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Another Mouth To Feed...And Another...
There were a few extra mouths to feed around the Meehan homestead this week.
Our son Bram was visiting from his home in Santa Fe, NM for a few days. Mars and I wanted to treat him to some things here in the "Land of Steady Habits" that we knew he couldn't find in "The City Different" - or perhaps anywhere else for that matter. We started off by introducing him to the grocery world of Stew Leonard at the newly opened store in the town adjacent to our own. Ostensibly we went to pick up French Toast bagels and milk from the "award-winning dairy", and for the free samples (clam chowder, orange juice, bialys, meatballs served on stick pretzels, hot dogs, etc.). In reality it was the surrealistically silly singing and dancing animatronic farm animals, milk cartons, and bejeweled blocks of cheese that welcome you to and entertain you within "the world's largest dairy store".
We learned two days later by looking at a state map that the original version of this store is a featured stop on the official Zippy tour of Connecticut, along with the Muffler Man, Giant Bowling Pin, and other phantasmagorical in-state kitsch icons that appear periodically in this Bill Griffith comic strip. This new location is just as entertainingly outre.
On his first night here we went with his grandmother to her favorite Polish restaurant. In spite of the large Polish population in this general area there are only a couple of such eating establishments around. There are however zero of them in Santa Fe. Bram had Bigos - a stew of sauerkraut, cabbage and kielbasa - his usual choice.
Among the rest of the items on his menu this week were: New England Clam Chowder, "Kellys" (miniature Kielbasa locally produced), and self-picked blueberries.
He was easy - just give him here what he can't get there.
The difficult ones are the summer crop of pre and barely post fledglings that are making their annoyingly shrill little voices heard around our suddenly overwhelmed bird feeders.
A family of three grackles commandeers our bird feeder and the adjacent area several times a day. The trio is all of the same size and color so it is impossible to tell their relative family positions until the actual feeding begins. Who are the feed-ers and who is the feed-ee becomes obvious when one of the three hops onto the wrought iron plant holder near our bird feeder and sits quietly with plaintive eyes and open mouth. One of the other two then attempts to contort its larger-than-the-feeder-body torso onto the much-smaller-than-their-feet perch located at the base. After several inglorious slips and falls the food gatherer finally succeeds in hanging on long enough to get a mouthful of nourishment and flies over to transfer it from their tightly closed bill to junior's wide open one. Curiously no words are spoken during the entire process.
The other mouths however are much more vocal.
The loudest are a trio of House Sparrow beaks that thrust themselves out of the tiny hole at the end of the tree branch within which they reside and yip repeatedly as mom and dad circulate to and from the feeders attempting to quell the appetite of their offspring.
On a quiet morning if you stand near the tree you can hear the tiny sounds of the young birds reverberating within the thick dead Flowering Crab branch. The hole was originally created by a male Downey Woodpecker who inexplicably disappeared after completing his extreme makeover, so we were expecting that a family of birds would be our guests this summer. We just didn't know what kind. Now we are concerned that the little guys are going to become too fat to leave. Or that one or more of the tots will fall out of the "nest" and either Mars or I will have use our bamboo toast tongs to stuff them back into their penthouse residence.
In addition to this family drama another set of sparrow parents are busy tending to a young gray bird that seems to be about twice the size of either one of them. Mars thinks that the young'un is just fluffing himself up while I am convinced that he is in fact of different ethnicity than his parents and is ultimately not only going to totally dwarf them (perhaps by a factor of eighteen or twenty to one), but also increase his demands to include not only non-stop deliveries but a more varied diet including possibly sushi and other nouvelle cuisine entrees.
Screw Stew's! Fans of Zippy should make their pilgrimage to our front-yard instead. The free samples are nonexistent but the performers are, in our opinion, more entertaining - and, best of all, live.
Posted by Jim at 12:13 PM 0 comments
Whatever Gets You Through The Night
Sometimes lately, when I am trying to return to sleep in the middle of the night I imagine myself executing a perfect golf swing. For several years before that it was an equally ideal tennis stroke. And previous to that a basketball jump shot. I don't see myself performing these acts - instead I feel as if I am actually doing them. Somehow it relaxes me.
I played basketball from elementary school age up through the early years of marriage. I wasn't incredibly good but I was okay enough to be chosen in the first few groups for pick up games and to make my high school team albeit, as an end-of-the-bencher. My only real coaching in terms of individual skills and fundamentals came from my father at the basket in our back yard. On my high school team I spent most of my practice time playing the part of the tall guy on the next team we were going to go up against.
I did have one session with the college coach of pro basketball legend Elgin Baylor whose parents happened to live next door to co-worker of my mother. For about an hour in his ancestral driveway he attempted to show me how the then Laker star executed his signature shot, elevating himself above the basket and rolling the ball from the palm of his hand, across his fingertips and down into the hoop. The maneuver didn't work nearly as well when it was performed from considerably below the height of the rim by someone whose hands were too small to comfortably cradle the orange leather orb.
But it was my jump shot that I replayed in my bed at night trying to fall asleep. In the real world this stroke was inhibited by the same lack of leaping ability and an inconsistency extending my shooting arm enough to prohibit defenders from blocking the ball. In the bedroom at night there were no such impediments. Interestingly I do not remember imagining the ball going into the basket or even caring if it did. It was the feeling of the taking the shot that mattered. Pretty Zen - huh!
I dabbled in tennis in my early youth also - again with some coaching from my parents but mostly self-taught. I remember playing several times in high school, both informal matches and cheap dates. My local courts at that time were surfaced with clay and I recall with pride the look and feel of the red dust that accumulated on my sneakers, socks, and lower legs - and the joy of a standing-up, sliding drop shot. I also recollect a girl with whom I was playing who (as was the practice at the time) decided to jump the net and congratulate me after our match was completed. I can still clearly picture one ankle, then the other hitting the tape on the top of the meshwork, her long black hair cascading forward, and her totally out of control, face-first fall into the sticky, fine-grained earth. We remained friends but I don't believe we ever dated, either on or off the tennis court, again.
I played a little during college but did not really return to the game until after marriage when an apartment neighbor and I began a twice-weekly series of matches. As our son Bram grew older I played some with him but not until several years into my work career did I again play regularly - first as a part of an inter-departmental "tournament" and later as a series of regular matches with various co-workers.
Somewhere during that time my forehand displaced the jump shot as my sleep inducer. It really was quite an impressive stroke with perfectly balanced feet, legs, and hips and a movement that started from the hips and core area and extended its power up and into my right arm and racket - a Platonic ideal of my somewhat less consistent on-court efforts. All of my workplace opponents moved on, and the effort to replace them became too great, so I stopped playing. But not dreaming
Six or so years ago Mars suggested that we take up golf as a part of our preparation for retirement. It would be something to do together and a way to meet new people. Other than putting through windmills and such neither of us had tried it before. We began with a group lesson at a local golf course and then an individual lesson at a nearby driving range - and a little playing. We are fortunate to live within three miles of a public course nine holes of which are referred to as the "flat nine" - no hills, no water, no sand, not much and (most importantly) no pressure from hotshot experienced golfers all of whom are over at either the "real" holes or the nineteenth one.
A former co-worker turned us on to a teacher from whom she learned the game and we gave him a try. His lessons were indoors, and videotaped with equipment and software that allowed him to draw vectors and lines onto our movements to indicate what we should be doing. He was an Englishman and a former golf club maker on the professional circuit whose walls were filled with testimonials from former pro golfers, sports announcers, hockey players, and pro wrestlers. Our paradigm was the swing of Ben Hogan. As we focused on the form of our swing our playing improved - more of that Zen stuff. Then after about a year and a half he died unexpectedly. His son, a good college golfer and similar in teaching style - but without all of the great old stories - took over.
Still, even after six or more years of non-tennis and five plus of golf, my dream shot didn't change until sometime late this spring - or at least that was when I became aware of it. It's a long club (probably a three iron or three wood), hit from a sun-baked, bright green location and executed with perfect fluidity and tempo from setup to follow through - at the end of which my right foot turn turns over so that my shoelaces almost meet the ground and my club head comes to rest in front of my face. Of my three perfect shot imaginings it is the only one that comes with an awareness of place and color. But other than that, like the other two, there is no sense of anything other than the feeling of the movement itself.
In the movie "Bagger Vance", the eponymous hero, talks about how inside each and everyone of us, there is one, true authentic swing... it is something we are born with and is ours alone... something we cannot be taught, but we must remember... over time, the world can rob us of that swing... buried underneath our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... there is a perfect shot out there trying to find each and every one of us... and all we have to do is get out of the way and let it choose us.
Perhaps I am lucky enough to have more than one. Unfortunately it is still one area where I wish my performance were better out of the bedroom. But hey, whatever gets you through the night 'salright, 'salright.
Having a bad tail day.
The squirrels are having a bad tail day.
Mars pointed this out to me when I was trying to figure out which one of our resident tree rodents, four of whom were gathered around, had been waiting patiently but patently for me to perform my morning bird bath / bird feeder ritual. (Feel free to substitute the word "squirrel" for the word "bird" throughout this essay.) It was, I thought, the same one who has been on deck every forenoon for the past few weeks, ever since our major bird feeder went on sabbatical due to a household shortage of two liter soda bottles - those containers forming the holding tank for the sunflower seeds on which all of our yard pets (feathered and furred) dine.
The dearth of two thousand cc plastic containers was caused directly by the violence done to these canteens (in their roles as seed holders) by some of the very animals that depend upon them to supply a significant portion of their daily diet. I suspect you know which ones. Go figure!
We have tried to use each episode of feeder-absence as a life lesson to these quick-learning rodents - but apparently to no avail.
The most recent enforced rationing lasted two weeks until we purchased and consumed several bottles of flavored seltzer. (We deliberately took our time hoping that the message would somehow sink in.) During that time I continued, each morning to replenish the seeds in our other two smaller feeders and to refresh the water in the birdbath. I am told the latter act is a good thing to do even though in nature, which is where the bathers live, this does not happen to the natural soaking sites - ever.
About the third morning that I was doing this I noticed one particular squirrel creeping towards the tree that houses these three objects. And a few days later he actually paced on one of the branches during the time between liquid and solid refills. This behavior continued throughout the great bottle famine and continues today.
He was identifiable to me by his ratty, i.e. relatively hairless, tail. And this morning as we left for our health club I went to point him out to Mars only to discover that because of the ongoing rainfall all of the rodent yard pets were similarly coiffed. Then Mars made her observation about "bad tail days".
If the local meteorologists are correct there are several more days like this to come. I hope that the resultant hindquarters humiliation doesn't set off the squirrels in the same way that some humans are moved to act by similar follicle failures. We only have five bottles to spare at the moment.
Whoop-ee-ti-yi-o.....
Mars and I were cruising The Berlin Turnpike on our way to a foot-long Chili Dog at "Doogie's" a couple of Saturdays ago. As we drove by our local gun-shop ("Guns For The Good Guys") I was surprised and actually disappointed to see it wasn't open. I always thought that when it came to pistols Saturday night was special.
I am actually not much of a fan of firearms. I have in fact only handled them twice in my life - not including marching with unloaded and probably inoperable M16 rifles during what was at that time compulsory ROTC training in my first two years of college.
A while back when our son Bram was much younger we were friends with a couple the husband of which was an amateur target shooter, albeit with real bullets, and one weekend he offered to take Bram and me to the rifle range and let us take a shot at it (so to speak). He being a relatively sane and trustworthy person, and me feeling that exposing Bram to lots of different experiences would be good for him, we accepted his offer. I don't remember much of the event at all except that no one was injured. I think that both Bram and I had enough success to maybe want to try it again but apparently not enough enjoyment to actually do it. I still have the unused bullets - Remington High Velocity 22 Long Rifle. And I have no idea why.
My only other firearm experience occurred when I was probably about the same age as Bram was for his. And it involved my bachelor uncle Bill.
My father's brother was the dictionary definition of morose.
He lived with his sister Ann and her husband George on the first floor of a three-story house. My parents and I lived on the third. In between were two unmarried sisters in their mid fifties and their seventy-something year old mother. We had moved to this house from another third floor rental about four blocks away when I was in third or fourth grade. Prior to the relocation I don't recall either my Uncle Bill or my Aunt Ann being on earth. A family dispute over ownership had estranged my father from these two siblings (he also had two other brothers). Then one day it was announced that they existed and we were to live in their residence.
My Uncle Bill was a beer salesman and a hunter. That was it. When he came home each evening he would change from his business suit, shirt and tie (yes even beer salesman dressed that way in the fifties) into his hunting gear (red plaid wool shirts, etc.) and either care for his collection of hunting beagles that were kenneled in the backyard or clean and oil his hunting rifles that sat in the gun rack in his bedroom. We never ate dinner with them but I suspect he took his meals in that room also. It was a large area with a good sized wooden desk in addition to his armory.
Occasionally he would invite us back into one of the stalls in the four-car backyard garage to share some rabbit stew that he had cooked or venison that he had killed and butchered. I also helped him feed the beagles sometimes and once or twice we went with him to the woods to "let the dogs run".
One day I was told that he and my father were taking me shooting. I am picturing an abandoned quarry area with no one else around and a bunch of empty glass Coca Cola bottles that were set up at a challenging but doable distance as well as a pile of glass shards that clearly indicated we were not the first shooters to use this place. I am also seeing a large bird flying directly overhead and my Uncle suddenly firing his rifle upwards towards that moving target. I don't remember either the bird or the bullets falling to earth. I am certain that somewhere in there I also fired off a few rounds - at the Coke containers - but I don't really remember. I think I was still waiting for the airborne ammo to come down. We never went back for another session.
So most of my growing-up experience with guns comes from watching the television cowboy heroes of that time - The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, and Hopalong Cassidy - who never shot to kill but only to disarm the bad guys by shooting the weapon out of their hands. They actually made it look so easy that you wonder why it isn't a part of standard law enforcement procedures - both televised and real - today.
There sure are times when it would be handy to be that handy with a gun. In my fantasy world I frequently find myself shooting cell phones out of the hands of jerks that cut me off on the highway. There are no unavenged slights or Saturday nights in the land of make-believe.
Berlin Turnpike Neon photos from http://members.aol.com/cgextras/BerlinTurnpikeNeon2005.html
No pun intended but the html used in this piece intentionally includes the target="_blank" command.
Co-op(t)
Mars and I have joined a Co-op.
Not the kind headed by someone named Sri (whose real name is Bob). Nor the kind that requires us to surrender all of our worldly possessions - we're finding lots of other ways to SKI (Spend Kid's Inheritance). Lots! And definitely not the kind that requires us to proselytize in public places, or even private ones.
This is a co-op for centrist folks like us who grew up sympathetic to the hippy culture and values, but from a reasonably safe distance (Joan Baez on vinyl but not as a cellmate, Wavy Gravy the ice cream flavor rather than the role model, Woodstock the movie) - and now have retired from the "rat race" with our homes, asset portfolios, and trusts. (People who now sing "If I had a Hummer...".)
It is the kind of "shared community" we actually might have joined back in the sixties - if they had existed and we had the cash. Think of it as more of a mutual fund with organic/free range investments. And all it requires of us is a one-time act of monetary funding and a weekly trip to the mother church in order to collect our profits.
We had heard about such organizations, but not until a month or so ago when a piece appeared in our local newspaper did we know who, what, why, when and where about the ones in our immediate area. The article gave us an email address to contact and we did.
It's not really called a co-op (or commune, or cult) but rather Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). According to the response that we received a CSA "allows the farmer to get income for seed and other purchases at a time when there are no sales being made and it allows the farmer the ability to predict volumes needed by the number of shares subscribed. The member gets a bell curve of fresh produce - light to heavy to light - and usually gets a very good value."
And there are two ways to join.
* You can receive a weekly allotment (regular CSA member). A share is our estimate of 70% of the vegetable consumption of a family of 2 adults and 2 young children. I have never heard any complaints of "not enough". I usually get a "STOP".
* You can obtain a prepaid credit to allow you to set your own weekly draw and to pick up produce at your convenience at our self service "stand" (which is actually an area of our packing and grading barn). We refer to theses CSA members as prepaid credit CSA members.
Not being inclined to extremism, even in the area of healthy vegetables, we opted for the second plan and sent in our check. We got an email welcoming us with an attached Word document on which we were to keep track of our purchases. Shortly thereafter we got an electronic message telling us that free-range chickens were available, although not included in the "prepaid credit" plan. We chose not to partake. A couple of days later came the invite to begin picking up produce (but not what) and last Sunday morning we drove out to the farm for the first time.
It is located in the town of Glastonbury (like our burg of Wethersfield, a Hartford suburb on the banks of the Connecticut River) in an area once known mostly for tobacco farming. We realized that is no longer the case as soon as we turned onto the road housing the farm and noticed the recently developed mega-houses with tree-less, bush-less landscapes that stretched for most of the three miles to our destination. (There was also a newly built school. And a patch of farmland equaling about four house lots with what seemed to be incipient nicotine plants which I assume was for real, although it could be part of the planned ambience of the area.)
The farm itself, in spite of now being the minority housing in the area, was definitely the one place that looked like it belonged here. We drove down a dirt driveway past the housing in which the chickens that were foraging the area apparently lived voluntarily and parked in front of the open barn. No one was inside, but about one hundred yards away alongside another farm building were three Hispanic looking workers. Out back two other young guys were setting up the superstructure of what appeared to be a greenhouse. Our instructions told us "To shop, just take what you want, total it up using the calculator on the table and record it on the sheet for the day."
There was a white board with a list of vegetables and prices. From the contents, "winter squash" for example, it was clear that this was an index of posibilities rather than what was available at the moment. There was a glass-door refrigerator along one wall within which we noticed several types of squash - summer, zucchini and a yellow, round, scallop edged variety that we figured out from the product roster was probably Pattypan. The summer squash was almost Crayola yellow, the zucchini deep green, and all three were delightfully irregular in shape and size. There also were two heads of lettuce and one something that we decided was bok choy. I roamed out back to see if that was all that was available and what if anything else we needed to know.
The greenhouse builders pointed me to the vegetable fields where the owner's son was spraying something onto the tomato plants. I hiked out there and after removing his ipod earphones he told me to that the squash in the 'frig was all of that that they had but if we wanted herbs or lettuce we were welcome to just wander out into the fields and pick it. I walked back to the barn and we decided to get three really fresh heads of lettuce. So we went out into the fields and cut off three large curly leaf (two green and one red) using a meager knife tool that Mars carries in her handbag. One was for Mars' mother but we quickly realized we had over extended our ability to absorb salads and later gave some away more to our friend Sandy.
Back in the barn we were weighing squash on the scale and tallying up our expenses when a rush of cigar smoke floated in followed by a slightly chubby guy wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and Teva sandals. It was George the owner. After introductions and small talk - he also supplies the local Whole Foods stores, was "certified organic in 1999", and just relocated to this location ("saved it from the developer") - he offered us some Swiss chard ("just take what you want!"). We did. Then we tallied up, packed up, and left just as a late-twenties couple arrived on the scene looking as confused as we did initially.
As we drove away I wondered. Are George's cigars organic? Are the workers migrant and if so are they free-range? Do the folks up the street from the farm shop at Whole Foods?
I didn't think at all about whether this would turn out to be a good investment.
Sir Winnower
A knight-errant (plural knights-errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. "Errant" meaning wandering or roving, indicates how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures to prove himself as a knight, such as in a pas d'Armes. (Wikipedia)
That is what I will become.
Like Paladin, a cowboy television hero of my youth. "Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man. A knight without armor in a savage land..."
There is a definite need and I have the talent. Not gun or sword fighting talent. Real world talent - for real world problems:
- Issues of uninvited immigrant incursions and takeovers.
- Difficulties with overcrowding and unfair competition for limited water, air and sunlight.
- Aesthetic ailments of ugliness impinging on the grace and elegance of carefully planted beds of beauty.
- Carefully cultivated but minimally managed horticultural havens overrun by unwanted competitors.
I shall become "Sir Winnower - The Maintainer of Public Gardens"!
It's not a role that I would have even remotely foreseen for myself - little if any interest in things of the plant world as a child; raised not to tread in the underbrush for fear of the mere possibility of poison ivy; even today (after thirty years of planting and pruning and twenty-five years of membership in a Men's Garden Club) unable to identify by even their English names the therefore anonymous perennials populating our property.
But it is the office for which I am best suited by inclination and ability. And one that, based upon what I see around me, others are less than willing to undertake for themselves - the job of destructive gardening.
It probably started with the first gardener to whom I ever actually paid attention - Ernest Hemingway. Not the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner author but rather his white-haired and white-bearded doppelganger that tended to the landscaping needs of the elderly couple across the street. Unaware of his name and so totally in awe of the stoicism, economy of style, understated technique, and apparent "grace under pressure" of his weekly groundskeeper ritual as to be unwilling to approach him for it I simply referred to him as "Ernest" - and learned to appreciate the elegance of the most rudimentary acts of horticultural maintenance.
He always arrived on a blue one-speed bicycle, always wearing clean, unpressed tan chinos, brown work boots, a yellowing Irish knit sweater (on cool mornings) and a tan chino baseball hat. The hat was planted firmly on his head, at a slight angle, with the left side up. A thin stream of white hair flowed out of the sides of the hat and continued down his cheeks, merging with a short-trimmed beard and moustache. His neck was unshaven. When he removed his hat, I could see that the hair on his head was military short.
Ernest didn't wear sunglasses. He squinted (even in the shade provided by the long peak of his cap). As he toiled he removed layers. First he took off his sweater to show a clean plain white tee shirt. Then the tee shirt came off to show an upper body, tanned and largely free of fat - but not muscular.
He worked continuously, pausing only for three things: to remove a layer of clothing, to take off his hat and wipe his forehead, or to smoke a cigarette. He sat and smoked between jobs. Between grass cutting and grass raking. Between hedge trimming and hedge raking. And before leaving.
The tools Ernest used were basic: a small, generic brand push power mower, hand operated pruning shears, and a metal rake with several teeth missing - all provided by his employers. His cigarettes, I surmised from the size of the pack, were either unfiltered "regular size" Camels (my father's brand) or Lucky Strikes (my former one). The right hand that held the cigarette was always cupped. He rested that hand on his left wrist and rested the left wrist on a crossed right leg. He was very still when he smoked, except for his cupped hand floating slowly up to his mouth and back.
When he was done the lawn was uniformly short and clean, and the hedges were perfectly squared-off and flat. He put his tools away and rode off away on his bicycle, with his Irish knit sweater stuffed into a rusty handlebar basket.
I practiced the art of destructive gardening on my own property for many years - for several of them imitating the actions that I observed across the road and then, after Ernest stopped coming, emulating the activities that were by then firmly etched in both my longterm and muscle memories. And I expanded the breadth of eradication to include (among other things) the removal of unwanted plants and the forceful resolution of boundary disputes between competing bushes, trees and flowers.
Back when I was employed my own yard-work took all of the time I could give it. But now, retired, I have more available hours in the bank and either an altruistic desire to "give back" or a selfish craving to do more of what I want to do.
Either way I have decided to take my show on the road to the public gardens of the world. Under the auspices of my town's Beautification Trust I have ripped all of the salvageable perennials from an unfortunately located plot and am currently bushwhacking my way into another area at the beginning of our town's main bicycle path in order to expose whatever "keepers" that I find to the eyes of the passing path-travelers and light of day.
My work career experience has taught me, and my volunteer efforts have confirmed, that no one really likes to do the mundane back-office work that keeps things running. Fortunately I do.
Ernest and I would agree that even the most basic acts when done with style and a modicum of grace can become mini works of art. And now that I don't have a job to go to daily, maybe they can also become something that I do knightly.
Please click on any photo for a larger view.


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text:
'use strict';

var should = require('should'),
  request = require('supertest'),
  path = require('path'),
  mongoose = require('mongoose'),
  User = mongoose.model('User'),
  Ncf = mongoose.model('Ncf'),
  express = require(path.resolve('./config/lib/express'));

/**
 * Globals
 */
var app, agent, credentials, user, ncf;

/**
 * Ncf routes tests
 */
describe('Ncf CRUD tests', function () {

  before(function (done) {
    // Get application
    app = express.init(mongoose);
    agent = request.agent(app);

    done();
  });

  beforeEach(function (done) {
    // Create user credentials
    credentials = {
      username: 'username',
      password: 'M3@n.jsI$Aw3$0m3'
    };

    // Create a new user
    user = new User({
      firstName: 'Full',
      lastName: 'Name',
      displayName: 'Full Name',
      email: 'test@test.com',
      username: credentials.username,
      password: credentials.password,
      provider: 'local'
    });

    // Save a user to the test db and create new Ncf
    user.save(function () {
      ncf = {
        name: 'Ncf name'
      };

      done();
    });
  });

  it('should be able to save a Ncf if logged in', function (done) {
    agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
      .send(credentials)
      .expect(200)
      .end(function (signinErr, signinRes) {
        // Handle signin error
        if (signinErr) {
          return done(signinErr);
        }

        // Get the userId
        var userId = user.id;

        // Save a new Ncf
        agent.post('/api/ncfs')
          .send(ncf)
          .expect(200)
          .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
            // Handle Ncf save error
            if (ncfSaveErr) {
              return done(ncfSaveErr);
            }

            // Get a list of Ncfs
            agent.get('/api/ncfs')
              .end(function (ncfsGetErr, ncfsGetRes) {
                // Handle Ncf save error
                if (ncfsGetErr) {
                  return done(ncfsGetErr);
                }

                // Get Ncfs list
                var ncfs = ncfsGetRes.body;

                // Set assertions
                (ncfs[0].user._id).should.equal(userId);
                (ncfs[0].name).should.match('Ncf name');

                // Call the assertion callback
                done();
              });
          });
      });
  });

  it('should not be able to save an Ncf if not logged in', function (done) {
    agent.post('/api/ncfs')
      .send(ncf)
      .expect(403)
      .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
        // Call the assertion callback
        done(ncfSaveErr);
      });
  });

  it('should not be able to save an Ncf if no name is provided', function (done) {
    // Invalidate name field
    ncf.name = '';

    agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
      .send(credentials)
      .expect(200)
      .end(function (signinErr, signinRes) {
        // Handle signin error
        if (signinErr) {
          return done(signinErr);
        }

        // Get the userId
        var userId = user.id;

        // Save a new Ncf
        agent.post('/api/ncfs')
          .send(ncf)
          .expect(400)
          .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
            // Set message assertion
            (ncfSaveRes.body.message).should.match('Please fill Ncf name');

            // Handle Ncf save error
            done(ncfSaveErr);
          });
      });
  });

  it('should be able to update an Ncf if signed in', function (done) {
    agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
      .send(credentials)
      .expect(200)
      .end(function (signinErr, signinRes) {
        // Handle signin error
        if (signinErr) {
          return done(signinErr);
        }

        // Get the userId
        var userId = user.id;

        // Save a new Ncf
        agent.post('/api/ncfs')
          .send(ncf)
          .expect(200)
          .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
            // Handle Ncf save error
            if (ncfSaveErr) {
              return done(ncfSaveErr);
            }

            // Update Ncf name
            ncf.name = 'WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO MEAN?';

            // Update an existing Ncf
            agent.put('/api/ncfs/' + ncfSaveRes.body._id)
              .send(ncf)
              .expect(200)
              .end(function (ncfUpdateErr, ncfUpdateRes) {
                // Handle Ncf update error
                if (ncfUpdateErr) {
                  return done(ncfUpdateErr);
                }

                // Set assertions
                (ncfUpdateRes.body._id).should.equal(ncfSaveRes.body._id);
                (ncfUpdateRes.body.name).should.match('WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO MEAN?');

                // Call the assertion callback
                done();
              });
          });
      });
  });

  it('should be able to get a list of Ncfs if not signed in', function (done) {
    // Create new Ncf model instance
    var ncfObj = new Ncf(ncf);

    // Save the ncf
    ncfObj.save(function () {
      // Request Ncfs
      request(app).get('/api/ncfs')
        .end(function (req, res) {
          // Set assertion
          res.body.should.be.instanceof(Array).and.have.lengthOf(1);

          // Call the assertion callback
          done();
        });

    });
  });

  it('should be able to get a single Ncf if not signed in', function (done) {
    // Create new Ncf model instance
    var ncfObj = new Ncf(ncf);

    // Save the Ncf
    ncfObj.save(function () {
      request(app).get('/api/ncfs/' + ncfObj._id)
        .end(function (req, res) {
          // Set assertion
          res.body.should.be.instanceof(Object).and.have.property('name', ncf.name);

          // Call the assertion callback
          done();
        });
    });
  });

  it('should return proper error for single Ncf with an invalid Id, if not signed in', function (done) {
    // test is not a valid mongoose Id
    request(app).get('/api/ncfs/test')
      .end(function (req, res) {
        // Set assertion
        res.body.should.be.instanceof(Object).and.have.property('message', 'Ncf is invalid');

        // Call the assertion callback
        done();
      });
  });

  it('should return proper error for single Ncf which doesnt exist, if not signed in', function (done) {
    // This is a valid mongoose Id but a non-existent Ncf
    request(app).get('/api/ncfs/559e9cd815f80b4c256a8f41')
      .end(function (req, res) {
        // Set assertion
        res.body.should.be.instanceof(Object).and.have.property('message', 'No Ncf with that identifier has been found');

        // Call the assertion callback
        done();
      });
  });

  it('should be able to delete an Ncf if signed in', function (done) {
    agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
      .send(credentials)
      .expect(200)
      .end(function (signinErr, signinRes) {
        // Handle signin error
        if (signinErr) {
          return done(signinErr);
        }

        // Get the userId
        var userId = user.id;

        // Save a new Ncf
        agent.post('/api/ncfs')
          .send(ncf)
          .expect(200)
          .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
            // Handle Ncf save error
            if (ncfSaveErr) {
              return done(ncfSaveErr);
            }

            // Delete an existing Ncf
            agent.delete('/api/ncfs/' + ncfSaveRes.body._id)
              .send(ncf)
              .expect(200)
              .end(function (ncfDeleteErr, ncfDeleteRes) {
                // Handle ncf error error
                if (ncfDeleteErr) {
                  return done(ncfDeleteErr);
                }

                // Set assertions
                (ncfDeleteRes.body._id).should.equal(ncfSaveRes.body._id);

                // Call the assertion callback
                done();
              });
          });
      });
  });

  it('should not be able to delete an Ncf if not signed in', function (done) {
    // Set Ncf user
    ncf.user = user;

    // Create new Ncf model instance
    var ncfObj = new Ncf(ncf);

    // Save the Ncf
    ncfObj.save(function () {
      // Try deleting Ncf
      request(app).delete('/api/ncfs/' + ncfObj._id)
        .expect(403)
        .end(function (ncfDeleteErr, ncfDeleteRes) {
          // Set message assertion
          (ncfDeleteRes.body.message).should.match('User is not authorized');

          // Handle Ncf error error
          done(ncfDeleteErr);
        });

    });
  });

  it('should be able to get a single Ncf that has an orphaned user reference', function (done) {
    // Create orphan user creds
    var _creds = {
      username: 'orphan',
      password: 'M3@n.jsI$Aw3$0m3'
    };

    // Create orphan user
    var _orphan = new User({
      firstName: 'Full',
      lastName: 'Name',
      displayName: 'Full Name',
      email: 'orphan@test.com',
      username: _creds.username,
      password: _creds.password,
      provider: 'local'
    });

    _orphan.save(function (err, orphan) {
      // Handle save error
      if (err) {
        return done(err);
      }

      agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
        .send(_creds)
        .expect(200)
        .end(function (signinErr, signinRes) {
          // Handle signin error
          if (signinErr) {
            return done(signinErr);
          }

          // Get the userId
          var orphanId = orphan._id;

          // Save a new Ncf
          agent.post('/api/ncfs')
            .send(ncf)
            .expect(200)
            .end(function (ncfSaveErr, ncfSaveRes) {
              // Handle Ncf save error
              if (ncfSaveErr) {
                return done(ncfSaveErr);
              }

              // Set assertions on new Ncf
              (ncfSaveRes.body.name).should.equal(ncf.name);
              should.exist(ncfSaveRes.body.user);
              should.equal(ncfSaveRes.body.user._id, orphanId);

              // force the Ncf to have an orphaned user reference
              orphan.remove(function () {
                // now signin with valid user
                agent.post('/api/auth/signin')
                  .send(credentials)
                  .expect(200)
                  .end(function (err, res) {
                    // Handle signin error
                    if (err) {
                      return done(err);
                    }

                    // Get the Ncf
                    agent.get('/api/ncfs/' + ncfSaveRes.body._id)
                      .expect(200)
                      .end(function (ncfInfoErr, ncfInfoRes) {
                        // Handle Ncf error
                        if (ncfInfoErr) {
                          return done(ncfInfoErr);
                        }

                        // Set assertions
                        (ncfInfoRes.body._id).should.equal(ncfSaveRes.body._id);
                        (ncfInfoRes.body.name).should.equal(ncf.name);
                        should.equal(ncfInfoRes.body.user, undefined);

                        // Call the assertion callback
                        done();
                      });
                  });
              });
            });
        });
    });
  });

  afterEach(function (done) {
    User.remove().exec(function () {
      Ncf.remove().exec(done);
    });
  });
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Convert several multimedia files from your computer to different formats in an efficient manner by relying on this lightweight application.
If you like spending your free time enjoying multimedia content on your computer, you probably understand how an efficient conversion tool can be helpful for you.
Fortunately, nowadays there is a wide variety of applications that can turn file conversion into an unsophisticated task. One of these applications is FFMpeg Console.
Since it is portable, this tool does not require any installation on your computer. It does not tamper with your Windows' registry entries, nor does it create additional files or folders on your PC. However, in order for it to run as intended, you need to provide it with FFMpeg.
This application comes with a simple, user-friendly interface that packs intuitive controls, thus making it highly accessible to a wide spectrum of computer users.
You can rely on FFMpeg Console if you need an efficient file conversion tool that supports several formats and profiles. Given that you can either use a list of presets or write your own FFMpeg command lines, this application proves itself to be simple enough for novices, but also highly configurable for more advanced computer users.
Among the supported formats in the predefined list, you can find MP4, AVI, WMV, GIF, MP3, WAV and JPEG. Therefore, you are provided with a rather wide range of possibilities regarding quick file conversion.
If needed, you can save the FFMpeg command lines as new profiles, thus preventing you from wasting your time typing the corresponding commands every time you need them.
Doing so can be accomplished by clicking the paper sheet button and choosing a new name. Alternatively, you can choose to overwrite an already existing format, if needed.
As a conclusion, FFMpeg Console is a simple tool based on FFMpeg that can help you convert many files from your computer to several formats in an efficient manner. This utility makes it possible that you can create new conversion profiles from FFMpeg command lines, but also provides you with a list of preset profiles that you can rely on.


text:
Thought Itself
The History of Thought with Eric Gerlach
Intro-Phil 1
Asia-Phil 37
Buddha-Phil 16
Greece-Phil 20A
Europe-Phil 20B
Ethics-Phil 31A
Logic-Phil 10
Politics-Phil 2
Religion-Hum 40
Being & Not
Eurocentrism
Tribal Shamans
Cosmic Priests
Egypt & Babylon
Hinduism & The Jains
Epicurus & The Stoics
Mozi & Xunzi
Fanon, hooks & Said
Talk & Logic
True & Valid
Aristotle, Gotama
Truth Tables
Truth Tables 2
Basic Proofs
Human Politics
Mencius & Mozi
Plato's Republic
Aristotle's Politics
Hegel & Marcuse
Hardjedef
Ptahhotep
Khun-Anup
Amenemopet
Ani the Scribe
Marikare
Al Kindi
Al Farabi
Avicenna & Descartes
Al Ghazali
Gotama
Charvakas
Jains
Buddha's Talks
Buddhism in Tibet
Buddha & Wittgenstein
Buddhism, Existentialism & Postmodernism
Poets & Epics
The Milesians
Anaximander
Anaximenes
The Eleatics
Melissus
The Crito
The Meno
The Symposium
The Timaeus
The Parmenides
The Theaetetus
Pyrrho
Aenesidemus
The Stoics
Zeno of Citium
The Yi Jing
The Bamboo Dao
The Mean
Great Learning
Hui Shi
Gongsun Long
Linji
Blue Cliff Record
Dahui
Gateless Gate
Zen Stories
Hakuin
Buddhism in China
Buddhism in Korea
Buddhism in Japan
Buddhism in Vietnam
Neo-Platonism
Eriugena
Ockham
Cusanus
Ficino
Itsy
Political Philosophy – Feminism
For this lecture, read Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2.
Myths and Realities of Gender Differences
The gender mythology of our culture and many other patriarchal cultures is that women are docile, non-violent, unconfident, incompetent, and emotional. Lt. Col. Grossman in his excellent book On Killing tells us that there is no difference between men and women in combat physically or psychologically. Women are capable of violence and even rape, though our society does not recognize this yet. There is rape and torture among female prison inmates. There have been documented instances of female gang members gang raping men. Women, including young girls, have been said to be more psychological than physical in bullying compared to men and boys, but they are clearly not docile, unconfident or incompetent.
What, then, are the differences between men and women? Most obviously, there are physiological differences that relate to sex and procreation. In addition, there is one dynamic of psychology in which women relatively differ from men. Men tend to seek power through NOT being social, isolating themselves and their opinions, whereas women tend to seek power through BEING social, interacting with others. The two best examples are 1) classic women 'let's talk' vs. men 'I don't want to talk about it' that becomes strained in many heterosexual relationships (like choosing a restaurant, where women wants to discuss and man wants her to just pick), and 2) male boss 'don't bring it to me until it's done and done right' vs. female boss 'let's go over the details so we are on the same page' difference of support offered.
This does not mean that all men are antisocial or that women are social, but there are many instances of this dynamic that become clearer when we become aware of it. One offshoot is that women are more self-conscious, conscious of being watched as the object of gaze, whereas men are more conscious of the object watched, of the goal or destination they have in mind. Women want to be desired, whereas men want to get what they desire. Again, this does not mean that women are incapable of firm goals any more than men are incapable of being self-conscious, but the dynamic is quite familiar. Some say that there may be a genetic difference, including differences of male and female emotions and brain chemistry, but others argue that this is merely cultural. Other than this RELATIVE difference, there is no good evidence to suggest that men and women are very much different at all. The work of Piaget suggests that men and women undergo the same mental development in the same set of stages at roughly the same ages.
In apes and the most ancient nomadic and tribal societies, there is evidence that women often had status and leadership positions. Women were shamans, leaders, and there were often central female mother gods. As people began to collect into city states, we can see patriarchy increase. Why did this happen? The best explanation so far, one that does not rely on any inability of women, is the increased size of the community. When people lived in small communities, women could raise children at the center of the village, as the political center. As city states increased in size, it made it increasingly difficult to raise one's children at the public center. Thus, women retreated into the home, and men, who had to be the go-for before now were the ones who could venture out of the home and into the centers of political activity. Today, devices allow women and men to raise children while fully participating in public life, but women are still more confined to the home in balancing life between home and career.
When we look at the cultures of the world and their historical development, we can see that all cultures have taken part in a similar oppression of women, but at the same time women have had increasing power in society and new cultural movements have to appeal to women to be successful. Consider that Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, the three largest cultures so far, all had to offer women better status and rights than they had previously.
In Buddhism, there is a story of a naga princess who is enlightened upon hearing the Buddha's teaching, but when she goes to the monks to have her enlightenment confirmed they tell her she has to be reborn as a man before getting enlightened, so she levitates and transforms into a man and flies straight up to a high pure land (heaven) in front of them. Note that you can read the story as a progressive Buddhist woman and say that being a man is no significant thing, or you can read the story as a conservative Buddhist monk and say that she had to become a man before rising. Jesus had many women as followers, and Christianity appealed to women of ancient Syria, Greece and Rome by teaching that men cheating on women is equally as bad as women cheating on men. Under Islamic law, with regional variation, women can divorce their husbands and receive a portion of the property, as well as refuse consent for sex. All three of these religions also oppressed women. In Buddhist and Christian traditional culture, nuns were only allowed to teach children, adult men unwilling to be taught by women.
Modern society has continued the trend, such that today women have equal legal status in many nations but covert sexism and a lack of women owning the property persists. A United Nations 2004 report claims that women work 20% more a day on job and home together than men do (10 ½ hours to men 8 ¾ hours). Worldwide, women are 51% of the population (technically the MAJORITY of the population), do 66% of the work, get 10% of the income, and own 1% of the property. Thus sexism, overt and covert, is quite alive in spite of counter claims.
Feminism is the movement in reaction to sexism and prejudice against women. The basic idea is that women should have the same status as men in society, or "women are people too". At my high school assembly years ago, the student who served as the head of the NOW chapter for the school asked the assembly 'Who thinks women are equal to men?", and when most everyone raised their hands, she replied, "Then you are all feminists!", which impressed me much. It is a shame that people, men but also women, are afraid of calling themselves feminists, largely from the backlash of the 80s between the second wave and third wave of feminism which said that militant feminists simply hate men and that feminism is more about anger and revenge than it is about love and equality.
Historically, many consider Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) to be the first major feminist work, arguing that women and men should have equal rights, and that women are not rationally inferior to men, but appear so because they were not educated to the degree that men were. Two years before (1790), Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) had written Vindication of the Rights of Men, a justification of the French Revolution and progressive values such as equality that were being attacked by conservatives and traditionalists. In writing the influential work, arguing that doing away with nobles and slavery benefits society as a whole, she began to conceive of her second Vindication, a work centered on progress towards women's equality.
Like bell hooks would much later, in the 1980s, Wollstonecraft argued that improving the lives of women such that they are regarded as equals will make them better wives, better mothers, and benefit everyone socially. Women are perceived, genuinely or falsely, to be superficial only because they are denied equal education. Women are taught that it is beauty, not intelligence, that counts, and so many are left no option other than "to adorn its prison". Because women are the early educators of both daughters and sons, they should be educated such that they can be better educators and parents. Both boys and girls should be given the same public education to help society progress as a whole.
In America there were three waves of feminism, each building on and addressing new issues from the previous wave. The first wave was the women's suffrage movement of the early 1900s in America and Britain. The most famous figure is Susan B. Anthony. She argued that the abortion issue should be set aside to concentrate on women's right to vote as an adult citizen and women's right to refuse sex to their husbands. Note that Mohammed said this over a thousand years ago, recorded in the Ahadith in 600 CE, and yet there are still problems today in Islamic culture as well as our own. The first wave, not of course known as that till the second wave, culminated in 1919 with 19th amendment to the US Constitution.
The second wave was the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and early 70s which is also called the Women's Liberation Movement or Women's Lib. Defined by Carol Hanisch's phrase "The personal is political", it took off in early 60s and culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1966, backed by both NOW and the NAACP, the biggest American anti-sexism and anti-racism groups working together. While the first wave said 'this is America so we deserve to vote', the second wave was part of anti-establishment left movement that said that America was a corrupted institution that needed to be changed.
Simone De Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex in France in 1953, arguing that women had been marginalized as 'The OTHER' by men using Hegel's idea of the master-slave dialectic (my German Hegel professor 'a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle' speaking of feminists using Hegel). The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan was another major feminist work of the time, much more published in America than Marxist De Beauvoir's, arguing that women were not feeling fulfilled as homemakers and mothers and they needed an identity for themselves as individuals beyond the identity of the family. Women who went to psychologists in the 50s and complained that their lives were unfulfilling were often prescribed Valium.
The major criticism of the second wave movement, which only fully rose in the third wave was much embodied in the work of Gloria Jean Watkins, known as 'bell hooks', an early critic of 2nd wave feminism as white middle class women empowerment that ignores all else in the name of 'feminism', thus hooks' 'womanism'. The third wave was after the 80s backlash against the 60s progressive movements that began in the early 90s and continues today. The third wave tried to not only pay attention to black women, Latina women, third world women, but also to break down the idea of women as essentially different from men but equal.
The two big issues, which are still being fought out today, are 1) Is gender a subjective construct (in the mind) or social reality (in the world)? And 2) Did feminism accomplish what it set out to achieve, or did it in part hurt its own efforts in telling women that sex makes them oppressed? I was talking with a BCC co-worker, and she said her son and his friends in high school think that the oppression of women is a thing of the past and feminists are hippie women who don't shave their armpits and hate men. Notice that this deals with these two issues: the kids misunderstand feminists as both anti-sex and ignorant that the battle is over.
De Beauvoir famously wrote, "One is not born a woman, one becomes a woman". Judith Butler says that gender identity is performative. Both of these figures thus back the Poststructuralist conception, that identity is created and performed. If a woman puts on makeup and wears a short skirt, is she being oppressed or is she actively expressing her individuality? The second wave came under fire from the third wave because some feminists told women that if they tried to be sexy they were being deceived and made into property This drew a fight between anti-pornography and anti-prostitution feminists and younger sex-positive feminism.
Pro-sex feminists ask, even if we are talking only of abusive male style porn, should we make porn illegal? Should we try to deny men watching women and lust, or should we empower the individual woman to live as freely and equally as men in a complex world? Many feminist critics have argued that some TV and movies seem to be pro-feminist (Sex and the City, Ally McBeal, Bridget Jones' Diary) but in fact they are stories where a working white woman (and her friends) try to find the perfect man to find happiness. They are not critical of society and remain centered on white professionals.
Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell hooks (1952 – present) (yes, spelled lower case on purpose) is a feminist and social philosopher who argues that class, gender and race are complexly connected. Critical of second wave 60s feminism focusing on sexism to the neglect of racism and the gap between the rich and the poor, she labeled herself a womanist (not in spell check, but now added to my dictionary) and argued much like Foucault did with Chomsky that power, even resistance movements, reinscribes itself and thus feminism can itself be a marginalizing force. This is also similar to Judith Butler, who views culture and feminism as a complex and not as a simple struggle between the forces of good and evil. While feminism made gains in the 60s and continues to do so today, bell hooks was critical of the movement as it was populated mostly by white college women who are upper and middle class, live in first world countries such as the US and UK, and disconnected from the lives of many women who are impoverished, are unable to attend college or a good career, and who are overwhelmingly of European descent.
One of the most frequently cited sources of the third wave of feminism, bell hooks argues that feminism is for everyone, not just middle and upper class college girls and career minded women. Growing up first in segregated schools and then in predominantly white schools, she saw firsthand that progressives and educators can support prejudice while fighting for change. She studied at UC Santa Cruz and began teaching in 1976 at USC, then later at Santa Cruz, Yale and SF State. She first wrote poetry under her grandmother's name, Bell Hooks, later keeping the name as she wrote essays and books. One of her early and most famous books is Ain't I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism (1981), which examines the dual marginalization of black women in a patriarchal and racist society. The title is inspired by Sojourner Truth, a black abolitionist and feminist living in the late 1800s whose speech Ain't I a Woman is a celebrated work of women's rights. She is critical of black men's sexism towards black women, the marginalization of the poor by the powerful, and white racism and white supremacism in culture and media.
While some are critical of her work, like Foucault she is suspicious of any side that calls itself the true and the objective, including feminist and black consciousness movements. For this, many call her, as they do Foucault and Butler, a post-modernist, a skeptic of conceptions of absolute truth and a believer in perspectivism and historicism, that truth is always in a particular perspective situated in a particular time and place. This is similar to Trotsky and Heidegger in so far as power and knowledge must continuously transform themselves. A movement such as feminism must thus be continuously critical of itself and understand itself as a diverse group of various strategies and perspectives. I am particularly inspired by her view of education and teaching. She argues that schools can operate as mind control centers that breed conformity and complacency with injustice such as institutional racism and sexism, but they should operate as open spaces where individuals are invited to question their culture, assumptions and ideas.
Another celebrated source of feminist philosophy, particularly poststructuralist and postmodernist third wave feminism which is critical of power like Foucault, is Judith Butler (1956 – present), a professor at UCB and one of the most famous feminist thinkers today. She wrote her thesis at Yale on Hegel and understanding individuality in French history. Like bell hooks, she began to question feminism and its assumptions, particularly the monolithic "us vs. them" mentality that is unreflective and untransparent not only in its assumptions but in its masking the diversity of the feminist movement.
A political philosopher beyond the focus on feminism, I myself saw her give a recent talk (in jeans and a black t-shirt in front of a well dressed audience) on Palestinians and how their suffering is perceived and framed in the US and UK, particularly on how suicide bombers understand themselves and their actions and how they are understood by outsiders. This is very similar to her work on gender in locating truth in a human body as a performance in time and space. As she is Jewish, she has been praised for this, her most recent work by pro-Palestinian groups and opposed by pro-Israel groups and authors as a traitor and fool. I particularly admire thinkers who stand up against what they believe are injustices of their own culture and people.
Butler's famous feminist idea is performative gender, that gender, and all identity, is a performance. Wearing a dress, applying make-up and watching certain types of TV shows are obvious examples of how traditional women's gender is performed. In her most famous book, Gender Trouble, she particularly uses Foucault as inspiration to critically examine gender and how it is prescribed and reinscribed through the actions of people as they identify themselves with a particular gender. Like Hegel and Foucault, this is a historical view of truth that suggests that gender and identity are cultural constructs. Like Foucault and Fanon, Butler is critical of binary divisions and how they limit our understandings of ourselves and others. Like bell hooks, Butler argues that supporting feminism means criticizing binary distinctions such as women vs. men rather than supporting them. Given a diverse population and the complexity of politics and history, human beings limit themselves through their understanding of identity and its complexity.
For example, men come to see certain actions as macho, and they identify these with masculinity and heterosexuality as individuals in a cultural coherence such that their performance of their own identities and individualities are stylized and polarized. Thus, crying becomes something feminine or homosexual, in opposition to the masculine and heterosexual. A male individual, inauthentically as Heidegger might say, would believe that he is doing what he naturally wants without critically reflecting on the fact that he has helped participate in his own enclosure in an identity that limits his individuality and possibilities.
Here is a link to an extensive three part documentary on feminism and the women's movement:
http://video.pbs.org/program/makers-women-who-make-america/
Squad Goals & Himalayan Goats
Turtle Chomps Watermelon
Heroin Spoon Sculpture Left Outside Pharma Co
Buddha with Halo
Wittgenstein says a train station on Mars is completely meaningless.
San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake
I had no idea Pastafarians celebrate both Ramendan and Pastover
Gemni of Egypt
Swapping Selves With Amida Buddha
Hello, Waldo Richie
Twain Likes Dogs More Than People
And Stuff, a poem
Itsy & The Infinite Web 8: Fools & Jerks At Work
Self-Help vs DBZ: WHO WILL WIN?
The Twisted Remains of a Psychology Building

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Study Higher is granted 3 4 million to encourage disadvantaged young people into Higher Education
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Press office details
Study Higher is granted £3.4 million to encourage disadvantaged young people into Higher Education
The collaborative partnership Study Higher has been successful in its bid to secure funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to help increase the number of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Higher Education (HE).
The partnership, which is led by Oxford Brookes University and made up of universities and further education colleges across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Swindon, has been awarded £3.4 million over two years, as part of HEFCE's National Collaborative Outreach Programme.
We are seeing record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university and benefitting from the real opportunities that our world-class universities can offer.
Jo Johnson, Universities and Science Minister
The partnership will use the funding to work collaboratively on a wide-range of outreach activities with targeted schools and colleges across the region to highlight opportunities within HE. This includes a project to encourage white working class boys to progress to HE, increased provision of information and advice for students progressing from vocational qualifications, and a continued focus on supporting students with caring responsibilities.
Alice Wilby, Director of UK Recruitment and Partnerships at Oxford Brookes University said: "I'm delighted that the Study Higher consortium has been successful in this bid.
"It represents an excellent opportunity for us to make a substantial difference to the progression of students from our region, and complements our existing work to widen access to Oxford Brookes University."
HEFCE's National Collaborative Outreach Programme aims to support the Government's goals to double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE by 2020, increase by 20 per cent the number of students in HE from ethnic minority groups and address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: "We are seeing record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university and benefitting from the real opportunities that our world-class universities can offer.
"This funding and the schemes that have been developed by universities will make a real difference to young people in key areas. In addition to this, we are legislating for a new transparency duty which will place a clear requirement on institutions to go further and faster to promote social mobility."
Study Higher is a partnership between Oxford Brookes University, University of Oxford, Bucks New University, University of Reading and six local Further Education colleges.
Last November, Study Higher received £22,000 to fund projects and activities aimed at increasing the number of Bangladeshi and Pakistani girls studying in HE. In January 2015, it was announced that Oxford Brookes would receive £150,000 to be the lead institution for the Study Higher partnership.
(Available during office hours and for urgent out of hours press enquiries)
pr@brookes.ac.uk
(Inbox monitored 9am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday)
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Did you know you can beef up your Google Maps listing with posts announcing special events, services, or products? This new Google My Business feature allows you to appeal to more new patients right in your search results listing. And it may even give your ranking a little boost.
A Google My Business listing is a critical factor in any successful chiropractic SEO strategy. Having an accurate listing enables your practice to appear in the maps section of Google search results.
If you're a Perfect Patients Standard or Premium client, we will assist you in claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing. Continue reading to learn how to post to your account.
When you think about "posting" something, you probably think of social media posts. This is very different. You're not going to post photos of your delicious brunch or your son's soccer tournament to your Google My Business account.
What you can post instead are special offers and announcements. Running a new patient special this week? Post it. Staying open late on Friday? Post it.
Google My Business posts are meant to be timely; therefore, they are only prominent for 7 days, after which they can be found by clicking on the "Posts" tab when looking on a mobile device. If you have more than one post live, the newest one will show up first with the rest displayed in a carousel format.
Before drafting your post, think about what you want your post to do. Are you trying to encourage new patients to schedule an appointment, announcing an upcoming event, or perhaps just sharing new practice hours? Have a goal in mind so that your post is focused (there is a character limit, so short and sweet is the way to go).
Also make sure that you have a high-resolution photo to go along with your message. This helps your post stand out. You want your image to be in-focus and well-lit with vibrant colors.
Remember: you want your post to stand out. A blurry photo of your front office isn't going to cut it.
Remember that character count we mentioned? You get up to 1,500 characters, but Google recommends sticking between 150 and 300 characters. So be succinct. And don't forget your call to action – "Call today", "Schedule an appointment", etc.
Next, select "Create post." You will now see the option to add text, photos, buttons, and more to your post. Enter your information and click "Preview." If you like what you see, select "Publish" in the top right corner of the screen.
If you'd like to post using your mobile device, download the Google My Business app to make it easier.
There you have it! An easy new way to make your business listing stand out in the Google maps results. And while there's no guarantee that it will help your ranking, evidence suggests that in some cases it may. So if your maps listing needs a boost, give posting a try.


Particularly notable in this regard is our collaboration with the Sagar School that is located two hours away from the National Capital Region in the serenity of the countryside. Together with the school, we focus on empowering underprivileged women and children in surrounding villages by teaching them skills that can earn a better livelihood. The stress is on encouraging local handicraft and how to market it successfully.
This past year, a special area of focus for us was hygiene. In village Maler, close to the Sagar School, the Firm took the initiative of having toilets constructed for the entire village. It was our very own 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan'.


AT A DISTURBINGLY INCREASING RATE, THE WORLD IS MOVING AWAY FROM THE U.S. DOLLAR. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR OUR CURRENCY'S FUTURE?
In recent history, for as long as the U.S. dollar has reigned as the global reserve currency, countries have traditionally paid for goods in trade by converting their currency into the dollar. Thus there has usually been a huge (but artificial) demand for the greenback.


text:
You can bring your own Android phone to Xfinity Mobile
8BitDo's latest controller has fully customizable buttons
Niantic is shutting down Field Trip, its first app
Google is testing an online social network for offline meetups
T-Mobile USA delays Android 1.5 rollout by a few days
Chris Ziegler
We knew it was too good to be true, eternal curmudgeonly pessimists that we are -- and sure enough, T-Mobile USA has put the kibosh on the start of its Android 1.5 rollout to G1 users. It seems that the build is still being "optimized" to "ensure optimal functionality and smooth delivery," which doesn't necessarily explain why T-Mobile UK users are already enjoying this stuff -- but then again, we're not the engineers and tech support folks that have to put up with the fallout from a failed launch. The carrier thinks everything will be delayed by about a week, which means that we're now looking at early June before everyone gets it.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
In this article: android, android 1.5, Android1.5, breaking news, BreakingNews, cupcake, g1, htc, mobile, t mobile, t-mobile, tmobile


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Q: magento 1.9 insert product through sql query I want to insert a product using sql directly, these are the table I've filled with the relative queries, the categories 1 is root and 19 already exists:
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity ( entity_type_id, attribute_set_id, type_id, sku, has_options, required_options, created_at, updated_at ) VALUES ( 4, 4, 'simple', 'SKUPRO', 0, 0, NOW(), NOW() );

//category
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_category_product ( category_id, product_id, position ) VALUES ( 1, 23425, 2 ), ( 19, 23425, 2 );

//quantity
INSERT INTO etpq_cataloginventory_stock_item ( product_id, stock_id, qty, is_in_stock, cfg_manage_stock, manage_stock, min_sale_qty, max_sale_qty ) VALUES ( 23425, 9, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 );

INSERT INTO etpq_cataloginventoty_stock_status ( product_id, website_id, stock_id, qty, stock_status ) VALUES ( 23425, 1, 1, 9, 1 );

//name
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity_varchar ( entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value ) VALUES( 4, 71, 4, 23425, :value );

//description
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity_text ( entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value ) VALUES( 4, :attribute_id, 4, 23425,, :entity_id, :value );
//weight
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity_decimal ( entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value ) VALUES( :entity_type_id, :attribute_id, :store_id, :entity_id, :value );

//price
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity_decimal ( entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value ) VALUES( :entity_type_id, :attribute_id, :store_id, :entity_id, :value );

//visibility
INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_entity_int ( entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value ) VALUES( 4, 102, 4, 23425, 4 );

INSERT INTO etpq_catalog_product_website ( website_id, store_id ) ) VALUES( :website_id, :store_id );

The product is not listed into the manage products of magento, is it missing something?

A: For this point, you are able to see the product on magento admin panel only.
If you insert values on catalog_category_product_index then you can see the product through UI.

A: You can download the current database from phpmyadmin and add the product information to sql file and then upload. You have many queries that need to execute to upload product. Or download only the Data Structure from phpmyadmin if you have large database. I think, this is the shortest way in this case to upload your products.

A: It is necessary insert the product attributes into the store_id=0 (Admin), as well as the store_id of your desired store, to let it show into the product list manager.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Everyday Resistance (2020-ongoing)
Everyday Rebellion gallery
Click on the image above to see the gallery
In September 2020 it was announced that the Irish economy has contracted by more than 6%, recording two consecutive quarters of negative economic activity as a result of the impact of Covid -19. This means the country has officially entered into recession.
During the last recession the Irish State poured billions of euros into saving the banks with the burden of debt firmly placed on ordinary people. As a result of Government policies inequality grew, with the effect most notable felt through the cuts and under funding in education, health and housing. Over a decade on and the impact is still evident with many of the educational cuts still not fully restored, the health system and hospital overcrowding still in disarray and a housing and homeless crisis that continues to grow.
However, encouragingly, we have also seen a public willing to fight back and challenge the current system.
Everyday Resistance, is an artwork viewed as a small act of creative resistance by the artist. Due to Covid-19 restrictions many banks have now placed free boxes of pens in their premises to avoid the sharing of pens between staff and customers. The artist has designed pens with the question Will this be recession part 2 or do we fight back? printed on them. These custom designed pens have secretly been added to the boxes of pens in banks around Dublin city.
The text on the pen is the artists attempt to confronts the public with both a question and a challenge to fight back.
Ports, Past and Present
Stand up fight back


text:
Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics
Junwen He, Yuan Yao, Kyu Tae Lee, Nina Hong, Brent Fisher, Rabab Bahabry, Jung Woo Lee, Jeonghyun Kim, Seungyong Han, Sanjay V. Kalidindi, Jae Hwan Kim, Sung Bong Kim, Jaewon Choi, Hongwoo Jang, Myeong Namkoong, Scott Burroughs, Muhammad Hussain, Ralph G. Nuzzo*, John A. Rogers
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering
Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, where incident direct solar radiation is tightly concentrated onto high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells by geometric optical elements, exhibit the highest efficiencies in converting the sun's energy into electric power. Their energy conversion efficiencies are greatly limited, however, due to Fresnel reflection losses occurring at three air/optics interfaces in the most sophisticated dual-stage CPV platforms. This paper describes a facile one-step wet-etching process to create a nanoporous surface with a graded-index profile on both flat and curved glasses, with capabilities of achieving ~99% average transmission efficiency in a wide wavelength range from 380 nm to 1.3 µm and for a wide range of incident angles up to ±40° regardless of the polarization state of incident sunlight. The simplicity of the etching process remarkably increases their versatility in various optical elements that require unconventional form factors such as Fresnel lenses and microlens arrays, and/or demanding curvatures along with much reduced dimensions such as ball lenses. Etched glass surfaces on two-stage optical concentrating systems yield enhancements in total optical transmission efficiencies by 13.8% and in the photocurrent by 14.3%, as experimentally determined by measurements on microscale triple-junction solar cells. The presented strategy can be widely adapted in a variety of applications such as image sensors, display systems, and other optoelectronic devices.
He, J., Yao, Y., Lee, K. T., Hong, N., Fisher, B., Bahabry, R., Lee, J. W., Kim, J., Han, S., Kalidindi, S. V., Kim, J. H., Kim, S. B., Choi, J., Jang, H., Namkoong, M., Burroughs, S., Hussain, M., Nuzzo, R. G., & Rogers, J. A. (2018). Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics. Scientific Reports, 8(1), [14907]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-33200-9
He, Junwen ; Yao, Yuan ; Lee, Kyu Tae ; Hong, Nina ; Fisher, Brent ; Bahabry, Rabab ; Lee, Jung Woo ; Kim, Jeonghyun ; Han, Seungyong ; Kalidindi, Sanjay V. ; Kim, Jae Hwan ; Kim, Sung Bong ; Choi, Jaewon ; Jang, Hongwoo ; Namkoong, Myeong ; Burroughs, Scott ; Hussain, Muhammad ; Nuzzo, Ralph G. ; Rogers, John A. / Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics. In: Scientific Reports. 2018 ; Vol. 8, No. 1.
@article{83b817d591234773a8e8311cad475ef3,
title = "Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics",
abstract = "Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, where incident direct solar radiation is tightly concentrated onto high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells by geometric optical elements, exhibit the highest efficiencies in converting the sun{\textquoteright}s energy into electric power. Their energy conversion efficiencies are greatly limited, however, due to Fresnel reflection losses occurring at three air/optics interfaces in the most sophisticated dual-stage CPV platforms. This paper describes a facile one-step wet-etching process to create a nanoporous surface with a graded-index profile on both flat and curved glasses, with capabilities of achieving ~99% average transmission efficiency in a wide wavelength range from 380 nm to 1.3 µm and for a wide range of incident angles up to ±40° regardless of the polarization state of incident sunlight. The simplicity of the etching process remarkably increases their versatility in various optical elements that require unconventional form factors such as Fresnel lenses and microlens arrays, and/or demanding curvatures along with much reduced dimensions such as ball lenses. Etched glass surfaces on two-stage optical concentrating systems yield enhancements in total optical transmission efficiencies by 13.8% and in the photocurrent by 14.3%, as experimentally determined by measurements on microscale triple-junction solar cells. The presented strategy can be widely adapted in a variety of applications such as image sensors, display systems, and other optoelectronic devices.",
author = "Junwen He and Yuan Yao and Lee, {Kyu Tae} and Nina Hong and Brent Fisher and Rabab Bahabry and Lee, {Jung Woo} and Jeonghyun Kim and Seungyong Han and Kalidindi, {Sanjay V.} and Kim, {Jae Hwan} and Kim, {Sung Bong} and Jaewon Choi and Hongwoo Jang and Myeong Namkoong and Scott Burroughs and Muhammad Hussain and Nuzzo, {Ralph G.} and Rogers, {John A.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work is part of the {\textquoteleft}Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion{\textquoteright} Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001293. This work was also supported in part by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE, No. 10051565) and Korea Display Research Corporation (KDRC) support program for the development of future devices technology for display industry. This work was also supported by Pusan National University Research Grant, 2017. J.K. gratefully acknowledges the support from the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2018. S.H. was supported by the new faculty research fund of Ajou University and the Ajou university research fund. The authors thank K. Walsh, R. Haasch and H. Zhou in UIUC for their assistance with materials characterization and J. VanDerslice at J. A. Woollam Co. for helpful discussions on the EEP results. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, The Author(s).",
journal = "Scientific Reports",
He, J, Yao, Y, Lee, KT, Hong, N, Fisher, B, Bahabry, R, Lee, JW, Kim, J, Han, S, Kalidindi, SV, Kim, JH, Kim, SB, Choi, J, Jang, H, Namkoong, M, Burroughs, S, Hussain, M, Nuzzo, RG & Rogers, JA 2018, 'Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, 14907. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-33200-9
Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics. / He, Junwen; Yao, Yuan; Lee, Kyu Tae; Hong, Nina; Fisher, Brent; Bahabry, Rabab; Lee, Jung Woo; Kim, Jeonghyun; Han, Seungyong; Kalidindi, Sanjay V.; Kim, Jae Hwan; Kim, Sung Bong; Choi, Jaewon; Jang, Hongwoo; Namkoong, Myeong; Burroughs, Scott; Hussain, Muhammad; Nuzzo, Ralph G.; Rogers, John A.
In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, No. 1, 14907, 01.12.2018.
T1 - Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics
AU - He, Junwen
AU - Yao, Yuan
AU - Lee, Kyu Tae
AU - Hong, Nina
AU - Fisher, Brent
AU - Bahabry, Rabab
AU - Lee, Jung Woo
AU - Kim, Jeonghyun
AU - Han, Seungyong
AU - Kalidindi, Sanjay V.
AU - Kim, Jae Hwan
AU - Kim, Sung Bong
AU - Choi, Jaewon
AU - Jang, Hongwoo
AU - Namkoong, Myeong
AU - Burroughs, Scott
AU - Hussain, Muhammad
AU - Nuzzo, Ralph G.
AU - Rogers, John A.
N1 - Funding Information: This work is part of the 'Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion' Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001293. This work was also supported in part by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE, No. 10051565) and Korea Display Research Corporation (KDRC) support program for the development of future devices technology for display industry. This work was also supported by Pusan National University Research Grant, 2017. J.K. gratefully acknowledges the support from the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2018. S.H. was supported by the new faculty research fund of Ajou University and the Ajou university research fund. The authors thank K. Walsh, R. Haasch and H. Zhou in UIUC for their assistance with materials characterization and J. VanDerslice at J. A. Woollam Co. for helpful discussions on the EEP results. Publisher Copyright: © 2018, The Author(s).
N2 - Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, where incident direct solar radiation is tightly concentrated onto high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells by geometric optical elements, exhibit the highest efficiencies in converting the sun's energy into electric power. Their energy conversion efficiencies are greatly limited, however, due to Fresnel reflection losses occurring at three air/optics interfaces in the most sophisticated dual-stage CPV platforms. This paper describes a facile one-step wet-etching process to create a nanoporous surface with a graded-index profile on both flat and curved glasses, with capabilities of achieving ~99% average transmission efficiency in a wide wavelength range from 380 nm to 1.3 µm and for a wide range of incident angles up to ±40° regardless of the polarization state of incident sunlight. The simplicity of the etching process remarkably increases their versatility in various optical elements that require unconventional form factors such as Fresnel lenses and microlens arrays, and/or demanding curvatures along with much reduced dimensions such as ball lenses. Etched glass surfaces on two-stage optical concentrating systems yield enhancements in total optical transmission efficiencies by 13.8% and in the photocurrent by 14.3%, as experimentally determined by measurements on microscale triple-junction solar cells. The presented strategy can be widely adapted in a variety of applications such as image sensors, display systems, and other optoelectronic devices.
AB - Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, where incident direct solar radiation is tightly concentrated onto high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells by geometric optical elements, exhibit the highest efficiencies in converting the sun's energy into electric power. Their energy conversion efficiencies are greatly limited, however, due to Fresnel reflection losses occurring at three air/optics interfaces in the most sophisticated dual-stage CPV platforms. This paper describes a facile one-step wet-etching process to create a nanoporous surface with a graded-index profile on both flat and curved glasses, with capabilities of achieving ~99% average transmission efficiency in a wide wavelength range from 380 nm to 1.3 µm and for a wide range of incident angles up to ±40° regardless of the polarization state of incident sunlight. The simplicity of the etching process remarkably increases their versatility in various optical elements that require unconventional form factors such as Fresnel lenses and microlens arrays, and/or demanding curvatures along with much reduced dimensions such as ball lenses. Etched glass surfaces on two-stage optical concentrating systems yield enhancements in total optical transmission efficiencies by 13.8% and in the photocurrent by 14.3%, as experimentally determined by measurements on microscale triple-junction solar cells. The presented strategy can be widely adapted in a variety of applications such as image sensors, display systems, and other optoelectronic devices.
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 14907
He J, Yao Y, Lee KT, Hong N, Fisher B, Bahabry R et al. Solution processes for ultrabroadband and omnidirectional graded-index glass lenses with near-zero reflectivity in high concentration photovoltaics. Scientific Reports. 2018 Dec 1;8(1). 14907. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-33200-9


text:
10 Ways to Experience Qatar on Your First Visit
By Sponsored Partner - December 13, 2018
Awe-inspiring desert landscapes, a rich culture, and vibrant modernity await on a stopover in Qatar.
Increasingly well-connected thanks to its growing air links, Qatar's capital city Doha is ideally placed to break up the long journey to Europe from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Here are 10 attractions you cannot miss when you're there.
Museum of Islamic Art.
1. Marvel at the Museum of Islamic Art
Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, who came out of retirement for the project, the Museum of Islamic Art takes pride of place by Doha's seven-kilometer-long seafront promenade known as the Corniche. Visitors can spend hours here admiring the priceless collection of Islamic art and artefacts from around the world, spanning 14 centuries of history.
Katara Cultural Village.
2. Visit the Katara Cultural Village
Another must-see is Katara Cultural Village, which features a trove of art galleries, workshops, performance venues, and restaurants housed in buildings inspired by traditional Qatari architecture along cobbled streets. Stroll down the alleyways of the oldest market in town, Souq Waqif, to soak up the local color and wander into small shops brimming with all manner of Middle Eastern merchandise: from dates, spices, and seasonal treats to perfumes and jewelry.
Angry Birds World.
3. Take the family to the first-ever Angry Birds World theme park
Family fun abounds at the first-ever Angry Birds World theme park in Doha Festival City; it has turned the classic bird-flinging game into more than 20 high-octane rides alongside a zipline and trampoline park.
4. Check out The Pearl-Qatar
For something more sedate, head to The Pearl-Qatar, a man-made island whose Venetian-inspired Qanat Quartier district is perfect for a coffee session or a gourmet meal.
The Msheireb Museums.
5. Dive into Qatar's history at the Msheireb Museums
Or you can gain insights into the nation's history and social development at Msheireb Museums, a quartet of restored houses in the historic downtown area.
6. Embark on a dhow cruise
Then, experience the rich seafaring heritage of Qatar on a dhow cruise that takes in Doha's glittering ultramodern skyline. Full-day, half-day and evening excursions (including a meal), can be arranged via a hotel or through any of the leading local tour operators.
Al Zubarah.
7. See Al Zubarah
Beyond the capital, three attractions are well worth a detour. Archaeology buffs will love the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al Zubarah on Qatar's northwest coast, which encompasses a fortress and the remains of an 18th-century pearl-trading town.
Khor Al Adaid.
8. Explore the beautiful Khor Al Adaid
In for some adventure? Don't miss the chance to go on a desert safari to Khor Al Adaid, a hauntingly beautiful "inland sea" 60 kilometers south of Doha. It's a tranquil nature reserve accessible only by traversing the sand dunes in a 4×4 vehicle, and a must-do before continuing your onward journey.
9. Discover the deserted 'Film City'
To the West, nestled behind a canyon in the desert of the Zekreet peninsula, lies an entirely deserted village complete with houses, enclosed courtyards, mosques and wind towers all built in traditional Gulf architecture. This contemporary recreation of a traditional Arabian village is known as 'Film City' as it was created to be the setting for an Arabic television series that first aired in 2000.
Souq Waqif.
10. Enjoy retail therapy at Shop Qatar Festival
Winter bonus! The annual Shop Qatar Festival is a month-long celebration starting from 20 December 2018 held at malls and bazaars throughout Qatar, offering not just unmissable deals but also workshops, master classes in fashion and makeup, and music concerts at outdoor venues.
This article was brought to you by Qatar National Tourism Council.
Sponsored Partner 12:00
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