text:
9to5to9
Kids and Allergies
Professor Tree v Florida's Pre K
Submitted by on Sunday, 1 June 2008 No Comment
Originally published May 17, 2007, thehive.modbee.com
Welcome to Professor Tree's Lemonade 101.
In April, Professor Tree was loaded with fragrant blooms. At least, most of him was. The top was a threadbare, the victim of the winter's frost.
Big Guy and Little Guy, of course, wanted to rip off the blossoms. And since the tree desperately needs pruned – it's a metaphor for my life – many blooms were within easy reach.
"Let's not do that, guys. We need to leave the flowers, so they'll grow into lemons," I said.
Big Guy looked at me as if I'd sprouted another head. "No way," he said. Tonight everything clicked.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy ! I see the little lemons! I see the little lemons! Can we make lemonade?"
I explained the rest of the process: they'd have to water Professor Tree so the little green lemons would get big and yellow, and then we could make lemonade.
Welcome to the state of Florida's pre-k program, where 5-year-olds are given one-minute drills in an effort to gauge the program's success.
The tykes stand in front of a stranger and have 60 seconds to identify as many letters and letter sounds as they can.
Granted, it's only part of the test. The rest involves classroom observation from teachers, who gauge whether the kids can do things such as turn pages or play with others.
Results went online this weekso parents can practice stressing over college choices by stressing over picking a pre-school.
I suppose when a state sinks as much money into a controversial new program as Florida has – it will cost $400 million to $600 million a year to fully fund it, according to some estimates - officials and voters want a way to "gauge its success."
Don't get me wrong: I'm a big supporter of education. It lifted me out of one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states and brought me where I am today, a quasi-accomplished professional able to take care of her family.
I'm also a big supporter of preschools and the importance of getting children off to good starts.
But to stand 5-year-olds up and drill them, even for a minute, seems wrong.
My kids are textbook examples of the flaws in that system. Big Guy would ace the test – he loves to perform and this would be just another show. Little Guy would fail miserably – he's never been at ease with strangers and would freeze.
Meanwhile, Professor Tree prefers hands-on over recitation. His syllabus includes botany, meteorology, and patience. Big Guy's not going to drink any lemonade until around Thanksgiving – the wait will be a great lesson.
They'll move on to Professor Kitchen, who will teach reading and math through recipes and possibly the importance of following directions. I'm considering deliberately goofing up a batch just to get that lesson in. I'm evil that way
The final result: Lemonade. Which I guess is the same thing Florida pre-school teachers are struggling to make out of this testing program.
Copyright 2007 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.
What you're saying
A brown belt for Big Guy – not that it's important
Even mommies can screw up too
Dear Sports Parents – about those cupcakes
Hitting the road – together
Egg-free pumpkin scones
Going phishing – with a twist
A SWAT for getting all a-Twitter about nothing
Wow. He's getting good. When did that happen?
There are rules, and then there's 36 hours of Daytona
A Type A pain in the neck
When Accelerated Reader slams on the brakes
I absolutely do not want you to practice karate
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I'm here, too
Adventures in Juggling
Cool Mom Guide
Mother of Confusion
Mountain Mom's Cabin
Parenting Pink
Quiet Consecration
Siftin'
The Omnigeek
Vanilla Cokehead
The peanut patrol and the school secretary who invades privacy
Babies at 50? Well, it's not for me, but ...
A special wish for little Chase
Homemade is best - except at school
Keep looking back - at least a little longer in car seats
Do not stand between teens and their math teacher
A brown belt for Big Guy - not that it's important
This is anaphylaxis
Don't pee in the pool - apparently we need to hear that
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Our two-day seminar in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will provide you and your staff with invaluable knowledge and techniques for improving your presence in search engines.
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Like so many African Americans, I've had my run-ins with the police. I've been stopped at gunpoint for running out of stores after making a purchase. I've been stopped for being short (and black!). Even just because I looked suspicious.
At an early age, I learned from my mom "how to be stopped by police". There was a period of years in my life when I'd been stopped at least once a month. Fortunately, I lived through my experiences. So many others, such as Freddie Gray of Baltimore, weren't so blessed.
Freddie Gray was stopped in the Charm City for "running from police". He ended up with a severed spine. Another victim of police brutality. The investigation is still underway and I'll patiently wait to hear the results before I rush to judgment. But here is what we do know: he was denied medical attention by the police officers on the scene and he died in their custody.
Last night, I watched that city burn as riotous criminals used his death as an excuse to loot and destroy their own community. I was so angry, I began unconsciously to write a poem. Protesting the injustices is one thing, but rioting and committing acts of violence lowers us to the cheap stereotypes others still believe as truth. It does no one any good.
And now, the city has been declared in a "State of Emergency". Soon, the National Guard will be patrolling the streets to add to this ugly mess.
Here you will find the text of my poem, as well as the audio of me reading it. I am sorry for the death Freddie Gray and the angry destruction and riots that will only hurt those most hurt by the injustices Black Americans still face in this country. You will hear anger in my voice as I read my poem. For that, I'm not sorry.
Ugly is the scene as vandals and thieves run.
They loot, they burn, having obscene fun.
The Charm City burns in counterfeit protest.
Selfish is their motive, as their actions confess.
The innocents try to make them see the light.
Understanding the reason for the original fight.
A Valentine in the night takes a brave stand.
Not black nor white, an American, a real man.
Haters only want to quench their own greed.
A seniors center's burned, another cruel deed?
Up in smoke is a family's never-ending pain.
For a brother, a son, they'll never see again.
Freddie Gray's family deserves better than this.
But their sacrifice is lost in the smoke-filled mist.


text:
Q: Using dd to image a corrupted Windows disk? What is the proper way to use dd (or anything else - asr?) to create an image of a corrupted yet readable Windows disk?
If what I am using (see below) is correct, then is it possible that an image of a disk would not be mountable when the original disk is?
Background info:
The disk's file system is not readable on a Windows system: the disk shows up as "raw" in disk management. It is however readable in macOS (10.14) and I am able to copy individual files from it.
The goal however is to copy the entire disk if possible to a readable image and then work with that image (repair partition table, recover remaining files) rather than with the failing disk that I am afraid can quit at any moment.
Here is the command I've been using to image a 500GB Windows disk that came from a Dell computer and that has a number of bad blocks and apparently a corrupted partition table:
sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/Volumes/exFAT_Vol/rdiskX.dmg bs=4M conv=noerror,sync

Copies fast (40MB/s via USB 2.0) but doesn't seem to create a correct (mountable) image: "no mountable file systems" when trying to mount it in Finder.
Some sources (e.g. Recover a dead hard drive using dd from 2005) suggest using bs=512 and it's in progress now - yet copies at around 4MB/s which will take more than a day to complete - and I am not even sure it'll work.
Some of the relevant info on the disk and its partitions:
Volume type : Physical Device
BSD device node : disk3
Connection : USB
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC1@14
Writable : No
Is case-sensitive : No
Volume capacity : 500,107,862,016
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 0
Purgeable space : 0
Free space : 0
Used space : 500,107,862,016
Owners enabled : No
Is encrypted : No
Can be verified : No
Can be repaired : No
Bootable : No
Journaled : No
Disk number : 3
Media name : Generic External Media
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : Yes
Solid state : No
S.M.A.R.T. status : Not Supported

Volume type : Physical Volume
BSD device node : disk3s2
Mount point : /Volumes/Untitled
File system : Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Connection : USB
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC1@14
Writable : No
Is case-sensitive : No
File system UUID : AC8CB496-EAD2-47A2-BB36-2A981976BC2B
Volume capacity : 500,064,122,880
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 373,903,597,568
Purgeable space : 0
Free space : 373,903,597,568
Used space : 126,160,525,312
File count : 176,730
Owners enabled : No
Is encrypted : No
System Integrity Protection supported : No
Can be verified : No
Can be repaired : No
Bootable : No
Journaled : No
Disk number : 3
Partition number : 2
Media name :
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : Yes
Solid state : No
S.M.A.R.T. status : Not Supported
Parent disks : disk3

A: Based on what I've done so far and the comments I've read on "Recover a dead hard drive using dd":

*

*dd fails to image or clone damaged media to make the result equally mountable or readable, in multiple instances including mine;

*there isn't an alternate tool in stock macOS that can do that.

In more detail:

*

*The command I've been using in the question is the "proper" way - yet in many instances of working with damaged media, it does not create an image that like the original one, can be mounted and read. Basically, it fails at its task.

*There isn't an alternative within stock macOS (such as ASR) that can clone or image damaged yet readable media. ASR (or its GUI sibling, Disk Utility) will bail out once there is an I/O error such as bad blocks on the media.

*Haven't tried other tools that aren't part of macOS (such as ddrescue or dd_rescue mentioned in the linked article) - my answer is only about tools that are part of stock macOS.

The answer is based on multiple comments in "Recover a dead hard drive using dd" that mirror my experience: dd completes yet the image can't be mounted. I.e. dd does not appear to have created a close enough image of the media.
Here is what I have tried:

*

*Use sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskX of=/Volumes/exFAT_Vol/image.dmg bs=4M conv=noerror,sync and sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskXsY of=/Volumes/exFAT_Vol/image.dmg bs=4M conv=noerror,sync to image the media. Neither image can be mounted, with errors such as "the following disks couldn't be opened: no mountable file systems".

*Use the resultant image to restore to a (healthy) physical media via sudo dd if=/Volumes/exFAT_Vol/image.dmg of=/dev/rdiskZ bs=4M conv=noerror,sync - with a similar result: the physical media can't be mounted, and unlike the original damaged one, doesn't display the partition information such as "File system : Windows NT File System (NTFS)".

*Attempt to use "First Aid" in "Disk Utility" to repair the images or the clones. None worked, with error messages such as:

*

*Fixing damaged partition map. The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.DiskManagement error -69874.) Operation failed….

What I haven't yet tried:

*

*Use dd with a different bs= value such as 512, instead of 4m. Takes too long.

*Use dd without the conv=sync option, i.e. just use conv=noerror one. (Just didn't have a chance to try it yet - each attempt takes 4-5 hours.)

*use dd with conventional rather than raw devices - e.g. /dev/disk4 rather than /dev/rdisk4.

*Cloning directly from the damaged media to a healthy physical one, bypassing the imaging stage.

*Any other tools besides dd, Disk Utility, asr.

Hope this helps someone else in the same situation and really hope my answer is wrong: i.e. hope that there is a way to make dd work in this situation, to make mountable images off damaged yet readable / mountable media.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
module Publinator
  class SiteWorkflow < ActiveRecord::Base
    attr_accessible :publishable_type, :site_id, :workflow_id
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


My dad found this in a box full of pictures in my home in Italy today.
It's me when I was almost 3, there is the high chair on the back meaning that my sister was already there and able to stay sit.
I remember I spent a lot of time swinging there when my mum was cooking or when she was teaching piano. I could swing and listen to music.
When I was a bit older I learnt how to jump down from that swing and I remember my dad encouraging me to try jumping from a higher point every day.
I learnt how to calculate the distance between me in the air and the floor, falling down badly sometimes but most of the time feeling really successful. I remember myself creating a mattress with the cuscins to fall over, to protect myself. I didn't have any IPad, any video game.
I had two parents that took care for my development and helped me becoming independent falling on the floor from a swing, listening to classical piano teaching on the background.
I was lucky, I always thought this. I was the girl of two teachers, piano teacher and judo teacher and they helped me to love life. I couldn't be anything else than a teacher myself.
Thank you crazy parents for helping me to love life always more.


We'll be traveling (mostly) in China for a whole year. Dates & Cities will be updated once we confirm our booking.
Dec 30th – Jan 5th: Happy 2018! We'll be celebrating the new year with dragon boats and fireworks in Hong Kong.
January: Spending a whole month in the beautiful seaside city of Xiamen.
March 1st – April 30th: Two month in peaceful Dali. cherry blossoms and sunny sky plus a snowy mountain as backdrop.
July 13-15th – Celebration our five year wedding anniversary in a historical English castle, Cumbria, UK.


Jewelry designer, Roxanne Fraga, of Chic Beads is available by appointment to create the jewelry you desire. Her designs can be playful or elegant, and her knowledge and experience allow her to handcraft unique jewelry just for you. Roxanne was chosen by The Walt Disney Company to create the Ariel Necklace in celebration of Disney's 50th Anniversary - she is also known as the creator of the best selling Aqua Necklace and Cha Cha Bracelet. Her jewelry is featured in various books, magazines, and trade publications. She designs jewelry for clients and friends, and takes great joy in creating custom jewelry for brides and bridesmaids.


In a comment to my posting about printing Unicode from Python, Thijs van der Vossen (who has a nice blog himself) asked why I don't use a terminal emulator with UTF-8 support.
Good question. I looked into it, and I might be using one already: the Windows prompt. It seems to have support for UTF-8, but darned if I can figure out for sure.
Windows has a command called "chcp" to change the active code page. The help isn't clear whether this changes how the prompt interprets bytes for display, or how the built-in commands generate bytes for output.
It seemed to detect the code page automatically, but never heard of 65001. When I try to force it to utf-8, it shows the kind of line noise that indicates the display isn't interpreting utf-8.
Worse, just using built-in commands doesn't seem to work properly. I created two directories, one with upper-half latin1 characters, and one with true two-byte Unicode characters. In my main prompt window, the "dir" command shows both strings properly no matter what the active code page is. Why is that?
After setting the code page to 65001, everything is crap. I'd show you, but although there are line drawing characters in Unicode, it's too much of a pain trying to use them to faithfully reproduce what I am seeing.
Somewhere there's a great page that shows the different kinds of gibberish you encounter while doing this sort of debugging, and diagnoses what's going wrong. Jukka Korpela's Tutorial on Character Set Issues may be what I am thinking of, though I thought it had longer examples.
I created two directories, one with upper-half latin1 characters, and one with true two-byte Unicode characters.
Two-byte characters are how most of UTF-16 is encoded (some characters require four bytes), but that is one encoding of Unicode, not Unicode itself. UTF-8 typically takes 1 byte per character if the character falls into the ASCII subset, but up to (IIRC) six bytes otherwise. UTF-32 is an encoding where each character takes four bytes (consistently, I believe).
Tim Bray has a good essay on Unicode and encodings here: here, and he proposes a new encoding for getting entities out of XML here.
I'm not sure about Windows, I think it depends on the version of Windows you're running. On OS X the terminal handles UTF-8 just fine.
When I said, "true two-byte Unicode characters", I should have said "Unicode characters that are outside of latin1".
get readable output. Setup it in properties.


text:
package fr.openwide.core.test.infinispan.util.action;

import org.jgroups.Address;

import fr.openwide.core.infinispan.model.impl.SimpleAction;

public class QuestionAction extends SimpleAction<String> {

	private static final long serialVersionUID = -114956100337528031L;

	private final String question;

	public QuestionAction(Address target, String question) {
		super(target, false, true);
		this.question = question;
	}

	@Override
	public String call() throws Exception {
		if ("What's your name ?".equals(question)) {
			return "John Doe";
		} else if ("How old are you ?".equals(question)) {
			return "35";
		} else {
			return "...";
		}
	}

	public static final QuestionAction ask(Address target, String question) {
		return new QuestionAction(target, question);
	}

}


With mosquitoes being the primary carrier of malaria, the battle against the disease has been fought at every step of the disease's development: from reducing mosquito populations, to preventing them from biting humans, to dealing with the parasites introduced by the insect after infection occurs. A new vaccine that introduces live malaria parasites into the bloodstream has just undergone clinical trials in humans, and has been shown to provide long-term protection with effectiveness of up to 100 percent.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), 212 million cases of malaria were reported in 2015, resulting in almost 430,000 deaths, and of those cases, 90 percent occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main culprit is the Anopheles mosquito, the bite of which transmits parasites like the Plasmodium falciparum, responsible for the majority of malaria infections and deaths.
For years, scientists have fought to control the spread of the disease through a variety of means. We've tried to keep mosquitoes from biting humans by altering their sense of smell and making ourselves less tasty. Other studies have tried to turn the bugs' own immune systems against the parasites, or boost our body's response after infection. The new research, from the University of Tübingen and the biotech company Sanaria Inc., focuses on this latter battlefield.
While there are other promising vaccines in the works, including RTS,S/AS01, which is due to be field tested in 2018, this new technique is the first to inject fully viable, live malaria parasites into the human body. The vaccine was tested in 67 adults with no history of malaria. Administered at different intervals, it was found to work best with three high doses of the treatment, four weeks apart. Everyone in the sub-group tested with this treatment reported 100 percent protection from the disease, and the resistance was still present 10 weeks later. Better yet, no adverse side effects were reported.
"That protection was probably caused by specific T-lymphocytes and antibody responses to the parasites in the liver," says Peter Kremsner, an author of the study.
Malaria symptoms usually take about 15 days to show up after first infection, and that's due to the fact that P. falciparum will first migrate to the liver to reproduce. The parasites are vulnerable during this time, but they're careful not to alert the immune system by not yet making the host sick. Once it's ready, the pathogen leaves the liver and enters the bloodstream, where it continues to spread.
The new vaccine skips the incubation period in the liver by introducing the fully developed pathogen into the bloodstream, kickstarting the immune system to fight back. To prevent the disease from actually taking hold, the researchers added chloroquine – a commonly-used treatment for malaria – to the mix.
"By vaccinating with a live, fully active pathogen, it seems clear that we were able to set off a very strong immune response," says Benjamin Mordmüller, lead researcher on the study. "Additionally, all the data we have so far indicate that what we have here is relatively stable, long-lasting protection."
With the success of the clinical trial, the researchers plan to test how effective the vaccine is over the course of several years.


text:
Oblate Parishes
Oblate World Missions
Canadian-Polish Congress
Radio Rodzina
Salt & Light TV
Explore the Virtual Tour
Shrine of Our Lady
Our Lady of Ludźmierz Shrine
In a special way our Community experiences the particular protection of our Mother of Good Counsel from Ludzmierz, as she is the help and hope in all difficult situations, and in particular in this difficult task of building our new place of worship.
Community of people who believe has an obligation to pray for those who are going through difficult time in their lives, who are experiencing a crisis, who are struggling on the crossroads of indecision or who are facing situations which, humanly speaking, are lost causes. (Mk 11, 24). If you or your loved ones are in need of prayer, please fill out the form below. It will be presented before the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Ludźmierz, Our Mother of Good Counsel in Brampton:
Devotions to Our Lady of Ludźmierz – every Wednesday at 7:00 PM.
Your intentions are welcome – fill out and submit the form:
From the history of Our Lady of Ludźmierz Shrine in Brampton, Ontario, Canada
June 7, 1997 – Pope John Paul II has blessed a faithful copy of the famed miraculous statue of Our Lady of Ludźmierz destined for Polish-Canadians.
July 21, 2002 – Few days before the World Youth Day and the meeting between the youth and Pope John Paul II, Joseph Cardinal Glemp, the Primate of Poland, assisted by eleven bishops, forty-five priests and over five thousand of the Polish-Canadian faithful, has conducted a solemn crowning of the faithful copy of the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Ludźmierz. The crowns were blessed by the pope John Paul II himself. We are grateful to God for the gift of Our Lady to us and for her Maternal care over us.
July 18, 2004 – A historic event took place with ramifications for the whole Polish-Canadian community. Joseph Cardinal Glemp, the Primate of Poland came to Brampton again – this time to consecrate all Polish-Canadians to the care of Our Lady of Ludźmierz. With all the authority vested in him, as a Primate and Father to all Polish immigrants, he confirmed that Our Lady has chosen Brampton as a very special place for Her presence. This is for us both a great honour and a great challenge. Her choice confirms that She is involved in many of the miraculous occurrences that happen to many who place their trust and their lives in Her care. Our Lady of Ludźmierz, Mother of Good Counsel, the Mother to immigrants, intercedes for us before Her Son and has many times obtained graces necessary to overcome cases which, humanly speaking, were lost causes. We are grateful for her intercession in many personal or professional matters, as well as in our construction of Polonia's millennium church in Brampton.
The fact that Our Lady of Ludźmierz has chosen Brampton as a place peculiarly Her own, was also confirmed by the Servant of God, John Paul II. On December 12, 2004, our beloved Pope has endowed the Shrine of Our Lady of Ludźmierz in Brampton with a Golden Rosary, adorned with ivory beads (one of twenty-five crafted by the Vatican on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Pontificate of John Paul II (for more information, look under the "The gifts of Pope John Paul II")
Prayer Request:
Prayer Request*
We wish to present to you our great Parish Patron. St. Eugene de Mazenod assists the Church as a missionary and Apostle of Christ.
1252 Steeles Ave. W.
L6Y 0A9, Canada
parish@demazenod.org
Fr. Wojciech Kurzydło, OMI
pastorwkomi@gmail.com
© 2021 St. Eugene de Mazenod Parish. · All Rights Reserved · Built by VZiON Designs · Log in
The Church in Africa has lost yet another of its Shepherds. Coadjutor Archbishop Abel Gabuza of the Archdiocese of Durban passed on Sunday morning after a battle with COVID-19.
Pope Francis introduces the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by encouraging the faithful to pray that Jesus' desire for the unity of all might be accomplished
Pope prays for victims of Indonesia earthquake and plane crash
Pope Francis expresses his condolences for victims of an earthquake that struck Indonesia Sulawesi province, as well as for the victims of a plane crash in Indonesia last week.
© 2020 St. Eugene de Mazenod Parish


I think the 25th "randomness" post is like a silver anniversary or something, right? No? Whatever.
Anyway, last week I released the newest Glorious 70mm EP on Bandcamp. But both EPs are also available on NoiseTrade. Feel free to share those links with your friends as they can also have some free music.
In other news, Glories, a post-rock band from Birmingham, has a new song out, which is from their upcoming album (which comes out Tuesday, I believe.) They're also playing this year's Secret Stages festival that takes place Aug. 1 & 2.
And Four X Productions is working on a new film called "Little Cabbage" and you can help! (You know them from their previous short "Bubble" and for the St. Paul and the Broken Bones video "Call Me.") Check out their Seed&Spark page to see how you can help with the film production!
A couple of weeks ago, I announced the new Glorious 70mm EP: INT – THE LYRIC THEATER – NIGHT.
It's available today on Bandcamp.
The pricing is the same as the previous EP: For personal use, "pay what you want (even if $0)." If you're a filmmaker and would like to use any of these pieces, please contact me for licensing. I'd love to work with you.
I've also set up a Facebook page for Glorious 70mm.
And of course, here's my FB page, profile, Twitter and Instagram. I hope you enjoy the music. Thanks for listening.
A #TBT blog post? What?!
Yep. Throwback Thursday, y'all. No, but really, I was thinking about a music project I was in a few years ago with Trey (Hail the Titans' drummer) called "The Boss and The Rabbi." It was a 2-piece, improvisational, instrumental project that included guitar, drums, keyboard and a Korg Kaossilator with both of us playing everything, switching instruments, etc.
If you dig that kind of stuff, we have three recordings on Bandcamp.
The first recording was a 2-song demo that we titled Her Origins at Midnight.
The next was a completely live recording we did, splitting the performance into separate songs. The EP is titled Six Victims (The Theatre Curtain was the Color of Blood). There is a serial killer story told through the song titles and music.
All of the music is set at "name your price," so you can put in zero and download it for free if you like what you're hearing.
Within the next month or so, I'll be releasing a new 5-song EP, and in keeping with the theme of the first EP and the film aspect of the project, I'm using a script heading format for the new title, which is: INT – THE LYRIC THEATER – NIGHT.
On the previous EP, the main title and song titles all came from a specific film script (which also happened to inspire the "Glorious 70mm" name.) This EP also gets its name and song titles from a film, a combination of the script and the finished movie, and I'm sure some of you will figure it out without me having to tell you.
In the meantime, you can hear/download the first EP on Bandcamp.


text:
Q: Create circular references between class instances? I'm trying to construct a class that allows an instance to point to another class, but I want these to eventually form a loop (so instance A → Instance B → Instance C → Instance A)
I tried the following, but I'm getting a NameError:
class CyclicClass:
    def __init__(self, name, next_item):
        self.name = name
        self.next_item = next_item

    def print_next(self):
        print(self.next_item)

item_a = CyclicClass("Item A", item_b)
item_b = CyclicClass("Item B", item_a)

Is this an inappropriate pattern in Python? If so, what would be the correct way to implement this? This seems similar but not the same as the following, since the class definition itself is not circular: Circular dependency between python classes

A: You need to create the objects first, then link them.
item_a = CyclicClass("Item A", None)
item_b = CyclicClass("Item B", item_a)
item_a.next_item = item_b

Think of the second argument to CyclicClass as a convenience, rather than the primary way of linking two objects. You can emphasize that by making None the default parameter value.
class CyclicClass:
    def __init__(self, name, next_item=None):
        self.name = name
        self.next_item = next_item

    def print_next(self):
        print(self.next_item)

item_a = CyclicClass("Item A")
# item_b = CyclicClass("Item B")
# item_b.next_item = item_a
item_b = CyclicClass("Item B", item_a)
item_a.next_item = item_b

A: Reading the comments on chepner's answer, it looks like you want a lazy approach to be able to do the binding. Please note that allowing late assignment of "next_item" as in the other answer is still the "right thing to do".
That can easily be done, but them, you'd still depend on the hardcoded other-instance name. Some ORM frameworks for example, since they allow one to define inter-relationships between classes, allow you to insert other classes as strings rather than actual class objects.
But strings will work nice for objects defined on a module top-level, since they can be fetched as a global variable - but won't work if you are using your cyclic class inside a function or method. A callable that will return the non-local variable with the instance name could work:
from types import FunctionType

class CyclicClass:
    def __init__(self, name, next_item=None):
        self.name = name
        self.next_item = next_item

    def print_next(self):
        print(self.next_item)

    @property
    def next_item(self):
        if isinstance(self._next_item, FunctionType):
            self._next_item = self._next_item()
        return self._next_item
    @next_item.setter

    def next_item(self, value):
        self._next_item = value

And testing on the interactive interpreter:
In [23]: def test():
    ...:     inst1 = CyclicClass("inst1", lambda: inst2)
    ...:     inst2 = CyclicClass("inst2", inst1)
    ...:     return inst1, inst2
    ...:

In [24]: i1, i2 = test()

In [25]: i1.next_item.name
Out[25]: 'inst2'

But that approach is rather naive - and won't work if you re putting yur isntances into a list or other data-structures, unless you have a good timing triggering the attribute rendering into a real reference - at which point it is just better to allow late assignment to next_item anyway.
Not that if the "name" attributes  are meant to be unique, you could modify the code above to have a global-registry of all your instances, and pass a string to identify your instances. That might suit your needs - but still will add more complications than allowing a late setting of next_item
cyclic_names = {}

class CyclicClass:
    ...

    @property
    def next_item(self):
        if isinstance(self._next_item, str):
            self._next_item = cyclic_names[self._next_item]
        return self._next_item
    @next_item.setter

    def next_item(self, value):
        self._next_item = value

    @property
    def name(self):
        return self._name

    @name.setter(self)
    def name(self, value):
        if hasattr(self, "_name"):
            del cyclic_names[value]
        if value in cyclic_names:
            raise ValueError("An object with this name already exists")

        cyclic_names[value] = self

    def __del__(self):
        del cyclic_names[self._name]

As you can see, the complexity for doing this work properly escalates quickly, and it may be a source of defects in your project - but still can be done if one thinks up of all nuances. (I'd use weakrefs on the global object index, for example)


text:
Q: Understanding BufferedImage.getRGB output values I'm getting an integer value for the pixel in an image using this method:
int colour = img.getRGB(x, y);

Then I'm printing out the values and I see that black pixels correspond to a value like "-16777216", a kind of blue to something like "-16755216", etc. Can someone please explain me the logic behind this value?

A: See the implementation of ColorModel.getRgb:
589  public int getRGB(int pixel) {
590        return (getAlpha(pixel) << 24)
591             | (getRed(pixel) << 16)
592             | (getGreen(pixel) << 8)
593             | (getBlue(pixel) << 0);
594   }

A: The RGB int color contains the Red, Green, Blue components of the color in its bits. You have to look at its binary or hexadecimal representation and not look at it as a whole integer number (not look at its decimal representation).
An int has 32 bits, 3x8 = 24 is used to store the RGB components (8 bits for each) in the following format:
               2          1          0
bitpos      32109876 54321098 76543210
------   --+--------+--------+--------+
bits     ..|RRRRRRRR|GGGGGGGG|BBBBBBBB|

You can extract or set the components using bitmasks:
int color = img.getRGB(x, y);

// Components will be in the range of 0..255:
int blue = color & 0xff;
int green = (color & 0xff00) >> 8;
int red = (color & 0xff0000) >> 16;

If the color also has an alpha component (transparency) ARGB, it gets the last remaining 8 bits.
           3          2          1          0
bitpos    10987654 32109876 54321098 76543210
------   +--------+--------+--------+--------+
bits     |AAAAAAAA|RRRRRRRR|GGGGGGGG|BBBBBBBB|

And the value:
int alpha = (color & 0xff000000) >>> 24; // Note the >>> shift
                                         // required due to sign bit

An alpha value of 255 means that a color is completely opaque and a value of 0 means that the color is completely transparent.
Your color:
Your color is color = -16755216 which has:
blue : 240         // Strong blue
green:  85         // A little green mixed in
red  :   0         // No red component at all
alpha: 255         // Completely opaque

A: It's explained in the docs:

Returns an integer pixel in the default RGB color model (TYPE_INT_ARGB) [...]

So you get 8 bits alpha channel, 8 bits red, 8 bits green, 8 bits blue.
A simple (and slow way) to examine the value is to use new java.awt.Color(colour, true); and then call the getters.
Or you can print the value as an unsigned 32bit hex value: Integer.toString(colour, 16). Each two characters of the output will be one part of the ARGB set.

A: getRGB(int x, int y) return you the value of color pixel at location (x,y).
You are misinterpreting the returned value.
It is in the binary format.
like 11...11010101 and that is given to you as int value.
If you want to get RGB (i.e. Red, Green, Blue) components of that value use Color class. e.g.
Color mycolor = new Color(img.getRGB(x, y));

Then you can get the Red, Green, Blue, or Alpha values by using getRed(), getGreen(), getBlue(), getAlpha().
Then an int value will be returned by these methods in familiar format having value 0 < value < 255
int red = mycolor.getRed();

If you don't want to use Color class then you will need to use bitwise operations to get its value.

A: Actually,You can transform the int to binary string by Integer.toBinaryString(-16755216),which is 11111111000000000101010111110000.it made up of 4 bytes: alpha, red, green, blue. The values are unpremultiplied, meaning any transparency is stored solely in the alpha component, and not in the color components. The components are stored as follows (alpha << 24) | (red << 16) | (green << 8) | blue. Each component ranges between 0..255 with 0 meaning no contribution for that component, and 255 meaning 100% contribution. Thus opaque-black would be 0xFF000000 (100% opaque but no contributions from red, green, or blue), and opaque-white would be 0xFFFFFFFF.


text:
Evangelion roller coaster gets mobile game to make the line bearable
Universal Studios Japan makes it so the experience begins before you even step foot into the ride.
Adam Bolton
January 18, 2017 1:16 AM PST
Screenshot by Adam Bolton/CNET
There are lots of Neon Genesis Evangelion fans in the world, and many of them hope to ride Universal Studios Japan's new Evangelion-themed VR roller coaster ride. That means there will be some long queues at the park.
To combat the tedium of these lines, the theme park made MAGI Mobile, a companion app that entertains you while you wait for your turn on the coaster.
The app makes minigames out of some familiar scenes from the popular anime franchise: The synchronizing of the character's mind with the giant robots, making terminal connections with supercomputers and resisting network attacks from invading computer viruses. These minigames are designed not to be taxing on the brain, but be more than enough to distract you from those aching feet.
While there have been apps for navigating theme parks and predicting waiting times, the MAGI Mobile is a first for tying in smartphone games to the theme park attraction itself. It hopes to give attendees an extra layer of enjoyment and participation with the ride before they even step foot into it.
The app is available for free on Apple's App Store and Google Play in Japan, but is only unlocked to its full potential from a code found outside the theme-park ride itself.
Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it? CNET investigates.
Does the Mac still matter? Apple execs tell why the MacBook Pro was over four years in the making, and why we should care. Read about it here.
Crave Digital Media Culture
Discuss: Evangelion roller coaster gets mobile game to make the line bearable


Marriage requires preparation and work. Taking into account your knowledge of common problems faced by newlyweds and the foundation for strong marriages, develop an effective premarital program to help prevent divorce. Be sure to address all three components of consummate love.
Describe the foundation for strong marriages and divorce predictors.
Describe common problems faced by newlyweds.
Create and outline specific evidence-based interventions to address problems couples face.
What problem does your intervention help prevent?
How does each intervention help foster components of consummate love?
How will problems differ depending on a couple's length of time together?
Develop a plan to assist couples with continued enrichment of the marriage and future problems that may arise. Consider the impact of having children and other issues faced by couples later on in marriage.
Your paper must strictly adhere to APA guidelines. The PRW must be typed, double-spaced and formatted according to APA format. This paper is a minimum of six (6) pages in length, excluding your title and reference page, and a maximum of eight (8) pages. You are encouraged to cite the course text and lecture slides. You must use at least three (3) outside scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. The PRW is worth 100 points, 20% of your final grade. Please submit your paper to Dropbox by the due date.
Student accurately describes foundations for strong marriages and divorce predictors as well as common problems faced by newlyweds.
Interventions are specific to problems faced by couples, clearly linked to the problem they are meant to address and have some evidence of efficacy.
Student adequately develops a plan to assist couples with future problems that may arise while showing depth of understanding, introspection and insight.


Did you know asbestos can contaminate soil? Most people don't realize this, but asbestos cement material can spread and contaminate soil and ground if they're not managed properly. If you have reason to suspect that there is asbestos underground, call for asbestos removal Perth.
The contamination may occur in a variety of ways.
You could be looking at a case of poor construction, which causes the fibres to get into the ground. Handling is also a major issue since poor management of the sheets can cause them to break. In some cases, demolition, disposal, and dumping can cause further contamination.
Where would the asbestos come from? After all, it has to get into the ground somehow.
Cement sheets are the most likely source, of course. They were used so much in construction that it seemed like it was impossible to see a house that didn't have any. However, it is not the only possible source.
Pieces and fragments of it may also be found just beneath the surface. This will usually be due to damaged pipes that had an asbestos lining. Stumps of asbestos fencing can also be a source.
Who would this contamination be an issue for, anyway? Well, it's an issue for a lot of people. Anyone that finds it on their property is responsible for getting rid of it properly. If they're concerned about it in public areas, it can also be a concern.
Finally, people that are looking to purchase a property might want to get it inspected and certified. If they find out there's ground asbestos, that is definitely a good reason to negotiate or back out.
In terms of precautions, there is a number that people should take. If there is even a suspicion of contamination in the soil, it is safer o assume that there is until definitive evidence otherwise is found. The first thing to do is to call for a laboratory analysis of the suspected material.
When you have an asbestos problem in the ground, be sure to get professionals to collect it. They have access to the heavy-duty plastic containers and equipment needed to collect and transport the fibres. These can only be disposed of in a designated, licensed asbestos collection point or facility.
No, you can't just dump it anywhere. It has to be at a designated point, where it can be disposed of properly. Anywhere else will either risk contamination or not accept it.


The annual Muslim children's summer day camp offers a four week full day program for children 6- 14 years of age. We provide an opportunity for campers to make friends in an Islamic environment while being supervised and taught by a professional staff. During the morning the campers study the curriculum in Quranic memorization, Arabic and Islamic studies. While in the afternoons, children participate in fun activities including: park time, trips to the library and farmers market, science projects, volunteer endeavors, and weekly field trips.
Presently, we are fundraising for the annual Muslim children's summer day camp. We ask you to contribute to the mission of preserving our children's Muslim character by supporting us in providing a forum in which we celebrate Islam.


You may have heard the news: Comet Elenin is coming to the inner-solar system this fall. Comet Elenin (also known by its astronomical name C/2010 X1), was first detected on Dec. 10, 2010 by Leonid Elenin, an observer in Lyubertsy, Russia, who made the discovery "remotely" using the ISON-NM observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico. At the time of the discovery, the comet was about 647 million kilometers (401 million miles) from Earth. Over the past four-and-a-half months, the comet has – as comets do – closed the distance to Earth's vicinity as it makes its way closer to perihelion (its closest point to the sun). As of May 4, Elenin's distance is about 274 million kilometers (170 million miles).


When looking for holistic exercise you will find that Yoga is the best combination of exercise, breathing and meditation.
Who doesn't know that yoga is such a good exercise and have so many benefits for our body and mind?! Amazing flexibility, perfect posture, relaxed mind and body, great focus and improved balance- these are only few of the gains.


text:
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Debuts July 7 with 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
Posted on: June 7th, 2016 at 5:18 am	by Elie
This image has been archived or removed.
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot rehearsal, July 2015
The summer tradition doth resume, methinks.
Popular (and accessible) streetside theater program, "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot," recently set a date for its return to the Lower East Side. Take note – the new season kicks off July 7 at the Clemente Soto Velez Center with a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's the second summer in this location for the troupe, which was forced to relocate because of Essex Crossing.
The play runs through July 24. The Merchant of Venice takes over four days later and concludes August 14.
The long-running troupe behind Shakespeare in the Parking Lot – the Drilling Company – spent twenty seasons entertaining locals in the former municipal car park at Ludlow and Broome Streets. That run ended with a performance of Othello in August 2014, one that was overshadowed by imminent development.
This is Essex Crossing Site 1, after all.
At fourteen stories, the forthcoming SHoP-designed tower will boast 55 condos with an 80-20 mix of market rate and affordable respectively. Splitsville Lanes, a luxury bowling alley, is confirmed for the basement space. The Andy Warhol Museum backed out of the project last year, and a cultural museum tenant of some kind is still sought.
107 Suffolk Street Clemente Soto Velez Drilling Company Shakespeare in the Parking Lot
Crab du Jour Goes Down After a Year on Grand Street
Crab du Jour, the ubiquitous franchise selling Cajun-style seafood, closed its Lower East Side location earlier this month. The shutter comes exactly one year after the fast-food spot first opened at 384 Grand Street. Several readers alerted us to the closure, noting that the restaurant hasn't been open the last several days. Moreover, customers can […]
Former Red Square Retail Demolished for New Development
Nearly six years ago, the Dermot Company purchased the former Red Square for $100 million from Michael Rosen. The residential complex was further upscaled in the interim, and whitewashed into submission. The $100 million deal included space in the adjacent one-story retail. What largely went unnoticed at the time, though, is that the Rosen family […]
Man Shot Dead After Opening Door to Gunman at Lillian Wald Houses
A man was shot dead inside his apartment in the Lillian Wald Houses Friday night after the suspected killer knocked on his door, police said. The perp entered 691 FDR Drive just before 10:00pm and went to the fourth floor apartment of thirty-year-old Davon Venable. Reports noted that Venable and his father heard a knock […]
Filmmaker to Get 'High on Ludlow Street' with New Documentary [INTERVIEW]
One filmmaker is on a quest exhume the history of Ludlow Street with a forthcoming documentary series called High on Ludlow Street. What follows is an interview with Charles Libin, who talks about the so-called "gift of Ludlow," memories on the block, challenges of making the film, and the current state of his beloved street. […]
Mayor Adams Vetoes Bill to Fine Non-Artists Residents in Upzoned SoHo and NoHo
The SoHo/NoHo Rezoning saga took a new turn last Friday when Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the controversial bill (Intro 2443A). The last-minute legislation, introduced by former Councilmember Chin, would levy fines against residents occupying JLWQA units without official "artist certification." The odd JLWQA acronym isn't the call sign of some defunct NYC radio station; it […]


text:
Q: PHP Function Argument Default Value Hey all.
I have a processForm function and a displayForm function. If there are missing form fields the processForm function returns an array of missing fields. This is all fine and dandy until I try to include this array into the displayForm function. Here's the problem:
If I don't do this:
displayForm($missingFields=array());

then my validateField function throws a warning that it is expecting the parameter to be an array. However, this overwrites the array returned by the processForm function.
I hope I'm clear. Thanks for any help.
Full Code:
if(isset($_POST['action']) && $_POST['action'] = "login")
{
    $messages = processForm();
}

processForm()

if($errorMessages)
{
     return array("errors" => $errorMessages, "missing" => $missingFields);
}
else
{
    $_SESSION['user'] = $user;
    header("Location: index.php");
}

form.php
(!isLoggedIn())? displayForm($messages['errors']=array(),$messages['missing']=array()) : null;

These are the sections of the code I'm having trouble with.
Thanks again.

A: You don't set default argument values in the call, you set them in the signature, for example
function displayForm($arg1 = array()) {
    ...
}

When you write

displayForm($messages['errors']=array())

this is actually doing something like this
$messages['error'] = array(); // set $messages['error'] to an empty array
displayForm($messages['error']); // pass an empty array to displayForm

This is because in PHP, the return value from an assignment is the value assigned.

A: Why are you using this:
displayForm($messages['errors']=array(),$messages['missing']=array())

When you writing "$messages['errors']=array()", this is setting $messeges to blank array. So the parameter is blank. You can just write:
displayForm($messages['errors'],$messages['missing'])


text:
City Council votes to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana - Albuquerque Journal
City Council votes to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana
By Maddy Hayden / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, April 2nd, 2018 at 11:29AM
Updated: Monday, April 2nd, 2018 at 11:51PM
City Councilors Trudy Jones, Don Harris, Cynthia Borrego and Brad Winter vote "no" on legislation to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana during Monday night's meeting. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)
Possessing small amounts of marijuana will no longer be a criminal offense in the city of Albuquerque, councilors narrowly voted on Monday night, should Mayor Tim Keller sign the legislation.
An ordinance that allows police to issue a $25 civil penalty for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana and associated paraphernalia passed 5 to 4 during the meeting.
Councilors Pat Davis, Klarissa Peña, Ken Sanchez, Isaac Benton and Diane Gibson, all Democrats, voted in favor of the legislation.
Davis and Benton sponsored the measure.
Republican Councilors Brad Winter, Trudy Jones and Don Harris and Democrat Cynthia Borrego opposed the ordinance.
Borrego said she worried about the lack of regulation of marijuana, saying that illegally obtained marijuana could be laced with other drugs.
Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis on Monday speaks in favor of his bill that decriminalizes small quantities of marijuana. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)
Currently, those in possession of an ounce or less of marijuana could be arrested, sentenced to up to 15 days in jail and given a fine of up to $50 for a first offense.
The new ordinance seemed popular among the public, with just one person out of several speaking out in opposition during the meeting.
Rylee Escalada said she uses marijuana to treat her post-traumatic stress disorder after being violently sexually assaulted.
Ana Moran, a field organizer with the ACLU of New Mexico, said being criminally charged with marijuana possession can permanently affect someone's ability to find housing and employment.
"This ordinance is a powerful first step to push back against laws that have deeply impacted, in particular, poor communities of color," Moran said.
And Emily Kaltenbach of the Drug Policy Alliance said the new law would bring Albuquerque in line with the one-third of Americans already living in areas that have decriminalized the drug.
Those who are licensed to use medical marijuana may not be fined under the ordinance.
Ana Moran, an ACLU field organizer, speaks in favor of the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)
Albuquerque Police Officers Association President Shaun Willoughby said officers generally don't make arrests in cases involving small amounts of marijuana, but the ordinance means they can still make arrests under state law if they deem it necessary.
"I don't like to take discretion out of police officers' hands," Willoughby said. "They need that discretion."
State laws are similar to those currently in place in the city.
The bill now heads to Mayor Keller, who had expressed support for decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana on the campaign trail.
"We're focused on best prioritizing police resources for public safety, that may include initiatives to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana," Keller spokeswoman Alicia Manzano said in an email. "We will look for guidance from our police department on this and the Mayor will make an informed decision about the details of the bill when it reaches his desk."
Similar legislation passed in 2015 but was vetoed by then-Mayor Richard Berry.
Home » News » Albuquerque News » City Council votes to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana
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text:
Q: Convert pandas dataframe of singleton matrices to dataframe of numbers I have a pandas dataframe of singleton Python matrices that I want to convert to dataframe of values.  I can use apply to convert individual columns, but was wondering if I could do this over the entire dataframe.  Here is what I have so far:
Dataframe df:
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|   Col1    |   Col2    |   Col3    |   Col4    |    Col5   |    Col6   |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| [[[[4]]]] | [[[[0]]]] | [[[[1]]]] | [[[[0]]]] | [[[[0]]]] | [[[[1]]]] |
| [[[[1]]]] | [[[[1]]]] | [[[[0]]]] | [[[[2]]]] | [[[[1]]]] | [[[[1]]]] |
| [[[[0]]]] | [[[[2]]]] | [[[[3]]]] | [[[[1]]]] | [[[[1]]]] | [[[[0]]]] |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

code to convert an individual column:
df.Col1.apply(lambda x: np.asarray(x).ravel()[0])

A: Use applymap instead of apply
df.applymap(lambda x: np.asarray(x).ravel()[0])

A: You can flatten the arbitrarily nested cells and then re-create the DataFrame. This relies on each matrix having exactly 1 element. This will be faster than applymap for a small DataFrame though the difference becomes smaller for a larger DataFrame.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

def flatten(container):
    for i in container:
        if isinstance(i, (list, tuple)):
            for j in flatten(i):
                yield j
        else:
            yield i

pd.DataFrame(np.array(list(flatten(df.to_numpy().ravel()))).reshape(df.shape),
             index=df.index,
             columns=df.columns)

#   Col1  Col2  Col3  Col4  Col5  Col6
#0     4     0     1     0     0     1
#1     1     1     0     2     1     1
#2     0     2     3     1     1     0


text:
On behalf of Excellence in Literature, I would like to express appreciation for all the writers, professors, teachers, and others who have graciously shared articles, links, and resources with this site. Your generosity is enabling us to build an outstanding learning destination for students and other lovers of great books. Thank you!
Janice Campbell
Pastor Paul Gregory Alms: Memoir as Post Modern History
Paul Gregory Alms is a Lutheran minister, writer and reader. His writing has won awards from the Associated Church Press and has appeared in many forums. His interests include history, theology, rock and roll, pop culture, and any interesting non-fiction writing. He still reads books that are printed on paper.
Richard Austin: Recitations of Hopkins' Poetry
Richard Austin grew up in the same corner of England as Gerard Manley Hopkins. Thus blessed with the correct native accent, he now recites Hopkins' poetry all over the world. He discovered this poetry as a young man, when the poignant verses of Hopkins soothed his soul in the face of personal tragedy. He trained as an actor, worked extensively in theater and television, and devoted himself to memorizing Hopkins' poetry. In 2003, he released an audio CD of his Hopkins recordings, entitled Back to Beauty's Giver. Although his inspiring performances and master classes are in demand at Hopkins societies, conferences, universities, and colleges around the globe, he still enjoys reciting poetry with new friends at small gatherings.
CiRCE Institute: Babette's Feast & The Beatific Vision by Joshua Gibbs
The CiRCE Institute is a leading provider of inspiration, information, and insight to classical educators throughout the U.S. and Canada via an annual conference, an online classical academy, in-house teacher training, Lost Tools of Writing™ workshops and materials, as well as consulting on board development, school leadership, and school start-up. CiRCE's content-laden website and blog provide many other valuable resources.
Dr. Melba Cuddy-Keane: Victorian/Modern Comparison
Dr. Melba Cuddy-Keane is a professor of English at the University of Toronto.
http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~mcuddy/
Dr. Cathy Decker: To the Lighthouse Study Guide
Dr. Cathy Decker is an English professor at Chaffey College (CA).
Dr. Alfred Drake: Chaucer Study Questions
Dr. Alfred J. Drake is an English professor at California State University in Fullerton, CA.
http://www.ajdrake.com/
Dr. Bruce Edwards: C. S. Lewis Biography
Dr. Bruce L. Edwards is Professor Emeritus of English from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. He earned his Ph.D. in Literature and Rhetoric from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981, writing his dissertation on the literary criticism of C. S. Lewis. His C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, Legacy (4 volumes) was published by Praeger Press (2008). Bruce's other publications include books on The Chronicles of Narnia: Not a Tame Lion (Tyndale, 2005) and Further Up and Further In: Understanding C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, both of which have been well received. He has published two previous books on Lewis, including A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis's Defense of Western Literacy and The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C. S. Lewis as Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer. He is also a contributor to the recently published C. S. Lewis Bible (Harper, 2010), and numerous collections of essays about Lewis and the Inklings.
Stacy Esch: Resources for Dante's Divine Comedy, Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories"
Stacy Esch teaches composition and literature at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She is an avid supporter of the liberal arts tradition in higher education.
http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/index.html
Bamber Gascoigne: History of the Renaissance, History of Kenya
Bamber Gascoigne is an author and broadcaster. He has published three novels, but his best-known books are histories and reference works on broad themes: World Theatre, The Great Moghuls, Treasures and Dynasties of China, The Christians, How to Identify Prints, and Encyclopedia of Britain. On television, he has been the author and presenter of several historical documentary series: The Christians, Victorian Values, Man and Music, and The Great Moghuls. He was also for twenty-five years the presenter of a weekly quiz show for students, University Challenge. Since 1994, he has been writing a digital history of the world for the internet. It went online in 2001 as www.historyworld.net and in 2002 won the New Statesman New Media award for the best educational website. His text, of about one and a half million words, forms the core around which the site is growing. He and his wife Christina (an artist and potter) have lived in Richmond, a suburb of London, since 1967.
Dr. Jonathan Gottschall: Hidden Histories
Dr. Jonathan Gottschall is a Distinguished Research Fellow in the English Department at Washington & Jefferson College. His research at the intersection of science and art has frequently been covered in outlets like The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Scientific American, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nature, Science, and NPR. His blog, The Storytelling Animal, is featured at Psychology Today. The Storytelling Animal was a New York Times Editor's Choice Selection and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in Washington, Pennsylvania.
Mark Grabowski: Journalism Story Structure
Mark Grabowski is a journalism professor at Adelphi University in Long Island. View more lessons from him at: http://CubReporters.org
Greater Richmond Children's Choir: "The Nightingale" Madrigal
The Greater Richmond Children's Choir (GRCC) brings together boys and girls from diverse backgrounds who develop a love for singing and good music through age-appropriate vocal training. Based in Richmond, VA, the choir learns a challenging multicultural repertoire and performs both locally and abroad under the direction of Hope Armstrong Erb. Learn more at their website: http://www.grcchoir.org/
Dr. Zvi Har'El: Jules Verne at home (1894 interview)
The late Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne website, now maintained by his son Nadav Har'El, hosts a wealth of resources and information: http://jv.gilead.org.il/
Zvi Har'El's personal website also has links to other websites he put together for Hans Christian Anderson and Escher works: http://www.math.technion.ac.il/S/rl/
Dr. William Johnson: Aeneid Study Guide
Dr. William Johnson is a Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University.
http://people.duke.edu/~wj25/WAJ_Home_Page/Home.html
Ian Johnston: Some Preliminary Observations on Classical Greek Literature
Ian Johnston is a retired instructor (now a Research Associate) at Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina College), Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/index.htm
Dr. Whitley Kaufman: Notes on Poe's story "The Purloined Letter"
Dr. Whitley Kaufman is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, MA.
Dr. Steven Kreis: The History Guide lectures
Dr. Steven Kreis is a professor of history and military studies at American Public University. He has written The History Guide, a series of lectures that are a wonderful resource for anyone studying history.
http://www.historyguide.org/
Blake Linton: (Editor) "In the Year 2889" by Jules Verne
Blake Linton is a science-fiction author and enthusiast.
http://www.wondersmith.com/scifi/index.htm
Lippincott Massie McQuilkin (LMQ): "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty
"LIPPINCOTT MASSIE McQUILKIN is a full-service literary agency that focuses on bringing fiction and non-fiction of quality to the largest possible audience. We work closely with our clients at every stage of a project's development, submission, and placement—staying involved in all issues of design, publicity and sales, long after the ink has dried on a contract, to ensure that the author's needs are being met by his or her publisher."
EIL Editor's Note: Many thanks to the LMQ staff, especially Genevieve Buzo, for their kind and helpful assistance which allowed us to publish this story on EIL.
Cheryl Lowe: Why Study the Pagans?
Cheryl Lowe is a former homeschool mother and public school teacher who has taught hundreds of students in different educational environments. Cheryl started Memoria Press to serve parents and schools, who seek excellence in education, by publishing classical educational materials developed in the classroom. She is the co-author (with Leigh Lowe) of Memoria Press' Christian Studies program, as well as the author of the Latina Christiana program.
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood: Video Reflections on Cantos in Dante's Inferno
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, is a Lay Dominican of the Province of St. Albert the Great and serves as Vice-President of Administration at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT. In addition, he directs the Catholic Distance Learning Network of the National Catholic Educational Association's Seminary Department in Arlington, VA, where he teaches free online courses in Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; and works as Provost of the online continuing education programs at Sacred Heart Institute in Huntington, NY. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Dr. Stephanie Mahfood, and their children, Alexander and Eva Ruth.
Dr. Cary Mazer: Bernard Shaw, A Brief Biography
Cary M. Mazer is Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and English at the University of Pennsylvania, and writes about Victorian and Edwardian theatre, and about Shakespeare performance history. He has worked as a guest dramaturg for several professional theatre companies in the Philadelphia area.
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/home.html
Dr. Lilia Melani: Religion in Robinson Crusoe, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer", and Introduction to Romanticism
Dr. Lilia Melani is a member of the English Department at Brooklyn College (City University of New York).
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/index.htm
Frederick Millett: Symbols in The Great Gatsby
Frederick Millett is a graduate of Michigan State University and the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center). While in law school, Mr. Millett worked as an intern at the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) in Atlanta, Georgia, where, among other things, he worked on and helped write the reply brief for the Supreme Court case, Snyder v. Louisiana, 128 S. Ct. 1203 (2008). He is now an attorney at Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper, & Scinto in New York, where he practices intellectual property law. Mr. Millett is the author of the following publications:
"Will the United States Follow England (and the Rest of the World) in Abandoning Capital Punishment," 6 Pierce L. Rev. 547 (2008).
"Saving Lives: My Externship Experience at Atlanta's Southern Center for Human Rights," Pierce Law Magazine, Winter 2008.
"The Death Penalty Increases Murder," in WRITING THE CRITICAL ESSAY: THE DEATH PENALTY 37–44 (William Dudley ed., Thomson Gale 2006).
Dr. David Murphy: Illustrator Howard Pyle
Dr. David Murphy grew up in a family that enjoyed classic illustrated tales and comics. Now an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Hillsdale College, his research interests include representation theory, invariant theory, and recreational mathematics (how to solve puzzles); he recently coauthored the textbook Algebraic Geometry: A Problem Solving Approach, published by the American Mathematical Society in 2014. Outside the classroom, he's still an enthusiastic collector of works by Howard Pyle and other classic illustrators.
Liam Quin: contributor of Geoffrey Chaucer image
Liam Quin's website offers "Pictures, Engravings, & Extracts From Old Books," including thousands of free high-resolution images:
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/
Sara Selby: Brontë resources, A Micro-History of the English Language, & Versification
Sara Selby is currently the campus director of the Waycross campus of South Georgia State College and was a professor of English at Waycross College (GA). She holds a BA and MA in English from the University of Mississippi, where she also completed additional graduate studies in English. She is the Deep South regional representative for the American Chapters of the Brontë Society and publishes a quarterly newsletter for regional members.
Steamboat Times ("Finn"): contributor of Mark Twain photograph
Photograph featured in Mark Twain's biography, autobiography, and poem "To Jennie"
Steamboat Times, "A Pictorial History of the Mississippi Steamboating Era," is a wonderful website to explore for more information about Mississippi River steamboating, with many fascinating images and a wealth of historical information.
http://steamboattimes.com
Deborah Stokol: Why We Read The Odyssey
Deborah Stokol is a Los Angeles native who attended Harvard-Westlake School before double majoring in English and Music at UC Berkeley and pursuing a Master's in Journalism at USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. There, she received the Director's Award for Excellence and followed a path in Journalism, helping to found USC's Neon Tommy, working for the Los Angeles Times, interning at Los Angeles Magazine, earning a Carnegie- and Knight Foundation-funded Reporting Fellowship, and freelancing for various media outlets and Web sites. She substitute taught at Harvard-Westlake and other prep schools in Los Angeles and went on to teach full-time at La Jolla's The Bishop's School, where she currently works. She is in her third year as a high school English/Writing- and Journalism teacher, while also heading the school newspaper, The Tower. She loves spending her days volleying ideas with bright, eager students, discussing the finer points of literature and essay-esque writing with them, and delving into what makes fine prose so fine during heated editorial discussions and writing workshops with these young scholars. On her own time, she writes essays, poetry, short stories, and songs, and plays the piano and sings.
Luis Sundkvist: Turgenev and Tchaikovsky
Luis Sundkvist studied Russian and German literature at the University of Cambridge and went on to do a PhD there, under the supervision of Diane Oenning Thompson, on Turgenev's thoughts about the development of the arts in Russia. He works as an editor and translator.
Bill Thayer: (Editor) Life of Vergil by Suetonius
Thanks to Bill Thayer for his enthusiasm for history, dedication to accuracy, and all the work he has done to make these classic texts available to a new generation.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/home.html
Pamela Whalan: Pride and Prejudice: A Play, The Social Background of Pride and Prejudice, Emma: A Play, Understanding Emma's World
Since 1962, Pamela Whalan has been an active member of the Genesian Theatre in Sydney, Australia, including working as the Theatre Director for six years. She has also been a member of JASA (Jane Austen Society of Australia) for twenty years. Combining her love of the works of Austen and her love of theatre, she has adapted five of Austen's novels for the stage. These adaptations have been published and produced successfully in Australia and the United States. In addition, on a number of occasions Pamela has presented papers on the works of Austen at conferences in Australia, Canada, and the U.S.A.
In 2002, Pamela returned to her hometown of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. Shortly afterwards, she was invited to become a judge for CONDA (City of Newcastle Drama Awards) and performed this civic duty for the next twelve years.
Pamela holds an M.A. from the University of Sydney and an MLitt from the University of New England (Australia). She has done extensive post-graduate study in the field of 20th century Irish Drama, and she taught English for many years at the University of Technology in Sydney.
Dr. L Kip Wheeler: Study Questions for Canterbury Tales
Dr. Wheeler is an English professor at Carson-Newman College (TN).
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/index.html
Dr. Ann Woodlief: American Romanticism, Thoreau Biography, and Emerson Biography
Dr. Ann Woodlief was a professor of American literature at Virginia Commonwealth University for 30 years. Dr. Woodlief's site the American Transcendentalism Web is an excellent resource for learning more about this literary movement: here you'll find original texts, helpful explanations of Transcendentalist ideas, recent scholarly articles, and much more.
If you are a professor or author who has relevant educational materials which you would like to share with our site, please email us.
Click each title below for a detailed description of the study guide.
Introduction to Literature (English 1)
Literature and Composition (English 2)
American Literature (English 3)
British Literature (English 4)
World Literature (English 5)
The Complete Curriculum: Literature and Writing for Grades 8-12
Handbook for Writers


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So Who Are the RPG Makers? Preliminary Survey Results
I am excited to report that i have finished gathering data from my RPG Maker VX community survey and am well on the way toward finishing interviews with a subset of the respondents. For more information about this project see my previous post. At this point I thought I would share a cursory overview of some of the interesting preliminary survey findings. For those survey research junkies out there I should make clear that this survey is part of a qualitative research project. It was developed strictly as a means to gather descriptive data to provide a broader context for analyzing discussions on the site and interviews with community members. For details on the survey methods and response rates jump down to the last section of the post.
This is a community of young people:
Most of the community members are between the ages of 16 and 24, and of those most are between 18 and 22. As I will document through analysis of discussions and interviews the members of this community are developing sophisticated practices for taking and giving criticism as well as working collaboratively. In this space young people are both the teachers and the learners. While critics frequently lament students motivation and hard work it is clear that this communal space is providing a place for young people to cut their teeth as artists, designers, critics, and producers of digital media.
This is a global community:
45% of the sample reports living in the United States. The rest of the group is spread across Europe, South America, and Asia. A majority of community members reported English as their native language (64%) the remaining 36% represent a smattering of other languages, including Spanish, French and Japanese.
These young people are not just playing around
Most of those surveyed have been involved for more than a year and report spending a considerable amount of time each week on writing, design, and art projects for their games. Group members show significantly different amounts of time spent on different parts of projects. Some spend the bulk of their time writing others spend the bulk of their time creating game artwork.
This is a place where young people are first exposed to programing
RPG Maker VX includes a scripting system, Ruby Game Scripting System, which extends the Ruby Computer Programing language. Nearly all (83%) of the community members report that they have used the games scripting system, and 35% of the respondents reported that working with RPG Maker was their first experience with computer code.
These young people strongly identify with hits from the "RPG Cannon"
When asked about their favorite video games participants cited a mixture of current and "classic" games. To get a quick sense of the kinds of games which appeared most frequently, scan the word frequency chart I generated with Wordle bellow. This is just the raw frequency of individual words, but it is easy to see the trends which emerge around some of the most famous super Nintendo role playing games and franchises. The Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, all appear prominently on respondents lists of favorite games. It is worth keeping in mind that many of these games were original released around or before the majority of these community members were born.
As RPG Maker allows players to make these kinds of games, it makes sense that these kinds of games are also part of their list of favorites. While some might think of the kinds of graphics and formats for games which RPG Maker creates are a weakness of the software, there is good reason to believe that these gamers love for SNES RPGs connects them to a kind of game and experience which they find deeply engaging.
Surveying a community without boundaries:
It is best to develop a survey with a specific population in mind. Part of the difficulty of surveying a diffuse community like the online community associated with the RPG Maker VX site is in defining the boundaries of that community. The site has over 40k members, and during any given visit to the site nearly twice as many non-members are viewing the discussion boards as members. It would be impossible to accurately sample non-members who visit the site, there is no trace of their visits. With that said, instead of setting upfront criteria for who counted as a community member (based on post count, or number of visits, or the length of time they have been involved in the community) I decided to create a sample of individuals who had logged in within the last week. While this will inherently sample more frequently involved users it would also include a sizable segment of other more infrequent visitors. To sample a cross-section of community members in a given week I used the sites member search system to sift through the total number of folks who had logged in over the proceeding week, in this case it was 1740 members. From there I sampled a randomly selected group of 160 members. I have received 85 responses, giving me a respectable 53% response rate.
Limitations with the sample
In accordance with George Mason's human subjects review boards requirements I did not contact anyone who either did not list their age or listed their age as less than 18. In the process of creating the sample I rejected individuals that fell into these categories. Most individuals did list their age and only 10 of the randomly selected members listed themselves a under age 18.
While the response rage is acceptable, I will note two reasons for why members may not have responded. The community message system has used as a mass emailing system for bots. In many cases potential respondents required me to offer a range if kinds of evidence to demonstrate that I was in fact a human before they would click the link to take the survey. Aside from fear of bots, in two cases I heard from individuals who were uncomfortable taking a survey in English because it was not their native language. This suggests that the survey may not fully capture the international character of the community.
Becoming Storytellers and Game Makers in the RPG Maker VX Community
A while back, I wrote a post about a very neat piece of software called RPG Maker. I never really got to building a game with it, but I have become fascinated with the community that has come together around the software. This post begins a series of entries about a research project I have started to explore how this community is scaffolding game players into game makers. In this post I will briefly outline some of the interesting. The image below shows an screen shot from Prelude to Identity, a well received game in the community.
Image from popular RPG Maker Game Prelude of Identity
Daily Composition on the RPG Maker VX boards
Everyday several hundred members of the RPG Maker VX Community read through a new set of project development posts on the community's forums. In each of these posts amateur game designers, primarily between the ages of 18 and 24, share 500-1000 word game proposals for community critique. These posts include elements of traditional composition, like the proposed games setting, characters, and storyline. They also include elements unique to games as new media, like the proposed game's mechanics, artwork, and audio. Over the next few days, each of these proposed projects receives extensive feedback from the community. After substantial revision, refinement, development, and continued engagement with the community, some of the community members' complete their games and share them with the group.
For an example of some of the thoughtful kinds of design and composition that goes into creating game maps see Mr. Moo's video of a follow up game Crescendo of Identity.
Short Outline of Project Methods
I have received permission from my schools human subjects review board to explore the community through a diverse set of methods. I have started conducting a survey to get a sense of community members activity, behaviors, and participation. In a few weeks I will start and a set of interviews with community members to get a deeper sense of how members understand their participation and explore some of the various roles they are taking on. My goal is to then use the survey and interviews to help add texture and context to a detailed analysis of community interactions as preserved on the message boards.
I have already started to get back survey results. I am excited to share some of the preliminary information here in the next few weeks.
£very1 c4n |_rn 2 ©ode (Everyone Learn to Code)
How Do We Get The Necessary Self Efficacy To Code
original image from Capture Queen http://flickr.com/photos/uaeincredible/
For all the talk of read/write culture and how digital media has blurred the lines between producer and consumer, (or even prosumer if you like making up words) there is much less conversation about learning to write code. In my experience these conversations happen, almost exclusively, about tools that use graphical interfaces and wysiwyg editors for content creation. I think Marc Prensky is right in suggesting that programing itself is a new literacy, or even better yet I would suggest it's really a deeper conception of digital literacy. In calling something a literacy were making it a fundamental, and I think the database driven programmatic nature of new media requires that folks start to take a proactive approach to making programing a part of our general education approach.
Before we can even really talk about that goal however there is something I think we need to figure out first. Many people don't think they have it in them to work with code. I have seen people who are masters at manipulating things in complicated programs with graphical interfaces. Folks that can do amazing things in Final Cut, people who have no trouble troubleshooting issues that arise with their operating systems, but who power down when anything from HTML to C++ is mentioned. I frequently hear, "I can't do that", "I'm not a coder" or similar statements rooted in idenity, afinity and self-efficacy.
It is important to note that I say this, not as a confident coder but as someone who has gotten over his own fears about working through hunks of code. The things I have done, editing and tweaking Omeka and WordPress themes, hacking CSL's to get customized export from Zotero making a minor fix to one of Zotero's translators, all required no training in JavaScript, or XML. Once I was comfortable with skipping chunks of stuff I did not understand I was generally able to get these things to do what I wanted to do. In these cases at least, the biggest barrier was my own lack of self efficacy with the idea of doing things with code.
There are a lot of great ways learn to code. (For a good list check out Karin Dalziel's post, its directed at librarians but there are some great resources there.) However, I have not seen much work focusing on how we can get people over the paralysis that comes from the belief that it writing code is outside their grasp. To really break down these barriers, and get more folks to a deeper level of digital literacy, I think we need to know more about where that fear comes from and start developing stratigies for overcomming it.
Why we need to Play History
In the last few years there has been a wealth of interest in games for learning. A growing body of research on the educational value of games underlines the ways the can engage students like no previous media. There are now conferences and journals dedicated to games and learning, the MacArthur foundation last year granted 50 million dollars to different groups to build educational games, articles in Nature and Science have explored the potential for games to simulated health emergencies and elicit scientific thinking. In short there is a lot of interest and excitement about the potential for games, many of these games are under-construction and many are ready for students and teachers to start playing.With all the interest and infrastructure that has been invested in games for learning there is no comprehensive spot for connecting teachers with the resources which have now cost foundations and universities hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of these games are rapidly built, tested, and promptly shelved, often never having been played by more than a handful of students. It is clear that there is a need to connect these games with teachers. Bringing this bleeding edge technology and learning theory to the finger tips of teachers around the world through a web community.
Aggregating these games is simply not enough. Teachers are overworked, underpaid and often stretched to the limit. This project's success is contingent on making it as easy as possible for teachers to find high quality content related to their immediate needs in only a matter of minuets. By enabling teachers to search for games by time periods, historical keywords, educational standards and associated lesson ideas the tool would be built to make it as easy as possible for teachers to integrate high quality games and simulations into their daily plans.
As more teachers begin to use the tool it will have the potential to engage other audiences. Several communities have emerged in the last few years as places for independent game developers to share their games with the public. Once Playing History reaches a critical mass of teachers and potential classrooms to play these games it can become a spot for developers to try building games for the classroom with easy distribution across the world. This has the potential for building a community where these developers respond directly to the needs of practicing teachers improving the quality and quantity of games available for theses purposes.
Once this relationship is cemented it will become a rich resource for educational researchers. Through a separate interface researchers will be able to track which games are successful at what times in what parts of the world giving them further information to inform game design.
There is something tragic in the fact that so much money is being spent to develop so many amazing games and simulations, but those resources are often lost and kept out of the hands of the teachers who could put them directly into use. With a small investment in Playing History we can connect the research and development community with the teaching community and in so doing tremendously benefit both groups.
Playing History For An Audiance
So far I am calling my video games resource for teachers "Playing History." As I am imagining the resource there are four potential audiences, and each of the audiences would enter the picture at different stages, and each would have unique needs.
K-12 History Teachers
The primary audience is Teachers. As outlined in my use case the primary goal of the resource is to make it as easy as possible for teachers to find game content and associated lesson plans to use in their classrooms. The initial stages in building the tool will all focus on building a useful tool for teachers. It will be necessary to gather together and review a large amount of games to build up enough content to make it worthwhile to visit, aggregating games that crisscross the history curriculum. The site's content and development would at this stage mirror History Matters. Once the site has enough content to get off the ground the project would start to target the early adopters, teachers in ning groups like next gen teachers groups on yahoo teachers, and Google certified teachers. Those interested would be able to join the project in a collaborative fashion, adding to the content by reviewing games. With the early adopter teachers on board the next target would be district Academic Coaches/Curiculm coordinators.
Academic Coaches/ Curriculum Coordinators
Curriculum Coordinators work with teachers to develop their districts curriculum, in larger districts there is a director for each content area and in smaller ones a single director manages content of all the disciplines, in either way their job description sets them up as a way to connect teachers with resources and develop the classroom. In the second stage of development Playing History would target Curriculum Coordinators through conferences (like ASCD), and professional development events. This phase would also role out a separate interface for coordinators, one that allows them to send resources to the teachers they support both within the site's canvas and also through existing communication networks like email. As the site grows and gains attention and users it will become a useful place for the third audience Developers.
Educational Game Developers
There is a growing community of educational games developers, but sadly there is no easy portal for those developers to get their games to teachers. Once Playing History has acquired an audience for teachers it can function as a portal for developers to expose their games to a wide audience of educators interested in games.
Educational Researchers
Finally the resource could eventually become a interesting nexus for educational researchers to further plan and develop new projects. By providing a common ground for developers and teachers to connect and discuss each others work the site would be full of interesting information for projects. In the fourth stage of development Playing History would offer a portal for researchers to track the success of different approaches to educational games and better survey the needs of classroom teachers.


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