text:
Simon Wilkinson is a British transmedia artist. His work incorporates audiovisual, installation, virtual reality, electronic music, and online and performance media, often combining all of these forms simultaneously. Wilkinson describes transmedia as 'the practice of telling a story through multiple platforms; so that, for example, instead of making a website 'about' the theatre piece, the website becomes an embedded part of the narrative.' He often uses transmedia platforms in order 'to disrupt consensus reality and immerse audiences in experiences which blur the line between truth and fiction.'

Wilkinson, who currently produces work as Circa 69, has featured in Tate Modern's Merge Festival (2011) and at many international festivals.

Filmmaking
Wilkinson began working as a filmmaker in 1993 when, with Paul Dutnall, he formed the Buck in Fudgy 'No/Low Budget Film and Video Collective' in Nottingham. Dutnall and Wilkinson held events in which they encouraged people to shoot film on the streets where they lived, using whatever equipment was available, screening the films in local venues. After holding similar events in London and Amsterdam, the pair moved to Brighton where, in 1997, they launched Junk TV, a youth and community film and screening company.

Junk TV went on to create 'expanded cinema' events, in which they combined film with live performances. The most ambitious was The Flophouse, a six-part film and theatre show, staged at Komedia, Brighton, from Autumn 2008 to Spring 2009.

Wilkinson has made many short films, including Sparkle, Horsey, The Sound of the Wind in the Trees, Gypsy, Where There is Love There is No Law, Death of an Innocent, and The Front. His films have won a Kino Short Film Award (2007);a Triangle Award (2007); a BBC Lottery Award for Best UK Arts Project (2008); a Koestler Award for Best Feature Film (2009); and Best Documentary at the Picture This Film Festival in Calgary, Canada (2009).

Il Pixel Rosso
In 2010, Wilkinson formed Il Pixel Rosso, a collaboration with Silvia Mercuriali, a theatremaker who creates 'autoteatro' (theatre in which audience members perform the work, responding to instructions). In Il Pixel Rosso shows, audience members wear video goggles and follow headphone instructions. Mercuriali writes, 'With their eyes and ears completely hijacked, and liberated from any responsibility for the outcome of their actions in the film, participants find themselves fully surrounded by a wild and anarchic fictional world on a dreamy and dangerous joyride inside their own head.'

Wilkinson says 'There are many neat uses of video to 'extend the stage' to incorporate reality, but with goggles we are able to create a seemingly different situation in which the screen reality is the only reality that the audience can directly perceive....When you watch a movie on screen you are following a set visual path created by the director....With video goggles and instructions in fact the situation is no different – BUT when the instructions are closely followed the audience does experience the illusion that they are driving the visual path.'

And the Birds Fell from the Sky

Il Pixel Rosso's first show was the 2011 And the Birds Fell from the Sky, which imagined an alternative world in which our own species lives alongside another type of human, 'an ancient tribe of feral clowns – the clowns upon which all other clowns are based – called the Faruk....The most significant achievement of humanity has been to take life, with all its wild propensities for adventure, and turn it into something tedious....The Faruk...did not adopt these developments, preferring the wild adventure of life lived for now to the stolid certainty of a life well planned. In this piece we, as audience, find ourselves in their world.'

Bella Todd described the experience in the Guardian: 'It is a piece for an audience of two, who are given video goggles and headsets and seated in wheelchairs. Soon I was in a virtual car, joyriding through a dystopian landscape with a group of circus clowns. One of them opened a bottle in the front seat and I smelt and felt real-life vodka hit my face; later I was instructed to hold up my left hand, only to see a virtual hand on screen, hairy and stained with blood. My response to the autoteatro-style instructions was as immediate and unquestioning as that of a sleepwalker.'

Transmedia aspects of the show included a live performance by a Faruk Clown rock band at the Nightingale Theatre, Brighton; a radio documentary, in which fake anthropologists discussed the Faruk and a fictitious policeman warned people to avoid the show; Faruk clown workshops, in which participants, dressed in dishevelled clothes, were encouraged to 'discover their own inner pariah'; and a fictional parish newsletter given to audience members before the show.

And the Birds Fell from the Sky has toured Europe and Australia, and now exists in English, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Welsh versions. It was so popular that it led to three new commissions:The Great Spavaldos, commissioned in 2012 by the Roundhouse as part of CircusFest; Rebels and Rubble, commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre to celebrate its 120th birthday in 2013; and Le Grand Voyage, for Harrogate Theatre as part of the 2014 Yorkshire Festival.

The Great Spavaldos
Il Pixel Rosso's second show is another immersive and multi-sensory theatrical experience, in which two audience members at a time each takes on the role of a circus acrobat. Lyn Gardner described her own experience in the Guardian: 'In this neat little show, with the aid of video goggles, you and a friend become the daredevil brothers who flew high above the ring in perfect harmony but who were surprised by a love that brought them low. This mysterious sliver of a show plays cleverly with disorientation to create an immersive experience so visceral that you will swear that you stepped into thin air....Il Pixel Rosso offer a multi-sensory experience that begins when a ringmaster ushers you into the backstage labyrinth of the Roundhouse. In a makeshift dressing room, you acquire a new persona and are immediately plunged back in time to an early-20th-century circus.'

The Great Spavaldos toured internationally, and currently exists in three languages, with the Dutch version co-produced with DeSpill, Belgium.

Rebels and Rubble
Rebels and Rubble, is an immersive audio/video tour of BAC building, celebrating 120 years of radical activity there.

Le Grand Voyage
In their fourth work, Le Grand Voyage, four audience members, on stationary bikes, play the part of the Yorkshire team in a surreal version of the Tour de France. Pedalling their way towards the finishing line, the Team encounters disparate adversaries, including zombies, burlesque dancers, and dogs on bikes.

The New Ten Commandments
In 2014, Wilkinson began to create work under the name Circa 69. The New Ten Commandments, a collaboration with the experimental theatre maker, Liyuwerk Sheway Mulugeta, was first performed in May 2014 at The Island (Bristol) and The Old Market (Brighton). Audience members were asked to take part in a 'focus group', led by Wilkinson and Mulugeta (his 'intern' from Lourdes), on behalf of the LDD – a mysterious market research group. The LDD have 'tasked' the group with 're-thinking, re-branding, and re-launching the Ten Commandments for the 21st century.'

Writing in Total Theatre, Lisa Wolfe described the process: 'Sitting at a long table, with colour-coded folders and badges, Simon and Liyuwerk pitch questions to us about morality, society, environment, economics and love. We are asked individually and as a group to discuss these questions, some of which are intentionally provocative. Once the question has been chewed over, we each write a new commandment on a post-it note....Having written our new commandments, we then filed one by one into a 'voting booth' to pick our favourites.' Following each performance, the new list of commandments was posted on the show's website.

The transmedia aspects of The New Ten Commandments continued after the performance, as selected audience members were offered the chance to take part in an open world game involving telephone calls, Twitter conversations, and real world and online interactions, in an ever expanding narrative.

Richard Stamp, reviewing the piece in FringeGuru, described his own real world interaction: 'Before you leave, they'll slip you a business card – together with a conspiratorial hint that if you want to probe a little deeper, it might be worth calling the number written on the front.  And it's then that The New Ten Commandments gave me something unexpected, something I genuinely treasured.  I won't spoil the details, but they'll ask you to tell them about a moment of kindness someone else has shown to you.  And in my case, that question triggered a real-world conversation – a word of thanks I owed a friend, and might never have summoned the courage to offer if it hadn't been for the thoughts planted by this show.'

According to Wilkinson, the transmedia interactions fed back into the live performance: 'By the end of the Brighton / Bristol run approximately a third of the material in the live performance had been created out of interactions with people who were engaging with the transmedia aspects of the show....Transmedia participants who went off piste through their own curiosity were able to find a way to communicate with one another. Several participants, in fact, formed a group and created their own independent web intervention based on some recurring new ten commandments that emerged through the live shows.'

Wilkinson has explained that the piece was inspired by the ideas of the psychologist, Philip Zimbardo and Edward Bernays, the founder of public relations: 'Zimbardo's work has consistently shown that people are generally good until corrupted by what he calls 'legitimising cultures' and 'engineered consent'....Edward Burnays, on the other hand, is the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, who used Freudian theory to devise a set of public relations tools still in use today; these tools, which he introduced in an essay called 'The Engineering of Consent', were specifically designed to convince populations to bend to the will of their leaders, no matter what those leaders were asking them to do....

There was a time when reality was reality and that was that, but the invention of public relations and Edward Burnays' idea of Engineered Consent changed reality on an industrial scale; from that time on everyday life became dominated by an artifice engineered to benefit those who spent the PR dollars; and, in effect, became a corrupting form of theatre.'

Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere
Circa 69's Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere was commissioned by Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, where it was first performed in March 2014. It tells the story of a bizarre mass disappearance in 1950s America, told through cut-ups of 1950s B-movies, promotional films & commercials with a live electronic score, live classical instruments and eight monologues delivered by actors.

The background to the show is explained on the Brighton Digital Festival website: 'In 1982 when Simon Wilkinson was 12 years old, his mother bought him a copy of 'Mysteries of the World' magazine. Inside was a story from 1959 about how eight students from Magic Valley Liberal Arts College in Idaho had gone missing in very mysterious circumstances; and that all that was ever found of them were eight letters, written by the students to their parents, detailing a journey to what they described as 'the bright black edge of nowhere'. Stranger still was the fact that the letters had been discovered inside a black wooden cube fifty miles into the Great Basin Desert.'

Jessica Cheetham reviewed the show on the Brighton Digital Festival website: 'At the end the audience applauded and returned home, satisfied with the performance but with a curiosity – were the disappearances real? Some absence of truth in the performance led myself and my friend to conclude that they probably weren't and in search of a conclusion we did the natural 21st century action and turned to Google. In doing so, we discovered the multiple layers that Circa 69 have constructed for this digital/live storytelling. We unearthed a series of websites which (without betraying the content here) either backed up or undermined the face-value story of teenage disappearance. Beyond The Bright Black Edge of Nowhere calls into question the information we receive, the power and authority that we take for granted, and our sources of reassurance in a digital age.'

The Cube
Wilkinson returned to the story of the mass disappearance with Circa 69's next work, The Cube, a pioneering use of the new Oculus Rift gaming technology for storytelling. In the piece, a single audience member, wearing an Oculus Rift headset, plays the role of one of the missing students. Using Oculus Rift rather than video goggles allowed the participant, for the first time, to choose their own visual path.

In June 2015, Wilkinson took The Cube to Cambridge Junction's Watch Out Festival, where it was reviewed by Joy Martin in Exeunt magazine: 'The Cube by digital arts company Circa69 was one of the most surprising and exciting shows at Watch Out, and everyone was talking about it. It was a one-on-one performance with the artist, Simon Wilkinson, the director of Circa69, where I was fitted with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset designed for 3-D gaming. Here it was turned to the purpose of engineering an artistic encounter in a new world, and it blew my mind, with its newness, the Dali-esque imagined American desert that appeared around me in a small room upstairs in the Junction, and a compelling story.'

Ben Noble reviewed The Cube in the Brighton Evening Argus: 'The Oculus Rift's 360 degree 3D allows entry into a virtual world where it is possible to turn in your seat and watch a character walk all the way around you. The inclusion of props makes the film tangible and interactive. In some ways the Cube is a showcase of this new and exciting technology. The experience includes vast visual landscapes and beautiful cosmic panoramas - stunning despite graphics in their early development. It also hints at future applications of the technology to entertainment. It is a fully immersive short film made into an irresistible game by the mystique of the shadowy and sinister history it tells. The blending of film, theatre, and solve-it-yourself thriller invites the audience to immerse themselves in the story even after the show. Part of the enjoyment is researching the story at home afterwards, only to find that this mystery forms an elegant mirror of the questioning of truth that virtual reality inevitably poses.'

While the Rest Were Sleeping
On 2 October 2015, Wilkinson gave a talk at MUTEK in Montreal in which he announced a new project going into pre-production. 'Whilst The Rest Were Sleeping' will be a virtual reality performance with live music for 16 audience members at a time. Set in the year 2029, it will continue the story of Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere and The Cube. It will be created in collaboration with Jilt Van Moorst (Amsterdam Film Academy) and Hagbard Celine (Amoeba Design).

References

External links
Circa 69
Il Pixel Rosso
Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere
Wilkinson's film, The Sound of the Wind in the Trees
Buck in Fudgy (Paul Dutnall's archive)
Silvia Mercuriali's website
 Junk TV

British film directors
British multimedia artists
British electronic musicians
British experimental musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Python. Draw rectangle in basemap I need to add several rectangles in my basemap. I nee four rectangles with lat and log ranges as below.
1) llcrnrlon=-10,  urcrnrlon=10, llcrnrlat=35,urcrnrlat=60
2) llcrnrlon=10.5,  urcrnrlon=35, llcrnrlat=35,urcrnrlat=60
3) llcrnrlon=35.5,  urcrnrlon=52, llcrnrlat=30,urcrnrlat=55
4) llcrnrlon=-20,  urcrnrlon=35, llcrnrlat=20,urcrnrlat=34.5
My script is below. I found "polygon" packages to add lines but I do not exactly know how to do. Please help me!! Thanks a lot for your help in advance!
    from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap

     m=basemaputpart.Basemap(llcrnrlon=-60, llcrnrlat=20, urcrnrlon=60, urcrnrlat=70, resolution='i', projection='cyl', lon_0=0, lat_0=45)

    lon1=np.array([[-180.+j*0.5 for j in range(721)]  for i in range(181)])
    lat1=np.array([[i*0.5 for j in range(721)]  for i in range(181)  ])
    Nx1,Ny1=m(lon1,lat1,inverse=False)

    toplot=data[:,:]
    toplot[data==0]=np.nan
    toplot=np.ma.masked_invalid(toplot)
    plt.pcolor(Nx1,Ny1,np.log(toplot),vmin=0, vmax=5)
    cbar=plt.colorbar()

    m.drawcoastlines(zorder=2)
    m.drawcountries(zorder=2)

    llcrnrlon = -10
    urcrnrlon =  10
    llcrnrlat =  35
    urcrnrlat =  60
    lower_left = (llcrnrlon, llcrnrlat)
    lower_right= (urcrnrlon, llcrnrlat)
    upper_left = (llcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)
    upper_right= (urcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)

    plot_rec(m, lower_left, upper_left, lower_right, upper_right)

Then I see "Type Error: 'tuple' object is not callable"
Instead of this part, I added one  you suggested first.
    ..
    m.drawcoastlines(zorder=2)
    m.drawcountries(zorder=2)

    def plot_rec(m, lower_left, upper_left, lower_right, upper_right):
        xs = [lower_left[-10], upper_left[-10],
              lower_right[10], upper_right[10]]
        ys = [lower_left[35], upper_left[60],
              lower_right[35], upper_right[60]]
        m.plot(xs,ys,latlon=True)

    plt.show()

Then I do not see any box in my plot. I have to put another, not plt.show()??
Also, would you let me know how to put number in the box (e.g., 1 in the upper left conner of the box) ? How to get sum of values in all points of my data and get percentage of (sume of values in the box) over (sum of values in all points of my data)? I ask too much.. Just let me know what you can give me, it would be anyway great!!!
THanks a lot!!

A: The tricky thing about this is that a 'rectangle' isn't really a 'rectangle' on many, many projection types. So when you say 'rectangle', do you mean an actual rectangle in map-space, or simply a rectangle in pixel-space? The two require very different
But let's assume you want it in map-space. The quickest way is to just use Basemap's plot method, like so:
def plot_rec(bmap, lower_left, upper_left, lower_right, upper_right):
    xs = [lower_left[0], upper_left[0],
          lower_right[0], upper_right[0],
          lower_left[0], lower_right[0],
          upper_left[0], upper_right[0]]
    ys = [lower_left[1], upper_left[1],
          lower_right[1], upper_right[1],
          lower_left[1], lower_right[1],
          upper_left[1], upper_right[1]]
    bmap.plot(xs, ys, latlon = True)

where bmap is your map, and lower_left etc. are lon-lat tuples at those corners.
Update with use examples:
You asked for a usage example, so here you go:
m=basemaputpart.Basemap(llcrnrlon=-60, llcrnrlat=20, urcrnrlon=60, urcrnrlat=70, resolution='i', projection='cyl', lon_0=0, lat_0=45)

# your other setting up the map code here

# here I draw the first rectangle
llcrnrlon = -10
urcrnrlon =  10
llcrnrlat =  35
urcrnrlat =  60
lower_left = (llcrnrlon, llcrnrlat)
lower_right= (urcrnrlon, llcrnrlat)
upper_left = (llcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)
upper_right= (urcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)

plot_rec(m, lower_left, upper_left, lower_right, upper_right) # This calls the function I defined before

# Rinse and repeat for the other lat/lon combos

plt.show()

You can definitely do this more elegantly using list comprehensions to generate the correct corner-point sets, but this should get you started.
Update 2
So it appears there is some confusion here. plot_rec is a function. It should be placed somewhere not inline with the rest of your script. By itself, it doesn't do anything. It does when you call it here:
...
upper_left = (llcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)
upper_right= (urcrnrlon, urcrnrlat)
# This next line is where we call the function
plot_rec(m, lower_left, upper_left, lower_right, upper_right)

A: This function bellow should do what you need. bmap is your basemap object, and lonmin,lonmax,latmin,latmax defines your domain in latitude/longitude terms. You need to call the plot_rectangle function after bmap has been generated in your code by a call to Basemap(...).
def plot_rectangle(bmap, lonmin,lonmax,latmin,latmax):
    xs = [lonmin,lonmax,lonmax,lonmin,lonmin]
    ys = [latmin,latmin,latmax,latmax,latmin]
    bmap.plot(xs, ys,latlon = True)

A: If, instead, your are looking for rectangles in the map space, whose borders follows paralleles and meridians, the following function works for me. m is the basemap object.
 def draw_screen_poly( minlat, maxlat, minlon, maxlon, m):
      lons=np.hstack((np.repeat(minlon,10),\
                      np.linspace(minlon,maxlon, num=10),\
                      np.repeat(maxlon,10),\
                      np.linspace(maxlon,minlon, num=10)))

      lats=np.hstack((np.linspace(minlat,maxlat, num=10),\
                      np.repeat(maxlat,10),\
                      np.linspace(maxlat,minlat, num=10),
                      np.repeat(minlat,10)))

      m.plot(y=lats,x=lons,latlon=True, lw=2, color='navy', alpha=0.8)

      x, y = m(lons, lats)
      xy = zip(x,y)
      poly = Polygon( np.asarray(xy), linewidth=3)
      ax.add_patch(poly)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
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  <library name="okhttp-tls">
    <CLASSES>
      <root url="jar://$PROJECT_DIR$/third-party/java/okhttp/okhttp-tls-3.11.0.jar!/" />
    </CLASSES>
    <JAVADOC />
    <SOURCES>
      <root url="jar://$PROJECT_DIR$/third-party/java/okhttp/okhttp-tls-3.11.0-sources.jar!/" />
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
deercún
Hibernian Art, Artifacts & Imagery
Tír na Trí (Webcomic)
Tír na Trí (Land of Three) is the curious and absurd story of three Irish siblings in Gaelic times: Fergal Mac Tíre, a moody warrior with Kingly aspirations; his half-brother Fiach Mac Tíre, a sensitive File (or sacred poet) in training; and his half-sister Fionnuala Nic Thíre, a Wild Woman who enjoys using her arcane magic skills to troll the new Faith.
Historicity Disclaimer:
This comic strip is a work of fiction and does not intend to be a faithful, factual representation of Irish history, traditions, customs, archaeology, etc.
For a realistic study of Gaelic Ireland, feel free to check out my suggested reading list or articles.
Season 01: Kingship
Displaying Newest strips first. Click on each strip to enlarge!
Here at Deercún HQ we are strong supporters of the "Stoned Ape Theory". This theory posits that psychoactive substances like psilocybin had a fundamental role in our transformation from tree-dwelling primates to couch-dwelling humans.
While we lack any concise, hard evidence for it, there are plenty of reasons to suppose that psychoactive mushrooms had a huge role to play in the development and flourishing of ancient European cultures. From the visually enthralling neolithic carvings in many of Ireland's ancient sites; to folklore stories full of strange visions, mystical beings and time warps.
(Fun fact: mediaeval societies were not totally foreign to the experience of tripping: Rye bread was a common part of a peasant's diet, but it also had a strong tendency to develop a psychoactive fungi called "ergot", the compounds of which served to create a synthetic version of it which is nowadays commonly known as "acid").
Of course, any "hard" evidence for magic and the practice of what we think of as "druidry" is scant and filtered by Christian men of learning, but it has been strongly suggested by people with more impressive academic credentials than mine that hallucinogenic experiences are responsible for many of the concepts that became the founding blocks of ancient civilizations: notions of justice and equalities, the idea of zero, the principles of thermodynamics and the evolution of animism into polytheism… all of these and more are believed by many to have been first conceptualized after someone taking a bunch of 'shrooms and going off.
Imagine going on a trippin' journey and coming back with the novel concept of a number that means that there's no numbers!
The HIGH King speaks only one language and it is most definitely NOT Gaeilge.
One of my favourite things about Gaelic Ireland is that they understood that just because someone is good at Kinging, it is definitely NOT guaranteed that their offspring will be too, so they invented a semi-democratic system called "Tanistry", whereby leaders were elected from a logically small yet varied enough pool of noble-blooded individuals.
Though it still fostered petty dynasties and inter-tribal rivalries, this system AT LEAST allowed a little bit of accountability to rulers and tyrants would be -and often were- duly deposed by the people.
In the case of local Chieftains, obtaining the endorsement of the current High King would definitely swing the vote in their favour. Unless it was the HIGH King, in which case you might as well be talking to a bush tree.
They don't be callin' him "Your HIGHNESS" for nuthin'.
All hail King Niall of the Nine Sausages. It is said he got that nickname due to his liking of inlaid cured meats for breakfast and his custom of requesting 9 sausages of each of his vassals every month.
Sillyness aside, I was doing some research on the heraldry symbology of the O' Neill dynasty for this strip: The Red Hand of Ulster. Of supposed pagan origins, this is a symbol whose ownership has a long history of being contested, and it is first recorded in the 13th century as a symbol of the Hiberno-Norman earls of Ulster.
It is known nowadays as the coat of arms of the O' Neill family, and there's an interestingly gruesome yet epic legend behind it. It tells of a time when Ulster had no king, and a boat race of nobles was set up to determine who would rule the province. Whosever's hand touches the land first would win. In some versions, it is Niall himself who is contesting the race against his own brothers. Being bested right before the end of the race, Niall decides to chop off his own hand and throw it towards the coast with all his might over the other contestants, thus winning the race and becoming King.
Funnily enough, legend has it that in ancient Ireland a maimed man cannot be King, so unless some Tuatha Dé Dannan physician was around to make him a Silver Hand we're not too sure the story holds up too strongly 🙂
Fun Fact: There is an OGHAM inscription on the lintel of the entrance into Oweynagat cave (located within the expansive Cruachán complex in Co. Roscommon), which reads, in Latin, "VRAICCI MAQI MEDVVI", which in turn translates to "OF FRÁECH, SON OF MEDB".
Ogham stones were mainly used as memorials, which means that it was probably standing somewhere nearby before someone, God knows how long ago, decided to use it to hold the portal into the cave.
The inscription is taken by many to be actual proof of the existence of the legendary Queen Medb but, what most people don't know is that the form on the ogham indicates very clearly that this Medb was a MALE, and not the famously ferocious Queen of Cruachán who went to war over a bull (JP Mallory, "In Search of the Irish Dreamtime").
Just one of the many fun and misleading colors in the painting that is Irish archaeology 😀
Cattle raiding (a fancy name for "trespassing uninvited into the land of a neighbouring tribe to steal their bovines") was apparently so prolific in Gaelic Ireland, that it is its own medieval literature genre, alongside Adventures, Voyages, Wooings, Deaths, Conceptions and Feasts. The best known one of them all being, of course, the 'Táin Bó Cúailnge", a story of violence and sorrow which reminds us that it is probably never a good idea to go to war over a bull, no matter how virile it may be, and specially if your Seer answers "I behold them bathed in red" every time you ask her how will your army fare in the conflict.
n°0014 (two parts)
And here for a bit of a backstory, and how exactly was it that Fergal came to own and love the severed head of an Ulsterman, how did it go missing, and the reason for this unforgivable feud between Fergal and Fergus.
Will the Fairy Guards be able to pick up the trail of the missing head that went cold so long ago? Is Fergus being sent on a purposeless goose hunt? Is the Morrígan the first and foremost suspect in this crime?
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
If one is to look at both the mythology and the Annals, it is easy to imagine that if not head-hunting, decapitations at least were common enough in Iron Age Ireland. It is said of the Ulster hero Conall that he never slept a whole night without the head of a slain Connacht warrior under his bed, and Queen Maeve was warned by her Seer that her war against Ulster would leave behind decapitations go leor.
The Annals of Ireland report very few accounts of beheadings in the first 300 years AD, but the reports on the custom seem to pick up wildly around the 700s, peaking quite a bit around the 800s with the coming of the Vikings, and stick at a stable pace among the Irish from the 900s to the 1200s. As with everything else about Ancient Ireland, it is hard to know what is truth, what is propaganda, and how all that we know is affected by all the evidence that is now lost.
We do have some reasons to believe that the ancient Irish could've seen the head as being the receptacle of the soul, and capturing your enemy's head as a trophy would certainly be an efficient way to let others know who's Boss; but again, we've no evidence of what those rowdy lads and lasses thought of or believed in, for the simple reason that we have no written record of such ruminations. All we can do is theorise, like JP Mallory does, that head-taking was definitely prevalent later in time if it wasn't so already in the Iron Age (there's evidence for two Iron Age decapitated males within Knowth in the Brú na Boinne complex).
Mallory remarks that "when the Irish set about translating classical works such as Dares Phrygius's anaemic account of the Trojan War, they couldn't resist inserting instances of head-taking that were never there in the Latin original".
Personally, I can only think of the impracticalities of putting a severed, rotting (and probably excreting weird smelling fluids) head under one's bed each night, and what exactly could be worth going through so much bother for.
Fun Fact: The name in Irish for the Irish Police translates to "Guardians of the Peace", but there is apparently already an element of "fairyness" there:
Now sadly I don't have the book on me to quote directly, but as @manchanmagan points out in his delightful "32 Words for Field", the 'sí' bit of the modern Irish word for "peace", 'síochan', is quite likely connected to an old term for fairy, 'síoth', from which the modern forms like "síd" or "sí" come in turn. The "-chan" part of the word, according to the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language, is probably from 'caín' (fair, or gentle).
So there you have it. I am now advocating for the official name in English of the Irish police to be changed to "Guardians of the Gentle Fairies" 🧚🏻♂🚔🧚♀
There exists a bizarre in-tale in the 9th century version of "The Battle of Moytura" which, as Mark Williams puts it, "is also perhaps the most disconcerting episode in the entire medieval Irish corpus, for it encompasses force feeding, female-on-male fisticuffs, defecation, and the outdoor copulation of titanic beings (twice)".
In it, after having sex with The Morrigan, The Dagda is sent by Lugh to spy on the Fomorians before the big battle. After being monstrously ill-treated by them and being force fed a gargantuan portion of porridge on pain of death, the Good God meets the daughter of the Fomorian king Indech, who demands a piggy-back ride back to her father's house. For some reason, she goes on to beat him up in exchange, which in turns causes him to literally crap himself. Of course, this being an Irish mythological tale where no cause has a logical effect, they proceed to have a poetic battle of wits, which The Dadga wins. The girl, clearly aroused by both defecation AND poetic prowess, ends up having sex with him and then changes sides, offering a great supernatural help to the Dagda against her own people.
One's gotta wonder if the well-known "Dagda's Club" was something he carried over his shoulders or between his legs 😝
The path of true Kingship never did run smooth.
I may need to get a +18 content warning if I keep at this carryon.
Sheela-na-Gigs are one of the early Celtic Christian world's most bedazzling, contradictory and fascinatingly endearing characteristics. Found hiding in the corners of many a broken mediaeval Irish church, they mock our sense of reality with their unapologetic genital exposure in the House of God. There's many theories, but I still can't wrap my mind around the reason why a pious, missionary organisation would allow, let alone endorse, the use of this figure in an ecclesiastical context.
Usually associated with Silé, St. Patrick's legendary wife, these curious effigies are also thought to be remnants of an ingrained devotion in the Irish spirit for the Goddess form, so strong that not even the Grace of the Creator could totally erase it from their immortal souls. Even allowing that, it is still puzzling to imagine the situation in which one of those went up the wall of the church. Was the Abbot present and all-G about this thing decorating his monastery? Did the monks giggle as they passed by it? Was it some kind of twisted, primitive form of pornography?
In all seriousness though, I do believe Sheela-na-Gigs are very strong evidence of how little we actually understand the complex mindset and layered mystic nature of Christianity in Ireland before the authoritarian yoke of the Roman Church came running behind the Normans like a hungry raven over a battlefield with the sound of a thousand raspberry blows under its wing.
There are bridges we didn't know we'd have to cross until we have to cross them. And there are old granny feet we didn't know we had to rub until we had to rub them ☉ ‿ ⚆
As per Fiach's suggestion, Fergal's journey to obtain the blessing of the Sovereignty of Erin brings him face to face with An Cailleach, a divine archetype who probably is the only pre-Gaelic divinity we have evidence for. She does not appear in any of the medieval mythological writings as a character (the association of King Niall's Hag of Sovereignty and An Cailleach is completely my own), but her prolific presence in place-names, toponymic associations and heavy folklore hints to the very real possibility that An Cailleach is indeed a very real, very old and most of all indigenous to the ancient traditions of this island, before the incoming of both the Gaels and the Celtic Christians.
But the real question remains: will Fergal lay with her to obtain her blessing? Will she become a beautiful maiden come morning? Why do the old stories seem to encourage the concept of exchanging sexual intercourse for political power? WHAT ARE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN!?
Fun fact: Though Irish mythology set in the late Iron Age (like the Ulster and Finn cycles) describes powerful longswords, Irish archaeology tends to unearth short ones. As JP Mallory has demonstrated, the longest Irish sword found has a total length of 66.7 cms. For comparison, that's shorter than the shortest Viking sword found in Ireland (dismissed as a toy sword by some), which is still 10cms longer.
Kids, don't forget to measure up your mythology against your archaeology for a much more multi-layered, in depth and genuine experience of the Gaelic tradition 🌟
In all fairness to Fiach, tough there's scarce evidence for the horse-mating ritual, the theme of the Sovereignty of Erin as a hideous hag can be traced to the scéal "The adventure of the sons of Eochaid Mugmedón". In it, the youngest of a band of brothers during a hunt is the only one to accomplish what the others couldn't: Kissing an old hideous hag in exchange for well-water.
Not only does he kiss her, but even agrees to lay with her right then and there. Upon awakening, he finds the hag transformed into a beautiful woman, Erin's Sovereignty herself, who bestows upon him and his descendants the divine rule of Kingship for generations to come. You might've heard about this young, eager, gerontophile king-to-be as he later became known: High King Niall Noígíallach (of the 9 Hostages).
Even though the factual evidence on this one is flimsy, I like to believe (and so seem to do most experts) that homosocial nipple-sucking was totally a thing in Gaelic Ireland 😁
The practice was apparently known as "sughaim sine", and it could've been a way to pledge loyalty and submission to one's Overlord. For common men, an expression of friendship and fealty. Or love, of course.
Ancient Ireland
Early Celtic Christianity
Irish Mythology

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Please re-board the train wreck in an orderly fashion.
Private sector spars over Internet regulations, net neutrality at ALEC meeting
What is the point of the FCC?
Josh Peterson
This article originally appeared on watchdog.org.
DALLAS �?? Spirited political maneuvering marked the American Legislative Exchange Council�??s annual meeting last week, challenging the progressive left�??s narrative that ALEC is simply a monolithic corporate-owned right-wing influence machine.
Private sector members of the organization�??s Communications and Technology Task Force quarreled during a meeting Friday over the current debate at the Federal Communications Commission about whether to regulate Internet service providers like phone companies.
The task force�??s members faced a packed agenda, but a majority of their time during the meeting centered around updating an existing resolution, or model policy, the organization passed in 2010 regarding government regulation of broadband Internet.
ALEC, a nonprofit organization comprised of state legislators and members of the private sector, drafts and promotes model legislation in line with its mission �??to advance free markets, limited government, and federalism.�?�
Unlike other free market advocacy organizations, ALEC has yet to formally take a position in the current debate over net neutrality �?? which is being driven primarily by public interest groups funded by the political left, and their allies among the Internet giants �?? before the FCC�??s upcoming Sept. 10 deadline.
Watchdog.org attended the task force meeting under Chatham House Rule, which states, �??When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.�?�
(Disclosure: North Dakota Republican State Rep. Blair Thoreson, ALEC�??s Communications and Technology Task Force public chair, sits on the board of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. Watchdog.org is a project of the Franklin Center.)
The meeting went over its scheduled three-hour time frame by nearly an hour, with private sector members asking for more time to review the policy before voting, a tactic one task force member told Watchdog.org after the meeting was �??delay tactics.�?�
Other members wanted ALEC to send a strong signal opposing efforts to broaden the FCC�??s authority over the Internet, as well as concern that changing how the agency regulates Internet service providers would empower countries like Russia and China who want the United Nations to regulate the Internet through the International Telecommunications Union.
The task force ultimately voted to update the policy and have it reviewed by ALEC�??s board of directors, comprised entirely of state legislators.
Steve DelBianco, executive director of the e-commerce trade association NetChoice, and recently appointed member of ALEC�??s Private Enterprise Advisory Council, told Watchdog.org in a follow-up conversation that �??last week saw two extended debates between heavily regulated industries and new online companies. The Communications and Technology Task Force aired differences over net neutrality, while the energy subcommittee heard why tech companies prefer cleaner and renewable power supplies for their data centers.�?�
Research organizations funded by the progressive left, such as the Madison-based Center for Media & Democracy, have long villainized ALEC for its ties to the tobacco, oil and pharmaceutical industries, Republican lawmakers, and Koch Industries �?? the multinational corporation owned by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch.
Whereas ALEC�??s opponents might prefer to portray the organization as a conservative instrument of big business promoting supposedly racist Stand Your Ground and voter ID laws, ALEC�??s libertarian persuasions enabled it in 2012 to build a seemingly unlikely alliance on criminal justice reform with the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization whose commitment to protecting civil liberties has earned it �?? at times �?? the ire of the right and the left.
The Daily Beast and Salon, known for bias towards progressive and far left issues, reported in 2013 Yelp, Facebook and Google�??s appeals for help from ALEC to fight lawsuits meant to censor and intimidate critics.
Where left-wing organizations might promote heavy-handed regulation of ridesharing companies, Uber and Lyft, as previously reported by Watchdog.org, are appealing to ALEC for help in promoting the type of regulatory space that allows for innovation and consumer safety.
A recent ALEC report even called for an end to special state tax code carve outs favoring certain businesses and fostering corporate cronyism.
Thoreson told Watchdog.org that Friday�??s task force meeting �??showed once again that ALEC is a forum for lively debate on topics important both at the state and national levels.�?�
�??Rather than being the �??top-down�?? organization that critics would like to paint us as, we are a public and private sector member-driven organization that allows for healthy discussion by all parties before making substantial decisions,�?� he said.
Contact Josh Peterson at jpeterson@watchdog.org. Follow Josh on Twitter at @jdpeterson.
Obama's African summit stumble
Democrat support for amnesty threatens their most loyal voters
Written By Josh Peterson


This is the third peer review of City of Fremantle's One Planet Action Plan. We're impressed with the progress it has made in 2018 and look forward to tracking its journey towards a One Planet City over the coming years.
Briefing: What do the new streamlined energy and carbon reporting requirements mean for UK businesses?


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IRI Partner in Kurdistan Works to Shape New NGO Law
The North Youth Center, a long-term partner of IRI based in the Kurdistan Region, is hard at work building a coalition of more than 50 local and regional non-governmental organizations (NGO) and Kurdish lawmakers to discuss a new draft law.
In early April, representatives from the North Youth Center and more than 35 other NGOs met with the Kurdistan Parliament's Civil Society Affairs Committee, a group of politicians eager for input on reforming the NGO system. Encouraged by the meeting's fruitful discussion, the North Youth Center took a leading role in organizing a much larger conference in Erbil on April 25 and 26. With more than 55 local groups as part of the NGO law coalition, attendees at the "Regional NGO Law Conference" developed amendments and made recommendations on the draft law.
One of the conference's most innovative recommendations was to create a commission in the Kurdistan Regional Government much like the United States Agency for International Development. The commission would award money to NGOs based on their project proposals and results, a system that would ultimately strengthen and legitimize the role of NGOs in Kurdistan.
In the weeks following the conference, working groups met to refine the recommendations of the conference for presentation to the Prime Minister and the Parliament's legal office. These recommendations were delivered on May 18, and in a move towards government transparency, the Prime Minister's office invited working group members to attend the Kurdish Parliament's Legal Committee meetings pertaining to the new law.
"If getting a donation is based on a good project proposal, then eventually those NGOs that are not active will close their offices," said North Youth Center head Sirwan Abbas in a press conference.
The North Youth Center's campaign to reform the NGO law has helped foster a growing rapport between the NGO community and the Kurdish government.


Libra was an ancient Roman measure of weight. The abbreviation of which is LB. This become the symbol for the pound. The uncia, a bronze Roman coin, would become "ounce".
Libra is considered to depict the scales held by Astraea, the goddess of justice, from the Virgo constellation.
It is the only zodiac constellation not animal nor human. Originally though Libra was the claws of Scorpius the scorpion.
Situated between Virgo in the west and Scorpius to the east. It's bounded by Serpens Caput, Hydra, Lupus, Ophiuchus and a small part of Centaurus.
Libra's status as the location of the autumnal equinox earned the equinox the name "First Point of Libra". Similarly the vernal equinox is known as the "First Point Of Aries". The autumnal equinox is now in Virgo due to precession. During the equinox the 24 hour period is balanced equally between day and night.
This constellation is fairly faint, with no stars of magnitude 1 or brighter.
Zuben Elgenubi, is a binary star divisible in binoculars. The primary is a blue-white star of magnitude 2.7 and the secondary is a white star of magnitude 5.2. Its traditional name means "the southern claw".
Zuben Eschamali is the corresponding "northern claw" to Zuben Elgenubi. The brightest star in Libra, it is a green-tinged star of magnitude 2.6, 160 light-years from Earth.
Gamma Librae is called Zuben Elakrab(Zuben-Al-Akrab), which means "the scorpion's claw". These names are from the original thought as Libra being Scorpius' claws.
Libra is home to many variable stars, as well as several other binary and double stars.
Iota Librae is a complex multiple star. A binary star with an optical double.
The primary appears as a blue-white star of magnitude 4.5; it itself is a binary star indivisible in even the largest amateur instruments.
The secondary, visible in small telescopes as a star of magnitude 9.4, is also a binary with two components, magnitudes 10 and 11. So this is actually a four star system, with an optical double.
The optical companion to Iota Librae is a star of magnitude 6.1, visible in binoculars.
In a good small to medium sized telescope you should be able to see 4 of the five stars.
Mu Librae is a binary star divisible in medium-aperture backyard scopes. The primary is of magnitude 5.7 and the secondary is of magnitude 6.8.
The Libra constellation is home to one bright globular cluster, NGC5897.
Gliese 581 a red dwarf star slightly north of Beta Librae, has a planetary system of at least 6 planets.
Gliese 581c is considered to be the first Earth-like planet to be found within its parent star's habitable zone.


text:
namespace XamarinShot.Models.Interactions
{
    using SceneKit;

    public interface IGrabbable
    {
        int GrabbableId { get; set; }
        Player Player { get; set; }
        bool IsGrabbed { get; set; }

        bool IsVisible { get; set; }
        bool IsHighlighted { get; }
        void DoHighlight(bool show, SFXCoordinator sfxCoordinator);

        bool CanGrab(Ray cameraRay);
        float DistanceFrom(SCNVector3 worldPos);

        void Move(CameraInfo cameraInfo);
    }
}


Your music's precious. Artists need to work with a studio and producer that understand their music's paramount importance. That's what all day, every day we do. If you're serious about your music, then get in touch with Whitelight.
Whitelight is a London music studio offering the full range of music production and recording services. Doesn't matter the size of the project, or the experience of the artist, Whitelight will get your project ready to really grab attention.
Whitelight is owned and run by experienced multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixer Tony White. With over 25 years of full-time music business experience, Tony has helped new and established artists get their music ready to be heard by the wider world.


Which WAV is best for you?
When it comes to getting around, a car is just about as convenient as it gets, especially if you're a wheelchair-user. Personal accessible transportation for wheelchair-users comes in the form of WAVs, or wheelchair accessible vehicles, as they're known.
Before you begin browsing garage websites for a suitable WAV, it's important to be clear on what qualities you want the vehicle to have. For example, if you need to be able to drive whilst seated in your wheelchair and you want to carry passengers, too, you'll need a large, people-carrier style vehicle. Clearly, this will be more expensive to run and you'll need a driveway or garage that's large enough to accommodate it. If you intend to travel primarily alone, a smaller vehicle will be easier to manoeuvre and cheaper.
Some of the things you need will come as standard, whereas others will be additional options that you'll pay more for. Be prepared to haggle - most dealerships will happily do a deal in order to make a sale!
If you can't decide which vehicle to go for, it's a good idea to hire one for a short period so that you can trial it before parting with your cash.
There are two main types of WAV.
Internal WAVs are designed to be driven by the wheelchair-user. You could choose a design that facilitates transfer from your wheelchair to the driver's seat, or, if you prefer, you could remain in your wheelchair and drive from it without the need to transfer.
Alternatively, motorised trikes allow the driver to access the driver's seat via a rear ramp. You then drive the vehicle from your wheelchair without having to transfer. Trikes can also be converted to allow you to transfer into the driver's seat if you prefer, and your wheelchair can be stored elsewhere on the trike.
A wide range of personal accessible transportation options are available for disabled drivers. Have a chat with your local mobility centre for advice on what's out there, or check our dealership here at Mobility One to see what mobility vehicles and WAVs are available.


BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Sunrise Senior Living has opened Sunrise of Bridgewater, its 23rd seniors housing community in New Jersey.
The three-story, 69,000-square-foot community can house up to 96 assisted living and memory care residents. It is located in Bridgewater, which is between New York City and Philadelphia.
New Jersey's Division of Aging Services projects the number of residents 60 years old and over to reach nearly 2.3 million by 2025 — a 57.9 percent increase since 2000. Nearby health facilities Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Somerset Medical Center offer access for residents who need temporary acute care, specialized clinical services or check-ups.
Sunrise continues to expand its presence in New Jersey, with plans to open Sunrise of Shrewsbury this fall and Sunrise of Summit by mid-2020.


text:
25 Years of Outlook
Save this story for later
Jehad Spillover
Local militancy is at its lowest ebb. The foreign mercenaries—some trained in Osama Bin Laden's camps—have taken over the Kashmir cause.
By Ajith Pillai, Mariana Baabar, Rahimullah Yusufzai, Ranjit Bhushan, Ludwina A. Joseph, Peshawar
Ajith Pillai, Mariana Baabar, Rahimullah Yusufzai, Ranjit Bhushan, Ludwina A. Joseph, Peshawar	September 07, 1998 00:00 IST Jehad Spillover
-0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53
IN downtown Srinagar, where the anti-India refrain is still shrill, the new heroes of the liberation movement are no longer the rugged, gun-toting homegrown 'freedom fighters'. The jehad or the holy war, the committed tell you, will be fought—and won—by "motivated fighters", from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Mast Guls of the trade. With the Kashmiri militant losing stock fast for having failed in the azadi struggle, all talk veers around the never-seen-but-much-talked-about foreign militant who is keeping insurgency alive in the Valley, and spreading systematic terror through the slaughter of innocents.
Indeed, if foreign mercenaries hadn't made a beeline for Kashmir, senior army and police officers say the Valley would have attained an even greater level of normalcy than it is enjoying now. Observes a commandant of an army battalion close to Anantnag: "All it takes is a strike on a soft target for the peace to be disturbed. The foreign mercenaries who are holed up in their hideouts in the mountains come down every now and then and kill someone or...
THIS ARTICLE IS PRICELESS...
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McKinsey partner takes temporary leave of absence amid Gupta investigation
McKinsey senior partner, Vikas Sagar, is reported to have taken a temporary leave of absence as more emerges from the scandal it is embroiled in in South Africa. The global consulting firm has been accused of setting up a sham supplier arrangement to divert millions of rands from Eskom to a company belonging to the powerful Gupta business family. One the most famous member of the Gupta family is a well-known name in the consulting industry. He was the first foreign-born manager of McKinsey. In 2012, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced in two years in prison.
Vikas Sagar, who joined the consulting firm more than 21 years ago, officially leads McKinsey's Africa marketing and sales practice. His leave of absence comes as he is accused of misrepresenting McKinsey, and as the firm itself launches an investigation into the scandal. "To allow our review to proceed in an open and transparent way, and to allow Vikas Sagar the time to focus on our review, we have mutually agreed with Vikas that he take a temporary leave of absence, effective 6 July 2017," said Bonita Dordel, McKinsey director of external relations Africa.
See: Biznews


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5GMETA Partner Interview Series #6 – DEKRA
Jan 10, 2023 | ERTICO Activities
For the 5GMETA's Interview series, project Partners present updates of their dedicated work and interest. In this episode, Oscar Castañeda, Senior Consultant, and Janie Baños, Innovation Director at DEKRA share their thoughts on joining the 5GMETA consortium.
By joining the 5GMETA project, DEKRA wants to leverage on the 5G technology that the project has been applying in order to collect and employ road-generated data to enhance services, while providing consortium partners with its expertise on testing, 5G and safety. DEKRA's intake will allow the 5GMETA Platform to improve its performance, safety and security features.
DEKRA – Global leader of vehicle testing
DEKRA, a global leader of vehicle testing and one of the frontrunners of Inspection and Certification services, has been an ERTICO Partner for years. The collaboration has contributed to make Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) solutions safer and more secure, in line with the European Commission's "Zero Vision" to close the gap on zero road accidents by 2050.
Digitalisation and innovation in the mobility sphere offer tremendous potential for reducing road deaths and serious accidents. The use of driver assistance systems, designed to either avoid or reduce the severity of accidents, is among the most effective solutions. In order to be able to exploit the potential of CCAM technologies, the attention is redirecting towards collecting road-generated data and further develop ways to employ them at large scale.
DEKRA puts at the centre of its work safety of human interaction with technology and the environment. By focusing on safety and various safety solutions across different scenarios, such as road, work and home environments, DEKRA aims at becoming an international lighthouse in ensuring a safe, secure and sustainable world. DEKRA proactively works for long-term sustainability.
What prompted your organisation to join the 5GMETA consortium?
DEKRA service portfolio includes testing and certification of products and systems, including telecommunication terminal equipment (e.g., phones, modems, routers, etc.). As such, we deemed compelling to participate in a telecom project such as 5GMETA, in which big data measurements are involved. By joining the project, we will be able to advance with testing methodology and, at the same time, evaluate and further develop our measurement tools.
Moreover, one of the main motivations that attracted us to join the consortium was the possibility of having access to large amounts of vehicle-generated data for assessment processes.
How do the objectives of the 5GMETA project fit in with the priorities and strategies of your company?
The automotive is one of the leading areas in our company and probably the one that witnessed the most outstanding development in the last years. Positioning ourselves in this market share is highly important and 5GMETA represents a remarkably innovative opportunity.
Tell us about the role of your company in this project.
We have focused mainly on the evaluation and testing side of the project. We have been providing methodology and testing tools. Our knowledge on 5G technology has also been an important asset on which the project can leverage, and we are happy to support our partners in that matter.
Can you give us an update about the latest developments?
Lately, we have been working on the set up of measurement tools on the different trial sites, assuring that they all can perform the required measurements. We need to ensure that measurements are comparable.
What are your next steps and your plans to build upon these results for the future?
We are in charge of coordinating the execution of measurements and the analysis of the results obtained so far.
We are planning to work on the certification of data access security and the deployment of lab testing capabilities for the technologies employed within the project.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 957360 (Innovation Action).
PreviousDEKRA publishes 2022 Report on Road Safety
Next2023: A NEW INSPIRING YEAR AHEAD WITH ERTICO CEO, Joost Vantomme
MaaS Alliance Working Group publishes report on Active Mobility
Reindeers on the spotlight
Achieving roaming, scalable MaaS
Group of Texas A&M University researchers investigates causes of unintended vehicle acceleration


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https://www.concordia.ca/content/concordia/en/offices/archives/honorary-degree-recipients/1976/06/gerald-ledain.html
Gerald LeDain*
Honorary degree citation - Gerald LeDain*
By: Ian L. Campbell, June 1976
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you the Honourable Mr. Justice Gerald LeDain, distinguished jurist, educator, lawyer and public servant.
Dr. LeDain was born and educated in Montreal. He studied in the Faculties of Arts and Law at McGill. At graduation he was honoured as the student standing first in his class. He subsequently earned a doctorate at the Université de Lyon.
During the war he served in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He is a member of the Quebec and Ontario Bars and was created a Queen's Council in 1961. He has practiced law in Montreal and served as Counsel for the Attorney General of Quebec in constitutional cases from 1963 to 1967.
Gerald LeDain has had a varied and distinguished academic career. It began in the 1940's when, for five years, he was a parttime lecturer in the Department of English at Sir George Williams College. For nearly a decade he was a distinguished member of the Faculty of Law of McGill. From 1967 to 1972 he served as Dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School. Under his leadership major innovations were made in the programmes of the School and in consequence the reputation of an already great law school was enhanced.
Dr. LeDain has a record of scholarly publications that could be envied by most academics. His writing has ranged from topics of major constitutional significance to consideration of the methods of teaching law.
He has made a number of notable contributions in the service of Canada. Dr. LeDain was a consultant to the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and Advisor to the Special Counsel on the Constitution to the Minister of Justice of Canada. For four years from 1969 he was Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs that became known as the LeDain Commission. In that role he contributed mightily to the potential for understanding and compassion between the generations in Canada, he brought reason, calm, fact and informed judgement to an arena that had been dominated by hysteria, superstition, ignorance and prejudice. Throughout he displayed patience and wisdom. It was my great privilege to serve with him as a colleague and I learned to respect his mind as one of the two or three most powerful intellects that I have met.
In 1975 Gerald LeDain was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeal and to the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada.
Mr. Chancellor, it is a distinct honour to present to you, on behalf of the Senate, and by authority of the Board of Governors, the Honourable Mr. Justice Gerald Eric Willoughby LeDain, that you may confer on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.


The current attention given to LGBT* issues by many policy-makers across the world constitutes a critical opportunity to further entrench LGBT rights as an integral part of the global human rights agenda. Connecting thought leaders and practitioners worldwide, the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum is uniquely placed to address both the global dimensions and local challenges and opportunities in this field.
In 2016 the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum convened in Thailand and, building on the Forum's global expertise and cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Being LGBTI in Asia Programme, brought together diverse stakeholders from around the world. Continuing its focus on inclusion, the 2016 Forum provided a platform for enhancing Asia's previously underrepresented role in existing global LGBT dialogues, and highlighted Asia's unique legal, religious, and cultural positions regarding LGBT individuals and their communities.
The 2016 Forum fostered strategic, focused discussions while examining progress on as well as challenges for LGBT rights in the region, identified concrete potential for further positive change in Asia, and shared best concrete potential for further positive change in Asia. Recognizing that the challenges confronting the LGBT and human rights movement are not only national or regional, the 2016 Forum in Thailand expanded understanding of how the region's successes and challenges relate to and influence issues at a global level. The lessons that different cultures and regions provide will be harnessed to advance LGBT human rights on the global stage.
Drawing on and expanding the unique network the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum has created since 2013, the 2016 Forum provided a safe space in which to discuss both the significant expertise and the life experiences of Forum members. It prepared individual participants intending to contribute to future global conferences (i.e. the 10 Year Anniversary Conference for Yogyakarta and the ILGA World Conference in Bangkok) by enhancing their opportunities to advocate for the full and equal rights of all gender and sexual minorities. In addition to its global focus, the 2016 Salzburg Global LGBT Forum gave special attention to the human rights of LGBT persons in Asia.
Family: Current and future leaders will be given an opportunity to identify the specific challenges LGBT communities face in the region regarding family rights, social inclusion and legal challenges as well as to re-examine the notions of family within a global group.
Storytelling: The Forum will continue to cooperate with and magnify the work of writers, filmmakers and photographers who portray the complexities of LGBT experiences across the globe. Acknowledging the importance of individual stories for identity and as a critical means to achieve social impact, the 2016 Forum will help activists and policymakers use such storytelling for local action.
Strengthening International Connections: To foster positive, sustainable change through impact and outreach, the Forum will continue to strengthen connections between LGBT human rights groups, government agencies, international organizations and embassies, and private sector supporters. Training and capacity building for LGBT activists remains a key priority.
Transgender-Asian Perspectives: The 2016 Forum will continue to focus on the high visibility of the transgender community in Asia, and especially Thailand, including the progress made and the continuing legal challenges.
The Salzburg Global LGBT Forum is a network of expertise through which we facilitate conversations needed to advance equal rights for LGBT people across the world. The Forum currently includes representatives from more than 54 countries, facilitating an open dialogue on critical issues facing LGBT communities in diverse contexts – from China, to India, to Russia, to Uganda, to Venezuela.


Happy New Year! I hope that 2012 is starting off well and that it is an amazing year for everyone. I had the opportunity to be a guest on the CBC Calgary Eyeopener's Unconventional Panel again today and it was really a blast. The topic today was "New Years Resolutions for the City of Calgary".
1) Push to get the much needed recreation facilities built in the deep SE!
2) Urge Calgarians to get more involved in local charities through volunteering!
What are your hopes for the City of Calgary in 2012?


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Gandhi stamps sell for £500,000
Image copyright Stanley Gibbons
A set of four stamps featuring the portrait of Gandhi has been sold for £500,000 - but the total remains well short of an international record.
Only 13 of the 1948 Gandhi 10-rupee Purple Brown and Lake 'Service' stamps are in circulation.
The block of four was sold to a private collector-investor in Australia for the highest ever price for Indian stamps, said dealer Stanley Gibbons.
However, the record price for a stamp sold an auction was $9.5m (£7.4m).
That British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp was sold to an anonymous bidder in June 2014.
The Indian stamps were particularly rare owing to the fact they were in a set of four.
Stanley Gibbons previously sold one of these singles for £160,000 to a client in Uruguay last year.
A block of four is in the Queen's stamp collection, which is believed to be the world's largest and most valuable in private hands.
Keith Heddle, managing director of investments at Stanley Gibbons, said: "The market for high-quality Indian rarities has been strong for several years and is supported by the ongoing desire of the wealthy Indian diaspora and savvy international clients to own these historic assets."
Stamp collecting: The mistakes worth millions
Video Rare British Guiana stamp sets record at New York auction


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Gain a wealth of information from your guide and a new appreciation for Medellín
Discover the political, social, and economic context of drug trafficking in Colombia on an eye-opening tour. Learn about Pablo Escobar's life, death, and impact. Visit Comuna 13 to see the inspiring transformation of what was once one of the most dangerous places in the world with a local guide. After pickup from your hotel in Medellin, head to Cementerio Jardines Montesacro to visit Pablo Escobar's grave. Discover different perspectives and points of view on Pablo's history. Gain an understanding of the context in which Pablo Escobar grew up and what made him who he was. Next, see Los Olivos Antioquia, the rooftop where Pablo Escobar died. Discuss the political and economic context of Columbia in the eighties and nineties. Discover the impact the drug lord's legacy still has. Then, visit Parque Conmemorativo Inflexión, a memorial to the victims of narco-terrorism. Finally, explore Comuna 13 and its history. Marvel at street art and stories of Colombians whose strength and resilience turned this previously violent area around. Unpick stereotypes and discuss the importance of education.
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text:
Risk factors associated with mental illness in Oyo State, Nigeria: A Community based study
OE Amoran1Email author,
TO Lawoyin1 and
OO Oni2
© Amoran et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2005
Accepted: 22 December 2005
The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with mental illness in Oyo State at community level using the general health questionnaire as a screening tool.
This cross-sectional, community- based survey was carried out among adults in three randomly selected LGAs using multi-stage sampling technique.
A total of 1105 respondents were assessed in all. The overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in Oyo state Nigeria was found to be 21.9%, (18.4% in the urban areas and 28.4% in the rural areas, p = 0.005). Young age ≤ 19 yrs (X2 = 20.41, p = 0.00013), Unemployment (X2 = 11.86 p = 0.0005), living condition below average (X2 = 12.21, p = 0.00047), physical health (X2 = 6.07, p = 0.014), and large family size (X2 = 14.09 p = 0.00017) were associated with increase risk for psychiatric morbidity.
Following logistic regression analysis, Unemployment (C.I = 1.18–3.70, OR -2.1) and living conditions perceived to be above average (C.I = 1.99–5.50, OR-3.3) were significant predictors of mental illness while family size less than 6 (C.I = 0.86–0.97, OR-0.91) was protective.
The teenagers and the rural populations are in greater need of mental health promotional services. Family planning should be made freely available in order to reduce the family size and hence incidence of mental illness in the African population.
General Health Questionnaire
Psychiatric Morbidity
Local Government Area
Mental health is defined as the capacity to work, capacity to love and the capacity to play and for recreation [1]. Approximately one in five of the world's youth, 15 years and younger suffer from mild to severe mental disorders. A large number of these children remain undetected and untreated [2]. It must be noted that mental health is one of the more recently added components of Primary Health Care (PHC) and means more than merely the presence or absence of obvious mental illness. In Nigeria 28.5% of those attending primary care setting in an urban area were found to have psychiatric morbidity [3, 4]. The disintegration of the traditional, extended family due to factors such as economic migration inevitably creates socio-cultural changes that may affect the mental health of the individuals in the society. Furthermore, concerns for job security and the economic survival of the household can create enormous pressure on individuals which may in turn affect their mental health [5, 6].
Available studies have been largely facility-based, while community- based studies have been very scanty. Several studies have been done using general health questionnaire (GHQ12) as a tool for screening mental illness in developed countries where the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity ranges between 17%–25% [6–8]. This study assessed the prevalence of and factors associated with mental illness in Oyo State at community level using the general health questionnaire as a screening tool. The public health significance of this study is that it will provide a conceptual framework for addressing mental health promotion goals. It also offers a highly appropriate framework through which community-based mental health activities could be addressed. Moreover, it could also be used for health planning and practice.
The study was carried out in Oyo State one of the 36 states in Nigeria. This community based study is cross sectional in design and aimed at collecting data on mental health in rural and urban Oyo State, Nigeria.
Multistage sampling technique was used to obtain a representative sample of the communities in Oyo state. The communities where the study was carried out were chosen as follows:
A sampling frame of all the local government areas in Oyo state was drawn and stratified into urban and rural areas based on World bank classification [9]. One rural and two urban local government areas was obtained by simple random sampling (balloting). This is based on the fact that two thirds of Oyo state is urbanized. Ibadan North-West, Egbeda and Saki-East local government areas were selected.
Sampling frame of all the communities in the selected local government areas was drawn. The communities where the study was carried out were randomly selected by simple random sample (balloting). The communities selected were Idikan in Ibadan North-west LGA, Olubadan Estate in Egbeda LGA and Ago-amodu in Saki-East LGA.
Using the PHC house numbering where available (in places where it has not been done the houses were numbered for the purpose of the study). Systematic sampling technique was employed to select the houses that were visited in the chosen communities. Seventy-four houses were selected in Idikan, eighty-five houses in Olubadan Estate and ninety-eight houses in Ago-amodu.
One household in each of the houses selected were recruited into the study.
Every resident aged 15 years and above who has resided in the area for at least 6 months was interviewed in the households selected. A total of one thousand, one hundred and five subjects were recruited into the study.
A sample size formulae for comparing two proportions was used to obtain the sample size. Prevalence of 12.0% of poor mental health using GHQ 12 questionnaire among clinical students of University of Ibadan was used as estimate for urban community, while the prevalence of 21.3% among rural primary health care patients in Nigeria was used for rural community [4, 5]. A precision of 95% is desired with a power of 90%. The calculated sample size was 610 while this was doubled to 1220 with response rate of 90.6% (1105 responses).
The study was conducted using an interviewer administered structured questionnaire. The GHQ-12 was used to assess mental health status of the respondents. Scores were calculated with a 0-1-1 scale with a maximum score of 1 and a minimum score of 0 for each item. A score of three or more was used as cut-off to classify into good and poor mental health. WHO quality of life questionnaire is a five point scale with items which ranged in rating from "very poor", "not at all" or "very dissatisfied" (1 point) to "very good", "extreme amount" or "very satisfied" (5 points). For items with reverse scores "not at all" was scored 5 and "extreme amount" was scored 1. The score for both mentally healthy and mentally ill was computed to asses the effect of psychiatric morbidity on quality of life.
This questionnaire was translated into the local language for easy administration and translated back to English to ensure accuracy of translation. The GHQ (12) and WHO quality of life questionnaires were administered by research assistants after adequate training and the author's supervision. Research assistants were recruited from the communities and were trained to administer the questionnaires. The research assistants were recruited based on minimum qualification of OND certificate. They were trained on how to extract the information on psychiatric symptoms and their relevance to the research work. They were also guided through a good number of questionnaires until a reasonable level of competence had been attained before being left to do it themselves.
Data generated in the study were manually cleaned and then entered into the Computer using SPSS 10 statistical software for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine factors associated with mental ill health in rural and urban Oyo State and also to remove the effect of confounding variables. The dependent variable was psychiatric morbidity as a dichotomous variable with a score of less than 3 being an option indicating good mental health while a score of 3 and more being another option indicating abnormal or psychiatric morbidity. All the variables which were significant in the bivariable analysis with a p < 0.08 were fed into the model. Odd ratios were adjusted and p values of <0.05 were taken as significant for the study.
Demographic characteristics
Psychiatric morbidity was more prevalent in the rural population (28.4%) compared with the urban population (18.4%) (X2 = 3.69 p = 0.005). The adolescents in this study (15–19 yrs) had the highest prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (43.7%, p = 0.00013) in Oyo state. The indigenes, that is, the Yorubas were more mentally stable when compared with the migrant tribes (the Ibos, Hausas and other minority tribes) (21.2% vs 33.3% p = 0.253). Females had higher prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (24.2% vs 18.1%, X2 = 0.83 p = 0.36).
Family characteristics
The Single (never married & separated and divorced) had a higher morbidity rate when compared with the married (p= 0.091). This is shown in table 2. Fewer respondents living within the extended family structure had higher prevalence of mental ill-health when compared with those living within nuclear family structure, (X2 = 0.09, 1df p = 0.766). Those living within monogamous family structure had higher prevalence for psychiatry morbidity. (X2 = 0.23, p = 0.634). Small sized families were significantly mentally healthier than large size families (X2 = 14.09 p = 0.00017).
Socio-demographic characteristics and Mental Health Status
Total No & (%)
Psychiatric Morbidity No & (%)
690 (62.4) 1105 (100.0)
167 (24.2) 242 (21.9)
Indigenes
Non- Indigenes
Family characteristics and Mental Health Status
Single (Never Married)
Separated, Divorced or Widowed
Type of family
Type of Marriage
563 (51.0
Socio- economic characteristics
The unemployed had the highest prevalence for psychiatric morbidity when compared with the employed (X2 = 11.86 p = 0.00058). Among those employed, the senior professionals had the highest unadjusted psychiatric morbidity rate (23.2%) while the students had a relatively high prevalence of mental ill-health (37.3%) when compared with others that are employed. Educational level was collapsed into two groups (high and low). Respondents with high level of formal education (secondary level and above) had a higher morbidity rate than those with low level of formal education (Nil and primary) (X2 = 0.97, p = 0.325).
The respondents who perceived their living condition to be above the average for their status were more mentally stable compared with those who did not (X2 = 8.13 p = 0.0043). Those with chronic mental illness had a higher prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (X2 = 6.07 p = 0.014). Furthermore, those with good social relationship were more mentally stable (X2 = 8.13 p = 0.0043).
Multivariate logistic analysis
Table 4 shows the adjusted odds ratio and the confidence interval for the risk of mental illness in Oyo State. Family size greater than 6 (p = 0.002), reported living conditions above average (p = 0.0001) and unemployment (p = 0.011) increased the risk of mental ill health. The presence of physical illness (p = 0.056) was of borderline significance for mental illness.
Socio-economic characteristics and Mental Health Status
Living condition
Adjusted Odds Ratio for the Risk of Mental Illness in Oyo State
Odd Ratio
Socio-economic class
This study examined the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in the urban and rural areas of Oyo state with a view to identify the factors that are associated with mental illness in the general population at the community level. The overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity found at the community level in this study was 21.9%. It is however slightly higher than what is found in other community-based surveys carried out in developed countries such as Spain, Canada, Norway and Australia [9–11].
The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in the rural area was found to be significantly higher than the prevalence in the urban location. This is contrary to what was found in similar studies carried out in developed countries such as Great Britain where mental disorder was commoner in the urban areas than in the rural population [12]. The adolescent age group was found to have higher psychiatric morbidity when compared to the adults. Similar observations have been made in several studies [21, 22]. The adolescent period is a turbulent period in life when there is transition into adulthood and self autonomy. This may explain the higher morbidity rates [23].
The study underlines the effect of family structure on the mental health of the population. Marriage was found to be associated with mental stability in Oyo state. Those separated from their spouses, divorcees and widows had a higher mental morbidity. Sticking to acceptable family structures may create mental tension in the communities studied. Aspiration to meet up to the community standards is usually a common source of mental stress. [14, 15]. The indigenes were found to be more mentally stable than non-indigenes showing that migrants in Nigeria may be predisposed to setbacks psychologically when compared with the indigenes. This needs however to be further investigated as this is contrary to research done among Canadian Chinese migrants which shows that they do not suffer mentally compared with the general Chinese population [15].
Large family size and Unemployment was found to be associated with increase in psychiatric morbidity. This study corroborates the findings of several authors who found out that the larger the size of the family the lower the quality of child upbringing. This may lead to delinquent behavior among the children and increased mental stress on the care providers [16, 17]. Unemployment is an important risk factor for mental illness and a significant determinant in the development of mental pathology especially among the adolescents [18]. However among those with employment the professionals had the highest morbidity rate. The possible reason for this in a Nigerian population is not immediately clear. Those with high level of formal education had higher psychiatric morbidity rate in the Nigerian community. This is similar to the conclusion of many authors [19, 20].
This study shows that prevalence of psychiatric morbidity is high in Oyo state, Nigeria and slightly higher than what is obtained in the community- based studies in the developed countries. The rural population is in greater need of mental health promotional services. Basic essential needs provided by the government in both rural and urban areas especially made available to the younger generation and promotion of family planning to reduce family size would help to reduce psychiatric morbidity and improve quality of life in this African population.
Department of Community Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
Office of Medical officer of Health, Saki East Local Govt Area, Oyo State, Nigeria
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