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Stitia, Plane of 13 Deaths (RPG Style Saga/My First Saga)
Tommia
August 2019 edited September 2019 in Sagas
13. An unlucky number, according to universally accepted superstition. Millions of Stitia's residents are haunted by this number, not because it's unlucky, but because this is the number of times many of their mortal souls are grinded through the Cursed Rebirth. Anyone who dies a sinful or supernatural death is cursed... cursed to be reborn as a lower being, cursed to live a life more torturous than the last, and in the end, they are cursed to meet a more tragic and agonizing demise...
The very few who know about the Cursed Rebirth seek to avoid it at all costs, and to uncover its mysteries. These are called the Triskaidians. These greater beings have a natural resistance to the Cursed Rebirth, in their faith in the gods or their pacts with demons, with the knowledge to escape death or the ability to resist it. However, the luck of Stitia is not in their favor. The Triskaidians are born with a curse as well; the supernatural has a knack for ending their lives as soon as possible. Sin will run to them, tainting their lives and destroying their faith. Those that do not die outright go insane, eventually succumbing to the Cursed Rebirth anyways through self-infliction.
You are a Triskaidian. After a recent sweep of supernatural deaths amongst the people, be it friends, family, or strangers, you decide that you should finally start to investigate. Someone must be behind all of this. Rumors say that this is the only plane this happens on, after all.
How to begin:
- Create a Legendary Creature card to represent your character. They must have some kind of natural immunity to the supernatural, expressed through the card in some way or another. (Please read below what races you can use, and what colors you can use with them. Note that these are just suggestions, and if you can make it work, you can go for something crazy like a red and black Merfolk in Nasita.)
- Create an artifact that's a Lucky Charm for your character.
- Create a card that displays a supernatural event the character holds dearly, whether it was a miracle that inspired hope, or a tragedy that inspired them to act.
- Make a minor story blurb about you character. It definitely doesn't need to be an essay on their life story, but a good backstory will make it easier for me to understand your character, enhancing the experience.
- Use the map and info below it to determine your hometown.
Here are the races you can use to make your character:
- Human (Any combination of colors)
- Dwarf (Any combination of colors)
- Construct (Any combination of colors)
- Vampire (Any combination of Red, White, Blue, and Black)
- Werewolf, Werehound, Werebird, Werecat, Wererat, Werebug, Werespider, Werebeast, or Werebear (Any fitting color.)
- Elf (Any combination of White, Green, and Blue. Red is tolerable for Shamans.)
- Devil/Demon (Any combination of Red, Green, and Black)
- Angel (Must be white, Can be any combination of colors)
- Spirit (Any combination of colors)
- Elemental (Any combination of colors)
- Cat (For Leonin) (Any combination of colors)
- Zombie (for Liches) (Must be black. Can be combined with any combination of colors EXCEPT white.)
- Merfolk (Must be blue or green. Any combination of colors)
- Shapeshifters (Any combination of colors.)
- Faerie (Any combination of White, Green, or Blue)
The 13 Sectors (From Left to Right):
- Ystheria (Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Constructs, Leonin, Merfolk, Angel): Home of the main civilian populace, and the unofficial capital of Stitia. This is normally the third most peaceful sector on the plane, but it's recently become victim of mysterious mass serial killings by an entity known only as "The Horn".
- Descour (Elementals, Humans, Dwarves, Leonin): This vast desert offers little more than a barren place of rocks and sand. Desecrated over a thousand years ago, only the brave go here, and very few survive.
- Nasita (Demons, Devils, Zombies, some Humans and Dwarves): This corrupted sector sits upon the highest peak of the mountainous wasteland. The strongest forces of evil embrace the cruelness of the world, abusing the supernatural.
- Woewedt (Elves, Leonin, Humans): This temperate jungle is home to a majority of the Elf and Leonin populations on Stitia. While the nature is tame here, keep in mind that you're always being watched by one of the Elf tribes.
- The Changing Arcanium (All races): In this melting pot, all races coexist as one, but this city is not supposed to be. Appearing somewhere in Woewest, this city seems to fade in and out of existence. While many things change each time, one thing stands out; Stitians have discovered The Great Listorium and the Great Stagazium, books containing all of the plane's history and all of its futures.
- Racrion (Leonin, Humans, Dwarves, Elves):The plains of Racrion are home to nature's proving ground, a prime example of the cutthroat world Stitians live in. Not that many people live here, but the main sentient inhabitants are Leonin and Humans.
- Hitcherald (All Races Except Demons, Devils, Constructs and Zombies): The holy land of Hitcherald is about the only holy place in all of Stitia. Within are the faithful, those who worship the Omnipotent Six. The people here are quite peaceful, but heretics threaten the church,
- Delvad (Werewolves, Elves, Elementals, Humans, Dwarves, Merfolk): Nature warps within the trees, creating horrors beyond imagination. Twisted werewolves, evil elves, and elementals of pure corrupted energy torment the land.
- Etsane (Humans, Dwarves, Constructs): This city of law has been overthrown by criminals. While diplomats struggle to make laws, Thugs and Gangs rules the streets and bribe government officials.
- Aesthr (Merfolk, Humans, Dwarves): This massive ocean has a few islands, home mainly to Merfolk, but some humans and dwarves live among them. However, recent supernatural activity has caused intense storms at sea.
- Leighart (Vampires): The Kingdom of Leighart, home only to Vampires, is the throne of the Reliq bloodline. Staying fairly secluded, they grow very suspicious of any vampire that develops a relationship with others.
- Padetra (Zombies, Spirits, Demons/Devils, Humans, Dwarves): Serving as the main central area for the dead and dying, this Sector has practically become a civilization all its own, where liches, necromancers and demons rule over zombies and spirits.
- Yrntrn (Dwarves, Constructs, Humans): Probably the only advanced sector in the entirety of Stitia, Yrntrn is home to the industrial Sector, where research is done to better humanity's odds against the supernatural.
New District - Owu (Humans, Faeries, Angels): The smallest region in Stitia is also its most beautiful. Secluded, and recently surfaced, not much is known about it, except that it has not a single corrupted being in it... yet.
The last day to join the adventure is September 13th.
Update: After the 13th, anyone that hasn't already claimed a spot and wants to enter... still can. That's right. Until we reach the climax, people can enter after the 13th (or even before!) by hijacking an NPC, or... create an original villain. Whether you're a Triskaidian, a sheer sower of chaos, or a planeswalker, you'll be able to join in as a villain, with the main purpose of stopping others. Whether you stop them from finding the truth, stop them from defeating the big bad, or... just stop them from living.
Bowler218
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/vryx-challenged-by-death
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/tragedy-of-death
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/thylinder-last-of-arlin
Born into the Duskwood clan, Vryx Obin fell in love with Arlin Cherlain of the Dawnwood clan. When the Bloodwood clan invaded Arlin's home, Vryx ran to help her, only to see her die in front of him. Now he goes around hunting the people that killed his lover, even though it goes against Duskwood law.
Sorry I goofed when I wrote the race options. Constructs are now allowed.
Merfolk are also allowed!
Here's an overview of the plane.
@Bowler218 I like your entries! It's just a formality, but I just got around to making location info on the plane. Which sector does Vryx live in?
The Duskwood are in Delvad (or whatever that one is, I'm having a hard time reading it thanks to my glasses being screwed up) but Vryx goes around Dejcout now.
ASubtleGhost
Deep in Padetra, sitting atop his dark ziggurat, Xataxji broods over the mysteries of the Cursed Rebirth. Decades of frenzied research on the subject had yielded enough to grant him the status of Triskaidian, and a respected member of the loose Padetran society.
But it had not always been the case. In his youth, he had been careless about the cursed immortality that plagued Stitia. Eager to rise in power amongst his demonic brethren, he had hastily concluded a pact with a powerful sorcerer, expecting bountiful rewards for his service. Unfortunatly, the pact was one-sided, and young Xataxji had become some sort of reverse phylactery: each cursed death that should befall the warlock was instead inflicted upon the imprisoned demon.
After years of painful and unwilling service, a very diminished Xataxji attacked the sorcerer in despair, expecting to be destroyed by this murder attempt. The warlock expected the same and laughed at the demon. Both were very surprised when the sorcerer actually died, the pact not protecting one signatory against the other. Xataxji was free. He claimed the wizard's ziggurat, and grew in power, slowly recovering from the eight deaths he went through while bound by his contract.
Years pass, and Xataxji is now revered by a demon cult in Padetra. Sacrifices of all kinds sustain him, and he rewards his most fervant apostles with infernal gifts of power. However, strange things have begun to happen recently. In the ranks of his cultists, unnatural and unexplainable deaths occured, each more gruesome and grotesque than the one before. Even worse, once rebirthed by the Curse, they were little more than shamblings husks, unfit to adore him, if they were reborn at all.
For Xataxji, it was, of course, unacceptable; regrouping his followers, he started investigating. The Curse of Rebirth would yield its mysteries, or Xataxji would eventually find himself alone, sitting atop his dark ziggurat.
Bonus: Xataxji's favorite bauble.
@ASubtleGhost Nice! I didn't have that thought. Maybe this warlock knew something Xataxji doesn't? Guess we'll find out...
DoctorFro
Looks interesting Ill see if I remember to join
@DoctorFro don't worry about rushing. You have almost a full month to enter.
I might enter this weekend, but my college class is about to start so I will have to see if I have time
Lujikul
I'll be sure to join.
(This comment will be edited to include an entry when one is made.)
MonkeyPirate2002
I'm gonna enter tomorrow!
spookoops
Byro was born on the outskirts of Ystheria to a simple tavern maid, and a gambling medicine man of a father. Growing up with just enough to get by, but never enough to pursue a dream, Byro was lost to the denizens of the streets. Until that fateful day when a plague rolled through his village. Within days he watched his father, ironically, perish and lost his mother a week later. Byro himself seemed unaffected by the plague. This was a turning point in the life of Byro, who prowled at night looting items of value from the plague ridden.
Over the next couple of years, Byro had grown a name of himself, the Plague Doctor. The moniker was given for the fact he could wade through lands of the dead and come out unscathed. Doing his best to give respite to those he could.
What people didn't realize is that Byro had a darker connotation to all this. He was in actuality performing experiments on the dead and dying, trying to figure out where the plague had originated and how it could be terminated for good.
It's been nearly a decade since the Plague Doctor has been about. Today he roams the lands of Padetra, ridding the realm of all the Dead and death he can find...
The-DM
For the werewolf, could we be affected by another type of lycanthropy, such as a rat?
(I want to create a GUB Wererat Wizard)
KorandAngels
Ishka is the guardian angel of a small temple in rural Hitcherhald, and has been manifested fully by the excess of souls that have been cast aside by the Rebirth. Given the will to defeat, the angel plans to find the source of the curse and defeat it, an impossible quest given that the curse is part of the plane itself.
(Other cards later)
sanjaya666
[EXPUNGED]
EpicBoss99
Yeah I'd like to know the answer to The-DM's question too. If so, could we use other colors? I think it'd be fun to make a UB or UG wereraven.
HeroKP
I'll join this soon! Sounds fun!
@The-DM @EpicBoss99 Sure! I updated the rules to reflect this.
@KorandAngels @sanjaya666 Those angels that seek to become Triskaidians or delve into the supernatural are often forsaken by the gods. Take care adventures.
@spookoops The Great Plague of Nasita, yes... it ravaged the plane, and yet no one knows where it really came from. It is blamed upon a ill-mannered curse by many. May you hope that this curse doesn't still eat at you today...
Character Introduction - Ysa
Image Credit - Majentta (DeviantArt) Copyright 2019
Ysa is a mysterious hooded man who takes the form of a crow. No one knows who he is or where he comes from, but he has come to seemingly random people, offering them a reading of their futures. None of them have been good, but all of them have been accurate.
However, Triskaidians are noticing a pattern... he comes on the 13th of each month, and he only visits Triskaidians... why does he do this? No one knows, but know to take whatever he tells you very seriously... it could save your life, or at least give you insight on when it will end...
Untap.In Announcement + Special Format:
Special announcement! I planned this originally, but I just had a brainstorm. I'm offering every adventurer a chance to play Untap.In matches, be it for the thrill, or to decide your fate...
There will also be a new format: Ysa's Fortune. In it, players play as normal, but every turn they must roll a six sided die. If they roll a 1, they must reveal cards from a central deck, known as the Grimoire Deck, until they reveal a fortune. If they roll a 6, they get to reveal cards from the Blessing deck the same way. Good luck, and more details soon...
K'Trinop is a spark, freed from a metal shell, that has achieved sentience. They were able to escape a tortuous plane where they were once known as M-P Mk. 2002. However, they have no memory of their past lives; all they can remember is their venture into Stitia. Now they must face the terrors of the cursed realm as they try to pick up the pieces of their fragmented past. Will they succeed? No one knows.
The event that transpired, causing K'Trinop to fly to Stitia:
Upon landing, K'Trinop discovered a mysterious crown laying in the ground. They do not know why, but the crown feels familiar.
@MonkeyPirate2002 Amnesia can be a blessing or a curse. There is so much to learn, but some of it may be knowledge best left unknown.
Also, what does Cryptic Crown transform into? (Or is it a secret?)
It's a secret OOOWwooooooooOooooOooooOoO...
OwO? *this post has been thrown in the trash*
ElMagici
Death wasn't kind to the wealthy Oklein's bloodline, when they were Humans, they used Etsane's laws and loops to make them richer at expense of suffering and degradation. There were always a rich man willingly to pay a high price to have a fresh Elf on their chambers or a head to be severed. When the shroud of death got into the Oklein Manor, Mastiffa was the only one that dared to make a deal, she would make profit of the dead as she did of the living,
"Norana Oklein is the daughter of Mastiffa Oklein. This locket was the first thing she bought to her, ever. When the chaos raised and Mastiffa sealed the deal with the demons, this served two purposes, a way to remember her purpose and as a phylactery"
"When Mastiffa made the deal, she tried to save Norana in the process, even when Norana refused to make a contract. The demons agreed to save her, but she became a Devil with humanoid proportions serving as a toy for every man who wanted to pay for her, for eternity.
© MTG Cardsmith.com


text:
Prees Heath Common Reserve
Silver-studded Blue Butterfly
Heathland and Grassland Restoration
Other Butterflies
Other Insects
Control Tower
Events, Volunteering & Recording
BioBlitz 2018
Archive Reports
The reserve is 60 hectares in area, and approximately half of this had been in arable cultivation at the time of purchase. A full assessment was carried out, which indicated that heathland and grassland restoration was going to be very difficult and ambitious, and that it was more re-creation than restoration as the habitat had been totally destroyed.
The research indicated that the intervention that stood the best chance of a successful outcome was to invert the soil profile of these former arable areas by ploughing them up to one metre in depth, thereby burying the enriched topsoils and exposing sandy subsoils which would be much more suitable for the establishment of desirable species. Most of the deep ploughing was carried out in 2007. This was followed by sowing of mainly locally sourced wildflower and grass seed on those areas where grassland was to be re-established. On the areas where we wanted to see heathland established, after spraying off thistles and other ruderal weeds that emerged after the ploughing, sulphur was applied to lower the pH level to the appropriate level for heathland and then heather brash containing seed was spread by a muck spreader.
The work is ongoing and long term. Please contact Stephen Lewis,Volunteer Warden, if you need any more information or would like to become involved as a volunteer.
Click here to read an article published in Aspects of Applied Biology in 2011 on the early stages of the restoration work on the reserve.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Publius Cornelius Lentulus, nicknamed Sura (114 BC – 5 December 63 BC), was one of the chief figures in the Catilinarian conspiracy and also a stepfather of Mark Antony.
When accused by Sulla (to whom he had been quaestor in 81 BC) of having squandered the public money, he refused to render any account, but insolently held out the calf of his leg (sura), on which part of the person boys were punished when they made mistakes in playing ball, akin to inviting a slap on the wrist. He was praetor in 75 BC, governor of Sicily in 74 BC, and consul in 71 BC.
In 70, being expelled from the senate with a number of others for immorality, he joined Catiline. Relying upon a Sibylline oracle that three Cornelii should be rulers of Rome, Lentulus regarded himself as the destined successor of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Lucius Cornelius Cinna. When Catiline left Rome after Cicero's second speech In Catilinam, Lentulus took his place as chief of the conspirators in the city. In conjunction with C. Cornelius Cethegus, he undertook to murder Cicero and set fire to Rome, but the plot failed owing to his timidity and indiscretion.
Ambassadors from the Allobroges being at the time in Rome, the bearers of a complaint against the oppressions of provincial governors, Lentulus made overtures to them, with the object of obtaining armed assistance. Pretending to fall in with his views, the ambassadors obtained a written agreement signed by the chief conspirators, and informed Q. Fabius Sanga, their "patron" in Rome, who in his turn acquainted Cicero.
The conspirators were arrested and forced to admit their guilt. Lentulus was compelled to abdicate his praetorship, and, as it was feared that there might be an attempt to rescue him, he was put to death in the Tullianum on 5 December 63 BC, along with other senatorial supporters of Catiline.
The legitimacy of these killings, which were carried out on the personal command of the consuls and without a judicial trial, was disputed. Cicero argued that his actions were lawful under the Senatus consultum ultimum, but was exiled in 58 BC after the people's tribune, Publius Clodius Pulcher, Cicero's bitter enemy, passed a law prohibiting extrajudicial killings of Roman citizens, and then accused Cicero of having violated it. This is an example of an ex post facto law. He was recalled the following year, though, by a vote of the senate.
Cicero had cause to regret his actions, as his treatment of Lentulus was one of the reasons why Mark Antony, Lentulus' stepson, later demanded Cicero's own execution as a condition of his joining the Second Triumvirate.
Cicero, In Catilinam, iii., iv.; Pro Sulla, 25.
March, Duane A. (1989), "Cicero and the 'Gang of Five'", Classical World, Volume 82, p.225–234.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lentulus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 430–431.


Lil Hoppy Yuzu India pale ale.
Earned the Brewery Loyalist badge! Earned the Photogenic Brew (Level 16) badge!
Olesya D. is drinking a Tale of Us by Red Button Brewery at Beer Shop "MOCT"
Чет не чувствую никаких фруктов. Но оч лайтово и найс в целом.
Earned the Beer Party badge! Earned the Take It Easy badge! Earned the Journeyman badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 2) badge!
Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 6) badge! Earned the Tovarisch! (Level 21) badge!
Пивотека Джон Ячменное Зерно Химки, Московская обл.


Thunderchild Publishing's creation was totally unintentional. I had been unenthusiastic about trying ebooks. My wife, who had been reading ebooks for awhile, nudged me into trying them by giving me a Kindle. Probably not unsurprisingly, once I had read a few I realized that I actually preferred ebooks over paper books. There were several advantages, including the speed at which I read and the physical comfort of using an ebook reader compared to the massive paperbacks that had become my norm. So I dived in and started exploring the world of digital books.
One thing I discovered was that most of the work of one of my favorite authors, H. Beam Piper, was in the public domain. I could find nearly all of his short stories available from various sources. For my own convenience, I assembled the stories into three themed collections. That process was my learning curve for how to make ebooks, at least the basics. I was kind of proud of those books and I thought, why not make them available to everyone? So, the next step was learning how to publish ebooks through the online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I came up with the name "Thunderchild Publishing" then and, technically, I was a publisher but I didn't really think of it in those terms. It was just sharing something I thought was cool.
About this same time, a friend had given me several volumes from the Winston Science Fiction series because she knew I enjoyed vintage science fiction. The Winston SF books, along with the "juveniles" by Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton, had been a major influence on making me a life-long science fiction fan. Those gifts reminded me of my fondness for the Winston series and with my new preference for ebooks, I went looking for ebook editions of the Winston books only to discover that they did not exist. In fact, most of the books that originally were published in the Winston series had been out of print since then. For some reason, this bothered me and I felt strongly that someone should do something about it. Since no one else appeared to be taking on the job, I decided to do it myself.
A couple of the Winston books were in the public domain but most of them were not. So, I started tracking down the copyright holders for the books and negotiating contracts to allow me to publish the books. I had no idea how any of this was done and had to learn it as I went along. Somehow, it worked and I started publishing some books from the Winston series. Originally, that was all I planned to do but Ruth Lowndes, the sister of the author of one of the Winston books, mentioned that she would like to see his other books back in print. He had written only two other novels, so I thought, why not? After a while I had over two dozen books in print, all books that had been originally published in the 1950s and 60s. I decided to assemble a book of my own from a series of short stories I'd written and published that. Then I published a couple of books by members of my local writers' group. And I branched out with other genres. I have been a fan of historical naval fiction nearly as long as I've been a science fiction fan. So I went after a couple of HNF series that had not been reprinted. One of the agents suggested some aviation books by another author they represented. And it's been growing ever since. I had never imagined myself doing anything like this. It was just a matter of one thing leading to another. But I am still enjoying it so until it stops being fun, expect to see more from Thunderchild Publishing.


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Loving those billabong pants – they so comfy AND stylish :) Thanks for hosting!
I really love that you still took a photo of your lounge clothes! Also, hair on point all week!
I love Wednesday's and Friday's outfits. The beanie is really cute, and the yellow cardigan over the striped top looks fab!


Triumph of the third Monte Carlo Fighting Masters!
Thanks and international Television coverage (Nearly 80 countries for 6 TV channels including 4 live)!
Thank you all for your participation or support to the triumph of the 3rd Monte Carlo Fighting Masters, under the High Patronage of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
A world first with 9 fights for 9 WAKO PRO world championships!
An outstanding fighters tray with legends and stars including 17 world champions representing ten nationalities (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Serbia, Russia, Belarussia, Kyrgyztan, Bulgaria)!
This global event was held in the presence and patronage of Mr. Borislav Pelević, President of the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) representing 126 countries, worldwide federation recognized by the Olympic sports movement (Sport Accord International Federations' Union), the WAKO PRO, also represented by its General Director, Mrs. Barbara Falsoni, is the branch "Pro" recognized.
The 3rd Monte Carlo Fighting Masters were broadcasted (the contracts already signed with other prospects in progress) in nearly 80 countries on six television channels (four live).
- CANAL +: France, Monaco, Switzerland and 48 francophone countries in Sub Saharan Africa.


text:
Fostering Curiosity in STEM and Beyond
with Heloise Stevance
| October 27, 2020 | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail
https://media.blubrry.com/teaching_in_higher_ed_faculty/p/content.blubrry.com/teaching_in_higher_ed_faculty/TIHE333.mp3
Podcast (tihe_podcast):
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Heloise Stevance shares how to foster curiosity in STEM and (other disciplines) on episode 333 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.
Quotes from the episode
Some of the most fundamental questions you can ask are the hardest to answer and explain in a concise way.
-Héloïse Stevance
You captivate them with the things that are fun… because learning is fun.
Good outreach doesn't make you sound clever. It makes the audience feel smart.
Failure is just part of the process. It is an ongoing part and never really goes away.
Héloïse's response to a young woman's question about maths
5 Crazy Facts About Failed Stars (brown dwarfs)
Dr. Héloïse's YouTube channel
Dr. Nova on TikTok
Kirsten Banks on TikTok
Science communication (#scicomm) on Wikipedia
Episode 215 with Bryan Dewsbury: Teaching as an Act of Social Justice and Equity
This I Believe from NPR
This I Believe Educator's Guide
ARE YOU ENJOYING THE SHOW?
REVIEW THE SHOW
Heloise Stevance
Originally born and raised in France, I moved to the UK to study Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield. After working as a support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma for a year, I obtained my Masters of Physics in 2015. I subsequently started a PhD studying the 3D shape of Core Collapse Supernovae, and earned my title in Spring 2019. In July of that year, I joined the University of Auckland as a Research Fellow to research the evolution of massive stars to better understand how they die and produce Supernovae and Kilonovae.
I also started my public outreach work during my doctorate studies, in early 2016, and I have not stopped since.
Nancy Kanwisher's Neuroanatomy Lesson
RECOMMENDED BY:Bonni Stachowiak
Deanna Mascle's This I Believe Post
RECOMMENDED BY:Heloise Stevance
Know the Symptoms of Hyperventilation Syndrome
EPISODE 319Fostering Inclusion in Our Teaching
with Marlo Goldstein Hode
EPISODE 246Teaching STEM for Social Impact
with , Karina Garbesi, Erik Helgren
EPISODE 303Critical Pedagogy in STEM
with , Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, Sean Michael Morris
EPISODE 244Create Online Mashups that Ignite Curiosity
with Michael Britt
TRANSCRIPT SPONSOR:
ACUE
The transcript of this episode has been made possible through a financial contribution by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). ACUE is on a mission to ensure student success through quality instruction. In partnership with institutions of higher education nationwide, ACUE supports and credentials faculty members in the use of evidence-based teaching practices that drive student engagement, retention, and learning.
DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Bonni Stachowiak: Today on episode number 333 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Héloïse Stevance talks about fostering, curiosity and stem and beyond.
[00:00:15] Production Credit: Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.
[00:00:25] Bonni: Hello and welcome to this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed. I'm Bonni Stachowiak and this is the space where we explore the art and science of facilitating learning. We also share ways to improve our productivity approaches, so we can have more peace in our lives and be even more present for our students. Today's guest Dr. Héloïse Stevance was originally born and raised in France. She moved to the UK to study physics and astronomy at the University of Sheffield.
After working as a support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma for a year, she obtained her masters of physics in 2015. She subsequently started a PhD, studying the 3D shape of core-collapse supernovae and earned her title in spring 2019. July of that year, she joined the University of Auckland as a research fellow to research the evolution of massive stars, to better understand how they die, and produce supernovae and kilonovae. She started her public outreach work, which you'll hear a lot about in this episode, during her doctoral studies in early 2016 and she has not stopped since. Héloïse, welcome to Teaching in Higher Ed.
[00:01:56] Héloïse Stevance: Hi, Bonni, thanks so much for having me.
[00:01:59] Bonni: I want to tell you how we met, only it's not going to be how we met but it's going to be how I feel like I came to know you. I know you know that feeling where you just feel like you know someone even though they don't know you back. Can I tell you how we met?
[00:02:16] Héloïse: Yes, absolutely. I'd love to hear that.
[00:02:18] Bonni: Please feel free to fill in the details, because I think you'll remember them better than me. There was a young woman I saw her video but it was because you had reposted it, remixed it. She is putting on her makeup. I instantly figured out what was going on where sometimes they'll do what they want to appear to look like a makeup tutorial, but then they're actually really talking about things of substance. By the way, side note, makeup's very crucial.
I don't really get a lot out of makeup tutorials but I was instantly captivated by this young woman. She's saying things, and again, feel free to jump in or I miss. She's saying like, "I just don't understand why back then back in the day, did they even need–" was calculus? What?
[00:03:03] Héloïse: Yes. She was asking where does maths come from basically. I see math is not math, because England and all of that. She was asking how did they make math? She was like, "Maths doesn't feel real." Like she said, "I know it's real because it works and people use it but I just don't know how it has come to be." She was asking very, very good questions. How did these people from 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 years ago, come up with all of this seemingly out of thin air because she was never taught any of that stuff.
[00:03:37] Bonni: Then that's where you come in.
[00:03:39] Héloïse: Yes. Did the whole of TikTok and Twitter, mostly Twitter, started making fun of her being like, "Oh, I don't understand how people can be so stupid." Because the questions she was asking were seemingly very basic, "Where does math come from? How does it exist? How do you know that it works, that it is real? How do you know?" It's a very fundamental question that's actually very difficult to answer. Some of the most fundamental questions that you can ask are some of the hardest to actually answer and explain in a concise way.
I guarantee you that none of these people could answer this woman. I guarantee you they had no idea. They just thought these are such basic questions that as a young woman, as a young adult, you should be past asking yourself these questions. That's the problem, because asking yourself these basic questions, is what makes you a scientist. That's what scientists are. People who ask questions that others will take for granted is weird. That's why it captivated our whole community and I felt like I wanted to answer some of the questions because she made a follow-up video defining some of the questions a bit more.
[00:04:56] Bonni: This is not a topic I'm interested in, but something about what you did brought me in. I can't be alone in that, because–
[00:05:05] Héloïse: That makes me so happy.
[00:05:07] Bonni: The big theme that I want to explore with you today has to do with curiosity because what you seem to have a very, very wonderful ability to do is to generate curiosity, where it does not exist. How do you think about doing that? Because you teach college classes. You also teach the universe through lots of different social media and we'll get more into how you approach that. How do you think about your role as an educator, and what it has to do with trying to generate curiosity in other people?
[00:05:45] Héloïse: That's a very interesting thing. I think what I always tell people when they want to go into sci-com is think of yourself as an entertainer first. I know that it might be controversial. It's something that people might not understand but science at that level, it's not science that people need in their everyday life. It's not something that people need to learn. It's entirely for leisure.
How do you make something interesting like that you entertain people, you wow them, you show them crazy thing, you tell them about the extremes of the universe, and you captivate them with the things that are fun, basically. That's the way that I see it, is science at that level is entertainment because learning is fun. That's something that people forget, or just don't get a taste of with the school system that we have.
Learning is always painful, learning makes you feel like a failure, learning takes time and it's very difficult and that aspects of learning and problem solving that of course are painful, and difficult and time-consuming. If you're just given some really cool information, it can just be for fun. You don't have to do the 20 years of school that I did, to read all of these lengthy papers and everything.
I do that hard work. I've done that hard work, then I'm going to give you the fun stuff because it's 3:00 AM on a Tuesday. You've got insomnia. You're sad, because we're all sad, it's the middle of the pandemic, and you just want some fun space facts. Here you have them. It's not trying to teach people as many things as possible in as much detail as possible. You can't do that. That's a bit dull or just, you'll given too much information that is either not interesting or they can't process in the small amounts of time and attention that they can give you. If you see yourself as an entertainer first through the medium of science, then you've got a good start to be a science communicator.
[00:07:44] Bonni: I was on Twitter a couple days ago. Sarah Rose Cavanagh posted, "I was not expecting this to happen." Of course, I answered like, "Okay, what is she talking about and I go through." It's a woman, and she's talking about the brain, the different regions of the brain or that kind of thing. She starts out talking I'm going to post a link to this in the show notes because I can't do it just as when I'm ruining the ending now. I just have to say it, I have to say it.
She starts cutting her hair. Then she starts shaving her entire head. Someone else comes into view and starts drawing with, presumably– it wasn't a permanent marker, but it looks pretty concrete there on her bald head. Then they start coloring in the different things and things like that. I'm thinking about as you're talking, that one of the challenges people might have about viewing their role like this is once you've shaved your head, you've gone like– Is what you're describing, in your pedagogical view, a means to an end so you earn the right once you have their attention to walk through some more of the– Do you have to be this entertaining? 100% of the time, I guess, is what I'm trying to ask.
[00:09:02] Héloïse: It depends on what audience you're trying to reach and able to teach. The people who already have an interest, and you were asking about the people that don't actually have an interest. That's where that came from. My content spans different areas. There are more approachable pieces of content that are very generic and have more "clickbait." It's not clickbait, but it has a clickbait format title.
There's also content that's about just brown dwarfs and brown dwarfs don't sound very appealing. If you're not someone who's really interested in space and you don't know what a brown dwarf is, you might not be interested in watching that video and that's fine. But the whole bunch of followers who are here for my space content, because they really want space content, people watch it. It's just if you're looking at getting the attention of someone who's not naturally interested in science, yes, you have to be very entertaining. You have to because we live in a world where people's attention is currency. That's just the way it is. You need to grab their attention and deserve to give them the piece of knowledge that you want to give them by giving them something else that they usually seek. They don't seek your science content but they seek entertainment on the internet. You'd give them the entertainment, and you'd give them the science, you slip them into science just at the same time and maybe you'd capture their attention for longer if you spot that curiosity, but that's the name of the game.
[00:10:31] Bonni: I know that this can be such a struggle for people because, I'm going to sound really condescending, they've been taking themselves seriously for a very long time. They've been taking their disciplines seriously. Academia seems to. We're just supposed to all be very, very serious, and people really do get very passionate about their disciplines. They've been studying it for years.
I'm wondering if we can shrink down to some tangible ways how could you be a little bit more entertaining, because we're probably not going to start out by shaving our heads or being as good as you are. Part of what I see you doing is breaking some norms. How could we break some norms in some smaller ways just to start to get used to this playful nature of the unexpected of the entertainment that you described? Can you think of some approaches we could shrink it down?
[00:11:26] Héloïse: I think because everyone is so different in their individuality, I would say if you want to get into sci-com and you're worried about not being entertaining enough, just at this point, don't worry. Just do the thing, and practice, and find what makes you happy, what makes you laugh, what you would find interesting.
Oftentimes I think about what would I have wanted to see and watch when I was 14. That's what I think about. What would have captured my attention when I was interested in space but didn't know about it? Practice really makes "perfect." It doesn't make you perfect but you get the gist, and letting loose in a sense. I have one big tip that had just come to mind.
One of the biggest fear, especially early career researchers, is that when they're doing outreach and doing that kind of stuff, they're worried that if they break things down too much or if don't use jargon, they're not going to sound clever, they're not going to sound like they know what they're talking about. I understand that can be a fear if you don't look like a scientist. If you look young, you're worried.
If you're typically not in the circles, if you're a person of color, if you're indigenous and people just don't associate your image with that of a scientist. With that being said, I think the biggest piece of advice I can give someone is good outreach doesn't make you sound clever, it makes the audience feel smart. That's your goal. You shouldn't let that fear of, "I'm not going to sound like a scientist," or "I'm not going to sound like I know what I'm doing," get in the way of explaining the concepts to your audience and making it accessible.
[00:13:17] Bonni: In terms of that fear that we won't be taken seriously, that's allowing it to shape us other than what a teacher is, because a teacher isn't really worried about what other people are thinking, they're worried about helping their students learn. You divided our students up into people who have yet to have their curiosity ignited, and those who have, and those who have yet. Unfortunately, so many of our systems and structures are built up to make them feel alienated that we got to do something to bring them back in.
[00:13:50] Héloïse: Absolutely, absolutely. It's one of the things that motivates me into science communication because I was quite privileged to be in a decent school system with really good teachers and I had facilities at school. Academia was the path for me. I've always been a scholar. I've always love learning. Learning was fun for me because I was good at it and I got good marks. People give me a little pat in the back. If you love learning and you're struggling with the school system, then that love and that interest gets crushed.
You don't get the space and the time to learn at your own pace. If you're teaching people in a medium where it's mostly entertaining, that's why you have to make yourself relatable and be like, "Look, we are not that different, and there are really cool things that I know that I'm sure you would love to hear about too." If you commented from that elitism, "I'm better because I have a PhD," that just doesn't work. Think about it as if you're going down to the pub with your friends and just telling them about some cool stuff you learned today, that's it.
[00:15:05] Bonni: When I was in my 20s, I used to be really into a type of swing dancing called the Lindy Hop. I was so into it that I would take about three lessons a week and then I also had a private lesson I would do. Then I'd go out at night and go dancing in a couple of times a week. This was something that I was passionate about.
Occasionally, people from work would come out, and one of the places was just a little Italian restaurant. They'd come, and sit, and then watch, and they'd be like, "Wow." It's one of those things, you see it and you'd go, "This is incredible. I want to be a part of this too." They would take one dance lesson, out, because what they didn't see– All they thought, they came out one night, they see me dancing, they see all these people dancing, and they're amazing in what they do, and it's just an incredible thing.
I didn't get incredible the first time I took a dance lesson. I would try to tell them, "Let me tell you how embarrassing it was as someone who sometimes gets insecure about one's own weight to have someone try to do a lift, and I fall on the ground, and so does the guy." You're going to fall in the most wonderfully spectacular way in front of the most people possible.
That's how you're eventually going to– I was pretty good. I got pretty darn good but there were lots of failures and lots of absolutely foolish things along the way. Are there any things for you that come up where you just think, "Wow, I had this spectacular failure that people don't see now because they see you as you've already come so far?"
[00:16:37] Héloïse: That's a really good question. I think that one of my biggest failures in terms of science communication was the first time I probably talked about space. It's no surprise. The first time I did it, I was over-ambitious and I lost people's attention. It was just school. It was school children, and I put way too much information.
I was thinking, "I can totally teach them that stuff. I just need to explain what this word means at the beginning and then I can base my thing of that and whatever." It was the concept of light-years. I explained what a light-year is, and then I took them on a journey across the universe and showed them the scale of the universe.
The problem is that when you show the scale of the universe to people in terms of numbers– I'm a scientist. I've been working with numbers for years so numbers, they sync me, they tell me something. I have an intuition for numbers especially for powers of 10. You tell a child that something is 10,000 or a billion might as well be the same. It makes no difference to them. Like most people who don't work with these gigantic powers of 10, they don't get the concept either.
It was a terrible idea. The only way to properly do this is to bring the scales back to earth with like if the sun was a grain sand, then the distance through this galaxy would be this, something like that. You can only do it with analogies. I didn't because I thought, "No. It can work that way," and it didn't. I felt the energy in the room, kids just losing interest and not being able to process all of that.
I'm going to be honest I think if I've done that also wouldn't have gone all that much better. That taught me a lot. It taught me a lot, it thought me a lot about how much you can expect from a room of people who've never seen these things, how much information you can throw at them before it starts sticking to the walls basically. I needed to fail in order to see, catch that limit. Yes, there's been a lot of failures. Even the videos I still do nowadays, they're edited. Failure is just part of the process, and it's an ongoing part of the process. It never really goes away.
[00:18:54] Bonni: That's so much of what we don't see. I just follow your video, was instantly captivated. I didn't see all the takes that it took, all the editing, and there's that part of it in that moment. How long do you think it took you to do that particular thing, the response to the young woman with the makeup?
[00:19:12] Héloïse: It was a one-minute video. I think the total, I spent about 45 minutes because I had to think about how I was going to approach her questions. I had taken notes down, I had to think about what drawing I was going to use to illustrate things, I had to shoot it, make sure they fit in one minute, and then I added a bunch of text over it at the right time and everything. In the end that's editing. It took 45 minutes to an hour to shoot a one minute video in response to that woman.
[00:19:42] Bonni: I think that's really important for us to know. I wish we could see more of each other's failures to be able to recognize that this stuff is a lot harder than sometimes people like you make it look, for sure.
[00:19:55] Héloïse: I'm not anymore. I'm in full-time research. This is why.
[00:19:59] Bonni: Tell us a little bit about what services do you belong to? How do you figure out how to engage? What made you decide to engage with this woman with the makeup? Tell us a little bit about that part of your life.
[00:20:11] Héloïse: Okay, the platforms that I like, I'm mostly on Twitter, and that's where my science communication started. It's hard to explain because I was not fully dedicated to science communication until relatively recently. I did do it, but I decided to do more of it because of the pandemic, online, because I've been doing science communication for years, but typically, I did it live, it's no longer possible. As my platform has grown, it's been easier to reach international communities and people that I wouldn't be able to reach otherwise, so that was part of the interest.
Twitter is great for really snappy pieces of information or news, it's great for news. You can make threads, science threads do work, but people whose attention you already have, they will sit through a 32-parts Twitter thread on black holes, but otherwise, not really. It's great for memes as well, science memes and there's a great academic community on Twitter, so that's a great place for that.
I also started doing TikTok videos. Actually, my first TikTok video on science was in March of this year. My platform on TikTok grew because of skating videos, not because of science, which is pretty freaking ironic, and then I switched to doing full-time science videos on there.
[00:21:38] Bonni: Can we go back for just a second, did you say skating?
[00:21:42] Héloïse: I'm a roller derby girl.
[00:21:45] Bonni: I apparently did not properly prepare for this, okay, roller derby ,all right.
[00:21:51] Héloïse: Roller derby is awesome. It's a great demonstration of angular momentum and gravity. Anyways, yes, I started making more TikTok videos a few months back that were entirely dedicated to science, in order to post them on Twitter, which started working, and then more people did that too, so Kristen Banks, Kirsten Banks, sorry, I butchered her name, does that too, because it's a very short format. It's one minute, one-minute video. That's where you get that snappy content, that people with short attention spans, me, can really easily digest. But it's also very challenging, because you have a very small amount of time to explain complex concepts, but it's an interesting challenge, and I really enjoy it.
Now I've switched away from TikTok actually, because of technical issues, repeated technical issues. TikTok would de-sync my video, completely with my sound, so it would look like my lips were moving independently of the words, which was very frustrating, and it started deleting some of my videos on the platform. A whole bunch of reasons why TikTok was a fun platform to learn how to be comfortable in front of the camera, to explain science concepts like that, and learn a little bit of editing and what works and what doesn't.
Now I've switched to making my own videos with a software, an editing software, on my mobile. It's still not professional, it's literally an app, I'm taking videos with my phone that's flipped like that on a stack of books, in front of a window, I'm sat on the floor and everything, but at least, the sound matches a lot better with my lips. Now I post them on YouTube instead. That's still very new, the YouTube channel, but the concept is the same.
The final medium that I have played with as well, is of blogging and writing. Most of my blogging is with academia really, advice and tips and experiences, but I've done a little bit of outreach with that. That's really fun, and more breathable, because you have as many words as you want, you can add as many pictures as you want, you have as much time as you need, to explain these concepts. The only challenge here is to know when to stop.
[00:24:17] Bonni: I have another question because I saw you, I don't know where I saw you. It's one of those things where I just see it and click, and before I know what I'm there, but you were doing streaming stuff. I don't think you were on Twitch, but that's the–
[00:24:32] Héloïse: Oh, yes, I am not on Twitch, but I do stream once a week, and every week there is a new technical challenge. I've been doing it for two months now and I suck, still. Once a week, I stream for 20 minutes. It's called AstroLive, it's at 6:30 East Standard Time on Sundays, and Monday mornings in New Zealand. Basically, I take not necessarily science news, the way I describe it is, "I take you on a 20-minute ride at the forefront of space science." Basically, I explain a brand new scientific publication, I break it down for the public. When there's big news, like, for example, this week we'll talk about Venus, because obviously, we have to.
[00:25:22] Bonni: I actually know this story, hurray. I'm so going to have to either if I can join you or listen after the fact. Oh, I'm so excited.
[00:25:30] Héloïse: Yes, they're all posted on YouTube after the fact and they are streamed on Twitter as well. The concept, the idea is that even if there's no science news, I pick some things that I read on what we called the arXiv. The arXiv is where physicists post their new papers that are about to be published, and that's where we see all of our news, but it's way too complicated for the layperson to read any paper from the arXiv, it's for specialists.
If there's a very new interesting object, or concept or piece of news that's on the arXiv, and not on the BBC, or something like that, then I can take that stuff and explain it to people in about 20 minutes and tell them why this paper is interesting for our field, and use it as a springboard to be like, "Oh, and this is what this means for this type of … or here is some basic stellar evolution or some basic understanding of the universe that you might not have already.
[00:26:31] Bonni: When I was there, I noticed there were quite a few people commenting. Do you pay attention to the comments as they're coming in? Or do you tend to do your 20 minutes and then look at what came in during? [crosstalk]
[00:26:44] Héloïse: I do it at the end because I don't get all that many comments during, but when I do, I don't want it to get too distracting. I did that in the first one, that was a mistake, where I kept stopping and starting. I was also looking at the number of people viewing and getting worried or just jumpy when it jumped up and down, which is again, … don't look at it.
I just tell people now to put their questions in the comments on Twitter during, because the problem is that there's also a delay between when I'm talking and when it's appearing on Twitter, sometimes a 15-second delay. I'll be like "Hey, now time for questions and then nothing." so I've made that mistake where I've just missed entire comments, because people just hadn't heard that it was question time now. People just write their questions as I go, and then at the end, I go through them.
[00:27:36] Bonni: Okay. Well, this is so fun, you're actually reminding me a little bit, it's almost like you've come full circle. You've been using your live experiences and some of those earlier failures. Then you got to that short format and what you learned about that, and then bringing it full circle to something that somewhat approximates the live, but then, it's different.
[00:27:59] Héloïse: Yes, I think it was the natural progression, because I much prefer, which I know some people hate it, but I much prefer live. I am an extroverted person, I like human contact, I like being social, I like interaction. Being alone in my room, and also there's a higher expectation of edited videos, and I am a bit of a perfectionist. I know, and I've learned to let go of that, but it makes it way easier for me if it's like, "You can't edit this. This is how it is going to be, so you don't even think about it. That's just how it is, and then I can have fun.
I do a lot of random lives on Twitter as well, because it's the pandemic and I'm lonely. We just talk about stuff and people then ask me science questions, because I'm a scientist, and I can answer them if they have them. We'll just talk about random science stuff and random academic stuff and random life stuff live, because this is where I have the most fun, really.
[00:28:59] Bonni: There's so much we can learn from those in the moment, it's happening right now, and yet, I wanted to go back to what you said earlier, because I just don't want it to get lost. You made a one-minute video, and it took you between 45 and 60 minutes, and you're already very good at what you do. I think some people would take from that, that the lesson they should take is, "Well, that would take way too long. What I'm going to do instead is just record myself for 45 minutes unedited, and provide that to my students." It takes the same amount of time, 45 minutes.
I still remember giving, this is many moons ago and I'm sure it didn't happen at my institution, I'm sure it was a different one, where someone had given a phenomenal workshop on how to create more compelling, more engaging slide decks, and then the comment was, "Well, that would take me too long."
[00:29:55] Héloïse: Yes, absolutely.
[00:29:56] Bonni: It's like, "Well, you're asking then your students, to have to– the burden of you don't want to spend the time to get it right, you're shifting that exponentially on every student that you ever have.
[00:30:09] Héloïse: The problem is capitalism because there's way too much pressure put on teachers and lecturers as far as output is concerned, and a lot of your lecturers will be people who are researchers, and to be relevant in the field, they need to keep producing and they need to keep writing.
[00:30:29] Bonni: Well, and thank goodness for people like you that are given us other ways of looking at what it means to be a teacher. I'm so glad to be connected with you. This is the time in the show where we each get to give our recommendations. I think I'm going to recommend that video that I was mentioning earlier on the show. I'm definitely going to have that as my recommendation where she shaves her head. I want to apologize to all of the Teaching in Higher Ed listeners for ruining it for you because now you know what's going to happen, but you still have to watch it, it'll be so good.
Then the second thing I want to recommend is that there were a number of people talking about the essays called This I Believe essays. Bryan Dewsbury, who has been on the show previously has talked about this. And there's a blog post I want to share because the author did such a great job of curating so many different kinds of the This I Believe. This I Believe essay is something that you can assign to your students, they have a whole curriculum around it. I remember specifically when Bryan Dewsbury was talking, it was kind of, "As a STEM professor, how do we help students bring their values into science and be able to match up their values and what they're doing in science."
She's got this other author of a blog post where she curated the different This I Believe, she talked about some literacy narratives, if we're focused on critical thinking and the humanities we work with. She had one by Bill Gates, Brian Grazer, Rick Moody, Errol Morris. Then if we want to expand the way students are thinking about their gaming narratives, and this was a whole world I know close to nothing about, but some interesting titles here. Jazz is the Sound of God Laughing, There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Barbecue.
[00:32:24] Héloïse: I agree with that.
[00:32:25] Bonni: My Legacy of Playing Games. Anyway, it's a wonderful way of looking at how to use this essay writing format to help students express themselves in a lot of different contexts and a lot of different disciplines. I'll be linking to that in the show notes, as well as the video of the wonderful teacher who did such a memorable video. Now, I get to pass it over to you Héloïse for yours.
[00:32:49] Héloïse: Cool, thank you. I have two recommendations as well. The first one is a Netflix series, which hopefully is also available in your countries. It's called Away. It's I think a 10-part series, which I assume will get a second season, about a crew of astronauts that are going to Mars, they're the first crew to ever land on Mars and step on Mars. I found it very interesting because it not only shows you the real dangers and troubles of space, I mean, it is a film. It's a series so it has its limitations as far as physically accurate, but it shows you how dangerous and challenging space is on a physical level.
But it also really looks at interpersonal relationships and how difficult it is to be stuck in a tin can with people for several months' journey to Mars, and how difficult it is to be away from your family for years. It also explores international relationships and how it works because obviously, it's really good. It's not American-centric. It's just a bunch of Americans going to Mars, it's an American, a Russian, an English citizen, and a Chinese citizen all going together and there are some interesting ways in which they show how different countries deal with space in a different way. That's really good.
Another recommendation is less entertainment-based and more spread awareness of sort of thing. I'd like to spread awareness of hyperventilation syndrome because I was diagnosed with it a couple of weeks ago when I was feeling really, really unwell. I got very odd symptoms of drowsiness, dizziness, I couldn't work anymore, and it was narrowed down to what's called HVS, hyperventilation syndrome, which is basically chronic hyperventilation, and it's something I never heard of before.
I knew what hyperventilation is because I've had panic attacks, a lot of people have had panic attacks, and know what it's like, but it's something that can be chronic where your body basically, because of stress factors, whether they are physical or mental, whatever it is, your body just doesn't breathe properly, it forgets how to breathe properly, and your brain just doesn't get oxygenated.
Just it's very ironic because you breathe too much, your CO2 levels drop, and your brain doesn't end up getting the oxygen that it needs and that's why you feel dizzy and drowsy, and can't focus and all of that. If you have a history of anxiety, and this is a very difficult and anxiety-inducing time, it's a very stressful time, I highly recommend that you check out for symptoms of HVS just so you're aware, so if it starts happening to you, then you can catch it and take it early, where you need to take breaks, you need to do breathing exercises, learn how to be in tune with your body to really take care of your body and your mind. That's my message for the day.
[00:36:02] Bonni: Well, I am both– I'm sorry that this happened to you, but I'm so also relieved because it sounds like this is something that is manageable. Am I interpreting that correctly?
[00:36:13] Héloïse: Yes, it's completely manageable at this point in my case. It's something that I can manage myself, but I just want people to be aware that it might affect them too.
[00:36:24] Bonni: Well, now, it's not just me who knows you, you know a little bit of me and now the community of Teaching in Higher Ed knows you. I'm so glad that they do. Some of them probably already know you from before, their other interactions with you, but it's been a real honor to get to talk to you and so fun and you're just sharing so much of ways that we can all get better and thinking about how to be better teachers and that comes back to that practice that you talked about, the failure, being ready to do that and trying different mediums. It's been so fun to talk to you today.
[00:36:55] Héloïse: Thanks so much, Bonni. It was so much fun talking to you and very thought-provoking. I have to say you triggered a few lightbulb moments and a few memories there with your question. Thanks so much for having me here.
[00:37:10] Bonni: Héloïse, it was such a pleasure to get to talk with you today. You really ignited my imagination so much about the ways to help to do the same for our students. Thank you for helping us think through ways that we can generate more curiosity with those already interested in our disciplines and those very far from those interest levels. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you would like to access the show notes for today's episode, those are at teachinginhighered.com/333.
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[00:38:09] [END OF AUDIO]
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Over a third (35 per cent) of borrowers are currently repaying their mortgage at their lender's Standard Variable Rate (SVR), possibly because they believe that they are on the lowest monthly repayments on offer. Yet nearly a third (29 per cent) of these do not know their mortgage rate, and are only assuming that their SVR is the best rate for them. In reality there could be a much lower rate available elsewhere. Furthermore, 49 per cent believe they can overpay but are not taking advantage of this facility at present.
Post Office personal lending director Marco Hughes said: "Although it might seem that staying on your current SVR is the easiest thing to do, you are much more vulnerable to interest rate rises. Some providers have increased their SVRs quite significantly even though the Bank of England base rate has not moved and as a result many borrowers are seeing their monthly mortgage repayments increase more quickly than they thought.
Post Office Mortgages recently announced improved rates across its 80% LTV and 60% LTV range of mortgage products and has also launched a new range of 75% LTV mortgages, all these include base rate trackers, two, three and five year fixed rate deals. All Post Office Mortgages come with a low fixed arrangement fee of £599 while the tracker products offer low revert rates linked to the Bank of England base rate.


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Mandl's (No) Messiah
Plus, Colin Reed cashes in his chips at Harrah's Entertainment; Jeffrey Boyer joins the leagues of Kmart shoppers; Michael Irwin's slick moves; and more.
CFO MagazineHuman Capital & CareersJob Hunting
Cfostaff
Alex Mandl knows what it's like to be a king and a commoner-- unfortunately, in that order. On April 30, the onetime heir-apparent to Robert Allen's corner office at AT&T Corp. resigned his position as CEO of financially troubled telecom-provider Teligent Inc. just as Newark, N.J.-based IDT Corp. acquired the 33.7 percent stake of the company owned by Liberty Media Corp. IDT installed its own CEO, Yoav Krill, managing director of its European division.
In 1996, Mandl, then an AT&T president, stunned the business world by defecting to start-up Associated Communications LLC, later renamed Teligent Inc. "At the time, it was a shot heard around the world," says J.P. Morgan H&Q analyst David Glaymon. "Seasoned execs of large telecom companies saw the opportunity provided by the Telecom Act of 1996, and were willing to move from market-share givers to market-share takers."
In the end, Teligent couldn't take enough market share to satisfy investors, explains Glaymon, who says Mandl's resignation was no surprise. "The sentiment among the different pools of capital was that only a finite number of companies were going to be supported, and the markets were closed to smaller companies," he says. Teligent struggled to find new funding while its stock price plunged from a high of $97 in March 2000 to 62 cents this May, forcing the company to petition Nasdaq not to delist it.
Teligent spokeswoman Tina Thompson says Mandl's departure was by "mutual agreement" between Mandl and IDT. She confirmed Teligent forgave a $15 million loan Mandl received when he joined the company.
ROLL OF THE DICE
Colin Reed is cashing in his chips at Las Vegasbased Harrah's Entertainment Inc. Reed has resigned the CFO position at the casino operator, and will join Gaylord Entertainment Co., which owns the Grand Ole Opry. Harrah's has appointed treasurer Charles Atwood to serve as CFO.
Former EVP and CFO Larry Kellner, 42, has secured a first- class seat in the corporate office of Continental Airlines Inc. Kellner is replacing Greg Brenneman as president of the Newark, N.J.-based airline. Brenneman announced his resignation in early May.
Jeffrey Boyer is joining the leagues of Kmart shoppers. Boyer, formerly SVP and CFO of Sears, Roebuck & Co., is assuming the EVP and CFO roles at Kmart Corp., headquartered in Troy, Mich. He replaces Martin Welch, who is retiring from the clothing retailer.
THE SECRET'S OUT
Intimate Brands Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, let it slip that Tracey Thomas Travis is the new CFO of Victoria's Secret lingerie stores' parent. Travis had served as finance chief of Rexam Beverage Can Americas. She replaces Michael Newman, who left last year.
Joe McCabe is wired to the corporate office of Redmond, Wash.- based AT&T Wireless. McCabe, who was recently named EVP and finance chief, has been acting CFO at the wireless arm of AT&T Corp. for the past year.
Some slick moves by Michael Irwin may have landed him in the CFO spot at WD-40 Co., which operates out of San Diego. Irwin, 37, takes over from Tom Tranchina, who is now VPstrategic integration for the maker of lubricants and other consumer products.
COVERT OPERATION
It appears Hal Covert has served Silicon Graphics Inc. well. Covert, 54, CFO of the maker of computer servers and workstations since July 2000, was recently named president. He also continues as finance chief at the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm.
David Meek is no longer bedding down at household-textiles manufacturer WestPoint Stevens Inc. Meek, 46, resigned in order to pursue "opportunities in the private sector." The company is currently seeking his replacement.
Cognos Inc., located in Ottawa, lost its main CFO component, Donnie Moore, who is retiring from the business-software firm. The newly named chief corporate officer, Robert Ashe, assumes Moore's duties while Cognos searches for a successor.
It's not child's play for Alison May, who's adding the acting CFO role to her duties at children's-apparel retailer Gymboree Corp. May, still COO, succeeds the resigning Larry Meyer at the Burlingame, Calif.-based company.
CAREER STRATEGY?
Fired or Resigned?
Only 12 months after Deborah Hopkins moved across the country to become CFO of Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies Inc., the company announced her departure. "Now that Lucent's restructuring program and the required financing are in place, it's the natural time for me to leave and pursue other opportunities," she said in a prepared statement.
Some say Hopkins, 46, was a victim of Lucent's accounting problems and crashing stock price and earnings. Others say she was fired for misinterpreting the company's sales forecasts. Some say she left to cut her losses.
"What really happened, as I see it, is she wanted to be CEO-- she had made this clear--and then she realized she wasn't going to get the job," says Ariane Mahler, a senior telecom- equipment analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which downgraded Lucent on the news. Former Lucent CEO Richard McGinn was ousted six months after Hopkins joined, and interim CEO Henry Schacht wants a new CFO with both financial and technical expertise, says Mahler.
Such quick--and often puzzling--moves have become a Hopkins hallmark in her quest to become a CEO. In 1995, she tired of waiting for the top spot at Unisys Corp., and took the general-auditor position at General Motors Corp. In 1998, she hopped to Boeing for 16 months before deciding the "passion and energy" of Lucent was too good to pass up.


Two brothers, inspired by street artist Banksy, started as street artists in their home country of Iran, but now work across the globe. Including New Orleans!
And you can read an interview with them at artinfo.com.


text:
import { SET_PREV_LOCATION, RouteActionType, RouteState } from './type';

export const initialState: RouteState = {
  prevLocation: {
    pathname: '',
    hash: '',
    search: '',
    state: {}
  }
};

export default function (
  state = initialState,
  action: RouteActionType
): RouteState {
  switch (action.type) {
    case SET_PREV_LOCATION: {
      return {
        ...state,
        prevLocation: {
          ...state.prevLocation,
          pathname: action.data.pathname,
          search: action.data.search,
          hash: action.data.hash,
          state: action.data.state
        }
      };
    }
    default:
      return state;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


TrainEasy gives you multiple options for logging attendance for all your students. Set attendance by typing student names, selecting from a list or uploading a csv file! You can also use the Attendance module to generate certificate lists at the conclusion of training programs. The certificate lists will comprise of Students that have met minimum attendance criteria that you set.


The range of light we experience in real life is very vast. However, the one we can reproduce in traditional photos is more limited. With the help of HDR photography it becomes possible to capture the dynamic range close to or even exceeding the one of the real world. HDRI is the process of shooting an image at different exposures and then combining those images through software manipulation to bring out the vibrant colors and generally make pictures look almost three dimensional. HDR photos look amazing. With the help of HDR photography an average landscape can turn into a beautiful fantasy dream world. HDR images are stored in several image formats. To convert HDR images from one format to another you need reliable software. ImageConverter Plus can process HDR images and save them in the PFM format. The list of supported formats is constantly updated.


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Q: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mlxtend.frequent_pattens' I have been trying to use apriori algorithm in my Jupyter notebook as well as Google Colab but keep running into the same error.
I did everything that i could find. Installed mlxtend package through pip first but it was installed on an entirely different channel. Then i tried to install it through condaforge(according to the official anaconda website) but still faced the same issue. Tried to first import the package and then use it but again, faced the same above error as the title. Similar experience in Google Colab. Can someone please help me with this?
import mlxtend
from mlxtend.frequent_pattens import apriori
from mlxtend.frequent_patterns import association_rules, apriori
frq_items = apriori(new, min_support = 0.05, use_colnames = True)
rules = association_rules(frq_items, metric ="lift", min_threshold = 1)
rules = rules.sort_values(['confidence', 'lift'], ascending =[False, False])
print(rules.head())

Error:
ModuleNotFoundError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-17-26d4aeb9df8a> in <module>
      1 import mlxtend
----> 2 from mlxtend.frequent_pattens import apriori
      3 from mlxtend.frequent_patterns import association_rules, apriori
      4
      5 frq_items = apriori(new, min_support = 0.05, use_colnames = True)

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mlxtend.frequent_pattens

Here, new is my input dataframe and I am facing error in the 2nd line of code.
I do have to mention that I have the latest version of mlxtend which is 0.21.0

A: I shall delete this question as I figured out the error. It was a simple spelling error.
from mlxtend.frequent_patterns import apriori

I had missed the 'r' in patterns.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Space Palette - a musical and visual instrument that lets you play music and paint visuals simultaneously by waving your hands in the holes of a wood frame, as though you are using several three-dimensional mousepads hanging in mid-air. No pre-recorded media, sequences, or loops are used - you create both the musical notes and visuals in realtime by the Tai Chi-like motion of your hands. It is a uniquely multi-dimensional, immersive and creative experience.


text:
package org.xmlactions.action.actions.code.execute;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class ExecuteCodeException extends RuntimeException {

	public ExecuteCodeException(String errorMessage) {
		super(errorMessage);
	}

	public ExecuteCodeException(String errorMessage, Exception ex) {
		super(errorMessage, ex);
	}

}


The importance of superfood and some breakfast recipe idea. Read more here.
This yummy blend of spicy cinnamon and sweet apples makes a great combination, perfect for the chilly winter season. The creamy energy drink prepared in just 5 minutes.
A delicious and mouth watering holiday season muesli dessert. Muesli in pomegranate juice topped with blueberries.
A delicious yet easy banana and granola cups recipe to try. We can bet that it will be a favourite dish among your family and friends.
Now you cannot only be creative while creating your own muesli, but you can also be creative and prepare some healthy desserts with muesli for your loved ones.


It could possibly't be stated too often, as a result of so few owners within the Courier Business even nonetheless perceive its gravity: The adoption of expertise in the realm of selling is our trade's biggest development. Your customers know they've subscribed to an everyday update that will take them on a journey by way of your services and products while providing insight. Kumpulan gambar berkualitas tinggi yang telah disediakan sebelumnya akan membuat e-mail serta buletin terlihat profesional.
E-mail marketing includes advertising a services or products to a database via targeting a certain phase of consumers through e-mails. The objectives of IJEMR are to attract and publish original theoretical and practical manuscripts from teachers and professionals from all disciplines regarding a variety of latest points in e-advertising and e-tailing.
In addition to creating and sustaining on-line advertising and marketing campaigns, an e-advertising specialist might develop and share metrics to track total campaign reach. It additional outlines current best practices within the field of vacation spot e-advertising and gives vacation spot marketers with a legal framework for his or her on-line advertising activities.
You are incorporating digital channel insights, triggering emails based on consumer behavior and delivering extra responsive and dynamic content made for cell devices. The first part of the definition illustrates the vary of access platforms and communications tools that kind the web channels which e-entrepreneurs use to construct and develop relationships with clients.
Each e-mail, each topic line, each call to action, is a mini product that your customers buy with their time, interest, and a focus. In truth, your subscribers in all probability visited your web site or social media page to enroll in your e mail.
Next PostNext Should Content Marketing For Your Business?


Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) provides drinking water to approximately 500,000 customers in the Des Moines metro area and sells water to many cities and other entities in central Iowa. DMWW is proud to have the next-to-highest revenue bond rating in the water utility industry and water rates below the national average.
DMWW operates three water treatment plants: Fleur Drive, L. D. McMullen Treatment Plant at Maffitt Reservoir and Saylorville Water Treatment Plant. The utility maintains over 1,360 miles of buried water mains which have 9,800 valves, over 80,000 water meters and automated reading devices, nearly 10,000 fire hydrants and 7 water storage facilities.
DMWW also operates Water Works Park and Maffitt Reservoir. Water Works Park is approximately 1,500 acres of land near downtown Des Moines and is one of the largest urban parks. Maffitt Reservoir includes 1,300 acres of land, including wooded areas and a 200 acre lake popular for fishing.


text:
HOME [EN]
MIL.link [PL]
Posted on July 7, 2019 July 7, 2019 by Commander
Alan Lis: Jihadists being released- the continuous issue of what to do with captured terrorists
Now that ISIS has been territorially defeated, some say that this is the end of this organisation, often regarded as the gravest terrorist threat of the current century. Although the Islamic State does not control any territory, the are problems caused by it, which still remain in place. To start with, there is the issue of its ideology. Territorial losses do not mean that the ideology that has driven ISIS's fighters became any less appealing; quite contrary, it still attracts a good deal of new potential recruits who are, of course, less likely to travel to Syria and Iraq now, but nevertheless may pose a substantial danger in their countries of residence.
Another thing, already addressed some time ago, is the dilemma of what to do with captured ISIS's fighters and their families, some of whom may still support ISIS. Although some countries repatriated a few women and children – what will be mentioned below – there are still thousands more in detention camps in Syria and Iraq.
This piece, however, shall adhere to the issue of captured ISIS's fighters, leaving the case of their families aside. The dilemma of what ought to be done with IS's combatants demonstrates a problem that, by extension, applies to Jihadists of all kinds and affiliations, not only those imprisoned during the struggle against the Islamic State. In the United States, a considerable number of Jihadists caught during earlier stages of the War on Terror is being, or will soon be, released from prisons. The world media have recently put much focus on the example of the 'American Taliban', John Walker Lindh.
Lindh grew up in a rather wealthy family and converted to Islam in his teenage years. He had left the US for the Middle East in order to study Arabic, and after spending some time in Yemen he moved to Pakistan and joined Islamist militancy. He then was trained in terrorist camps, and even got to meet Osama bin Laden at some point. After September 11, he was fighting American forces in Afghanistan alongside Al Qaeda terrorists, until he was caught. The media quite rapidly nicknamed him as the 'American Taliban'. Eventually, an American court sentenced Lindh to 20 years in prison. By the end of May, he was released from prison, still having three years to serve, due to his 'good behaviour' while in jail. His good behaviour does not mean, however, that when freed the 'American Taliban' would not pose a threat to his fellow citizens. Indeed, there are reports that Lindh still shows signs of commitment to and expressed support for the Islamic State. After his release, he will be obviously subjected to a restricted control, including his communication and travel. Nonetheless, even the toughest supervision regime may turn out not to be sufficient enough.
The question of what ought to be done with captured Jihadists constitutes a strong dilemma for intelligence services, law enforcement, as well as politicians. There seems to be no ideal solution to this concern, as all of the possible ones are flawed to an extent. Capital punishment – which will be discussed below – does eliminate particular terrorists and thus the threat they pose, but may also serve the purpose of mobilizing and motivating new recruits to join Jihad and raises voices of protest amongst adherents of liberalism. Deradicalization programs, to which imprisoned terrorists are obliged, according to some reports, have not been of much success. Also, detaining Jihadists in places like Guantanamo Bay and then letting them go does not work either, as demonstrated in the report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence1.
It was observed that quite a few of them re-engaged in terrorist activities upon their release. Notably, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS's leader, was detained by the US-led coalition forces in 2004 and after several months let go. During his time in detention, radical views of his have embraced even more extreme nature. Indeed, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Gharib prison, and other places the like may be said to have facilitated further radicalization. In fact, some academics and scholars came up with names quite adequately reflecting how faulty the detention system was and to what use it was to Jihadists, naming such facilities as 'incubators for radicalization'2, 'recruitment centres and training grounds'3, or 'jihadi universities'4.
Very recently, seven French nationals who had been captured during the last period of fighting ISIS in Syria were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court. Subjecting them to the capital punishment does 'take them off the streets' and thus eliminate the threat that they pose, but, as mentioned above, it may well serve as a factor mobilizing new recruits to join Jihad and take revenge for those killed. French officials responded with mixed messages: while they still refuse to repatriate their citizens who fought in the ISIS's ranks, they too are making official efforts to prevent the sentence from being carried out. France's refusal to take its citizens back is understandable – it would be difficult to successfully try them in French courts – as are the official attempts to save those Jihadists from being hanged – after all France is a liberal democracy, which declared capital punishment illegal in 1981. Although Iraqi courts do not necessarily give any ISIS's fighter a chance for a fully fair trial, they offer a minimum of justice, and what is certainly more important for France, as well as any other country whose nationals had been captured fighting in Syria and Iraq, they solve the problems for them. It is, therefore, unlikely for those states to make more meaningful attempts to alter the Iraqi courts' decisions.
The case of captured Jihadists is very problematic. Quite a good solution, but rather an utopian one, might be first to increase sentences for joining a terrorist organization and fighting in its ranks, maybe even sentencing all captured fighters without exception to life in prison without parole, because of the threat they are very likely to pose again upon their release. They ought to be imprisoned in closely guarded facilities with no prisoners of other kinds, so as to prevent them from having contact with non-jihadists whom they could try to gain for their cause. Furthermore, security in such a facility should be provided by multinational military units that ought to be composed of soldiers and guards strictly selected and subjected to background checks, as well as of impeccable moral attitude and psychological fitness – the latter being regularly checked. Security measures of such a prison should be of the highest possible level, and costs of such should be spread among prisoners' countries of origin. Such a solution should, in theory, resolve the dilemma through removing Jihadists permanently from their societies, and should satisfy those opposing death penalty.
This is, however, only deliberation. In reality, Western states are hesitant to take responsibility for their nationals who were captured fighting in ISIS's rank. They would rather leave it to the authorities of the country that the fighters are currently kept in, only occasionally raising their voice, just as French officials did- which was, nonetheless, rather calculated on not losing face in the public. It needs to be acknowledged, though, that France, along with the Netherlands and the US, have all repatriated a few of their non-militant nationals from Syria and Iraq (twelve orphans, two orphans, and two women and six children respectively). However, this obviously does not resolve the issue of overcrowded detention camps.
However, releasing Jihadists, of any affiliation really, from prisons will always remain a risk. It seems that the very minimum international community of states should do to contain the threat coming from captured terrorists is sentencing all of them to life in prison where they would be kept under strict control and in separation from other inmates, with no possibility under any circumstances and at any point to contact other prisoners.
1. Link to the summary of the report https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Reports%20and%20Pubs/9-25-17_Ref_D_Unclass_GTMO_Report_17-00708_U_FINAL.pdf
2. Fawaz Gerges, 'ISIS. A History', Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press 2016, p.84
3. Anrew Thompson and Jeremi Suri, 'How America Helped ISIS. New York Times', The New York Times, 1 October 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/opinion/how-america-helped-isis.html
4. Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, 'ISIS. Inside the Army of Terror, New York: Regan Arts 2015, p. 83
CategoriesArticles TagsISIS, jihad, terror
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Alan Lis: ISIS's continuous presence in Iraq
Alan Lis: The case of 'Fort Trump'
Alan Lis: The rise of right-wing terrorism
Alan Lis: Designing each others' military forces as terrorist organizations and growing tensions between Iran and the US