a minor in political science. As a Conservative, Smith believes that the Left has taken over America's education system, which means they now control its history. To make their fellow Americans feel guilty, they often invoke a feeling of "American Shame" in students, indoctrinating them with radical, un-American ideas. It is Smith's goal to teach Americans the true history of America, and along with this, use its history to explain what makes us great.
Today In History Spotlights Jan. 16, 1777, Prohibition Begins in the United States
Today In History Spotlights Jan. 15, 1943, The Dedication of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia
Today In History Spotlights Jan. 14, 1943, Casablanca Conference Begins
Today In History Spotlights Jan. 13, 1966, Robert C. Weaver Becomes First African-American Cabinet Member


Since 1985, the ASH Scholar Award has helped ease the transition between training and the establishment of an independent career in hematology research by providing partial salary or other support during that critical period. The award offers three funding opportunities for hematology researchers.
Fellow Scholar Award: Applicants must be in mentored, postdoctoral training positions with five or fewer years of research experience following completion of their terminal degree.
Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award: Applicants must be in mentored, postdoctoral training positions, possess five to eight years of research experience following completion of their terminal degree, and have available no more than $150,000 annually in research funding.
Junior Faculty Scholar Award: Applicants must have between eight and 13 years of research experience following completion of their terminal degree. Applicants who hold independent faculty level positions must apply for the Junior Faculty Award.
SelectEligibility Requirements Fellow Scholar AwardFellow to Faculty Scholar AwardJunior Faculty Scholar AwardApplication ProcessEvaluation, Selection, and NotificationTerms and Conditions Questions?
Scholar Award eligibility is evaluated as of the date of the letter of intent deadline.
Be a citizen of or hold a visa in the United States or Canada, and plan to conduct his/her research within the U.S. or Canada.
Be an ASH member in good standing at the time of the letter of intent deadline and plan to maintain membership for the duration of the award term. Not an ASH member yet? Take the first step. Please note that your membership application may be pending at the application deadline but must be approved by the award activation date.
Have confirmation from the applicant's institution that at least 75 percent of the applicant's full-time professional effort is devoted to research.
If you have successfully competed for a substantial award (e.g. NIH R01 or equivalent grant) as the PI or co-PI before the application (not LOI) deadline, you are no longer eligible for the Scholar Award. For guidance on what constitutes the scope of a substantial award, see the descriptions of such awards in the NIH Early Stage Investigator (ESI) program.
Additional requirements vary based on the award.
Provides up to $100,000 over a two- to three-year period in equal quarterly payments over the award term.
The Fellow Scholar Award is intended for individuals preparing for academic careers.
Applicants must be in mentored, postdoctoral training positions to be eligible to apply for a Scholar Award.
MD/DO applicants should have more than three years (36 months) and five or fewer years (60 months) of research experience after completion of their MD/DO (including research performed during fellowship but excluding clinical fellowship time).
MD/DO applicants with three or fewer years (36 months) of research experience (inclusive of fellowship research time) should consider applying for the senior investigator Research Training Award for Fellows.
PhD or MD/DO-PhD applicants must have five or fewer years (60 months) of research experience after completion of their terminal degree. (including research performed during fellowship but excluding clinical fellowship time).
Applicants who hold independent faculty level positions (Assistant Professor, or equivalent – which may be indicated by having achieved the appointment after an external search and/or if the individual has voting rights as a member of the faculty) must apply for the Junior Faculty Award, regardless of research experience. Individuals serving as an 'acting' faculty member may be excluded from this requirement.
Provides up to $125,000 over a two- to three-year period in equal quarterly payments over the award term.
The Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award is a new award intended for individuals preparing to compete for independent faculty-level positions in the next 24-36 months.
Applicants must be in mentored, postdoctoral training positions to be eligible to apply for a Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award.
MD/DO, PhD or MD/DO-PhD applicants must have more than five years (60 months) and eight or fewer years (96 months) of research experience after completion of their terminal degree (including research performed during fellowship but excluding clinical fellowship time).
At the time of award activation, applicants must have available no more than $150,000 annually in research funding, not including the applicant's salary/fringe or funding from within the institution.
Applicants that have completed a Fellow Scholar Award but have five or fewer years (60 months) research experience are eligible to apply for the Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award.
Additionally, applicants who are found to be ineligible for the Fellow to Faculty award might be moved to the Junior Faculty category.
Provides up to $150,000 over a two- to three-year period in equal quarterly payments over the award term.
MD/DO, PhD or MD/DO-PhD applicants must have more than eight years (96 months) and 13 or fewer years (156 months) of research experience after completion of their terminal degree (including research performed during fellowship but excluding clinical fellowship time).
Applicants with more than 5 years (60 months) and eight or fewer years (96 months) of research experience who have already received, or do not meet the eligibility requirements for the Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award, are eligible to apply for the Junior Faculty Scholar Award.
An individual cannot hold concurrent ASH awards.
Fellow to Faculty applicants will need to submit the Supplemental Budget Form. Please see the instruction in the online award system.
ASH will perform a preliminary review of these materials to confirm eligibility and the appropriateness of the selected research category. If additional information is required, ASH staff will contact the applicant prior to June.
Eligible applicants will be invited in early June to submit the full application.
The review of the Scholar Award applications is based on the scientific merit and quality of the applicant. However, in fairness to programmatic balance, no more than two awards will be granted per category (basic research fellow, basic research junior faculty, clinical/translational fellow, clinical/translational junior faculty) per medical school. For this purpose, ASH defines medical school so that it encompasses all sub-institutions (e.g., University of Washington would include the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Children's Hospital, etc.).
Individuals selected to receive this award will be notified in mid- to late-November, with the award commencing in July of the following year.
In the event the scholar transfers to another institution during the funding period, continuation of the funding at the new institution may be allowed with prior approval from ASH. To obtain permission, the scholar must make a request in writing to the Society before the transfer occurs.
Scholars may request a reallocation of funds from one expense category to another by submitting the request in writing to the Treasurer at the Society's headquarters. This written request must specify the dollar amount, which categories are impacted, and a justification as to why this change is necessary.
All transfer and/or reallocation requests must be sent to awards@hematology.org. ASH staff will work with the ASH Treasurer to make final determinations.
Please contact awards@hematology.org if you need to change primary mentors. This must be approved by the Awards Committee chair.
Scholar Award recipients are required to submit to ASH an end of year evaluation form and a current biosketch.
The evaluation form is a series of short questions. The form should be accompanied by a letter from a division head or department chair requesting second year funding. It should also provide assurances that the scholar's work has progressed and that both appropriate facilities and the mentor will continue to be available.
Scholars with two-year awards will need to submit an evaluation form at the end of the first year of their award. Scholars whose award is spread over three years should submit an evaluation at the end of both the first and second year.
Failure to submit the evaluation report, including the letter, after the first and/or second year will render the scholar ineligible for the second or third year of funding.
A final written report (not to exceed four pages) is expected within 60 days of the end of the award period.
Scholar Award recipients, along with the financial officers from their institutions, must also submit a financial report detailing how the funds were used over the two- or three-year period. This report must be submitted within 60 days of the end of the award period.
Both final reports must be sent to awards@hematology.org.
For questions about the ASH Scholar Award, please contact awards@hematology.org.
ASH Scholar Awards are limited to a maximum of $100,000 for Fellow Scholars, $125,000 for the new Fellow to Faculty Scholars, and $150,000 for Junior Faculty Scholars, to be spread evenly over the two- to three-year period of the award.
Answers to frequently asked questions about the Scholar Award.