Late last year, a think tank called the Australian Security Research Centre (ASRC), whose staff includes former members of ASIO and the US Department of Defense, announced a new short story competition called 'Australia's Security Nightmares', inviting ordinary-ish Aussies to submit terrorist plans as pieces of fiction.
It all sounds very neutral and technocratic (albeit somewhat bizarre). Still, we're dealing with nightmares here – security nightmares. And the interesting thing about nightmares isn't whether they have a chance of coming true but rather how they reflect on the dreamer.
'Security-nightmare lit' is a venerable genre, with a history that deserves to be better known. Its modern heyday came in the Edwardian era. With the British Empire in decline, paranoia was big business. Edwardians had a bottomless hunger for insane, xenophobic doomsday scenarios, and so writers had to be inventive. Joseph Conrad and GK Chesterton thought up terrorist scenarios; HG Wells predicted tank warfare.
Instead of watching 24, the Edwardians, as Claud Cockburn noted, read bestsellers like Guy Thorne's When It Was Dark – a real seat-gripper about a Hebrew plot to discredit Christianity with false archaeological evidence, and thereby plunge the world into anarchy.
Jews, of course, were acceptable bogeymen back then.
In 1913, Saki wrote a German-invasion thriller called When William Came. It's a tame novel by today's standards. Saki imagines the Kaiser capturing Britain with a quick naval strike … and that's it. Really, that's it. For Saki, the big dystopian shocker was simply the idea of London ruled by a foreign power, with (gasp!) different uniforms and an eagle instead of the Union Jack. There are other atrocities: the German nanny state forbids Londoners from walking on the grass in public parks; it gives police constables (and other commoners) a pay rise; the city fills up with Jewish immigrants, beer gardens and cabaret halls.
[The Jews] had appreciated the free and easy liberty of the old days, under British rule, but there was a stiff insularity in the ruling race that they chafed against. Now, putting aside some petty Government restrictions that Teutonic bureaucracy has brought in, there is really, in their eyes, more licence and social adaptability in London than before. It has taken on some of the aspects of a No-Man's-Land, and the Jew, if he likes, may almost consider himself as of the dominant race; at any rate he is ubiquitous. Pleasure, of the café and cabaret and boulevard kind, the sort of thing that gave Berlin the aspect of the gayest capital in Europe within the last decade, that is the insidious leaven that will help to denationalise London. Berlin will probably climb back to some of its old austerity and simplicity, a world-ruling city with a great sense of its position and its responsibilities, while London will become more and more the centre of what these people understand by life.
That's what disturbs Saki, an Edwardian Tory, most: the thought of Jews and cabaret singers turning stout-hearted Britons into bright young things who passively accept their loss of empire.
Saki himself took the German 'threat' seriously. When the First World War broke out, he enlisted, despite his age, in the Royal Fusiliers, and died at the Somme. The war that killed him also killed his novel – after four years of fighting and ten million deaths, the quick, soft, bloodless invasion in When William Came was a bit hard to sell as dystopian fiction.
If there is one thing that annoys me about the invasion fantasies of these ordinary(-ish) Aussies, it's the innocence. Seemingly half of the stories in Australia's Security Nightmares begin by emphasising how happy, carefree and naive 'we' were before the big-catastrophe-that-changed-everything. The story 'On Virgin Soil' begins with a female narrator recalling her shock at Princess Di's car accident, and how 9/11 left tears of disbelief 'streaming down [her] face'. Another story, the unsurprisingly titled 'We Were Young And Free', rambles on for pages about how cheerful and ignorant 'we' used to be: living in the lucky country, singing the national anthem, 'proudly celebrating all this land had to offer' and 'frolick[ing] in [its] vibrant waters'.
If you've read John Marsden (a Buchan devotee who says he was inspired to write his Tomorrow series by 'a conscious desire to revive adventure stories for young people'), you'll be familiar with the treacly drivel I'm talking about – that old story about a bunch of schoolies who are just having a summah when the invasion force comes, and suddenly everything's oh-so-real to them.
A decent number of middle-class people in affluent countries really find it calming to think about mass destruction. They imagine themselves ruling over a Mad Max wasteland, even if – in real life – they are scared of dark streets and impeccably polite to muggers. But when these writers set their fantasies down on paper, the Aussie characters they create are shocked – shocked! – by the security threats they have to face.
It's – it's all – just so – unthinkable!
In all but a few stories in Australia's Security Nightmares, we have a paranoid mood without a grand transgression, without any context at all – not even a false one. It's not the American fantasy we're all accustomed to, that of a nation under attack for its 'exceptionalism'.
Instead of exceptionalism, we get overweening innocence.
You might not think one could squeeze much fear out of that. But innocence means something to Australians. It comes with being a second-tier power. If American war hawks yammer about the 'importance of the mission', their Aussie counterparts – since Vietnam at least – have gone for the complementary excuse: ours is just a 'token commitment' and what we do hardly matters … so we may as well be sociable and bring a slab to America's barbie. You'll hear similar rhetoric around climate change, which also appeals to Australia's existential lightness-of-being. Token commitments are a peculiar aspiration of ours – the idea of a guiltless involvement that isn't really involvement, of 'punching above our weight' without dirtying our hands.
Britain's picked up an equivalent mythology. With no empire left to brag about, it can only pretend to be pluckier than America (or invert the token commitment ironically – James Bond saves the world before the Yanks arrive, too late for the action).
It's no surprise, then, that we would dream up the same 'guiltless' involvement for our domestic thriller scenarios. While 1980s Hollywood films like Red Dawn and Invasion U.S.A. involve a clearly Soviet occupying force, our answer to Red Dawn – Marsden's Tomorrow saga – keeps the 'enemy' country unnamed, even with Suharto's nasty little junta in easy reach. Marsden might have done better, in fact, if he had written an anti-Suharto fantasy. Instead, he went for squeamish half-engagement, creating a featureless Asian enemy that arguably made his books more racist than if they'd attacked a specific regime.
BOOM! The cop kills him with 'a single gunshot' to the heart.
But the juggalo has already pressed the 'Dial' button. So, 'thinking quickly', our hero rips the phone's battery out 'milliseconds before' Darlinghurst is turned into a smouldering rubble.
It's a laughably bad piece of storytelling. The plot (evildoers handing out sinister novelty items to the unwitting public) reads like a clumsy theft from a 1970s Doctor Who episode or a Golden Age Batman comic. So why would the ASRC award the story third place in its competition?
Why? Because it pays to look sensitive – and a thriller about shooting homophobic terrorists makes the spook profession look very sensitive. Travel agencies and furniture outlets are not the only ones who have learnt that a rainbow flag can be good for business!
The problem is to combine ethnic intake with cultural assimilation into anglomorphy. To date it has been fairly successfully done as I have tried to argue, which means that it can be done. Minor difficulties should not divert us into suicidal experiments. Major alterations in the balance of power, the growing economic downturn in the world, and even a local disaster (e.g., a new regime hostile to us in Indonesia) may confront us with dangerous problems beyond our power to tackle or to evade. Yet, whatever happens externally, it is better to face it, like the Poles, as a culturally unified nation, capable also of drawing on the resources of the greatest of modern civilisations of which we are a part, the fount and origin of which is in the British Isles, rather than as a banana republic of squabbling and mutually resentful expatriated mini-cultures, each with its own separate bunch of ethnic (or conversely, Anglo-racist) führers, and widely open to internal subversion.
Corey Robin has argued in The Reactionary Mind that the Right constantly renews itself by scavenging – and reversing – rhetorical tropes from the Left. That's what's happening here: welcoming immigrants from Islamic countries becomes a form of 'colonialism', or as the Q Society puts it, an 'ethno-religious apartheid'.
Throughout the centuries Christendom and Judaism have undergone many reforms, because the core teachings allow for a separation of church and state, unlike Islam which demands total submission. History has shown that nations based on Judeo-Christian values have developed and thrived whereas those societies based on Islamic Sharia Law have floundered.
Under Islam there is not [sic] tolerance and freedom for other faiths or socio-political systems.
Perhaps it could be argued that Western Enlightenment values appeared as a response to centuries of bloody sectarian wars, but that isn't what Dickson is claiming. To the Q Society, Judaeo-Christian religion is the continuous source of secularism: 'Christendom and Judaism' didn't just play a historic role in the development of liberal humanism, they are constantly needed to maintain it. Otherwise, if this weren't central to their argument, Dickson and Wilders wouldn't stress the religions' contemporary importance.
It would be odd to imagine such rhetoric coming from Tories a century ago. Saki would never have thought of appealing to diversity – it was Britain's 'stiff insularity' he supported, set against the cosmopolitanism of the Other.
But Islam, as pictured by today's fear-mongers, is the opposite of cosmopolitan. In his introduction to Wilders' Marked For Death, Mark Steyn accuses Dutch-Moroccans of bashing gays, harassing Jews and turning laid-back, pot-smoking Amsterdam into a 'profoundly illiberal hell'.
An Italian friend of mine has this to say about Wilders: 'Remember [that] 99 per cent of these little fascists used to be hippies, Trotskyites or Stalinists thirty years ago.' It's a good point. John Marsden was a Whitlamoid stude before he turned war hawk (he still has a sour, faintly scruffy, bolshie-teacher earnestness to his features) and Geert Wilders was the spitting image of a bearded, shroom-eating Euro-backpacker.
So where do you go for inspiration when you're a shattered pothead eager to make it on the New Right? If you're as unimaginative as Wilders, you'd recycle what bits of Frantz Fanon's anti-colonialism you can remember and wedge them back-to-front into your new white Christian victimhood pose. If you're Marsden, you'd take the occupation of Tibet – an old Lonely Planet-ist rallying point – and transpose it onto Australia. Voila! Instant neo-Edwardian Yellow Peril!
What other villains do Australians imagine in their security nightmares? Some stories feature generic terrorist organisations, mostly with inventive names like 'the Revolutionary Council', whose only goal seems to be causing terror. A terrorist scenario by Jamie Derkenne – which happens to feature in the aptly titled story 'Terrorist Scenario' – has the evil 'Council' blocking off Sydney's main motorways by parking trucks filled with rubble across multiple lanes, disabling the tyres and filling the engines with water. Once the city is 'effectively crippled', they announce that they have detonated a dirty bomb: '10 grams of polonium dust seized from Dabaa mixed with several kilos of talcum'. Over a hundred Sydneysiders are crushed to death trying to board trains and ferries. The dirty bomb turns out to be a bluff.
In a couple of stories, though, the bad guys are lefties. Rather improbable lefties. Here is the climax to Dr Shauna O'Meara's 'The Plague Most Feared', where saboteurs infect Australia's livestock with foot-and-mouth disease, forcing massive culls.
'It'd be cheaper if they blew up the Opera House.' Sara agreed.
'And if you're right, who are we looking for?' the Chief Government Vet asked.
The replies came from around the room.
The RSPCA? Look out al-Qaeda – there's a new name in terror!
Andrew Pickersgill's '…Continued from Page 1' has an attack on a Victorian coal power plant. Along with regular explosives, the bomb is lined with pesticides and asbestos to deter emergency workers, one of whom becomes terminally ill after breathing fumes from the shrapnel. The villains are implied to be 'greenies'.
But the most inventive story in the contest is a sick, fear-mongering masterpiece called 'Centre of Attention' by Richard Simpson. Here's the scenario. A Muslim named Mehmet Rachid unwittingly contracts Marburg virus (Ebola's gentler cousin) while on pilgrimage to Mecca. He brings it back to Australia, causing a nationwide outbreak, border closures and race riots.
Rachid, we learn, 'had done the right thing before he left [on his pilgrimage]. He visited his GP a number of times for his vaccinations and collected the plain photocopied handouts from his mosque about infection control and handwashing for pilgrims.' But still, he's mingling with three million people from around the world and by the time he arrives back in Melbourne, he's down with the bug.
It's the perfect fantasy for neocons: a clean, patriotic, law-abiding Muslim who, regardless, causes hundreds of deaths just by being a Muslim.
The whole right-wing brains trust – writers like Martin Amis, Christopher Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Clive James and Michel Houellebecq – has been scratching around for a scenario like this for over a decade. You can see the problem: how do you make moderate Islam scary – intrinsically scary – without actually charging every Muslim in the West with sedition? Evangelical Christians have the same challenge trying to convince everyone that God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. That's a big lie, of course. Bible-bashers might pretend there's a Platonic gayness for them to hate that has nothing to do with 'the sinner', or an abstract kind of abortion they can despise without despising women (just as Wilders might claim to hate 'Islam' without hating Muslims). But sins don't exist without people, and neither do religions.
But with Simpson's epidemic scenario, you don't need to accuse Muslims of high treason to condemn them. You don't need to accuse them of having any ill feelings towards Australia at all.
Nearly every story in Australia's Security Nightmares offers the same phony Marsden-style innocence: the premise that security disasters can be contemplated as generic events with only a very sly nod to the political context, that it's enough for a writer to show (I'm quoting Marsden) 'the thoughts and feelings of characters who are struggling to make sense of their lives, who are trying, sometimes almost reflexively, to move forward'. In Marsden's world, an invasion is just a thing that happens, just another teen issue for young adults to cope with and make sense of, all the while gawking in disbelief and wondering what it all means. The characters never ask how it started or what motivates the enemy or anything that would suggest critical thought. Politics and geography are too mature for Marsden's YA books – but, of course, shooting people to death isn't.
In 'Centre of Attention', it's not just the ordinary(-ish) Australians who are blameless: their Muslim bogeyman has also been given his own contrived halo of innocence. In fact, his innocence sustains theirs – as a glowy symbol of their inclusiveness – even while it broadens their range of anxieties.
Marsden's and Simpson's xenophobia provides a cloudy double-innocence. Marsden's heroes never bother to learn the enemy's language or culture. It's always a blank to them – and as long as they don't know the people they kill, they're as guiltless as Adam and Eve.
When I found the skull in the woods, the first thing I did was call the police. But then I got curious about it. I picked it up, and started wondering who this person was, and why he had deer horns.
As a Jack Handey skit, it's hilarious; as a political strategy, it's scarily impenetrable.
The 'innocent' xenophobe's biggest shield is eternal curiosity – the power to pretend, in the middle of fear-mongering, that they still haven't made their mind up about anybody.
Anyone who's watched an already-mean, manipulative relative fall into dementia will know what I'm talking about: there's nothing cleansing or ennobling (or pacifying!) about forgetfulness. The fountain of amnesia turns gits into bigger gits – bigger gits with an endless, internal source of plausible deniability.
It's almost, in fact, a nightmare.
Ramon Glazov is a Perth-based writer and journalist. His writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. He is the translator of Giorgio De Maria's The Twenty Days of Turin (Liveright, 2017).


Beloved mother to Amanda (John and John (Yok Leng), passed away on February 20, 2010 at the age of 92. Predeceased in 1999 by her husband, W/C (Ret'd) H.E. "Joe" Bodien DSO, DFC, CD, and her older brothers Lloyd and Laurence, she is survived not only by Amanda and John, but also by her four grandchildren: Camille, Chantal, Adrian and Dane. "Bil" (her nickname from childhood) was born to Dafydd and Isobel Roberts on March 27, 1917, and grew up in Penarth, Wales. She drove an ambulance during the Blitz in London at the beginning of World War Two. She subsequently joined the Royal Air Force, and served as a Code and Cypher officer for the duration of that war. A devoted military wife, she lived all over Europe and Canada, and travelled extensively. She loved entertaining, and was a consummate and sparkling hostess. She also was an avid sewer and knitter – copying the latest styles out of fashion magazines. Bill enjoyed her reputation for being glamourous and didn't ever like to let that side down, even when in her 90's. Her family would like to express profound gratitude and appreciation to Dr. David Bowler, the fabulous staff at Glacier View Lodge, the former Laurel Lodge, and St. Joseph's ER and 3rd Floor, for the kind and compassionate care Bill received. There will be no service; however, as Bill had a deep love for all animals and was never without a dog or cat, a donation to the local SPCA branch (or animal welfare organization of choice) is something that would have made her very, very happy.


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Giveaway Ends 11.15.18 and open to all who can legally enter.
I love the genre mystery/suspense.
I get books for 2 sisters and twin daughters. One likes Romance, one like mystery thrillers and my twins love many christian books.
These days I only read romances. I want the happy ending.
My favorite is thrillers and mysteries.


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text:
Cotton Introduces the Small Business Audit Correction Act
News | Politics | State & National
Washington, D.C.– Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) along with Senators Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Doug Jones (D-Alabama), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) yesterday introduced the Small Business Audit Correction Act to provide much-needed regulatory relief to small investment brokers by exempting them from certain audit requirements and reinstating previous regulations. The bill was first introduced in the 115th Congress. Last year a similar version passed the House Financial Services Committee in bipartisan fashion.
"Requiring our small non-custodial broker-dealers to get the same audits required of public companies only results in higher costs and fewer small firms, and all because of a provision that wasn't even supposed to be aimed at non-custodial firms. This bill will return audit requirements to the former standard, one appropriate for these kinds of firms and which will allow our small broker-dealers to expand and help create more jobs," said Cotton.
The Dodd-Frank Act requires all investment brokers and dealers, irrespective of size, to hire a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-registered audit firm to conduct audits using significantly more complex guidelines designed for larger, public companies.
This requirement is devastating for small investment firms, particularly in states like Alabama, North Carolina, Arizona and Arkansas. These firms are closing at an alarming rate, in part due to skyrocketing audit costs required by a rule that is illogical for firms that don't hold customer assets.
The Small Business Audit Correction Act would exempt privately-held, small non-custodial brokers and dealers in good standing from the requirement to hire a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-registered audit firm to meet their annual SEA Rule 17a-5 reporting obligation and would instead reinstate the previous regulatory audit requirements.
Original article source: http://www.cotton.senate.gov?p=press_release&id=1241 | Article may or may not reflect the views of KLEK 102.5 FM or The Voice of Arkansas Minority Advocacy Council
Cotton Statement on Passing of Joe Morgan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 734-0430 November 22, 2020 Cotton Statement on Passing of Joe Morgan Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the statement below after Joe Morgan, a Read more
Cotton Praises Change Allowing Labeling of Israeli Goods
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 734-0430 November 19, 2020 Cotton Praises Change Allowing Labeling of Israeli Goods Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the statement below after the administration announced that Read more
Our Pilgrim Fathers
A great American anniversary is upon us. Four hundred years ago this Saturday, a battered old ship called the Mayflower arrived in the waters off Cape Cod. The passengers aboard Read more
Cotton, Colleagues Urge Administration to Change Israeli Goods Labeling Policy
Washington, D.C. - On Monday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), along with Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida), sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging Read more

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Making Every Day a Great "First Day of School"
It's back to school time! For some, this time of year may elicit memories of excitement, joy and wonder. For others, it may be on the other end, fear, uncertainty, dread or even indifference. You wake up in the morning, head out to the bus and before you stepped foot in the building, you already had thoughts, feelings and expectations, negative or positive, based on the environment you were returning to, which then impacted how your day went.
Thinking about your "school leaders," your teachers, who did you learn best from and perform the best for? It was likely those who encouraged you, who listened to you and who took a collaborative approach to teaching, working in concert with you and your classmates. These basic needs to be heard and valued do not change much as we enter adulthood.
Similarly, no one walks into work an empty slate. They bring their own residual thoughts, feelings and expectations based on their prior experience in your organization and with you as a leader. What can you do or what are you doing, to make your organization a place that people look forward to coming to every day? How can you make it so that they get ready for their "school day", excited for what they'll get to create and learn? How can you better listen and find ways to collaborate with the people that have so thoughtfully been chosen to join your team?
Here's to a great first day, every day!
Ann: Hey Steve, that is an interesting red t-shirt you're wearing today.
Steve: Yes, this is an interesting red t-shirt and I bought one for you as well!
Ann: Yes, you bought one for me and we will look very well coordinated as we present our strategic plan for the Board this afternoon.
Forces us to suspend judgement of our partner. Due to the rule of saying "Yes, and," we have no choice but to put our energy into supporting our partner's idea, regardless of what we may think of it, going against our natural tendency to immediately say, "No" to unconventional or outside the box ideas.
Because of the pace, encourages us to go with the first thought that comes to our mind, instead of allowing the ego to come in and tell us that our idea is not good enough.
Allows us to become comfortable sharing outside of the box ideas because, within the confines of "Yes, and," we know that our partner is required to support us as we support them.
Rendered powerless, the part of our ego that wants to be in control and have everything figured out. Scenes are build line by line. Not knowing what our partner is going to contribute until it comes out of their mouth, enables us to be in the moment, instead of thinking about and planning what we are going to say next while they are talking.
Creates an even playing field. No one can be "in charge" in an improv scene, as we're building it together. No one person is better than, or more important than another.
When we are able to circumvent the ego, our best ideas emerge and we are much better equipped to be a fantastic teammate.
Have you ever lost an opportunity or even a job because you were too afraid to fail? I nearly lost my college education because of it.
I was an acting major at SUNY Fredonia. In addition to the traditional academic acceptance, we also had to audition to be accepted into the program. At the end of every semester, we had "Juries", where we had to perform a monologue for the faculty and they would decide if we had improved enough to stay in the program. A little back-story on me, I entered into college as a traditionally "good student". I graduated third in my class and was always on the high honor roll. In my mind, if I studied hard enough and could get the answers "right", I would get a good grade. The same was not true when it came to these acting Juries.
In acting, there are no right or wrong answers, it's all subjective. Think of how two actors can portray the same character in completely different and fascinating ways. Your performance either speaks to the audience, or it doesn't. At the end of my freshman year, I was put on probation because of my performance. I had been so stuck on doing it "right", that my performance was too safe. It was not compelling, it was boring. One faculty member put it this way; I was "acting in a bubble".
Coming back my second year, I was in a situation where, if I did not improve, I would be kicked out of the acting program. Talk about needing to perform under pressure.
Now, I understand that in an organization or in your life, the stakes may be higher than being kicked out of an acting program. Risking failure is never an easy option, but ask yourself what will happen if you don't do anything? Sometimes if we really look at it, doing nothing is even more risky.
You were chosen because of your talents and skills. What are you keeping from your organization, family or more importantly, the world, if you allow a crippling fear of failure to hold you back from at least trying?
More recently, I designed and facilitated my first group-coaching program, "Leap - Make your next step a bold step." Of course there was fear in putting myself out there in that capacity. What if no one signs up? I'm not ready, I need to know more about this! What if no one finds value in it?
In the face of these thoughts that clearly came from my ego, which tries so hard to keep me in that same safety bubble, I went for it and oh, how glad I am that I did! Not only was it a stretch for me professionally, it was some of the most rewarding work that I've done yet. I was able to provide a space for women to think, to define who it is that they want to be and how they want to move forward in their lives and most importantly, have a community of women to walk with. I'm so glad that I did not let the ever-present threat of failure get in the way.
How will you face your fear and bestow your gifts and talents to the world?
I have a busy two year old at home. The other day I observed the way he climbs up on the couch… face first. It makes sense. The head is a heavy part of his body, so it provides a good anchor while he works on pulling up the rest of his body. It made me think about how I attack challenges and take risks and what I can learn from his approach. Here's what stuck out.
1. The Quickest way to get where you want may seem awkward, but it does the job.
How often do we over-prepare, getting stuck at 90% readiness thinking that we have to get to 100% before taking a risk or putting something out there, whether it's a project, career choice or simply an idea for a solution to a challenge in a team meeting. There are certain things we'll never be fully ready for, so let's not get stuck in the present simply because the plan for the future isn't perfect.
2. Vulnerability is the key to breakthroughs.
I'd say the face is a pretty vulnerable part of the body right? Does it keep my son from risking a smashed nose in order to get where he wants to be? Nope!
That voice in our head that says, "Don't do that, everyone will laugh at you." may guard us from embarrassment, but it also keeps us from stepping out of our comfort zone and into personal growth. What if you put that message aside? What would it look like to dive into life with the most vulnerable part of you leading the way?
Yes, making the leap is exciting, but what follows is equally as important, otherwise you're just stuck with your face in a couch.
A toddler does not question whether or not they can do something, if they really want it. They have a wealth of courage and simply go for it. This is not to say that we should all throw caution to the wind and quit our jobs to go write blogs from a tropical island. I'm simply suggesting that you give yourself the benefit of the doubt every now and then.
It is my firm belief that we are much stronger, wiser and more creative and capable than we give ourselves credit for. Remember, you were once that kid.
I moved to Los Angeles when I was 21 with a BFA in Acting and very little entertainment industry or business experience.
I went to an open audition for an improvised character within the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. At this point, most of my training was around scripted material. But when it came to improv (unscripted theatre), I had very little experience, besides a workshop here or there. What I did know, was that you were supposed to say, "Yes, and". This means you always listen to and accept your partner's idea and then add onto it, so that the two of you can effectively create something together without the security of a script.
As I was watching another pair of actors go before me, one of the actors threw their partner under the bus, in order to make themselves look clever and funny. One of the other actors sitting in the audience called out, "Make each other look good!" It made a lot of sense. If we strive to make one another look good in the scene, instead of only looking out for ourselves, then we both look brilliant!
Before I knew it, it was my turn. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I'm a rule follower and went in with the goal of following those two simple rules; say "Yes, and" and "make each other look good." My partner started the scene (thank goodness!) and I simply agreed with her idea and helped to move the scene forward by adding my own ideas to further support and develop the initial premise. We looked out for each other, and found ways to set the one another up for a laugh. At the end, we had created something together that we would not have created on our own.
A few days later, I got the call that I was hired!
Putting my focus on supporting my partner had not only reduced the pressure that I tend to put on myself, it showed that I could listen, collaborate well and set aside my own ego for the good of the company.
When you're in a stressful or unexpected situation yourself, possibly feeling out of your element or that you've been given more than you can handle, try following these rules yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised at the effect that simply saying "Yes, and" and striving to "make each other look good" can have.
When an unexpected situation arises, start with "Yes". Instead of reasoning why something won't work, first give it some space and consideration, explore how it could work.
Actively listen to your co-workers and clients. Instead of thinking about what you're going to say, be present with them. After all, you can't say "Yes" and add on to, or effectively respond to something you didn't hear.
Turn your silo into a spider web. Actively look for ways to reach out and support your teammates to make them look amazing.
Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Interview?
The next time you have an interview, remember that you are on the same team and they want to see you succeed. Now get out there and play the role you've always dreamed of!
Wait, I'm Supposed to Say "Yes" to Everything?!
The cultural change that I encourage companies to embrace is the "Yes and" mindset. This comes from the number one rule in improvisation, that you always say "Yes" to your partner's ideas and then take it one step further, by adding on to it, therefore building something together that you would not have come up with individually. It goes against our natural tendencies to automatically say "No" to uncomfortable or unexpected ideas and opens us up to other possibilities.
The first question I get is, "But what if you KNOW that the idea won't work?" This usually comes from a leader, someone who has wisdom and experience, someone who perhaps already tried that particular idea years ago and doesn't want their team member wasting time, letting history repeat itself. This thought makes sense, so how do you keep that "Yes and" mindset in these situations?
Let's start with some clarification. When performing improvisation on stage, no matter what, we abide by the "Yes and" rule. By practicing it, in a safe and supportive space, leaders and teams learn to put their tendency to say "No" aside, in the most extreme form. When we take this mindset back to the workplace, the intent is not to say "Yes and" to everything. The intent, is to let our minds (and hopefully, more often than not, our mouths) say "Yes" and consider that idea for a moment, instead of jumping straight to, "No, and this is why it won't work." I call this a Yes Loop.
In those situations, where your experience leads you to believe that an idea will not work, my suggestion is this: help them to get there too, in a collaborative way. Go down the road with them, say "Yes" by taking the time to walk through the idea fully. Get curious, ask questions and certainly let them know what occurred the last time you tried that idea.
You will not only allow them to learn by figuring out the answer with them, you've built trust and created a relationship where they will be more likely to continue to come to you with innovative ideas, knowing that you will be there to listen and consider, rather than jumping to "No".
Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised with a new aspect of the plan that no one thought of last time. It could be the key to making it work!
My son will be one this weekend. He arrived two weeks early and my life changed overnight. It has been an amazing year.
What would you do if you knew that your life was going to change overnight and that it was all going to be okay? So many of us are terrified of change weather it's a restructuring within our organization or a new addition to our family. What I do know is that there are two ways things could go. It could all blow up in our face, or it could all be okay. So why do we concentrate so much on the former, completely forgetting the latter?
In improvisation, nothing is planned ahead. Therefore, it is all an unexpected situation that can change on a dime and we need to be able to respond immediately. What makes it doable is the fact that we are abiding by the rule that everyone will say "Yes" to the new, and possibly scary situation or idea, and jump on board! Then, we take it a step further by adding onto it, allowing the team to create something together that none of us could have created on our own.
This moves us to a mindset where we know that everything will be okay because we're all going to support one another. We are not out there struggling alone; we lean on our team and allow our team to lean on us. In improv, we call this, "Making each other look good."
Has your organization gone through a big change recently? Was each person out for themselves, just trying to keep their head above water or were they looking for ways to support one another and find ways to make it work for the whole team?
The former is a default instinct. The latter takes practice, it means taking a moment in a time of stress and checking in, being fully present and taking stock in not only what people are feeling, but also looking for what they need and how you can support them.
Today, weather you in the midst of a big change or not, try to do just that, take a moment to check in, be present and look for a way to support someone in your organization.
1. Sit at the table: This is a great concept from Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. It's easy to sit yourself at the back of the room and blend into the wall. Instead, assume that your position is at the front, with the other big players. Assume that you belong there as much as anyone else. You'll give off a different energy, an energy that people will notice and remember.
If your mind is getting in the way of embracing that concept, there is a great Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy, about how your physical positioning can affect how confident and calm you feel in a given situation. Start there.
2. Speak up: Have you ever been in a meeting where you have an idea, but you're afraid to voice it, and then someone else says exactly what you were thinking? Intuition isn't just some warm, fuzzy concept, it is a gift and a tool. If your gut gives you a great idea, share it!
3. Ask questions: Chances are, like that great idea, someone else is wondering the same thing, but is also too afraid to ask. Let's reframe how we think about questions. Rather than assuming that it indicates that we have no idea what is going on, remember that it can also mean that we are listening, engaged and are invested in having a complete understanding of the situation, all of which characteristics that set us apart.
4. Stand out: Here's a simple one that I got from my theatre teachers as we were entering the world of auditions. When you go to a networking event, a big meeting or an interview, wear something that makes you feel great. In a sea of black suits, don't be afraid to pop out!
In short, allow yourself to confidently take up space, mentally, physically and vocally.


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Search Results: 'Play Shadow'
344 results for "Play Shadow"
Checkmate: Poetry Made King By Carlo Jael Jonkers
Ever wondered about the state of the world? Feeling helpless or clueless how to make a difference? Read Checkmate: a poetry book written to shed light on the shadow of humankind and bring to the... More > forefront what hides in the dark. Although it is clear as day that our world is being destroyed by the greed of man, a solution to this predicament we have not. This is because the answer to this intricate puzzle lies in a place where most don't look: hidden in plain sight it is being ridiculed and labelled a 'conspiracy theory'. Yes we humans are indeed very much controlled and trained to turn a blind eye to all of the lies of our current Era. We keep voting new puppets onto the world stage while we root for our illusion of choice, as our limited choices are narrowed down to bad or worse. Well this ends here. This unfair live chess game that is being played on our human race will finally be brought to justice.< Less
I AM A SUN By Adelheid Christiane Sonner
Guided by an adult, children — either individually or in groups — experience playfully that there is a unique goodness in everyone, and learn how they can strengthen this goodness in... More > themselves and others. In a relaxed way, they learn to deal with the "shadows" that hide this goodness. This makes their relationships more harmonious and helps them overcome personal weaknesses. "I Am A Sun" promotes children's natural self-esteem and appreciation of others, as well as liberates their dormant abilities — a helpful tool for raising children. Children learn to regain their harmony and dissolve momentary emotional and mental blocks through short meditations. The knowledge gained — that joy and well-being can be found within themselves — will empower chidren eventually to say NO to drugs. While acknowledging both good and bad, I Am A Sun lovingly deals with the choice for good over bad — and thereby serves to strengthen the morals of our youth. (73 pages)< Less
Mr Peck, the Speck and the comings and goings of his incredible tales By Luis Tome Ariz
Paperback: List Price: $4.89 $3.42 | You Save: 30%
Mr Peck, the speck was born somewhere, far, far away in a distant country. He enjoys to sing and recite poems under the shadow of beautiful plants. On a warm afternoon, freedom finally arrived to his... More > country so he decided to fly away and search for a new life. Therefore our favorite speck of dust will need to find his place under the sun while he discovers the world and lives extraordinary adventures! Join Mr Peck, the speck in his incredible tales. Discover the magic within his pages, discover the spell within his writings, and remember that you will always find a speck of dust near you, maybe signing, maybe just standing there, staring at you and wondering if you would like to play for a while.< Less
Cavalier Attitude, Volume II, Issue 2 By Louis Kahn
Welcome to the fourth issue of Cavalier Attitude. This zine focuses on the Old School Revival in fantasy role-playing. OSRIC is my retro-clone of choice, but I will cover other games systems as well,... More > as interest and time permit. The zine is publishing quarterly. The first issue was published in September 2017, and is also available here on Lulu.com. The fourth issue's contents include the following: an article introducing the WARRIOR MONK, a medieval western PC; an article detailing SHADOW GNOMES an evil sub-race of gnomes who dwell in the Under-Realm ; a set of 6 pre-generated player characters; an exclusive OSR adventure, "THE CRYSTAL TAVERN": a hardscrabble hostelry in the Under-Realm; a showcase of Old School art; synopses of my recently published books; and a roundup of role-playing social media posts. This zine is sure to please discerning GMs and players everywhere! Thanks for checking us out!< Less
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White Hat Black Heart By D.B. Goodin
Hardcover: List Price: $29.36 $20.55 | You Save: 30%
Playing a virtual game is fun…unless the game wants you dead. Nigel Watson is a clever teenage hacker who uses his skills to make extra spending money. But, after someone plunders his... More > mother's bank account and drains the funds, Nigel realizes his hacking could save the family. Soon, Nigel's online expertise is noticed by the billionaire founder of the Colossal Machine, a virtual game played by millions of people around the planet. When Nigel is given a chance to show his prowess, his skills outshine the work of the current developers. He even discovers new ways to cheat the game that no one else knows. But, Nigel doesn't realize that his sudden success has made enemies who want him dead. Nigel is thrust into the shadows of the Dark Web – a hidden part of the Internet where evil can find its way to your door. Little does he know, but the object of the game has become Nigel's life.< Less
On Consecrated Ground: Volume 1 By Alex Gilmore et al.
Someone asked me a question I thought I would better prepared for, in truth, I never thought it was a question I couldn't answer. He asked me what scared me. I couldn't answer him. Every... More > act of depravity imaginable has been written about, played out in theatre and movies and even done by people. These days you still see soccer mom's and preacher's children cringe at the sight of blood, but every teenager and adolescent is so desensitized to violence and gore that nothing is left to scare them. We've moralized and made fiction of every beast and lore of legend and myth. The things that go bump in the night have been banished to the dark of deep woods and the lost places of world. City streets glow with neon and cars light our paths from one place to another. There are no skulking shadows following us home, only other people. In the hopes that there is a single person left in the world who remembers why we used to be afraid of the dark...I give you a collection of dark things.< Less
Fear of Dark Water By Patricia Bow
Ever hear of Jenny Greenteeth? That's a kind of hag that lives in dangerous pools, so the folktales say. She grabs kids by the ankles and drags them down to drown. Of course we know how... More > stories like that get started. They were invented to keep kids from danger. You know, the bogeyman strategy. "Don't you play near that pool, or Jenny Greenteeth will get you!" Only, suppose it's not a story? Suppose it's real? Jo's fear of dark water is not just fear, it's a full-blown, stomach-churning, paralyzing phobia. Determined to beat it, she dares to swim in this forest-shadowed pool, with its ink-dark surface that never reflects the sky. Under the surface it isn't really dark, just dim and green. The surface glimmers overhead. Jo looks down. Silver minnows fan out from beneath her feet. Below them the green light fades into darkness. Deeper still, at the farthest edge of the light, a pale shape moves. Not a fish. Something larger. It rises toward her.< Less
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This year's Black Cat Ball was a big success! We celebrated with fellow cat lovers and raised money to support our work to help even more cats across Chicago who deserve a second chance.
Check out photos of the evening below.
Our sincere thanks to everyone who attended and to our emcee, Natalie Bomke from Fox 32 Chicago, auction donors, Ball volunteers, and to all of Tree House's passionate animal lovers who help make our vision of every cat thrives possible.
Thank you to our sponsors: Merrick Pet Care, Cat Hospital of Chicago, Halby Marketing, Inc., Bridgeview Bank, and Pets First Veterinary Clinic.
Harry has added so much joy and love to my life. He is the sweetest, gentlest, most loving cat I have ever met.
All of us at Tree House are tremendously grateful to generous donors like you who make our work possible and for the wonderful cats we have the honor of helping.
Cats are part of our family. They make us laugh. They get us up early in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night. They listen to our problems, sleep on our favorite sweaters, and add joy to our lives.
This year, we wanted to share two wonderful Happy Endings.
Adopters like Josh & Dana and Annette give Tree House cats a second chance at family.
Harry the hunter. Here he is in his new home getting ready to pounce on his favorite prey…the bookmark!
Harry came to Tree House as a stray. He is a senior, FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) positive cat who was pretty shy at first. Slowly, he started to come out of his shell. Meanwhile, his future adopter, Annette, was learning about him on our website. "I was in love with him before I even met him." When Annette finally met Harry in person, she adopted him that day!
Harry is an incredibly sweet cat who yearns for the love of a human. He has settled into his new home very well and enjoys cuddling with Annette when it is reading time and eagerly seeks pets from everyone who visits.
Siggi has been such a joy to have around the house. He and his new brother, Otto, love to wrestle and chase each other all over. It's adorable.
Sigmund is an FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus) positive cat. Although he has a weakened immune system, with proper care and diet, he can lead a rich life.
Siggi loves his new cat brother as well as hanging out on the window sill and watching the world go by. He is happy, healthy, and loved.
Each year, Tree House remembers and honors special people and pets who are important in our supporters' lives through the Lights of Love lighting ceremony at our Holiday Open House. For each gift that a donor makes, a white light will be lit for those being remembered and a multi-color light for those being honored. Thousands of lights will illuminate the shelter throughout the month of December — "shining bright" for the people and pets who have added great joy and love to our lives.
Please consider giving a tribute gift to remember or honor a special person or pet in your life and send a personalized e-card to that special someone.
Each tribute gift is $15 which provides a week of meals for one stray cat or kitten.
This year, our Open House will be held on Saturday, December 8th. Get your tickets today.
A Tree House adopter and long-time supporter, Lynne recently started volunteering with our Adoption team. She shares why volunteering matters to her and about getting her "cat time".
How did you hear about Tree House?
I adopted my two cats from Tree House in 1997, and I've been receiving Tree House mail and contributing since then.
How long have you been volunteering at Tree House?
I've been volunteering for about a year. The new facility is closer to where I live, and I had decided that when Tree House's new building opened I would volunteer.
What drew you to volunteer for Tree House?
I believe in Tree House's mission and how the organization takes care of its animals. My two Tree House cats lived long lives and passed away a couple of years ago. I did not know that my son is terribly allergic to cats when I adopted them (he was not living at home at the time). He would visit, but it was highly uncomfortable for him. I've moved into a smaller apartment and, for various reasons, I decided that I would not adopt another cat after losing my two. I am retired now and have been donating for years. I thought I might as well give my time, so this is how I get my kitty time.
After I finish my shift, I'm invited to take some "cat time". So I go home happy! But my son continues to ask me if I've brought anyone home yet.
What do you find rewarding about volunteering?
Non-profit organizations like Tree House couldn't be successful without volunteers. It is rewarding knowing that I can help. The Adoption Counselors are very good about thanking me and saying that my work is appreciated. I feel like I've really accomplished something. This past year, I was trained on the organization's animal and clinic database. The training offered by the staff helped me learn what I needed, and all the adoption counselors are happy to help when I get "stuck".
What do you think of the work that Tree House does and why it is important?
In my role, I have an opportunity to read the files of admitted cats as I enter the information into the database. I am constantly amazed at the medical issues these kitties have and how much they are cared for at Tree House. Not everyone thinks that helping these cats is of value, but there are people who think it is worth it. And it takes money. The organization needs the people who work to raise the money to help these cats. It has to be incredibly expensive, and yet, it's all done with love. I know all the Adoption Counselors love the work they do and it shows. Based on what I've seen, I don't know if other shelters would take such good care of the cats.
What would you say to others who are considering volunteering at Tree House?
If you love cats and want to do something that enables you to be around them, Tree House is a good place to be.
If you want to help a good cause, full of people who care about the animals, Tree House is a good place to be.
If you have a little extra time in your life to give to a good cause, Tree House is a good place to do it.
We are so grateful to Lynne and all of our wonderful volunteers for the hundreds of hours they give to Tree House. There are so many roles that go unseen but that are vital to enable us to do the work we do. We are making a difference in cats' lives thanks to so many people who share our passion and support our work by volunteering. If you are interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities at Tree House please complete our volunteer application and our volunteer coordinator will follow up with you.
We have a heartwarming update about a cat named Ella. This stunning beauty was found roaming the streets and brought to Tree House. Coming off the street and settling into shelter life can be challenging, and Ella's fears and anxieties came out in the form of overstimulation. Shelter life was difficult for Ella. She was hesitant and cautious at Tree House and liked to have her space. Sadly, this made it hard for individuals to get to know the sweet cat underneath her fears…until one fateful day when she met her new family.
Addie (12 years old) and her mom, Liz, began visiting Tree House when Addie was just 7 years old. Liz shared that Addie struggled with anxiety, and the pair began volunteering. Being at Tree House and with the cats and kittens was very positive in helping Addie learn how to work with her "everyday worries". For several of her birthdays, this compassionate little girl conducted collections at her parties to raise money for the cats in lieu of gifts.
A few months ago, after losing their cat Teddy after 22 years, Liz and her husband, Eric, along with Addie decided to check out Tree House's new shelter – but with the agreement that there would be no adoptions because Eric wasn't quite ready.
We are so grateful to Liz, Eric, and Addie for taking the time to understand this beautiful cat, see beyond her anxieties and fears, and give her a chance.
Ella is doing great in her new home! "She's very curious about where we are. And when we come home, she runs out like a puppy to greet us." Ella loves her morning "zoomies", "She runs the path from the basement to the 2nd floor of the house." She also enjoys soaking up the morning sun in the bay window.
Addie has given her a middle name, so she is now Ella Forrester Brown – plus, she started an Instagram account for Ella. "We love her very much." The family continues to work with Ella's overstimulation issue which has improved. She is even attempting to become a snuggler.
We are so grateful to Liz, Eric, and Addie for giving Ella a second chance and a loving home. What a wonderful story about the cat-human bond as well as the powerful healing effects this bond can have on children!
You can change a cat's life. Help us spread the word.
We are happy to be able to share an adoption update about two easygoing cats, Morris and Sammy, who were recently adopted together.
Now fondly referred to as The Beefy Boys, these two have taken over their new home. These lovable guys can be found wrestling each other, lazily lounging around their new home, or meowing ferociously — begging to be fed.
We are so grateful to Liang and Casey for giving these beauties a loving, forever home together and for their wonderful support of Tree House.


OKLAHOMA CITY – Governor Mary Fallin today named four new members to the Governor's Science and Technology Council. Each member will fill a vacancy on the council.
The 18-person council is chaired by Oklahoma Secretary of Science and Technology Stephen McKeever. It works to identify opportunities for the growth of science and technology industries in Oklahoma.
Brenda Rolls, of Stillwater, is president and chief executive officer of Frontier Electronic Systems Corp., a technology based company that designs and develops electronic equipment. She received a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and a master's and doctorate from Biola University in LaMirada, California. Rolls is replacing Web Keogh.
Robin Schott, of Edmond, who is vice president of Project Lead the Way, a provider of rigorous and innovative Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education curricular programs used in elementary, middle, and high schools across the U.S. He received a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and a master's degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. Schott is replacing Dave Ralston.
Sandy Johnson, of Norman, who is chief executive officer of Anautics, a provider of enterprise software engineering and systems integration services. She also serves on the Career Tech Advisory Council and is currently on the executive board of the Coalition for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education in Oklahoma. Johnson received a bachelor's degree in mathematics education and elementary education from the University of Oklahoma Science and Arts in Chickasha, a master's from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, Norma. She is replacing Wes Stuckey.
Scott Meacham, of Edmond, served as Oklahoma State Treasurer from 2005-2011. He is the current president and chief executive officer of i2E, a nationally recognized private not-for-profit corporation focused on growing innovative small businesses in Oklahoma and making a positive impact on the state's economy. He is a certified financial planner who previously practiced law in Clinton at Meacham & Meacham, a law firm that primarily focuses n oil and gas, real estate, estate planning and commercial litigation. He has a bachelor's, master's and law degree from the University of Oklahoma. Meacham is replacing Tom Walker.
Click here to read the release at the Governor's website.


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Women in Bahrain are discriminated in every aspect of their life and their personal liberties are severely restricted, both by the laws of Bahrain and by Bahraini society in general. Only one-quarter of women in Bahrain hold jobs outside of the household. Bahraini Women's Day is annually celebrated on December 1.

Traditional Attire

The traditional garments of women in Bahrain include the jellabiya, a long, loose dress, which is one of the preferred clothing styles for the home. Bahraini women may practice the muhtashima, partially covering the hair, or the muhajiba, fully covering the hair.

Roles in society

In the past, such as in the 1960s, the roles of Bahraini women depended on the roles or jobs of their husbands. Women married to fishermen were expected to assist their husbands in their trade as fish cleaners and fish vendors. Women married to farmers were expected to act as farmland helpers and as produce marketers. In towns and cities, women were traditionally assigned to do the house chores and taking care of children. Wealthy Bahraini women, in general, would employ servants to perform their daily chores for them. In addition, women of Bahrain are renowned for their expertise in traditional textile embroidery. This talent of Bahraini women is a reflection of the Bahraini culture and heritage.

During the last thirty years or so, women in Bahrain have had opportunities to deviate from conventional female roles in society. They were able to expand their roles and achieve careers in the fields of education, medicine, nursing practice and other health-related jobs, financing, clerical jobs, light manufacturing, banking profession, and veterinary science, among others.

In Fact, Bahrain is the first GCC country to have women in high government rankings and roles, representing the government, such as ministers and ambassadors.

Role models
One of the influences to Bahraini women's point of view regarding the importance of education and fashion trends were the group of American missionaries from Brunswick, New Jersey who arrived in Bahrain during the late 1890s, as well as early expatriate female teachers from Egypt and Lebanon.  The first secular school for women in Bahrain, the Al-Khadija Al-Kubra, was established in 1928.

Education
In 1928, according to Farouk Amin, Bahrain was the first Gulf state to have education for women.

In the 1950s, the first group of Bahraini women studied in Cairo, Egypt and Beirut, Lebanon to become teachers and school principals in Bahrain. The first hospital-based Nursing School in Bahrain was founded in 1959 with the opening of the College of Health Sciences gave opportunities for Bahraini women to practice as nurses. Women were able to study medicine and related fields in Jordan, Beirut, and Egypt. Women who did were able to profess as department heads, as deans of colleges and universities, and as professors.

Bahrain also was the first Gulf state to have social organizations for women in 1965. In 2005, the Royal University for Women (RUW) was the first private international university in Bahrain dedicated to educating the country's women.

Women's rights

Political rights
In 2002, an amendment to the Constitution of Bahrain gave women in Bahrain the vote and the right to stand in national elections, the second country in the GCC to do so. Two years previously Mariam Al Jalahma, Bahia Al Jishi, Alees Samaan and Mona Al-Zayani had been the first four women appointed to the Consultative Council.

Women first voted and stood at municipal elections held in 2002, at which all 31 women running in a field of more than 300 candidates lost.

Also, no women were elected at the 2002 Bahraini general election. In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom's indigenous Jewish and Christian communities. Dr. Nada Haffadh became the country's first female cabinet minister on her appointment as Minister of Health in 2004.

The quasi-governmental women's group, the Supreme Council for Women, trained female candidates to take part in the 2006 Bahraini general election. In 2006, Lateefa Al Gaood became the first female MP after winning by default. The number rose to four after the 2011 by-elections.

When Bahrain was elected to head the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa President of the United Nations General Assembly, only the third woman in history to head the world body. Female activist Ghada Jamsheer said "The government used women's rights as a decorative tool on the international level." She referred to the reforms as "artificial and marginal" and accused the government of "hinder[ing] non-governmental women societies". In 2008, Houda Nonoo was appointed ambassador to the United States making her the first Jewish ambassador of any Arab country. In 2011, Alice Samaan, a Christian woman was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.

At the 2014 Bahraini general election, a small number of women were elected to both houses.

Domestic violence
There are no laws in Bahrain to protect women against domestic violence.

See also
Be-Free
Women's rights in Bahrain
Women in Islam
Women in Arab societies

References

External links

Bahrain

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For iOS, please ad the following key-value to your .plist file: "AppLovinVerboseLoggingOn" set to "true". You can also see attached screenshot.
NOTE: If you are having trouble seeing the verbose logging. Make sure that you aren't initializing the SDK with an empty settings object. Also, for Xcode make sure that you have "All Output" selected at the bottom of your output console window.


This striped indigo cotton polo is a comfortable and modern take on a true American classic. The red and white indigo striped fabric used makes it a perfect style for any occasion. Featuring a 3 button placket, neck seam with Ultrasuede® piping, taped side vents, and laser etched side label tab, this is a must have for spring. Ultrasuede® labels and trim add a luxurious visual and tactile aesthetic to every piece.


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Surprise 101st birthday parade for WWII vet
By Anne Eickstadt
Mark Finnegan, founder of VetsRoll holds a birthday banner for this 101-year-old World War II Veteran.
"This young man, my dad, turns 101 on Thursday, Feb. 10," said Charlotte Kennedy. "Happy birthday, dad. We love you to the moon and back. His heroism inspired me to start Sgt. P's Lapghans for Veterans, whereby 4,383 veterans and active duty military personnel received complimentary lapghans (blankets)."
"On Sunday, Feb. 13, we celebrated the 101st birthday of World War II Army Sergeant Walter 'Wally' Petroske of Poplar Grove.
"This incredibly healthy man served in the 9th Armored Division through Germany and Central Europe, including the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and he is a decorated hero of the Battle of the Bulge, serving as a demolition specialist," said Mark Finnegan, founder of VetsRoll.
"Following the Battle of the Bulge, while under heavy enemy attack on March 26, 1945, Wally earned a Merit of Recognition by disarming explosives under the Remagen Bridge, allowing the Allied troops to march across the Rhine River and into the heart of Germany … the beginning of the end for the Nazis.
"It was a surprise to Wally, but we held a victory parade for him in Poplar Grove. Staging was at 1:15 p.m. at the Village Hall, 200 N. Hill St. The parade stepped off at 2 p.m. with an Illinois State Patrol, Boone County Sheriff, and Boone County Fire Department escorts."
The VFW Honor Guard offered a 21-gun salute. The public was encouraged to show their patriotic spirit with flags and signs and falling in behind the escorts. Cards could be dropped in a container in front of Wally's home.
"We pray that Wally stays healthy, because he is now on his third year of waiting to join us on the VetsRoll trip to DC.
"Happy 101st Birthday to a true American hero!"
"I was really surprised. I didn't expect this, Petroske said. "This really means a lot to me. I really cherish this."


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Diabetics After the Apocalypse
WRITTEN BY: Forester McClatchey
People are fascinated by their own destruction, and diabetics are no exception.
More particularly, people are fascinated by society's hypothetical destruction, and what human life would look like afterwards. Books, movies, and video games that depict post-apocalyptic worlds are often successful (financially if not artistically), and it's easy to see why: there's an undeniable appeal to imaginatively putting yourself in such a bleak, dangerous world and moving around in it.
Perhaps this is because we know that industrial civilization has choked the mystery out of the world, and a post-apocalyptic landscape is the most plausible version of a world in which we'd be able to confront something unknown again.
Industrial civilization, however, has also kept Type 1 diabetes from becoming a private, miniature apocalypse for its sufferers (it was such an apocalypse for most of human history). The thing that draws us to imagine the apocalypse is also the thing that keeps us (diabetics) alive. It's a tough paradox. If civilization failed, if the medical scaffolding around diabetic life fell away, I suspect diabetics would be screwed.
But how screwed? This is something I think about fairly often. How long would I, a Type 1 diabetic, survive after an apocalypse? If insulin supplies dwindled to nothing, how long could I run around hunting rats, squabbling with other looters and training an army of dogs to do my bidding? How long would it take before I became an unusually sweet snack for cannibals? This all depends, of course, on the human body's capacity to survive without any insulin.
Before I talked to anyone about this subject, I knew that a diabetic would die pretty quickly without insulin, but I assumed that there were things you could do to stretch out your final days, perhaps turning them into weeks or months. Maybe it would help to avoid carbohydrates completely?
This line of thinking is fairly old. Before the discovery of artificial insulin, some physicians put their diabetic patients on a starvation diet, which would extend the patients' lives up to a year. Apollinaire Bouchardat, a French doctor, figured this out at the end of the nineteenth century, and scored some genuine successes with respect to extending his patients' lives.
This method couldn't really save anybody, though — without insulin, the glucose in your blood grows more and more concentrated, poisoning you. Insulin is the only antidote. Even if you eat nothing, your body metabolizes itself, breaking down fat and muscle into simple sugars. Sweet poison pools in your limbs and you die.
So, in an apocalypse scenario, would a starvation diet (or near-starvation diet) buy you a little time? Probably not. Starvation diets sort-of-kind-of worked because the patients were new patients; that is, their diabetes was fresh and they still had some undestroyed beta cells producing a little bit of insulin.
For folks who've had diabetes for years, it's unlikely that any beta cells are still around to help in a post-apocalypse scenario.
Wil Dubois wrote a nice article ("Our Lifespan Sans Insulin") in which the implications for post-apocalyptic diabetics are not cheerful: once your body contains no insulin at all, hyperglycemia and Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) will set in within one or two days. Once you're in DKA with no access to medical treatment, the longest you can reasonably expect to survive would be a few days. Two weeks at the absolute most.
So, on the surface, the prospects for the post-apocalyptic diabetic don't look good. Fine. Are there any other options?
Why not do what Frederick Banting did? He pureed a dog's pancreas, and injected that into his patients (you'd need to loot some syringes). It was a little primitive, sure, but it worked! Besides, this is the apocalypse we're talking about; you'll do what you have to do.
Let's lay off of dogs, though, and consider animals that are harder to anthropomorphize, like pigs and cows, and puree their organs. Would that work? Maybe you could invent a sort of tube that travelled from a living pig's pancreas into your bloodstream. The pig would follow you around, and you'd both look very cool, connected by the tube, and very intimidating, sharing insulin.
I asked my brother, a biomedical engineer studying diabetes in Denver, about the pig idea, and surprisingly, he did not say, "You're an idiot." He gave me some serious advice regarding how a diabetic might survive in an apocalypse, and then told me gently, "I don't think 'magic pigs' are a legit option."
Okay, fine, so magic pigs are out. I still think it would be a good look.
His serious advice was this: stockpile insulin, find a way to keep it cool, get lots of exercise, avoid unnecessary carbs, and hope for the best. Stockpiling insulin might be difficult unless you begin early. Keeping your insulin cool could be problematic, depending on the climate, but there are nice cool caves most places, so you could stash the precious stuff underground.
I imagine "getting enough exercise" wouldn't be a problem, post-apocalypse. The problem would be avoiding exhaustion. Your diet would consist mostly of pigs, which (I assume) apocalypses are full of. This would be good: lots of protein.
It's unlikely that any of this will become pertinent in our lives. For that I'm grateful. Still, stuck in the comfort of the modern world, it's fun to imagine a gang of post-apocalyptic diabetics strolling down a dusty road, eached flanked by his or her magic pig. The image is enough.
Read When a Diabetic Loves a Non-diabetic by Forester McClatchey.
TAGS: 20 Somethings, Adults, humor, Teens
Forester McClatchey
Forester McClatchey is a writer from Atlanta, GA, and a recent graduate of the MFA Program at the University of Florida. You can find his poetry at http://www.forestermcclatchey.com/ and hear his music at https://qcurius.com.


text:
module HelperMethods

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
More than 70 members of Congress reject pay during shutdown
As federal employees brace themselves for their first missed paychecks on Friday, some members of Congress have decided to join them in a show of solidarity and refuse their paychecks.
So far, 71 members of Congress say they will turn down their paychecks during the partial government shutdown, according to social media posts and statements reviewed by CNN. That comprises 13 senators and 58 representatives, with members from both parties making up a similar proportion of those going without pay. Fourteen representatives passing on pay are newly elected and were sworn in this year.
While most have asked House Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko to withhold their pay, others say they plan to donate it to particular charities or causes.
Among them is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who tweeted on New Year's Day — the day after she announced she would explore a 2020 presidential run — that she would be donating her paycheck to HIAS, a nonprofit that helps refugees.
Several members of Congress have also pushed legislation that would penalize members for allowing a shutdown to occur. Rep. Kurt Schrader, an Oregon Democrat, introduced a bill in 2017 that would automatically dock members' pay during government shutdowns, and Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, introduced a constitutional amendment the day before the government shut down that would ban them from being paid.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, one of seven House Republicans who voted to reopen the federal government, urged all members to join him in declining his paycheck.
"Everybody ought to follow the lead that several of us have already set: Don't get paid," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday. "If you're in Congress, don't just delay your pay — forfeit it, write a check back to the US Treasury. Then you'll feel the pain of these federal workers."
Here are the members of Congress who won't receive their paychecks during the shutdown:
Rep. Denver Riggleman (new, R-Virginia) (donating salary to volunteer fire department)
Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tennessee)
Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pennsylvania)
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania)
Rep. Dutch Ruppersburger (D-Maryland)
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-New York)
Rep. Tom O'Halleran (D-Arizona)
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tennessee)
Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas)
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri)
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York)
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado)
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington) (donating to the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) (donating to food banks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens)
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California)
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina)
Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah)
Rep. Ben McAdams (new, D-Utah)
Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Indiana)
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Florida)
Rep. Angie Craig (new, D-Minnesota)
Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Montana)
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) (donating to veterans groups)
Rep. French Hill (R-Arkansas)
Rep. Chris Pappas (new, D-New Hampshire)
Rep. George Holding (R-North Carolina)
Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas)
Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio)
Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio)
Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Michigan)
Rep. Max Rose (new, D-New York)
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (new, D-New Jersey)
Rep. Ross Spano (new, R-Florida)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York)
Rep. Van Taylor (new, R-Texas)
Rep. Mark Walker (R-North Carolina)
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-New York)
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (new, D-Virginia)
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming)
Rep. Elaine Luria (new, D-Virginia)
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Illinois)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania)
Rep. Mark Green (new, R-Tennessee)
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska)
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (new, D-Michigan)
Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana)
Rep. John Joyce (new, R-Pennsylvania)
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (new, R-Texas)
Rep. David Trone (new, D-Maryland)
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina)
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia) (donating to a charity to be determined)
Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada)
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon) (donating to an Oregon charity)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) (donating to a charity to be determined)
Rep. David Schweikert (R-Arizona)
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Virginia)
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Rep. Chip Roy (new, R-Texas)
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) (donating to West Virginia food banks)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) (donating to refugee group HIAS)
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) (donating to Hawaiian food banks)
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) (donating to Nevada charity)
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) (donating to unspecified charity)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) (donating to The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh)
Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) (donating to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation)
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania)
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) (donating to Homes For The Brave)
Sen. Jacky Rosen (new, D-Nevada) (donating to domestic violence survivor programs in Nevada)
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) (donating to Advocates for Human Rights)
Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) (donating to charity, likely the North Dakota National Guard Foundation and the United Way's Emergency Homeless Shelter in Bismarck)


text:
The Chapel	justin	2017-07-26T14:37:37-05:00
The Chapel at Cypress Creek Christian Church was built as a prayer chapel. It is our desire for it to remain available to the public for that purpose. Any other type of service held in the Chapel must go through the Chapel Coordinator with the exception of a brief last-minute wedding. These weddings may be done with permission from the church office. All weddings must follow the guidelines outlined in Wedding Policies for services.
Hours 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (the same hours that other buildings are open and building staff is on premises).
Maximum seating – 30
When members of Cypress Creek Christian Church felt there was a need for a prayer chapel on campus, they looked to the Bible for guidance. In I Chronicles 22: 15,16, it is written, "You have many workmen: stonecutters, masons and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work in gold and silver, bronze and iron—craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you."
In looking at the membership of Cypress Creek Christian Church, it was realized that there were "craftsmen (and women) beyond number." Enlisting the talents of a licensed architect, a professional carpenter, a licensed electrician, licensed air conditioning/heating installers, and others with exceptional talents, a prayer chapel was created. Each Saturday for 54 weeks, devoted crews of volunteer workers appeared to lend their expertise to the project, and individuals and groups in the church brought lunches for the volunteers. All of the work, with the exception of the foundation, roof and stucco exterior, was done by the volunteers.
Individuals and groups honored loved ones and friends, living and dead, or as 'friends of the chapel,' by contributing to the costs of the materials for the building. Members of the congregation wrote blessings and prayers on the inside walls of the chapel, before the sheet rock was installed, so that people will know they are always surrounded by these thoughts. Outside, a meditation garden was constructed by a Sunday School class and other volunteers.
In one of those special unexpected moments, the roofers put on the underlayment with a message. Hidden under the chapel roof in large letters are the words GRACE, the name of the manufacturer. However, to all who worked and contributed toward the completion of the chapel, they need no reminder that the project is indeed covered in 'grace.'
Inspiration from the past.
The inspiration for the design of the Chapel at Cypress Creek came from the 19th century study built by Alexander Campbell for his personal use. Alexander Campbell was the leading influence in the formation of America's largest indigenous religious movement, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), as the denomination is known today. He founded Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia and lived near the campus. He was a figure of uncommon prominence in his own day; an educational pioneer, a renowned debater, political reformer and philosopher, prolific author and publisher, successful businessman, and agricultural leader.


text:
Q: Pyspark RDD column value selection I have a rdd like this:
|item_id|   recommendations|
+-------+------------------+
|      1|[{810, 5.2324243},{134, 4.58323},{810, 4.89248}]
|     23|[[{1643, 5.1180077}, {1463, 4.8429747}, {1368, 4.4758873}]

if I want to only extract the first value in each {} from col "recommendations".
Expected result looks like this:
|item_id|   recommendations|
+-------+------------------+
|      1|[{810, 134, 810}]
|     23|[{1643, 1463, 1368}]

What should I do? Thanks!

A: Not sure if your data is an rdd or a dataframe, so I provide both here. Overall, from your sample data, I assume your recommendations is an array of struct type. You will know the exact columns by running df.printSchema() (if it was a dataframe) or rdd.first() (if it was an rdd). I created a dummy schema with two columns a and b.
This is my "dummy" class
class X():
    def __init__(self, a, b):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b

This is my "dummy" data
schema = T.StructType([
    T.StructField('id', T.IntegerType()),
    T.StructField('rec', T.ArrayType(T.StructType([
        T.StructField('a', T.IntegerType()),
        T.StructField('b', T.FloatType()),
    ])))
])

df = spark.createDataFrame([
    (1, [X(810, 5.2324243), X(134, 4.58323), X(810, 4.89248)]),
    (23, [X(1643, 5.1180077), X(1463, 4.8429747), X(1368, 4.4758873)])
], schema)

If your data is a dataframe
df.show(10, False)
df.printSchema()

+---+---------------------------------------------------------+
|id |rec                                                      |
+---+---------------------------------------------------------+
|1  |[{810, 5.2324243}, {134, 4.58323}, {810, 4.89248}]       |
|23 |[{1643, 5.1180077}, {1463, 4.8429747}, {1368, 4.4758873}]|
+---+---------------------------------------------------------+

root
 |-- id: integer (nullable = true)
 |-- rec: array (nullable = true)
 |    |-- element: struct (containsNull = true)
 |    |    |-- a: integer (nullable = true)
 |    |    |-- b: float (nullable = true)

(df
    .select('id', F.explode('rec').alias('rec'))
    .groupBy('id')
    .agg(F.collect_list('rec.a').alias('rec'))
    .show()
)

+---+------------------+
| id|               rec|
+---+------------------+
|  1|   [810, 134, 810]|
| 23|[1643, 1463, 1368]|
+---+------------------+

If your data is an rdd
dfrdd = df.rdd
dfrdd.first()

# Row(id=1, rec=[Row(a=810, b=5.232424259185791), Row(a=134, b=4.583230018615723), Row(a=810, b=4.89247989654541)])

(dfrdd
    .map(lambda x: (x.id, [r.a for r in x.rec]))
    .toDF()
    .show()
)
+---+------------------+
| _1|                _2|
+---+------------------+
|  1|   [810, 134, 810]|
| 23|[1643, 1463, 1368]|
+---+------------------+

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