text:
Listen to Drake's Bonus Track "My Side"
by Tené Young
PAPERMAG
Drake is making headlines again, and this time it has nothing to do with Madonna. Champagne Papi has released a new bonus track, "My Side," in preparation for the physical release of his surprise iTunes mixtape, If You're Reading This It's Too Late, which dropped back in February. The song features Drizzy's signature deep questions like "why are we wasting our relationship on a relationship." With the addition of two new bonus tracks, the album track list has expanded to a 19-song project (the additional bonus track, "How About Now," was released back in October 2014). The "Collectors Edition" release will be available on Tuesday, April 21st. Listen to "My Side" below.
Joe Exotic Seems Confident Trump Will Pardon Him
Biden Nominates Dr. Rachel Levine as Assistant Health Secretary
Fashion Fixture Harry Brant Dies at 24
Trey Alston
Everyone Wants to Dress Naomi Osaka
Netflix Can't Keep 'Bridgerton' Sex Scenes Off Porn Sites


text:
Duchess Meghan loses opening legal battle against British tabloid; she vows to press case
Maria Puente
Duchess Meghan is not giving up her legal tussle with a British tabloid despite an early setback announced Friday.
Parts of Meghan's lawsuit against the publisher of the tabloid Daily Mail were deleted in a ruling issued in London, leaving her the loser in the opening legal bout but vowing to pursue her core complaints of copyright and privacy infringement.
"Massive setback," the Daily Mail said in its headline about the ruling by Justice Mark Warby, issued following a preliminary hearing in the case last Friday conducted via video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown still gripping Britain.
In a statement issued to USA TODAY by her London legal firm, Schillings, her team said the ruling makes clear her main allegation in her lawsuit she filed last fall – that the Mail on Sunday and the online Daily Mail published her 2018 private letter to her estranged father in violation of British law – remains and is winnable.
"The Duchess of Sussex's rights were violated; the legal boundaries around privacy were crossed," the statement said. "As part of this process, the extremes to which The Mail on Sunday used distortive, manipulative, and dishonest tactics to target the Duchess of Sussex have been put on full display. "
But the judge's ruling struck out her claims of the tabloid's alleged dishonesty and malice, ruling that they are irrelevant to her lawsuit as a matter of law and precedent.
"I do not consider the allegations in question go to the 'heart' of the case, which at its core concerns the publication of five articles disclosing the words of, and information drawn from, the letter written by (Meghan) to her father in August in 2018," the ruling said.
This means Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail, does not have to defend its journalism, tactics or intent, only whether it violated copyright and privacy law by publishing her letter to Thomas Markle, 75.
"These are not essential ingredients of (this lawsuit) but irrelevant to whether there is a valid claim," the ruling concluded. "(Meghan's) arguments that motive and state of mind are among the circumstances to be considered are contrary to (legal precedent)."
The ruling also said her allegation that the tabloid had maliciously tried to stir up conflict between the duchess and her father for headlines is "impermissibly vague and lacking in particulars."
There was no immediate statement from The Mail's lawyers, but the publisher has denied Meghan's allegations and vowed to vigorously defend itself at a trial.
Among other defenses, the publisher's legal team argued at the hearing last week Meghan intended for her letter to be published, citing her "immaculate handwriting"and a People magazine article they believe she orchestrated.
Because the ruling made clear that none of the deleted elements are required in order for Meghan to win her lawsuit, she will not be appealing the decision, her legal team's statement said.
In British civil cases, preliminary "strike out" hearings may be held to decide whether to narrow down the issues ahead of a trial, which is expected in this case to go forward in early 2021.
The Sussex lawyers praised the ruling for recognizing its similarities to the case brought by Meghan's father-in-law, Prince Charles, against Associated Newspapers after The Mail published extracts of the Prince of Wales' private diaries. Associated Newspapers lost that case in 2006, but the damage to Charles' reputation remained.
British legal analysts have already predicted the same sort of Pyrrhic victory is possible in Meghan's case: She could win (because she controls the copyright of her letter as a matter of law) but still suffer damage to her reputation after a trial in which she would have to testify against her own father.
Such a trial would likely be a donnybrook, says media lawyer Mark Stephens of the Howard Kennedy firm in London, who has been following the case.
"Meghan vs. her father on the stand – it would be a journalistic boon to the Mail and all the rest of the media," Stephens says. "So a potential victory at a future trial for Meghan and the media will still win readers, viewers and clicks, with only the risk of reputational damage on Meghan."
The former Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, whom she married in May 2018 at Windsor Castle, have been at war with the tabloid media almost from the beginning of their relationship in 2016, accusing some publishers of increasingly hostile, dishonest and even racist coverage.
In the fall of 2019, both filed separate lawsuits against different tabloids; hers is the first to reach a preliminary hearing stage.
In January, after the couple announced they were stepping down from their roles as senior working royals and moving to North America (they and baby son Archie now live in Los Angeles where she was born and raised), the furor over the Sussexes reached a crescendo.
Last month, they sent letters to four tabloids declaring they would no longer have any contact with their journalists, which further fueled fury over their behavior and decisions.
Meghan, in quarantine with Harry and Archie in Los Angeles, grabbed headlines Wednesday by posting a video and a message of encouragement on the website of her London charity, Smart Works, which helps jobless women find employment.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Ajax script Does not save Email input to Database The script below stores the users email with Product Name and ID, however the email is not being passed/stored to the Database. As it is in a loop I've made the input / modal ID's unique by adding the product ID to each instance.
The code works on individual product pages.
HTML:
    <?php foreach($searchresults["products"] as $product): ?>
    <?php
    $pidForSubscribe = $product['id'];
    $priceForSubscribe = $product['price'];
    ?>

    <button class="btn btn-lg btn-subscribe" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#subscribe-<?php print $product['id'];?>">

<div class="modal fade" id="subscribe-<?php print $product['id'];?>" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">

        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">×</button>

<?php print $product["name"]; ?>

      <?php require("subscribe.php") ?>

        <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>

<?php endforeach; ?>

Subscribe.php

    <form name="form2" id="form2">

            <input type="text" name="subemail" id="subemail-<?php print $product['id'];?>" class="form-control" />

            <button name="subbtn" id="subbtn" class="btn btn-primary" onclick="subscribeEmail(<?php echo $pidForSubscribe;?>,<?php echo $priceForSubscribe;?>)" type="button">Subscribe</button>

    </form>

subscribeAjax.php
<?php
require("../includes/common.php");

$pid = $_GET['pid'];
$email = $_GET['email'];
$price = $_GET['price'];

$squery = "SELECT * FROM `".$config_databaseTablePrefix."updateprice` WHERE `product_id` =".$pid." AND `email` = '".$email."'";

$numRows = database_querySelect($squery,$rows);

if($numRows)
{
    echo "You are already subscribed!!";
}
else
{
    mysql_query("INSERT INTO `".$config_databaseTablePrefix."updateprice` (`product_id`,`price`,`email`) VALUES ($pid,'$price','$email')") or die(mysql_error());
    $insertedId = mysql_insert_id();

    if($insertedId)
    {
        echo "You are successfully subscribed!!";
    }

    mysql_query("UPDATE `".$config_databaseTablePrefix."updateprice` SET `price` = '$price' WHERE `product_id` = ".$pid) or die(mysql_error());
}

?>

A: You need to change your ajax code like this. The XMLHttpRequest Object have to created outside the ajax function

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
my mom's story
021 Aftermath Life in Post-Roe America | Elizabeth Hines
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Blubrry | RSS
The subject of reproductive rights has taken center stage in our society. Still, many people don't understand the tentacles those rights have in every corner of society or within most families. On this episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with writer and editor Elizabeth Hines, who spearheaded the recent anthology Aftermath: Life in Post-Roe America. Our discussion touches on motherhood, activism, and what it takes to bring important stories to the forefront.
Shocked and motivated by the Dobbs decision, Elizabeth Hines channeled her energy to gather essays and interviews from contributors to share the importance of reproductive rights in America. Here is our conversation.
Letting Voices Be Heard
The discussion begins with what inspired Elizabeth to put the anthology together. She found herself shocked and outraged when the decision leaked. Soon discovering she was not alone as friends and relatives voiced their disbelief and outrage about the judgment. Then, she had a calling and decided to serve as a vehicle for voices to be heard.
"It was really just my anger and outrage over what was, at the time, the leaked draft of Justice Alito and his opinion on the Dobbs case. Then I got emails and text messages from friends, who are also parents who were really just beside themselves with concern about what do we do now."
– Elizabeth Hines
Elizabeth knew that many people were incensed about this issue, even those who are high-profile and have a larger platform to voice their concerns. She also understood the importance of seizing the moment.
"I realized that I could do all of the text complaining and social media posting I wanted. But in the end, all of us are faced at a certain point with the question, what skills and tools do I have to actually make a difference? And one of the skills and tools I have as a writer is writing and bringing people together around the written word. And so I simply decided that what I was going to do was call on people I didn't even know and just start putting together an anthology."
The Silence That Left Us Vulnerable
Contributors bravely share their stories connected to reproductive rights, as well as experiences that influenced their understanding of them. Whether it's a health crisis, activism, health care work, political advocacy, and more, the anthology covers the varying degrees that reproductive rights touch people's lives. However, so many of these stories remain private, known to few. As one contributor, Rebecca Traister, said, "Our silence left us vulnerable."
Many women wish to be more vocal on important issues but need help knowing where to begin. How do they reach people outside their own circles? Elizabeth's anthology breaks the familiar silence around the subject and gives the storytellers a platform. There are many brilliant contributors to the collection with varying accounts of reproductive experiences, and some might leave you shocked to understand how Dobbs affects so many lives.
Contributors include:
Soraya Chemaly
Michelle Goodwin
Ruby Sales
Gloria Feldt
Linda Villarosa
and 31 more.
To hear more from Elizabeth Hines and her thoughts on post-Roe America, download and listen to this episode.
Elizabeth Hines is an author, editor, and strategic communications specialist. Her work has appeared in numerous online publications, and along with her mother, Carol Jenkins, she is the co-author of the best-selling biography, Black Titan: A. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire, winner of a 2004 Non-Fiction Book Honor from the American Library Association.
Hines holds a BA from Yale College and conducted her graduate studies at Harvard University. She lives in New York City.
Connect with Elizabeth!
Facebook | More about Elizabeth Hines
Check out the anthology here: Aftermath: Life in Post-Roe America | She Writes Press Review
022 The Girls Who Went Away | Ann Fessler
Ann Fessler's critically accompanied book, "The Girl Who Went Away," gives voice to the millions of women forced to surrender their babies in the decades before Roe v Wade. As an artist and a teacher, listening to Ann tell her story feels like you are walking into a lecture hall about to learn something new, […]
The subject of reproductive rights has taken center stage in our society. Still, many people don't understand the tentacles those rights have in every corner of society or within most families. On this episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with writer and editor Elizabeth Hines, who spearheaded the recent anthology Aftermath: Life in Post-Roe America. Our […]
020 The Baby Scoop Era | Karen Wilson-Buterbaugh
In our new series, What Happened Then, AYM features stories from a part of our history unknown to many. Karen Wilson-Buterbaugh spent twenty years researching and writing The Baby Scoop Era. In 2007, Karen founded the Baby Scoop Era: Research, Education, and Inquiry (BSERI) organization to support millions of women forced to surrender their babies between 1945 and […]
019 Ten Stories to Celebrate Mother's Day
For Mother's Day, we are recapping ten powerful episodes from the last year. This review features a short clip from each conversation, so you can quickly get a feel for the content and guest. Timestamps and guest names are listed below. An interesting thing happens when the word mother is mentioned – a conversation rooted […]
018 Re-membering Oneself | Steph Jagger
This episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with Steph Jagger: a seeker, explorer, and writer. Her latest book, Everything Left to Remember, documents her adventure with her mother into the Rocky Mountains while they navigate the terrain of dementia and the meaning of remembrance. Steph's life and work are as deep as the 4 […]
017 The Art of Becoming | Beth Broday
This episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with Beth Broday – a pioneer in producing who put music videos on the map beginning with Prince's Little Red Corvette. Beth Broday is a storyteller and has mastered the art of Becoming. Throughout the various stages of work and life, she saw the lessons in […]
016 Almost Innocent | Shanti Brien
On this episode of About Your Mother, we meet Shanti Brien, who has spent her career fighting for justice. Often, taking on the most complex cases where the rate of success is meager. When her husband's company was under investigation, her career and personal life collided. Shanti Brien is a litigator and author. She is also […]
015 My Mother Next Door | Diane Danvers Simmons
In this episode of About Your Mother, we hear the story of Diane Danvers Simmons, whose mother left and moved next door with three college men when Diane was sixteen years old. A successful businesswoman, mother, and stepmom, Diane was on a trip with her daughter when she heard she needed to forgive her mother, […]
014 The Miracle of Adoption is Surviving | Ashley Mitchell
To honor National Adoption Month this November, I bring you a big brave story. In this episode of About Your Mother, meet Ashley Mitchell. Ashley Mitchell is the founder of Lifetime Healing Foundation, which supports birth mothers and those affected by such trauma. Her mission is unique but needed. Give it a listen, and you […]
013 Writing My Secrets | Amy Ferris
In this episode of About Your Mother, meet Amy Ferris. Amy is witty, brutally honest, talented, and regal, like Meryl Streep, and she looks like her too. Ruth Pennebaker of the New York Times described Amy's memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis", as "poignant, free-wheeling, cranky, and funny. It is all those […]
012 Writing Her Truth Helps Others | Angie Kim
In this episode of About Your Mother, I am pleased to introduce Angie Kim. Angie's debut novel Miracle Creek was named Best Book of the Year by Time, The Washington Post, and The Today Show. It went on to win many other prizes throughout the year. Before writing Miracle Creek, Angie Kim was the former […]
Writing Community
Woman On The Bench
A brief encounter with a woman with cancer recently reminded me to slow down and acknowledge what is before us — even if what we see is hard to accept or comprehend. It was Sunday morning and I was walking through the Berkeley Rose Garden with my husband and son. I saw a woman sitting on a […]
011 Changing Lives With Empathy | Peter Mutabazi
In this episode of About Your Mother, you will meet Peter Mutabazi – a remarkable human being who survived a traumatic childhood, only to use that experience to transform lives. He ran away from an abusive father at the age of ten and was homeless on the streets for four years until a stranger asked […]
010 Adoption Encapsulates Everything That Is Life | Jeff Forney
In today's episode of About Your Mother, we have a poignant discussion on the meaning of the word Mother. Joining us is Jeff Forney, a photographer, visual story sharer, and a dear friend. Prepare to be inspired by a touching dialogue on the meaning of the word mother, the journey to finding his birth mother, […]
009 The Lessons Were In How She Lived | Sarai Obermeyer & Amy Kelly
In honor of International Women's Month, today's episode of About Your Mother brings you a story highlighting the strength and power of maternal lineage. In this dual interview, we celebrate the life of Vera Obermeyer, who recently passed away due to COVID. Our guests are here to talk about her long and colorful life full […]
008 Your Story Isn't About You | Melanie Spring
What does it mean to own and share our own stories? Why would other people want to hear our stories? In today's episode of About your Mother, we answer those questions with our special guest, Melanie Spring. Melanie is a vibrant speaker, an approachable bad-ass woman, and the facilitator of both personal and brand stories. […]
007 My Eponymous Fashion Line As A Love Letter to My Mother | Olivia Joffrey
In the latest episode of About Your Mother, we have a conversation with Olivia Joffrey. Olivia owns an eponymous fashion line that serves as a love letter to her mother, Anne-Marie. Through osmosis, Olivia absorbed the colorful and artistic life that her mother has led — a life filled with sensory details, records, books, sand, […]
006 Pursuit of Truth With A Capital T | Julie Barton Part 2
We are in the second part of our series with the wonderful Julie Barton. In our previous episode, we talked about Julie's childhood memories and her path to becoming a New York Times bestselling author with her book, Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me from Myself. Today, we explore what it feels like to […]
005 Crystalizing Your Experience Is A Fascinating Process | Julie Barton Part 1
We have a two-part series conversation with Julie Barton, a New York Times best-selling author of the book, Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me from Myself. Her book is about her lifelong battle with depression and how it unravels an intricate family dynamic. In this first part, she brings into grasp the destructive power of depression […]
004 Embrace every moment as if it could be your last | Sugar Taylor
In today's episode of About Your Mother, we speak with Sugar Taylor, a woman who exudes a ray of light. Sugar is a self-taught creative dynamo. She is a person who has battled anxiety and depression throughout her life and uses her creative energy as a means of healing. Her zest of life, spirit, resourcefulness, and […]
003 A Breakthrough Inspired Me to Help Others | Sandra Possing
In the third episode of About Your Mother, our guest, speaker, and mindset coach, Sandra Possing talks about how building an Unshakeable Foundation and unleashing their inner badass empowers a woman. They also discussed in this episode, Sandra's openness about her past and how it shaped her career path. Pay special attention to the part […]
002 My Mother Inspired Me To Build Platforms To Empower Women And Girls | Lauri Levenfeld
Our next guest for About Your Mother is Lauri Levenfeld. She is a playful spirit and has a never-ending commitment to the female voice. Jennifer and Lauri collaborated together in the past on projects, but most recently, Lauri debuted an award-winning film called Mad World. Using her distinctive eye and straightforward and real words, she […]
000 Welcome to the Podcast | About Your Mother
Welcome to our new podcast – About Your Mother, Where Your Story Begins. Host Jennifer Griffith is on a mission to celebrate and examine one of the most powerful and influential relationships in our lives: our relationship with our mother. The Power of Storytelling Each month, join Jennifer as she converses with compelling guests. She […]
Want to be on the
podcast?
Want to stay
Connected?
FOLLOW ALONG @BYJENNIFERGRIFFITH
Jennifer Griffith is a writer, podcast host, mother, sister, and daughter focused on sharing stories that create a sense of belonging.
© 2022 Jennifer Griffith | Branding & Site by Spitfiregirl | Photography by Sarah Deragon


text:
Down Among the Dead Men
Home » Uncategorized » Down Among the Dead Men
Jan 18, 2020 - 04:03 AM Claire Baxter 713 Uncategorized
Down Among the Dead Men Caitlyn needs to find her estranged father or her mother will be thrown out of the home she loves so Caitlyn ventures into the rough tough world of the Australian opal fields After rescuing a teenag
Title: Down Among the Dead Men
Author: Claire Baxter
Caitlyn needs to find her estranged father or her mother will be thrown out of the home she loves, so Caitlyn ventures into the rough, tough world of the Australian opal fields After rescuing a teenager from an attempted assault she learns that the girl, Max, is her half sister Their father is missing and suspected of stealing opals an activity that could place both MaCaitlyn needs to find her estranged father or her mother will be thrown out of the home she loves, so Caitlyn ventures into the rough, tough world of the Australian opal fields After rescuing a teenager from an attempted assault she learns that the girl, Max, is her half sister Their father is missing and suspected of stealing opals an activity that could place both Max and Caitlyn in danger Attempting to locate their father without alerting the police, Caitlyn enlists the help of Dale, a city lawyer turned lapidary, hiding out in the town to protect his daughter from death threats Together they investigate, but progress is slow until Caitlyn stumbles upon a link between her father and organised crime, and into an investigation by the Federal Police.After offering herself as the go between in a sting , Caitlyn realises that she s put Dale s life at risk and in order to save him, she does the one thing she s sworn never to do She battles crippling claustrophobia to descend into the darkness of an underground opal mine where her father s dead body is lying With the criminals either arrested or dead, Caitlyn accepts that she s found than she went looking for She s fallen in love with Dale, but there s no way he d consider moving back to the city, not when a move would expose his daughter to danger He doesn t ask her to stay so she makes a new life for herself and her sister in Adelaideuntil the death of the man threatening his family allows Dale to confess his feelings for her.
Claire Baxter writes contemporary romantic fiction of all lengths Her short stories have been published in commercial women s magazines around the world, while her novels have been translated into 20 languages, and have finalled in the Romance Writers of Australia s Romantic Book of the Year Award, the Booksellers Best Awards, the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Awards, and the Cataromance Reviewers Choice Awards.Before following her passion to write full time, Claire was an award winning corporate communications manager Earlier, she worked as a translator and a PA.Claire grew up in Warwickshire, England, but for than 20 years has called Australia home She considers herself lucky to live near one of Adelaide s beautiful metropolitan beaches where she loves to walk and think up stories.
Eleni Konstantine says:
4.5 starsCaitlyn is on a quest to find her estranged father but what she finds instead is more than she bargained for. In a remote opal mining town, she becomes involved in a life she couldn't have imagined away from her life as chef in the city. This is a story that slowly builds but the author is skilled at filling it with emotion, suspense, action and even some romance. Disclaimer: while I know the author personally, it doesn't affect my rating.
3.5 StarsThis was such an interesting read for me which started kind of slow, but before I knew it I was wrapped up in the story and looking forward to finding out what how it was all going to end. I think part of the slow start had to do with the fact that the setting was someplace I was totally unfamiliar with – the opal mining trade in Australia – but with that being said, I really loved the fact that the setting was so unique.As far as the characters go, Caitlyn was ok. I liked that she [...]
Aarati says:
Down Among the Dead Men was an interesting and intriguing read. Though it was a romantic suspense, the romance angle was very less in the book.Caitlyn has to find her estranged father or her mother will lose her family home. This search leads her to the rough and tough world of opal mining. There she doesn't find her father, but encounters her half-sister, Max. Wally Bracken has been as much of a deadbeat father to Max as he has been to Caitlyn. To help both her mother and her sister, Caitlyn de [...]
While this could be considered romantic suspense, it was a lot more suspense, with only a little romance. But that's ok. Just pointing it out given the genre I usually read.I really enjoyed the storyline, very different. As Caitlyn searches for her missing Dad, family secrets are revealed and she faces a number of threats. But she has Dale. A town local who joins forces with her in the search. He is the ultimate protector, coming to her rescue more than once.He's super smart and caring. So it's [...]
Dísir says:
Caitlyn's journey down into the south of Australia in search of her father brings her several unexpected surprises and not all of them are welcome. Soon, it becomes clear that Wally - the father whom she hasn't seen in 2 decades - has not only stashed another family of his away on the side, but is involved in shady, criminal activities that have led to having both the thugs and the federal police on his tail. And it isn't much longer before she's entangled in a situation that's deeper than she c [...]
Ellen Parker says:
Caitlyn drives into the desolate opal mining region of Australia in search of the father who abandoned her twenty years ago. She wants to stop his financial problems from claiming her mother's house.The first person Caitlyn finds in the tiny mining town is Max, a teen running a service station and garage while her father is "gone". Where Wally Bracken has gone concerns both girls – considering he's father to them. Caitlyn learns to lie, but not well, while figuring out which people to [...]
Incy Black says:
This is an atmospheric rather a fun, flirty read, and the pacing of the suspense, and the developing relationship between Caitlyn and Dale, reflects this. Set in the opal fields of Australia—original—there is a sense of distance and wariness, almost menace, which is intriguing.Caution is the name of the game, and I very much enjoyed how this lent a maturity to the characters and the plot. A highly satisfying read if you are looking for a more serious suspense with depth.
Bette Hansen says:
A thoroughly entertaining book that will take you on a great adventure through the Australian desert. With fascinating characters and a fun suspense filled story this book is hard to put down. In search of her estranged father,Caitlyn sets off across the desert to his last known location. What she finds will turn her life in a new direction. A great read that I highly recommend.
A Reader's Heaven says:
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)When Caitlyn ventures into the rough, tough world of the South Australian opal fields on a mission to find her estranged father she instead discovers a half-sister she knew nothing about and learns that her father is missing and suspected of a crime. Dale is a former city lawyer-turned-lapidary hiding out in Minagoona after death threats endanger him and his daughter. When Caitlyn approaches him for help findi [...]
Which Is the Witch? (An I Am Reading Book)
Christian Mythology: Revelations of Pagan Origins
إعجاز التشريع الإسلامي
The Blue Mile
Negation and Theology
Blackmailed by Diamonds, Bound by Marriage
حاشية الباجوري على شرح الشن...
Gulf Women: (English edition)
T. S. Eliot, The Making Of 'The Waste Land'
Doctor Who: Excelis Decays
شب نشینی در جهنم
Shake Rag: From the Life of Elvis Presley
Theoretical Implications Of Some Global Phenomena ...
Dark Ages: Hallowed Ground (Dark Ages Vampire)
abirin powered by WordPress	| Theme: abirin by Claire Baxter


text:
Well connected.
The arcuate fasciculus (red and green in MRI image above and schematic below) links key language areas in the human brain.
James Rilling and Matthew Glasser
Wired for Language
By Michael Balter Mar. 24, 2008 , 12:00 AM
We humans can do all sorts of things other animals can't. Take language, for example--an ability researchers have long chalked up to our big and specialized brains. But size isn't everything, according to a new study, which suggests that important changes in the brain's wiring played a key role in language evolution.
Back in the 19th century, neuroanatomists identified small regions of the human brain--such as Broca's area in the frontal cortex and Wernicke's area in the temporal cortex--and linked them to language. (Other, smaller-brained primates have regions that roughly correspond to these areas, but they appear to serve other functions.) More recently, scientists have found that language ability is not just isolated in discrete brain areas but requires close communication between them. For example, patients with damage to the brain's arcuate fasciculus, which consists of multiple bundles of nerve fibers that connect Broca's and Wernicke's areas, have severe difficulty speaking and understanding others. And a number of recent studies suggest that the brains of humans are wired somewhat differently than those of other primates (Science, 2 March 2007, p. 1208 ).
To see whether the arcuate fasciculus had been rewired over the course of human evolution, a team led by anthropologist James Rilling of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, turned to a relatively new technique called diffusion tensor imaging. This type of MRI visualizes tissues by detecting the flow of water within them, allowing scientists to trace the long nerve fibers that connect parts of the brain. The researchers scanned the brains of 10 live human subjects as well as three deceased chimpanzees and two deceased macaque monkeys. They also looked at one live chimpanzee and one live macaque, to be sure that any differences they saw were not due to the chemicals used to preserve the dead brains.
The scans showed dramatic differences between humans and the other primates. Although the arcuate fasciculus in all three species was hooked up to the frontal cortex--including with Broca's area in humans--only in humans did the arcuate fasciculus extend deeply into language-associated areas of the temporal cortex, such as Wernicke's area. In chimps, the arcuate fasciculus made only very limited connections with temporal cortex regions homologous to Wernicke's area, and there was little evidence of such connections in macaques, the team reports online this week in Nature Neuroscience.
The authors conclude that the evolution of specialized language areas in the human brain was accompanied by the addition of major new wiring via the arcuate fasciculus. The net effect was that Wernicke's area, which is associated with understanding word meaning, became strongly connected with Broca's area, which plays an important role in the construction and understanding of sentences.
The findings demonstrate "the uniqueness of the human brain, because it has been widely assumed that the basic brain structures are essentially similar between humans and apes," says Kuniyoshi Sakai, a language researcher at the University of Tokyo in Japan. Thomas Schoenemann, an anthropologist at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, says diffusion tensor imaging is a promising approach to understanding how our brains are wired, but he cautions that the approach should be repeated with more samples before drawing firm conclusions.
Visualizing the arcuate fasciculus
Language and the brain, with more on Broca's and Wernicke's area
Michael Balter
Email Michael
Laser holograms stimulate brain cells in mice to probe roots of perception and hallucination
Elon Musk's startup eyes human testing for brain-computer interface
'I will feel actual rage.' Unusual responses to kind touches could help explain autism traits
Science Insider
Update: Twins who were face of controversial rare disease treatment have died
World Health Organization declares Ebola outbreak an international emergency
By Kelly Servick Jul. 17, 2019
By Michael Price Jul. 16, 2019
First Ebola case in African border metropolis could be a 'game-changer,' WHO leader warns
More ScienceInsider


text:
Press Room Search
News Home Archived Press Releases
For recent information, please see Current Press Releases.
Getty Museum Exhibition Celebrates a Golden Age of European Illuminated Manuscripts
A Treasury of 15th-Century Manuscript Illumination (March 26-July 7, 2002) spotlights a newly acquired miniature of Christ in Majesty
Los Angeles--A Treasury of 15th-Century Manuscript Illumination, on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 26 through July 7, 2002, celebrates the art of illumination in Western Europe in the 1400s--an era when the art form enjoyed a golden age. Throughout the century and across Europe, princes created libraries stocked with richly illustrated manuscript copies of historical and spiritual texts. Their courtiers and other nobles followed suit and--along with a newly wealthy middle class--discovered that a beautiful manuscript prayer book enhanced their status.
"The 15th century marked a transition for manuscript illumination," said Thomas Kren, the Museum's curator of manuscripts. "It was a seminal era for the development of independent painting in the new oil technique on wooden panels; and the mid century saw the introduction of the printed book. Despite these new developments, the demand for richly painted books remained strong and the art of illumination thrived."
The exhibition focuses on the art of manuscript illumination in France, Flanders, the German states, and the Italian peninsula and also includes examples from England, Holland, Austria, and Castile. The installation features 26 illuminated manuscripts and leaves and cuttings from the Museum's collection of manuscripts, including the work of Jean Fouquet, Simon Marmion, Georges Trubert, Antoine de Lonhy, Taddeo Crivelli, Girolamo da Cremona, and a host of important anonymous illuminators. Among the highlights is a miniature executed by the workshop of Jan van Eyck.
One of the most influential illuminators active in Paris at the beginning of the century was the anonymous artist known as the Boucicaut Master, who, together with his workshop, illuminated the Getty's magisterial manuscript of Boccaccio's Concerning the Deeds of Illustrious Men and Women, which is on view in the exhibition. In the manuscript's frontispiece, the master ingeniously organizes the story of Adam and Eve around the tall hexagonal walls of the Garden of Eden. The first couple's fall and subsequent fate outside Eden are recorded with the consummate delicacy and grace of the Boucicaut Master's courtly style.
The south of France is represented by a recent addition to the Getty's manuscript holdings: a miniature of Christ in Majesty by Antoine de Lonhy. The artist's rendition of the heavy green cloak gives Christ a monumental presence that is typical of Italian painting of the time, while the blue sky densely arrayed with gold stars is a feature learned from the Parisian art of the Boucicaut Master and his followers. The leaf was the recent, generous gift of James and Margaret Emerson and family in honor of John Sutherland Bonnell, who was pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York from 1935 to 1962.
The court of the Burgundian dukes was an important nexus for manuscript illumination in the second half of the century. Dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold--who ruled Burgundy, Holland, Flanders, and parts of northern France--built princely libraries that contributed to the mythic splendor of the court. A prayer book made for Duke Charles and a manuscript of The Visions of the Knight Tondal, illuminated for his duchess Margaret of York--both on view in the exhibition--are highlights of the Getty's collection of Flemish manuscripts.
In the German states, the arts of both painting and manuscript illumination prospered in centers along the Rhine River. Two leaves executed by the Master of Saint Veronica included in the exhibition--one showing Saint Anthony Abbot blessing the animals, the poor, and the sick--are the only surviving illuminations by the leading panel painter of Cologne at the beginning of the century. The brilliant colors, sweet and tender facial expressions, and elegant costumes reflect a style of painting known as the International style, which links centers across Europe in the years around 1400.
The Italian peninsula of the 1400s was a collection of city-states, each with its own proud artistic tradition, and the exhibition includes illuminations made in and around Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan, and Mantua. Manuscript illumination at this time enjoyed a foothold in nearly every corner of Europe due in part to the increased movement of artists throughout the continent. Examples in the exhibition represent the greatest flowering of book painting that took place in Holland in the 1400s, as well as examples from England and Castile, where long and distinguished traditions of illumination were coming to an end.
About the Getty:
The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that features the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.
Sign up for e-Getty at www.getty.edu/subscribe to receive free monthly highlights of events at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa via e-mail, or visit our event calendar for a complete calendar of public programs.
The J. Paul Getty Museum collects in seven distinct areas, including Greek and Roman antiquities, European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts, and European and American photographs. The Museum's mission is to make the collection meaningful and attractive to a broad audience by presenting and interpreting the works of art through educational programs, special exhibitions, publications, conservation, and research.


text:
"""Test the Rainforest Eagle config flow."""
from unittest.mock import patch

from homeassistant import config_entries
from homeassistant.components.rainforest_eagle.const import (
    CONF_CLOUD_ID,
    CONF_HARDWARE_ADDRESS,
    CONF_INSTALL_CODE,
    DOMAIN,
    TYPE_EAGLE_200,
)
from homeassistant.components.rainforest_eagle.data import CannotConnect, InvalidAuth
from homeassistant.const import CONF_HOST, CONF_TYPE
from homeassistant.core import HomeAssistant
from homeassistant.data_entry_flow import RESULT_TYPE_CREATE_ENTRY, RESULT_TYPE_FORM

async def test_form(hass: HomeAssistant) -> None:
    """Test we get the form."""

    result = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_init(
        DOMAIN, context={"source": config_entries.SOURCE_USER}
    )
    assert result["type"] == RESULT_TYPE_FORM
    assert result["errors"] is None

    with patch(
        "homeassistant.components.rainforest_eagle.data.async_get_type",
        return_value=(TYPE_EAGLE_200, "mock-hw"),
    ), patch(
        "homeassistant.components.rainforest_eagle.async_setup_entry",
        return_value=True,
    ) as mock_setup_entry:
        result2 = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_configure(
            result["flow_id"],
            {
                CONF_CLOUD_ID: "abcdef",
                CONF_INSTALL_CODE: "123456",
                CONF_HOST: "192.168.1.55",
            },
        )
        await hass.async_block_till_done()

    assert result2["type"] == RESULT_TYPE_CREATE_ENTRY
    assert result2["title"] == "abcdef"
    assert result2["data"] == {
        CONF_TYPE: TYPE_EAGLE_200,
        CONF_HOST: "192.168.1.55",
        CONF_CLOUD_ID: "abcdef",
        CONF_INSTALL_CODE: "123456",
        CONF_HARDWARE_ADDRESS: "mock-hw",
    }
    assert len(mock_setup_entry.mock_calls) == 1

async def test_form_invalid_auth(hass: HomeAssistant) -> None:
    """Test we handle invalid auth."""
    result = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_init(
        DOMAIN, context={"source": config_entries.SOURCE_USER}
    )

    with patch(
        "aioeagle.EagleHub.get_device_list",
        side_effect=InvalidAuth,
    ):
        result2 = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_configure(
            result["flow_id"],
            {
                CONF_CLOUD_ID: "abcdef",
                CONF_INSTALL_CODE: "123456",
                CONF_HOST: "192.168.1.55",
            },
        )

    assert result2["type"] == RESULT_TYPE_FORM
    assert result2["errors"] == {"base": "invalid_auth"}

async def test_form_cannot_connect(hass: HomeAssistant) -> None:
    """Test we handle cannot connect error."""
    result = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_init(
        DOMAIN, context={"source": config_entries.SOURCE_USER}
    )

    with patch(
        "aioeagle.EagleHub.get_device_list",
        side_effect=CannotConnect,
    ):
        result2 = await hass.config_entries.flow.async_configure(
            result["flow_id"],
            {
                CONF_CLOUD_ID: "abcdef",
                CONF_INSTALL_CODE: "123456",
                CONF_HOST: "192.168.1.55",
            },
        )

    assert result2["type"] == RESULT_TYPE_FORM
    assert result2["errors"] == {"base": "cannot_connect"}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Fantasy-genre bandwagoners...
It's funny how many people are reading fantasy books these days. Who should we thank? Harry Potter? Or Frodo Baggins? Whenever I was at a bookshop back in Malaysia, I see a group of people gathering before the Lord of the Rings books, explaining the history of elves and dwarves, then exchanging insults in Elvish.
Of course it has to do with the films, what else could it be? Before the films came out, when I was still in high school, reading fantasy novels almost seemed like a sin. But then, in Catholic High, people were indeed BANNED from bringing novels there to read. There was once when I was sitting by myself, minding my own business, reading one of those lame Dragonlance books when some dumbass prefect came over and snatched it away from me, an expression of horror and righteous fury etched upon his unattractive features, to him, I seemed no different from someone who had just smoked pot, or set the school on fire.
I had to write a letter to get back my Dragonlance book, not because it was a good book, and I believed I've actually read the book once already. But because I was outraged that such an atrocious deed could be committed against me by these narrow-minded semi-literate fools. Who are they to shame me for merely indulging myself in such intellectual pleasures? Ah, yeah, non-intellects.
When I was in Form 1, back in 1997 (before Harry Potter-mania swept the world and have all kinds of people wanting to slash a lightning scar on their forehead, and long before the release of the LoTR films), I had just fallen in love with fantasy books. Unfortunately, my introduction to this genre happened to be the shitty Dragonlance series (which I recommend all of you to stay away from, except for the first six books written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis), thus I was buying any Dragonlance book within sight, my usual shopping spree in Singapore consisted of me buying Dragonlance books. Thinking of it again, I realized how foolish I was.
Other than Dragonlance, I was also enjoying such fantasy books like the Narnia series, and yeah, Lord of The Rings, and George R R Martin's first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, Games of Thrones, which surprised me by its violence and sex scenes. They were such great books, I felt, so much better than the silly RL Stine and Chrisopher Pike nonsense I used to read! So much complex than the hundreds of Enid Blyton books I had! It opened a whole new world for me.
Alas, most people I knew were still reading the latest RL Stine Fear Street book, and the gal sitting next to me was telling me ceaselessly how great the Sweet Valley Twins books were. Whenever I recommended them some fantasy books that I've been reading, I was greeted by blank stares or dirty looks, or both simultaneously, although I have no idea how is that humanly possible.
During the end of the year, there was a class presentation for English, where I decided to educate my classmates about fantasy literature, of its history, of its social impact, of its symbolism, of its cultural influences. Well, I hoped I've done that, but I was only 13 then, so I was only capable of explaining about the races we see in fantasy books all the time, and then a brief review of Lord of the Rings book.
It was entertaining. I got 9.5 out of 10 from my teacher. My classmates cheered and clapped because unlike the majority of the others, I wasn't droning monotonously. But that was it. It made no difference. I remained the weird guy in the class, greeted by a mixture of pity and scorn... okay, it wasn't THAT bad. But the heartfelt emotionally-wrought oral presentation I gave was forgotten the next day. Sweet Valley Twins remained everyone's favourite book, along with the latest Fear Street book where teenager 1 heard of the death of teenager 2 and started freaking out when she was being stalked until she found out that stalker was teenager 3, a close friend.
I continued reading fantasy books, so many of them that I started getting more picky. I developed a distaste of Dragonlance and Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' series, remained one of the many poor fans who waited George R R Martin's newest instalment of the Song of Ice and Fire series for more than HALF A DECADE!!!! Went through the likes of fantasy (to a lesser extent, scifi) authors like:
Eddings (just his Redemption of Althalus book though, which turned me off from the rest of his stuff)
Pratchett (whose writing style is imitated by millions)
Feist (who peaked with his first book, and went downhill since then)
Hobb (Liveship Traders was good, but would be better if the ending sequences were reshuffled)
Pullman (read the first book when I was 12, read the rest of them when I was 19, amazing eh?)
Tad Williams (the Otherland series, not his fantasy one)
Moorcock (Elric books)
Terry Brooks (Shannara series are LoTR rip-offs, but that's common knowledge)
Mieville (guy's books can't be categorized, thus I agree with him calling his own works Weird Fiction)
Rowling (yeah, I read my sister's HP books)
William Gibson (read Idoru years ago, but finished Neuromancer just last week)
Neal Stephenson (Hehe, Snow Crash)
And many more by fantasy authors I can't remember, and neither would you actually care. But no, I never bothered with the Wheel of Time series, I was thinking of reading them when the whole thing is completed, but I have no idea WHEN will that happen, and judging by the comments of his ex-fans (or readers worldwide with the exception of his most loyal, apologetic fans), I doubt I would really want to read his stuff.
Discovered the incredible Malazan books by Erikson that, along with George R R Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series, raised the bar for fantasy books so much that I started becoming more selective on the fantasy books I read. Once I was exposed to the very best (in my opinion though) in the genre, the rest of the stuff just became formulaic and silly. Thus I moved on and experimented with books of other genre and other older more, er, highbrow stuff introduced to me by Justin.
Yet I find it funny how many people have jumped into the fantasy bandwagon during the past few years. Of course, saying 'fantasy' bandwagon would be rather inaccurate, maybe I should just say 'Tolkien' or 'Potter' bandwagon instead. It's a good start, but there are many fine fantasy writers out there waiting to be explored, it's just a matter of whether you want to give them a chance or not. (And the last few lines started sounding like a rehash of my broaden your horizons entry written couple of weeks ago.)
My genuine opinion of the Lord of the Rings books? Quite surprisingly, I happen to be one of those few who loved the movie much more than the books even though I read the books first. (I've been hearing too much "Bah! I just read the LoTR books after seeing how cool the movies are, but they suck!" from people). I found them boring and slow-paced, especially the Sam and Frodo parts (I already knew that they were gay then, so their portrayal in the films didn't surprise me), but the war scenes involving Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas were definitely more interesting. But ultimately, LoTR is something I appreciate for being so influential, and the efforts put in world-building were quite amazing as well (my favourite part of the books were actually the Appendix, where I get to read about the histories and backstories of people and places), but I wouldn't put a lofty 'best fantasy ever!' title upon it.
Narnia? Enjoyable stuff. Especially the ones with Edmund in it. After all, unlike his siblings, he ain't a goody two shoe, which is a good thing, considering my personal annoyance with goody two shoes. Hm. But that's a story for some other time.
Anyway, this was meant to be a 'Hah! I told you so' entry for the many people who made snide comments and scornful snickers at my face because of my love of reading fantasy books back then. But I realized that most of them don't really know about the existence of this blog, which is quite a waste. And considering the length of this post I've written, I'll be crazy if I delete it, so...
*Clicks PUBLISH POST button*


How often does a suspense-horror trope have to be reused before individual films cohere into a sub-genre rather than suffer dismissal as derivative of some originator? Slasher movies weren't really a thing until Halloween borrowed from Black Christmas. Mummy movies only came to be recognised when Universal recycled elements from The Mummy into the more formulaic bandaged bruiser picturesof the 1930s. Hangman is a found footage film – at some point between the release of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, that became a sub-genre so that new entries aren't automatically stamped as ripoffs of either of these tentpoles (though quite a few are).
The well-remembered 1973 TV movie Bad Ronald featured a creepy kid who lives in the hidden spaces of a family home, peeping on the regular inhabitants, half-convincing them the place is haunted, then emerging as a psycho threat … kicking off a slow-burning sub-genre that probably got named with the 1989 Gary Busey film Hider in the House. At a trickle came The House That Mary Built, Through the Eyes of a Killer (from Christopher Fowler's story 'The Master Builder',which was – ahem – homaged by an episode of Whitechapel), The Attic aka Crawlspace, The Resident (another lift from the Fowler story) and a few others … including Two recent films vary the formula by posing as ghost stories for a while. It'd a spoiler to tag them hider in the house films, but one of these is the first film to play with the expectations of the form, by revealing that the hider and the mystery killer are different people at cross-purposes and having the hider save the girl in the end.
Hangman, the latest from director Adam Mason and his usual co-writer Simon Boyes, is a found footage hider in the house film, and omits the pathetic element that runs from Bad Ronald and Housebound (which were about left-behinds staying in their own houses after new folks move in) to make its stocking-masked invader, Jimmy aka Hangman (Eric Michael Cole), a slow-burning serial killer of families who gets off on surveillance (like the villain of another FrightFest choice this year, Slumlord) as much as on acts of violence. Mason began with a run of ultra-cheap British films (The 13th Sign, Dust, Prey) before upping the nastiness factor with the effective but unlikeable captive slave woman feature Broken and similar items (Pig, The Devil's Chair) but relocated to the US with Blood River.
Though this carries over elements – especially the humiliation of the leading lady – from his earlier films, Hangman is a less confrontationally trashy piece, concentrating on subtle chills (the way Hangman taking a drink from a juice bottle he leaves out in the kitchen sets off tension in the family, the youngest child confiding about his not-imaginary friend Jimmy) rather than outright nastiness until the climax. Though modestly-budgeted, it runs to solid actors outside Mason's usual talent pool – Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under) and Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead) are Aaron and Beth Miller, the target parents, with siblings Ryan Simpkins (Revolutionary Road, Surveillance) and Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World, Iron Man 3) as the kids, who experience embarrassment and terror in equal measures as their bedrooms are invaded. Like Broken, it's still just a conte cruel – a villain makes innocents suffer for no apparent reason – but it's a more effective and unsettling one than earlier Masonic ventures.


text:
FILM STUDIO GATTEO
T.M.A.
THE MYSTERIOUS ADDRESS
By Juraj HERZ
FILM STUDIO GATTEO - as PROD
´The fatal predetermination of the individual, his fight against it and discovery of the dark spots in ourselves.´
1 - 3 M$
Juraj HERZ
Martin NĚMEC, Juraj HERZ
Ivan FRANĚK, Lenka KROBOTOVÁ, Malgorzata KOZUCHOWSKA, Michal DLOUHÝ, Andy HRYC, Zuzana KRONEROVÁ, Bořík PROCHÁZKA, Jakub ŠMÍD
Roman SYNEK (Film Studio Gatteo), Dana SYNKOVA (Film Studio Gatteo), David SYNEK
Marek, a young charismatic man, leaves the city and moves to a lonely old house near a village, where he had lived as a child. Marek's idyllic ideas of the future are augmented by an unexpected relationship with a local girl and his return to his passion – painting. Eventually, the gloomy atmosphere of the border region and its queer inhabitants begins to weigh heavily upon him. He finds out that atrocities linked to secret rituals had taken place here over the ages, as well as murders of Nazis in the end of the war. Autumn is coming and light is waning …
Marek reveals forgotten secret places in the house, which revive disturbing childhood memories and force him to recall frightening moments, related to strange rituals that he practiced with his sister Tereza. A drastic event, which deprived Marek of his parents, is turning into a nightmare. He feels there is a link between the past tragedy and the present strange events that are gaining awesome momentum. He reveals his anxieties in letters to his sister who has spent many years at a psychiatric clinic.
Unanswered questions are piling like a silent barrow: What was the black stone in a hidden cellar room, on which human sacrifices were made? Why did little Tereza say that they have awakened the Darkness and that it is angry at them?
Light is waning around Marek. Despair mirrors itself in both Marek's paintings and in his personal life. He closes himself in his inner world, where dreams, awesome memories, and present eerie events blend into a single vortex that is pulling him to the bottom. He believes in the supernatural power of personified darkness that is slowly embracing him. The sun has not risen for many days. A mysterious tune of children singing sounds from an old radio over and over again.
Marek's insane sister reappears in the story. Tension is growing and the story whirls towards a dramatic conclusion. In the end, which, apart from thrill and fear, does not lack cruel love, doubt remains of its rational explanation. Did the events take place in the real world, or in the mind of a mentally disturbed man? Or was there something more? Something that is connected with both the ancient and the recent past of the place forgotten by God? Such doubt appears and grows with every twilight. Then, a horrible revelation comes….
Beginning of shooting
@Cannes 2009


Designing for the human condition.
Hi, my name is Mark Michon and I design interfaces for people. I also write a bit about design, education, and the world.More about me.
How to create a scroll-dependant main nav, like that found on this site.
The need for software that gets out of the way.
A handful of problems & a few solid upsides to the static site generator.
What's wrong with modern education and how does it adversely influence our future designers?
Handcrafted by Mark Michon. Powered by Jekyll. Hosted on A Small Orange.


text:
https://www.evangel.edu/faculty/martin-mittelstadt/?dept=theology-and-global-church-ministries
https://www.evangel.edu/faculty/martin-mittelstadt/
Martin Mittelstadt, Ph.D.
AGTS 207 | MittelstadtM@evangel.edu
Martin Mittelstadt began teaching at EU in 2000. He teaches New Testament, Pentecostal Theology and Spiritual Formation. His most recent publications include "Canadian Pentecostal Reader: The First Generation of Pentecostal Voices in Canada. 1907-1925" (co-authored, 2021); "Mennocostals" (co-edited, 2019); and Receiving Scripture in the Pentecostal Tradition (co-edited, 2021).
Mittelstadt lives in the Gospels and Acts. His love for all things Lukan (Luke-Acts) began with his doctoral dissertation entitled "Spirit and Suffering in Luke-Acts" (T&T Clark, 2004) and remains alive to this day. His "Reading Luke-Acts in the Pentecostal Tradition" (CPT Press, 2010) received the 2011 Book of the Year Award from the Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship. Other publications include books and articles on Pentecostalism, hermeneutics, pacifism, forgiveness, ecumenism, and more.
He serves as the immediate Past President for the Society of Pentecostal Studies (www.sps-usa.org). He teaches annually in his native Canada, and other seminaries around the world. In Springfield, he co-chairs the local Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue, and is a member of "Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty." He and his wife Evelyn have three children (Rachel [and Ben Bell], Sarah, and Andrew). Mittelstadt believes spare time should be devoted primarily to hockey (Canada's national religion).
Professional Memberships & Noteworthy Community Involvement:
– Society for Pentecostal Studies
– Society for Biblical Literature
– Canadian Pentecostal Research Network
— Canadian Journal of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity (Co-Editor)
– Pentecostal Charismatic Peace Fellowship
– Ordained minister with the Assemblies of God
– Roman Catholic / Pentecostal Dialogue for Springfield, MO (Co-chair)
– Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Awards Received:
– Orville and Jewel Mills Young Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship, and Service in May 2006
– Award of Excellence – Book of the Year for publication of "Reading Luke-Acts in the Pentecostal Tradition" from the Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship in 2011
– First Place Award in the "Critical Review" Category for the 2014 Higher Goals Awards sponsored by the Evangelical Press Association for "Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts." 2 vols. By Craig S. Keener. Published in Enrichment 18.2 (Spring 2013)
Publications CV
Links to Personal Website and/or Social Media Profiles:
My Amazon Page
My Academia Page
Ph.D. Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 2000
M.Div. Providence Theological Seminary (Winnipeg, MB, Canada), 1990
B.Th. Horizon College (Saskatoon, SK, Canada) and University of Winnipeg, 1986


Textured Soya Protein is obtained by extrusion of Non GMO Defatted Soya Flour. It is a natural product which does not contain additives and preservatives.
20 kg multiwall paper bags/20 kg HDPE bags with inner liner.
In original, unopened packaging under recommended storage conditions – 12 months. Store in cool (approx 24°C) and dry place (60% relative humudity) free from toxic chemicals, insects and rodent infestation.
90% (+/-5%) between 3-5 mm"
Soups, sauces, hamburgers as protein enricher.
Sausages and meat balls as meat extenders.
School lunch programme as low fat content replacement of meat in the food.


text:
Q: Database schema for a live chat project with rooms For my university project, I'm developing a dynamic live chat website with rooms, user registration, etc. I've got the entire system planned out bar one aspect. The rooms. I'm confused as to how to design the database for rooms.
To put it in perspective, a room is created by a user who is then an operator of that room. Users can join the room and talk within it. The system has to be scalable, accounting for hundreds of thousands if not millions of messages being sent a day.
Originally, I was going to create on table in my database called messages, and have fields like this:
|    r_id    |    u_id    |    message    |    timestamp    |
r_id and u_id would be foreign keys to the room ID and user ID respectively. Doing it this way means I would need to insert a new record whenever a user sends a message, and periodically run a SELECT statement for every client (say every 3 seconds or so) to get the recent messages. My worry with this is because the table will be huge, running these statements might create a lot of overhead and take a long time.
The other way I thought of implementing this would be to create a new database table for every room. Say a user creates 3 rooms called General, Programming and Gaming, the database tables would look like: room_general, room_programming, room_gaming, each with fields like:
|    u_id    |    message    |    timestamp    |
This would drastically cut down on the amount of queries for each table, but may introduce problems when I come to program it.
So, I'm stuck on what the best way to do this is. If it makes a difference, the technology I'm using will be MySQL with PHP, and a whole lotta AJAX.
Thanks for any help!

A: It is bad idea to create a table per room. Hard to implement and hard to support.
Dont worry about performance of selects because they will be wery simple:
SELECT * FROM messages WHERE r_id=X ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT X,Y

Just make sure your (r_id, timestamp) indexed together in this order to make this select using index:
ALTER TABLE `messages` ADD KEY `IN_messages_room_time` (`r_id`, `timestamp`);

If you will still have problems with performance (probably you will not), just add a 1-3 seconds inmemory cache (using memcache) and fetch a messages from DB one time per 1-3 seconds.
Also look at the Apollo Clark's answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8673165/436932 to prevent storing huge amount of unneccessary old messages: you can just put it in to the MYISAM table archive or simply delete.

A: Look into creating a "transaction table" for storing the messages. Basically, you need to decide, do I really want to log all of the messages ever posted to the room, or just the message posted this past month / week / day / hour. If you really want to have a history of every message ever written, then you would create two databases. If you don't want to keep a history of every message, then you just need one table.
Using a transaction table, here's how it would flow:

*

*user enters chat room

*user types a message, which is saved to the transaction table.

*every 500msec or 3sec, every user in the room would query the transaction table to get the latest updates from the past 500msec or 3sec
SELECT * FROM message_transactions WHERE timestamp > 123456789

*a CRON job runs every 5 min or 1 hour, and deletes all entries older then 5min or however long you want the history to be.
Be sure to synchronize and round the time that each user queries the transaction table, so that the MySQL query result caching will kick in. For example, round the timestamp to once every 1sec or every 500msec.
What'll happen now is the users only get the newest messages, and your database won't explode in size over time, or slow down. Doing this, you'll need to cache the history of messages on the client-side in JS.
On the flip side, you could just get a PHP to IRC library, and call it a day. Also, if you're curious about it, look into how Facebook implements their AJAX-based chat system.

A: To speed up your database, have a look at indexing your tables: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysql-indexes.html
In your case I assume that you'd be SELECTing messages by r_id while doing a JOIN on the user table through u_id.  I would index the r_id and u_id columns.  I am by no means an expert on this subject as I've only done "what works" for my own projects.  I don't understand every pro and con of indexing, just that indexing those columns that are typically used as, well, indexes, speeds things up.  Google "mysql index tutorial", you'll find plenty more information.
Don't go nuts and index every column, you'll slow down your INSERTs and UPDATEs.
I also suggest that you purge the chat logs every few days / weeks, or move them to another server for archival purposes if that's what you want / need to do.

A: You could potentially use memcached to hold recent chat messages in memory and do your database writes in bulk.
Using memcached as a database buffer for chat messages

A: What you can do is:
whenever the user updates, you save the message to a cache specific to a room with a timestamp of when the message came in, while saving it to the database at the time. When the clients requests for new messages, if the user is not new in the chat room, you check the last time the user got served by the server and load the new messages from the cache for the request. But if the user is new, then you serve him from the database.
To improve scalability in this scenario, you have to set the expiration of the messages so that messages can expire after that time. Or implement an async method that deletes old messages based on their timestamp.


[NSW] B>evo 8/9 bonnet in WHITE! HKS KANSAI EVO 7 LIP!
Wanted: 4 x 285/295/305 Tyres in 18"
[NSW] WTB 4x100 enkei NT03 or anything else that is good for honda jazz!
WTB: 350Z Nismo V2 style front bar.
WTB: Supermade 180sx rear wing/lip/spoiler, where can i buy one?
Wanted Syd - Carbon GT Wing 57"
Looking for OEM facelift dc2/R rear bumper, rear garnish.


text:
Q: How can i possibly make a dynamic REST API link of a Model that changes by id of another Model? What i currently have setted up with django rest is :
MODEL NAME : Animes

*

*/api/ <- root

*/api/animes/ <- lists all animes available in my db

*/api/animes/id/ <-  returns the anime instance that has id=id

MODEL NAME : Episodes

*

*/api/ <- root

*/api/episodes/ <- lists all episodes of all animes available in my db

*/api/episodes/id/ <-  returns the episode instance that has id=id

So basically im trying to achieve is :
if i request api/episodes/{anime_name}/
i get that specific anime's Episodes listed .
how can i do that ?
EpisodesSerializer
class EpisodesSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
    model   = Episodes
    fields = '__all__'

Router
router = routers.DefaultRouter()
router.register('animes', AnimesViewSet, 'animes')
router.register('episodes', EpisodesViewSet, 'episodes')

urlpatterns = router.urls

EpisodesViewSet
class EpisodesViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):

   permission_classes  = [permissions.AllowAny]
   MainModel           = Episodes
   queryset            = Episodes.objects.all()
   serializer_class    = EpisodesSerializer

A: EDIT
As the OP mentioned in the comments, the newer versions of DRF use @action instead as @detail_route and @list_route are deprecated.
To use a different field for lookup, you can implement the logic to get the object yourself but you have to make sure that the field you're using for lookup is unique, else you can have many objects returned.
So assuming the anime name is unique and you want to use it for lookup, you can do this:
@action(detail=True, methods=['get'])
def episodes(self, *args, **kwargs):
    anime = Anime.objects.get(name=self.kwarg[self.lookup_field])
    episodes = Episode.objects.filter(anime=anime)
    ...

You can also check how get_object() is implemented to make it more robust.
    I made a generic view mixin for myself that allows lookup with multiple unique fields aprt from the main pk lookup field:
class AlternateLookupFieldsMixin(object):
"""
Looks up objects for detail endpoints using alternate
lookup fields assigned in `alternate_lookup_fields` apart
from the default lookup_field. Only unique fields should be used
else Http404 is raised if multiple objects are found
"""

alternate_lookup_fields = []

def get_object(self):
    try:
        return super().get_object()
    except Http404:
        lookup_url_kwarg = self.lookup_url_kwarg or self.lookup_field
        queryset = self.filter_queryset(self.get_queryset())
        obj = None
        for lookup_field in self.alternate_lookup_fields:
            filter_kwargs = {lookup_field: self.kwargs[lookup_url_kwarg]}
            try:
                obj = get_object_or_404(queryset, **filter_kwargs)
            except Http404:
                pass
        if obj:
            self.check_object_permissions(self.request, obj)
            return obj
        raise Http404

All you have to do is add it to your view's base classes and add the fields for lookup(name in your case) in the alternate_lookup_fields attribute. Of course, only use unique fields.
As for filtering, you can check how simple filtering is done here.
However, I will recommend using a more generic filter backend like django-filter

ORIGINAL ANSWER
First of all, the url will look more initutive like this:
api/anime/<anime_id>/episodes/

This is because you should usually start from a more generic resource to more specific ones.
To achieve this, in your AnimeViewSet(not EpisodesViewSet), you can have a detail route for the episodes like this:
from rest_framework.decorators import detail_route

@detail_route(methods=['get'])
def episodes(self, *args, **kwargs):
    anime = self.get_object()
    episodes = Episode.objects.filter(anime=anime)
    page = self.paginate_queryset(anime)
    if page is not None:
        serialier = EpisodesSerializer(page, context=self.get_serializer_context(), many=True)
        return self.get_paginated_response(serializer.data)

    serializer = EpisodesSerializer(episodes, context=self.get_serializer_context()) many=True)
    return Response(serializer.data)

You could also just use a filter on the EpisodesViewSet to fetch episodes belonging to a particular anime this way:
api/episodes?anime=<anime_id>


text:
U21 Annual Activity
How members are meeting the challenges of COVID-19
U21 Global 3MT winner 2020 announced
U21 is delighted to announce that the winner of this year's U21 3MT® competition is Ciaran McGeady from the University of Glasgow with his presentation 'Listening to Butterflies with Brainwaves'.
Ciaran McGeady from the University of Glasgow
Ciaran's three-minute presentation is focused on the development of brain-computer interfaces, a novel communication technology that uses brain activity recorded from electrodes to control computers and devices. His research is showing great promise for neurorehabilitation following stroke or spinal cord injury. Ciaran is developing signal processing and machine learning techniques to improve the detection of imagined arm movements in patients, restoring their control of their environment.
Ciaran said: 'Presenting for a non-specialist audience pushed me to find the "big picture" of my research and allowed me to frame the talk in an accessible way. I'm delighted to win and honoured to be among this year's incredibly strong finalists. Thank you to U21 for organising such an inspiring event and to the University of Glasgow for their support. I encourage all PhD students to enter, even if you think speaking isn't your thing. You will not come away empty handed, and you might surprise yourself like me and go all the way to the final.'
Associate Professor Caroline Daley, previous Chair of the U21 Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies who oversee the competition commented: 'The 3MT is one of U21's flagship events for good reason. Each year the calibre of the finalists stuns the judges. Ciaran McGeady was the clear winner this year. His opening story about the journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered 'locked-in syndrome' after suffering a stroke, drew the viewers into his research on using brain waves to assist those who are paralysed.'
The 3MT® competition, founded by the University of Queensland, is taken to a global level with U21. PhD students, having already been chosen as the 3MT® winner in their own University, are pitted against other winners from across the U21 network, to find an overall and a people's choice winner.
The People's Choice Vote is awarded to Luis Guillermo Hernandez Rojas from Tecnológico de Monterrey. He wins US$1000 for his presentation on 'Decoding of motor information from brain signals' which looks at detecting areas of the brain that are processing movement, and what movement is being processed. Luis's research has shown that the brain starts processing the movement about one second before the actual movement takes place, and therefore the detection of motor information that anticipates the physical action. Using artificial intelligence he is able to capture brain signals when the motor information occurs and recognise what movement the participant wants to make. This aims to allow people with motor disabilities to have a more natural control over their prosthetics and rehabilitation machines.
This year's Highly Commended prize was awarded to Bruno Vicari Stefani from the Faculty of Engineering at University of New South Wales, Sydney. His presentation 'Low-cost solar energy with low-cost materials: A tale of three grown up pigs' reimaged the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs to tell the story of how the efficiency of solar panels can be increased by not only extracting contaminants from the panels, but also by injecting panels with hydrogen to fix the problem of instability.
Bairbre Redmond, U21 Provost congratulated all the contestants: 'U21's 3MT continues to be an important way to showcase the very considerable research talent that continues to be fostered in our universities. This year's videos give a particular reason to be hopeful in these difficult days, as they provide impressive examples of the innovative power of emerging research excellence. My sincere congratulations to every student who entered this important competition'.
See all entries here
R Edwards


text:
Governor Casanova steps down
Well, that was quick.
Governor Andrew Cuomo reversed course earlier today, announcing that he will resign as governor, effective August 24. Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will at that point become New York's first female governor.
Cuomo's sudden reversal, making the decision to resign, recalls the late President Richard Nixon, who stepped down 47 years ago this month after claiming that he would not in the face of the Watergate scandal. It is also the 2nd time in 13 years that a sitting governor resigned while in office. Eliot Spitzer had been engaged in extra-marital affairs that led to his stepping down as governor in 2008, with David Paterson, legally blind, becoming not only New York's first African American governor, but also the first disabled governor since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Cuomo addresses the press:
Video obtained from the website of the Albany Times-Union.
What might've been the tipping point was former executive assistant Brittany Commisso, whose husband ran an unsuccessful campaign for Mayor of Albany a few years ago, giving an interview to CBS & the Times-Union over the weekend.
Hochul, a former aide to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, makes her own history as the first female governor in NY history. Just who will be her lieutenant will be an interesting choice.
But let's look at it from this perspective. Cuomo, like Nixon, decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Rather than further tarnish the legacy of his late father, Mario, who served three terms as governor himself in the 80's, Andrew decided he wasn't going to be like a certain other pervert now hiding out in New Jersey. Resigning may spare him from possible impeachment, although radio reports this morning suggested that impeachment might still be a possibility, albeit a remote one.
Next stop for Governor Casanova? A church confessional.
Steven Dolce said...
He got what he deserved.
I don't think it's over yet.
As the other shoe drops: Mike Richards leaves Jeop...
Weasel of The Week: Jason Lefkowitz
Ivermectin is this year's hydroxychloroquine. It's...
Forgotten TV: The Bronx Zoo (1987)
Weasel of The Week: Dan Bauman
The parents are right: A judge rejects Governor De...
Musical Interlude: Undercover of The Night (1983)
Dunce Cap Award: Silly Sidney Powell & Steve Bannon
Musical Interlude: Lover Man (1992)
When To Tell The Truth becomes a family affair (1973)
Jeopardy!'s merry-go-round to spin again
More GOPer stupidity: Dumb Donald II compares Amer...
Empty-G needs a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a bra...
Musical Interlude: On The Wings of a Nightingale (...
A Classic Reborn: Fantasy Island (2021)
When legends get together: That's What Friends Are...
Weasels of The Week: Take a guess
The search is on again: Jeopardy! starts another h...
Classic TV: Fantasy Island (1977)
Is ESPN tanking one of its morning shows?
Where GOPers roam, trouble follows
A mini-Laugh-In reunion on Get Christie Love! (1975)
Forgotten TV: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973)
DeStupid gets DeBunked on national television
The season of the no-hitter continues
Celebrity Rock: Rock & Roll is Here to Stay (1979)
Prince Pillow's too stupid to realize he'd been co...
Florida parents are fighting back against Governor...
On The Shelf: DC does the unthinkable with an icon...
Dunce Cap Award: Marjorie Taylor Greene
Who's the real villain? A Fox Shmooze interview wi...
Call him Governor Casanova
In Theatres: The Suicide Squad (2021)
WWE's season of the Turk continues
Weasel of The Week: Ron DeSantis
How can one man be a baby and a bully at the same ...
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw st...
Musical Interlude: Burning Bridges (1970-1)
The White Knight was really a Black Knight in pain...
Musical Interlude: St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)
It was 40 years ago today.........


text:
Craft and Criticism
News and Culture
Lit Hub Radio
Book Marks
Craft and Advice
From the Novel
The Virtual Book Channel
Bookstores and Libraries
Behind the Mic
Big Table
Book Dreams
Emergence Magazine
Fiction/Non/Fiction
First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
Just the Right Book
Keen On
The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
The Maris Review
NewberyTart
Otherppl with Brad Listi
So Many Damn Books
Storybound
The Cosmic Library
Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
Unlikeable Female Characters
WMFA
The Best of the Decade
Best Reviewed Books
BookMarks Daily Giveaway
The Daily Thrill
CrimeReads Daily Giveaway
Ottessa Moshfegh
Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
The following is from Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel, Eileen, now out in paperback. Eileen was recently longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Moshfegh was awarded the Plimpton Prize for her stories in The Paris Review and granted a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford.
This I remember very well: Around two o'clock, the warden came into our office, followed by a tall redheaded woman and a willowy bald man in a loose, mud-colored suit. My first impression of the woman was that she must be a performer at the special assembly—a singer or an actress with a soft spot for child criminals. My assumption seemed reasonable. Celebrities entertained army troops, after all. Why not young prisoners? Teenage boys were a worthy enough cause. Most of those boys, the ones serving shorter sentences, ended up in Vietnam anyway, I'm sure. In any case, this woman was beautiful and looked vaguely familiar in the way all beautiful people look familiar. So within thirty seconds I'd decided that she must be an idiot, have a brain like a powder puff, be bereft of any depth or darkness, have no interior life whatever. Like Doris Day, this woman must live in a charmed world of fluffy pillows and golden sunshine. So of course I hated her. I'd never come face-to-face with someone so beautiful before in my life.
The man was not interesting to me in the least. He sniffled, rubbed his head with one hand, carried two coats over his other arm—his and the redhead's, I presumed. I couldn't help but stare at the woman. I have a dreamy picture in my memory of how she was dressed that day, in peculiar shades of pink, not unfashionable per se, but not in the fashion of the times and certainly not of X-ville. She wore a long flowing skirt, a sweater set draped around her slim figure, and a stiff-rimmed hat, which I picture now somewhat like a riding helmet, only it was gray and delicate, felt maybe, and held an iridescent feather on one side. Perhaps I've invented the hat. She wore a long gold pendant necklace—that I know for sure. Her shoes were like men's riding boots, only smaller, and with a delicate heel. Her legs were very long and her arms were thin and folded across her narrow rib cage. I was surprised to see a cigarette in her fingers. Many women smoked, of course, more than do now, but it seemed odd for her to smoke just standing there in the office as though she were at a cocktail party, as though she owned the place. And the way she smoked disturbed me. When others smoked, it was something needy and cheap. When this woman inhaled, her face trembled and her eyes fluttered in subtle ecstasy, as though she were tasting a delectable dessert or stepping into a warm bath. She seemed to be in a state of enchantment, perfectly happy. And so she struck me as perverse. Pretentious wasn't a word we used back then. Obnoxious was more like it.
"Listen up," said the warden. He had a wide, red and pitted face with a huge nose and small, inscrutable eyes, but was so well groomed, so clean and militant, I thought of him as handsome. "I present to you our new psychiatrist, Dr. Bradley Morris. He comes highly recommended by Dr. Frye, and I'm sure he'll be an asset to us in keeping our boys in line and on the path to redemption. And this is Miss Rebecca Saint John, our first ever prison director of education, thanks to a generous donation from Uncle Sam. I'm sure she's completely qualified. I understand she's just finished her graduate work at Radcliffe—"
"Harvard," said this Rebecca Saint John, leaning toward him slightly. She tipped her cigarette ash on the floor and blew the smoke at the ceiling, seemed to grin. It was truly bizarre.
"Harvard," the warden continued, titillated, it seemed to me. "I know you will all welcome our new additions with respect and professionalism, and I hope you'll show Miss Saint John around in her first few days as she learns our customs here." He pointed vaguely to the office ladies, me included. It all seemed very strange, such a young, attractive woman appearing out of nowhere, and to do what? Teaching writing and arithmetic seemed like a ridiculous objective. Those Moorehead boys struggled just to walk around, sit down, eat and breathe without beating their heads against the walls. Dr. Morris was there, for all intents and purposes, to drug them into acting right. What could they possibly be taught in their condition? The warden took Miss Saint John's coat from Dr. Morris's arm, handed it to me, and seemed to smile. I could never tell his real feelings toward me, sweater vest or not. His death mask was thick as concrete, I suppose. In any case, it was my job to assign the new woman a locker. So she followed me back to the locker room.
Rebecca Saint John's face that day had no makeup on it that I could detect, and yet she looked impeccable, fresh faced, a natural beauty. Her hair was long and thick, the color of brass, coarse and, I noted gratefully, in need of a hardy brushing. Her skin was sort of golden colored, and her face was round and full with strong cheekbones, a small rosebud mouth, thin eyebrows and unusually blond eyelashes. Her eyes were an odd shade of blue. There was something manufactured about that color. It was a shade of blue like a swimming pool in an ad for a tropical getaway. It was the color of mouthwash, toothpaste, toilet cleaner. My own eyes, I thought, were like shallow lake water, green, murky, full of slime and sand. Needless to say, I felt completely insulted and horrible about myself in the presence of this beautiful woman. Perhaps I should have honored my resentment and kept my distance, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to be close to her, to get an intimate view of her features, how she breathed, what her face did when her mind was busy thinking. I hoped to be able to spot her superficial imperfections, or at least find flaws in her character which could cancel out the good marks she got in the looks category. You see how silly I was? I wrote out the combination to her locker on a slip of paper and took a whiff of her when I handed it over. She smelled like baby powder. She wore no ring. I wondered if she had a boyfriend.
"Now let me have you stand here and watch me and let's see if I can figure out this lock," she said. She had a haughty, precisely articulated accent, the kind of accent you hear in old movies set in the south of France or fancy Manhattan hotels. Continental? I'd never heard anyone in real life talk like that. It seemed absurd in such a place as Moorehead. Imagine the well-mannered tone of a British noblewoman politely bossing around her maid. I stood with my back against a column of lockers as she spun the dial of the combination lock.
"Thirty-two, twenty-four, thirty-four," she said. "Well, look at that, practically my measurements." She laughed and pulled the locker door open with a clang. My own measurements were even smaller. We both paused, and as though we were each other's synchronized reflections, looked down at our own breasts, then at each other's. Then Rebecca said, "I prefer being sort of flat chested, don't you? Women with big bosoms are always so bashful. That, or else they think their figures are all that matters. Pathetic." I thought of Joanie, her body so conspicuous in its fleshiness, a main attraction. I must have made a face or blushed because then Rebecca asked, "Oh, have I embarrassed you?" Her sincerity seemed genuine to me. We exchanged smiles. "Busts," she said, shrugging and looking down at her small breasts again. "Who cares?" She laughed, winked at me, then turned back to her locker and fiddled with the dial again.
Perhaps only young women of my same conniving and tragic nature will understand that there could be something in such an exchange as mine with Rebecca that day which could unite two people in conspiracy. After years of secrecy and shame, in this one moment with her, all my frustrations were condoned and my body, my very being, was justified. Such solidarity and awe I felt, you'd think I'd never had a friend before. And really, I hadn't. All I'd had were Suzie or Alice or Maribel, figments, of course, imaginary girls I'd used in lies to my father—my own dark ghosts.
From EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh. Reprinted by arrangement of Penguin Press, part of the Penguin Random House company. Copyright © 2015 by Ottessa Moshfegh.
When Was My Mother No Longer My Mother?
What Does Silence Mean in the Age of Digital Noise?
EileenExcerptMan Booker Prize longlistOttessa Moshfegh
When Was My Mother No Longer My Mother? My mother used to bring old x-rays home from work. They unnerved me, those white blotches, blossoming across a surface like...
Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature
Advertisers: Contact Us
© LitHub


Abbreviation for Financial Stability Forum. Set up in 1999 at the behest of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, the purpose of the FSF was to identify and oversee action to remove threats and vulnerabilities to the international financial system. Its members were regulators, central bankers and government officials of the G7 and of international financial organizations. It was succeeded in 2009 by the Financial Stability Board, a body set up by the G20 to oversee the stability of the global financial system and ensure that regulatory principles agreed globally are applied consistently in each country.


Andrew Norton, editor of the journal Policy published by the Centre for Independent Studies, has a very thoughtful article in the Courier-Mail on how the Howard government has effectively embraced the values of social democracy. Similar pieces have also been published in The Oz by CIS Executive Director Greg Lindsay.
Both authors have very long memories and a rather solid understanding of how governments should operate in a liberal democracy (at least in theory). The whole idea of big government is an anathema for both liberals and conservatives.
What makes Norton's analysis particularly interesting is that he combines a strong theoretical understanding of small government liberalism with genuine political experience as a former adviser to the Howard government.
Norton recognises the appeal which Kevin Rudd's recent attacks on Howard will have in certain parts of the electorate.
Most Australian voters aren't attuned to the nuances of Liberal history or ideology. But Rudd's broader attack could resonate in the electorate. A poll conducted to mark Howard's decade as Prime Minister revealed that more of us think that Australia has become "meaner" during his term than believe ordinary people have been given a chance to improve their lives. Three-quarters believe that the gap between rich and poor is growing.
Perceptions and reality frequently don't match. The Fin Review has, over the past few weeks, run numerous articles on how the size of the Commonwealth Public Service has dramatically increased in size in the 11 years of Howard's Prime Ministership. Certainly this would be the case even if one took account of the dramatic rise in Canberra property prices and the current accommodation crisis in Canberra which has even affected the student market.
Over recent years Howard has increased per capita spending in all these areas at a faster rate than did his Labor predecessor Paul Keating … Howard talks like a social democrat too, focusing on the needs of low and middle-income families and linking egalitarianism with social cohesion. … Ironically, though, Howard's departures from social democratic orthodoxy are likely to have entrenched the social democratic state. He has extended welfare dependence far into the election-deciding middle class, while easing concerns that those wholly reliant on income support are doing nothing at the expense of hard-working taxpayers.


Introduction: In our first lesson of this series we discovered how sin began in heaven. Next, we learned how the instigator of sin in heaven, who had been tossed out of heaven, spread the sin problem to God's perfect creation on our earth: Adam and Eve. This week we explore how sin continued its insidious march on earth. Let's dive into our Bible study and learn more!
Read Genesis 4:1-2. Do you recall what it was like with your first born child? I thought that my son was doing things no other child in the history of the universe had done! What would it be like for the first-born of Adam and Eve, since it was literally true that Cain's actions as a baby were unprecedented?
Put yourself in the place of Eve and Adam. Their first born murdered their second born, and then the first born is sent into exile. They lose both of their two sons in one day. What are your thoughts?
Who do you think inspired Cain to commit murder?
What do you think life would be like if Satan had complete control of the world?
Read Genesis 6:5-7. Are we a mistake?
God created humans with free choice. Does God regret that He gave us choice?
Since we are looking at the history of rebellion and redemption in this series of lessons (the great controversy between good and evil), who is winning?
If you were Satan, would you complain that God changed the rules?
Read Genesis 22:1-2. Tell me what is going through your mind if you are Abraham?
Read Genesis 17:19-21. How would you reconcile God's promise here with God's instruction to offer Isaac as a burnt offering?
We just got through discussing how God favors those who follow Him. How do you explain this terrible instruction to one of the faithful?
Read Genesis 22:3-5. How long does Abraham wait to follow God's directions?
Are the brothers of Joseph justified in feeling "terrified?"
Is Joseph helping by reminding them that they sold him ( Genesis 45:4)?
If you know the story of Joseph and the Hebrews, you know that they were ultimately enslaved by the Egyptians (Exodus 1). What relationship, if any, did that have to Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery?
Friend, sin has created a terrible situation for humans. Our God is active in the fight against sin. He suppresses sin without limiting human free choice and He turns the tragedies of sin into good. He made an astonishing sacrifice to defeat sin and make available to us eternal life free from sin. Why not choose right now to give your allegiance to God rather than to the one who inspired the death of Abel?
Next week: Conflict and Crisis: The Judges.