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Why Everyone is Miserable Right Now
An unlisted, experimental attempt at collective psychology:
I'm not doing well at the moment. Neither are many people I know. My friend said that he noticed how "everyone is miserable" right now. That got me thinking: if he's right, why?
My answer: we're all responding to a collective Ur-event that would integrate the parts of us we don't want to look at, but instead of letting those parts in, we're rejecting them, and we're becoming exaggerated caricatures of our conscious attitudes.
This could be projection, but I suspect it's not. Anyway, I give a solution to the problem that, if I'm right, could fix it. Watch.
Posted by Christian Swenson at 9:47 AM No comments:
My Testimony (Why the Book of Mormon Opens History)
An attempt at a testimony:
I could have left the Church a long time ago. I have more than every reason to - I went to Westminster as a philosophy major, for heavens sake. Statistically speaking, I *should* have apostatized. I also know about all the skeletons in the Church's closet, and I know firsthand the injustices that can be perpetrated by church leaders both local and general. But I'm still here. And the *reason* I'm still here has to do with my understanding of history and covenant.
What is history? Is history what *really* happened, what *factually* happened? Is it *only* this? If you think so, you share in a bias that westerners have held that, put under scrutiny, is not only not very old, but is also inconsistent. For one, most (if not all, I'm open to exceptions but haven't found any) indigenous cultures do not treat history as something that happened in an irrretrievable past. The past is something that we can return to, something we can act out and accomplish. Ritual, for them, is an attempt to return to *first* time things were done, to do things in the same way that the mythical ancestors did them for the first time, and so make action something that isn't only a function of something "discovered" in the past tense but a present-tense, repeated, ongoing "discovery." The past isn't dead but repeats itself whenever we return to it in ritual. If you're noticing parallels to the temple, this isn't an accident, but I'll hold off of that for now. To assume that history, however, is merely something that happened factually in the way we naively assume today not only ignores that this seems to be the default setting of human beings but also ignores the fact the all-seeing eye of history is purely hypothetical, never has, and never will exist. Though we can retrieve accounts of the past, artifacts from it, and though this is very very useful and sorely needed in many ways, it has the drawback that (like all modes of knowledge nowadays) it assumes it can understand something without at the same time *enacting* something in it. History places no demands on the historian to act in a certain way. Of course, history demands good historiography, and the study of history can demand good action from what you learn there. Not contesting that. Instead, I mean that the historian (like the chemist with his test tube or the biologist with her dissected animal corpse) assumes wrongly that she can understand history from the outside, by *describing* it, and not by acting it out. If this *were* the case, the study of history would be sacred ritual. But it isn't.
To summarize my point so far, you can only ever understand something completely by *putting it on* and *acting it out*. To describe from the outside, and to assume that description can suffice, is to confuse motricity and perception, to confuse time with space, to confuse verbs with nouns and the present tense with the past tense.There is no all-seeing eye, no view from nowhere. For if there were, it would not be able to see the conditions for its own seeing, the lens of its own eyes or the back of its head, in the same way that a book which purports to include everything can't exist because if it were to include everything, it would have to include itself, which would then include itself in this itself, and never get to the point but only regress indefinitely. This infinite regress that happens when you represent representation, by the way, is not only what you see when you face two mirrors against each other but also what happens when you take psychedelics and you see the mandalic flower tunnel that leads off into infinity. Sight is cracking under the perception of sight and reality (i.e. The participative, self-transcending, motor factor that precedes sight) is making itself clear. But that's neither here nor there (literally...ha!).
So when I hear things like how the Book of Mormon has little to no historical evidence (open to correction here) or how there were no horses or wheels in ancient America, this doesn't bother me in the slightest. The Book of Mormon is still true even if it has no evidence, even, crucially *if it didn't happen in history*. Why? I'll put it a few ways. First, to paraphrase Joe Spencer, it's not because its history or lack thereof is or ever was in question or, really, the point; it isn't; its point is to call *your* history into question. In other words, the Book of Mormon is an act of updating history as a closed system, and history is closed, as I talked about above, because it posits an object without a subject. The Book of Mormon gives you no such luxury. Like no other book from the time period, it *addresses* and *challenges* you. *You*, the reader, the one who then has to either accept or reject its challenge and who, thereby, is cast in and acts out a role *that the Book of Mormon itself put you in.* There's a reason the church's exoduses parallel the journeys in 1 Nephi, Mosiah, and Ether, a reason why missionary accounts are often so similar to stories from ~Alma 20, even a reason why the typical ex-Mormon claims (this is just confirmation bias; you lay clergy are, somehow, after our tithing money) parallel Korihor's soliloquies: these people are all responding to the Book of Mormon's claims about itself in ways that make them, unwittingly, cast as types of people in the Book who were, likewise, also responding to scripture. The Book is a call to action, an action *itself*, that not only describes the action it is but also furthers it. I.e. It is proprioceptive: it not only describes, not only acts, but, in acting, describes itself, and in describing, acts itself out according to its description of itself. This, like the psychedelic tunnel with perception, is a window out of and into history that, crucially, *remakes history in its image.* You don't have to believe in it to help accomplish its project in this way. You just have to read it. Your reactions will do the rest.
But I, for one, want to be on the right side of (this rip in) history. And that's where the covenant bit comes in. The Book of Mormon is a covenant in the sense that, if I believe it and act in the way it commands me to act, I will then receive blessings in the way that it decribes: i.e. I will receive a witness that it is true, will speak with the tongues of angels, will become sanctified in Christ. The Book of Mormon is, then, an "If-then" statement, a proprioceptive if-then statement, a description of a chain of events where it and its effects on me are among those events. I want those blessings, I want to speak with the tongues of angels. Moreover, I want the world that the Book of Mormon promises is possible: a world without contention, a world with centuries of peace, a world where the daughter(s) of Zion arise from the dust and put on their beautiful garments. So I try to follow the commandments, and I try to obey the covenant.
This is how I see the Church at large. It seems out of its depth at times, it reeks of hierarchy and senility, but it is predicated not only on the opening into history that the Book of Mormon (and prayer, patriarchal bessings, and the temple ceremonies, etc.) is and are, but also on the continual capacity to revise and update based on that opening. The brethren are mortal men cast by the Book of Mormon, God and their encounter with both in certain ways, and they are trying to act out those roles with unwearying (if sometimes uninformed or tactless) diligence and faith. And it shows. General Conference talks have a profound effect on me often *without regard to what the speaker says.* It's because something in it speaks to me from that place before, above, and within time, reminds me of the covenants I have made, teaches me how to be me in God's way. I will not apologize for my faithfulness in and to the Church. God is at the helm, and what this means is that we are each cast in a role based on our reactions to the divine impulse in the Book of Mormon and everything that came from it. We will transform the world if that Book has its way, and I intend to assist in that process, the way it hisses forth from generation to generation, the way Zion strengthens her stakes and enlarges her borders forever and ever, the way God transforms history.
I say these things, as I occasionally do online, in the name of Jesus Christ, my savior. Amen.
Posted by Christian Swenson at 6:56 PM 1 comment:
Response: The CES Letter (Why Jeremy Runnells is Halfway to Neckbeard)
Just re-read Runnells' CES Letter. A few troubling things about his approach:
1) He assumes that the only valid mode of viewing the world is one of western rationalism from the last few centuries. Never mind that this point of view is a historical aberration compared with the vast swathes of human history and pre-history (tens of thousands of which were unchanged in shamanic, tribal systems). Never mind how this rational aberration is associated with western imperialism and is, arguably, its root. Never mind how talking about "magical thinking, superstitious, inconsistent, and treasure digging men" as Runnells does uses the same kind language that we *could* use to describe, say, indigenous tribes in Africa or the Amazon in ways that we would find deeply offensive and subject to imperialistic bias.
2a) Along the same lines, he assumes that a vision can only ever be "imagination." Not only is this part of a centuries-long act of making the imagination, the psychic factor, into an enemy, something that can't be real (part of the above rational-imperialistic factor), but this attitude ignores that imagination is a) something *very* real, at least subjectively (ask someone suffering from schizophrenic hallucinations), and b) is arguably real in a way that is ontologically primary. There is no encountering the world *without* imagination (that's not a couch; that's a bunch of quarks).
2b) Moreover, I consider that part of the essay nonsense because I and many other people I know have had super-sensory experiences (i.e. visions) that are both difficult to explain scientifically and self-evidently real to us. You can say visions are *mere* hallucinations, but (in the words of Swedenborg, who not only had visions, but had visions that told him things he shouldn't have been able to know) "by all this I am not deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt."
3) He just skips over the fact that the Book of Mormon is remarkably self-consistent and the witness accounts to the translation process (some of them by enemies) that say he just dictated, line-by-line, sometimes picking up mid-sentence from where he left off. He also ignores that the Book of Mormon's history has a remarkable internal consistency (both in terms of time, geography, internal reference, and narrative voice, though, to be fair, he gives an explanation of the Book's geography that could explain it in that realm). This is a human impossibility. That didn't stop it from happening, however, not only with people like Joseph Smith but also with Helen Schucman, the one who received the book A Course in Miracles and (no doubt) others.
4) And, the piece de resistance, this work is about history and historical weirdness and inconsistencies. He seems to only be concerned *about* history. Never mind the problem of gay marriage or about the dysfunctional sexual complexes acted out and perpetrated in the church at large. If there's going to be a problem in the Church, says Runnells, it's going to be the fact that Joseph Smith was a treasure seer. I *like* weirdness, everything New-Age and woo-woo, and the fact that Runnells sees it as something *self-evidently* worth rejecting is symptomatic of not only Runnells' biases but also the biases of the people swayed by the letter. I have no patience for people who leave the Church because of history. None. Leaving for political or present-day practical issues - I respect *that*. It means you care MORE about the living than the dead, more about people than ideas. But if you're going to leave because of dowsing rods and peeping stones...you're halfway to neckbeard, bucko.
Posted by Christian Swenson at 6:07 PM No comments:
Response: Why People Leave the Church and Never Come Back (With Weeping Angels)
So this is a fantastic article that you should read. It's devotional, upbuilding, and real. I had two sets of thoughts while reading it:
Why People Leave the Church and Never Come Back
First, I realized how perniciously focused we are as a church culture on how much either I or other people measure up to certain expectations, be they commandments or mere norms, and how much we equate both a) commandments and norms, and b) the act of measuring up to these expectations with the act of obtaining worth. This is wrong. Worth is not a function of following norms or even commandments. Worth is a way I conceive of myself that, if I adopt this conception as an assumption or an act of faith, will both justify that assumption insofar as I believe and act on it and lead me to follow commandments as an expression of love for He who loves me and whose love is presupposed and believed in with that assumption.
Second, I realized that I haven't experienced judgment from church culture for a long time, even though I used to, and even though I'm probably more unorthodox now than I was then. I wondered why this was, especially considering that others can and do experience said judgment. I came to the provisional conclusion that it's because I stopped considering *myself* as unorthodox a few years back. It makes me wonder how much of judgment from others is a function of self-judgment (as well as vice versa, which is also very true), since perhaps insofar as I treat myself as someone who belongs, the others in my group will treat me in the same way I treat myself. Judgment or the lack thereof, then, are maybe acts of of reciprocal "role-casting," where the role I/the group casts me in is the same role the group/I cast me in. This is a problem. How do you break the cycle? I'm not sure how I did it, and I don't know if it would be as easy for someone who, say, struggles with same-sex attraction. But here are some thoughts anyway:
To stop casting myself or others in a problematic way that reinforces itself cyclically over time, I'd need to realize that this cycle is, first and foremost, a way of organizing my being-in-the-world that gives certain elements of my being-in-the-world (me, you, the church, the bishop, that guy, that girl, God) certain significances. This is always true, and (crucially) it is objectively true across persons. I am "the one who is judged" both to me and to others. Since our motor, affective models of the world and our collective situation in it cohere together, reciprocally co-implicate, and depend on each other, affective "roles" for certain people or types of people will reinforce themselves across time. This is true politically: a liberal person is someone who is cast both by themselves and by conservatives as "the opponent of conservatives." That, funnily enough, is something that almost everyone agrees on across the spectrum, in this era of partisan politics: "That conservatives are the opponents of liberals and liberals are the opponents of conservatives." But I digress.
To heal from this state where these co-implicating significances rule ( like "I am an unorthodox person," say), we'd need to introduce not merely a new meaning but a new meaning-generative complex. That is, I not only need to reconceptualize myself (since this would use and operate within the same mode of conceptualizing; I'd just, maybe take a different role in the same generative system; I'd become someone orthodox, but then someone else would take the unorthodox role and I'd be the aggressor instead of the victim) but instead change my *method* of conceptualizing *and* reconceptutalizing both myself and the world. I'd need to *signify* in a different way.
This can happen in innocuous ways, like with me above. For instance, a mode of representing both me and the world can expire, and a new one can take its place. You can never will this, obviously (since the will would come from the old representative place), but it can happen incidentally. But you can pray, and not just to God. If you ask for a representative state to represent itself in you, it often will, without you knowing. These representative modes of beings are archetypes, gods, if you will, and can be talked to and acted from. And you can "fake it till you make it." In the same way that deliberate rhythmic breathing in bed will turn into sleep's deep breathing on its own, and in the same way that the Dionysian initiate would *become* Dionysus by mimicking him in the mystery center, if you pretend that you're orthodox, you eventually will be.
But, interestingly, *sin* is a generative, representative state like this. We are all born into this state. We can't get rid of it. But Christ can. Christ is the factor in me that not only gives me something to know or learn (i.e. a different way of seeing myself) but more importantly gives me a different way of knowing and learning. Christ does not operate within our modes of representation; he doesn't work with these reciprocal co-implications; he breaks them open. He frees us from the prison not only of our thoughts but of our systems for generating thoughts.
And how does this work? Not by our works (those works represent themselves, of course, from a mode of "working" that is itself sinful, is itself what Christ is here to save us from), and not by a mere verbal declaration of faith (which also comes from a sinful place). Instead, Christ's redemption and liberation comes by magnifying the sinful mode of working and speaking in us until, in a moment of despair that we can't plan and can't facilitate, we abandon the representative model at the lowest level of representation, of what precedes representations, words, or works themselves, on the level of *representing*. Why? Because it consummates itself and you don't go down with the ship.
Two parables to illustrate this point: first, if you do zazen in full-lotus pose with your ankles above your knees, and if (like me) you're not too flexible, it will hurt. But then you'll realize that the reason it hurts is because the regular muscle tension in your legs (i.e. what *situates* and *represents* your movements) has been exaggerated to the point of pain. So you relax them. And then you realize...wait...I *can* relax them. I can do that? Oh...*that's* what peace feels like. I had forgotten.
Second, the episode "Blink" of Doctor Who's third season ends with an almost insoluble problem: Sally and Larry (I looked up their names!) are trapped by weeping angels in the Tardis, but, oh no!, the Tardis is disappearing and the angels are surrounding them. They will die. It is certain. How could it not be? But in the Doctor's genius, the angels, who turn themselves to stone if ever looked at, are *looking at each other*. In the moment of despair, in the moment of hopelessness, is when evil destroys itself in its own crossfire (this type of escape is also, btw, a crucial plot point in Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary, which was written by the same guy).
So, in short, evil needs to be let out and allowed to self-destruct. The painful, sinful representative mode must exaggerate itself to the degree where the mode *as such* becomes apparent and not just what that mode represents. But you can't expedite the process. The only thing you can do is pray to God to do so, to pray to be surprised by the grace of despair and, thereby, by the freedom that flees despair's shipwreck, the Ark that survives the Flood.
But I lie. You *can* expedite the process. But not directly. Instead, you must give God something to work with. Every time you read scripture, you give the aspect of you that can and will liberate itself in this crisis tools to a) liberate itself, and b) to allow evil to condemn itself (a and b are the same). Good, or God, does not condemn evil; He and it disclose evil as evil and let evil destroy and condemn itself. God loves the souls in Hell (as we all are, to an extent) too much to do anything but expel it slowly.
Why Jordan Peterson Lives in the Signifying Present and Sam Harris Lives in the Signified Past
I just watched the first debate of Jordan Peterson with Sam Harris on YouTube.
I haven't watched debate #2 yet, but I will. From what I saw so far, this debate displayed the following existential conflict: the capacity to order language and ideas across time, which operates and functions at the level of and functions in, though, and as the a priori, distinguishing, demarcating, meaning-creating centers of activity that precede, transcend, update, and unify meanings (displayed by but never explicitly stated by Peterson), vs Harris' capacity to (only) move ideas and meanings around, which relies on acts of distinguishing, demarcating, and meaning-creation which
a) he's unconscious of
b) were done by others in the past,
c) he doesn't understand the nature of,
and d) he will only admit exist with pressure. And he does (they both call them, I think unhelpfully, "intuitions")
Sam's big idea is that meaning is a function of accounts of what is (facts, in other words), but implicit in Peterson's point (as far as I can tell; he struggles to say this explicitly; I sure did too; English is not a language that lends itself to this kind of thinking) is that meaning is a function of activities that
a) ontologically precede accounts of what is, that is, facts (since it's not clear how an account of what is, which is an act that occurs at a given moment, can also give an account of that in what is that transcends said moment and only exists in, through, and as that transcendence, which is, itself, an activity that creates what is in its wake),
b) transcend accounts of what is (for the same reasons),
c) update accounts of what is (since an account of what is can be demonstrated as wrong by certain new accounts of what is, or facts, that become apparent to us, and since this "becoming apparent" is itself an activity that cannot be accounted for as fact, since it exists in, through, and as the act of transcending accounts of what is),
and d) unify accounts of what is (since this level of activity, as what exists in, through, and as the perpetual transcendence of the accounts of what is that occurs across time, is what allows us to posit that two elements of an account of what is can cohere in some meaningful way as the same account).
In other, much shorter words, Harris moves around elements of meaning that have been situated, whereas Peterson operates at the level of what situates meaning, of meaning (the gerund) itself.
This isn't arbitrary
a) because it's not clear how we can have meaning at all, to not succumb to nihilism, without centers of meaning that precede, transcend, update, and unify individual meanings,
b) because in order to allow one word to succeed another over time instead of another, I have to choose it for some generative, meaning-creating reason, to participate in an activity that privileges one value over another and thereby creates one meaning and not another.
c) because people have different such modes of letting words succeed each other in ways we can talk about and discuss.
d) because these centers of generative activity are, put differently, that which privileges one value over another in action (like speech or writing) are, therefore, what exists in and through meaningful action, are, therefore, what exists as the reason I choose that act over another, and are, therefore, the moral intuitions that Peterson and Harris both agree exist and can't be explained away
and e) because these generative centers, as what unifies a chain of signified meanings across time, is by definition *narrative," and we enjoy narrative as a culture.
TL;DR: Harris lives and works in the signified past and Peterson lives and works in the signifying present. Harris sees meaning as a function of facts, of accounts of what is; Peterson sees meaning as a function of the generative centers that precede, transcend, update, and unify accounts of what is, i.e., moral intuitions. Harris operates only using the logic of "meaning" as a noun, where Peterson also operates at the level where he can use "meaning" as a gerund. The former is trapped by what has been signified and can only see what precedes, transcends, updates, and unifies what has been signified as arbitrary nonsense. The latter knows that this preceding, transcending, updating, unifying activity is not nonsense but is a) the condition for any sense, and b) intelligible and something we can discuss.
Btw, I suspect that Peterson hasn't articulated this to himself, but this distinction seems to be at the heart of their disagreement and, more broadly, certain philosophical conflicts in general (like whether or not Heidegger is saying anything but nonsense).
Reuniting Nouns and Verbs: An Insoluble Problem and the Dream that Solved It
This post is a combination of two Facebook posts: one from yesterday, where I articulated a problem that's been plaguing me for a long time, and one from this morning, where I recounted a dream I had last night and explained how it solved that problem for me. This is a milestone for me, and it is not only because it is objectively a milestone, but also because I will *make* it more and more of a milestone by the act of subjectively taking up the belief that it is a milestone.
Post 1:
A huge, pervasive problem I see no one talking about:
As far as I can tell, most people assume that to be right is desirable and to be wrong is undesirable. Moreover, if that's the case, and if someone asserts a point of view that contradicts mine, to retain the desirable state of being right, I have to assert (either privately to myself or to them) that they're wrong. But this is to deny them the desirable state of being right (either in my consideration of them or as a possibility in their consideration of themselves) and is, therefore, something I do to benefit myself at the expense of other people. To declare either privately or publicly that I'm right and you're wrong seems to be selfish, unsocial, and immoral. In short, I can't see how you can have a) the peace and existential security of knowing you're right and b) allow other people who think differently that same peace.
I, for one, have always subliminally chosen b) over a). In arguments with people, I tend to (generally only privately) assume that they must know something I don't if they disagree with me, even if (to be honest) in the vast majority of the cases what *they* don't know vastly outweighs what I don't know. I choose to let them have the existential security of being right and deny it to myself; that, to me, is the only virtuous thing. But it wrecks my psyche. I am torn apart by people whom I respect and trust who disagree with each other. And respect everyone. It has made me mentally unstable at times. I need to find a solution to stay sane or even alive. This has driven my intellectual pursuits for the past few years.
A few potential solutions:
1) I could let you have your opinion and let me have mine. This seems doubtful and inconsistent. To posit a is to posit that not a is false. So even if I merely declare an opinion to myself, I'm asserting to myself that you are wrong and, therefore, in an undesirable state.
2) I could not tell x person that they're wrong and spare then the pain of lacking that desirable state. This is good for them but not good for me; there is a microcosm of them in me that suffers whenever I call them out even privately. This is another way of stating my "morality."
3) Have peace at the expense of virtue. No. I can't and I won't.
4) Change my idea of virtue. I can't. My "morality" is, really, the primeval togetherness of people where you are a part of me and I am a part of you. To be honest, this isn't a conscious choice but part of my tendencies as someone on the spectrum. I could maybe change that, and I'm trying, but it won't be easy. This doesn't mean, however, that I don't think it's *objectively* immoral to posit my opinion over yours. I do.
5) Avoid confrontation. A version of 3. I really want to, but I can't. I have too much to say, to many people to help, to privilege my own we'll being over others. Not only that, but avoiding places where there *might* be confrontation generally leaves me mentally understimulated.
6) Care more about what is the case than who's saying what is the case. A version of 4). This is valid in certain ways: if I don't know what's right, I could lack information that could help me later. That's fair. But this perspective also ignores that truth, as a correct representation of being, does not exist apart from a specific representation of being. The table over there is real, yes. Is it true? That's meaningless. "Objective" truth is as nonsensical an idea as a book that includes everything, including (somehow) itself and the media/conditions for the representation it is. There is no true representation or conception, or one that claims to be true, without someone to posit it. And as such it falls prey to the problems I've delimited here. Of course, there is the problem of information that doesn't fit my model and whether or not I ignore that information, whether it comes from others or from the world. I agree with Jordan Peterson on this point, who says that this act is the origin of evil. However, I wonder if to "posit" itself, as a representation, in a certain sense is to ignore what doesn't fit that representation. People seldom say "x, but x could be wrong," especially since this means to say "x" and then "not x." There's something fishy here.
7) Figure out a way to expose denotative language, logic, and the idea of positing "what is the case" as a fraud. This is my best, desperate bet, methinks. It's what I've been trying to make clear to myself at BYU. I suspect that "positing" is nothing more than a selfish, arrogant, left-hemisphere language game used to justify control, patriarchy, and conflict in rent way I've described here. Language doesn't have to posit; it can gesture.
Just figured out how to say this. Thank God. It's been slumbering subliminally for a while. Tell me what you think.
A (big, in the technical sense) dream I had last night that subliminally represents and solves the problem I articulated with yesterday's post:
I am at the theater, and a woman gives me (as Shrek) the grace of pushing me out of the boundaries of the theater before the theater and everyone in it is sucked into another world and goes beyond reach, beyond what can ever come back again. This is what is depicted in Avengers Infinity War: half goes away. I make it by the skin of my teeth. The worlds created by the split become split off and develop in parallel ways. In the original world, there is great mourning and sadness. This sadness is Terrence Mckenna's death. I am with a group of people who study Christian ideas under Terrence McKenna's model. In a dark passageway that *is* the Internet and the search for knowledge, I encounter him saying that the split in Avengers Infinity War was cosmically foreseen in the Bible; it is the split of Revelation, the "Rapture." In this group, I write (on a yellow sheet of notepad paper) my model for the world, the way I conceive of this tragedy, the way I process it, poetically. I wrote a lot (a lot of it was in an earlier medium and didn't survive, but I summarized it), and the arbiter there, Terrence Mckenna's friend and the head of it not only after he died but before he died as well (this bridges over his death), isn't too much of a fan of the bulk of it, a long rambling poem, but really likes the beginning summary even though I didn't see it at first, and even if I did, I didn't register its significance. The world that left inhabits a previously uninhabited world, one that starts over from the beginning, a green world, a world where a new civilization develops, a world dominated (sadly) by Trump and his cronies. This world itself is divided into two parts: a privileged class and an unprivileged class. The privileged class is constituted by those who inhabited "the head" of the theater during the split; the unprivileged happened to inhabit other, lower parts of its "body." This is arbitrary and totally unjust, but it is law. There is a kind of intelligent metal, one that grows and develops in adaptive, intelligent ways, that produces amazing things for the privileged class. It is barely used for the unprivileged class. The metal is a microcosm of cities, a city-ing, an adaptive, generative, intelligent producer of structure and order. There is the hint of an idea that we will overthrow the order. I pop into this world by free choice. I am met my brother's boss, a Trump, but a good Trump. I am here to overthrow order; I wouldn't have come otherwise. It's not clear I will succeed. at one point (I'm not sure when), the boy king/prince of this world speaks to his mother, who is immortal even if he isn't (she transcends the split between the worlds), and asks her what it's like to be a "Valkyrie." She says that it's like living 80, 180 (something like that ) years (almost to the end of the boy king's life) and still being the same age. There's something unnatural about it. This is related to Trump, the arbitrariness and absurdity of this split, of this world. This second world is brighter, greener, somehow. It is a new beginning, but one with a perverse streak. At one point, the part of me that inhabits the second world tries to go back to the first, an *impossibility*, but I manage it. I go back to the world that had cast us out. And there, Captain Hook, a version of Donald Trump that's only (if anything) "prior," inhabits this world alone to revel in himself. He is totally, perversely evil. This is the house, and it is empty, empty except for Tre, who is nearing the end of his life and is being trained by Hook for his purposes (including watching out for intruders). I go to Mom's bedroom, where Hook had remained, and I find his phone. My sisters are here with me; they came too. We look through his phone, find the state of the world we had left behind. But then he comes back, and I, in rage for the catastrophic split he inflicted for his own selfish, self-indulgent reasons, seize him. I want to dismember him, tear his head off, crush it, tear his limbs off, and I see the malevolence in his face, and I realize that, yes, he is pure, unadulterated evil, but if anything, that makes me realize that to kill him would perpetuate his evil. So I stop, and to prevent him from ever leaving, I condemn him to 600 years (I.e. a long, purgative time) of torture, after which he can be freed. Then I realize that, wait, it wasn't just Hook; the half of the world that remained is still here. I catch up on everything that happened on social media in the hundreds of years since Hook split the worlds. I see the Mutual matches I had missed while they weren't sure if I had been raptured. I see the other half of the Tinder announcement grieving this "Rapture," a parallel of what had developed on the other side. I see Instagram, Facebook, everything that I had missed. I/we are the first to cross back over. We will heal the split.
This dream depicts a catastrophic cosmic event, an event that occurs in what ontologically precedes history, that is, what occurs perpetually, what repeats, in each of our lives in a way that we are totally helpless to and have forgotten. The dream, aided by my logical articulation yesterday, is an *imaginative* articulation of the same problem.
The "theater" (i.e. my folks' place) is, obviously, a stage, a place of representation, a place where representation is married to the things that represent it, where representation is plastic to the world that transcends representation, where the stage is permeable. The theater's "rapture" is what occurs when representation is severed from what transcends and updates representation. This splits the world into two: the world seen only as representation, as something fixed, something that can be updated, even if we're unsure how something that "updates" representation can exist at all if it's not represented, and the ("empty") world that lives in the act of representation, that is "representative." The world that leaves is the world of represented things; the world that is left is the world of representing things. The world that leaves is the left hemisphere of the brain; the world that is left is the right hemisphere of the brain. The world that leaves is the world seen as a collection of things, of nouns; the world that is left is the world as process, as verb. You can leave from the representative to the represented, go "downstream" (we do it all the time), but it's *so* rare to go from the represented to the representative, to go *upstream.* This is why you can leave one world and go to the other but (apparently) not vice versa.
What causes this split? The dream provides an answer: Captain Hook, i.e., the embittered old man, the act of refusing to update perceptions or, in other words, the fear of death. To consider representations merely as *represented* and not *representative*, then, is to refuse to update what is represented by the *representing* factor that precedes, transcends, updates, and unifies representations. It is an act of, by definition, evil. The dream also suggests that Donald Trump's evil is the *represented* effect of what the *representative* act of ignoring the act of representation (as a gerund) itself. He is the effect of what Captain Hook is the generative cause. Hook is upstream, damming the flow; Trump is downstream.
Terrence Mckenna (i.e. the guy who teaches these ideas in his own way, the guy who wants to return to the primordial togetherness of nature with culture) dies as the theater raptures away. They are the same event. I.e. the world of Eden, where plants give life and where we are one with nature and what lies within and behind nature, dies when we distinguish the representative from the represented.
The represented world, the left-hemisphere world, the world of *effects*, is completely arbitrary in the sense that the things and people who populate it are grouped only by *already-made* distinctions, only by distinctions that were given by an act of distinguishing that's either unconscious, inherited, or done by someone else. We have forgotten that distinction isn't only something given but, actually and with more ontological priority, also something *done." We have failed to realize that distinguishing is something which precedes what it distinguishes, and so we are at the mercy of unconscious, arbitrary acts of demarcation. This is what is being described with the "classes" in the fallen world, the world that left.
The intelligent metal is interesting. It was entirely benevolent, in the dream, not unlike McKenna's machine elves, and it seemed like something both dangerous and awe-inspiring. It seems to me that this metal is something like the unconscious generative capacities that come about when we create in ways that are uninhibited by material limitations, i.e. the Internet. The nternet is an image of the spiritual world that occurs purely because a) we lack material limitations and can do whatever we want, and b) because the structure of what we want is the structure of mental state, and the structure of mental state *is* the spiritual world.
I'm sure you'll notice parallels to various cultural artifacts. Avengers Infinity War was a huge formative factor in the dream. Thanos' "final solution" is, in essence, the act of severing the world from itself by privileging ideology, intellect, and the effect of intellectual judgment over the *act* of intellectual judgment, of demarcation, of *action* itself. It kills half the world, though (as we all suspect) they're safe in some kind of cosmic hard drive. On that note, this also strongly parallels recent seasons of Doctor Who, which includes an episode (Heaven Sent) that has affected me very deeply as a mythical, affective description of my life. I am trapped in the Underworld (notice that I am cast out of the theater and that, when I return to the empty world, my dog stands guard there like Cerberus), a common theme in *many* of my dreams, and my job is to open a door. This is a theme you also saw in my play, if you know what happens. I (not just as "me" but as the totality of people nowadays who fill the same spiritual, affective role) am meant to open the door to the hidden remnant on Gallifrey, to the souls who have died by Thanos' hand, and rejoin the living with the dead. There are also, of course, lots of parallels with recent events in my daily life.
If you think this is an arbitrary and meaningless reading, it isn't. I wrote this interpretive essay when the continuous, unfolding, representative factor in the dream was still fresh, when it was still able to continue. This "continuation" wrote the essay. Also notice that the symbols in it cohere around a definite, very evident structure: an upstream world is split from a downstream world by malevolence. This essay is just an elaboration of that evident structure. I could have said a lot more, but the point is not what I say but the generative centers of meaning-creation that organize what I say. Not all such generative centers are created equal. To equate meaning with what is *generated* is what the dream equates with evil.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Q: Проблема с выборкой из базы Здравствуйте! Прошу помочь, мучаюсь с этим уже 2 дня, все перепробовал. У меня один шаблон, переход по ссылкам идет методом GET, меняется только блок контент. Вот в head название сайта title сделал проверку для каждой ссылки, все работает, для каждой ссылки идет свое название, но вот когда перехожу на новость по id методом get название для всех новостей пишет название первой новости, то есть если тема называется, например = 2, 3, 4, и 5 то выводится 1. Думаю проблема в цикле, пробовал while тогда сайт вообще не открывается. Вот код для проверки. Помогите, как решить эту проблему.
<head>

<title>

    <?
        if (empty($_GET)) {echo'Академия';}

        elseif ('index.php' == $_GET['categories']) {echo'Академия';}

        elseif ('news.php' == $_GET['categories']) {echo'Новости';}

        elseif ('read.php&id='.$rownewsall['id']) {echo      $rownewsall['name_news'];}

        elseif ('sotrudniki.php' == $_GET['categories']) {echo'Сотрудники';}

    ?>

</title>

</head>

вот сам код для проверки названия по id
elseif ('read.php&id='.$rownewsall['id']) {echo      $rownewsall['name_news'];}

и вот сама страница с новостями, обратите на название при переходе на новости, их там 2 всего
http://greenplanet.mackay.kz/?categories=news.php
Как проверить, чтобы выводило название новости. Спасибо
A: Не много желающих отвечать. )) Я не исключение, однако, не хочется оставлять вас совсем без ответа. Попробую хоть как-то направить вас в нужном направлении. Итак, как я вижу, все GET-запросы идут в index.php. Вот и ладненько. Если использовать обычный вид ссылок (param_name = param_val), то param_name можно описывать, ключевым словом, которое будет обозначать определенный раздел. Например, article для статей, employee для сотрудников, page для страниц. А param_val id записи в соответствующей разделу таблице. В итоге, ссылки могли бы выглядеть следующим образом:
http://greenplanet.mackay.kz/?article=2
http://greenplanet.mackay.kz/?article=5
http://greenplanet.mackay.kz/?page=2
http://greenplanet.mackay.kz/?employee=1

Теперь переходим к обработчику:
// проверяем, пуста ли каждая из возможных переменных
if(!empty($_GET['article'])) $article = (int)$_GET['article'];
if(!empty($_GET['page'])) $page = (int)$_GET['page'];
if(!empty($_GET['employee'])) $employee = (int)$_GET['employee'];

// собственно, теперь мы можем узнать, из какой таблицы нужно делать выборку
// и какую именно запись достать
if(isset($article) && $article){
   // запрос на выборку из таблицы со статьями
}
if(isset($employee) && $employee){
   // запрос на выборку из таблицы сотрудников
}
if(isset($page) && $page){
   // запрос на выборку из таблицы страниц
}

При том, что примерчик примитивный, он вполне рабочий. Кроме того, советую подумать об использовании ЧПУ. Если не сразу, то пусть это будет следующим шагом на тяжком пути веб-разработчика ))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
CONSENT BY THE UNITED STATES TO INCOME WITHHOLDING, GARNISHMENT, AND SIMILAR PROCEEDINGS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT AND ALIMONY OBLIGATIONS
Sec. 459. [42 U.S.C. 659] (a) Consent to Support Enforcement.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including section 207 of this Act and section 5301 of title 38, United States Code[207]), effective January 1, 1975, moneys (the entitlement to which is based upon remuneration for employment) due from, or payable by, the United States or the District of Columbia (including any agency, subdivision, or instrumentality thereof) to any individual, including members of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be subject, in like manner and to the same extent as if the United States or the District of Columbia were a private person, to withholding in accordance with State law enacted pursuant to subsections (a)(1) and (b) of section 466 and regulations of the Secretary under such subsections, and to any other legal process brought, by a State agency administering a program under a State plan approved under this part or by an individual obligee, to enforce the legal obligation of the individual to provide child support or alimony.
(b) Consent to Requirements Applicable to Private Person.—With respect to notice to withhold income pursuant to subsection (a)(1) or (b) of section 466, or any other order or process to enforce support obligations against an individual (if the order or process contains or is accompanied by sufficient data to permit prompt identification of the individual and the moneys involved), each governmental entity specified in subsection (a) shall be subject to the same requirements as would apply if the entity were a private person, except as otherwise provided in this section.
(c) Designation of Agent; Response to Notice or Process.—The head of each agency subject to this section shall—
(1) Designation of agent.—
(A) designate an agent or agents to receive orders and accept service of process in matters relating to child support or alimony; and
(B) annually publish in the Federal Register the designation of the agent or agents, identified by title or position, mailing address, and telephone number.
(2) Response to notice or process.—If an agent designated pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection receives notice pursuant to State procedures in effect pursuant to subsection (a)(1) or (b) of section 466, or is effectively served with any order, process, or interrogatory, with respect to an individual's child support or alimony payment obligations, the agent shall—
(A) as soon as possible (but not later than 15 days) thereafter, send written notice of the notice or service (together with a copy of the notice or service) to the individual at the duty station or last-known home address of the individual;
(B) within 30 days (or such longer period as may be prescribed by applicable State law) after receipt of a notice pursuant to such State procedures, comply with all applicable provisions of section 466; and
(C) within 30 days (or such longer period as may be prescribed by applicable State law) after effective service of any other such order, process, or interrogatory, withhold available sums in response to the order or process, or answer the interrogatory.
(d) Priority of Claims.—If a governmental entity specified in subsection (a) receives notice or is served with process, as provided in this section, concerning amounts owed by an individual for more than 1 person—
(1) support collection under section 466(b) must be given priority over any other process, as provided in section 466(b)(7);
(2) allocation of moneys due or payable to an individual among claimants under section 466(b) shall be governed by section 466(b) and the regulations prescribed under such section; and
(3) such moneys as remain after compliance with paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be available to satisfy any other such processes on a first-come, first-served basis, with any such process being satisfied out of such moneys as remain after the satisfaction of all such processes which have been previously served.
(e) No Requirement To Vary Pay Cycles.—A governmental entity that is affected by legal process served for the enforcement of an individual's child support or alimony payment obligations shall not be required to vary its normal pay and disbursement cycle in order to comply with the legal process.
(f) Relief From Liability.—
(1) Neither the United States, nor the government of the District of Columbia, nor any disbursing officer shall be liable with respect to any payment made from moneys due or payable from the United States to any individual pursuant to legal process regular on its face, if the payment is made in accordance with this section and the regulations issued to carry out this section.
(2) No Federal employee whose duties include taking actions necessary to comply with the requirements of subsection (a) with regard to any individual shall be subject under any law to any disciplinary action or civil or criminal liability or penalty for, or on account of, any disclosure of information made by the employee in connection with the carrying out of such actions.
(g) Regulations.—Authority to promulgate regulations for the implementation of this section shall, insofar as this section applies to moneys due from (or payable by)—
(1) the United States (other than the legislative or judicial branches of the Federal Government) or the government of the District of Columbia, be vested in the President (or the designee of the President);
(2) the legislative branch of the Federal Government, be vested jointly in the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives (or their designees), and
(3) the judicial branch of the Federal Government, be vested in the Chief Justice of the United States (or the designee of the Chief Justice).
(h) Moneys Subject to Process.—
(1) In general.—Subject to paragraph (2), moneys payable to an individual which are considered to be based upon remuneration for employment, for purposes of this section—
(A) consist of—
(i) compensation payable for personal services of the individual, whether the compensation is denominated as wages, salary, commission, bonus, pay, allowances, or otherwise (including severance pay, sick pay, and incentive pay);
(ii) periodic benefits (including a periodic benefit as defined in section 228(h)(3)) or other payments—
(I) under the insurance system established by title II;
(II) under any other system or fund established by the United States which provides for the payment of pensions, retirement or retired pay, annuities, dependents' or survivors' benefits, or similar amounts payable on account of personal services performed by the individual or any other individual;
(III) as compensation for death under any Federal program;
(IV) under any Federal program established to provide "black lung" benefits; or
(V) by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs as compensation for a service-connected disability paid by the Secretary to a former member of the Armed Forces who is in receipt of retired or retainer pay if the former member has waived a portion of the retired or retainer pay in order to receive such compensation;
(iii) worker's compensation benefits paid or payable under Federal or State law;
(iv) benefits paid or payable under the Railroad Retirement System, and
(v) special benefits for certain World War II veterans payabable under title VIII; but
(B) do not include any payment—
(i) by way or reimbursement or otherwise, to defray expenses incurred by the individual in carrying out duties associated with the employment of the individual,
(ii) as allowances for members of the uniformed services payable pursuant to chapter 7 of title 37, United States Code[208], as prescribed by the Secretaries concerned (defined by section 101(5) of such title) as necessary for the efficient performance of duty; or
(iii) of periodic benefits under title 38, United States Code, except as provided in subparagraph (A)(ii)(V).
(2) Certain amounts excluded.—In determining the amount of any moneys due from, or payable by, the United States to any individual, there shall be excluded amounts which—
(A) are owed by the individual to the United States;
(B) are required by law to be, and are, deducted from the remuneration or other payment involved, including Federal employment taxes, and fines and forfeitures ordered by court-martial;
(C) are properly withheld for Federal, State, or local income tax purposes, if the withholding of the amounts is authorized or required by law and if amounts withheld are not greater than would be the case if the individual claimed all dependents to which he was entitled (the withholding of additional amounts pursuant to section 3402(i) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986[209]may be permitted only when the individual presents evidence of a tax obligation which supports the additional withholding);
(D) are deducted as health insurance premiums;
(E) are deducted as normal retirement contributions (not including amounts deducted for supplementary coverage); or
(F) are deducted as normal life insurance premiums from salary or other remuneration for employment (not including amounts deducted for supplementary coverage).
(i) Definitions.—For purposes of this section—
(1) United states.—The term "United States" includes any department, agency, or instrumentality of the legislative, judicial, or executive branch of the Federal Government, the United States Postal Service, the Postal Rate Commission[210], any Federal corporation created by an Act of Congress that is wholly owned by the Federal Government, and the governments of the territories and possessions of the United States.
(2) Child support.—The term "child support", when used in reference to the legal obligations of an individual to provide such support, means amounts required to be paid under a judgment, decree, or order, whether temporary, final, or subject to modification, issued by a court or an administrative agency of competent jurisdiction, for the support and maintenance of a child, including a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing State, or a child and the parent with whom the child is living, which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages or reimbursement, and which may include other related costs and fees, interest and penalties, income withholding, attorney's fees, and other relief.
(3) Alimony.—
(A) In general.—The term "alimony", when used in reference to the legal obligations of an individual to provide the same, means periodic payments of funds for the support and maintenance of the spouse (or former spouse) of the individual, and (subject to and in accordance with State law) includes separate maintenance, alimony pendente lite, maintenance, and spousal support, and includes attorney's fees, interest, and court costs when and to the extent that the same are expressly made recoverable as such pursuant to a decree, order, or judgment issued in accordance with applicable State law by a court of competent jurisdiction.
(B) Exceptions.—Such term does not include—
(i) any child support; or
(ii) any payment or transfer of property or its value by an individual to the spouse or a former spouse of the individual in compliance with any community property settlement, equitable distribution of property, or other division of property between spouses of former spouses.
(4) Private person.—The term "private person" means a person who does not have sovereign or other special immunity or privilege which causes the person not to be subject to legal process.
(5) Legal process.—The term "legal process" means any writ, order, summons, or other similar process in the nature of garnishment—
(A) which is issued by—
(i) a court or an administrative agency of competent jurisdiction in any State, territory, or possession of the United States;
(ii) a court or an administrative agency of competent jurisdiction in any foreign country with which the United States has entered into an agreement which requires the United States to honor the process; or
(iii) an authorized official pursuant to an order of such a court or an administrative agency of competent jurisdiction or pursuant to State or local law; and
(B) which is directed to, and the purpose of which is to compel, a governmental entity which holds moneys which are otherwise payable to an individual to make a payment from the moneys to another party in order to satisfy a legal obligation of the individual to provide child support or make alimony payments.
[207] See Vol. II, 38 U.S.C. 5301.
[208] See Vol. II, 37 U.S.C. chapter 7 and §101(5).
[209] See Vol. II, P.L. 83-591, §3402(i).
[210] P.L. 109-435, §604(f), provided that "Whenever a reference is made in any provision of law (other than this Act or a provision of law amended by this Act), regulation, rule, document, or other record of the United States to the Postal Rate Commission, such reference shall be considered a reference to the Postal Regulatory Commission".


The drivers aren't happy. The passengers aren't happy.
The object of their shared discontent is an upcoming vote by the Burlington City Council on a resolution that would replace the Burlington Urban Service with a SEIBUS-like transit system managed by the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission.
BUS employees are worried about losing their jobs, and passengers who have come to rely on the service are concerned changes to the system will leave them stranded in times of need.
"BUS didn't put the city in debt," said lead BUS transit operator Amy Schier. "But we're taking all the fall for it."
Schier has worked at BUS for eight years, and she's concerned about severing the bonds she and the five other full-time and nine part-time drivers at BUS have created with the passengers. Schier is especially worried about the effect changes to the system will have on bus riders who have come to rely on the BUS service.
The SEIRPC contract proposal would keep much of the transit system's routes and fee structures in place.
Apart from bringing in a whole new crew to run the show, the only major changes in the contract are a 24-hour advance call for demand response rides, and the 5:30 a.m. to 6:50 a.m. shuttle would be done away with. The transit system offered through SEIRPC instead would operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m, Monday through Friday, with partial service Saturday.
This won't work in Schier's eyes. People often make same-day calls to BUS for emergency transportation to the hospital, she said. Hope Haven clients with mental disabilities regularly use BUS to get back and forth. Nearly every day, more than 20 low-income people without their own cars use the shuttle between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. to get to work, or to job interviews on time.
"How are they going to deal with it when the school calls and they have a sick child, or a parent calling because a child's missed the yellow bus, and they need a ride to school?" Schier said. "The phone calls are non-stop for stuff like that."
Charlene Lindsey, 67, is blind and handicapped. For a little less than a year she has depended on BUS to get her back and forth from her physical rehabilitation visits to Great River Medical Center.
"I don't understand why it's always the old, the poor, the infirm, the disabled that have to carry the load for other people's problems," Lindsey said. "I don't know why they always seem to be the ones that get picked on or shut down or disregarded when decisions are made."
Stephanie Lofthus, a full-time transit operator with BUS, is also worried about the effect a contract with SEIRPC would have on her and the other drivers.
"We're upset," Lofthus said. "We don't want to lose our jobs. Our passengers don't want to lose us. I feel like we're in the dark, like they're trying to slide this through."
Lofthus thinks a takeover by SEIBUS would reflect poorly on Burlington's job market, something she thinks the council should consider before making its decision.
"This town doesn't have a lot of good-paying jobs to offer," she said. "I just feel like they're throwing all these good things away in our city. It's just getting worse."
Nico White, 46, has been a regular passenger on the bus for five years.
"We have been together for so long," White said. "We have bonded, and they go over and beyond."
Rosie Ruse, a BUS transit operator for nearly 14 years, said she feels misled by the city council. She and the other drivers were of the understanding SEIRPC was hired by the city to help BUS find ways to improve its services, not replace it entirely.
"Instead, they paid them to put a bid in on our job," Schier said.
The main reason BUS finds itself in this position is citywide budget problems. For the last year or so, the city council has strived to drag Burlington's government out of debt, and for years, BUS consistently has drawn a deficit.
Doug Roelfs has been the BUS transit manager for four years. He admitted there's a shortfall in his budget but noted this is not uncommon. Public transit systems across the country usually run deficits, Roelfs said, and he thinks it's unfair for the city to summarily dismantle the service before all other options have been exhausted.
Roelfs pointed out BUS's revenues actually are up from previous years, thanks to increased federal and state funds awarded for a significant up-tick in ridership numbers.
In total, BUS is projected to pull in about $559,000 in local, state and federal assistance funds in fiscal year 2013-2014, an increase of $137,322 from last year.
The bulk of the funds are awarded based on ridership, a figure that has been steadily on the rise since Roelfs came on board four years ago.
"That's been the driving force behind Burlington Urban Service, these drivers right here," Roelfs said. "They take care of the passengers, and that's why our ridership has gone up for the last three to five years."
From 2008 to 2009, the number of bus riders jumped from 131,907 to 150,020. In 2012, BUS saw record-breaking numbers of bus passengers, clocking in at 200,959 rides that year. Roelfs anticipates the number will increase by about 20,000 next year. In 2009 and 2011, BUS received the most improved urban system award from the state, and Roelfs expects to receive it again for 2012 thanks to the record-breaking ridership numbers last year.
But city manager Jim Ferneau said BUS is $35,000 over budget. Even with $943,332 in expenses and $677,500 revenues projected for fiscal year 2013-2014, the transit system's increase in funds doesn't make the cut, Ferneau said. At the end of the day, the city will have to pay $265,832 in fiscal year 2013-2014 to keep the transit service afloat.
Still, the amount the city has to pay for the service is down by about $137,000 from last year, Roelfs said, and the city is already planning to restructure some of BUS's routes for a saving of $50,000.
Roelfs also is considering other measures to offset the cost of the transit service.
With the BUS system's future on the line, Roelfs said he is looking to increase the rates across the board.
The individual ride would go up from $1.25 to $2, the half-month pass from $10 to $15, and the yearlong pass from $150 to $200. A new half-year pass would cost $125.
It appears to be a price at least some of the passengers are willing to pay.
"I would pay twice the amount I pay now," Lindsey said.
"Even if it went up to $3 a ride," White said.
An independent analysis of the BUS system conducted last fall by Bourne Transit included several recommendations for further cost-reducing and revenue-increasing measures.
One of the revenue-generating ideas, projected to raise $5,000 annually, is to use transit's 12 buses for interior and exterior advertising space. Another is to increase the amount West Burlington pays toward the service by $1,000. West Burlington pays $2,000 for use of the service.
Among the cost-reduction ideas is to combine the BUS transit manager position with the SEIBUS transit director's position, at an estimated savings of $30,000. The other recommendation Bourne made is to eliminate Saturday transit service, which could save BUS between $10,000 and $22,000.
Council members Shane McCampbell and Becky Anderson have voiced opposition to contracting with SEIRPC, but as far as the city manager is concerned, BUS has had plenty of time to set its house in order since the SEIRPC began working on its proposal several months ago.
"We have held off, waiting for staff to present a balanced budget, and they haven't gotten it done," Ferneau said.
Schier hopes the city council will table the resolution at its June 3 meeting to facilitate further discussion of other options. She said she thinks the city council is trying to rush the decision, pointing to the lack of public hearings on the subject as indicators.
"At least give us time to come up with ideas for how we could adjust our budget," she said.


This also assumes that you have a reasonably reliable and well-serviced 4wd vehicle and a basic understanding of its operation. Essentially, all items to number eight should be addressed before you venture off into the great back of beyond.
This is stuff you should have in the vehicle 24/7. Here are the basics.
Should include basic items and also a bloodstopper kit.
2.5lb minimum ABC within reach of the driver.
We like a down, rectangular sleeping bag for this.
We typically store water in a Dromedary bag from MSR.
A complete bug-out bag is preferred, but even just starting with a small survival tool kit is sufficient for most adventures. Signaling, fire starting, and a few small tools does the trick.
A fire extinguisher should be mounted in a place with easy access; this unit is mounted directly next to the driver.
You need to have several means of navigation, starting with a paper map of the area. In the US, most states have a Benchmark Atlas that shows roads, trails, and natural features. Buy a compass and learn how to triangulate with it. I prefer a lensatic compass. It is easy to make compass triangulation more complicated that it needs to be, but a basic understanding of triangulation, deviation, and variation are important. Electronic navigation aids are highly effective, but are subject to failure, dead batteries, etc. Use a GPS or smart phone with an understanding of their limitations. Note your location frequently on the paper map and pay attention to your surroundings. I find the Topo Maps app [link] on the iPhone with 7.5 minute USGS topo maps is extremely useful for exploring and has excellent detail and the benefit of the original cartographer's notes.
Have multiple means of communicating while in the backcountry. A HAM radio is most effective and with repeaters or HF you can easily communicate with other travelers or emergency services. A CB can also be a popular means of communication in 4wd clubs, but if you have 10 other rigs with you, then support is already there. For solo travel, a CB has little value or effectiveness. A popular secondary means of communication is the Spot device [link] or a PLB. Effective communications can mean the difference between a great story and a eulogy.
Once basic survival, navigation, and communication is resolved, we can start to add equipment that supports the journey. In the case of tools and equipment, it is important to have a comprehensive, yet compact tool kit. Our recommended tool kit contents will be covered in a future article, but Blue-Point makes a nice car kit as a start and runs $359.95. There are other similar kits from companies like Crescent that are less expensive. You will also want to augment with a 12v repair kit and a small hardware kit. Finish with a spares kit that includes upper and lower radiator hoses, engine belts, fuel filter, and other known failure points. A 12v compressor should be included.
Note: An entire article will be devoted to the tools and spares kit. Remember, weight is an enemy of good handling and durability, so keep the weight low and items to the essential.
Before heading out into the backcountry, ensure that your vehicle has proper chassis mounted recovery points. It is important to understand the difference between a recovery point and a transport point. Most vehicles have transport loops or notches that are used to secure the vehicle to a ship deck, etc. These are not designed for the load of a recovery, which can easily exceed 1x GVWR. Some vehicles have impressive recovery points (The Jeep Wrangler with 2x GVWR) and others have wimpy recovery points (Toyota with .75 GVWR). Make sure your recovery points are rated to 1x GVWR minimum and 2x GVWR preferred. They should be on the front and the rear of the vehicle. A little red paint can make them obvious.
A recovery kit can range from simple to extreme. For my round-the-world trip, we have a fully comprehensive kit that would allow a 300'+ winch pull. Given that this article focuses on the basics, this is our recommendation.
Note: The argument can be made to bring 100 more items than this, but this is a proper basic kit.
Proper loading and lashing is critical to occupant safety and equipment preservation. Anything hard or heavy needs to be secured and the best method for this is with ring or rail mounts. I like the simplicity of the transport loops Expedition Exchange [link] sells as well as the Mac's Custom Tie Down [link] anchor plates. Once strong lashing points are fitted, secure the equipment using straps and ratchets with limited stretch. Bungee cords are not suitable.
Tires are the most common failure mode on any vehicle adventure, so a high-quality brand with Light Truck rating and a strong sidewall are important attributes. Typically, an all terrain tread is best practice, as it affords the best overall performance. Specialized terrain may require other tread designs. It is also recommended that you increase the tire size by one or two steps, but favoring an increase in height over an increase in width. For example, a Discovery I was fitted from the factory with 235/70 R16 tires. A good upgrade is a 245/75 R16, which fits without body modifications. This varies widely by vehicle and some trucks come stock with appropriate tires, like the Wrangler Rubicon for example.
Most vehicles come from the factory with springs that are too soft and shocks that have limited fluid volume and geriatric valving. As a result, the vehicle handles poorly and sags from the load of equipment. For most exploration, the goal is not to simply make the truck taller, but to make it perform better with a load. Avoid 'kits' that only tout inches of 'lift'. Look for manufactures that address load, handling, shock valving, and suspension geometry. Match the increased spring rate to your known equipment load and never exceed the vehicle's GVWR.
This last item is not cheap, but provides some important protection and self-reliance. Reality has shown that animal strikes are a real and constant threat on long trips and in remote areas. Hit a deer on a backroad without a good roo-bar and the trip is over. A quality bumper [link] will also provide recovery points and provision for an electric winch. In most exploration and remote travel scenarios, a winch is an invaluable tool. Most stuck scenarios can be resolved with the recovery equipment listed above – a winch solves the others. A winch requires additional equipment and training for safe and best use.
In nearly all scenarios a winch should be installed before adding cross-axle differential locks and other traction devices. In an extreme scenario, a winch [link] provides greater control and slow progress, all while limiting the chance of a roll-over.
This article is not intended to address camping and support equipment.
This article is not intended for recreational off-road travel in a club / large group, although most of the logic applies.
Scott Brady is an adventure traveler, publisher and photographer, best known for his overland travels by 4wd and adventure motorcycle on six continents and for being the founder of the website expeditionportal.com and the print publication Overland Journal (co-founder). As a driver, Scott is the only American to win the rugged Outback Challenge and has completed a full land circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere, starting in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and ending in Magadan, Russia. Scott's articles and photography have been featured in dozens of print publications and his adventures have been viewed on television programming in 120 countries. Scott lives in Prescott, Arizona and is currently completing a two-year, seven-continent expedition using Toyota VDJ78 Land Cruisers (Expeditions 7).


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Ecobank Report: Most African Regulators Are Taking a "Wait and See" Approach to Cryptocurrency Regulation
Rachael Odhiambo
While there has been a substantial increase in the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Africa compared to three years ago, there has been minimal effort from African countries to try and regulate cryptocurrencies despite their increased use in various African nations according to a new report by Ecobank.
Ecobank tracked "the current state of cryptocurrency regulation in all markets in Sub-Saharan Africa" through the regulatory responses that have been issued by central banks or financial regulators. In the report, the pan-African bank found that most African regulators are taking a "wait and see" approach when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation.
The report stated: "Many African governments and regulators recognise both the risks and the potential positive impacts of cryptocurrencies, and some also appreciate the difference between cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology. But they have been reticent in authorising cryptocurrency transactions, and mostly remain apprehensive about the potential risks. African countries appear to be looking to their neighbours to regulate and innovate first, and learn from their mistakes, rather than being the first mover."
The reported noted that the main reason why African governments were being skeptical about licensing the use of cryptocurrencies was their citizens getting overexposed to cryptocurrency investments and there being a future crash that would cause a ripple effect in the broader economy.
African Regulators' Stance
Out of the 39 jurisdictions surveyed, more than 21 countries in the region are yet to make a public declaration on the use of cryptocurrencies.
So far, there have been three countries that have taken a stance on cryptocurrency. Namibia tops the list having banned the commercial use of digital currencies. However, South Africa and Swaziland are the only two countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that have adopted "a generally favourable and permissive stance, but without full legality".
The remaining countries fall somewhere in between and "refuse" to directly regulate cryptocurrencies claiming that bitcoin and other digital currencies "operate in the grey area between legality and illegality" and have issued warnings to their citizens and investors against using or investing in them. The bank also noted that conversations regarding the speculative nature and instability of cryptocurrency prices have overshadowed their benefits and the potential they bring.
The bank went ahead to note: "Unfortunately, the spectacular rise and fall in the traded value of cryptocurrencies has drowned out broader discussion on the potential benefits this new technology could bring. The transformational impact that could be delivered by tokenising products and services on the blockchain has been compared to that of the Internet. Crypto tokens and currencies could enable consumers to transact instantly, cross-border and for free, provide them with KYC-compliant digital IDs, and incentivise their behaviour and change the way they engage with governments & service providers."
Ecobank will continue to track cryptocurrency regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa and provide regular updates that will reflect the regulation progress in the African nations.
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November 30, 2019: OKEX and BitcoinKE Partner for a FREE Crypto Margin Trading Class
After a full-house event in Nairobi for the CrypTour through Africa, OKEx is back again to host its popular Genesis Trading Classe, titled "Crypto Margin Trading."
The class will cover the following:
Basics of crypto trading
Reading of trading charts
among other topics.
You don't want to miss this exciting class!
Come and network with other crypto enthusiasts over drinks and snacks. There will be a jam-packed list of speakers who will also be joining for this class.
DATE: SATURDAY, 30TH, NOVEMBER 2019
VENUE: MARBLE ARCH HOTEL, LAGOS RD, OFF TOM MBOYA STREET, NAIROBI, KENYA
REGISTER: http://bit.ly/BITCOINKEOKEX2019
Retired NBA Player Allegedly Scammed Ghanaian Company Out of $825,000 in Bitcoin
Angeline Mbogo
Retired NBA player, Isaac Edward Austin, has allegedly scammed a Ghanaian Company out of $825,000 in bitcoin (BTC). The money was reportedly acquired with the promise of investing it in a bitcoin automated trading programme.
Bitcoin Investment Scam
Through the Isaac Edward Austin (IEA) and Tudor Trust, Austin reportedly masqueraded as a trustee with the ability to help a Ghanaian company make a profit on a bitcoin investment. The two parties signed a contract on July 3, 2019. This contract is among other documents that have been shared on mynewsgh.com indicating the scam took place.
The company sent to a bitcoin investment at a strike price of $11,000 per bitcoin, totaling to $825,000, to Austin expecting to receive back the original investment plus profits. However, Austin failed to make the payment at the close of trading as per the agreement.
A victim of Austin's scam shared his experience as follows: "He will take your BTC and you will never get your investment back or your returns. On the day of payment, he will tell you story after story filled with lies of issues why the BTC could not be delivered on the day of payment. From him having a heart attack, to the coin being sent to the wrong wallet, to him being in a queue at the bank, to him waiting for the trade to conclude, to the funds being held by the bank. Week after week after week of unresolved issues even when he has confirmed the day before that all is set 1000 percent to deliver and conclude the transaction. He is a fraudster of the highest order. Stay away from him. We have all the proof – contracts, letters, and messages."
One of the other documents mynewsgh.com obtained is a letter sent to Austin notifying him of his failure to meet the agreed terms of the contract. The Ghanaian company expected their money back on the same day they signed the contract with Austin. The funds expected should have been 75 BTC going for a strike price of $11,000.
In the letter, the company gave Austin 48 hours to pay them their money – failure to which they were going to take legal action.
Is the Scammer an Imposter?
According to the documents shared on Ghana Web, the bitcoin scammer's date of birth and height is similar to the former NBA player, Isaac Edward "Ike" Austin as indicated on Wikipedia. So, could this be a case of a retired basketball player turning into a scammer or is someone impersonating him? The answer to this question is unclear.
This LinkedIn profile of an Isaac Austin, who has been the Finance Director and Trustee of Tudor Trust and Finance Society LLC since June 2012, does not seem authentic. Although this profile has some similarities to the former NBA player's personal information as written on Wikipedia, the years he attended Arizona State do not coincide.
Furthermore, the profile on LinkedIn says Isaac Austin took a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences for one year which is not the usual study period for a degree course. There is also no mention of the former NBA player being a trustee of IEA and Tudor Trust.
The upturn of the crypto market experienced in mid-2019 appears to have spurred scammers into action. This scam comes after another bitcoin investment deal in Nairobi went wrong between December 2018 and May 2019.
That said, these scam stories are a lesson to potential bitcoin investors that they are better off managing their own investments as opposed to handing funds to someone to manage them. If the Ghanaian company had carried out thorough research, perhaps they would have noticed the obvious red flags.
The Golix Controversy: Has the African Exchange "Exit Scammed" Users And Investors?
Terence Zimwara
Prior to May 2018, Zimbabwe-based bitcoin exchange Golix was bullish about its future prospects. The startup claimed it had raised $32 million from a token sale and had plans to set up operations in several other African countries. However, more than a year later, the digital asset exchange has had a reversal of fortunes and, after its forced shutdown in Zimbabwe, some of Golix's former clients are struggling to get their funds reimbursed despite promises and frantic efforts to recover these.
Embezzlement Allegations
Former Golix users now point to possible embezzlement of funds by Golix executives while one investor in the startup blames the hostile operating environment as the reason for the company's general failure.
Tawanda Kembo was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Golix when it was shut down in Zimbabwe. Bitcoin Africa reached out to him to get his side of the story but he had not responded to our questions at the time of publishing.
However, Bitcoin Africa still managed to contact Taurai Chinyamakubvu, an individual who says he was an investor in the company. Chinyamakubvu claimed he is not aware if client funds had been reimbursed or not since he was not involved in the day to day affairs of the crypto startup.
"On funds, you can check with the CEO, he was doing the day to day stuff. I was just an investor," Chinyamakubvu pushed back when asked if they had recovered client funds that were reportedly locked in banks.
In May 2018, Zimbabwe's central bank issued a directive that forbade financial institutions from dealing with crypto exchanges. According to Golix, this led to banks blocking access to client funds and the company from using the financial system.
Central Bank Defiance And Crypto Adoption
When asked why Golix had not resumed operations following a High Court ruling that set aside the central bank order, Chinyamakubvu suggested that Golix's Zimbabwe operations remain hamstrung by the central bank's reluctance to lift the order.
"They (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) did not lift the order they sent to banks. So no bank wants to defy a regulator. But that said, you muddy the water once, that's enough to change its colour for a while," he stated.
Chinyamakubvu is convinced that the central bank's apparent defiance of a court ruling continues to hinder the growth of the crypto space in a country that should be embracing privately-issued cryptocurrencies.
Zimbabwe has been plagued by hyperinflation for the past two decades, which is spurred on by a volatile fiat currency. Critics point to the central bank's penchant for unrestrained printing of money as the main cause of the country's currency troubles.
The Golix investor called the central bank's decision to shut down the crypto exchange 'retrogressive'.
Ironically, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently announced the setting up of a committee to study financial technologies such as bitcoin. The regulator now says it wants to come up with what it calls a "National Fintech Strategy."
Disappeared Client Funds
Bitcoin Africa also reached out to former Golix clients as it tried to establish what happened with their funds. Some did not respond but a few did – although they requested anonymity. One lady, in particular, expressed exasperation with the way Golix has been handling the issue.
"I do not know about others but I still have not been reimbursed. Tawanda (CEO of Golix) has made several promises to settle but nothing has happened," claimed the lady who preferred to remain anonymous.
She further explained that currently there is nothing noteworthy happening but promised to reveal more details as and when they become known.
Kembo on the Run?
Following the central bank decision to stifle cryptocurrency trading, some crypto traders have gone on to create informal trading platforms using social media networks like Whatsapp, Telegram, and Facebook.
Bitcoin Africa was also able to get access to one such Whatsapp chat group feed wherein clients are discussing strategies of recovering funds from Golix. In a discussion that occurred in July 2019, one member of the group asks fellow members to furnish her with information that includes Kembo's personal identification number or even a vehicle registration number. This could then be used to help a hired tracing agent to locate him.
Tawanda Kembo, Golix CEO
It is apparent from the discussions that Kembo has made several promises – including re-payment plans – to reimburse but nothing has happened to date. Adding intrigue to the controversy, this client claims Tawanda told them he had lost the key to the cold storage wallet. Thus, he could not access the bitcoin.
Keys to a crypto wallet are essentially a passcode that grants access to funds and without them, the funds are lost and cannot be recovered.
In the meantime, another post on the same thread suggests that Chinyamakubvu was being disingenuous when he expressed ignorance about the status of client funds. In the post, another member insists that prior to the central bank order, Golix was asked to remove all funds before accounts were closed.
The anonymous member was referring to a part of the central bank circular to banks which states the following:
"Exit any existing relationships with virtual currency exchanges within sixty days of the date of this Circular and proceed to liquidate and restitute existing account balances."
This central bank circular was issued on May 11, 2018, and Golix seemingly had enough time to exit from banks as well as to reimburse clients.
No Consumer Protection
The anonymous member suggests that since this did not happen, the issue should now be treated as a criminal case.
It is apparent from the rest of the discussion that members were aware of the risks involved with crypto businesses. The central bank had warned the public of risks of dealing with cryptocurrencies and associated businesses prior to Golix's demise.
Zimbabwe does not have consumer protection laws that specifically deal cryptocurrencies and those dealing with such digital currencies do so at own risk, a point clearly articulated by the central bank circular. Perhaps it is with this in mind that some Golix clients are now pursuing fraud charges against Golix executives.
Lack of legal protection is another factor inhibiting the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies but that may yet change as the central bank is now having a change of heart.
Bitcoin Africa will continue to follow the events surrounding the alleged exit scam of Golix and update our readers when new information surfaces.
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New fully complete and tutorial-focused example models: Oil Terminal, Schedule Created Programmatically, Create Rail Yard by Code, Create Network by Code.
New GIS maps: If your models were built using MapQuest, connect to the Internet to update them.
New Road Traffic Library Features.
View the full list of updates on AnyLogic.com.


The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced on May 1 the approval of a US$20 million loan to Nicaragua for renewable energy generation projects. The amount will be distributed through loans from private banks to small and medium-sized local enterprises.
In 2017, the IDB disbursed US$130 million in loans for the II Productivity Improvement Program in Nicaragua and the III Program to Strengthen the Electricity Sector in Nicaragua.
According to sources from the Government of Nicaragua, an IDB delegation that visited the country last January assessed the projects under cooperation as positive. Currently, the IDB program in Nicaragua exceeds US$300 million.
According to the Official Foreign Cooperation Report published by the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN by its acronym in Spanish), in the first semester of 2017, foreign cooperation reached US$404.9 million, of which US$271.2 million corresponded to the public sector and US$133.7 million to the private sector. According to the report, total cooperation increased by 3.9 percent, compared to the same period last year.
What Will You Be Left Holding After The Next Economic Correction?


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Two Novels about Nepal
Spilled Ink Issue 182 Feb, 2017
Text by Don Messerschmidt
On Sherpa speak, and a 'coals to Newcastle' effect
I recently read a YA 'thriller' entitled 'The Everest Files', by Matt Dickinson. The cover blurb on this Young Adult novel (ages 12-20) shouts: 'A Missing Teenage Climber. A Trail of Deadly Clues. Mystery on the World's Highest Peak'. It's an alluring tale about a young Western lad named Ryan who sets out to solve the mystery of 16-year old Kami Sherpa who gets into trouble on Everest and goes missing.
The author knows Himalayan mountaineering well; and Sherpas, up to a point. During the deadly spring of 1996, Dickinson climbed Everest's North Face, and with Sherpa help, survived that year's catastrophically bad weather. He writes about it in 'Death Zone: Climbing Everest through the Killer Storm' and 'Everest: Triumph and Tragedy on the World's Highest Peak'.
He also writes novels for both adult and YA readers. Another of his YA stories is called 'Mortal Chaos'. Its cover blurb declares: 'Some Will Live. Many Will Die. All Are Connected'. The plot is based on 'the butterfly effect' from scientific chaos theory, which posits that a single occurrence of something in one place, no matter how inconsequential, may be connected to a serious problem somewhere else. (Perhaps something as insignificant as a butterfly flying here leads to a great effect, like a storm, elsewhere.)
'The Everest Files' is not so ambitious. It's a good yarn, but as I read it, I became uncomfortable with how Dickinson presented Sherpas speaking English both to foreign climbers and among themselves. Some of their dialogue sounds too idiomatically Western, I thought.
It's not easy for foreigners to write novels about Nepal, to convincingly portray linguistic nuances and cultural idiosyncrasies that they may not appreciate or comprehend. Writers run the risk of undermining the integrity of their stories by fudging facts and accuracy. Here's a random sample of dialogue from 'The Everest Files':
Back in the kitchen Kami rounded on the other two. 'You shouldn't get involved with that guy,' he told them sharply.
'Why not?' Nima shrugged. 'Money is money, right?'
'Can't you see he's stirring things up? He's a troublemaker.'
Pemba turned on Kami. 'So what? […] If we can make some honest money out of it then who cares?'
'Anyway, maybe nothing's going to happen,' Nima said.
This conversation and others do not ring true (to my ears) of how young expedition Sherpas from the villages typically speak. On the other hand, however, we don't want them reduced to mouthing some stodgy form of 'pidgin English' that sounds silly.
Back in 2011, I described a more serious flaw in another story also set in a Sherpa village. In his novel 'And Not to Yield', author James Ramsey Ullman had a different problem; he lacked basic cultural exposure to Sherpa village life.
Ullman began writing the novel in 1963 while in Nepal preparing 'Americans on Everest', the official account of that year's American Mount Everest Expedition. He stayed at the old Royal Hotel, and though you'd think he would endeavor to gain a solid understanding of Khumbu village life, he never went there; he never left Kathmandu.
In the book, a young American climber falls in love with a Sherpa girl, goes to live in her village in Khumbu, and while there, in reciprocity for her love and Sherpa hospitality, he decides to introduce something novel to the hapless folks: toilets.
Unfortunately for Ullman, however, building toilets for Sherpas is like delivering "coals to Newcastle" (a well-known British coal town). Imagine an outsider introducing daal-bhaat to the Nepalis. What Ullman didn't know was that virtually all Sherpa houses already had privies. Toilets are a vital source of 'night soil' with which to fertilize the potato fields.
Aspiring novelists take note: while Dickinson's dilemma is distracting, Ullman's is far more serious. The point is that, flaws like theirs highlight the trouble foreign writers can get into. Solid background research is essential to writing good cross-cultural prose.
Dickinson's 'The Everest Files' was published in 2014. For a list of Matt Dickinson books, with reviews, go to his author's page at Amazon.com. Ullman's book 'And Not to Yield' came out in 1970. For an earlier critique of it, see 'Fact and Fiction, Salt and Swing' archived online at ecs.com.np.
Jan, 2020 Issue 218 Evangeline Neve
If you are already wise to the ways of CSGN, feel free to skip to...
Back after a dozen years: Tistung Jatra
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The festival had begun when we reached the venue, where a small assembly of fun and curious...
Purification and Cleansing for the Year Ahead: the Rite of Mha Puja
Nov, 2019 Issue 216 Swosti Rjbhandari Kayastha
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Everest: Reflections on the Solukhumbu by Sujoy Das and Lisa Choegyal
Sep, 2019 Issue 214 Evangeline Neve
From trekkers crossing ice fields to panorama of the Everest range at night, the sweeping photos that open the...
Adapting the Khumbu: Scientists grapple with climate impacts in Everest region
Aug, 2019 Issue 213 Chilton Tippin
When Alton Byers received a box of old photographs from his mentor, the acclaimed mountain geographer Jack D. Ives, he...
The Art in Bangdel's Novels
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After graduating in 1945 with a degree in Fine Arts from Calcutta, the young man who was destined...