Some politicians use periods of upheaval to pursue their own political interests. When Mexico's democracy was in danger, Ruth Zavaleta Salgado, one of the founders of Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), did the opposite. She took a stand in support of the rule of law, risking her political career for the good of her country.
In 2006, Felipe Calderón and Andrés Manuel López Obrador were locked in a highly contested presidential election. After a recount, the country's federal electoral institute eventually declared Calderón, a member of the National Action Party (PAN), the official winner. Obrador supporters filled the streets of Mexico City in protest, and Obrador, the candidate from Ruth's party, called for the formation of an extralegal shadow government. The election drove a wedge through Mexico's government institutions, so much so that members of the Chamber of Deputies hurtled angry insults and even brawled with one another within the Chamber itself.
Ruth was newly elected to the position of President of the Chamber of Deputies, a role similar to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, when Calderón was set to give his first address as president in September 2007. The members of her party expected Ruth to exploit her authority to keep Calderón from speaking and his government from functioning.
But Ruth saw things differently. "In my opinion institutions had to be functional in order to strengthen democracy," she says. A true public servant, she felt that using her position to benefit party over country went counter to the long-term interests of Mexico's democracy. In a country where political parties had typically been stronger than the institutions of government themselves, Ruth had come to Congress determined to improve the legislature's stature and standing.
For holding fast to her convictions and for being willing to work with Calderón, Ruth was viewed as a traitor by her PRD leaders who supported Obrador. Subjected to harassment and intimidation throughout her term as President of the Chamber of Deputies, she resigned in 2009 from the party she had helped to found. Ruth left politics and took a position overseeing women's access to the vote with Mexico's Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary.
Supporting women and indigenous communities has long been close to Ruth's heart. Her political career grew out of her work as a housing advocate for the working poor displaced after the devastating Mexico City earthquake in 1985; she went on to become a District Representative for the municipality to which those who had lost their homes had been transferred.
Ruth is also a member of Mujeres en Plural, a group of former female politicians who aim to elevate more women to political leadership in Mexico. She is about to receive a PhD in Law, with a dissertation on the role of the legislative branch in creating a functional democracy, and is running for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico's July 1, 2012 election as a Green Party candidate.


I try not to tell myself that I'm "old" now and try not to be too hard on myself because they do say it's "just a number" BUT aaaah! I'm 26 now! It was my birthday on the 24th of October and it was an amazing day! I always thought that I would have my life together 110 % by now turning 26 but nope! I guess you never really have your life together because it doesn't always turn out the way you thought it would AND that is NOT a bad thing.
Growing up in a tamil community the younger me would have thought I would have finished my education by now, be working, have gotten married and maybe even have one or two kids. And at times I did sometimes feel like I failed in life and was a disappointment because I didn't finish my education yet or get married and so on. Also I did feel pressured to graduate and settle down in life in general and it made me feel unmotivated to study and also just sometimes unhappy in general. Life didn't turn out to be the way I thought it would be but you know what? I'm actually really happy it didn't. We all have a certain way of thinking about how life SHOULD be, but if there's one thing I have learned through these 26 years, it is that there are no specific kind of way our lives "SHOULD" be. I just want to embrace everything and appreciate all that I have got right now and I truly feel blessed and grateful for what I have right now. I think what I'm trying to say is that for the first time in my life, I don't feel any pressure to live my life a certain way or be a certain way. I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be in life. It feels good. And the easiest part of feeling all this is that I DECIDED to feel this way and tell myself that THIS is actually how I want my life to be and I don't want to be bothered about what other people might think or say. Anyway… I just wanted to put it out there and also share some personal thoughts on this birthday post :) Let me know if you get me on what I'm saying! I would love to know other perspectives on it.


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Home > Business > Teri working to establish Rs 100-cr research & development corpus
Teri working to establish Rs 100-cr research & development corpus
PTI11 July 2016 11:46 PM GMT
The Energy and Research Institute (Teri) is working to establish a corpus of up to Rs 100 crore as it seeks to pursue research activities beyond project-based works. "The corpus will be utilised to pursue, within the mandate of Teri, larger issues of scientific and technical interest," Teri Chairman Ashok Chawla said. A major chunk of the institute's financial resources come from specific projects that are funded by various clients, including government and international organisations. "The idea is to separately, not linked to the projects, go out and request big corporates which are focused on matters concerning sustainable development, environment and new technologies, among others, to give some funding to built up our corpus," said Chawla. In existence for more than four decades, Teri is focused on energy, environment and sustainable development. When asked how much could be the quantum of the corpus, he said, "We should be in a position to get, in the reasonable future, Rs 50 to 100 crore towards that objective." Most of the resources that Teri gets flow from specific projects funded by clients. "There is very little surplus of cushion which arrives from these projects," Chawla said, adding there is no big corpus considering Teri has been around for many years.
The institute's annual budget is of the order of Rs 200 crore. "There are many things which we ideally should be looking at which may or may not have commercial viability straight away," Chawla, who became the Chairman in February, said. A major part of Teri's income is in the form of funds and research grants from multilateral and bilateral organisations, national and global banks, FIs, central and state governments, grant-making bodies, corporate sector, and international academic institutions.
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Attack In Catholic Church Caught On Video
The US Attorney is investigating an attack in a Catholic Church as a hate crime after Philadelphia authorities declined to press charges.
Published on Sep 1, 2020 at 12:40 PM
by Erin Perri
A woman who assaulted a worshipper at church was questioned and released by local authorities. However, the federal government is taking this seriously and the U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating it as a hate crime.
Worshiping in church proves to be challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some people are concerned about dodging the virus, they generally don't consider they might get hit at church.
It is supposed to be a peaceful place and that's why this sucker punch is so shocking.
Safety In Churches During Black Lives Matter Protests
As liberal activists riot in Democrat run cities, we apparently aren't even safe in church. Other churches have been the target of Black Lives Matter protests. One was even burned down!
BACKSTORY: This Church Refused To Close So Someone Burned It Down
Parishioners at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia were stunned to see a lector being assaulted by a woman as she came off the altar after reading.
The livestream of the mass captured the hateful and dramatic assault.
Conservative actor James Woods tweeted the shocking video. As you can see, the brute waited for the lector to walk away from the altar. Then she walloped her.
#BLM terrorists assault Catholic worshippers during Mass… pic.twitter.com/Q7m2T6Vwwe
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 25, 2020
Victim Didn't See It Coming
The lector, Sarah Contrucci, didn't see it coming. Remarkably, she kept her composure after being sucker punched.
Thankfully, she did not require any medical attention after being struck during Mass.
While some parishioners stated that they had seen the female assailant at the Basilica before, this was Contrucci's first time seeing the woman.
Contrucci reports that even after she was struck, she just wanted to get back to her pew so the service wouldn't be disrupted..
RELATED: Video Shows BLM Threaten Families Entering Church – Here's Why They're Harassing Grace Baptist
"I saw somebody there that clearly seemed to be waiting there and I was a little worried that she was going to attempt to make a scene of some sort, to disrupt the mass," the victim said. "So I was thinking that I wanted to do whatever I could to keep the situation calm and respectful and so I just wanted to get back to my pew and allow the mass to resume."
This most certainly feels like a hate crime.
Attacked While Praising God
Contrucci was targeted in a church as she was actively praising God. A search warrant was served and the assailant was questioned. Since local authorities declined to press charges, the feds are stepping up to investigate this assault.
US Attorney William McSwain tweeted about his office's investigation in this attack as a hate crime.
"This attack during Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is potentially a federal crime," McSwain's tweet below reads. "Thus, my Office is investigating it. No decision has yet been made about potential charging."
This attack during Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is potentially a federal crime. Thus, my Office is investigating it. No decision has yet been made about potential charging. https://t.co/rOgUb0gge5
— US Attorney William M. McSwain (@USAttyMcSwain) August 28, 2020


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North Devon Guides will celebrate centenary at the Milky Way
Published: 8:21 AM August 28, 2009 Updated: 3:59 PM November 7, 2020
GIRL Guiders past and present are being invited to the launch of the organisation s centenary celebrations at The Milky Way Adventure Park, near Clovelly, on Sunday of next week, September 6. Anyone who has had any involvement – as a Brownie, Guide, Ran
GIRL Guiders past and present are being invited to the launch of the organisation's centenary celebrations at The Milky Way Adventure Park, near Clovelly, on Sunday of next week, September 6.
Anyone who has had any involvement - as a Brownie, Guide, Ranger or Leader is welcome at the event from 10am until 4.30pm.
Girlguiding UK is the country's largest voluntary organisation for girls and young women and membership in the Taw and Torridge area is at an all-time high.
Around 500 are expected at the party, which will feature Merlin from Britain's Got Talent performing his death-defying stunts. Music will be provided by radio DJs from Heart FM.
A centenary balloon will be launched at around 1pm.
Anyone interested in taking part should contact Jo on (01237) 421317 or Jan on (01237) 420820.


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KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE PASSES 100% FUNDING TOTAL ON KICKSTARTER
Philip Federico November 7, 2020 No Comments
New playable class and PvP mode revealed as Stretch Goals
November 6, 2020 – NeocoreGames is happy to announce that its role-playing tactical game KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE is 100% funded on Kickstarter with 6 days still left of the campaign, which ends on November 12, 2020.
With full funding reached, NeocoreGames will roll out Stretch Goals adding new features (a new playable class, the Sage, and a PvP mode) to the project to make sure KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE reaches its full potential, as well as prepares to launch the game's Early Access on Steam in the coming weeks.
Based on the Arthurian mythology, KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE is a turn-based tactical role playing game – a unique hybrid between turn-based tactical games and traditional, character-centric RPGs. KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE is a modern retelling of a classic Arthurian mythology story filtered through the dark fantasy tropes, a twist on the traditional tales of chivalry.
Your Fights – Control a small team of heroes and fight gruelling, but satisfying battles with a deeply engaging, tactical turn-based combat system. Choose from more than 30 heroes of 5 diverse classes and combine hundreds of skills and artefacts to assemble an efficient team.
Your Heroes – Gather your own Knights of the Round Table and send them on knightly quests. These heroes are the most important resources and the most complex gameplay elements at the same time. But beware! Death is always final! You must manage them at the Round Table accordingly, planning ahead before going into battles. The character progression system is designed to be as deep as in the traditional RPGs: heroes level up on unique skill trees and the complex loot system provides unique options to fine-tune their tactical capabilities. Each hero has a distinctive personality and their loyalty is constantly changing through the decisions made by the player – in certain cases they can ever leave the Round Table and turn against you.
Your Kingdom – See the entirety of Avalon presented on a the Adventure Map, observe all the territory, select your missions and explore various places. Management in KING ARTHUR: KNIGHT'S TALE focuses on rebuilding Camelot and expanding the mystical Stronghold with new buildings that each unlock various upgrades, and also offers different ways to heal up and manage the heroes of the Round Table.
Your Legend – Play as Sir Mordred, the former nemesis of King Arthur. Explore the mystical island of Avalon, venture on knightly quests and make decisions in various encounters where you'll need to make moral choices, as in most RPGs, which all have impact on the story and your Morality. The end of the campaign opens up new endgame content for the bravest of all: tough new challenges appear on the map with challenging, mythic boss fights and random quests, loot, and character progression ultimately leading to the banishing of Balor, the monstrous god-king of the Fomorians himself.
Beyond the Legend – Complete more than 50 unique points of interest on the Adventure Map, including 20 story missions and various side quests, taking place on diverse terrains, from the dark castle dungeons to the forests of the Sídhe – built by using photoscanned environments and high-quality mocap animation, all rendered inside a modern PBR engine utilizing DirectX 12, supporting strong, atmospheric effects. Challenge 7 enemy factions, fight more than 50 types of enemy units, overcome 10 incredible boss fights throughout your quests.
King Arthur: Knight's Tale is available to back on Kickstarter until November 12, and it is available to wishlist on Steam.
Check out the official website for King Arthur: Knight's Tale
-Fast Facts-
Name: King Arthur: Knight's Tale
Genre: Dark Fantasy Role-Playing Tactical Game
Developer: NeocoreGames
Publisher: NeocoreGames
Platforms: PC (Steam), PS5, XSX/XSS
Release Date: Q1 2021
Kickstarter Price: $26 (early bird)
About NeocoreGames
NeocoreGames is an independent video game development company founded in 2005 with its headquarters located in Budapest, Hungary. Best known for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing series and Deathtrap and currently working on Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr and Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Prophecy, the very first Action RPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. NeocoreGames also developed Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come, The Kings' Crusade and the King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame series.
Pokémon TV By THE POKEMON COMPANY INTERNATIONAL, INC.
League of Legends OPL Grand Final to be streamed free across FOX SPORTS' website, app and IPTV


Incense sticks and holder opium fragrance, big packs of 100 top quality and highly fragranced incense sticks. These opium incense sticks are 25cm long and are all individually coloured (see picture). Opium incense sticks and holder sets are all hand-rolled, fragranced, coloured, and made in India on a natural bamboo stick.
Pack size: 100 opium Incense sticks.


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Viva Salud > News > Video
All heroes for health : Only Fighters Win
The coronavirus crisis affects everyone. But it does not have the same impact on everyone. To contain the coronavirus pandemic, many governments are taking drastic measures. But sometimes these measures put human rights and democracy at risk. However, the work of social movements is more than necessary now that the right to health of so many people is in danger. But the coronavirus pandemic is not just a crisis, it also offers an opportunity to build a healthy society.
Interview with Zara Alvarez, Philippine health and human rights activist
A gripping interview with Zara about her commitment to the Filipino people and the struggle for the right to health and social justice.
Annual report Viva Salud 2019
In 2019, we fought with our partners for a strong public healthcare system. That is not always obvious. Health workers …
Framing Matters – An alternative to the language of development, aid and charity
During the webinar "Framing Matters – An alternative to the language of development, aid and charity", Tess Woolfenden, of Health Poverty Action, will introduce us to the most frequent traps in our communication and give us tips on how to avoid them.
Gabriela's struggle for women's rights in the Philippines
The Philippine movement Gabriela has been fighting for women's rights for over 30 years. In this video you can see and hear what their work means to women from indigenous communities.
The right to health in Cuba and the Philippines
Cuba is known worldwide for its excellent health care system. It is completely free for the entire population. In the Philippines, access to health care is far from obvious. How can the right to health be guaranteed for everyone, even in developing countries?
Sustainable development cooperation: what does this actually mean?
What does it mean to be entitled to something? Find out what it means according to KIYO, Solidagro and Viva Salud.


Plan how you will set up your virtual infrastructure. A large vSphere implementation might contain several virtual datacenters with a complex arrangement of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and networks. It might involve multiple vSphere Servers operating in Linked Mode. Smaller implementations might require a single virtual datacenter with a much less complex topology. Regardless of the scale of your virtual infrastructure, consider how the virtual machines it will support are going to be used and administered.
Do you want to use multiple Distributed Switches?


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For Texans, Building Business Ties With Cuba Isn't a Sprint – It's a Decades-Long Marathon
KUT 90.5 | By Vanessa Rancaño
Courtesy of Gene Hall
Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke (right) and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples (middle) being greeted by Cuban officials in 2008 during a state-sponsored trip.
Cuba's ambassador to the United States is in Texas this week to meet with business owners who want to sell to Cuba. In February the state Department of Agriculture went on an official trade mission to the island, and another group of Texans is headed there for similar reasons later this year.
Texas businesses and their advocates have high hopes of snagging a piece of the market, but the state has actually been chasing Cuba for a long time.
In August of 1999, a group of Texans boarded a plane headed for Cuba.
"It was hot, hot, hot, and you had 10 men and one woman packed into this little prop plane," says Steve Pringle, then-legislative director for the Texas Farm Bureau, who was on the flight.
The group was on a special mission to bust open Cuba's import market.
"Let's just say it was exciting," Pringle says.
His colleague Gene Hall wasn't having as much fun. A few seats over, he was having flashbacks to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
"I believe to this day that's the most frightened I've ever been," he says. "There was the whole Communism thing, and the fear of an 8-year-old child. I never expected to ever be in Cuba."
But here they were on their way to the island. They had gotten a license to visit, because it was still mostly off-limits to Americans. "It was certainly big news," says Pringle. "It was so new they held a press conference upon our arrival."
Credit Courtesy of Gene Hall
Members of the Texas Farm Bureau outside the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture in 2008.
At the time, the U.S. didn't allow any trade with Cuba. But U.S. rice farmers had been pushing hard to change that. Texas rice farmers and their allies at the farm bureau helped lead the effort.
"Cuba has always been of a lot of interest to Texas farmers and ranchers," Hall says — especially to the state's rice farmers. In the '50s, some growers sold almost their entire crop to Cuba, then came revolution and the embargo and many years of nothing at all, Hall says.
It wasn't just the Texans who wanted to get their rice back into Cuba, he says. During the trip, an older woman came up to him at a market. "Tell them we need the rice," the woman said through an interpreter. "Bring back the rice." Hall was stunned that she remembered it. "We're working on it," he told her.
For the next week, the group of Texans toured the island, meeting farmers and officials. Then, on their last night as they were saying goodbye to their new Cuban friends, a government official approached them. "Get back in the van," he said. "We're going to the palace."
It was 11 at night, but the group jumped at the chance. Once they arrived, says Pringle, "They start bringing out mojitos. We're having a little cocktail party prior to dinner and all of a sudden President Castro comes in."
This is Fidel they're talking about, not Raul. Hall was nervous at first.
"This was a guy I was terrified of when I was eight years old." But, he says, Castro was charming and he knew a lot about Texas agriculture. After dinner they pulled out maps, talked about the finer points of rice farming and smoked cigars.
"We stayed there until 5 a.m.," Hall says, "They gave us a box of Cohiba cigars, and he signed the box."
In return, Pringle offered up a Texas Farm Bureau hat and lapel pin, which Castro affixed to his fatigues.
"It was quite a night. It felt like we were part of history being there," Hall says. In fact, they were. The members of the delegation played a major role in getting a landmark law signed by President Clinton the very next year: the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. For the first time in decades, it opened the door to modest trade with Cuba. Over the last 15 years, that law has led to more than $5 billion in American exports to Cuba, according to the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Members of the Texas Farm Bureau's 1999 trip to Cuba pictured with then-President Fidel Castro.
Since Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited the island last year and the Obama administration further eased trade restrictions with Cuba last month, there's a lot of excitement in Texas over the prospect of trade.
"People that had no idea trade was possible with Cuba," says Cynthia Thomas, head of the Texas Cuba Trade Alliance. "They're discovering it for the first time and they think they're discovering something new and unique."
In reality, Texas once exported more agricultural products than any other state except Louisiana. At peak that was close to $150 million worth of exports in a year, which isn't all that much considering the state exports roughly $6 billion in agriculture products to other countries. But, for small producers, it was a big deal.
Then things seriously petered out – for years. But now, Thomas says, "it's just overwhelming the new energy coming in." She says she gets calls from people looking to get into everything from hotels and golf courses in Cuba to auto parts and office supplies.
In her view, Texas is especially well-positioned to do business with the island because of proximity, and the history of trade. Plus Texas has been vying for this market for a long time. That trip in 1999 wasn't the only time Texans went to Cuba. Groups have gone a handful of time over the years, and they've brought Cuban officials here too.
She says it doesn't hurt that Cubans watch a lot of Westerns. When she shows Cubans photos of Texans, she says, "They're always baffled as to why they have on baseball caps instead of cowboy hats. I'll make sure we only bring [a photo] of cowboy hats next time."
The Texas agricultural delegation visiting a Cuban market in 2008.
As far as John Kavulich is concerned, though, all the cowboy hats in the state couldn't seduce Cuba into buying American.
"Everyone needs to be sober when they're looking at Cuba and not on proverbial crack," he says. Kavulich runs the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. He says as long as the United States isn't allowed to extend credit to Cuba, the island will opt to buy from counties that will.
Kavulich offers an example.
"Cuba buys rice from Vietnam, and the Vietnamese give them two years to pay for it," he says. "No U.S. company is going to give Cuba two years to pay for rice."
Anyway, everyone seems to be in agreement that what Cuba really wants from the U.S. isn't rice or poultry—it's an end to the embargo. That's what the Texas Farm Bureau is hoping for, too.
Whether or not that will happen soon, the bureau's Gene Hall says Texas did its part.
"We were part of opening something up, and we were part of diplomacy in our own kind of way," he says.
They're hopeful, but they have enough experience not to expect anything soon.
"I mean this is not a hundred-meter dash," says Hall. "This is a marathon."
Texas Cuba
Vanessa Rancaño
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If You Don't Believe You're worth Investing in…Read This.
When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a professional basketball player.
I wanted to be the best women's basketball player that had ever lived. I wanted to dunk and dribble and shoot like a superstar, with crowds cheering my name!
In reality, I was short and fat and couldn't play basketball very well. But I was a true visionary and imagined that one day it could happen. It didn't. And I laugh now when I think about it.
I also wanted to be an actress.
I pictured myself taking audiences on emotional journeys as I portrayed dramatic characters. (I was madly in love with Marlo Thomas back then, but that's beside the point.) When I took acting classes in college, however, I discovered that I had zero talent in that category. So that dream wasn't going to happen, either.
These were the two things that I prayed for when I was a little girl, and I got neither of them.
Instead, I was blessed with a different gift. I had the ability to love people, to hold them, to support them, to be with them when they most needed someone.
For years I was told by friends and loved ones, "You need to become a therapist. You give great advice, and you know what you're talking about when it comes to emotional intelligence and mental fitness." They may have had a point, but it never felt right to me.
Earlier today I was sharing with a student of mine about my fears and insecurities, and she admitted that she had a hard time believing that.
I told her that I don't have perfect days every day and that, for me, the most difficult days revolve around money.
I invest in myself in big ways, and then this little feeling of doubt creeps in.
But even as that doubt nibbles and gnaws at my certainty, the bottom line is that it has always worked and it always will, because I believe in myself and I trust others.
I know I am worth what I charge. I've seen the results. And when people say "No" to me I understand that it's not because I'm not good at what I do. It's because they're not willing to invest in themselves for one reason or another.
It's true that I was given a gift in my life as a coach, as a teacher, and as a writer. But I have invested a tremendous amount of money in myself, even when I didn't know when it was going to come back to me or where it was going to come from in the first place. I invested in myself, filled with hope and trust because I knew I was worth it.
I kept the faith and valued myself and my growth.
In this spirit, I made a vow that, as a coach, I would myself remain coachable. I would never stop growing, and always be open to more. Toward that end, I currently have a spiritual teacher and a business coach, and I continue to invest in myself.
Would I have had more in my life – in terms of material things and experiences – had I not invested in myself all these years?
But would I be as strong, confident, joyful and happy as I am today had I not invested that money in myself?
The answer, without a shadow of a doubt, is NO.
YES! A hundred time yes! A thousand times yes!
I may not be a famous actress or basketball player. But I can see now that the money, time, and energy I invested in myself was worth it because no matter how much fear came with some of those decisions, the payoff for all of it is the wonderful life I currently enjoy.
I was given a gift to love people, and I've dedicated my resources to reinforcing that gift.
I hope that you consider yourself worthy enough to do the same.
One of the ways I give back is by teaching classes like this class which begins on September 25th called "Fall In Love With Yourself". I hope you consider joining us.
Do you think you're worth investing in?
What opportunities could arise from such an investment?


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More shrine pix
Here are more photos from yesterday's visit to the holy shrines in Kerbala, some taken my my host Ahmed Zainy, some by the shrine's official photographer (with many thanks to Ahmed for getting hold of them so fast).
In the VIP reception lounge of Imam Abbas's mosque. I am chatting to Raz, my translator, and Lamia is catching up with Dr Mohammed the textile conservator's news.
In the very Victoria and Albert-ish Al-Kafeel Museum, stocked entirely with objects donated to the mosque. As well as mosque furniture, coins and manuscripts there is a large collection of antique weapons—swords, daggers, pistols, rifles. These last commemorate the Battle of Kerbala in 61 AH (660 AD), at which the prophet's grandsons Hussain and Abbas were killed and which thus caused the split between Sunni and Shia Islam.
Signing the visitor's book, just before giving an interview for the shrine's magazine. Later I was interviewed for Karbala TV. I am so famous in Iraq now... (And in case you are wondering about the ring: no, I haven't just got hitched. That is the Ring of Argos, which has travelled everywhere with me in the Middle East for many years and whose powerful protective properties make it worth every penny of the tenner or so it cost.)
In the very well appointed research library. (From now on, you can take it as read that everything here is very well appointed...). They have a public library too, furnished in calm blond wood. Public education and charitable work are significant elements of the mosque's activities; there's a public kitchen too, where we ate lunch. The women on our table were given carrier-bags and take-away cartons so that they could take home what they couldn't eat (mutton and okra stew with rice).
With the head of the mosque library, whose name I'm afraid I didn't catch. (I'm hoping Lamia will fill the blanks; I was so much the centre of attention—you can see that unfortunately the photos are all about me—that often it wasn't possible to scribble down people's names.) Most importantly, though, Mr Kamal the head of manuscripts conservation was full of praise for his bosses work, saying that he gives full support and funding, and wants renovation work to be carried out to the highest international standards. As far as we could see—and we were given an exhaustive tour—it is.
In Mr Kamal's spotless manuscripts conservation lab, a short walk from the mosque. They have separate rooms for biological and chemical treatment of the books, to kill infestations, unstick pages, and stabilise the paper. They also make their own paper to traditional methods to use for repairs, as well as rebinding the books while keeping as much of the original leather as possible. Here Mr Kamal is showing me a recently finished project, as one of his three staff looks on. All of them are educated to at least degree level and have had a lot of further specialist training in many different methods, so that they can judge which is techniques are most appropriate for each situation. They also carry out their own research and are committed to using traditional methods as much as possible.
Meeting the imam. The big moment for the museum staff, for without the imam's go-ahead this project couldn't happen. In fact it was easy to find a lot of common ground, as I think this photo shows. He spoke very passionately about the need to use the highest scientific standards to conserve the shrine's collections, in order to further both research and public education. Muharram is just coming up—it begins on 5 November this year, with Ashura on the 14th—and we spoke of the pilgrims we had seen walking the road from Karbala. (No photos, I'm afraid—even if we hadn't been whizzing past behind tinted windows it would have seemed rude to treat them as spectacle.) The shrines get some 50 million visitors a year, most of them during this ten-day period, and so the museums will see heavy traffic then too. But put of the mission is also to educate non-Muslims about Shia Islam; all are welcome in the mosque as long as they are appropriately dressed and behave decorously.
Our entourage walking through the main prayer hall of Imam Abbas's mosque (the GYP is front right). Again you can see renovations in progress: the yellow-and-black hazard-warning borders seem peculiarly apposite.
The museum of Imam Hussein's mosque is very different in feel and outlook to the one in Imam Abbas's mosque although are of an age—i.e., only three or four years old. There is more here about the history of the shrine, from pre-Islamic finds from the site—spotlit in the case behind us (plus three cylinder seals , much to Lamia's delight)—to the damage and looting inflicted on it by Saddam's forces in the 1991 uprising after the Gulf War. This is very much the personal vision of museum director Mr Alaa (centre, in black with the stripy tie; turns out he went to university with Lamia's daughter Nour!), while Abu Laith prefers to focus on the objects.
Note too the Shia green walls and simple carpeting here, compared to the rich blue-and-silver aesthetic of the first; and while Abu Laith's museum is open-plan, with wall cases around the edge and table-cases in the centre of the room, Mr Alla has arranged his cases to create sub-galleries while also, cleverly, spelling out Hussain's name when viewed from above. You exit the museum into a gallery looking down on the main prayer hall. This, says Mr Alaa, is the real, living museum and it is hard to disagree with him, it is such a captivating and restful sight.
As should be obvious by now, Lamia and I were treated with exquisite hospitality and attention for the duration of our visit, yet this was not mere ceremony. The staff here know they've got something good going on—though of course were delighted to hear us confirm it—and are keen to make it even better, and to share what they have. As I wrote yesterday, the collaboration is Dr Mohammed's initiative but the whole institution is fully behind it, so far as we could see; I am very excited at the prospect of helping to make it happen.
Posted by Eleanor Robson at 17:34
Travelling from the UK to Iraq
Not about the toothpaste
Iraqi history, ancient and modern
Welcomed to the heart of Shia Islam
Magenta leopard-print
Date-palm and Tamarisk


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Q: Can't share image on google+ android I am trying to share an image with description to google+ using this code:
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The ImageView iv shows the image.But when Google+ dialog show up the description "Hi G+" appears but the image don't.
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A: Google+ apparently does not support the android.resource scheme. That is a rather unpopular scheme, and many apps will not support it. Share your content by other means (e.g., FileProvider and a content:// scheme, or a file on external storage and a file:// scheme).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It seems as if OOIDA and its members have been fighting this electronic log battle for a long time. How long? Five years or so? Would you believe 40 years? Editor-in-Chief Sandi Soendker shares some of that history.


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Three Swimming and Diving Tigers Earn LSU Degrees
The LSU Swimming and Diving program had three athletes walk across the stage Friday earning their LSU degrees as summer graduation ceremonies began on campus.
BATON ROUGE – The LSU Swimming and Diving program had three athletes walk across the stage Friday earning their LSU degrees as summer graduation ceremonies began on campus.
Ellie Baldwin, Brian McGroarty, and Trent Schachter each earned their degrees in their respective fields. Baldwin finished her bachelor's of science in sports administration, while McGroarty earned his degree in interdisciplinary studies. Schachter joined Baldwin in earning his degree in sports administration.
Baldwin helped the Tigers to several top-10 finishes in the 100-yard butterfly. She started off her senior campaign with a second-place finish against Tulane. She would add a seventh-place finish against Florida State and a second-place finish against Texas A&M.
McGroarty, a distance specialist, had several special finishes during his senior season. Against Florida State, he notched two top-five finishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
Schachter's main contribution to the Tigers' swimming squad came in the butterfly events. During his last competitive season, he had five top-five finishes in the 100-yard fly, 200-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard freestyle.
Carson Paul Set to Compete at the Winter Senior Canadian Diving Nationals
LSU Earns Second Relay NCAA Qualifying Time in Regular Season Finale
LSU Travels to Texas A&M for Final Regular Season Meet


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Home | Politics | Iran ranks first in 2017 Thailand Asian Junior Wrestling Champs
Iran ranks first in 2017 Thailand Asian Junior Wrestling Champs
Tehran, July 21, Iran Greco-Roman wrestling team finished in first place at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships in Thailand.
Iranian wrestlers snatched two gold, three silver and one bronze medals in the competition.
The 2017 Junior Asian Wrestling Championships opened in Thailand's capital Bangkok on Thursday (July 20).
Several teams from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Uzbekistan and India are competing for the second and third titles.
The competitions would wrap up Friday (July 21) evening.
Cision Releases Exclusive Influencer Identification, Monitoring and Measurement Capabilities for Communications and PR Professionals
Gemalto's remote subscription management solution helps Lenovo customers be always connected


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Category Archives: Jane Austen's Life & Times
In Memory of Jane Austen ~ July 18, 1817 (via Jane Austen in Vermont)
Posted in Jane Austen's Life & Times	by Laurel Ann Nattress
Deb at Jane Austen in Vermont commemorates the passing of Jane Austen 194 years ago today. R.I.P. gilder of every pleasure.
[I append here the post I wrote last year on this day] July 18, 1817. Just a short commemoration on this sad day… No one said it better than her sister Cassandra who wrote I have lost a treasure, such a Sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed,- She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow, I had not a thought concealed from her, & it is as if I had lost a part of myself…" (Letters, … Read More
via Jane Austen in Vermont
Vic at Jane Austen's World remembers Jane Austen's life with a book giveaway of In the Garden with Jane Austen.
You can also read my previous posts of Jane Austen's passing:
In Memoriam: Jane Austen
Reflections upon Jane Austen's death, July 18, 1817: "her talents, her virtues, and her engaging manners"
© 2007 – 2011 Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose
gravesites, Jane Austen, mourning, regency-england, Winchester Cathedral	7 Comments
Follow Friday: The Royal Wedding on BBC America
Since Jane Austen always ended her novels with a wedding or two, we thought we would be remiss if we did not mention the Royal Wedding of Catherine Middleton to HRH Prince William at Westminster Abbey in London today. Approximately 2 billion viewers around the world will be tuning in to watch the five and a half hours of commercial free coverage being broadcast live on BBC America. We will be one of them.
For Royal watchers this will be the event of the decade and many will be setting their alarm clocks for 3:00 am Eastern and 12:00 am Pacific time here in the US to watch the glitz, glamour and the reveal of the wedding dress designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. For anyone who remembers the wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and HRH Prince Charles in 1981, it is well worth the loss of sleep. No one does weddings with more pomp and style than the British. We are sure that every milliner in the UK has been laboring away on the perfect bonnet for the occasion for months. We only wish we had planned ahead and taken the day off of work.
For those who miss the live Kate and Wills action, there are bound to be re-runs and highlights shown online and on TV for days, and you can pre-order the official DVD from BBC America which will be available on May 24th. And, for those of you who would like to explore the one thousand years of Royal Wedding history, from William the Conquer to Kate and Wills, we highly recommend Emily Brand's new condensed volume Royal Weddings published by Shire Libraries. Here is the publisher's blurb:
With the impending nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton this April, Shire Publications offers Royal Weddings, the perfect primer on Britain's rich nigh-millennial history of kingly couplings and the ideal accompaniment to the aforementioned must-see event of the twenty-first century.
Royal Weddings traces the evolution of matrimonial majesty from the politically charged, relatively austere, private affairs which dominate much of English history, to the grandiose extravaganza of Prince Charles's and Diana's union in 1981. Over time, British royal weddings have become the standard by which all other wedding ceremonies are compared.
The book abounds with eye-opening details and interesting stories, such as how King Henry VIII's marital vows—"…to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part…"— have been paradigmatic ever since; or the touching account of the 15th century monarch, Edward IV, who married beneath him and had to keep his marriage to a poor soldier's widow a secret.
Even with nearly a thousand years of British royalty to cover, author Emily Brand deftly keeps from wallowing in a mire of historical pedantry. Instead, she has culled together exquisitely fascinating facts and anecdotes and presents her discoveries in a lively and inquisitive tone. Her account of the 1625 wedding of King Charles I—for which the monarch wasn't even present (he sent a surrogate for the lavish affair held at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris), reads as if she herself was present at the scurrilous event.
Royal Weddings is a sleek 56 pages volume, generously enhanced with 60 full-color pieces of rare art and photos that go beyond traditional wedding pictures and add to the guilty, yet informative, pleasure of the book. There are examples of elaborate decorations, feasts and wedding cakes; ornate jewelry, commemorative medallions and other unique items; wedding dresses and evolving fashions; marriage certificates, announcements, menu cards and other juicy particulars; even the nullification document of King Henry VIII's short-lived marriage to Anne of Cleves, who Henry believed was misrepresented in the picture he was shown of her before agreeing to the coupling.
Emily Brand is a writer and historian with a special interest in eighteenth and nineteenth-century England. She has written widely on domestic and family life for a number of history and genealogy magazines, including publications from BBC Magazines Bristol, the Jane Austen Centre in Bath and the National Archives. She is also an author for history society London Historians, of which she has been made an honorary member.
The most infamous wedding of Jane Austen's era was the disastrous union of George, The Prince of Wales (later George IV) to his first cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick on 8 April 1795 at The Chapel Royal at St. James. Forced into an arranged marriage by his father King George III and Parliament, who pledged to pay off his debts, the Prince arrived for the ceremony "in his cups" stumbling up the aisle supported by the Dukes of Bedford and Roxborough. When no one objected to the proceedings, the Prince tried to escape and then sobbed openly. Jane Austen had a very low opinion of Prinny and his outrageous lifestyle, and for good reason. He openly cheated on his wife, ran up astronomical debts and plummeted the reputation of the British monarchy to the depths of despair by dragging his failed marriage through divorce court. Let's hope that Wills and Kate have a happier life together.
British Monarchy, Emily Brand, HRH Prince William, Kate Middleton, Royal Wedding, Shire Library	14 Comments
4th Edition of Jane Austen's Letters Due Out in November
Posted in Jane Austen Book Sleuth, Jane Austen's Letters, Jane Austen's Life & Times, Jane Austen's Works	by Laurel Ann Nattress
Exciting news for Janeites! Deirdre Le Faye's incredible scholarship on Jane Austen and her family continues in this new edition of Jane Austen's Letters.
Many will be thrilled to learn that this 4th edition not only includes a new cover, but updates! Here is the description from Oxford University Press:
Jane Austen's letters afford a unique insight into the daily life of the novelist: intimate and gossipy, observant and informative–they read much like the novels themselves. They bring alive her family and friends, her surroundings and contemporary events, all with a freshness unparalleled in modern biographies. Most important, we recognize the unmistakable voice of the author of such novels as Pride and Prejudice and Emma. We see the shift in her writing from witty and amusing descriptions of the social life of town and country, to a thoughtful and constructive tone while writing about the business of literary composition.
R.W. Chapman's ground-breaking edition of the collected letters first appeared in 1932, and a second edition followed twenty years later. A third edition, edited Deirdre Le Faye in 1997 added new material, re-ordered the letters into their correct chronological sequence, and provided discreet and full annotation to each letter, including its provenance, and information on the watermarks, postmarks, and other physical details of the manuscripts. This new fourth edition incorporates the findings of recent scholarship to further enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest and most revealing view yet of her life and family. In addition, Le Faye has written a new preface, has amended and updated the biographical and topographical indexes, has introduced a new subject index, and had added the contents of the notes to the general index.
Teachers, students, and fans of Jane Austen, at all levels, will find in these letters remarkable insight into one of the most popular novelists ever.
"These are the letters of our greatest novelist. They give glances and hints at her life from the age of 20 to her death at 41, the years in which she wrote her six imperishable books."
–Claire Tomalin, Independent on Sunday
An unparalleled and irresistible insight into the life of Jane Austen
A complete and accurate transcript of all Austen's letters as known to date
Integrates the discoveries of recent Austen scholarship to reveal more about her life and family
2011 marks the bicentenary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility, the first of Austen's novels to appear in print
Deirdre Le Faye , now retired, worked for many years in the Department of Medieval & Later Antiquities at the British Museum. She started researching the life and times of Jane Austen and her family in the 1970s, and since then has written several books about them, the latest being A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000 , as well as numerous articles in literary journals.
The bit that really got my attention was the incorporation of new scholarship and a new preface. Huzzah!
Jane Austen's Letters, edited by Deirdre Le Faye
Hardcover (688) pages
ISBN: 9780199576074ISBN10
Due to be released on 1 November 2011
Books, Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's Letters, Nonfiction, Regency History	6 Comments
Follow Friday: The Regency Encyclopedia
Posted in Jane Austen Inspired, Jane Austen's Life & Times	by Laurel Ann Nattress
Here's a great Follow Firday recommendation for you. Regency history expert Sue Forgue writes to tell us of a wonderful announcement. Her website The Regency Encyclopedia is celebrating its 5th anniversary and has revealed several new enhancements to the Fashion Module. These include:
Fashion Glossary: This is the same database of definitions that powers the highlighted words in the fashion prints' texts. You can now search on these definitions without hunting through the fashion prints.
Research Fashion Palettes: Ever wonder what a color like morone looks like or what garments would be in that color? This database allows you to research the fashion palette colors by year (1800-1829) or by the color itself. A couple of caveats to keep in mind: First, since the color swatches are html codes, your monitor will determine how they display, so at best, these can only be considered approximations. Second, each year's fashion palette has been compiled from the original fashion print texts and other contemporary fashion articles. If a color shows up in one year and not another, it doesn't mean the color wasn't used, it only means that I don't have any original source documentation for it.
Visit the Modiste Shop to Dress the Doll: Have some fun creating your own regency era outfit. This is the first of an eventual six dolls in the series. Pick the year and the applicable colors for each garment type will load. You can pick any combination of available colors and change them as much as you please before the doll is displayed. When you do, you'll see the doll in a lovely setting with text incorporating your color choices written in the style of the fashion column in "La Belle Assemblée".
In addition to these functions, the fashion prints database has been increased to almost 1,700 images thanks to the generous contributions of Vicky Hinshaw of Milwaukee and Jeanne Steen of Chicago.
Many thanks to Sue and her crew for the incredible information available to Austen fans and Regency history buffs. The site is password protected so please use this info for access. Enjoy!
User ID: JaneAusten
Password: brilliant1
(both are case sensitive)
Jane Austen, Regency fashion, Regency History, Regency Maps, The Recency Encyclopedia	3 Comments
Happy Birthday Jane Austen Blog Tour: A Celebration of her Legacy – Her Juvenilia
Put on you party hats and rip open the streamers. Today is Jane Austen's 235th birthday! Even Google is getting into the spirit. Isn't the banner they are displaying today lovely?
Welcome to the Happy Birthday Jane Blog Tour sponsored by Maria Grazia of My Jane Austen Book Club blog. If you have joined the party in progress, you have landed on one of the fifteen Austen bloggers or Austenesque authors that are honoring our favorite author today. The full list of participants is listed at the bottom of this blog post.
In addition to celebratory posts in honor of our dear Jane, there are tons of giveaway prizes. Just leave a comment before December 22, 2010 on one or all of the blog posts on the tour to multiply your chances of winning more of the prizes. Full details of the giveaway can be found on the My Jane Austen Book Club blog who will be announcing the winners.
The Birth of a Genius
Born on the 16 of December in 1775 at Steventon Rectory near Alton Hampshire, Jane entered this world during a record snow storm. She was the seventh child and second daughter born to Reverend George Austen and his wife Cassandra nee Leigh. Here is an excerpt from a letter written on 17 December, 1775 from Jane Austen's father to his sister-in-law Susannah Walter:
'You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little if we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy.'
It is the only remaining written reference to Jane Austen being called Jenny.
Educated briefly at The Abbey School in Reading, Jane was basically a home schooled girl. At the knee of her Oxford educated father Reverend Austen she read extensively from her father's diverse personal library of classics and, wait for it, NOVELS. Books would be her biggest influence in forming her education. Yes. The Austen's were novel readers. This dramatic emphasis may sound inconsequential today in the age when novels outsell nonfiction hand over fist, but in the late eighteenth-century when Austen was being educated, poetry was the preferred medium. Novels were considered low-brow fare. The novel as we know it today was only yet taking flight on the wings of Samuel Richardson, William Defoe and Henry Fielding. Austen was exposed to these writers through her father, and other more adventurous prose from Gothic fiction writer Anne Radcliffe and her favorite romantic novelist Fanny Burney. Another early influence upon her education was the family's interest in theatricals. Many popular plays were produced by the Austen children setting the stage, so-to-speak, for her later talent in her novels for creating drama and emotion in her dialogue and building arcs in her plots.
"Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint." Love and Freindship
A Writer in the Making
Reverend Austen encouraged both of his daughters to develop their talents and nurtured their creativity by giving them expensive supplies for writing and drawing. From 1787 to 1793, Jane wrote several poems, stories and plays for the amusement of her family. These were later reassembled into her personal writing journals given to her by her father and transferred into a "fair copy" in three bound notebooks. These are now called her Juvenilia. They contain many comical, far-fetched and boisterous tales of murder, death and romantic melodrama. Exuberant and high-spirited, this was Austen as a writer in the making, totally unbound, experimenting with style, content and letting loose with her wildest imaginings. Among my favorites in this collection are Love and Freindship (yes, note the spelling of e before i), The History of England and The Beautiful Cassandra. You can view scanned images of the original manuscripts at Jane Austen's Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition online website. They are a real treat.
Volume the First
Volume the Second
Volume the Third
Visit the other Happy Birthday, Jane Blog Tour posts today:
Adriana Zardini, at Jane Austen Sociedad do Brasil
Laurel Ann, at Austenprose – A Jane Austen Blog
Vic Sanborn, at Jane Austen's World
Katherine Cox, at November's Autumn
Karen Wasylowski, at Karen Wasylowski Blog
Laurie Viera Rigler, at Jane Austen Addict Blog
Lynn Shepherd, at her Lynn Shepherd Blog
Jane Greensmith, at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing
Jane Odiwe, at Jane Austen Sequels Blog
Alexa Adams, at First Impressions Blog
Regina Jeffers, at her Regina Jeffers Blog
Cindy Jones at First Draft Blog
Janet Mullany at Risky Regencies Blog
Maria Grazia at My Jane Austen Book Club Blog
Meredith at Austenesque Reviews
Get Your Free, Free, and did I say Free, Ebooks, for two days only!
In celebration of Jane Austen's Birthday, Sourcebooks, the world's leading publisher of Jane Austen fiction, is offering free digital downloads of ten of their popular sequels for two days only, December 16 and 17, 2010. I have placed links to the NookBook editions of each of the books being offered. Follow this link to my previous post listing all ten novels and six of the Jane Austen illustrated editions being offered today. Enjoy!
Here is a link to Sourcebooks for the free Jane Austen eBooks with all of the links to download for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Sourcebooks, Google eBookstore and Sony eBookstore.
Happy Birthday Jane. Thanks for many, many hours of enjoyment.
© 2007-2010 Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose
Happy Birthday Jane Blog Tour, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's Juvenilia	84 Comments
Jane Austen and the 'father of the novel' – Samuel Richardson
Gentle readers: Last week I reviewed Lynn Shepherd's new Austen inspired mystery Murder at Mansfield Park. Not only is she an accomplished novelist, she is a distinguished Samuel Richardson scholar with a new book Clarissa's Painter: Portraiture, Illustration, and Representation in the Novels of Samuel Richardson, published by the venerable Oxford University Press. Richardson was Jane Austen's favorite novelist and I could not pass up the opportunity for Lynn to chat about his impact on her writing and the English novel. This is her generous contribution. Enjoy!
What influence did Samuel Richardson have on novels like Mansfield Park?
Jane Austen's biographers often have to resort to guesswork and speculation about many aspects of her life, but there's one thing we do know, and that's who her favourite author was. According to her nephew, James-Edward Austen-Leigh, her knowledge of Samuel Richardson "was such as no one is likely again to acquire . . . Every circumstance narrated in Sir Charles Grandison, all that was said or done in the cedar parlour, was familiar to her; and the wedding days of [characters like] Lady L. and Lady G. were as well remembered as if they had been living friends."
Richardson is a literary hero of mine, too, and I always think it's sad that so few people read him nowadays. Not only because Clarissa, in particular, is one of the great masterpieces of European literature, but because it's only by reading Richardson that you really understand the tradition Austen was writing in, and where she got some of the inspiration for her books.
So who was Samuel Richardson?
Academics and critics have been arguing for years about who wrote the first English novel. Some argue for Defoe and Robinson Crusoe, others for Fielding, but I've always been a firm supporter of Pamela, which Richardson published in 1740.
Pamela is a novel-in-letters, written by a young serving-maid to her parents, in which she describes her master's attempts to seduce her. But as the subtitle ('Virtue Rewarded') suggests, all's well that ends with a wedding. It sounds pretty standard stuff now, but at the time it was a publishing sensation. There were 5 editions by the end of 1741, with an estimated 20,000 copies sold. It was also the first book to have what we would now call a 'promotional campaign'. As a printer himself, Richardson employed all the tricks of the book-trade, including newspaper leaders and celebrity endorsement, and may even have encouraged the publication of a pamphlet that denounced the novel as pornographic, which certainly had a predictably healthy effect on sales!
But if it was Pamela that was ground-breaking, Richardson's next novel, Clarissa, is the one that really established a new kind of prose fiction in English. This, like all Richardson's books, is an epistolary novel, and it's worth remembering that when Austen first put pen to paper seriously herself, she chose exactly this form – first in Lady Susan, and then in Elinor & Marianne, the first version of Sense & Sensibility. Clarissa is the story of a young woman who's tricked away from her family by the libertine, Robert Lovelace, and eventually raped. The story evolves through two parallel correspondences – Clarissa's with her friend Anna, and Lovelace's with his confidant Belford. The depth and subtlety of the psychological characterisation is extraordinary, and you can see immediately why Henry Austen says his sister was such an admirer of "Richardson's power of creating, and preserving, the consistency of his characters." However, Clarissa is undeniably a very long read, so if you'd like a taster first, I recommend the BBC adaptation starring Sean Bean. It's quite old now, but really worth taking a look at.
Sir Charles Grandison
The interesting point about that last quote, though, is that it's actually about Sir Charles Grandison, Richardson's last, longest, and least interesting book. All the same it was undeniably Austen's favourite, and the one that had the most direct influence on her literary technique. As the critic Marilyn Butler has said, "Sir Charles Grandison contributed more than any other single book to the tradition of social comedy… which Jane Austen inherited." Again and again, you can see Austen using characters and episodes from Richardson, and re-working them for her own purposes. If you're interested there's an excellent book on this whole subject by Jocelyn Harris called Jane Austen's Art of Memory.
The parallels between Grandison and Mansfield Park, in particular, are especially interesting. Both books deal with similar themes, like marriage, education, and the relationships between parents and children, but there are also some striking similarities between many of the characters, notably the respective heroes and heroines – Fanny Price and Harriet Byron, and Edmund Bertram and Sir Charles. For example, both Fanny and Harriet are either literally or effectively orphans, who are adopted by a much richer family: as a result they both acquire two 'sisters' and a 'brother' they rapidly fall for, even though the man himself is in love with someone else entirely.
There's no question that Austen loved Sir Charles Grandison, but that doesn't mean she wasn't prepared to send it up gently. Isabella Tilney famously calls it an 'amazing horrid book', and sometime in the 1790s Jane and her niece Anna worked together to turn Richardson's million-word novel into a ten-minute comic play for the family to perform. Though that's rather easier than it sounds, because so little actually happens in Grandison: Sir Walter Scott recalled an old lady telling him she always chose to have that book read to her, because "should I drop asleep in course of the reading, I am sure, when I awake, I shall have lost none of the story, but shall find the party, where I left them, conversing in the cedar-parlour."
One reason I mention this is because it's something I always say to people who say you should never tinker with a literary classic like Austen, whether by writing sequels or pastiches, or creating new versions based on her works, like my own Murder at Mansfield Park. It's useful to remind ourselves that Jane Austen did exactly the same thing, using Richardson both as the source text for a youthful skit, and – more seriously – as an important inspiration for her mature novels. On that basis I think she'd be flattered that nearly 200 years after her death, so many of us still turn to her books to find inspiration for new work of our own.
Fast facts about the 'Father of the Novel'
Born near Derby in 1689, Richardson was married twice and had six sons and six daughters, of whom only four girls survived. His education was limited, but he became an extremely successful printer in London, not putting pen to paper on his own account until he was 50.
At the age of 13, Richardson was making money writing love-letters for young women he knew, an experience he claimed gave him his knowledge of the female heart.
When the villagers of Slough read of Pamela's wedding in the newspaper they ran the church bell in celebration.
You can actually read Clarissa in 'real time', starting on January 10th, and finishing on December 18th.
"This Richardson is a strange fellow. I heartily despise him, and eagerly read him, nay, sob over his works in a most scandalous manner." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
"If you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment". Samuel Johnson
"I thought [if Pamela were] written in an easy and natural manner… [it] might possibly introduce a new species of writing, that might possibly turn young people into a course of reading different from the pomp and parade of romance-writing"
There are good basic introductions to Richardson and his novels here:
Biography of Samuel Richards at Your Dictionary
Biography of Samuel Richardson 1689–1761 at enotes
The site below is also really interesting. Richardson didn't just publish the first English novel, but the first illustrated novel too. He took advantage of Pamela's runaway success by issuing a lavish 'collector's edition' two years later (though there were pirate illustrated versions before that). Richardson went to great expense to commission his own illustrations from two of the leading book engravers of the time. It's fascinating to see him using these images as a way of ensuring that readers only saw 'his' version of Pamela the demure and virtuous heroine, and not – like many of his contemporaries, including Henry Fielding – "a pert little minx, whom any man of common sense or address might have had on his own terms in a week"!
Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela (and printer on an ordinary day…)
Lynn Shepherd studied English at Oxford, and later went on to do a doctorate on Samuel Richardson, which has now been published by Oxford University Press. She's also a passionate Jane Austen fan, and has just published Murder at Mansfield Park. You can visit her website and follow her on Twitter as GhostingAusten.
Murder at Mansfield Park (St. Martins Press 2010)
Clarissa's Painter: Portraiture, Illustration, and Representation in the Novels of Samuel Richardson (Oxford University Press 2010)
Books, British literature, Charles Grandison, Clarissa, Classic Literature, English Literature, Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Lynn Shepherd, Murder at Mansfield Park, Pamela, Samuel Richardson	16 Comments
Much has been written on the cause of Jane Austen's lingering illness and untimely death in Winchester on 18 July 1817. I have a stack of biographies that I perused in search of a poignant passage that would express the tenor of this solemn day. Her great biographers Claire Tomalin, David Nokes and Elizabeth Jenkins give detailed accounts from family in attendance and their own conclusions. I find her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh's interpretation from his A Memoir of Jane Austen simple and touching. Even though it is not elaborate or detailed, it is the only version from the view point of someone who actually knew her, and I find that unique and invaluable.
Throughout her illness she was nursed by her sister, often assisted by her sister-in-law, my mother. Both were with her when she died. Two of her brothers, who were clergymen, lived near enough to Winchester to be in frequent attendance, and to administer the services suitable for a Christian's death-bed. While she used the language of hope to her correspondents, she was fully aware of her danger, though not appalled by it. It is true that there was much to attach her to life. She was happy in her family; she was just beginning to feel confidence in her own success; and, no doubt, the exercise of her great talents was an enjoyment in itself. We may well believe that she would gladly have lived longer; but she was enabled without dismay or complaint to prepare for death. She was a humble, believing Christian. Her life had been passed in the performance of home duties, and the cultivation of domestic affections, without any self-seeking or craving after applause. She had always sought, as it were by instinct, to promote the happiness of all who came within her influence, and doubtless she had her reward in the peace of mind which was granted her in her last days. Her sweetness of temper never failed. She was ever considerate and grateful to those who attended on her. At times, when she felt rather better, her playfulness of spirit revived, and she amused them even in their sadness. Once, when she thought herself near her end, she said what she imagined might be her last words to those around her, and particularly thanked her sister-in-law for being with her, saying: 'You have always been a kind sister to me, Mary.' When the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and on being asked by her attendants whether there was anything that she wanted, her reply was, 'Nothing but death.' These were her last words. In quietness and peace she breathed her last on the morning of 18 July, 1817.
On the 24th of that month she was buried in Winchester Cathedral, near the centre of the north aisle, almost opposite to the beautiful chantry tomb of William of Wykeham. A large slab of black marble in the pavement marks the place. Her own family only attended the funeral. Her sister returned to her desolated home, there to devote herself, for ten years, to the care of her aged mother; and to live much on the memory of her lost sister, till called many years later to rejoin her. Her brothers went back sorrowing to their several homes. They were very fond and very proud other. They were attached to her by her talents, her virtues, and her engaging manners; and each loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his own to the dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they yet never expected to see. [1]
Cassandra Austen, Henry Austen, James Edward Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's Death, Jane Austen's Illness, Winchester Cathedral	17 Comments
'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies': Jane Austen and Music
Posted in Blog Events, Jane Austen's Life & Times, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen's Works, Pride and Prejudice without Zombies	by Laurel Ann Nattress
Gentle Readers: in celebration of the 'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies' event over the next month, I have asked several of my fellow Jane Austen bloggers to share their knowledge and interest in Austen's most popular novel. Today, please welcome guest blogger Vic from Jane Austen's World who shares with us her extensive knowledge of Regency culture and history in four posts during the event. Her fourth contribution is on music during Jane Austen's era, how it influenced her life, and her writing.
"Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good a one as can be got for 30 guineas, and I will practice country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we have the pleasure of their company." – Jane Austen to Cassandra, 1808
Like many ladies of her era, Jane Austen was an accomplished musician. And so were her characters. In Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet, the Bingley sisters and Georgiana Darcy could all play instruments with skill. Lady Catherine de Bourgh would have been a proficient, as would her daughter Anne, had she learned and practiced. Before the age of electricity and cable the world was largely silent musically speaking, save for the music played by family members, local musicians, or more famous musicians who were paid to play for the rich.
Musicians wandered the land, and London streets offered a pandemonium of sounds, much of it derived from musical instruments. The only music available in the home was that which amateur or professional performers could produce on the spot, so that the ability to play music well was crucial for all walks of life. From childhood on, young ladies were expected to play a musical instrument and study with music masters. Gentlemen sang as well and formed impromptu amateur groups that entertained in taverns and men's clubs.
Continue reading at Jane Austen's World
Dressing for the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice
Dancing at the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice
Supper at the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice
Group reading schedule
Pride and Prejudice: Reading Resources
Pride and Prejudice without Zombies Event Schedule
Upcoming event posts
Day 20 July 14 Group Read: Chapters 57 – 61
Day 21 July 16 Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth Bennet
Day 22 July 24 Swag winners announced
Books, Classic Literature, Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's World, Pride and Prejudice, Regency-era Music	4 Comments
'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies': "Enamoured of the Picturesque at a Very Early Age": William Gilpin and Jane Austen
Dovedale in the Peak district of Derbyshire from Observations on the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland etc, by William Gilpin (1786)
Gentle Readers: in celebration of the 'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies' event over the next month, I have asked several of my fellow Jane Austen bloggers to share their knowledge and interest in Austen's most popular novel. Today, please welcome guest blogger Julie from Austenonly who shares with us her extensive knowledge of Regency culture and history in two posts during the event. Her second contribution is on travel writer William Gilpin whose influence upon Jane Austen is seen in Pride and Prejudice. Discover how she was able to describe the Derbyshire countryside even though she had never traveled there and why the use of the "picturesque" is a hidden joke in the plot.
Having read Henry Austen's biographical notice of his sister, published in the posthumously printed first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, I knew from an early age, that Jane Austen was
enamoured of Gilpin on the Picturesque at a very early age…
and so when aged 15 I found a copy of his Observations on the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland in what was then one of my favourite haunts, a second-hand bookshop in Dr Johnson's home city of Lichfield, I bought it immediately…But now comes a confession…Prepare yourself for something very dreadful… I didn't read it for another 20 years.
I thought it would be deadly boring.
How wrong I was.
I should have trusted Jane Austen's taste and judgement, and realised exactly why she was enamoured of him…..but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before we explore his books and the reasons why I think she adored him, we ought properly to learn a little about William Gilpin's life.
William Gilpin was born on 4 June 1724 near Carlisle, in Cumberland. He was the son of Captain John Bernard Gilpin and a Matilda Langstaffe . Captain Gilpin was considered to be one of the best amateur painters of the time, and this artistic talent seems to have passed through to the next generation, for William was obsessed with the correct way to view both pictures and landscape, and his younger brother, Sawrey Gilpin was to become a famous animal painter and indeed later contributed some illustrations to Williams books.
Continue reading on Austenonly
Dovedale: A Neutral but Interesting Conversational Gambit
Applying to the Housekeeper, Country House Tourism in Jane Austen's Era
Day 18 July 11 Top Ten P&P editions in print
Day 19 July 12 Music at the Netherfield Ball
Austenonly, Books, Classic Literature, Fiction, Georgian History, Guest Blogger, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Regency History, William Gilpin	2 Comments
'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies': Supper at the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice
Gentle Readers: in celebration of the 'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies' event over the next month, I have asked several of my fellow Jane Austen bloggers to share their knowledge and interest in Austen's most popular novel. Today, please welcome guest blogger Vic from Jane Austen's World who shares with us her extensive knowledge of Regency culture and history in four posts during the event. Her third contribution is on dinning at the Netherfield Ball. Learn all about what the guests would have been served at Mr. Bingley's lavish multiple course meal.
"As for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough I shall send round my cards." – Charles Bingley, Pride and Prejudice
The sit-down supper served at the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice probably occurred around midnight. By that time, people would be famished after their physical exertions or from playing cards nonstop in the card room. They had most likely eaten their dinner between 3-5 p.m. (earlier in the country, and later in Town). Dinners consisted of between 5-16 dishes and could last several hours. The best families would serve up two courses, for a meal's lavishness depended on the number of courses and dishes that were served. Dishes representing a range of foods, from soups to vegetables and meats, would be spread over the table in a pleasing arrangement and would be set down at the beginning of the meal.
Day 16 July 09 William Gilpin and Jane Austen
Jane Austen, Jane Austen's World, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice without Zombies, Regency Culture, Regency Food, Regency Times, Regency-era Dinning	Leave a comment
'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies': A Closer Look at Carriages and Characters in Pride and Prejudice
Gentle Readers: in celebration of the 'Pride and Prejudice without Zombies' event over the next month, I have asked several of my fellow Jane Austen bloggers to share their knowledge and interest in Austen's most popular novel. Today, please welcome guest blogger Mags from AustenBlog who shares with us her extensive knowledge of Regency history. Today she explores who drives what in P&P and why. Elizabeth may object to traveling fifty miles from Kent to Hertfordshire, but what is fifty miles of good road if you have a fine carriage? (or Henry Tilney to drive you)
An author—especially a talented and clever one like Jane Austen—subtly imparts information about her characters with details such as their occupation, their mode of conversation, and even something seemingly so minor as their carriage. In Pride and Prejudice, the alert reader can pick up information not only about the characters but about the plot itself from the type of carriage used by a character in a particular situation.
In Jane Austen's day, a carriage was definitely a luxury item. They were expensive to purchase, naturally, and there were ongoing expenses in repair, storage, coachmen to care for and operate them, and the ongoing expenses of maintaining or renting horses to pull them; so it was a matter of interest to the impertinently nosy whether a person kept a carriage, and what kind. It was almost a method of broadcasting one's wealth to the world.
"I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; every body says that he is ate up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise."
Not that he isn't capable of snobbery, but one suspects Mr. Darcy doesn't particularly care about Mrs. Long and her carriage or lack thereof, and had plenty of other reasons not to talk to that lady at the Meryton assembly. Mrs. Bennet is here perhaps passing off her own personal snobbery onto Darcy.
Continue reading at AustenBlog
Upcoming events posts
Books, Classic Literature, Elizabeth Bennet, Fiction, Jane Austen, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy, Novels, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Carriages	Leave a comment


text:
Q: Entity Framework database first on dll strange behavior I have a remote SQL Server database, wrapped with Entity Framework inside a dll.
When I reference that dll from my main application, I get a runtime exception stating "missing connection string in app.settings file" or, if I manually add the connection string, "no Entity Framework engine found".
If instead, I install EF from NuGet ALSO in my main application, the referenced dll works perfectly.
Now, the reason why I created and referenced the dll was to detach my business layer from the persistence layer, but if I need anyway a reference to EF for my application to work, I'm loosing the advantage of the dll wrapping.
What should I do?
EDIT:
I can't add a dependency from my main app to EF simply because the user of that dll will be a client outside .NET, such as an Excel or Matlab instace

A: The dll NEVER has it's own config file that it accesses to read settings such as connection strings. Although your code to read the config information may be in an assembly, the config file is owned by the host process, so an entry for connection strings MUST be present in the Host processes config file.
In your scenario, it sounds like on the remote sever it will be SQL server that acts as the host process.  On your local machine, the host process (your .exe or website, IIS Wp3 ) will act as the host process. Your local process WILL require the connectionstring setting in web.config / app/config.
In VS, when we add a reference to an assembly project, all of the dependent .dll's get compiled and placed in the top level applications bin folder. If you simply reference a .dll file from your application, these dependent .dll files are not placed in the bin folder. This is what you are experiencing here with EF.
It is possible to encapsulate EF functionality inside a .dll file, but the .dll files which make up EF itself, MUST be available to the host process. You don't need to add a NuGet reference to your main application. By referencing the project that you .dll is built from in your main application, the EF engine will be compiled to the bin folder of your main application.
Once you have built and deployed your main application with a project reference to your assembly, all the required files will be in the folder from which you execute your application. You can then make changes to the .dll source and just update the .dll binaries in the application folder, providing the changes do not break contracts etc eg. method signatures.

A: You will have the same issue with all your dependencies.  You must distribute multiple DLLs and make sure they get loaded.  See
See Resolving Assembly Loads
The AssemblyLoad event allows you to take over the assembly loading process for your AppDomain, and you can find the dependent assemblies on disk outside of the normal search locations (which are dependent on the host .exe location), or download them, or unpack them from assembly resources in your main .dll.
See also How to load an Assembly in a SSIS script task that isn't in the GAC


text:
Dr. Jason Gilliland
Youth Council Members
Faculty Collaborators
Former Associates
HEALYAC Black Lives Matter (BLM) Statement
Post by: Megan Graat
8:22PM Sep 09, 2020
The Human Environments Analysis Laboratory Youth Advisory Council (HEALYAC) staff and youth co-researchers have the collective goal to make meaningful change within our communities by taking steps towards improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people. To reach these goals, the HEALYAC relies heavily on a diverse group of youth who bring varied experiences and perspectives to the table.
The incidents of systemic violence against the Black community in North America, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Caleb Tubila Njoko, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and countless others, remind us of the enduring Anti-Black Racism and inequities that exist within our country.
The HEALYAC stand with our Black members and supporters, as well as Black leaders putting efforts towards ending the continuous injustices faced by the Black community. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement should be discussed on a regular basis as a reminder that Black lives matter always and not just when injustices happen.
The HEALYAC commits to using its collective tools and voice to listen, learn, and take action to support the BLM movement. They do not stand for racism. They do not stand for injustice. And so, they will not tolerate it or be silent. The HEALYAC is taking action to address racial inequities by (1) continuing to embrace racial diversity among members, (2) appointing Diversity Ambassadors to their council, (3) organizing seminars with experts to educate themselves, (4) engaging in digital outreach to spread awareness and educational resources, and (5) engaging in community advocacy.
The HEALYAC also calls on the London community to be allies of the Black community, listen to their shared experiences, and learn to amplify their messages so that their ideas are heard. They are also calling for collaboration with key stakeholders within the city of London and province of Ontario to share their views and ideas for enacting change.
The HEALYAC supports the BLM Movement, and promises to keep inclusivity at the forefront of their core values.
Please read the full statement here!
The HEAL Youth Advisory Council (HEALYAC) from London, Ontario informs youth-related health research conducted by the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory (HEAL) at Western University. It represents the diverse voices and perspectives of 16 teenagers from across the city.
Categories: HEALYAC, Newsletter
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HEALYAC 2022-2023: Meeting #6
New Study: Examining the Social and Built Environment Factors Influencing Children's Independent Use of Their Neighborhoods and the Experience of Local Settings as Child-Friendly
New HEAL Study: 'Ahhh it was like paradise, but inside': children's experiences and perceptions of a free physical activity program
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AT&T has sold its stake in Hulu in a transaction which values the streaming service at $15bn.
AT&T's 9.5% minority stake was valued at $1.43 billion.
According to a statement, AT&T will use the proceeds from this transaction along with additional planned sales of non-core assets to reduce its debt.
Hulu chief executive Randy Freer said: "We thank AT&T for their support and investment over the past two years and look forward to collaboration in the future.
The exchange did not require governmental or third party approval because the deal was signed and closed privately.
AT&T acquired its stake in Hulu after it bought Time Warner last June and has since rebranded as Warner Media.
Warner Media announced last year its plans to launch in Q4 2019 its own streaming service to push HBO programmes and other series owned by the company.
Broadcasters are looking to diversify the direct-to-consumer offerings with Disney+ and Apple TV+ recently confirmed as launching in the near future, while Comcast confirmed earlier this year its Flex streaming video on demand (SVOD) platform would focus on non-cable customers who have signed up for the company's broadband internet.
Hulu was launched in 2008 and has grown to have more than 25 million subscribers in the US with live news, entertainment and sports from 21st Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal, CBS Corporation, The CW, Turner Networks, A+E Networks and Discovery Networks.
It sets itself apart from other SVOD services by offering viewers instant access to current shows from all major US broadcast network with libraries of TV programmes and films including The Handmaid's Tale, Marvels' Runaways and Castle Rock.
Upcoming Hulu Originals include Catch-22 from George Clooney; Four Weddings and a Funeral from Mindy Kaling; Wu-Tang: An American Saga from Brian Grazer and RZA; Ramy from Jerrod Carmichael and Ramy Youssef and Little Fires Everywhere from Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
Netflix will see uninterrupted subscriber growth and success into 2024, according to a new report forecasting the SVOD platform success by Rethink TV.
The research arm of Rethink Technology Research expects "service cannibalisation" to affect the video revenues of the world's largest pay TV and studio networks.
AT&T acquired Time Warner in a $85 billion transaction; Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for $71 billion and Comcast which has owned NBC-Universal for a while now has just acquired Sky for $39 billion in Europe.
The report reveals that AT&T will struggle to accelerate its belief in addressable advertising, while Comcast will do well outside of the US in both advertising and pay TV but will come last in the race for SVOD subscribers.
Disney, which owns ESPN+ and a massive movie catalogue are noted at "wild cards" to form a leading position, however will struggle to make inroads into SVOD globally, despite inheriting some key leading regions such as India.
According to the report: "Come 2024 Netflix will remain the dominant force in streaming, earning more streaming revenue than the big three put together and it will have a growing influence on what is watched around the world.
It concluded that AT&T and Comcast will continue to be reliant on their cellular and broadband revenues for all growth until beyond the forecast period.