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Q: Probability that two random numbers are coprime is $\frac{6}{\pi^2}$ This is a really natural question for which I know a stunning solution. So I admit I have a solution, however I would like to see if anybody will come up with something different. The question is

What is the probability that two numbers randomly chosen are coprime?

More formally, calculate the limit as $n\to\infty$ of the probability that two randomly chosen numbers, both less than $n$ are coprime.

A: Let's look at the function $$S(x)=\sum_{\begin{array}{c}
m,n\leq x\\
\gcd(m,n)=1\end{array}}1.$$
Then notice that  $$S(x)=\sum_{m,n\leq x}\sum_{d|\gcd(m,n)}\mu(d)=\sum_{d\leq x}\sum_{r,s\leq\frac{x}{d}}\mu(d)= \sum_{d\leq x}\mu(d)\left[\frac{x}{d}\right]^{2}$$
From here it is straight forward to see that in the limit, $$\frac{S(x)}{x^2}\rightarrow\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\mu(n)}{n^2}=\frac{1}{\zeta(2)}=\frac{6}{\pi^2}.$$
However, there are still some interesting questions here.  How fast does in converge, and what are the secondary terms?  It turns out we can easily relate this to the summatory totient function, which has a rich history.  See these two math stack exchange posts: Totient function, Asymptotic formula.  What follows below is a modification of
 my answer on the second post.
The History Of The Error Term
In 1874, Mertens proved that $$S(x)=\frac{6}{\pi^{2}}x^{2}+O\left(x\log x\right).$$  Throughout we use $E(x)=S(x)-\frac{6}{\pi^2}x^2$ for the error function.
The best unconditional result is given by Walfisz 1963: $$E(x)\ll x\left(\log x\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}\left(\log\log x\right)^{\frac{4}{3}}.$$
In 1930, Chowla and Pillai showed this cannot be improved much more, and that $E(x)$ is not $$o\left(x\log\log\log x\right).$$
In particular, they showed that $\sum_{n\leq x}E(n)\sim\frac{3}{\pi^{2}}x^{2}$ so that $E(n)\asymp n$ on average. In 1950, Erdos and Shapiro proved that there exists $c$ such that for infinitely many positive integers $N,M$ we have $$E(N)>cN\log\log\log\log N\ \ \text{and}\ \ E(M)<-cM\log\log\log\log M, $$
or more concisely
$$E(x)=\Omega_{\pm}\left(x\log\log\log\log x\right).$$
In 1987 Montgomery improved this to
$$E(x)=\Omega_{\pm}\left(x\sqrt{\log\log x}\right).$$
Hope you enjoyed that,
Added: At some point, I wrote a long blog post about this, complete with a proof of Montgomery's lower bound.

A: Here is a fairly easy approach.
Let us start with a basic observation:
$\bullet$ Every integer has the probability "1" to be divisible by 1.
$\bullet$ A given integer is either even or odd hence has probability $"1/2"$ to be divisible by 2
$\bullet$ Similarly, an integer has a probability $"1/3"$ to be divisible by 3. Because any interger is either the form $3k, 3k+1$ or $3k+2$.

Conjecture More generally, one integer chosen amongst $"p"$ other integers has one chance to be divisible by $p$

*

*From this we infer that the probability that  an integer is divisible by $p$ is $\frac{1}{p}$. This is having one chance over $p-$chances to be divisible by $p$.

*Therefore the probability that two different integers are both simultaneously divisible by a prime $p$ is $\frac{1}{p^2}$

*This means that the probability that two different integers are  not simultaneously divisible by a prime $p$ is $$1-\frac{1}{p^2}$$

*Conclusion: The probability that two different integers are  never simultaneously divisible by a prime (meaning that they are co-prime)
is therefore given by
$$ \color{blue}{\prod_{p, prime}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^2} \right) =
\left(\prod _{p, prime}\frac {1}{1-p^{-2}}\right)^{-1}=\frac {1}{\zeta (2)}=\frac {6}{\pi ^{2}} \approx  0,607927102 ≈ 61 \%}$$

Where we should recall that, from the Basel problem we have the following Euler identity
$$\frac{\pi^2}{6}=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^2} = \zeta(2)=\prod _{p, prime}\frac {1}{1-p^{-2}}.$$
By a similar token, the probability that $m$ integers are co-prime is given by
$$ \color{red}{\prod_{p, prime}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^m} \right) =
\left(\prod _{p, prime}\frac {1}{1-p^{-m}}\right)^{-1}=\frac {1}{\zeta (m)}}.$$
Here $\zeta$ is the Riemann zeta function. $$\zeta(s) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^s} $$


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SB 136 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020
December 16, 2019 by San Quentin News Contributor
Oct. 8, the Repeal Ineffective Sentence Enhancements (RISE) Coalition celebrated Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature on SB 136: The RISE Act. The legislation, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), dismantles a sentence enhancement that adds an extra year to an individual's base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term they already served.
"Our coalition has been doing work to reduce the state's budget on Corrections for the last 15 years. Draconian sentencing policies, like enhancements for prior convictions, have been key in filling the 33 prisons we have in California, wasting resources and tearing families apart," said Amber-Rose Howard, Statewide Coordinator at Californians United for a Responsible Budget.
Consistent with disparities at every other stage of the criminal legal system, individuals, communities and families of color are disproportionately burdened by the one-year enhancement, proponents of SB 136 state.
"This is about moving toward more justice for incarcerated people and their families and righting the wrongs from California's draconian sentencing laws that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities," said Emily Harris, Policy Manager of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "We know that this one-year sentence enhancement does not make our communities safer or deter crime, but tears families apart. Reining in this enhancement will help ease the emotional and economic toll that this has taken on incarcerated Californians and their loved ones."
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), there were more than 15,000 counts of the one-year sentence enhancement added to incarcerated individuals' base sentences as of December 2018. This is a conservative estimate, as the CDCR's assessment does not consider felony jail terms served at local county jails. California currently spends more than $80,000 each year to imprison an individual.
"Every year a parent spends incarcerated causes significant trauma to their child. Children with incarcerated parents are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, poor academic performance, school absenteeism/drop out, poverty, homelessness and physical health problems. We are proud to have the support of Governor Newsom on SB 136, it's divestment from punishment," said Romarilyn Ralston, Policy Director with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. "The majority of incarcerated women have children under the age of 18. Every year a mother spends away from a child has layers of collateral consequences. I am proud to be part of this historic effort and know our incarcerated mothers will be returned to their children sooner rather than later, said Ralston."
The one-year enhancement addressed by SB 136 is but one among a myriad of enhancements available under California law. The new law will not alter an individual's base sentence for their current felony charge or change any of the longer enhancements designed to further punish people.
SB 136 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
SB 136 is sponsored by the RISE Coalition, which is comprised of the ACLU of California, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Friends Committee on Legislation of California, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Pillars of the Community, and Tides Advocacy.
Filed Under: CDCR, Criminal Justice, Legal, Recently Posted Tagged With: SB 136

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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New Gnomon video: Creating Props for Games, Vol 2.
Friday, March 24th, 2017 | Posted by Jim Thacker
The Gnomon Workshop has released Creating Props for Games, Vol 2: a guide to cutting-edge PBR shading workflows recorded by Riot Games senior environment artist Nick Reynolds.
A detailed guide to advanced rendering and compositing workflows
In the video, which lasts for over seven hours, Reynolds builds on the non-destructive workflows set out in the first volume in the series, which covered modelling and baking normal maps.
Using Substance Painter, Photoshop, Marmoset Toolbag and image viewer PureRef, Reynolds explores how to set up physically based shading for the futuristic vehicle model created in the original tutorial.
For those bemused by PBR, the video also provides an easy-to-follow overview of the key concepts, using real-world references and comparing them to images displayed in Painter, Toolbag and UE4.
Nick Reynolds has worked for game developers including Pandemic Studios, Red Storm Entertainment and Sony Santa Monica, and is currently senior environment artist at Riot Games.
His resume includes titles including God of War: Ascension and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. He also teaches at Hollywood's Gnomon – School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation.
Creating Props for Games, Vol. 1 is available via an online subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, giving you access to over 300 detailed tutorials. Subscriptions cost $49/month or $499/year, and there is a free trial.
Read more about Creating Props for Games, Vol. 2 on The Gnomon Workshop's website
Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.
Gnomon ships Creating a Sci-Fi Alleyway
Gnomon releases Creating Props for Games Vol. 1
Gnomon releases Creating a Gun in Modo
Get Creating First-Person Shooter Animations for Games
Tags: Creating Props for Games, fundamentals, Gnomon, Gnomon - School of Visual Effects Games and Animation, Marmoset Toolbag, Nick Reynolds, PBR, Photoshop, physically based rendering, physically based shading, Riot Games, shading, Substance Painter, texturing, The Gnomon Workshop, Training, tutorial, UE4, Unreal Engine, video, Vol. 2, workflow


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SEETHER – Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum – album review
Posted on July 21, 2020 by Mickey Renger
Get in everyone! We're going for a ride. Seether are going to transport you back to the grunge rock era of the early 1990's, with musical similarities to the iconic sounds of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Foo Fighters. Three years after releasing their highly acclaimed album Poison The Parish, the band are set to release their eighth full-length album Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum on August 28, 2020 on Fantasy Records. The South African natives have entertained the masses for over 20 years with countless hits, and if the releases of the first two singles, Dangerous and Bruised and Bloodied are any indication, there will be several more, and could very well put this masterfully written album on many "Top Album of the Year" lists. So, if you're ready, strap in and let's go!
With everything currently going on in the United States and world, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum could be the anthem that's needed, but not in a literal sense. The album's title translates to, "If You Want Peace, Prepare For War," which for music, can be a good starting point. The 13-track album was produced by lead singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan, and engineered and mixed by Matt Hyde, who has worked with bands like Deftones and AFI. Morgan along with his bandmates, Dale Stewart (bass, backing vocals), John Humphrey (drums), and newcomer Corey Lowery (lead guitar), formerly of Saint Asonia, created an album that is rich in cleverly-written lyrics, brilliant mixes of guitar and percussion and a newly ventured style, which will be satisfying enough to any music lover and should garner plenty of repeat listens.
With the angst in Morgan's voice/lyrics, catchy chorus lines and well-placed instrumentals, the first two released tracks, Dangerous and Bruised and Bloodied, have already gained tons of attention and have set the tone. For the rest of the album, you're taken on an emotional journey of life, loss, and anger, through the tracks, Liar, Buried In The Sand, Failure, and Drift Away, before closing out with Written In Stone, which closely resembles the vocal and instrumental style of Alice in Chains.
Seether hit it out of the park with Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. Even with the high praise received from their last album, Poison The Parish, they may have outdone themselves. The distinct 90's musical vibe combined with the traditional nuances of the current rock standard, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum should appeal to a wide range of listeners. Pre-order here or pick up/download the album on August 28, 2020. Also, be sure to catch them live in a city near you on their next tour.
Dead And Done
Bruised And Bloodied
Can't Go Wrong
Buried In The Sand
Drift Away
Pride Before The Fall
Written In Stone
Seether Online:
http://www.seether.com
http://www.instagram.com/seether
http://www.twitter.com/seether
http://www.facebook.com/seether
2 thoughts on "SEETHER – Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum – album review"
Kzrecordest
August 30, 2020 at 2:31 pm says:
Every album has gotten better and better including this one, best so far.
David Castagno
September 2, 2020 at 8:15 am says:
They just keep bringin' it! Thanks for reading Screamer Magazine.
SEETHER – Seether 2002-2013
Seether's Shaun Morgan Accepts "Artistic Expression" Award At The National Council For Behavioral Health Awards Of Excellence
3 Doors Down Announce Summer Tour With Seether In Front Of New Studio Album
SEETHER – Isolate and Medicate


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Das Departamento Metán liegt im Zentrum der Provinz Salta im Nordwesten Argentiniens und ist eine von 23 Verwaltungseinheiten der Provinz. Die Hauptstadt des Departamentos ist San José de Metán.

Metán grenzt im Norden an die Departamentos Capital und General Güemes, im Norden und Osten an das Departamento Anta, im Süden an das Departamento Rosario de la Frontera und im Westen an die Departamentos La Viña und Guachipas.

Städte und Gemeinden
Das Departamento Metán ist in folgende Gemeinden (Municipios) aufgeteilt:

Weblinks
Politische Gliederung der Provinz Salta (spanisch)
Departamento Metán (spanisch)

Departamento in der Provinz Salta

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Canadians should choo-choo-choose small business this Valentine's Day
Canadians should choo choo choose small business this Valentine's Day
CFIB's latest recovery dashboard shows small businesses need our love now more than ever
Toronto, February 11, 2021 –The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)'s latest Small Business Recovery Dashboard shows small businesses continue to struggle during the pandemic:
51 per cent of small businesses are fully open (compared to 47 per cent last month)
39 per cent are fully staffed (compared to 36 per cent last month)
25 per cent are making normal sales (compared to 22 per cent last month)
"February tends to be a low-sales month, but this February is a real heartbreaker," said Laura Jones, CFIB's executive vice-president. "Small businesses are now 11 months into seeing their revenues plummet. Many have been forced to shut down even as Amazon and big box sales soar."
Regionally, businesses are recovering at different paces, with Ontario seeing the lowest results in all three categories:
BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PEI* NL
% fully open 66 65 74 59 38 51 64 78 78 71
% fully staffed 43 40 42 47 34 39 42 64 60 46
% with normal sales 34 23 30 31 20 28 33 39 38 43
*PEI has fewer than 40 respondents and is calculated as an average of the results from the January and February surveys.
Make small business your valentine this year
"Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to show double the love. Buy flowers, chocolate, wine, and other gifts for your special people at a local business. Going to a neighbourhood restaurant or ordering takeout is also a great way to celebrate. And if you can, be extra generous. Who doesn't need a little Valentine's Day boost this year?" added Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB's senior vice-president of national affairs.
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Milena Stanoeva, CFIB
Source for CFIB data:
CFIB, preliminary results for the Your Voice – February 2021 survey, results from February 4 to 8, 2021, n = 3,554. For comparison purposes, a probability sample with the same number of respondents would have a margin of error of +/-1.6%, 19 times out of 20.
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada's largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 110,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners' chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
About #SmallBusinessEveryDay
The #SmallBusinessEveryDay campaign encourages local shopping, promotes initiatives to support small business and provides posters and other tools for businesses to use. It is supported by Scotiabank, Chase Merchant Services, eBay Canada, Intuit Canada and Interac Corp. To find out more about being a media sponsor please contact [email protected].
Topics in this Article: News Releases


Valid until 3AM, from south of Point Lookout to the MD/Penn border at a minimum.
No code red calls yet.
Just heard a big thud in our yard. We live in a house built in 1970 with huge trees. Not saying tornado, but the wind has picked up a lot sooner than predicted. Stay safe, y'all.
I hope it was a false alarm. Dang. Now, I am awake until this over. I have a hub, dog, and cat to rescue. They are all asleep. Stay safe.
The wind and rain woke me too; wind @ 16 mph, rain pummeling. Weather station recoded gust of 26 mph. Quiet now.
It is a good thing to remain vigilant, so thanks for the warning. We lived in St. Leonard back in the day when the tornadoes devistaded parts of somd. One was on Sixes Road. Some of our pines got their heads cut off. It was described as a tornado that didn't hit the ground in our area. We were lucky. That is why this forum is awesome. Thanks for the alert. Take care.
It seems things have quieted down. I, always, told my children, jokingly, to become meteorologists/weather predictors. You can be wrong, but still make the big bucks.
Was listening to the heaviest downpour from about 2am on... Weather Radio Alarm went off around 2:45 with a Tornado Warning.
The rain stopped moments after and haven't heard it since.
I received the Code Red call around 2-230am. In my fumbled discombobulation, I turned the phone off. Then I listened to the VM, heard the wind and rain and promptly turned over and went back to sleep.
We had high winds coming through that took out some trees. At the time I was looking at the radar and thought 'dang that looks like a hook-echo'. A few minutes later the sirens went off and a warning area popped up east of La Plata. By the time the sirens went off, the storm had moved towards aquasco.
The Calvert control center called the home phone 4X to say there is a tornado watch, get n the basement.
We had lightning, sideways rain and heavy winds for awhile and then just rain. I love a good storm but I had a vibrating dog that despite the calming treat, just could not settle down.
We got the call twice. Once at 0215 and again at 0235. Good thing my alarm goes off at 0230 anyway.
Pretty difficult to "Tornado Watch", in the of the dark cloud covered night. I couldn't see a thing.
Not me. These days you never know what you're gonna get with them. Flooding, tornado, damage, etc.
Having lived in SW FL for a total of 17 1/2 years, I loved a good thunder boomer/lightning show. Down there storms occur daily during the summer and then an hour later, you wouldn't know it had rained!
Though, yes, there was occasional flooding and the treat of hurricanes.


HOW TO MAKE HIM CRAZY!
It is undoubtedly old news that we are going to tell you to drink more water, at least a gallon a day. If it is so important, why doesn't everybody just do it? We are unsure also. It is such a quick, easy thing to do but most of us do not hydrate our bodies enough daily.
Our bodies are made up of approximately 66% water. This liquid is fundamental to our body's functions by helping lubricate certain parts and flushing out wastes and toxins that have built up in our systems.
Every day we lose, depending on conditions, about 1 ½ liters of water. To stay healthy this loss should be reconstituted. In some situations, it is important to drink even more, for example, in hot weather, during intensive sport, during bouts of diarrhea or if you are pregnant.
Indeed, it is tedious and boring to always have to drink more than a gallon a day of water, but it is imperative to do so. If you drink after you are thirsty, then your body is already slightly dehydrated. Drink whenever you think about it. This will prevent dehydration.
Water is good for your skin, as it helps combat cellulite and also stops hunger which is handy if you are on a diet.


text:
Install with:

	$ gem install maruku
{:shell}

### Distribution Packages ###

Gentoo: <http://packages.gentoo.org/packages/?category=dev-ruby;name=maruku>

Debian: <http://packages.debian.org/experimental/interpreters/libmaruku-ruby>

### Repository ###

The development site is <http://rubyforge.org/projects/maruku/>.

Released files can also be seen at <http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=2795>.

Anonymous access to the repository is possible with:

	$ svn checkout svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/maruku/trunk
{:shell}

Also, each version has a tag:

	$ svn checkout svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/maruku/tags/0.5.6
{:shell}

If you want commit access to the repository, just create an account on Rubyforge and drop me a mail.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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"'Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete, The'" (1891)
Altman, Matthew C.
A seven-line free-verse poem, "'The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete'" (1891) first appeared in the annex "Good-Bye my Fancy." An earlier draft and the printer's copy are in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection at the Library of Congress. Comparing the draft with the published version reveals a number of Whitman's revisions, which include the deletion of several lines before the poem was published.
In a bracketed prefatory note, Whitman explains that he is responding to a sermon he had heard in which a professor-pastor purported to list "the rounded catalogue divine complete." Whitman complains, however, that this catalogue only included "the esthetic things." Whitman's poem appropriates the preacher's phrase and lists what was neglected, the "low and evil, crude and savage."
The theme of "'Rounded Catalogue'" is highly characteristic of Whitman's oeuvre. Whitman's democratic insistence on all-inclusiveness pervades the majority of his poems: he praises both heterosexual and homosexual love in the "Children of Adam" (1860) and the "Calamus" (1860) poems, and the narrator of "Song of Myself" (1855) empathizes with blacks and whites, women and men, young and old, virtue and vice. In "'Rounded Catalogue'" Whitman continues to unite apparent opposites. Whitman's verse complements the preacher's sermon, so that they together comprise an ontological democracy in which heaven is united with earth and sermon is reconciled with poetry. In "'Rounded Catalogue'" Whitman reasserts his belief that a balanced harmony between apparent opposites is necessary in order to complete the divine.
Golden, Arthur. "Whitman's 'Respondez!,' 'A Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete,' and Emerson." Études Anglaises 48 (1995): 319–327.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Ed. Sculley Bradley and Harold W. Blodgett. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1973.


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Double GP2 podium for Hingham's Team Air Asia in Valencia
Michael Bailey
Published: 2:35 PM June 26, 2011 Updated: 2:17 PM October 10, 2020
Team Air Asia continued to make their arrival in GP2 look easy with a pair of Main Series podiums during the weekend in Valencia.
The Hingham outfit was clearly the top performer from Norfolk's contingent in the Formula One feeder series, as they saw Davide Valsecchi follow up his feature race win in Monaco with third around Valencia on Saturday.
Team-mate Luiz Razia – sixth in the opener – went one better in Sunday's sprint race, taking second with Valsecchi third as the Norfolk team overtook Carleton Rode's Isport to sit second in the teams' championship.
Chief race engineer Humphrey Corbett said: 'I am beyond words – I am really happy to see Luiz up on the podium where he belongs. He had a good race today and didn't put a foot wrong. Davide did a couple of good overtaking manoeuvres and climbed through the field.
'From an engineering point of view, we are still missing something, because there were quicker cars out there than us, so we have got to investigate that, but for the moment we will celebrate our two podiums and a smashing weekend all round. I'm very happy for the whole team and a great way to head into Silverstone.'
Team Air Asia, sisters to Formula One constructor Team Lotus, are competing in their first GP2 Main Series since being formed.
Isport's Sam Bird (fifth) did at least collect four points from Saturday's feature race, while Group Lotus-backed French team ART saw Esteban Gutierrez win Sunday's sprint race.
Griston's Super Nova Racing and Attleborough racer Rodolfo Gonzalez were well out of points contention.


text:
Support AB 2925, an Improvement to Hate Crime Legislation
Legislation, News
Progressive Zionists of California is thrilled to support Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Timothy Grayson's new bill, AB 2925, which would update the current penal code to make it a misdemeanor or a felony to target a group of people, and not just an individual.
Currently, terrorist threats against protected classes based on disability, gender, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, can only be charged as misdemeanors. AB 2925 would give district attorneys the option to charge terrorist threats and certain acts of property destruction as hate crimes that carry either misdemeanor or felony penalties. District attorneys would then have the option to request the court to lengthen the pretrial detention of the accused. The legislation would also apply to threats against other protected classes and locations.
"In light of the loose restrictions placed on would be terrorist Ross Farcas after he threatened California's Jewish community with violence, updating our penal code to reflect the challenges of a new reality is more important than ever", said Matthew Finklestein, PZC Board Member. "My synagogue is a mere ten-minute drive from his house, and I still worry what he might have tried had he not been apprehended."
AB 2925 addresses new realities on domestic terrorism and will make it easier to hold individuals accountable for crimes against communities, which has previously been difficult or impossible to do. We strongly encourage Californians to call their representatives in support.
About Progressive Zionists of California
Progressive Zionists of California is a grassroots collective of activists and California Democratic Party (CDP) leaders dedicated to reshaping the discourse around Zionism and antisemitism in California Democratic politics. We do this by advocating for pragmatic progressive party platforms, resolutions, and legislation around both domestic and Israel-related issues, and educating activists about antisemitism and Zionism.
https://caprogressivezionists.org//
https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveZionistsofCalifornia//
https://www.instagram.com/progressivezionists/


text:
Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel
By J. M. Coetzee
Appearing Elsewhere
C. Max Magee | 1
Pete Dexter has been in the news around here lately, and keeping that ball rolling, I've contributed a piece to The Rumpus series "The Last Book I Loved" about Dexter's collection of columns, Paper Trails. Technically, it's not the last book I've loved (more recently there's been Waiting for the Barbarians, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, Shadow Country, A Mercy, and a few others), so let's just call it "One of the Last Books I Loved."
Year in Reading
Two Bests from the Left Coast
Brian from Los Angeles, one of the most prolific readers I have ever known, sent along his to favorites for 2004 (as we continue The Millions End of Year Extravaganza)Non-Fiction: The Fall Of Baghdad (excerpt) — It is to our great benefit that Jon Lee Anderson was one of the very few journalists to remain in Baghdad throughout (and after) the attack. Anderson remains (mostly) apolitical, to record, with ferocious accuracy and color, what he saw, heard, smelt and felt throughout those turbulent weeks. All those self-important and partisan-hack talking heads and politicians who profess to know what's best for iraq and america are infants next to Anderson. Fiction: Elizabeth Costello (excerpt) – J.M. Coetzee is primarily known for one of his weaker books (Disgrace") as opposed to one of his masterpieces (Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K) — Elizabeth Costello falls somewhere in between. And, Coetzee knows this, even seems to integrate this into the book itself. Elizabeth Costello perfectly captures, through a series of an old woman's digressions and lectures, the confusion inherent in existence. Proceeding through life with the knowledge that all information has a flip side, that every belief has a counter-belief, that everything one does is both super-charged with meaning and also meaningless, one must… proceed. As does Elizabeth Costello (and Coetzee). A book that intentionally wallows in human fallibility, confusion, flawed logic, and shortcomings, but elevated way beyond most 'perfect works' — Coetzee is one of our best contemporary prose stylists, novelists, and essayists.–and a shout-out to the new centennial edition Graham Greenes with cooler covers than the Penguin editions and introductions by the likes of Coetzee, Christopher Hitchens, etc… The Heart Of The Matter and The End Of The Affair must be read by all! Look for more great end of year reviews as the Extravaganza continues.
Giving Books As Gifts
As per family tradition the youngest generation gave out their gifts today, on Christmas Eve. Since I work at a book store, it's hard not to give everyone books. So, once again, that's what they got. My grandmother is a prodigious reader, and I owe much of my literary affinity to her. She instilled in me her depression-era view of books as the perfect escape into other worlds, and she divides the world into two categories: readers and non-readers, and she quite simply does not understand the latter group. I decided it would be fitting to introduce her to the latest Nobel Laureate, J.M. Coetzee. She was aware of him but had not read any of his books, so I gave her what is by most accounts his greatest book: Waiting for the Barbarians. My mother is an art teacher with a vast library of art books that I enjoy adding volumes to. One of her favorite museums is the Hirshhorn Gallery, which is located on the mall in downtown Washington, DC, and when I was doing my shopping, I found a really good-looking book about the museum and its solid modern collection called Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 150 Works of Art. My father, a big fan of presidential politics, received The White House Tapes, a nine cd set of illuminating recordings of our presidents over the last fifty years. It also includes commentary and a radio documentary that ties the whole thing together. I gave my 24-year-old sister a novel called Dirt Music by an Australian writer named Tim Winton. I read it when it first came out and really liked it, and I know my sister loves well-crafted plot-driven novels, so it seemed like a good fit. I gave my 21-year-old brother Jarhead, Anthony Swofford's irreverent and enlightening memoir of the First Gulf War, which I guess is now that war's official title. (aside: it's interesting that wars first must receive temporary names, and then years or decades later when history has fully played itself out, a war receives its "official" name for the history books, and yet when a war is going on, there is no suggestion that it will one day be viewed in a larger historical context, perhaps spanning decades.) I gave my 20-year-old sister, who has lately become very interested in the latest and hottest contemporary fiction, White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which has fast become an "essential" member of this genre. My 20 and 16-year-old brothers both received Schott's Original Miscellany. At first, they seemed perplexed by the stark little white tome, but before long they were unable to pull themselves away from such tidbits as "The Deaths of Some Burmese Kings" and "Some Shakespearean Insults." I was pleased to receive some excellent items as well, including John Keegan's The First World War, and the unbelievable new Looney Tunes – The Golden Collection, from which I have already derived much enjoyment. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday.Brief Programming NoteYou have probably noticed the modest redesign of the site. This was done mostly because I was bored, but I sincerely hope you will let me know if it is taking away from your enjoyment of The Millions. You have probably also noticed the Amazon category links to the left. This is so you can cut through the noise of Amazon's main page and get to a book you might be looking for more quickly. I have also added the Reading Queue so that everyone will have a good idea of what is on my plate should you feel like reading along at home.
A New Nobel Laureate
The South African J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature today. This prize seems to be given alternately to the obscure or the internationally known. Coetzee most assuredly falls in the latter category, and his receiving this award comes as no surprise. He has won the Booker Prize twice, an unprecedented feat, as well as countless other major and minor awards, and long ago passed from the realm of "author" into the realm of "master." The Nobel Prize seems to surpass all other prizes in inducing people to read, and rightly so. It is as close as the literary world comes to "officially" admitting a writer into the canon of world literature from which he or she can never be removed or forgotten. So, if you are among the many who decide to read or reread Coetzee in the coming days or weeks, allow me to suggest two books, first his breakthrough novel and arguably his best, Waiting for the Barbarians, and then the second of his two Booker Prize winning efforts, Disgrace. If you want to learn more about Coetzee check out the "bio-bibliography" provided on the Nobel Site.Beyond FreaksDiane Arbus has long been considered among the greatest photographers of all time. Her work is a staple of art museum collections throughout the world. Arbus (who committed suicide in 1971) was best known for her unnerving photographs of circus freaks, street performers, and other "outsiders" dwelling on society's margins. Though she focused on the margins, she also illuminated just how blurry these margins can be. Sometimes we can feel like outsiders in our own homes or in our own families. The two new Arbus books that have come out recently help to illuminate this aspect of her work. Neither book focuses on her circus and sideshow work, yet each book retains the visceral power that her "freak" photography is known for. The first is a collection of previously unpublished photographs called Diane Arbus: Family Albums, which is devoted to family portraits she took over the years. Some were commissioned and others were not, but they all retain that powerful quality of dread that her photographs seem to take on. The other book is an impressively thorough volume put out by Random House that amounts to a biography as well as a retrospective of her work. It is one of the most extensive collections of her photography ever put into book form.Shout OutsGarth, a friend and trusted fellow reader, has weighed in on The Fortress of Solitude. After finishing the book, I eagerly waited for Garth to read it so that I could hear his opinion. It was worth the wait. I also want to give a shout out to Jeff Mallett creator of Frazz who I am told is a fan of the site. This also gives me the opportunity to tell all of you that I always have been and always will be a newspaper funnies junkie.


The lake trout in Manistee, Michigan provide an exciting fishing experience any time of year! The key is, when they adjust to the water temperatures, you need to adjust your fishing techniques. In early spring and then again in early fall the lake trout are typically found in shallow waters and can be caught casting with spinning gear. As the water starts warming up in late spring through to late summer the lake trout drop down in 60 to 90 foot holes where the water is cooler. Captain Jeff knows this and knows how to catch these fish.
The Lake Trout is one of the most dependable Lake Michigan species.These deep water fish are best sought after all season long. When you are Charter Fishing out of Manistee Harbor these fish are around and plentiful. The June-August fishery off of Manistee in Lake Michigan has produced the finest Lake Trout action that we can find. 75 degree weather and lots of BIG Trout is right here in Manistee.
These fish can grow to be huge and catching one of these is a big deal. Lakers usually weigh about 12 to 14 pounds. Here in Manistee, they can grow to be 30 pounds or so!
Click to book your charter early so you can catch one of these great Lakers. Bring your camera, these fish are bountiful and are a great catch!


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A "moral imperative" is emerging .... that is similar ["that" refers to?]
Thread starter LQZ
LQZ
A "moral imperative" is emerging to prevent and treat noncommunicable diseases in poor countries that is similar to the one that developed during the AIDS epidemic a decade ago, a leading health expert said Wednesday. The Washington Post
I suppose that is refering "a moral imperative" and wonder whether the "that" clause is in the right place. To me, it should have been put after "imperative" because it is modifying "imperative". Could you please explain to me? Thanks.
Beryl from Northallerton
It refers to the 'moral imperative'.
Your suggested stylistic improvement would enhance the sentence. Or you could simply cut out the 'that is'.
A "moral imperative" is emerging to prevent and treat noncommunicable diseases in poor countries ( ) similar to the one that developed during the AIDS epidemic a decade ago, a leading health expert said Wednesday.
The sentence is grammatically correct as it stands. But a sentence can be grammatically correct and still be confusing, ambiguous, and liable to misreading.
Edit: I respectfully disagree with Beryl about removing "that is." As it stands, the singular verb "is" immediately adverts you to the fact that the phrase that follows cannot be describing "countries." But when you run together "countries similar to the one that emerged ...", then you are much more likely to spawn infelicitous misreadings.
Annandale, Virginia, USA
There is no rule requiring the clause "that . . . decade ago" be placed immediately after "moral imperative." In fact, that might make the sentence more confusing, because it would separate "moral imperative" from what the "moral imperative" requires. The author has a problem in that both "that . . . decade ago" and "to prevent . . . in poor countries" are long clauses. However he arranges them, the sentence will be a complex one. It's not something for elementary schoolers, perhaps not even for high schoolers, but the sentence was probably not written for readers at those levels. To a well-educated native speaker experienced at reading sentences of this complexity, it is quite clear that "that . . . decade ago" modifies "moral imperative." The sentence could have been broken into two:
"A 'moral imperative' is emerging to prevent and treat noncommunicable diseases in poor countries. A leading health expert said Wednesday that this new ethic is similar to the one that developed during the AIDS epidemic a decade ago."
But there is nothing grammatically wrong with the original, and I would argue that it isn't even poor style.
Thank you, everyone. I carefully read your posts and learned language is more flexible than I thought. Thanks again.


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Eastman is a 2016 Best Intergenerational Community
March 8, 2016 By Lorie McClory
Eastman Community Association has been selected as a winner of the 2016 MetLife Foundation/Generations United Best Intergen erational Communities Award.
"I'm so proud of this community," said General Manager Ken Ryder. "This distinction came to us through the hard work of volunteers and staff, not only on the application, but in what we do here every day: work together to make Eastman a wonderful place to call home."
Eastman Member Carol Greenfield knew that this award was an excellent fit for Eastman when she heard about it. Carol spent countless hours in collaboration with fellow volunteer John Larrabee, Chief Community Living Officer Leslie Moses and Social Programming Director Charlie Taber with input from other volunteers to craft the application. "It was truly my pleasure to help profile this great community with such wonderful people of all ages. Having been part of Eastman for more than 30 years, I was surprised at how much more I learned about what makes this such a special place."
Emily Patrick, project manager for Generations United, sent Carol an email last week announcing the award. "The judges were very impressed with how much is going on in such a small community, and there is clear intention about embracing intergenerational strategies," she wrote.
Eastman is the first community association to receive this award. You can use this link to view the application.
Adult-Child Golf Day 2015, Eastman Golf Links
Also selected as a 2016 Best Intergenerational Community is the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the 2016 National Finalist is the City of Coral Springs, Florida. "(These) are places that folks of all ages proudly call home because they recognize the benefits of intergenerational programs, practices, policies and services," GU wrote in its announcement of the award.
In Eastman's Plan 2020, adopted in 2012, clearly states the community's Vision:
Eastman is a sustainable, intergenerational, recreational community that offers an active, four-season lifestyle.
The bulk of Plan 2020 outlines goals and strategies for three main areas of focus: Community Living, Environmental Vitality and Economic Viability.
The first two goals in Community Living are:
1. Offer quality, year-round programs and resources for all age groups in the community
2. Develop opportunities for intergenerational activities and programs
View the entire Plan 2020
The first goal is evident in the Summer Youth Programs, the trips organized for adults and families, and the revision of the fitness center use policy to allow usage by youth ages 15-17. The second goal can be seen in the photos in this post as well as in the teen operation Peppermint Patty's snack shack each summer with help of adult mentors, adult gardeners working with the Kid City camp program, and the work of the Youth Conservation Corps and their mentors throughout Eastman.
Eastman will be recognized in an award ceremony in Washington, DC on April 19.
For more information on Eastman, visit www.eastmannh.org.
Adult mentors work with teens to build a boat during winter and spring breaks in 2015.
EGL Recognized for Environmental Excellence
What's out there?
10 Cool Spots for Family Fun
June 13, 2017 By Lorie McClory
May 30, 2017 By Lorie McClory
Eastman Golf Links has achieved designation as a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" through the Audubon Cooperative...


To Cite: Khalili A , Khosravi M , Zolghadrasli A, Nekooian A A. The Aqueous Extract of Vaccinium Arctostaphylus Berries Decreases Blood Pressure in Rat Model of Two-Kidney, One-Clip Renal Hypertension, Int Cardio Res J. 2009 ; 3(4):e67876.
Background: The berries of a number of Vaccinium species do reduce blood pressure. The berries Vaccinium arctostaphylus, the species native to Iran have been advocated for the treatment of hypertension in the country's folk medicine. The objective was to examine the possible hypotensive activity of aqueous extract of Vaccinium arctostaphylus berries in rat model of two-kidney, one-clip hypertension.
Methods: Rats were subjected to sham operation or the placement of plexiglass clips on left renal arteries. Four weeks later, renal artery clipped rats were given intravenous injection of normal saline or the extract at 10, 25, 75 or 100 mg/kg, and mean blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and 20, 40 and 60 minutes after drug administration.
Results: Compared to sham group, renal artery clipped groups had a significantly higher mean blood pressure, heart and right kidney weights, lower left kidney weights and significantly indifferent heart rate. Compared to vehicle treatment, the extract at 75 and 100 mg/kg, but not at 10 or 25 mg/kg, did significantly reduce mean blood pressure at 20, 40 and 60 minutes after administration without changing the heart rate.
Conclusion: The findings showed, that in agreement with Iran's folk medicine, the aqueous extract of Vacinium arctostaphylus berries did lower blood pressure. The exact hypotensive mechanism remains to be investigated.


1119 NW, LLC has been set up 9/19/2006 in state FL. The current status of the business is Inactive. The 1119 NW, LLC principal adress is 8330 SW 28 ST, MIAMI, FL, 33155. Meanwhile you can send your letters to 8330 SW 28 ST, MIAMI, FL, 33155. The company`s registered agent is GONZALEZ JORGE P 8330 SW 28 ST, MIAMI, FL, 33155. The company`s management are Manager - Gonzalez Jorge P, Manager - Alvarez Joaquin. The last significant event in the company history is ADMIN DISSOLUTION FOR ANNUAL REPORT which is dated by 9/25/2015. This decision is take in action on unknown. The company annual reports filed on Annual reports – 12/20/2010.


At one point in the above trailer for the Back to Karkand Gulf of Oman map I had the sudden feeling that I had seen something very odd in the middle of all the explosions and collapsing buildings. After a couple of rewinds I discovered what it was. A tiny yellow digger, driven by a pair of engineers waltzing right through an insane fight between a tank, two buggies and a jump jet. Brilliant, but what the hell is it for?
The VTOL jets should also prove more effective against infantry targets than their speedier brothers, bringing air and ground combat closer together. All the more reason to get excited about the upcoming Back to Karkand expansion for Battlefield 3. It's out next month.


The University of Maryland Medical System ("Medical System" or "Company") has exclusively retained Major, Lindsey & Africa to conduct a search for a Health Care Regulatory Counsel, to be located in Baltimore, Maryland. Please do not contact the Company directly; all resumes sent to the Company will be routed to MLA for handling and will cause delays.
Overview: The University of Maryland Medical System is one of the largest private, nonprofit hospital systems in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is comprised of ten hospitals within the State of Maryland, including one of the nation's oldest academic hospitals. The Medical System generates nearly $3.5 billion in economic activity with 2300 licensed beds and 115,000 annual patient admissions, and it employs approximately 15,000 individuals. The Medical System offers a wide variety of inpatient and outpatient services, and it is a national and regional referral center for trauma, oncology and cardiac services, neurocare, and physical rehabilitation.
Relos: Yes, but local candidates are preferred.
Experience: 3 to 7 years of years of legal experience obtained at a law firm or in an in-house corporate legal department. Strong health care contracting and/or transactional experience.
Bar: Must be licensed to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction. Maryland Bar admission preferred.


Inspired by Freya's informed background in jewellery design and her passion for vintage couture, the latest addition to the Freya Rose 'Enchanted Collection' is an elegant and unique choice for style conscious brides.
'Maria' is a beautiful metallic silver kid leather creation with a hidden platform. This delicate shoe is hand embellished with panels of dazzling cubic zirconia and fresh water pearls and has adjustable cross over straps to ensure comfort.
Handcrafted by tradesmen who have learnt their trade through generations, these shoes have been designed with love, and made with the utmost care and attention. The intricate detailing of these beautiful shoes make a romantic and luxurious addition to any wedding style. 'Maria's design is extremely versatile and looks fabulous when jazzing up any evening outfit. They are a timeless and sparkling take on Bridal shoes and a beautiful special occasion shoe.
You'll be sure to turn heads with these sparkling beauties!


Multiband images of HD 152234. Left: WISE 2′ × 2′ tricolour image R = WISE4, G = WISE3, B = WISE1. Right: VISIR-SiC 4.2″ × 2.9″ image. There is a fainter star indicated by a red arrow at 73° NE and at 0.5″ from the main object.


In Valhalla's Shadows is a thrilling crime novel with an extraordinary cast of characters set on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. In it, W.D. Valgardson shapes a portrait of small-town living while masterfully weaving in threads of Icelandic mythology as well as discussions of contemporary issues such as systemic racism within the justice system and the lasting effects of PTSD on first responders.
In this recommended reading list, he shares other titles that explores these themes and ideas.
This journal written during the turbulent years of Winnipeg's birth gives a raw chronology of the events that would determine the city's future, presents characters determined to wrest fortunes from the land, and provides insights into the machinations that made some people fortunes. There is nothing polished about the narrative and that is what makes it valuable. It is available online.
When we refer to reserves today, we usually apply the term to the lands occupied by Indigenous people. However, in its determination to keep America and Americans at bay, the government of Canada used a system of reserves to encourage settlement of Western Canada. One of those reserves was known as New Iceland. It was incorporated into Manitoba when the postage stamp province expanded. A number of books have been written about this experiment with Icelandic immigrants. However, Eyford has expanded the narrow view of the earlier writers to demonstrate how little control the settlers had over their lives and how political and economic decisions in faraway Ottawa determined their fate.
Every individual who complains about "Indians" should be forced to read this book. It contains shocking information about the role of The Hudson Bay company and how it turned self-sustaining Indigenous communities into dependent workers, introduced the idea of credit, exploited them, and when the York boats were replaced, left them abandoned to die. Viable societies were made unviable in the commercialization of the fur trade. If there is a case for genocide, it is here.
Eden has made a place for herself, not just in the expanding community of Indigenous writers, but in the broader society of Canadian writers. She sets this narrative on the Kitimat Reserve and she spares no one. Her tale of Jared, the 14-year-old protagonist, is brutal but mixed with humour. As strange as some of the events in the book are, there is a sense of how uncoordinated reality is not just for Jared but all of us.
This is an historical novel set on the shores of Lake Manitoba. It is a family saga of Icelandic immigration to Canada. The narrator, Asta, the middle daughter in the Gudmundsson family, tells the story in the face of her coming death. Diversity may be our strength but many of the myriad ethnic and religious groups that came to settle Canada and bore tremendous hardships have had their stories forgotten. Emilson helps to bring this story of immigration and struggle back to life.
A celebration of the ordinary, an answer to all the people who say "I have nothing to write about." Henry Jett is in a dead-end job, has just lost his girlfriend because of his strange obsession with animal bones, has a brother who spends all his life running away, and a strange but wonderful friendship with a woman whose life has been as exotic as Henry's is dull and commonplace. From this, Phillips builds a beautiful and compelling story.
Canada—that is, you and I through our elected representatives—has long sent its military to distant places to fight in questionable wars. We've counted the cost in money, lives lost, arms lost, legs lost, but we have refused to accept that minds have been lost and, in some cases, never recovered. Only recently has there been acknowledgement that first responders whether they are military, police, or emergency personnel often pay a high psychological cost, sometimes resulting in suicide. Maybe if we did acknowledge it, we wouldn't be so quick to volunteer our people for tasks where the unseen cost is so high.
I've always admired Munro's short stories. I approach them the way I would reading Chekhov. The language is as precise as if it were made of diamonds. The moments she captures, I recognize or remember after having carelessly forgotten them. However, times have changed and while the stories are still perfect and pleasurable I cannot help but think of Terese Marie Mailhot and Heart Berries and wonder what language can contain and explain that much pain.
W.D. VALGARDSON is an Icelandic-Canadian writer. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria for thirty years, during which time he mentored many writers including W.P. Kinsella, Eden Robinson, and Richard Van Camp.He has won several awards, including the Books in Canada First Novel Award for Gentle Sinners and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for The Girl with the Botticelli Face. Born and raised in Gimli, MB, Valgardson now lives in Victoria, BC.


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Lawrence wears jumper ALEXANDER MCQUEEN at MATCHESFASHION.COM
Lawrence Okolie: Hackney's boxing world champ in waiting
Six-foot-five and 198 pounds, 28-year-old boxer Lawrence "The Sauce" Okolie is not only on the cusp of becoming Hackney's homegrown boxing champion – he's throwing his hat into the ring of rap, too.
Words: Brooke McCord
Photography: Fraser Thorne
Styling: Andrew Davis
Taken from the new print issue of THE FACE. Order your copy here.
Lawrence Okolie was no athlete growing up. The 28-year-old boxer, born and bred in Hackney, East London, where he still lives, spent his younger years cruising through life without a clear sense of direction.
"I liked playing football, but I wasn't good at it," he Zooms from his kitchen on a cold Sunday morning in January, toast in hand. "I played basketball – I was tall, but not that good. I never had the drive or discipline in those sports."
In other words, Lawrence "The Sauce" Okolie operates best alone. Weighing in at 198 pounds and standing at six-foot-five, of the 15 undefeated fights the cruiserweight has under his belt, 12 were knockouts. The same number were against previously undefeated boxers.
It's been a month since his win against then-undefeated, now-defeated Nikodem Jezewski on Anthony Joshua's undercard against Kubrat Pulev at London's SSE Arena.
The Polish cruiserweight stepped in when Okolie's original opponent, Krzysztof Głowacki, contracted Covid-19 nine days before they were set to battle for the vacant WBO World Cruiser title. Not that the delay fazed him: Okolie's experience representing Great Britain in the 2016 Rio Olympics meant he was well versed in quick preparation for a new fight.
"Sometimes you didn't know who you were fighting until that morning," he says.
Lawrence wears shirt MISSONI at MATCHESFASHION.COM and trousers DEVEAUX at MATCHESFASHION.COM
Lawrence wears robe and trousers VERSACE at MATCHESFASHION.COM
Before we chat, some basic detective work takes me to a tweet by Okolie, posted on 7th January, simply stating "72 days", with a snowflake emoji after it. It leads me to believe that his pending world title fight is rescheduled for mid-March.
"I watched The Da Vinci Code by myself the day I tweeted that," he chuckles. "I thought: let's leave some breadcrumbs for the people that really want to know. Well done on your detective skills – now I'm happy I sent that tweet." (The rescheduled bout against Głowacki is now confirmed for 20th March.)
It hasn't always been plain sailing for Okolie – growing up in East London as the oldest sibling in a first-generation Nigerian household came with its challenges. "Hackney was a lot less gentrified and the places where I moved were a lot more dangerous – gang culture, gang violence, stuff like that. Avoiding getting drawn in was difficult. I'm lucky enough to have – in my opinion – successfully done it."
Lawrence wears top and trousers BURBERRY, gloves TALENT'S OWN
He was bullied during his time at Stoke Newington Secondary School. "My African name, Ikechukwu [which means "God's Power"], opened me up to name-calling," he says. Plus he was overweight. "As well as not having that much self-confidence at the time, some of the bullying was actually physical, up to the point where the teachers knew about it."
He dealt with this until his early teens, when he started to become a little more confident, a little more self-aware. Okolie started defending himself – necessity over choice. But it was one specific fight, with a boy who was known for his "dangerous activities" out of school, which proved to be the turning point.
"He did something to me. I didn't want to fight him because I was scared of what would happen afterwards. But once those buttons get pushed… I had a fight with him and it was a big deal because of who he was. Even the teachers were worried for me," he adds.
A fellow student who saw the whole thing came to offer Okolie some advice. "He said: 'I'm sick of watching you have all these fights, bro. You said you want to lose weight – just come down to the gym, see what it's like.'"
Okolie was intrigued, despite never having watched a proper bout, let alone stood in a boxing ring. But aged 17, he set one size 14 foot in Arches Boxing Gym in Bethnal Green and never looked back. "From that first day, everyone said: 'There's something about this kid'." But it wasn't the thrill of the fight that had him hooked. It was the accountability – the sense of personal responsibility – that came with the sport.
"I remember I started training, they said do 10 pushups. I tried to sneak three. The coaches and the other boxers were like: 'Do your 10!'" he exclaims with a laugh. "In boxing, you have to fight, you have to do your pushups."
His mum was initially apprehensive about his new hobby. "No one in her family had [boxed]. She only knew about Mike Tyson biting someone's ear off!"
Okolie started secretly spending his Mars Bar money on a gym sub instead. He trained and trained: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Repeat. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Repeat. Soon enough, still only 17, he landed his first fight. He's been on a winning streak ever since.
Okolie jacked in his part-time job flipping burgers at McDonald's in Victoria Station, laced up his gloves and started making his way in the amateurs. He qualified for the Olympics in 2016 and turned professional in 2017. He won his first four fights in first-round knockouts and started fighting on fellow Olympian and friend Anthony Joshua's undercard (Joshua's 258 Management company signed him in his first year). Despite her initial apprehension, Okolie's mum has stood by his side throughout the journey: "She's my number one fan!" he confirms.
Family means everything to Okolie and he's quick to point out that his proudest moments don't come from victory in the ring. "It's the family stuff. Doing up my mum's house – pride! Going to my little sister's school to give a talk and doing the big 'that's actually my sister' reveal at the end – pride! Those are the moments that really hit home for me."
He pauses, now lying on his side in bed, pondering over the right word. "I don't want to use the word 'role model'," he says, "[but] growing up, the role models we had that were doing well were either negative – the guys with all the cars, the jewels, the money, the girls, who were doing illegal stuff to get it – or they were footballers. And when they're footballers, you can't chat to them anymore. They've moved out of the area, they're in big houses, moving with different people."
Compared to big-time footballers – and compared to many boxers, really – Okolie is keeping it real. He's more than happy to have his picture taken with fans, but he wants to stop and have a chat with them, too.
"You'll see me on TV at 10 o'clock at night winning the fight, and by 12 I'm back in the area flexing with everyone. That's super important, man, because if it's not for my immediate friends, it's for their little brothers and sisters, or a little kid I don't even know."
Okolie's dipped his toes into music, too. In December, he walked out to his own track ahead of his fight with Jezewski. He made an announcement on Twitter straight after the fight: "Big sauce – I'm dropping my ring walk song ASAP." But it's important that any music he releases puts out a positive message as well.
"As much as I respect that everyone has their own journey, in rap especially it's like: 'I used to sell drugs, or I used to be in a gang.' [But] I'm never going to talk about [gang stuff] because it's not my life. But I can talk about training, getting girls, going on holidays, all the flash things people like. The dramatisation of life. But [people] can say: 'Oh, that guy did it legit.'" Head to Okolie's Instagram and you'll hear him spit bars on a snippet of an unreleased track Letter To Mum: "You know that you're the reason I'm the man that I've become," he muses. "Definition of a Black queen, nothing can break you."
Lawrence wears robe and trousers VERSACE at MATCHESFASHION.COM
He's sent his music to some of the rappers he's met over the last few years. At first, they were, he admits, a little reluctant to play it. "They were like: 'Oh, but you're a boxer, we're used to people trying to rap and it's trash.' But when they play it, they all have the same reaction: 'Oh hold on this is… [starts nodding head] this is OK!'"
People in sport are quick to ask whether Okolie's extracurricular activities are a distraction. He's having none of it. "They're a motivation," he states. "If I want to put a book out, people are going to care more if I'm a world champion!" Equally, he's bored of people telling him he should only be a boxer. "That's what they're comfortable with. They want to put me in that box. But, you know what, I feel like being a rapper, too. You know what, I feel like being an author. You know what, let's do an interview with THE FACE and bring sexy back!" he says bursting into laughter. "Why not?"
Just before the biggest fight of his life, Okolie is ready to hit that landmark and become Hackney's homegrown world champion boxer.
"That's something that'd be forever in history. Every time someone searches my name: 'Former world champion, Lawrence Okolie.' That's a milestone that I must hit and I believe I will hit," he says emphatically. "But obviously I want multiple belts. I want to go down in history as Britain's best cruiserweight."
And after that? He's coming for the heavyweights, too.
Set Grace Becker Burnett Producer Rosanna Gouldman Photographer's assistant Marcus Jefferson Stylist's assistant Dan Richardson Special thanks to Forever Good London Cars and The Mildmay Club
Lawrence Okolie
Vol 4 Issue 006
You'll see me on TV at 10 o'clock at night winning the fight, and by 12 I'm back in the area flexing with everyone […] if it's not for my immediate friends, it's for their little brothers and sisters, or a little kid I don't even know"`).start(); } } });


This bracelet is a double wrap memory wire bracelet featuring polished iron pyrite beads and glass seed beads.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold, hence the well-known nickname of fool's gold.
This bracelet wraps around the wrist twice.
Feel free to browse the rest of my shop.


text:
Linux Documentation: What's There and What's Needed
Andy Oram
The following is condensed from a talk I gave at LinuxWorld in January 2004.
If we look at the types of documentation needed in the Linux community, it leads to a general discussion about different types of computer documentation and the learning needs of computer users.
The Linux Documentation Project
When one talks of Linux documentation, one should think first and always of the Linux Documentation Project. Linux started to congeal and take off in 1992, and it was around the same time that the LDP appeared, founded by Matt Welsh (who soon wrote Running Linux for O'Reilly). The LDP is an impressive organization that has editors, guidelines for reviewers, procedures for updating documents, translators--in short, an it's an organization that has tried to reproduce everything about conventional publishers, but in an open and volunteer manner.
The LDP is a phenomenon we should all be following as a model for documentation in an open source community. The quality of its output, as one might expect, varies widely. At the high end, a few documents outrank the information in most conventional, published books. At the low end one finds mushy, vague descriptions of no interest to anybody, sometimes written by people for whom English is not only not a first language, but not a language.
The LDP is a fine achievement, but it's fragile. One would be overly generous to say it runs on a shoestring budget. It basically has nothing but a Web site and a few tremendously dedicated and inspired volunteers who manage to keep the documentation flowing from multiple contributors. They need an infrastructure, including the kinds of legal protections for which such open source projects as Apache, GNOME, and Eclipse set up foundations. People who care about documentation should talk to the companies pouring money into Linux and get them to set aside a little bit of those funds to put the LDP on firm ground. Even though the LDP could be viewed in some sense as competition to O'Reilly, I feel they are very important.
Three audiences
Let's look now at Linux documentation as a whole. I won't treat the valuable but amorphous range of informal documentation in the form of journal articles, newsgroups, and even chat rooms; it's enough in this talk to stick to the conventional books that are understood when one uses the term documentation.
The computer field has long divided documentation into three categories based on audience--end users, system administrators, and programmers--a division that applies well to Linux.
There are some good beginner's books for end users that succeed in the sense that they make Linux seem simple. If anything, I'm afraid they oversimplify. Sometimes things on Linux just don't work right. A configuration file has the wrong default setting, or you install a program and it fails to put a menu item on your start-up menu, or conversely, an item on your start-up menu fails because some file association is incorrect. And people need help fixing these problems.
It's traditional to say that problems like these should be solved by making the software systems themselves more robust and by planning to make everything work together in advance. Just as when you buy a Macintosh, you should be able to install Linux and have everything just work. The end-user documentation should not have to deal with incongruities.
Certainly, standards for installing software and making programs interoperate correctly are valuable. But I fear the results of putting too many constraints on programs. Something of the openness of systems might be lost. In theory, one should be able to define standards that make all software work together robustly without excluding innovative developers. But in practice, I think developers on the fringe would lose out if Linux became like a Macintosh. So let's allow some flakiness around the edges and give end users documentation that help them deal with it--more on this later.
System administration documentation is the largest category in Linux, and it addresses a lot of areas well. It's gratifying to see so many books that provide background, take readers through complex processes step by step, and, most significantly, allow them to backtrack and trouble-shoot what they're doing. For instance, one regularly sees books warn users to run ps to make sure a background daemon is running before carrying out steps that assume the presence of that daemon. That's a simple example of good, belt-and-suspenders system administration, and a lot of authors know what to do.
There is much less documentation for programmers on Linux, and the books I do see on the shelves don't sell very well compared to the other kinds of Linux books. I've spent a lot of time--since it's my job to figure out where to put my company's resources--trying to figure out why people in the Linux and open source areas don't buy many books on programming, and I can merely cite a few hypotheses.
One possibility is that there just aren't many people writing programs for Linux, KDE, GNOME, etc. If that's true, it's a big problem that's going to bite Linux in the future. But it's a situation that could also change rapidly. I don't think this is necessarily true, and in any case it doesn't strike me as the major reason for poor sales of programming books.
Another hypothesis I've considered is that, after all, Linux is modeled after Unix and the desktops offer programming models similar to other toolkits used on the X Window system, so there are lots of people who have learned the basic programming techniques already. Maybe all the Linux/X programmers are old hacks who don't need new documentation. But when I look at the age of the people doing the coding, I know that can't be the explanation.
Finally it occurred to me that the lack of interest in programming books may be caused by the availability of other sources of information. If programmers can get what they need elsewhere, they won't buy many books.
And what do programmers always say is the best documentation? Source code! So that may ultimately be the explanation. When so many open source applications are out there for everyone to see--including the efforts of the best coders in the industry--programmers may be finding enough to get them going.
What the Linux field needs
So our field is doing pretty well, in terms of both formal and informal documentation. But we still could do better. I'll give a bit of history of computer documentation to show where we're still weak.
The first computer documentation was awful three-ring-binder reference listings filled with sentences such as, "The /x25 option invokes the X.25 protocol on the line." Nearly all documentation (which, I'm told, has its roots in military technical manuals) was like this from the beginnings of the computer industry until the 1980s, when nonprofessionals started to get their hands on computers. But certainly, reference documentation is still important, and some of the best-selling O'Reilly books (including Linux in a Nutshell) fall in that category.
User-friendly documentation
In the 1980s a revolt broke out among technical writers, who insisted on writing what they called user-friendly manuals. This led to sleek and glossy books with lots of little icons and and tricks of layout (facilitated by the simultaneous rise of desktop publishing) and sentences such as "To print your document, pull down the File menu and choose Print." Hmm, that sounds pretty much like the old X.25 example, doesn't it? Often, under the friendly exterior, the user-friendly documentation wasn't much better than the old stuff.
But this is being a bit unfair. The writers of user-friendly documentation tried to be task-oriented. When done properly, the documentation helped readers understand what their systems were capable of doing, and even sometimes helped them decide on their needs.
User-friendly documentation is represented today at its best in the Missing Manual series. I say not simply because they're put out by O'Reilly, but because sales figures show how wildly popular they are. Missing Manuals are often at the top of the charts, particularly the Mac OS X Missing Manual, which has kept its best-seller status for years.
Model-building documentation
During the craze to do user-friendly documentation with lines such as "To print your document, pull down the File menu and choose Print," few technical writers tried to think further or deeper about how to educate users. But another experiment was tried during the 1980s, a little-known movement called minimalist documentation.
The goal of minimalist documentation was not to convey facts--as was the goal of all computer documentation up to that time--but to help readers build the mental models that would help them solve problems they encountered by themselves. The movement was called "minimalist" because the documents were short and actually told the user as little as possible. Typically, they'd show some menu or dialog box and encourage the reader to play around with it herself. The psychologists who invented this experimental documentation (I know of no commercial examples) deliberately wanted to set users free and force them to take responsibility for themselves.
Mental models help you figure out where to go to solve a problem. They help you guess that a certain setting must be missing from a certain file, or that a certain daemon is not running, or that a certain data format is not being recognized by the recipient of the data.
It's very hard to form mental models. Readers certainly need background information, but often they are not helped by simply having information thrown at them. One must empower them to explore their systems. Metaphors and exercises--fixtures of the Head First series at O'Reilly, which are credited by many readers for helping them understand complicated subjects that other books didn't explain--are often critical. And that's where the Linux field, like many other areas of computing, can do better.
The person who doesn't want to learn
I've been asked what to do for users who just don't want to learn. Documentation is clearly of little value in this case. First of all, not everybody should have to learn their systems in depth; just like stoves or television sets, systems should provide basic functionality in intuitive ways. But people often want to learn when someone sits down with them and shows them the power of the system. One needs to induce a "Wow, I could do that" feeling.
This is a general topic for the field of education. Lots of dollars are spent trying to figure out how to teach the hard-to-teach children. And like the computer users who don't want to learn, the main hurdle to overcome with hard-to-teach children is motivation. Because of socio-economic stresses or learning disabilities or other underlying problems, these children can't take advantage of the resources teachers offer because the children don't see a reason to.
I think the arts are a major motivator for learning. Show the children exciting art and play wonderful music for them. Teach them to make their own art and music. Along the way they'll come to realize that they need mathematics to understand rhythm and harmony or perspective. They need physics to understand musical timbre and chemistry to understand how materials form artworks. They need to study history to understand what led their favorite musicians and artists to make the works they love.
So the desire to learn has to be nurtured individually in each person, but there are certain experiences that have a high likelihood of turning people into learners.
Andy Oram, andyo@oreilly.com, is an editor at O'Reilly Media. This article represents his views only.


text:
Studia Philosophica Estonica
Vol. 1.2 (2008), "Truth" (Part II), (ed.) Daniel Cohnitz /
Two-dimensional Truth
Wolfgang Spohn University of Konstanz
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12697/spe.2008.1.2.04
Keywords: truth, two-dimensional semantics, possible worlds
The paper identifies two major strands of truth theories, ontological and epistemological ones, and argues that both are of equal primacy and find their home within two-dimensional semantics. Contrary to received views, it argues further that epistemological truth theories operate on Lewisian possible worlds and ontological truth theories on Wittgensteinian possible worlds and that both are mediated by the so-called epistemic-ontic map the further specification of which is of utmost philosophical importance.
Armstrong, D.M. (1997). A World of States of Affairs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Chalmers, D.J. (2006). The foundations of two-dimensional semantics, in M.G. Carpintero and J. Macia (eds), Two-Dimensional Semantics, Clarendon Press,Oxford, pp.55-140.
Ellis, B. (1990). Truth and Objectivity, Blackwell, Oxford.
Engel, P. (2002). Truth, Acumen, Chesham.
Esfeld, M. (2001). Holism in Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Physics, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Follesdal, D. (2005). Five questions to a formal philosopher, in V.F. Hendrcks and J. Symons (eds), Formal Philosophy. Aim, Scope, Direction, Automatic Press, pp.35-51.
Frege, G. (1892). Sinn und Bedeutung, Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Philosophische Kritik 100:25-50.
Haas-Spohn, U. (1995). Versteckte Indexikalität und subjektive Bedeutung, PhD thesis, Univesity of Tübingen, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Haas-Spohn, U. and Spohn, W. (2001). Concepts are beliefs about essences, in A. Newen, U. Nortmann and R. Stuhlmann-Laeisz (eds), Building on Frege. New Essays on Sense, Content, and Concept,CSLI Publications, Stanford, pp.287-316.
Habermas, J. (1973). Wahrheitstheorien, in H.Fahrenbach (ed.), Wirklichkeit und Reflexion. Walter Schulz zum 60. Geburtstag, Neske, Pfullingen, pp.211-265.
Kant, I. (1781/87). Kritik der reinen Vernunft.
Kaplan, D. (1989). Demonstratives. An essay on the semantics, logic, metaphysics, and epistemology of demonstratives and other indexicals, in J.A. etal. (ed.), Themes from Kaplan, Oxford University Press, Oxford,pp.481-563. manuscript.
Künne, W. (2003). Conceptions of Truth, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kripke, S. A. (1972). Naming and necessity, in D. Davidson and G.Harman (eds), Semantics of Natural Language, Reidel, Dordrecht, pp.253-35 763-769.
Lewis, D. (1979). Attitudes De Dicto and De Se, Philosophical Review 88:513-543.
Lewis, D. (1980). Index, context, andcontent, in S. Kanger and S. Öhman (eds), Philosophy and Grammar, Reidel, Dordrecht, pp.79-100.
Lewis, D. (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds, Blackwell, Oxford.
Putnam, H. (1975). The meaning of 'meaning', Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, Vol.II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.215-271.
Putnam, H. (1983). Realism and Reason. Philosophical Papers, Vol. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rescher, N. (1973). The Coherence Theory of Truth, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Spohn, W. (2008). Causation, Coherence, and Concepts. A Collection of Essays, Springer, Dordrecht.
Stalnaker, R.C. (1978). Assertion, in P. Cole (ed.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol.9 of Pragmatics, Academic Press, New York, pp.315-332.
Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Spohn, W. (2008). Two-dimensional Truth. Studia Philosophica Estonica, 1(2), 194-207. https://doi.org/10.12697/spe.2008.1.2.04
Vol. 1.2 (2008), "Truth" (Part II), (ed.) Daniel Cohnitz
ISSN 2228-110X (print), 1736-5899 (online)
Published by University of Tartu Press
W. Struve 1, 50091 Tartu, Estonia
http://www.tyk.ee


A Coach Is No Better Than A Measuring Tape!
Frans Bosch made this statement at the recent UKSCA conference and whilst I'm not going to go into the detail of his rationale it essentially focused on the fact that the "body is only interested in the result" – what we say as coaches has very little impact on performance outcome. Give the body a target and it's pretty good at working out the most effective way of achieving that goal.
I think he has a point, although I would add that as a coach there are many ways to communicate so don't rush off and stop talking to your athletes!
This morning I had a real life example of what Frans was driving at. I was coaching one of my clients and we were working on the Jerk. We had some issues with foot placement and whilst I had explained several times what I wanted to see in terms of foot placement I still wasn't seeing the desired outcome. Her lead foot was still crossing her mid-line and creating an unstable finishing position.
I drew a cross on the floor (it kills me to do this as I'm a clean freak and love nothing more than a nice tidy facility….but hey…I'll live with a chalk cross on the floor!). I stood the client on the cross and explained that I just wanted her feet to split front and back. Her left foot would hit the front left quadrant and her right foot would hit the back right quadrant.
Guess what happened….she nailed her technique every time hitting the points that I wanted her to ….no more crossing over! Her improved technique resulted in a better execution of the lift. I didn't have to say a word, the cross on the floor was doing all the work for me.
This is not a new coaching strategy but it did make me reflect back on what Frans Bosch was saying during his keynote presentation at the UKSCA conference.
All of my coaching skills were actually no better than a chalk cross drawn on a lifting platform!!
Maybe Frans Bosch does know a thing or two!!!
I came here looking for images of measure tape (long story), but for some reason decided to read the article. I'm glad I did, too. Sometimes it's really not about how hard you work but how smart and efficient. In all of life, not just lifting and training. But this is especially interesting in the case of education and training people. Making a difference for the better by interacting with someone's mind in just the right way (even just your own) is really ocol.


text:
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import vtk

class vtkTransformTextureCoords(SimpleVTKClassModuleBase):
    def __init__(self, module_manager):
        SimpleVTKClassModuleBase.__init__(
            self, module_manager,
            vtk.vtkTransformTextureCoords(), 'Processing.',
            ('vtkDataSet',), ('vtkDataSet',),
            replaceDoc=True,
            inputFunctions=None, outputFunctions=None)


text:
Daniel dans la fosse aux lions fait référence à deux épisodes de la Bible relatés dans le Livre de Daniel. Selon le récit biblique, Daniel fut jeté aux lions par deux fois. La première fois par Darius II pour un jour et la deuxième fois, quelques années plus tard, par Cyrus le Jeune, pendant une semaine. Dans les deux cas, il sort de l'épreuve indemne.

Les récits bibliques

  Chapitre VI Le roi des Mèdes Darius II confie d'importantes responsabilités à son serviteur Daniel, ce qui lui attire la jalousie de ses collègues, qui cherchent en vain une faute de sa part qu'ils puissent rapporter à Darius. Ils ont l'idée de suggérer au roi de prononcer un décret interdisant pendant trente jours de prier un dieu autre que Darius lui-même, sous peine d'être jeté dans la fosse aux lions. Le roi accepte. Daniel, qui continue à prier le Dieu d'Israël, est dénoncé par ses collègues jaloux à Darius, qui n'a d'autre choix que d'appliquer son décret en le condamnant à mort.
 Le lendemain matin, après une nuit difficile, Darius se rend à la fosse aux lions où il retrouve Daniel vivant. Ce dernier lui explique que Dieu, l'ayant jugé innocent, a envoyé un ange pour fermer la mâchoire des lions. Le roi ordonne alors qu'on sorte Daniel de la fosse et qu'on y jette ses accusateurs avec femmes et enfants, qui sont promptement dévorés. Il proclame également dans tout son royaume la puissance du Dieu de Daniel et enjoint à ses sujets de lui vouer crainte et respect.

 Chapitre XIV Le second épisode (apocryphe dans le canon juif et protestant) a eu lieu quelques années plus tard, sous le règne de Cyrus le Jeune. Il raconte la délivrance miraculeuse de Daniel, jeté dans la fosse aux lions pour avoir tué le dragon vénéré par les Babyloniens.

 Les Babyloniens vénéraient Bēl et aussi un grand dragon. Cyrus demandait à Daniel d'adorer ce dernier, ce que, bien évidemment, Daniel refusait de faire. À son tour, pour montrer que le dragon n'était pas un dieu, Daniel affirma qu'il pouvait tuer le dragon sans épée, ni bâton. Cyrus lui accorda le droit de tenter. Daniel fabriqua des boules empoisonnées, que le dragon mangea et dont il mourut. Les prêtres de Bēl se retournèrent contre Cyrus et menacèrent de le déposer s'il ne leur livrait pas Daniel. Cyrus cède et les prêtres jettent Daniel dans la fosse où se trouvaient sept lions affamés. Daniel reste six jours dans la fosse.
 Le petit prophète Habacuc se trouvait en Judée ; il avait fait cuire un repas et il partait pour le donner aux moissonneurs. Or, l'ange du Seigneur le saisit par les cheveux du sommet du crane et le transporta à Babylone, au-dessus de la fosse aux lions. Habacuc donna à manger à Daniel.
 Le septième jour, Cyrus vint pleurer Daniel, et le trouva bien vivant ! Cyrus loua le Dieu de Daniel et les prêtres de Bēl furent jetés dans la fosse et dévorés aussitôt.

Ces deux récits sont destinés à ridiculiser l'idolâtrie et à montrer que ceux qui adorent le vrai Dieu recevront nourriture et protection pendant les périodes de difficulté.

L'iconographie
.

Aujourd'hui, Daniel est considéré par les exégètes comme une figure légendaire. Mais durant l'antiquité, toutes confessions confondues, la simple évocation de Daniel avait valeur prophylactique. On dessinait son image sur toutes sortes d'objets (boucles de ceinturon, seaux, poteries ). Sa tombe (supposée), située à Suse, fut toujours l'objet d'un pèlerinage. Une autre tombe supposée se trouve à Samarcande.

« Daniel aux lions » constitua un stéréotype majeur de l'imagerie chrétienne à partir de l'an mil jusqu'au . Essentiellement des manuscrits et mosaïques pour les églises orientales et des sculptures pour les églises romanes en Occident.

L'iconographie romane

Dans les églises romanes on trouve des milliers de représentations de Daniel dans la fosse aux lions, sculptées sur les chapiteaux. Selon les dispositions, c'est soit la forme réduite du premier récit, soit la forme historiée du deuxième récit, avec Habacuc apportant à manger, transporté par un ange. Il arrive, parfois, que les deux représentions se trouvent dans la même église. Par exemple : Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay ; l'Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac ; église Saint-Martin de Landiras

Malgré une historicité discutable, qui l'a fait rejeter du canon juif, le personnage de Daniel incarne au plus haut degré la justification de l'homme pieux par la prière, il est le juste et l'innocent, l'élu de Dieu, le paradigme de la piété absolue.

Le vrai Daniel

Daniel est presque toujours figuré de face en majesté. Il est montré impassible, absorbé par ses prières, en état d'ataraxie. Il est toujours habillé avec un vêtement convenable, sans indigence, ni outrance. La tête, qui est parfois nimbée, peut recevoir une toque, mais jamais le bonnet mithraïque du premier art chrétien oriental.

Les seuls gestes de Daniel étaient ceux de la prière. La posture la plus courante fut celle de l'« orant » étendant les bras, paumes ouvertes, avec les avant-bras verticaux ou obliques, ou horizontaux, comme pour simuler la Croix. La représentation d'un Daniel aux mains jointes sur la poitrine était une variante très minoritaire.

Parfois, Daniel se trouve à l'intérieur d'une mandorle, dans la position d'un orant. Autour de lui sont représentés les lions féroces, mais maintenus à distance par la puissance divine. Un bel exemple se trouve sur un chapiteau du portail de l'église Saint-Porchaire de Poitiers.

[[Fichier:Daniel Arles.jpg|thumb|left|Daniel dans la fosse aux lions, St-Trophime, Arles.]]

L'homme Daniel étant sujet à la fatigue, on cessa graduellement de le représenter debout, surtout pour le séjour de sept jours dans la fosse. L'imagier roman, qui avait une prédilection pour les détails, ne tarda pas à introduire un Daniel assis, un scabellum pour soulager les pieds (La Sauve), ou bien il lui fait poser le menton dans le creux d'une main (Arles).

Dans un deuxième type de représentation, Daniel ne prie plus ; il bénit. C'est un glissement vers le Nouveau Testament. On trouve des sculptures où Daniel tient le Livre de la main gauche contre son cœur et bénit l'observateur de la main droite.

 Le Daniel dogmatique : Délaissant la prière pour l'action, Daniel s'adresse au public avec l'autorité d'un Christ Pantocrator'' auquel il emprunte traits et gestes. Il serre contre son cœur le Livre, qui se confond avec les Évangiles, et sa dextre impérieuse s'élève seule, parfois même avec deux doigts reliés, à l'instar du modèle christique. Les lions se détournent de la mandorle. C'est une métamorphose absolue, pour le prophète bafoué et humilié, en un quadragénaire au regard dur, revêtu de brocard, qui trône au milieu d'une mandorle cantonnée de quatre lions, au lieu des quatre symboles de la Tétramorphe. C'est une fusion des deux Testaments et Daniel préfigure alors Jésus-Christ. Un bel exemple se trouve à l'église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Saujon.

 Le Daniel qui bénit : Le prophète juif et homme très pieux a été transformé en saint chrétien qui porte l'Évangile.

 Les lions : Le nombre de lions varie entre deux et sept et leur forme est rarement naturaliste. Sans doute peu de sculpteurs ont-ils eu l'occasion d'en voir. L'Antiquité aimait à les montrer prosternés, léchant le sol ou bien les pieds du prophète et, lorsque nous retrouvons ce schéma au , nous pouvons le considérer comme un archaïsme. Habituellement les lions sont disposés de façon naturelle, en mode affronté ou adossé-détourné. Dans leur majorité les bêtes ont la queue rentrée remontant entre les cuisses et souvent terminée fleurdelisée.
 L'aspect le plus notable de cette mise en scène est l'absence de violence et de bruit ; des lions pétrifiés autour d'un homme en prière.

Le faux Daniel

Une sculpture romane représentant un homme encadré par des lions n'est pas obligatoirement « Daniel dans la fosse aux lions ».

On trouve de nombreux chapiteaux, comme celui de l'Abbaye de La Sauve-Majeure, où un homme dans une position plutôt acrobatique est dévoré par des monstres. Évidemment la représentation n'a rien à voir avec Daniel.

Par contre, il existe beaucoup de chapiteaux qui sont des parodies de « Daniel dans la fosse aux lions ». On y voit un homme, soit nu, soit habillé richement, entre deux lions ; les pieds posés, parfois enfoncés, sur leurs flancs : les mains plongées dans leurs gueules. Ces personnages sont le contraire de Daniel, homme pieux qui aspire à un état d'ataraxie. Ces hommes cherchent à faire le lien avec l'animalité en étant au contact avec les lions, qui sont des êtres démoniaques ; on trouve parfois des signes de luxure, lorsque ces hommes sont nus et ithyphalliques ; d'orgueil ou de vanité quand ils sont « trop bien habillés ».

Souvent on trouve dans la même église un « vrai Daniel » et un « faux Daniel ». On peut considérer ces sculptures, sans référence historique, comme des sortes de contre-exemples à ne pas suivre, des mises en garde pour le clergé.

Daniel dans les arts et la littérature

Notes et références

Annexes

Liens internes

Liens externes
 Was there a lions' den ?

Récit de la Bible hébraïque
Lion dans la culture
Livre de Daniel


Winking is one naughty expression to show your playful nature! Now tell me what do you think of eye tattoos. Check out the naughty eyes tats adorned undeniably by a humorously mischievous chap. What makes me say this is the choice of place of getting the inked that too winking eye tat. Seriously funny this tat is sure to make y'all smile for a while.
Hey, i m not saying that.. these are the words of the girl in the pic below who has tattooed letters "All Eyes on Me" on the chest and just below almost on the start of her breasts has got eyes themed..
Having eyes on the back of the head is a a famous phrase implied to those persons who know everything whats happening around them…but its not necessary always. And the perfect example for this is the man below.