text:
AU politics
Indigenous Australia
Rupert Murdoch's big backer sounds News Corp warning
News Corporation's second-biggest shareholder says phone-hacking scandal is damaging company's name
Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid
Tue 8 May 2012 14.16 EDT First published on Tue 8 May 2012 14.16 EDT
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been one of Rupert Murdoch's staunchest supporters. Photograph: Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the second biggest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has revealed his frustration with the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal and admitted that it is harming the reputation of the company overall, not just its publishing interests.
Alwaleed is a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, and, according to Forbes magazine, is the 29th wealthiest person in the world, with a fortune of $18bn (£11bn). He owns large stakes in Citigroup, Apple, Canary Wharf and London's Savoy hotel as well as 7% of the voting shares in News Corp, which on Wednesday announces its results for the three months to the end of March. Analysts expect profits to rise around 19% from the same quarter last year.
Alwaleed said that although News Corp was "very diversified," with interests covering books, magazines, newspapers, television and film, the phone-hacking scandal was having a company-wide effect. "I really hope that this is behind us because really it is not helping the name of the company," he said. "We hope that this page is folded and put behind us because really it is not something to be proud of."
News Corp investors have voiced concerns about the phone-hacking scandal since it erupted last year and, at the company's AGM in October, several shareholders, including powerful pension fund CalPERS, called for the appointment of an independent chairman. Murdoch currently holds the position of chairman alongside that of chief executive. Alwaleed is one of Murdoch's staunchest supporters and had never before spoken publicly about the wider impact of the scandal.
His most public previous involvement was to suggest the resignation of Rebekah Brooks as chief executive of News Corp's UK newspaper division, News International. Brooks was editor of the News of the World when its journalists hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and in July last year Alwaleed told the BBC's Newsnight: "If the indications are for her [Brooks's] involvement in this matter is explicit, for sure she has to go, you bet she has to go … Ethics to me is very important." Brooks resigned the following day.
News Corp holds a significant stake in Alwaleed's Saudi Arabian film, TV and music business Rotana Media Group and he said: "We have a strategic alliance with Rupert Murdoch for sure and I have been with him for the last 15 or 20 years. My backing of Rupert Murdoch is definitely unwavering."
Alwaleed said that although the scandal had had an impact on News Corp's reputation, its financial results had not been damaged. "The share price is really separating from what is happening in the UK," he said. "We see the price is hovering around $20 and the results are very good."
News Corp shrugged off the hacking scandal in its second-quarter results as net income increased 65%, despite it having to pay $87m during the period as a result of the ongoing investigations that led to the closure of the News of the World. Net income rose to $1.06bn for the quarter, compared with $642m a year before, driven by growth in its cable networks and movie studio divisions.
Alwaleed expects this trend to continue despite the ongoing scandal and he said: "I believe that once this page is flipped over, News Corp can withstand the heat of what is happening there."
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal


text:
Q: Android build mini navigation drawer with Icons I want to build a fixed mini nav drawer in android. will will always be visible an not extendable, with icons only.
Something like https://github.com/mikepenz/MaterialDrawer Mini Drawer.
I try used his library, but I can't figured out how to make it fixed.
here is my code:
private Drawer result = null;
private MiniDrawer miniResult = null;

result = new DrawerBuilder()
                .withActivity(this)
                .withToolbar(toolbar)
                .withTranslucentStatusBar(false)
                .addDrawerItems(
                        new PrimaryDrawerItem().withName("1").withIcon(FontAwesome.Icon.faw_home).withIdentifier(1),
                        new PrimaryDrawerItem().withName("2").withIcon(FontAwesome.Icon.faw_home).withBadge("22").withBadgeStyle(new BadgeStyle(Color.RED, Color.RED)).withIdentifier(2).withSelectable(false),
                           new DividerDrawerItem(),
                        new ToggleDrawerItem().withName("3").withIcon(FontAwesome.Icon.faw_home).withChecked(true).withOnCheckedChangeListener(onCheckedChangeListener)
                ) // add the items we want to use with our Drawer
                .withOnDrawerItemClickListener(new Drawer.OnDrawerItemClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public boolean onItemClick(View view, int position, IDrawerItem drawerItem) {
                        if (drawerItem instanceof Nameable) {
                            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, ((Nameable) drawerItem).getName().getText(MainActivity.this), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                        }
                        return false;
                    }
                })
                .withGenerateMiniDrawer(true)
                .withSavedInstance(savedInstanceState)
                // build only the view of the Drawer (don't inflate it automatically in our layout which is done with .build())
                .buildView();

        miniResult = result.getMiniDrawer();
        View view = miniResult.build(this);

A: As of the normal usage there is always the "normal" drawer (via the DrawerLayout), and the MiniDrawer in your case you just want to use the MiniDrawer and add it to your View hierarchy.
As you already figured out correctly the MiniDrawer is filled via the normal DrawerBuilder as this comes with all the methods to interact with the elements added to the drawer.
As your use-case is special there is no "out-of-the-box" inflating of the MiniDrawer alone.
So you have the View of the MiniDrawer above. You now just need to add it to your Activity .
I recommend that your layout looks something like this:
<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"/>
    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/container"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_below="@id/toolbar">
        <RelativeLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent">
            <!-- Place your content here -->
        </RelativeLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

So in your code you get the "container"
LinearLayout container = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.container);
container.addView(view, 0); //view is the view of your MiniDrawer

Just to improve your code and remove unnecessary stuff. You can remove
.withToolbar(toolbar)
.withTranslucentStatusBar(false)

as those are not necessary if you just use the MiniDrawer

A: In the docs for that library the developer mentioned that you can lock the drawer. Could you try that out and see if it prevents it from opening?
result = new DrawerBuilder()...
...
//get the DrawerLayout from the Drawer
DrawerLayout drawerLayout = result.getDrawerLayout();
//do whatever you want with the Drawer. Like locking it.
drawerLayout.setDrawerLockMode(DrawerLayout.LOCK_MODE_LOCKED_CLOSED);

Also try the other lock modes defined here if LOCK_MODE_CLOSED doesn't work and let us know what happens!

A: You can create view for your drawer like this way,try to use ActionsContentView
<shared.ui.actionscontentview.ActionsContentView
        android:id="@+id/content"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_above="@id/divider"
        app:actions_layout="@layout/actions"
        app:actions_spacing="0dp"
        app:content_layout="@layout/content"
        app:shadow_drawable="@drawable/shadow"
        app:shadow_width="8dip"
        app:spacing="64dip"
        app:spacing_type="right_offset" />

OR try to use Partial SlidingPaneLayout

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Elinor Carucci
by Dana Stirling
Born 1971 in Jerusalem, Israel, Elinor Carucci graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in photography, and moved to New York that same year. In a relatively short amount of time, her work has been included in an impressive amount of solo and group exhibitions worldwide, solo shows include Edwynn Houk gallery, Fifty One Fine Art Gallery, James Hyman and Gagosian Gallery, London among others and group show include The Museum of Modern Art New York and The Photographers' Gallery, London.
Her photographs are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others and her work appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Details, New York Magazine, W, Aperture, ARTnews and many more publications.
She was awarded the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Young Photographer in 2001, The Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and NYFA in 2010. Carucci has published two monographs to date, Closer, Chronicle Books 2002 and Diary of a dancer, SteidlMack 2005. Carucci currently teaches at the graduate program of photography at School of Visual Arts and represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery.
In winter of 2013/2014 Prestel publishing published her third monograph, MOTHER, portraying nearly a decade of her motherhood project. A solo show of this work was exhibited at Edwynn Houk Gallery in NYC in March 2014 and is currently up at MoCP Chicago.
The woman that I still am #2, 2010. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
Emmanuelle having her hair cut 2007. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
What was the hardest part about leaving Israel? Why did you decide to go to America and New York City specifically?
The hardest part about leaving Israel, and there were many difficult things, but I think it was mainly leaving my family and knowing that I won't be able to be close to them and see them a lot, but also leaving the country, the culture, the language. Also, when I left, I was not sure that I would be actually living my life here [in New York] so its actually getting somehow easier over the years but on the other hand harder because I know that it's final now.
I decided to go to New York for my photography. I was also here before, my Aunt lives here, so I spent some of my teen years visiting her in Queens. I saw that this was the center of photography. I remember being 17 and going to ICP and I realized so many things happened here in America, especially in New York, there are so many galleries and magazines and I wanted to be in a place where I can have more opportunities for my photography.
As an Israeli myself, I often find in your images a sense of the Israeli culture , it might be subtle sometimes, but I do feel it in many of the images. Do you think the Israeli culture is in some way a part of your work? Or is it just a by-product of you and your family being Israeli?
The Israeli culture is a big part of my work, it's not typical Israeli work that deals with the Palestinians or the Israeli conflict or with the political situation, but it very much talks about the family and the warmth and sexuality of Israel. A lot of my early work has the Israeli light in it so I feel the strong connection to the family is everything in Israel, and the dramatic element of everybody within the family. The family is really an Israeli microcosmic mirror for everything else.
From Diary of a dancer 2003. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
In your body of work and book 'Diary of a dancer' there is a tension between cultures. Maybe it is because it was the earliest and the closest time after you moved over, but the contrast between American and Middle Eastern culture, like the belly dancer in the Subway car, formed a very lonely yet powerful series of images. How was the process of creating this body of work? Did it help you in some way feel more at home in New York?
It did help me feel more at home in New York, and sometimes I feel like without making 'Diary of a Dancer' I wouldn't be able to shoot 'Mother'. It was my first time going outside taking pictures in the streets of New York, and the night clubs I danced in. I created some kind of a personal bubble in order to keep photographing here but it was a new chapter of my life as a belly dancer here in New York city and around New York area.
I did feel lonely, but dancing for immigrant communities made me understand that many people here have created their own bubbles and it was very comforting, but also something that made me think about what it means to be an immigrant and an artist.
Me and Yoav Friedlander have created a new class for the School of Visual Arts called 'The Photographer Immigrant' –a class both for students who create work outside their own country, or create work after living abroad, and for any student who is interested in the topic of the class, who consider and respond to the world around them with a camera and image making with the awareness of immigration and culture, differences and barriers and global aspects of our world today.
I think this started from 'Diary of a Dancer'.
How do you think photographing your children from the moment they were born have changed or shaped them in to the people they are now?
I will probably not know until they are older, but I think and hope that it had a positive impact on them mainly because of conversations we had about how I photograph not only the pretty and happy moments but also the painful moments.
I think being photographed that way, and just living our lives this way, made my kids more comfortable in their own skin, and maybe they have more compassion for other people's pain. I always told them that I am photographing it all, we don't need to hold a façade or a mask. Photography is about who we are. Everything is beautiful to me, or at least inspirational, so I think they learned to accept their flaws and other people's flaws more easily.
Is there anything you would never photograph? What stays private and away from the camera?
There is nothing I would never photograph from my own life, and from Poor Eran's life [her husband] but when it comes to other people who are not me, Yes, I do have limits, and it also depends on how they feel, but nothing is too private for the camera when it comes to my own life or my own body. Something is too private if it is too private for another person, for my mom or for my children, but eventually the respect and the love for them will come before photography.
Eye, 1996. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
What is your biggest achievement as an educator? How do you feel about having this role of guidance and inspiration for young artists?
I feel my biggest achievement is helping someone bring out something from within them in to their work. It sounds simple, but it is very elusive and challenging, for myself, for my colleagues, my artist friends and my students. How do you translate what you feel? How you see things? Your opinion into a piece of art; how to keep it honest, real and interesting. This is really the journey I have with students. When it's successful it is very rewarding, and I feel that I learn a lot in the process as well. But it is really about who they are, acknowledging it and bring who they are into the work.
What was the harshest criticism you ever heard about your work?
The harshest criticism definitely came from Israel, and the list is long, but in my thesis exhibition someone wrote in the local Jerusalem paper how narcissistic and boring the work was, and also I know from some Israeli's that went to school with me that some of them were surprised to learn about my success, so maybe there is a reason why I am not there anymore. But the hardest criticism came from Israel back in those days in the 90's.
What was the best advice you ever received regarding your work and photography?
I think to be persistent. Simcha Shirman, one of my professors in Bezalel, told me that being an artist was like being a long distance runner, you have to keep running, and this was the best advice I got from him.
Can you point out one of your favorite photos you ever took? What is the story behind it?
It's a photo I took of my mom and me, It's called 'Mother and I, 2001′ and it is a photo of my mom telling me what men want, while making a funny gesture. I just love this photograph, I think for different reasons. First, it's hard for me to capture moments that are humorous, and this is a funny picture, and it's just a side of my mom that I love – when she is provocative, and funny, and makes me laugh. Being able to capture this moment, I was grateful that I had the camera on a tripod and that I managed to get this moment, it was really a split of a second, funny and loving. I love that she is my mom, but she is also talking about sex and men and I love that she is making me laugh.
My mother and I 2002. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
Can you tell us about the process of making a book? Each one of your monographs is very different one from the other. What makes a good book sequence? What was the workflow?
It's a very long process, 'Closer' [2002] took 10 years and 'Mother' [2013] almost 10 years as well, Diary of a dancer is a little shorter. I think the process starts long before I even have a book deal – taking the pictures and editing them along the way. For me it is about telling a story, it is about getting the viewer on a journey with me. For example, with 'Mother' I wanted to keep it in chronological order but not with 'Closer' as the chronological order was not as important, but I felt I could engage the viewer with my story. I think I really want to tell my story but also keep it universal, I want to choose images and sequence them in a way that people could relate to them.
The other elements like the colors and the design is definitely a team work with the book editor and the designer.
With all the books we narrowed down the images, printed them small and laid them out on the floor of my apartment, sometimes I would live with them for a few days, and the book editor would come back again and we would move the prints and sequence them again and again. Sometimes it would start in the living room continue to the hall and to the kitchen because it was so long. When we finish we leave and come back to look at it again and edit and edit and edit. It's a lot of work.
Finally – Who was your biggest inspiration as a photographer?
The biggest inspiration as a photographer is the love of my family to me and my love to them. I think the biggest inspiration in short is – love
Brushing hair, 2010. Image courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery
Visit Elinor's website to see more of her work.
Filed under Article, Interview
Tagged Belly Dancing, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Closer, Edwynn Houk gallery, Elinor Carucci, Family, Israel, Jerusalem, Mother, Personal, Portrait, School of Visual Arts, Self Portrait, Subway
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

package com.google.gdata.util.parser;

import java.io.*;

/**
 * The com.google.gdata.util.parser package provides a framework for creating recursive
 * descent parsers. A fairly straightforward transformation exists between EBNF
 * (extended Backus-Naur form) grammars and code used to construct a parser
 * using this framework that will match the grammar. The intention of this
 * package is to obviate the need to create small mini-parsers for tasks that
 * don't feel large enough for a standard compiler-compiler (like JavaCC) but
 * still need more formalism than simple string tokenization.
 *
 * The basic approach this framework takes to parsing is to define several
 * types of leaf parsers which know how to parse a particular type of object
 * (character set, string literal, etc.) and to then combine them together in
 * interesting ways. For example, a parser for a comma separated list of
 * integers would look like:
 *
 *     Parser Chset.DIGIT.plus().list(new Chset(','));
 *
 * The EBNF this represents is:
 *
 *     sent: [0-9]+ ("," [0-9]+)*
 *
 * The Parser.list() functionality is sometimes represented as the '%' operator
 * in EBNF extensions. It performs the transformation:
 *
 *     a % b --> a (b a)*
 *
 * The leaf parsers that are currently defined are:
 *
 *   @see Chset
 *   @see Strlit
 *   @see Strcaselit
 *
 * The operators which combine 1 or 2 parsers together are:
 *
 *   @see Action
 *   @see Alternative
 *   @see Difference
 *   @see Intersection
 *   @see Repeat
 *   @see Rule
 *   @see Sequence
 *
 * In general, it isn't necessary to create an operator-type parser directly as
 * an appropriate member function usually exists in Parser for creating
 * them. Note that these are purely convenience routines.
 *
 * In general, the parsers are greedy. For example, the Sequence parser will
 * match as much as possible with the left sub-parser before trying the right
 * sub-parser. This behavior can normally be avoided by using a recursive
 * grammar. Consider the following grammar:
 *
 *   token: foo* bar
 *   foo:   [a-z]+
 *   bar:   foo [0-9]+
 *
 * This grammar will fail to parse the string "aa0" because the 'foo*' rule
 * will consume all of the letters and not leave one left for the 'bar'
 * rule. An alternate definition of 'token' can prevent this behavior:
 *
 *   token: (foo token) | bar
 *
 * The parsers created by this parser framework use infinite lookahead. In
 * extreme cases, a parser can be constructed which scans over the parse buffer
 * many times trying to find a match. In practice, this doesn't happen very
 * often.
 *
 * @param <T>
 *
 */
public abstract class Parser<T> {
  public static final int NO_MATCH = -1;

  /**
   * The parse interface that subclasses must implement.
   *
   * @param buf The character array to match against.
   *
   * @param start The start offset of data within the character array to match
   * against.
   *
   * @param end The end offset of data within the character array to match
   * against.
   *
   * @param udata User defined object that is passed to
   * Callback.handle when an Action fires.
   */
  public abstract int parse(char[] buf, int start, int end, T udata);

  /**
   * Convenience routine to parse a character array.
   */
  public final int parse(char[] buf, T udata) {
    return parse(buf, 0, buf.length, udata);
  }

  /**
   * Convenience routine to parse a string.
   */
  public final int parse(String str, T udata) {
    return parse(str.toCharArray(), udata);
  }

  /**
   * Convenience routine to parse a java.io.Reader.
   */
  public final int parse(Reader reader, T udata) {
    CharArrayWriter writer = new CharArrayWriter();

    try {
      char[] buf = new char[1024];
      int count;

      while ((count = reader.read(buf)) >= 0) {
        writer.write(buf, 0, count);
      }
    } catch (IOException e) {
    }

    return parse(writer.toCharArray(), udata);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Repeat parser that matches this
   * exactly count times.
   *
   * this{count}
   *
   * @param count The number of times this must match in sequence.
   */
  public final Parser<T> repeat(int count) {
    return new Repeat<T>(this, count, count);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Repeat parser that matches this at
   * least min times and not mroe than max times.
   *
   * this{min,max}
   *
   * @param min The minimum number of times this must match in
   * sequence.
   *
   * @param max The maximum number of times this is allowed to
   * match in sequence.
   */
  public final Parser<T> repeat(int min, int max) {
    return new Repeat<T>(this, min, max);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Repeat parser that matches this 0 or
   * more times.
   *
   * this*
   */
  public final Parser<T> star() {
    return new Repeat<T>(this, 0);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Repeat parser that matches this 1 or
   * more times.
   *
   * this+
   */
  public final Parser<T> plus() {
    return new Repeat<T>(this, 1);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Repeat parser that matches this either
   * 0 or 1 times.
   *
   * this?
   */
  public final Parser<T> optional() {
    return repeat(0, 1);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Parser that matches a sequence of this
   * parsers separated by sep parsers. These sequences occur
   * often: space separated words, comma separated words, etc.
   *
   * @param sep The parser which separates instances of this.
   */
  public final Parser<T> list(Parser<? super T> sep) {
    return Parser.<T>sequence(this, Parser.<T>sequence(sep, this).star());
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Action that will fire and call
   * Callback.handle whenever this matches.
   *
   * @param callback The Callback to call when
   * this matches.
   */
  public final  Parser action(Callback callback) {
    return new Action<T, U>(this, callback);
  }

  /**
   * Creates an Alternative parser from the left and
   * right sub-parsers.
   *
   * left | right
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> alternative(Parser<? super T> left,
                                          Parser<? super T> right) {
    return new Alternative<T>(left, right);
  }

  /**
   * Creates an Intersection parser from the left and
   * right sub-parsers.
   *
   * left & right
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> intersection(Parser<? super T> left,
                                           Parser<? super T> right) {
    return new Intersection<T>(left, right);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Difference parser from the left and
   * right sub-parsers.
   *
   * left - right
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> difference(Parser<? super T> left,
                                         Parser<? super T> right) {
    return new Difference<T>(left, right);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Sequence parser from the left and
   * right sub-parsers.
   *
   * left right
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> sequence(Parser<? super T> left,
                                       Parser<? super T> right) {
    return new Sequence<T>(left, right);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a Sequence parser from parsers one,
   * two and three sub-parsers. Equivalent to calling
   * Parser.sequence(one, Parser.sequence(two, three)).
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> sequence(Parser<? super T> one,
                                       Parser<? super T> two,
                                       Parser<? super T> three) {
    return Parser.<T>sequence(one, Parser.<T>sequence(two, three));
  }

  /**
   * Creates a sequence of four parsers.
   * @see #sequence(Parser,Parser,Parser)
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> sequence(Parser<? super T> one,
                                       Parser<? super T> two,
                                       Parser<? super T> three,
                                       Parser<? super T> four) {
    return Parser.<T>sequence(
        one, Parser.<T>sequence(
            two, Parser.<T>sequence(three, four)));
  }

  /**
   * Creates a sequence of five parsers.
   * @see #sequence(Parser,Parser,Parser)
   */
  public static <T> Parser<T> sequence(Parser<? super T> one,
                                       Parser<? super T> two,
                                       Parser<? super T> three,
                                       Parser<? super T> four,
                                       Parser<? super T> five) {
    return Parser.<T>sequence(
        one, Parser.<T>sequence(
            two, Parser.<T>sequence(
                three, Parser.<T>sequence(four, five))));
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This stately historic home in Comfort was built in 1894 and has been restored with great attention to detail in order to retain the beauty of the original limestone walls, coved ceilings and hardwood floors. The renovations include a fully equipped kitchen, two baths with tub and shower combination, central air and heat and a cozy living room with an electric wood burning stove and satellite TV with DVD. The library off the large foyer sitting area serves as a third bedroom with a twin day bed and there are two bedrooms upstairs with a Queen bed and a double bed. The home is furnished with lovely period antiques, so the ambience is one of seamlessly blending the graciousness of the prior century with all of the modern conveniences. And, yes, you can keep in touch via Wi-Fi and great cell phone coverage. Other amenities include ceiling fans throughout, all bed and bath linens as well as four bath robes, a washer and dryer and a charcoal grill. Adults only please.
Windmill Inn is just beyond downtown with easy access to Comfort's offerings of historic buildings and homes, restaurants and antique, gift and apparel shops. It is minutes from two wineries and an excellent 18 hole golf course as well as Flat Rock Ranch, a 1300 acre Mountain bike area with 27 miles of bike trails.
The four of us felt very comfortable and at home in the Windmilll Inn. It provides a very nice taste of quite, country atmosphere. You can even have a conversation with the neighboring rooster. We were out visiting the area for most of the days we were there, and it was great to come back to the cozy livingroom with the electric fireplace. Bandera, Kerrville and Fredericksburg were all easily accessible, and the directions to the guest house were very easy to follow. Our host was very gracious and welcoming. Upon our arrival, she gave us a tour through the house so we did not have to hunt for things on our own.
We would like to point out that visiting on out-of-season weekdays, we found it a little challenge to find consistently open restaurants; and those that were supposed to be open often closed very early. We were told by locals certain ones would be open, but then we found they were not. I would NOT recommend this guest house if you have a very rambunctious toddler. The hardwood steps to the second floor bedrooms are rather long; but my main thought would be that I wouldn't want to have to guard the many, very nice antiques in the house.
Our experience with Backroads Reservations was very pleasant as well. One phone call, the reservations were made clearly, correctly and professionally. Far more easily than has been our experience with many big-chain hotels. A confirmation, policies, and directions were immediately sent via e-mail. Of course, there are also places closer to the Fredericksburg shopping areas; but we would still prefer to get a bit away from the hub-bub and be able to pay a little less, enjoying the rest of the area too.
The bottomline: We would definitely feel comfortable staying there again and would be glad to recommend it to others. - Connie K.


Background: The current complexity of the global marketplace challenges national education systems around the world to prepare its children with the knowledge and skills needed to become competitive, and research literature confirms the value of investing in education. Based on a large body of research over two decades, the Center for Public Education concludes that there is substantial evidence of a direct correlation between teacher's effectiveness and student academic achievement. Statistics from various studies indicate the challenge for schools across the US and the globe is to hire teachers that are well-prepared for the classrooms. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the professional teacher preparation accrediting body, indicates that effective teachers require a combination of factors including one key factor, teacher training. Therefore, preparing great teachers will have a direct impact on the learning and success of students. Purpose: This study examined the perspectives of students and alumni of the teacher preparation program they went through and their views on its effectiveness in preparing them for the real classroom. Methods: A questionnaire was given to students and alumni of the teacher preparation program at Danang University of Education (DUEd) to survey their overall perceptions on how well the teacher preparation program did in training them for the classroom and in addressing classroom environment, instruction, and in dealing students with disabilities. Results: An analysis of the results yielded common themes that reflect a prevailing trend in the teacher training programs at DUEd. Common themes indicate a need to improve the quality of the teacher preparation programs at the DUEd in several areas, especially in addressing teaching students with disabilities. Conclusion: The findings provided feedback and insights for improvement for the DUEd teacher preparation program and may be helpful to other teacher preparation programs at other institutions as well.


The California. Now with typical 0% APR.
The world is vast - and there are so many places to discover. So it's great to have a vehicle in which journeys are as much fun as arriving at your destination.
The California with BlueMotion Technology can save up to 0.5l of fuel over 100km in comparison to a California without BlueMotion Technology. It is therefore better for the environment.
After shifting into neutral and releasing the clutch, the engine is switched off automatically, e.g. at red traffic lights. To start the engine again, it is enough to step on the clutch.
The California with BlueMotion Technology makes contact with the road via tyres with optimised rolling resistance. The lower rolling resistance of these tyres reduces fuel consumption and therefore CO₂ emissions.


text:
The Pursuit Of AI-Driven Wealth Management – Wealth Tech Digest #46
✅ The Pursuit Of AI-Driven Wealth Management
Our first digest deals with the biggest buzz terms in tech today, artificial intelligence, and how it is already disrupting wealth management. Understanding the application of AI to business requires an understanding of context — strategy, customers, company culture, and so forth. Thomas Davenport and Randy Bean of MIT Sloan have studied AI's use-cases in wealth management and have interviewed analytics and AI officers at several companies. Unsurprisingly, they found that almost all organizations that offer AI-generated robo-advice combine it with human adviser consultations. That seems to be a feature, not a bug, as it has enabled firms like Wealthfront to lower their fees to 0.25% compared to the standard 1% of human-only advising. On the contrary to this AI-heavy strategy is that of Vanguard, which uses a robo-advice platform called Personal Advisor Services (PAS). Even though PAS does use some AI, it relies mostly on traditional arithmetic for its risk assessments and other quantifiers. The greatest use of AI among finance firms, however, has to be that of Morgan Stanley's Wealth Management Unit. For over 10 years, Morgan Stanley has been working on its Next Best Action system to provide its financial advisers with insights to present to clients. This system, as you can expect, uses a whole lot of machine learning to identify investments of interest and relevance to a particular client. AI may be a great tool, but at least for now, it cannot yet manage client portfolios that include alternative investments like art and commodities.
✅ Conquest Eyes Continued Expansion With $7.5 Million Funding Round
For our next digest — good news for Conquest Planning as it receives a resounding vote of confidence with additional funding from existing investors. Just less than 18 months after raising $3 million in a seed funding round, Conquest Planning has received a fresh injection of capital. This latest round of funding comes as it tries to build on its early success within Canada. Portage Ventures, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, and IGM Financial are making repeat investments in Conquest to the tune of $7.5 million. Conquest CEO Mark Evans expresses his excitement for the strong and resounding support from some very reputable venture capital firms. Beyond just funding, Evans said Conquest benefits from each of its investor partners in substantial ways. With Fidelity, the company can leverage its position in the UK while Portage can open the doors for strong local and global relationships and exposure. With its innovative use of artificial intelligence, Conquest offers a financial planning software solution to help advisors and consumers. The software can be adapted to support consumer-initiate digital planning or digital co-planning activities with an advisor. Since October 2020, Conquest has inked key partnerships with Canadian wealth industry leaders including IG Wealth Management and Canada Life. We look forward to following the company's efforts to widen its offerings and expand to different markets.


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text:
Assam: Child labourer rescued from cop's house in Dibrugarh
by AVIK CHAKRABORTY
DIBRUGARH , June 7, 2018 10:20 pm
Representative image. Photo credit - YKA
Two domestic child labourers were rescued by the task force on Thursday from different areas of Dibrugarh district. The task force was constituted to tackle child labour in Dibrugarh district.
According to information, the rescue team rescued a minor girl from the residence of one Dipak Gogoi, a police sub-inspector attached to Lahowal Police Station.
The girl was employed as a domestic help in Gogoi's residence located at Ayub Ali Road of the town.
Similarly, another minor girl engaged as domestic help was rescued from the house of one Uttam Saha, an advocate from Milannagar J-Lane.
The Labour Department has filed separate FIRs against the two house owners at Dibrugarh Police Station under section 3 of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016. The rescued children have been put under the care of a children home.
Dibrugarh district administration has launched major crackdown against child labour in Dibrugarh.
Last month three domestic child labourers were rescued from Dibrugarh district. As per latest amendment domestic child labourer is hazardous.
"Due to lack of awareness many people engage domestic child labourers and engage them in various work and in some cases they were ill treated and engage in hazardous work," said an official from Labour Department.
The Dibrugarh district administration had started a childline toll free number – 1098 to deal with any complaint related to child labour.
According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, a 'child' is defined as any person below the age of 14 and the Act prohibits employment of a child in any employment including as a domestic help. It is a cognizable criminal offence to employ a child for any work.
Children between age of 14 and 18 are defined as 'adolescent' and the law allows 'adolescent' to be employed except in the listed hazardous occupation and processes which include mining, inflammable substance and explosives related work and any other hazardous process as per the Factories Act, 1948.


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text:
Latest online
Rubric: Discovery of Siberia
Section: History
: 25 Dec 2007 , GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION: in the wake of the academic detachment , volume 18, N6
"My Longing to Serve Society..."
It is amazing how historical evaluations that are accepted in everyday thinking tend to stick to various real things – be they associated with an event or a bright personality. Yet this amazement is always mixed with bitterness because such evaluations ultimately distort real life, banishing what can properly be described as "alive."
Gerhard Friedrich Mueller — a Man and Scholar
This is always associated with ideology, since any ideology writes history according to itself. Meanwhile drops of water wear away a stone. A word repeated a thousand times becomes a stereotype. It is easier to deal with stereotypes – everything is arranged in orderly compartments, and all the blocks constitute a pleasant construction. It seems that nobody bothers that this construction is nothing more than a theoretical substitute for a living thing – the main aim is to preserve the semblance of logic. Real life is exchanged for a historical scheme which suits everybody. And the moments when you feel the unbearable falsity of these constructions, which look like physical murder of the real and living, … they are just moments, incomparable in their lastingness and "importance," to hours, days and years of our inertial existence, which for us is inconceivable without convenient schemes and undoubted "laws." All this is terrible…
However, my introduction is becoming drawn out and clad in suspicious rhetoric, and it is time now to move on to people. We will speak about the Russian historian Gerhard Friedrich Mueller (in Russia during his lifetime he was styled as "Feodor Ivanovich" — these linguistic calques are quite humorous). He did not escape the lot described above and that is why his place in the history of Russian science is so ambiguous. Indeed, he looks like a notable historian, whose merits are incontestable. He made the first attempt (and not at all without success) of creating a fundamental history of Russia; he formulated main methodological problems; he left an articulate system of proper historical quest, which was used by several generations of researchers; he is the "Father of Siberian history." He made himself well known in various allied scientific fields, but with all this he still was considered "a German," "a foreigner." And another not very pleasant echo: in some sense he was also considered "an ill-wisher," "an abuser," and "a slanderer." The image of his is split in two, but the average ear mostly perceives the latter. It is that same unbearable stereotype at work.
The roots of such an attitude towards Mueller are not difficult to discover. They extend to the polemics around his "Norse" theory and to the history of his animosity with Lomonosov. In order not to return to this "over-discussed" problem anymore, let us examine it right away and try to include all the accurate emphases.
In 1749 Schumacher, the "Grey Eminence" of the Imperial Academy, suggested that Mueller and Lomonosov prepare speeches for delivering at a grand scholarly assembly. The motivation for choosing the first speaker is both curious and illustrative (showing some aspects of Mueller's personality). As Schumacher said, "He has relatively good Russian pronunciation, a loud voice, and a presence of mind very close to impudence." Mueller, who had always been careful about his duties, composed a speech in Latin entitled "On the Genesis of the Rus' Nation and Name," where he marked the cornerstones of the so-called "Norse" theory, which is relatively well known. And today it is absolutely clear that it was not an experiment from the realm of science fiction, not a plain re-writing of history, but a well-founded historical hypothesis which required an even-minded discussion. Yet what followed after the composition of this "dissertation" least of all resembled such discussion. As Mueller himself diplomatically put it, "This composition was assigned for reading in a public academic assembly, but due to a special event there occurred an obstacle and this composition was not made public."
What was this "special event" ? The fact is that Mueller's "dissertation" was considered to contain slander of Russia. An "inquiry" session of the Academic Council was organized, with the agenda of investigating what issues objectionable for the Russian people were contained in Mueller's "dissertation." One can find the answer in the report of the session (it is always tempting to cite the documents of that time in length — in the documents' rhythm, style, and in their entire epic context it is as if a once bubbling life, which seems to have long ago turned into a stone monument, now breaks through to us): "In the opinions handed over by the respected professors, some showed that due to lack of knowledge of the Russian language and history they cannot actually discuss the dissertation; others wrote that some things should be excluded from the dissertation; only Professor Trediakovsky judged the dissertation as being probable, whereas Lomonosov, Krasheninnikov, and Popov considered it reprehensible for the Russian people, in which the members of the Academic Chancellery agree with them. It is appropriate in this matter to prefer the opinion of native Russians to the opinion of foreign members, and since according to the decree of Peter the Great the matters should be solved by a majority vote, the dissertation is banned."
Scholarly debate? Not in the least. There is only a tiny bit of scholarly debate in this story. Two subtleties play here a much more important role.
First of all, by the time the "dissertation" of Mueller was brought to light, the initially cold relations between Lomonosov and Mueller had turned into real hostility. And the reason for that was rather banal. Mueller, as a person who was punctual and devoted to subordination (certainly his German ancestry cannot be ignored , for "national type" is not an empty invention) had always thought that the title of academician should be treated with respect since it is the top of the academic ladder. In other words, if you are a student, you should respect and obey the associate professor; and if you are an associate professor, then you should respect and obey the full professor and academician. Otherwise devastation, chaos, and anarchy will result and one cannot even dream of any constructive work. Yet Lomonosov, with his breadth and ironic attitude toward authorities (if he thought they were puffed-up) would not consider this hierarchy worth a sixpence. The presence of Mueller in academic assemblies after his return from Siberia in 1743 already on the fifth (!) day was marked by the decision not to admit the associate professor Lomonosov to academic sessions anymore. A petition was sent to the Empress, "In the intolerable disgrace and unheard abuse which was committed against us by Lomonosov we ask for a due and just satisfaction." Thus the rift which appeared between the two scholars only grew further, turning with time into a fully fatal abyss. This is where the well-known opinion of Lomonosov comes from, that in Mueller's works "there is much windiness, often annoying and objectionable for Russia;" that Mueller "in his writings habitually sows thorny words, searches mostly for spots on the garment of the Russian body, passing by many of Russia's true adornments."
And Lomonosov's opinion (though it is two centuries old!) in our country is akin to ultimate truth since for us Lomonosov is not simply a great scholar but a great Russian scholar, the first Russian scholar and everything is said in this. In general we have a set of "holy cows" which are better not to touch at all, but the situation when the worldview is based on such a set is extremely unpleasant since it testifies more to inferiority complexes than to real merits, for example inferiority complexes of a nation…
Yet Lomonosov was a live person – ingenious, energetic, fine, and very contradictory, and it is clear why in the first place a psychological conflict arose between him and Mueller. In the history of humanity we can often see such conflicts between extraordinary people. Two powerful personalities always find themselves crowded by each other: they tend not to quietly accept the point of view of the other, they are not flexible and comfortable in daily communication, they are marked with significant self-esteem. And these should not be ascribed as being shortcomings – they are a necessary condition, in which sublime work for the future is possible. Another thing is that then posterity makes a nice "movie" out of history, often substituting psychology for ideology — the same thing again…
Obviously the catalyst of the conflict also became a sharp feeling of nationality, without which one cannot conceive the personality of Lomonosov, and the wish to be proud of his own people, and a passionate (and in him everything was passionate) conviction in the originality of our history. And this is the second main subtlety.
In Russia the 1740s was the epoch of a distinctive "Russian renaissance." The Empress, who did not speak Russian, had died and the granddaughter of Peter the Great ascended to the throne; the hateful Biron was exiled. Having found oneself amongst such "scenery," most often "the guilty party" is sought among foreigners; in people's consciousness all calamities are associated with a foreign stranglehold. And then nobody distinguishes between those who really fed on people's misery, and those who sincerely felt for this misery. During the reign of the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, those who had German ancestry were treated with greatest suspicion, and Mueller was German. One extreme changed into another, "they are execrators and ill-wishers, and now we will show them who is the real head of the house." Undoubtedly this is some sort of insanity, although the national reaction to the foreign of the time is absolutely understandable; moreover, from the logical point of view it is apparently indispensable. We need to understand this, but we also need to understand that this had nothing to do with discovering the scholarly truth. Lomonosov — due to his capacity for great fascinations and his sharp sense of "Russianness," due to his feeling of being a stranger among the foreigners in the Academy — was unlikely to have escaped the impact of his time.
Thus Mueller fell into the category of "ill-wishers." Incidentally, it was at the same time that they wondered abroad why he was so dedicated to the "benefits of Russia." They viewed matters soberly, evaluating a person according to his deeds, and not through the prism of exaggerations inherent in every national myth. And in the meantime this "ill-wisher" wrote that "Russian history is composed of chronicles, and this history is so full that no nation can boast of such treasure." He tirelessly argued for the publication of Tatishchev's historical work and interpreted the Nerchinsk treatise of 1689 in such a way that the priorities of Russia in the dispute on the borders with China became obvious. He wrote a conceptual work "On the launching of a war with the Chinese, that is on its lawful causes; ways of preparation; on actions and benefits." He created a general map of Siberia, a postal map of the Russian Empire, a map of countries between the Caspian and the Black seas. In 1730, when the young Academy was in utter decline, Mueller left for Germany, England, and Holland "to refute the reprehensible rumors," to not let them make the Academy "infamous in foreign states," and also "to pursue new professors for accepting academic service and to conclude contracts with foreign booksellers about selling books printed through the efforts of the Academy." Mueller brilliantly accomplished this mission. In 1752, to refute the accounts on Russia published by Delile in Paris, he composed in French "The Letter of the Officer of the Russian Fleet," and published it in Berlin (later it was translated into English and German). During ten years spent in Siberia he covered 31,362 versts (1 verst equals 1.0668 km.). ("My Siberian travel, in which I ranged over all the lands of this vast country, in length and in breadth, from Nerchinsk to Yakutsk, lasted for almost ten years…") With his diligent work in the archives zof Siberian towns he preserved for us our own past, without him it would have been simply lost. We should note that many things Mueller did on his own initiative. Thus in 1771 he started to publish the "Stepennaya Kniga" (The Book of Degrees), "persuading a certain friend that he use his own means for that, since neither the University nor the bookseller wanted to undertake the edition at their own expense." There you have an "ill-wisher"!
When you browse through the materials concerning Mueller, you start to wonder about many things.
For example, there is an almost complete lack of "financial" topics, so common for that time. Somebody steals something; somebody thinks that he deserves more; somebody demands an increase of pay. Only two barely audible echoes from this realm exist in Mueller's life. One is connected with not paying him an allowance for his trip abroad in the beginning of the 1730s. This allowance was promised verbally, but on Mueller's return his relationship with Schumacher worsened and the matter came to a standstill. Mueller was not very insistent in asking for the reimbursement of his expenses, and then gave up. The second echo pertains to the end of the scholar's life. Feeling that there were not many days of his life left and being concerned about the destiny of the richest collection which was gathered during his lifetime, through intermediaries Mueller suggested that the Empress acquire his library. At that he did not tell the price. According to the Senator A. M. Obreskov, who inspected the library, the scholar's dreams did not reach further than "buying a small village of about 400 people not very far from Moscow" (thus making provision for the future of his wife and children). Eventually the decree on acquisition was signed by the Empress — for his treasure Mueller received 20,000 rubles.
Mueller always took good care of his family. Yet even so, the family, as it seems, had never been on the list of his main life priorities, but was one component of an externally required "social" way of life. A man traditionally should have a family — so the scholar had one too. He started a family, as a matter of fact, a bit in an offhand manner. In the summer of 1742 in Verkhoturie, Mueller became acquainted with the widow of a German surgeon who had practiced there and who had died not long before that. For five years Mueller had been suffering from a disease, whose attacks tortured him greatly from time to time. Gmelin, the companion of Mueller, thus reported to the President of the Academy Baron Korff on Mueller's illness: "This disease consists of merciless heartthrob and great fear, which sometimes passes but sometimes continues for three or four days with such quickness of pulse that I often had fear of him fainting." To Mueller's misfortune in Verkhoturie, his illness worsened. The widow diligently cared for the scholar and finally he offered her his hand and heart. He chose his wife, as is customary for people of his type, probably on the basis of convenience. And it seems that he did not go wrong. The famous Schletzer, who lived for some time in Mueller's house in St. Petersburg, thus wrote about her: "His wife took extreme care of Mueller when he fell deadly ill during his travel in Siberia but he married her not only out of sheer gratefulness (this "not only" does not sound too bad, does it? — A. P.) — she was an excellent woman, humble at that, and a perfect housekeeper. Her misfortune was that she was hard of hearing in one ear and in bad weather she could not communicate with others without an ear trumpet." Perhaps the problems with hearing for Mueller's wife even served his purpose, since there was no need for long conversations with her – he was always pressed for time. Besides his step-daughter, the historian had three children of his own, but unfortunately none of them inherited the talentsof their father…
One more of Mueller's "peculiarities." An unusual characteristic (quite attractive, to tell the truth) appears to be Mueller's complete neglect of awards, and it was in the time when the pursuit of dignities and money was considered almost a bon ton. The autobiographical "Description of My Services" contains a very curious point: "I do not consider this to be my merit" – writes Mueller, "that certain foreign Academies and scholarly societies outside and inside the Empire number me among their own members. This honor should be based upon genuine experiments published on behalf of those societies, but till now my other offices did not allow me to offer such, except one treatise on fish glue (!!! — A. P.), which was required from me by the Paris Academy of Sciences and published in various foreign languages."
That is, according to Mueller, any award should be well-deserved, and such an attitude towards visible signs of appreciation (alongside with financial disinterestedness) is totally uncharacteristic of the 18th century, so prone to external glance and trumpery, and not very scrupulous in the realm of social morals.
These are what are called "the shades" of the portrait of the scientist and man. And it is a shame that the above ideological "reticence," "speculations," and "suppositions" for a long time have veiled for us Mueller's true personality and the image of a brightest representative of this amazing breed of people that totally unexpectedly appeared on the European historical scene in the 18th century.
These were men of action, passionaries in Gumilev's terminology. It's true that many came to Russia on the call of Peter, Elizabeth, and Catherine. Some, having gained dignities and money, returned home; some settled down getting Russian names (like Mueller became "Feodor Ivanovich") and becoming undoubtedly russified. A certain diffusion took place — natural Russians, keeping their "soil" gained European gloss and erudition, but the former strangers, changing the environment, were in turn changed by it. Yet both remained passionaries, and we recognize the 18th century by high concentration of these. Four keywords describe their activity: curiosity, dedication, responsibility, and fearlessness. Having irrecognizably rebuilt the world, these ambitious people in waistcoats and wigs (a little comic for the modern taste) laid the foundations of modern civilization.
They put their hands to anything and laid down their lives to accomplish it. It is strange but sometimes the area where energy was applied did not play a great role — the main thing was to apply it. Later this time will be called the epoch of Enlightenment. Later its historical necessity will be proven; its merits and shortcomings will be described. Later they will tell us what the people of the time did not quite understand, what the narrow-mindedness of their historical outlook consisted of. Yet this sober systematization cannot cancel their "fineness." This is why the 18th century draws to itself writers, artists, musicians: this is a sort of nostalgia for an absolutely sensible life, for certainty; ultimately, for a prac-tical result.
Mueller is one of the most worthy representatives of this community, which is similar to some kind of a special Order — with its own ideals, inner structure, and the laws of honor. He is a missionary of enlightenment. He is a universal specialist in the high sense of the word. Yes, he was one of the most important scholars, chiefly a historian, but Mueller took up history, strange as it is, almost by chance. After his first five years in Russia, he could not make a decisive choice of what he would be occupied with. Due to his everlasting love of books he expected to be a librarian of the Academy. The office was not bad since Schumacher, the librarian of that time, unofficially ran the show at the Academy. At first Schumacher favored Mueller. It seems, Schumacher's daughter did as well. Thus a simple but rational plan matured: first to end up as one of Schumacher's son-in-laws, and then to end up in his office. Destiny judged differently. After his return from a foreign trip in 1731, Mueller found an enemy in his former benefactor (and it is not yet quite clear why this happened). A safe plan for a future life was falling to pieces before his very eyes. And there appeared a sudden solution, as Mueller looked back: "I chose to pave another scholarly path — this was Russian history, which I intended not only to learn diligently myself, but also to make known to others in compositions on the basis of the best sources. A bold enterprise!"
Indeed, it was bold. Mueller did not yet know the Russian language, did not yet have elementary skills of historical analysis; however, he plunged himself into "the unfamiliar" as if he were diving into a whirlpool. And Mueller plunged. This was in his character. This was in the character of the members of his "Order." He saw an uncultivated field and went on to plough it. At first it was not very successful. A funny fact of the type "practice makes perfect": in 1732 Mueller started to publish a periodic Collection of Russian History, which later became famous. He started in the proper manner, ab ovo, — from the Russian Primary Chronicle. Due to his bad knowledge of Russian, The Primary Chronicle written by a monk of the Theodosius' Monastery of the Caves was turned into an "ancient manuscript containing a Russian history by the abbot Theodosius of Kiev." When the error was published, it spread. Thus, young Mueller introduced the fictitious historian Theodosius, who later proved to be the legendary Nestor. Not a few times did Mueller have to give irritated explanations about it.
Twenty years later, however, such mistakes in his professional activity were inconceivable. He rapidly gained experience. He was insatiable in his scientific amplitude. He turned to anything: was planning to write a history of the Kalmyk people, analyzed the phenomenon of the Cossacks. "In no other country can one write the history of Oriental peoples with such ease," Mueller noted with delight. And he wrote. And enlightened. For the main thing here was to enlighten…
The evolution of a historian is obvious at that. If in the first issues of the Collection of Russian History (as well as in other projects of that time) Mueller's aim was to get the Western andience familiarized with the new materials, later his focus shifted. During the course of his lifetime Mueller drifts in a certain direction — from Western reader to Russian reader. "The country of residence" becomes "the home country." Just to mention the edition of the first Russian scholarly and literary journal Monthly compositions, serving for benefit and amusement, undertaken by Mueller in 1755. What a style! This was enlightenment according to Mueller. Probably without this enlightenment neither Novikov, nor Derzhavin, nor the amazing rise of Russian culture in the beginning of the 19th century would have been possible.
Mueller constantly searched for the new.
And when a real opportunity to go to Siberia appeared, he gave up everything and went. Gmelin, who was initially appointed to the Second Kamchatka expedition by the Academy, had fallen ill. The Academy suggested that Mueller substitute for him, and he agreed with joy: he was fascinated by the perspective of working with living material and not with second-hand stories. Then Gmelin recovered and they went traveling together. And it seems that the "Respected Professors" were not disappointed with this companionship.
Their Siberian trip, at least in its first years, is some turgid uninterrupted scientific feast. "We arrived in countries," Mueller passionately wrote, "which by nature were endowed with advantages in comparison with other places, where almost everything new appeared to us. With joy we saw multitudes of herbs, mostly unknown; saw herds of Asiatic animals, the most rare; saw a great number of ancient tombs in which we found memorable things; in brief, we came to such countries in which nobody had ever been before us, who would be able to report to the world." This sudden "landing" in virgin lands, where no foot of a civilized man had tread, I think, is comparable in its shocking effect with the triumphs of the 20th century: man's first walk in space and flights to the moon. This shock sounds in the Siberian texts of Gmelin, Steller, and of our hero. You had to behave there like in the war, "according to circumstances." The system of scientific quest was born "from scratch." His scientific baptism Mueller received in Tobolsk where all doors were opened for him. He even found himself a bit at a loss, "But I should confess that I had not known yet what to demand or to ask about... Here I made a start in exploring Siberian archives…" Already in Tara a preliminary questionnaire appeared. This questionnaire was gradually updated and specified. "My questions then were not as general as those which I asked in other towns. Experience is the best teacher in such cases." And Mueller never fled from experience; on the contrary, longed for it.
Naturally, not everything went smoothly in Siberia. There were hardships and sorrows, there was the opposition of the Irkutsk governor, there were clashes with the Head of the Expedition Bering (which led to Gmelin and Mueller's decision not to go to Kamchatka), there was fatigue, "the same old" newness, diseases… It was especially difficult when the scholars realized that their trip was turning into captivity. They wanted to return to St. Petersburg, but were not allowed. In letters joy little-by-little gave place to sorrow, "The journey with difficult drives in such land," as Mueller bitterly remarks, "should be on one's own accord and on good will with self-desirous zeal, without any compulsion; and if this is not the case, there is no hope for science. The sorrow pours in from day to day, and with this, depression and laziness naturally multiply so much that they cannot be cast off or healed by anything but the hope of near return."
Yet the very volume of what had been done by the scholars in Siberia shows that there was less depression than fruitful work—work that was passionate, to the point of forgetting oneself. And it was not the depression that played the leading role in this journey, not even in its final part. One should listen to the later evaluation of the journey given by Mueller himself, "Never afterwards," he wrote, "did I have a reason to regret about my decision."
Once he said to A. F. Buesching, "You know my character, that if I gave myself to some business, I gave myself entirely." It's true. Let us note the word "some" in this phrase. There is no definiteness. Mueller could do everything. Responsibly and absorbedly. In general Mueller (this is, in fact, the characterization of that very type of personality which was discussed above) was a "one-man band", sometimes replacing entire chancelleries by himself. This happened in 1755 while publishing the mentioned Monthly compositions. As Mueller recalled, "it was decided that all the members of the Academy worked on those, each publishing in rotation for one month under my supervision, but excluding a very small amount of other people's treatises, I did everything myself." This happened in 1762, when he was assigned the management over the affairs of the Department of Geography at the Academy, since "those who are enrolled there, instead of working for common good with joint forces, make all kinds of obstacles to each other." This happened in the end of the 1760s, when Mueller found himself "at the helm" of the Moscow archive.
By the way, Mueller considered his transfer to Moscow as a benefit. For him it meant the return from "war" (as he called treacherous squabbles at the Academy) into a peaceful and quiet life full of labors (here Pushkin's "and sweet languor" suggests itself, but this line is not about Mueller).
There are several constants which every now and then appear in public and private texts by Mueller. These are "usefulness," "service," and "the welfare of the state." Here for example, "The translation of Weissmann's lexicon from German into Russian was made by my efforts, which, however, rather testifies to my longing to serve society than to the skill needed for it …" If we compose a certain image out of the mentioned constants, this image would most adequately express the credo of the whole life of the outstanding scholar. The credo formulated in this manner will not leave any holes for ambiguous interpretations.
Mueller lived a long life. His autobiographical Description of My Services, written in 1775 at the age of seventy, begins with a melancholic phrase, "Out of all those who were with me at the initial foundation of the Academy there are none alive but Respected Professor Bernoulli in Bazel." Yet in this remark one should not see a tired sigh of an old man who outlived his contemporaries. It seems that Mueller did not know what old age was — with its illnesses, immobility, lack of the future, misapprehension of the present, stiff adherence to the past, with its impotence, and grumbling. But the opposite is also true — old age did not "know" Mueller. It is as if it did not even dare to approach him. Even in his seventies he remained greedy for work, light on his feet, collected and dedicated . In Mueller's letter dated 1778 (the author was 73), we read: "I am still rather fresh and ready to work, although I have started to suffer from breathlessness, against which a change of air and movement should help. Pray to God! We will try." And he tried. He set out on a trip in order to describe the towns of the Province of Moscow. He drove through Kolomna, Serghiev Posad, Dmitrov, Aleksandrov, Pereslavl-Zalesskii, Vyazma, Mozhaisk, Borisov, Ruza, Zvenigorod… We should not forget that the roads and the going were different in those times than now.
Mueller had five more years to live.
He did fantastically much. So much that not all his heritage has been studied yet. The Russian State Archive of Old Acts stores "Portfolios of G. F. Mueller." This is part of Mueller's collection which was bought by Catherine the Great for 20,000 rubles. In 1899, N. V. Golitzin published a book dedicated to the destiny of these "Portfolios." An approach to describing the materials was offered. The book talked about the "shroud of mystery" which surrounded "Mueller's portfolios." This shroud, as Golitzin wrote, "forces some to make rather exaggerated speculations about the richness of their contents, while the bulk and variety of the material collected in them turn others away from more close familiarization by the enormity of work that should be applied to this task." In the meantime after a hundred and odd years that have passed since the publication of Galitzin's book, the indicated shroud of mystery has not disappeared: until this day legends and stories about the treasures which are kept in the "Portfolios" circulate. Someone allegedly found there the inscription copied from Andrei Rublev's tombstone; another found none other than a copy of the The Lay of Igor's Host. (The Tale of Igor's Campaign).
Yet the attempts "to dissipate the fog" have not yet been very successful There exist objective difficulties for those who start working with this section of Mueller's heritage. "Portfolios"are actually an archive within an archive; they contain hundreds of thousands of manuscript pages in Russian, German, Latin, Hebrew, Mongolian, and other European and Oriental languages. Even perfect knowledge of these languages does not guarantee that the researcher will be able to read the manuscript or at least have a general understanding of its contents. It is enough to say that those who can read Mueller's German cursive script, abundant in abbreviations and elements of shorthand, can be counted on one hand.
Let us hope that all these difficulties can be overcome. One thing that is important here is to correspond with the subject of one's research, that is, to catch Mueller's "tireless zeal", which is often remembered by those who closely knew the scholar. Golitzin wrote in 1899, "The task is to solve the mystery ("of the Portfolios" – A. P.), the necessity of which has long come to a head." We will repeat the phrase with hope, because the solution of the problem will serve the necessary tribute to Mueller's memory. And he has always been deprived of his share of tribute, and has been deprived absolutely undeservingly.
Illustrations to this article have been taken from the book by N. Semivsky "Most Recent, Curious and Trustworthy Narratives about East Siberia, Much of Which Had Been Unknown to Many People". St. Petersburg, 1817
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Alexander M. Panfilov
Cand.Sci.(Philol.)
KONTENT Publishing Group
Second Kamchatka expedition, Gerhard Friedrich Mueller, expedition, Siberia
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