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This Is Satan's Next Step for America
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Rodney Howard-Browne: France Mourns Loss of Notre Dame but Is on Brink of Revival
6:00AM EDT 4/25/2019	 Stephen Strang
Rodney Howard-Browne ministered in Reykjavik, Iceland, during his Europe Ablaze Tour. (Revival Ministries International)
Right now, France mourns the loss of its Notre Dame Cathedral, but evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne says the nation is on the brink of a spiritual awakening. In his last ministry trip to France, he saw the church striving to win souls—including those of Muslim refugees. And the fruit has been supernatural.
If you've been reading my Strang Reports lately, you know I've been talking about Howard-Browne and his Europe Ablaze Tour. Yesterday, Howard-Browne shared the incredible move of the Spirit in Budapest, Hungary, through Faith Church. That church, he says, singlehandedly kicked George Soros out of Hungary and has been experiencing nonstop revival for 20 years.
Today, I want to share my next interview with Howard-Browne on my "Strang Report" podcast. Click here to listen to it or scroll down. Howard-Browne tells me that despite the governmental upheaval in France right now, the nation sits on the edge of a revival.
"I just spoke to them and said, 'Look, you have to pray,'" he says. "'Then, everybody, ask God what you can do and then focus on the souls.' And even with many of the refugees that are coming, a lot of them are not radical Islamists. A lot of them have been displaced. Yes, there's a group of people with another agenda, but I said, 'Look, if you go in there with the love of God—don't mention Muhammed, don't talk about Islam—just talk about Jesus.' So that's what many are doing, and they've seen great results. Many people have been saved. So I think France is sitting on the brink of what I would call an awakening, a spiritual awakening."
Overall, Howard-Browne sees a greater hunger for revival in Eastern Europe, but sadly, he has found that many Christians in the U.K. struggle with apathy.
"In the U.K, I found pockets of people who were on fire, but I found an apathy among the Christians of the U.K.," he says. "But Dublin was amazing. The hunger of the Irish—that blew me away. I was just shocked. I think we had over 600 at the altar call that night, and the fire of God fell in Ireland. It was awesome."
Howard-Browne says he encountered apathy in England, but God still moved mightily while he was ministering in London. In fact, he says the Lord gave him a special word for Britain.
What God Taught Rodney Howard-Browne When His Daughter Died on Christmas Day
Evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne: Holy Spirit Called Me to America at 5 Years Old
"We were in London, right in the center of London—a beautiful venue—and the power of God just hit," he tells me. "I just sat and wept over London, and the Lord gave me a prophetic word and said, 'England, your time is not finished. It's not done' and that God would send a wave that would sweep across England and that the Brits would rise up, that it would be a whole new generation of people who are not shackled with religion and tradition. They would think outside the box, and the masses were going to be reached."
Howard-Browne also visited Wales during his revival tour. You may remember that Wales experienced a powerful move of God's Spirit in the early 1900s. Howard-Browne says the nation still has vestiges of that revival, but something greater is also coming. This move may not look how people expect, though.
"The Lord is not stuck in a box regarding how He moves or how He moved in 1904," he says. "I think there's just another generation, and God is so into reaching a generation that's hungry. As the Scripture says, 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.' God's looking for people to whom He can show Himself strong. So there's no doubt in my mind that—as I said that night in Wales when I preached—that there's a group of people who will cry out, and God will visit them. And there will be a wind that will blow across Wales, and the fire of God is going to shake Wales one more time."
I'm happy to hear that God is not done with His people in Europe. Howard-Browne is convinced God will shake the United Kingdom again, but the window is limited. So let's cry out for our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic, that they would experience a fresh move of God.
Tomorrow, I'll share my final interview with Howard-Browne about his Europe Ablaze Tour. To hear today's interview, click the podcast below!
Related topics: France | Paris | Podcast | Strang Report
The Final Rapture


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By Craig CalcaterraJul 17, 2019, 6:42 AM EDT
Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Phillies 9, Dodgers 8: Bryce Harper had a Big Hero game, knocking in five runs including a walkoff two-run double to bring the Phillies back from an 8-6 deficit in the bottom of the ninth. That 8-6 was the result of them blowing a one-run lead in the top of the ninth thanks to Matt Beaty hitting a pinch-hit three-run homer. That Beaty homer was the kind of thing that usually demoralizes a a team — and fans of a team — that is scuffling like the Phillies are. And it seemed to demoralize at least Philly pitcher Hector Neris who, right after giving up that homer, hit David Freese high in the back with a 95 m.p.h. fastball, causing him and his manager to be ejected and causing Phillies Twitter to tear its hair out.
Seeing this, I tweeted "Imagine being a Phillies fan," less as mocking than as commiseration in the misery a rooting interest can put a fan through sometimes. At first there was a lot of nodding along with that. Then, a few minutes later, when Scott Kingery drove in one run and then Harper hit his walkoff double, I was met with a bunch of mocking from Phillies fans. This made me realize that I had forgotten the number one rule of Phillies fandom: "we can hate our team and our plight for months on-end, but don't ANYONE ELSE dare do so." Which, hey, my bad. My bad for both being wrong about that homer effectively ending the game and my bad for 2008 being a long time ago and having, over that time, forgotten how happy Phillies fans roll.
Anyway, here's Harper playing the hero:
Angels 7, Astros 2: Last week Jake Marisnick of the Astros barreled over Jonathan Lucroy of the Angels, injuring him pretty badly and earning a suspension to boot. Last night Angels pitcher Noe Ramirez retaliated by hitting Marisnick with a pitch in the sixth inning:
The pitch was higher up the ladder than you ever wanna see such things — and I am long on recored not liking any instance of pitchers intentionally throwing at hitters no matter the putative justification — but Marisnick didn't seem to take issue with it, likely knowing it was coming. His teammates and manager, however, were livid about it after the game. Here's A.J. Hinch:
"Wasn't everybody expecting something to happen to Jake tonight?' I mean, the entire industry was probably expecting it. Our guy got suspended for an unintentional act, and they got a free shot. I feel bad for players nowadays. There's a lot of gray area in what to do . . . Sometimes you can retaliate, like tonight. They're going to get away with it, unless he gets suspended. Sometimes you can't, and you get thrown out of the game for backup sliders that hit guys. It's a confusing time. Either the players govern the players on the field like it's always been or we legislate it to where none of this crap happens. They got a free shot at him with no warning, with no ejection . . . We'll see if there's discipline; and without discipline, there's not going to be any issue doing it the next time. So if retaliations are in, cool. We're well aware."
I'm not sure I understand Hinch (a) knowing full well well that retaliation was coming; but (b) being mad at said retaliation; while (c) strongly implying that, if Ramirez is not punished, the Astros will, in turn, retaliate.
Baseball is a friggin' Ouroboros of non-logic when it comes to this stuff and the only way you can parse it is to understand that everyone thinks it's fine when they do crap but that it's an affront when the guys in an other color shirt do crap, even if they all couch it in terms of justice and fairness and the false premise that there are rules to this stuff beyond those governed by anger and grievance. Whatever. Hinch can blow off steam I suppose and when smart guys blow off steam they often pretend they're dropping logic instead of simply beefing. We've all been there.
As for the game, Albert Pujols hit a bases-loaded and bases-clearing double as the Angels plated six runs in the first inning and it was never really a game after that. Los Angeles remains unbeaten in five games since the All-Star break.
Yankees 8, Rays 3: The Rays carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth and that's when the wheels fell off, with Aaron Judge hitting a two-run homer to give the Yankees the lead and then Didi Gregorius hitting a friggin' grand slam to put the game out of reach. Edwin Encarnación and DJ LeMahieu each went deep for the Bombers as well. Earlier benches cleared when CC Sabathia and Avisail García jawed at one another following a strikeout. The entire thing seemed to based on each guy not liking that the other one was looking at them which, my God, ballplayers can be exhausting about this crap sometimes.
Nationals 8, Orioles 1: Juan Soto and Matt Adams homered and rookie starter Austin Voth, just recalled from the minors before the game, allowed one run and four hits over six innings. He had been at Double-A Harrisburg so he was probably used to the general quality of the Orioles lineup.
Indians 8, Tigers 0: Four Indians relievers combined to toss a one-hit shutout, facing only one batter above the minimum. All Detroit got was a leadoff walk and a fifth inning ground ball single. Otherwise they could've sent dogs wearing pants or one kid sitting on another kid's shoulders wearing a trenchcoat up to the plate and got the same results. Oscar Mercado homered for the third time in two nights and Tyler Naquin went deep again for Cleveland. Oh, there was a rain delay too. Check this out:
This may be the darkest sky I've ever seen 😳 pic.twitter.com/Q1IO1quPD2
— Mandy Bell (@MandyBell02) July 17, 2019
Surrender Dorothy.
Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 4: Andrew Cashner's Boston debut went less-than-swimmingly as he gave up six runs — five earned — on eight hits in five frames. Gave up a couple of homers, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch on a third strike that allowed a batter to reach too. Teoscar Hernández hit a three-run shot, Justin Smoak went deep as well and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a single, double and a triple for Toronto. Boston falls 10 games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East.
Marlins 12, Padres 7: Brian Anderson hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Garrett Cooper went deep as well, Harold Ramirez had two doubles and drove two in, and Starlin Castro hit a bases-loaded triple. Miami had a 7-3 lead early and an 11-3 lead after six. The Padres mounted a comeback but it fell short. It was San Diego's fourth straight loss.
Diamondbacks 9, Rangers 2: Rookie Alex Young allowed one run while pitching into the sixth to go to 3-0 on the year. In doing so his ERA actually went up from 0.68 to 0.96. That's what happens when you only have four games under your belt I guess. Ketel Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Ildemaro Vargas each drove in a pair of runs for the Dbacks, who knocked the heretofore rolling Lance Lynn around a bit. The Snakes have won five of seven.
Cubs 4, Reds 3: Kris Bryant's sixth inning homer tied it at three and sent it to extras and Kyle Schwarber's walkoff blast in the bottom of the tenth ended it. Although I suppose the word "blast" here is subjective. It was a popup that carried and just barely made it into the basket above the ivy in left center:
Not to take anything away from Schwardber — they all count, of course — but one wonders if that one goes out with a ball from 2015 instead of 2019.
Brewers 13, Braves 1: Christian Yelich hit a grand slam and Keston Hiura and Lorenzo Cain each hit solo home runs as the Brewers just piled on the runs against the Braves. They didn't need to, as Brandon Woodruff allowed only one run while working into the seventh, but better safe than sorry. The 12-run loss was the Braves' worst of the season.
Mets 3, Twins 2: Michael Conforto went 4-for-4 and drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth. Steven Matz was on a pitch count and left after four innings but six Mets relievers combined to allow only three hits in five shutout innings to end the game. It got tense in the ninth when Edwin Díaz faced a bases-loaded jam and Nelson Cruz at the plate but Díaz retired Cruz. Three wins in a row for the Mets. When's the parade?
Royals 11, White Sox 0: Glenn Sparkman — Glenn Sparkman? — sure, Glenn Sparkman tossed a five-hit complete game shutout for the Royals. It was the first complete game shutout by a Royals pitcher in over two years. Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier each had three hits and a homer. The Royals have won four of five. The White Sox are 0-5 since the All-Star break.
Pirates 3, Cardinals 1: A pitchers duel between Darío Agrazal and Jack Flaherty made it a 1-1 game entering the ninth — Flaherty actually drove in the Cards' lone run himself — but the Buccos rallied. It wasn't an explosive rally, as it was fueled by a plunking, a couple of singles, a walk and a fielder's choice, but Pittsburgh only needed one run and got two so it was just as useful a rally as one fueled by doubles off the wall.
Giants 8, Rockies 4: The Giants blew a three-run lead in the ninth thanks to Will Smith giving up bombs to Trevor Story and Ian Desmond, but they got four runs in the top of the tenth to take the game. Alex Dickerson had four hits, including the go-ahead RBI single in that 10th inning. Mike Yastrzemski homered, doubled and singled and drove in three on the night. The Giants are on a roll, having won four in a row and seven of eight. The Rockies have dropped ten of 12. Both teams now have 46-49 records and are tied for third in the NL West. And, because the NL is generally a s**t show beyond the top couple of decent teams, they're somehow each only three out in the Wild Card race. Or, I should say, "race."
Athletics 9, Mariners 2: Daniel Mengden allowed only one run over seven inning of work while Matt Chapman homered and drove in five. Matt Olson homered as well. Quite an assortment of Matts they got in Oakland.
Tags: Aaron Judge, Albert Pujols, Alex Dickerson, Andrew Cashner, Austin Voth, Brandon Woodruff, Brian Anderson, Bryce Harper, CC Sabathia, Christian Yelich, David Freese, Didi Gregorius, DJ LeMahieu, Drew Cashner, Eduardo Escobar, Garrett Cooper, Glenn Sparkman, Harold Ramirez, Hector Neris, Hunter Dozier, Ian Desmond, Ildemaro Vargas, Jack Flaherty, Jake Marisnick, Jonathan Lucroy, Juan Soto, Justin Smoak, Ketel Marte, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Lance Lynn, Lorenzo Cain, Lourdes Gurriel, Matt Adams, Matt Beaty, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski, Nelson Cruz, Noe Ramirez, Oscar Mercado, Scott Kingery, Starlin Castro, Steven Matz, Trevor Story, Tyler Naquin, Whit Merrifield, Will Smith
And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights July 17, 2019 6:42 am Red Sox acquire Andrew Cashner from Orioles July 13, 2019 6:15 pm Looking ahead to the second half July 11, 2019 9:20 am Watch: Anthony Santander robs home run, turns double play June 8, 2019 9:26 pm Video: Nolan Arenado collects 200th career home run May 26, 2019 12:02 pm And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights April 24, 2019 6:33 am Video: Dwight Smith Jr. robs Adam Engel of home run April 23, 2019 8:08 pm And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights April 3, 2019 6:36 am Opening Day pitching matchups March 26, 2019 7:43 pm Alex Cobb could miss Opening Day start March 24, 2019 12:22 pm 2019 Preview: American League East March 7, 2019 3:57 pm Andrew Cashner might not see another start in 2018 September 22, 2018 3:10 pm Athletics put 11 consecutive runners on base, score 10 runs in third inning vs. Orioles September 12, 2018 8:30 pm And That Happened: Wednesday's Scores and Highlights June 21, 2018 7:26 am Orioles finally reach 20 wins, snap nine-game losing streak June 17, 2018 4:18 pm And That Happened: Wednesday's Scores and Highlights May 10, 2018 6:51 am And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights April 11, 2018 6:18 am Aaron Sanchez loses no-hit bid in the eighth inning April 10, 2018 8:51 pm And That Happened: Thursday's Scores and Highlights April 6, 2018 6:43 am And That Happened: Saturday's Scores and Highlights April 1, 2018 8:17 am UPDATE: Alex Cobb signs a four-year, $57 million deal with the Orioles March 21, 2018 6:00 am 2018 Preview: Baltimore Orioles March 20, 2018 4:19 pm Orioles give Andrew Cashner beard exemption March 12, 2018 9:14 am 2018 Preview: San Francisco Giants March 7, 2018 4:28 pm Chris Tillman returns to Orioles on one-year deal February 19, 2018 2:28 pm Report: Orioles sign Andrew Cashner to two-year, $16 million deal February 15, 2018 2:12 pm Report: Orioles interested in Collin McHugh February 11, 2018 3:37 pm Orioles are interested in Andrew Cashner and Jason Vargas November 8, 2017 7:13 am Your 2017-2018 Free Agent Preview November 6, 2017 12:05 pm And That Happened: Saturday's Scores and Highlights September 10, 2017 12:45 pm And That Happened: Wednesday's Scores and Highlights August 31, 2017 7:36 am And That Happened: Wednesday's Scores and Highlights July 6, 2017 7:54 am And That Happened: Thursday's Scores and Highlights June 30, 2017 7:32 am Andrew Cashner leaves game after being hit with broken bat June 29, 2017 3:01 pm Rangers place Andrew Cashner on 10-day disabled list with oblique strain June 17, 2017 5:13 pm And That Happened: Friday's Scores and Highlights June 10, 2017 1:28 pm And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights May 24, 2017 7:34 am And That Happened: Saturday's Scores and Highlights May 14, 2017 12:38 pm And That Happened: Friday's Scores and Highlights May 13, 2017 12:53 pm And That Happened: Sunday's Scores and Highlights May 8, 2017 6:32 am

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Each week, Rhode Island Avenue Radio hosts Michelle Yancey and Kyle Todd sit down to visit with area business owners, city leaders, small business training experts, and the visionaries that help our local commercial corridors grow and thrive. Tune in to learn about Rhode Island Avenue NE Main Street's new businesses; learn about some of the not-so-secret business gems of the community; and get behind-the-scenes stories about innovative business ideas happening right here in our neighborhood.
A wide-ranging discussion with Paul Ruppert, long-time DC entrepreneur, on the small business climate here in DC.
Zachy's is a fantastic new wine business, with a really interesting range of services! Tim Finch stops by to tell us all about it.


Vincent Chi-wai Chiang, the lead designer of the highlighted design Teawood Central Walk by Vincent Chi-wai Chiang says, Intellectual design style turns this double volume architecture into a cafe with the design concept Study Studio, provides a spiritual comfort space for people. Modern, simple and intuitive design to present the personal peaceful moment through space scenes: simple, tranquil, humble and low-profile. Artistic and aesthetic beauty inside the space lets people to settle down their heart in this utopia. Oak wood and grey colour reflects the modern, simple and clear style and the minimalist design radiates calm. .


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"The iPhone can be great for many things but I've never liked it for quick note taking. I love the feel of paper and the smooth ink as it glides across the page.
Hopefully your new notetaker wallets will help all of you capture things anywhere you are in 2012. Congratulations!
Try to guess that password!
AgileBits, the creator of the much loved password manager, 1Password and Knox, a leading solution for securing data, is today's partner for the 12 Days of Giveaways. I have been using 1Password ever since I got my first Mac and like many of the other tools that we have given away, 1Password is an app that I can't live without.
Most web users have more than one online account, whether it be for email, banking, social networks, forums, etc. But, the reality is that most people keep the same password for all their logons. This is a bad idea (hopefully as a savvy Lifehack.org reader we don't need to tell you why!), but keeping a bunch of unique, secure passwords can be sort of a pain, especially when you have many online accounts.
Enter 1Password. 1Password is a secure password manager that allows you to create and store unique passwords that are protected by one master password. 1Password also integrates with your browser to allow for one click sign-on to any website that requires authentication. Another cool feature is that you can store credit card and bank account information securely. Also, if you have 1Password for your iOS device you can securely sync your password file with Dropbox.
Today, AgileBits is offering 100% off a single order up to $50 from their online store for one lucky Lifehack.org reader. That means you can pick yourself up a copy of 1Password (for Mac or Windows), or you can even pick up Knox if you are so inclined.
Employees of AgileBits and of Stepcase (including current independent contractors of both) are not eligible for this contest. The winning entry will be judged by the Stepcase Lifehack editing team and the winner will be notified on the platform in which their winning entry was placed (either on the Lifehack.org Facebook wall or by email through our commenting system here on the website). For those entering the contest with a comment on our site, in order to be considered eligible, you MUST leave a contact email when leaving a comment (it's the only way we'll know how to contact you). Entries must be submitted by 10 am Eastern the following weekday and winners will be chosen by 12 pm Eastern time on the same day. The winners will be announced the same day on Lifehack.org, and will be notified beforehand.


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Making Sense of Time, Earthbound and Otherwise
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 5:34AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Azra Raza
More than three weeks have passed since the great Waterford disco ball dropped over Times Square, and most of us are taking 2007 in stride. The time is flying by, just as it does when we're having fun, approaching a deadline or taking a standardized test on which our entire future depends, though not, oddly enough, when we ourselves are flying, especially not when we are seated in the last row, near the bathrooms.
But before we stuff the changing of the annum into the seat pocket in front of us and hope that nobody notices, it's worth considering some of the main astral and terrestrial events that make delightful concepts like "new year" and "another Gary Larson calendar" possible in the first place. Let's think about the nature of so-called ordinary time, the seconds, days, seasons and years by which we humans calibrate our clocks and merrily spend down our lives. As Robert L. Jaffe, a theoretical physicist at M.I.T., explained in an interview and recent articles in Natural History magazine, our earthly cycles and pacemakers are freakish in their moderation, very different from the other major chronometers that abound around us, but of which we remain largely unaware.
Acupuncture may show effect in treating Parkinson's
Acupuncture, used for thousands of years in the Far East to treat pain and illness, has many followers but little scientific rigor to explain whether it works or not. Now, an unusual study suggests that acupuncture has a marked effect on the type of brain inflammation seen in Parkinson's disease — in mice, that is.
Studies of the effects of acupuncture in animals are few and far between. But mice can't tell whether they are being treated or not — potentially yielding a much better idea of whether the treatment might actually be working or whether any improvement is just a placebo effect.
Parkinson's is a movement disorder that affects more than 6 million people worldwide. It is associated with low levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. To investigate the protective effects of acupuncture in the brain, a team led by Sabina Lim at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea, used a standard mouse model of Parkinson's disease, in which injections of a chemical known as MPTP kill off brain cells that manufacture dopamine.
Lunar Refractions: Just Make It Up—Invention, Creation, and Deception
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 10:17AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Alta L. Price
According to cliché most artists, aside from having the key characteristics of egocentricity and vanity, are also, to a certain degree, liars. I wholeheartedly agree with this, if you can read it in a positive way. Looking at it linguistically, the difference between creative, inventive, innovative, and visionary characters is mere nuance—it's all just a question of people who, to varying degrees, like to make stuff up. Whether their audiences then believe them or not is an entirely different matter, and no responsibility of theirs.
It's often said that pathological liars fool no one but themselves, and herein lies the difference. To counter what many historians and critics like to think, artists working with visual and verbal material (or any other medium, for that matter) usually know what they're up to. I was in a bookstore the other day decorated with various quotes along a series of columns. Waiting at the checkout I came across a phrase from Einstein, something along the lines of "true creativity lies in knowing how to conceal your sources." Both the London Review of Books and the New York Times Book Review have, over the past few months, run articles and letters discussing the growing length of author's acknowledgements, source credits, and writer's general fear of becoming the next J.T. Leroy or James Frey. In other countries it's perfectly acceptable to publish a book filled with extended quotes of other works as long as the author is mentioned—the title and other information about the quote's source are seen as superfluous, and the reader just needs to know or be willing to hunt it down. In the United States a similar approach would have one publisher's legal department phoning the other non-stop. This obsession with full disclosure is beginning to suffocate; readers and viewers are free to trust or distrust creative types, and I'd like to think they're bright enough to distinguish things without relying on someone else to tell them what to think. That someone else might be untrustworthy anyway.
I went to see a Piranesi exhibition at Rome's Museo del Corso, which among copper plates, sketches, and countless prints included the over 135 etchings in his Views of Rome series. I've never much loved his lines, and am fairly convinced he was a sell-out, but I nevertheless can't deny his importance. The show's curators chose to title it Piranesi's Rome: the Eighteenth-Century City in the Grandi Vedute. A newspaper review of the show is more accurate with its title, Piranesi, or Rome as it Wasn't. Curiously, the museum space itself was most appropriate; there wasn't a window in the entire place, and it was depressingly dark, completely cut off from the outside world—the world that would've exposed some of his embellishments.
In many etchings Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) liked to bestow the title of Architect on himself, even if—or maybe because—of his many architectural projects, only one was ever realized. That design, his renovation of the church Santa Maria del Priorato and adjacent garden on the Aventine Hill in Rome, brought him much less recognition than his obsessive, incessant print production. In a pre-photographic period he was the major promoter of ancient Rome's grandeur, and foreshadowed the Romantics' fancy for ruins by several decades. In 1746, six years after he'd moved to Rome from Venice, the twenty-six-year-old etcher undertook the immense task of documenting views of his adopted city. At the same time the city was being invaded by ever more foreigners on the Grand Tour; French, English, German, and people of countless other nations, primarily from northern Europe, couldn't get enough of the decadence depicted in his work. How much the fact that he himself was a northerner at heart influenced his perspectives I can't really say, but they can certainly be seen as propaganda. A few (and some of the most interesting) works in the show were done independently of any commission; a multi-plate plan of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli is a visual fugue stretching over nine feet. Pope Clement XIII, a member of the powerful Venetian Rezzonico family and one of his main patrons, commissioned a church renovation that was never realized for lack of funds. So these few architectural projects are utterly peripheral in comparison to the prints that sold like hotcakes both to visitors and a vast audience abroad—people who'd never have the chance to actually see the sites he portrayed. Perhaps he would've embellished certain scenes and buildings regardless of his audience, but I think he gained great liberty in recognizing that there wouldn't be any fact checkers poring over his work. Hence SPQR, the acronym of Senatus Populus Que Romanus (the Senate and People of Rome), becomes something like Sabinae Populus Que Resistet (the Sabines, People that Remain/Resist/Persist) in one of his inscriptions. Over drinks the other day I was discussing this with an archaeologist who held mixed gratitude and disapproval for the Vedute—some of them are the sole depiction of important structures since destroyed, and therefore important documentation, while some are simply made up. Most fall somewhere in between. Photoshop didn't yet exist, not to mention photography, but Piranesi managed to fool people with many of the very same techniques of today's advertising—bits of his richly evocative scenes are the equivalent of the perfectly blue skies, radiantly blemish-free teen models, and high-gloss world in commercials for travel and just about everything else.
He's a little more honest in his 1760–61 series Carceri d'Invenzione, where he admits his inventiveness in the title. He'd begun exploring this theme fifteen years earlier in a series initially titled Invenzioni Capric[ciose] di Carceri, with a nod to the fundamental caprice underlying it all. Piranesi was convinced that Rome's grandeur came not from the Greek legacy, but from the Egyptians, via the Etruscans. This explains a lot of the simply wacky interventions he adds to buildings that would otherwise be plainly classical. My question remains: does it really matter how faithful he was to the world around him? Does it really matter if he's trying to pull the wool over our eyes, or really was convinced of his own visions?
In 1930 Henri Focillon published Esthètique des visionnaires, an essay discussing the visionary esthetics of Daumier, Rembrandt, Piranesi, Turner, Tintoretto, and El Greco. His clearest claim in what could otherwise be dismissed as a relic of Romanticism is that visionaries don't view their subjects, they rather envision them. He goes on to say that these visionaries possess (I'd say are possessed by) a particular virtue that doesn't alter nature, but rather imbues it with a striking vivacity, intensity, and profundity. These are mere words—he contradicts this later on by writing that visionaries can't be contented with the real world, and so they use it as a point of departure; "They interpret more than imitate, and transfigure more than interpret." Fine.
Returning to the so-called Architect's one completed building project, the church atop the Aventine is almost impossible to visit, as it's closed to the public, but the garden next door can be viewed through the keyhole of its door, where six or seven people were lined up as I got there late this past Saturday evening. Stooping to peer through the keyhole, your eye meets an order ly perspective, lined with well-kempt cypresses, receding to the illuminated dome of Saint Peter's at the very center of the composition. Not only is Piranesi controlling what you see (a dome framed by dark vegetation, much more orderly than the surrounding city and most of his chaotic print compositions), but he's also dictating how you see it; you're limited by the keyhole's outline, then by the trees. These limits closely relate it to Borromini's famous colonnade perspective at Palazzo Spada, the views of ideal cities produced in Renaissance Florence, and the Olympic Theater of Palladio and Scamozzi in Vicenza. This last connection, to theater, is fascinating, and reveals a lot about our contemporary culture. Going to the theater—or cinema, for that matter—people expect to be removed from their own world; it's entertainment, imagination, fantasy, and can appear more real than the people, places, and things we see around us each day. It's the circus, it's make-believe, it's the Surrealists' theater of cruelty, it's a theater of the absurd, it's a theater of war. It's Dionysus's thyrsus-led procession, the drunken debacle that became the origin of all theater. So why do people bring such different expectations to visual art? A few contemporary artists are venturing into theater: Kara Walker's silhouettes, although immobile, narrate past and present characters and their often frightful histories; William Kentridge's Black Box / Chambre Noire, a tripartite riff on the themes inherent in the black box as theater (realm of performance), airplane device (to record disaster), and camera (interior between lens and eyepiece), was shown at the Deutsche Guggenheim but not in New York; and Pierre Huyghe's puppet shows all merge static visual arts with theatrical realms.
Infinite possible worlds exist, and coming into the theater—or peering through the keyhole (be it Piranesi's or Duchamp's)—a single filtered, channeled world is presented. Such miniature theater can be sculptural object, projection, installation, print, and vice versa. The grand narrative and scale of present and past history are here reduced to small theater. Piranesi's prints, distant relatives of later architectural follies, were both products cranked out for commercial profit and visions loftier than any debate of real vs. unreal.
At times Piranesi's hand grew heavy, and the acid bath a bit strong, but this darkness could be read as the reverse side of the Enlightenment looking glass. The nature of shadows is key; in talking about his exploration of the black box, Kentridge describes how, while observing a solar eclipse, he became aware of the process of looking, "of being made conscious of the nature of light," and how light diffuses mystery, making "everything immediately comprehensible." This light can be useful, but also has the power to overexpose an image, leaving a bleached-out scene, robbed of its essence—be it actual or invented.
The Future of Science is Open, Part 3: An Open Science World
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 8:41AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Bill Hooker
In Parts one and two, I talked about the scholarly practice of Open Access publishing, and about how the central concept of "openness", or knowledge as a public good, is being incorporated into other aspects of science. I suggested that the overall practice (or philosophy, or movement) might be called Open Science, by which I mean the process of discovery at the intersection of Open Access (publishing), Open Data, Open Source (software), Open Standards (semantic markup) and Open Licensing.
Here I want to move from ideas to applications, and take a look at what kinds of Open Science are already happening and where such efforts might lead. Open Science is very much in its infancy at the moment; we don't know precisely what its maturity will look like, but we have good reason to think we'll like it.
By way of analogy, think about what the Web has made possible, and ask yourself: how much of that could you have predicted in, say, 1991, when Sir Tim wrote the first browser? Actually, "infancy" being a generous term for the developmental state of Open Science, a better analogy probably reaches further back: how much of what the internet has made possible could anyone have predicted when ARPANET first met NSFnet? Given that last link, for instance, would you have seen Wikipedia coming? How about eBay, Amazon.com, RSS, blogs, YouTube, Google Maps, or insert-your-own-favorite amazing web site/service/application?
The potential is immense, and from our current perspective we cannot predict more than a fraction of the ways in which openness will transform the culture and practice of science. Nonetheless, there are signs pointing in possible directions.
early examples: sequence data
Sequence data (such as mRNA, genomic DNA and protein sequences) have long been the leading edge of large-scale collaborative science, largely because early competition among public and private organizations resulted in a series of groundbreaking agreements on public data sharing. (For a quick tour of the relevant history, see this article.) Among the online tools that have been developed around openly-accessible sequence databases such as GenBank or SwissProt, the flagship effort is probably the NCBI's online gateway Entrez. From Entrez I can search for information on a sequence of interest on almost thirty different interlinked databases. I can:
find related nucleotide and protein sequences, and make detailed comparisons between them
map a sequence of interest onto whole chromosomes or genomes, and compare those maps across ten or twenty different species
access expert-curated information on any connection between a query molecule and human genetic disease or heritable disorders in other species
look for known motifs or functional sequence modules in a query molecule, or use similar sequences to build 3D models of its likely shape and structure
compare a sequence of interest across wide taxonomies, and formulate useful questions about its evolutionary history
look for array data regarding expression of a query sequence in different developmental, disease-related and other contexts
access genetic mapping data with which to map a query sequence in organisms for which little or no sequence data is yet available
There's much more — that was a very brief and incomplete overview of what Entrez can do — but you get the point. All of this analysis is only possible because the underlying sequence data is available on Open terms (and largely machine-readable due to semantic markup), and it forms a ready-made infrastructure in which further Open information can readily find a place — as soon as it becomes available.
data and text mining
In part 2 I talked about a range of efforts to make databases of other information, including text, similarly interoperable and available for mining. Paul Ginsparg, in a recent essay, used the interface between PubMed Central and various sequence databases as an early example of what becomes possible when databases can be read by computers as well as by humans (emphasis mine):
GenBank accession numbers are recognized in articles referring to sequence data and linked directly to the relevant records in the genomic databases. Protein names are recognized, and their appearances in articles are linked automatically to the protein and protein interaction databases. Names of organisms are recognized and linked directly to the taxonomic databases, which are then used to compute a minimal spanning tree of all of the organisms contained in a given document. In yet another view, technical terms are recognized and linked directly to the glossary items in the relevant standard biology or biochemistry textbook in the books database. The enormously powerful sorts of data mining and number crunching that are already taken for granted as applied to the open-access genomics databases can be applied to the full text of the entirety of the biology and life sciences literature and will have just as great a transformative effect on the research done with it.
Donat Agosti recently pointed to three related projects: Biotext, which builds text mining tools; EBIMed, which analyses Medline search results and presents associations between gene names and several other databases; and the Arrowsmith Project, which allows semantic comparison between two search-defined sets of PubMed articles. The latter also maintains a list of free online text mining tools, which currently includes several dozen sites offering tools for a variety of purposes, although the majority are still focused on Medline and/or sequence databases.
These sorts of tools are not only useful, they are likely to become essential. Even now, I can hardly imagine trying to navigate the existing sequence data without Entrez, or the research literature without PubMed. GenBank contains more than 40 billion bases and is growing exponentially, doubling every 12-15 months. PubMed contains nearly 17 million records as I write this, and is adding well over half a million every year. The 2007 Nucleic Acids Research database issue lists nearly 1000 separate biological databases, up more than 10% from last year. As Matthew Cockerill of BioMed Central has pointed out, simple text searching is not enough to keep a researcher afloat in this onrushing sea of information.
Data and text mining methods stand to come into their own as discovery tools once they have a fully Open and machine-readable body of published research on which to work. Similarly, the utility of bibliometrics, the quantitative analysis of text based information, can be dramatically enhanced by Open Access. In particular, measures of research impact can be made much more powerful, direct and reliable.
Research impact is the degree to which a piece or body of work has been taken up and built upon by other researchers and put to practical use in education, technology, medicine and so on. Governments and other funding bodies want to be able to measure research impact in order to provide accountability and ensure maximal return on investment, and researchers and research administrators want the same measurements in order to assess the quality of their research and to plan future directions ("how are we doing? how can we do better?").
The most important measure of research impact currently available is citation analysis, a proxy measurement based on acknowledged use by later published work; the predominant citation-based metric in modern research assessment is the Impact Factor (IF). If a journal has a 2004 IF of 5, then papers published in that journal in 2001-2002 were cited, on average, 5 times each in 2003. This number is probably the most widely misunderstood and misused metric in all of science, and comes with a number of serious built-in flaws, not the least of which is that the underlying database is the property of for-profit publishing company Thomson Scientific.
Despite these flaws and considerable high-profile criticism, it is difficult to overstate the influence that the Impact Factor has had, and continues to have, on all efforts to evaluate scientists and their work. Researchers obsess over journal choice: you don't want a rejection, which forces you to re-submit elsewhere and wastes time, but you need to get that paper into the "best" (that is, highest IF) journal you can so as to appeal to hiring, funding and tenure committees. And that's not unrealistic, since quite frankly the bottom line for most such committees is "who has published the most papers in high-IF journals". Other factors are usually considered, but the IF dominates. It's a clumsy, inaccurate and unscientific way to go about evaluating research impact and researcher talent.
Happily, there is a better way just over the Open Access horizon. Once a majority of published research is available in machine-readable OA databases, the community can get out from under Thomson's thumb and improve scientific bibliometrics in a host of different ways. Shadbolt et al. list more than two dozen improvements that OA will make possible, including:
A CiteRank analog of Google's PageRank algorithm will allow hits to be rank-ordered by weighted citation counts instead of just ordinary links (not all citations are equal)
In addition to ranking hits by author/article/topic citation counts, it will also be possible to rank them by author/article/topic download counts
Correlations between earlier download counts and later citation counts will be available online, and usable for extrapolation, prediction and eventually even evaluation
Searching, analysis, prediction and evaluation will also be augmented by cocitation analysis (who/what co-cited or was co-cited by whom/what?), coauthorship analysis, and eventually also co-download analysis
Time-based (chronometric) analyses will be used to extrapolate early download, citation, co-download and co-citation trends, as well as correlations between downloads and citations, to predict research impact, research direction and research influences.
Authors, articles, journals, institutions and topics will also have "endogamy/exogamy" scores: how much do they cite themselves? in-cite within the same "family" cluster? out-cite across an entire field? across multiple fields? across disciplines?
"Hub/authority" analysis will make it easier to do literature reviews, identifying review articles citing many articles (hubs) or key articles/authors (authorities) cited by many articles.
Existing metrics (which basically means Thomson's proprietary data) are simply not rich enough to support such analyses. There are already efforts underway to mine the available body of text for better ways to evaluate research. Hirsch's h-index, an alternative way of using citation counts to rank authors according to their influence, can be calculated online using Google Scholar. Bollen et al. have proposed a method for using Google's PageRank as an alternative to the Impact Factor, as well as their own Y-factor which is a composite of the two measures. The Open Citation Project built Citebase, an online citation tracker which has been used to show that downloads (which are measured in real-time from the moment of upload) can predict citations (for which data one must wait years). Authoratory is a text-mining tool based on PubMed, and is capable of co-author analysis, authority ranking and more.
As the body of OA literature expands, these and similar tools will provide a far more reliable and equitable means of comparing researchers and research groups with their peers than is currently available, and will also facilitate the identification of trends and gaps in research focus. The downstream effects of increased efficiency in managing and carrying out research will be profound.
commentary and community
Andrew Dayton recently described another feature of the coming Open Science world, which he calls Open Discourse:
The internet is expanding the realm of scientific publishing to include free and open public debate of published papers. […] How often have you asked yourself how a certain study was published unchallenged, without the results of a key control? How often have you wondered whether a paper's authors performed a specific procedure correctly? How often have you had the opportunity to question authors about previously published or opposing results they failed to cite, or discuss the difficulties of reproducing certain results? How often have you had the opportunity to command a discussion of an internal contradiction the referees seemed to have missed?
Stevan Harnad has referred to a similar idea as peer commentary, calling it a "powerful and important supplement to peer review". It's important to note that a number of journals, such as Current Anthropology or Psycoloquy, offer "open peer commentary" which is not actually open to public contribution. Similarly, the phrase "open peer review" is typically used to indicate that reviewers are not anonymous, rather than that review is open to the public. Neither of these pseudo-open concepts rely on "openness" in the Open Access/Open Science sense, whereas Open Discourse as Dayton means it is, of course, utterly dependent on such openness for its subject matter.
There are a number of venues which enable fully Open Discourse as Dayton means it. OA publisher BioMed Central offers a public comment button on every article, and Cell allows public comments on selected articles. BMC also publishes Biology Direct, which offers both an alternative model of peer review and public commentary, and PLoS has just launched PLoS One, offering standard peer review followed by public commentary, annotation and rating. Philica will publish anything, and provides public commentary which can also serve as a form of peer review through an authentication process for professional researchers. JournalReview.org is set up as an online public journal club, and Naboj is a forum for public review of articles posted to arxiv.org. BioWizard is somewhat similar, but is limited to articles accessible via PubMed and offers a number of other tools, such as a blogging platform and a rating mechanism designed to identify popular papers. Both JournalReview and BioWizard notify corresponding authors so that they can participate in the discussion. The British Medical Journal offers a rapid response mechanism which, having posted over 50,000 public responses to published work, sounds a cautionary note for more recent arrivals on the public commentary scene: in 2005, the journal was forced to impose a length limit and active moderation in order to avoid losing the desired signal in a flood of uninformed, obsessive noise.
Speaking of floods of uninformed, obsessive noise — what about blogs?
Of course, I'm kidding. I actually have high hopes for the future of blogs in science, centered on three themes: commentary, community and data. Blogs are an excellent medium for commenting on anything, and with web feeds and a good aggregator it's pretty easy to keep track of a selected group of blogs. If Technorati worked, it might allow interesting views of the science blogosphere; fortunately, we have Postgenomic, which indexes nearly 700 science blogs and then "does useful and interesting things" with the data. For instance, you can see which papers and/or books are getting attention from science bloggers; there's even a Greasemonkey script that will flag Postgenomic-indexed papers in Connotea, Nature.com's social bookmark manager for scientists, another for PubMed and yet another for journal websites. A new Digg-like "community commentary" site, The Scientific Debate, allows trackbacks and so can interact with regular blogs. The discussion above about text mining applies, of course, to blogs, since they are typically openly accessible and friendly to text mining software. For instance, Biology Direct or PLoS One could interact with the blogosphere using linkbacks, or by pulling relevant posts from Postgenomic.
Blogs also tend to create virtual communities, such as the one that centers on Seed's ScienceBlogs collection of, well, science blogs. This group of about 50 blogs is rapidly becoming a hub of the science blogosphere, and even gave rise to a recent meatspace conference that bids fair to become an annual event. Such self-selected communities foster a sense of cameraderie and strongly encourage co-operation over competition, which can only favor the advance of Open Science. (It's not just blogs, of course, that can take advantage of community building. The Synaptic Leap, the Tropical Disease Initiative, OpenWetWare and BioForge all provide infrastructures that enable collaborative communities to do Open Science.)
Finally, blogs (and wikis) have immense potential as a scientific publishing medium. They are, to begin with, the perfect place for things like negative results, odd observations and small side-projects — research results for which the risk of having an idea stolen is greatly outweighed by both the possibility of picking up a collaboration and the importance of having made available to the research community information which would never surface in a traditional journal. Most research communities are relatively small; it would not be difficult for most researchers to keep up with the lab weblogs (lablogs?) of the groups doing work most closely related to their own. I know of a few blog posts in this category. This and this from Bora Zivkovic are, I think, the first instances of original data on a blog. This series from Sandra Porter is earlier but involves bioinformatic analysis (that is, original experimentation, but no original data), as do this and this from Pedro Beltrao. Egon Willighagen blogs working software/scripts for cheminformatics, and Rosie Redfield and her students blog hypotheses, thinking-out-loud and even data. Blogs are also good for sharing protocols, like the syntheses posted by the anonymous proprietor of Org Prep Daily.
Beyond that, it's possible to do fully Open Science, publishing day-to-day results (including all raw data) in an online lab notebook. I know it's possible because Jean-Claude Bradley is doing it; he calls it Open Notebook Science. His lab's shared notebook is the UsefulChem wiki, which is supplemented by the UsefulChem blog for project discussion and the UsefulChem Molecules blog, a database of molecules related to their work. There is nothing to prevent Jean-Claude from publishing traditional articles whenever he has the kind of "story" that is required for that format, but in the meantime all of his research output is captured and made available to the world. Importantly, this includes information which would never otherwise have been published — negative results, inconclusive results, things which simply don't fit into the narrative of any manuscript he prepares, and so on. Being on a third-party hosted wiki, the notebook entries have time and date stamps which can establish priority if that should be necessary; version tracking provides another layer of authentication.
At the moment the Bradley lab is the only group I know of that is doing Open Notebook Science, but of all the glimpses of an Open Science world I have tried to provide in this entry, Jean-Claude's model is, I think, the clearest and most hopeful. Only when that level of transparency and immediacy is the norm in scientific communication will the research community be able to realize its full potential.
that's all, folks
I promise, no more obsessive posting about Open Science here on 3QD. If I've managed to pique anyone's interest, I recommend reading Peter Suber's Open Access News and anything else that takes your fancy from the "open access/open science" section of my blogroll. And as always, if I've missed anything or got anything wrong, let me know in comments.
Ocracoke Post: On the Case of the Da Vinci Code Appeal
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 3:19AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by J. M. Tyree
Thank god, the lawyers of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are appealing the decision of a London court that Dan Brown did not plagiarize their book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, for his blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code. 2007 begins to look so much less drab when I consider the spectacle of this ongoing legal battle. Consider, Reader:
1. The pure cheek of the whole thing. Whether they win their appeal or not, surely the best thing that ever happened to Baigent and Leigh was Dan Brown, since their book tended to be displayed alongside The Da Vinci Code, unquestionably boosting its sales. (One of the authors was prominently featured in a History Channel "documentary" on the truth beyond the Da Vinci Code – There isn't any, by the way. Or is there? No, there isn't. Or is there?) And of course each new phase of the case is essentially a free advertising spot. There is no scenario in which any of the parties can lose, really, if one keeps in mind the fact that legal counsel is a tax-deductible business expense. I say fight it all the way to the supreme court of the European Union if necessary.
2. The world-historical implications for global capitalism at stake here, since it involves Random House kind of appearing to sue itself (because it published both books), or something, while simultaneously reaping the publicity benefits of any possible outcome – the late, great William Gaddis would have loved this case, and I wish he were alive to see it and write about it.
3. The exquisite legal paradox facing Baigent and Leigh. The fact is that their book, purporting to have found an ancient conspiracy leading back to a sexual relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, is a work of fiction. The irony of fate here is pretty sublime. Their plagiarism case would be much stronger if they had told the truth and said that they had made it all up. As it stands, however, the pretense of the conspiracy-theory genre forces the authors to pretend that The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is based on actual research etc. rather than being a fabrication of two very inventive minds.
4. What does all this imply about Dan Brown? It's possible that he is only a figurehead or sort of corporate entity ("Dan Brown") that involves the research genius of his wife, Blythe, and some sort of marketing genius (the real Dan Brown or his agent, etc.) who has mastered the art of narrative cliffhangers to such a degree that even a complete inability to write English prose doesn't get in the way of the story. (Please read Anthony Lane's priceless review of the film here; Mr. Lane made it all worthwhile.)
A Final Note: The ultimate Da Vinci Code experience, for my money, is neither the book nor the film, but the audiobook. The actor they hired to narrate, Paul Michael, is a very competent person, and I mean no real disrespect to him. But he is male, and this hopeless job forces him to do the female dialog in an sort of falsetto Inspector Clouseau French accent that makes hottie archaeologist Sophie Neveu, supposedly a descendant of Jesus Christ, sound like a breathless tranny. "My grandfather, my grandfather…" Oh my, Sophie, tell me more!
Read an excerpt from Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
PERCEPTIONS: disposables
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 12:04AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Sughra Raza
Rachel Perry Welty. Wall (detail). 2006.
128,000 silver twist ties, installed during several "twisting bees" at the new waterfront Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA. 12 feet high x 2 feet thick x about 6 feet across.
More on this award winning young Boston artist here, here, and here.
Negotiations 10: Les Demoiselles
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 12:02AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Timothy Don
From January 25 until March 3 of this year, Cindy Workman is exhibiting twelve new works—inkjet prints all—at the Lennon, Weinberg gallery in New York City. I have been a fan of hers for several years, and the current series is in my opinion some of her finest work to date. She is an artist at play in the world, and the stuff is arresting, provocative, curious, charged, and suffused with what I can only describe as a kind of tempered joy. The opening is on this Thursday, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Do not miss this show.
She has entitled it "les demoiselles," and I got the sense from looking at each print that Ms. Workman had chosen to break Picasso's large canvass into its constitutive elements, so that what we get is a series of neo-cubist portraits, in which many surfaces are present at once, and the cumulative effect of which is a larger portrayal—and hence, interrogation—of contemporary female identity, what it is and how it is constructed and experienced. Layering drawings of idealized girls taken from the envelopes of sewing patterns on top of or behind soft-core porn shots from the 1950's, and then blending them into a single composition, Workman creates images that are simultaneously familiar and jarring. These women are sexualized in ways familiar to us all, but inappropriately so. One is attracted and repulsed at the same time. Imagine looking at what appears to be a little girl, only to realize that she is a woman who, in her attempt to look like a sexy little girl, has had too much plastic surgery—and you begin to get the idea. (Conversely, imagine that you are looking at what appears to be a voluptuous sex object, only to discover that you are seeing a little girl in a sailor's outfit…)
Breasts are prominent in these works, in part because for Workman they are a source of identity for women and in part because their exposure renders that very identity exposed. Workman isn't just asking you what it means to have breasts; she is asking you what it means to be a breast-having-object, what it means to be an object whose existence depends on having breasts and what it means to want to be such an object: what it means to be a commodity whose consumer appeal is proportional to the heft and shape of one's breasts. Workman, however, is not making anti-porn, anti-consumer agitprop. There is nothing hectoring or scolding in or about these pieces. The subjects know that you are looking at their breasts, and you are invited, even expected to do so. The result is art as a kind of reportage, an art that talks about things we can't otherwise talk about.
In "les demoiselles," Workman continues her practice of collage, but this time the background is stripped out. This, to me, is where things get very interesting indeed. The subjects appear in color fields (the artist described one to me as "Indescribable pink. Pinky-mauve. Dirty-bright pink.")—hues in which they are suspended and from which they are irretrievably separated. They will never again dress in the colors that surround them. This composition of containment lends to the subjects an auratic, glowing, elevated status—they have become archetypes of sexualized femininity—but that very elevation cuts them off from the world in which they appear and exist. That woman surrounded by pink, hovering in pink, one feels, will never again experience pink. She has exchanged for her elevated status the very quality that made that status possible; it is lost to her, and she to it. She is eternally lonely, and these works are a profound meditation on the contemporary condition of loneliness.
After looking at each print, I had to admit to Ms. Workman that she had put my back-brain and my super-ego in conflict. I found the work sexy; I knew I shouldn't, for many reasons; but I couldn't help myself. I practically apologized for that. She just laughed. That's part of the point, I realized. And then she said it for me: "That's because men are more visual, and women are more cerebral." Indeed. This show makes that clear, and brilliantly so. Touché, Ms. Workman.
The Bollywood Babe and Big(ot) Brother
Posted on Monday, Jan 22, 2007 12:00AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Ahila Sornarajah
Big Brother. Not the leader of Orwell's claustrophobic dystopia, but a brightly coloured reality TV show format, that has waded into controversy in the UK this week. British viewers watched the programme with increasing discomfort, as loutish English celebrities bullied (and most say, racially abused) well known Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty, live on air.
The Big Brother concept has made a pretty packet for its creator, Endemol, the brainchild of Dutchman, John de Mol, with the format being successfully sold to broadcasters in no less than 70 countries – most of which have been prime time hits. The format of the programme is simple. Contestants enter the "Big Brother" house to win cash prizes, or in celebrities' cases "money for a favourite charity" although they are normally paid a hefty fee to turn up in the first place (in Shilpa Shetty's case, a reputed £350,000). To win, contestants must avoid nominations for eviction from their housemates, with the public deciding whom amongst those nominated will ultimately get the boot. It could be a social experiment in hippy, free-loving communal living, except that the point of Big Brother is to foster division, arguments, and sexual tension, all of which makes for great ratings.
To a great deal of surprise, Shilpa "the Body" Shetty, a Bollywood siren, with at least 50 movies under her belt, and a command of 8 languages, shimmied off Bollywood screens and into the UK's "celebrity" version of Big Brother at the beginning of this month. Given her 15 million pound fortune, and true A-list credentials, nobody understood why she would want to enter the Big Brother house with a bunch of International and British low life celebrities, the best of the bunch being, Dirk Benedict, yes "the Face" from the now defunct A Team, and Jermaine Jackson, brother of the now defunct Michael Jackson.
In doing so, the clearly successful Shilpa, has attracted a great deal of envy from the worst of the bunch: three non-entity, female English celebrities, who are famous for very little apart from once being in manufactured pop bands, or, indeed once having been in other reality TV shows. Jealousy, envy, and misunderstanding soon descended into intermittent slanging matches, and a clear policy of segregation. The bullies have mocked the laxative-like properties of her Indian cooking, made frequent silly jokes about Indians and India, said Miss Shetty should "fuck off back home", repetitively mimicked and mocked her accent, excluded her from their conversations, refused to sit next to her in communal areas, and one woman – insisting that "Shilpa" was unpronounceable – opted to call her "the Indian" instead. Ms Shetty, while bearing the treatment with a great deal of dignity, has broken down on a number of occasions.
The issue has become emotive, and has been blown sky high. On Monday last week, Ofcom, the UK TV regulator, had received 2,000 complaints from the viewing public asking that the programme be pulled off the air – more complaints than had ever been received in relation to a single programme. By Tuesday, Asian MP, Keith Vaz, had tabled a motion in Parliament and by Wednesday Tony Blair expressed criticism of the show in the Commons. In the meantime, the hapless Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer (and Prime Minister in waiting) found himself in India struggling to reassure Indians that Britain prided itself on "fairness and tolerance", as Shilpa Shetty's treatment was brought up in press conferences, meetings with junior ministers, and finally with Manmohan Singh himself. By Thursday, the Carphone Warehouse, Big Brother's main sponsor had withdrawn its £3 million sponsorship deal citing racism, and the perfume line brought out by one of the celebrity bullies was taken off the shelves. By Friday, David Cameron, leader of the opposition, urged viewers to "switch off", and complaints at Ofcom had reached the heady heights of 30,000. Most worryingly of all, Gordon Brown, still stuck in India, and faced with public demonstrations and the smell of burning effigies, declared "a vote for Shilpa is a vote for Britain". We knew then, that the shit had really hit the fan.
Finally, on Friday evening, the main instigator of the bullying, Jade Goody, was voted out of the Big Brother House, after a week of national soul searching, and a five day stretch of the programme continuously hitting the headlines in both the broadsheets and the tabloids. Every single person I have met over the past week has raised the issue, from my doorman, to the guys at work, to my most self interested friends, usually oblivious to the world around them. This is publicity no money could buy.
While people have been piling over each other to comment on the matter, it is Meera Syal, the comedian, who has hit the nail on the head. She says "What this treatment of Shilpa has done is remind a lot of Asian people in Britain of the type of uncomfortable treatment they've received themselves over the years." Asians switched on in droves and worked themselves up into a kind of collective rage. They then switch on the PC in droves and sent hundreds of emails of complaint in a kind of collective avengement. It seems there is nothing that brings the Indian diaspora together like a Bollywood star being bullied – I should know, after just two days of watching the programme to see what all the fuss was about, I found myself angrily logging on to the Ofcom website along with everyone else.
Has the whole incident been blown out of all sensible proportion? On one level the answer is a clear yes. Why should playground taunts on a reality TV programme engage the public so much, when there are far more serious issues out there? At the end of the day, all the celebrities in the house will be evicted, collect their fat pay checks, and return to their lives of varying privilege. The Big Brother house, despite its tag of Reality TV, certainly isn't any of the contestants' true reality.
And yet, the BBC Asian Network has described the issue as their biggest story ever – bigger than Saddam's botched execution, bigger than Inzamman Ul Haq's cricket ban, bigger than the rise of the British National Party in last local elections. My view is, why should we all act so surprised? Every Asian in this country has experienced some degree of petty racism in some form or the other, and suffered some kind of silent grievance. This issue has shown that the Asian community in the UK, when united, is a force to be reckoned with. While no one would deny that a number of English viewers complained about the programme, it was the Asian community that forced the issue with regulators, the TV producers, and an Asian MP who forced the issue onto the floor of parliament.
What most members of minority communities know is that petty racism is much easier to identify with, than out and out racial abuse. Most of us would agree that we live in a broadly tolerant society, and certainly a society that has shown itself time and time again, to have at least, the right ideals, even if it sometimes falls short of them. But watching the treatment meted out to Shilpa Shetty, has served to highlight how difficult it is to identify racism. It would have been easier if one of the other contestants broke, and simply called her a paki. But instead we saw the singling out, the bitching, the bullying, and the creeping isolation that the Indian celebrity was subjected to. We were only able to put two and two together, because the programme enabled us to listen in to the conversations between the perpetrators who disclosed a number of ignorant and racist views. The frustrating thing was that Shilpa Shetty suspected she was the target of racial discrimination on some level, but had no way to prove it.
It was this, I suspect, that rankled most with Asian viewers – that we could see it happening, but she could not. Many of us could identify with the slow and painful realisation that we are encountering prejudice, but are defenceless against it, because it is simply a gut feeling that cannot be proved. Despite the pro equality policies, and the anti discrimination legislation in this country, calling treatment racist, is often still seen as playing the race card, and secretly people wonder whether the complainant is being overly sensitive, and to be quite frank, really rather weak. While racism is not a word that should be used lightly, many of us are frustrated, that we cannot call it like we see it.
The attitude of the broadcasters fuelled this frustration. Channel 4 knew that the row over racism was TV gold, but that continuing to air the programme (or at least refusing to discipline the offending housemates) could put both the producers and the channel at risk of race relations offences, and their public funding, and broadcasting license, at serious risk. The channel's statements to the press, and official stance on the matter, were a case book study in legal obfuscation. Rather than mention the dirty "r" word, the producers first put Ms Shetty's treatment down to "girly rivalry". They then upgraded their assessment to "bullying", and finally, when the issue exploded into international politics, put the whole thing down to a "clash of class and culture", rather than racism. It was clear that the programme's lawyers were busily working away in the background. Channel 4's latest stance, has been that the programme has served the public interest in that it had helped to promote a discussion of racial tolerance – the language could have been lifted from the duties incumbent on the broadcaster under recent race relations legislation.
The dust has now settled, but this has been a fairly incredible week for race relations in this country. All of us watched while Shilpa Shetty, after a ninety minute conversation with the programme's producers in the Big Brother House (reportedly persuading her that she had not suffered racism, and that an allegation of racism, would only harm her interests) made a statement that she did not think her treatment was a racist. In a twist, Jade Goody, has acknowledged that her behaviour in the house was racist, and has asked for forgiveness in true Mel Gibson style, clearly alive to the fact that her career is going down the toilet.
A number of other race related stories, have also floated into the news in the wake of Big Brother publicity. Most notably, the case of a criminal who had refused treatment from a Pakistani police surgeon, calling him a "fucking paki" and asking for an English doctor instead. Charged with racial harassment, a judge told the defendant that he should have called the doctor "a fat bastard" instead. Rather than taking anti discrimination seriously, it is clear that some, even those in power, are simply fostering, or permitting discriminatory treatment while ensuring the language used cannot be caught by the law. The important thing for people of this ilk, are the legal loopholes, and not the spirit of the law itself.
I must say that, despite my knee-jerk complaints to Ofcom, in retrospect, I am incredibly grateful this programme was not pulled off the air. It has exposed the sometimes two-faced response of the authorities to allegations of racism. It has also exposed the British viewing public to be unconditionally fair, and egalitarian – a public that I am glad to be part of. But most importantly, this year's Big Brother has allowed the Asian viewing public to state categorically what is, and is not, accepted to be racist behaviour with a sense that they have every right to be here, and a confidence that they are welcome.
Posted on Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 9:59PM Friday, December 8, 2017 by S. Abbas Raza
In the late 19th century, the City of Light beckoned Whistler, Sargent, Cassatt and other young artists. As a new exhibition makes clear, what they experienced would transform American art.
Arthur Lubow in Smithsonian Magazine:
Her skin powdered lavender-white and her ears provocatively rouged, Virginie Avegno Gautreau, a Louisiana native who married a prosperous French banker, titillated Parisian society. People talked as much of her reputed love affairs as of her exotic beauty. In late 1882, determined to capture Madame Gautreau's distinctive image, the young American painter John Singer Sargent pursued her like a trophy hunter. At first she resisted his importunings to sit for a portrait, but in early 1883, she acquiesced. During that year, at her home in Paris and in her country house in Brittany, Sargent painted Gautreau in sessions that she would peremptorily cut short. He had had enough free time between sittings that he had taken on another portrait—this one commissioned—of Daisy White, the wife of an American diplomat about to be posted to London. Sargent hoped to display the two pictures—the sophisticated Gautreau in a low-cut black evening dress and the proper, more matronly White in a frilly cream-and-white gown—in 1883 at the Paris Salon, the most prestigious art show in the city. Instead, because of delays, the finished paintings would not be exhibited until the following year at, respectively, the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy in London. Seeing them together as Sargent intended is one of the pleasures of "Americans in Paris, 1860-1900," now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (after earlier stops at the National Gallery of London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) through January 28, 2007.
The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
Jim Duffy in Johns Hopkins Magazine:
"No one in science was paying attention to this whole area," says Andrew Rowan, senior vice president for research, education, and international issues at the Humane Society of the United States. "There was no sense of urgency, no sense of obligation."
That's no longer true. Last year's edition of the triennial World Congress for Alternatives to Animal Use drew more than 1,000 participants to Berlin and featured hundreds of presentations and talks. National scientific centers devoted to developing alternatives are in place all over the world, with new ones appearing recently in India and Brazil. There's talk of starting up a degree program tailored to alternatives—and of doing it through CAAT at Johns Hopkins, which, as one of the nation's largest biomedical research enterprises, experiments on animals in numbers that rank among the nation's highest.
The human hand in climate change
Kerry Emanuel in the Boston Review:
Two strands of environmental philosophy run through the course of human history. The first holds that the natural state of the universe is one of infinite stability, with an unchanging earth anchoring the predictable revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars. Every scientific revolution that challenged this notion, from Copernicus' heliocentricity to Hubble's expanding universe, from Wegener's continental drift to Heisenberg's uncertainty and Lorenz's macroscopic chaos, met with fierce resistance from religious, political, and even scientific hegemonies.
The second strand also sees the natural state of the universe as a stable one but holds that it has become destabilized through human actions. The great floods are usually portrayed in religious traditions as attempts by a god or gods to cleanse the earth of human corruption. Deviations from cosmic predictability, such as meteors and comets, were more often viewed as omens than as natural phenomena. In Greek mythology, the scorching heat of Africa and the burnt skin of its inhabitants were attributed to Phaeton, an offspring of the sun god Helios, who, having lost a wager to his son, was obliged to allow him to drive the sun chariot across the sky. In this primal environmental catastrophe, Phaeton lost control and fried the earth, killing himself in the process.
These two fundamental ideas have permeated many cultures through much of history. They strongly influence views of climate change to the present day.
On what is German about German literature
Navid Kermani in Sign and Sight:
I would like to answer the question of what is German about German literature by speaking about an exemplary German writer. For me, this means not Goethe or Schiller, not Thomas Mann or Bert Brecht, but the Prague Jew Franz Kafka.
Kafka? You all know the photograph of the young Kafka, the one that shows him, his face slightly turned, looking with a smile of either uncertainty or mockery at a point just above the photographer's lens. It is a detail from Kafka's engagement photograph [shown here on right] with Felice Bauer from the year 1917 and it is the most famous image of the writer, the picture that everyone immediately thinks of, an absolute icon. I remember exactly what went through my head as I took my first steps in Kafka's universe, I must have been fourteen or fifteen, as I looked at his face on the covers every day: he doesn't look German. The dark skin, the thick eyebrows over black eyes, the short black hair reaching so far over his forehead as to hide all trace of his temples, the oriental traits. Today, of course, it would not be politically correct to say so, but at the time it was my immediate impression: he didn't look German, not like the Germans I knew from school, from television, from the German national football team.
Beauty is in the eye of your friends
Debora MacKenzie in New Scientist:
Ben Jones at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and colleagues, showed 28 men and 28 women pairs of male faces and asked them to rate their attractiveness. The photos had been already been rated by 40 women as of about equal attractiveness.
The researchers then showed the same faces alongside a third photo of a female face in profile, positioned so she was looking at one of them, and smiling – or not. The viewers were asked to grade the faces again.
Women found the men who were being smiled at suddenly more attractive, while men who apparently elicited no such smiling approval were pronounced less attractive.
Psychologists are learning more about how colour builds language and language builds colour
From The Economist:
Languages divide the spectrum up in different ways. Welsh speakers use "gwyrdd" (pronounced "goo-irrrth") as a general word for green. Yet "grass" literally translates as "blue straw". That is because the Welsh word for blue ("glas") can accommodate all shades of green. English-speaking anthropologists affectionately squish "green" and "blue" together to call Welsh an example of a "grue" language. A few of them think grue languages are spoken by societies that live up mountains or near the equator because ultraviolet radiation, which is stronger in such places, causes a progressive yellowing of the lens. This, the theory goes, makes the eye less sensitive to short wavelengths (those that correspond to the green and blue parts of the spectrum). Unfortunately, though the Welsh do live in a hilly country, it is hardly mountainous enough—let alone sunny enough—to qualify.
The ultraviolet theory, however, is just one idea among many in the debate about the psychology of colour.
No Consolation For Kalashnikov
John Forge considers the moral dilemma of the weapons designer, in Philosophy Now:
The legendary AK 47 assault rifle was invented in 1946 by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It was issued to the armies of the old Warsaw Pact countries and has been used in many conflicts, eg by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, and even this year by Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq. One might say that it was a good thing that the NVA had access to a reliable weapon in the face of the invading enemy forces, and that they were justified in using it to defend their homeland. One might also look at the Vietnam war some other way, but I will accept this interpretation here. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to argue that the Soviet forces had any right to invade Afghanistan. So we might contrast the uses to which the AK 47 was put in Vietnam with Afghanistan, and we could mark this contrast by saying that one was a just war waged by the NVA, and the other an unjust war waged by the Soviet Union. Whatever interpretation one puts on those two conflicts, almost no-one sane would condone the use of the AK 47 in killing civilians, for instance Shiites in Iraq.
Iran and the Bomb
Norman Dombey in the London Review of Books:
On 7 June 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed and completely destroyed the Iraqi nuclear research reactor Osirak. The French government, which had sold the reactor to Iraq, protested. Bertrand Barre, its nuclear attaché in Washington, explained that the reactor posed no proliferation risk and that 'it was intended to be used . . . for testing or converting materials into isotopes, which have specialised uses in medicine.' The UN Security Council strongly condemned the attack as being 'in clear violation of the charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct'. The United States, however, objected to the imposing of any sanctions on Israel.
Was the Israeli attack on Osirak justified? Saddam Hussein certainly wanted to make nuclear weapons and in 1991 came dangerously close. But it is unlikely that he would have had much joy with Osirak, which relied on French technicians and was subject to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Osirak used highly enriched uranium as fuel: 93 per cent uranium-235 (U-235), and 7 per cent U-238, so while the irradiated fuel rods could have been reprocessed to extract unused U-235, which is a fissile material suitable for weapons, there would have been little plutonium-239, which is obtained from the irradiation of U-238. Israel nevertheless claimed that Osirak was equipped to produce 'military-grade plutonium in significant quantities' and that they had to strike before the reactor went into operation. Iraq considered building a reactor to replace Osirak but settled instead for a clandestine uranium enrichment programme, which it didn't declare to the IAEA.
Twenty-five years later, the focus is not on Iraq, but on Iran, which itself unsuccessfully bombed Osirak in September 1980. Israel and the US now claim that Iran is on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons.
Can ageing be stopped?
Posted on Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 6:37AM Friday, December 8, 2017 by Azra Raza
From Prospect Magazine:
Old age hardly exists in wild animals. Accident, illness or predation usually kill long before the potential lifespan has been reached. Humans, though, especially in the developed world, are pushing in ever larger numbers towards the maximum lifespan, thought by most gerontologists to be around 120. (The world longevity record is held by the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 aged 122 years and 164 days.)
In Britain in 1901, life expectancy at birth was 49 for women and 45 for men. By 2002, this had risen to 81 and 76 respectively. This rapid increase in longevity has created hopes among gerontologists not just of an extended "quality of lifespan" well into the nineties, but of lifting the 120-year limit. The optimists point out that all animals have immortal reproductive cells ("germlines"), and argue that ageing and longevity are genetically determined through programmes that can in principle be amended. They argue that biology has the tools to cope with wear and tear almost indefinitely, if only there were an evolutionary route to get there.
Right now the optimists are in the ascendant, bolstered by recent experiments that have extended the life expectancy of mice from around two years to three, with some reports of up to five. (Picture).
Superbright Comet Sweeps Across Southern Skies
From The National Geographic:
Going blind isn't usually a worry when watching for comets passing near Earth. But that's what astronomers say could happen if people aren't careful when they scan the skies for a glimpse of comet McNaught.
The comet is currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere near the horizon at dawn and dusk. It passes close to the sun, so observers are being cautioned not to accidentally gaze directly at the rising or setting star.
The fiery apparition—shown this morning through a gap in the clouds above Christchurch, New Zealand—is being touted as the brightest comet in 40 years, prompting crowds of hopeful amateurs to train their eyes on the sky.
ON THE HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN
Posted on Saturday, Jan 20, 2007 3:00PM Friday, December 8, 2017 by S. Abbas Raza
Gholam Reza Afkhami and over one hundred others, in the New York Review of Books:
To the Editors:
We the undersigned Iranians,
Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict;
Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned "Final Solution" and their ensuing campaign of genocide against Jews and other minorities during World War II constitute undeniable historical facts;
Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its own agendas;
Noting that the new brand of anti-Semitism prevalent in the Middle East today is rooted in European ideological doctrines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and has no precedent in Iran's history;
Emphasizing that this is not the first time that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has resorted to the denial and distortion of historical facts;
Recalling that this government has refused to acknowledge, among other things, its mass execution of its own citizens in 1988, when thousands of political prisoners, previously sentenced to prison terms, were secretly executed because of their beliefs;
Strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference sponsored by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehran on December 11–12, 2006, and its attempt to falsify history;
Pay homage to the memory of the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and express our empathy for the survivors of this immense tragedy as well as all other victims of crimes against humanity across the world.
Chinese anti-satellite weapon used simple technology
David Shiga in New Scientist:
Relatively simple technology suffices to take out a satellite the way the Chinese government apparently did last week, space weapons analysts say. Essentially any country that can put a satellite in orbit could launch a weapon to destroy one.
The US government says China launched a ballistic missile on 11 January that destroyed one of its own spacecraft, a defunct weather satellite called Fengyun-1C, in an apparent test of anti-satellite technology (see China dismisses 'space arms race' fears).
This makes China one of just three nations in history to have successfully tested an anti-satellite weapon, along with the US and the former Soviet Union. But the technology required is not very sophisticated, potentially putting it in reach of other countries as well.


text:
Miller continues family tradition with gift to Christmas Happiness Fund
Published 12:09 am Sunday, December 5, 2021
By Natalie Anderson
natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Judy Miller said having parents who grew up during the Great Depression allowed them to value the time they spent together each Christmas even more.
Continuing a nearly 70-year-long tradition, the Salisbury Post each year collects money from the community before passing along those donations to the Rowan Chapter of the Salvation Army, which distributes the money to assist families with Christmas presents for their children.
Dewey and Julia Miller, both born in 1906, spent their lives in Rowan County. Dewey worked at Buck Steam Station, and the couple regularly attended Bethel United Methodist Church.
"We weren't rich, but we had enough," Miller said. "We did what we could for others."
Judy said her father, Dewey, died in 1989, while her mother, Julia, died in 2005. Judy recalled beginning Christmas Happiness Fund donations with her parents, who always gave. Judy now continues that tradition in their memory.
"They always tried to give as much as they could," Miller said. "It's about making a difference for people less fortunate than I am."
Last year, the Christmas Happiness program raised more than $42,500 to help local children. Since beginning donations this year, the fund has reached $6,775.
Contributions can be brought to the Salisbury Post, located at 131 West Innes St., weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or mailed to Christmas Happiness, c/o Salisbury Post, P.O. Box 4639, Salisbury, NC 28145. Checks can be made payable to Christmas Happiness Fund and donations can also be placed in the Salisbury Post front door mail slot.
The latest donations are as follows:
• In memory of my parents Leroy and Laura Neely, my son Anthony and my husband Vernon Thomside, a donation of $100 from Phyllis Thomside
• In memory of Mrs. Janette Hawkins, a donation of $50 from Friends of St. Luke Missionary Circle
• In memory of Howard E. and Norma Jean Fetterman, a donation of $250 from their children
• In memory of our son Randall Gore, a donation of $25 from Steve and Malynda Peeler
• In memory of Lucille, Fred and James Sifford, a donation of $100 from Joyce, Thomas, Anamarie, Sutton and Alexander Ervin
• In memory of Wilbur and Jane Boltz, a donation of $200 from Jeanne and Jim Gilreath
• In memory of Kevin Smarr, a donation of $50 from Mom
• In memory of Odell and Georgia Henderson, a donation of $50 from Kay Harviel
• In memory of Joe Stirewalt, a donation of $50 from Kay Harviel
• In memory of Dewey and Julia Miller, a donation of $25 from Judy Miller
• In loving memory of my wife Margaret Simmons Kirk, my daughter Wendi Kirk Hamilton and son-in-law Jeremy Hamilton, a donation of $100 from Phil Kirk
• In honor of Sue DeCamp-Freeze, a donation of $25 from Jean C. Lefler
• In memory of my wife Ruby Watson, a donation of $50 from Brent Watson
• In memory of our beloved cat "Stripey Boy," a donation of $150 from Georgette and Conan Thompson
• In memory of Denise Voignier, a donation of $250 from the Lockharts
• In memory of Judy Bringle, a donation of $50 from Jennifer Bringle Handy
• In memory of Earl C. Alexander, a donation of $100 from Carolyn Alexander
• In thankfulness for my neighbors Becky, Levi, Jerry and Drake, a donation of $100 from Sue Bruce
• In honor of the "Special 10," a donation of $200 from Julia
• In loving memory of my parents we have lost, our nephew, our beloved "Spuds," other fur babies, family and friends, a donation of $25 from James and Karen Wilkerson. "We miss you so very much."
• A donation of $50 from David and Anne Hoffman
• A donation of $1,000 from Ronald and Lisa Phipps
• A donation of $100 from Jim and Nina Burton
Daily total: $3,100
About Natalie Anderson
Natalie Anderson covers the city of Salisbury, politics and more for the Salisbury Post. She joined the staff in January 2020 after graduating from Louisiana State University, where she was editor of The Reveille newspaper. Email her at natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com or call her at 704-797-4246.
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Preschoolers help push Christmas Happiness past $37K