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Bones Of Time
January 12, 2022 January 13, 2022 / Mark W. Tiedemann / 1 Comment
What are we talking about when we talk about science fiction? A genre defined by its trappings, its tropes? Or a mode of exploration of a kind of telec reification that only came into being with the advent of what we now recognize as science? A form of Gothic? An inversion of the historical drama? A subset of fantasy?
Or all of the above?
When encountering a writer like Jack Vance, it may be understandable that definitions (or at least taxonomies) fail to clarify how this can be the same as work by Gregory Benford. Aside from certain obvious aesthetic differences, there is the problem of, for want of a better term, scientific verisimilitude.
At a certain point, in conversation with anyone who does not "get" science fiction, it comes down to an ineffable quality that, while sharing much with all other forms of fiction, sets the experience apart, both aesthetically and culturally, and the only answer to the question "What is it about this stuff that appeals to you so much?" is: it lights up the imagination like nothing else.
("I like it." Why? "Why do you like Regency Romance? Or Gothics? Or murder mysteries? Something about them appeals and opens you up to an emotional and aesthetic experience you find no where else.")
Before I continue I want to state that this is about Gregory Benford, not Jack Vance, whose work I mention as an example of the range to be found within the expanding pond called Science Fiction. It is about his new novel, Shadows Of Eternity.
This novel gave me an experience I have not had in some time, or at least only in some dilute form, embedded within texts that privileged other aspects of the fictive practice, that I almost forgot about it, namely the pleasure of didactic prose in service to the larger qualities of a science fiction novel. Shadows Of Eternity is done in the form we know as Hard SF, which only means that considerable attention is paid in the text to the presumed scientific justifications for the actions. In that, it is exemplary.
I say "presumed scientific justifications" because for the most part their accuracy is secondary for most readers, and many examples over the decades have proven unreliable in that. This is a novel, not a textbook, and the primary concern is to convince the reader in the moment that what is happening conforms, or can conform, to legitimate scientific understanding. "Getting it right" is edifying, both for the reader and, in a different way, the writer. Acknowledging that accuracy to a certain number of decimal points is less important than the Idea of accuracy is like saying that a reader of a novel set in the reign of Henry II does not, in the end, care if every single historical detail is correct as long as it feels correct and cannot be contradicted by a cursory glance at a history of the period.
That said, getting it right is a point of pride and, possibly, an ethical requirement, depending on the kind of story being told.
This gets tricky when writing about the far future and exotic physics and technological developments that might come about. We are talking about speculation, after all, which is one of the principle pleasures of science fiction. In practice, the might-be of a given story must be consistent with the have beens and probably ares of the currently known.
What does this have to do with storytelling?
Well, if you go down that road—Hard SF—then, just as in any other genre, it is incumbent on the writer to include material that produces a satisfying sense of realism in which the characters move. Only in this case, that material is of a bit more rarefied nature, namely the science behind the world being examined.
One of the criticisms of SF in this has been that the story often seems to grind to a halt while some bit of arcane scientific exposition takes place. This kind of thing bores a certain kind of reader. So be it. But why should this demote the work on the scale of worthy literary practice? (One of the earliest franchise efforts in the James Bond cosmos post-Fleming spent, in my opinion, an inordinate amount of time on Bond's sartorial choices, as well as minutiae of cars, food, and other fashion bits. I could not have cared less, but I acknowledge that there were and are readers for whom this was a distinct pleasure. Trivial, you say? Then in the case of historical novels in which paragraphs are deployed in describing family lineages, treaties, court etiquette, or the mechanics of travel. But all that bears on the story? Of course it does.) It seems not to occur to critics and certain readers that these expository bits are among the reasons for the readers to pick this author and not that. One should judge how well it is done, not whether it is there.
Which is a long-winded way of saying that, in science fiction, the World is as much a character as any motile actor.
(Which of course is why it is legitimate to explicitly link science fiction to Gothic.)
Literary tastes in recent decades have caused many writers to bury their didacticism more and more. The underpinnings intrude less and less, often resulting in a cinematic effect. (I note that some writers still deliver the fascinating expository bits, but rendered cleverly so that they can be ignored. I'm talking here now of work in which ignoring those passages is anathema to the author's intent.) Partly, this can be gotten away with because of the last seventy years of science fiction film and television, which for large audience provides the visual shorthand for what is happening in a novel. Partly, also, this is possible because of the explicitly didactic work done in novels and short stories over and beyond the same period, so a basic "grammar" is now in place. And partly because a lot of work simply does not rely on that level of foundational support—the stories are not about the changes in the world but about the same old sturm und drang one could find in just about every other genre.
Benford's new novel is, in some ways, an echo of SF from long ago. Reading it, I felt a cozy sense of nostalgia produced by the form and the tactics used. I found myself pleasantly remembering Clarke, Clement, Gunn, as well as Pohl, Chad Oliver, and even Simak. This is a mode of SF that seems of late to be disappearing, the dialectic. For decades, especially in the magazines, writers spoke to each other through stories, one responding to another and creating a chain reaction of alternative "takes" on ideas. This formed a dense fabric of historical conceptualizing. (Hence Heinlein's Starship Troopers was "answered" by Joe Haldeman's Forever War, which spark John Steakly's Armor as well as Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and so on. True, this happens in other genres, but it is not nearly so clear or connected.)
Shadows Of Eternity is part of this. Benford took a page (or more) from Poul Anderson by using Anderson's flying aliens, the Ythri. (He borrowed a couple of other concepts from Anderson as well, one notion going all the way back to Anderson's very early novel Brain Wave.) Yes, this is a form of homage, but it is more as well. Benford's Ythri are his own. What Anderson created, Benford built on and made richer.
The core of the novel, though, is an examination of time. Deep time. (Benford wrote a nonfiction study of this subject.) The fact that the universe is old, so vastly old that when we begin peering into the abysses we will risk being swallowed up in the antiquity of it. Rachel arrives on the moon to join the staff of the Library, which is what has evolved from the early SETI attempts. The signals from old civilizations have been discovered and it is the task of the Library to curate and somehow translate them. Some of these signals turned out to be entire AI templates, and the Library now houses Minds.
Though technically qualified, Rachel understands that this will not set her apart. She must demonstrate qualities that she is unsure she possesses. But she blusters her way through, becomes a Trainee, and begins delving into these Minds.
As the novel proceeds, Rachel grows into someone she never expected to become. Confidence accrues, a taste for the edge emerges, and Rachel develops into—
She comes into her own with the arrival of visiting aliens—the Ythri—and becomes, often in spite of herself, the primary liaison with them. The Ythri have come through a wormhole and want to find their way back.
Benford sets before us puzzles and takes us through solutions and along the way does something the best science fiction has always sought to do—opens the vistas of what may be Out There for us and gives us a glimpse of the possibilities.
And those expository bits, filled with the how-to and what-is-it and where-did-this-come-from that science offers? Those set the stage for a conceptual apprehension that renders the view coherent enough for us to feel the awe of understanding what we're looking at. This is what was meant by "Gosh, wow!" and Sense of Wonder.
The other thing to notice is not what is there, but what is not there—Bad Guys. There's no war, no evil overlords, none of that. There are irritating people, foolish people, annoying situations, and a great deal of genuinely unnerving discoveries, but this is a world that presents as recognizable. The conflicts are, in some ways, quite ordinary, but set as they are in this interesting future, the ordinariness only becomes part of the puzzles that challenge Rachel.
Finally, Benford writes well. His descriptions can fascinate. The universe he sees, in reality and in his imagination, is vibrant and wonderfilled. This is science fiction for the explorer lurking inside us.
Dextrous Brilliance
March 20, 2016 March 21, 2016 / Mark W. Tiedemann / 1 Comment
Most of us doubtless have gaps in our reading histories. Books we ought to have read simply because. Long delayed for a variety of reasons, sometimes forgotten, and occasionally remembered in awkward conversations including a surprised "What do you mean, you haven't read that?" Shuffle of mental feet, chagrin, a shrug. Never got around to it.
I have finally gotten around to The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
There is a danger in so late an experience. One cannot escape, depending on one's circles, commentary, opinion, even spoilers. Over time a book like this acquires the stature and dimension of the impossibly fine. I remember finally, after hearing about it for over a decade, seeing Citizen Kane. The hype perhaps poisoned the experience. As fine a piece of film making as I can admit it to be, I have yet to watch it without falling asleep. So it is with some trepidation that I approach works long missed and oft told about.
Occasionally one finds the hype lacking. No one ever managed to convey to me just how good this book is. The Left Hand of Darkness, had Le Guin written nothing else afterward—and she did, oh, yes, she did!—would have fixed her importance and justified her reputation. I have rarely had so many moments of having to step back from the page in order to absorb and appreciate what I had just read.
It is a durable, ubiquitous, specious metaphor, that one about veneer (or paint, or pliofilm, or whatever) hiding the nobler reality beneath. It can conceal a dozen fallacies at once. One of the most dangerous is the implication that civilization, being artificial, is unnatural: that it is the opposite of primitiveness…Of course there is no veneer, the process is one of growth, and primitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.
How apt, I thought, reflecting on our present social and political climate, of the layered and interminable arguments over culture and religion and rightness. (It is, perhaps, the most obvious metaphor that she places the light on the left.)
Le Guin manages to sum intent and meaning and value and hand us back an open-ended equation. The story is that of an envoy from an interstellar association, Le Guin's Ekumen, to a long isolated former colony of humans, Gethen, also known as Winter. The isolation has been so long that space travel is forgotten and evolution (or perhaps an intentional genetic experiment) has created a different biology for these humans—they are neither male nor female, and yet are both, sex emerging only during kemmer, then sublimating after. One person can be father and mother to several children. As a consequence, their sense of identity is not sex-linked.
Yet they are human. Into this, Genly Ai, what we would see as a "normal" man, must navigate, learn, and offer and, hopefully, facilitate admission to and alliance with the Ekumen. Among people who find it nearly impossible to believe that he is what he claims. Of course, there is the ship in which he arrived and, more, his evident biological distinction.
As he lives among the people of one of the larger nation-states (which itself is a less concrete concept on Winter than we might be used to) he is taken in hand by the prime minister of Karhide, Lord Estraven. The soul of the novel is their relationship, which swaps ends throughout, from trust and distrust, alliance, treason, and finally friendship. Their relationship is the personal, visceral manifestation of the multi-layered metaphor for civilization Le Guin offers throughout.
There is politicking, intrigue, danger. There is marvel and revelation and epiphany. It is a complete experience (although, in terms of fiction and drama, there is no sex, even as it is a topic much present as a kind of harmonic overtone, and this is curiously satisfying) and is one of the single best examples of why science fiction is absolutely capable of being Literary. I do not wish to detail the plot. Here, plot serves to prepare us for the Key Moment, the sudden understanding, the revelatory nexus. Le Guin is giving us a lesson in perception and preconception.
This is something science fiction can do extremely well, especially in the hands of a master, the Conceptual Turn. We believe we see one thing when, it transpires, we did not see it clearly if at all until the mirror falls and we gaze upon a clarifying distortion. Here, is a question of dialogue. But it is further a question of where we stand when dialogue begins. An further still, a question of whether we will turn to the light or to the dark when we choose where to stand. And so on. Genly Ai and Lord Estraven learn how to talk to each other throughout the book and while it might seem this is not very exciting stuff, it is riveting because we recognize them even as they swap places and the familiar becomes the alien, and finally the alien becomes ourself. This is a novel that reads us as we read it.
I am glad for all those times I failed to pick this book up. I do not believe I had the wit to see it. I may not now, but I do have the wit to understand that there is much here I do not yet understand, and the confidence to be content with that, because I know it will be there to find when I am ready. At the end, we see—hopefully—that we are all strangers to each other and the value we offer is in the learning. That the precise degree with which we fear the alien is equal to the degree of ignorance we indulge about ourselves.
January 2, 2016 January 2, 2016 / Mark W. Tiedemann / Leave a comment
2015 is done and I have read what I read. It was a year fraught with turmoil in science fiction, a year prompting reassessments, a year when required reading competed with reading for pleasure, and the time constraints of working on a new novel (two, in fact) impeded chipping away at my to-be-read pile, which mounds higher.
As in the past, I count only books I have read cover to cover here. If I added in total pages of unfinished reading, I'm probably up with my usual volume (somewhere around 90 books), but that would be a cheat. That said, I read 50 books in 2015.
One thing I concluded, both from what I read and the upheaval in the background about what is or is not worthy science fiction, is that the decades long pseudowar between mainstream and genre is over. Skirmishes will continue to be fought here and there, certain elements will refuse to yield or concede, but by and large the evidence suggests that, on the part of the literary writers at least SF has made its point. A couple of examples:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is science fiction. In fact, after talking it over for nearly a year since I read it, it seems to me to be Heinleinesque. Better written, the characters less exemplars than real people, but in basic conceit and plot, this is a Heinlein novel. It has all the elements—survivors, a plucky heroine, a global catastrophe forcing those who remain to learn quickly a whole suite of new skills, and an ongoing discussion throughout about what is of value and ought to be preserved. It is a superbly written work and that alone made the identification difficult. Heinlein, at his best, could be as good as anyone in any genre, but to see the form raised to this level shows both his virtues and his weaknesses. The population of the Earth is reduced buy a superflu. The novel flashes back and forth around the life of a kind of patriarch whose biological and artistic progeny struggle in a post-technological world to both survive and preserve the best of that former world. The novel prompts questions, challenges preconceptions, and draws us in. It was not marketed as science fiction and it has continued to sell very well. It is science fiction and no one has batted an eye.
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. An ecological thriller, an examination of a different kind of breakdown, a different kind of survival, peopled by characters as real as can be. In a decade this will be historical fiction, probably, but it is SF and also mainstream and also uncategorizable. Exceptional.
Straddling the boundary is Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation, which is a curiosity. It proceeds like a straightforward "survey mission" novel—specialists set down upon an alien world and struggling to unravel its mysteries before said world kills them. Only in this case the "alien" world in a patch of reclaimed wilderness somewhere along the eastern seaboard, probably north Florida, that is undergoing some strange transformations due to an experiment gone wrong. There are touches of zombie fiction, government conspiracy, and even Lovecraftian uber-malignancy evoked, but the story, as told by The Biologist, feels more meta than any of those suggest. the landscape works to inform the soul-wrenching recognitions and evolutions within the Biologist as she works to understand what is going on in the aptly named Area X. Vandermeer has created a work bordering on genius here by virtue of externalizing and foregrounding mystical revelation as ecological transmutation, but as you read you can't tease the meta passages from the plot in any clear way, so the experience, when you give yourself over to it, is wholly immersive.
So what I'm seeing—in many more titles still on my TBR pile—is the embrace of science fiction by what was formerly an ambivalent cadre of artists who are using it to ends traditionally ignored by main-body SF.
In the other direction, the infusion of literary concerns, which necessarily drag real-world issues in with them, into genre writing has prompted a squeal of protest from those who wish to keep their starships pure, their aliens obvious, and their weapons decisive. "Good writing" is still a poorly understood quality by too many in the genres (by no means a problem exclusive to SF, but because of the nature of SF a problem which yields far more obvious failures) and the clinging to an aesthetic attributed to the so-called Golden Age and exemplified by writers probably more often revered than actually read (and therefore misperceived in intent) has exacerbated the old antagonisms and a final flaring up of fires dying to ash. The clunky sentence is a hallmark of much of this, more likely as consequence rather than intent, and the cliched scenario becomes more obviously so as the whole point of what we mean by "literary" in its most useful mode is overlooked or, perhaps, willfully ignored in a fit of defensive refusal to pay attention to what matters, namely the truth of human experience and the profitable examination of, for want of a better word, the Soul.
Where the cross-fertilization of mainstream and genre has been successfully accomplished, we've been seeing novels and stories of marvelous effect. We have been seeing them all along and in the past such examples were readily offered as proof that SF wass "just as good" as anything published as mainstream. I've always felt that being "just ad good" was selling our potential short, but the work has to rise to the challenge, and there always have been such works.
Among such that I read this past year were a few from that rich past, mainly for the reading group I host at work. The Two of Them by Joanna Russ; Extra(Ordinary) People, also by Russ; The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis; Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock; The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell; and Engine Summer by John Crowley. In retrospect, there have always been writers writing in the full embrace of science fiction but without any of the stylistic constraints of its pulp origins, and such works remain trenchant and readable and offer surprising commentary still on current questions.
The Sparrow was a highlight. I have known since its publicatin that it was sort of a riff on James Blish's classic, A Case Of Conscience, but it so much more. Russell's elegant reversal of the moral question elevates this novel to the top tiers of useful literary works. I have not yet read its sequel, but I am looking forward to it after this treat.
I also reread Harlan Ellison's Shatterday for the reading group. It's been a good long while since I did so and I was not disappopinted, although I read many of the stories through a more cynical eye. The opening tale, Jeffty Is Five, remains, for me, one of the most gutwrenching short stories of all time.
Another highpoint this past year was James Morrow's new novel, Galapagos Regained, a neatly unclassifiable work of speculative history. I gave it a lengthy review here and recommend a look. This is a superbly done work that deserves more attention than it has received.
I also read Morrow's amusing novella, The Madonna and the Starship, which runs a delightful gamne via Fifties television and alien visitors who come to bestow an award and offer assistance in exterminating the irrational on Earth. Morrow is acerbic even as he is funny.
Among the most interesting new works of science fiction I red this year is The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translation by Ken Liu. This is the first part of a trilogy about alien invasion and resistance as written from a Chinese perspective. It is an exceptional translation. It won the Hugo Award, the first, I believe, translation to do so, and certainly the first Asian novel to win. There is high-end physics, nasty politics, murder, and the conundrums of committed action. The cultural quirks made it even more interesting.
Like almost everyone, it seems, I read The Martian by Andrew Weir. This was great fun and well executed. My quibble, along with many others, was with the opening gambit to explain the marooning of the astronaut, but I'm content to see it as a mere dramatic choice. It didn't preent me from enjoying the rest of the book, which, in the words of the screen adaptation, "scienced the shit out all this" and did so in an accessible and entertaining manner which I applaud. I couldn't help seeing it as a newer version of an older film, Robinson Crusoe On Mars, and naturally this one works a bit better. Hell, we know more, there's no excuse for bad science, and Mr. Weir that. He wrote a realistic piece of speculation and followed through admirably.
Another novel that gave a far more "realistic" view of an old, favorite SF trope, is Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. There is much to love about this book, but it is not lovable. It's a clear-eyed look at what an interstellar generation ship would actually be like. And it is bleak, in terms of the traditions of SF. Suffice it to say without giving away too much that Robinson fully incorporates entropy into his formula with predictably gloomy results, but for all that it is a thoroughly engaging work.
At the other end of the "hard" SF spectrum is Charles Gannon's Fire With Fire. Future interstellar expansion brings humanity into contact with our neighbors. The resulting tensions drive the novel. I reviewed it here.
Science fiction is a broad, broad field and has room for a magnificently wide range even on the same subjects. It even has room, as I noted above, for exceptional style. One of the most enjoyable reads for me, on that note, was Ian McDonald's new novel, Luna. There will be comparisons made to Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Look for an upcoming review where I will argue that the comparison, while in some ways valid, is superficial. Anyone who has not read McDonald, treat yourself. This would be a good one with which to begin.
In a completely different area of the playground, there is Daryl Gregory's AfterParty, which I found excellent. It's about drug abuse and the workings of delusion and murder. Anything I might say here would spoil it. Go. Find it. Imbibe.
The bulk of my reading, after that and a few other titles, has been scattered. I found a brand new history of the Group f64, which was the first dedicated group of photographers to push the pure art of the straight photograph. Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, several others, in the 20s and 30s established the ground upon which all photography came to be viewed for the rest of the 20th century and even, arguably, into today. Mary Street Alinder, who has previously written a biography of Ansel Adams, did a superb job chronicling this group of prickly independent artist.
I read a history of a superhero, Wonder Woman, and discovered that the story of her creation was even stranger than the character herself.
A new work by journalist Johann Hari, Chasing The Scream, opened my eyes to the thorny issue of the Drug War.
In the wake of seeing the film Interstellar and beginning work on my own novel about (partly) interstellar travel, I dove into Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps and had my mind bent in some ways I didn't think it could be bent. This has prompted a reengagement with science on this level which is proving difficult, tedious, and yet rewarding. My mind no longer has the plasticity it once enjoyed. On the other hand, experience has proven a benefit in that I seem to be absorbing and comprehending at a much deeper level. We shall see.
Quite a bit of history, much of it unfinished. In a separate reading group, I'm going through Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, and reading in the history of the French Revolution, the Republic, its fall, all partly to complete the third novel of my trilogy, but also because the literature available is so rich and surprising that it has become its own pleasure. It would seem now I'm about to embark on early American history again, anchored by Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.
There was a new Mary Russell novel this past year, Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King. I discovered a Dan Simmons novel about Holmes which I'd overlooked when it came out, The Fifth Heart, in which he is paired with Henry James, one more in a long line of novels and stories concerning Holmes' unlikely interaction with historical figures. Simmons is a terrific writer, but even he tended toward the tedious in this one. He needs to learn to leave his research in his files. But it was a unique take on Holmes and he even managed to elicit my sympathy toward James, a writer I find problematic at best, insufferable at worst, and annoying the rest of the time.
So much for the highlights. Let me end by noting that the Best American series has finally realized that science fiction and fantasy are a real thing and launched one of their annual collections to cover it. This after both Best Of infographics and comics. Better late than never, I suppose. The series editor is John Joseph Adams—difficult to imagine better hands—and this first volume was edited by Joe Hill, which I found interesting to say the least. Mr. Hill is a horror writer. Certainly many of the stories have a strong horror element, but over all this is a collection full of marvels, from the writing to the ideas. I'll try to keep track of this one in future.
So while not numerically great, 2015 was filled with many very excellent books. I'm looking forward to 2016. My stack awaits.
Moral Crisis and The Reality of God: Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow
August 22, 2015 August 22, 2015 / Mark W. Tiedemann / Leave a comment
Sometimes it is very much worth the wait before reading certain books. Too early an exposure and the substance could be misapprehended, misinterpreted, misconstrued, or simply missed. Such, I feel, is the case with Mary Doria Russell's superb The Sparrow, which came out in 1996. I bought a copy shortly after it appeared in paperback and it has remained, unread, on my shelf since. Until this month. Why?
I don't know, really. I started it a few times and something in the opening pages either left me unengaged or daunted. Whatever the reason, it waited till this year, and perhaps that was as it should be.
I knew enough about the novel to tell people that it is a natural successor to James Blish's excellent novella, A Case of Conscience, which has many of the same elements. A Jesuit as member of a first contact mission to an alien world and the moral conundrum arising from certain inevitable questions. Interestingly, I find that both novels hinge on an evolutionary question going directly to matters of fundamental morality. Blish suggested powerfully that our entire conception of god and its concomitant moral structures may be simply a consequence of how we evolved. That the sociology resulting from our biology allowed for certain cross-generational assumptions which a different biological system simply wouldn't produce.
Russell's concept is less pat than Blish, since in many respects the biology involved is similar enough to ours to muddy those particular waters. She adds another component to the mix, though, that results in a basic difference of moral priority. In fact, in the end there's a question of whether or not morality is relevant at all, overwhelmed by opportunity and expedience.
What we have in The Sparrow is deliciously layered examination of cultural assumptions that continues to play even after the book is finished and the afterimages begin cycling through our minds. She set a series of logical land mines throughout that set each other off with the inevitability of a Socratic dialogue.
Father Emilio Sandoz, Jesuit and linguist, a child of the slums who has through a series of fortunate accidents become more than his beginnings would ever have suggested possible, is on hand when the first evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered at the large radio array of Arecibo. After analysis, the signals resolve into music. Odd, alien music that is nevertheless compelling, a siren's call to erstwhile explorers. There is no question upon hearing this music for Sandoz. We must go.
The mechanism by which they travel to Alpha Centauri is grounded in solid extrapolation of how space technologies may proliferate in the near future. Asteroid mining is a going activity and it is a matter mainly of financing to turn an abandoned asteroid into a starship. The Catholic Church, through the offices of the Jesuits, opts to send a mission. They ask no one's permission, in fact pretty much tell no one that they're going. The U.N. is debating sending a mission and later they do, but this one—the Stella Maris—is the first.
I don't wish to spoil the plot, which, even without the substantial subtext would be a page-turner. The careful revelation of detail through which Russell presents her thesis is important to its impact, and that subtext is the whole purpose. Suffice it to say that the mission fails. Emilio Sandoz returns to Earth, a broken man, the only survivor of the party of eight.
When I say "a broken man" I mean in every sense of the phrase. His hands are a wreck, he has numerous physical problems, including scurvy, and his mind is all but gone from the trauma of the mission itself and its costs and from the fact that he was forced to make the return voyage all alone, a long journey through a deeper dark night of the soul than one might ordinarily encounter. Upon return, he is to be brought before an inquest, established by his own order, to find out the facts of the mission and determine their meaning.
Sandoz doesn't want to cooperate. He doesn't want to relive the events that ended in such failure nor does he want to infect anyone else with the knowledge that has caused him to renounce his faith.
Though not exactly. This is one of the interesting aspects of the layered game Russell plays throughout. It's an open question, even at the end, whether Sandoz has in fact lost his faith. He seems to wish it, certainly, angry and bitter he is at a god by which he feels betrayed. But Sandoz is a brilliant man. He exemplifies what has become axiomatic about Jesuits and maintains his faith by dint of reason supported by a passionate belief in justice. No simple "believer" and having emerged from a hellish childhood to become one of the best linguists not only in his order but anywhere, it takes enormous challenge for him to question his commitment to a god which more facile minds would characterize as bizarrely cruel. Even at the close of the novel he is wrestling with the nature of god.
At the center of the novel is a particular formulation of the question of evil which goes to what might be termed beneficial expedience. The alien race to which he goes as linguist and missionary lives in apparent harmony with itself and its environment. A complex harmony, mirrored in the songs that are the first knowledge humankind receives of them. There is much about them that is admirable but also puzzling—until they realize that what they at first thought to be a single species is in fact two intelligent species and their evolved cohabitation of their world requires of them certain accommodations that for humans would be odious.
There is the question of judgment—not our world, not even our evolutionary history, how are we to judge? But any concept of a god as source of moral law must necessarily exhibit certain basic consistencies, regardless. There is the question of expedience—if something works not only for the individual but for the planet as a whole, again, who are we to question?
But finally, Sandoz comes face to face with the human example as baseline for any kind of moral assessment and asks: "What do we have to show as in any way superior, when the condition of our species is questionable at best?"
Russell sets a serious moral trap in this novel, leading us step by step to the point where we must look at our own condition and ask how our own apprehension of moral law plays out. Does it enforce any kind of justice? Does it bring us into harmony among ourselves and our environment? Does the dogma by which our moral adjutants dispense advice and guidance actually serve the function for which it is claimed?
Like a good Jesuit, Sandoz is still asking these questions at the end of his ordeal, and a terrible ordeal it is. On a certain level, he is brought to the condition of all colonized and oppressed peoples and made to know what it is like to have everything he believes and assumes overwritten by a more powerful circumstance. By the end he has suffered every indignity. Every single one that arises from basic injustice.
And yet the system which puts him through this is not by its own metrics oppressive—merely an embellished example of evolutionary imperative. By comparison, Sandoz wonders if the horrors of our own condition are not the results of a fundamental rejection of evolutionary imperatives, the imposition of a wholly artificial system presumed to be based on moral assessment but really little more than a gloss on power relations having little to do with anything "natural."
In turn, one can then ask the same thing about the aliens and their relationships. If, which seems to be one of the unspoken assumptions by which Sandoz operates as a moral agent, sapience is the deciding factor in applying standards of justice and equity, then how can the two species on Rakhat maintain the self-evidently immoral system they do? By the same token, if equality is of such value to us as a basis for our moral decisions, how then can we maintain the cultural systems we do?
There is, Socratically, a dialogue at play throughout the novel, and a rigorous one at that. Each of the eight humans who go to Rakhat as well as the priests conducting the inquest represent choices and judgments based on different apprehensions of the god question. Each stands for a different set of conditions calling into question our basic assumptions about civilization and moral action. Often it's subtle, but sometimes powerfully visceral. We realize that this is a novel which, practically from page one, takes every assertion of right and wrong and expedience and morality and says "Sure, but" in the very next passage.
Finally, it is an examination of the limits of accommodation.
The earlier novel, A Case of Conscience, asked a few of these questions, but it shied away from many others. Nor did it offer such a full range of mirrored arguments. Its conclusion was in many ways annoyingly ambiguous and turned on a question of epistemology which was less personal, less visceral than what Father Sandoz is forced to face. But there remains a line between them which is not insignificant, which is that we must ask if any conception of god is not in the end purely a matter of intellectual expedience that cannot stand up to exposure to truly different cultures and biologies. If, basically, in the end such conceptions are, like anything else, merely systems designed to see us through to the next level of understanding. They do change. The Jesuits themselves changed from their beginnings as an order dedicated to the authority of the pope and an enemy of developing knowledge to an order of the best educators and some of the finest scientists on the planet. Whether admitted or not, their conception of god changed. Sandoz is dealing with the question of how resilient any such conception is.
Or was Spinoza right and that god is simply nature and morality is ours to construct and adapt and modify? Sandoz seems at times a closet Spinozan, but as flexible as he often is, he finds his limits and snaps.
Or does he?
I'm not sure I possessed the stuff to appreciate this novel when it came out. I may not now, but I can at least see, sometimes vaguely perhaps, Russell's intent. In any case, it was certainly worth the wait.


text:
Equestrian and Rodeo
$103,229.44: State-A-Thon proves not all heroes wear capes
Christian Postma, brain cancer survivor, runs down Main Street in The Union as students clap in support for the opening ceremony for State-A-Thon April 2, 2019. Kyle Schiltz, State-A-Thon morale co-chair, runs behind him.
HAILEY KLINE Lifestyles Editor
A day of laughter, dancing and pies to the face. State-A-Thon provided hours of fun for 16 families who have benefited from the Children's Miracle Network.
This year, SAT raised $103,229.44 April 2 on National State-A-Thon Day at South Dakota State University.
Thisis an incrase from last year of more than $15,000.
Everything from group games to small group activities filled the day with entertainment for everyone involved.
This year's theme of "Be a Hero" was prevalent throughout the day. A dance, called The Morale Dance, was executed every hour to contribute to the Dance-A-Thon.
Fundraising directly on site in the Volstorff Ballroom, as well as through online donations, took place throughout the day, but each team participating had a goal to reach prior to April 2.
Kelly Beneke, a junior pharmacy major, was astonished at the total of donations made at SAT. "When the final total was revealed, I jumped up and down and broke out crying," Beneke said. "My heart was so overwhelmed from the thought of how many miracle families would benefit from $100,000."
Beneke was also amazed by the support she saw at SAT.
"It is crazy to think that one campus, one community and one organization can make a difference in the lives of many," she said.
Taylor Donnelly, a junior spanish and pre-occupational therapy major, talked about the impact SAT has made on her life.
"SAT is one of the most rewarding experiences I've had at SDSU," she said.
Donnelly was mostly impressed with the children and families at the event.
"They were the true miracles and true heroes of the day," she said.
Tweets by sdsucollegian
Jackrabbit superfan follows his alma mater into national title game
Religious protester sparks student outrage, UPD called
Pride of the Dakotas set to play in national title game
SDSU recognized as 'premier university' through national spotlight
Jackrabbit, Bison fans create fun atmosphere in Frisco
61st Twins Winter Caravan visits Brookings
Grease fire in Union caused evacuation
Horse club grows leaders, community, equine industry
Burger Clash going into third year
Little I manager continues 100 years of tradition
South Dakota State University's Student-Run Independent Newspaper Since 1885
Email advertising at [email protected]
All The Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If you encountered any issues with automated installation please follow these steps to manually configure icehrm on your server.
If you are using icehrm opensource version download it from (https://github.com/gamonoid/icehrm/releases). Make sure to download the release .zip or .gz file (e.g : icehrm_v19.0.OS.zip).
If you have purchased icehrm pro, you can find installation directory inside the files you have downloaded after purchase.
Then execute icehrm database scripts on newly created mysql database via console or phpmyadmin.
Rename this file to config.php and start updating it.
For updating urls you need to know the absolute path of your icehrm installation and url to your icehrm installation.
For an example we assume path to icehrm is : /var/www/icehrm/ and icehrm web url to be http://your-company-domain.com/icehrm then paths and urls should be updated as below.
If you would like to upload files larger than 10MB you can update MAX_FILE_SIZE_KB config.


text:
Maximising the impact of academic research
How to cite our blogs
Communicating Your Research with Social Media
The Impact of the Social Sciences
The Accelerated Academy
#AcWri2016
Data and Society series
HEFCEmetrics
Politics of Data
The Handbook on Maximising Impact
Open Access eCollection
Engaged Social Science: Impacts and Use of Research in the UK (January 2014)
Open Access Futures in the Humanities and Social Sciences (October 2013)
Social Science in the Public Sphere (July 2013)
Future of Academic Impacts (December 2012)
Academic Podcasts
Audible Impact
Simple Guide to Academic Podcasting
Twitter Guide
Essential 'how-to' Guides
Book Review: The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education edited by Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson
Eschewing the polarising perspectives that often characterise discussions of digital technologies in academia, The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education, edited by Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson, offers an insightful and diverse take on the digital landscape in higher education, covering topics such as MOOCs, "flipped classrooms" and academic blogging. Keeping the human impact of these technologies firmly in view, the book's contributions are lively, accessible and a frequent joy to read, recommends Jessica Frawley.
This review originally appeared on LSE Review of Books and is published under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 UK license.
The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education. Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson (eds). Routledge. 2018.
In 2016 a contributor to The Guardian's "Academics Anonymous" section wrote a post entitled: "I'm a serious academic, not a professional Instagrammer". In it, the anonymous author criticised and bemoaned the increasing expectation that academics should use social media, whether to promote themselves or to be seen to appear enthusiastic. Within a week of hitting the web, the article had garnered over 300 comments, 3,000 shares, one jocular counter piece and a small storm on Twitter whose apex took the form of a parody account replete with a meme of a cat wearing a lab coat (@SeriousAcademic).
Amongst the outrage, cats and memes was a debate on what new technologies mean for academic work and the university. For universities, digital technologies bring major changes to the way that teaching, research and communication can occur. Blogs, tweets, automatically generated citation measures, learning analytics, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), flipped classrooms, open access research – all of these impact on academic work and academic workers.
In trying to make sense of this new world, discourse around digital technology in the academe can often result in polarising categories. On the one hand, we find the glorified hype of the Web 2.0. version of the university: the digital classrooms of the future where education is free and democratised for all. On the other, one-dimensional stereotypes of "digital natives" glued to iPhones and academics forced into yet more content production in the form of blogs, tweets and videos, all of which will be used to reward and penalise the neoliberal worker. Inadvertently, by assuming either utopic or dystopic futures, discussions of the digital are prone to mirroring the very binary structures of the machines and systems they seek to explore.
In a context saturated with hype and hope, there is a need for more varied insight. The provision of this is one of the key achievements of The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education. Edited by Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn (of Thesis Whisperer fame) and Pat Thomson, this scholarly edited work curates multiple critical perspectives from contributors, many of whom are themselves active digital users of social networking sites and digital technologies. This collaboration has resulted in a text whose academic prose remains lively, accessible and at times joyful to read. The inherent readability also attests to earlier commentary that blogging may serve to help academic writing.
Image credit: Social Media Icons Marker by Animated Heaven. This work is licensed under a CC0 1.0 license.
By focusing a critical lens on academic life, this collection contributes to an increasing body of research interested in universities and the realities for the academics who exist within them. If Burton Clark's 1987 book The Academic Life began the conversation around the effects of changes such as massification and marketisation, then The Digital Academic takes this conversation in a specifically digital direction.
While the digital landscape may be the context for this work, the focus remains a human one. Technical functionality and specifications give way to more socio-technical philosophies. This shows in methods that consistently explore the digital by turning towards the human, with interviews, surveys and ethnographies taking the place of more quantitative tech-centric approaches. This decision to focus on the voice of the academic is moreover an important one, particularly at a time when the academic self is so frequently quantified, measured and commodified.
Instead of presenting technology as something all-determining, each chapter invites the reader to explore how new technologies are actually used within faculties and institutions. By taking a critical perspective, the authors deliberately situate this usage within the various power structures that exist within and across the contemporary academe. These chapters navigate away from visions of the utopic or dystopic university of the future to explore what is happening in the here and now, in what Neil Selwyn (2014) has referred to as the messy and mundane everyday realities of university life.
One of the main vehicles for thinking about this is the academic self. As observed by the editors, "an academic in a cloister is a very different creature from one on a stage" (6). Though blogs, Twitter and Facebook are performative spaces, academic use and appropriation of these stages are diverse. Chapter Two's study of PhD students found blogging to be a way for students to create a scholarly identity, think out loud, receive feedback and engage with a community. Likewise, Charlotte Frost's chapter on her work around PhD2Published demonstrates a way of publicly self-teaching and how this manifest as part of her own career trajectory – countering claims that no-one ever gets tenure from a blog post.
As a set of critical perspectives, this book would not be complete without a deep dive into power structures and hidden labour. In Chapters Eight and Nine, the respective authors' turn their attention to academic experiences of two oft-endorsed innovations: "flipped classrooms" and MOOCs. Though an abundance of research already exists on these, most has so far focused on their implications for learning and teaching. Instead, these chapters contribute insight from a wider academic perspective. Martin Forsey and Sara Page's chapter on flipped classrooms demonstrates that, while "flipping" lecture content to online delivery to allow for more interactive classes can be very positive, students and staff have to invest considerable time and energy to make them work. Likewise, Katharina Freud et al's chapter on MOOCs draws attention to the "labour iceberg" of MOOC delivery and the way the MOOC marketplace may lead to some voices, content and forms of knowledge being privileged over others. These perspectives draw further attention to the complexities of work within the neoliberal university context.
Taken together, the overall direction of The Digital Academic is to encourage further critical exploration of the role that digital media plays for the academy. Aside from this shared goal, the book's chapters eschew taking one united position or advancing a single argument. Instead, illumination comes from different voices. In edited scholarly works this approach can run the risk of lacking coherence, however well justified or theorised by the editorial team. Yet, in this instance, the approach is not only appropriate but well-executed. Though there can always be a case made for further diversity, there remains value in the specifics of the qualitative even, or especially because, it is always partial, never universal and seldom fully representative.
For the academe "there is no escaping the digital – no outside to which we can retreat" (15). As such, this volume is a vital contribution for anyone who cares about academic work and labour. While a number of the theoretically denser chapters will elude some, as a collection The Digital Academic offers a sufficient range to engage a wide variety of readers. This is important since one of the barriers to broader uptake of research of this nature has been its impermeability to academics working outside the arts and social sciences. Those who are curious will find Chapter One to be an accessible and highly enjoyable overview of the key issues, while interview transcripts in Chapters Eleven and Twelve embrace a conversational messiness that provides an alternative to the research studies. In summary, this thoughtful volume invites us to go beneath the surface of hypes and hopes to critically explore the wonders and problems of the digital university. This invitation is one that anyone who cares about the modern university should most definitely accept.
Dr Jessica Frawley is a Lecturer in Academic Development and an Honorary Associate of the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. Having a cross-disciplinary background, with degrees in both information technology and the humanities, Jessica's research and teaching focus on understanding and designing technologies from a human perspective. Jessica currently teaches undergraduate subjects in design and postgraduate subjects in higher education and educational technologies. Dr Frawley is Co-President of the Australian and New Zealand Mobile Learning Group, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a regular contributor and managing editor for Teaching@Sydney.
Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, or of the London School of Economics.
March 11th, 2018|Academic communication, Book Reviews, Digital scholarship, Early career researchers, Research communication, Social media|0 Comments
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text:
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
After putting off this thick book for long, one that I had wanted to read for many many years now, I picked up the 533 page 'top 100 novels of the century' book by John Steinbeck, borrowed from my nephew Shrinjay. Not even ten pages into it and I knew that the road ahead was one of great learning and pleasure, for me as a reader (the novel is all about suffering though). Steinbeck's genius is evident in the narrative, dialogue and description in this acclaimed work from the Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning author. But what hit me most was the immense wisdom, the stark honesty that comes through from this story in the form of dialogue or narrative - saying so much in so few words. It was a great pleasure to read this book ranked high up in the top 100 books of all time.
'The Grapes of Wrath' is the story of sharecroppers, the Joads, from Oklahoma, who are driven out of their lands by the landowners or banks during the years of the Great Depression. The proud, honest, hardworking peasant family falls into great hardship as their house is broken down and there is no work. They eventually leave as their money is running out and chase a dream, along with thousands of such people, based on some handbills that promise them a wonderful life in California where they can live in lush green farms, pluck oranges and grapes and build houses etc. The family is large comprising Pa Joad, Ma Joad, Granpa and Granma Joad, Pa Joad's older brother John Joad, Pa Joad's children - a slightly dull Noah Joad, Tom Joad (the protagonist who is just out of jail on parole for murder), Rose of Sharon (pregnant), Connie (her 19 year old husband), Al Joad (16, likes cars and girls), Ruthie (12) and Winfield (10). The family invest in a run down truck to drive them to California and pick up Casy, a quiet ponderous, ex-preacher who travels with them.
The journey is long and beset by many problems. Their dog is hit by a car on the highway and dies, Grandpa dies, Grandma dies, Noah walks off at a river and does not join them, they run out of money, start seeing desperation, hear stories of how the Californians don't like them Okies, experience dishonesty and disrespect, loss of dignity and injustice, and hold themselves together through it all. From Hooverville camps to large hearted neighbours, government camps where they get clean toilets and warm water to unemployment, they see it all. Connie runs away, Tom gets hurt and is hunted, Casy is taken to jail and finally murdered. But the family goes on together, still helping, still staying honest, still true to their old world values.
It is an epic. Written in 1939 'The Grapes of Wrath' could hold true of many places in the world even today. It is the pride, the honesty, the naivety, the inner strength of this poor family that stays together, that never leaves you. Ma looms larger than everyone as she holds the flock together and is easily the single biggest hero of this novel for the scale of sacrifice, strength, power and clarity she brings as all else seems to fall apart around her. Without her the family would have long fallen to pieces. Tom's maverick character, a person who is strong and quick to act, one who cannot tolerate injustice of taunt is wonderful. Casy wonderful character and the nuggets of wisdom he spews when h talks are fantastic. Just as the fine essays Steinbeck writes in between to describe a situation, a place.
Steinbeck's style of writing captures the language of the Oklahoma 'fambly' as they call themselves wonderfully. The family comes to life with their dialogue and Steinbeck stays true to them all through. The way he uses the essays in between chapters to describe conditions is unique - I have not seen this technique before. For the detail, richness of language, tightness of narrative and beauty of description itself it has many points in its favour but it is the wisdom, the little gems that hit one hard in the gut in a few well chosen words of peasant wisdom that leaves an everlasting impression and takes this book to a completely different level.
Wikipedia quotes this one gem - "This is the beginning—from "I" to "we". If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I", and cuts you off forever from the "we".
Steinbeck's quote that 'I've done my damndest best to rip a reader's nerves to rags' i printed on the back of the book. Besieged by misfortune to an extent that one would not think possible, the Joad family shows the power of human spirit as they face their fate squarely and proudly, taking each hit on the jaw. But in reality, they say, the lives of migrants in those times were far worse than what were described. To me the book reminded me so much of 'Kanthapura' by Raja Rao, who described the lives of migrant, low caste labourers in pre-Independence times in some part of Karnataka and the fantastic use of the English language that makes the people and their essence come through.
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The Hubli Diaries - September 23-27, 2011


text:
<?php

namespace SAML2\Assertion;

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
use SAML2\Assertion;
use SAML2\Assertion\Exception\InvalidAssertionException;
use SAML2\Assertion\Exception\InvalidSubjectConfirmationException;
use SAML2\Assertion\Transformer\Transformer;
use SAML2\Assertion\Validation\AssertionValidator;
use SAML2\Assertion\Validation\SubjectConfirmationValidator;
use SAML2\Configuration\IdentityProvider;
use SAML2\Response\Exception\InvalidSignatureException;
use SAML2\Response\Exception\UnencryptedAssertionFoundException;
use SAML2\Signature\Validator;
use SAML2\Utilities\ArrayCollection;

/**
 * @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.CouplingBetweenObjects) - due to all the named exceptions
 */
class Processor
{
    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Assertion\Decrypter
     */
    private $decrypter;

    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Assertion\Validation\AssertionValidator
     */
    private $assertionValidator;

    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Assertion\Validation\SubjectConfirmationValidator
     */
    private $subjectConfirmationValidator;

    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Assertion\Transformer\Transformer
     */
    private $transformer;

    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Signature\Validator
     */
    private $signatureValidator;

    /**
     * @var \SAML2\Configuration\IdentityProvider
     */
    private $identityProviderConfiguration;

    /**
     * @var \Psr\Log\LoggerInterface
     */
    private $logger;

    public function __construct(
        Decrypter $decrypter,
        Validator $signatureValidator,
        AssertionValidator $assertionValidator,
        SubjectConfirmationValidator $subjectConfirmationValidator,
        Transformer $transformer,
        IdentityProvider $identityProviderConfiguration,
        LoggerInterface $logger
    ) {
        $this->assertionValidator            = $assertionValidator;
        $this->signatureValidator            = $signatureValidator;
        $this->decrypter                     = $decrypter;
        $this->subjectConfirmationValidator  = $subjectConfirmationValidator;
        $this->transformer                   = $transformer;
        $this->identityProviderConfiguration = $identityProviderConfiguration;
        $this->logger                        = $logger;
    }

    /**
     * @param \SAML2\Utilities\ArrayCollection $assertions
     *
     * @return \SAML2\Assertion[] Collection (\SAML2\Utilities\ArrayCollection) of processed assertions
     */
    public function processAssertions($assertions)
    {
        $processed = new ArrayCollection();
        foreach ($assertions as $assertion) {
            $processed->add($this->process($assertion));
        }

        return $processed;
    }

    /**
     * @param \SAML2\Assertion|\SAML2\EncryptedAssertion $assertion
     *
     * @return \SAML2\Assertion
     */
    public function process($assertion)
    {
        $assertion = $this->decryptAssertion($assertion);

        if (!$assertion->getWasSignedAtConstruction()) {
            $this->logger->info(sprintf(
                'Assertion with id "%s" was not signed at construction, not verifying the signature',
                $assertion->getId()
            ));
        } else {
            $this->logger->info(sprintf('Verifying signature of Assertion with id "%s"', $assertion->getId()));

            if (!$this->signatureValidator->hasValidSignature($assertion, $this->identityProviderConfiguration)) {
                throw new InvalidSignatureException();
            }
        }

        $this->validateAssertion($assertion);

        $assertion = $this->transformAssertion($assertion);

        return $assertion;
    }

    /**
     * @param \SAML2\Assertion|\SAML2\EncryptedAssertion $assertion
     *
     * @return \SAML2\Assertion
     */
    private function decryptAssertion($assertion)
    {
        if ($this->decrypter->isEncryptionRequired() && $assertion instanceof Assertion) {
            throw new UnencryptedAssertionFoundException();
        }

        if ($assertion instanceof Assertion) {
            return $assertion;
        }

        return $this->decrypter->decrypt($assertion);
    }

    /**
     * @param \SAML2\Assertion $assertion
     */
    public function validateAssertion(Assertion $assertion)
    {
        $assertionValidationResult = $this->assertionValidator->validate($assertion);
        if (!$assertionValidationResult->isValid()) {
            throw new InvalidAssertionException(sprintf(
                'Invalid Assertion in SAML Response, erorrs: "%s"',
                implode('", "', $assertionValidationResult->getErrors())
            ));
        }

        foreach ($assertion->getSubjectConfirmation() as $subjectConfirmation) {
            $subjectConfirmationValidationResult = $this->subjectConfirmationValidator->validate(
                $subjectConfirmation
            );
            if (!$subjectConfirmationValidationResult->isValid()) {
                throw new InvalidSubjectConfirmationException(sprintf(
                    'Invalid SubjectConfirmation in Assertion, errors: "%s"',
                    implode('", "', $subjectConfirmationValidationResult->getErrors())
                ));
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * @param \SAML2\Assertion $assertion
     *
     * @return \SAML2\Assertion
     */
    private function transformAssertion(Assertion $assertion)
    {
        return $this->transformer->transform($assertion);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Messier 69 (NGC6637) is a globular cluster object of interest in space. It lies at a distance of 29700 light years away in the constellation of Sagittarius.
It is referred to as M(69) when it was catalogued by Charles Messier in 18th - 19th Century France. It is also referred to as NGC(6637) in the New General Catalogue. This is a list of deep space objects that was compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 in an update to John Herschel earlier catalogue.
The Globular Cluster's location is 18:31.4 (R.A.) and -32:31 (Dec.). Its Visual Brightness is a 7.6 Magnitude and has an apparent magnitude of 8.00000 with an apparent dimension of 9.8 . The object can not be seen by the naked eye, you need a telescope to see it.
(M69,NGC6637) is a globular cluster. It was discovered in 1751 by Abbe Nicholas Louis de la Caille. It's location is RA(18:31.4), Dec(-32:31) and its distance is calculated 29.7 light years away. Its visual Brightness is 7.6. Its apparent dimensions measured in arcmins is 9.8.


We're also offering this training to bi-lingual (Spanish and English) painters. For more information, see our full page on Bilingual Spray Efficiency training.
Ken Grimm, PPRC's Industry Outreach Lead, has completed the IWRC's Train-the-Trainer course in addition to his nearly 20 years of industrial and automotive paint experience. Ken has provided train-the-trainer courses to more than two dozen Community and Technical Colleges in the Pacific Northwest, as well as training to more than 100 collision repair shops and industrial facilities.
On January 9th of 2008, the EPA's new 6H NESHAP Area Source rules for surface coatings became law, with compliance required by January 10th, 2011. This law is specifically applicable to the collision repair industry, but if you apply surface coatings to metal or plastic substrates it may very likely apply to you as well. The 6H NESHAP includes recordkeeping requirements, new filter requirements, and both classroom and hands-on spray efficiency technique training. The required NESHAP training elements are met by the STAR® program.
The 6H NESHAP addresses five metals that are hazardous air pollutants. These metals are chromium (CR), cadmium (CD), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn). If you spray any coating once a year that contains one of the five target metals, you are subject to these regulations. If you are in the collision repair industry you are automatically subject to these regulations, even if you do not spray coatings containing the target metals. However, if you certify your coatings free of these metals you can apply for an exemption.
Health Impacts: Toxics, solvents and isocyanates can cause adverse health impacts such as enlarged lungs, irregular heartbeat, kidney failure, and nerve damage. This training can help reduce short and long-term exposure, improving employee safety and possible worker's compensation claim issues.
Material Savings: Increased transfer efficiency will reduce material usage. Research in the collision repair industry has shown that the STAR program has results in an average savings of $4,200 per year per employee in 1996 dollars. An industrial facility can save as much as $40,000 or more annually. Even the most experienced painters have been shown to improve their efficiency by as much as 25% through increased attention to application techniques.
Environmental Impacts: Reduced emissions can result in cleaner air and better community standing. Also, improved spray efficiency generally reduces the amount of hazardous waste generated.
Reduced Environmental Liabilities: By reducing the pollutants emitted you can reduce your liability and potentially reduce regulatory burden and/or permit costs.
How much money and materials did Woodfold of Forest Grove, Oregon save using the STAR program? Read the Woodfold Case Study.
A copy of the regulation can be downloaded from the EPA here.
A 6H NESHAP fact sheet can be downloaded from the EPA here.
A summary brochure can be downloaded from the EPA here.
You can find assorted compliance assistance resources here.
LaserPaint® is a laser-guided device designed to assist painters develop or refine their skills keeping consistent, accurate spray gun to part distance. For more information, or to purchase a LaserPaint® device, visit their website.
The Auto Body Surface Coating Guide for collision repair shops and shop owners.
The IWRC has developed two software products, one designed to help a facility track paint and solvent usage and the other designed to help a facility track paint emissions and sprayable material usage. The software tracks on a on a rolling twelve-month basis and is available for free download.
VirtualPaint is a training system, ideal for companies that do not want to shut down facilities and waste coating and materials for the sole purpose of training. VirtualPaint is an effective training system that requires no excessive time, no use of coating or materials, and does not produce any waste or air emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a large collection of information and tools designed to help collision repair save money while coming into compliance with the new rules.
EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) program has an Automotive Refinishing Partnership program with excellent resources, ranging from health and safety information to best practices for everything from mixing rooms to prep areas to spray booths.
The collection of DfE's best practices and other pertinent information.
CCar had a website for shops that showed all the different paint related areas. You could click on a room, and then click on various parts of the room to see suggestions for improvement. The CCar site is no longer supported, but an excellent alternative is King County's auto body rule tool.
STAR® Training Project overview and the project results.
This resource is a comprehensive, plain-language manual to help shops learn about and implement various pollution prevention strategies and best management practices.
Oregon's Eco-Biz program has both web-based information and technical assistance providers to help shops achieve Eco-Biz certification.
The Eco-Biz toolkit is a comprehensive collection of fact sheets and checklists to help collision repair shops address environmental issues in a manageable way.
Washington State Department of Ecology has a self-certification checklist for the auto body industry available for download.


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