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Starbucks For America
Ian Allen for TIME
By Rana Foroohar
February 5, 2015 6:44 AM EST
Howard Schultz isn't afraid of his feelings. Or anybody else's, for that matter.
The 61-year-old Starbucks CEO doesn't mind tears or hugs or displays of emotion of any kind. This is front and center on an icy January afternoon in New York City, where Schultz is leading a forum on race. Shocked by recent police shootings and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and Oakland, Calif., he decided to hold open meetings in five cities where Starbucks employees from top managers to entry-level baristas could speak frankly about their experiences with racism.
A little more than 40% of the company's baristas are minorities, and the audience of 400 or so at Cooper Union's auditorium reflects that. Schultz has just come from a meeting with New York City police commissioner William Bratton in which the two discussed ways the company could help ease tensions. Like a candidate holding forth during a televised town hall, Schultz is speaking from a spot on the floor near the crowd. "People have told me we shouldn't touch this issue, that we might stir things up, upset the shareholders. I don't agree with that," he says. "Conversations are being ignored because people are afraid to touch the issue. But if I ignore this and just keep ringing the register, then I become part of the problem. So here we are. Let's talk."
Pretty soon, the floodgates are open. The microphone is passed around, and dozens of partners, as Starbucks employees are called, begin sharing their stories. Some are crying, others angry. A young Senegalese immigrant, Tafsir Mbodje, a district manager who runs the Grand Central store among others, points out the slow police-response times in his former neighborhood, East New York. "I feel like we are at a tipping point in this country," Mbodje says. "And it's only going to take one more thing, one more event, to make things boil over." Schultz takes the microphone. "I was born in East New York, and I agree with you. We are at a tipping point. There's a lack of leadership in Washington, in government, and so it has to come from us."
The forum is quintessential Schultz. He is at his best with his people, talking about issues that other CEOs would rather not come up in mixed company. In recent years, Schultz has taken on student debt, health care, veterans' rights, youth unemployment and gun violence. All this do-goodery can be hard to live up to 24/7. A progressive image can sting if it appears hypocritical, as it did in 2014 when a New York Times story chronicled how Starbucks' staff-scheduling software could wreak havoc on the lives of workers with kids. (Schultz says the problem has since been fixed.) And though investors have cheered Starbucks' recent performance–on Jan. 22, the Seattle-headquartered company said sales in the most recent quarter had grown by 13% year over year, to $4.8 billion–a CEO's personal passions can irk investors when times turn tough.
Lately Schultz has been focused on one intractable problem in particular that will take more than a few feel-good forums to tackle: the future of the U.S. economy. The Great Recession and the recovery that followed have warped the economic landscape. What has emerged is an hourglass-shaped comeback with growth at the high and low ends and shrinking in the middle. Wealthy households have made huge strides while middle-income Americans struggle, reshaping businesses from housing and cars to groceries and clothing. Labor Department data show that wages for the vast majority of American workers have stagnated over the past decade. The U.S. is increasingly a nation of latte drinkers and latte makers, with very little room in between. Schultz, of course, depends on both.
His plan to address this, he tells TIME, could change your local Starbucks as you know it. Those changes also reflect the challenges facing the country as a whole. "Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat," he recently said, "we can all know and recognize one thing: the country is not going in the right direction." That's the kind of talk that had some, including Schultz's powerful pals, wondering if these are the musings of an outspoken billionaire flirting with the idea of taking a run at the world's most powerful job.
AMERICA IS "FRAGILE"
A few weeks back, when Starbucks released its impressive quarterly numbers, Schultz got up in front of a bunch of Wall Street analysts and gave them the bad news. "There is no company you can point to that is as dependent as we are on human behavior, the human condition and the people that wear the green apron," he said. And unfortunately that condition is, as he put it, "fragile." Schultz was referring to consumer sentiment, which, while improving, is still volatile. Spending can collapse at a moment's notice, just as it did during the Ferguson riots, when coffee sales nationwide suddenly dipped as consumers hunkered down at home rather than going out and spending.
Schultz is acutely aware of this because four times a day, he gets what may be the most up-to-date consumer-confidence indicator in America–Starbucks' coffee-sales figures. With nearly 12,000 stores nationwide, "we have a lens on almost every community in America," he says. "At 4:30 in the morning, I wake up and see the numbers of basically every store from yesterday." Those numbers give a picture that is very different from and much more sensitive than quarterly GDP figures. Over the past few years, says Schultz, they've pointed to a "fractured level of trust and confidence" that he attributes in large part to a sense that government is no longer functional and that no one is looking out for the welfare of the middle and working classes.
Sales will rise and fall with the national mood, tanking quickly during events like the New York City police protests–or the 2013 government shutdown, just one of the recent moments when Schultz has worried about the effects of partisan politics on the economy. "I called the White House after the government shutdown and shared with them [figures showing] that leading into the shutdown and for weeks afterward, we saw a significant drop in consumer spending." He spoke to people "at the very highest level on both sides of the aisle" to stress his feeling that this effect would be "lingering" and would result in a more skittish consumer. "And that's exactly what's happened," he says.
Starbucks–whose baristas, at Schultz's suggestion, wrote come together on coffee cups in protest over the shutdown–already had a reputation at that point as a progressive company, having been one of the first retailers in the country to offer affordable, comprehensive health care to full-time and eligible part-time employees and their families, as well as a stock-grant program (Bean Stock) for all. And there have also been big pushes in areas like workforce training (the company and the Schultz Family Foundation together have trained nearly 700 disadvantaged young people for jobs in retail or customer service), hiring and training of returning veterans (Starbucks has pledged to employ 10,000), student debt and access to education (the company has promised to help pay for employees to get their bachelor's degree, an investment that will likely cost Starbucks tens of millions of dollars).
Schultz says he is deeply invested in these ideas not only because making the company a preferred employer helps keep turnover costs lower and service quality higher than the industry average but also because he believes corporations have a duty to help people realize the American Dream. "I think the private sector simply has to take a larger role than they have in the past. Our responsibility goes beyond the P&L and our stock price. We have to take care of people in the communities that we serve. If half the country or at least a third of the country doesn't have the same opportunities as the rest going forward, then the country won't survive. That's not socialism," says Schultz. To him, it's practical reality.
Schultz believes that keeping the economy viable will also require major changes in corporate business models, Starbucks' included. And that's where customers will begin to notice some changes. Just as fashion brands have haute couture and mass-market lines, Starbucks this year will open the first of a series of luxury Reserve stores, where customers can get a more rarefied and expensive assortment of coffee. (Some may also experiment with selling wine.) Expect many more specialized formats designed for specific places, like express stores coming to New York City or mobile trucks currently on college campuses. Over the next five years, Schultz will be busy transforming the Starbucks experience, in large part by experimenting with ways to draw in ever-more-fickle consumers.
In part, that will involve taking seriously the crowded space for cheaper coffee, a phenomenon that along with the financial crisis helped lead to a steep downturn in Starbucks' fortunes in 2008. Starbucks will have to compete more directly not only with McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts but also with budget outfits like 7-Eleven. (When even Taco Bell is advertising its coffee, you know things are getting tough.) You will start to see the mermaid logo near places like your local bowling alley. The firm that built its image on an "emotional" connection to coffee that allowed for personal indulgences like $5 mocha Frappuccinos is going to have to find ways to compete with those that sling bare-bones $1 coffee–and a lot of it. (Starbucks hasn't decided yet how the menu might change.) The company is approaching this in a characteristically cool way–building outlets from used cargo containers at highway exits, for example–but it's not going to be easy to make one brand mean two things to different customers.
More important, this change of course puts the company in an awkward position. To continue to grow, it must adapt to the economic landscape, making a play for high-end consumers with disposable income while also tailoring outlets and products to lower-end consumers who have less to spend. But doing this means Schultz is implicitly accepting a truth that he has been rallying against for years. That leaves Starbucks aggressively changing its business model to make the most of a country in which the middle class is shrinking while its outspoken CEO loudly cries out against the forces that shrink it. The future of Starbucks, like the economy itself, has a split personality.
KID FROM CANARSIE
This divide is not unfamiliar to Schultz. he grew up the watchful, working-class child of a depressed, blue collar father. The elder Schultz, a military veteran without health care who was driving a diaper truck in the days before disposables were ubiquitous, fell on the ice when Howard was little and was let go with no benefits or pay. He never recovered, physically or mentally. With Schultz's dad couchbound and unable to work, the family struggled with poverty in the housing projects of Canarsie, Brooklyn. "I saw my father, who was unfortunately very bitter about his own life, not ever having the self-respect that he thought he deserved, because he was an uneducated blue collar worker," says Schultz. "Consciously or unconsciously, I think one of the things I was trying to do was build the kind of company my dad never got to work for."
That focus on the working poor is something that sets Schultz apart from many in the 0.001% of which he is now a part. (Forbes estimates his net worth at some $2.4 billion; famous friends include JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Oprah.) His wife Sheri, an equally kinetic and emotive blonde who looks a little like actress Ellen Barkin, helps run the family foundation. She remembers humility and appreciation for people as the qualities that initially drew her to Schultz when the two met in a Hamptons house share 36 years ago. "You know how they say you can find out about a person when you're in a restaurant and you see how they treat someone who helps you? He would be that guy who before he left would go to the boss and say how great the person was that served our dinner," says Sheri. "That's Howard."
One Friday afternoon at the Camp Pendleton Marine base near San Diego, Schultz sits signing copies of For Love of Country, a book he co-wrote with Washington Post senior correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran about the struggles of returning veterans. A hundred or so people have lined up for copies, and Schultz is quietly scribbling his signature until a middle-aged man from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, strikes up a conversation. Within seconds the two are backslapping and joking about who came from the tougher neighborhood. "When you say you went to Canarsie High School, you get a whole new level of street cred!" boasts Schultz. He waves over his genteel-looking public-affairs director, Vivek Varma. "Hey, how long do you think Viv would last in the Bayview projects?" Schultz asks his new buddy. "With that watch?" the man fires back. "How fast can you run?" He and Schultz both double over laughing.
Schultz may be of the people, but he's no saint. He's more sensitive than most executives to criticism and tough questions. So much so that he has a tell: when he's on the defensive, his eyes open wider than normal. And like many business leaders from hardscrabble backgrounds, he can be a control freak. Top staffers say multiple 5 a.m. emails from him aren't unusual. Is that tough? I ask one lieutenant. "Only if you are a normal person who gets started at 8 a.m.," he responds, a little weary. Schultz also has a tendency to parachute into situations, pre-empting members of his staff who are trying to do their jobs. He says he needs to combat his tendency to "override the people who are responsible. [It's] not healthy for the organization." One rare rich-guy move, Schultz's purchase of the Seattle SuperSonics in 2001, ended with a very unpopular sale that relocated the team to Oklahoma City; Schultz was frustrated by the experience in part because he didn't get as much control as he would have liked.
Schultz continues to push generous benefit packages for staff, despite protests from the Street. In 2008, when bankers wanted him to cut health care to make his margins, he refused. "We found that 70% of the people working for Starbucks did not have a college education," Schultz says, "and a large percentage of them had started and stopped." To solve that, he partnered with Arizona State University, which has an extensive online curriculum, to allow Starbucks employees to go to school on their own time while continuing to work. So far, 1,500 employees have taken up the offer (Starbucks says job applications have jumped too as a result), giving the notion of online education a boost in legitimacy and earning Schultz praise from both liberals and conservatives.
Grover Norquist, the right-wing tax activist, sees Starbucks as a model for a kind of business federalism in which the private sector does things better and faster than government. "Howard isn't saying, Hey, I'll give you a check. He's saying, I want your skills, [at the same time] that he's changing the cost of education by revolutionizing education itself. He's backing into the reform of public education," says Norquist, who also believes Starbucks' lead on the veteran-hiring issue could displace entire departments of the federal government. "More people live close by a Starbucks than a VA office."
HOWARD FOR PRESIDENT?
Inevitably, all the talk about a leadership void in Washington has led people to wonder whether Schultz might be privately positioning himself for public office. (He is a Democrat.) There is, after all, a rich tradition of wealthy businesspeople pushing political agendas, from Edward Filene, who started Filene's Basement before helping develop community credit unions and pass the first workmen's-comp law, to former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of California five years ago. People close to Schultz, like entertainment mogul David Geffen, have suggested he think big. "I first told Howard he should run back in 2008," Geffen says. "We were having a very intense conversation about things that were happening in the country, and Howard had a strong point of view about various things," like, for example, the bank bailouts. "We both felt there was a lot of corruption in government and a lack of conviction to put things right."
Bill Etkin, a financier and lawyer who is a close friend of Schultz's as well as a consultant for Starbucks, says the CEO did think seriously at one point about entering the political arena. Schultz and his wife hosted a dinner for Michael Bloomberg a few years back when the former New York City mayor was considering a run for President. The two discussed the challenges of moving from the business world to politics. Etkin says Schultz ultimately feels he can do more for the public good from his current perch than he could in Washington. Mellody Hobson, president of the $10 billion asset-management firm Ariel Investments and a Starbucks board member as well as an Obama campaign supporter, says, "Howard is a maverick, and mavericks don't do well inside big institutional structures." Norquist puts it more bluntly: "'You should run for office' is what people in this country say to you when they mean 'I like your ideas. I wish people in Washington thought like you did.' That's what Ralph Nader's friends said to him, and when he ran, they screamed at it and said, 'Hey, you are funneling money away from the mainstream of the party!'"
For his part, Schultz insists he's not interested in running for office at the moment and has neither the temperament to make the compromises necessary to embark on a Democratic political career nor the desire to be a third-party candidate. "I don't think that is a solution. I don't think it ends well." There is also the baggage that every successful businessman turned politico has to carry in terms of translating his successes–and his failures–in one realm to another. In 2012, for example, Starbucks ran into PR trouble in the U.K. after revelations that it had paid only minimal corporation taxes on many hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. The company, which had been domiciling in the Netherlands, as many large companies do, says it complied with all tax laws. Starbucks has since voluntarily paid more, and it has moved its European headquarters to the U.K. Still, the episode shows how difficult it would be to balance running a multinational company with running a progressive political campaign. For now, Schultz says, he's content to "see what Hillary does."
Whatever his future ambitions, Schultz is caffeinated and eager to do bold things both for his business and for the country at large. Wherever he goes, he pops into Starbucks stores, sometimes recognized, often not. "Hey, how is that Pumpkin Spice Latte doing?" he asks the somewhat shocked manager of a store in San Diego, where he has made a surprise visit for his fifth Sumatra of the day between meetings with veterans' groups. Baristas scramble to fill the order, looking a little awestruck. "Maybe we should move the holiday display cards up a few inches?" Schultz offers.
Schultz is busy mapping Starbucks' future. The company recently announced the hiring of a new No. 2, 16-year Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson, to help lead a push into mobile payments. Through its smartphone app, Starbucks already does more of those per week than any other retailer, and Schultz has visions of competing with the likes of Apple Pay. In Seattle, Schultz just opened a flagship Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, a Willy Wonka–esque coffee fantasia where customers can watch every part of the coffeemaking process, from bean roasting to foammaking. A hundred high-end Reserve stores are coming in the next five years to cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington. And Starbucks says customers in some cities will be able to get their caffeine fix delivered to their door by the end of 2015.
There will be challenges along the way. Aside from the bargain-basement competitors, Schultz will have to keep his eye on a raft of high-end bespoke coffee chains trying to re-create Starbucks' early formula, including Blue Bottle, based in Oakland, Calif. Other enthusiastically unveiled initiatives, like a push into food, have been hit or miss. Schultz's founder's passions still burn, but he has a hard road ahead in the split economy, and the future of Starbucks after him is unclear at best.
On the policy front, the company is planning to dramatically ramp up the number of out-of-work young people, veterans and other struggling groups that get workforce training through Starbucks. On Feb. 9 in L.A., Schultz is holding the company's first open forum on racism with non-Starbucks participants. Meanwhile, the early-morning emails with the next big idea–to staffers, friends, his wife, other CEOs–are unlikely to stop coming anytime soon. "I like to take big swings," says Schultz, smiling and chugging yet another Sumatra. "Maybe it's all the coffee."
This appears in the February 16, 2015 issue of TIME.
Europe's Economic Band-Aid Won't Cure What Really Ails It


Peter Savill (Chairman of BIHIP) and John Fennessy (Chairman of BIHIP's Oak group).
There have been a number of changes in the management of BIHIP during 2005. John Davis, BIHIP Treasurer and founder Chairman of the Ash Group, has decided to concentrate his efforts on fundraising for BIHIP, so Graham Taylor (of Pryor and Rickett Silviculture, Hereford) has taken over as Chairman and Pat Doody (of Coilte) as Vice- Chairman of the Ash Group. Miles Barne is now concentrating his efforts on leading the European Squirrel Initiative, and John Fennessy (of COFORD) has succeeded him as Chairman of the Oak Group with Bede Howell as Vice-Chairman. James Johnston, founder Chairman of the Sweet Chestnut Group decided to retire, after many years in the post, and his place has been taken by Geraint Richards, Head Forester of the Duchy of Cornwall Woodlands. Robin Bircham, on moving to live in France, has retired as Chairman of the Walnut Group, and Sir Benjamin Slade has succeeded him. Finally, Joanna Clark has become Secretary of no fewer than three of the BIHIP Species Groups: Oak, Ash and Walnut. We welcome all these newcomers, and thank the outgoing chairmen for their hard work and contributions in the past.
Two field days were held in 2005. The first, on 12 April, was organised by Graham Taylor in Herefordshire. Participants visited Wallbrooks wood, owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, inspecting an ash stand included in the original BIHIP 1991/2 seed collection, and discussed the management of young oak and ash plantations, as well as oak improvement with the 'Duchy' local provenance. During the afternoon, on Garnons Estate the party visited Shawles where some of the best ash in England grows. There are impressive European larch/ash and western red cedar/ash mixtures, and some P1940 ash "plus" trees used in various tree improvement trials. Approximately 25 delegates from Britain and Ireland attended the Management Committee meeting, the AGM, and field day in Maynooth, Co. Kildare on 27 and 28 September – the first time this event has taken place in Ireland. It was organised by John Fennessy.
The programme included a visit to Donadea Forest Park, owned by Coillte, and to Joe Barry's Forest at Larch Hill, Kilcock. At Donadea the group was met and welcomed by George Hipwell, Forest Manager. Peter Savill gave a short introduction to BIHIP and David Thompson (Tree Improvement Coillte) gave an introduction to earlier tree improvement work, on the EU ÉCLAIR Programme (the European Collaborative Linkage of Agriculture and Industry through Research). The objective of this programme was to improve the genetic quality of hardwood planting stock through biotechnology. The project consisted of the selection and propagation of phenotypically superior trees (plus trees) of oak, ash, cherry and sycamore. Both micropropagation and conventional cutting propagation methodologies were examined to develop clonal varieties of the four species and the project envisaged making the plants available on a commercial basis. When the project came to an end in March 1995 the following selections had been made (Table 1).
Table 1: Plus trees selected under the ÉCLAIR Programme 1990-1995.
An elite oak tree at Garnons Estate.
Most of the selected material was grafted and placed in the broadleaf clone bank in Kilmacurra, Co Wicklow. Today the sycamore and ash selections have been used to establish a number of untested clonal seed orchards and are the basis of other improvement work in broadleaves. A number of selected trees were seen during the visit. A final stop was made at a small grove of birch and Dr Ellen O'Connor, Teagasc, gave an introductory talk on the COFORD sponsored BIRCH Programme as well as an update.
At Joe Barry's broadleaved woodlands near Kilcock, a visit was made to the ash plantation where a lively discussion on the management of ash ensued. Mike Bulfin, Teagasc, introduced the COFORD sponsored BROADFORM Programme. The main objectives of this programme are to develop treatment protocols for the early management of broadleaved species, up to and after the time of first thinning.
The evening before the field trip, Seamus Dunne of the Forest Service gave a talk on Broadleaves – What's out there?
For the British participants at the meeting, it was encouraging to observe how seriously quality broadleaved tree growing is taken in Ireland, in contrast to the very unsupportive official attitude in England.
Allocation of funding – BIHIP currently has an income of about £20,000 a year, of which some £8000 is very generously donated by Woodland Heritage, and most of the rest by the Forestry Commission. Forestry Commission funds may only be used for Oak, Sycamore, Birch and Ash. These groups are also supported by the Woodland Heritage funds, though this year, the Sweet Chestnut Group received more than most to support its attempt to identify 100 elite trees. The Oak, Ash and Walnut Groups also received funding.
British and Irish Hardwood Trust has been established through the efforts of John Davis. To date the British element has been established. The preliminary draft of the Trust Deed for Ireland has just been completed by the solicitor and was presented at the meeting. The final draft of the promotional brochure was also provided to the meeting. It is hoped that all the elements of the Trust will be in place by the end of the year.
The Sir Eric Weiss Prize – This prize was announced earlier this year for the best plus tree identified for each of the species groups in BIHIP. Judging of the trees will take place in 2006. At the end of 2005, the number of entries had been disappointingly small.
Intellectual property rights issues remain a potential problem, not just for BIHIP, but for any tree breeding organisation.


Stir-fried green beans is something we've been eating for a long time. When I was growing up, my mom would make this recipe with sugar in it, but now we make it without the sugar and it still tastes fantastic!
Make a large pot of it as it's quite delicious!
Place the avocado oil into a large pot and saute the onions.
Add the green beans, the water, tamari soy sauce, and star anise into the pot and place a lid on the pot. Cook for 15 minutes on medium heat until the green beans are slightly tender.
Remove the lid (and remove the star anise) and saute on high heat until no liquid is left.
Add salt to taste if necessary.


While you are staying at a hotel, it is important to ensure that your stay is a safe and comfortable one. However, not all hotels provide such excellent service and therefore at certain times it is possible for you to face certain problems. During such circumstances, it is important to be ready. In this case, the following are some blunders that you might have to face when staying at a particular accommodation.
One of the worst things that can happen is when the staff of the place does not care about you. It is important for the staff to be concerned about your needs. If their service is poor and if they are rude, then it can totally ruin your overall stay. So, you need to make sure that the place that you stay at offer proper training so that they know a thing or two about customer service.
Honestly, this is something that you should never have to face. When staying at a hotel, we all like to chill by watching a movie or even talking with our friends. After all, there is not much you can do within the space itself. If the place has poor internet connection, then it could be hell for you. So, before you make the Hong Kong Harbourfont hotel booking, make sure to inquire about their internet speed. This way, you can be prepared.
Most travellers tend to have their breakfast at the accommodation before they leave the place to wonder about. The food you eat in the morning can affect your mood and even your health for the rest of the day. In this case, you need to make sure that the place provides you healthy and tasty food. If you make a luxury hotel booking, there is nothing for you to be worried about – as their standard of cooking and serving is always high.
Nobody should have to deal with this. After a day of, shopping and admiring attractions, something we all want to do is have a good night's sleep. But this could be impossible if your bed is rough as a rock or if it is infested with bedbugs. You need to make sure that your room has a good bed and clean sheets. This is your basic right as a customer. So, you must look into this before you make the booking.
Since these are some problematic areas for many travellers, it would be wise to specifically look into these before you leave home for your vacation.


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Q: Save chromium browser's session How can I manually save the session in chromium-broswer?
I have a Notebook with damaged battery (only gives 5~6 minutes of backup, planning to buy a new one), and in our country power outages ("Load Shedding") are quite common.
So, I have had to close my session before shutting down my laptop. When I re-open chromium, there is no tab with previous session.
The question is: How can I manually save my session before closing the laptop?

A: In the chromium window open :
Click on the wench icon on the right of your toolbar. Click Settings -> On Basics Section, in the option under On startup heading, Choose the radio button with Reopen the pages that were open last.
Now, Your session will be always be saved.
See the image below:

A: You can use the Session Manager extension. It's awesome -- I use it regularly. :D

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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With so many on offer today, it is great to have a make you can recognise. The Maxi-cosi Tobi Car Seat Group 1 Black Diamond is certainly that and will be a great purchase.
For this great price, the Maxi-cosi Tobi Car Seat Group 1 Black Diamond comes widely recommended and is always a popular choice with many people. Dorel UK Limited have included some nice touches and this equals good value for money.


text:
Reid calls for Hargey to...
Reid calls for Hargey to intervene at Mid and East Antrim council
Eugene Reid matthew o'toole Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
SDLP Ballymena councillor Eugene Reid has asked Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to intervene in the scandal-hit Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
Mr Reid was speaking after further revelations raised significant questions about the inner workings of the council.
He has asked party colleague South Belfast MLA Matthew O'Toole to ask Ms Hargey what action she has taken to address concerns around the running of the council.
Mr O'Toole has also raised concerns expressed by NIPSA in October who called for Ms Hargey and her department to oversee the running of the council.
Councillor Reid said:
"Every few weeks we see more revelations about scandals involving Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and the latest from the BBC Spotlight programme are staggering. As an elected representative it's extremely frustrating that the attention of councillors is constantly diverted to crisis management when the majority of us would prefer to get on with representing our constituents and delivering the services that matter to them.
"Despite attempts by others to play down the significance of events involving our council they cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet. Public confidence has been badly damaged by the events of the past few months and we need to draw a line under things if we are ever going to have a fresh start and win back that trust.
"I believe it is long past time Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey intervened in this situation – it has long since spiralled out of control. NIPSA first raised its concerns with the minister in October, the problems our council has experienced have been well publicised and still we have seen no action. The Minister needs to take responsibility and exercise her powers until things are back on an even footing.
"I am fed up with the name of our council being dragged through the mud. I got involved in politics because I wanted to improve the lives of local people, but too often we are distracted by matters like this. We need to see full independent investigations carried out into the concerns raised so that we can all get back to doing our jobs and delivering where it counts."
South Belfast MLA Matthew O'Toole said:
"In February it was obvious that Anne Donaghy and MEA Council were central to the escalation of the confrontation over the Protocol. Serious questions about whether this was coordinated with the DUP remain. Sometimes in this place we feel like we have moved beyond shock at the conduct of some parties and public officials - but the activities already established inside this council are truly shocking.
"In February I wrote to the Council chief executive asking a series of detailed questions about the murky circumstances around the decision to stand down ports staff. Ten months on, I have received no response and so I welcome the work being done by BBC Spotlight to bring some level of accountability.
"But the seriousness of the situation at MEA requires urgent action from the relevant minister. Minister Deirdre Hargey has the legal power to intervene on this matter and she must use it. I will be working alongside Councillor Reid to ensure the minister takes action on the issues plaguing this institution."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) — The European Union on Wednesday adopted measures to label products from Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law, in a move welcomed by the Palestinian leadership.
"Since the Golan Heights and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are not part of the Israeli territory according to international law, the indication 'product from Israel' is considered to be incorrect and misleading in the sense of the referenced legislation," the EU said.
The labeling will be mandatory for fresh fruit and vegetables, wine, honey, olive oil, eggs, poultry, organic products and cosmetics, and voluntary for industrial products and pre-packaged foodstuffs.
"It is puzzling and even irritating that the EU chooses to apply a double standard concerning Israel, while ignoring that there are over 200 other territorial disputes worldwide, including those occurring within the EU or on its doorstep," it added, according to Israeli media.
The labeling of settlements products was first proposed in 2012, and in April this year, France and 15 other European Union countries urged the bloc to clearly label products sold in member countries that originated in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, as well as the occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land have long been considered one of the major obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement with the PLO.
Since 1967, Israel has established about 150 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem in addition to some 100 "outposts" erected by settlers without official authorization, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is now nearing 600,000, with 43 percent of the occupied West Bank allocated to local settler councils.


text:
#pragma once
#ifndef EXTRACT_GHKM_ALIGNMENT_GRAPH_H_
#define EXTRACT_GHKM_ALIGNMENT_GRAPH_H_

#include <set>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

#include "SyntaxTree.h"

#include "Alignment.h"
#include "Options.h"

namespace MosesTraining
{
namespace Syntax
{
namespace GHKM
{

class Node;
class Subgraph;

class AlignmentGraph
{
public:
  AlignmentGraph(const SyntaxTree *,
                 const std::vector<std::string> &,
                 const Alignment &);

  ~AlignmentGraph();

  Node *GetRoot() {
    return m_root;
  }
  const std::vector<Node *> &GetTargetNodes() {
    return m_targetNodes;
  }

  void ExtractMinimalRules(const Options &);
  void ExtractComposedRules(const Options &);

private:
  // Disallow copying
  AlignmentGraph(const AlignmentGraph &);
  AlignmentGraph &operator=(const AlignmentGraph &);

  Node *CopyParseTree(const SyntaxTree *);
  void ComputeFrontierSet(Node *, const Options &, std::set<Node *> &) const;
  bool IsFrontierNode(const Node &, const Options &) const;
  void CalcComplementSpans(Node *);
  void GetTargetTreeLeaves(Node *, std::vector<Node *> &);
  void AttachUnalignedSourceWords();
  Node *DetermineAttachmentPoint(int);
  Subgraph ComputeMinimalFrontierGraphFragment(Node *,
      const std::set<Node *> &);
  void ExtractComposedRules(Node *, const Options &);

  Node *m_root;
  std::vector<Node *> m_sourceNodes;
  std::vector<Node *> m_targetNodes;
};

}  // namespace GHKM
}  // namespace Syntax
}  // namespace MosesTraining

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Another Round of This and That for the New Year
Recently I came across this story of a Native American woman's encounter with some young white girls. It starts like this:
"Lori Metoxen, 52, works as an administrator at Oneida Behavioral Health in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a treatment center for indigenous people suffering from addiction and mental illness. Metoxen says one beautiful summer day in 2017 she drove home from work with the windows down, the sunroof open, and her Oneida Nation license plate, available only to members of the tribe, proudly displayed on the back of her car. When she stopped at a traffic light in the part of western Green Bay that belongs to the Oneida Nation reservation, she noticed a car full of white, teenage girls in the lane beside hers. 'Go back to Mexico, you scumbag sack of shit!' one of the girls yelled at Metoxen.
Stunned, Metoxen remembers saying something like, 'What is your problem?' to which the girl, after a string of profanities, replied,
'You heard me, go back to Mexico!'
'The angriness of their voices was shocking to me,' Metoxen, a Native American who is not from Mexico, recounted to HuffPost. 'They really needed to make somebody feel bad. What was the fun in that?'
After a few seconds, the light turned green and the white girls, all laughing, turned left. Metoxen drove straight, and as so often happens after incidents like these, she suddenly realized what she should have said.
'You go back to where you came from! I belong here!'"
(written by Christopher Mathias in the Huffington Post)
I remember once meeting a Native American man who had a t-shirt with the message: Fighting Illegal Immigration since 1492. I think he understood the situation!
So one of the problems that seems to be in the air these days is the issue of immigration. Nothing easy or simple about it; not sure how it can be resolved in a good way. On the one hand the tough, brute anti-immigrant, seal-the-borders stance is not only morally wrong but also historically wrong-headed and ultimately not even effective at that. On the other hand, a totally open border where anyone can come in any time is not a workable situation for a modern nation. In fact it was never such a situation even in pre-modern times among indigenous peoples. Although you almost never had clear borders, there was a sense of "this is our territory," and to enter or traverse this territory from another tribe required some negotiation or conflict was a possibility. In any case, it never was just anybody come into "our territory" even though it was not "our state." To be honest we also have to admit that premodern peoples did invade and sometimes force other inhabitants out if they were weaker. In modern history, when Europeans forced their way into the Americas and kept coming and coming, it was in fact a kind of invasion. We cannot undo that time, but you see how that complicates the picture. On the level of politics and economics the situation is intractable, but what that means is that we are not seeing it at a deep enough level. It means it is time for us to see things radically differently, from the depths of our being, and our flourishing as human beings will depend on that.
Climate change. No need to say much on this one. Recent headlines speak of record temps in Australia and extremely warm pools of ocean water in the vicinity of New Zealand. And a lot more. The evidence is all there, but we seem to be strangely stagnant about what we might want to do. I am reminded of the ancient historian, Livy, who said of his own Rome, "We cannot endure our vices nor their cure." It seems like another intractable situation where we seem to have a sense that something is happening but at the same time we seem unable to change anything of our lifestyles that might make a difference in some degree.
Election year and impeachment. Let "The Circus" begin! In my opinion impeachment is mostly a distraction from our real problems I don't see much hope in this process. The country is sadly, tragically, and stupidly very, very divided. And to top it all off there is almost no one who seems to be a decent choice to vote for. I am not seeking the perfect candidate, just someone who is not BSing or just power hungry. I can vote for Sanders and maybe for Warren, but even if one of them wins, the way the country is and the way Congress is, mostly what would happen is that their decent proposals would get gutted out. The temptation is to blame Trump and the Republicans for our predicament, and they certainly are a significant part of it; but really the Democrats have done more than their share of damage in recent decades. As usual, Chris Hedges has presented this most eloquently in an essay on Truthdig:
The Impeachment's Moral Hypocrisy
Here is an excerpt from that essay:
"Yes, Trump's contempt of Congress and attempt to get Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to open an investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for almost $400 million in U.S. military aid and allowing Zelensky to visit the White House are impeachable offenses, but trivial and minor ones compared with the constitutional violations that the two parties have institutionalized and, I fear, made permanent. These sustained, bipartisan constitutional violations—not Trump—resulted in the failure of our democracy. Trump is the pus coming out of the wound. If the Democrats and the Republicans were committed to defending the Constitution why didn't they impeach George W. Bush when he launched two illegal wars that were never declared by Congress as demanded by the Constitution? Why didn't they impeach Bush when he authorized placing the entire U.S. public under government surveillance in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment? Why didn't they impeach Bush when he authorized torture along with kidnapping terrorist suspects around the world and holding them for years in our black sites and offshore penal colonies? Why didn't they impeach Barack Obama when he expanded these illegal wars to 11, if we count Yemen? Why didn't they impeach Obama when Edward Snowden revealed that our intelligence agencies are monitoring and spying on almost every citizen and downloading our data and metrics into government computers where they will be stored for perpetuity? Why didn't they impeach Obama when he misused the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force to erase due process and give the executive branch of government the right to act as judge, jury and executioner in assassinating U.S. citizens, starting with the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and, two weeks later, his 16-year-old son? Why didn't they impeach Obama when he signed into law Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act, in effect overturning the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military as a domestic police force?"
And there's a lot, lot more there that he says…..
Religion. Now you would think that religion might be some kind of antidote to all this. Well, not exactly. To be precise, by religion I mean the institutions, the structures, the organizations, etc. It's hard to say whether it was always like this or we are simply more aware of the rot. Consider some of these recent news items:
80% of evangelical Christians who voted, voted for Trump. Now there is an evangelical "army of prayer" praying to save him from impeachment. And then there was this recent headline:
America's Christian churches are flush with cash despite declining attendance
The story was about how many Protestant churches are "blessed" with lots of cash and their pastors are doing quite well financially.
And then there was this headline:
Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges
Lest you think we Catholics are exempt from such corruption, consider this recent story in the Wall Street Journal:
Headline: Vatican Uses Donations for the Poor to Plug Its Budget Deficit
https://www.wsj.com/articles/vatican-uses-donations-for-the-poor-to-plug-its-budget-deficit-11576075764
Or two recent stories in the Washington Post:
Headline: Ousted cardinal McCarrick gave more than $600,000 to fellow clerics, including two popes, records show
This is a story about how the archbishop of Washington, DC, one of the top positions in the Catholic Church basically bribed people who could cause him problems if his sexual predation was outed. And where do you think that money came from?
The other headline, also from the Post:
W.Va. bishop gave powerful cardinals and other priests $350,000 in cash gifts before his ouster, church records show
Later the Post did another story about this West Virginia bishop and his decadent and opulent lifestyle in one of the poorest dioceses in the country:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/disgraced-bishop-spent-46-million-on-mansion-that-sold-for-only-12-million/2019/12/29/6d7ad002-225f-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html
You have to read the story to really get a sense of how bad the situation can get! It is almost too much to believe.
All of this stuff is, of course, only scratching the surface of what ails us. The sex problems among the church clergy is unspeakably awful and it is not something that we have really confronted or "solved." Want to read a current harrowing story about a priest approved by Mother Teresa? Here is the link:
https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Lawsuit-Famed-Jesuit-abused-boy-1-000-times-14940594.php
But even that is only a symptom of a much deeper dysfunctionality. Can't speak for the Protestant scene or the other major religions, each of which have their own serious problems, but we Catholics have a major institutional, theological and spiritual crisis going on and few seem to recognize its true dimensions.
But good people still do good things, and maybe that's all that matters. And here is a story that the struggle to "do the right thing" still has a voice:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oak-flat-arizona-apache-mining_n_5dfa9a7be4b006dceaa7e48c
I love the photo below—from HuffPost with this story. It speaks a lot against all the stuff above, but I will refrain from any interpretations. I also love what this girl said:
"We're Apaches. We're warriors. The Spaniards and the United States government fought us here. They think they won but they didn't. The war never ended."
The struggle will continue.
And then a word from another direction. From one of my favorite people, the late Tang period hermit and poet, Han-shan (or Cold Mountain):
"Who takes the Cold Mountain Road
takes a road that never ends
the rivers are long and piled with rocks
the streams are wide and choked with grass
it's not the rain that makes the moss slick
and it's not the wind that makes the pines moan
who can get past the tangles of the world
and sit with me in the clouds"
And Wang An-shih, who lived several centuries later wrote this in his honor:
"I have read ten thousand books
and plumbed the truths beneath the sky
those who know know themselves
no one trusts a fool
how rare the idle man of Tao
up there three miles high
he alone has found the source
and thinks of going nowhere else."
(above translated by Red Pine)
This entry was posted in Interreligious Dialogue on December 31, 2019 by Monksway.
The Tao
From Lao Tzu:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
This appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
As translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
The opening lines of the Tao Te Ching, the core document of ancient Taoism.
No, I will not be "naming" the Tao or anything of that sort! This will only be some scattered thoughts and various reflections. There are many English language translations of the Tao Te Ching, but the one I will be using is by Feng and English. Simply from an intuitive feel I sense that this translation has touched the reality of the text more than the others, though many are good and interesting and valuable for comparison and to gain an additional insight. The ancient Chinese is especially difficult and even native speakers cannot always agree on what the text is getting at. Thus there are various versions of the text, and the interpretive twist that is applied depends on what the translator brings to the text. Finally, there are different spellings of Anglicized Chinese terms: as example, in years past it was "Tao Te Ching"—that has become in recent years as "Dao De Jing"—no big deal, the change has to do with politics and cultural/social issues. I will use the older spelling for these notes.
Taoism has a long and complex history. Its roots go back to prehistoric shamanism but it emerged as a refined and extremely deep spiritual consciousness around 600 BCE. Its golden age was from about 600 to about 300 BCE. Interestingly enough in the West this was also the golden age of Greek philosophy from Parmenides to Aristotle.
From Jacob Needleman's Introduction to the Feng/English translation:
"The word Tao…has been characterized as untranslatable by nearly every modern scholar. But this statement should not lead us to imagine that the meaning of the Tao was any more easily understood by the contemporaries of Lao Tsu. It would be more to the point to say only, half jokingly, that the word Tao, and even the whole of the Tao Te Ching, is not readily translatable into any language, including Chinese!…. The present translation generally leaves the word Tao in Chinese. Those who have sought an equivalent in Western languages have almost invariably settled on Way or Path."
The word "tao" appears all over the place in Chinese culture and in all the various traditions and schools of thought, including the historically dominant Confucianism. It can have different senses in all these different contexts, and mostly it loses its mysticism and mystery.
Lao Tzu is a seminal figure for authentic Taoism. Many scholars doubt he even existed and that the text attributed to him was composed by a variety of people. Frankly I find that totally irrelevant to my purposes. I know there is a text; there is a voice that speaks through the text; there is a vision that engages me. Whoever Lao Tzu is, I consider him a dear friend who speaks to my heart.
There is another seminal figure for ancient Taoism: Chuang Tzu. (Thomas Merton loved Chuang Tzu: "Chuang Tzu is not concerned with words and formulas about reality, but with the direct existential grasp of reality in itself. Such a grasp is necessarily obscure and does not lend itself to abstract analysis. It can be presented in a parable, a fable, or a funny story about a conversation between two philosophers…. The whole Chuang Tzu book is an anthology of the thought, the humor, the gossip, and the irony that was current in Taoist circles in the best periods, the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. But the whole teaching, the 'way' contained in these anecdotes, poems, and meditations, is characteristic of a certain mentality found everywhere in the world, a certain taste for simplicity, for humility, self-effacement, silence, and in general a refusal to take seriously the aggressivity, the ambition, the push, and the self-importance which one must display in order to get along in society. This other is a 'way' that prefers not to get anywhere in the world, or even in the field of some supposedly spiritual attainment.")
Like all major religious traditions Taoism did not remain static. Over time a lot of changes took place; it evolved, it transformed, it degenerated, it became infected with a lot of pop religiosity, which is its condition at present as it barely hangs on precariously in Chinese culture and society. It has largely become a strange amalgam of superstition, health practices, alchemy, magic, body therapies, martial arts, religious rituals, etc. This kind of religiosity seems to have been prevalent over the last thousand years or so, but even in ancient times there were figures who poked fun at it or critiqued it, like the hermit-poet Han Shan. Needless to say, all the major traditions have had similar problems, but Taoism experienced some special problems of its own in modern times: Chinese Communism.
There is very little trace of pristine Taoism left, but it can be found here and there, especially in the hermit subculture of China. And this is a most remarkable story in itself. There is probably no other culture in which the hermit monk has been more valued than in this especially communal culture of China. An amazing paradox, and this has been going on for several thousand years. When the Communists took over there was a strong repression of the hermit movement as with all other religious expressions. However, "the way of the hermit" was still not lost among the common people no matter the ruling ideology, and so some folks headed out into the wilderness and lay low, albeit not in the numbers of past years. As the repression began to lessen in the 1980s and 90s, their presence began to be noticed. The American poetry translator and scholar and travel writer, Red Pine, went to China in 1989 to see for himself if there were any hermits still in China. Chinese officials told him there were none; even the monastic centers and temples in the cities that were beginning to be allowed once more to open told him not to waste his time looking for what is not there. But he decided to visit the legendary mountain wilderness areas where hermits used to inhabit, and to his surprise discovered a remarkable number of them. Certainly not in the numbers of old, but still an astonishing presence considering the recent history. He wrote a book about it: Road to Heaven, Encounters with Chinese Hermits. The really interesting thing about this is that when the book was translated into Chinese in China, it became a big seller. The general populace of China was still very enchanted with their hermits and wanted to know more about them! The situation is not unlike the one depicted in another documentary about Tibetan Buddhist nuns in a particular monastery on the Tibet/China border, how their monastery was demolished by the Red Army and they were scattered. But a number of them kept up the monastic life in secret and the whole thing came back to life when the repression was alleviated. In any case, inspired by Red Pine's book, a short documentary was made about these Chinese hermits a few years later ("Amongst White Clouds"). It is in these circles that you can still find the authentic pristine Taoism. And of course not only there.
There is another place where you might find authentic Taoism but you might not recognize it there—Chinese Buddhism or to be more precise, Chan, Chinese Zen. A very elaborate, speculative Buddhism traveled from India primarily to two places, Tibet and China. In Tibet it got even more elaborate, and it developed an enormous system and methodology. In China the opposite happened. When Indian Buddhism encountered Chinese culture and ancient Taoism, it was transformed into Chinese Zen, which is then the source of what we know as Japanese Zen. (Of course there was also other forms of Buddhism in China.) For the most part, for the Chinese the incoming Buddhism seemed to them a bit like their native Taoism. They just stripped it of all its "luggage" and "decorations" and so developed Chinese Zen, an amazingly austere, simple path. This is a controversial point because many scholars of Taoism simply study what is practiced and taught at the pop Taoism level and which practically what millions of Chinese around the world engage in to some degree. This is a complex question, and it is probably a worthwhile thing to do, but not what I am interested in. I think it is important to get a sense of authentic, pristine Taoism, and the roots of this incredible mystical path. I follow people who are so inclined and who have a deep sense of Taoism, not just a sociological/anthropological interest. So I follow folks like Merton, Burton Watson, Red Pine, etc.
In ancient times there were figures like the hermit-poet Han Shan who seemed to combine both a Buddhist vision and a Taoist vision. Such figures can be found even today, and there is one characteristic that they all seem to share: a very keen sensibility for wilderness and the natural world. And this greatly influenced Chinese art and poetry. (You can read about this in a work like David Hinton's Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China.) This relationship to the wilderness and a sensibility for its spiritual significance is scarce in the West, but here and there you can catch a glimpse of it in various figures like John Muir and Ansel Adams. Some of Adams' photographs from the Sierras and other places remind one of some Chinese scroll paintings. The human being is "de-centered" in this vision—still there but no longer the center or the "main part" as in Western art. The human is there as a small but integral part of a much larger Whole, which in itself opens up as a window to the Ultimate Mystery. In the West the natural world is there for our exploitation, the extraction of resources for our benefit, the source of power and wealth, the playground of our ego self. Or, the wilderness can be an "obstacle" to be overcome. The Bible and Western Thought are almost of no help here—in fact by some considered the cause of the problem. (When the first Europeans came to the Grand Canyon, they lamented what an obstacle that was to their explorations for wealth. When the pioneers came upon the Sierras during the Gold Rush, they only saw the mountains as another obstacle to the gold. And so on. Our attitude and treatment of the Native Americans is not unrelated to this mindset.) After that we become "tourists" in nature; the wilderness is there for play, a theme park of sorts. Edward Abbey has written bitterly about all that. Rare is that person who has that Taoist spirit and sees the spiritual significance of the wilderness.
Merton: "Chinese Buddhism is in fact an amalgam of Taoism and the 'Great Vehicle' (Mahayana Buddhism) of India. The Taoism that still goes by that name is in fact much further from the original Taoism of Lao Tzu than Zen Buddhism, which preserves intact the living thought of the Tao Te Ching, while popular Taoism is a hodgepodge of quasi-magical rites, folklore, and superstition." One might also add that there is a lot of that kind of stuff in many Christian circles also!!
We began by quoting in full the first lines of the Tao Te Ching. This first chapter or first part or first poem, whatever you call it, is pretty much the essence of it all. Everything else in the Tao Te Ching is a kind of drawing out the implications and the full meaning of these opening lines. Unless you get the deep sense of the opening, at least a glimmer of it, the rest of it will seem opaque or banal or just a pile of inscrutable paradoxes (the Christian Gospels have some of this kind of language too). What might strike you is how much there is of focused ethical language—not abstract, vague mystical language. For the true Taoist there is a definite way of living and acting in the concrete. Here I would like to quote a famous and profound Chinese scholar, Wang-Tsit Chan:
"But there is in Lao Tzu a peculiar emphasis on what is generally regarded as negative morality, such as ignorance, humility, compliance, contentment, and above all, weakness. Lao Tzu is very insistent that we avoid the extreme, the extravagant, and the excessive, do away with desires, knowledge, competition, and things of the senses. He wants us to be 'contented with contentment' and know 'when to stop.' He encourages us to 'keep to humility' and accept disgrace, to be willing to live in places which others detest, to be low and submissive, to be behind others but never ahead of them, and to 'become one with the dusty world'…."
For Lao Tzu, Wang-Tsit Chan continues, "water, the infant, the female, the valley, and the uncarved block are used as models for a life according to Tao. No other school has deliberately selected these as symbols for a good life. Practically all of these symbolize the life of simplicity. Some people have therefore regarded the teachings of Lao Tzu as negative and defeatist. But this is not the case…. Knowledge in the sense of cleverness and cunning is to be discarded, but knowledge of harmony and the eternal, contentment, where to stop, and the self is highly valued. Or take simplicity. The symbol for it is the uncarved block which is not spoiled by artifice. Metaphysically it stands for the original purity and unity of Tao and ethically it stands for a simple life that is free from cunning and cleverness, is not devoted to the pursuit of profit or marked by hypocritical humanity and righteousness, but is characterized by plainness, tranquility, and purity."
(from the Introduction to The Way of Lao Tzu by Wing-Tsit Chan)
But, as I said above, all this can be relegated to a very superficial and stultifying modality unless one has a sense of the depths which that word, "Tao," opens up—as in the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching. And there are also other parts of this work that invite our hearts into the depths.
I remember many years ago sitting in the chapel of a Benedictine monastery in the desert in Southern California, just beginning a retreat before I was going to start my own monastic journey in another community. It was time for vespers, evening prayer, and the community was gathering. Several dozen other people were there also; it was the end of a prayerful weekend workshop on pottery at the monastery. Many of the participants were there, and this prayer service was the close of the workshop. Evening prayer went along in a traditional way, except for one of the readings—they are usually from the Bible, but this one was suppose to be a final thought for the pottery folks but it hit me extra hard: it was from the Tao Te Ching:
"Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape the clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes that make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there."
(Feng, English translation)
Most people, especially us Westerners, fixate and value "what is there," the stuff of reality, that which is. Normal and understandable, but the Taoist sensibility is keen on "what is not there," that which is not, emptiness. It understands the mysterious and profound value of that emptiness—without any need to explain the unexplainable. The mysterious fruitfulness of this emptiness.
If I were writing a book on what is called Christian contemplative prayer or meditation, I would begin with this little poem. The key to going deeply into "contemplative prayer" is to value this particular emptiness and recognize its presence ( a paradox of course, because it is the essential absence!!).
Let me conclude with one more excerpt from the Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English translation:
"Look, it cannot be seen—it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard—it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held—it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;
Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao."


I like to capture moments, to present things from a different perspective. I am passionate about photography, cinematography, animation and motion graphics. I am on an ongoing journey, studying, mastering and enjoying all of these visual techniques.


text:
Q: How to use if statement on any number of LinkButtons so that it postbacks and display different records each time? In my data base i have made a table with columns
ProductId                int            Unchecked
[Sports Name]            nvarchar(50)   Checked
Category                 nvarchar(50)   Checked
Brand                    nvarchar(50)   Checked
Image                    text           Checked
MRP                      varchar(50)    Checked
[Our Price]              varchar(50)    Checked
[You Save]               varchar(50)    Checked
[Shipping Charges]       varchar(50)    Checked
[Expected Delivery]      varchar(50)    Checked

and on the front hand i have create many linkbuttons such as badminton, tennis , table tennis etc.. and a drop downlist to choose the equipment wanted such as racket and shuttle for badminton, bat and ball for the cricket and so on after that a dropdownlist to choose its brand.
Now I want them to display the products as choosen by customer on the click and selection event only in one page not by creating page for each category Some what like this
(the coding is not exact, it is just sample that what i want)
if(badminton.click==true)
{
  cmd.text= seclect * from products where [Sports Name == Badminton] And Category==setectedcategory and so on
}
else if(tennis.click==true
{
}
...........so on

or only in one statement just like
cmd.text= select * from products where [Sports Name]==LinkButton.click And all like this

Now please help me if u understand what i want.

A: There are some problems in your database, I have to point to:

*

*Don't use spaces in the columns' names, such as [Our Price], [Expected Delivery]. You can, but it is recommended not to do this. Your identifiers should comply to default rules for regular identifiers.

*For monetary or currency values, use MONEY, SMALLMONEY1 it has many benifits, or even DECIMAL in some cases. Not NVARCHAR the way you did in your Products table.

*Use Date and Time data types instead of NVARCHAR like in [Expected Delivery]. And the most important one:

*Your database isn't normalized this way. You should create a separate tables for Cateogries, Sports and Brands.
For instance:
CREATE TABLE Equipments
(
  EquipmentId   INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
                CONSTRAINT PK_EquipmentId PRIMARY KEY,
  EquipmentName NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE Sports
(
   SportId   INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1)
             CONSTRAINT PK_SportId PRIMARY KEY,
   SportName NVARCHAR(50)
);

CREATE TABLE SportsEquipments
(
   Id          INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)2
               CONSTRAINT PK_SportsEquipmentId PRIMARY KEY,
   SportId     INT NOT NULL
               CONSTRAINT FK_SportId_Sports FOREIGN KEY
               REFERENCES Sports(SportId),
   EquipmentId INT NOT NULL
               CONSTRAINT FK_EquipmentId_Equipments FOREIGN KEY
               REFERENCES Equipments(EquipmentId)
);

CREATE TABLE Categories
(
   CategoryId   INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
                CONSTRAINT PK_CategoryId PRIMARY KEY,
   CategoryName NVARCHAR(50)
);

CREATE TABLE Brands
(
   BrandId   INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
             CONSTRAINT PK_BrandId PRIMARY KEY,
   BrandName NVARCHAR(50)
);

CREATE TABLE Products
(
  ProductId        INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
                   CONSTRAINT PK_ProductID PRIMARY KEY,
  SportId          INT NOT NULL
                   CONSTRAINT FK_SportId_Products
                   FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Sports(SportId),
  CategoryId       INT NOT NULL
                   CONSTRAINT FK_CategoryId_Categories
                   FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Categories(CategoryId),
  BrandId          INT NOT NULL
                   CONSTRAINT FK_BrandId_Brands
                   FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Brands(BrandId),
  "Image"          TEXT,
  MRP              NVARCHAR(50),
  OurPrice         MONEY,
  YouSave          MONEY,
  ShippingCharges  MONEY,
  ExpectedDeliveryDate DATETIME
);

How Can I insert into the tables this way?
Later, when inserting into the Products table, in the insert from, you should display the list of sports, categories and brands as DropDownLists. But, in this drop down list, you only display the name of the entity. You only display the CategoryName in the Categories dropdown, BrandName in the Brands dropdown and so on. And you can do this using the following two properties of the drop down list:

*

*DataValueField to the Id.

*DataTextField to the Name.

Something like:
dropdown.DataSource = dataset;
dropdown.DataValueField  = "CategoryId";
dropdown.DataTextField = "CategoryName";
dropdown.DataBind();
//the same for other entities

Then you should insert only the selected id from the drop down list, and your INSERT statement would look something like:
INSERT INTO Products (SportId, CategoryId, BrandId, ... )
VALUES
(1, 2, 3, ...);

But How can I Select and Search?
The same in the Search form, you should display these entities as drop down list then search for the products with the id selected by the drop down list:
SELECT ProductId, Name, ...
FROM Products
Where CategoryId = @SelectedCategoryId
 AND SportId = @selectedSportId
...

The same with your current problem, you can dynamically created link buttons from these entities, the categories list and sports list as well as other entities. This can be done using the GridView control, then create a data source and bind it to this grid view. With an <ItemTemplate> as <asp:LinkButton> and bind it to the column name selected by your query. If you googled for this, you will find a lot of threads explaining how you can do this. For example :

*

*Dynamically add link buttons based on database result.
Hope this is what are you looking for.

*

*1:In some cases, may be you shouldn't use it.

*2:In the SportsEquipments, I used the Id as a primary key, this way you any equipment can be referenced by many sports. If you want to make the equipment unique for each sports make a composite key(SportId, EquipmentId) instead.


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Have you noticed how other people's energy can affect you?
Those people, the ones where you spend five minutes in their company, and feel as if they've sucked the life right out of you.
I don't mean the people who have just shared a problem – that's often healthy.
I'm talking about a Doom Goblin.
You'll tell them how happy you are and they'll find a reason you shouldn't be. You'll say you're excited, and they'll tell you why it's not good to get your hopes up. (Whoever just popped in to your head, that's the person I'm talking about).
It's important you don't absorb other people's vibes as your own.
This week, set the intention to Return to Sender. Grab your metaphorical Wonder Woman cuffs and deflect any negative energy coming your way. Be aware when you're around those people who drain you, who tire you out or leave you feeling worse than when you walked in. If you have to spend time with them, wash off the vibe with a warm shower, or enjoy some time in your own company with your favourite music playing loud when they've gone.
For expanded insights straight to your inbox, sign up to Monday Mojo here.


text:
Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume
R. A. Ganeev, T. Witting, C. Hutchison, F. Frank, P. V. Redkin, W. A. Okell, D. Y. Lei, T. Roschuk, S. A. Maier, J. P. Marangos, J. W.G. Tisch
We report on the observation of enhanced high harmonics from a carbon plasma using sub-5-fs laser pulses. The efficiency of harmonic generation in the range of 14-25 eV was up to five times higher in the case of a plasma medium (graphite ablation) compared with gas (argon) under similar experimental conditions. The harmonic enhancement can be attributed to the presence of carbon nanoparticles in the ablation plumes.
Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
Ganeev, R. A., Witting, T., Hutchison, C., Frank, F., Redkin, P. V., Okell, W. A., Lei, D. Y., Roschuk, T., Maier, S. A., Marangos, J. P., & Tisch, J. W. G. (2012). Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume. Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, 85(1), [015807]. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
Ganeev, R. A. ; Witting, T. ; Hutchison, C. et al. / Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume. In: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. 2012 ; Vol. 85, No. 1.
@article{17f49c75adef46d8a0e41cc26a282952,
title = "Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume",
abstract = "We report on the observation of enhanced high harmonics from a carbon plasma using sub-5-fs laser pulses. The efficiency of harmonic generation in the range of 14-25 eV was up to five times higher in the case of a plasma medium (graphite ablation) compared with gas (argon) under similar experimental conditions. The harmonic enhancement can be attributed to the presence of carbon nanoparticles in the ablation plumes.",
author = "Ganeev, {R. A.} and T. Witting and C. Hutchison and F. Frank and Redkin, {P. V.} and Okell, {W. A.} and Lei, {D. Y.} and T. Roschuk and Maier, {S. A.} and Marangos, {J. P.} and Tisch, {J. W.G.}",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807",
journal = "Physical Review A",
Ganeev, RA, Witting, T, Hutchison, C, Frank, F, Redkin, PV, Okell, WA, Lei, DY, Roschuk, T, Maier, SA, Marangos, JP & Tisch, JWG 2012, 'Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume', Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, vol. 85, no. 1, 015807. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume. / Ganeev, R. A.; Witting, T.; Hutchison, C. et al.
In: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Vol. 85, No. 1, 015807, 26.01.2012.
T1 - Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume
AU - Ganeev, R. A.
AU - Witting, T.
AU - Hutchison, C.
AU - Frank, F.
AU - Redkin, P. V.
AU - Okell, W. A.
AU - Lei, D. Y.
AU - Roschuk, T.
AU - Maier, S. A.
AU - Marangos, J. P.
AU - Tisch, J. W.G.
N2 - We report on the observation of enhanced high harmonics from a carbon plasma using sub-5-fs laser pulses. The efficiency of harmonic generation in the range of 14-25 eV was up to five times higher in the case of a plasma medium (graphite ablation) compared with gas (argon) under similar experimental conditions. The harmonic enhancement can be attributed to the presence of carbon nanoparticles in the ablation plumes.
AB - We report on the observation of enhanced high harmonics from a carbon plasma using sub-5-fs laser pulses. The efficiency of harmonic generation in the range of 14-25 eV was up to five times higher in the case of a plasma medium (graphite ablation) compared with gas (argon) under similar experimental conditions. The harmonic enhancement can be attributed to the presence of carbon nanoparticles in the ablation plumes.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807
JO - Physical Review A
JF - Physical Review A
Ganeev RA, Witting T, Hutchison C, Frank F, Redkin PV, Okell WA et al. Enhanced high-order-harmonic generation in a carbon ablation plume. Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. 2012 Jan 26;85(1). 015807. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.015807


text:
package main;

public interface FlyBehavior {
	public void fly();
}


text:
/*
 * NaCl Service Runtime.  Secure RNG implementation.
 */

#include <string.h>

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

#include "native_client/src/shared/platform/nacl_log.h"
#include "native_client/src/shared/platform/nacl_secure_random.h"

#ifndef NACL_SECURE_RANDOM_SYSTEM_RANDOM_SOURCE
# define NACL_SECURE_RANDOM_SYSTEM_RANDOM_SOURCE "/dev/urandom"
#endif

static struct NaClSecureRngVtbl const kNaClSecureRngVtbl;

/* use -1 to ensure a fast failure if module initializer is not called */
static int  urandom_d = -1;

#define SANDBOXED_INITIALIZATION (!defined(NACL_STANDALONE))

#if SANDBOXED_INITIALIZATION

# include "base/rand_util_c.h"

void NaClSecureRngModuleInit(void) {
  urandom_d = dup(GetUrandomFD());
}

#else

void NaClSecureRngModuleInit(void) {
  urandom_d = open(NACL_SECURE_RANDOM_SYSTEM_RANDOM_SOURCE, O_RDONLY, 0);
  if (-1 == urandom_d) {
    NaClLog(LOG_FATAL, "Cannot open system random source %s\n",
            NACL_SECURE_RANDOM_SYSTEM_RANDOM_SOURCE);
  }
}

#endif  /* !SANDBOXED_INITIALIZATION */

void NaClSecureRngModuleFini(void) {
  (void) close(urandom_d);
  urandom_d = -1;
}

#if USE_CRYPTO

static int NaClSecureRngCtorCommon(struct NaClSecureRng *self,
                                   unsigned char        *key) {
  self->base.vtbl = &kNaClSecureRngVtbl;
  AES_set_encrypt_key(key, AES_BLOCK_SIZE * 8, &self->expanded_key);
  memset(self->counter, 0, sizeof self->counter);
  self->nvalid = 0;

  memset(key, 0, sizeof key);
  return 1;
}

int NaClSecureRngCtor(struct NaClSecureRng *self) {
  unsigned char key[AES_BLOCK_SIZE];

  self->base.vtbl = NULL;
  /*
   * Windows version should get seed bytes from CryptoAPI's
   * CryptGenRandom.  Whether we want to use that as seed as here, or
   * as the generator for everything depends on how expensive it is
   * (and whether it matters for our usage).
   */

  if (sizeof key != read(urandom_d, key, sizeof key)) {
    return 0;
  }
  return NaClSecureRngCtorCommon(self, key);
}

int NaClSecureRngTestingCtor(struct NaClSecureRng *self,
                             uint8_t              *seed_material,
                             size_t               seed_bytes) {
  unsigned char key[AES_BLOCK_SIZE];

  self->base.vtbl = NULL;
  memset(key, 0, sizeof key);
  memcpy(key, seed_material, seed_bytes > sizeof key ? sizeof key : seed_bytes);
  return NaClSecureRngCtorCommon(self, key);
}

static void NaClSecureRngDtor(struct NaClSecureRngIf *self) {
  memset(self, 0, sizeof(struct NaClSecureRng));
  /* self->base.vtbl = NULL; */
}

static void NaClSecureRngCycle(struct NaClSecureRng *self) {
  int ix;

  AES_encrypt(self->counter, self->randbytes, &self->expanded_key);
  self->nvalid = NACL_RANDOM_EXPOSE_BYTES;
  /*
   * odometric counter, low probability of carry, and byte order
   * independent as opposed to loading as words, incrementing, and
   * storing back, etc.
   *
   * counter value v = \sum_{i=0}{AES_BLOCK_SIZE-1} self->counter[i] * 256^{i}
   */
  for (ix = 0; ix < AES_BLOCK_SIZE; ++ix) {
    if (0 != ++self->counter[ix]) {
      break;
    }
  }
}

static uint8_t NaClSecureRngGenByte(struct NaClSecureRngIf *vself) {
  struct NaClSecureRng *self = (struct NaClSecureRng *) vself;

  if (self->nvalid <= 0) {
    NaClSecureRngCycle(self);
  }
  /*
   * 0 < self->nvalid <= NACL_RANDOM_EXPOSE_BYTES <= AES_BLOCK_SIZE
   */
  return (char) self->randbytes[--self->nvalid];
}

#else

int NaClSecureRngCtor(struct NaClSecureRng *self) {
  self->base.vtbl = &kNaClSecureRngVtbl;
  self->nvalid = 0;
  return 1;
}

int NaClSecureRngTestingCtor(struct NaClSecureRng *self,
                             uint8_t              *seed_material,
                             size_t               seed_bytes) {
  UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(self);
  UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(seed_material);
  UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(seed_bytes);
  return 0;
}

static void NaClSecureRngDtor(struct NaClSecureRngIf *vself) {
  vself->vtbl = NULL;
  return;
}

static void NaClSecureRngFilbuf(struct NaClSecureRng *self) {
  self->nvalid = read(urandom_d, self->buf, sizeof self->buf);
  if (self->nvalid <= 0) {
    NaClLog(LOG_FATAL, "NaClSecureRngFilbuf failed, read returned %d\n",
            self->nvalid);
  }
}

static uint8_t NaClSecureRngGenByte(struct NaClSecureRngIf *vself) {
  struct NaClSecureRng *self = (struct NaClSecureRng *) vself;

  if (0 > self->nvalid) {
    NaClLog(LOG_FATAL,
            "NaClSecureRngGenByte: illegal buffer state, nvalid = %d\n",
            self->nvalid);
  }
  if (0 == self->nvalid) {
    NaClSecureRngFilbuf(self);
  }
  /* 0 < self->nvalid <= sizeof self->buf */
  return self->buf[--self->nvalid];
}

#endif

static struct NaClSecureRngVtbl const kNaClSecureRngVtbl = {
  NaClSecureRngDtor,
  NaClSecureRngGenByte,
  NaClSecureRngDefaultGenUint32,
  NaClSecureRngDefaultGenBytes,
  NaClSecureRngDefaultUniform,
};


text:
200 Bucks to Montauk, and I Really Just Want to Get to Southampton
By Julia Knobloch
Party at Ground Zero
ALBANY'S DNA EXPANSION: A Foolproof Solution?
By Liliana Segura
Brooklyn Housing Court: A Landlord Collection Agency?
TAKING (DOWN) the HIGH ROAD
By Dave Kim
CITY NOTES
Mallets on Wheels
By Marianne Moore
Iris in the Heartland
By Katy Bolger
Celebrity's Two-Way Street: Leon Gast's Smash His Camera
Coney Island Beer Hustle
By Matthew Vaz
Why Not Wounded Knee? A Tale of Two Monuments
By Christian Parenti
EMPIRE UNBOUND: Philip S. Golub In Conversation with Phong Bui
RADICAL REFLECTIONS: Arthur Penn In Conversation with Gregory Zucker and Robert White
STRAIGHT TALK: Andrew Bujalski In Conversation with Paul Felten
Abortion Battle's Hidden Front: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady In Conversation with Williams Cole
The Bonds of War—Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's Restrepo
A Judt Guide
Conflicted States
By Allen Wilcox
Just a Spoonful of Sugar
By Adam P. Frederick
The Not-So Roaring Twenties
By Sophia Koutsoyannis
Robert Hullot-Kentor WITH FABIO AKCELRUD DURÃO
James Hyde WITH PHONG BUI
George Gittoes WITH DAVID LEVI STRAUSS
Matisse on the Move
Kiki Smith: Allegories on Living and the Mystery of Existence
Walking the Elastic City
By Patricia Milder
LEE BONTECOU: All Freedom in Every Sense
The Slave Theater
RACKSTRAW DOWNES: Onsite Paintings, 1972–2008
RACKSTRAW DOWNES: In Focus
MERLIN JAMES, LOUISE HOPKINS
WAYNE THIEBAUD: 70 YEARS OF PAINTING
PATRICK MICHAEL FITZGERALD Drawings
EVE ERIKSSON
GREATER NEW YORK
THE HISTORY OF "WE": HIS STORY, HER STORY, OUR STORY
LETTER FROM HONG KONG ARTHK 2010: WHAT ART YOU DOING?
By Liz Riviere
CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI No Man's Land
JULIE MEHRETU Grey Area
REBECCA SMITH Tape and Steel
CHRISTINE HIEBERT Reconnaissance: Three Wall Drawings
By Lilly Wei
ROSS NEHER Sanctuary
By Charles Schultz
MAGRITTE, PAINTER-PHILOSOPHER
ROME, IMPERIUM SINE FINE? (DOMINION WITHOUT LIMITS?)
By Dore Ashton
2010 SUMMER READING LIST
By Phong Bui and Robert Hullot-Kentor
Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010) From the Diaries 1960
By Jonas Mekas
ART TRIPPIN' THROUGH CHINATIME: CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A MARKET
MEMOIR: YIN & LANG
By Marc Nasdor
FICTION: DUSTJUNKIES AND DUSTJACKETS
By Brendan Carney Byrne
FICTION: GETTING CARRIED AWAY
By Paul Charles Griffin
FICTION: CROSSING PATHS
FICTION: LARGE AND SIMPLE
By Meghan Roe
POETRY: WASTE TO WITT
By Helena Fitzgerald
FICTION: OUR LOTS OF LITTLE
By John Madera
POETRY: THE COOKED AND THE RARE
By Adam Fitzgerald
By Dan Fall, Tatiaana L. Laine, Helena Fitzgerald, and Kenneth Schneyer
REVOLUCION DEL HIPSTER
By Peter Holslin
Matt Marks's The Little Death: Killing Them Softly with Sentiment
By Daniel J. Kushner
ONE-TRACK MIND
AMERICAN MASTER: HARRY NILSSON
By David Shirley
JUILLIARD CONCERTS: THE GREAT SECRET
YET ANOTHER TWO GEMS FROM THE BROOKLYN SCENE
NEW ARCHITECTURE FOR NOT-SO-NEW BALLETS
AESTHETICS OF DENIAL
JUNE 3, 2010: DEAR SHERRY
By Christine Hou
TOO MUCH LEWIS
AND YOU THOUGHT GRAHAM WAS OLD-SCHOOL
HURTS SO GOOD, ITALIAN STYLE
PHIL SPECTOR: HE'S A RELIC
JAPAN CUTS
TOTALLY, TENDERLY, TRAGICALLY
By Julia Sirmons
PSYCHADELIC MATURITY
By Hamilton Morris
MAD, BAD... & DANGEROUS TO KNOW: THREE UNTAMED BEAUTIES
By Ethan Spigland
RED DESERT
The Vision Disturbance of Christina Masciotti
By Meghan Falvey
Women Play Two Gents (And More) with Judith Shakespeare Company
By Ginny Hack
Queens Odyssey: The Internationalists' Which Direction Home?
By Ashley Kelly-Tata
Gardley Writes a River
FORGOTTEN MEMORIES
By Mario Benedetti and Translated From The Spanish By Harry Morales
By Harry Morales
from THE SECRET LIFE OF OBJECTS
By Dawn Raffel
From Molloy, the Flip Side
By Chris Tysh
Subway Poems
By Louis Bury
THIS I FIND HARD TO BELIEVE
By Michael Gottlieb
WE ARE UNHAPPY TO SERVE YOU
Kiki Smith, "Pilgrim" (2007-2010). Leaded stained glass in steel frames. Installation dimensions variable. Installed in Kiki Smith: Lodestar. Photos by: G.R. Christmas/ Courtesy The Pace Gallery © Kiki Smith, courtesy The Pace Gallery.
"Lodestar" by Kiki Smith—recently shown at The Pace Gallery—should be seen as a companion installation to "Sojourn," currently on extended view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Both reveal a certain progression in the artist's ideas, technical involvement, and use of materials. Although "Lodestar" (formerly titled "Pilgrim") appears more refined and in many ways less divergent than "Sojourn," the Pace installation of drawings on multiple panels of translucent glass (Glasmaleri) exemplifies the artist's focus and commitment to extending her intellectual and emotional concerns, especially her concise semiotic understanding, through new and varied processes. Since Smith's much acclaimed "Homespun Tales" at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia at the 51st Biennale di Venezia in 2005 (which I viewed on two occasions), Smith's work has continued to push the boundaries of historical contextualization. Her arrangements and interventions involve artifactual rooms with figures, furnishings, fabrics, needlework, castings, and utensils of various kinds. Just as there is a connection between "Lodestar" and "Sojourn," so there is a connection between the works shown in Venice and Brooklyn.
Whereas in Venice Smith used a sequence of rooms in an 18th century palazzo, in Brooklyn she employed those of the 18th century house, once owned by Major Henry Trippe and now permanently installed on the sixth floor of the museum. The life-size figures constructed out of fabric and paper in the current installation suggest puppetry reminiscent of Gordon Craig's essay on the ubermarionette at the outset of the 20th century. Both the Venice and Brooklyn interventions imply a certain investment in bringing everyday things from the past into a new and often mysterious, if not unsettling, evocation of the domestic roles to which women have been historically consigned. At the outset of Smith's "Sojourn" at the Brooklyn Museum, where the collision of past and present generate a certain tension, one encounters a magnificent needlework "painting" made by a pre-Victorian "folk artist," Prudence Punderson, titled "First, Second and Last Scenes of Mortality." In many ways, this modest work of embroidery sets the stage for viewing Smith's large-scale printed drawings on delicate woven paper on which various family images, which include herself, the artist's mother, and her two sisters, are shown either together or repeated in separate panels.
Through the use of personal, clearly intimate subject matter, Smith creates a story of difference removed from mediated sentimentality, sustaining an unrepentant narrative that goes deeply into the harrowing seeds of consciousness. In the process, the artist begets a mythic allegory not only about "women's work," but also alluding to an epic worldview in which attention is paid to the intimate themes of everyday life, which were often left out of mainstream art during the era of Modernism (not discounting the slick prefab objects and digital spectacles so often repeated in 21st century art fairs and biennials).
Given the loss of her parents—more recently her mother and, several years ago, a sister—the artist's desire to come face-to-face with death through the distance of allegory is achieved through large-scale drawings and relatively life-size sculptures that manifest a grieving over personal loss, possibly mixed with an equivocation of guilt, as it combines with an insurmountable awareness of fragility in life. The drawings are interspersed with sculpture—human-scale aluminum-cast figures, simulations of birds, chairs, wooden coffins, light bulbs, mythic totemic animals, and flowers symbolic of grieving and regeneration. Recognized as a feminist throughout much of her career, Smith's focus is given to imagery intimately involved with human subjects, who, in many cases, are confronted with sickness and death. Her installations—as in "Lodestar"—also suggest a theatrical space, where the artist's sensitivity toward women is pronounced and openly displayed, often verging on a form of empathy.
"Lodestar," for example, constitutes a way of seeing outside of the rhetorical and patrimonial images so often regurgitated in the history of art. In her plate glass drawings, the viewer enters a very different kind of environment. The drawings are clear and resolved. They are baked on glass (involving a highly sophisticated technical process), mounted in rectilinear steel frames, and displayed in a freestanding relationship with one another. The works range from one to four units of glass, resembling windows—a theme also present in "Sojourn"—where viewers may look through these figurative drawings of women, and occasionally men, in various seated, standing, or reclining poses, sometimes isolated, contorted, embracing, or flying. Because the medium is glass, these suspended figures imply a decorative relationship to the space on West 22nd—but not in the negative sense. Functioning rather as elements within a theatrical set, they suggest mythically endowed dramatic interludes and individual vignettes. The figures—both male and female—virtually define Smith's allegory of life.
If one closely observes the glass drawings in "Lodestar," they hold a presence similar in effect to the video artist Gary Hill's 12-channel installation "Tall Ships" (1993), where the viewer comes face-to-face with figures, triggered by electronic sensors, that appear and disappear as ghosts before the viewer walks away and activates another image, perhaps retaining a memory or sensation of the personage previously encountered. However, the major difference between looking at Hill's digitally-constructed images in a darkened space and scrutinizing the thinly penciled and washed figures of Smith is the difference between experiencing forms in the absence or presence of light. To retain the illusion of Hill's figures emerging, rescinding, and then reemerging, it is necessary to view them in darkness. Smith's figures require that we ambulate amid ambient light and peer through the overlapping translucent plates of glass.
The movement in Smith's work, unlike Hill's, is essentially theatrical and phenomenological. Hill's figures move in response to our movement in a darkened space, while the action in Smith's installation is what the viewer brings to the occasion: the figures are still and we move through and around them. In the allegorical stillness of Smith's "Lodestar," there is a mystery and unassuming elegance that casts us into the process of begetting life. We are not viewing volumetric figures as in the case of Sehgal or Gormley (among others), but figurations conceived the way a large cartoon might be drawn in the Middle Ages. We are going back in time, but also through time, into a renewable form of light. The difference we feel within our consciousness may be attributed directly to the act of seeing. We are engaged with figurative representations that exist between the normative structures of the way things are, yet dependent on knowing that the way we see them is inextricably connected to art. In this sense, Kiki Smith offers an entrance into another world, a mysterious and timeless world, where the poetry of existence is known to reside, and where the feminine impulse plays a fiercely central role in revealing the traces of all that we are in the process of losing: the traits that once made us human.
Robert C. Morgan
Robert C. Morgan is a non-objective painter who lectures on art and writes art criticism. In 2017, he was given an overview of his career as an artist at Proyectos Monclova in Mexico City. Known primarily for his writing and curatorial projects, Morgan has published numerous books and catalogues internationally, now translated into 20 languages. His anthologies of criticism on Gary Hill and Bruce Nauman were published in 2000 and 2002 respectively through Johns Hopkins Press. www.robertcmorgan.com


Jere7my sez, "This lovely young woman brought the house down at Arisia this year with her stunning "TARDIS Princess" dress. A "door" on the skirt opened to show the TARDIS control room, giving it the illusion of being "bigger on the inside"... I believe the creator/model is Sasha Trabane."