One of the best books I have ever read (although I didn't realize it at the time) was The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. The main revelation of this book was that science, rather than evolving from one discovery to the next with smooth, logical and empirical purity, is subject to an evil called a "paradigm." Kuhn's "paradigm" is the adherence of science to a particular idea, often even in the face of conflicting evidence, resulting from a grand discovery. As time progresses and additional knowledge is gathered, there occasionally appear to be facts that contradict the previaling belief and these unexplained facts are usually censored or suppressed. Eventually, however, a new theory will come along that allows for both the accepted findings and the previously "unexplained" and, when this happens, the new belief system is reluctantly accepted and becomes the next dogmatic paradigm.
Briefly, a paradigm is an idea, like, say, that the center of the Universe is planet Earth. This view, or paradigm, was held far beyond the discoveries of Copernicus because, simply speaking, it was convenient. The concept of God's creation, Earth, as being one of many planets rotating around a central sun seemed to contradict the fundamental views of the Bible and the early Christian church. It was this same church that imprisoned Copernicus as a heretic and sought to suppress this view for decades.
Back in this geocentric time, when the planets were viewed in the night sky, some odd movements were noted in the positions of Mars and Venus. These obvious planets seemed to move along the horizon, stop and then backtrack for a while, then resume their course. This minor glitch was ignored until it was proven by the deciples of Copernicus that these planetary movements were the result of expected and predicted observations being made of planets, from our own planet, all of which circle our Sun. Only then did the old paradigm die out.
The suppression of unusual ideas, or ideas that upset the current paradigm, are not just rare occurrances in science. These same prejudices exist today in a number of areas, not the least or which concerns the origins of humanity and the events of our Earth's past. Often, as we have seen with the Kennewick Man and the Piri Reis Map, there is the inclination to literally "cover up" certain archaeological findings that do not agree with the current dogmas. The Julesrod Collection, discussed here, and the Ica Stones (next issue) are two examples of this attempt to suppress valuable data.
About 50 years ago, an amateur archaeologist named Val Julesrod discovered some unearthed clay figurines along a trench at the base of Bull Mountain in Mexico. When speaking to local farmers, he learned that these were frequently encountered in shallow burials, in groups of from 20 to 40 pieces each, in a wide strip of land at the base of the mountain. He eventually began collecting and then excavating the area for more of these figurines and eventually had a collection of over thirty thousand!
The collection seems to have been the result of two distinct cultures. The oldest, stylized figures with large eyes and lips (above), were somewhat familiar to historians and resembled those of a culture that was known to exist in the area thousands of years before Columbus. Indeed, radiocarbon dating on these figures shows that they are 3500 years old. The other figures serve as the main controversy. They depict animals that strongly resemble camels, elephants, horses– animals not indigenous to the area– but also exact replications of certain dinosaur species thought to have been extinct for over 60 million years!
The latter collection seems to be made from a singular clay source and has been dated to 1500 years old. This presents some problems to the current historical paradigm. Dinosaurs have been dug up and serious attempts to assemble their petrified remains only within the past 150 years. As early as two hundred years ago, the very existence of these gigantic creatures was largely unknown. In fact, new species are even now being discovered, buried deep in ancient Jurassic strata all over the world. Back 1500 years ago, the knowledge of dinosaurs was virtually unknown. Or was it?
He knew the original collector, Val Julesrod, and spoke highly of him. According to Tierney, Julesrod was not interested in any financial gain from selling or carelessly speculating about these clay figures. He realized that their ultimate value was for all mankind, and he trusted that they would, someday, be an important clue to understanding human history. So far, these figures have just frustrated all attempts at their interpretation. Many clay figures show details of Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterodactyls, both alone and in various interactions with human figures.
Disappointed by the lack of scientific interest in his findings, Julesrod thought his discovery would finally see the light of professional scrutiny back in 1954. The Mexican Government sent a highly esteemed team of four archaeologists to examine the clay pieces and the earthen sites of their origin. At a location of their own selection, the team made two excavations and uncovered a collection just like those of Julesrod. They all seemed excited by the find and stated that they must, indeed, be authentic. Three weeks after their return to the University, their official report concluded that they could not be real because of the fantastic representations of both humans and extinct dinosaurs. They disregarded the dating experiments, and the Julesrod's discovery was again suppressed until now.
In the 1960's, famous scientists Charles Hapgood and television's Perry Mason director, Earl Stanley Gardner, visited the village to look for evidence. Hapgood noticed that much of the village had expanded with increased population, and that many houses were now constructed over the base of the Bull Mountain area where the clay figures had been initially found. He suggested to Gardner that they might try digging under the foundation of one of these older homes as a way of locating the clay relics and of proving that these artifacts were not artificially buried as some kind of hoax.
Digging through the hard packed dirt floor in one of these older homes, Hapgood's effort yielded 43 specimens of the controversial type of the Julesrod Collection. To Hapgood and Gardener, this was proof that the artifacts were very real and not a recent hoax. Their collection is now on public display in the Mexican town's museum but no further scientific research has been done.
Neil Steede, a scientist living in Missouri, calls himself a "contractual archaeologist" and is frequently paid by institutions or museums to examine controversial claims. Since he has no vested interest in the results, his approach is refreshing and usually unbiased. His look at this collection, up close and in detail, is the subject of an extremely well documented video, Jurassic Art, available at BC Productions. In this video, Steede confirms the date of the clay figures, but points out some possible flaws in the dating and analyses. Although he does not confirm or repudiate the authenticity of this find, his discussion of their implications is both shocking and controversial.
According to Steede, either our human history goes farther back in time than we ever imagined or the existence of dinosaurs– a species believed to have been extinct for 60 million years– survived to more recent times in human memory and mythology. Steede questions whether or not the carbon dating reflects the time when the figurines were made and fired, or whether the test simply indicates when the clay itself was formed by nature.
To add suspense to this clay collection, a much older collection of carved stones has been found in Peru which also depicts several extinct species of dinosaurs, flying machines, heart transplants and men looking at stars with what appear to be telescopes.
High atop the Andes Mountains, the "Rockies" of South America, there is an arid region in Peru that is both unusual and unnatural. Seen from the air, this region could easily be mistaken for an abandoned airport. Someone has carefully cleared and carved a series of laser straight lines that span many kilometers. Most of these lines are just wide enough to be called a path. Other areas form huge rectangles and trapezoids, hundreds of meters in width and length. Indeed, it looks as if the area was made to accommodate a fleet of DC-747's, But these "runways" are thousands of years old.
This is just one of the many mysteries to be found in the region. On neighboring mountain tops, the intact remains of walls and buildings can be seen. This architecture is all made from massive stones– some weighing as much as a locomotive– each meticulously carved and transported to the high peaks from a quarry some five miles away. The precision of each stone's final finish is so exact that there was no need for mortar or cement. The stones are joined so tightly that not even a pin can be inserted between them.
When the Spanish came to Peru and discovered this construction, they asked the native people if they had made these huge monuments. But the natives of Peru had only legends of "the ancients" that came and went, long before they established their villages. Their identity is still a mystery.
Images on the Ica Stones show human type figures riding in Pterodactyls while hunting dinosaurs (left), an amazing global map showing the continents (center), and other activities not yet understood.
In this area, rain is infrequent. In the mid 1960's it rained a lot. The dry washes quickly filled to capacity and normally calm rivers were scoured by the torrential flood. In a small town near the Nazca lines, the narrow Ica River was eroded away along the banks, revealing several hundred carved stones that had been buried in subterranean chambers. As the water receded, the carved stones were left on the Ica's banks.
As the locals began to collect these stones, a particular image of a fish caught the eye of Dr. Javier Cabrera, the town's physician. Dr. Cabrera recognized the outlined image as that if an extinct species of fish. His curiosity peaked, he sought more of these stones. Gradually, the villagers knew that he was interested in these strange objects and so they gave him what is now his collection– something Cabrera calls his "library"– of stone enigmas.
The stones come in all sizes. There are small ones that can easily fit your palm and there are rocks as large as a dog. All of the stones have images that have been carved with continuous lines etched into the rock surface. The etching reveals a lighter color than the original dark varnish of age, yet the etched grooves also bear traces of this varnish, indicating that the carving was done in ancient times.
One could easily attribute these stones to any pre-Columbian civilization were it not for the uncanny and unmistakable pictures of dinosaurs, humans flying on Pterodactyls and vivid scenes of human heart transplants and continental world maps.
Sophia Melewska is a Geomorphologist who was commissioned to investigate the rocks, summarize their content, and comment on their authenticity. After studying the collection of Ica stones, Dr. Melewska said that she was in a state of "intellectual shock." The art that surrounds the entire rock face shows evidence of an advanced civilization that knew about surgery, the history of man's past, and the Earth's evolution. But how? Melewska is one of the scientists now trying to direct the attention of professional research toward this mystery. But her battle is a tough one.
Unlike clay figurines that have organic material (i.e. straw) in their composition, there are no organic materials in plain old rock that will tell anything of its age. Traditional radiocarbon dating techniques rely upon organic material (that was once alive) to determine age. The surface of these rocks, however, has a varnish that is the result of bacteria and minute organisms which have adhered to the surface. A good black varnish or patina will take thousands of years to discolor and coat each stone. Etching these rocks would have removed the existing varnish, revealing the bare rock. Since these rocks have developed additional varnish in the grooves, it seems likely that they have were carved a long time ago. But how long?
In their video production, Jurassic Art, the producers again sent Neil Steede to examine this phenomenon. Neil, as was suggested with the Julesrod report, is unbiased. He travels the globe looking at stones and listening to all sorts of claims and stories. Some stories are blatantly fake, while others seem shockingly real and genuinely perplexing. Neil examined the varnish on the stones but was not able to guess at the date. They looked old, but exactly how old was old?
In cases where no organic material can be dated, the setting and strata where the objects are found can often give a clue to their age. Unfortunately, since these stones were revealed by accidental erosion, their original resting place is not known. Perhaps there were other ways of determining their age.
Acting on a rumor, Steede traveled to a nearby village where he met a local man who was in the process of carving similar stones for tourists and anyone else that could be duped into believing that they had a piece of antiquity. The rumors of Dr. Cabrera's collection have brought tourists to the area, seeking what they are assured are the "real stones." Steede found that the artist managed to emulate the style on the Ica stones, but his technique was not quite as good. Moreover, the tell-tale varnish was absent from his grooves. Despite this, skeptics point to these reproductions as proof of a hoax, and dismiss any serious study of the original collection which is still maintained by Dr. Cabrera. And if reproductions were not enough to cast doubt on the age of the Ica stones, their fantastic images of extinct animals and flying humans inhibit any serious scholar from taking a second look at the phenomenon.
If these stones are to be taken at face value, the time frame of our past history is askew. Either humans were able to remember dinosaurs and medical procedures as part of their history, or some species of dinosaur lived to fairly recent times.
Of course, dismissing them as a hoax is the easiest way to avoid this brain teaser. But since the stones seem to be associated with a culture possessing highly developed engineering and mathematical aptitudes, it is not an impossibility that such civilization might also have had knowledge of Earth's history and human evolution.
Could dinosaurs have lived until recent times? There is some evidence for this. Certain species of animals, thought to be extinct, have been found frozen and preserved. Mastodons (a type of hairy elephant) have been found in Siberian ice. These animals could have survived through the last ice age, some 13,000 years ago. Their bodies were so intact that, upon autopsy, fresh daffodils and sweet grass was found undigested in their stomachs. Unfortunately the stones do not show Mastodons, and no frozen dinosaurs have yet been found.
So the question to be answered is this: If there was an advanced civilization in South America thousands of years ago, why did it vanish? Who were they? How did they know of dinosaurs and stone masonry? These questions are brought to clarity in the video, Jurassic Art.
Surprisingly, a sane answer is available and will be the subject of the next chapter in the amazing history of this third rock from the Sun.


 Ravi Shastri backs Hardik Pandya says "who doesn't make mistakes?"
Hardik is back to the cricket field and Shastri is happy seeing where he belongs.
India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was added back to the Indian squad after BCCI uplifted the suspension imposed on him for his comments in Koffee with Karan show. The snubbing and outrage he received from brand and fans were huge and would have surely affected the cricketer mentally.
India's head-coach Ravi Shastri shared valuable advice to Pandya to cope up with the situation he was in. Shastri told Hardik to move on and not live in past. "I have told him to brush it off (the repercussions following his comments on the chat show 'Koffee with Karan'). Consider it a rap on the knuckles, a hard rap on the knuckles, and now move on. I have told him, 'You are born for better stuff'," he said as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Pandya was included in the Indian side immediately after his return. He was backed by the Indian captain Virat Kohli. Shastri shared his thoughts on Hardik's return to the cricket field. He said this is where he belongs.
"Who doesn't make mistakes? He has not made a mistake where you can book him for anything. I think the BCCI handled it well with a proper rap on his knuckles (for whatever was said). I don't want to comment on the BCCI process, though. Only, that they brought him back to where he belongs. I am happy to see him where he belongs, on the cricket field," Shastri added.


Welcome, readers of Shady Vale, to the first installment in our reread of Terry Brooks' classic epic fantasy, The Elfstones of Shannara. If you're unfamiliar with Elfstones, Brooks, or this reread, be sure to check out the introductory post, in which we all become acquainted.
Today, as we embark on this journey through the Elvish lands—from Arborlon to the Bloodfire—we will meet Lauren, a young elf who makes a devastating discovery; the Dagda Mor and his two cronies, the Reaper and the Changeling, who want nothing more than to fill the Four Lands with bloodthirsty demons, and eke out some delicious revenge on the elves who banished them; and three members of the Elven royal family, princes Ander and Arion Elessedil and their father, Eventine. Who won't we meet? Any of the principal protagonists. We'll get to Wil, Amberle, and Alannon over the coming weeks.
One of the most remarkable things about Elfstones, especially when compared to its predecessor, The Sword of Shannara, is how it eschews so much of the traditional epic fantasy introductory narrative, which makes this part of the reread particularly fun.
But, enough! Onwards to join Lauren and the other Chosen in the Gardens of Life.
Lauren, a young and trod-upon member of the Chosen, discovers that the Ellcrys, a sentient magic tree that keeps the Elven population safe from demon invasion, is dying. At first his companions don't believe him, but the evidence is irrefutable, especially after the tree speaks, showing them a vision of the future to come if she dies. Panic ensues.
The legend was not a legend. The legend was life. Evil did indeed lie beyond a Forbidding that the Ellcrys maintained. Only she kept the Elven people safe.
Ahh! Here we meet our her—er, some random elf who hangs around for a couple of chapters. On first introduction, it's easy to see how reader might mistake Lauren for the story's protagonist: He's central to the discovery of the Ellcrys' doom; he's naive, kind, and obviously an outcast among the Chosen. Sounds familiar, right? He's basically every other epic fantasy hero from the '80s. As we'll see, however, Brooks spends a lot of time tearing down the strict Tolkien-esque structural traditions he followed so closely in Sword. It's one of the reasons I love Elfstones so much, and often recommend it to readers as a good starting point for the series.
"This is all Amberle's fault. I said before that something bad would come from having a girl picked as a chosen," said one of [the Chosen].
"There were other girls among the chosen, and nothing happened because of it," Lauren protested. He had always liked Amberle. She had been easy to talk to, even if she was King Eventine Elessedil's granddaughter.
"Not for five hundred years, Lauren," the other said.
One of the things that Elfstones does best (which I'd also argue is one of Lord of the Rings' greatest strengths) is that it establishes an idyllic setting that we as readers desperately want to protect, and a threat that will inevitably destroy its beauty and peace. There's no fat, no needless exposition—just clean, clear conflict. We know what's coming, and its not good.
I've always wondered about the first Ellcrys. Who was she, and how did her transformation occur? Terry Brooks has plans to write several more Shannara novels about the period of time between the end of our world and the beginning of Sword, and—not that I necessarily think Brooks needs to retread the story of the Elves, the demons, the Forbidding, and the Ellcrys again—but I wouldn't be disappointed to see him explore the story of the first Ellcrys. It's sure to be a heart-breaker. Do you have any theories about who she might have been?
Fresh from a centuries-long imprisonment behind the Forbidding, the Dagda Mor arrives with Bebop and Rocksteady the Changeling and the Reaper, ready to rock and roll. Being pensive and prone to narrative exposition, the Dagda Mor thinks long and hard about the Ellcrys sealing Demonkind behind the Forbidding, and exactly what the Elves need to do to ensure it happens again. Using his Staff of Power™, the Dagda Mor summons an enormous bat to carrying them to Arborlon with plans to off the Chosen and put an end to any chance of saving the Ellcrys.
The Demon hated. He hated with an intensity that bordered on madness. Hundreds of years of imprisonment within the black hold that lay beyond the Forbidding had given his hatred more than sufficient time to fester and grow. Now it consumed him. It was everything to him. It gave him his power, and he would use that power to crush the creatures who had caused him so much misery. The Elves!
Here we're introduced to the novel's three main antagonists, and provided with a bit more information about the threat (and teased with a possible solution) to the Ellcrys' safety. I like the way Brooks continually holds back from introducing the novel's core cast—Amberle, Wil, and Allanon—instead taking his time to build a sense of dread and inevitability about the demons' coming. Before we ever meet our protagonists, we become dearly acquainted with the ferocity and cunning of their opponents.
It's interesting that the Dagda Mor has no motivations other than revenge and anger. He hates the Elves, and Brooks makes no attempt to instill any moral ambiguity in his ambitions. It's exactly what '80s epic fantasy is now criticized for, but, in a day and age where every epic fantasy is filled to the brim with rich, grey, complicated characters, it's kind of fun to have a guy I can hate without reservation, especially as we're given an opportunity to see parts of the narrative through his eyes. I can't think of many Tolkien-esque fantasy novels/series that feature their otherworldly/demonic antagonists as point-of-view characters. Brooks does this in most (all?) of the Shannara novels, but it really comes to a head about a decade after Elfstones with the release of Ilse Witch, which does an admirable job of blurring the protagonist/antagonist line.
Every novel needs a good antagonist, and here Brooks makes a sly decision to split his among three bodies. While the Dagda Mor is the ostensible leader, the Changeling and the Reaper each play their own important role in the novel, allowing Brooks to construct multiple plots that tie together nicely and create multiple fronts for the demons' assault. Tolkien's Nazgul (and, by extension, Brooks' Skull Bearers from Sword) were terrifying, but they were tools manipulated by Sauron, his hands and eyes. The Changeling and the Reaper, however, are their own entities with their own set of deadly skills, and deepen in a variety of ways the dread the pervades the novel.
This first introduction to the Dagda Mor's companions is concise and chilling.
Even the Dagda Mor was not certain of the Changeling's true appearance; the creature was so prone to adapt to other life forms that he spent virtually all of his time being something or someone other than what he really was.
The Reaper was a killer. Killing was the sole function of its existence. … [The Dagda Mor] was wary because the Reaper served him not out of whim and not out of fear or respect as did all the others. The Reaper feared nothing. It was a monster who cared nothing for life, even its own.
Overloading the Dagda Mor with the responsibilities and powers of the Changeling and the Reaper would've created a super-villain of comical proportions—a caricature of the big baddie. Splitting this role into three parts provides readers with three pressure points—one powerful (the Dagda Mor), one mysterious (the Changeling), and one suffocating (the Reaper). There's never a moment in the novel, no matter where it's focused geographically, that isn't shrouded by the danger presented by one of these three demons.
They stood in the shadow of the Breakline, the dawn which had already shattered the peace of the Chosen little more than a faint light in the eastern sky beyond the monstrous wall of mountains. The great, towering peaks knifed into the sky, casting pillars of darkness far out into the desolation of the Hoare Flats. The Flats themselves stretched westward from the line of mountains into emptiness—a hard, barren wasteland in which life spans were measured in minutes and hours. Nothing moved on its surface. No sound broke the stillness of the morning air.
Beautiful, even in its desolation. I feel like Brooks loses some of his wanderlust in later Shannara novels, focusing on plot to the exclusion of all else, making the Four Lands feel less vibrant and exciting. It's fun to see him still exploring as he writes his way through this early novel.
I also want to note that Brooks relays an important piece of plot-related information through the Dagda Mor's (typically villainous) internal monologue: the key to reviving the Ellcrys and staving off the demon invasion. So many fantasy novels keep this carrot dangling in front of the reader, but Brooks liberally hands it to the reader, and chooses to create narrative tension in other more effective ways throughout the novel. We'll get to those later, though.
Brooks describes the Forbidding as a "formless, insistent limbo of endless dark and slow, wretched stagnation," which, as anyone who's read the High Druid of Shannara series knows, is very different than his later interpretation, which more-or-less mirrors a post-apocalyptic version of the Four Lands. You can see here how much the concept of the Forbidding changed in the 20+ years between the writing of Elfstones and those later novels. I'll be honest, however, and admit that I preferred to think of the Forbidding as some sort of incomprehensible realm of chaos, roiling with demonic energy. But then, that wouldn't be the first time I was disappointed with the way Brooks retconned changes into his series.
Ander Elessedil, "second son of Eventine Elessidil, King of the Elves," preparing for an early morning horseback ride in the lands around Arborlon, is interrupted first by his dashing brother, crown prince Arion, then by Lauren, frantic with knowledge of the Ellcrys' illness. With Lauren in tow, Ander convinces the king's "personal aide," Gael of the Most Punchable Face, to wake the king. Gael is dismissed, Manx is petted, and Lauren delivers the news, to much dismay.
Eventine speaks of the Bloodfire, which Lauren reveals is located in a mysterious place called Safehold. Quickly shedding his shock, Eventine sends Ander and Lauren to question the other Chosen, and begins his study of the old histories in hopes of discovering more about the Bloodfire and Safehold.
One of the major leaps that Elfstones makes over its predecessor is in the way that Brooks attempts to add depth and more intricate motivations for all of his characters. From this first introduction, both Ander and Eventine struggle with getting older—Ander in the possibilities that have passed him by as he grew up in the shadow of his older brother, and Eventine in his body's failing ability to lead his people against the demon invasion. Though not terribly deep by more holistic standards, both of these character arcs are more interesting than anything found in Sword (other than, perhaps, Shea's journey to acceptance). It shows remarkable growth in Brooks, and, when you add many of the other secondary characters to the mix, makes Elfstones a much more interesting book to revisit. Each time I reread Elfstones, I find myself focusing on a different character, placing myself in their shoes and considering how I might react in their place. I can see that this time around, Ander's story might be the most compelling frame for the narrative.
As second son of Eventine Elessedil, King of the Elves, [Ander] could have had his rooms in the royal quarters; but years before, he had moved himself and his books to his present residence and thereby gained a privacy that he would have lacked within the palace. … At forty, he was no longer a young man. His lean Elven face was lined at the corners of the narrow eyes and the furrow of his sharply angled brow; but his step was quick and easy, and his face was almost boyish when he smiled—though that was seldom these days.
Arion was tall and fair, and his resemblance to their father at the same age was striking. That, together with the fact that he was a superb athlete and an accomplished weapons master, hunter and horseman made it inevitable that he should be Eventine's pride and joy.
The narrative asks us to believe that Anders' self-imposed exile from the royal palace is about peace and privacy, but it's easy to imagine that it might also be an effort to actively avoid a relationship with his father that cannot match that of the King and his first son. Arion's shadow falls darkly across every aspect of Ander's life. You can tell immediately that Ander will be challenged to come out of his shell, and step out of his elder brother's shadow; Arion, who's had it easy all his life—due to favouritism from his father, natural athleticism, and good looks—will be challenged to rein in his confidence, and not to stumble when things become difficult.
Once, Arion and [Ander] had been close. That was when Aine was alive—Aine, the youngest of the Elessedil sons. But Aine had been killed in a hunting accident eleven years ago, and after that the bond of kinship had no longer been enough. Amberle, Aine's young daughter, had turned to Ander for support, not to Arion, and the older brother's jealousy had soon manifested itself in open contempt. Then when Amberle had forsaken her position as one of the Chosen, Arion had blamed his brother's influence, and his contempt had degenerated into thinly masked hostility. Now Ander suspected their father's mind was being poisoned against him. But there was nothing he could do about it.
When I first started writing my notes, I mentioned of how difficult I found it to believe that Eventine—the brilliant, experienced, and compassionate king—would be so flawed as to openly favour Arion over Ander. It seemed to go against everything we learned about him in Sword. However, on further thought, it seems perfectly, honestly clear how this could happen. Arion's charisma is blinding, and, after their falling out upon Aine's death, Ander's decision to no longer be involved in the day-to-day runnings of the royal family eradicated any chance of reconciling with his father and older brother. There's a lot of stubbornness and hurt feelings involved, and everyone involved made mistakes in the wake of Aine's death, but Brooks does a good job of writing an intricate and saddening account of a family torn apart by death.
Plotwise, not a whole lot moves forward here. The Elves become aware of the threat to the Ellcrys, and begin to formulate a plan to save her, but otherwise it's about establishing the demons (lowercase d, not uppercase) that haunt Ander and his father, as well as introduce a few other characters (who shall remain nameless) who play a surprising role later in the novel.
And, can I just say how refreshing it is that the Elven royals believe Lauren and treat him with respect when he comes with news of the Ellcrys' sickness? Too many epic fantasy novels rely on people in power acting stubbornly, refusing to accept the truth—as it seems Eventine is on the verge of doing at one point in the chapter (For an instant, the King did not respond, but sat rigidly in place, his eyes fixed on the speaker.)—and making things worse by standing pat while their enemies grow stronger. It's one of the reasons that Elfstones, unlike many of Brooks' other novels, never wastes a word: There's no time, as the stakes just get higher and higher with each page turned.
The end(?) of the Chosen. Oh, wait, Amberle. A Druid awakens.


Get Back To Things That Matter. Get Back To Life.
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How gene targeting might transform the lives of patients with rare forms of lung cancer.
The reality of his experience over the last ten years or so has surpassed his expectations.
"It has been an incredible time to be involved in this area. The progress over the last decade in lung cancer has been even more than I ever could have imagined," he says.
Lung cancer is a complex disease consisting of many forms of cancer, where different treatment approaches are needed for the best chance of success. Many of the advances achieved to date are thanks to the range of new and innovative treatment approaches — including immunotherapies and gene-targeted therapies — that have come to the forefront in recent years.
One of Dr Doebele's patients is Claudia Pearson, who works for a wilderness school in Lander, Wyoming, and is a keen mountain biker, horse rider and hiker. She first became concerned when she noticed some unusual symptoms.
Claudia Pearson, ROS1 gene fusion-positive lung cancer patient.
"I remember I had vision issues in my left eye and, at times, no peripheral vision at all. I was weak and wobbly with my balance," says Claudia. It was the concern of her co-workers that finally prompted her to get herself checked out in late November 2016. "It was then that I discovered that I had a lesion in the lower right lobe of my lungs and others in my brain. It was a real shock but I remained stoic, possibly because I was in denial," said Pearson.
After the lung cancer diagnosis, Claudia had some initial treatment with radiotherapy, but without great success. She was then referred to Dr Doebele, who suggested genetic testing to find out the root, biological cause of her cancer. This was a transformative moment for Claudia as the results revealed that her cancer was driven by a rare mutation, or fusion, in her ROS1 gene.
Claudia is in a rare minority — only 1 to 2% of lung cancer patients have the activated ROS1 gene fusion — but for those who do, there are now reasons to be hopeful. The revelation from her genetic test meant that Claudia was able to join a clinical trial, testing a new treatment designed to target that exact genetic mutation.
Dr Doebele believes that stories like Claudia's are becoming more and more common, as progress in precision medicine translates into the most precious outcome possible — more time.
The next big challenge is to ensure that every lung cancer patient is tested for specific genetic markers such as ROS1. "The great thing is that we are moving towards next-generation sequencing assays, where we can diagnose many genes at once — so not just ROS1 but a whole range of genes that could help to determine the treatment required," said Dr Doebele.
Dr Doebele believes that we are only at the beginning of the journey with personalised cancer medicines and that one day, treatment could be unique from person-to-person.
That could mean more patients, like Claudia, responding well to treatment, and feeling hopeful about the future.
Lung cancer is a complex disease, where survival rates and treatment options by vary by subtype. Learn about why there is more to lung cancer than meets the eye.


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'Pregnant Workers' bill could force businesses to pay for abortions, trample religious liberty
Legislation to protect pregnant women in the workplace lacks key religious freedom protections, experts warn.
Bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on August 23, 2022, in New York CityPhoto by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Tue Nov 29, 2022 - 9:46 am EST Tue Nov 29, 2022 - 9:48 am EST
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The proposed "Pregnant Workers Fairness Act," which could pass Congress during the lame-duck session between now and the new Congress in January 2023, could be harmful to religious freedom and the sanctity of life, according to some analyses.
The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 but awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate. The bill ostensibly reinforces protections for pregnant workers, such as providing them reasonable accommodations in the workplace; however, vague language could be exploited to require employers to pay for abortions.
"Under the bill… pro-life groups can be sued if they don't provide their employees special leave to get abortions," Tom McClusky, director of government affairs for Catholic Vote, remarked in comments on the proposed legislation.
He warned that the bill does not incorporate protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. "I'm surprised some pro-life groups that aren't covered under RFRA don't seem to realize how this bill would impact their own operations," McClusky said.
Catholic Vote's Erika Ahern also noted that the definition of discrimination will be deferred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which currently takes a pro-abortion stance on pregnancy issues. "The EEOC does not typically act in a way that aligns with pro-life or Catholic views. In general, the EEOC has interpreted 'pregnancy-related' discrimination issues to include protecting workers' 'right' to abortion," Ahern wrote.
Despite these concerns, the bill is backed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who wrote that they "applaud these efforts which demonstrate a respect for life, family, and the dignity of workers."
The USCCB did not respond to a request for comment from LifeSiteNews about the pro-life and religious liberty concerns about the legislation, nor its misapplication of a papal encyclical to support the bill. The letter cites Pope John Paul II's Laborem Exercens to advocate for the bill to become law.
The papal document primarily focused on the need for businesses to pay a high enough wage for the husband and father to be the sole income provider, while the wife and mother stayed at home. "Having to abandon these tasks [the care and education of children] in order to take up paid work outside the home is wrong from the point of view of the good of society and of the family when it contradicts or hinders these primary goals of the mission of a mother," John Paul II wrote.
The bill, H.R. 1065, generally requires businesses to "make reasonable accommodations to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of a qualified employee."
While a group of Republican representatives raised concerns about the legislation, Democrats ignored them and have refused to amend the bill. An official U.S. House report on the bill noted the Republicans' objections that the legislation "does not incorporate the [Civil Rights Act of 1964] religious-organization protection or any provision protecting religious organizations."
Republicans, led by North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, argued that "if an employee working for a religious organization requests time off to have an abortion procedure, H.R. 1065 could require the organization to comply with this request as a reasonable accommodation of known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions."
"This accommodation could be required to include paid leave if the employee is eligible for paid medical leave as part of the employer's workplace policies," the congressional report stated. "These kinds of accommodations, however, could be contrary to the organization's religious beliefs, placing the organization in a position of either violating federal law or violating its faith."
Erika Ahern
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Tom McClusky

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There are many different options for treating liver disease and its symptoms. Your doctor will discuss which are most suitable with you and seek your consent. It is important that you ask questions about the treatment before you give your consent.
What are the risks and benefits of each option to me?
Which is the most suitable for me and why?
What role can I play in making the most of the treatment?
When and how should I take particular medications?
If you are in any doubt, ask your medical team to explain. If you would like more time to consider a treatment, perhaps to discuss it with your family, mention this to your doctor.
It is important to remember that there is no simple cure for most liver diseases. Your doctors will do their best to find the most effective treatments for your condition. Be patient and work with them to manage your condition as much as possible. Understanding your own liver condition will help you to manage your daily life.
There are treatments for many of the symptoms of liver disease, such as itching, ascites (fluid retention in your abdominal area), and hepatic encephalopathy (sleepiness, shaking and other mental symptoms). Tell your doctor if any symptoms are troubling you so that they can arrange effective treatment.
There are new medicines and treatment options in development for many liver diseases. Before these can be used routinely they have to go through rigorous tests for safety and to check they work. In some cases, it may be possible to be part of a clinical trial. This carries certain risks and you should discuss these carefully with your doctor.
An organisation called NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) looks at new medicines and other techniques, and produces recommendations to the NHS. It has produced guidance on several treatments for hepatitis B and hepatitis C. If one of these treatments is recommended by NICE and is suitable for you, you are entitled to be prescribed it regardless of cost. There are other bodies producing guidance for Wales (All Wales Medicines Strategy Group) and Scotland (Scottish Medicines Consortium).
Patients often find information about treatments on the internet or in the media. It is important to be cautious about the promises these make. Some have not passed the tests for safety, quality and effectiveness that the UK requires. In other cases, the treatments may not be safe or appropriate for your condition. If you find information about a treatment which you have not been offered but you think could help, discuss it with your medical team.
Your liver processes all the medicines and drugs that come into your body. Medicines that are normally safe may be dangerous to someone with liver problems because the liver is not able to cope. Always check with your liver specialist and the pharmacist whether a medicine is safe for you.
Often liver patients are prescribed a number of different medications. It can be quite complex remembering when and what to take and what each medication is for. This can be a particular problem when the packaging, appearance of the tablets and even the brand name may change with each prescription. Make sure you are clear on what you have to take and when. If you are confused or unclear at any time, check with your doctor or pharmacist.
Common painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen can be dangerous for people with liver disease. These can sometimes be found in everyday items such as creams for muscle aches, cold remedies and cough syrups. It is a good idea to ask your doctor what medications you can take for pain relief and check the content of any medicines that you buy from a pharmacist.
If you miss a dose, take the next one as soon as you remember, but do not take a double dose unless you are told to do so. If there is a problem or you forget more than one dose, ask your medical team for advice. Make sure you have enough supplies of your medicines, particularly over bank holiday periods or if you plan to travel away from home. Order repeat prescriptions well in advance in case the pharmacy runs out of stock.
It is also useful to know what side-effects you might experience and whether you should be worried about these. Talk to your doctor about this when the medicines are first prescribed. Mention any side-effects to your doctor at the next appointment, or if these are a problem, call your doctor as soon as they occur. It is important not to stop taking your medicines without speaking to your medical team first.
Some people wish to take herbal remedies to relieve the symptoms of illness. Again, most of these are processed by the liver, so can be toxic to people with liver problems. Some can damage the liver and make you more ill. Some people believe that milk-thistle can be helpful for people with liver disease. However it is not licensed as a medicine, and there is no regulation of milk-thistle products, which means you cannot be sure how much of the active ingredient you are getting and how pure it is. It is wise to be cautious about claims made for herbal remedies, particularly those advertised on the internet, as they can offer false hope. It is a good idea to discuss the use of these remedies with your doctor and your pharmacist.


I prefer history, for all its flaws, to my own subjective guesses about the future.
The witty Danish physicist Niels Bohr once said: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." The future is, of course, unknowable. No one has ever been there. But our lives require forecasts about what it will be like, and we have to base those forecasts on something. Our choice, usually, is history. And so it is with investing.
When you invest, you forgo the immediate gratification your money could purchase and instead put your cash away, to be recovered later, when, you hope, it will be worth more.
Stocks have outperformed bonds by a wide margin.
Stocks have been volatile over short periods but stable over long periods.
A diversified portfolio provides extra stability.
Therefore, the best strategy is to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks and hold for ten years or more.
Short-term investing is risky. From 1926 through 2007, a broadly diversified portfolio of large-company stocks (as represented by Standard & Poor's 500-stock index) produced losses in 23 out of 82 calendar years. But when you examine returns over holding periods of ten years (that is, from the beginning of 1926 to the end of 1935, from 1927 to 1936, and so on, up to the present), you find that losses occurred only twice.
Minimal losses. The negative periods were during the Great Depression: 1929Ð38 and 1930Ð39. The declines were small: 0.89% and 0.05% annualized. Over the 73 overlapping ten-year periods between 1926 and 2007, a portfolio of large-capitalization stocks has failed to at least double in value only 19 times. These statistics -- and others I cite here -- come from Morningstar's Ibbotson subsidiary.
Enter the disaster of 2008. The S&P 500 plunged 37% in 2008, and the ten-year period that ended December 31 became the worst since Ibbotson began keeping records: an annualized loss of 1.4% -- or roughly 4% after taking inflation into account. Since then, stocks have continued to tumble. The 120-month period that ended February 28, 2009, produced the worst real loss (5.8% annualized) of all 880 such periods studied.
A single outlying result should not invalidate a strategy based on more than 80 years of history. But the results of the past decade do make investors extremely nervous, and with good reason. Is the past still a guide to the future in investing? Doubts are growing.
Perhaps some profound change has occurred in the economic and social fundamentals that underlie financial investments, making history an invalid prologue. Perhaps the United States is growing weaker and can no longer compete with China. Perhaps we are following a disastrous public-policy route -- failing, for example, to prevent health-care costs from gobbling up the entire economy. Or perhaps the markets are looking to the future -- to huge deficits or the probability of more serious terrorist attacks.
While I share such concerns, I don't buy the notion that it's different this time. I prefer history, for all its flaws, to my own subjective guesses about the future.
Still, we need to recognize that history has serious limitations. The world is not a wholly rational place. Peter L. Bernstein, in Against the Gods (Wiley, $19.95), his brilliant book about risk, quotes the English writer G.K. Chesterton: "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it ... looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait."
This wildness is what we are witnessing today. Its foundation is mass psychology -- our tendency to get caught up in a craze, which, in retrospect, appears illogical in the extreme.
Charles Mackay, the Scottish poet and journalist, first catalogued the phenomenon 168 years ago. Mackay wrote Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, an account of such investment lunacy as the South Sea Bubble in England in the 18th century and Holland's tulip mania of the 1630s.
A financial mania leads to a bubble. The bubble pops, asset prices fall to earth, and, especially when that asset is bought on credit, the damage spreads to the economy as a whole. That is what happened recently with residential real estate.
But aren't such bubbles part of the record of the past, the market history we use as the basis of prediction? Yes and no. Large bubbles -- and other shocking dislocations, such as a terrible war -- don't happen often enough to have a major impact on the data. The risk of such wildness is real, but it is hard to quantify because it is so rare.
In his doctoral dissertation, published as Risk, Uncertainty and Profit in 1921, a young Midwesterner named Frank Knight drew a distinction between risks we can count (and count on) -- gleaned through data points of history -- and what he called "a higher form of uncertainty not susceptible to measurement and hence to elimination."
The kind of risk we can "eliminate" -- or prepare for -- is the sort that takes place with a coin flip. We know the odds are that half the time heads will come up and half the time it'll be tails. You can get a run of ten heads in a row, but on each new flip the odds are 50-50 that heads will appear, and over thousands of flips, heads and tails will each win about the same number of times.
You should have enough capital to withstand losses from, say, ten tails in a row. History assures us that stocks will lose money only a few times over ten-year periods and never over 20-year periods, and that on average they'll deliver annual real returns of about 7%.
Knightian uncertainty is something else entirely. It is a bolt from the blue -- the toppling of the World Trade Center towers, the severe economic contraction produced throughout Europe in the 1720s after the collapse of John Law's Mississippi Scheme, or the five-month shutdown of the London Stock Exchange after World War I broke out.
Your choices. There are two ways to respond to these kinds of uncertainties as an investor. The first is to take your chips off the table. If you can't calculate the odds, refuse to play. The second is to ignore the risk and assume that a logical system, even if severely buffeted, will eventually prevail.
If you believe you can recognize a mania as it develops, then, certainly, exercise your good judgment. Few have this talent. One who did -- at least according to legend -- was Bernard Baruch, the financier and political adviser.
Baruch wrote the foreword to the 1932 edition of Mackay's book. While he was fascinated by Mackay's stories, he observed, "No preventive is anywhere suggested." Still, he believed that if you spot the early symptoms of these maniacal episodes, you may be able to "avoid the more harmful of their full effects."
He concludes, "I have always thought that if in the lamentable era ... culminating in 1929 ... we had all continuously repeated 'Two and two still make four,' much of the evil might have been averted. Similarly, even in the general moment of gloom in which this foreword is written, when many begin to wonder if declines will never halt, the appropriate abracadabra may be: 'They always did.'"
A few suggestions, then, for those who believe that logic and history will ultimately prevail: An excellent way to gain access to the broad large-cap U.S. market is through low-fee index funds, such as Vanguard 500 Index (symbol VFINX) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund.
Those who prefer to buy individual stocks should consider General Electric (GE), the best-run diversified giant in the world. As of March 6, with its share price at $7, GE was as cheap as it was in 1995. Because of its large financial-services business, GE is definitely risky, but potential rewards are great. Also worth adding to your shopping list is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B). At $2,327, the stock has fallen by half since early October, even though Berkshire owns great companies and has a gorgeous balance sheet.
As Chesterton said, the world is rational, but not always and everywhere. Still, we have to proceed as if it were, especially at times like these.
The market's horrific performance in 2008 and the first two months of 2009, coming on top of the 2000-02 downturn, has made this one of the worst decades ever for stocks. In fact, if you take into account the impact of inflation, the ten-year period that ended in February is the market's worst ever, going back to 1926.
Source: Ibbotson Associates, a Morningstar Inc. company.


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AAFA Lists Certain Amazon Marketplaces in Notorious Markets Submission to USTR
October 1, 2018 | WASHINGTON, D.C.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association included certain Amazon marketplaces in its submission to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) identifying foreign markets that facilitate the sale of counterfeits. The submission was part of USTR's 2018 Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets, which identifies foreign physical and online marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting. AAFA identified amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), amazon.ca (Canada), and amazon.de (Germany) in its submission.
"Identifying the sale of counterfeit products is crucial to our ongoing efforts to defend American intellectual property, American jobs, and American consumers. The annual review of Notorious Markets by the Office of the United States Trade Representative is essential in this process," said Rick Helfenbein, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association.
"As in years past, we focus on marketplaces that put our members at a significant disadvantage by selling a substantial amount of counterfeit goods that may not meet safety regulations and contribute to damaging intellectual property. While we are always willing to work with companies to improve protection efforts, we also think it is important that consumers are made aware of current problems. Additionally, we think it is reasonable to expect leading ecommerce giants to commit to safeguarding American intellectual property. Counterfeiters continue to develop new ways to sell their illegal goods and we hope that the companies listed in our submission will be vigilant in their efforts to prevent illicit activities taking place on their platforms.
"Amazon has been a leader of, and has made valuable contributions to, the future of retail. We believe Amazon can, and should, be a leader in the fight against counterfeits.
"In addition to submitting these comments, we are also concerned with the Administration's continued use of punitive tariffs on legitimate goods imported to the U.S. While these tariffs have been imposed to counter intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer, we believe the tariffs will instead incentivize the sale of counterfeit products, as they will not be charged this added tax."
AAFA's full submission to USTR can be found here.
Want more news releases, letters and comments to the government, congressional testimony, and speeches from the American Apparel & Footwear Association?
VIEW MORE NEWS


Otto Spijkers is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Utrecht University. He is a member of the Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development of the International Law Association, and guest lecturer for Amnesty International The Hague.
He was guest lecturer at the Association pour la promotion des droits de l'homme en Afrique centrale (APDHAC) of the Université catholique d'Afrique centrale (Yaoundé, Cameroon) and Leiden University; and he taught a few courses at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations "Clingendael".
Previously, he was a PhD candidate and lecturer at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at the University of Leiden. His doctoral dissertation, entitled The United Nations, the Evolution of Global Values and International Law, was published with Intersentia in 2011.
'Staatsaansprakelijkheid voor Srebrenica,' in Overheid en Aansprakelijkheid, 2014.
'Bystander Obligations at the Domestic and International Level Compared,' in Goettingen Journal of International Law, Vol. 6, No. 1 (September 2014).
'Sustainable Development and High Seas Fisheries,' Utrecht Law Review, Volume 9, Issue 1, January 2013.
'Global values in the United Nations Charter,' Netherlands International Law Review, vol. 59 (2012), issue 3.


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Nasher Sculpture Center Commissions Sculpture by Artist Rachel Harrison at City Hall for City-Wide, Public Art Exhibition Nasher XChange
The Nasher Sculpture Center is pleased to reveal the plans for a newly commissioned object by artist Rachel Harrison that will be located in the heart of downtown at Dallas City Hall.
This project represents the artist's first ever public art commission. Nasher XChange is the first museum organized, citywide art exhibition in the United States, which will be on view at 10 locations from October 19, 2013 through February 16, 2014, in celebration of the museum's 10th anniversary.
Rachel Harrison is a New York-based artist known for using a wide variety of materials including a bevy of consumer products and found objects alongside abstract forms she creates by hand to create combinations of seemingly incongruous things.
For the Nasher XChange Harrison is fabricating a giant pink arrow to be installed in the plaza at City Hall in downtown Dallas. The arrow will point to an existing sculpture at the site, Henry Moore's 1978 The Dallas Piece. Harrison's project grew out of a recent visit to Dallas City Hall during which she was surprised to see Moore's outdoor sculpture encircled by metal barricades. For Harrison the barricades recalled the metal stanchions now commonly found surrounding sculptures in museums, a peculiar feature Harrison has sometimes referred to in her own work. Following Harrison's inquiry about the Moore at City Hall the barricades around it were removed. Her giant arrow on the plaza calls attention not only to Moore's piece but to the barrier formerly around it and the conditions that frame our encounters with works of art.
Harrison's project speaks moreover to the unique history of the site at Dallas City Hall. Built in 1978 I.M. Pei's modernist landmark was part of a broader effort to reimagine the future of Dallas through bold city-planning in the years following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. In this sense Harrison's intervention alludes almost by chance to Dallas's tradition of design in the public realm and to the ways in which art has been sometimes imagined to support civic ends.
Rachel Harrison lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include CCS Bard/Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson (2009); Portikus, Frankfurt (2009); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2013); and S.M.A.K., Ghent (2013). Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam among many others.
Nasher XChange will extend the museum's core mission beyond its walls and into Dallas' diverse neighborhoods, alongside key community partners, to present advances in the rapidly expanding field of sculpture, raise the level of discourse on the subject within the city, and contribute to broader national and international conversations on public sculpture. As the only institution in the world exclusively dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and researching modern and contemporary sculpture, the Nasher Sculpture Center is uniquely positioned to investigate this growing practice of sculpture in the public realm. The Nasher has also commissioned Ruben Ochoa, Rick Lowe, Ugo Rondinone, Alfredo Jaar, Vicki Meek, Good/Bad Art Collective, Liz Larner, Charles Long, and Lara Almarcegui to create works for Nasher XChange.


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Великому́ченик Евста́фий (; Евстафий Плакида, Евстафий Римский, Евстахий; ? — 118) — христианский святой, великомученик. Покровитель охотников, в католицизме один из Четырнадцати святых помощников. Память в Православной церкви совершается , в католической — 20 сентября.

Жизнеописание

До крещения Евстафий носил имя Плакида, был военачальником при императорах Тите и Траяне. По преданию, принял христианство после того, как на охоте, среди рогов преследуемого им оленя, появился перед ним образ распятого Спасителя, сказавшего ему: «Плакида, зачем преследуешь ты Меня, желающего твоего спасения?». Вернувшись домой, он крестился вместе со своей женой Феопистией и двумя сыновьями — Агапием и Феопистом (родные Евстафия также почитаются в лике святых).

Евстафий перенёс испытания, сходные с испытаниями ветхозаветного Иова — слуги его умерли, скот пал, а сам он во время путешествия на корабле в Египет был разлучён со своей женой, а потом и с детьми. Перенеся без ропота эти испытания, святой Евстафий обрёл своих родных и как прославленный военачальник был призван императором Траяном для ведения войны.

После окончания боевых действий святой Евстафий с почестями вернулся в Рим. Во время празднования императором Адрианом, сменившем к тому времени на престоле Траяна, одержанной победы над варварами, приглашённый со своей семьёй Евстафий отказался принести жертвы языческим богам и открыто исповедовал себя христианином. Святой Евстафий, осуждённый со своей семьёй на растерзание диким зверям, не был ими тронут. После этого император велел бросить их живыми в раскалённого медного быка, где святые и приняли свою мученическую смерть (Католическая церковь отвергает предание о такой кончине святых как «совершенно необоснованное»). Тела их остались невредимыми и были погребены христианами.

О текстах Жития святого Евстафия

 Византийский текст — мартирий (описывающий мученичество) относится к так называемым риторическим текстам, — ориентированным на красноречивую фразеологию и религиозную образность. Дошедшая до нас рукопись по-видимому была включена Симеоном Метафрастом (X век) в составленный им сводный корпус греческих житий святых (148 текстов). Рукопись содержит два небольших нечитаемых фрагмента (первый фрагмент: старший сын Евстафия рассказывает младшему об их похищении зверями, здесь же путаница: старшего сына похитил лев, а не волк, второй фрагмент: Феопистия рассказывает Евстафию, что Бог сохранил её неприкосновенной).
 Древнегрузинский текст является дословным переводом греческого, в тексте нет нечитаемых мест и по нему легко восстановить утерянные фрагменты византийского списка. В тексте нет никакой путаницы по поводу того, что старшего сына похитил лев, а младшего — волк.
 Древнерусский текст присутствовал в служебных минеях Русской Церкви уже в XI веке, что в некоторой степени позволяет судить о древности перевода. В дошедших до нас списках имеется большое количество сокращений и вольностей: огромные фрагменты текста переведены в два-три предложения, смысл некоторых предложений изменён (к примеру, вместо «Евстафий не мог плакать от горя» переведено «Евстафий горько плакал»), в перевод включены изречения, которых нет в исходном тексте. Чрезвычайно качественный перевод на современный русский язык предложен О. В. Гладковой.
 Согласно армянским источникам — когда святые апостол Фаддей и апостол Варфоломей распространяли христианство в Армении, Фаддей назначил Евстафия (Евстатеоса) епископом Сюника. Святой Евстафий умер в Армении, и над его могилой была построена церковь, которая позже превратилась в монастырский комплекс под названием Татев (Евстатеос).

Почитание
Святой почитается в Православной и Католической церквях. Святому посвящено много храмов, одной из наиболее известных является церковь св. Евстафия в Риме, известная с IX века, но, существовавшая уже в VII веке.

В честь великомученика Евстафия назван остров в группе Наветренных островов в Карибском море Синт-Эстатиус.

Примечания

Литература

 Гладкова О. В. Житие Евстафия Плакиды в русской и славянской книжности и литературе IX—XX веков. — М.: «Индрик», 2013. — 912 с. — ISBN 978-5-91674-275-6.

 Житие великомученика Евстафия
 Житие Евстафия Плакиды / Пер. и примеч. О. В. Гладковой // Слово Древней Руси. — , 2000. — С. 56—69.
 Гладкова О. В. Пример средневекового дуализма: Чудо об олене в Житии Евстафия Плакиды и в ранней славяно-русской агиографии // Гладкова О. В. О славяно-русской агиографии. Очерки. — , 2008. — С. 162—180.
 Гладкова О. В. Житие Евстафия Плакиды и сказание о Феодоровской иконе: вопросы текстологии, поэтики и идеологии // Древняя Русь. Вопросы медиевистики. — 2008. № 3 (33). — С. 100—105.
 Гладкова О. В. Житие Евстафия Плакиды как источник чтения о Борисе и Глебе Нестора: вопросы текстологии, поэтики и идеологии // Древняя Русь. Вопросы медиевистики. — 2012. № 1 (47). — С. 28 — 37.

Ссылки
 Великомученик Евстафий Плакида, жена его Феопистия и чада Агапий и Феопист

Персоналии по алфавиту
Святые по алфавиту
Святые Единой Церкви
Великомученики
Мученики-воины
Христианские святые II века
Казнённые в Римской империи во II веке
Персоналии, чья дата рождения не установлена
Персоналии, чья дата смерти не установлена
Википедия:Персоналии, не категоризованные по месту рождения

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
What Kind of Man
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Florence + The Machine single 'What Kind of Man' was recorded by producer Markus Dravs in Miloco's The Pool.
Preceding her explosive single 'Ship To Wreck', which was also recorded in The Pool, Florence returned with a cut from her album 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful' in the shape of 'What Kind of Man'.
Talking about the session, assistant Jonathan Sagis said: "I've spent a lot of time working at The Pool in the past few years so I love the vibe there. It's a very versatile room in terms of its acoustics, equipment and instruments, so tracking an album like Florence's there is really great. You can make different album tracks sound unique and create a very rich and interesting sounding production."
Jake Young
Read more about Florence + The Machine
Miloco What Kind of Man


At last! A terrific thriller has surfaced in this grim movie summer. "Red Eye" is so much fun that most of the audience covered their faces with their hands to ward off impending calamity and by the end, burst into spontaneous applause of relief.
The movie starts and ends with a bang and is held together in between by a great big ball of suspense that lodges neatly in your chest for two hours. The story has a good, strong, simple plot, several excellent performances, a crackling script and a score that lets you know nothing good lies ahead.
The big surprise is that this is not a terrorist movie about airplanes. Though it is set on a plane, it is really an old-fashioned espionage movie, a battle of wits between Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) and Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). Lisa is a sharp-eyed sophisticated manager of customer relations for a luxury hotel in Miami. On the way to the Dallas/ Ft. Worth airport for the trip home, she fields hotel problems while juggling her cell phone dial as if it's an extension of her nimble fingers. During a flight delay she meets Jackson Rippner, a charmer who buys her a drink at the bar and ends up sitting next to her on the plane. When Lisa asks Jackson "What do you do?" he answers truthfully and both she and the audience stiffen.
Director Wes Craven uses the first part of the movie to remind us just how uncivilized flying has become. Endless airport lines, unexplained delays, bottom line service. On board at last, seat belts click, door bars latch – "Complementary soft drinks, juice and coffee," crowded, stuffy, unpleasant, and finally, trapped. Craven's atmosphere conveys the claustrophobia many people feel in the silver tube and sets up the unfolding drama of this particular flight.
Rachel McAdams creates a smart, resourceful executive who can cope with nearly anything, a real relief from heroines who await a White Knight. To balance her strong performance, Cillian Murphy manages to nail us to our seats. An unusual looking guy with a laser gaze, he makes Jackson charming one moment, terrifying the next. Once we know who he is, a mere snarl or a stare can force us to close our eyes. This actor is one of the best bad guys to come along in eons, the kind you'll never quite trust if he plays a good guy because his Jackson Rippner in this movie is a defining role.
It's a fine supporting cast all round, but the bitter chemistry between McAdams and Murphy is what infuses the movie with grim anticipation. The fact that they and director Craven lure us to a state of fear without overkill is a triumph. What could be better than a thriller without crashes, car chases, bombs or blood? Straightforward, brainy manipulation of the audience does the job here. Don't miss it.


text:
Q: fcm firebase function undefined value - first attempt, defined - second attempt I have an Android application and I intend to implement send notification through fcm. I have written below Javascript code for it but when I try to follow someone for the first time, the values are undefined, however, for the second time it works perfectly as expected...
Undefined first attempt
Defined second attempt
i tried nesting those three functions inside one, and also tried declaring variables locally but not solved.

"use-strict"
const functions = require('firebase-functions');
const admin = require("firebase-admin");
admin.initializeApp();

var notificationDB;
var followedUserRef;
var followingUserRef;
var followingText;
var followingImageProfile;
var followedDToken_id;
var following;
var followingFullname;
exports.sendNotification =functions.database.ref("Notifications/{followed}/{notification_id}").onWrite((snapshot,context)=>{
    const followed = context.params.followed;
    const notification_id = context.params.notification_id;

    notificationDB = admin.database().ref(`Notifications/${followed}/${notification_id}`);
    console.log("Notification DB : "+notificationDB);
    notificationDB.on("value",(snapshotOne)=>{
        following = snapshotOne.val().userid;
        followingText = snapshotOne.val().text;
    });

    followedUserRef = admin.database().ref(`Users/${followed}`);
    followedUserRef.on("value",(snapshot)=>{
        if(snapshot.val().token_id===null){
            followedDToken_id = "null";
        }else
        followedDToken_id = snapshot.val().token_id;
    });

    followingUserRef = admin.database().ref(`Users/${following}`);
    followingUserRef.on("value",(snapshot)=>{
        followingFullname = snapshot.val().fullname;
        followingImageProfile = snapshot.val().imageurl;
    });

    console.log("Following: "+following);
    console.log("Followed: "+followed);
    console.log("followed user Ref: "+followedUserRef)
    console.log("NAME: "+followingFullname);
    console.log("FOLLOWING TEXT: "+followingText);
    console.log("tokken: "+followedDToken_id);
    console.log("IMAGE: "+followingImageProfile);
});

expected result should show on first attempt, but it fails at first and get the values at second time.

A: Your code is not entirely executed sequentially as you seem to expect, there are requests sent to the server and you need to do your console logs in the callbacks. For example here
notificationDB = admin.database().ref(`Notifications/${followed}/${notification_id}`);
console.log("Notification DB : "+notificationDB);
notificationDB.on("value",(snapshotOne)=>{
    following = snapshotOne.val().userid;
    followingText = snapshotOne.val().text;
});

following will only be initialized upon response, which will be executed after you console log. So, you need to refactor your code with the following principles in mind:

*

*you initialize your variables

*afterwards you call the functions which send requests

*in the callback you do your console log

Even more elegant would be to use the Promise API.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Jetlines calls out the lack of Canadian Airline Competition with First-Ever Protest in the Sky
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada Jetlines Ltd. (JET: TSX-V; JETMF: OTCQB) (the "Company" or "Jetlines"), the first ultra-low-fare carrier in Canada has staged a protest in the one place the airline duopoly think they own: the sky. Using four planes, 18 skydivers and the Jetlines CEO, an airborne protest was staged to call out the lack of Canadian airline competition. This act was to rally Canadians, investors and the Competition Bureau around the idea of increased competition and decreased airfares.
The ultra-low-fare carrier is encouraging people to go to Jetlines's website fightback.jetlines.ca/ and sign an online petition that will be presented to the Canadian Competition Bureau, the government agency that ensures markets operate in a competitive manner to prevent abusive monopolistic practices. While several airlines have attempted to enter the Canadian market, the duopoly has pushed them out with short-term match-pricing at prices below their avoidable costs. Thus far, Canada's Competition Bureau has done little to rectify this issue. The Competition Bureau is currently investigating WestJet and their subsidiary new airline for "predatory pricing" to undercut new entrants. Under Canada's competition laws, predatory pricing occurs when an incumbent with market power sets its prices below avoidable costs.
"Canadians pay among the highest airfares in the world and we're the only developed country without an ULCC as two high cost airlines control approximately 85% of the domestic market." says Javier Suarez, CEO for Jetlines. "We know Canadians are fed up as there are between five and six million passenger trips per year by land over to the US each year to fly on US low cost carriers, based out of northern US airports, that in many cases only operate from those airports due to the robust Canadian passenger traffic. We're urging consumers to go online and to show their support for more competition and lower fares in Canada".
The entrance of Jetlines has the potential to dramatically reduce airfares for Canadians on a long-term, sustainable basis. In just two decades, the ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) model has proven to be highly profitable and successful throughout the world. They generate economic growth but most importantly, they give consumers the freedom to travel more often. While more of these airlines are taking off, Canada has not tapped into the high demand for this kind of travel due to the anti-competitive environment of the existing Canadian duopoly. As a consequence, there is a lack of competition, that drives up prices, making consumers suffer.
Jetlines is a publicly traded company, backed by a management team and board of directors with extensive experience in the low-cost airline industry. Jetlines expect to launch operations before the end of this year. The launch of airline operations is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and completion of the remaining financing.
Jetlines ability to sell tickets and launch airline service remains subject to the completion of the airline licensing process, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the completion of financing.
For more information on Jetlines, please visit our website at www.jetlines.com.
"Mark J. Morabito"
Email: investor.relations@jetlines.com
This news release contains "forward-looking information" concerning anticipated developments and events that may occur in the future. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to (i) the commencement of operations and the success of expected future operations of the Company; (ii) Jetlines ability to obtain ultra-low costs; (iii) the routes that Jetlines intends to service; and (iv) Jetlines ability to offer the lowest airfares in Canada.
In certain cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or " or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the receipt of financing to commence airline operations, the accuracy, reliability and success of the Jetlines' business model; the timely receipt of governmental approvals; the timely commencement of operations by Jetlines and the success of such operations; the legislative and regulatory environments of the jurisdictions where the Jetlines will carry on business or have operations; the impact of competition and the competitive response to the Jetlines' business strategy; and the availability of aircraft. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect.
Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include risks related to, the ability to obtain financing at acceptable terms, the impact of general economic conditions, domestic and international airline industry conditions, future relations with shareholders, volatility of fuel prices, increases in operating costs, terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters, currency fluctuations, interest rates, risks specific to the airline industry, the ability of management to implement Jetlines' operational strategy, the ability to attract qualified management and staff, labour disputes, regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits; and the additional risks identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's reports and filings with applicable Canadian securities regulators. There is no assurance that the closing of the Offering will occur. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information is made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information.


Quick-Dry Flood Services is looking to grow their Business Development Team!
The ideal candidate will be someone who enjoys working with trade industry professionals, hosting trade events, a varying schedule and interacting with people daily.
Competitive pay: Base + Commission, Vacation, Medical, Sick, 401k and profit sharing.


Turkey will set up a safe zone 30 kilometers deep into northeastern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, a move suggested by President Donald Trump, adding that the two sides' teams will continue to discuss the technical aspects of the proposed measure along the Syrian border.
Turkey and the U.S. are at fresh odds over the latter's remarks that the Turkish government should give assurances that it would not attack the YPG after the withdrawal of American troops. Trump, in his tweet, revisited the idea of setting up a security zone inside Syria in order to address Turkey's security concerns without giving any detail on its modalities.
Erdoğan and Trump spoke over the phone late Jan. 14 to discuss recent developments in Syria in light of the latter's tweets, which irked Ankara because the U.S. had "conflated Kurds with the YPG." A read out by the Turkish Presidency suggested that both leaders emphasized the completion of the implementation of the Manbij road map in order to prevent any void that could potentially be opened in the region and that the elements which seek to hinder the implementation of the withdrawal decision should be denied any opportunity.
They also discussed the idea of forming a terror-free safe zone in the north of Syria on the basis of Syria's territorial integrity.
On Jan. 15, Erdoğan said Turkey is considering Trump's safe zone proposal as a positive one but also recalled that Turkey's earlier attempts to realize such a measure was rejected by the Obama administration.
"We can be involved in this with our TOKİ [Turkey's urban development agency]. But if a financial support would be provided by our coalition partners, we can establish this secure zone and provide security for all these people. This would also stop migration," he stated.


Although we briefly visited Kyoto – and swung through Osaka for lunch – most of our week in Japan was spent in the big smoke of Tokyo. Spoiler: I LOVE it. (I feel this way about most global cities, to be fair.) Here are a few things that stood out.
The whole guesthouse experience is just so unique, from the sliding doors to the tatami mats and the baths. It was an incredible introduction to Japan. Also: Sleeping on the floor is amazingly comfortable.
Need I say more?! Didn't think so.
Everything is SO cheap compared to home. I'm madly in love with the merino cardigans I got at Uniqlo for practically nothing.
Also, as an Asian person, shopping in an Asian country makes so much difference, be it bras for the flat-chested or glasses for the flat-faced (you know how the plastic frames that are hot right now have only tiny inbuilt nubs designed to perch on high nose bridges, rather than traditional nose pads?! I found some with extra-big ridges).
Every city needs green spaces, and Tokyo does them well. Ueno Park brought to mind San Diego's Balboa Park, crammed with attractions (a highlight were the turtles in a pond!) and at Meiji Shrine, we saw an elaborately dressed bride getting wedding photos taken.
As it turns out, we were in town for the very start of the autumn sumo tournament. I wasn't sold on the idea of shelling out for sumo tickets (and didn't want to gamble on queuing up on the morning of the match) but it turned out to be the highlight of our trip. The bouts are short so the pace doesn't flag, the atmosphere surprisingly lively and the rituals fascinating. And we got to see one match that was clearly a bit of an upset! We also saw some of the wrestlers before and after, as people lined the pavement outside like a red carpet to watch them come and go. What a way to end our last full day.
This is a food I remember fondly from childhood. I guess I always presumed it was a Chinese thing. We'd have it in this rather plain, watery, chicken type soup. (Yeah, not very exciting – the lotus was basically the only part I enjoyed.) In Japan, we were served lotus root at breakfast, and alongside sushi one night.
And the courtesy signs/warnings on public transport, incessant. No loud, obnoxious, inappropriate phone conversations on trains around here, thank you.
The only place that was remotely rowdy (bearing in mind we're not drinkers and didn't do anything remotely night-lifey, ha) was a little ramen restaurant we stumbled into – it was noisy in the way Gina's Italian Kitchen in Auckland is.
Particularly when it comes to roadworks/construction. The billboards I expected, but these little surprises were next level.
We ate well in Japan, and yet most meals clocked in about NZ$20 or sometimes less for both of us. That just wouldn't happen at home.
I was prepared for bidets. I was NOT prepared for heated seats and buttons in the wall you can push to lower the lid – so you don't need to touch the toilet itself. GENIUS.
I was a slobby heffalump in comparison. No surprise.
So, it was pouring buckets when we arrived in Tokyo. The first things we bought at a 7-11 were two white umbrellas. It wasn't long before we realised practically every building has an umbrella stand at the entrance. Heck, at our last hotel, there were secure slots for individual brollies, with a lock for each one.
For example: specific diaper disposal and diaper change table in the bathrooms aboard trains. Stroller service at the sumo stadium. High chair attached to the wall in a public toilet, presumably so mum can have a moment to relieve herself.
Just a few random thoughts. More of a debrief to come next week!


Try running with a difference at this popular off-road Half-marathon and 10k in 2019.
This extremely hilly route offers a challenging trail run with miles of muddy tracks, steep forest inclines and tree-lined fields, all set within the stunning grounds of Yorkshire's historic Harewood House.
John Boardman told runABC on Facebook: "Good training for anything you may run in 2019....Stunning surroundings and lots of good people.....hopefully some nice pacers to help get you round again....slight undulations"
Facilities There will be free parking, a changing area marquee and refreshments available.
Race details last updated on Monday 26th November 2018 a	9:55am.


Once again anti-christian, anti-Croat communists.
(source) Politics in Croatia Nowadays is formed by Reformed Communists, Jugofascists, Cetniks and convicted Yugoslav Criminals from Yugoslavia who are creating with help of hyper capitalist and speculator Soroš a new Yugoslavia! Because Yugoslavia is the best system of dictatorship to continue to rob people.
Croatia pays 50,140 retirement allowances for Chetnik terrorists who rebelled and fought against Croatia!
We have counted (source) 14 representatives in the parliament and two ministers, all together having 7 thousand, 712 votes, let's say general Glasnovic has 21 thousand votes and had 1 mandate, 14 people alltogether had 3 times less votes than general Glasnovic but have 14 mandates in the Croatian parliament. And then they tell you not go out on the streets but make your voice heard by voting! Riiight.
2018 (source) Judge Kolakušić; it can be said that Croatia today is a mafia state. I received evidence of falsified documentation on the desk and all these institutions confirmed.
We owe this to Zoran Milanović (Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) the largest centre-left political party, formerly known as League of Communists) who has, along president Ivo Josipovic (SDP), tried their utmost to avoid the extradition to Germany of former communist Yugoslavia secret police/UDBA operators.
participants in the march 2018 Anti-Istanbul Convention rally (claimed 5000, were 70000).
Anka Mrak-Taritaš is a Croatian politician, president of the Civic Liberal Alliance party. Between 2012 and 2016, she had been Minister of Construction and Spatial Planning in the center-left Cabinet of Zoran Milanović. Mrak-Taritaš is president of the Civic Liberal Alliance party. "Ako se ne izglasa Istanbulska konvencija definitivno napuštam Hrvatsku!; if they don't pass the Istanbul Convention I definitely leave Croatia" she said on Radio Antenna. The people rejoiced.
(SDP) Damir Krstinić (source) At the same time when Vojislav Seselj announced that he teared up and stamped on the Croatian flag, for which the Croatian pinocchio delegation interrupted it's visit to Belgrade, a similar attitude towards Croatia appeared on social networks by a SPD member. His words as well as Seselj's actual words are not really worth translating as the words are of very primitive nature you normally hear from drunk people or drug addicts.
Ivan Pernar, a Croatian politician who likes to sleep at the sabor (and doesn't pay for public transportation, source, source) and believes Oluja was ethnic cleansing!
That is a disgrace for all those who shed blood to defend their homeland so he could take a piss on it.
Živi zid; a party of lads that have not worked a day in their lives but make promises about employment opportunities.
They also claim to be against foreign powers like Brussels but at the same time did not vote against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention.
The claim is that the party has no ideology. They did not vote against EU's convention, so no ideology, but no stance either against Brussels.
Thirty years ago Americans gave Israel their F16 airplanes, and now these same old airplanes are sold for a 'friendly' price (500 million dollars) to the Yugo-politicans for Croatia who don't mind that the planes are going to be unusable.
If airplanes old 30 years are good, why don't the politicians buy cars older than 10 years?.... insert sarcasm.
Andrej Plenković with this action, as well as concerning the Istanbul Convention, showed he aboslutely has nothing in common with the Croatian people, their heritage, and has shown zero knowledge of geopolitics, christianity or history.
Serbian cetnik church in London with Croatian money!
but meanwhile supporter of the Istanbul Convention, that wants to bring paedophilia into schools and want to wipe out the differences between male and female.
Absent: Goran Marić, Damir Jelić, Ivan Anušić, Zlatko Ževrnja and Zvonko Milas.