A unique partnership between the LIVE Lab in the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M University and a company called Triseum has resulted in two exceptional games so far. From Liberal Arts to STEM degrees, these games are engaging students with amazing results. Texas A&M University's Tim McLaughlin of the art department knows graphics. Computer sciences department faculty member, Andre Thomas, also CEO of Triseum, knows game design. Add student workers and you have measurable impact on student outcomes.
Let's first look at ARTé: Mecenas™, an art history game where students take on the persona of the Medici family, one of the most powerful families of the Renaissance era. Through game play the students experience the culture, politics and economy of the day. They must maintain a financial empire. Buying, selling, responding to the current events, students must manage relationships with the regional governments, merchants and the Catholic Church. Their role is pivotal in the creation of famous artworks, monuments, and institutions. They decide which artists prosper and who perishes.
This academically rigorous game engages students in the complexities of over 130 pieces of art by over 70 artists. A research study measuring the learning efficacy of the game indicated that after approximately two hours of game play, students had a knowledge gain of 24.7 percent from pre-test to post-test. Remarkable!
Turning from art history, let's look at a game focused on Calculus called Variant: Limits. It has garnered numerous awards including the USDLA Excellence in Innovation Award and a Serious Play Gold Medal. Calculus is foundational in STEM related career fields, yet has one of the highest failure rates directly tied to student attrition. Variant: Limits brings calculus to life through visually engaging challenges.
As the university conducts extensive research and works alongside Triseum in game development, the company turns ideas into a product, which is either sold or licensed. Revenue is shared with the university and the students who work on the project. This is an outstanding example of the many benefits a partnership can bring to the educational community.
Texas A&M University is a top-10, Tier-One research institution with over 50,000 students and 200 students per class. In its quest to provide a richer learning experience for each student, the school turned to serious games.
Backed by extensive research, which measures the effectiveness and degree of student engagement, the university works with game-based learning company, Triseum, applying rigorous instructional design to create entertainment quality games.
The LIVE Lab in the Department of Visualization in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University teamed up with Triseum to create immersive learning games for foundational subjects where high school and higher education students face challenges with engagement, course completion and success. A uniqueness of the partnership combines the talents of people like Tim McLaughlin, Department Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Visualization and André Thomas, who serves as Director of the university's LIVE Lab and CEO of Triseum. Together, they blend the expertise of a research institute, which utilizes faculty expertise and teaches students the trade, with industry experts in gaming.
Their partnership approach puts the institution at the forefront of what it means to innovate. The proof lies in the numerous awards their work has garnered.
The United States Learning Association (USDLA) awarded the coveted Innovation Award in Online Technology at the International Serious Play competition, where Triseum earned gold for Variant: Limits™, a game that brings complex calculus concepts to life in a high-stakes 3D adventure world, and silver for ARTé: Mecenas™, which transports students to the Renaissance era. Variant: Limits also was named a 2017 CODiE Award finalist in the Best Mathematics Instructional Solution category at the annual SIIA awards.
Variant: Limits™ connects mathematics and game play, empowering students to take a more active role in the learning process and engage with content on a deeper level. Focusing on finite limits, continuity and infinite limits, students explore, develop new knowledge and practice college-level calculus concepts in the game environment. They don't just memorize and regurgitate information, but rather apply it.
The game's immersive 3D world allows players to manipulate objects by mastering calculus principles and theories, directly connecting the mathematics and gameplay. The high-stakes adventure has a compelling narrative that provides clear goals and motivation to succeed. Intuitive feedback and game interaction allows players to play and explore at their own pace while intelligent game analytics provides insight into player progress so that instructors can monitor student engagement.
The game has received tremendous traction among students, particularly with AP and college-level students who use it to complement instruction. The positive reaction prompted Triseum to make the game available for purchase directly from the company's online store.
Texas A&M University and Triseum have likewise collaborated on another game also illustrating significant impact for student learning.
ARTÉ: MECENAS™ was designed to "help them [students] grasp the complexities of the works of art, the role of art given societal norms, and the overall relevance to the people and policies of the time period." Originally designed to supplement course instruction, the immersive game teaches the interconnectedness of local and international economies in Renaissance Italy, and how those economies influenced art and art patronage.
By taking on the role of a member of the merchant/banking Medici family, one of the most influential families of the time, the student must balance relationships with powerful city-states, merchant factions, and the Catholic Church to build and maintain a financial empire. In the process, they play a pivotal role in the creation of famous artworks, monuments, and institutions of the Renaissance. By following the historical footsteps of the Medici family, students level up to the status of "Mecenas," an influential patron of the arts, and experience the political, social, and economic factors that shaped the era.
The game maintains a strict academic rigor yet is imaginative and sophisticated. The development practices and learning design methods are creating tremendous impact on student outcomes. Results of a research study aimed at measuring the learning efficacy of the game indicate a 24.7% gain from pre-test to post-test after just two hours of game play.
ARTe: Mecenas has been so successful that a new course for credit centered around the video game has now been launched at the University. ARTS 489: World of Medici uses faculty-led lectures and immersive game play. Students can earn one credit hour for 100 percent mastery in the game.
Triseum is expanding its ARTé video game suite with two new art history games that immerse students in the history and creation of art and architecture around the world.
Set in 19th century Paris, ARTé: Lumière asks students to relate impressionist, realist and other modernist art to the political, social, cultural, religious and economic issues of the time. ARTé: Hemut focuses on ancient Egyption religious beliefs, art and architecture, allowing students to "chart the course of history to experience the creation and culture that gave birth to the iconic pyramids, tombs and temples," according to a news announcement.
Triseum has partnered with European Schoolnet to shape the direction of game-based learning across Europe. By collaborating with educators in Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland and Portugal to collect and analyze evidence on educational gaming experiences, the study will follow secondary education teachers and their students from each country over the 2017/2018 academic school year.
European Schoolnet works with 31 Ministries of Education members and its Future Classroom Lab (FCL) industry partners to visualize how conventional classrooms and other learning spaces can be reimagined to support teaching and learning for the 21st century.
It looks like Texas A&M University's LIVE Lab and Triseum have the right partnership mix to drive deeper learning outcomes by creating world-class digital experiences. Pushing the boundaries of educational games by focusing on research-backed strict learning efficacy, these games are profoundly impacting teaching and learning experience.


Home » Windows Home Server » Thermostat of the Future… NEST v2 is Here Today!
Thermostat of the Future… NEST v2 is Here Today!
This entry was posted in Windows Home Server on January 29, 2013 by Community Headlines.
For a number of years now we have been living with "central" A/C-Heating system in our home. Naturally, our place came with the generic thermostat that could only be controlled by standing in front of it and flicking the switch, (which is especially annoying at 3am when you're freezing). Last year at the CES show we learned of a high-tech gadget that potentially would save us the trouble and money (in the long run) so we made the hard decision to shell out $250 on the NEST (we looked for stores that allow full refund - just in case). Now, by the time we got the wind of the NEST the second generation was already in stores, so this review is based on NEST version 2.0 which is 20 percent slimmer and adds compatibility with 95 percent of low-voltage home HVAC systems, up from 75 percent.
Not to sound too pretensions but spending hundreds on a thermostat you expect to get your money's worth on everything from functionality and aesthetics to the user manual and the box it comes in. We are very happy to put in this review that the NEST version 2.0 was impressive and pleasing to take out of the box. The unit is nicely tucked into the small square box, includes a super awesome screwdriver tool, and fabulously easy instructions (with pictures) booklet. (see below image of all that is included in the price/package). The unit itself is sleek and cool looking, but we want to take a moment to give a special mention to the screwdriver. We loved the element of surprise at the novelty of that little screwdriver, which at the handle end holds 4 magnetic tips (allowing for quadruple functionality). All we can say is that after installing the NEST thermostat you never want to part with the screwdriver. It's silly to spend so much thought on this everyday tool that most of us have at home and the makers of the NEST didn't really need to even include it, but the fact that they did, makes you inadvertently appreciate the thermostat even more.
Adding a Common "C" wire not required in 99% of installations.
The installation may seem overwhelming but the makers of the NEST have really thought it all through, to the point of including all the hardware (screws + screwdriver, back plate - to cover old holes) and very clear step-by-step picture instructions. If you don't want to use the manual, there is an online Nest Compatibility Tool you can use to double-check your wire connections. In addition, if you are totally stumped as to what to do with all those wires, the NEST customer service team will help you if you send them a picture of your current set up. WARNING: Prior to any installation be sure to SWITCH OFF POWER for your protection. In addition, switching off power should avoid blowing a fuse. Adjust the temperature on your old? thermostat to make sure your system is off.CAUTION: Do not connect Nest to high voltage wires. Not sure? Contact Nest support. Old Thermostat Tip: Take a picture of the wires on your old thermostat to help you remember. Now, the actual physical mounting of the circular backing on to the wall is as simple as two screws, (if you opt out of using the rectangular frame- which we did). We just covered the old holes with a bit of spackle and paint. NEST Installation The final step is to click on the face of the thermostat. The unit will turn on immediately and you're ready for network connection and personal info inputs.
As soon as the unit clicks into the mounted base the face will light up. Navigating through the menu and setting it up is as simple as a turn of a dial, when you get to the selection you want just press down the face gently. To set up the Wi-Fi you need to find your network in the list of all those picked up by the signal and press the unit face down to select. When the unit connects to your home's Wi-Fi it will most likely do a software update, it only takes a few minutes so let it finish before you proceed setting up all other info.
We have only had the Nest for a few weeks now and while it too soon to tell if it resulted in any monetary savings, there are a number of significant things that have made a difference to our household. The whole beauty of this thermostat is that you can connect to it remotely from your iPhone or Android (via a free app of course) and change the settings to your liking, -or override the temperature your spouse set up ? ? The fact that the NEST studies your habits and tries to replicate them without you having to adjust it every day is absolutely brilliant. After two days it knew that we wanted the heat to kick in at 6am and get the house warm and cozy to 76 degrees by the time we get out of bed at 6:30am. Another "smart" feature is that the NEST learned how long it takes it to climb/descend to a certain temperature and it displays that in time. For example, if the current temperature is 72 degrees and you tell it to heat up to 75 degrees the NEST will display how long it will take for the house to reach a certain temperature, i.e. usually about 15min to rise 3-4 degrees. Fourth favorite feature is the simplicity of the controls. With our old thermostat we only used the cool/heat/fan modes, and never in 2 years were able to figure out how to set it to turn on/off at the certain hour. The NEST on the other hand felt natural when scrolling through the settings, schedules, and all the options. We haven't tried the auto-away feature yet, and our thermostat is not near a front door at all, but will be shocked if it disappointed us. The display itself saves energy, since it remains dark until someone walks by the sensor. It also looks cleaner on the wall (very modern and sleek, not a neon green on all the time light like the other thermostats). Sometimes we wave at it as we walk by since it greets us back by lighting up. Naturally it will save energy! We say "will" because we are still waiting for our first energy bill since we installed the Nest. But the fact that it can be set to eco-mode (with a green leaf lit up on the display), and it turns on/off based on previous settings, and doesn't keep blowing A/C after the desired temperate has been reached, all facts point to the saved dollars.
NEST does not provide an official API but a few unofficial projects sprung up to fill the void to allow you to monitor and control your NEST thermostat programmatically in a number of programming languages and environments such as Java, Ruby, PHP, and C#.
NEST installation is a snap. Excellent customer service.
Good looking, intuitive thermostat, super simple to use.
Learning features mean you don't have to program a schedule; it will figure out your schedule for you. Web and mobile apps are fantastic. I love changing the temperature from bed!
Nest also learns how long it takes a user to get home, adjusting the home's temperature accordingly so it's ready when they arrive. It factors weather conditions into this estimate as well.
Auto-away mode (thanks to motion detection) is quite handy and should help conserve energy.
Nest's official smartphone and web apps are excellent but currently only Android and Apple iOS apps are provided by NEST. There's no Windows Phone app.
It's a standalone device with no official APIs (application programming interface). As a result, my home server can't directly integrate with the NEST and I cannot control it using the same interface/framework used to control my security cams, lights, and doors.
Auto-away mode kicks in on occasion when you're there but just haven't walked past the Nest in a while.
Somewhat expensive: The Nest Learning Thermostat 2 retails for $249 at major retailers.


Building land for sale Ciovo has 801 sqm and it is a great opportunity for building and investing. It is placed approximately 300 meters from the sea and Saldun beach and it is also close to Trogir. The plot has a rectangular shape and a paved access road. All the necessary utility connections (water, electricity) are in the immediate vicinity of the plot.
Trogir is a Dalmatian town with approximately 12000 inhabitants and it ic the center of a 250 sqm region. Its center is a small peninsula placed between the mainland and the Island of ciovo; the center features a number of astonishing and valuable landmarks such as the Trogir Town Museum, the Kamerlengo Fortress, St. Mark's Tower, the Cathedral of St. Lawrence, the Treasury and Monastery of St. Dominic, the main town square, the Cipiko Palace and the oldest pharmacy in Europe that was opened back in 1271 near the main square.
The Trogir Riviera includes several charming seaside small towns and villages as well as about, 20 islands and islets; other than Ciovo, Drvenik is definitely the most beautiful island destination in the area, with frequent ferry lines connecting it to Trogir. Close to Trogir you can find the best airport in Croatia, with frequent flights towards all bigger European destinations. The climate in this area is very pleasant year round, with more than 2700 sunny hours a year, so that you can enjoy various outdoor activities much longer than just during summer months. Due to all this, this is a great area for buying real estate.


text:
Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Stoppard, Ford Madox Ford & ! TREME!
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the protagonist of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, adapted for a 5 part BBC2 series by Tom Stoppard. This looks like the sort of quality that shows in comparison Downton Abbey for the shoddy that it is. For one thing Ford Madox Ford lived through what he's writing about. Julian Fellows just sort of makes up what he sort of thinks is the era his crew writes about. Of course Downton Abbey will continue to garner all sorts of awards and Parade's End will be as ignored as is David Simon's Treme.*
* Season 3 premieres September 23rd! Trailers many places, here's one place.
Additionally -- it looks like we're going to get to be in New Orleans about four times this fall, winter and spring! Gads, I'm missing New Orleans. Just that teeny taste from the Treme trailer made me go all, "I must be there now!
I wore a Mardi Gras colors sparkle fleur de lis t-shirt obtained some time ago in the French Market on my walk to back therapy on Thursday. And I tell you, that walk up there and back at 12:30 felt as hot and humid as New Orleans herself. Three different fellows pointed at my shirt and -- did not yell, but spoke sort of breathlessly -- "New Orleans." When I got to the therapy gym one of the therapists also recognized it as the New Orleans symbol. He'd been there for the first time during Mardi Gras this year. He asked me if I'd ever heard Rebirth play .... When he showed me photos on his phone of his time in NO, among them was not only his favorite po'boy, but of the sign for Lafitte's, his favorite NO bar. He had no idea who Jean Lafitte was though. Nor had he watched HBO Treme.
Labels: HBO Treme, Television, Writing
Henry VIII Plays *21st Century Dracula: London Entrepreneur*
NBC orders 'Dracula' drama starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers
The ten part series will go straight to series shooting -- no pilot -- produced by the same people who bring us the inexplicably praised Downton Abbey, i.e. bad writing, bad plotting, bad acting.
[ " The "cool new version," as Greenblatt described the series, introduces Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There's only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. " ]
According to the NBC chairman, the series will bring an HBO Tudors' sensibility to Dracula, i.e. loads of nekkid women, degrading sex and violence, and blood, blood, blood. Wait -- doesn't that sound like True Blood? So when you've got True Blood already why do it again? O, wait, the poor woman's True Blood, i.e. network teevee, meaning also no copyright and license fees for the material, title, or names, unlike for that Suuucky thang.
Personally? I'd say that NBC is a day late and a dollar short with this vampire thang. OTOH, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who has been playing creepy sociopathic pervs since childhood already -- i.e. the assassin for no reason of Michael Collins in the 1996 eponymous film of Irish politics, and the 1999 Ride With the Devil pro-slavery and csa thug crew film -- which, of course includes a slave loyal unto death to his master -- set in Kansas-Missouri during the Civil War.
Posted by Foxessa at 9:58 AM No comments:
Labels: books, Television, Vampires
Today Is Our Anniversary
I'm here.
He's there.
But he's getting on a plane in an hour to go to Heathrow, and then tomorrow afternoon he'll be here.
The first thing he must do at getting home is put together a mix of New Orleans music for Alexander Cockburn's funeral. Which is hoped to be on Saturday, if the body can be shipped back here from Germany by then.
Labels: Africa, Angola, NYC
*America's Great Debate* Texas, New Mexico, the U.S. Civil War
The years of my young adulthood were lived in New Mexico. One of the first things this born and bred midwesterner learned when moving to the southwest was that Texas was the Evil Empire, and her inhabitants were to be given no welcome anywhere because their objective was to make New Mexico Texas. Texas and Texans were the enemy. The proof of this was how Texans had taken over the valuable purse quarter horse races and prizes of Ruidoso Downs. This was only one of the reasons that southeastern New Mexico, part of the High Plains, or the Llano, was referred to at times by the further north New Mexicans as "Little Texas." In those days I wasn't aware of the many other reasons for the lcoal dislike of Texas, which reach much further back into our national history, history from before either the state in which I was born or New Mexico were states, but only territories. Though New Mexico claimed statehood even later (1912) than North Dakota (1889), the southern U.S.A. was greedy for the region by the close of the 1830's.
It's a complicated tale. East Texas was settled early by slaveholders out of Louisiana and other cotton growing southern states, notably Andrew Jackson's Tennessee. Sam Houston was among the many Tennesseans who hoped to put their failures in the home state behind them by starting over in Texas. As well as Indian Removal, taking the Floridas from the Brits, and the destruction of the Bank of the United States, gaining Texas was Andrew Jackson's goal. Texas as a state would be a slave state adding power to the southern slave state coalition, and a state focused on 'western state' interests, that Jackson and his like-minded southern power brokers envisioned for Tennessee and Kentucky. Among those interests was access and dominance of the Pacific coast, i.e. California. California had to be added to the US flag as a slave not free soil state; a slave state California would give the south and the west direct access to the Asian trade -- and control of California's gold. Jackson, recall, was a specie only man, who regarded currency as the devil's work. Therefore, to perfect Jackson's, i.e. God's will and work, California had to belong to the South.The road to owning California for the southern states, and later, when the War came, was via Texas, and then New Mexico -- which at this earlier point also included what became the state of Arizona in 1912, along with New Mexico.
See how inter-connected all this history is, all driving to the Civil War, all this history which by-and-large isn't taught in history classes. By-and-large we ignore most of U.S. history between the Louisiana Purchase and Lincoln's election. Then we jump to Fort Sumter and the Civil War, and all those glorious bloody battles.
Louisiana Purchase 1803 -- Jackson and many others insist that Texas is part of the Purchase; Mexico refuses this claim of its territory.
Texas Revolution against Mexico 1836 -- results in the Republic of Texas
Before the Mexican - American War, Texans routinely looted the trade between lower Mexico and Santa Fe, and the lucrative trade along the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and Santa Fe. The excuse was that this was part of the Texas Republic, and Republic was not only frackin' broke, it was deeply in debt. (So much for what grand economic sense it was for a region to have no federal government, no industry, no trade, and only slave labor cash crop agriculture and all open carry weapons all the time by everyone.)
Thus the appropriately named Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, a South Carolinian who succeeded Sam Houston as the Texas Republic's second president, was convinced that Annexation would reduce Texas to undeserved vassalage to the USA. Tariffs! Taxes! Justice system! He chose, instead, a war that would seize all Mexico's territory between the Sabine River to the Pacific Ocean for Texas, making Texas a continental power in its own right. He sent a 300 man force to Santa Fe as the first step. Need we say it was a complete fiasco, before they got anywhere near Santa Fe? When the few survivors finally reached Santa Fe, they -- in the grand tradition of U.S. sense of its great goodness in every engagement of conquest -- expected to be greeted as heroes. Instead the Santa Fe authorities sent them as prisoners of war to Mexico City. In retaliation (1841) Texans launched another invasion of Mexican territory with 1200 militia, who raped, murdered, pillaged and burned up and down the territory. But they didn't get to Santa Fe.
Texas Annexation April 1845 -- The U.S. took Texas because Texas threatened to partner with Britain -- imagine how that would sit with Old Hickory, who hated them with a mighty passion and not only because of the Floridas. Texas accepted annexation partly to have the U.S. government to assume its massive debt load -- and help against the Indians who also hated Texans -- also, not incidently, as the pretext of war against Mexico, which objected to its territory being taken over by the U.S. --and having Texas institute slavery in those lands. Mexico was a non-slave nation, imagine that.Texas, state or Republic, claimed its boundaries included New Mexico, and all the way up into Colorado, all Mexican territory, and Mexico was an interloper -- not to mention slave stealer, i.e. slaves escaped to Mexico were free.
Andrew Jackson dies 1845 -- not quite living long enough to see Texas officially part of the United States
Texas statehood December1845
Mexican - American War 1846 - 1848 -- brought the southwestern territories, which Texas and many other southerners declared were all part of Texas, much as many Virginians still liked in their dreams to claim most of North America to the Pacific according to their interpretation of the old Virginia Company charter, which King James I vacated (1625). What we also acquired with this vast territory from Mexico was the failed-to-pass-Senate-several-times, the Wilmot Proviso which declared "neither slavery nor any involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any territory acquired in the war against Mexico." The Proviso began as a rider to an appropriations bill early in the Mexican- American war as part of what might have enabled peace negotiations. As mentioned, the Wilmot Proviso failed to pass in the Senate in several incarnations, defeated by the slaveholding states' coalition. However, the Wilmot Proviso remained vividly invoked by the memories of all honorable southerners, as the opening attack upon their rights, perogatives and entitlements as honorable southerners, the opening wedge to destroy them, ready to leap to the attack within any economic and territorial proposal that did not explicitly uphold and expand the rights to slaves, slavery and the slave trade.
Texas Governor George T. Wood 1848 -- impatient with how President Polk and the government were moving in D.C. sent a lawyer, Spruce Baird, to carry his writ of jurisdiction to Santa Fe. Due to Baird's own primary interest in getting rich and general incapacity (he didn't speak Spanish), the New Mexican authorities refusal to recognize such a writ (they were Mexicans, for pete's sake!) and the near impossibility of communications over such distances in such a landscape at the time, the Baird mission failed.
Back in D.C, we have President Zachary Taylor. He had developed a distaste for and distrust of Texans as the most troublesome loose cannons -- in the Mexican-American War (which Taylor, like the later President Grant, believed was declared only for the sake of the slaveholders in general and the Texas slaveholders in particular). He declared the blood thirsty undisciplined Texas Rangers caused him more trouble than the Mexican army, pillaging and murdering as they did, up and down the country (evidently their favorite form of activity). President Taylor had even less respect for Texas's imperial claims to these territories. Recall this is the same era in which Taylor had to pull the Mississippi governor's Cuban filibuster ship from the fire of Spanish warships down in Pensacola. (The MS gub also expected his invasion forces to be met with Cuban flowers of joy as liberators, whereas the invasion was successfully resisted with the people's guns, hostility and aggression -- and that was before the Cuban army and navy arrived.)
Since their bids to take over New Mexico were thwarted and refused the Texans whipped themselves into a racist frenzy that declared the brown "greaser" New Mexicans were in rebellion against them, thereby besmirching their honor that could be restored only by bloody war. In full-blown national political crisis now, Texas howled for secession, and the seizure by force of the Territories. There were those in states like Louisiana, who were willing to provide aid and assistance to make it possible. Ironically it was Calhoun who brought these plans to an end, lobbying and cajoling and preaching non-stop to all the southerners that if Texas seceded -- losing its senators and representatives -- their own power in the United States would be endangered, and thus so would be slavery.
Even this cursory run-down explains why the dislike and distrust of Texas runs so deep in New Mexicans' historical dna. When one comes to this history fresh it's mind-boggling to see in such detail how deeply slavery was embedded in the history of even regions like New Mexico that are not really hospitable to slave labor cash crops -- but only if one believes that slavery was only about growing cotton -- which it wasn't, which is why slavery wasn't going to 'just wither away in due course,' and why we had a civil war over slavery, not over states rights or tariffs or U.S. invasion of the south -- they invaded the north first with the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), with the shooting invasion of the Kansas-Nebraska territory out of Louisiana and Missouri, and taking Fort Sumter.
Texas secedes from the USA and joins the CSA 1861 -- its first order of business, to invade New Mexico and from there realize Texas and the southern states old objective, to take California for slavery. But then there was the Texas debacle in New Mexico we know as the Battle of Glorietta Pass (March, 1862).
All these matters and many more are presented in granularity in Fergus M. Bordewich's first-rate history, America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas and the Compromise That Preserved the Union (2012), from Simon & Schuster.
Labels: Mexican American War, Slavery, U.S. Civil War, U.S. History
Hampers of Champers & *America's Great Debate*
When I got up this AM, sometime around 7, it was already 83 degrees.
Every other person you encounter is eating ice cream in some form and / or drinking something cold from a huge container. I noticed this yesterday on my way to therapy, which meant I was on the streets between 12:30 and 3:30 PM. It's that hot, that on a single block, I encountered 5 mango sellers -- they peel and carve up the mangoes right there -- if they're lucky they have a small umbrella over their improvised stand -- nope, not licensed vendors. Some of them have the skill to do so creatively and afix their fancifully sculpted mango upon a stick as well, rather than put the slices in a landfill choking plastic container. Naturally, there are the weather situational sellers of bottled water out of his or her cooler, right by the exit-entrance to the subway, on the shaded side of the street. I'm admiring these people who are determined to make a dollar however they can, no matter what the weather, and who use the weather to make a dollar.
And I'm on the bed, with icepacks, according to the back therapist's decreed 24 hour bed rest. Fortunately it is so hot that the ice packs are fine, and Bordewich, Fergus M. (2012) America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. Simon & Schuster, New York is so interesting, and I can pull over the laptop and take notes when notes need to be taken. Yes, I can make lemonade! Did you realize that in 1850, the governor of Mississippi, John Quitman, took off on a filibuster to invade and annex Cuba? The Cubans were guaranteed to meet their U.S. liberators with cheers and flowers as they brought the permanance of slavery in perpetuity to their island. As has happened almost always, however, when U.S. invading forces are expecting to be greeted with joy that they are bringing U.S. overlordship liberation, the ungrateful population shoots at them instead. They were forced to flee Spanish warships on their tail right into the bay of Pensacola, where obeying the reluctant orders of President Taylor, their fat was pulled from the fire of the Spanish warship. For which, naturally, President Taylor was roundly condemned by the likes of Senator Yulee (whose father made a fortune in Cuban sugar, and who would be Jefferson Davis's VP) "... for trampling first upon the Constitution, then on Cuba's desire for freedom -- and finally on what he considered the right of Americans to invade their neighbors whenever they wished."
This is the same era in which is set part I of the made-for-television Champagne Charlie (1989), starring Hugh Grant as Charles Heidsieck, who supposedly brought his family's champagne to the U.S. just prior to the Civil War. I don't know about that. But what none of the descriptions include is that he's prompted to do so by a burning passion for Megan Gallagher, er, the Southern Belle something-or-other, a Louisiana slave plantation owner, I treat "my people" like family how dare you even think I am a bad person for owning slaves I'll shoot the first man who says I am and I'm damned good shot! and incidentally is a confederate spy before there is a Confederacy, and is a gunrunner with the additional mission to seduce the French gummit to declare itself for the Not Yet Seceded Confederate States of America. Naturally the southerners are so Good, so Chivalrous, so Charming, and they are Honorable like the French, unlike those money-grubbing Yankees, and they understand Champagne! Why, honee, I declah -- when Hugh Grant gets captured by the dirty Yankees outside of Richmond when he was innocently spying on behalf of his sweetheart for the CSA, while bringin' along hampers of champers, he and his fellow Confederate soldiers, who incidentally are all black men, are put in a dirty Yankee prison, and the black confederate soldiers are viciously whipped by the dirty Yankee Federals for no reason except that they are rotten filthy bastards who like to treat our people with cruelty just for fun. Also, there is another plot, and another girl, played by an actress conveniently also named Megan, back in France, and, well, I don't know, but it just was goin' on and on and on, and I kept reading America's Great Debate instead. The take-away lesson here, is, once again, neither the English nor the French have real understanding about what the U.S. Civil War was, or what was at stake, or indeed, even that New Orleans and Richmond are very different cultures and a long way away from each other.*
So that was a bust -- back to netflix Champagne Charlie goes. My neighbor put it the mailbox this morning.
* Unfairly maligning the Brits in this case (other than Hugh Grant); this was a French-Canadian television production.
Labels: NYC, Television, U.S. Civil War, U.S. History
*The Song of Achilles* and *Equal to the Sun*
Miller, Madeline. (2012) The Song of Achilles. Ecco-Harper Collins, New York.
Miller teaches and tutors latin and greek to high school students -- and presuably her students are like M, the son of our dear friends, P and K -- who fell in love with both latin and greek in high school. Before that he was in love with Spanish. At Yale now, he's in love with German.
Illustrative of her spare yet evocative style, by which the author brings the world of the gods into the every day, is this, from the chapter in which the young Achilles and Patroclus first are met by their tutor, the famous, immortal centaur, Chiron. He orders the boys to get on his back, to carry them on steep, long climb to his mountain cave:
Achilles twisted back to look me, grinning.
We climbed higher still, and the centaur swished his great black tail, swatting flies for all of us.
I enjoyed and admired this novel very much.
Another historical novel I'm currently enjoying is
Amirrezvani, Anita. (2012) Equal of the Sun. Scribner, New York.
A contemporary of Elizabeth I, in the mid-16th century the Ottoman princess Princess Pari Khan Khanoom Safavi, becomes Persia-Iran's power broker upon the death of the Shah, her father, whose favorite she was. She is the one who knows all, though only 14 years old. She strategizes and administrates among the factions to choose the half brother she wishes to take the throne. This brother is the best of them (though it seems none of them approach the virtue she and her dad Shah father view as the proper way to govern), but Isma'il is the one who will work with her. The Princess is an historical figure. This novel is narrated by her intelligence officer, the eunuch, Agha Javhar. She lived only 30 years; the half brother Isma'il Shah was assassinated by a faction – or, it was speculated, by Princess Pari herself; Princess Pari was assassinated by another half-brother and his wife a few months later.
The author, an adjunct prof at the California College of the Arts - San Francisco, includes a splendid reading list of books and articles that cover women, the period and the region. Two of the most enlightening are:
Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba. "Economic Activities of Safavid Women in the Shrine City of Ardabil." Iranian Studies 31, no.2 (Spring 1998)
and --
Matthee, Rudi. "Prostitutes, Courtesans, and Dancing Girls: Women Entertainers in Safavid Iran." Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie. Edited by Rudi Matthee and Beth Varon. Casta Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2000.
For writers such as these, history isn't a matter of plunder and appropriation, as is so much that passes these days as historical fiction or historical romance or historical fantasy, mystery and science fiction. Both of these novelists respect and understand their subjects and the research materials -- and contribute to both. Neither of these novelists would sneer that reading and writing history, as non-fiction or as fiction, is "splashing around in the bathtub of history."
Labels: books, historical fiction, Writing
Joy Harjo Tribute
Harjo's presence and her work were as much a part of my interior landscape in the years I lived in New Mexico as were the many breathtakingly beautiful and often deadly and brutal landscapes of the region itself. It's a signature of where my work in history has taken me, perhaps, with such a concentration on the matters of slavery and the lead up to the Civil War era, that Joy Harjo hasn't crossed my mind in quite a while. Therefore I'm most grateful to the Racialicious blog for putting her front and center today, here.
There are videos. But best of all, there's an excerpt from and a link to the full poem of Harjo's "She Had Some Horses," a poem that continues to have more meaning for me -- and surely many others -- as I journey through the variety of phases that living a life is. As Racialicious warns, it may trigger some because there are images of sexual violence in this poem.
Labels: violence, Women, Writing
*White Collar* Season 4 Dishalicious Ep. 1 "Wanted"
There's a photo gallery of screen shots of Neal on get-away semitropical island included at the bottom of the season 4 premiere episode recap -- i.e. spoilers. (I was happy to read the spoilers as I won't see season 4 until it comes out next year on dvd, and I am one of those that spoilers don't spoil her fun, because, among other reasons, what others focus on generally turns out not to be what's significant from my perspective.)
So don't go there if you want not spoilers. But you can scroll right down to the bottom to click on Photo Gallery without being spoiled, except aesthetically. We all deserve aesthetic spoiling. White Collar manages to be exciting, sexy. fun and even romantic, without a hint of creepiness, sleaze or stupification. This may be because White Collar's underlying light-heartedness ultimately knits together the various episodes over a season, accompanied by the show's focus on the loyalties and affections that bind the various characters from primaries to secondaries.
Upon reflection, that latter may really be it. The camera and writers seem equally to be part of the loyalty and affection, from whence comes respect, as necessary in a light entertainment as in a somber one. Most entertainment folks don't respect themselves, much less each other, so they don't respect the audience or their on-screen figures -- and the audience doesn't respect itself -- thus the degradation, humiliation and psychic violation of us all, so prevalent these days in all types of entertainments. I don't know certainly, of course.
Labels: sexism, Television
Woody Guthrie's Lost Novel - *House of Dust*
Full story here at the UK Guardian.
A novel by folk singer Woody Guthrie will be published next year, with help from Johnny Depp. House of Earth, which Guthrie finished in 1947 but never released, is being edited by Depp and author Douglas Brinkley.
Depp and Brinkley revealed their plans in a new essay for the New York Times Book Review. House of Earth is Guthrie's only "fully realised" novel, they said, influenced by his experiences in America's Dust Bowl, as well as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Tracing the story of Tike and Ella May Hamlin, "hardscrabble farmers" in Texas, it is a "searing portrait of the Panhandle and its marginalised Great Depression residents". Despite a slightly esoteric focus on the importance of adobe housing, House of Earth also includes graphic sex, including "a scorching lovemaking scene on a hay bale".
Yes! It being Woody Guthrie, there is music history involved!
At the time of its writing, Guthrie apparently shared House of Earth's first chapter with musicologist Alan Lomax, who called it "quite simply the best material I'd ever seen written about that section of the country". But Guthrie only showed the finished manuscript to one person, film-maker Irving Lerner, and it languished for decades in a Coney Island closet. After learning of its existence in the late 90s, Brinkley finally tracked down the manuscript last year, with help from Guthrie's daughter, Nora.
That Alan Lomax -- in everything remotely concerned with popular music for his entire run! But -- having sex on a -- hay bale? One would think that Mr. Gutherie, at least, would know the effects upon the epidermis of bare skin frictioning on a hay bale, just like the effect of horse hair on the skin when riding bareassed.
However, could this be a sign, blowin' in the wind, pointing to a change in popular national consciousness? From the NY Times essay (link above):
... after finishing the novel in 1947, Guthrie put the manuscript away and concentrated on songwriting. He may have sensed the novel could be considered both passé (post-New Deal writing was frowned upon by cold-war-era critics) and ahead of its time (graphic sex). His fertility cycle prose was so edgy that publication was unlikely. And his use of an overdrawn hillbilly dialogue would have found little embrace in New York literary circles. ...
Yet the book's architectural intensity makes it a minormasterpiece. When we shared the finished novel with Bob Dylan, he was blown away, "surprised by the genius," he said, of the prose. At heart, "House of Earth" is a meditation about how poor people search for love and meaning in a corrupt world, one in which the rich have lost their moral compasses. Even though the backdrop is the washed-out agricultural fields of Texas, the novel could just as easily be set in a refugee camp in Sudan or a shantytown in Haiti.
Labels: books, fiction, music, U.S. History
M'banza Kongo
Which is where el V is currently. And happy as a clam in whatever clams are happy in! Its air is clean, it's in the mountains, he's working with a great scholar at the Kongo Kingdom Museum there -- it's everything he dreamed it would be, but better.
It is also bare bones, i.e. not easy. He's only the second scholar to ever go there, second after BM, who has been coming for years, who has walked all of Angola starting with the war when South Africa attempted to annex Angola for its own apartheid exploitation. Fortunately, this is an area where there are few if any land mines. BM really knows this country. So much is being lost, and will be gone forever within 3 or 4 years, when these seniors who are still playing instruments that people elsewhere have no idea exist.
These google images give a sense of where it is and what it is like.
Here's some history of the region.
I cannot post photos as he's currently sans a computer and connection. We are still able to skype daily, at the very least.
Labels: Africa, African history, African music, Angola
History Has Lost A Great Personage
As you can see from the quote at the top of Fox Home, the loss of this great historian feels deeply personal.
Forwarded via Voices From Haiti:
[ " http://www.voicesfromhaiti.com/2012/07/dr-michel-rolph-trouillot-haitis-gold-rush/
Dr. Michel-Rolph Trouillot & Haiti's Gold Rush
Jul 07, 2012 ~ Written by voicesfromhaiti
Every year at the big award ceremonies there's a special block of time reserved for stars whose blindingly brilliant lights have been extinguished. A larger-than-life screen usually hangs above the audience. Everyone looks skyward—to view the lineup of mind-blowing talent that once seemed so formidable, if not immortal. As audience members blink back tears, everyone secretly wonders when their turn will come to be "honored" in this way. Will their picture even make it to the sky-screen? Will someone accidentally forget to include them in the lineup? Who will mourn their passing? Will anyone beside close family members even remember their contribution? Will anyone–especially strangers–really, really care?
"Haiti lost one of the greatest men who ever lived," said Leslie H. of Professor Michel Rolph Trioullot who passed away July 6, 2012. "He is revered among anthropologists worldwide. His book, Silencing the Past, is like a sacred text on college campuses. . ."
M.C. said: "What bothers me about Prof. Trouillot's passing is that I never had a chance to tell him in person how his writings changed my life. I should have told him that, you know. But I didn't want to bother him. Iwanted to have something important to say when I approached him. Everyone who knew Prof. Trouillot says he was as generous and giving as he was brilliant. I should have told him that his writing changed the course of my entire life."
Sabine B. said, "My heart breaks now because Haiti has lost a giant among thinkers. I mourn, also, because there are so many people out there who don't even know they should be mourning. They don't even know the real significance of this loss."
On the other side of the ocean, the island from which Dr. Michel Rolph Trouillot came is busy being reconstructed. Everyone is figuring out ways to harvest fruit from all the trees that have yet to be planted. While all the super-sizing of Haiti continues without a break, while investors rush to scrape the gold mines clean, let us heed Dr. Trouillot's words and remember not to silence the past. Let us use the ropes of the past to ring the bell of Haiti's real future.
Remember, also, that Haiti's greatest treasures reside not in the mines but in the minds of our thinkers, especially our elders. The gold they possess in abundance is available, if we would only ask. First, however, we must recognize, honor, and respect our elders. Respekte grandmoun yo! The treasures they carry inside their heads are priceless. Acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate our elders now, lest– against their own will–they take all the gold with them.
Rest in perfect peace, Dr. Trouillot. VoicesfromHaiti celebrates your immeasurable contributions to Haiti and the world. We send our sincere condolences to those who have only begun to feel the sting of your passing.
(c) VoicesfromHaiti/Share Widely.
Selected works of Dr. Michel-Rolph Trouillot:
1977 Ti difé boulé sou Istoua Ayiti. New York: Koléksion Lakansièl.
1988 Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy. Johns Hopkins University Press.
1990 Haiti: State against Nation. The Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism. Monthly Review Press.
1995 Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Beacon Press.
2003 Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World. Palgrave
I did not know Dr. Trouillot personally, but I had the good fortune of having my writing appear alongside his in an anthology called Mozayik, edited by another great mind who passed away earlier this year: Roger Savain.
Please visit the following links for more on this national treasure.
Bob Corbett reviewed Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History in 1996
Nadève Ménard and Régine Michelle Jean-Charles's invite tributes, recollections, and words you might wish to share about Dr. Trouillot on http://tandenou2.blogspot.com/ " ]
Labels: American History, caribbean, cultural history, Haiti, history
NPR Harkeness Interview Yesterday -*All Things Considered*
It came on late in in All Things Considered while I was drying my hair in preparation for meeting my friend CC for dinner and another viewing of Brave. :)
I had wondered why Neda Ulaby was interviewing me when she could be interviewing Harkness. Well, she did interview Harkness, almost exclusively, plus a bit from a reading by Harkness reading from Discovery, I believe -- I was listening over the hairdryer, rushing to make the date. Harkness was perfectly NPR pitched, too. Gads, Ulaby is good at what she does.
They didn't give much time to Shadow of Night, which is what we talked about mostly in the studio. I'm in it with only a couple of lines. Which is all to the good, because my voice is crackly from the coughing caused by the pollution and pollen and I was so conscious of this during entire 40 + minute session at the studio.
For what it's worth, if you want to check it out, which you might if you like these books, you can read the transcript, or hear the segment, here.
Ned received e-mail in Angola about it from people spread around the country who had heard it. The wonders of our world. :)
Labels: books, fantasy, Reading, Women
*Copper* BBC America Premieres August
From Levinson and Fontana, who brought us Homicide, from which series David Simon learned his chops for The Wire and Treme, as well as the European television series last year of Borgia: Faith and Fear, a French-German historical drama television series (not the same as Showtime's The Borgias).
I saw the trailer for Copper at the Sunshine Theater here, last weekend, when I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild -- this despite it being a BBC America television series. Interesting that the trailer for a television series was shown in a movie theater, though perhaps that is part of the Sunshine's mission, which shows indies, quirky films, and lots and lots of festival winners and entrants. The audience at the Sunshine leans heavily to film pros, film students, historians, critics and wannabes. This is a city in which film and television is an industry and a favorite story location.
Which is where Copper is located -- here in New York City, after the Civil War. What a place NYC was then! Ask Teddy Roosevelt. Well, NYC was what a place before the Waw and during the Waw too. Ask Martin Scorsese.
So, here we go: how would you read this description of the series?
[ " It's hard to walk a straight line in a crooked townFrom Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana, "Copper" is a gripping crime drama series set in 1860s New York City. Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones, "MI-5″), an Irish-American former boxer turned cop, returns from the Civil War to find his wife missing and his daughter dead. As he patrols the streets of New York's notorious Five Points neighborhood, he seeks the truth about what happened to his family with the help of two wartime friends: the wayward son of a wealthy industrialist, and a talented African-American doctor. The three men share a secret from their experience in battle that links their lives forever. " ]
Notice that the McGuffin, the plot chasis, the driving force, depending on your vocabulary for such things is the favorite cliche, " ... returns from the Civil War to find his wife missing and his daughter dead. "
This could be a turning on the head of movies and series like Hell on Wheels, in which it is always a confederate who returns home from war and finds his wife raped-murdered and his children merely murdered, and thus vengeance sends him out to search the West, where, it being so small he always does run into the responsible parties, or at least some of them or some of them who are partially responsible, while chasing forever the numero uno Big Bad Guy. Or it's merely the fridging of the girlfriend, the favorite lazy way to get backstory and motivation.
Being who these guys are and their track record, I'm hoping / expecting it's the latter. Copper: period historical of my city, in an era of one of my deep periods and places of study, and, yes, that it's Fontana and Levinson.
Labels: Hollywood Confederacy, Television, U.S. Civil War, U.S. History, Women
In Luanda Someone Is Thinking of Me
First Skype call finally accomplished.
He described what it was like to fly along the Med coast from Tunisia, and then south. He could feel the topography changes the plane encountered, from desert, to mountains, to jungle, to plateau. This was topographical geography felt in one's body, not political geography. This was a precious experience for one who has taught the geography of Africa.
I feel better now that we made voice contact.
Since he's gone for so long I've embarked on deep housecleaning.
Also writing / work resumes after the prolonged anxiety and chaos around this particularly mission's journey. I'm still anxious, but not so much now.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Stoppard, Ford Madox For...
Henry VIII Plays *21st Century Dracula: London Ent...
*America's Great Debate* Texas, New Mexico, the U....
NPR Harkeness Interview Yesterday -*All Things Con...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Гвер () је речно језеро у Јужном Судану у вилајету Вараб, око 25 километара североисточно од града Гогријала. Захвата површину од око 1 км², дужине 0,5-1 и ширине до 1 километра. Окружено је са свих страна мочварним земљиштем које је за време кишне сезоне прекривено водом. Настало је меандрирањем реке Џур, која је након тога напустила овај басен и формирало се језеро. Око 5 километара североисточно налази се језеро Лојнг.

Види још

 Суд (мочвара)
 Лојнг (језеро)

Спољашње везе
 Мапа са приказом језера

Језера Јужног Судана

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: jQuery.POST : Call WCF Service not being called ! As I am trying to make POST request to my WCF service, I am not being able to POST the service request and can't get response.
I'm using WebHttpBinding and my WCF service is hosted in Windows service with PORT 8181
WCF Service Method:
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method = "POST", UriTemplate = "/{cstid}/{deptid}/get/customer/?cstname={cstname}",
    BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
    ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
Customer CustomerGet(string cstid, string deptid, string cstname);

JQuery POST Method
jQuery.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: 'http://localhost:8181/mysite/e48/91/get/customer/?',
    dataType: 'json',
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    processData: false,
    success: function (data) {
        alert(data);  // not getting anything  :(
    },
    error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert('Error :' + textStatus);
    }
});

Could anybody please let me know why I am not able to call this service and how would I resolve this problem?
Thanks in advance!

A: Your UriTemplate:
/{cstid}/{deptid}/get/customer/?cstname={cstname}

Your jQuery URL:
/e48/91/get/customer/?

Looks like you're missing the cstname, so the value at runtime will be null because query string parameters are not required to match a UriTemplate. You don't show your implementation, but I'm guessing however you look up the Customer is accepting null, but then not finding an actual instance and just returning null.

A: Since your UriTemplate is
 UriTemplate = "/{cstid}/{deptid}/get/customer/?cstname={cstname}",

You should at least be passing a parameter for {cstname}. For example, try this:
jQuery.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: 'http://localhost:8181/mysite/e48/91/get/customer/?',
data: { cstname: "nunu" },
dataType: 'json',
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
processData: false,
success: function (data) {
    alert(data);  // not getting anything  :(
},
error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
    alert('Error :' + textStatus);
}});

In my opinion, using WCF Web Http services for anything other than WebGet operations is more trouble than it's worth.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Evil Dead 4 - Confirmed by Bruce Campbell
Posted by DarkUFO at Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Labels: Evil Dead 4, Horror
Thanks to Mike for the heads up.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) - "Evil Dead" is getting resurrected.
Bruce Campbell, who played Ash in Sam Raimi's horror classic "The Evil Dead," "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness" -- and who executive produced the first and co-produced the second and third films -- confirmed a new project via Twitter.
"Believe in the remake, dawg!" he wrote. "The project is real. In the works. Cool as hell. Scary as hell."
He wrote the tweet in response to a Twitter posting from a fan.
Raimi will write and produce the next "Evil Dead." He won't direct.
That will fall to Fede Alvarez, a filmmaker from Uruguay who has a deal with Raimi's company, Ghost House Pictures.
The entire franchise has grossed a total of only $19.8 million at the box office, and the first grossed a meager $2.4 million.
The most recent film in the franchise, 1992's "Army of Darkness," grossed $11.5 million.
But the movies' importance goes far beyond their box office receipts. They're cult favorites that have influenced an entire generation of horror writers -- and fans.
Campbell confirmed the project after a fan @TheMike31, tweeted: "I won't believe in a new Evil Dead film until I see it. Or at least not until @GroovyBruce tells me to believe in it."
Within an hour, Campbell responded in the affirmative.


Soldiers from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) paraded at Fort George today to receive their medals from their recent tour of Iraq. The medals were awarded by HRH Prince Charles the Duke of Rothesay, the Royal Colonel.
The Battalion has been undertaking a Training and Mentoring role in Iraq, on an operation called Operation Shader, 3 SCOTS were tasked with two key responsibilities: to provide the main security force for the near 4,000 strong coalition camp and to provide training and mentoring for Iraqi Security Forces, preparing them to lead security operations in the defeat of Daesh (ISIS).
The soldiers deployed on the six-month tour to Al Assad Airbase, west of Baghdad, in early January and all were back by July.
This medals ceremony follows a series of Homecoming parades, with the Battalion parading though towns and cities in the Black Watch traditional recruiting area – Inverness, Forfar, Dunfermline and Perth.
3 SCOTS, with a proud history dating back to 1739, are based in Fort George, Inverness and traditionally recruit from North East Scotland. They have served in nearly all the major conflicts Britain has participated in since then from North America to Afghanistan.


Kinsley, Kansas, earned the name "Midway USA" in 1939 when it was featured on the Saturday Evening Post cover showing two cars, starting in Kinsley and going in opposite directions, both bearing a sign saying "World's Fair or Bust." In 1939, there were two "World's Fairs": an eponymous one in New York, and the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco.
But this phrase has a two-fold meaning. At the turn of the century, six families from the area started large traveling carnivals, hence "Midway" graces the shingle of many businesses and has inspired murals and even a Carnival Museum here.
The sign and park are located at the juncture of U.S. 50 and 56 on the west edge of Kinsley. The park features a rest stop complete with picnic tables, bathroom facilities, and playground equipment. While you are there check out the steam engine and antique farm machinery. All of this is available at no cost and open to the public 24 hours a day.
Check out the Edwards County Historical Society Museum for more information about "Midway USA".


Do you yearn for more fulfillment and joy in your life and work?
If you're like many people, you're probably living your life, going to work, hanging out with friends on the weekends, and everything seems fine…on the outside.
But inside something may not feel quite right.
You might feel the inkling that you're not happy doing the work you're doing. Money worries could be stressing you out and keeping you awake at night. And if you're like many others, you may have been feeling like this for quite a while.
There's a part of you that wants to step into sharing your gifts, and yet money worries keep you from feeling like that's a safe choice.
It might seem like a big leap to make, even almost impossible.
I'm here to tell you…what you want is possible.
Hello, my name is Joselito Laudencia. I'm a spiritual life coach and the founder of Abundant Good Coaching and Training.
As a licensed Spiritual Counselor for over 10 years and with a Master of Divinity, this is what I know.
You can create the life and work that's calling to you.
I've seen this happen with others. I've even experienced this myself. That's how I know it's possible for you.
You were meant to live life, and to live life abundantly.
You have a purpose in this life, and your purpose is to share your unique gifts and your joy in the world.
What if you believed the Universe supports you 100% in your calling?
Are you willing to say YES to a life of abundant good?
One way is by signing up for our free newsletter so you can get practical spiritual tips for creating a life and work that you love. Click here to sign up for the newsletter.
Or, you may be wondering, can our approach really help you? Click here to find out who really benefits from our approach.
NEXT: CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM OUR APPROACH?


text:
Mike Long to Secretary Betsy DeVos: North Carolinians want school choice! And you know what—they deserve it!
The following are prepared remarks delivered by PEFNC president Mike Long during a roundtable discussion with U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on October 5, 2020.
My name is Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. I am dedicated to our mission, which is to promote equal access to educational opportunities across the state—to extend the power of school choice to as many families as possible regardless of income, zip code, or race. Why? Because parents should be able to send their children to the school of their choice—traditional or nontraditional.
You see, I'm a 35-year educator. I taught 8th grade social studies and North Carolina history in the Durham Public School System. I also developed a character education program used in school systems all over the country, allowing me to train over 50,000 public school educators in how to effectively use it. I've been a high school principal and also the head of a private school. So, I have experienced and participated in both private and public education, both as a teacher and an administrator.
At PEFNC, I am grateful that I can now come alongside families across our state to inform them of their educational options in North Carolina. This organization advocates for public policies that will further educational freedom for parents in our great state. This work has given parents choices. And while the majority of North Carolina's students are enrolled in traditional public schools, it's incredible to believe that one in five students in North Carolina today have chosen a school outside of the traditional public school system—be it a public charter school, a private school, or home school.
We are coming together today at a pivotal time: the year 2020, where the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has shown in stark reality just how crucial school choice is to the welfare of families.
We are so grateful today to have joining us:
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate Phil Berger and North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore
State senators Deanna Ballard from Boone and Joyce (KRAVIC) from Davie and Forsyth counties
We have some parents here to share their stories and they will introduce themselves momentarily
Our elected officials recently championed a COVID-19 relief bill that passed with broad bi-partisan support that expanded school choice in key ways throughout our state. In "normal" times, these policy changes would be considered victories. But in times like these, when students are struggling with distance learning or not given an in-person option in their traditional public school, they're momentous. The COVID-19 relief bill expanded and strengthened our state's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides up to $4,200 a year in tuition support for low-income, working-class, tax-paying families. It also provided support for North Carolina's two programs aimed at helping families of students with special needs—the Children with Disabilities Grant and Education Savings Account. These programs are essential now more than ever because of the pandemic crisis, and I am grateful that the leaders at this table today understood that and acted.
I'm going to make this absolutely clear: North Carolinians want school choice! And you know what—they deserve it! In fact, recent polling highlights the incredible popularity of school choice in North Carolina. A recent Civitas Institute poll showed that 69% of likely voters support the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Our own recent polling showed that 94% of parents feel more inclined to support policies expanding school choice during the coronavirus crisis. Of parents who have chosen an alternative to the traditional public school system, 96% are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their school of choice.
Times of crisis highlight cracks in the system. I would be remiss not to recognize the reality of how education and racial equality intertwine. Education, and more importantly equal access to quality education, is one of the civil rights issues of our time.
The quality of a child's education should never depend on their parents' income, their zip code, or their skin color. They deserve equal access to whatever school will help them succeed. That requires reforming the education system: prioritizing the needs of individual students above the needs of the system and putting parents in charge of determining the best educational environment for their child. When that becomes our goal, perhaps the tide will turn in bringing true equality into our educational system and lives will be changed.
We believe that all families should have the same opportunity because not every child will succeed in every educational setting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we've seen students with special needs get left behind as they struggle being behind a computer, single-parent families have been put into the impossible situation of juggling work, distance learning, and accessing childcare. The people who need the most help and support have been the ones hurt the most.
This is why we do what we do at Parents for Educational Freedom in NC. PEFNC has focused most of our efforts on the countless number of parents who want a choice for their child's education. I am so grateful for the leadership at this table who have risen up to meet these needs. We're grateful to have some of the parents here today who have exercised school choice share their stories, primarily as they have faced the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic head-on with their children. They have made difficult decisions and I look forward to you hearing from them shortly.


text:
sled dogs seem to walk on water in climate expert's photo of melting arctic ice - measuring devices
Climate experts have released a photo showing snow sled dogs trekking on partially melted sea ice while walking in the water to retrieve scientific equipment in the Northwest Greenland.
This photo was taken by Steffen Olsen, a climatologist at the Danish Meteorological Institute, on June 13, when the team went to take measurements of the ice that had been planted in the Inglewood Bay to monitor the condition of the area. googletag. {});
They planned the trip using satellite imagery.
However, when the dog sled reached the area, the team found the ice sheet hidden under a shallow lake.
Mr. Orson said that Greenland's communities rely on sea ice for "transportation, hunting and fishing", and that the flooding caused by the melting of the surface requires "improving the Arctic's predictive power ".
The photo was shared by his colleague Rasmus Tonboe at DMI, who wrote on Twitter that "a fast melt with low penetration and less cracks and sea ice will leave the melt at the top ".
@ SteffenMalskaer retrieving our marine berths and weather stations on sea ice in northwest Greenland this year is a daunting task.
Low penetration, fast melting of cracks and sea ice keep the melted water at the top. pic. twitter. com/ytlBDTrVeD—Rasmus Tonboe (@RasmusTonboe)
In June 14, 2019, Ruth Motham, who is also a DMI climate researcher, said: "The ongoing project by Steffen is working closely with local hunters at Qaanaaq.
"They are monitoring sea ice and ocean conditions in Inglefield Bredning near the village of Qaanaaq in the project, they place instruments on sea ice formed in the bay every winter, and then recycle them at the end of spring and early summer, until the sea ice breaks, in order not to throw expensive instruments into the ocean!
"This year, the adventure of retrieving instruments with a dog sledge is still the most practical way to move around the area at this time of year, hitting a lot of water on sea ice.
The ice here is formed very reliably every winter, very thick, which means that there are relatively few cracks melting
Water through drainage.
"Last week, there was very warm weather in Greenland and much of the Arctic, driven by warm air from the south.
This has resulted in a large amount of melting ice on glaciers and ice sheets and still existing sea ice.
"Our projections suggest that the warm environment in Greenland will continue for at least the next few days.
Normally, we expect this warm melt event to happen late in the summer of late June or July, so it is very unusual that this happens very early, although this
Glaciers and icebergs in eastern Greenland (Getty Images/PA)googletag. {});
The maximum temperature of the DMI weather station at Qaanaaq airport in Greenland is 17. 3C (63. 1F)
Wednesday, 15C (59F)
The photo was taken on Thursday.
Mundt Ram MS said: "These digital still need to by we of climatology home the quality control I at present is check these digital whether will become June the station of new record but taking into account the weather have more warm, it's easy to understand why there's a lot of melting!
"Our climate model simulations predict a general decline in the length of the sea ice season around Greenland;
The speed and extent of the global temperature rise is largely dependent, but this week's warming is still a weather --
So it's hard to attribute it to climate change itself.
"In 2012, Greenland experienced the biggest melting ever, and in the four days of July, 97% of the entire ice sheet indicated that the surface melted.
Commenting on the photo, Rossi Rogers, a senior climate activist at Greenpeace UK, said: "from the melting sea ice in Greenland to the 50 °c hot India, the impact of the climate emergency is spreading around us. "-
Press the association Google tag. {});
Eye-safe laser tape measure 40m long one button for multi-mode use MS7-40A


Tai chi chuan literally "Supreme Ultimate Fist" often shortened to tai chi, is a type of internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits. It is also typically practiced for a variety of other reasons: its hard and soft martial art technique, demonstration competitions, and longevity. Some of t'ai chi ch'uan's training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people categorize as slow movement.


Aczel Marine is the sole Australian distributor of the original Flexiteek synthetic marine decking. Flexiteek was a natural extension of the extensive range of shipwright services covered by Aczel.
Once you decide to Flexiteek your deck, Flexiteek Australia will either make a template or arrange for a qualified shipwright in your area to make the template.
The template is then sent to the Flexiteek Australia workshop in Queensland where qualified tradespeople manufacture the deck from the template.
Installation is done either by Flexiteek Australia or qualified shipwright in your area.
Use this link to go directly to the Flexiteek website which has all the information you need for your decision, including a quote form.


The presence of a strong halocline in the Arctic Ocean represents a major impediment for vertical transport of nutrients from the deep Arctic Ocean into the upper euphotic zone. As a consequence, primary production rates in these waters are largely dependent on nutrients advected from elsewhere.
Two of the most productive ecosystems of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are largely dependent on nutrients supplied by Pacific waters flowing northwards through the Bering Strait. Our ongoing shipboard, satellite, mooring and modeling studies, have allowed us to observe large intra-seasonal to annual changes in the rate of formation and retreat of sea-ice in the Bering Sea that have a significant impact on phytoplankton standing stocks and the composition of native phytoplankton and zooplankton communities. Here we contend that changes in phytoplankton production and nutrient drawdown rates associated with variations in sea-ice conditions in the Bering Sea could significantly influence the transport of nutrients, particulate and colored dissolved organic materials into the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait and consequently, the patterns of productivity and structure of plankton communities of the Chukchi Sea and the western Pacific Arctic Ocean. In recent years, the Bering Sea has been experiencing a cold spell and extensive sea-ice conditions which are in sharp contrast to the warming trend and rapid seasonal losses of sea-ice observed in the Arctic Ocean. These regional variations in sea-ice behavior make the physical and biogeochemical connections and interactions between these two regions intriguing for research.


The IRS facility in Covington was placed on lockdown early Monday morning.
According to multiple reports, white powder was discovered inside.
Covington Police arrested a suspect in a July 1 killing in Mainstrasse Village.
Pedestrians and drivers on the Roebling Suspension Bridge could be impacted by inspection work next week.
Property owners in Covington will notice a few changes when they pay their property taxes in September, according to a news release from City Hall.
Interstate 71/75 was entirely shut down on the northbound side after a semi truck flipped between Kyles Lane and 12th Street.
The truck appeared to be blocking all three lanes.


text:
Deloitte resigns as auditor after Manpasand fails to share key data
Deloitte has also informed the MCA about the reasons behind the resignation.
Sachin Dave
Jwalit Vyas
May 29, 2018, 08:22 IST
MUMBAI : Deloitte Haskins & Sells India has quit as the auditor to Manpasand Beverages a few days before the declaration of annual results, triggering a sharp fall in its share price and deepening the mystery about the sudden departure.
People close to the situation said that Deloitte's move was triggered by the lack of cooperation from Manpasand on sharing with the auditor some crucial data related to capital expenditure and revenue.
"The auditors were seeking these details for at least a month, but those were never provided. Documents supporting the costs and revenues and capital expenditure, which as per the regulations are required to be submitted to the auditors, were not shared," said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Deloitte has also informed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) about the reasons behind the resignation. Manpasand informed the stock exchanges late on Sunday evening that it has appointed Mehra Goel & Co as auditors due to the sudden resignation of Deloitte but did not provide additional details.
Manpasand shares slumped 20 per cent to Rs 344.20 on Monday as worried investors speculated about the reason behind Deloitte's departure.
Email queries sent to Abhishek Singh, director with Manpasand Beverages, and Deloitte India did not elicit any response until the publication of this report.
Another person in the know said that Gaurav Shah, Deloitte's audit partner in Ahmedabad, had told the company on the lack of clarity about key numbers a month ago. Shah and his team wanted more details on financials and had questioned some accounting entries.
Shah refused to comment when ET called him, saying that he was not authorised to speak to the media.
"The company should understand that it is a listed company and act accordingly. At the same time, the auditor resigning just a day prior to the results is unfair. The auditor should have either resigned long back or should have audited for the current year and then resigned," said a large investor who is heavily invested in the company and was involved in its QIP process. According to another person in the know, the auditor had even warned the company that it may have to resign as statutory auditors if details and supporting documents around revenue, costs and capital expenditures were not shared soon.
"Subsequent to resignation of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Chartered Accountants, Vadodara, the Statutory Auditors of the Company with effect from May 26, 2018, the Board of Directors of the company upon the recommendation of the Audit Committee, has appointed M/s. Mehra Goel & Co., Chartered Accountants, New Delhi, as Statutory Auditor of the Company with effect from 27th May 2018 to fill the casual vacancy in the office of Statutory Auditors," the Vadodarabased company said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Sunday.
In the first nine months of FY18, Manpasand reported net sales of Rs 701 crore, 28 per cent higher on year, and Rs 73 crore net profit, up 44 per cent. However, investor interest in the stock remained lacklustre. Its stock remained flat for the last one year until it hit a 20 per cent lower circuit on Monday, reducing its market capitalisation to Rs 3,946 crore, down by Rs 1,200 crore.
Manpasand Beverages' Rs 400-crore IPO in 2015 received the demand for 1.4 times the number of shares on sale. Goldman Sachs India Fund (4.26 per cent), SBI Emerging Businesses Fund (1.92 per cent), ICICI Pru Balanced Advantage Fund (1.31 per cent), and Birla Sun Life Insurance Company(1.15 per cent) were the large institutional investors during the IPO.
Current large investors include Motilal Oswal Most Focused Fund(5.5 per cent), SBI Magnum Multiplier Fund (4.4 per cent), ICICI Prudential Midcap (1.04 per cent) and three Nomura funds (4.8 per cent).
Delloite
Abhishek Singh
Most Read in Food & Entertainment
WayCool raises $117 million from LightRock, IFC, others
Swiggy, Zomato discounts dry up as restaurants shut, orders surge
FMCG distributors warn Colgate Palmolive of taking strict steps over price disparity issue


Lately I've been taking daily 3-4 mile walks in the afternoon with some neighbor friends who also work from home ~ it's a fantastic luxury to be able to take the time for myself… and walking is the best exercise I can be doing right now. If you live in Portland, you know this last week has been grey, cold and rainy… BUT all the new little buds are popping up everywhere making it all bright and green and pink.
It's kind of fun to just sew with no plan, but my mind is plotting away for my next planned quilt. This reminds me… I have to give "kudos" to Jill who was one of the winners in the monochromatic challenge from the Modern Quilt Guild. She brought her well-planned quilt to the last PMQG meeting and I was totally blown away ~ seriously. I love that quilt! It's hanging at PNCA until this Thursday (along with my squid quilt) so I highly recommend going to check it out in person. Fantastic job Jill!! It has inspired me to take all the time I need to plan out my next project.
Next PostNext Time… and how it eludes me.


text:
Q: $error=array() doesn't store errors and not displaying it. Hey can annyone view my code and explain? $error = array() doesnt store my errors and
$error[] = 'Wrong username or password!'; dont working. I need display my error at same page as i have login script.
  <?php

$host="localhost"; // Host name
$username="root"; // Mysql username
$password=""; // Mysql password
$db_name="2"; // Database name

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");
if (isset($_POST['formsubmitted'])) {
    $error = array();//Declare An Array to store any error message
};
// username and password sent from form
$myusername=$_POST['myusername'];
$mypassword=$_POST['mypassword'];

// To protect MySQL injection (more detail about MySQL injection)
$myusername = stripslashes($myusername);
$mypassword = stripslashes($mypassword);
$myusername = mysql_real_escape_string($myusername);
$mypassword = mysql_real_escape_string($mypassword);

$sql="SELECT * FROM `members` WHERE username='$myusername' and password='$mypassword'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

// Mysql_num_row is counting table row
$count=mysql_num_rows($result);

// If result matched $myusername and $mypassword, table row must be 1 row

if($count==1){

// Register $myusername, $mypassword and redirect to file "login_success.php"
//store data:
$_SESSION['$myusername'];
$_SESSION['$mypassword'];
//next page:

header("location:login_success.php");
}
else {
 $error[] = 'Wrong username or password!';
};
?>

ty!

A: try this :
<?php
if(isset($error) && is_array($error))
{
   echo "
" . implode("
", $error) . "
";
}

A: Ty Michael! I got it! :D
It should look like this:
  <?php  echo '

';
            foreach ($error as $key => $values) {

                echo '
'.$values.'
';

            }

?>


As a biological anthropologist, I am also interested in understanding how the unique limb proportions of apes, humans, and their ancestors evolved through microevolutionary processes. We use a combination of in silico evolutionary modeling and experimental approaches to understand the evolutionary history of the locomotor skeleton in primates, including humans.
Ecomorphology vs evolvability: Primate limb proportions are specialized for different locomotor modes, which may impact their ability to evolve new morphologies in response to selection. We are using in silico modeling to understand how "easy" it is for one type of primate limb to evolve into another across the adaptive landscape.
Anatomical networks: With our collaborator Rui Diogo, we are using anatomical network analyses (AnNA) to study integration and evolvability in primate limbs. AnNA differs from traditional integration studies in its focus on the topological arrangement of parts (e.g., contacts between bones) rather than their covariation in size and shape.


A boozed-fuelled husband tore up his wife's photos of her children from a previous relationship after she refused to go to a wedding celebration with him.
Chesterfield magistrates' court heard on September 27 how David Shepherd, 63, of Manor Farm Court, Whitwell, fell out with his wife after they had a row about her not wanting to go to a son's wedding in Estonia.
Shepherd pleaded guilty to damaging the photos after the argument on July 2.
Defence solicitor Rebecca Meadows said sales-representative Shepherd hopes to replace the photos from available negatives and he is seeking help to address his drinking issues. Magistrates sentenced Shepherd to a 12 month conditional discharge but he was warned that he will be re-sentenced if he commits any new offence. He must also pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.


text:
Fringe 4.20 "Worlds Apart" Review
Nadine Ramsden 9 years ago
Last night's Fringe was an episode heavily laden with mythology, yet it still managed to include some wonderfully poignant character moments. The reintroduction of Nick Lane and the other Cortexiphan kids in 'Worlds Apart'finally revealed what David Robert Jones had in store for both worlds: Jones'plan was to use the former Cortexiphan subjects to tune into their Alternates on the Other Side in order to weaken the barrier between the universes to collapse both worlds. Although it was certainly telegraphed, I kept hoping that there would be another way to stop Jones than closing the Bridge, and I refuse to believe that that's the last we'll see of the Other Side.
Only in Fringe could the characters go from battling against their Alternates to fighting instead to keep the bridge between the worlds open. Somewhere along the way these strange bedfellows became not only allies but friends, and the moments between the various alternates as they said goodbye were quite perfect. I think the scene between Walter and Walternate in the hallway might just be one of my favourite of the series: the dynamic between the two elder Bishops has always been rather fraught, and yet it certainly seems as though the Secretary has forgiven Walter, even going so far as to reassure him. I found it interesting that the Observers never 'prepared'this Walter to give up his son, like we saw in last season's 'The Firefly', and yet Walter still chose the fate of the worlds over the life of his son. I hadn't actually considered myself that turning off the Machine could lead to Peter disappearing again, and it didn't seem like it occurred to Peter or Olivia either.
I've always loved the topic of the Cortexiphan trials, and last night's Fringe was no exception to that rule. Before the timeline was rewritten, Walter seemed to have made his peace with the damage he did to the children: in 'Over There', we saw several former Cortexiphan subjects forgive Walter, but this timeline has offered no such recourse. The great irony is that Walter and William Bell designed the Cortexiphan and dosed the children because they believed a war was coming, and that our world would need protectors: they didn't see it as damaging the children, but rather as making them special. David Robert Jones was able to take that preparation and potential and turn the Cortexiphan subjects into weapons.
'The Pattern'has long been a subject of debate — and consternation — among Fringe fans, since it was a storyline that was largely abandoned after season 1. When we were first introduced to Fringe Division, Olivia and company were trying to track down and stop people who were conducting 'experiments'with the whole world as their laboratory. If Jones was the driving force behind the Pattern, then it would make sense as to why it disappeared with Jones'death at the end of the season.
With only the two-part finale still to go in this season, it stands to reason that we'll round off this season with the team trying to once again stop David Robert Jones. Last week's glimpse into a possible future seems to imply that Jones will indeed be stopped, but also raises numerous other questions — par for the course, with Fringe. Evidently William Bell is still alive, so will Leonard Nimoy make yet another return to the show? The implication of the future we saw was that Bell was somehow responsible for Olivia's death: will the team make it intact through the season finale?
It was certainly a relief to be able to enjoy Fringe without the specter of cancellation hanging over our heads — I'm sure you've all heard by now that FOX has renewed the show for a final season, albeit with only 13 episodes. I've seen some frustration over the fact that we won't have a full season, but I, for one, am absolutely ecstatic that we'll get to see the storylines tied up in the way that the showrunners and writers want to, and that it will end on their terms. And even with the closure of the Bridge, given Olivia's potential to be able to cross between universes, I remain hopeful that we'll see the Alternate Universe again! Make sure you tune in next week for what I'm sure will be an explosive first part of the season finale. B+
Nadine Ramsden
Merry Fringemas Video From Fox
Bryan Jones December 16, 2008
Fringe: "Bound" Recap
versed4every1 January 21, 2009
Fringe 1.12: "The No-Brainer" Recap
Fringe 1.13: "The Transformation" Recap
versed4every1 February 5, 2009
Fringe 1.14 "Ability" Recap
versed4every1 February 12, 2009
"Fringe" Goes 'Geek Cool', But Did They Lose Their Mainstream?
Bryan Jones May 13, 2009
Who on the Show Cobra Kai Actually Knows Karate in Real Life?
10 Things You Didn't Know about Chip Coffey
Whatever Happened to Ken Olandt?
10 Things You Didn't Know about Joey Bragg


FAKE NEWS: John Sununu WaPo"doesn't print truth" but instead just repeats what is told to them.
Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu slammed the Washington Post Monday, alleging the newspaper "doesn't print truth" but instead just repeats what is told to them.
Sununu was responding to a statement by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that encouraged people to be wary of fake news about the administration.
"Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous 'officials,'" Rosenstein said in a statement on June 15.
"Anybody can get something in the press if they purport to be coming from some kind of authority," Sununu explained.


The Principle of Gender 1.
Gender and polarity are often points of confusion. Although gender is an aspect of polarity it is a dynamic point of differentiation in its own right. Gender spans more than the physical dissimilarities that separate a man from a woman. Its energetic principle is one of expansion and contraction moving in a rhythmic force of release and receipt.
A New Article in Circle Magazine!
Excited to announce that I have an article in the current Yule Issue of Circle Magazine entitled – "Inner Journeys:The Family of Trees". You can purchase on-line or at your local bookstore. Enjoy!
Upon the path of my making.
The power of my intent.
Of my will and intent?
Even flexible they may be.
Of my Will's sun filled orb.
The word "will" is a cornerstone of every spiritual practice. Used as a verb it is the catalyst that brings something into manifestation. The fires of will fueled by heart's desire acting upon mind create. Desire to become so. Using this word as a noun we define the will as that aspect of our being that becomes the personification of our intent and the authority that determines the outcome. The word then takes on another layer of meaning when consideration is given to where this will is emanating from. We typify the small or lesser will as the force we exert or exact upon others or situations driven by self-serving goals and agendas. This lesser will is focused in the needs of the individual and the level of attachment of the personality within that individual. The Higher Will is that which is informed and aligned with the Higher Self and therefore is not directed by base needs or personal outcome. It is the catalytic fire of those upon a spiritual path who have come closer to a place of individualization (remaining as the single drop that is defined by itself, yet is also part of the larger ocean which is the whole of that definition).
Will permeates our efforts at every level. We make decisions and take action based upon what our will is at that given moment. Will is often used interchangeably with the word intent. And, although the intent of any action is defined more specifically by our will each moves independently of one another. This is often why the magick we set forth does not come to fruition despite the careful efforts of being very specific in intent (or goal). If the energetic bolster of the will is not applied it is merely a schematic of a plan. Moreover, if the raw desire for successful outcome is not directed through the application of will, you may have partial but not lasting success. The furnace has to be consistently fueled for the greatest heat and change to occur. You could think of the intent as being what is focused in upon similar to the fine blade of grass that is set aflame by the directed will of the individual placing the magnifying glass just so to reflect the maximum amount of energy through it.
Another component of will is that of its nature of offering choice of selection for what actions will be taken. Free Will ensures that we are not bound and limited by a predestined path upon which we blindly tread; but rather that at every juncture, and step there is the option of moving in a different direction. And, it is this Free Will that holds us ultimately and solely accountable for what those choices are and co-creators in what our newly determined path offers as result.
Energetically it is at the level of the Throat chakra that we have the fullest expression of free will. The choice in the words we use, the communication we send out into the world and the choices surrounding how, when, in what form, to whom and where we exert that will have the potential for maximum impact. And, again it is the binding together of creative desire (at the level of the Sacral Chakra) and the enlivening of the intent (at the level of the Solar Plexus) drawn into the Heart Center of discernment and refinement of balanced desire and intent. This nexus of intent and desire are brought to a space of quickening moving up into the will of the Throat that infuses that space of communication with power, strength and the ability to manifest.
Moving in accord with this natural flow of will is challenging. Having the necessary discernment to identify what is will that is misdirected and what is Will that is divinely infused can create feelings of disconnect between what we feel our actions should be in this world and how we can freely move into those actions feeling unhampered and having clarity of vision and intent. We become trapped in a shroud of our own making isolated and unsure of how to direct that will in the most productive way. The important thing is to keep moving. To keep testing and looking closely at how we express our will. To look objectively at the product of where we have placed our will and intent and use the lessons of that scrutiny to guide the future steps taken with willful intent. And, to be ever mindful that our greatest strength of will is in the intent of maintaining what makes us uniquely ourselves and then willingly surrender it to the greater collective of what as a whole "IS".
So, do we shroud ourselves in a bubble, limiting our choices and ever walking without arrival towards the promise of the dawning or setting of our day's efforts? Or do we use that vision as the microcosmic place of beginning that reflects the outpouring of our will into the Macrocosmic light of the Higher Will?
The Moon is New tomorrow, November 3rd and a rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse occurs sometime between the sunrise and sunset hours of the day depending on geographical location. This combination offers the potential for some very powerful and deep spiritual work.