text:
Dr Pravin Hissaria
pravin.hissaria@sa.gov.au
Frome Rd (ADEL)
Providing advice and interpretation of test results to requesting doctors; clinical services to patients referred for assessment and management of autoimmune, immunodeficiency and allergic diseases
Dr Pravin Hissaria completed his MBBS and specialist training in clinical immunology in Lucknow, India. He migrated to Australia in 2003 and joined the Immunology Division of the IMVS as a senior registrar for specialist training. He was awarded the FRCPA in 2007 and FRACP in 2008. Dr Hissaria was appointed as an Immunology Staff Specialist at the IMVS and honorary consultant at Royal Adelaide Hospital in January 2008.
Dr Hissaria has received numerous grants and is Head of the Translational Clinical Research Laboratory in the Division of Human Immunology at the IMVS. His research interests include dissecting the molecular basis of pathogenic fibrosis in patients with scleroderma and detailing immunopathological characteristics (cellular and serum) in patients with scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis and chronic urticaria.
He has established and is custodian of an autoimmune disease tissue bank, which will help in the discovery and validation of novel biomarkers related to immune pathogenesis of these diseases. He has also authored several national and international peer-reviewed scientific publications and participates actively in various committees of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) including quality assurance programs and the e-Health task force.
Dr Hissaria offers a clinical service (public and private) to patients referred for assessment and management of autoimmune, immunodeficiency and allergic diseases. He is also actively involved in the pharmaceutical company-sponsored clinical trials of novel agents in the treatment of these diseases.


Nowadays, intensive abuse use of waste in environment, contribute to deteriorate our environment. This change has an impact on the society, human health, economy, living species, food production, tourism and ecology.
A 2700 km long plate in the open ocean, also called "6th continent"
That's why we can't decrease the diposal of waste as long as resources are not exploited in an intelligent way and prevent unnecessary waste.
Aware of the ecological issues, we wanted to implement values dear to us.
Firstly, Alternup Medical aims to give a second life to the products by reconditioning them. Medical devices are put back on sale. In the mean time, we have signed an agreement with Recylum for recycling of the devices that are no longer compliant with medical standards.
The alliance with Recylum is important for Alternup Medical which, today, contributes to sustainable development.
Further to our recent partnerchip with Recylum, we are committed to participate actively in recycling. First of all, during the WEEE disposal of the devices, we receive a selective collection certificate. Following this, a traceability system allows us to follow the product path and the correct execution of recycling on the Recylum extranet (history of pick-ups, date and place of treatment...).
RECYLUM is a non-profit company created in 2005. It collects and recycles lamps as well as professional electrical and electronic equipment equipment (WEEE PRO) since 2012.


text:
January 6, 2020 / 2:31 AM / 17 days ago
Nikkei drops to 1-month low on U.S.-Iran jitters
TOKYO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average fell to a one-month low on Monday as selloff gripped the market on the first trading day of 2020 on fears of an impact to global economic growth from a flare up in tensions between the United States and Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened a "major retaliation" against Iran if Tehran were to hit back for the killing of one of its top military commanders.
The Nikkei share average fell 2.09% to 23,161.16, breaking below two-major support levels - 25-day moving average around 23,600 and 50-day average around 23,350 - to its lowest level since Dec. 4.
The broader Topix lost 1.75% to 1,691.20, falling to its lowest levels since late November. The Tokyo stock market was closed from Tuesday to Friday last week for New Year holidays.
"The market will have to go through some correction. It was a bit overvalued to begin with, but the problems in the Middle East are the main drag now," said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities.
Concerns about a further escalation in the Middle East tension hit shippers and airlines, which fell 4.0% and 2.5%, respectively.
As the yen gained on safe-haven buying, a wide range of exporter shares took a hit. Honda Motor fell 2.8%, while Fanuc dropped 2.2% and Toyota Motor Corp 2.2%.
Two Nikkei heavyweights, SoftBank and Fast Retailing, also posted fairly large fall of 3.6% and 2.6%.
Meanwhile, a spike in oil prices helped oil companies, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange's oil and coal producer index rising 2.9%.
Nissan Motor fell 1.5%, in line with the overall market, to an eight-year low. Its former chairman Carlos Ghosn fled Japan while on bail during Japan's market holidays.
Ghosn faced four charges - which he has denied - including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.
Nissan had sacked him as chairman saying internal investigations revealed misconduct including understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5 million of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
SyliusShippingBundle [![Build status...](https://secure.travis-ci.org/Sylius/SyliusShippingBundle.png?branch=master)](http://travis-ci.org/Sylius/SyliusShippingBundle)
====================

Shipping component for [**Symfony2**](http://symfony.com) ecommerce applications.
It provides architecture for shipment management system.

It includes flexible calculators engine, which already contains default
calculators. Weight based, item count based and others...

You can also easily define your own pricing by implementing service with
simple interface.

Customizable rules system allows you to define any type of checks, so you can
display right shipping methods to the customer.

Sylius
------

**Sylius** - Modern ecommerce for Symfony2. Visit [Sylius.org](http://sylius.org).

[phpspec](http://phpspec.net) examples
--------------------------------------

``` bash
$ composer install --dev --prefer-dist
$ bin/phpspec run -fpretty
```

Documentation
-------------

Documentation is available on [**docs.sylius.org**](http://docs.sylius.org/en/latest/bundles/SyliusShippingBundle/index.html).

Contributing
------------

All informations about contributing to Sylius can be found on [this page](http://docs.sylius.org/en/latest/contributing/index.html).

Mailing lists
-------------

Questions? Feel free to ask on [users mailing list](http://groups.google.com/group/sylius).
To contribute and develop this bundle, use the [developers mailing list](http://groups.google.com/group/sylius-dev).

Sylius twitter account
----------------------

If you want to keep up with updates, [follow the official Sylius account on twitter](http://twitter.com/Sylius).

Bug tracking
------------

This bundle uses [GitHub issues](https://github.com/Sylius/SyliusShippingBundle/issues).
If you have found bug, please create an issue.

Versioning
----------

Releases will be numbered with the format `major.minor.patch`.

And constructed with the following guidelines.

* Breaking backwards compatibility bumps the major.
* New additions without breaking backwards compatibility bumps the minor.
* Bug fixes and misc changes bump the patch.

For more information on SemVer, please visit [semver.org website](http://semver.org/).
This versioning method is same for all **Sylius** bundles and applications.

MIT License
-----------

License can be found [here](https://github.com/Sylius/SyliusShippingBundle/blob/master/Resources/meta/LICENSE).

Authors
-------

The bundle was originally created by [Paweł Jędrzejewski](http://pjedrzejewski.com).
See the list of [contributors](https://github.com/Sylius/SyliusShippingBundle/contributors).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


NOW THAT THE BEARS HAVE COME out of hibernation, veteran value-pro Andrew Pilara is on the lookout for opportunities, keenly aware that many Big Board issues are at 52-week lows. Pilara warns, however, that the situation investors face now could be different from previous rough patches in the market.
"We're at a turning point here in the investment climate," he says. "We have moved very quickly from a position of greed to a position of fear. In my career, I haven't seen it happen this quickly. Liquidity has left the party and credit rationing is going to hurt a lot of companies."
Pilara's RS Value Fund (ticker: RSVAX) is responding to the risks by doing what it always does: applying unusually rigorous research to the hunt for good stocks. The fund looks for shares that show increasing returns, rising cash flow and an ability to reinvest in their businesses. Once it finds a candidate, a two-person team spends more than 100 hours talking to customers, vendors and competitors. They also investigate the chief executive officer's record as an allocator of capital.
The thoroughness has paid off: The fund has returned an average of 23.96% annually for the past five years, placing it among the top 3% of its category, mid-cap blend funds, according to fund tracker Morningstar. It gives the fund a five-star rating, its highest, for the period.
Over shorter stretches, the fund can underwhelm; it didn't match the S&P 500's performance over the 12 months through Sept. 6, climbing 13.97%, versus the benchmark's 15.86%. But Pilara & Co. -- he runs the fund with MacKenzie Davis, Joseph Wolf and David Kelley -- are clearly focused on going the distance: Their three-year record puts the fund in the top 12% of its category.
Not surprisingly, RS Value's success has attracted investors' attention. Assets under management jumped 863% in the three years through this past June, to $2.9 billion. Although the fund charges a hefty front load of 4.75%, its expense ratio of 1.36%, which is less than its category's average, has been coming down as assets have grown, according to Morningstar.
Pilara definitely spreads his bets. No single holding in the 50-or-so stock portfolio amounts to more than 5% of assets, and most are below 2%. This cautious approach has limited the fund's downside. By Morningstar's count, since Pilara took charge, the biggest loss in any rolling one-year period was a 13% slide between March 2001 and February 2002 -- modest, given the difficult conditions of the time.
Pilara calls the team prudent opportunists. These days, however, the prudence part is getting fresh emphasis.
"We have been on a leverage binge for quite awhile and it is not going to end with a small hangover," Pilara says. "The deflation of the debt bubble will put pressure on returns, and the cost of financing will increase because spreads are going to widen, even as the Federal Reserve tries to negotiate interest rates down."
The uncertainty, he adds, has been exacerbated by the July repeal of Wall Street's uptick rule, which banned shorting stocks (selling stocks you don't own) unless the price ticks higher. The rule was adopted after the Crash of 1929 to prevent panic selling. "Stocks are just getting pounded," he says.
In searching for the stocks that will not only hold up but excel, the fund's 11-person research teams pays particular attention to executive compensation. Long before that became the stuff of headlines, the fund's analysts were poring over annual-meeting proxies for compensation information.
"People act according to how they get paid," Pilara says. "If the company uses earnings per share as a criterion, we are not going to be interested [in the company] because it indicates that they are concentrating on growth. But if they use return on capital as a criterion, then we are going to be very interested."
A San Francisco native, Pilara, 66, traces his interest in money management to youthful days on the baseball diamond.
"It was 1953, I was 12, and the mother of the catcher asked me to attend a course on investing taught at the local high school," he says. The legendary investor Claude Rosenberg, who had just earned his MBA from Stanford Business School, taught it. Pilara was so taken by the subject that he told Rosenberg he wanted to work for him when he grew up.
After earning a B.A. in economics from Saint Mary's College, he became a Federal Reserve bank examiner. In 1967, he got his big wish by going to work for Rosenberg when the master was at investment firm J. Barth & Co.
"I essentially swept up the research department and went and got coffee and got my start at the knee of Claude," he says. J. Barth & Co. merged with Dean Witter & Co. in 1970 and Pilara stayed on, covering institutional accounts until 1974, when he started his own firm, Pilara Associates, which managed value portfolios for high-net-worth clients.
Nowadays, his stock-picking leans heavily toward companies with good cash flows and with returns on capital that exceed costs of capital. His favorite measure is what he calls the reinvestment cash flow, or the amount of money a company has available to build the business after paying for maintenance and income taxes.
Among his picks: Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies (ATI), a diversified specialty-metals producer.
"About three years ago Pat Hassey came over [as CEO] and moved this company from a commodity stainless producer to a specialty-metals and titanium producer, and that created a material increase in his returns," Pilara says. Allegheny has reinvestment cash flow of $7.70 per share, and that should climb to $9.90 next year. RS Value Fund bought Allegheny Technologies at 65, and it is now trading in the high 90s.
Also on his buy list is Key Energy Services (KEGS), a Texas-based servicing contractor for onshore oil rigs. He bought it for an average price of 13, and it was recently trading at 15.20.
Pilara calls Key an example of great valuation, great free cash flow and great returns.
"It has cash flow yields of upwards to 15%. We think they are going up to 19% in 2008," he says. He's also pleased that CEO Richard Alario plans to buy back between $200 million and $300 million of the stock in the next six to 12 months. Its current cash flow is $2.15 per share and could rise to $2.75 in 2008.
Another pick, Calgary-based Talisman Energy (TLM), is a relatively obscure exploration and production company that's selling at a significant discount to its net asset value, Pilara says. He bought it at 13.87, and it is now selling at about 18. Talisman has a solid mid-teen return on capital, and Pilara thinks production will be 12% to 13% higher next year.
The fund bought Houston-based Spectra Energy (SE), the dominant natural-gas- pipeline operator to the Northeast, at 28. It has since fallen to 23, but Pilara is hanging tough. "We don't see the current stock price as reflective of the fundamentals of the business. The market is myopic," he says.
He adds that the sustainable reinvestment yield is strong and that "we have great capital allocators in Paul Anderson, the chairman, and Fred Fowler, the CEO."
Likewise, the fund bought Alexandria Real Estate (ARE) of Pasadena, Calif., which specializes in properties for the life- sciences industry. The fund bought in at 112 and has seen it drop to the low 90s. But again, Pilara isn't worried.
He calls the real-estate investment trust's CEO, Joel Marcus, a "value-oriented guy who is going to create value by converting his land base, which is contiguous with the company's existing portfolio, into a sustainable cash flow." Alexandria's current funds from operation, the real-estate industry's version of cash flow, is $5.70 per share and should hit $6.20 in 2008.
Pilara doesn't claim to be a market strategist but says it's clear that stocks still must go through a transition. On the bright side, he believes we are returning to fundamental investing. Sorting the value opportunities from value traps, however, will require a lot more heavy research.


Well hello, 2017. | The House of Martins The House of Martins: Well hello, 2017.
I'm officially welcoming 2017 into my life today. It is the time of year when everyone starts thinking about how they can make this year better/more productive/healthier/more organized than the last. Even if you don't like "resolutions" I bet your mind still wanders in the direction of self-improvement.
My big, broad goals for 2017?
Work on teaching my kids compassion.
Being thankful for all of the blessings in our lives.
Stand up for my beliefs and rights when they are being challenged.
Take more time for self-care.
I have some more specific goals too. Selling our house, redoing my old dollhouse for Lucille (before her 4th birthday, reading 15 books (I didn't quite make it in 2016) and expanding my business and spending more time marketing myself.
Ok! Here's to making 2017 better than we expect! I'd love to hear your goals, ideas for the year too. Share in the comments.


text:
Eat + Drink What's New
This New Restaurant Schools You on Real Mediterranean Food
At Noor, Mediterranean food is fused into different forms
by Miguel Llona
Forbeswood Heights, Forbes Town, Burgos Circle, Taguig City
Contact: 0956-156-3426
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
PHOTO BY Marikit Singson
(SPOT.ph) "Noor" is a Hebrew word for "flame" or "light." These two terms capture what Noor wants to do for traditional Mediterranean cuisine—put a fire underneath it so diners could see it in a new light. People usually associate Mediterranean cuisine with Greek or Middle Eastern food, an association that Chef Or Hakmimi wants to veer away from by putting a new spin on the region's classic dishes.
"There are 30 countries [in the Mediterranean region], and what we did was fuse all these influences," he says. Chef Or, together with his wife and restaurant manager Tair, conceptualized a restaurant inspired by Tel Aviv's Levinsky Market, a wellspring for all kinds of spices, which in turn makes it a melting pot of different cultures. The Noor menu mirrors this melding of influences through a variety of fusion dishes, offered as set meals during lunch time and à la carte for the rest of the day.
Chef Or's casual yet enthusiastic approach to cooking is reflected in the restaurant's interiors. Mood lighting throws a laid-back vibe over the interiors, inviting diners to sit back, relax, and enjoy the food coming their way, yet there's a vibrant energy that you can feel in every corner. Channeling a pub atmosphere was something Chef Or and managing partner Hezi Cohen were very particular about. "We want a place that's for everyone, where everyone feels comfortable. You don't have to be dressed up to come here," says Cohen.
Since Mediterranean cuisine is known for its fresh ingredients, pursuing a new twist on traditionally accepted recipes seemed like a natural idea for the chef. There is a concerted effort to highlight vegetables, making for a menu that's packed with healthy options. "I like vegetables, they're very healthy. I noticed that salads aren't very common around here—when you order one, there's always chicken or bacon on top," says Chef Or with a laugh.
The Deep-Fried Cauliflower is surprisingly addictive.
Noor's goal of promoting vegetables successfully stirs interest with healthy offerings. The Deep-Fried Cauliflower (P350) has an unexpectedly addictive quality. The chopped cauliflower is deep-fried and coated with specially made Caesar aioli that gives each piece a sweet-tangy flavor. It's no surprise that this dish is a bestseller—a crowd-pleasing appetizer you can't resist popping into your mouth.
A spin on a sweet classic, the Lamb Baklava is made with succulent lamb and beef wrapped in a buttery filo pastry.
The perfect example of Chef Or's reinvention of a classic Mediterranean dish is the Lamb Baklava (P460). A common Greek dessert, baklava is filo pastry stuffed with shredded pistachio and sweetened with sugar, syrup, and honey, then cooked and cut into small pieces. The chef serves it as an entrée, wrapping lamb, beef, and leeks with the crusty pastry. The tahini dressing drizzled over the baklava is another surprise, and raspberry sauce spikes the dish with additional sweetness. The dish retains the crunchiness one normally expects from a baklava while enhancing it with a robust beefy flavor.
Chef Or Hakmimi puts the spotlight on Mediterranean food with a twist. PHOTO BY Marikit Singson
The Roast Beef Carpaccio is every bit tender and satisfying.
Another worthwhile dish on the menu is the Roast Beef Carpaccio (P500), whose paper-thin strips are suffused with a variety of spices and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Garlic, chimichurri, and a specialty spice called ras el hanout give the medium-rare strips a succulent sheen, as if the spices have given the beef new life. The beef is meant to be spread over slices of challa bread (Jewish brioche) but before you do, smear mustard on each strip for another layer of flavor!
Want something light? Go for the Salmon Skewer.
The Salmon Skewer (P680) is one of Noor's lighter options—skewered salmon cubes atop a mound of lentils, red rice, and salad. The salmon cubes are marinated in harissa, a Moroccan chili paste that infuses a slight spiciness in its jolting savoriness.
The Moroccan Shrimps are grilled to perfection.
It's served with a smooth and tangy tzatziki, which you'd want to smother on everything. PHOTO BY Marikit Singson
For every dish, Chef Or makes sure you'll get three levels of flavors. The Moroccan Shrimps (P470) is a good test of the chef's philosophy. The shrimps are lathered in tzatziki sauce, or Greek yogurt with shredded cucumber, mint, garlic and Spanish vinegar, and set over a bed of charred eggplants. The refreshing taste of the tzatziki keeps the strong flavors of the other ingredients, so make sure to smother the shrimps with the sauce.
The Knafe is all sorts of creamy and buttery.
After tasting a whirlwind of spices, indulge in a dessert like the Knafe (P390). The dish is a simple filo pastry filled with ricotta cheese, fried in butter, covered in syrup, then topped with yogurt ice cream. The dessert is as cleansing to the palate as it is sinful, and sublime when eaten warm.
A perfect night-ender is the Noor Cocktail, with gin and cucumber-lemon juice.
Chef Or claims that all of Noor's dishes are for sharing, consistent with the friendly and relaxed atmosphere they want to promote. "We will never serve food to a single person. We will always place it at the center of the table so customers can eat it from there, and they can share everything," he assures. The chill vibe is supplemented by Noor's selection of wines and cocktails, with the Noor Cocktail's (P380) infusion of gin, cucumber lemon juice, tonic water, and fresh basil sure to relax you while you're enjoying your meal.
"People feel more comfortable when they share food," says Chef Or. "It doesn't matter who you're dining with, whether it's family, business partners or colleagues...when you eat from the same plate, you immediately become close." It's a sentiment that Filipinos can agree with, given our propensity for dining in groups. It's even better if the food you're sharing is unforgettable and makes you want to come back for more—qualities that define Noor's menu.
Photos by Marikit Singson
Noor Mediterranean Food Bgc Taguig Burgos Circle


in the end you should know that your health will suffer.
The usual cry is, "I can stop when I want!"
but when you try, you find that you can't.
you try to give up, but the cigarette wins.
now you know their advice was sane.
but doing it this way will only take ages.
even say, "I will give it up for lent."
your willpower won't let you keep the promise you made.
if you haven't got this, it amounts to nought.
this may help you gain the answer you seek.
by what you would save, in just one year.


text:
Top House Republican Dodges Question On Impeachment
Doug Mataconis · Monday, July 28, 2014 · 18 comments
In an interview yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise refused to rule out the idea of impeaching President Obama:
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Sunday repeatedly declined to give a straight answer on whether he would support impeaching President Obama.
Even in the relatively friendly confines of Fox News Sunday, Scalise deflected three times when asked by host Chris Wallace whether impeachment was on the table. The first two times, Scalise said the White House was pushing the impeachment narrative to boost fundraising and rally its base, though he declined to say whether the GOP would actually pursue impeachment as some of its most conservative members have urged.
When Wallace tried for a third time to elicit a direct answer, Scalise changed the subject once more, responding, "The White House will do anything they can to change the topic away from the president's failed agenda."
Here's the video
Scalise's response has become something of a standard talking point on the right in the last week or so, making the argument the only people talking about impeachment are Democrats trying to fundraise off the idea. To a large degree, of course, this response ignores the fact there are indeed Republicans talking about impeachment, the fact that polling clearly shows that a majority of Republicans support the idea of impeaching the President, and the rather obvious fact that John Boehner's lawsuit is intended to be a means of forestalling pressure to go forward on impeachment from the base. In that respect, the fact that Scalise deflected the question rather than answering directly seems to be telling. Like the rest of the House leadership, he may not support the idea of impeachment, but he also knows that he can't afford to alienate the GOP base by rejecting the idea entirely. The question is whether this strategy of deflecting the base's attention on the issue will work, and what the leadership will do if it doesn't
FILED UNDER: Barack Obama, Campaign 2014, Congress, Politicians, Quick Takes, US Politics, impeachment, Republican Party
gVOR08 says:
Monday, July 28, 2014 at 08:31
The problem of the Republican Party in a nutshell. The .01% elites have always pretended they were in a coalition with the cultural conservative base, when they actually regarded the base as just marks, not partners. Now, after stoking the crazy (and half believing it themselves) for forty years, the .01% are facing real demands from the base. Awkward, isn't it?
If someone refuses to answer a question about impeaching Obama three times in a row while looking in a mirror, Antichrist will be born. You can all thank God that this was Fox News and not MSNBC, MSNBC would have put a mirror in front of him.
Tillman says:
It never occurred to me before how discounting impeachment before the midterms could be an honest vote-loser for the GOP. Reality continues to surprise.
legion says:
Obama will not be impeached. Why, you ask? Two words:
President Biden.
Surreal American says:
@legion:
Obama will not be removed from office due to the 67 Senate vote requirement, which is beyond even the most optimistic yet still reality-grounded predictions for the GOP's chances for 2014.
Lacking 67 votes to remove a president from office didn't stop the GOP from impeachment proceedings back in 1998 and it may not stop them now.
James Pearce says:
"Like the rest of the House leadership, he may not support the idea of impeachment, but he also knows that he can't afford to alienate the GOP base by rejecting the idea entirely."
Boehner can't afford to alienate the GOP base because no one else supports "the Republican agenda."
al-Ameda says:
I think they're (the GOP) is waiting to get the 2014 mid-terms squared away, then they'll decide whether or not they want to impeach, which they could do right now, they have the votes.
Again, this is what passes for governing in the GOP, this is what they do.
Jenos Idanian #13 says:
A slight paraphrase: the people who most want to talk about Obama's impeachment are Obama and his supporters. Because they see it as a wedge issue, that will score them political points.
Those who prefer to deal with reality recognize the truth — that there is no way in hell the Senate, without a massive shift in seats that ain't gonna happen, would ever vote to convict. So an impeachment would be a colossal waste of time and energy, and quite likely help Obama.
So instead of playing the role Obama and his lickspittles want to force us into, we look at more sensible plans. "Defeat in detail" is the term. Go after individual scandals and miscreants. Fight on issues.
As they say, if you focus on the little details, eventually the big details take care of themselves. It's like the old joke about how to carve an elephant: start with a big block of marble, then chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.
@Jenos Idanian #13: "So an impeachment would be a colossal waste of time and energy, and quite likely help Obama."
And we all know that the one thing that House Republicans hate is a colossal waste of time and energy that will quite likely help Obama. That's why they stopped voting to repeal Obamacare after the 50th try, and why they've only shut down the government once.
@wr:
That's why they stopped voting to repeal Obamacare after the 50th try
50 times? Did they serve cake? Maybe they even had a party?
Grewgills says:
@Jenos Idanian #13:
There is an easy way to stop the impeachment talk. The House leadership could simply say, we will not impeach. They are refusing to say that, so no matter how much you want to blame this on Obama it is the Republican leadership that is keeping this going with the help of the conservative base.
@PJ: 50 times? Did they serve cake? Maybe they even had a party?
Yup. Big party. They invited Obama, but he was off at yet another fund-raiser.
But the really big party is over with the Democrats. They're pushing this talk at every opportunity, because they see big Benjamins in it. It's all about the Benjamins.
…the people who most want to talk about Obama's impeachment are Obama and his supporters.
And they really appreciate your bunch bringing it up all the time.
Go after individual scandals and miscreants.
'Cause that's been going so well for your bunch?
@gVOR08: If you get through the blackouts here and in the mainstream media, you'd see that the IRS coverup is falling apart. So there's one.
@Jenos Idanian #13: Yup. Falling apart. And has been for what, three years now?
@gVOR08: If you wanna praise how well they've stonewalled, that's your choice. But it's now becoming conventional wisdom that the leading cause of hard drive failures is "Congressional subpoenas."
anjin-san says:
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 17:42
@ wr
they've only shut down the government once.
Don't get Jenos started. We will be treated to dozens of comments on the scenic turnout scandal (Worst. Scandal. Ever.)
@Jenos Idanian #13: "But it's now becoming conventional wisdom that the leading cause of hard drive failures is "Congressional subpoenas.""
As I recall, it was "conventional wisdom" in your set that Obama would be thrown out of office because he wasn't a US citizen. It was also "conventional wisdom" in your set that Bill Clinton had fathered a black child. Oh, and that there was a national conspiracy to "skew" polls to hide the fact that Romney was going to win in a landslide.
It's all "conventional wisdom" because a lot of Republicans have a very shaky grip on reality, and they accept whatever Rush or Drudge or Hot Air tells them.
There's a big gap between "conventional wisdom" and truth, however.
Reporter Mike Wallace Dead At 93
Polling On Impeachment Largely Unmoved On Eve Of House Vote
Three Months After Shooting, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise Returns To Congress
Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise Win Leadership Elections, But The Battle Resumes In November
Congressman Shot, Others Injured, At Congressional Baseball Practice


For the traveler with anxious or paranoid thoughts, I've compiled a list of the top products specifically for the paranoid. The paranoid traveler may indeed look and act like the rest of us, this type of traveler carries a lot of baggage and it doesn't include what's in their suitcase.
Those barely in control tourists and travelers stress about every aspect of the trip including what can, and will, go wrong. So, let's start with a good book which makes for fascinating reading for the paranoid traveler.
It is no secret that America is the No Vacation Nation. Vacations consist of nothing more than a few long weekends a year, when they are not on 'staycations'.
Workplace stress and burnout in America have reached an all-time high. That Americans are overly caffeinated and sleep deprived is not surprising given that their work-leisure balance is so severely lopsided. Depression is epidemic. Chalmers' estimates that these seemingly isolated yet wholly interconnected cultural data points cost the U.S. economy a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity, and may be shortening the life spans of the average American. It wasn't always like that in America previously, and it surely doesn't have to be either.
A stunningly well-researched book, offering readers an explanation why Americans are suffering from an acute case of Vacation Deficit Disorder and what the unintended consequences mean to every American couple, parents, families, workers, bosses, and the nation's economy. The book explains clearly why Americans don't travel and why they really should!
The book also looks at what really makes humans happy, offering a profound insight into how the 'lucky few' Americans who do take vacations can enjoy them better and reap their life-enhancing benefits. It passionately explains how all Americans could benefit from a Solution prescription. The book offers a compelling American centric cultural narrative that explains in great detail and with erudite analysis, just who stole their vacation.
ComFortrel XP wicks away moisture to keep feet dry, cool and comfortable.
Zip It pocket large enough to carry and protect travel necessities including cash, credit card, ID and a key.
Quick-drying, the socks can be washed at night and dry by morning.
Nylon zipper will not set off metal detectors.
The Zip It Pocket Sock has been tested by numerous travelers to provide a comfortable fit. The quarter-height socks are designed to ensure items in the pocket don't slip down or interfere with during travel. The range includes socks with a zipper wide enough to accommodate a passport.
Advanced flu protection hidden in a scarf, urban filter ware features a lab-tested and designed solution to a public health crisis. Scough is made from the same materials the Ministry of Defence use for chemical warfare.
This scarf is perfect for travelers who are serious about protecting themselves and others. Every time a fellow passenger doesn't cover his or her mouth on an airplane or subway, the paranoid traveler will be glad they purchased a Scough. The wearer will not doubt take comfort knowing that if they or one of your loved ones is ill, they can reduce the chances of spreading infection to others nearby.
Scough creates a mini-microclimate of freshened air that's not just a barrier to a harsh germs and pollution-filled world, but is shown to adsorb and kill viruses and pollution before any paranoid traveler has an opportunity to breathe it. Besides helping to keep the wearer healthy it's a nice looking super-soft scarf.
The Scough hides an advanced activated carbon filter impregnated with silver nano-particles. There is real science done by serious lab coat wearing folks who created the technology for modern warfare and New York City transit. The manufacturers have confirmed its benefits through independent laboratory testing to ensure at least 99% bacterial filtration efficiency.
Activated carbon prepared in the patent-pending approach is the key to filtering out and killing viruses. The secret is its high degree of micro porosity, just one gram of activated carbon has a surface area in excess of 500 m2 for trapping sneeze fragments, cough-dingle and general ick.
The structure of activated carbon creates strong Van Der Waals forces, by pulling in pollution, germs and viruses to hold them in the crevices and neutralize them. The scarves use an advanced silver nano-particle impregnated filtration system to disrupt the basic biochemistry of bacteria, causing the cell's membranes to collapse.
The Global Traveler Pant lives up to its name: it's been painstakingly engineered and passport approved for top echelon adventure travel, thanks to a nylon Teflon® stain/water-resistant finish and Dot-Matrix™ weaving, which puts small raised dots on the back of the fabric to create an air gap between the wearer and the fabric making it easy for skin to breathe easy and be comfortable on any journey.
Wearers will surely look well turned out from sunrise to sunset, moving from the trail to dinner as these pants dry quickly, are wrinkle resistant, and have subtle well-hidden pockets on the thigh and back. Packing light? Have no fear as these pants take up very little space and are super lightweight.
The epitome of SCOTTeVEST engineering and design, the Q.U.E.S.T. is packed with more features than any paranoid traveler can imagine! No doubt it will quickly become the new "utility belt" for travel and used for running errands around town or loading up all that tech for that upcoming sci-fi convention or exploring the world.
This vest packs an astonishing 42 pockets to hold every last bit of gear including a zippered compartment in the collar to stow the hood and giant back pocket to stash larger items. The 65% cotton/35% nylon fabric is great for temperate weather, comfortable enough to be worn indoors and can be layered with other garments for cooler temperatures. The vest is Teflon® treated for water and stain resistance and is available for both men and women.
With a portable case, the Oral SteriClean® PORTABLE UV Toothbrush Sanitizer is a must have for any paranoid traveler's arsenal. Its compact case is perfect for travel fitting comfortably in toiletry bags, luggage, backpacks, purses and carry-on bags. The unit is light in weight and incredibly easy to use. Simply place a toothbrush or electric head in the sanitizer, close the lid and its' UV light will turn on. After it is done sanitizing the light will automatically turn off indicating the process is completed.
Any toothbrush or electric head stays clean in the PORTABLE UV Toothbrush Sanitizer until its next use. Oral SteriClean® PORTABLE UV Toothbrush Sanitizer is proven to kill harmful bacteria that causes Heart Disease, Stroke, Respiratory Infections, Blood Infections, Ulcers, GI tract Infections, Gum Disease, Cavities and Life-Threatening Diseases. Tested and Clinically Proven to kill the most aggressive bacteria, Oral SteriClean® is a must have for the paranoid traveler.
LifeStraw is ideal for hiking, backpacking, camping, travel, and emergency preparedness. The straw-style filter design can turn up to 1,000 litres of contaminated water into safe drinking water.
Being the target of violent crime is not only scary but also tragic. It was during that moment of vulnerability that the Yellow Jacket® smartphone stun gun case was conceptualized and the future of Yellow Jacket® was born. The idea for a smartphone case concealing a stun gun was created when the inventor, a former U.S. Army soldier Seth Froom was robbed at gunpoint in his own home.
The robber took many of his possessions including his iPhone® but coincidentally left his case. After the incident, he received a stun gun for added protection from his mother, and thinking back on that fateful night he pondered the many ways he could have defended himself if only his iPhone® case could also act as a stun gun. Armed with his new idea Yellow Jacket® was soon formed.
British company Secure Drives' Autothysis128s and Autothysis128t are solid state drives with 128GB of storage space. They would be fairly unremarkable SSDs, were it not for the ability to delete their data by sending an SMS message to a special self-destruct number like some kind of Mission Impossible Spymaster. More interestingly, the data's not just wiped, the SSDs are like piggy banks — once you've made the decision to delete the data the drive is physically destroyed with the NAND flash chips and security controller broken inside the drive's enclosure.
Secure Drive boasts that its Autothysis drives conform with more than 100 country-specific data protection laws. However true peace of mind and the chance to feel like a secret agent in the process doesn't come cheap. Consumers have to part with at least £967 (about $1,567) for Secure Drives' base SSD, £111 (about $180) for each touchscreen token to link the drive, and £29 ($47) a year for a GSM subscription after that.
Disposable Non-Skid Clear Foot Covers are great addition for any traveler paranoid or otherwise, when passengers have to remove their shoes to pass through airport security. The covers are TSA approved and are also great for use by the pool, in hotel rooms, on an aircraft or in in public bathrooms.


Question: Do you recommend conducting a bathymetry survey on a pond or lake after a tropical storm or extraordinary rain event?
Answer: Conducting a bathymetry survey, which gives you contours and sediment volumes and sediment placements, is a good idea after a storm event because you could have had some sediment deposition from the storm that you're unaware of. These surveys are conducted with an airboat on the surface, but it's using sonar signal to develop a map. A lot of the retention ponds around the southeast/mid-south area have specific capacities that are needed to handle storm water volume.
So we are seeing a lot of ponds that were in compliance to capacity, which handle all the storm water from your streets and non-permeable sources, but now, because of the storm event, either through surge or just a lot of runoff, the sediment has compiled very quickly and now made that pond out of compliance and available to hold all the storm water need that will come with the next rain event.


Have a quick look to what guests say about us on social media. Read the reviews and be persuaded by those who had the pleasure of staying at Villa Poggio in Cortona.
Everything was wonderful about the stay. Andrea was very nice and extremely responsive and helpful. He left us a plate of delicious pastries and bottles of wine upon arrival. He advised us of good restaurants. He was very nice to give us a ride to the station when we departed.
The home was lovely and a great size and space for our large group. The key situation was sometimes a little difficult as each key opened a separate part of the house but it wasn't a big problem. There were not a lot of places to hang towels but the radiators worked well and also dried the towels well. It was quite rainy when we were there so it was a bit humid. I would request a few more kitchen towels as well.
The location was good but you definitely need a car as the walking areas are on busy streets.
What a beautiful Villa and setting. This was a perfect find for our group of 11. The setting couldn't be lovelier. There are gardens surrounding the villa and small orchards as well. The outside spaces were so inviting and we all found ourselves there for coffee early in the day and often ended the day outside as well after we returned from the most amazing day trips. The Villa itself was spacious and everyone was happy with their rooms. Of note, there are three separate spaces and you can't go from one to the other without going outside. This actually worked fine for us but somehow I wasn't expecting that. Each space has bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen.
Andrea arranged for 2 chefs to cook a birthday dinner for us one evening. What a great meal!
We loved being so near Cortona and would reccomend staying here.
and plenty of bathrooms for such a large group. Andrea was very quick at responding when we had questions about the stay and also when I had to alter the check in because my husband and I were about six hours delayed due to flight issues. This is a great location close to Cortona but also other Tuscan towns with wonderful people and small restaurants and coffee shops/bakeries. I highly recommend it!
This is a spectacular villa and it is in an excellent central location for touring Tuscany. Perfect accommodations for large groups or multiple families (3). The house is very clean and comfortable with all the amenities.
Breathtaking views of Camucia and Cortona from every window in the house and from any spot on the property.
Andrea was always available for questions and he was very hospitable; he made everything easy for us. Andrea arranged a beautiful dinner in the house for us and that was an amazing, memorable experience.
Hi! We had a great stay at Villa Poggio this summer! The house is perfect for 3-4 families as there are separate apartments with bed rooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room. The units are well connected in one big house. Nice area outside of the house for various activities. The pool might be a bit smaller than the pictures indicates, but it is big enough to get cooled down during the sunny days in Tuscany. The town close by, Cortona, is very nice and can be recommended a visit (and the castle!) in addition to Montepulciano, Florence and other places relatively close to the house. Eager to do some shopping? make sure to visit the Outlet just a 25 min drive from the house named Valdichiana Outlet, and you'll find some good bargins. So, nice house, clean, well organized regarding the deposit and keys, and it do have air con in all bed rooms so your sleep is secured.
Beautifull and quite place in the countryside with a well kept garden and a nice view of the valley!! The position is good, under the village of Cortona and not far away from the little town of Camucia.


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Q: Shiny tutorial lesson 6: getting error I am trying to run the shiny tutorial 6 app, from shiny-Rstudio website. The url is :
http://shiny.rstudio.com/tutorial/lesson6/
While trying to run the app, I am getting below error:
Error : Failed to download file. Error message:
cannot open URL 'https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIAUCNS/downloaddata/CPIAUCNS.csv'

I am new to shiny and do not understand this error.

A: Found the answer in other thread in stack-overflow:
Quantmod Error 'cannot open URL'
The code that should be used to run the app for lesson 6 is:
library(shiny)
options(download.file.method="libcurl")#This fixed the error
runApp("stockVis")

A: make sure you have saved server.R, ui.R and helpers.r in a folder named "stockVis". If it's ok, you could try to specify the path of the app, like this :
library(quantmod)
runApp("D:/mydocuments/stockVis")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Cleveland Cavaliers had Kyrie Irving to thank on Thursday after the guard's season-high 57 points helped the team to a 128-125 overtime win against the San Antonio Spurs.
Irving was in the zone in San Antonio, scoring nine points in the final minute of regulation to send the game into overtime with scores level 110-110 at AT&T Center.
The 22-year-old continued where he left off in the additional period, shooting 11 points to help the Cavs (42-25) to a third consecutive win.
LeBron James contributed 31 points and seven assists for the visiting team.
The Spurs (40-24) were led by veteran Tony Parker's 31 points, while Kawhi Leonard and Daniel Green scored 24 points apiece.
A double-double from Rudy Gobert inspired the Utah Jazz, who upstaged the Houston Rockets 109-91.
Gobert sank 19 points, collected 22 rebounds and had four blocks as the Jazz (28-36) notched their ninth win in 11 games.
"He was really good tonight," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
"I've been as hard on Rudy lately as anybody. He's great. He's tough-minded. He knows I want him to be better."
Corey Brewer posted 25 points off the bench for the Rockets (43-22) as James Harden was restricted to 15 points.
The Washington Wizards beat the Memphis Grizzlies 107-87.
The Grizzlies (45-20) rested Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph and the Wizards (37-28) took full advantage, with Marcin Gortat and John Wall leading the hosts to victory.
Gortat and Wall combined for 43 points against a depleted Grizzlies team.
"They sit 'em, and I don't know the reason why," Wall said.
"I think we're a team that's on the rise, and teams respect us now. And I guess they don't respect us."
Elsewhere, the New York Knicks downed the Los Angeles Lakers 101-94 and the Indiana Pacers prevailed 109-103 against the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime.


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About Prevail
Lysosomal Dysfunction
PD-GBA
Gaucher disease
FTD-GRN
Supporting Publications
Expanded Access & Compassionate Use
Prevail Therapeutics to Present at AAT-AD/PD Focus Meeting 2020: Advances in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Therapies
Design of PROPEL Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial for Parkinson's Disease Patients with GBA1 Mutations to Be Presented
Preclinical Data of PR001 for Parkinson's Disease with GBA1 Mutations and PR006 for Frontotemporal Dementia with GRN Mutations to Be Presented
NEW YORK, March 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Prevail Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: PRVL), a biotechnology company developing potentially disease-modifying AAV-based gene therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases, today announced three upcoming presentations at the AAT-AD/PD Focus Meeting 2020: Advances in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Therapies, taking place virtually April 2-5, 2020. All presentations will be available on-demand for registered participants in the AAT-AD/PD™ Virtual Meeting platform. The presentations include information about Prevail's PR001 program for Parkinson's disease patients with GBA1 mutations (PD-GBA), and Prevail's PR006 program for frontotemporal dementia patients with GRN mutations (FTD-GRN).
Preclinical data related to PR001 for PD-GBA and the design of PROPEL, Prevail's Phase 1/2 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PR001 in patients with PD-GBA, will be presented on Saturday, April 4, 2020:
Presentation title: PR001 Gene Therapy Improves PD-GBA Phenotypes in Mouse Models by Increasing GCase Activity
Symposium title: Emerging Therapies for PD Related to Glucocerebroside Mutations: From Bench to First in Human Trial
Date: Saturday, April 4, 2020
Presenter: Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Prevail Therapeutics
Presentation title: Design of the First-in-Human Trial of Novel AAV9-based Gene Therapy for Parkinson's Disease with Pathogenic GBA1 Mutations
Presenter: Olga Uspenskaya, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Medical Director, Prevail Therapeutics
Preclinical data related to PR006 for FTD-GRN will also be presented on Saturday, April 4, 2020:
Presentation title: PR006 Gene Therapy Improves FTD-GRN Phenotypes in Model Systems by Increasing Progranulin Levels
Symposium title: ALS, FTD and PSP: Diagnosis and Treatment
Presenter: Laura D. Heckman, Ph.D., Director, Prevail Therapeutics
About Prevail Therapeutics
Prevail is a gene therapy company leveraging breakthroughs in human genetics with the goal of developing and commercializing disease-modifying AAV-based gene therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The company is developing PR001 for patients with Parkinson's disease with GBA1 mutations (PD-GBA) and neuronopathic Gaucher disease; PR006 for patients with frontotemporal dementia with GRN mutations (FTD-GRN); and PR004 for patients with certain synucleinopathies.
Prevail was founded by Dr. Asa Abeliovich in 2017, through a collaborative effort with The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson's with GBA and OrbiMed, and is headquartered in New York, NY.
Mary Carmichael
Ten Bridge Communications
mary@tenbridgecommunications.com
investors@prevailtherapeutics.com
Source: Prevail Therapeutics
© 2023 Prevail Therapeutics · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact


Cheesy but true. Your website shows the world who you are and why it matters to them. Easier said than done you might say!
That's where we come in. Working with you to understand your business, audiences and website objectives, our experience and some smart thinking keep the process simple and seamless so your website leaves a lasting impression.
It has to be said. If you're not from an app development background, it can feel like you're stepping into the unknown. It can also be a money pit!
Whether consulting or developing apps, our aim is to bring your concept to life for you at the best possible value.
Credit to our clients. We have a seam-bursting passion for the work we do, but it has to be said our success is down to the honest feedback, tremendous word of mouth and continued support of clients.
Looking for advice or more information?


The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) 11th Annual Scientific Meeting takes place February 17 – 19 in Washington, DC. Bracket is pleased to have the opportunity to present our scientific posters and co-chair Working Group Dinners. Below are the details of Bracket's participation in the conference.


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You are here: Home / Badwolf A to Zed (The Glossary) / M is For
Jump to Manga, Masturbation, Masturbation Tools, Masturbators, Masc
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan, or from other regions imitating this Japanese style. Most manga adhere to styles developed in Japan in the late 19th century, but the art form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art and erotic works. The term manga is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country or comics mimicking that style.
The sort that we're most frequently concerned with are Yaoi and Bara manga. Yaoi (Japanese: やおい) is the general term for fiction concerning "boys' love" (although we're not sharing or discussing anything featuring minors here, that is occasionally a facet of some underground Yaoi) and is traditionally created by female artists for a largely female audience.
'Homoerotic couple' (c.1820) by Katsushika Hokusai
Bara (薔薇, "rose") is the general term for gay manga, or gay comics focused on male same sex love, and featuring graphic depictions of MM sexual scenarios. Occasionally wrongly conflated with Yaoi, Bara is widely considered to be a subgenere of more typical men's erotica and closely resembles manga for straight male readers, rather than female-targeted Yaoi works. They are distinct.
Bara tends toward hyper-masculine depictions of maleness, with bodies drawn muscular and hairy, and characters exhibiting stereotypically masc traits.
Bara and gay manga as an art style is a relatively recent (within the last 30 years) development, but has deep roots tracing back to the Edo period in Japan. Male/male erotica enjoys a long and commonly understood history in Japan, and elicits different (though no less complex) social perceptions compared to such artwork in western culture.
The term "bara" itself was historically used in a derogatory fashion toward gay men, but experienced a reclamation beginning in the 1960s and 70s.
See Also: Jiraiya's "Caveman Guu", "Shibata-san and the Tanuki"
It's the core focus of this whole site, so let's define what we mean when we say masturbation!
For our purposes, masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals (or sex parts) for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, often (but not necessarily) to the point of orgasm and ejaculation. This stimulation can involve hands, fingers, masturbation tools, or any combination thereof.
Whether practiced solo or with a partner or group, masturbation is a form of sex.
There is no causal relationship known between masturbation and any form of mental or physical disorder, and it is widely considered a normal and healthy part of sexual enjoyment. Restraint from masturbation has never been scientifically or clinically demonstrated to produce positive physical or behavioral changes in men, and groups or literature purporting otherwise are always deserving of "source, please?" suspicion from anyone and everyone.
Masturbation Tools
These are devices, contraptions, or accessories used to enhance or facilitate masturbation. Commonly referred to as sex "toys," I am of the belief that calling them toys trivializes their existence and the seriousness of their function. This contributes to a cultural perception of "naughtiness" or unacceptability (which is rooted in shame) about sex and the necessity of arousal and sexual stimulation in humans.
Think of it this way: you wouldn't call all your kitchen utensils "cooking toys" and hide them in a box in the cupboard when your friends came over. I'm sure I'm in good company when I state that my Fleshlight is far more valuable to me and my continued sanity than all my spatulas combined.
Popular masturbation tool categories include things like masturbators (Fleshlights and Tenga Eggs), dongs and dildos, vibrators, cockrings, ball stretchers, and any manner of genital or sex part enhancers or stimulators. Even sex furniture qualifies.
The Liberator Fleshlight mount
See also: Party For One – The Fleshlight Turbo Review, Cockrings: Every Day, Testicle Tuesday: Live Ball Stretching Action
Masturbators are men who openly and proudly declare that they came to penis their penises. Masturbators are the heroes of this blog and guys like Proudbator and Blackey Madison deserve your attention, praise and money. Masturbators are guys who can laugh and smile through their bate, and aren't afraid to show you what it looks like when they are aroused, or when they cum.
This word is never to be used in a derogatory fashion. Rather it describes a particular sort of man who is unashamed of his penis, his sexuality, and our collective lifelong fascination with jackin it. Adopting a sense of pride around this idea – the same way you might if you were a runner or painter or drummer – is a way to normalize masturbation and gently combat harmful ideas associated with toxic masculinity. Even if you start small and only say it to yourself, enjoy the smile that warms your face when you proclaim "I'm a masturbator."
My name is Tyler the Badwolf and I am a fukkin' masturbator <3
Masturbator may also refer to any number of different sex or masturbation tools. These are things like strokers and sleeves that may be produced under brands like Fleshlight or Tenga. In this context, a masturbator is anything which masturbates or may be used for masturbation: a Fleshlight, a melon, a Pringles can stuffed with sponges.
See also: Monday Masturbators, The Many Penises (and Masturbators) of Wikipedia, I Bought a Masturbator from Groupon!
A loaded and (ironically) delicate abbreviation for "masculine," often used in apps and profiles to define someone as performing or presenting as a stereotypically heterosexual man.
I don't know at all how to answer when someone asks if I'm "masc" and it strikes me as something of a red flag when someone is preoccupied with perception in this manner before you even meet.
Largely also a synonym for "straight acting," or intentionally trying to pass oneself off as heterosexual.
See also: Toxic Masculinity
Love (Fraternal & Self)
Naked Time
Nards
Nipple Pumping
Not Gay
Take this survey!
July Survey
What's your bate style?
Quick 'n Dirty: cum fast/get on with life
Extended: long edging, rare shooting
Cum when the guy in the vid does
Bate n cum, then bate n cum again, repeat


Home / Uncategorized / 21 days to go!
BEKE has limited edition gift sets . Which would make a gorgeous present.
Included is a Dermalogica moisturiser plus 2 FREE Dermalogica travel size products.
Or why not buy a gift certificate. These can be tailor made to a value or specific treatment .


With Queensland Interstate Horse Transport your horse travels in a 9-bay, 8 tonne, rear-load Isuzu, with excellent ventilation, natural light, and adjustable wide angle bays. The gating, as can be seen above, allows each horse to clearly see other horses on both sides.
Quite the opposite to a horse float which can often become hot and stuffy, your horse enjoys natural cooling air that flows freely throughout his/her entire journey.
Even in heat wave conditions, in our transporters your horse will not sweat up. With a light-coloured interior, plenty of vision and natural light your horse will not feel "boxed-in". Your horse can see her/his travelling companions both sides and can also see out. If it becomes evening before being stabled for the night, there is adequate interior lighting, and in colder climate your horse is rugged.
Having these features in place means that the possibility of any reactions such as dehydration, travel sickness, or stress of any kind is completely eliminated.
In summary, your horse is kept healthy, safe, and comfortable and this shows in the composure of your horse as he/she exits our transporter upon arrival.


KeepTruckin, a leading fleet management platform, today announced a new suite of safety features that are designed to seamlessly integrate with the KeepTruckin Smart Dashcam. The expansion of its safety platform includes video recall, video annotation, in-app driver coaching, and sensor fusion. Harnessing the power of machine learning, KeepTruckin's enhanced Smart Dashcam capabilities can identify behaviors associated with critical events and educate fleets on ways to prevent them from happening.
"Safety is a crucial aspect of any fleet, and KeepTruckin is committed to investing in ways data processing, machine learning, and analytics can improve driver performance," said Jai Ranganathan, VP of Product, KeepTruckin. "Machine learning extends a new layer of intelligence that allows us to contextualize footage and provide fleets with educational insights into specific driver behaviors. As a result, these new features can have a direct impact on the well-being of drivers and fundamentally improve road safety."
The latest feature enhancements to KeepTruckin's Smart Dashcam enable fleets to advance their safety cultures by adding context to events and track driver performance. The ability to recognize driving trends and deliver feedback has a direct impact on a fleet's safety score and operational costs. Findings from a recent report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety support this correlation between actionable insights and improved safety. The report states that video-based onboard safety monitoring systems, in combination with driver feedback and coaching, can result in up to a 52% reduction in critical safety events per 10,000 miles.
Video recall: Fleet and safety managers can recall video footage from the previous 35 hours of driving time, providing visibility that helps gide driver training.
Video annotation: Videos are automatically assigned tags that describe the context leading up to an event. Fleet managers can quickly prioritize which events to review first, filter events based on tags, and monitor changes over time.
In-app driver coaching: Drivers can proactively access safety performance data to increase awareness and coach themselves based on driving history.
Sensor fusion: A combination of vehicle speed, GPS speed, accelerometer, and gyroscope data that intelligently identifies driving events, helping fleet managers access the most accurate driving performance data through driver scorecards.
"Showing our drivers their individual, event-driven video footage has motivated them to take ownership of their driving behavior, which has made our coaching much more effective," said Norman Bright, Fleet and Safety Manager, Woodford Oil. "In four short months, we've seen a significant decrease in critical events, including hard braking events cut in half and an almost 70% reduction in hard accelerations."
"Fleet management has moved beyond bringing trucks online, it's now about the ability to leverage data and machine learning to improve operational efficiency and safety," said Shoaib Makani, CEO and co-founder, KeepTruckin. "The increased functionality of our Smart Dashcam reflects KeepTruckin's ability to provide fleets with seamless, integrated solutions that use data to guide smarter business decisions."
All features will be available for new and current users by April 30, 2019. Visit the KeepTruckin blog to learn more about how these features can improve safety and efficiency. More information on how to purchase a Smart Dashcam to protect your fleet through improved visibility can be found here.
KeepTruckin is the #1 fleet management platform whose robust solutions - the KeepTruckin Electronic Logging Device, KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App for iOS and Android, and the KeepTruckin Smart Dashcam - seamlessly connect vehicles, drivers, and fleet managers. The KeepTruckin App Marketplace offers customers a catalog of customizable integrations that can improve operational efficiencies and increase productivity to save fleets money. KeepTruckin is trusted by over 60,000 fleets and over 1 million registered drivers to make them more efficient, safe, smart and reliable. The #1 rating comes from our Google (News - Alert) Play Store reviews. To learn more about KeepTruckin visit, KeepTruckin.com.


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Home TV Series Cherish The Day: Season 1 Episode 1 "Genesis" [Series Premiere] – Recap/ Review
Cherish The Day: Season 1 Episode 1 "Genesis" [Series Premiere] – Recap/ Review
by Amari February 12, 2020
written by Amari February 12, 2020
OWN continues to be one of the premier networks for dramas featuring elite Black talent, and Ava DuVernay's "Cherish The Day" furthers the network's legacy.
Created By Ava DuVernay
Directed By Tanya Hamilton
Written By Ava DuVernay
Aired (OWN) 2/11/2020
Genre(s) Drama, Romance, Anthology
Gently Xosha Roquemore
Evan Alano Miller
Miss Luma Cicely Tyson
Ben Michael Beach
Sanah Felisha Anoa'I
1.1 Collected Quote(s) or .Gifs
1.2 Question(s) Left Unanswered
2.1.1 Gently
2.1.2 Evan Being Upwardly Mobile But Not Put On A Pedestal
2.1.3 Miss Luma
2.1.4 A True Sense of Real People
2.2.1 Dealing With The Format
3.1 For Those Who Like
3.2 Continue To Watch? – Watch Upon Release
3.3 First Impression: Optimistic
3.3.1 Gently - 89%
3.3.2 Evan Being Upwardly Mobile But Not Put On A Pedestal - 85%
3.3.3 Miss Luma - 88%
3.3.4 A True Sense of Real People - 90%
3.3.5 Dealing With The Format - 79%
In the anthology series, each episode represents a single day, and in "Genesis," the day we watch is the one Gently, a young woman who assists the legendary Miss Luma, meets Evan, an analysis for a tech company. These two meet at a library, while Gently is running an errand for Miss Luma, and Evan's chivalry, and sliding into Gently's DMs, sparks something.
However, just as much as opposites attract, so comes the issue of moving past infatuations and seeking understanding. And while Evan is the one pushed to be out of his element, it is ultimately Gently who is left uncomfortable as Evan shows himself as someone who might be skin folk, but doesn't understand her and what she went through at all.
Leaving us to wonder, after a recoil due to different upbringings and present-day situations, can the two find each other once more?
Collected Quote(s) or .Gifs
The joy of books is that you get to act it out for yourself.
— Miss Luma
I am a company man, just not for this company.
— Evan
What happened to Gently's mother?
Gently (Xosha Roquemore)
At the moment, I feel like Black entertainment is at a crux. There is this need to put out the narrative of what Black people can be, yet an equal pull to not forget that, just because someone is from an urban area, or lives in one, they aren't to be dismissed or forgotten. This issue is definitely not new, but I do feel, as with most things, men have been allowed vast opportunities to diversify how they are presented, and women have not.
Black women, specifically, haven't had a wealth of opportunities to be explored. Which makes Gently's entry into the zeitgeist all the more important. She is someone without a college degree, and yet she has seen the world. A person whose network includes a man, Ben, who used to be "about that life," that decided to take on being a father figure to her. Someone who taught her that you can make it anywhere, from LA to Europe, if you are willing to hustle and make things work.
And this isn't to put down the splendid display of Claire Huxtable-esque women, who have given us brilliant depictions of women at the top of their profession, yet still flawed. No. This is a celebration of getting to see a Black woman who is clearly an around the way girl, who has been around the world.
Evan Being Upwardly Mobile But Not Put On A Pedestal
Evan (Alano Miller)
Which brings us to Evan. In many a show and movie, he'd be the baseline – visibly well-off, may speak of urban areas but doesn't frequent them, and who only bucks up to show he isn't a punk. If not in an attempt to prove his Blackness.
Yet, "Cherish The Day" doesn't do that. Evan is made to walk that tight rope and Alano Miller does that brilliantly. Similar to Cuba Gooding Jr., in "Boyz n the Hood," you see a character who is aware of the customs in an urban area, especially if dealing with people who aren't privileged as he is, without fear. Now, is he aware how things can go left? Absolutely. But, there is a certain level of comfort that keeps him from looking over his shoulder and presenting himself as if, despite being amongst people who look like him, he should be scared.
Miss Luma
Miss Luma (Cicely Tyson)
Can I just say, any opportunity to see a legendary actress who shows they still have their wits about them is a blessing? Similar to seeing Margaret Avery in the early parts of "Being Mary Jane," it feels respectful to show them as vibrant as the production which introduced them to us. For too often, it can feel that for Black actresses, less so actors, once they no longer are consistently in the hottest shows or movies, and reach a certain age, while they still may work, it isn't consistent or within the mainstream.
So to see Cicely Tyson not play someone shaking or frail, but who has a mouth on her and seems a bit frisky, or at least willing to refer to when she was, it tickles you. It revives you even. Heck, similar to Avery in "Being Mary Jane," who had sex with her husband on the show, it gives the kind of representation we're so lacking today. That is, getting more than the wise elder but getting a whole person. One whose life isn't just about lessons of what to do and what not to do, but they can also have conversations with you and not just talk at you.
A True Sense of Real People
When creators say that they are going to show a different side to this place or that place, often it means strictly in location, but the people are going to be the extras and actors we're used to. Meaning, we may see a part of Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, whatever the place might be, we're not used to seeing in stock footage during transitions, but the people are still of the body type of Roquemore or Miller.
So in seeing Sanah, her having a scene, you are given a gift. You are given a woman who doesn't fit that Jill Scott or Ashley Graham look. Who expands what body proportions are seen on screen, especially outside of reality television or comedy. And with seeing her glow, her pride, and this show we assume she owns, it truly gives you the feeling you are seeing a side to a neighbor rarely seen. For it is women like Sanah who you see in the community in various functions, and for too long, it seems they were erased. So even if this is a one-time appearance, you have to appreciate the representation.
Dealing With The Format
I don't think there are many, or have been at this level, anthologies which featured Black majority casts. This leads to the question, between each episode representing a day and the show, as a whole, switching focus from season to season, how will "Cherish The Day" handle that? Which isn't to imply we don't have faith in DuVernay and her team, but there is something about Black culture and creating intense bonds with characters and stories that makes you wonder, as this story ends, can the next one compete or compare?
After all, it would be one thing if this was a mini-series and then a new show replaced it, but with precedents set and knowing we'll have around 8 episodes before their story ends, will that create a disconnect or open the doors for more anthologies? Be it of this ilk or in different genres?
For Those Who Like
Productions set, or which feature, urban areas, and urban life.
Black love stories.
Opposites attracting one another.
Continue To Watch? – Watch Upon Release
First Impression: Optimistic
Setting aside how, at the peak of our attachment to these characters, we'll likely have to say goodbye to them, and how prepping for that could affect things, this is a brilliant show. It goes beyond bridging what many are familiar with in the 90s and 00s, and asks what is next? We have all this land to build something new, so let's take these blue prints, modernize them, maybe even tear them up, and create something unexpected. Yet, while maintaining the expected quality that only OWN, Ava DuVernay, and those they entrust with telling their and our stories can.
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Gently - 89%
Evan Being Upwardly Mobile But Not Put On A Pedestal - 85%
Miss Luma - 88%
A True Sense of Real People - 90%
Dealing With The Format - 79%
Alano MillerAnthologyAva DuVernayCherish The DayCherish The Day: Season 1Cicely TysonDramaFelisha Anoa'IMichael BeachOWNRomanceSeries PremiereTanya HamiltonXosha Roquemore


Two scraps from the cutting room floor that found each other and fell in love. Ambient drone and harsh noise.
Karl M V Waugh is an experimental musician with interests in free improvisation, drone, noise, field recordings and ambient music. Having recorded and performed with The A Band, The Zero Map, Binnsclagg as well as numerous short collaborations his solo work focuses on the concept of long form pieces, tones as a paint, the imperceptible. He has a Doctorate in Mathematics, plays violin, guitar, electronics, writes poetry, paints abstract painting and works as a software engineer.


Historian on the Edge: What do we mean by 'Interdisciplinarity'?
For reasons unconnected with the project I came back to this recently. As I have seen it alluded to a couple of times on other medieval blogs and as I think it is a clear statement of my current views of the subject, and of methodology, I thought it might be worthwhile to post it here. It was orginally given at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in July 2009.
At the time what struck me was how many people came up to me afterwards and said they agreed with me, before revealing that they hadn't really understood what I was saying at all... Ho hum. Netwise, Jon Jarrett has a nice summary on his Blog, but he seems (to me) to see me as taking sides with those who think that historicist dominance is either a "good thing" or the only way of doing things, in that he appears to perceive an opposition between me and Eileen Joy. Insofar as I am aware of Eileen's stance (critical theory over historicism), I think I'd be on her side - politically at least.
Interdisciplinarity is one of the most used words in our professional practice, sprinkled generously to season MA course and programme descriptions. At York some moderately serious thought has been devoted to what interdisciplinarity might mean, but, if one probes what it means in practice, it is not interdisciplinarity at all, but interdepartmentality, something rather different. In funding applications it is now more or less the law of the land to use the word interdisciplinary somewhere. No matter that one needn't actually explain how this will be achieved in practice. I know; I have traded in this bankrupt stock for many a long year! And finally, as we all know, in modern British universities (especially my own, apparently), whenever two or more shall be gathered together, they shall form an interdisciplinary centre.
Interdisciplinarity is a cherished myth of medieval studies. In John Arnold's handy primer, A Short Introduction to Medieval History the 'interdisciplinarity' of the topic is cited as a reason one should do medieval history, although 'its practitioners fret periodically about what interdisciplinary might mean'.
I am going to do more than fret. I am going to argue that genuinely interdisciplinary exchange has had important results but has had its day – perhaps killed by its own hand; at least as far as it relates to relationships within medieval studies, the word interdisciplinary has now become meaningless and should be rigorously challenged at its every usage. Such challenges are, further, absolutely vital for the intellectual health of our studies; so-called 'interdisciplinarity', rather than being an enabling 'jewel in the crown', has in fact become a 'Bad Thing', which threatens to stifle approaches to the written and material remains of the so-called Middle Ages.
To be interdisciplinary one needs to have some idea of what constitutes a discipline. What, one might ask, differentiates a discipline from, say, a technique or a skill? There is I suppose a standard 'obvious' answer at a basic level, which would equate a discipline to the sort of thing that a modern university department is named for: English, French, History, Art History, Music, Philosophy, Archaeology and so on. But this brings a lot of problems.
Such is the demand nowadays to be considered interdisciplinary that one hears some very strange (if – in this context – nevertheless understandable) claims. Here are three, which I've encountered. If you study medieval literature in English and French are you being interdisciplinary? Can you claim to be interdisciplinary in History and Latin? If that is possible, then any literate historian is interdisciplinary, in history and whatever language or languages she reads, including that which she speaks! Can you be interdisciplinary in palaeography and English or history? Is palaeography a discipline? If so, you could be interdisciplinary in archaeology and pottery typology. When does a skill become a discipline? Archaeology has fought a long battle – whose outcome is still far from universally conceded – to be considered a discipline rather than an ancillary or auxiliary skill or science.
What we mean by discipline is, I suspect, those learnt skills, techniques, or mental disciplines, about how to extract information from a body of data, which I would agree are essential (I'm all in favour of method and technique). We could call this the internal means of defining a discipline – things that unify it from within. Of course there are many complex and difficult skills involved in understanding Latin (not just in terms of the actual language but in the rules, the metre etc. of Latin composition), or Old French (similarly), or palaeography, or pottery typologies; it's not my intention to denigrate any skills or disciplines.
But then there are also difficult and complex techniques involved in studying the Prose Epic, or the Coroner's Roll, or the Saint's Life, or the grave, which differ (sometimes considerably) from those involved in the examination of fabliaux, charters, chronicles, or building plans. One could also add things like the historiography of the study of a period or type of history, and so on. The interpretative skills or techniques involved in studying early medieval history differ from those of late medieval history, let alone modern history.
Once one thinks like this, any body of evidence has its own discipline, stands at its own intersection of specialist knowledge, skills, traditions and historiography. When the idea of discipline retreats into skills-sets, then any of the supposed disciplines that make up our 'inter-disciplinary' centres begins to fragment fatally into myriad smaller subject areas and you can be meaningfully interdisciplinary in fabliaux and epic, or in chronicles and saints' lives. Disciplines, by this definition begin to crumble from the inside. The only way to salvage much from this mess would be to limit the disciplines to those using radically different forms of data: material cultural, pictorial, or written. Even that poses problems.
Now, I should confess at this stage that I'm generally excluding those areas which don't have a place as such within medieval studies; for an historian like me that means things like anthropology and sociology. These have played an important role in developing historical understanding but they do raise the question of what counts as genuine interdisciplinary credentials. Most putative interdisciplinarity comes in two forms. First, and best, is the person – an historian, for argument's sake – who is interested in the work of a different discipline – let's say anthropology – talks to its practitioners and incorporates it in her study. Is she really interdisciplinary, though? She is still working ultimately in one discipline, but borrowing, sometimes (but less commonly) exchanging, insights. This has had important results. I don't deny that, although I would say that a series of other issues emerge, which there's no time to discuss – the most significant is that of the outcome, to which I will return.
Second is the situation one frequently finds in archaeology. Here the researcher reads something of what people write in other disciplines and claims status within his own discipline by reporting on that – yet without actually engaging with the practitioners of the other discipline or, usually, using it in any work within his own discipline. This is not interdisciplinarity, this is interlocution.
The true interdisciplinary scholar is surely someone who is more than a borrower or an interlocutor, who actually works and publishes in two different disciplines, being recognised as a fellow-practitioner in both. This person is as rare as claims to interdisciplinarity are common but there are some. There are archaeologists who have carried out anthropological field-work, for example.
To return to the disciplines that make up Medieval Studies and thus the thrust of my argument, if disciplines do not, on close inspection, seem to have much internal cohesion, one might still maintain that there are 'disciplinary' lines drawn round groups of types of evidence that band them together into more meaningful, larger disciplines. One might call that an external definition, based on what is excluded and included.
This notion can be attacked from several directions. The bounds of disciplines are difficult enough to define when considering subjects as different (superficially at least) as history and archaeology, as I have written myself. When thinking about what one might call the textual disciplines – literature and history – the problems are multiplied endlessly, and it's on these that I will concentrate. I'm also approaching the problem from the perspective of someone who knows immeasurably more about the development of the discipline of history than he does about the growth of the study of literature.
The canon of sources incorporated within a discipline is historically contingent. What constituted a historical source initially depended upon historians, for good or ill (for not everyone was agreed on this), differentiating themselves from the more literary/philosophical modes of Enlightenment historical production. Writing history wie es eigentlich gewesen ist meant only using the sources that told you wie es eigentlich gewesen ist; those serious documents that told you about high politics and religion. Many – legion – were those excluded on these grounds. At least, however, the canons of historical and (as far as I am aware) a literary ones were clear (leaving aside the large number of written sources considered insufficiently literary or historical!). Clearly, though, once one got into the twentieth century and reached the Annales School and Total History, the historical canon began to include anything and everything that was written down and many things that weren't, as well. Even Trevelyan's very un-annaliste Social History of England entitled its chapters 'Chaucer's England', 'Shakespeare's England' and so on. Similarly, movements in literary studies soon moved away from the nineteenth-century canon of 'high literature'. I read on page 1 of Derek Attridge's The Singularity of Literature that 'all attempts since the Renaissance to determine the difference between "literary" and "non-literary" language have failed.' Thus defined, the boundary between 'history' and 'literature' has long been permeable, something only underlined by recent theoretical trends.
One could, alternatively, take a Foucaldian approach and look at how the disciplines emerged. Foucault thought that one of the defining things about the episteme of modernity, 'the age of history' as he called it. By 'history' he didn't just mean the discipline, but 'historicity'. This, in his reading was part and parcel with the creation of distinct histories of distinct things, with the rise of scientific method, of empiricism, with the creation of disciplines. But, in Foucault's view (as I understand it) it also produced a concern with the inter-relationship between things, not just their classification. In those terms one could contextualise interdisciplinarity itself within the episteme of modernity, just as, as I would argue, the collapse of interdisciplinarity might be located within the episteme of post-modernity. This would underline the artificiality and contingency of these divisions and point the way to how and why they are no longer valid.
Alternatively again, you could take a Derridian philosophical approach and question those boundaries. It seems to me that the bounds between disciplines are subject to the same critique, on the same grounds, as genres were in his essay on 'The Law of Genre'. The bounds of disciplines, like the bounds of genres, are only acknowledged as existing because they can't actually exist. They cannot be policed or patrolled. Their very existence implies their own transgression.
To make the problem more acute, the developments of theory over the past twenty years have in any case removed whatever might have been left of any boundary between literature and history in terms of 'focus'. Since the so-called linguistic turn, older 'social science' approaches to history have been on the back foot and even many of those who claim an opposition to so-called post-modernism have actually incorporated – or at least have had to pay attention to – 'textual' or 'literary' approaches to their written data. At the same time, especially in medieval studies – and here I must confess to not being as sanguine as the session's organisers about the acceptance of 'theory' – pretty much all of the dominant – and even less dominant – approaches to literature are in one sense of another, historical: so-called 'New Historicism', Marxism, Post-colonialism, gender studies – even in some ways and to some extent Queer Theory. In my understanding at least, it looks to me as though the hard-core ahistorical, literary or philosophical approaches to medieval literature are as much on the defensive as old-style historical empiricism or cliometrics. In theoretical terms, the two disciplines often seem hardly different at all. This was where real literary/historical interdisciplinarity had its moment, its importance and – I concede – its valuable results. The upshot, though, is the eradication of the possibility of further such interdisciplinarity. One must ask what exactly a New Historicist from a literature department and a 'post-linguistic-turn' historian bring to the putatively interdisciplinary table, other than technique – charter diplomatic and poetics, say? Since data-specific technique – skill-sets – alone can't, as we've seen, divide one discipline from another, then one really must question whether this is interdisciplinary at all. Is it different from the collaboration of two people from history departments with different specialist skills? I have nothing against collaboration, which is fruitful and important, but we should be honest about how we describe it.
The bounds of the disciplines collapse from the inside and the outside. There can thus be no such thing as interdisciplinarity.
Sharp-eared listeners might have concluded that, with the genuinely interdisciplinary scholar defined as someone who has published work within two disciplines, accepted as such by practitioners of both, and with real interdisciplinarity denied in the interplay between disciplines based on the primary written text, what is going on in this paper is just me staking a claim to be the rare real deal. I suppose, to some extent, that is right! But only in a very limited sense; it might be the case in a narrowly methodological way. I will now, however, completely undermine my own claims to be interdisciplinary at all.
We must consider the outcome of interdisciplinarity. If I take my own work, which adopted what I have called – no less problematically than any other term I've derided today – 'multi-disciplinarity', the analytical separation of different data-sets and the merging of conclusions at a higher level than is usual, then I still have to ask myself what I produced at the end of the day – if it wasn't just good old-fashioned social history? What emerges from the literary approach to history or the historical approach to literature if not straight cultural history? Once 'context' is assigned importance, history, as I see it, always wins. Perhaps this is because in spite of historians' claims, the Rankean empiricist ideal still underlies pretty much all historical work. There have – perhaps understandably – been no real moves to produce history in line with the pre-Rankean ideal of history as 'philosophy teaching by example'. Furthermore, the kind of explanation or causation that contextualism implies is (in my view) unsatisfying even from a historian's point of view.
So I wonder if, whatever one might say about method, whether it is even possible for the outcome of so-called interdisciplinary dialogue, to be interdisciplinary. Is it ever anything other than cultural history of one form or another? I'd even suggest that centres of Medieval Studies don't teach interdisciplinarity at all, but a single discipline, of medieval studies, which means medieval cultural history.
Obviously, I have nothing at all against cultural history – it's what I do – and at the level of method and approach, what is currently considered interdisciplinarity has produced enormous quantities of valuable and groundbreaking work; I'm not denying that. I don't doubt that in some, perhaps many, areas of the study of the past, work using the 'inter-disciplinary' approach is far better than it would have been had it not used that method. But when it becomes the only approach, I start to worry. The dominance of interdisciplinarity has I think become pernicious. It has produced the requirement to assert interdisciplinary status that leads to the sort of vapid claims that I mentioned earlier. Even ignoring the problems with justifying the term, the ascendancy of historicist approaches and the ensuing de facto dominance of cultural history, jeopardises any approach which isn't interested in this outcome. It is already the case that most funding bodies stress so-called interdisciplinarity and I suspect that successful bids are overwhelmingly those using this buzz-word. This endangers the funding of ahistorical approaches to literature or of historical projects that do not require the method, impoverishing both. The ubiquity of so-called 'interdisciplinarity' threatens to make the academy less, not more, diverse.
What is at stake here is how one draws and defines the dividing lines on the map of the academy, and what is involved in intellectual exchange. I suggest, might be a more meaningful way of thinking about the fruitful confrontation of difference – a more interesting way of drawing the lines that sub-divide academia – is the confrontation of theoretical approaches. This is why I offered this paper for these sessions. I can't think of a single word for the confrontation of theoretical approaches unfortunately! But whatever it is, it renders disciplines/interdisciplinarity irrelevant. Discussion between a die-hard Lacanian and a historicist might involve people from different departments but if it did it would really, intellectually, be no different from debate between an 'old-style' social science social historian and a post-linguistic turn cultural historian within a department.
I do think that this would be a more fruitful way of dividing the field of medieval studies and giving credit to really intellectually difficult – challenging – discussions. There are two advantages to this, as I would see it. First, the difficulty – the challenge – of such confrontation opens far more the mind to what Derek Attridge calls the 'alterity' involved in the creation of work. He is talking about literature, but I think the point might stand more generally. Second, while so-called interdisciplinarity tends, as I have argued, to lead one way, however fruitfully in its own terms, to cultural history, the confrontation of theory might be conducive to more fruitful dialogue – two¬-way, as the word implies. If theory is – as it is – a way of seeing, rather than something to be applied, mechanically, it is something to be engaged with and refined, and this can be done from two points of view with an outcome, I suggest, that, as well as producing better theory, also reflects back, in different ways, on the areas whence those points of view started, rather than producing a single, merged, synthetic, effectively uni-disciplinary outcome.
So, my conclusion is not to outlaw or denigrate interdisciplinarity, as such, but to be much clearer about the what it is, its limits, and what it does – and the limits to that – and thus to challenge this ubiquitous demand for all scholars and all work to describe themselves/itself as 'interdisciplinary'. On the one hand, I suppose, I do want to see value returned to work that isn't interdisciplinary, but mostly I want to suggest a way forward which valorises engagement at the level of the development of theory, not under the empty rubric of interdisciplinarity.


text:
Dylan Thomas Evening Friday 12th September
The Meadows in Concert in Myddfai
Myddfai Car Boot/Table Top Sale Oct 4th
DYLAN THOMAS: CLOWN IN THE MOON
Myddfai Hall Friday 12th September 6pm
A fantastic evening portraying the life of Dylan Thomas. Tickets cost £6 or £3 for under 16's
"Outstanding, one of the defining portrayals of the Swansea-born poet on stage. Wales Arts Review
Celebrating 100 years since Thomas' birth CLOWN IN THE MOON (the title of a poem written when Dylan was 14) is a dramatic portrait of the poet's chaotic, frequently hilarious, and all too brief life. Located in a BBC studio, it sets some of Dylan's famous broadcasts and iconic works alongside vivid reminiscences of his clownish antics in pubs, bars and parties, and his encounters with a host of eccentric and volatile women. Written by award winner Gwynne Edwards (Burton, Dylan Thomas in America). Directed by Gareth Armstrong (Shylock, My Darling Clemmie, Rape of Lucrece, Sherlock Holmes – The Last Act) Lighting: Maximilian Spielbichler.
Rhodri Miles (Richard II-Hollow Crown Series, Eastern Promises, Atlantis, Game of Thrones) returns to the stage to play Dylan Thomas after his previous sell-out tour of the critically acclaimed 'Burton', winner of the 'Best International Show' at the Hollywood Fringe Festival – 2010. www.rhodrimiles.com
What's on In Myddfai from January 2020