text:
Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 1935 season.

Overview
It was contested by 6 teams, and Seoul Shukyu-dan won the championship.

Results

Quarterfinals
Tokyo Bunri University 4–2 Hokkaido University
Kansai University Club 4–2 Sendai S.C.

Semifinals
Tokyo Bunri University 3–0 Kansai University Club
Seoul Shukyu-dan 6–0 Nagoya Commercial College

Final

Tokyo Bunri University 1–6 Seoul Shukyu-dan
Seoul Shukyu-dan won the championship.

References
 NHK

Emperor's Cup
1935 in Japanese football

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
JEFFERY A. MOULTON
Sorrow's Echo
The Superhero Response
First 4 chapters from
Prelude - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4
The dry wind blew across the desert, playing a mournful requiem on the instruments of rock and sand. The melody rose and fell as it moved over the landscape, lamenting the dead and those who would soon join them. It moaned through canyons and stone arches and trilled around spires and shadowy mesas before rising in a crescendo to the top of the cliff, where it sang warnings to those preparing to jump off.
Helene closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, inhaling the warm Arizona air as it blew past. It tugged at the wide-brimmed hat cinched tightly under her chin and rippled through her T-shirt and khaki hiking shorts, its whistle drowning out the bustle going on behind her. For a moment, she was the only person in the world. She was free.
And then her husband ruined it.
"Hey, Helene," Sven called from beside the two vans parked a handful of yards behind her, "could you help Tybet unload the packs?"
At hearing his voice, familiar anger flashed through her. She gritted her teeth and drew a sharp breath through her nose, feeding the fury building in her. Her anger wasn't fair or warranted, but it was her lifeline. It was the only thing that kept the shadows at bay.
The desert below her stretched out to the horizon, godforsaken, sun bleached, and inhospitable. The thought of spending ten days out there with anyone, least of all with Sven and his misfit engineering team, churned the acid in her stomach. It was, she lamented, almost as bad as the thought of losing her husband altogether.
Just like they lost Kyle.
The shadows pressed in as a lump formed in her throat, and her chest constricted at the thought of their son. An onslaught of memories and images surged through her. In that moment, she both cradled Kyle as an infant and nervously let go of his hand as he stepped into kindergarten on his first day of school. She cheered as he made the winning goal at a high school soccer game and beamed as he graduated and moved on to college. His whole life spread before her, the images, bright and filled with pain, flashing through her consciousness. They resolved, as they always did, into her memory of the last photo she had of Kyle, the one in the car with Emily. In the photo, the new ring sparkled on Emily's finger and both her and Kyle beamed, their life together stretching out ahead of them, all fifteen minutes of it.
Trembling, Helene closed her eyes. Following the advice of the grief counselor Sven had insisted they visit shortly after the accident a year earlier, she drew a long, deep breath and let it out slowly, willing the memories and heartache to go with it. The trick didn't work. It had never worked.
Helene opened her eyes and stared into the valley again without seeing it, feeling the darkness and the grief close in. Her hand lingered near the pocket of her shorts. She could feel her phone nestled there, could feel it calling to her, could feel the need for what it could deliver building inside her. Her fingers twitched in anticipation, and her heart thundered in her chest.
"Helene?" Sven called again.
Her fading anger burned again, brighter and hotter than before. Helene grasped onto it, feeding it, forcing the darkness back with its painful light. Slowly, the trembling subsided as the need retreated to the shadows.
Gritting her teeth, she spun and walked toward the second of the two dust-covered vans. She pointedly ignored Sven, who was talking with Ryan, the pimply-faced technician who had driven the first van, and concentrated instead on the McTiernan Group logo stenciled on the side of the vehicle. She was vaguely aware of Tybet, the linebacker-sized security chief who'd come along as the second driver and was currently unloading and sorting equipment. In spite of herself, Helene stole a glance toward the large white trailer parked behind the van. She stifled her curiosity about the thing inside being prepped by Marcos and Pato, the two nerds who'd dreamed up the whole trip. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Stacee, the gorgeous mechanic who had busied herself with the tools near the trailer, then Helene moved on to Vivek, the Indian guide who was carrying rappelling equipment toward the cliff. Except for Sven, none of the others so much as glanced in her direction.
Without a word, Helene threw herself into her job with single-minded focus: sorting the packs and supplies then checking and double-checking the equipment. All the while, she kept the fire of her anger burning. As long as she was angry with Sven, she didn't have to face the real truth: Kyle's death was her fault.
Sven sighed as he watched Helene work. Even from this distance, he could feel the familiar burn of her fury. He wondered again why he had agreed to bring her along.
Shaking his head, he turned back toward Ryan, the acne-prone young man who would be monitoring their progress from the lab back in Phoenix. He hesitated when he realized that the young man's attention was directed elsewhere.
Sven turned and followed Ryan's gaze straight to Stacee's ass. The mechanic, who was too good-looking for her own good as far as this trip was concerned, was bent over a toolbox, checking items off a list. Her denim shorts rose all the way up, hugging her backside.
Sven sighed with frustration. If they ever got moving with her around, it would be a wonder. He could only hope Stacee was as good a mechanic as Marcos swore she was. He turned back to Ryan and snapped his fingers inches from the young man's nose.
Ryan blinked with surprise, as if he had just come out of a trance.
"What?" he asked, a little defensively, his thick glasses flashing in the sunlight as they reluctantly turned toward Sven.
"Do you have everything ready?"
"Yeah, sure." His eyes drifted back toward the girl.
With a growl, Sven stepped in front of him. "We're counting on you," Sven reminded him. "You have the maps? The supply drop schedules? The monitoring equipment? Is there anything you need from Marcos or Pato before we head out?"
"You worry too much," Ryan said, giving Sven what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. "We're all good."
The words did very little to comfort Sven. He stared at the young man for a long moment, scrutinizing him. Ryan wilted under his gaze and shifted nervously from foot to foot.
"Okay," Sven said at last. "As soon as we're down the cliff, lower the supply net and head out. It's about seven hours to Phoenix, and we need you there as soon as possible."
"Right-ee-oh." Ryan gave him a thumbs-up.
Sven began to say something else but was cut off by an excited shout from Marcos.
"Hey, everyone," the engineer called from the back of the trailer, "we're bringing her out. You don't want to miss this."
Ryan whooped and quickly pushed past Sven as Marcos disappeared back into the trailer.
Sven hesitated. He stood for a moment, watching Helene and Tybet approach the trailer, the latter more eager than the former. Ryan got there at the same time and chattered excitedly at the security chief, who responded with noncommittal grunts. Stacee seemed to appear out of nowhere and bounced excitedly next to them, staring fixedly into the trailer. Helene, of course, kept her distance, crossing her arms, and setting her jaw to ward off any who would attempt conversation.
Sven raised his eyes toward the pristine Arizona sky, wondering if Kyle was watching. "Keep an eye on us, okay?" he whispered to his son's ghost. "We're going to need it."
As if in answer, the wind gusted by. Sven grabbed for his hat, saving it just before it was tossed from his head. With a sigh, he turned to join the others, ready to jump off the cliff.
Go to the Prelude
Go to Chapter 2
© COPYRIGHT 2018 JEFFERY A. MOULTON.
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Dine with your family this festive season with Nations Trust Bank American Express Card.
Well, 'tis the season again. Festive or not, any time of the year is a good time to spread happiness among our loved ones, and what better way to do it than sharing a good meal?
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BidaskClub lowered shares of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday, BidAskClub reports.
EBAY has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of eBay from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 30th. Aegis reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (down previously from $44.00) on shares of eBay in a research report on Wednesday, January 2nd. TheStreet raised shares of eBay from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 30th. ValuEngine downgraded shares of eBay from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday, January 4th. Finally, Imperial Capital lowered their price objective on shares of eBay from $64.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have issued a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $39.13.
NASDAQ EBAY opened at $36.39 on Friday. eBay has a one year low of $26.01 and a one year high of $43.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.60. The company has a market capitalization of $31.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.35.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 29th. The e-commerce company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.03. eBay had a net margin of 23.54% and a return on equity of 27.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.86 billion. Equities research analysts predict that eBay will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.
The business also recently declared a Not Available dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 28th. eBay's payout ratio is currently 24.14%.
In other news, VP Brian J. Doerger sold 10,185 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.30, for a total transaction of $349,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 39,544 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,356,359.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 6.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBAY. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of eBay by 30,706.7% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,508,428 shares of the e-commerce company's stock worth $413,028,000 after buying an additional 12,467,825 shares in the last quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in eBay by 13.4% in the third quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,220 shares of the e-commerce company's stock worth $2,946,000 after purchasing an additional 10,567 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in eBay by 2.5% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,035,400 shares of the e-commerce company's stock worth $34,189,000 after purchasing an additional 25,579 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in eBay by 6.4% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 474,798 shares of the e-commerce company's stock worth $15,678,000 after purchasing an additional 28,677 shares during the period. Finally, Wunderlich Capital Managemnt boosted its holdings in eBay by 27.5% in the third quarter. Wunderlich Capital Managemnt now owns 35,693 shares of the e-commerce company's stock worth $1,179,000 after purchasing an additional 7,705 shares during the period. 86.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.


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Should be Excellent in Written English.
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text:
What Are The Most Common Algorithms Being Used Today?
Where are algorithms used?
What are examples of algorithms?
What are some of the most popular machine learning algorithms?
What companies use algorithms?
What are the most famous algorithms?
What are basic algorithms?
How is algorithm used in everyday life?
What do algorithms look like?
What does Big O notation mean?
Are algorithms algebra?
What are the 3 types of AI?
Which algorithm is best for prediction?
Which is the best classifier algorithm?
What is Tiktok algorithm?
What is a coding algorithm?
Algorithms are always unambiguous and are used as specifications for performing calculations, data processing, automated reasoning, and other tasks.
As an effective method, an algorithm can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time, and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function..
One of the most obvious examples of an algorithm is a recipe. It's a finite list of instructions used to perform a task. For example, if you were to follow the algorithm to create brownies from a box mix, you would follow the three to five step process written on the back of the box.
List of Common Machine Learning AlgorithmsLinear Regression.Logistic Regression.Decision Tree.SVM.Naive Bayes.kNN.K-Means.Random Forest.More items…•
While Google, Amazon, and Uber are great examples of digital natives that create and use algorithms; some of the most interesting work is being done by sector-leading companies such as Dell, Colgate-Palmolive, Under Armour, Li & Fung, Corning and others.
The Most Important AlgorithmsA* search algorithm. Graph search algorithm that finds a path from a given initial node to a given goal node. … Beam Search. Beam search is a search algorithm that is an optimization of best-first search. … Binary search. … Branch and bound. … Buchberger's algorithm. … Data compression. … Diffie-Hellman key exchange. … Dijkstra's algorithm.More items…
Advertisements. Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure, which defines a set of instructions to be executed in a certain order to get the desired output. Algorithms are generally created independent of underlying languages, i.e. an algorithm can be implemented in more than one programming language.
Every time you use a computer—your laptop, phone, or a mileage calculator in a car—you are using algorithms, says Dilip D'Souza, a Mumbai-based former computer scientist who writes the column A Matter of Numbers for Mint. "Call them programmes, or software packages, or apps (applications), which they are," he says.
More formally: algorithms are clear, unambiguous formulas To visualize a very simple search process, here's a linear search algorithm looking for the number 3 in a list of numbers. Check each item in the list. As soon as one of the items equals three, return its position.
Big O notation is a mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. … A description of a function in terms of big O notation usually only provides an upper bound on the growth rate of the function.
Algorithms are just a procedure used to solve a problem. Just like algebra. Algorithms use algebra to define the steps of the algorithm. They can get some pretty complicated algebra though – and incorporate other mathematics as well.
There are 3 types of artificial intelligence (AI): narrow or weak AI, general or strong AI, and artificial superintelligence. We have currently only achieved narrow AI.
Naïve Bayes Classifier is amongst the most popular learning method grouped by similarities, that works on the popular Bayes Theorem of Probability- to build machine learning models particularly for disease prediction and document classification.
3.1 Comparison MatrixClassification AlgorithmsAccuracyF1-ScoreLogistic Regression84.60%0.6337Naïve Bayes80.11%0.6005Stochastic Gradient Descent82.20%0.5780K-Nearest Neighbours83.56%0.59243 more rows•Jan 19, 2018
The algorithm uses a number of factors to base its suggestions of 15-second clips. Theses include user interactions, such as the videos a user likes or shares, accounts they follow, and comments posted as well as video information such as sounds and hashtags.
A programming algorithm is a computer procedure that is a lot like a recipe (called a procedure) and tells your computer precisely what steps to take to solve a problem or reach a goal.
Quick Answer: What Is The Rarest Patronus?
What is Draco's Patronus? dragonHis Patronus
Quick Answer: How Do You Attract Your Soulmate?
Can your soulmate have a different soulmate?
Why Is Venus The Color It Is?
What Colour is Venus from Earth? Not only can you view
Quick Answer: What Does Saturn Mean?
What are 5 facts about Saturn? Here are some fun facts
Question: Is It Good To Date Someone With The Same Birthday?
Can I marry on my birth month? Normally astrologers


text:
Analysis Marketing
Lorna Hawtin
Stories worth telling: Lessons from the IPA Effectiveness Awards
The convenor of judges at the recent IPA Effectiveness Awards says the winning entries tell stories that are familiar to us all but offer crucial brand lessons.
A scene from Foster's "Good Call" campaign by Adam&EveDDB.
Much has been written on the power of stories and their significance for the communities in which they are shared. Stories preserve historical records in memorable and meaningful human terms, transforming what would otherwise be individual insight into a salient collective experience. They are a community's means of passing from one generation or group to another the lessons and values that are crucial for their survival and success.
To me, the IPA Effectiveness Awards papers—all 1,200 of them, spanning 34 years of UK advertising—are important because they are not just case studies; they are our community's stories.
Each year, the ebbs and flows of business fortunes are laid out before us in every IPA submission. We read of insurmountable odds, devious insights, ingenious ideas, astounding climaxes, turning points and twists. All culminating in the diligent detective work required to demonstrate how communications pay back.
The key question, though, is not whether we all enjoy a good story; that goes without saying. Our goal must be to see whether we can determine what separates a great story from a good one — and, importantly, whether reading that story has the potential to change us in some way.
Those that we celebrate here offer us gripping tales of survival, resurgence, quest and loyalty, brilliantly well-told and all with an implicit "moral" or learning. So let's have a closer look at some of the strategic plot lines and lessons that emerge from the winners in 2014. (You can find all the winning case papers for the 2014 awards here.)
The comeback kings
If you want the story of a declining favorite who finds an intelligent way to turn around its fortunes, pick up the Grand Prix-winning Foster's tale, or the Mercedes-Benz, Garnier, Premier Inn, ITV, Everest or Fairy stories.
These tell how once-market-defining brands have gone on the offensive, returning to communications to reinforce price premiums, fight off competitors, target fresh segments or simply re-engage with complacent audiences.
Set in the prestigious car marketplace is a story about how to behave your way out of a problem you have behaved yourself into. Mercedes-Benz awakened to realise it had become "staid and stuffy," lacking the glamour, ambition and youthfulness of its competitors. With echoes of "Twelfth Night," it assumed the "disguise" of a youthful brand, dressing in the exciting clothes of the younger generation to tempt its target into playing along. In doing so, it enticed people into mass participatory experiences and created the immersion that leads to a new way of thinking.
Ultimately, this makeover helped Mercedes-Benz sustain a considerable price premium to become the fastest-growing brand in the sector. And we learn that, sometimes, you have to "fake it till you make it" to set a behavior change in motion.
In the Foster's story, we meet an old entertainer, loved in the 1980s but now out of favour. It determined that a brave new "act" could get it on the up again, but it needed to emotionally connect with an audience that was struggling as much as it was. Walking away from the bravado of old, Foster's saw that it could use its uniquely Australian "no worries" personality to inject some fun and soothe the relationship worries of troubled younger English men. This became the "good call" campaign, helping Foster's stimulate a growth surge that toppled its longtime rival.
The rebels return
If the tale of the plucky rebel looking for renewed purpose is more your kind of story, why not try the easyJet, First Direct or Only cases?
These stories tell how the original rebel and category reinventor finds itself no longer quite as new and interesting, no longer the cheaper option, no longer the innovator—but not yet the undoubted leader either.
A number of learnings emerge from these stories. First, these brands dig deep into the roots of their organisational and brand values to find the solution to their problem. These are not so much reinvention tales but reawakenings. For instance, easyJet had to refocus its brand while cutting marketing spend and found the solution in "the Luton way"—its long-held culture of efficiency.
Stories underline the power of emotional insight and creative ingenuity, the unpredictability of humanity, the desire to make your mark.
The clothing retailer Only revived its fashionista focus and reinvented the catalog as interactive drama. First Direct attracted new consumers by falling back in love with its original challenger bank stance. As the brand put it, the "unexpected bank" was "reborn." The moral for maturing rebels seems to be that the answer may already lie within.
Second, each rebel story pivots on a strategic turning point, where the brand stops chasing the old-guard competition, puts down its original, functional weaponry and opens up a dialogue that is anchored to its core beliefs. For First Direct, this is its belief in "deviation"; for easyJet, it's about the joy, spontaneity and human connection made possible by low-cost air travel; for Only, it is "liberation." The moral here is that there is great power in your purpose.
The Trojan horse
Several stories are about brands overturning conventional wisdom and carving out new opportunities with the use of a "Trojan horse."
With Renault, this was Dacia and the concept of the ultra-value car. Top Gear's negative banter created noise about the launch but, in effect, set up a derisive perception that practically doomed this new brand to fail. Its solution was to wrong-foot the jovial bullies, use their weakness as a strength and celebrate its simplicity by becoming "the enemy of the unnecessary."
Similarly, McCain used simplicity at the heart of its strategy to launch the microwaveable jacket potatoes. It challenged conventional cooking behaviour and an incredulous audience by wielding a simple sensory-inspired "oven-baked tastiness" campaign, creeping up on people at places and times when appetite would be at its keenest.
For the premium toothpaste Sensodyne, conventional wisdom said that the key problems facing teeth were staining and sensitivity. Unfortunately, that meant its Pronamel product tackled an invisible problem people didn't know they had. Sensodyne had to help people wake up to a new problem—acid erosion. And it did so using the simple credibility of an expert intermediary: the dentist.
Interestingly, all these stories also have echoes of the David and Goliath myth. David chose the simplest of weapons and outmaneuvered his enemy. In our stories, the simplicity of the solutions presented is equally striking. Perhaps the moral here is that a disruptive proposition might be made more deadly with the simplest of creative weapons.
Follow the Pied Piper
Several cases centered on the need to shift behaviors, whether that was Transport for London's campaign to mitigate the potential travel chaos of the 2012 Olympic Games, the British Heart Foundation's aim to equip the nation with the skills to perform hands-only CPR, the New Zealand National Depression Initiative's goal to get people to self-treat rather than ignore the symptoms, or the Fire Service's need to get people to check their smoke-alarm batteries with more regularity.
These stories draw on a recurring "Pied Piper" strategy. The brand leads the way by showing its audience a new behavioral pathway to follow in a highly engaging way. The Fire Service's Pied Piper was to link the checking of alarm batteries to the changing of the clocks. For the British Heart Foundation, it was the "Stayin' Alive" motif that helped people feel confident in getting hands-on in a cardiac emergency.
All the stories that we recognize here help us see the impact of what is changing in our world. But, more importantly, they underline the importance of things that remain constant: the power of emotional insight and creative ingenuity, the unpredictability of humanity, the desire to make your mark and, ultimately, the possibility of triumph against great odds.
We need stories, as they inspire and help explain what is inexplicable in our world, turning individual learnings into shared insights and creating parallels with our own challenges that are strikingly relevant.
Thinking about brand and campaign strategy in terms of character and narrative might be more than a retrospective tool. It could be a revealing exercise during campaign planning, too—helping to suggest the strategic twists and turns required to move the story of the brand forward. The challenge then becomes how to fill one's head with as many of these brand archetypes and stories as possible, because by doing so you will give yourself a richer palette from which to paint your own plot lines.
So don't get bogged down in the challenges that you might be facing today. Instead, take a little inspiration and courage from the IPA effectiveness stories, and you, too, may start to see your problem as a great story in the making.
Lorna Hawtin is the convenor of judges at the 2014 IPA Effectiveness Awards and the disruption director at TBWA\Manchester
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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text:
It's Purim morn, I've heard the megilla,
Its time to send shaloch manos and prepare for the seudah.
But wait, I haven't posted today, what should I do?
What to write about, I haven't a clue.
Should I post about Purim? I've already done that.
I'm running out of ideas. Oh, drat.
I know, I'll copy and paste from the JPost or YnetNews,
Not from the other one, because it has left wing views.
Or should I post a dvar Torah for the holiday?
I'm stressing out – I can't think. – Oy vey.
Maybe I should lift an idea from Aish or Tomer Devorah,
Perhaps I can write about an article from the Hamodia.
Should I write about shidduchim or about internet addiction?
Please help me. I'm running out of inspiration.
Should I wait by a hospital for someone to die?
It would be so great to post an exclusive that I wouldn't cry.
What is going on? What happened to my imagination?
Perhaps I should just post a work of fiction.
The time is ticking, I've wasted so much time.
Someone's at the door for tzedakah, I'll give him a dime.
I'm getting so nervous, I'll click on a word game to calm down.
One hour later, my face sports a big frown.
Should I write about the boy who donned tefillin on a plane?
If I read the same story on one more blog, I think I might go insane.
What about an article from a secular news site?
Do I have to worry about the copyright?
What about the latest scandal making the rounds?
But, on my blog, lashon hora is out of bounds.
Should I post a video from you tube, I've done that before.
Or will people think it is one great bore?
Copy and paste, copy and paste,
What happened to my mind? What a great waste.
I need an idea, I'm nearing the brink.
I've posted about almost every subject, except for the kitchen sink.
What about posting my thoughts on Rabbi Hoffman's latest topic?
I hope people don't accuse me of being too myopic.
Should I write about the Mashiach and the time of the geulah?
He would come faster if the Yidden did teshuvah.
We could start by spending less time on the computer and clicking on the mouse,
Instead we could learn Torah, or attend to the chores in the house.
What about a post about the erratic weather?
I'm not sure, I'm reaching the end of my tether.
Enough of this nonsense, I've wasted the greater part of the day.
I'm going to shut off the computer and deliver shalach manos – I'm on my way.
So excuse the lack of a post on this day full of joy.
Wishing a happy Purim to every man, woman, girl and male child.
Purim Sameach
In honor of Purim, a holiday of simcha, I am reposting two items from last year having to do with shidduchim. May we merit to see many simchas in the coming year.
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2. Fill in form, specifying eye, hair color, nose shape….
3. After he sees your picture, tell him you are an old fashioned girl, and it is your minhag to have the first two meetings at your home.
4. When he arrives, ask your parents to bring him into the salon, illuminated by only one candle.
5. Apologize for the dim lighting and explain that there is a blackout on your block.
6. The third meeting can be in broad daylight. At that point, he will be so enthralled with your scintillating wit and middos tovos that the wart on the tip of your nose won't bother him.
And remember, when you become engaged, before uploading your photos to be posted on OnlySimchas, PSSP Inc. will remove red eyes from your simcha pictures.
Why look like this?
When you can look like this?
Note: Pictures submitted for touch ups on Facebook will not be processed as a Yiddishe meidel has no business having her pictures plastered on that site.
Conversion by fear
When the word of the Jews' defense spread throughout the kingdom, the Megilla tells us (8:17) that many non-Jews converted to Judaism. The present tense verb, "mityahadim" - literally, were converting - is used instead of the seemingly more appropriate past tense "hithayadu" - converted. Why is this so?
Perhaps the Megilla is hinting that their conversions were insincere and therefore unacceptable. That same verse gives the reason for their conversion, "because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them." Fear is not a legitimate motivation for conversion....
In the Purim miracle the Hand of G-d was hidden. This is why the Name of G-d does not appear in the Megilla. It appeared to the non-Jewish world that the Jews had gained power through this-worldly forces. Therefore, they reasoned, it was wise to be on the Jews' good side. What better way than converting? However, these converts, motivated by fear, would not be accepted. Therefore the Megilla says that they were converting, "mityahadim," but does not say that they actually become converts -"hityahadu".
Read more Divrei Torah about the megilla at:
http://www.darchenoam.org/articles/holidays/ar_purim_pshat.htm
And Amalek came
Thought I'd pass along a short vort by Rabbi Yechiel Emanuel.
Parshas Zachor
by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer
The Mishnah Berurah (O.C. 685:1:1) explains in the name of rabbinic authorities that Parshas Zachor is read on the Shabbos prior to Purim because of the exhortation to eliminate Amalek, from which Haman stemmed, and to relate the mitzvah of obliterating the memory of Amalek to its execution on Purim during the days of Mordechai and Esther. Is there a deeper understanding behind this rationale for the relationhsip between Parshas Zachor and Purim?
Rashi (on Devarim 25:17) comments that Amalek represents "mikreh" - coincidence. That is, Amalek personifies denial of Hashem's existence and interaction with the universe, positing that all which occurs is due to coincidence and happenstance, rather than due to God's will and planning.
...a major theme of Purim is the recognition that God controls all - even though we cannot perceive His hand in the course of events as they unfold. That which seems to be natural coincidence is really Hashem's hashgacha - providence - and Purim demonstrates how this hashgacha works in a world without open miracles, which are reserved only for periods in which the Beis Ha-Mikdash stands and God's glory is dramatically manifest.
Read full article: http://www.ou.org/torah/gordimer/5763/zachor63.htm
A man was killed in Central Park when a snow-sodden tree limb fell on him just before 3:30 p.m. Thursday, the authorities said.
Read more: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/person-killed-by-falling-tree-in-central-park/?hp
Did a man die in Central Park this afternoon due to happenstance, or is a higher element involved?
The crown of a good name
Pirkei Avot 4:17
Rabbi Shimon said: There are three crowns—the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship; but the crown of a good name surpasses them all.
The above verse in the Ethics of the Fathers came to mind when I read the following in the New York Post.
Bernie Madoff's daughter-in-law wants to divorce herself and her kids from their sullied last name.
Stephanie Madoff, who is married to the Ponzi schemer's son Mark, filed papers yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court seeking to change her and her young kids' last name to the far less controversial "Morgan," to avoid the "embarrassment, harassment and endangerment associated with the name," she said.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/kin_we_quit_being_madoffs_mV0MoyueHpeRaPPSGOlILP#ixzz0gYcVZLm9
If I had to change my last name, I would be in a terrible quandary. I've narrowed it down to two names - Goldberg or Rockefeller. I can't decide. Which one would you choose?
In an article entitled 5 Things That Will Make You Happier, Clara Moskowitz writes that "recent research suggests people actually can take charge of their own happiness and boost it through certain practices."
Number one on the list of things which will make you happier is:
Be grateful – Some study participants were asked to write letters of gratitude to people who had helped them in some way. The study found that these people reported a lasting increase in happiness – over weeks and even months – after implementing the habit. What's even more surprising: Sending the letter is not necessary. Even when people wrote letters but never delivered them to the addressee, they still reported feeling better afterwards.
Read full article: http://www.livescience.com/health/how-to-be-happy-100222.html
The following is a letter by Beth Rittler to the Reader's Digest in which she writes about gratitude.
Years ago, I sent letters or made telephone calls to people I wanted to thank for being part of my life and adding to it. There was only one person I couldn't locate: a popular, handsome boy named Ed. I was a shy, gangly kid with low self-esteem, but when Ed paid attention to me, I felt like a princess. We were barely friends, but I never forgot him. When I heard that he was living in Michigan, I wrote to Ed and thanked him for being so kind to me. The night he received the letter; he called me - and practically every night after that. A year later, he returned to Pennsylvania, and we were reunited after almost 25 years. We've been married six and a half years - all because of a letter of gratitude.
The Purim story - in one minute
I received the following email this morning - author unknown.
It was in the days of Achashveirosh, that is, Achashveirosh who was the ADMINISTRATOR of 127 SITES, from http://www.hodu.com/ to http://www.kush.com/. In the 3rd year of his
administration, Achashveirosh made a feast for AOL. Those on his BUDDY LIST he wined and dined with every PERIPHERAL. His wife, Vashti, made a feast as well,@ which time her hubby commanded her to come show off to all his drunk CLIENTS.
She refused and he DELETED her for it.
Soon after, Achashveirosh regretted DELETING his wife, and conducted worldwide SPAM, BROWSED worldwide MESSAGE BOARDS, and GOOGLED in search of the prettiest maiden for him to marry. At long last, Esther was found and crowned. Naturally, they posted their picture on http://www.onlysimchas.com/.
Mordechai, Esther's uncle, got hold of the FAX that Bigson and Seresh, two malicious HACKERS, sent that were AIMing a VIRUS at Achashveirosh's HARD DRIVE. Esther immediately alerted Achashveirosh, and the episode was SAVED and ARCHIVED. At this time, Haman the anti-Semite, was given a raise and everyone had to MODEM (bow down) to him.
Only Mordechai refused to do so, because Haman wore an ICON around his neck; this angered Haman and made him want to RAM all the Jews' heads in! Haman convinced Achashveirosh to BACK him UP by offering him some CACHE and by telling him, "C D Jews are disloyal citizens" yada yada; so Achashveirosh gave Haman his PASSWORD and told him to use his administrative privileges as he saw fit. Haman was so excited ("YAHOO!") that he LOGGED IN right away and e-mailed everyone he knew, telling them kDOS uk'din (it was legal) to DELETE every last Jew on the INTERFACE of this earth. He even set aside a specific DATA kill them.
Mordechai the JUNO-d what was going on, so he put on his torn BOOTs, rags, and ashes, and designated day of fasting and of prayer (of course, telling them to make sure to say each WORDPERFECT - ly. He also told the Jews to NETWORK for the next three days and concentrate on arousing Hashem's (the Almightys) pity. Last, he sent an INSTANT MESSENGER to tell Esther to beg Achashveirosh to reconsider his decision.
So Esther went to Achashveirosh and gave him and Haman an IM INVITATION.
At the party, Achashveirosh offered up to her half of his administration, but Esther simply invited him to another party the following day to chap arein (shop around) for another few BYTES. That night, Haman built a gallows on which to hang Mordechai, because he was so annoyed that the latter didn't MODEM to him.
Simultaneously, Achashveirosh realized he just SCAN't sleep, so he asked his servants to DOWNLOAD all his ARCHIVES and see if anyone that deserved a reward didn't get it.
They noticed Mordechai's HOME PAGE, and Achashveirosh resolved to take action that very night.
Well, Haman was at the door then to get permission to hang Mordechai, and Achashveirosh asked him what to do to honor someone special.
Haman, thinking it was surely himself being referred to, said that the person in question should be led through the streets on Achashveirosh's TROJAN HORSE, wearing Achashveirosh's best garments. Achashveirosh, without even bLINKING, said, ".COM on, hurry up and do ALT that for Mordechai!" Needless to say, Haman FROZE. Haman had no choice but to go ahead with it, and while he was leading Mordechai through the streets, his daughter thought that it was Mordechai leading her father and she dumped the RECYCLE BIN out the WINDOWS on Haman's head.
When he got home and repeated all this to his wife, she told him "Since that acCURSORed Mordechai is a Jew, UNIXed it. Your downfall has just begun."
Haman didn't even have time to elaborate because he was summoned to Esther's party, stinKEY as he was from the whole ordeal. And Esther had him in the PALM of her hands: she told Achashveirosh that Haman was planning to kill her and her whole nation. Achashveirosh got so mad that he ordered Haman and his ten sons to be DELETED on the tree that Haman prepared for Mordechai.
The Jews were SAVED, and Achashveirosh even allowed the Jews to DELETE those out to get them on the date that Haman set aside. So the Jews lived happily ever after; what the Jews XPected to be a tragedy turned into a day of great joy.
So every year we try to UPGRADE all MISSING RAM and send the LATEST VERSION OF CLIPART and THEMED PROGRAMS to family and friends alike.
Venahafoch hu
A copy of the first comic to feature caped hero Superman has been sold on the internet for $1m (£646,000).
The 1938 edition of Action Comics No 1 - which originally sold for 10c - was sold by a private seller to a private buyer, neither of whom was named....
..."The opportunity to buy an un-restored, high-grade Action One comes along once every two decades. It's certainly a milestone," said Mr Fishler.
He added: "It is still a little stunning to see a comic book and $1m in the same sentence." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8529504.stm
Upon hearing about a comic book selling for $1 million, my first reaction was one of venafoch hu - a world turned upside down. The phrase, venafoch hu, can be found in the Purim Megillah when G-d performed miracles for His people and everything was turned upside down.
The following is a devar Torah by Rav Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, given last year.
The Gemara in Tractate Chullin 139b asks "Where is Esther found in the Torah?". In other words, where is the miracle of Esther hinted to in the Torah? The answer given is that it is hinted in the pasuk "and I will surely hide my face on that day". [The Hebrew words in the phrase haster astir, "I will surely hide", are from the same root as the name Esther – Ed.]
The question is asked, why were the Sages bothered about Esther so much and her source in the Torah – we have never heard about such interest in other great leaders through whom miracles occurred, like "Where is Yehoshua found in the Torah?", "Where is Eliyahu found in the Torah?". Chazal weren't even interested in asking "Where is Chanukah found in the Torah?", so what causes such interest to search for the source in the Torah specifically of the Purim miracle and Esther?
Rather, a miracle that occurs in Eretz Yisrael is not novel, since the power of Eretz Yisrael is different from any other place in the world. The specialness and holiness of the Holy Land causes miracles. And for sure when we are talking about a miracle that occurred when the Beit HaMikdash was standing. Therefore, Chazal didn't ask about Chanukah's miracles which took place in Eretz Yisrael and were connected to the Beit HaMikdash.
This is not the case with Purim, which took place in Chutz LaAretz, in the time period between the First and Second Temple, at the height of the exile, at a time that Hashem was behaving with us with hester panim, concealing himself from us.
Therefore, Chazal wanted to know "Where is Esther found in the Torah?". That means where is it hinted that even in a time of hester panim, while we are in galut, exile, Hashem performs for us with much mercy and kindness open miracles like the example [from the Megilla] of "everything was overturned: the Jews dominated their enemies"? [venahafoch hu]. Therefore, Chazal replied with the pasuk of "and I will surely hide my face on that day" – even at a time of hester panim Hashem saved us through Esther, bringing redemption to Am Yisrael.
Therefore the name of the Megilla is "Megillat Esther" even though her main name according to Chazal was Hadassah, it is not called "Megillat Hadassah", but "Megillat Esther". This teaches us about the rarity of miracles that occur in a time of hester panim.
Therefore the Rambam ruled (Hilchot Megilla 4:18): All the writings of the Prophets (Neviim) and Scriptures (Ketuvim) will be annulled in the future times of Moshiach, except Megillat Esther which will exist like the 5 books of the Torah. The Rambam's source is from the Yalkut Shimoni: All the festivals will be annulled, but the days of Purim will never be annulled.
And why? Because the memory of the days of Purim remain for eternity more than other miracles, for none of the other miracles occurred at a time of hester panim, but with the revealed behaviour of Hashem, and there will also be many more of these types of revealed miracles at the time of Moshiach which (according to the words of Chazal in Berachot 12b) will make the miracles in Egypt seem like nothing in comparison to the miracles of the time of Moshiach. This is not so with the miracle of Esther, which is intended to show Hashem's providence specifically at a time of hester panim – this memory will remain forever, never to be annulled.
http://www.mizrachi.org/elearning/View_parsha.asp?id=664
Proud to be a Jew
The Pavlovian response
This evening I came across a condemnation by President Sarkozy of the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh but haven't heard similar words about the NATO airstrike in Afghanistan which killed 27 civilians or the killing of Mohammad Haqqani.
Why the double standard?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his condemnation of the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai and insisted "nothing positive" comes of such killings.
Sarkozy was hosting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Monday. He said France cannot accept such "executions."
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1186309&lang=eng_news
One day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an impassioned plea for American-led forces to do more to avoid killing civilians in their fight against the Taliban, a NATO air strike killed as many as 27 civilians in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. officials said Monday.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/22/87352/us-concedes-air-strike-killed.html
A missile believed to have been fired Thursday from an American drone killed the younger brother of a top militant commander in the North Waziristan tribal area...
...The brother, Mohammad Haqqani, was killed along with three others when their white station wagon was hit by a missile in Dande Darpakhel, a village in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/world/asia/20pstan.html?scp=1&sq=mohammed%20brother%20killed%20qmericqn%20drone&st=cse
The twelve stones
A description of the priestly garments is mentioned in this week's parsha. THe Choshen Mishpat was a breastplate worn by the Kohen Gadol.
"The Ramba"n gives us an insight into the workings of the Choshen and the Urim V'Tumim: The word Urim means 'lights'. Whenever the Kohen Gadol needed to receive an answer, the letters (of the names of the Tribes, inscribed on the twelve stones of the Breastplate) would illuminate. That was the 'Urim' part. But the letters would be scrambled. It was not as simple as reading out: G-O T-O W-A-R. One needed to break the code -- what were the lights of the letters of the Breastplate saying? The Ramba"n explains that there were secondary holy names called the 'Tumim'. These 'Tumim' gave the Kohen Gadol the ability to interpret the 'Urim'. The ability to use the 'Tumim' to interpret the lights of the 'Urim' was a form of Ruach HaKodesh [Divine Inspiration]."
Put the sefer back
The rabbi was intent on conveying one message in his weekly shiur. If you use a sefer from the shul library, put it back in its place before you leave the synagogue. He said that not putting it back in its place was a lack of respect for the sefer itself, as well as for the congregants who might be searching for the sefer. To reinforce his point, the rabbi related an anecdote about the Steipler Rav who was walking home from shul acccompanied by another man. Midway to his house, the Steipler told the man that he had to return to the shul. The man accompanied him back and witnessed the Stiepler returning to his shtender, picking up a sefer and returning it to the bookshelf.
A second incident the rabbi attributed to the Steipler was when a pregnant woman approached the Steipler for a blessing, hoping for a normal delivery since all her other children had been born by cesarean births. The Steipler counseled her to return home and check if any of the sefarim had been turned upside down in the bookshelves. She and her husband found three sefarim that had been turned upside down and they carefully placed the sefarim in the shelves right side up. A short while later, the woman gave birth through a normal delivery.
Let's try to be considerate of others. By not putting a sefer back where it belongs, one is showing lack of respect, as well as causing bitul Torah to the person who, instead of spending his precious moments learning Torah, must waste time by searching all over the shul for the sefer.
Needless to say, we all carried our Chumashim and Siddurin to the bookshelves and placed them back where they belonged.
THe Steipler
http://curiousjew.blogspot.com/2009/10/steiplers-letter-on-intimacy.html
Revival of the dead
"Techiyat HaMetim" - (f.); Revival or resurrection of the dead; one of the fundamental beliefs of the Jewish Religion, and the last of the RAMBAM's list of thirteen such beliefs (one source of this list is the set of "Ani Maamin"s at the end of "Shacharit," the Morning Prayer).
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/techiyat.htm
One chair, you're a shlepper
This past Thursday evening, the parking lot was quite busy as shoppers were buying their Shabbos needs. Cars were trying to negotiate around shopping carts left in the middle of the lot by inconsiderate buyers who couldn't be bothered to return the shopping cart to its original location in front of the store.
This afternoon, I was reading "Listen to your Messages" by Rabbi Yissocher Frand and came across the following paragraph about being considerate to others.
"Sometimes when I come to my shiur room, there are not enough chairs for all the bachurim and they have to go to other classes to bring more chairs, I always tell them what Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz would say in a similar situation if a bachur came back with one single chair, 'You bring one chair, you're a shlepper. You bring two chairs, you're a baal chessed.'"
Reports of two tragedies in the news this morning highlight the fragility of life and remind us to use our precious time in a productive manner.
CNN has reported that an eight-year-old girl was killed in a freak accident when the car she was riding in collided with a deer.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/02/19/tn.deer.crashes.into.car.wkrn?hpt=T2
A 400-year-old minaret collapsed Friday in Meknes, Morocco, killing 11 people and injuring 50, the Interior Ministry reported, according to the official news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/02/19/morocco.minaret.collapse/
Let the clickers beware
I recently came across a CNN video with important information about clicking on ads and the consequences suffered by a number of individuals.
This morning I was in the process of reserving an airline ticket. At the final step, I received a message that my transaction was complete and that I could click for a $25 refund on my next airline ticket purchase. Sounded good, but as I read the fine print, I realized I would be committing to pay $12 a month for extra perks I zould probably never us. So, exercise a note of caution before clicking on deals too good to be true.
Worthy donations
The Bais HaLevi explains that Parshas Truma comes right after Mishpatim for a very important reason. The Mishkan was built from donations of the Bnei Yisroel. If a mitzva is done with a stolen item it is pasul because it is a Mitzva Haba B'Aveira, a mitzva performed through an aveira. Mitzvos like that are not wanted by Hashem.
The halachos of monetary matters are complex. Rav Yisroel Salanter once warned a Talmid who stopped pursuing a career in the Rabbinate because he did not want to take responsibility for answering halachic questions, that money matters are far more complex than answering questions about treif chickens.
Before one is ready to donate money to build a Makom of Hashra'as HaShechina he needs to make sure that he knows all the halachos pertaining to business and the money is clean and earned with 100% honesty. If you don't know Mishpatim, your Truma may not be worth anything.
http://www.revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Truma-Bais-HaLevi-Truma-Comes-After-Mishpatim/4383
I recently attended a mixed seating wedding, which opened my eyes to the divorced women and men who seemed particularly vulnerable, without having spouses to whom to turn when conversation was exhausted with table partners. I made a conscious effort to speak to the divorced woman at the table and had seated myself next to her during the reception after the chuppah. There was also a man from my area who is currently undergoing divorce proceedings. He looked dejected and I went over to inquire about his children and to invite him for a Shabbos meal.
In a recent article in the Jewish Post, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis wrote about her experience in bumping into a woman in Borough Park.
"Rebbetzin, I owe you a debt of gratitude," the lady now volunteered. "Some years ago, you published a letter from an almanah (widow), who wrote of her painful loneliness, and the apathy of so many people who just don't stop to consider the feelings of a widow, living by herself, and the many challenges her situation presents. For an almanah, even attending a simcha can be complicated. How will she get there? How will she come home, etc.?
"Among the many suggestions you made, Rebbetzin, was that when sending invitations to widows, a card should be included saying, 'We will be delighted to supply transportation to and from the chasunah. Please indicate if you need a lift.'
In the same article, the Rebbetzin admonished those people who don't respond to wedding invitations.
Read full article:
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/20531/
May we be zocheh to merit many future happy occasions. Incidentally, after reading the article, I emailed a response to an invitation I had received over two weeks ago.
Equations and solutions
The question posed in the Hamodia Magazine this past week was to figure out the product of the equation
(x-a) x (x-b) x (x-c) x .... (x-z) = ?
(The ellipsis indicates that the equation goes on like this using all the letters of the alphabet)
Sometimes, we face a problem that seems insurmountable and we are ready to throw in the towel. We pray to G-d and turn to our rabbis for guidance to help us deal with what comes our way. Occasionally, our salvation comes in the blink of an eye. And a solution can be as easy as the one to the math problem above.
Oprah1 and Oprah2
Today I came across two stories involving the Oprah Winfrey show. Both are eye openers.
In a Huffington Post article, Fr. Mehmet Oz describes the dangers of diabetes and relates what happened to Laureen, who courageously appeared on the Oprah show last week.
I want to introduce you to a brave woman at the hospital where I work. Her name is Laureen. At 34 years old, she was an active nurse -- vibrant, full of life and a volunteer EMT. But now, 10 years later, she spends three days a week tethered to a dialysis machine to rid her blood of impurities that her failed kidneys can no longer process. She has lost parts of both her legs.
But the good news for some diabetics is that the symptoms are irreversible, according to the doctor.
Click here to read the full article. Maybe it will scare you into watching your sugar intake before it is too late.
On an entirely different topic, in an article entitled Witnessing Uplifting Behavior May Spur Good Deeds, the following was reported.
In an experiment, researchers recruited volunteers who watched a "neutral" video clip of scenes from a nature documentary or a clip from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in which musicians thanked their mentors. The participants then wrote essays about what they watched, were paid for their time and asked to indicate whether they'd want to take part in another study.
Those who saw the Oprah Winfrey clip were more likely to volunteer to take part in another study.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/witnessingupliftingbehaviormayspurgooddeeds
Have faith
It's Motzaei Shabbos and I am in an emunah mood. Firstly, I am in the middle of reading The Garden of Emunah by Rabbi Shalom Arush.
Additionally, I came across an article in the Mishpacha Magazine in which Bassi Gruen interviewed Rebbetzin Tybel Fishman, a woman who opened a Bais Yakov school in Shanghai during the war years. She was the sole survivor of her immediate family and lost her husband at an early age. But when asked for a final thought at the end of the interview, these are the words the Rebbetzin came up with.
"You need to have emunah," she says with quiet conviction that is nothing short of awesome. "You can't worry and wonder 'what if?' Do what you have to do and leave the rest to Hashem. It's all in His Hands."
After Shabbos, an aunt from the States who is currently visiting Israel called me to tell me that she had just returned from a trip to the Kotel. I was very touched when she told me that she had davened for my family, as well. What also got to me was the way in which she described the way she had prayed to Hashem. The specifics in which she addressed Hashem revealed to me a woman of emunah, well versed in having personal conversations with G-d. May she be granted that her desires should be fulfilled for the good.
I add the words "for the good" because we are limited in our understanding as to what is good.
This evening, I read about the death of a participant in the luge event at the Olympics. Being chosen to represent his country at the Olympics was the greatest dream he could hope to achieve. But, ultimately, it wasn't for his good.
When Princess Diana married Prince Charles, she was the envy of many a young girl whose dream was to become a princess. But contents of letters written by the Princess reveal that attaining a young woman's desire was not for the best.
"I know there are a million people worse off than me & that I should do all that I can for them, but at the end of the day I have to live with myself & emotionally at the moment I am upside down & confused (so boring for those around me) & putting on this act is desperate...,
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/13/diana.auction/index.html?hpt=C1
Costly spelling error
From time to time, I post about spelling errors, but the one I just read about in the following article cost a person to lose his job.
The general manager of the Chilean mint has been dismissed after thousands of coins were issued with the name of the country spelt wrongly.
The 50-peso coins - worth about 10 cents (6p) - were issued in 2008, but no-one noticed the mistake until late last year.
Instead of C-H-I-L-E, the coins had C-H-I-I-E stamped on them.
The suffering of children
About a month ago I bumped into a friend's husband on the street. His father had recently been hospitalized and I inquired about his health. We began to talk and he related to me that his sister had lost a child about a decade ago. She was inconsolable. Speaking to rabbis, psychiatrists, and friends couldn't help alleviate her pain. Then she read a book where she found answers that helped her deal with her situation. She read about souls being gilgulim that were sent down to the world to rectify a mistake made in a past life.
I recalled the incident when reading a devar Torah on this week's parsha on Revach.net.
People wonder, says the Ben ish Chai, how a child so innocent and pure can be stricken with severe handicaps R"L. What did these little children ever do wrong to deserve such a difficult future? Have they ever sinned? However he says, intelligent people understand that these children are gilgulim from previous lifetimes who have come correct their past errors. They pleaded with Hashem to curtail their power to sin once again. They are the ones who requested the impairment so that they cannot make the same mistakes again in this lifetime. Then at the end of their stay on earth they finally release their excess baggage and are free to go to the place in Shamayim they rightfully deserve.
This is hinted in the Pasuk, "V'Chi Yakeh Ish Es Ein Avdo O Es Ein Amaso V'Shichasa Lachofshi Yishalchenu", If a man strikes the eye of his slave, or the eye of his female slave, and destroys it, he shall set him free (Mishpatim 21:26). The man here, says the Ben ish Chai, is Hashem. If He strikes someone's eye and sends him to the world blind, guaranteeing he will never sin with his eyes, then when it is all over he will finally be set free.
Similarly, says the Ben iSh Chai, the next pasuk says, "V'Im Shain Avdo O Shain Amaso Yapil". Shain here can mean Shanim or years. If Hashem cuts down a young child in his youth, having his many years fall by the wayside, you must know that "Lachofshi Yishalchenu", Hashem sent him away for his own good.
http://www.revach.net/avodah/avodah/Parshas-Mishpatim-Ben-Ish-Chai-Why-The-Innocent-Children-Suffer/4375
Lottery fever
Lottery fever has gripped the European Union as the Euro Millions prize draw is expected to be around 129,000,000 euro. The European lottery takes place once a week, on Friday evening.
The jackpot has reached a sufficiently high amount to make me take notice. But, I wondered if there are halachic implications for a Jew in purchasing a ticket where the winning numbers are picked after the Sabbath commences.
I emailed a rabbi who wrote back promptly.
If the company that owns the lottery is not owned by Jews, (or it is not public knowledge that it is by Jews,) I have seen those who write that it is permissible to buy the lotto during the week even if the drawing is on Shabbat. The sources given were:
שו"ת מנחת יצחק חלק ג סימן א, שו"ת חשב האפוד חלק א סימן מב.
Since my track record in winning prizes through purchasing raffles or lottery tickets is not the best, I think I will stick with a sure thing. I will contribute the 2 euro I would have spent on a ticket to a tzedaka pushke.
Have a good Shabbos and, for those of you who participate in the lottery, wishing that Hashem fulfills your desires for the good.
P.S. Anyone having an opinion about whether to buy a ticket is welcome to comment. I would love to hear your views on the matter.
The Toyota defense
We've had the post traumatic stress disorder defense, the Twinkie defense, the PMS defense, etc. Here's a new one for the law books - the Toyota defense.
A Queens World War II veteran said he and his wife became the latest victims of Toyota accelerator woes when his 2009 Camry's gas pedal jammed - sending the car careening into a synagogue.
...Police confirmed the crash but would not comment on what may have prompted it.
But Silver had no doubt what caused the accident. "It's quite obvious - I blame Toyota," he said.
The incident came as Toyota announced Monday night that it is recalling about 170,000Prius hybrid cars in Japan for braking problems and will soon disclose its global plans for a fix.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/02/09/2010-02-09_wwii_vet_faults_toyota_as_car_hits_synagogue.html#ixzz0f3qpd2aF
Seriously, I wonder who will ultimately be responsible for damages to the synagogue. Will it be the driver's insurance company or Toyota? Stay tuned.
Letting G-d in
Ever since I was a child, I've always had a fear of someone under my bed at night. So I went to a psychiatrist and told him I've got problems.
Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under it. I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy..'
'Just put yourself in my hands for one year,' said the psychiatrist. 'Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears..'
'How much do you charge?'
'Eighty dollars per visit,' replied the doctor.
'I'll sleep on it,' I said.
Six months later the psychiatrist met me on the street.
'Why didn't you come to see me about those fears you were having?' he asked.
'Well, Eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot of money! A Jewish bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new pickup!'
'Is that so!' With a bit of an attitude he said, 'and how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?'
'He told me to cut the legs off the bed! - Ain't nobody under there now!!!
Everyone has problems. Some seem insurmountable, others are solved easily. What is important is not to become mired in our problems to the extent that we fall into depression. As Rabbi Blech explains, "Depression is when you don't let G-d into your life."
This past week I have seen two shidduchim come about "in the blink of an eye." Baruch Hashem, may we continue to see many more semachot and may we realize that we can turn to G-d when our problems seem too overwhelming to bear.
Tehillim this Purim
I received the following email and thought I'd pass it on to those interested.
As Adar enters us, may the simcha be increased worldwide. Mishenichnas Adar MARBIM Besimcha!!!!!!!!!!
SAY TEHILLIM WITH KLAL ISRAEL THIS PURIM!!!
WE WILL ASSIGN YOU YOUR ASSIGNED PERAKIIM ACCORDING TO YOM.
YOM RISHON (SUNDAY) {PEREK 1 - 29}
YOM SHENI (MONDAY) {PEREK 30 - 50}
YOM SHELISHI (TUESDAY) {PEREK 51 - 72}
YOM REVE'E (WEDNESDAY) {PEREK 73 - 89}
YOM CHAMISHI (THURSDAY) {PEREK 90 - 106}
YOM SHISHI (FRIDAY) {PEREK 107 - 119}
YOM SHABBAT (SATURDAY) {PEREK 120 - 150}
SO FOR EVERY SEVEN PEOPLE, THE TEHILLIM WILL BE COMPLETED ONCE!!!
YOU HAVE THE WHOLE PURIM TO SAY YOUR ASSIGNED PERAKIM (SATURDAY NIGHT, FEBRUARY 27 UNTIL SUNDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2010)
WE WILL BE SAYING TEHILLIM FOR
SHIDUCHIM AND FOR COUPLES TO BE BLESSED WITH CHILDREN!!!
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN JOINING PLEASE EMAIL:
tehillim4ever@gmail.com
AND PUT 'PURIM' IN THE SUBJECT LINE
The Rabbi and the soup kitchen
Yesterday as calls abounded to increase tefilot for former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, (Rav Mordechai Tzemach ben Mazal) who is in critical condition, I came across a video of the Rabbi from a number of years ago. In the video, the Rabbi distributed food at the Chasdei Yosef Soup Kitchen. Watching the video, I was stuck by the Rabbi's humility - a trait which established Moshe Rabbeinu as the first leader of the people of Israel.
Left and write
In a recent New York Times column entitled When Spell-Check Can't Help by Philip Corbet, the author brings examples of egregious spelling errors in news articles.
Andrew Clark, a geneticist who works on the Y chromosome at Cornell University, said the Y's fast turnover of DNA could effect the activity of genes throughout the genome, because just such an effect has been detected in laboratory fruit flies.
A perennial problem: make it "affect."
As a verb, use "effect" only to mean "accomplish, bring about." "Affect" is the verb that means "influence." (The second use of "effect" here, as a noun, is correct.)http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/when-spell-check-cant-help-4/
I would like to add a contribution to his list.
The following is an excerpt from a JPost article entitled I'd also eliminate Chazan's column.
2. I'm sure this decision was made with a heavy heart. JPost carries many articles by writers from left and write (Chazan isn't the "only one" or "one of two" as some commentators observed.
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/rosner/entry/i_d_also_stop_chazan
Of course, now that I focused on spelling mistakes, I am bound to make one in one of my following posts so I apologize in advance.
Not paying attention in class
Last week it was reported that three students from Yeshiva Tiferes Yisroel in Brooklyn helped save a woman and her child when her house caught on fire. Below is a video detailing what took place.
Super Bowl to Super Jew
"The Torah is a playbook for how someone can live their life."
Alan Veingrad, former Packers football player, speaking at University of Southern California
Read about his journey from Super Bowl to Super Jew.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/us/06religion.html?em
Locations for shidduch dates
Stuck for an idea of what to do on a shidduch date? I received a link to a website where you can input a city and the site will provide you with ideal locations for your dates.
Wishing you much success and may we be zocheh to hear of many simchos.
http://www.shidduchdateguide.com/Search.aspx
Constructive criticism
Rashi tells us that Yisro had 7 names. One was 'Yeser' - because he "added" a parsha to the Torah, by giving Moshe advice to take help when judging Klal Yisroel. Rashi says that the parsha he added was "ViAtah Sechezeh' - and you shall seek out from the people judges who are wealthy, G-d fearing, etc.
The Gerer Rebbe asks, isn't it odd that Rashi quotes a pasuk from the middle of the story? These are not the first words of the dialogue between Yisro and Moshe. Rashi should have quoted the earlier words of Yisro (pasuk 17) - "Lo Tov HaDavar Asher Atah Oseh" - 'It is not correct what you are doing by judging alone." Why did Rashi quote verse 21?
The Rebbe answers, it's easy to be critical about what someone else is doing. "You are doing it wrong!" I can do it better!" If one wants to give constructive criticism, he should offer a better way. By just saying, "what you're doing is wrong!" is not sufficient. Show the other person a better way how to do it. This is why Rashi does not quote the opening words of Yisro, "Lo Tov HaDavar Asher Atah Oseh"; since that would just be a standard criticism. Rashi wants to stress that Yisro criticized and offered wholesome advice. That is why he was called "Yeser'. He added the parsha in the Torah of "ViAtah Sechezeh', which are the words of his advice to Moshe.
http://www.revach.net/article.php?id=1728
Two examples of Jewish pride
This morning I read that Avner Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Netanyahu, has won the Jerusalem Bible Quiz.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an interview nearly a year ago that he often read the Bible together with his son.
Mazal Tov to the entire family.
A second story relating to Jewish pride were the actions of Rabbi Shmully Hecht in confronting Richard Goldstone about his report on the Gaza war.
YYN has published an article entitled Goldstone Tied to Anti-Israeli Organizations.
For those who insist the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead is an objective report card of Israel's actions, it has been learned the honorable judge, Richard Goldstone, has ties with a number of organizations known for their anti-Israeli publications.
Yisrael HaYom reports it has been learned that six months before the UN tapped him to head the investigation into the Israeli offensive; he signed a document decrying the Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/46903/Goldstone+Tied+to+Anti-Israeli+Organizations.html
A rabbi's protest sign at Yale University stunned Judge Richard Goldstone, who was visibly affected by the poster comparing his report on the war in Gaza with the Dreyfus Affair and the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Goldstone report, authorized by the United Nations, accuses Israel of committing war crimes in the operation against Gaza terrorists last year.
Rabbi Shmully Hecht, advisor to Eliezer, the Jewish society at Yale University, confronted Goldstone last week when he delivered an address on campus. After Rabbi Hecht and supporters held up the sign in the back of the conference room and Judge Goldstone appeared to be flustered, a Yale official interrupted the speech and said, "You have made your point. Take it down now."
Read full story: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135776
Seeing the good
The following is an excerpt from an email from the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation.
If we were to search for the first spark of loshon hora as it begins to develop in a person's mind, we would find it in the part of the brain that makes judgments. Every day, many times a day, each of us observes other people's actions, and we can choose to judge those actions positively or negatively. For many people, the first response is to judge negatively. The Chofetz Chaim tells us that when loshon hora results from negative judgment, it is a violation of the commandment to judge people favorably (Vayikra 19:15). Even if the person is a beinoni (an average individual, someone who is neither righteous nor wicked) and certainly if he is known as a G-d-fearing individual, we are obligated by the Torah to judge his actions and words in a positive way.
http://www.chofetzchaimusa.org/morning_machsom_welcome/morninginspirchoose.html
Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv (known as The Alter of Kelm):
Always remember the favors people did for you.
Remember their good qualities and not their faults.
One who follows this path will be loved by all.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DerechEmet/
I recently attended a wedding. The comments made were that the music was too loud, the food wasn't good, the wedding was extravagant, it was fantastic, a beautiful affair. People's judgments ranged the gamut. The guests attended the same wedding. Why did some find it wonderful while others had nothing but complaints? Maybe it wasn't what the hosts did, but how we view the event. I will strive to see the good in people and in situations. I am sure I will be happier by doing so.


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I use Yandex Mail and I want to stop all e-mail features. I think it maybe Postfix Mail Server and Dovecot IMAP/POP3 Server.
Is there any application or server that i can stop?
you can stop all services from the index page and disable them in the chkconfig.


text:
Great Hospital Mystery
Uneven comedy mystery involving bank robbery and murder around a big hospital. It starts with a parolee getting carjacked outside of a bank robbery. In order to hide out he goes to a friend in a hospital and they decide to fake his death. From there we end up of misdirection and murder.
A good mystery is under cut by a boneheaded nurse who has been inserted for comic relief. She's so loud that you tire of her nonsense instantly. I liked it but I wish it was better and less silly.
(The film spawned two sequels)
Preview Murder Case (1936)
Someone first threatens and then kills people connected with one film at a film studio. Reginald Reginald Denny investigates.
Robert Florey sends up life in a film studio in an okay murder mystery. It's more intriguing for the throw away stuff then the main plot which never seems to be what Florey is interested in.
Watching the film I was shocked at how retro the film felt. It seemed more like a film from 1931 or 1932 as opposed 1936. There is a denseness to to the staging with everyone all crowded around the center of the frame. You got this in early sound films because of the mics- but not in 1936.
It's good but it's not quite great.
Secret Six (1931)
The title sounds like a super hero movie but it's not.
Its about a Victor McLaughlin who works in the stock yards in Chicago. His buddy Ralph Bellamy brings him into the bootlegging business where he excels and eventually takes over for Bellamy. Into the mix comes Jean Harlow, Johnny Mack Brown, and some guy named Clark Gable, who impressed MGM so much they made him into a superstar (actually watching him he did it on his own- they just signed him). Its a crime pays until the final fade out tale that Hollywood used to do so well.
This is a dense potboiler of a film. Its full of great characters and sets and lines and is super meaty. The trouble is it's almost too much. Actually it is too much and too knowing. This is a big budget picture and it knows it, wearing it on it's sleeve. It's the sort of attitude that kind of gets in the way since it has too polished.
I like the film, though the film to me is more curio for the casting and the filmmaking. rarely have I ever seen a film quite like this (the title refers to a band of good citizens who hide their identity to trip up our antihero.
Definitely worth a look. Its something you'll probably like more than love and which you'll sing it's technical and casting praises more than it's story
Labels: american, crime, mystery


text:
Hugo Chávez Frías
"History will absolve us who struggle for the good of humanity, who struggle to save the world, who struggle in truth for a better world of equality, justice, and freedom." -- Hugo Chávez, XVI World Festival of Youth and Students, Caracas, Venezuela, August 13, 2005
In the context of the popular rejection in Venezuela of the neoliberal project imposed by the global powers with the collaboration of Venezuelan political and economic elite, and in a situation of popular disgust with the failure of the nationalization of the petroleum industry to promote national economic development (see "The neocolonial era in Venezuela" 8/3/2016), Hugo Chávez emerged as a charismatic leader with the capacity to describe the global and national structures of domination in understandable terms, and who was able to optimistically project an alternative political reality. He thus possessed the capacity to forge that consensual reflection and united action necessary for a social transformation in defense of popular interests and needs. He emerged as the central leader in the forging of a new political reality in Venezuela and in Latin America. The emergence of charismatic leaders with exceptional gifts of understanding and political leadership is a normal tendency in revolutionary processes (see various posts in the category Charismatic Leaders).
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born in Sabaneta, a rural village of Venezuela, on July 28, 1954. Chávez describes his family as a poor peasant family. His father was a school teacher who earned his teaching diploma by studying part-time. Although his mother and father lived nearby, he was principally reared by his grandmother, a peasant woman who was half indigenous. He describes himself as a mixture of indigenous, African, and European (Guevara 2005:14-15, 71-72, 76).
In 1971, at the age of 17, Chávez entered the Military Academy of Venezuela, and he earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant in 1975. His study during his years in the military academy established the foundation for his revolutionary formation. He read the writings of Simón Bolívar, Mao Zedong and Che Guevara, and he developed a perspective that he describes as a synthesis of Bolivarianism and Maoism. He investigated these themes further in a master´s program in political science at Simón Bolívar University. He continuously read books of historical, political, social, and literary significance during his military and political careers, and he advised young people to develop the habit of reading. He frequently recommended particular books in his discourses, famously exemplified by his recommendation of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival during an address to the UN General Assembly and his gift to President Barack Obama of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America (Guevara 2005:78-79; Chávez 2006:104).
During the 1970s and 1980s, he had considerable success leading young officers in the forming of a reform movement within the military. On February 4, 1992, with the participation of approximately 100 fellow officers, he directed an attempted coup d´état, with the intention of overthrowing the government and convening a constitutional assembly. The coup failed, and he was imprisoned. Upon his release in 1994, he resigned from the military and formed the Bolivarian Fifth Republic Movement, again with the intention of convening a constituent assembly, but now seeking to attain power through the electoral process. He was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, in spite of the ignoring of his candidacy by the mass media, and he assumed the presidency on February 2, 1999. He immediately issued a decree calling for a constitutional assembly. Elections for a new constitution were held, and a new constitution was approved, establishing the Fifth Republic. In 2000, he was elected to a six-year term as president under the new constitution, and he was subsequently re-elected, with nearly 63% of the vote, to a second term from 2007 to 2013. He died of cancer in 2013 (Guevara 2005:9-39).
Hugo Chávez understood that the underdevelopment of the peoples of Latin America, Africa, and Asia is a consequence of colonial domination. Citing Andre Gunder Frank, he asserts: "Underdevelopment is a characteristic of development. Our underdevelopment is a consequence of the development of the imperialist countries. They only arrived at the level of development that they have after having invaded and sacked immense territories of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If not, they would not be at the level of development that they are" (Chávez 2006:132).
Chávez understood the negative effects of neoliberalism, which he condemned in moral terms.
It is practically and ethically inadmissible to sacrifice the human species appealing in a crazy manner to the validity of a socioeconomic model with an enormous destructive capacity. It is suicidal to insist on disseminating it and imposing it as the infallible remedy for the ills for which it is, precisely, the principal cause. . . . What neoliberal capitalism, the Washington Consensus, has generated is a greater degree of misery and inequality and an infinite tragedy for the peoples of this continent.
He castigated the subservient behavior of Latin American elites before US imperialist intentions:
How much damage was done to the peoples of Latin America by the initiative of the Americas, neoliberalism, the Washington Consensus, and the well-known package of measures of the International Monetary Fund. And in this continent nearly all the governments were kneeling, one must say it in this way, the elites of the peoples were kneeling undignified, or better said not the elites of the peoples but the elites of the republics, were kneeling before the empire, and in this manner the privatization orgy began like a macabre wave in these lands, the selling of very many state companies (Chávez 2006:263-64).
 Chávez believed that US imperialist policies are a threat to the survival of the human species, and that the peoples in movement must prevent this from happening.
The hegemonic intention of North American imperialism puts at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue alerting over this danger, and we are making a call to the people of the United States and to the world to stop this threat that is like the very sword of Damocles. . . . North American imperialism . . . is making desperate efforts to consolidate its hegemonic system of domination. We cannot permit this to occur, that the world dictatorship be installed, that the world dictatorship be consolidated (Chávez 2006:346-47).
In contrast to US imperialism and US imposed neoliberalism, Chávez promoted a concept of autonomous economic development that he described as "a model of endogenous development that is not imposed on us by anyone, neither the Creole elite nor the imperialist elite, our own economic development" (Chávez 2006:319). This model seeks to develop national production, giving emphasis to the development of energy, agriculture, and basic industry, and providing support for small and medium producers. Endogenous development is rooted in the cultures and traditions of the peoples, particularly the indigenous peoples, and it has to be developed with a consciousness of history. The study of history often has been only partially developed in the educational systems of neocolonial republics, and historical consciousness also has been undermined by the ideologies of the empire. Chávez maintained that history must be rediscovered.
Chávez believed that humanity stands at a critical time in world history. "The capitalist model, the developmentalist model, the consumerist model, which the North has imposed on the world, is putting an end to the planet Earth." We can observe such phenomena as global warming, the opening of the ozone layer, an increasing intensity of hurricanes, the melting of the ice caps, and the rising of the seas. Moreover, in the social sphere, rather than accepting their superexploitation and social exclusion, the peoples of the world are increasingly in rebellion. Humanity is approaching a critical point, in which "in the first five decades of the twenty-first century it will be decided if in the future there will be life on this planet or if their will not be life." It is a question, he believed, of "socialism or barbarism," citing Rosa Luxemburg (Chávez 2006:195, 256)
At this critical and decisive moment in human history, Chávez possessed that hope in the future of humanity that is the hallmark of the revolutionary (see "The revolutionary faith of Fidel" 9/15/2014). He believed that "the great day of liberty, equality, and justice is arriving." This is exemplified, he believed, by the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, which is constructing a "socialism of the twenty-first century" that will not be the same as the socialisms of the twentieth century. It will be "a socialism renewed for the new era, for the twenty-first century. . . . It will not have only one road; it will have many roads. It will not have one model; there will be many variants of socialism. It will have to adapt to the circumstances of each country, of each region. . . . Socialism for Latin America cannot be a replica, it has to be a great and heroic creation, a heroic construction of our peoples" (Chávez 2006:193, 198).
Socialism of the twenty-first century is based on a renewed formulation of traditional values. "Socialism of the twenty-first century ought to begin to consolidate new values that are not new, they are old values but one must renew them, one must strengthen them. . . . For us here in Venezuela, for example, and I believe that it is valid for a good part of Latin America and the Caribbean, Christianity is a current that pushes and feeds our socialism in construction. This socialism of the twenty-first century has much of Christianity for the Venezuelans, as it has much of Bolivarianism and Marxism" (Chávez 2006:200).
Chávez was an inspiring voice that resurrected the dream of national liberation formulated in the period 1948 to 1979 by charismatic leaders of the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement (see "The Third World Project, 1948-79" 7/20/2016), calling the people to political action in the development of an alternative to the neoliberal project imposed by the global powers (see "IMF & USA attack the Third World project" 7/29/2016). And in the tradition of Fidel, Ho Chi Minh, and Nyerere, he saw socialism as a necessary component of national liberation ("Fidel adapts Marxism-Leninism to Cuba" 9/9/2014; "Ho synthesizes socialism and nationalism" 5/8/2014). In the next post, we will look at the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, forged under his leadership.
Guevara, Aleida. 2005. Chávez, Venezuela, and the New Latin America. Melbourne: Ocean Press.
Chávez Frías, Hugo. 2006. La Unidad Latinoamericana. Melbourne: Ocean Sur.
Key words: Chávez, Venezuela, socialism, Bolivarian Revolution