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HSS Receives Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for Sixth Consecutive Year
Today, Press Ganey, a nationally recognized private company that measures patient experience, named Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) a 2018 Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award® Winner. The Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award® was presented to HSS during their annual conference in Orlando, Florida.
"At HSS, we are committed to helping people move better so they can live better," said Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO at HSS. As a world leader in musculoskeletal health, we put patients first and are honored to have earned this distinguished recognition for the sixth consecutive year."
"We are proud to partner with HSS to support their mission to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centered care." said Patrick T. Ryan, CEO of Press Ganey. "They are truly dedicated to delivering exceptional care in the communities they serve, and their commitment to capturing and acting on patient experience feedback is a very powerful demonstration of this."
The Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award® is a nationally recognized achievement for those who have sustained performance in the top 5 percent for patient experience during the course of a year of data. HSS has been awarded this recognition for six consecutive years for outstanding inpatient and HCAHPS performance.
"It is rewarding to be part of a medical staff that is devoted to researching the latest advancements in treatment for all musculoskeletal conditions," said Todd J. Albert, MD, surgeon-in-chief and medical director at HSS. "From motion analysis to virtual reality, HSS physicians implement the best practices in all initiatives to improve patient care and elevate patient satisfaction."
"Getting patients back to how they want to live their lives is our utmost priority," said Chao Wu, chief patient experience officer at HSS. "Guided by committed leadership, systematic feedback and a dedicated team of physicians and staff, we are able to continuously evolve our model of care to best treat each patient."
About Press Ganey
Press Ganey pioneered the health care performance improvement movement more than 30 years ago. Today, Press Ganey offers an integrated suite of solutions that enable enterprise transformation across the patient journey. Delivered through a cutting-edge digital platform built on a foundation of data security, Press Ganey solutions address safety, clinical excellence, patient experience and workforce engagement. The company works with more than 33,000 health care facilities in its mission to reduce patient suffering and enhance caregiver resilience to improve the overall safety, quality and experience of care.


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Q: Crop an image after upload on custom account page I have a custom account page in WordPress where I would like users to be able to upload an image that replaces the default WordPress avatar. I have the upload process working great, but I need to crop the images to make sure they are all squares and not too large. Below is the code that I have. I think the issue is with the $image = wp_get_image_editor($path_file); line because the if clause below it is not running.
function mepr_save_account_fields($user) {
  //avatar
  $the_user     = MeprUtils::get_currentuserinfo();
  $upload_info  = wp_upload_dir();
  $upload_url   = $upload_info['baseurl'] . '/user_avatars/';
  $upload_dir   = $upload_info['basedir'] . '/user_avatars/';

  $target_file  = $upload_dir . basename($_FILES["mepr_avatar"]["name"]);
  $target_url   = $upload_url . basename($_FILES["mepr_avatar"]["name"]);

  // Crop Image
  $parsed_file  = parse_url($target_file);
  $parsed_url   = parse_url($target_url);

  $path_file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . $parsed_file['path'];
  $path_url  = 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $parsed_url['path'];

  $image = wp_get_image_editor($path_file);
  if ( ! is_wp_error( $image ) ) {
     //true indicates to crop image.
     $result = $image->resize( 200,200,true );
     $result = $image->save($path_file);
  }
  move_uploaded_file($_FILES["mepr_avatar"]["tmp_name"], $target_file);

  //update info
  update_user_meta($the_user->ID, 'mepr_custom_avatar', $target_url);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


An investment firm can be a great way to invest your money. These firms often offer very high returns and require little to no effort on your part. You do however have to make sure that you find an investment firm that is trustworthy. This is not all that hard to do but it will take some time on your part to do the necessary research.
The absolute most important thing that you have to do in order to find a trustworthy investment firm is to take a good look at their track record. This means not only the results they have achieved but also how they have been achieved. You will of course want to look at the historical value of their fund in order to make sure that it has been generally going up but you are also going to want to look for any complaints or lawsuits that have been filed against the company. It should go without saying that if they have been involved in criminal activity that you will want to stay away.
In addition to looking at the company as a whole you are also going to want to make sure that you look at the key people involved in running the company. Peter Briger, CEO of Hydromine says that this is the first thing that he looks at whenever he has dealings with a new company. The people you are going to want to pay close attention to are the fund manager and the top executives. If they have backgrounds that are unsavoury or questionable it is best to look at other companies to work with.
Another factor that you are going to want to look at when you are trying to determine if an investment firm is trustworthy is the type of companies that they invest. What you are going to want to look at here is whether or not they are investing in well managed companies that have been profitable in the past and are likely to be in the future or whether they are putting their money in the hottest current industry and taking advantage of short term trends. This is why Peter Briger and his company focus on the natural resource industry, this is an area where it is easy to find profitable companies.
One last thing that you need to do if you are going to find a trustworthy investment firm is to actually go in and talk to them about your money. This is something that few people actually do which is why so many people run into issues in this regard. You need to make sure that you meet the people who will be handling your money and that you are comfortable with the way that they will be doing this.


Food Fortification in a Globalized World outlines experiences over the past 50 years—and future potential—for the application of food fortification across a variety of foods in the industrialized and developing world. The book captures recent science and applications trends in fortification, including emerging areas such as biofortification, nutraceuticals and new nutrient intake recommendations, standards, policy and regulation. The book proposes a balanced and effective food fortification strategy for nations to adopt. In covering the most technical scientific details in an approachable style, this work is accessible to a range of practitioners in industry, government, NGOs, academia and research.
Food fortification has become an increasingly significant strategy to address gaps in micronutrient intakes in populations with measurable impact in both industrialized and developing countries. While the positive impacts are well recognized there are new concerns in some countries that excessive fortification of foods, outdated nutritional labeling rules and misleading marketing tactics used by food manufacturers may result in young children consuming harmful amounts of some vitamins and minerals.
M.G. Venkatesh Mannar is a champion and technology leader in global nutrition with 35 years experience in pioneering effective international nutrition, technology and development initiatives focused on the world's most vulnerable citizens. A chemical engineer and food technologist by training, Mannar served as President of the Micronutrient Initiative (MI) in Ottawa for nearly 20 years until February 2014. In that role Mannar directed the organisation's mission to develop, implement and monitor supplementation and food fortification programs to address malnutrition in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In 2013, for his leadership in the global fight against malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency Mannar was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the country's greatest civilian honors. He is currently pursuing his research and teaching interests in applying engineering solutions to nutrition as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto.
Richard Hurrell graduated in Food Technology from the University of Reading in the UK in 1969 and after a short spell in the food industry took a Masters in Nutrition and a PhD at the University of Cambridge UK under Kenneth Carpenter specializing in Bioavailability (lysine) and the effect of food processing on nutritional quality of foods. He joined Nestlé Research in Switzerland in 1978 and became head of the micronutrient group focusing on iron bioavailability and fortification in relation to infant foods. After a one year sabbatical in Kansas University with Jim Cook in 1984, iron bioavailability was extensively studied collaboratively between KU and Nestlé using human radioisotope studies and focusing on food factors such as phytic acid, polyphenols and proteins. At the same time, he introduced stable isotope techniques with mass spectrometry at Nestlé Research so as to work with children and optimize iron and zinc absorption from infant foods focusing on phytic acid removal. He moved to Institute of Food Science, ETH Zurich in 1994 as the full Professor of Human Nutrition, introducing nutrition into the food science curriculum and setting up a research program based on micronutrient malnutrition focused on the developing world. Human stable isotope studies on iron and zinc absorption in women and children from fortified and biofortified foods, and long term feeding studies in women and children to measure the efficacy of fortified foods formed the basis of this research. He was joint author of the WHO food fortification guidelines (2006,2009) and has worked closely with Harvest Plus, GAIN, IAEA and GAIN to improve micronutrient malnutrition. He has been a GAIN Board member since 2002, ILSI Europe Board since 2010 and was Editor of the International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research 2001-2014. He has some 200 peer reviewed publications with recent interest in the influence of infections on iron bioavailability; the influence of phytases on iron and zinc absorption in infants; the influence of inulin and carotenoids on iron absorption; efficacy of zinc, vitamin A and iron from triple fortified extruded rice; iron absorption from biofortified beans; and the efficacy in women and children of NaFeEDTA fortified margarine and atta flour. He retired as Head of Human Nutrition at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health at ETH in 2012 taking Professor Emeritus status and continues to work closely with GAIN, WHO, Harvest Plus and other international organizations.
As a co-editor of this book I recommend this book for a wide range of audiences interested in the improvement of nutritional status of people through fortification of foods - scientists, policy makers, program managers, food and agribusiness leaders, teachers and students. You will get a complete overview of the problems of micronutrient malnutrition and how they can be addressed through addition to commonly eaten staple foods.


Port Moresby (EMTV): Australian Chief of Australian Defence Force, General David Hurley made an appearance at the PNG Defence Force Headquarters at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby.
General Hurley is in the country for a three-day visit, to discuss strategies that will strengthen the PNG-Australia partnership through various defense programs.
General David Hurley was met by Papua New Guinea Defence Force Brigadier General Francis Agwi.
Military personnel at the barracks assembled at the Commanders Parade Ground to welcome the visiting general and his delegate.
General Hurley's visit follows ongoing talks with the PNGDF and the PNG government on enhancing the PNG Defence Force' capabilities.
These will be achieved by building the PNGDF's capacity through joint partnership platforms; one of which is the Defence Cooperation Arrangement.
The arrangement will be used as a framework to deliver PNG's Defence Cooperation Programs valued at an estimated 27 million Australian dollars.
General Hurley travelled to Wewak today for a one-day visit to the Moem Barracks.
He will also visit the Bomana War Cemetery before he departs for Australia on Saturday, August 3rd.


Terrell came to the shelter recently. This is a cat who loves attention and loves being brushed.
Sometimes there's that moment when you know a cat has had enough.
Well, that doesn't happen with Terrell! He is so happy to be handled and brushed.
The woman who had Terrell and two other cats was forced to make a difficult decision. She entered an assisted care facility and was only allowed one cat. Terrell was brought to PAWS.
Fortunately, he's got the kind of sweet personality that attracts adopters. We hope he won't be at PAWS long.


We prepare Business Plans, Feasibility Studies, and Financial Projections for the existing operations of your business or in the context of any business project, business restructuring and expansion of your business.
We plan, set down the critical activities, assign responsibilities, monitor the progress and evaluate the results. We assess projected cash outflows and inflows in order to advice the client with the best possible available financial and operational information.


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Queer Comics
Batgirl - Gay Icon?
By J. Skyler
Aug 10, 2012 - 0:06
Students of pop culture have always been fascinated with the gay male obsession with divas. The field of study naturally extends to lesbians, as well as bisexual and transgender men and women, although to a far lesser extent. The feminist in me at this point would like to go off a tangent about how sexism permeates all levels of society, including the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community (we put the L first to emphasis women's struggles and contributions which have historically been minimized), which is why icons important to gay men are far more exposed than others. However, for now, I'll examine the cultural significance of comic book legend Barbara Gordon, who has been a prominent and enduring figure within the industry for over 45 years. Whether you look at this character through the lens of feminist, disability or LGBT studies, she is without a doubt an iconic figure to millions.
An in-depth analysis concerning Barbara Gordon can't be discussed without the Women's Liberation Movement, which had only begun to seriously permeate public consciousness at the time of her introduction. Barbara Gordon is arguably the greatest feminist icon in comic books, second only to Wonder Woman—and even then I will argue she deserves top billing over the Amazing Amazon. While Wonder Woman epitomizes fantasy and mythology, Barbara Gordon's character and history are grounded in reality, which irrefutably links her to feminist theory to a greater degree than the vast majority of female superheroes.
The struggle for gender equality is the hallmark of all feminism and the global Women's Rights Movement. The resistance is quite perplexing, because when women challenge their roles in society that are purely cultural in context, such as a woman's place being in the home, they are berated for undermining the family dynamic, an idea that adamantly rebuffed by feminists and sociologists alike. Ironically, when women fight for the few aspects of their physical anatomy that actually make them female—such as access to birth control, safe and legal abortion, and other vital services that are crucial to women's health—opponents are completely dismissive. Furthermore, they continue to unapologetically accuse women of dissolving family values. In other words, women should not have the intellectual curiosity or courage to challenge cultural roles that are dictated to them, nor should they take into consideration the only legitimate biological differences that make them different from men.
Enter Barbara Gordon in 1967. Allow me to rephrase—enter Dr. Barbara Gordon Ph.D., in 1967. I emphasize her doctorate because it's such a fundamental aspect of her character. In the 1950s, it was commonplace for women to attend college for the sole reason of earning their "M.R.S. degree", a playful yet historically disturbing coin of phrase which meant they were seeking husbands, not higher learning. The authors of Family Life in 20th-Century America (2007) note that "many college women married and got pregnant before they finished school." Additionally, they also point out that those who did finish college did so exclusively to further their husband's careers. Rather than entering the workforce themselves, "their degrees would be put to use as they helped their husbands entertain business associates, severed as interesting companions to their husbands, and raised intelligent, secure children." Thus, a decade later, Barbara Gordon's doctorate in library science represented a fundamental shift in attitude for women's education. She didn't toil for years on end for a Doctor of Philosophy to copulate and reproduce; she earned her degree to better herself.
It's a running joke among comic book enthusiasts just how many super villains have doctorates and are hell-bent on either destroying the world or enslaving it. Here was a character, and a woman no less, who represented the value of a formal education and what one can achieve with it. Her introduction not-so-coincidently establishes her as the head of Gotham City Public Library. Not only is Dr. Gordon educated, but she is an executive officer of an organization, responsible for maintaining and expanding its financial stability and academic integrity, as well as being responsible for all of her employees, other business associates, current and potential benefactors, and relationship with the general public. In discussing her education alone, her existence in the DC Universe touches on so many feminist principles without even mentioning her crime-fighting alter-ego Batgirl.
I've mentioned before how Gordon's persona is much more open and inviting than Bruce Wayne's, and her formal education is a key focal point. While both characters are certifiable geniuses, Wayne's lack of involvement in formal academics is rarely mentioned. We are told in various stories that he traveled the world learning a variety of subject and techniques, both physical and mental, from some of the greatest minds and masters on earth, but I suspect the reason Bruce Wayne is never attributed a specific degree in any one field from any particular university is because it would conflict his "wild playboy" persona, which has been so crucial in refuting any suspicion of leading a double life. In contrast, Gordon's status as an intellectual is seen as integral part of her identity, to both the reader and more importantly to the fictional world around her. Furthermore, she actually uses gender stereotyping to her advantage: what would an educated young woman be doing brawling with hardened criminals in the dead of night?
One of the understated revelations of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl is how she defies the stereotypical objectification of women by being a full-clothed costumed crime fighter. Off-hand, I can't think of a single male superhero who runs around half-naked, but when you take into consideration Supergirl's mini-skirt, Wonder Woman's bathing suit, Black Canary and Zatanna's fishnet stockings, and Power Girl's sole claim to fame being her ridiculously large breasts, Batgirl is one of a regrettably few super heroines who's physical attributes are not the focal point of her cultural relativity. That's not to say Batgirl is absolved of sexuality altogether (far from it), but she is one of a handful of female characters whose sexuality is appropriately regulated to a backdrop to her overall persona.
In her introductory story, "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl", Gordon is on her way to a policeman's ball dressed as a female version of Batman. It is only after she inadvertently prevents the villain Killer Moth from kidnaping Bruce Wayne that she believes she could become an effective crimefighter. This represents yet another vital aspect of her character: altruistic motivation. Unlike Batman and Robin, Batgirl does not seek revenge for the murder of a blood relative, nor is she burdened with the ethical responsibility of limitless power like Superman, Wonder Woman or Spider-Man. Saving lives is a choice she made as an ordinary individual. This choice makes her one of the most grounded characters in comic books because it is the same choice everyday heroes, such as firefighters, police officers, military soldiers, and good Samaritans make.
Nonetheless, her foray into the criminal underworld is immediately stifled by Batman, and even boy wonder Robin writes her off stating "we can't worry ourselves about a girl." Rabid fans of Batman often argue neither he nor Robin we're being sexist, but assumed Batgirl did not have the same training they possessed. However, in their attempt to discourage her, they specifically question her gender, not her expertise. One must wonder how different their reaction might have been had yet another male vigilante sprang up in Gotham. I'm sure both of them would have been just as territorial, but I doubt either would have been as dismissive. Moreover, if Batman in particular was so concerned with martial arts prowess, the fact that he would take in a 9-12 year old child like Dick Grayson and send him onto the battlefield, only to turn around a few years later and take one glance at the adult Barbara Gordon and say no, this won't do defies all logic.
Unfortunately, Batgirl's physical capabilities have often been at the forefront of arguments made be her detractors. However, the idea that Batgirl could not be an effective crime fighter because she is not at the same physical proficiency as Batman is a fallacy. Few police officers, detectives or even military personnel would claim to have spent a decade gaining expertise in over 100 different forms of martial arts or weaponry, and yet millions of people in these professions still manage to handle criminal deviants on a regular basis. Take a look at the LAPD website and read the overview of entering the academy: "If you are selected for the LAPD, you will be sent to the world famous LAPD Academy for six months of training. Training is rigorous, demanding and exhausting." At no point does it mention your hands being registered as lethal weapons by the time you make your first beat. In her Silver Age stories, Batgirl is shown using Gotham City PD obstacle courses and other training facilities as part of her regular regimen. Additionally, Batgirl had a background in gymnastics, ballet and judo. Few people take into consideration the physical demand a lifetime of practice exerts on the body. Watching the 2012 Olympic Games as well as reflecting on Darren Aronofsky's 2010 film Black Swan (and the debacle over the Dance Double debate) emphasis the life-long development of upper and lower-body strength it takes to achieve the speed, agility and dexterity to be able to perform some of the maneuvers depicted by Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. Regardless, she is more likely to calculate how to take out an opponent using the least amount of force necessary. Judo, as a martial art (not to mention as an Olympic sport), is specifically designed to throw or otherwise render an opponent immobile. Barbara Gordon has never been concerned with long, drawn out physical confrontations and even the later Batgirl Cassandra Cain notes in Batgirl: A Knight Alone that every human being "has a brain. And a skull to slam it against." Regardless of one's level of expertise in hand-to-hand combat, all anyone needs in a fight is "just one hit." How many times has Batman himself been rendered unconscious by lesser opponents according to that same principle?
Another example of gender preference concerning Batgirl is contrasting her with her father, police commissioner James Gordon. He does not possess the intellectual or technical genius of his daughter or Batman, but is nonetheless an excellent detective. He is nowhere near the level of martial arts prowess of either of them, but in every medium of the Batman franchise, he has always been depicted as being able to hold his own in a fight at the very least. He has grown to become one of the most respected characters of the franchise, and yet for some reason when people think Batgirl, they think incompetent. This idea that if she isn't the deadliest woman on the planet she shouldn't be in the costume is the fundamental flaw in arguments decrying Batgirl as an inept variation of Batman. Nonetheless, it is the very mentality than drove DC editorial to retire the character. Gina Renée Misiroglu wrote in The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Comic-Book Icons And Hollywood Heroes (2004) that "as Batman comic books grew dimmer throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Batgirl's existence weakened Batman's, and Barbara Gordon hung up her cowl, despite being merchandised by a variety of toy manufacturers, still craving that girl demographic." Batgirl wasn't alone of course. The 1980s saw a full assault on the female superheroes of DC Comics. Female variations of male characters such as Supergirl were given the axe, while a number of independent heroines such as Black Canary were tortured, mutilated or depowered. It's interesting that male superheroes were enthusiastically revamped to match the darker and much more psychologically complex tone of the times, while updating female characters was apparently too much of a task to attempt. What's troubling about Batgirl in particular is the fact she was depicted as losing her confidence before abandoning the role. How morbidly poetic that the one female character who so closely represented Women's Liberation lost her convictions under the influence of a male dominated industry. What is even more damning is the reason she lost her confidence: she did not possess superpowers. It's a chilling reprimand to all of the everyday heroes I've mentioned thus far, that all they do is in vain because they cannot literally move mountains.
The final insult in Batgirl's history would be the release of Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988. The character had retired in Barbara Randall's Batgirl Special #1 released earlier that year and since DC had no future plans for her, Moore asked editor Len Wein if he could cripple her. His response? According to Shannon Cochran of Bitch magazine, Moore stated he was told, "[y]eah, okay, cripple the bitch." The paralysis of Barbara Gordon has attracted as much academic analysis as Batman's psychology, but it can all be summarized by Jeffrey A. Brown in Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture (2011) who wrote: "The inherent misogyny of the male-dominated comic book industry has been highly criticized as of late for not just the eroticization of superheroines but also for the relatively unequal violence they are subjected to." Although editor Kim Yale and Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander saved Gordon from oblivion by recreating her as the computer expert, hacker and intelligence operative Oracle, the fact her injury became permanent was also a consistent reminder of gender inequality for a number of fans—including Yvonne Craig, who famously portrayed her in the 1960s Batman television series. Craig once said "I meet young women who say Batgirl was their role model ... They say it's because it was the first time they ever felt girls could do the same things guys could do, and sometimes better. I think that's lovely." I have to say, she was mine too.
There is good reason to consider Batgirl's character an equally valid representative of LGBT history in addition to Women's Liberation, but to understand why we must look at the history between the two. Links between feminism and LGBT studies as well as Queer theory are based on similar motives for discrimination. Since genetic sex, psychological gender, and sexual orientation are interrelated, it is only natural that the Gay Liberation Movement closely mirrored the Women's Rights Movement. As I mentioned before, feminism arose out of a desperate need to women to be able to challenge preconceived notions of their own roles in society as well as the legal means to exert more control over their lives. In the wake of Second Wave Feminism, such critical thinking naturally extended to men and women who faced discrimination based on who they were sexually attracted to. Unfortunately, in the early stages of Gay Liberation, gay and bisexual men took the helm but often left women out of the upper framework of their organizations and thus issues that were socially and legally specific to lesbian and bisexual women were largely ignored. Hence Lesbian Rights organizations were forced to splinter off in order to deal with issues that were specific to their needs. It's the reason white gay men are often the unofficial face of Gay Rights issues in pop culture and why issues more specific to gay or bisexual men, women and transgender people of color are often understated.
Part of the reason it was so difficult for the Gay Rights Movement to find its footing is because discrimination based on sexual orientation had been so deeply ingrained that it was difficult for people even communicate with one another without a crippling fear of persecution. In 2012, it's easy to forget that at one time homosexuality was deemed a mental disorder and people suspected of or caught behaving in homosexual "activity" could at the very least, be placed in prison or at the very worst, be committed to a psychiatric ward and forcibly lobotomized. Robert Crooks and Karla Baur wrote in Our Sexuality (2010) that "[t]he medical and psychological professionals have used drastic treatments in attempting to cure the 'illness' of homosexuality. Surgical procedures such as castration were performed in the 1800s. As of late 1951, lobotomy (surgery that severs nerve fibers in the frontal lobe of the brain) was performed as a cure for homosexuality." Since 1973, all psychological, psychiatric and medical associations have stated that homosexuality is in fact not a mental illness and should not be treated as such. Nonetheless, one can understand that remaining closeted during that time period ensured one's safety. Women and African Americans faced impossible odds during the early half of the 20th century, but the law never permitted surgical procedures to be forced on individuals, nor allotted for someone to be registered as a sex offender on the sole bases of ethnicity or gender. Women and ethnic minorities, at the very least, could speak and organize publicly without being immediately imprisoned or committed; members of the LGBT community could not (though that's not to say false imprisonment and police brutality weren't rampant). While people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X or Susan B. Anthony represented the indomitable spirit of equality under law that millions could follow, no such beacon of hope existed for LGBT people (though in later decades we would discover people such as Bayard Rustin and Harvey Milk). That brings us to the topic of why gay icons are so important. Without strong, open and identifiable LGBT people to look to for guidance, members of our community were forced to look for prominent figures in society whose life story in some way, shape or form mirrored our own. Gay men in particular often look to prominent women who have overcome the odds, throwing off the shackles of male oppression in their homes as well as in the work place. As prisoners of the closet, they model themselves after heroic figures whose larger-than-life personas are far too grand for the world to ignore. For me, that figure was Batgirl.
I am a transgender woman, meaning that I am a genetic male (xy) whose gender identity or self-perceived sense of self is female. Since I have not chosen to undergo sex reassignment surgery (transsexual is a medical term indicating whether an individual is in the pre-operative or post-operative stage of SRS, whereas transgender is used to describe gender identity regardless of one's surgical status) and since I am exclusively attracted to men, it's natural to look at me and assume I am simply a gay male. It doesn't bother me because I am genetically male and I am exclusively attracted to men, but if I were post-operative or living as a woman, calling me a gay man at that point would be considered highly derogatory. It also illustrates the fact that people think of transgender individuals in terms of post-operative status instead of understanding gender identity as a life-long attribute. As I child, I was aware of the fact that I saw myself as a girl at age 4. I knew I was different from other children, even though I didn't understand why at the time. I modeled myself after women I loved, my mother first and foremost. Being a fanatical lover of animation, fantasy and superheroes, fictional characters were some of my earliest role models and continue to be to this day. I remember being 5 or 6 years old flipping through the channels and coming across the opening credits of the 1960s Batman television series. I had seen bits and pieces of the show beforehand, but it never sparked an interest. Just as I was about to turn the channel, Batgirl swung across the screen on the line of her grappling hook, kicking a villain in the chest. At that moment, time stood still. There was a GIRL who fought the bad guys as easily as the boys did! From that day forward, Batgirl was a model of femininity, intelligence and righteous fury that continues to drive me. No one in my family collected comic books, so as a child my exposure to her character was limited to reruns of the third season of Batman as well as the animated television series The Batman/Superman Hour and The New Adventures of Batman. I was 8 years old when Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox Kids in 1992 and from the very first episode, I waited for Batgirl to emerge. It was thrilling to see her on screen in the darker and more mature tone of the post-Tim Burton era of the franchise. When I turned 16 and began working my first job, I wanted to start collecting comic books. One can imagine my dismay when I walked into my first comic book shop only to find that my favorite character had been paralyzed since I was 4 years old. I took it personally, far more personally than anyone should concern themselves with a fictional character, but I honestly felt betrayed—as if a vital aspect of my childhood had been taken from me, without my knowledge or consent. In essence, the Joker's assault on Barbara Gordon is reminiscent of the days when members of my community were specifically targeted for mutilation under the guise of therapy. I felt violated.
In spite of my feelings, I couldn't abandon the character. I grew to love Barbara Gordon as Oracle in a completely different capacity than I did as Batgirl. She made being a nerd seem cool. Whereas other heroes such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, or Batman—and even Gordon herself in her days as Batgirl—utilize their intelligence primarily to forge weaponry or to assist in hand-to-hand combat, as Oracle, Barbara Gordon made intelligence a form of merit in and of itself. Oracle's real world application of her genius never meant landing a blow on another individual. She didn't create high-tech explosives, battle armor, industrial strength webbing or military level vehicles, and yet, she enthralled and captivated readers for over 22 years. I can understand why Oracle fans felt the same way I did years ago when DC Comics announced she would make a full recovery, but her return to form in The New 52 marked a monumental achievement—the return of an icon. Over Twitter, I spoke with former Birds of Prey writer Gail Simone, who currently writes for Batgirl, telling her how much the character meant to me growing up as a transgender child. She told me that she has met a number of gay men who have said the exact same thing, reinforcing my own life-long suspicion that she was a gay icon.
In light of the fact that Batgirl made a natural recovery as opposed to using pseudoscience, I continue to see her as an advocate for those living with disabilities. In the same way the actions of whites were fundamental in the abolition of slavery, in the same way they were critical in tearing down segregation laws, in the same way men have stood on the front lines of Women's Rights and in the same way it is crucial to have heterosexuals advocating on behalf of the LGBT community, Batgirl continues to represent an overlooked minority in comic book readership. Whether we see her as an advocate for the disabled, a role model for LGBT people or as the greatest feminist in comics, Batgirl—the Dark Damsel—is undoubtedly an icon.
Follow me on Twitter @jskylerinc
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This was a great store, with excellent quality and wonderful customer service. I would give it 5 stars, if it was still there. Gone. Kaput. Nada.
I bought my 13yr old daughter a pair of Birkenstock Arizonas from Mr. Baumer and later she decided she wanted a pair of Birkenstock milanos for school because at her school sanders must have back strap. Well they didn't stock them in the color she wanted and the factory was out of her size and didn't know when they would make more. So I figured "forget Birkenstocks with strap". Well about a month or so later the phone rang and it was Mr Baumer and he had a pair if we still wanted them. Now that's "old school" customer service. And local also, I'm hooked! He also told me he "resoles" Birkenstocks in house with about a week turnaround. I'll be back.
This store amazes me every time. They are quick to release new designs and the brands are diverse. I will give it a five star rating.
I am 14 years old turning 15 in 2 months i have some experience in working in places because i use to be a volunteer and i felt i should take on a real job this summer so i wanna work somewhere who's the best.
I only have shopped here and the service is great. I will always expect to be satisfied when I shop here.
The store manager has no customer service skills, she is so rude I cringe every time I stop in to make my purchase. I really try to wait and shop when she is not there because I love their shoes, my husband wants me to just start shopping online to avoid her rudeness and messing up my day. Fair warning stay clear!
love this store!!!!!!!!!! I can get my boys the name brand shoes they like for a price I LOVE!!!!!!!! i would highly recommend this store to everybody. Back to school shopping is the best time. I WILL be there for the no tax holiday . See you there in August!!!


text:
Ordained One: Buried One Hundred and Twenty
The Archbishop of Sens-Auxerre says,
In almost twenty years of episcopate, I have buried one hundred and twenty priests, and I have ordained only one in the dioceses of Yonne and the Jura.
If you go to the source, the Archbishop, Monseigneur Yves Patenôtre, chatters on about lay involvement and all that one might expect from a French bureaucrat, basically, 'It ain't my fault'.
I once went to his Cathedral to see the relics of St Thomas Becket, confession was offered on one or two days of the week the rest of the time counselling was offered in the same slot by Mademoiselle ...... .
It is very easy to say, "If I were Pope, I would ...." Well, I hope Pope Francis would get rid of Bishops who allow their diocese to die and rather than donning sack cloth and ashes and cry out to heaven for help, excuse themselves, finding some cunning pastoral plan to cover up their failure.
There was a rather silly myth going around among some English bishops a decade or so ago that the absence of priests was the way God was showing the Church that it needed to empower the laity. So rather than a priest bringing Viaticum to the dying or Communion to the sick, or presiding over non-sacramental prayer the laity took his place, and invariably lay women. In France it is quite normal for lay led funerals, as women 'tend to be more compassionate than men', they tend to do it. I am not sure if it is happening in parts of France yet but there are certain parts of the world where the usual minister of baptism or marriage is not a priest but a catechist, male or female, more likely female. In many places it is a way of introducing female priests by stealth.
Sens-Auxerre is one of those diocese in France where practice has always been a little poor but presumably this Bishop's predecessors managed to attract the 120 priests which this bishop has buried. The problem is that the absence of priests, though bad in itself and a source of great evils, indicates a lack of health in the Church. In France things are certainly not all bad, Paris is doing comparatively well, Frejus-Toulon has as many ordination as the rest of France -excluding Paris- as the rest of France put together. The absence of priests indicates a deep disease, a loss of faith.
Perhaps Monseigneur Patenôtre needs to examine his conscience: has he actually been teaching the Catholic faith over the last twenty years, has he demanded his priests do the same? In France more than anywhere else ideology or theological speculation replaces faith.
It is important to note that Mgr Rey, the bishop of Frejus-Toulon, was a priest of the diocese of Paris (1984) and a member of the Communauté de l'Emmanuel, which was founded as recently as 1972.
Why does Paris differ from the rest of France: Cardinal Lustiger. Not surprisingly, he was never elected president of the French bishops' conference, despite presiding over Paris for over a quarter of a century.
The Pastor in Valle Adurni wrote a series of seven blog posts about the Church in France which are well worth reading.
http://valleadurni.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/il-faut-que-france-survive-1.html
Those are grim figures indeed though I have no idea how they compare with dioceses here in Britain.
I recently read that France had 25,000 Priests in the year 2000. Today the country has 13,000 and it was estimated that in 10 years time the figure will be 6,000. I have heard of single Priests being in charge of over a dozen country churches. They spend more of their time on the road than in their churches.
On kto there was a fascinating film some time ago showing the work of two or possibly three Priests who looked after eighteen different county parishes. They needed an enormous calendar board in their presbytery to record where and when they had to be each day.
I don't know anything about Mgr Patenotre (a great name for a Bishop!) but surely an open necked shirt teamed with a pectoral cross is not an image which encourages respect for a Bishop.
Googling this particular Bishop I see that he has 95 Priests in his diocese of whom only 18 are less than 60 years old. There is not a single seminarian in the diocese which is somewhat ironic as I see that the Bishop was the director of the seminary in Reims from 1970 - 1976.
viterbo said...
Seeing a lack of vocations as a sign of God that the sacred task of the shepherd should be handed over to the sheep?!? Why do so many Bishops seem to want to be politicians, or peace corp reps rather than Shepherds of the flock of Our Lord? St Ignatius of Antioch would surely find such a Shepherd most strange.
On ChurchMilitant.TV a study called 'Dispatches' http://www.churchmilitant.tv/platform/index.php?ssnID=266&vidID=sting
show the figures for the United States. They are basically horrible. The numbers predict that within the next 40 years the Catholic Church will all but have disappeared from that land.
I have been to churches in that part of France - the village has a service once a month, and the main town has just two churches remaining open. Nearby Vezelay is a bit weird too. But isn't SSPX keeping things going?
The hermeneutic of rupture Church in France is in meltdown. As far as I can see, that section of the Church which holds to continuity is small but growing steadily, as is borne out by a rapid scan through the internet.
One young Frenchman I met recently freely moves between the NO and the EF but with a clear preference for the EF. French Catholics have less hang up about the Soc Pius X than in UK and will happily go to their Mass. He is now studying for the priesthood and whatever order, my guess is that the Traditional Mass will figure in his repertoire.
I suspect that this model i.e., rapid decline in heterodox Catholicism, and steady growth in orthodox Catholicism, both laity and clergy, based on sound liturgy, will be the pattern over the next fifty years throughout Europe, giving us the smaller but Catholic Church that Benedict predicted.
I spoke to one retired British bishop who had seen a similar drop in numbers. He seemed incapable of admitting his role in the mess not that I was looking for such an admission but a smidgeon of realism wouldn't have gone amiss. What is sad about the old (and it's a fate that awaits us all) is that far from becoming wiser they risk regression into childish thinking. Wisdom is acquired through practice and not by white hair.
The apostate bishops, of which there are many, are quite happy to have presided over the collapse of vocations to priesthood, religious life, the collapse in baptisms and confirmations, and the loss of faith and morals of the majority of baptised. If the bishops refuse to teach, sanctify and govern in accordance with the Deposit of Faith, this is what necessarily results.
Mike Hurcum said...
The reason for fewer priests is the fault of the laity we act like we do not need them. In those areas where the Priests are busier than a one armed paper hanger vocations flourish. In those places where the sacraments are not flourishing priests are getting fewer and fewer. Is this not to a thinking catholic more true than many other reasons
c'mon. You know better. You can't dump on the women on this one. Dump on a STUPID bishop who can't even be bothered to wear proper clerical dress. He looks like a hippy who found a big cross in a charity shop and is wearing it for a joke.
If women are stepping up to the plate to offer what help they can, let's remember that too many men either a)WORK A LOT to keep bread on the table and b) are less religious, as a rule of thumb than women. French men think it's cool to be "atheist" or "agnostic." I'm tired of women getting dumped on for everything wrong with the church.
Fr Blake, this story reminds me of the problems that French clergy had at the beginning of the nineteenth century when they had to pick up the pieces after the depredations of the French Revolution. I have been compiling a history of the Weymouth parish and found some letters that had been transcribed from public archives. These were letters from priests serving in Weymouth to the local Bishop.
The earliest priests were emigré Fathers who had fled the French Revolution. Of note was Abbé Pierre Dubuisson, who was already 73 years old when he came to Weymouth in 1820. But he was called back to France in 1822 by the Bishop of Bourges. He paid a preliminary visit in early 1822 and in his letter to Bishop Collingridge wrote
"In the course of my journey I visited my former parish . . .and was quite stunned to find my poor parishioners stuck in vice and ignorance for want of a priest for many years. There are 6 parishes joined together without a single priest among them. They kept neither Holy Days nor Sundays at all. More than half of them are grown up without any knowledge of their religion.
"The Archbishop of Bourges insists upon me to take of not only my former parish but also two other parishes. . .The length of the 3 parishes exceeds more than 7 miles and the population 2000 souls.
"My pity has overcome all my feelings. I will cheerfully go, although I will meet many difficulties. All the priests houses have been sold, the churches have been stripped of all their silver plates and ornaments; the parishioners must provide houses for the priest, repair the churches and furnish all that is necessary for Divine Service.
"But a great many of them are far from being disposed to contribute and it will require some time before the very many necessary things will be supplied. The salary which comes from the Government is only £30 per year"
When Abbé Dubuisson returned to France in 1822, he would have been 75 years old - he remarkable heroism to take up this challenge so late in life. Rest in Peace, Abbé Pierre!
History shows that the heroic efforts of priests like Abbé Pierre bore fruit. We pray for similar heroism in our days.
terry prest said...
He is seventy three. Another two years to retirement.
On his present "batting average", that means another twelve priests "to go" (but probably more) before he retires
And that will leave only 83 priests left in his archdiocese when he retires. Most of them will probably be over 60 years of age
It is interesting to compare this Bishop's record with that of the parish of St Eugene-Ste Cecile in Paris. According to 'Paix Liturgique' (English letter No 40) the parish has had over THIRTY priestly or religious vocations in just NINE years.
And how does this parish differ from other French parishes?
The parish celebrates Mass in both forms with a sung EF on Sunday morning. The singing of the Schola is superb and the ancient vestments used there are magnificent. They must be doing something right!
One for you and one to evangelise with
Self-absorbed Promethean Neo-pelagianism
Bishop Anthanasius Schneider in Cork
Will Francis have the courage to stop German aggre...
Pius XII, the Reformer
Female Servers?
Anti-Evangelism
Redford and Murphy O'Connor RIP
Public Spat and a Papal Correction
O'Toole to Plymouth and Burke as VG in Edinburgh
Pope's Iron Fist defining the Peripheries?
Marching up and down
Implications of 'Mercy'
The End of Christianity
Pope's new "Resurrexifix"
E&W Bishops Survey on the Family


Education, Experience, etc.Is Education over-rated? Yes.
We believe so.However, there is no way to locate you otherwise.
So, unfortunately, we might look for Bachelor's or Master's degree in engineering from a reputed institute or you should be programming from 12.
And the latter is better.
We will be blown away if you specify the latter in some manner.
To re-iterate : Passion to develop exciting solutions built on top of Google Maps, highly analytical aptitude and a strong desire to deliver outlives those fancy degrees!Qualifications : Bachelor's degree in a related area or equivalent combination of years of experience and education.
2 - 4 years of experience in a software engineering or related field.Strong knowledge of any of the backend programming language such as Python, NodeJS or Java.
Experience of creating optimal solution based on customer requirement and developing POCs rapidlyDemonstrable UI design skills with a strong portfolioSolid experience in creating process flowsExperience working with different kind of databases like MySQL and MongoDB.
Web mapping API experience (Leaflet, Mapbox, OpenLayers, Google Maps)Experience using a version control system such as TFS, SVN, Git, etc.
preferredExperience of hosting the web apps on cloud infrastructureAbility to interface with different kind of systems using APIs and Web Services.
Familiar with data interchange / markup formats such as XML and JSONExperience using and developing mapping applications such as Google Maps, ESRI or similar products and API s Key ResponsibilitiesCollaborate with product management and engineering to define and implement solutions for the product visuals and experience.
Establish and promote design guidelines, best practices and standards.Design, develop and debug software for web and mobile device applications.
sales support (if required)Assist in the design and development of User Interfaces for web and mobile applications.Assist in writing and maintaining product user manuals.


text:
package de.ifgi.sc.smartcitiesapp.main;

import android.app.Application;

import com.google.android.gms.maps.model.LatLng;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Date;

import de.ifgi.sc.smartcitiesapp.messaging.Messenger;
import de.ifgi.sc.smartcitiesapp.zone.Zone;
import de.ifgi.sc.smartcitiesapp.zone.ZoneManager;

/**
 * Base class for maintaining global application state.
 * The Application class is instantiated before any other class
 * when the process for your application/package is created.
 */
public class App extends Application {

    private static Zone defaultZone;    // default zone, available if user is not inside any zone.
    private final SimpleDateFormat D_format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ");
    public final String DEFAULT_ZONE_ID = "UMPA-UMPA-UMPA-TÖTÖRÖÖÖ";

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        initSingletons();
    }

    /**
     * initialise all global singleton variables
     */
    protected void initSingletons() {

        UIMessageManager.initInstance();        // Singleton of UIMessageManager
        ZoneManager.initInstance(this);         // Singleton of ZoneManager
        Messenger.initInstance(this);           // Singleton of Messenger
        MyLocationManager.initInstance(this);   // Singleton of MyLocationManager

    }

    /**
     * To be called, if server is not accessible or userlocation is not in any zone.
     *
     * @return
     */
    protected Zone getDefaultZone(LatLng userLocation) {
        // create the default zone:
        long expDateMillis = new Date().getTime() + 1000 * 3600 * 24 * 365; // 1 year
        Date expDate = new Date(expDateMillis);
        String[] topics = new String[6];
        topics[0] = "Eat & Drink";
        topics[1] = "Events";
        topics[2] = "Nightlive";
        topics[3] = "Sports";
        topics[4] = "Traffic";
        topics[5] = "Others";
        ArrayList<LatLng> pts = new ArrayList<LatLng>();
        // take some points around the user's location:
        // take a length of 0.01 Lat units
        // (note: mercator projection distortions 1 Lat != 1 Lon!
        // => result is ellipse, not circle [unless u're @ equator]):
        double length = 0.01d;
        for (int degree = 0; degree < 360; degree = degree + 10) {
            LatLng nextPoint = new LatLng(0, 0.1);
            // rotate the next Point by degree:
            nextPoint = new LatLng(
                    Math.sin(Math.toRadians(degree)) * length + userLocation.latitude,
                    Math.cos(Math.toRadians(degree)) * length + userLocation.longitude
            );
            pts.add(nextPoint);
        }

        defaultZone = new Zone("Default", DEFAULT_ZONE_ID, D_format.format(expDate), topics, pts);
        return defaultZone;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The poetics of contemporary texts devoted to poetics – if one may use such a description – stipulate that in the first paragraphs, the author should report on the current situation of the discipline. Such regular self-referentiality (typical as well for other disciplines subject to permanent suspicions of crisis, of which contemporary comparative literature may serve as a good example) should not be particularly surprising to anyone. The scholarly practices of recent years have culminated in a considerable expansion of both the area of poetics' inquiry, and the repertoire of terms it employs. That particular kind of self-reflexivity in works within the discipline of poetics seems particularly justified in a situation where the tools of poetics – genetically related in an obvious way to the field of literary scholarship – are used to study non-literary or even non-linguistic texts. From the sea of examples illustrating this practice of expansion – already known to readers interested in the problem under discussion – I will cite only the work of Ewa Szczęsna (Poetyka reklamy [The Poetics of Advertisement] and Poetyka mediów [The Poetics of Media]) and Ryszard Nycz (Poetyka doświadczenia [The Poetics of Experience]), in whose footsteps I followed in my previous work on the poetics of video games.
[…] in a culture of simulations, and many of the most popular forms of entertainment contemporary digital culture has to offer, computer games in particular, do not involve their participants in the sort of imaginative or interpretive experience we associate with literary texts, but instead with the activity of playing and adjusting variables in a simulation. I would not argue that playing a role in a simulation is any less intrinsically valuable than reading a good novel, simply that it is a different type of activity. Planning a city's zoning and traffic patterns (as a player of SimCity) or leading a raiding party on a dragon's lair (as a player of World of Warcraft) is a different order of activity from literary reading. While reading is an activity focused on interiority, on building one's own senses of metaphor, of language, of character, of a world from the materials presented on the page, interacting with a simulation is largely about exteriority, about acting and doing within a world that already has been visualized and imagined by others.
I naturally do not intend to prove that the acts of reading and game-playing are identical– or that both amount to what Rettberg calls interacting with a simulation. The lines quoted above (though not central to his text) deserve close attention, however, since they to some extent appear to represent the views of those who criticize video games in general as a worthless medium. The controversial nature of this statement is particularly visible from the perspective of poetics. I will overlook the fact that Rettberg, by describing the world of games as "already visualized and imagined by others," seems, perhaps not entirely consciously, to refuse interpretative potential to painting, film, graphic novels and other works of culture of a visual (or audiovisual) type in which the world is clearly presented to the audience in some concrete form.
The problem with the view that emerges from the quoted passage (which, I would like to stress, is only an example here; it interests me as a representation of a certain attitude toward digital media and particularly games) has to do primarily with the illegitimate reduction it performs. The game player's activity need not be limited to developing strategies, which Rettberg opposes dichotomously to the effort made in reading, which is "primarily imaginative." A thesis thus formulated proves difficult to defend, chiefly because video games are a very heterogeneous phenomenon, characterized by their enormous range of genres. To a considerable degree, this lack of uniformity hinders – though it does not preclude – making categorical general analyses that can be applied to the entire corpus of games that has arisen. To reduce games to this one dimension – performing operations calculated to obtain the best result while moving through the digital realm – is reminiscent of the arguments used by some participants in the dispute over ludics vs. narratology. Without going into the details of that debate – though the debate itself contributed in important ways to the formation of contemporary studies of games and transmedial narratology – we should remember that some participants in it refused to concede that games are narrative forms. Aside from the fact that the disagreement was largely due to a lack of terminological coordination, the problem also had to do with formulating general conclusions based on particular examples that could hardly be deemed representative.
Video games, on the other hand – particularly contemporary video games, but this is also true of those from previous decades – are diversiform. On the one hand we might consider such games as Microsoft Solitaire or Noughts and Crosses – digital iterations of solitaire and tic-tac-toe. The player's activities here do not even involve navigation in space; merely completing some basic operations according to strictly defined rules. On the other hand, many video games would best be defined as hybrid cultural texts; in addition to navigation and manipulation of objects within reach, they also afford possibilities for reading or dialogue with another human being. The fact that video games do not leave their users classically understood places of indefinition that are then made concrete by the recipient (which is the gist, I believe, of the accusation that the world of games is "already visualized and imagined by others") does not mean that they cannot open themselves up to understanding or that they do not demand interpretation. If only for the sake of order, it should be noted that such a hypothesis would go against those philosophical positions that perceive in the act of interpretation the fundamental structure of understanding and an indivisible part of being-in-the-world (as Ryszard Nycz presents that view: "Interpretation in this sense is an inescapable aspect of our ways of making contact with the world"). However, even without referring to how interpretation is understood in the context of Heidegger or Gadamer's thought, we can name numerous video games that invite complex, sometimes astonishing interpretations.
As an example, we might name the Dark Souls series – almost innumerable articles and internet discussions have been devoted to the question "What exactly is Dark Souls about?" At the start of play, players are given some very meager hints about the plot background, the time and space coordinates in which the action takes place, and the specific goal the game is placing before them – all of which, together with the complex mythology of the Dark Souls world, becomes the object of the player's investigation, if he feels like investing some interpretative effort in the game. The plot background is not presented straightforwardly in Dark Souls – the player can interpret it based on three kinds of information: conversations with other characters, (linguistic) descriptions of found objects, or a visual map of the game's world. Obviously the player can simply try pushing ahead without trying to grasp the meaning of the storyworld; however, attentive, precise reading of textual signals can deliver remarkably rich results and open up for the player a whole spectrum of meanings that were not immediately apparent (in this sense the player's reading is comparable to an investigation based on clues scattered around the world of the game).
A completely different type of example would be the Wiedźmin (Warlock) series, which is deeply immersed in textual material (not only) because its original source material was a book. This game opens up to interpretation due to its singularly intense saturation with intertextuality, discoverable in each of the three installments of the series released to date. As I noted in my articles on these games, intertextual references represent a typical element of such importance in the series that the game's interpretation as a whole loses a crucial dimension if a whole network of intertexts therein are not taken into consideration. At the same time, we should note that these references are cloaked with varying degrees of camouflage – sometimes demanding an advanced level of reading competency from the player. This is because the authors of Wiedźmin reference a variety of hypotexts – from references to texts of mass culture such as popular songs or films to allusions to high-grade literary registers (e.g. to the works of Poe and Nabokov). Obviously it would be going too far to state that the intertextual dimension represents the most important or dominant aspect of the game. It would also be a mistake, however, to overlook this element and its contribution to the experience of playing the game.
In the context of the quotation from Rettberg cited above, I think an example of a different kind is relevant here. The digital literature scholar refers to metaphor, and thus to one of the oldest and most basic categories of poetics understood as "the aggregate of tools serving to distinguish among and categorize recurring models of literary structures, elements within works or relations between particular elements (names of terms and their definitions)." No one nowadays needs to be convinced of the fact that besides linguistic metaphors, there can also be audial or visual metaphors, or of the fact that metaphors can operate within non-artistic texts as well. As Szczęsna writes: "Metaphors declare an openness to all kinds of signs: linguistic, iconographic, aural, or kinetic." In the context of video games, it makes sense to ask whether the polysemiotic catalogue indicated by Szczęsna might not need to include an interactive factor – activity on the part of the user that does not fall within the categories of reception or the act of interpretation. This idea is usefully illustrated by the game Flower. I am using this particular example because Flower is one game in which linguistic signs do not figure at all (except for a small number of non-diegetic panels in which the game's logo is presented or some lapidary user instructions on how to play – not actually part of the game's universe). I believe that will allow us to productively examine the specifics of how metaphorical discourse can express itself separately from the medium of language.
Flower presents two diegetic planes – the game's action plays out in two spaces. The first is an apartment in the city. In the centre of the image we see plants in flowerpots (at first one, while another appears as the action unfolds) placed by a window. At the beginning of play the plant is the only element featuring vivid colours; the apartment itself – like the view through the broken window pane – maintains a dark, depressing colour scheme. This contrast is naturally significant for interpreting the work as a whole.
When the player chooses one of the plants and focuses attention on it by pressing the control button for a longer time (causing the frame to zoom in on the object), the screen slowly begins to go dark, and next the player is transferred to a different narrative space, which can most concisely be described as the realm of nature – the action here begins in a meadow. The frame again displays a plant – either the one the player chose, or a very similar one. One petal breaks off and its movements begin to be controlled by the player. The meadow where the action is taking place may at first appear unbounded, but if the player moves too far in one direction, gusts of wind will force him back to the previous area in space.
Although instructions are not directly given, but rather communicated through the interface, the player quickly becomes aware that his task is to approach other flowers growing in the vicinity. Each plant thus visited loses one petal, which then becomes joined to the one being steered by the player. At times an additional effect accompanies the process – the nearby surroundings of the flowers visited take on vivid colours, as if the life force had awakened there. After a short while, the player is steering an entire, systematically growing cloud – or rather: herd – of colourful petals. Each stage in the game places a concrete task before the player – in the first level, she must reach an ancient, withering tree located at the top of a hill. When all of the flowers around the tree have been visited, the colourful cloud driven by the player begins to whirl around and hits the ground in a dense torrent right near the tree's desiccated trunk. Then a flower grows there (just like the one at the beginning of this stage), and the whole hill becomes covered with vibrantly coloured plants, while the tree instantly grows green and comes to life.
The game sequences presented above give us grounds to ask a few questions. Most importantly, what is the relationship between the two areas (the city and the realm of nature) where the action takes place? Does the sequence in the meadow express a certain potential lying within the plant growing in the flowerpot (or in every plant)? Is it a representation of the plant's dreams (if we agree to pursue an anthropomorphic interpretative path)? Or does the similarity between the two flowers (the one in the flowerpot and the first flower in the meadow) perhaps indicate less identity between individuals than their belonging to the same species? In that case we are dealing not with an individual plant character, but with a reading on a more metaphorical level, referring to the power of nature in general. The answers to these questions become more important when we consider that what happens in the meadow influences the urban space presented in the game. Both the inside of the room and the city itself become more orderly, brighter, and more colourful after each completed stage. This movement from darkness and chaos in the direction of light and order (harmony) seems to point the way to forming at least one possible interpretation of our metaphorical image. In this interpretative approach, the player is embodied – if we can truly speak here of identification – as nothing other than élan vital. A crucial element in this interpretation of the metaphor is the interactive factor (the fact that it is the player steering the life force). If we can talk about a rhetorical message here in praise of nature, the metaphor resonates more powerfully because of the player's engagement on the side of the realm of nature rather than civilization. The active behaviour of the player Flower confirms in a sense that the voice of nature and the order it creates are a positive value, in contrast with the more poorly viewed development of the world of technology, civilization, and, therefore, human beings. This contrast is not a strict binary, however. The world of culture is not removed or destroyed here; it simply undergoes a metamorphosis, changing under the influence of nature's healing power. In the final scenes of Flower, however, we see that the city has acquired more colour and life through the victory of nature's energy – just as the tree became healed in the first stage of the game. We can therefore state that the global meaning of this metaphor resides in the notion that civilization subordinating nature to its needs without regard for her rules leads to disintegration and degeneration. The rhetorical thrust of this metaphor is particularly evident due to its positioning in the interactive context: the player's actions (which result from decisions governing the way the game is designed) come to confirm the wisdom of the metaphor.
In an article published in the magazine Forum Poetyki (Forum of Poetics), Tomasz Mizerkiewicz writes that: "It is not entirely reasonable to expect traditional poetics to be able to cope with the tasks connected with [the study of digital texts], but we can expect that its lexicon will quickly become more complex, will to some extent be replaced, and will be challenged." The example provided by the game Flower appears to confirm this (uncontroversial) thesis. It enables us to ask an important question about the need to expand and update the tools of traditional poetics. If we wish to use them to analyze video games, we must give consideration to the medium's specific properties and adapt the tools to the context of new textual (or techstual) realities. In this case, the question concerns the category of metaphor and calls for examining interactivity within the range of factors shaping metaphors. Obviously, the purpose of this article is primarily to signal the possibility of approaching the problem using a theoretical apparatus that takes into account the interactive dimension of metaphor, rather than proposing unambiguous conclusions. In the context of future research, however, the interpretation explored above seems promising.
As well as updating previously existing terms, contemporary poetics in its exploration of video games should also develop (and is developing) completely new tools that serve to precisely describe and better understand these digital objects of study. One example of such an innovative category is emergence. In my previous work, I have suggested using this term to designate the effect of shaking the player from the state, typical for video games (and digital communication more generally) of being under the illusion of participating directly in the events shown on the screen. The illusion itself of unmediated participation in the digital fiction is sometimes called immersion – this term (though debatable) is strongly grounded in the current research on games and digital media (and even non-digital kinds of texts). In proposing the category of emergence, I refer simultaneously to the Latin root of immersion (immergo, immergere – to be submerged). If we agree to the comparison of the illusion of participation in a fiction with being "submerged" in it (and that is precisely what the etymology of immersion refers to), then emergence (from the Latin emergo, emergere) would refer to the process of destroying that illusion – to a kind of release from the world of fiction. Importantly, emergence factors (aside from those that occur incidentally, as a result of mechanical or design errors) can be intentionally introduced into a game. A deliberate operation of that type can result in a new, digital version of the strategy of self-reference or meta-fictionality. A clear example of this mechanism of emergence (which can also be read in terms of the Verfremdung effect) is provided by a scene in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum. The device of technical distancing or dis-illusionment presented there is based on the introduction of an effect that resembles a technical glitch but in reality is an innovative form of depicting the protagonist's perception. Analyzing that device through the prism of immersion and emergence allows us to understand it not only in comparison with analogous devices we have seen in film and literature, but also through its position in the specific context of the digital medium.
I here present emergence as a broad, general category, because I do not wish to repeat myself from previous analyses, but rather to illustrate in an abbreviated fashion how poetics can fruitfully expand its catalogue of concepts to include new tools applied to the specific aspects of the digital medium and not ripped from previous scholarly tradition. Though we must agree with Rettberg when he refers to the clear non-identity of the act of reading and the act of playing, we must simultaneously note that the two processes are not mutually exclusive but can form a complementary whole. The complicated relations between these two, or among these and other factors meriting attention in future research can be seen as a strong feature distinguishing contemporary games and their poetics. From this perspective, to cross out games from poetics' field of inquiry would be both reductive and unwarranted.
The article shows how video games fit into the spectrum of poetic inquiry and tackles the question of how the tools of traditional poetological studies can be expanded in the context of digital texts. The author considers the interpretative potential that can be discovered in video games. He also points to the specific problems involved in manifesting metaphorical discourse in games without recourse to the medium of language.
See, for example, M. Kuziak, Komparatystyka na rozdrożu? ("Comparativism at the Crossroads?"), Porównania (Comparisons), no. 4/2007.
E. Szczęsna, Poetyka reklamy (The Poetics of Advertisement), Warszawa 2001; Szczęsna, Poetyka mediów. Polisemiotyczność, digitalizacja, reklama (The Poetics of Media. Polysemioticity, Digitalization, Advertisement), Warszawa 2007.
R. Nycz, Poetyka doświadczenia. Teoria – nowoczesność – literatura (The Poetics of Experience. Theory, Modernity, Literature), Kraków 2012.
P. Kubiński, Gry wideo – zarys poetyki (Video Games—Outline of a Poetics), Kraków 2016 [in press].
S. Rettberg, "Communitizing Electronic Literature," Teksty Drugie, no. 3/2015. Originally published in Digital Humanities Quarterly, 2009, Volume 3, Number 2. http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/2/000046/000046.html (last accessed: 25.03.2016).
On the subject of this dispute and its importance in the development of those disciplines, see for example P. Kubiński, "Gry wideo w świetle narratologii transmedialnej oraz koncepcji światoopowieści (storyworld)" (Video Games in the Light of Transmedial Narratology and the Concept of Storyworld), Tekstualia. Palimpsesty Literackie Artystyczne Naukowe (Textualia. Scholarly Artistic Literary Palimpsests), no. 4/2015.
Microsoft Solitaire, Wes Cherry, Microsoft Corporation Inc., 1990.
Noughts and Crosses, Alexander S. Douglas, 1952.
R. Nycz, Tekstowy świat. Poststrukturalizm a wiedza o literaturze (Textual World. Poststructuralism and Literary Scholarship), Kraków 2000, 84.
Dark Souls (series), From Software, 2011–.
See, for example, C. Dahlen, "What 'Dark Souls' Is Really All About," Kotaku, 9 stycznia 2012 r., http://kotaku.com/5874599/what-dark-souls-is-really-all-about, [this and all other internet materials were accessed: 30 January 2016.].
See, for example, T. Battey, "Narrative Design in Dark Souls," Gamasutra, 25 April 2014, http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TomBattey/20140425/216262/Narrative_Design_in_Dark_Souls.php.
"Storyworld" is a key term for contemporary transmedial narratology. For more on the subject in Polish, see P. Kubiński, "Gry wideo w świetle narratologii transmedialnej," Tekstualia, no. 4/2015.
Wiedźmin (series), CD Projekt RED, 2007–.
I have written on the subject in the following articles: "Dystans ironiczny w grach 'Wiedźmin' i 'Wiedźmin 2: Zabójcy królów'" (Ironic Distance in the Games Wiedźmin and Wiedźmin 2: Zabójcy królów [The King-Killers]) in Wiedźmin – bohater masowej wyobraźni (Wiedźmin – Hero of the Mass Imagination), ed. R. Dudziński, A. Flamma, K. Kowalczyk, J. Płoszaj, Wrocław 2015; and "Co wyczytasz pod skórą Wiedźmina 3?" (What Do You Read Under the Skin of Wiedźmin 3?), Ha!art, no. 3/2015.
E. Balcerzan, "'Narodowość' poetyki – dylematy typologiczne" (The "Nationality" of Poetics — Typological Dilemmas), Forum Poetyki (Forum of Poetics), no. 2/2015. See also M. Głowiński, "Poetyka wobec tekstów nieliterackich" (Poetics and Non-literary Texts), in Głowiński, Poetyka i okolice, Warszawa 1992.
E. Szczęsna, Poetyka mediów, 85.
This can also be perceived in the game's audio component. While making the first choice of flower, in the urban setting dominated by dark colours, a quiet, monotonous and rather unpleasant noise of electric appliances can be heard. In the final scenes, when harmony has returned, the background consists of very distinct sounds – cries of children playing, bird voices, an echo of music. All three of those elements (children, animals, and improvised music) also indicate that with the return of nature to her rightful place, the energy of life has returned to the city.
On the subject of the persuasive dimension of video games and their mechanisms, see, among others, I. Bogost, Persuasive Games. The Expressive Power of Videogames, Cambridge Mass.–London 2010.
E. Szczęsna, Poetyka mediów, 92. In this context, it is interesting to remember the words of Ewa Rewers, who notes that "The attributes of Hermes, the patron of hermeneutics and translation, worshiped at crossroads, were resourcefulness and speed, not order and coherence. […] Ruses, traps, turns and deviations – understood literally and metaphorically, practiced and analyzed, play a prominent role in the myth of the origins of interpretation." E. Rewers, "Interpretacja jako lustro, różnica i rama" (Interpretation as Mirror, Difference and Frame) in Filozofia i etyka interpretacji (Philosophy and the Ethics of Interpretation), ed. A. Kola, A. Szahaj, Kraków 2007.
T. Mizerkiewicz, "Nowe sytuacje poetyki" (New Situations of Poetics), Forum Poetyki, no. 1/2015, 22.
I proposed using this term in my article "Emersja – antyiluzyjny wymiar gier wideo" (Emergence—the Anti-Illusionary Dimension in Video Games), Nowe Media no. 1(5)/2014 [available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/NM.2014.007].
See for example M. L. Ryan, "Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory," Postmodern Culture, no. 1/1994; G. Calleja, In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation, Cambridge–London 2011.
I have offered a detailed analysis of this scene in my article "Bergman vs. Batman. Chwyt technicznej deziluzji w grach wideo na tle praktyk literackich i filmowych" (Bergman vs. Batman. The Technical Device of Dis-llusionment in Video Games in the Context of Literary and Cinematic Practices), in Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication, no. 1/2015.


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Incremental Integration
Contribute to software one piece at a time, gradually, avoiding waterfall and other precipitous changes.
...some organizations have infrequent integrations which reflect large changes. This can make it difficult for the integration release to work as expected, complicate the process of work integration and make NamedStableBases difficult to achieve when modules do not work together. Because we often develop with one OwnerPerDeliverable there will be occasional mismatches between units.
For iterative development to work well, it is necessary to make sure that components work together.
Subsystems get developed at different rates. Developers work in a PrivateWorld. We need to find a way to make it possible to integrate without surprises.
Provide a mechanism to allow developers to build all the current software periodically. Developers should be discouraged from maintaining long intervals between check-ins. Developers should also be able to build against any of the NamedStableBases, or the newest checked in software, at will.
Assign the task of building the entire software system periodically: NamedStableBases suggests intervals no more frequent than a week. This periodic build should be checked for interface compatibility (does it compile?) and testing (does it still work?)
Encourage developers to build from files that are likely to be in the release (for example, perhaps the newest code in the revision control system is trunk) to anticipate, and allow time to correct for, incompatibilities. The goal is to avoid a "big bang" integration and allow the developmental build to proceed smoothly.
This can be combined with PrivateWorld to ensure that the changes integrate with a copy of the current development system. There are issues relating to the size of the software system (some systems take quite a while to build, making frequent integrations difficult). Balance this with PrivateVersioning to allow the developer some leeway on deciding when to integrate their new code into their environment, but do not put it off for too long.
The developer's work space could be updated (at the developer's request) to a named stable base from the project repository approximately weekly. The developer will also retrieve the current files from the repository to anticipate how the current changes in the work space will work with files that may later be in the baseline.


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Home » News » Samoan Expats Mourn in the Wake of the Tsunami
Samoan Expats Mourn in the Wake of the Tsunami
U.S. President Obama has declared a major disaster in the wake of the devastating tsunami which washed over American Samoa and Samoa.
Dozens have already been declared dead, and towns like Pago Pago in American Samoa (seen above) have been rampaged. The waves were caused by massive undersea earthquakes, registering around 8.0 on the Richter scale, which generated enough momentum in the ocean for the waves to reach up to 20 feet high in some places.
As images and stories of the wreckage surface, Samoan expats living abroad are mourning the loss of lives and hometowns. "I'm at work and I'm supposed to concentrate, but it's hard," said Elizabeth Gerstle, 35, a Staten Island banker who left Independent Samoa as a child.
"I still haven't heard any word from my immediate family, so that's scary to me," she said. "I feel so helpless being so far away and not knowing what's going on."
"In such a small island, it's almost unavoidable to escape the effect of something like this," said Regina Alaimalo, 41, a legal project coordinator who lives in Astoria. "This morning when I woke up my heart just sunk with sadness," Alaimalo said.
Our hearts here at expatify go out to all expats from Samoa and American Samoa, and everywhere else that got struck with one of the tsunamis over the last 48 hours. And of course, for those expats living within the islands, and to everyone affected, our thoughts are with you.
If you'd like to see what you can do to help, or if you can donate funds to relief efforts, the folks at google have put together a comprehensive list of sites and organizations which can handle donations and offer information. Please, check it out and see if there's anything you can do.
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I live in Ecuador and it is a wonderful country. Its people are so nice and kind, they will give you the most warming welcome. I have put together a helpful fact sheet, and also an article on ecuadorian manners and customs
Navigating the Major Rivers of the Philippines


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Creedence Clearwater Revival: Self-titled (LP)
2015 Reissue on 180gm vinyl
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Self-titled (LP) quantity field
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Self-titled
With the release of this extraordinary debut album in July 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival was launched upon a career that little more than a year later would lead to enormous worldwide popularity. The four-man group from San Francisco's East Bay had worked ten years as a bar band and recorded several singles on the Scorpio label (under the forgettable name Golliwogs), but it was with this Fantasy release that CCR caught fire. Lead singer/ guitarist/ writer John Fogerty emerges as a fine lyric shouter with "Ninety-Nine and a Half," "I Put A Spell On You" and "Suzie Q," a brilliant extended rendition of the Dale Hawkins classic that quickly became a Top Ten Hit.
Brand Rock
Bob Dylan: The Basement Tapes (MFSL LP)
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Deep Purple: The Now What?! Live Tapes 2LP (180g)
The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (LP)