text:
package de.textmode.pclbox;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;
import java.util.Arrays;

/**
 * A {@link TextCommand} contains text that has to be printed by the printer. The text
 * is handled as a byte[] and not a string because decoding of the byte[] depends on
 * the text parsing method that (maybe) has been set by a "Text Parsing Method" PCL command
 * in the data stream (so the text may be encoded 8 Bit, UTF-8 or whatever).
 */
public final class TextCommand extends PrinterCommand {

    private static final Charset ISO_8859_1 = Charset.forName("iso-8859-1");

    final byte[] text;

    /**
     * Constructor of the {@link TextCommand}.
     *
     * @param offset   position within the data stream
     * @param text  the text
     */
    public TextCommand(final long offset, final byte[] text) {
        super(offset);
        this.text = text.clone();
    }

    /**
     * Gets the text that has to be printed by a printer. Note that the text may be encoded
     * as a multi-byte text, depending on a "Text Parsing Method" that may be present in
     * the PCL printer data stream.
     *
     * @return the text as a byte array.
     */
    public byte[] getText() {
        return this.text.clone();
    }

    @Override
    public String getTextualDescription() {
        return "Printable text";
    }

    @Override
    public void accept(final PrinterCommandVisitor visitor) throws IOException {
        visitor.handle(this);
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return Arrays.hashCode(this.getText()) ^ this.getOffsetHash();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(final Object other) {
        if (other instanceof TextCommand) {
            final TextCommand o = (TextCommand) other;
            return Arrays.equals(o.getText(), this.getText()) && o.getOffset() == this.getOffset();
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return new String(this.getText(), ISO_8859_1) + "@" + this.getOffset();
    }

    @Override
    public String toCommandString() {
        // The primary use of the toCommandString() method is to provide a "key" for HashMaps....
        // So we use a static string as a "placeholder" for all TextCommands
        return "TEXT";
    }

    @Override
    public String toDisplayString() {
        return new String(this.getText(), ISO_8859_1);
    }

    @Override
    public byte[] toByteArray() {
        return this.getText().clone();
    }

    @Override
    public void writeTo(final OutputStream out) throws IOException {
        out.write(this.getText());
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
How Vampires Work
by Tom Harris
The popular image of a vampire: a cloaked monster that hunts for victims at night.
People have been dreaming up horrible monsters and malicious spirits for centuries. The vampire, a seductive, "undead" predator, is one of the most inventive and alluring creatures of the bunch. It's also one of the most enduring: Vampire-like creatures date back thousands of years, and pop up in dozens of different cultures.
In this article, we'll see where the various elements of the vampire legend come from, and we'll examine some grounded scientific explanations for apparent vampirism. We'll also look at the psychological significance of these creatures and find out about some real-life counterparts to the supernatural vampire.
Vampire Basics
The vampires in contemporary books, movies and television shows are incredibly elaborate creatures. According to the predominant mythology, every vampire was once a human, who, after being bitten by a vampire, died and rose from the grave as a monster. Vampires crave the blood of the living, whom they hunt during the night. They use their protruding fangs to puncture their victims' necks.
Since they're reanimated corpses -- the living remains of a deceased person -- vampires are often referred to as "the undead." They can still pass as healthy humans, however, and will walk undetected among the living. In fact, vampires may be attractive, highly sexual beings, seducing their prey before feeding. A vampire may also take the form of an animal, usually a bat or wolf, in order to sneak up on a victim.
Vampires are potentially immortal, but they do have a few weaknesses. They can be destroyed by a stake through the heart, fire, beheading and direct sunlight, and they are wary of crucifixes, holy water and garlic. Vampires don't cast a reflection, and they have superhuman strength.
This vampire figure, with its particular combination of characteristics and governing rules, is actually a fairly recent invention. Bram Stoker conceived it in his 1897 novel Dracula. Other authors reinterpreted Dracula in a number of plays, movies and books.
But while the specifics are new, most of the individual elements of the legend have deep roots, spanning many regions and cultures. In the next few sections, we'll look at some of the more notable vampire ancestors.
The Halloween Channel
HowStuffWorks Forum: What does our fascination with vampires reveal about modern culture?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


ATTENTION: The benefit for Collin LaVallie has been postponed until Thursday, June 13, same time and location.
Collin James LaVallie, 8, lives in Grand Forks with parents Junior and Heidi, plus three younger brothers. He's had a long health journey that actually started before birth with a rare genetic condition that wasn't identified for several years.
At 4 months old, Collin had lung surgery at Sioux Falls, S.D.'s Sanford Children's Hospital to remove a benign lesion called a congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM). The mass posed risks of infection and malignant degeneration.
About two months afterward, he started showing signs of seizures.
It would be about two more years before physicians at Gillette Children's Speciality Healthcare in St. Paul, Minn., diagnosed Collin with cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5, or CDKL5. It's an X-chromosome-linked disorder that frequently results in seizures that are difficult to control and typically occur daily. CDKL5 also causes severe neurodevelopmental impairment.
Because of his CDKL5 epilepsy, Collin has experienced developmental delays. He's non-verbal, needs continuous care and the use of a wheelchair.
But he's also a growing young boy, a third grader who enjoys attending Century Elementary School full time.
"Despite letting his seizures get to him, Collin get spoiled with sippy cups of Mountain Dew," according to his mom, Heidi. "Collin is a big fan of the Pizza Ranch for the mashed potatoes and gravy. Collin gets excited when told we're going on a small trip to Devils Lake, N.D., and Langdon, N.D. to visit our family."
Travel for Collin has meant riding in a booster car seat, with an adult buckle to keep him in place. "This option will soon not be safe for him," Heidi said. What he needs to safely travel, she said, is to sit in his wheelchair, strapped down on the floor of an accessible van.
The LaVallies - dad Junior works for Interstate Towing - are trying hard to fulfill that need, having already secured some financial assistance. But to purchase that van, they need more help before they can succeed.
A freewill-offering spaghetti dinner and a silent auction are highlights of a Safe Ride for Collin benefit set for Thursday, June 13, at the East Grand Forks (Minn.) VFW club building, 312 Demers Ave. Save the date for the event, which is set for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. that evening.
The benefit is sponsored by NDAD through its free Community Fundraisers Program.
All proceeds will be used to purchase an accessible van for transporting Collin.
Please make checks payable to NDAD and write "Collin LaVallie" on your check's memo line. Thank you.
Or, you may click the "Donate Now" button at the top of this page and make a donation using your PayPal account or your credit card. If the form gives you an option to add a note, please use it to write "Collin LaVallie" before you submit it. Thank you.
Watch for news and updates on this fundraiser by following NDAD's Facebook and Twitter pages.
If you'd like to donate items for the benefit's silent auction, please call Amanda at (701) 610-1737.


Frankie's Apartment: News Flash: Kid On Leash!
News Flash: Kid On Leash!
no matter how smart you think your tyke is -- they're dumb. They hardly know about anything.
perhaps my favorite thing to discuss, but if we're talking turkey: a 3-year-old's conversation skills are crap.
pulling the leash taut, and dragging the parent forwards.
Doesn't it just make the kid crazier? What do you guys think?
The whole "sociopath" thing really blew up in the last 10 years.


Monkstrap Italian leather dress shoes in Brown Antique. The Monkstrap Kurt Brown Antique is made from premium quality 100% calfskin leather with an adjustable double buckle closures at ankle. All Ace Marks shoes have a durable blake flex construction with leather soles and shiny finish. The model delivers smart style when worn with cuffed tailored pants or casual jeans for a look that will turn heads. The Monkstrap Kurt Brown Antique has a rounded toe designs, minimal heal and silver monk strap detail. Customer purchases are eligible for Ace Marks' Buyback program and are entitled to free shipping to the United States.
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Is monkstrap Brown antique handmade from Italian cowhide leather?


9/05/2008�� NEVER put down extra work as an acting job, if you're caught, you will burn bridges faster than you can say "oops" Trust me, 95% of the buffoons answering questions on here are just guessing, it makes me so mad to see people answering questions like this with completely wrong answers.... Put these six skills to work, and your transition will be smoother. So you picked a degree in a career field you thought you�d love, but a few years into the daily grind, you�re no longer feeling it.
When applying to certain jobs, you'll often find it necessary to create an "Additional Information" section on your resume. This happens when you have information that you want to include on your resume that doesn't quite fit into your "Education" or "Work Experience" sections.
Sample Resume With No Work Experience - See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here. One of our users, Nikos, had this to say: [I used] a nice template I found on Zety.
Resumes and Curriculum Vitaes � Australian tips and suggestions What does an Australian resume (or CV or Curriculum Vitae) look like? This is a question that has many variables and this article will discuss some of the options and choices you have for creating a successful resume for your job hunting inAustralia.


text:
Airbag Recall Could Cost Takata up ...
Airbag Recall Could Cost Takata up to $24 Billion
Staff | Consumer Alerts | Mar 31, 2016
The largest auto recall in history carries with it a hefty price tag for the maker of the defective airbags that could eject metal shrapnel when deployed. Airbag maker Takata could be on the hook for $24 billion stemming from the cost to recall millions of its airbags, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
As of October 2016, 16 deaths and over 100 injuries have been attributed to Takata airbags, and more than 60 million airbags contain a defect. 28 million airbags have been recalled in the U.S. and the recall will potentially expand to even more manufacturers.
Our firm is currently filing lawsuits on behalf of people cut by shrapnel ejected when their Takata airbags were deployed, and had to get stitches. Many victims do not realize that their cuts were actually caused by Takata's defective airbags, not their accident. If you or someone you know was involved in a car accident in which the airbags were deployed and laceration injuries were sustained that required stitches, please contact us today for a free, no obligation consultation to find out if you have a claim.
So far, automakers such as BMW, Chrysler, and Toyota have recalled about 20 million cars to investigate whether they have defective airbags that could cut people when deployed. The number of actual airbags up for recall is far higher, though.
In a report published last month, Reuters revealed that 70 to 90 million more air bag inflators might need to be recalled, on top of the 29 million already known to be dangerous.
According to the new estimates, the worst case scenario could involve Takata recalling up to 287.5 million airbag inflators, roughly equal to the company's entire output from 2000 – 2015, the report said.
Recalls for airbag inflators manufactured by Takata began in 2009, when reports of airbags exploding and spraying shrapnel in the faces of drivers could no longer be dismissed as anomalies.
In total, the airbags have been linked to more than 100 injuries and 16 deaths worldwide, most of them in the U.S.
In response, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) imposed a $200 million civil penalty on Takata, the largest in the agency's history. As part of the penalty, the agency imposed a 2018 deadline to determine if the airbag inflators were safe, otherwise the agency will be able to issue orders to Takata to declare a defect and issue a recall.
This revelation is just one, in a long list of announcements informing the public that the issue is more pervasive than previously thought. The recall began with just a few thousand cars in 2009, and has expanded into the largest recall in the history of the auto industry in just a few years.
The attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are currently filing lawsuits on behalf of individuals injured by Takata's defective airbags. Some victims of Takata's airbags do not realize their injuries were caused by shooting shrapnel from the airbag, though. If you were in a car accident in which your airbag deployed and you sustained cuts or lacerations, the injuries you suffered may have been caused by shrapnel from the airbag, not the accident.
These injuries were preventable, and if you would like to hold the company allegedly responsible for your injuries accountable, fill out a free, no obligation case evaluation form to find out if you are eligible to file a lawsuit.
Fill out this form for a Free, Immediate Case Evaluation
That Broken Air Conditioner Isn't Your Problem Anymore
What's more annoying than an air conditioner that doesn't keep you cool? One day everything is fine, and the next, you wake up covered in sweat because the AC decided...
Sholom Nemanow | Consumer Alerts | Jan 2, 2020
Facebook Data Breach: Personal Information of Hundreds of Millions Exposed on Dark Web
Facebook is yet again accused of failing to protect the sensitive personal information of its users, leaving hundreds of millions potentially vulnerable to scams and phishing schemes. A database containing...
Sholom Nemanow | Consumer Alerts | Dec 20, 2019
How to Fix a Bad Credit Report That's Destroying Your Life
When you're a victim of identity theft, it can be a surreal experience. You didn't buy that, you didn't borrow that, you didn't rent that, and you were never in...
Breach of Warranty Contract Law & Claims
Does Your New Vehicle Keep Breaking Down? You are not alone. It seems like new cars, trucks, and SUVs are constantly breaking down, way before you would expect them to....
Sholom Nemanow | Consumer Alerts | Nov 21, 2019
What to Do After a Data Breach Notification?
In the aftermath of a data breach, it is very important for anyone whose personal information was publicly exposed to take steps to protect their credit and finances. While not...
Staff | Consumer Alerts | Nov 5, 2019
See More Related Articles
Morgan & Morgan is proud to announce that Eve Canton of Southwestern Law School is the winner of our 4th annual For The People Scholarship. As the winner, Eve will...
Sholom Nemanow | Firmnews
Illinois Woman Killed in Crash While in Car With 4-Year-Old Child
A woman was killed in a Rockford, Illinois, crash while sitting in her disabled vehicle on Jan. 11, ABC 7 Chicago reported. A FedEx truck slammed into the woman's car...
Staff | Catastrophicevents
Apartment Fire Injures Five in Brooklyn
Five people were injured in an apartment fire in the Bath Beach neighborhood in southern Brooklyn, New York, on Jan. 13, CBS 2 New York reported. Investigators said the blaze...
Who Is to Blame for Rental Apartment and Rental House Fires?
It's understandable if you're feeling overwhelmed after a fire at your residence. Not only has your home been damaged and your day-to-day routine disrupted — you might have also suffered...
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Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of fires roar through rented residential buildings. The destruction they leave often extends beyond damaged physical belongings: Sadly, many victims don't...
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text:
BTR-80KShM (1V118 Kapustnik-B) Conversion
for Italeri/Dragon BTR-80 Kit
Stock Number and Description SP Designs 1/35 Scale Kit No. 003; BTR-80KShM (1V118 Kapustnik-B) Conversion for Italeri/Dragon BTR-80 Kit
Media and Contents: 17 parts (14 in light tan resin, 2 in white metal, and one length of copper wire)
Price: USD$18.00
Review Type: First Look
Advantages: First kit for this conversion available; parts provided for the initial production model of the vehicle
Disadvantages: This vehicle has not entered production yet!
Recommendation: Recommended for artillerymen and all modern Russian vehicle fans
Reviewed by Cookie Sewell
The Soviets were the second nation in the world to field automated artillery fire control systems (AAFCS) and did so in the mid 1970s with the 1V12 "Mashina" (Machine) system based on the MT-LBU command vehicle chassis. The heart of this system was the APK data system, but it had a number of drawbacks. It was later upgraded with the "Fal'set" (Falsetto) APPK system into the "Mashina-M" system in the 1980s. A wheeled system based on GAZ-66 and Ural-4320 trucks was also offered later for multiple rocket launcher systems and towed artillery.
However, they did not get around to automating all of their systems by the time that the Soviet Union collapsed in1991. One of the systems they were going to field was the "Kapustnik-B" which used a new wheeled armored command vehicle, based on the BTR-80KShM chassis and Ural-4320 trucks. These were to be compatible with the automated fire control systems for the 2S19 "Msta-S", the "Uragan" and "Smerch" heavy MRLs, the 2S9 "Nona-S" and 2S23 "Nona-SVK," and other towed weapons. All used standard computers and data modems so that they would provide a high degree of flexibility.
"Kapustnik-B" (cabbage field) is based on the "Kushetka" armored command vehicle version of the BTR-80 which has no armament and a raised roof to accommodate a crew of 5 or 6 for artillery fire control and target designation missions. It carries multiple radio sets, Baget-41 laptop computers, modems, and is also fitted with laser range finders, laser target designation equipment, and thermal vision devices, based on customer needs.
Alas, with the collapse of the Soviet military budget and the military industrial complex (VPK in Russian) none of these projects received funding. "Kapustnik-B" was been accepted for service as the new AAFCS of choice in 1993 – but the Russians haven't bought many yet. It is also offered for foreign sales with any of the above mentioned artillery systems.
Nevertheless, SP Designs, a new Ukrainian resin manufacturer, now has a kit available to convert the DML BTR-80 kit in any of its offered versions – be it from Italeri, Dragon or Revell – into the "Kapustnik-B" vehicle. The parts are cleanly molded and appear to use some of the more modern (and less toxic) Western resins rather than the nastier and oilier eastern European ones.
The kit consists of a drop-over shell with the main changes to the hull and the enlarged personnel compartment formed in one piece. To fit this to the BTR-80 hull, rather than cut the hull in sections as most western kits, SP Designs has the modeler cut off details on the basic hull, fill in the driver's hatch with a resin plug, cut off part of the fenders, and attach the top to the hull piggyback fashion. The parts appear to fit reasonably well, but the turret (Part 2) has a bullet splash guard on the hull roof which is too small and will have to be removed and replaced.
Most of the conversion is pretty straightforward, which is good as the directions are hard to read as to what to cut and what to keep. However, there are two new lower center sponson boxes (Parts 6) to replace the kit parts (C10 and C11) with a major problem: the new larger access doors for the "Kapustnik-B" split in the middle of the parts, which is going to make getting a good fit and removing the seams a royal headache (think of the old AMT aircraft kits that split the fit for the wings in the middle of the elevators and ailerons and you have an idea of how dumb a choice for splitting the parts this really is.) Mark 1 eyeball checks show that you may well have to simply sand off the upper section of the doors and rebuild the lower sponsons from sheet to get them to look right and fit correctly.
Overall this is a neat kit and a nice idea, but hopefully SP Designs will think a bit more on design in the future to make it easier for the modeler to get a nice result without a lot of rework.
Thanks to Bob Lessels of Eastern Front Hobbies for the review sample.
Cookie Sewell
Review Copyright © 2002 by Cookie Sewell
Page Created 29 September, 2002


text:
The Worth of Words
Behold, A Dance with Wonder: An Experiment in Joint Discovery
August 30, 2018 September 1, 2018 John EdwardsLeave a comment
Suspending Judgment, Embracing Wonder
There are some books whose urgency and vitality penetrate past the judgmental mind. These demand a move and counter move, a contest not meant to win but to experience. This endless grasping and holding and pushing away brings intimacy. The Need for Roots and The Human Condition are works that require the reader to become intimate with the needs of humanity and to find peace with the conflicted tension of our human condition. Through these works we encounter intimacy with how we fall apart—and how we can be made whole. For beyond all else these books are intimate encounters with vital minds – survivors of suffering harvesting the seeds of life and finding fertile ground from which to sprout new imaginations of human possibility.
The sheer boldness of purpose of Weil's efforts to advise the future of France after the Nazi occupation, of Arendt's demonstration that the human condition is one both admirable and contemptible but most of all shapeable to either of those ends, makes for reading that brings me out of judgment and into wonder.
When I first read these texts, the scholar's impulse to judge and question came first, but these texts do not surrender to such analysis. I held these words for months, and eventually in the holding the mystic's instinct for experience, and the mage's impulse for creative imagination I moved from an academic analysis towards an exercise of imaginative possibilities. I then found myself stateless with Arendt in the aftermath of the war—a person and not a person. I find myself starving and sick with Weil as solidarity with her people slowly killed her body but electrified her mind. Both straddled the end of one age and the sprouts of another, and in this liminal space both dared to imagine, inspire, open, and invite rather than fall to the impulse to argue, convince, close and reject.
It is no accident that these texts brought me back into communion with spiritual texts. They share the very subject of nearly every wisdom work; how we break, how we suffer, how we find faith to heal and hope the world better. The shape of our experienced selves is much the same as that of our collective communities. And this shape denies classification and cataloging. It denies knowing and demands living with possibility and wonder—with endless mystery endlessly experienced.
History's Thresholds
I used to wonder why history so often skips so much time. But there is a reason we don't dig into the lives of the mundane every day. We are fascinated by endings and beginnings. Wars particularly punctuate our story of humanity. This seems depressing, until we see these times not as endings, but as thresholds, possibilities held in tension until all the possibilities that were break down and new possibilities have to be imagined. Our endlessly mysterious potential for hope, hope that fuels faith in a tomorrow better than today, awakens in the darkest depths of the human condition.
It is this spirit which infuses these texts, and beyond right or wrong, informs us not simply of what should be, but that what could be is bound only by the horizons of our minds. This seems a great optimism until we understand that those horizons are bounded by our collective and individual memory and experience. Thus, within our hope is the ever present knowledge of future tragedy, and within our tragedy the ever renewable faith that we will outgrow the restrictions of our previous potential—that we will break again and again and again and again the boarders of what has held both our hope and our suffering.
Arendt pays close attention to the walls that have closed in on the modern mind. Walls of society, economy, and power that hem in our imagined possibilities. History itself is the horde at the gates, and if we are to make our world better we must imagine our public and private worlds larger by tearing down the very walls that we think protect us—before those walls collapse under the inescapable pressures of history.
I find the most interesting ideas are born at these edges in time, born of the tension between idealism and realism. Take for example Weil's idea that individual minds must be utterly free, but that collective minds—media, journalism, scholarship, literature, must not tell us how to think. I understand this impulse. Having seen what the ends of propaganda and perpetuated lies bring, she imagines that something is needed to contain them. This something must always be some organization of people, some select group that determines what is good and what is ill. Thus, the judgment moves from a free judgment of one's own mind and into a social judgment, which cannot hold any grand ideal for long. The urge for expediency or for conformity in a collective always erode that collective's ideals. Still, the society that allows falsehoods wide dissemination risks sacrificing the lessons of science, of experience, and of truth. Exposing this fundamental tension between allowing a mind to be free in its own opinion, and yet inhibited from freely evangelizing that opinion dramatizes the conflict at the heart of every liberal, democratic society.
It is here that I think these texts speak so intimately to one another, for while Weil dramatizes these conflicts, Arendt seeks a framework for how to understand human experience from our tripartite lives—individual, public, and social. The ancient Greeks, from her perspective, saw the individual life as the most base, the realm of human necessities of life, sleep, food, sex, waste. The public life was the life that only a few select could hope to attend to, and here they left behind the base needs and attended to the needs of the collective. Only in this realm could one distinguish themselves. Not in service to self, or accumulation of wealth, or even of power, but by accomplishing something great for the commonweal.
The Walls of Self and Social Limitation
Arendt saw that the private realm and the public realm had been largely absorbed into a social realm that didn't seek to distinguish but to socialize through sameness. She saw our conflicts held in check by expanding social norms that through time and tradition and culture more and more closely intrude on our public and private lives. These social boarders form the all the "shoulds and musts" of life that we swim in without even noticing. These become the invisible walls that block thought, feeling, and experience.
What then makes the social realm so dangerous is that it takes conflicts that can be constructive—take for example the public working out of Weil's tension—and it makes these conflicts destructive. Societal harmony requires that ideas, opinions, ways of being must be eliminated or prevented rather than integrated or even simply observed. Peace goes beyond harmony, not to the absence of conflict, but to the rejection of violence. Social harmony is not itself an evil, but it can become so when we cease to work and make peace when required in order to absent ourselves from all conflict.
This is why in order to work and make peace, we must first create/hold/inhabit a place of safety. When we are unsafe in body, in mind, in place, in health, the work of peace is nigh impossible. Only extraordinary souls find it possible when in danger to maintain the mindset and embodiment required to create peace. When we create a society in which many find themselves unsafe or actively assaulted by suffering chronic states of fear—when many are required by society to submit to this state so that others who are distant from danger can imagine themselves freed of even the stress of standard discomfort—we sacrifice peace for a enforced veneer of social harmony that perpetuates pain.
This is why in liberal democracies we make conflict within the public sphere a duty—a task to be worked through together. This public duty is in contrast to the social sphere where the work is to avoid conflict. This avoidance often takes on the form of demand and suppresses individual expression. When this occurs it requires alienating individuals that don't ascribe to the norms imposed either explicitly or implicitly. We often require the acceptance to work from the direction of societal culture. We wait for society to accept difference before we allow difference to be fully present. We make being different a right to be granted by society rather than accepting that the beholding the difference of others is a human obligation of every person.
Peace as the Praxis of Beholding Difference
The real work of peace begins in the public sphere, where space for the outcast, the suffering, and the non-normative is actively made and enforced—not suppressed—through the intentional effort of allowing the being of difference. But never imagine this is simple, easy, straightforward work. Because before this public space can be created, we need a critical mass of individuals who first build this peace within themselves and lead/teach the greater community in the public sphere. Before we can build a society of peace, enough of us have to do the more difficult work of entering into conflict with our own comfort before we can create safety for endangered lives and souls. This becomes the public work of creating public space and making it safe together. The more who can move into peace themselves, the more we can enlarge this sphere, the more we can create safety with one another, the more that we can withstand together without breaking down or out into violence. When enough of us hold peace, this shared space binds us together so that pain is witnessed and felt in community. When held in such a communal space, pain and suffering, and even violence, can be transformed.
In our society, we consider the binding force of self the mind, thus many philosophers have come to believe that society must also be led by a single mind, or leader, or ideal. But a community is not a body. It is a collection of bodies, minds, wills, forces, ideas, stories, beliefs, dangers, and delights. It is a flux. Always changing, flowing together, breaking apart in places, and combining anew. No one can control the flow, and when we try to control it the flow destroys the attempt. Direction, not control, guides the flow. The motion of our collective humanity finds the paths of least resistance, and so carves the landscape of our collective history. The building of empires that dam humanity into one great reservoir, generating wealth and power like we generate electricity, do hold the flow for a time. Yet, ultimately all such constructs break down. When they do, the unrestrained forces unleashed lay waste.
By holding in the great forces of conflict, rather than working out ways to move through these conflicts, we have come to associate peace with a lack of conflict. Peace, rather, is a choice to work out conflict in ways other than by violence. And because conflict feels like harm, because it feels like danger, our very beings rebel against moving into it and making a place of peace within the conflict. We have come to associate conflict with violence, even turning creative conflicts like business into metaphors of war and domination. We story even non-violent conflict in violent terms. We require something like "professionalism" or "courtesy" to hold our violence in check. Doing so, we often deny conflict because we imagine that if we allow the conflict to be fully expressed, we will destroy the safety of our team or workplace or family or community. Yet, conflict denied grows into violence, whereas conflict held and respected and moved through peacefully grows into greater peace.
But our desire but for rest, for sanctuary from conflict, especially after such an event as the war that Weil and Arendt bore witness to, is great. In the aftermath we tend toward a kind of peace that irons out differences and that subsumes our internal struggles—this sows the seeds of future conflict. This process is seen through such actions as the invention or exaggeration of a social enemy. Rather than work to make peace in society, we allow the easy fear of another enemy to bind us together. When this happens, war of one sort seems inevitable. Either we war with the other, or if the other proves unwilling or unable to meet the force of our fear, we find closer "others" to expend our fear upon. The mantra we hold for inner or outer enemies is the same. "You are the reason I am unsafe. You are the reason that all is not well. You are the agent of destruction that I must work to destroy. Once you are gone I will have peace."
This is why the peace we seek cannot be found in a retreat to our individual lives, nor in the practice of social participation, but only through the action of public life. In the public life we can interact and agitate and work out a peace not through idle avoidance but through an intimacy of respectful communion. But this is action is a choice, and a difficult and rare one. And the seeds of our damnation or salvation are sewn in this choice.
What I fear is occurring in the world, is that the skills to come into communion, to be fully present across differences, across perspectives, across otherness, don't have a sufficient public training ground. With our need for communion now global, we find our industrial technologies of communication have exceed our technologies for making and holding common ground. Perhaps in the root of religious traditions we have minor models for how to do this work within a community, and perhaps at one time in our history that was enough. But in a world where everyone is our neighbor, and where we are the neighbor of all, we must make new models that work beyond "our community". No isolated idea, no isolated community, can offer an answer. The praxis of intimate intra-communal conflict will not suffice for inter-communal conflicts. Our inter-communal peace must be worked out and worked through together.
Dance and Banquet as the Practice of Intimacy
The best metaphors I can find for this creative, intimate communion are dance and banquet. In dance, we fully come into presence of our body in community with music with others. While dancing alone can be enjoyable, it is rarely transcendent. And dancing with the right partner, or in a community of joy, is often transcendent. We are both fully ourselves and fully integrated into a more complex presence. The music holds the tension for us, and provides us a medium in which to commune. In banquet, we are both present in ourselves as we eat, and the table forms both that which keeps us apart and brings us together. Remove the table and the image becomes absurd—the table holds the space and the medium of our encounter. As we feed one another and converse and celebrate and often argue, the table holds us in the tension of the meal and the space. There, we are forced to be both self and community. There, we experience intimacy.
Perhaps it is not the conflict that we fear, but the intimacy that creative conflict brings. We prefer the cold, distant conflict of destructive conflict. There, the only emotions that we have to contend with are our own. Perhaps this is why this conflict is so destructive, our emotions, in isolation, don't flow. They stagnate and decay. Isolation breeds alienation, and alienation is the death of the soul. The alienated soul both craves intimacy and cannot cope with it, so it creates the only intimacy it can, intimate destruction. It takes that which is close to it, and breaks it apart, hoping that this breaking creates release, or expression, or anything that can free the soul from isolation. In this way, destruction points back toward the ultimate need for communion. Since the sick soul cannot commune with what is, it takes that which is and makes it what is not. The act of destruction manifests the sickness we hold inside, makes it external to us, and its destruction gives us an opportunity to witness what is happening internally. It gives others the chance to witness the same. To intervene.
But most often, our destructiveness pushes us further into isolation. Something else is needed to generate transformation into wholeness and peace.
Sick and alienated souls can't bear the presence of themselves, let along bear the burden of holding space for others as well. And a soul that does not learn to hold their space, and the space of others, is destined to become isolated and ultimately alienated. This is how souls become sick, become diseased, become agents of the ultimate human infectious disease—suffering.
Intimate Vulnerability
The first step to healing, to communion, is a willingness to get proximate to suffering, to become intimately vulnerable to the suffering of another. Compassion, not isolation and blame, would make a revolution in the treatment of suffering. We cannot blame, isolation, segregation, quarantine, exterminate ourselves out of suffering. Peace requires the willingness of another to encounter your suffering with you, experience it with you without judgment, and walk with you through the dark places. There is no avoiding the human condition we carry within us. And our condition is not fundamentally flawed, it is simply, fundamentally, human. We are fundamentally conflicted, creatively so, both within ourselves and within and among our communities.
Wiel's observation of the needs of the soul, that they all require a holding of tension of two opposing forces, is deeply true. But rather than an Aristotelian golden mean, the holding of tension requires a movement between the two, moving toward order, and moving toward freedom, never sacrificing the requirement of the other. Those that argue for perfection miss the delight of the dance of the life of the soul. Judging and moralizing they make life an isolated intellectual pursuit, rather than an embodied dance that melds mind and body and spirit into a celebration of union and communion. There is no perfect, there is only the dance. The steps are not so important. As with banquet, the particulars of conversation and food are mostly forgotten in time, but the intension of the participants, the desire to be together is remembered and held.
The magic that makes a vital, vibrant, healthy community is not a formula. You can't calculate and measure and craft and construct a perfect community. You can only cultivate community itself. Community is not a state that can be ensured, it is only ever a possibility to be held, nurtured, respected. We like to imagine that if we only get the rules right, the community will be ideal. This is the lie that Plato deconstructs in the Republic. If you demand a completely just society, the actions needed to craft such society force it to be extremely unjust.
How Evil Organizes
And here, I turn to the central question that Rivkah and I want to explore: How is evil organized?
I have come to hold that evil organizes to demand absolutism—of all kinds. It is a force that denies what is, because it fears what might become. Evil is thus organized against intimacy. It is most fundamentally manifest as the forces that break us apart, forces that demand separateness to ensure an imagined purity. Evil denies tension yet celebrates violence. It lies that through sufficient violence, otherness can be eliminated. Evil works to deny public conflict by organizing social violence as a force restraining individuality. It crafts a false purity then organizes to enforce itself as an ideal model. The demand for absolute, the inability to hold disappointment of any kind, is the most destructive impulse in humanity.
When we see the framework of social evil, we can come to see how the common good can be organized as well. Evil separates. Good makes whole. Evil cleaves. Good heals. What is most good is most whole. The society of the common good is a whole society. It embraces all. It makes and maintains space for all. It respects and values and dignifies all. It is not an absence of anything, but a completely full presence—removal of anything would make it less than whole.
To Behold Together
In the modern world of social media, we find ourselves bereft of intimacy. The medium trades in social currency, not in communion. Ideas are less important than likes. We flatten out ourselves to be more likeable, more viewable, more sharable, and in doing so we take all the mystic, mythic, tension that mobilizes our souls and say to ourselves and to each other: "You are too much." You are too much me to be seen, let alone shared or liked. We stop seeing the mystic, mythic magic of others. We start to seek sameness and satiety. We craft and see only a static performance, a stand-in for the fullness of who they, and who we, are. We deny the tension because we haven't exercised the skills to build confidence with conflict, and thus we can't bear the vulnerability of the true intimacy of wholeness—we can't behold.
Thus, my hope for this dialog with Rivkah, and with Weil and Arendt, is to hold this conversation, this experiment, in this spirit of vulnerable peace, of respected difference, of mutual beholding. Let us dance together.


PLEASE NOTE: The Thalassiosira pseudonana genome sequence is composed of "finished chromosomes" (Thaps3) and "unmapped sequence" (Thaps3_bd), which were annotated separately. Please use both portals to make a complete analysis of the genome.
Diatoms are eukaryotic, photosynthetic microorganisms found throughout marine and freshwater ecosystems and are responsible for as much as 20% of global primary productivity. A defining feature of diatom is their ornately patterned silicified cell wall or frustule, which displays such species-specific fine scale nano-structures that diatoms have long been used to test the resolution of optical microscopes.
The marine centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana was chosen as the first eukaryotic marine phytoplankton for whole genome sequencing because this species has served as a model for diatom physiology studies, the genus Thalassiosira is cosmopolitan throughout the world's oceans, and the genome is relatively small at 34 mega base pairs.
The clone of T. pseudonana that was sequenced is CCMP 1335 and is available from the Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton. This clone was collected in 1958 from Moriches Bay (Long Island, New York) and has been maintained continuously in culture.
The complete T. pseudonana genome sequence will provide a foundation for interpreting the ecological success of these organisms.


I had a great chat over some of my almost-as-good-as-Scott-Tennant's espresso with the Grammy-winning guitarist and composer Andrew York. We talked about a whole series of interesting topics, and you will have the chance to hear lots of new music from his recently released double album Yamour.
Andrew shared his thoughts on playing and composing with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and a bit about the origins of his piece Sunburst, such as how it ended up on one of the landmark records of the classical guitar repertoire: John Williams's album Spirit of The Guitar.


text:
Archive for The Avengers
Horror Legends, Crapping Aliens, Cowboy Grave Risers
Posted in Aliens, Classic Horror, Evil, Foreign Horror, Ghosts, Nature Gone Wild, Science Fiction, UFOs with tags 5th Kind, Alien, Aliens, Billy Idol, Capps Crossing, Christine, Classic Horror, Dancing With Myself, Danny Trejo, Dead Again in Tombstone, donkey, Eaten Alive, Escape From New York, Evil, evil spirit, Extraterrestrials, flying saucers, Foreign Horror, Ghosts, Harry Dean Stanton, Hell, Invaders From Mars, Jonah Hex, KM 31-2, Masters of Horror, Mexico, Nature Gone Wild, poltergeist, possessed, Repo Man, Rise of Toilet Man, Salem's Lot, Science Fiction, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Avengers, The Crow, The Fourth Kind, The Hulk, The Mangler, Tobe Hooper, UFOs, Xenomorph's on September 16, 2017 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
Sad to report the passing of another another horror/sci-fi movie icon, Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017), whom I first saw as the affable Brett in Alien (1979). He was the first to make the Xenomorph's to-do in list. In all, Harry starred in nearly 200 movies/TV shows, notably Escape From New York (1981), Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), and even a small part in The Avengers (2012). (He saw The Hulk naked.)
And on this note, I was remiss in reporting the earlier passing of horror icon movie maker, Tobe Hooper (January 25, 1943 – August 26, 2017), the man behind Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Eaten Alive (1976), Salem's Lot (1979), Poltergeist (1982), Invaders From Mars (1986), The Mangler (1995) and was a big part of the Masters of Horror series (2005) and many more. (Tobe even did the Billy Idol video, "Dancing With Myself.")
I've watched all these movies, sometimes over and over (I'm looking in your direction Alien and your endless repackaging.) To say these men had an impact on my neverending love for horror and sci-fi is an understatement. Thank you, gentlemen — your work gave me a very rewarding life.
Here are a few just-released horror/sci-fi that may not exist without the talents and influence of Harry Dean Stanton and Tobe Hooper…
5TH KIND (available now)
"Three best friends try to get 'internet famous' by filming their own survival show out in the woods. A weekend trip to accomplish this project turns deadly when a mysterious and very foreign visitor ends up in their neck of the woods."
This movie — which is not a sequel to The Fourth Kind (2009) — answers the question, do aliens crap in the woods. The key art gives it away, minus the doo doo part. I don't wanna see that on any poster. Except Rise of Toilet Man. I hear it's overflowing with horror. Ahem.
KM 31-2 (available now)
"Martin Ugalde is the detective who led the investigation into a series of mysterious deaths on a benighted stretch of road surrounded by woodland. Having been disgraced and even incarcerated for failing to solve the original case, he is now back on the case. Meanwhile, young Ágata, who awoke from a coma at the end of the original, is now possessed by an evil spirit."
This one came out in Mexico on October 31, 2016, or so they say. I was not able to get into Mexico to verify. I kept being deported. The title is in reference to a road with the KM part being either kilometer or "kill-o-meter." Kinda wondering how they work in the "possessed by and evil spirit" angle. It could be a simple, solveable case of eating a bad burrito.
CAPPS CROSSING (available now)
"10 years ago David left his girlfriend Tracy all alone in the forest after she broke up with him. Tracy never made it back to camp alive. Every year David returns to pay his respects at Capps Crossing, the site of her death. After years of built up pain, anger and guilt he loses his mind and takes it out on a group of campers that chose Capps Crossing for their weekend getaway. There's just one rule at Capps Crossing…never be alone."
This one might get weak plot of the year award. And by the way, Tracy's not dead — she's breaking up with some other dude at Dumpsville, just down the road apiece.
DEAD AGAIN IN TOMBSTONE (available now)
"Guerrero (Danny Trejo) returns from the dead to protect a stolen relic from falling into the hands of a gang of soldiers, which will ultimately cause Hell upon earth."
The great Danny Trejo doing his best Jonah Hex in this country western horror cheapie. And Jonah Hex (2010) was just a cowboy version of The Crow (1994). But instead of a crow bringing you back across the veil of death, it was a donkey, or "sand kangaroo."
Getting Soaked With Horror
Posted in Classic Horror, Evil, Foreign Horror, Ghosts, Misc. Horror, Nature Gone Wild, Science Fiction, Scream Queens, TV Vixens, Vampires, Zombies with tags Abattoir, American Horror Story, Classic Horror, Cold War, Constantine, Daylight's End, demon, Evil, Fear The Walking Dead, Foreign Horror, Fox TV, Ghosts, Guardians, Halloween, haunted house, iZombie, Misc. Horror, Monsters, Nature Gone Wild, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Science Fiction, Scream Queens, Soviet Republic, spirit, Stranger Things, superhero, television, The Avengers, The Disappointment's Room, The Exorcist, The Returned, The Strain, The Walking Dead, TV, TV Vixens, Watchmen, Willy Water, Zombies on August 26, 2016 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
Looks like the new release horror/sci-fi movie/TV hose is going from dribble to Willy Water™ in no time as film studios pump up for a hopefully powerful Fall/Halloween release schedule. (P.S. Willy Water™ is a gas – I play with mine daily. Okay, that didn't come out right.)
Horror TV has come a long way in the past seven years on the heels of the staggering critical and commercial success of The Walking Dead. The Internet is soiling itself speculating which of the beleagured group gets a home run hit to the brain bag with a barb-wire baseball bat, the excruciating cliffhanger from season 6. Like you, I have my theories. But I'm probably right and everyone on the Internet is wrong. I won't gloat, though.
Then we have the final season of American Horror Story, the third season of Fear The Walking Dead (triple yawn) the third season of The Strain, and upcoming season three of iZombie (fun show – LOTS of brain eating recipes.) And if you haven't seen 'em, reserve some butt/couch time for Stranger Things (left field awesome) and released earlier this year, The Returned (French made/subtitled – exquisitely creepy and…different.)
Amazingly, The Exorcist, a new TV series, is making its debut September 23, 2016 on Fox™. Not sure how they're gonna pull this one off other than "demon of the week" with an exorcist guy getting "cross" (heh) with 'em. I'll give it a shot, but it sounds like Constantine right outta the pew.
There's more horror TV – all you have to do is slouch on the couch and watch 'em. As for new horror movies, here's another batch for your time-wasting consideration…
ABATTOIR (in post-production as of this e-burping)
Plot: "A real estate reporter investigates a mysterious old man who is building a haunted house constructed from rooms where deaths have occurred."
Thoughts: Sounds like a refreshing take on the haunted house theme that's clogging up theaters with teen jump scare moments galore.
GUARDIANS (Russia/February 23, 2017)
Plot: "During the Cold War an organization called Patriot created a superhero squad, which includes members of multiple Soviet Republics. For years the heroes had to hide their identities, but in hard times they must show themselves again."
Thoughts: I liked it better when it was called The Avengers/Watchmen.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT'S ROOM (September 9, 2016)
Plot: "A mother and her young son release unimaginable horrors from the attic of their rural dream home."
Thoughts: YET ANOTHER haunted house theme that's clogging up theaters with teen jump scare moments galore.
OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL (October 21, 2016)
Plot: The sequel takes place in 1965 Los Angeles where a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their séance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home. The youngest daughter is overtaken by the merciless spirit, forcing this small family to confront unthinkable fears to save her and send her possessor back to the other side.
Thoughts: I've seen this before. You've seen this before, We've ALL seen this before. It'll be the origin of stupidity if either of all of us pays to see it again.
DAYLIGHT'S END (out now)
Plot: "Years after a plague turns most of humanity into monsters, a rogue drifter agrees to guide a band of survivors to sanctuary."
Thoughts: YET ANOTHER zombie movie with the SAME PLOT as about a thousand million other zombie movies.


H3PO4·12WO3· x H2O Heavy-greenish, water- and alcohol-soluble crystals; used as an analytical reagent and in the manufacture of organic pigments. Also known as heavy acid; phosphowolframic acid; PTA.
b) AR H2N (c) GCDFP-15 (d) PTAH (e) chondrial (e) 1 Neg Pos Pos 2 3 Neg fPos Pos 4 5 Neg Pos Pos 5 5 Neg Pos Pos 6 5 Pos Pos Pos Neg fPos 7 0 Pos Pos Pos Neg fPos 8 5 Pos Pos Pos Neg fPos 9 5 Pos Neg Pos Neg fPos 10 30 Pos Pos Pos fPos fPos Abbreviations: ApEMCa, apocrine epithelial myoepithelial carcinoma; AR, androgen receptor; Epi, epithelial (luminal) component; fPos, focally positive; GCDFP-15, gross cystic disease fluid protein-15; H2N, HER2/neu; myo, myoepithelial (abluminal) component; Neg, negative; OEMCa, oncocytic epithelial myoepithelial carcinoma; Pos, positive; PTAH, phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin.
A recent paper describes the preparation of phosphotungstic acid (HPA)/sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) composite membranes with different disulfonation levels of the polymer matrix via solution blending (J.
Using the sodium phosphotungstic acid precipitation method, we concentrated (100-fold) individual 1-mL saliva samples from each time point.
The uric acid level was determined by the phosphotungstic acid method, as described elsewhere (Carroll et al.
22) They also stain with Giemsa (figure 2) and Mallory's phosphotungstic acid stain.
They were then immersed in a solution of 5% phosphotungstic acid in ethanol for two hours and finally washed with pure ethanol, dried and coated with carbon.
In addition to electron microscopic evidence of mitochondrial proliferation was helpful in diagnosis; in addition to that, Phosphotungstic Acid Hematoxylin staining was often useful in identifying oncocytes.
Samples from these cattle had been confirmed as negative by paraffin-embedded tissue blot (University of Gottingen, Gottingen Germany), sodium phosphotungstic acid precipitation, followed by WB (European Union Reference Laboratory for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, UK), Prionics WB (Prionics AG, Zurich, Switzerland), histopathologic examination, and immunohistochemical testing (Veterinary Laboratories Agency).
Neoplastic cells had no cross-striations in sections stained by phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin.
Focal neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and chromogranin expression was restricted to the SCC, whereas phosphotungstic acid and Luxol fast blue, which stain mitochondria, were positive in the OSP.
The surface morphology of the investigated blends were also visualized by staining the surface with phosphotungstic acid with TEM.
Summary: In this study, we report the one-pot synthesis of 2-amino-3,5-dicarbonitrile-6-thio- pyridines with benzaldehyde, malononitrile, and thiophenol by using phosphotungstic acid as an efficient catalyst in aqueous media.


Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. It can affect and involve employees, clients, customers and visitors. Homicide is currently the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), of the 4,679 fatal workplace injuries that occurred in the United States in 2014, 403 were workplace homicides. However it manifests itself, workplace violence is a major concern for employers and employees nationwide.


Rates for budget hotels vary greatly depending on the location. In Los Angeles alone, budget hotels can charge anywhere from $45 to $119 per day.
Luxury Hotels are for people who are used to lavish lifestyles. The employees at these hotels are specially trained to cater to everything that the guests need. They aim to provide their guests with all the luxuries they desire during their stay. These hotels were built in such a way that their guests' stay is absolutely as stress free as possible. In addition to basic amenities in luxurious rooms, these hotels are usually equipped with spas that offer massages, gyms that have the latest exercise equipment, beauty centres that offer a wide range of beauty treatments, swimming pools, in house bars and restaurants and laundry service.
There is truth in the saying "You get what you pay for." So, for people who have the money to splurge on expensive hotel accommodations, staying in a luxury hotel would be best if they would like to have the best service that money can buy. But for people who have a limited budget but need a place to stay while they are away from home, they are better off staying at budget hotels.
For travellers who wish to get reservations way ahead of time, in the hotel of their choice, they can go online and check out the websites of different hotels all over the world.


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Portland Center Stage's Oklahoma!
All American boy, all American girl, all American town. What comes to mind? I love what Portland Center Stage director Chris Coleman has done with "Oklahoma!" blasting old tropes by setting this musical in a historical all-Black town, showcasing the all-Americanness of these first Oklahomans.
What a cast! Rodney Hicks as Curly has a rich, warm, vibrant voice that could melt butter on cornbread. Brianna Horne with her big-eyed, long-faced beauty is a tough and tender Laurey, country bumpkin and princess at once. And who wouldn't be charmed by Marisha Wallace's Ado Annie, ditzy and adorable, singing her heart out?
I've never been a big Oklahoma fan, to tell the truth. What I've seen has been too straw-hat, corn-pone for my taste. But this - with it's dazzling dancing, its energy and gorgeous choir - it's a winner.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein script seems thin and stereotypical, even for a musical, but this production managed to bring out relevance. It's a show about loving the simple things. "All the sounds of the Earth are like music," sings Curly. How often, in our busy lives, do we listen to the winds, the crickets, the chickadees? "Don't you wisht y'd go on forever?" he asks, painting pictures in our imagination, reminding us how fleetingly we live.
In contrast to having only what you need and enjoying the present, "Everything's up to date in Kansas City," as the town sings. It's this hustle and bustle and greed that disturbs the beauty of now. And "Pore Jud is Daid," is an amazing and darkly funny duet with Hicks and Justin Lee Miller, reminding us of the fact of death, for all of us.
The darkness grabs you by the throat. Indeed, I was mesmerized by Miller's portrayal of the depraved Jud Fry, with expressionless face and hunched bearing. And yet through the nuanced performance we gather that he has been dehumanized by snap judgments. In Laurey's dream sequence, lyrical dancing and lovely orchestral strains give way to maniacal piano thumps, and a pristine white wedding bed spins out of control, the room invaded by hurky-jerky dolls thrust upside down in frightening, twisted postures. What can be trusted in this world?
In a place where there is so much misunderstanding, where we are vulnerable to so much change - where even the farmer and cowman can't get along - how can we find peace? Oklahoma will soon be a state, and we rejoice. But should we? A trusted hired hand appears as a murderer. Are we wrong to keep believing?
Yet we return to the simple things: the cattle standing like statues, the lark waking in the meadow. We return to each other. We sing and shout for the joy of being, just as we are, here in America.


text:
Q: unable to access next node for Linked List while reversing a Linked List in python I am a bit new to python and I have seen the correct solutions to the reversing the linkedlist problem but I wanted to know why my solution does not work. In particular,  reverse function stays inside the while loop for the code below because of "new_list.head.next=prev" line
class Node:
    def __init__(self, value):
        self.value = value
        self.next = None

class LinkedList:
    def __init__(self):
        self.head = None

    def append(self, value):
        if self.head is None:
            self.head = Node(value)
            return

        node = self.head
        while node.next:
            node = node.next

        node.next = Node(value)

    def __iter__(self):
        node = self.head
        while node:
            yield node.value
            node = node.next

    def __repr__(self):
        return str([v for v in self])

def reverse(linked_list):
    new_list = LinkedList()
    if linked_list is None:
        return new_list
    node = linked_list.head
    new_list.head = node
    while node.next:
        prev = node
        node = node.next
        new_list.head = node
        new_list.head.next = prev
    return new_list

if __name__ == "__main__":
    a = LinkedList()
    b = [1,2,3,4,5]
    for item in b:
        a.append(item)
    print a
    c = reverse(a)
    print c

A: If you tag your question with Python3 please make sure it runs in python 3.
The reason is because you are mixing up points and creating an infinite loop. Print the value and it may help you find the bug. I am going to use the values to point out the issue.
    while node.next:
        # First node that comes in value = 1
        print(node.value) #
        prev = node # prev = 1
        node = node.next # node = 2
        new_list.head = node # You are setting the head = 2 (i.e. head = node.next)
        new_list.head.next = prev # You are setting next of head = 1 (i.e. head.next = node.next.next)
        # however this also set node.next.next = 1
        # So going into the next loop: node.value = 2 and node.next.value = 1

Because of this pointer confusion you are forever looping between your first and second node.

A: This is how your reverse can look:
def reverse(linked_list):
    new_list = LinkedList()
    if linked_list is None:
        return new_list
    node = linked_list.head
    new_list.head = Node(node.value)
    while node.next:
        node = node.next
        prev_head = new_list.head
        new_list.head = Node(node.value)
        new_list.head.next = prev_head
    return new_list

With it I got desired output of print c: [5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
General advise: create new Node instead of assignment to node in initial list.

A: It's a little easier to reason about this (at least to me) if you think about two references:
• One to the remaining part of the original list you haven't seen
• One to the head of the new list
At each iteration move the remaining up and set the old remaining to the head of the new list. Order is important here — as you've seen it's easy to accidentally change next on two different variables that are pointing the same node if you're not careful:
def reverse(linked_list):
    new_list = LinkedList()

    if linked_list is None:
        return new_list

    remaining = linked_list.head

    while remaining:
        prev_head = new_list.head       # the old head becomes the first link
        new_list.head = remaining       # new head becomese the first remaining
        remaining = remaining.next      # move remaing one up the chain
        new_list.head.next = prev_head  # point the new head to the previous
    return new_list

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
An introduction by ATEED has helped PowerStats significantly grow its business overseas. The Auckland Software as a Service company has the knack of showing other businesses how well they are doing in their industry segment.
Fast-growing PowerStats, established by Dima Ivanov in 2014, has developed an online benchmarking platform that analyses selected data and generates competitive market insights in real time.
PowerStats formed a strong relationship with Staffing Industry Metrics (SIM) in Australia following an introduction from ATEED. SIM benchmarks recruitment companies across more than a hundred specialised metrics, including for example the split of revenue from temporary contracts to permanent placements.
SIM switched to the PowerStats online platform under a licensing agreement and quickly expanded internationally. SIM became one of PowerStats' biggest `white-label' clients after a major British recruitment agency with 40 branches in 14 countries started using the SIM/PowerStats platform for its global financial intelligence.
Dima Ivanov founded PowerStats in 2014
"Despite being guided by a formal vendor-client relationship, we are effectively working in partnership (with SIM)," says Ivanov. "If we make SIM successful, then we are successful."
Global coverage in the marine industry
PowerStats provides industry statistics services for the International Council of Marine Industry Associations, which covers 36 countries and is based in Brussels. The National Marine Manufacturers Association in the United States also engaged PowerStats to collect and supply data on sales of outboard diesel engines, boats, boat trailers and personal watercraft.
"With the marine industry we nearly have full world coverage – Europe, parts of Middle East and Africa, Russia, United States, Australia and New Zealand," says Ivanov.
Users of the PowerStats platform supply data, in an agreed format, on a monthly basis and PowerStats aggregates and analyses the information automatically. Once sufficient data has been received by the system, the users received notifications by email and can log-in to view the various reports available to them (such as market trends, market share, productivity, wastage and profitability).
PowerStats users log-in to view the various reports available to them
"We are getting granual data from the participating competitors in the industry cluster, aggregating it and then displaying the results back to each user in a confidential way," says Ivanov. "It allows each business to see their market share and positioning without being able to understand the performance of competitors.
"The value of PowerStats is that it provides business owners with undeniable facts and they can make decisions on `where can we improve, where are we spending too much money, where are the gaps in the market, and are we winning or losing market share'.
"Once, a user in Australia rang me after looking at the data and was happy that his sales doubled in December over November, but was confused why the entire market grew nearly 100 per cent during the same time. We pointed out that everyone gained. Without PowerStats he was making the assumption that his business was doing well when in fact the whole industry went up," says Ivanov.
Eyeing up the United States market
PowerStats operates with a lean team of three – developer Vasily Levshin, tester Tanya Levshina and Ivanov who looks after sales and marketing and the day to day business activities.
PowerStats is looking to expand its business in the United States – but first it is awaiting a report from a group of MBA students in late 2017. PowerStats was accepted into the University of California, Los Angeles Global Access Programme (GAP), valued at $US17,000 ($NZ23,500).
"Six MBA students are visiting expos, seeking out prospective partners and devising a market entry strategy into the US for us. The programme takes up 2000 hours of the students' time. Considering the fee we pay is almost entirely used for the students' travel to the various expos and conferences, the programme is phenomenal value for money," says Ivanov.
They (ATEED and NZTE) do a great job helping businesses grow and they do this in a variety of ways – training courses, continual professional education, networking and introductions. "
Dima Ivanov Founder of PowerStats
Ivanov has high praise for the work ATEED does in conjunction with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. "They do a great job helping businesses grow and they do this in a variety of ways – training courses, continual professional education, networking and introductions.
"You only get out what you put in and by engaging in the networking events you will get help. ATEED knew about SIM in Australia and suggested `we think you guys should talk'," says Ivanov.
PowerStats was also supported with NZTE Capability vouchers and attended two courses on strategic selling and negotiation tactics.
PowerStats first started operating in the marine industry, working with clusters of New Zealand and Australian diesel engine distributors and providing them with monthly sales analyses.
It now works with 10 industry clusters including recruitment, marine, financial services, aluminium fabrication, and it has users in 25 countries. "We set up a dedicated project for each industry and measure (data) only what's important to them," says Ivanov.
PowerStats' Software as a Service business: Developed an online benchmarking platform that analyses selected data and generates competitive market insights in real time.
Location: Whangaparaoa, Auckland.
Export markets: Global (users in 25 countries).
ATEED assisted by: Introducing an Australian partner and helping PowerStats grow; facilitating NZTE Capability vouchers and two marketing courses
Website: http://powerstats.co