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The New Politics of British Local Governance
Escape for the Summer
The New Chinese Empire And What It Means For The United States
Christopher Levett, of York; The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Volume 5
Christopher Levett, of York; The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Volume 5. James Phinney Ed Baxter
Author: James Phinney Ed Baxter
Published Date: 12 Sep 2013
Publisher: Theclassics.Us
Publication City/Country: none
Imprint: none
Dimension: 189x 246x 2mm| 95g
Download Link: Christopher Levett, of York; The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Volume 5
Christopher Levett, of York; The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Volume 5 download PDF, EPUB, Kindle . Metro. 513,102 (US: 104th). Time zone UTC 5 (EST). Summer (DST), UTC 4 (EDT). ZIP Codes. 04101 04104, 04108 04109, 04112, 04116, 04122 04124. ship in Wabanki society is provided by Christopher Levett. His account Page 5 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1st series, Vol. 1. [1624.] Pp. 78-139 in Christopher Levett of York, The Pioneer Colonist in. Casco Bay. Casco Bay Volume 5. By Ed James Phinney Baxter. To get Christopher Levett, of York; The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Volume 5 PDF, remember to. John Wingate Thornton, Maine Historical Society's Collections, 5, 195, wrote, "There was Christopher Levett of York, England, the Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, To the memoir of Levett in this volume the writer is chiefly indebted for the Excerpt from Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay A written by Levett to Buckingham's Secretary; the letter book of Lord Conway, settlers into this worldview and the conflicts that arose when colonists failed to Christopher Levett, the first Englishman to travel the Presumpscot, noted of. Casco Bay in 1623: There hath been more fish taken within two leagues of Page 5 Small promised to pay a gallon of liquor and a trading coat every year (York. Read Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay book Paperback: 202 pages; Publisher: Nabu Press; Primary Source ed. edition (5 Ebook téléchargement gratuit deutsch pdf Martine's Hand-Book Of Etiquette, And Christopher Levett, Of York: The Pioneer Colonist In Casco Bay (1893) PDF. BC05, Maine Families in 1790 - Volume 5, Edited by, Joseph Crook Anderson BC06, York Deeds Book I, published, Maine Historical Society BC14, Christopher Levett: Pioneer Colonist Casco Bay 1623, Baxter, James Phinney, 2000.1.5. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, Christopher Levett, of York; the Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, Volume 5 An Historical Sketch, Guide Book, and Prospectus of Cushing's Island: Casco Bay, Coast of Maine. William M. was Captain Christopher Levett, a gentleman of good family who had already filled In the way between York and Sagadahock lieth Cascoe, a good harbor, good fishing He was one of the pioneers in the. 5. Anable, Anthony. THE RIVERSIDE YACHT CLUB CENTENNIAL LOG. 1888-1988. Riverside, CT. (1989) CHRISTOPHER LEVETT OF YORK, THE PIONEER COLONIST IN CASCO BAY. Portland, ME 1893. b/w plates. xii, Brewington, M.V. CHESAPEAKE BAY BUGEYES. Newport News, VA. 1941. b/w Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 2 Skelton5 and Capt 263Leavett6 we that were of the Assistantes and some other Baxter, Christopher Levett, of York, The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay (Gorges Society, 1893) v., especially 1 77. 1 History; 2 St Oswald's Church; 3 Business; 4 Amenities; 5 Places of Christopher Levett of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, James and wrote a book about his voyage to drum up support for the settlement. Portland is on a peninsula in Casco Bay on the Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean. On November 5, 2013, Portland voters overwhelmingly approved an Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, 1. Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine: Volumes 1-2. 1. The Baxter Manuscripts: Volume 5. Pyenson Lab - National Museum of Natural History Unearthed 5 Dec 2016 It is also 9780470656587, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. Christopher Levett, of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay (1893) land Harbor, Maine, written first-hand in 1628 by Christopher Levett. (1893:117-118). Page 5 alities. Yet the major thrust of the book is that Eckstorm's father and in Christopher Levett of York, The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay. James Abortion, in rural communities, 1904-1931, 51:5 28 Acadia, Maine, and New Scotland: Marginal Colonies in the Seventeenth Court Records of York County, Maine, Province of Massachusetts Bay, "A Note on the Publication Dates of Christopher Levett's A Voyage into "the girls from Casco," 40:259 278.
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MCM: not capitalized but italicized.
An editor may refer to multiple species using the abbreviation spp.
Clematis terniflora, C. macropetala, C. recta.
• Varieties and forms: minor subdivisions of a species, differing slightly in their botanical structure. Indicated by var. and f. in roman type.
• Hybrids: (or crosses) naturally or artificially produced offspring of genetically distinct parent plants. Use a Dimension X to indicate hybrids.
Rhododendron 'Elsie Frye', Sedum 'Autumn Joy', and Lilium 'Côte d' Azur'.
Note: It is not always necessary to include both cultivar name and species name. Use is at the editor's discretion.
• Mix, Series, Strain: Multiples of a single cultivar. When using strain, mix, or series with a cultivar name, such as Consolida Cloudy Skies Mix, don't use single quotes around the cultivar name ('Cloudy Skies' in this example). When naming a specific color in the cultivar group, do use single quotes (Consolida 'Cloudy Skies Blue'). See also Trademarked Plants.


We are a weekend away from selecting our Team B.C. swimmers for the Pacific Coast All-Star Meet. I have recompiled the top 8 times in the eligible selection events, the list should include all of the major meets held last weekend throughout the province.
The list is based on eligible swimmers for selection, which is aged 11-14 as of January 08, 2011, the first day of the meet. The meet selection period runs from September 15 to December 13 2010. Results must be from swim meets only, time trials and relay lead-off swims are not eligible. Last year the racing for selection went right down to the last meets and sometimes the last race!


Grand Tahoe style home w/ open beam cathedral ceilings, beautiful rock work inside & out, reclaimed pine finishes, scraped Doug fir flooring in great room, travertine tile, slab granite & limestone finishes throughout. Nestled on a level lot backing to open space. Features 4 bedrooms including 2 master suites, 3 baths & a beautiful great room opening to an expansive deck backing to openspace. Home meticulously maintained: new furnace & water heater ('16), furniture & electronic upgrades. Sold Furnished.


Post-Doctoral Research Fellow – Global Centre for Evidence-based Corrections and Sentencing (GCECS), Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University, is searching for one Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to become part of a collaborative corrections and sentencing research team (start date negotiable but no later than January 2014).
This is a fixed term (two years), full time position based at the Mt Gravatt campus.
The Post-Doctoral Research Fellow will work at the GCECS as part of a team conducting a variety of adult and juvenile corrections and sentencing research projects, including Queensland-focused research on correctional performance measurement, and selected comparative research projects conducted in collaboration with our global research consortium partners.
The Fellow will work autonomously based on direction provided by the Centre Director, and will contribute to the intellectual thrust of the GCECS. The role will include day-to-day management of one specific research project, and the supervision of casual research assistants.
This is an excellent opportunity for an early career researcher with a background and interest in corrections-focused research looking to expand his/her research and publication portfolio. We are particularly interested in applicants with a research focus on the social ecology of corrections, who are interested in conducting empirical research that furthers our understanding of the link between individual-level and community-level change strategies. A recent PhD in criminology, criminal justice, or a related social science is required. The successful applicant will have experience in conducting applied corrections/sentencing research and demonstrated skills in research design, and quantitative data analysis, including multi-level modelling. Excellent time management and organizational skills are also needed, along with the ability to produce research reports and academic publications in a timely manner, and to work both independently and as part of the GCECS team.
Both non-residents and Australian citizens or residents may apply. Recipients must reside in Australia for the full term of the Fellowship.
Research Fellow, Grade 1: $63,153 – $74,287 per annum. Salary package including 17% employer superannuation contribution: $73,889 – $86,917 per annum.
For application queries, contact Ms Samantha Byrne, HR Officer on +61 (0) 7 3735 4062.
Closing date: Monday 2 December 2013 4.30pm AEST.
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Tag Archives: Father-Son Relationships
Pictures and Records
11 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, culture, Eclectic, eclectic music, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, music, My Father, New York City, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Upper West Side, Youth
"Method of Modern Love" (1984), "Roxanne, 45 Singles, 616, 616 East Lincoln Avenue, Brothers, Cassette Tapes, Darren, Doug E. Fresh, Father-Son Relationships, Hall & Oates, Jimme, Live Aid, Mother-Son Relationship, Nathan Hale Elementary, Photos, Pictures, Play Fighting, Polaroid, Record Player, Roxanne" (1984), Turntable, Vinyl Records, Walkman
Me & Darren at gate to Nathan Hale ES playground, Mount Vernon, NY, February 1975. [At 425 South Sixth, we lived just two doors down from Nathan Hale and its playground area/parking lot.] (My Mom).
There are some things that most folks — at least most in the US — take for granted that I had very little of growing up and into adulthood. Certainly love was one of those things, but I've told that story as a running theme many times over the past seven years and eight months. On a more materialistic note, the things that provide pleasant memories of childhood even in the midst of suffering and sorrow, like pictures and records, were also rarities for me as well. As I said in the Preface to Boy @ The Window, photos "are among those smallest and most awesome of things. Perhaps because so few of mine survived to childhood." This lack of evidence of my existence and importance prior to college is a story of poverty, of course. But it's also a story of what's important to do and feel and say, even in the midst of poverty, abuse and domestic violence.
One of the five surviving photos in my possession from my childhood is a picture of me with my older brother Darren covering my mouth as we stood at the playground gate right next to Nathan Hale Elementary School. It was February '75, and I was in the second half of kindergarten. We took this picture on a Saturday, with both our Mom and our father Jimme there. Believe it or not, we were on our way to play on the asphalt playground and basketball court, walking around the neighborhood that was Nathan Hale and South Sixth Avenue on Mount Vernon, New York's South Side. This was a memorable event only because it was also a very rare event. That our Mom took us somewhere that didn't have anything to do with grocery shopping, clothes' buying or laundry washing. That our father was also along for the event, actually sober and not arguing with or threatening our Mom.
A better picture of Darren and me, taken in April 1975, Sears, Mount Vernon, NY, July 6, 2006. (Donald Earl Collins).
It was also an outing where Darren and I had been horsing around, calling each other names. Just before our Mom started snapping pictures with her old Polaroid, Darren had put me in a headlock and punched me in my forehead for calling him a "dummy." He then covered my mouth as I kept calling him a dummy, all while our Mom snapped the first picture. "Y'all keep it up, you're gonna get your asses whupped," Mom said to get us to stop. And we did stop fighting just long enough to snap a better picture, although it didn't survive very long.
As far as I can remember, this was the next to last time all four of us were out together as a family. The last time came in June '76, when my Mom introduced me to basketball, only to tell me she would "never show me how to play basketball again" because I became frustrated with getting the ball high enough to the hoop. I was six years old at the time.
Ten years after we took the Nathan Hale playground picture, Darren and I had become enamored with music to begin consuming it. Darren had bought himself a turntable at the end of '84, for the wonderful price of $15 (it would probably be $175 in today's money because of today's lopsided supply and demand for vinyl in an mp3 age). But we had zero experience buying records, and our Mom's limited collection of Al Green, Diana Ross and The Supremes and Gladys Knight and The Pips had been destroyed long ago in the midst of her breakup with our father. Our idiot stepfather Maurice had 8-track and vinyl collections (especially The Commodores and The Ohio Players) that he had given away when he converted to the Hebrew-Israelite cult in 1980-81.
Darryl Hall & John Oates, "Method of Modern Love" 45, circa 1984-85, February 11, 2015. (http://www.thespacebar.co.uk/).
So we bought whatever we heard on WBLS-107.5 or WPLJ-95.5 FM, without the benefit of music videos or without the influence of parents and classmates. Darren bought Doug E. Fresh, Grandmaster Flash, UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne," and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. My first purchases were to support Live Aid's anti-famine work in Ethiopia, via "Do They Know It's Christmas." The first 45 I bought for us to play on Darren's turntable, though, was Hall & Oates' "Method of Modern Love," which reached number five on Billboard's pop charts about this time thirty years ago. It was an interesting foray into music beyond the radio, at least for me. Darren would tell me how "wack" my music was, and I'd say, "you don't even like rap. You're just listenin' to it because you like girls now!"
This first effort at consuming music didn't last long. It took money and weekly trips to the city to find vinyl to support it, and in early '85, we simply didn't have enough money to shop at Tower Records and Crazy Eddie's for the stuff we wanted every week. At least not yet. Plus, we broke the turntable that spring, and with the rise of the Sony Walkman and cheap cassette tapes, we were on our way to truly getting into the '80s before the '90s arrived.
I no longer have that Hall & Oates single (although I do have it on my iPod). But I do have memories of my brother Darren, memories where we were still actually brothers to each other. Memories of rivalry, jealousy, fighting, even love. All in the time of choking poverty and emotional neglect.
The Comedy of a Tragic Upbringing
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon New York, Movies, My Father, New York City, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Youth
616, 616 East Lincoln Avenue, Alchemy, Alcoholism, Autobiography, Child Abuse, Comedy, D.L. Hughley, Dave Chappelle, Domestic Violence, Eddie Murphy, Evangelical Christianity, Father-Son Relationships, Fatism, Ghetto Klown (2014), John Leguizamo, Lewis Black, Mother-Son Relationship, Neglect, Physical Violence, Playwright, Poverty, Psychological Abuse, Respectability Politics, Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Routines, Stand-Up Comedy, Tragedy, Transmutation
John Leguizamo playing 'Abuelo' in Tales from a Ghetto Klown, PBS Arts Festival, July 2012. (http://www.pbs.org).
Over New Year's weekend, I watched John Leguizamo's HBO comedy special Ghetto Klown (2014), based on one of his one-man autobiographical Broadway shows. I don't think of Leguizamo as funny in the same way I think of Lewis Black or Dave Chappelle or Eddie Murphy. The sweet spot for me in terms of what is funny or not funny is a routine that makes me think for a second or two, not just laugh out of sheer expectations for a funny delivery or line. Otherwise, I'd think of D.L. Hughley as a great comedian, instead of as a vile one with equally vile opinions on race and culture.
Leguizamo's hardly the funniest comedian. But then again, he's always been more than one thing. He's essentially a playwright, an actor, and comedian, which means Leguizamo's a very elaborate storyteller. In most of his work, a nonfiction storyteller. I've seen some of his other one-man work before. With Ghetto Klown, though, I saw and felt the sense of tragedy and regret that I hadn't seen in his other plays and specials. Especially when it came to his family — specifically his father — and his closest friends.
When Leguizamo went through his routine about how his mother and father were upset with him about he had portrayed them in his plays as somewhat selfish and oftentimes neglectful and abusive, I understood. I've only written one book about my life, and my Mom and dad have both been offended by the idea that I could write about them without their permission or blessings. Leguizamo used them as bits for his comedy and Broadway stage routines for years. That's a lot of courage, and it's a lot of tragedy to expose, too.
Transmutation of lead bars into gold, March 2013. (http://quazoo.com).
I've thought about it a few times over the past fifteen years. What if I decided to do a stand-up routine that included elements of my upbringing? How would I do that? How would I make domestic violence and child abuse and poverty funny?
I'd start with my father, who I'd call Jimme and my father interchangeably, since that's been the nature of our relationship for forty-five years. I've been able to imitate his language, his drunken stupor, his evil meanness and off-kilter mannerisms since I was fifteen. It would be easy enough to do all of his "po' ass muddafucka…" insults in bar scenes, all while getting robbed and beaten up by other alcoholics.
I could also do my now deceased ex-stepfather Maurice, especially his constant threats to put me in the hospital or kill me. "Watch dat base in yo' voice, boy, 'fore I cave yo' chest in!," he started saying to me once my voice changed with puberty. I could imitate Maurice when he weighed over 400 pounds and wore size-54 Fruit-of-the-Loom briefs around 616, with enough fat and dinginess to make me wanna puke.
I could even imitate my Mom, at least on the threatening front. If I argued with her too long about something important that she didn't want to talk about (like paying bills, for instance), she'd tell me, "Shut up o' I'ma gonna cut the piss out of you." Or I could run around a stage singing at the top of my lungs to evangelical Christian music while also acting like my younger brothers, who'd get into knockdown fights in the living room while my Mom was in her spiritual zone.
The fact is, some of the best comedy grows out of tragedy. It may not be funny to the respectable middle class types or the respectability politics types. They both would prefer people "forget about" their pasts and "just move on," as if these issues are taboo. But you can't be a very good comedian or writer without confronting your upbringing in some way.
Richard Pryor doing stand up, posted August 11, 2014. (http://deadline.com).
I attempted at times in Boy @ The Window to inject some sarcasm or comedy in many of the tragic scenes in the book. Because they reflecting my thinking in the moments in which they occurred, whether in '82 or '88. The few people who commented on this aspect of the memoir didn't like the comedy or the language. It was because they couldn't reconcile the mild-mannered version of myself that I presented to the world in high school or in academia with the way in which I grew up.
Watching Leguizamo in Ghetto Klown reminded me of what I learned in watching Rodney Dangerfield (who himself was sexually abused and neglected by his parents growing up) and Richard Pryor (the son of an active and neglectful prostitute) over the years. We all have baggage and demons to deal with every day of our lives. We ignore that past and those evils at risk to ourselves and every person we've ever loved. We must turn the tragedy of our upbringing into something that isn't just a cancer of pain. Be it through storytelling, autobiography, even the kind of comedy that those whose lives were much more stable growing up can appreciate but can never fully understand.
Out There In The World
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, culture, Eclectic, eclectic music, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, music, My Father, New York City, Pop Culture, University of Pittsburgh, Youth
616, 616 East Lincoln Avenue, Alcoholism, Camping, Camping Trip, Drug Abuse, Drugs, Father-Son Relationships, Mother-Son Relationship, Overnight Stays, Pam, Walks
Last week, my son went with his classmates on his first overnight trip without me or his mother, a middle school "camping" trip in the forests of Montgomery County, Maryland. He was gone fifty-two hours, just a bit more than two days, checking out wildlife and sitting around a campfire. My son came back on his bus, worn out with equally worn out sneakers and clothes, smelling of river and bad cafeteria food. Boy did I miss him. But at least I knew where he was, more or less.
Some of the dorms at Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center, Rockville, MD, December 12, 2014. (http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/).
I did no such trips like the one my son did until the day I went off to Pittsburgh and college, some twenty-seven years ago. Let me repeat. Not one overnight trip on my own or with my classmates growing up. The closest I came to being out in the world, other than my 10,000 walks to the store or up Route 22 or down in the Bronx, was in the years my father Jimme would take me and my older brother Darren for a day, only for it to turn into a weekend. With a couple of exceptions, all of these extended excursions occurred before we started working with our father in the city in the fall of '84. Most of them happened before I turned thirteen and had to resort to hunting down my father every Friday or Saturday for a few extra dollars, for me and for helping out my Mom.
At least a dozen times between April '79 and September '84, we ended up with Jimme overnight. In the days without cellphones and with my father never having his own landline, he'd and we'd have to call my Mom from a pay phone to let her know how we were. There were plenty of those nights in which I didn't want to call my Mom or go home.
Lionel Richie on a mock-missing-person's flyer, March 20, 2011. (Chris Glass/Flickr.com).
This despite the fact that every time we did an overnight or, on three occasions, back-to-back overnights, Jimme was lit. How it happened depended on at what point during the weekend he'd pick us up. If my father came over early enough on a Friday evening to take us out for a pizza or Mickey D's or a movie, he's sometimes have a Miller or a Schlitz with him, in his coat pocket, ready to drink after the sober version of himself had picked us up from 616. Or, much more often, Jimme would fulfill his Saturday fatherly duties by picking us up, usually between 10 am and 1 pm, take us out to eat, and then swing by one or more of his drinking buddy's places, where he could get his fill of beer or malt liquor, move on to stronger stuff, and lose track of time.
Ida's place, Lo's stoop, Pam's den, it really didn't seem to matter to our father. These were his easy places to drink, to hang out, to tell the world how much of "a big shot" he was. All the while, money would spill out of his pocket, scooped up by his hosts to cover groceries, rent, mortgages, car notes, and street drugs. But we didn't really notice that until I hit thirteen.
Our last extended weekend with Jimme was in August '84, right after my j.v. football tryouts, just before the start of tenth grade. We went over to Pam's apartment off South Fulton, just a couple of blocks away from Adams Street, where we had lived as a family before I started kindergarten. Those days were long off by now. Instead, I saw my father in a completely sloshed state, really, for the first time, with the mind of an adult. Pam, for her part, was wasted, on some form of cocaine, crack or powdered, I didn't know for sure.
Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007), screen shot of him drinking, drooling, December 3, 2010 (http://dudleydoody.com).
By the end of the day that last Saturday in August, he could barely stand up. Pam had some music on, Lionel Richie's "Hello," as it was in the middle of the bridge portion. While it was playing, Jimme tried to dance to it, with a thick string of drool hanging from him bottom lip and all the way to his right pant leg. He stumbled to his left, then his right, as the song went, "dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun, du-du-dat-dat-dun-dun-dun," via a guitar string and a synthesizer. We had to sit him down on Pam's '70-style couch to let him snore and drool for an hour and a half before taking him back to his place that Saturday evening. On the way out, we bumped into my classmate Dahlia and her grandmother. They lived in an apartment complex across the street. How embarrassing!
We didn't call my Mom to let her know what was going on. So when we came home late that Sunday afternoon, she was pissed. But she didn't seem that concerned about her safety. Instead, it was all about, "What? You think Jimme's a good father now?" and "I need someone around here to go to the store."
As much as I loved my Mom, she didn't realize that we needed moments to escape, even if it meant being with our alcoholic father and being around his equally drug-addled friends. Those were our overnights before we reached adulthood.
Can Family and Friends Ever Understand The Why Behind a Memoir?
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, culture, Eclectic, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Work, Youth
"Dirty Laundry", Catharsis, Charles M. Blow, Child Abuse, Core Friends, Extended Family, Family, Father-Son Relationships, Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2014), Friends, Memoirs, Mother-Son Relationship, Neglect, Poverty, Sexual Assault, Sexuality, Writing
Front cover, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Charles M. Blow, September 23, 2014. (http://goodreads.com).
I started reading New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow's memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones two weeks ago. Like many who have read it, I have found it a good read, a revealing read, even a powerful read at times. I have been able to put it down, though. Mostly because as someone who's recently written a memoir about my own painful and trying experiences with abuse and neglect, about confusion, distrust and occasional rage, Blow's book has been a reminder of how difficult it was for me to relive those experiences enough to write them down in words and revise them into a book of my own.
Still, as I do intend to finish Fire before the holidays, I do have a couple of questions. One is really basic. Had Blow ever heard of the Kinsey Report (1948), the first one about the sexual experiences and habits of men, particularly gay and bisexual men, prior to turning thirty? The one thing I learned from reading this report twenty years ago is that there's a lot of gray between heterosexual, gay and bisexual. That you can be heterosexual, and still have a small level of attraction to those of your same gender simultaneously.
256 shades of gray (cropped), October 20, 2014. (http://cs.dartmouth.edu).
But this is a minor question, more about his curious road to understanding his sexuality — not to mention my own road — than it is about Fire itself. My second question is a much more important one. How have Blow's family and friends received his book since he decided to write it? How have they received Fire in the months since he announced it was coming out in September? How have they received him and Fire since it officially hit the shelves last month?
If his immediate and extended family was/is anything like mine (and from reading Fire so far, it is), then my best guess is their reaction's been mixed at best. In the year since I released Boy @ The Window in paperback, my siblings have liked the book, but my mother and father haven't exactly been happy about me writing it. My mother hasn't said one word about Boy @ The Window since I put it out last year. Nor did she ask any questions about the book in the six and half years that I toiled in writing and rewriting it.
My father, meanwhile, showed interest in the book right from the moment I told him I planned to write Boy @ The Window. That was, until the paperback edition came out during the holidays last year. At that point, he said, "I don't wanna talk to you no more." We've talked several times since, but he's still pissed with me about including him in my memoir, even though I never hid this from him at any point in the process.
Among my friends, most of my core group has bought and read Boy @ The Window. Most have given me positive feedback, some very extensive. Yet I found myself mildly surprised how few friends outside of this core group have bought or read the book. I take that back. Actually, I'm surprised by the negative feedback I've gotten from folks who've claimed to be friends of mine, who've never read a word of Boy @ The Window. But this feedback hasn't been about the memoir. It's really about their wanting to deny facts about me or about them that they've assumed are in Boy @ The Window, as if my job in this instance was to only be truthful when it felt good for them.
Dirty laundry in a basket, October 20, 2014. (http://plus.google.com).
My platform is tiny when compared with Blow's, so I imagine that the reaction to Fire in terms of both praise and condemnation has been more extreme, even as the praise has been much more public. I suppose if I was the perpetrator whom sexually assaulted Blow, I'd likely want to shut him up. I'm not so sure that anyone in his family, proud of him as they may be, wants what they'd likely consider "dirty laundry" out there for anyone to read. You don't grow up in a family as traditional as Blow's and expect everyone to be alright with their character's characterization in a bestseller.
This I do know, and I suspect Blow has known for a while, too. That writing a memoir like Fire isn't about seeking revenge or outing family secrets per se. Bottom line — it ain't about the proverbial you! In some respects, as cathartic as writing a memoir like my Boy @ The Window or Blow's Fire may be, it's not so much about the authors,' really, at least after the tenth edit.
There are so many stories that never see the light of day, because the fire for telling them burned out a long time ago. Or the window became a rubber room or a jail cell. It's about telling a story that needs to be told, regardless of whether family's happy about it, or whether some of your friends can relate to it or not. Because there's always, always, an audience who needs to read it, hear it, see it and learn from it themselves.
There's Know Place Like Home…
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, High Rise Buildings, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, New York City, Pop Culture, race, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Work, Youth
241st Street Subway, East Side, Father-Son Relationships, Gramercy Park, Home, Levi Brothers, Manhattan, Metro-North, Sense of Direction, Street Knowledge, Subway, The Bronx, Wakefield, West Side
Dorothy's heel-clicking in screen shot from The Wizard of Oz (1939), August 29, 2014. (http://vivandlarry.com). Qualifies as fair use under US copyright laws – low resolution and relevance to subject matter.
Yes, the title's a deliberate play on words. In no small part because of Facebook and Boy @ The Window, I am reminded every day of where I grew up, Mount Vernon, New York. But all too frequently, those who think they know me either assume that Mount Vernon's so far from New York City that I seldom spent time there. Or, more recently, some have assumed that my experience of The Big Apple is a recent phenomenon, as if I only started spending time in the five boroughs when I hit my mid-thirties.
Neither is true, of course. In many ways, I'm as much of a child of The Bronx and Manhattan as I am of Mount Vernon. I spent countless hours catching the 2, 3, 5 and 6 trains between 241st, Dyre Avenue, 180th, Pelham Parkway, 149th, 110th, 125th, 72nd, 86th and so many other stops. I used to know where to get the best brownies in the area, in Wakefield, at a bakery near some taxi stands and between the 238th and 241st Street stops. I could tell you which bars my father Jimme frequented, which bars he didn't, what pizza shops had slices to die for, and what places to avoid near Times Square. I'd been to Mets games, Ice Capades, the Bronx Zoo, a Puerto Rican Day and a Pulaski Day parade, concerts at Van Cortlandt Park, even MOMA before I graduated high school.
One of the reasons I could do all of this by the time I was fifteen was because of all the times Jimme had taken me and Darren down to the Bronx and Manhattan. Mostly to watch him pick up his paycheck from the Levi brothers at their cleaners on 20 West 64th or on East 59th. But between '82 and '85, I learned where nearly all of my father's watering holes were, and on the most desperate of weekends, could track him to one of them in order to get money for myself and to help out my Mom at 616. While my classmates would occasionally take the Metro-North into the city to take in a Broadway play or go to a Knicks game, I was learning about the city in all of its varying inequalities and nuances by looking for and working for my father.
Fast-forward to the end of August '93, just a few days before I began the Carnegie Mellon University phase of my grad school and doctoral journey. I had been short on money that whole summer, unemployed for six weeks after transferring from Pitt, working as an "intern" for six dollars and hour, and nearly $600 behind on rent at one point in late June. I'd survived the eviction notice and a summer in which I learned who my truest, closest friends were. I took a few days from my personal drama to visit my Mom and my siblings at 616, and in the process, decided to track down my father for a few extra dollars, as well as to see him for the first time in over a year. It had been that long because Jimme had accused me of faking my master's degree when I lasted visited him.
Central Park, looking out toward Midtown's West Side, New York, NY, August 5, 2014. (Donald Earl Collins).
But I wasn't fifteen anymore. Instead of a long walk and the Subway, I took the Metro-North down from Pelham to Grand Central, took the S (Shuttle) over to Times Square, and the 1 train to 66th, and walked over to the Levi's cleaners on West 64th. Only to find out Jimme wasn't in that day. I then remembered that the other Levi brother had a dry cleaner on East 59th. I walked the ten blocks over there and found the other Levi brother in the midst of arguing with clients and barking orders to his Latino and Afro-Caribbean underlings. My father was doing a cleaning job for him at some high-rises down near Gramercy Park.
I rode the 4 train down to 23rd Street, got my east-west bearings, and walked toward a set of high-rises near FDR Drive. Though I'd forgotten the address, I knew somehow that Jimme would be in the most expensive-looking high-rise or set of high-rises in the bunch. I found a guard, who sent me to the floor where Jimme and his co-worker John were working.
As soon as Jimme saw me come off the elevator, he said, "Bo' watcha doin' up here? How the hell yo' find me?"
"You're not the only one who knows The City, you know" I said.
It's no wonder I feel a bit insulted when people either tell me I'm from upstate New York or that I'm not a New Yorker. I know the city better than at least a third of the people who live and work there every day.
Why I Waited 9 Months to Watch 12 Years A Slave
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, eclectic music, Hebrew-Israelite, Movies, music, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Youth
12 Years A Slave (2013), African American History, Black Heritage, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Father-Son Relationships, Growing Pains, Growing Up, Inhumanity, Late Bloomer, Learning About Race, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Slavery, Solomon Northrup, Steve McQueen, US History
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave (2013) screen shot, January 17, 2014. (http://blog.sfgate.com/). Qualifies as fair use under US copyright laws — it illustrates subject of piece.
I'm usually late to the game. That's been a running theme in my life since the early '80s, when, as a result of my Hebrew-Israelite years, I found myself often years behind on pop culture trends. New books, new music, new dance moves, new colloquialisms, new movies. I might as well declared myself as an adult in April '81, at least as far as the '80s were concerned. Yet I did catch up, sometimes taking as long as a decade to get a punchline to a joke that my nemesis and classmate Alex made in seventh grade.
But not following the herd has its benefits, too. For one, I've gotten to look at things from a fresh perspective (some would even say as an outsider — that's accurate as well), without succumbing to hype or groupthink about a piece of culture. Waiting also has meant that I've often read reviews of movies but managed to miss content-based details and that I've read books without forming an opinion based on its popularity ahead of my read (it's also true about my path to Christianity). Being forced by circumstance to wait has meant that I am less apt to make sweeping declarations like "I grew up on hip-hop" when I in fact grew up with it, not on it like a drug.
Kunta Kinte being whipped, Roots (1977) screenshot, July 6, 2012. (http://irvine.wikis.gdc.georgetown.edu). Qualifies as fair use under US Copyright laws because of screenshot's low resolution.
With 12 Years A Slave (2013), though, I wanted to see it even before it came out here in the DC area in August. I'd heard about this film for months even before it was out in "select cities" in the US. Between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender — two supreme British actors — I knew the film would be good. And depressing. And sad. And anger-inducing. And stomach churning. It would be an emotional roller-coaster-ride akin to my introduction to Roots on ABC in February '77, when I was only seven years old.
So what stopped me from seeing it? My ten-year-old son. I wanted him to see the film with me. But I also knew that he would have a lot of questions. Outside of family and his visits to watch me teach my American and World History classes, my son has had little exposure to race in popular culture in an obvious sense. Most of his friends in our suburban, middle-class Silver-Spring-world are White, and his other Black friends have even less exposure to race than our deliberate injections (or inoculations) for our son.
I decided not to take him to see 12 Years A Slave because it would've been two hours of questions in a crowded theater, with those sitting around us ready to strangle us for ruining their watching experience. But I did queue it via Netflix weeks before it came out on DVD, with the expectation that we would watch it during his Spring Break, Easter Week.
As soon as I told my son that we were watching 12 Years A Slave last week, he became whiny and upset. Whiny because his time away from anime and Disney shows would be interrupted with parenting. Upset because of the movie title and its implications. As my son said to me when he was upset, "You made me watch Roots last year!" Well, we watched three hours of it, enough for him to see the sequence of kidnapping, the Middle Passage, slave auctions, running away, rape, whippings, and Kunta Kinte's foot cut off. I guess the message of slavery and history really did stick with him!
Noah trying to look cool at The Gap store, Chevy Chase, MD, March 28, 2014. (Donald Earl Collins).
We finally sat down and watched 12 Years A Slave Thursday evening. And yes, Noah did have a ton of questions, about Solomon Northrup, about free Blacks, kidnapping, mistreatment and the concept of property, about race, sexual attraction and rape, and about the rule of law. But I was more surprised about two things. One, my son sat through most of the two-and-a-quarter hour film, and only got up twice. Two, he paid serious attention in a way that he hadn't appeared to in watching serious films before.
Still, my son was more than happy to return to his Nintendo 3DS and the land of Disney shows before bedtime that evening. The fact that he fell asleep right after bedtime, though, made it obvious, at least to me, that we'd given him more thought for food about history, race, and his own heritage.
And though I don't think the movie was as epic as the hype-meisters have presented it to be, it was a great film, with great acting — I'm not sure if todays American actors could've pulled off Ejiofor's, Fassbender's or Lupita Nyong'o's roles. 12 Years A Slave is also an important film, at least in terms of interrogating the meaning of race and inhumanity in this world. I just hope that those messages made it into my son's conscious thinking. Time will tell, but enlightenment is a journey, not a race.
Me The Little Runaway
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon New York, music, My Father, Pop Culture, race, Religion, University of Pittsburgh, Youth
"Runnin'" (1995), 616, 616 East Lincoln Avenue, Abuse, Child Abuse, Father-Son Relationships, Maurice Eugene Washington, Maurice Washington, Poverty, Running Away, Self-Defense, Self-Discovery, Self-Reflection, The Pharcyde
Literally on this day and date, and at this time twenty-eight years ago, I was at the beginning of a twenty-three hour adventure away from 616, my idiot stepfather (no longer, of course, and recently deceased) Maurice Washington and his abuse, a trek that took me all over Mount Vernon and into both my dreams and fears. As I wrote in Boy @ The Window:
"We got into it over the 'Dad' issue again. He told me to do something, and I only said, 'Okay.' I didn't say 'Okay, Dad,' and my 'Okay' wasn't exactly enthusiastic. This was the one thing about Maurice that I refused to accept – him as anything other than the leech and bully that he was. He certainly wasn't my dad, and he gave up the right to be called "stepfather" three years before. Yet he insisted on me calling him "Dad!" I usually walked a fine line between open defiance and acquiescence with him, not referring to him by anything at all. He had no name, no title, no label. Maurice was nothing and meant nothing to me other than the reason I'd eventually have to leave 616. Our incidents had become less frequent only because he worked nights as a security guard and slept during the day. And I stayed home as little as I could when he was around.
"So on the last Sunday of August '85, we had another round.
"I'm your father, and the Bible says to 'honor thy father and mother'. . ."
"You'll never be my father. My father lives at 149 South Tenth Avenue."
"As long as you live under my roof, you're gonna call me 'Dad'."
"No, I'm not," I said shaking my head at the same time.
"I'm gonna show you how to respect me, nigga!," he said as he balled his fists.
"Luckily I had fast feet. He tried to grab me and then hit me at the same time, not a good tactic when you're significantly overweight and off balance. I slithered past him, got out of his grasp, and dashed down our long hallway to the front door. I ran down the stairs that led to the back dirt courtyard area of 616 and didn't stop running into I ran into the woods nearby, Wilson Woods. It was a mostly cloudy late summer day, thank God, because I wasn't in any shape to be bothered with anybody.
"I wound my way through Wilson Woods on its serpentine path toward the southeast side of Mount Vernon. I saw a few folks who recognized me as I walked from the woods toward East Third and South Columbus, but the walk was mostly a blur. I made my way to Jimme's place on West Third and South Tenth, all the while thinking about the reality of my long-lost childhood and quickly evaporating time as a teenager. Jimme wasn't home, and I didn't feel like going on a hunt for him at one of his watering hole after a meandering three-mile walk. So I waited there for a while, maybe an hour or so.
"I made my way past downtown Mount Vernon, up Gramatan Avenue, taking on the hill on which Davis Middle School sits. From there I reached Fleetwood and walked past homes and cars that I thought me and my family deserved but would never own. I likely walked by the homes of some of my classmates without even knowing it. Tudors and townhomes, beamers and Volvos populated this neighborhood. I turned right on Birch Street and headed east, eventually meandering past Pennington-Grimes Elementary. I noted that this was the place where the remaining affluent and most assertive Humanities classmates went to as kids. It made me think for a moment about the reality that when put together, Mom, Maurice and Jimme had no clue about what it was like for me to be in a program like this, with students whose parents owned their own homes or were able to take a vacation overseas. These compadres were more sophisticated than I was, even after four years in the program. Just thinking about it made me clinch my teeth."
I eventually made my way to Mount Vernon High School, where I spent the night sleeping on the floor in the classroom next to the Humanities coordinator's office (Joyce Flanagan's office at the time). I had a morning of meandering, ended up at St. Ursula Catholic Church for three hours of prayer and contemplation about my future. All before going home to my worried (for once) Mom, my dispassionate dipshit of a stepfather, and my uncivilized siblings.
There, around 3 pm that Monday, I just collapsed, in my sometimes bed and bedroom, not knowing I was literally two years away from being on my way to Pitt and Pittsburgh. But I knew for sure that I couldn't keep running away, either.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Interrupted Fern features bold spikes of brown flowers rising above the foliage in mid summer. Its enormous oval bipinnately compound leaves are lime green in colour. The foliage often turns tan in fall. The fruit is not ornamentally significant.


The plaudits for Steven Gerrard have been plentiful since our legendary former captain announced his retirement on Thursday.
What's perhaps most impressive is the number of legends that have taken the time to congratulate Gerrard on his marvellous career.
So far, the likes of Kaka, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Ronaldinho and Lotthar Matthaus have posted messages thanking the 36-year-old for his contribution to the world game over the past 20-dd years.
Interestingly, Jamie Carragher also told a story about Gerrard at his peak, in which Real Madrid legend Raul came and asked our former centre-back if the Spaniards had a chance of acquiring him in summer 2009.
Gerrard had just put them to sword in the Champions League, orchestrating a 4-0 pummelling at Anfield in one of the defining performances of his career.
Carragher told talkSPORT: "I heard you before talking about Barcelona and I agree to an extent.
"I don't think he would have been suited to them as he played a different type of game, more all action.
"He'd have been a lot more suited to Real Madrid.
"We beat Real Madrid 4-0 at Anfield and Raul came up and asked if he'd go to Real Madrid in that summer.
"So that is how strong the feeling was from Real Madrid.
"The actual captain [was] asking if he'd sign!
Thankfully, Gerrard stayed with us until 2015, when he headed to MLS for a swansong with LA Galaxy. Now though, he's on the verge of rejoining Liverpool as a youth coach and it'll be fantastic to have our greatest ever captain back on the payroll.


While 80 percent of people with West Nile Virus show no symptoms, in severe cases, it causes death by infecting the membranes around the spinal cord and brain. The video starts by making population ecology relevant. It includes density dispersion; population growth; limiting factors, density dependence and independence; exponential and logistical growth; and how to calculate a growth rate. The video is the second in a series of 12.
Students explore invasive species on an environment. In this exploratory instructional activity students hypothesize why shrimp are on the decline and make a brochure or poster showing their results.


Gwyneth Paltrow and best bud Stella McCartney are starting a new line of staples and basic clothing together. It will be available exclusively on Goop, with prices starting at *eek* $795. It'll be worth saving up to be able to say you're wearing Gwyneth, no?!
Check it out later this year!


The importance of reproducibility in computational science is being more and more recognized, which I think is a good sign. However, I also notice a lot of confusion about what reproducibility means exactly, and also confusion about the difference (if any) between reproducibility and replicability. I don't see a consensus yet about the exact meaning of these terms, but I would like to give my own definitions and justify them by putting them into the general context of computational science.
I'll start with the concept of reproducibility as it was used in science long before computers even existed. It refers to the reproducibility of the conclusions of a scientific study. These conclusions can take very different forms depending on the question that was being explored. It can be a simple "yes" or "no", e.g. in answering questions such as "Is the gravitational force acting in this stone the same everywhere on the Earth's surface?" or "Does ligand A bind more strongly to protein X than ligand B?" It can also be a number, as in "What is the lattice energy of NaCl?", or a mathematical function, as in "How does a spring's restoring force vary with elongation?" Any such result should come with an estimation of its precision, such as an error bar on numbers, or a reliability estimate for a yes/no answer. Reproducing a scientific conclusion means finding a "close enough" answer by performing "similar" experiments and analyses. As the terms "close enough" and "similar" show, reproducibility involves human judgement, which may well evolve over time. Reproducibility is thus not an absolute feature of a specific result, but the evaluation of a result in the context of the current state of knowledge and technology in a scientific domain. Every attempt to reproduce a given result independently (different people, tools, methods, …) augments scientific knowledge: If the reproduction leads to a "close enough" results, it provides information about the precision with which the results can be obtained, and if if doesn't, it points to some previously unrecognized crucial difference between the two experiments, which can then be explored.
Replication refers to something much more specific: repeating the exact steps in an experiment using the same (or equivalent) equipment, and comparing the outcomes. Replication is part of testing an experimental setup, or a form of quality assurance. If I measure the same quantity ten times using the same equipment and experimental samples, and get ten slightly different values, then I can use these numbers to estimate the precision of my equipment. If that precision is not sufficient for the purposes of my planned scientific study, then the equipment is not suitable.
It is useful to describe the process of doing research by a two-layer model. The fundamental layer is the technology layer: equipment and procedures that are well understood and whose precision is known from many replication attempts. On top of this, there is the research layer: the well-understood equipment is used in order to obtain new scientific information and draw conclusions from them. Any scientific project aims at improving one or the other layer, but not both at the same time. When you want to get new scientific knowledge, you use trusted equipment and procedures. When you want to improve the equipment or the procedures, you do so by doing test measurements on well-known systems. Reproducibility is a concept of the research layer, replicability belongs to the technology layer.
Ideally, the non-replicability should be eliminated, but at the very least its cause should be understood. This turns out to be very difficult in practice, in today's computing environments, essentially because case 4 is frequent and hard to avoid (today's popular programming languages are ambiguous), and because case 4 makes it impossible to identify cases 2 and 3 with certainty. I see this as a symptom of the immaturity of today's computing environments, which the computational science community should aim to improve on. The technology for removing case 4 exists. The keyword is "formal methods", and there are first attempts to apply them to scientific computing, but this remains an exotic approach for now.
As in experimental science, reproducibility belongs to the research layer and cannot be guaranteed or verified by any technology. In fact, the "reproducible research" movement is really about replicability – which is perhaps one reason for the above-mentioned confusion.
There is at the moment significant disagreement about the importance of replicability. At one end of the spectrum, there is for example Ian Gent's recomputation manifesto, which stresses the importance of replicability (which in the context of computational science he calls recomputability) because building on past work is possible only if it can be replicated as a first step. At the other end, Chris Drummond argues that replicability is "not worth having" because it doesn't contribute much to the real goal, which is reprodcucibility. It is worth reading both of these papers, because they both do a very good job at explaining their arguments. There is actually no contradiction between the two lines of arguments, the different conclusions are due to different criteria being applied: Chris Drummond sees replicability as valuable only if it improves reproducibility (which indeed it doesn't), whereas Ian Gent sees value in it for a completely different reason: it makes future research more efficient. Neither one mentions the main point in favor of replicability that I have made above: that replicability is a form of quality assurance and thus increases trust in published results.
It is probably a coincidence that both of the papers cited above use the term "computational experiment", which I think should best be avoided in this context. In the natural sciences, the term "experiment" traditionally refers to constructing a setup to observe nature, which makes experiments the ultimate source of truth in science. Computations do not have this status at all: they are applications of theoretical models, which are always imperfect. In fact, there is an interesting duality between the two: experiments are imperfect observations of the ultimate truth, whereas computations are, in the absence of buggy or ambiguous software, perfect observations of the consequences of imperfect models. Using the same term for these two concepts is a source of confusion, as I have pointed out earlier.
This fundamental difference between experiments and computations also means that replicability has a different status in experimental and computational science. When doing imperfect observations of nature, evaluating replicability is one aspect of evaluating the imperfection of the observation. Perfect observation is impossible, both due to technological limitations and for fundamental reasons (any observation modifies what is being observed). On the other hand, when computing the consequences of imperfect models, replicability does not measure the imperfections of the model, but the imperfections of the computation, which can theoretically be eliminated.
The main source of imperfections in computations is the complexity of computer software (considering the whole software stack, from the operating system to the scientific software). At this time, it is not clear if we will ever succeed in taming this complexity. Our current digital computers are chaotic systems, in which even the tiniest change (flipping a bit in memory, or replacing a single character in a program source code file) can change the result of a computation beyond any bounds. Chaotic behavior is clearly an undesirable feature in any scientific equipment (I can't think of any experimental apparatus suffering from it), but for computation we currently have no other choice. This makes quality assurance techniques, including replicability but also more standard software engineering practices such as unit testing, all the more important if we want computational results to be trustworthy.
Over the last few months I have been exploring the Racket language for its potential as a language for computational science, and it's time to summarize my first impressions.
There are essentially two reasons for learning a programing language: (1) getting acquainted with a new tool that promises to get some job done better than with other tools, and (2) learning about other approaches to computing and programming. My interest in Racket was driven by a combination of these two aspects. My background is in computational science (phsyics, chemistry, and structural biology), so I use computation extensively in my work. Like most computational scientists of my generation, I started working in Fortran, but quickly found this unsatisfactory. Looking for a better way to do computational science, I discovered Python in 1994 and joined the Matrix-SIG that developed what is now known as NumPy. Since then, Python has become my main programming language, and the ecosystem for scientific computing in Python has flourished to a degree unimaginable twenty years ago. For doing computational science, Python is one of the top choices today.
However, we shouldn't forget that we are still living in the stone age of computational science. Fortran was the Paleolithic, Python is the Neolithic, but we have to move on. I am convinced that computing will become as much an integral part of doing science as mathematics, but we are not there yet. One important aspect has not evolved since the beginnings of scientific computing in the 1950s: the work of a computational scientist is dominated by the technicalities of computing, rather than by the scientific concerns. We write, debug, optimize, and extend software, port it to new machines and operating systems, install messy software stacks, convert file formats, etc. These technical aspects, which are mostly unrelated to doing science, take so much of our time and attention that we think less and less about why we do a specific computation, how it fits into more general theoretical frameworks, how we can verify its soundness, and how we can improve the scientific models that underly our computations. Compare this to how theoreticians in a field like physics or chemistry use mathematics: they have acquired most of their knowledge and expertise in mathematics during their studies, and spend much more time applying mathematics to do science than worrying about the intrinsic problems of mathematics. Computing should one day have the same role. For a more detailed description of what I am aiming at, see my recent article.
This lengthy foreword was necessary to explain what I am looking for in Racket: not so much another language for doing today's computational science (Python is a better choice for that, if only for its well-developed ecosystem), but as an evironment for developing tomorrow's computational science. The Racket Web site opens with the title "A programmable programming language", and that is exactly the aspect of Racket that I am most interested in.
There are two more features of Racket that I found particularly attractive. First, it is one of the few languages that have good support for immutable data structures without being extremist about it. Mutable state is the most important cause of bugs in my experience (see my article on "Managing State" for details), and I fully agree with Clojure's Rich Hickey who says that "immutability is the right default". Racket has all the basic data structures in a mutable and an immutable variant, which provides a nice environment to try "going immutable" in practice. Second, there is a statically typed dialect called Typed Racket which promises a straightforward transition from fast prototyping in plain Racket to type-safe and more efficient production code in Typed Racket. I haven't looked at this yet, so I won't say any more about it.
For readers unfamiliar with Racket, I'll give a quick overview of the language. It's part of the Lisp family, more precisely a derivative of Scheme. In fact, Racket was formerly known as "PLT Scheme", but its authors decided that it had diverged sufficiently from Scheme to give it a different name. People familiar with Scheme will still recognize much of the language, but some changes are quite profound, such as the fact that lists are immutable. There are also many extensions not found in standard Scheme implementations.
The hallmark of the Lisp family is that programs are defined in terms of data structures rather than in terms of a text-based syntax. The most visible consequence is a rather peculiar visual aspect, which is dominated by parentheses. The more profound implication, and in fact the motivation for this uncommon choice, is the equivalence of code and data. Program execution in Lisp is nothing but interpretation of a data structure. It is possible, and common practice, to construct data structures programmatically and then evaluate them. The most frequent use of this characteristic is writing macros (which can be seen as code preprocessors) to effectively extend the language with new features. In that sense, all members of the Lisp family are "programmable programming languages".
However, Racket takes this approach to another level. Whereas traditional Lisp macros are small code preprocessors, Racket's macro system feels more like a programming API for the compiler. In fact, much of Racket is implemented in terms of Racket macros. Racket also provides a way to define a complete new language in terms of existing bits and pieces (see the paper "Languages as libraries" for an in-depth discussion of this philosophy). Racket can be seen as a construction kit for languages that are by design interoperable, making it feasible to define highly specific languages for some application domain and yet use it in combination with a general-purpose language.
Another particularity of Racket is its origin: it is developed by a network of academic research groups, who use it as tool for their own research (much of which is related to programming languages), and as a medium for teaching. However, contrary to most programming languages developed in the academic world, Racket is developed for use in the "real world" as well. There is documentation, learning aids, development tools, and the members of the core development team are always ready to answer questions on the Racket user mailing list. This mixed academic-application strategy is of interest for both sides: researchers get feedback on the utility of their ideas and developments, and application programmers get quick access to new technology. I am aware of only three other languages developed in a similar context: OCaml, Haskell, and Scala.
A first look at the Racket Guide (an extended tutorial) and the Racket Reference shows that Racket is not a small language: there is a bewildering variety of data types, control structures, abstraction techniques, program structuration methods, and so on. Racket is a very comprehensive language that allows both fine-tuning and large-scale composition. It definitely doesn't fit into the popular "low-level" vs. "high-level" dichotomy. For the experienced programmer, this is good news: whatever technique you know to be good for the task at hand is probably supported by Racket. For students of software development, it's probably easy to get lost. Racket comes with several subsets developed for pedagogical purposes, which are used in courses and textbooks, but I didn't look at those. What I describe here is the "standard" Racket language.
Racket comes with its own development environment called "DrRacket". It looks quite poweful, but I won't say more about it because I haven't used it much. I use too many languages to be interested in any language-specific environment. Instead, I use Emacs for everything, with Geiser for Racket development.
The documentation is complete, precise, and well presented, including a pleasant visual layout. But it is not always an easy read. Be prepared to read through some background material before understanding all the details in the reference documentation of some function you are interested in. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I have never been disappointed: you do find everything you need to know if you just keep on following links.
My personal project for learning Racket is an implementation of the MOSAIC data model for molecular simulations. While my implementation is not yet complete (it supports only two kinds of data items, universes and configurations), it has data structure definitions, I/O to and from XML, data validation code, and contains a test suite for everything. It uses some advanced Racket features such as generators and interfaces, not so much out of necessity but because I wanted to play with them.
Overall I had few surprises during my first Racket project. As I already said, finding what you need in the documentation takes a lot of time initially, mostly because there is so much to look at. But once you find the construct you are looking for, it does what you expect and often more. I remember only one ongoing source of frustration: the multitude of specialized data structures, which force you to make choices you often don't really care about, and to insert conversion functions when function A returns a data structure that isn't exactly the one that function B expects to get. As an illustration, consider the Racket equivalent of Python dictionaries, hash tables. They come in a mutable and an immutable variant, each of which can use one of three different equality tests. It's certainly nice to have that flexibility when you need it, but when you don't, you don't want to have to read about all those details either.
As for Racket's warts, I ran into two of them. First, the worst supported data structure in Racket must be the immutable vector, which is so frustrating to work with (every operation on an immutable vector returns a mutable vector, which has to be manually converted back to an immutable vector) that I ended up switching to lists instead, which are immutable by default. Second, the distinction (and obligatory conversion) between lists, streams, generators and a somewhat unclear sequence abstraction makes you long for the simplicity of a single sequence interface as found in Python or Clojure. In Racket, you can decompose a list into head and tail using first and rest. The same operations on a stream are stream-first and stream-rest. The sequence abstraction, which covers both lists and streams and more, has sequence-tail for the tail, but to the best of my knowledge nothing for getting the first element, other than the somewhat heavy (for/first ([element sequence]) element).
The macro requirements of my first project were modest, not exceeding what any competent Lisp programmer would easily do using defmacro (which, BTW, exists in Racket for compatibility even though its use is discouraged). Nevertheless, in the spirit of my exploration, I tried all three levels of Racket's hygienic macro definitions: syntax-rule, syntax-case, and syntax-parse, in order of increasing power and complexity. The first, syntax-rule is straightforward but limited. The last one, syntax-parse, is the one you want for implementing industrial-strength compiler extensions. I don't quite see the need for the middle one, syntax-case, so I suppose it's there for historical reasons, being older than syntax-parse. Macros are the one aspect of Racket for which I recommend starting with something else than the Racket documentation: Greg Hendershott's Fear of Macros is a much more accessible introduction.
As I said in the beginning of this post, my goal in exploring Racket was not to use it for my day-to-day work in computational science, but nevertheless I had a look at the support for scientific computing that Racket offers. In summary, there isn't much, but what there is looks very good.
The basic Racket language has good support for numerical computation, much of which is inherited from Scheme. There are integers of arbitrary size, rational numbers, and floating-point numbers (single and double precision), all with the usual operations. There are also complex numbers whose real/imaginary parts can be exact (integer or rational) or inexact (floats). Unlimited-precision floats are provided by an interface to MPFR in the Racket math library.
The math library (which is part of every standard Racket installation) offers many more goodies: multidimensional arrays, linear algebra, Fourier transforms, special functions, probability distributions, statistics, etc. The plot library, also in the standard Racket installation, adds one of the nicest collections of plotting and visualization routines that I have seen in any language. If you use DrRacket, you can even rotate 3D scenes interactively, a feature that I found quite useful when I used (abused?) plots for molecular visualization.
Outside of the Racket distribution, the only library I could find for scientific applications is Doug Williams' "science collection", which predates the Racket math library. It looks quite good as well, but I didn't find an occasion yet for using it.
Could I do my current day-to-day computations with Racket? A better way to put it is, how much support code would I have to write that is readily available for more mature scientific languages such as Python? What I miss most is access to my data in HDF5 and netCDF formats. And the domain-specific code for molecular simulation, i.e. the equivalent of my own Molecular Modeling Toolkit. Porting the latter to Racket would be doable (I wrote it myself, so I am familiar with all the algorithms and its pitfalls), and would in fact be an opportunity to improve many details. But interfacing HDF5 or netCDF sounds like a lot of work with no intrinsic interest, at least to me.
Racket has an apparently small but active, competent, and friendly community. I say "apparently" because all I have to base my judgement on is the Racket user mailing list. Given Racket's academic and teaching background, it is quite possible that there are lots of students using Racket who find sufficient support locally that they never manifest themselves on the mailing list. Asking a question on the mailing list almost certainly leads to a competent answer, sometimes from one of the core developers, many of whom are very present. There are clearly many Racket beginners (and also programming newbies) on the list, but compared to other programming language users' lists, there are very few naive questions and comments. It seems like people who get into Racket are serious about programming and are aware that problems they encounter are most probably due to their lack of experience rathen than caused by bugs or bad design in Racket.
I also noticed that the Racket community is mostly localized in North America, judging from the peak posting times on the mailing list. This looks strange in today's Internet-dominated world, but perhaps real-life ties still matter more than we think.
Even though the Racket community looks small compared to other languages I have used, it is big and healthy enough to ensure its existence for many years to come. Racket is not the kind of experimental language that is likely to disappear when its inventor moves on to the next project.
Overall I am quite happy with Racket as a development language, though I have to add that I haven't used it for anything mission-critical yet. I plan to continue improving and completing my Racket implementation of Mosaic, and move it to Typed Racket as much as possible. But I am not ready to abandon Python as my workhorse for computational science, there are simply too many good libraries in the scientific Python ecosystem that are important for working efficiently.
Altmetrics is one of the hotly debated topics in the Open Science movement today. In summary, the idea is that traditional bibliometric measures (citation counts, impact factors, h factors, …) are too limited because they miss all the scientific activity that happens outside of the traditional journals. That includes the production of scientific contributions that are not traditional papers (i.e. datasets, software, blog posts, etc.) and the references to scientific contributions that are not in the citation list of a traditional paper (blogs, social networks, etc.). Note that the altmetrics manifesto describes altmetrics as a tool to help find scientists publications worth reading. I find it hard to believe that its authors have not thought of applications in evaluation of researchers and institutions, which will inevitably happen if altmetrics ever takes off.
At first sight, altmetrics appear as an evident "update" to traditional bibliometry. It sounds pretty obvious that, as scientific communication moves on to new media and finds new forms of expressions, bibliometry should adapt. On the other hand, bibliometry is considered a more less necessary evil by most scientists. Many deplore today's "publish or perish" culture and correctly observe that it is harmful to science in the long term, giving more importance to the marketing of research studies than to their careful design and meticulous execution. I haven't yet seen any discussion of this aspect in the context of altmetrics, so I'd like to start such a discussion with this post.
First of all, why is bibliometry so popular, and why is it harmful in the long run? Second, how will this change if and when altmetrics are adopted by the scientific community?
Bibliometry provides measures of scientific activity that have two important advantages: they are objective, based on data that anyone can check in principle, and they can be evaluated by anyone, even by a computer, without any need to understand the contents of scientific papers. On the downside, those measures can only indirectly represent scientific quality precisely because they ignore the contents. Bibliometry makes the fundamental assumption that the way specific articles are received by the scientific community can be used as a proxy for quality. That assumption is, of course, wrong, and that's how bibliometry ultimately harms the progress of science.
The techniques that people use to improve their bibliometrical scores without contributing to scientific progress are well known: dilution of content (more articles with less content per article), dilution of authorship (agreements between scientists to add each others' names to their works), marketing campaigns for getting more citations, application of a single technique to lots of very similar applications even if that adds no insight whatsoever. Altmetrics will cause the same techniques to be applied to datasets and software. For example, I expect scientific software developers to take Open Source libraries and re-publish them with small modifications under a new name, in order to have their name attached to them. Unless we come up with better techniques for software installation and deployment, this will probably make the management of scientific software a bit more complicated because we will have to deal with lots of small libraries. That's a technical problem that can and should be solved with a technical solution.
However, these most direct and most discussed negative consequences of bibliometry are not the only ones and perhaps not the worst. The replacement of expert judgement by majority vote, which is the basis of bibliometry, also in its altmetrics incarnation, leads to a phenomenon which I will call "scientiic bubbles" in analogy to market bubbles in economy. A market bubble occurs if the price of a good is determined not by the people who buy it to satisfy some need, but by traders and speculators who try to estimate the future price of the good and make a profit from a rise or fall relative to the current price. In science, the "client" whose "need" is fulfilled by a scientific study is mainly future science, plus in the case of applied research engineering and product development. The role of traders and speculators is taken by referees and journal editors. A scientific bubble is a fashionable topic that many people work on not because of its scientific interest but because of the chance it provides to get a highly visible publication. Like market bubbles, scientific bubbles eventually explode when people realize that the once fashionable topic was a dead end. But before exploding, a bubble has wasted much money and intellectual energy. It may also have blocked alternative and ultimately more fruitful research projects that were refused funding because they were in contradiction with the dominating fashionable point of view.
My prediction is that altmetrics will make bubbles more numerous and more severe. One reason is the wider basis of sources from which references are counted. In today's citation-based bibliometry, citations come from articles that went through some journal's peer-reviewing process. No matter how imperfect peer review is, it does sort out most of the unfounded and obviously wrong contributions. To get a paper published in a journal whose citations count, you need a minimum of scientific competence. In contrast, anyone can publish an opinion on Twitter or Facebook. Since for any given topic the number of experts is much smaller than the number of people with just some interest, a wider basis for judgement automatically means less competence on average. As a consequence, high altmetrics scores are best obtained by writing articles that appeal to the masses who can understand what the work is about but not judge if it is well-founded. Another reason why altmetrics will contribute to bubbles is the positive feedback loop created by people reading and citing publications because they are already widely read and cited. That effect is dampened in traditional bibliometry because of the slowness of the publishing and citation mechanism.
My main argument ends here, but I will try to anticipate some criticisms and reply to them immediately.
One objection I expect is that the analysis of citation graphs can be used to assign a kind of reputation to each source and weight references by this reputation. That is the principle of Google's famous PageRank algorithm. However, any analysis of the citation graph suffers from the same fundamental problem as bibliometry itself: a method that only looks at relations between publications but not at their contents can't distinguish a gem from a shiny bubble. There will be reputation bubbles just like there are topic bubbles. No purely quantitative analysis can ever make a statement about quality. The situation is similar to mathematical formalisms, with citation graph analysis taking the role of formal proof and scientific quality the role of truth in Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
Another likely criticism is that the concept of the scientific bubble is dubious. Many paths of scientific explorations have turned out to be failures, but no one could possibly have predicted this in the beginning. In fact, many ultimately successful strategies have initially been criticized as hopeless. Moreover, exploration of a wrong path can still lead to scientific progress, once the mistake has been understood. How can one distinguish promising but ultimately wrong ideas from bubbles? The borderline is indeed fuzzy, but that doesn't mean that the concept of a bubble is useless. It's the same for market bubbles, which exist but are less severe when a good is traded both for consumption and for speculation. My point is that the bubble phenomenon exists and is detrimental to scientific progress.


But it might be last orders for lawmakers workplace boozing.
In the U.K. and across the Continent, millennials are drinking less than previous generations, and theyre becoming increasingly vocal in objecting to a clubby culture of boozing they say is out of touch and elitist.
After the "industrial drinking" of the 1970s and 80s gave way to the reforms made by former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blairs government, Wright said, a range of factors — including the rise of social media and the growing number of women in parliament — are changing the notion of whats acceptable in the workplace.
Westminsters iconic Sports and Social, known as S&S, was temporarily closed in December following a fight (in which one man was arrested). After the House of Lords director of facilities investigated the circumstances prior to the incident, the bar reopened in January — though its open for fewer hours a week than before.
"Its a complete bubble," said one young parliamentary aide over beers at the bar.
At least the Belgians arent downsizing their cellars — which is whats happening in the home of the worlds most famous wines.
After a new wave of young, abstemious deputies from Emmanuel Macrons La République en Marche Movement swept to power, the French parliament sought to sell more than 5,000 bottles from its cellar.
According to one wine blog, Frances lawmakers had enjoyed "easy drinking" Beaujolais, a Côtes-du-Rhône with charming tricolore-edged labels and their own Champagne.
Members of Marcons party now hold 351 out 577 seats in the assembly, and the younger politicians have a very different attitude to fine wines — with beer and Coke Zero particularly in demand. "Sometimes, the bar runs out of cola during late-night parliamentary sessions," Florian Bachelier, a deputy for Ille-et-Vilaine told Ouest France.
Boozy nights are in decline on the other side of the Rhine, as well. "Lets meet at Ossis," is a common refrain among German parliamentarians, referring to parliaments little-known bar, which sits hidden in a basement just across the Bundestags forecourt.
Named after Osvaldo Cempellin, a legendary bartender who retired in 2010 after almost four decades serving Germanys most powerful (first in Bonn, then in Berlin), the bar is open only to parliamentarians and their companions. Word is it gets particularly busy during budget sessions of the Bundestag, which can drag long into the night, with many lawmakers heading over to Ossis to kill time before its their turn to address the assembly.
"The later the night gets, the more spectacular speeches tend to become," one Bundestag official for Angela Merkels center-right Christian Democrats said privately.
Officials, however, also agree that the Bundestag has significantly downsized its in-house drinking habits during the last two decades, particularly after the parliaments move from Bonn to Berlin in the summer of 1999. This partly has to do with the fact that it takes lawmakers at least five minutes to walk from the plenary to the bar, while distances in Bonn were much shorter. This is also a sign — beer tents aside — that Germanys era of hard-drinking politics is in retreat.
One of the attractions of the pubs outside Westminster, for example, is that the institutions obsession with status — "parliament loves its hierarchies," said Wright — is temporarily suspended.
Inside the grounds of parliament, the Smoking Room is accessible only to MPs, making it a private members club you have to win an election to join. The Lords have their own bar. And in the Strangers Bar, only MPs can order and pay for drinks.


During an echolocation relay race, blindfolded campers had to run through an obstacle course guided by their partner's voice.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Sanibel Sea School hosted local students for the organization's first ever Community Camp Day, a free day of ocean fun and learning for children ages 6-13. The theme of the program was dolphins, and participants enjoyed a variety of related games and activities.
Fun was had by all as students seined for fish, tested their taste buds during a fun experiment, swam like dolphins using a monofin, and ran through an echolocation obstacle course. They also had a chance to surf, and many braved the cold Gulf waters to catch a wave or two.
Sanibel Sea School's Community Camp Days are made possible by a donor-supported scholarship fund, which ensures that cost does not prevent children from participating in ocean education. Upcoming Community Camp Days will be announced via the organization's Facebook and Instagram pages, and will also be shared with email list subscribers. To be added, please email your request to info@sanibelseaschool.org.
Sanibel Sea School is a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to improve the ocean's future, one person at a time. More information is available at sanibelseaschool.org.


The Toombs County versus Vidalia game has been moved to Friday night at 7:30 at Booster Stadium due to Hurricane Michael. The game was originally schedule for Thursday night to accommodate the Rel Squeal. With the game back on a regular high school football night in Lyons and with a perfect weather forecast- clear sky and a game time temperature in the lower 70's a large crowd might show up for the big rivalry game. In 2016, the last time the game was played in the Pit both sides were full which forced many fans have to find alternative seating or a place to stand.
Big plays decided the 2016 game in the Pit. Just moments after the Bulldogs had taken a 14-13 lead, with nine seconds remaining in the third quarter, Deon Green returned the TCHS kickoff 97 yards for a shocking six points and then later in the fourth quarter Nate McBride sealed the Indians' 28-14 win with a 69-yard TD run.
Ironically, the headline in last year's Toombs County/ Vidalia preview asked the question- Will the defenses rule in the 31st Toombs County/Vidalia game?
The Thursday night showdown will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. and the pregame coverage will begin at 7 on Y-101 and streamed on Mixlr.
First place will be on the line in the Pit. The Bulldogs, who went 2-2 in their non-region games, are the only 3-0 team in the Region 2 standings. Vidalia and Swainsboro are both 2-0.
Rodney Wardlaw accumulated 121 yards on just four carries and scored two touchdowns and Bell also ran the ball four times for 98-yards and scored once.
Vidalia's offensive line was mentioned in the Georgia High School Football Daily for it's performance in the Jeff Davis game.
Tackles Riyon Adams and John Tarver, guards Robert Brown and Caleb Henry, tight ends Jaylon Clements and Caitlyn Jordan and center Tyler Black helped the Indians rack up 408 total yards and 385 rushing on 26 carries, an average of 14.8 per carry, in a 43-15 victory over Jeff Davis.
Through 30 games, as head coach of the Toombs County Bulldogs, coach Richie Marsh is off to the second best start in Lyons Senior and Toombs County High School history. Marsh is 21-9 after a 6-5 debut in 2016, a 10-2 record in 2017 and the 5-2 start this season. Only Tom Avret had a better record though 30 games. He went 22-8. In 1965 Lyons had a 7-3 season followed by an 8-4 record in 1966 and a 7-1 start in 1967. Jacky Jones went 20-9-1 in his first 30- 8-2 in 1969, 8-3 in 1970 and 4-4-1 in 1971.


Nepal contains eight of the worlds ten highest peaks and is home to Mount Everest, the mother of all mountains. It is also the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism! This Nepal travel guide will help you plan your next vacation.
The Himalayas of Nepal make a great backdrop!
Nepalese power voltage is 230 V 50Hz; Plug C & D.
The Nepal currency is the Nepalese Rupee is around 100 NPR to 1 USD.
Water is not potable in Nepal. Avoid water that is not boiled or bottled. Avoid raw vegetables and pre-cut fruit as much as possible.
Visas are available at the airport, but make sure you have a passport size photo available to avoid the hassle of taking a photo at the airport photo booth.
Participating in any kind of volunteer work in Nepal on a tourist visa is prohibited without special permission from the government.
Nepal has a monsoonal climate with four main seasons. The heavy monsoon season runs from June to September and although the rains may be lighter in the Himalayas than Katmandu, the mountains peaks are not usually visible due to clouds. Those seeking to undertake mountain expeditions should visit Nepal during the dry and warm weather seasons which lasts from April to June.
Flashlight – Nepal has weekly scheduled power cuts so make sure that you have a flashlight or head torch handy at all times.
Layers – this is especially important for those trekking in the mountains in order to cope with a climate that changes throughout the day. The general rule of thumb is at least a top and long sleeve shirts, plus a fleece (mid-layer) and a top layer such as a windbreaker.
Test 1,2 3 – Make sure you have tested all your gear and break in all your boots before your trip.
Hiking shoes with ankle support – these are especially important if you are planning on trekking. If not than you can get away with wearing a pair of lightweight trainers.
Refillable water bottle – as mentioned above, the water is not potable in Nepal, however some locations (such as hostels or shops) have filtrated water in large barrels where travelers can pay a small fee to fill up their bottles.
Trek to Everest Base Camp – It is definitely not the scary daunting experience that people imagine it to be, it is actually a lot of fun. Here are a couple of tips for anyone trekking to Everest Base Camp.
Mountain Bike in Pokhara – Pokhara is the jumping point for everyone trekking around the region but the area offers a plethora of options besides trekking, one of which is mountain biking.
Catch a glimpse of Mount Everest – on the EBC trek from Namche Bazaar to Tengboche.
Treat Yourself at the Himalaya Retreat Spa – reward yourself with the perfect post trek pampering session.
Pedicures in Katmandu – pamper those tired legs and weary toes with a foot bath and pedicure.
Eight Great Eats in Kathmandu – the city has a delectable variety of food choices and travelers should definitely indulge themselves.


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The Spark Awards 2018 It's a sweep for Astro Radio
At The Spark Awards in Singapore on 17 August 2018, we received the Gold, Silver AND Bronze trophies for the 'Best Media Solution - Radio' award category for the second year running.
It's a sweep! At The Spark Awards in Singapore on 17 August 2018, we received the Gold, Silver AND Bronze trophies for the 'Best Media Solution - Radio' award category for the second year running.
We also picked up 1 Silver trophy for Best App/Portal/Website, and 3 Bronze trophies for Best TV/Online Video, Best Event, and Most Improved Offering for our new brands ZAYAN and GOXUAN.
This is the campaign that won us Gold for the "Best Media Solution (Radio)" category.
Sony Pictures needed to find a way to market their original film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as the next adventure in the Jumanji series, with reference to the original film whilst expanding the universe and introducing it to a newer audience.
The marketing of the movie needed to stay true to the franchise's spirit of action and adventure, and clearly establish the film's premise: the protagonists had been transported into Jumanji, a video game world, where they embodied player avatars.
To fulfill Sony Picture's objectives, Astro Radio utilised a gaming platform that is fast gaining traction amongst gamers: VR (Virtual Reality).
By strapping themselves into a VR headset, players could completely immerse themselves in the game world, creating a unique contesting mechanic that embodied the spirit and premise of the movie.
HITZ embarked on a campaign where fans were invited to register in teams of four via its website to take part in a co-op VR gaming challenge at Publika Shopping Centre. The winning team walked away with a Sony Playstation 4 gaming console and passes to watch the movie in theatres.
'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a roaring success locally, proven by the fact that it grossed RM57,382,497 in the Malaysian box office, making it the highest-grossing film in Malaysia of 2017.
It is also the third-highest grossing film of all time in Malaysian box office history, after the likes of well established franchises with regular releases.
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Astro Radio's SME package was able to provide Funding Societies with commercial airtime and access to their 16.7 million listeners at 60% off.
Leading radio brands - ERA and MY, are taking the weekends up a notch as their on-ground activation teams receive a fresh twist after a 15-year run.


The Compliance & Investigation program conducts educational training and compliance reviews for Wyoming dealerships, responds to complaints, issues citations for law violations, and conducts criminal investigations regarding dealer transactions.
A vehicle dealer license is required for any personselling three or more vehicles in a 12-month period.
A franchise vehicle dealer license is required for any person selling brand new vehicles with a Manufacturer's Statement of Origin (MSO).
A vehicle dealer is required to maintain a principal place of business with a sign indicating the nature of the business and a permanent telephone.
A vehicle dealer is required to keep a daily record of all vehicles taken into inventory and all vehicles sold for three years.
A vehicle dealer is required to deliver the title to a vehicle purchased by a customer at the time of delivery of the vehicle unless the title is being held by a financial institution or vehicle auctioneer, in such case the title must be delivered within 30 days.
A vehicle dealer must properly issue and use temporary permits and dealer plates.
A motor vehicle dealer must apply for an organized vehicle show permit to sell vehicles from an authorized location other than the dealership.
Do you need to file a formal complaint against a vehicle dealer?
Do you need to find a vehicle dealer investigator in your area?
What information is required to be available during a Compliance Review?