text:
Can Kazakhstan Bury Its Nuclear Past?
Forgetting the site where Russia became a nuclear power comes with its own risks.
Cheryl L. Reed
Letters: Terms of Service Terms of Service...
Would the United States really be better off with six-year presidential terms?
By Kedar Pavgi
545797_111220_Letters_Khilnani_Presidencypk5.jpg
Sunil Khilnani ("What Ails America?: The Presidency," November 2011) argues that Americans would be better off with a president limited to a single six-year term. Banning second terms might be tempting given that every second term in recent history has involved some scandal or failure: Watergate, Iran-Contra, Lewinsky, Abramoff, the 2008 financial meltdown. But would a single six-year term really improve things? Presidents might take bigger risks or exhibit bad judgment once they know they won't face voters again.
Khilnani cites the distraction of raising money for reelection, but he treats a relentless fundraising schedule as a de facto requirement of the job when it is in fact a choice. Incumbent presidents do not have difficulty raising money. In fact, the last major-party candidate to have serious issues with money was Bob Dole in 1996.
As of October, President Barack Obama had raised $155 million for his reelection campaign, outpacing all his Republican challengers combined. If he refused to raise another dime until Election Day, he would still be fine. Incumbent presidents also don't have to worry about getting their messages out; television cameras follow them wherever they go. What's more, taxpayers pick up most of the tab for their transportation expenses when they fly Air Force One for trips that include some "officially non-campaign" business.
Sunil Khilnani ("What Ails America?: The Presidency," November 2011) argues that Americans would be better off with a president limited to a single six-year term. Banning second terms might be tempting given that every second term in recent history has involved some scandal or failure: Watergate, Iran-Contra, Lewinsky, Abramoff, the 2008 financial meltdown. But would a single six-year term really improve things? Presidents might take bigger risks or exhibit bad judgment once they know they won't face voters again.
As of October, President Barack Obama had raised $155 million for his reelection campaign, outpacing all his Republican challengers combined. If he refused to raise another dime until Election Day, he would still be fine. Incumbent presidents also don't have to worry about getting their messages out; television cameras follow them wherever they go. What's more, taxpayers pick up most of the tab for their transportation expenses when they fly Air Force One for trips that include some "officially non-campaign" business.
It is easy to suspect that Obama's relentless fundraising schedule is not about money. At those high-dollar fundraisers, the president is surrounded by adoring crowds, all convinced he's doing a terrific job and enthusiastic enough to pay five-figure sums for the honor of telling him so. For a president who has endured a frustrating three years and currently suffers low approval ratings, basking in donors' adulation must feel like a warm bath on a cold night.
JIM GERAGHTY
Sunil Khilnani replies:
Jim Geraghty worries that presidential fundraising efforts that distract from the task of governing have less to do with money and more to do with a psychological need for compensatory adulation felt by down-in-the-dumps incumbents. That might be, but campaign fundraising is a major time suck not just for presidents seeking second terms but for the entire American political class. Ask any member of Congress how much time she or he spends dialing up lists supplied by aides. More importantly though, my argument was not just about the distractions of fundraising; rather, it was about pointing out that officeholders skew everything they do simply to avoid putting a foot wrong. They become professional trimmers rather than the leaders they were elected to be. Being a leader involves taking risks, and indeed those can sometimes go wrong, as Geraghty also worries. It's likely that presidents will try to summon the best judgment they can when making such decisions. Still, leaders are supposed to be achievers, not appeasers.
Kedar Pavgi is an editorial researcher at Foreign Policy.
NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Want to read more on this topic or region? Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Economics Economics
The Real Reason Behind Peru's Political Crisis
Can Kazakhstan Bury Its Soviet, Nuclear Past?
Ukraine's Makeshift Army Is Getting More Misfit Toys
Robbie Gramer, Jack Detsch, Amy Mackinnon
A Message From Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima
The 2017 Global Thinker hopes that the world will "keep watching the Philippines."
Welcome to the New ForeignPolicy.com
A new look, a new chapter.


text:
Q: Lua, attempt to index field '__parent' (a nil value) The question is from the torch5 tutorial: http://torch5.sourceforge.net/manual/torch/index-8-1.html
 require "torch"

 -- for naming convenience
 do
   --- creates a class "Foo"
   local Foo = torch.class('Foo')

   --- the initializer
   function Foo:__init()
     self.contents = "this is some text"
   end

   --- a method
   function Foo:print()
     print(self.contents)
   end

   --- another one
   function Foo:bip()
     print('bip')
   end

 end

 --- now create an instance of Foo
 foo = Foo()

 --- try it out
 foo:print()

 --- create a class torch.Bar which
 --- inherits from Foo
 do
   local Bar = torch.class('torch.Bar', 'Foo')

   --- the initializer
   function Bar:__init(stuff)
     --- call the parent initializer on ourself
     self.__parent.__init(self)

     --- do some stuff
     self.stuff = stuff
   end

   --- a new method
   function Bar:boing()
     print('boing!')
   end

   --- override parent's method
   function Bar:print()
     print(self.contents)
     print(self.stuff)
   end
 end

 --- create a new instance and use it
 bar = torch.Bar("ha ha!")
 bar:print() -- overrided method
 bar:boing() -- child method
 bar:bip()   -- parent's method

After running this script, I got the error message:
 /Users/frankhe/torch/install/bin/luajit: test1.lua:39: attempt to index field '__parent' (a nil value)

Here is the picture of details:

I want to know why this error happened.

A: Use:
local Bar, parent = torch.class('torch.Bar', 'Foo')

And:
function Bar:__init(stuff)
    parent.__init(self)

    self.stuff = stuff
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: What does wicket:scope attribute do? There's no documentation for it https://cwiki.apache.org/WICKET/wickets-xhtml-tags.html#Wicket%2527sXHTMLtags-Attributewicket%253Ascope. Does it work only for components?

A: What does wicket:scope attribute do?
The HtmlHeaderContainer class documents the wicket:scope attribute:

wicket:head tags (components) must only be added once. To allow for a little bit more control, each wicket:head has an associated scope which by default is equal to the java class name directly associated with the markup which contains the wicket:head. It can be modified by means of the scope attribute.

It is further documented in the HeaderPartContainer class simply stating that it is "A kind of namespace."
Does it work only for components?
The wicket:scope attribute is used only for the  tag.  The  tag should only be used in "Panels, Borders and inherited markup (of Panels, Borders and Pages)", as documented in the HtmlHeaderContainer class level javadoc.
In short, the answer to your question is no, the attribute can be used within  tags inside of Pages that inherit markup from a parent.  The implication here is that a  tag only makes sense where you wouldn't just use a  tag (meaning in the base page html file).


Is it possible to have them display one below the other when the screen resolution falls below the point where they all cant be displayed horizontally if that makes sense?
That's what Upfront have to do by default. It should stack on mobile devices. The reason its not doing it is that you have added the following custom CSS code to restrict its width to 20%.


A man disguised as Olive made off with the jewel. Talk to Athena Pierce.
The stolen jewel is actually a Seal Stone, a rock of immense power. Athena Pierce says she'll be in touch when she finds out who took the jewel.


text:
Public Fishing Areas on Lake Conroe, Texas
Places to Fish in East Texas
Bluegill Fishing in Texas
Douglas Matus, Leaf Group Updated March 21, 2018
Bluegill Fishing in Texas (Photo: )
Freshwater Fishing Near Seabrook, Texas
Camping at Trinity River, Texas
Bluegill, a common type of sunfish found throughout North America, provide many anglers' introductions to the joys of fishing. These small fish put up just enough fight to keep things interesting and make for a delicious dish when pan-fried whole. While fishermen have a good chance of hooking bluegill at practically any well-stocked freshwater site in Texas, some areas have developed reputations for bluegill fishing.
The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, located in Athens, is a production fish hatchery and public education center that allows visitors to fish its ponds and stock-tanks without licenses. The center has produced record-breaking bluegill and furnishes bait and tackle free of charge. An ideal environment for beginner fishermen, the center offers free lessons and staff who bait hooks and untangle lines. While in Athens, fishermen should also visit Lake Athens. The emergent vegetation located at this reservoir's upper end contains plenty of bluegill and other sunfish.
Lampasas River
The Lampasas River in Central Texas, which flows for 100 miles through Bell, Burnet, Lampasas and Hamilton Counties, produced the heaviest bluegill caught in Texas, a 2.02 pound fish captured in 1999. This fast-flowing river has many deep pools rife with sunfish, and fishermen can cast lines from any public roadway or bridge. Of course, fishermen should pay attention to posted signs and make sure they are properly shielded from traffic.
Caddo Lake in East Texas, a large, natural freshwater lake that extends into Louisiana, has a reputation as an ideal environment to catch bluegill. Bluegill thrive in Caddo Lake's shallow, murky waters and lush wetlands and gravitate around the roots of the cypress trees that grow out of the lake. Fishermen at Caddo Lake can enjoy the facilities of the surrounding Caddo Lake State Park, which offers campsites and cabins, along with boat rentals at Johnson's Ranch and Crip's Camp Marinas.
O.H. Ivie Lake
Texas Parks and Wildlife gave O.H. Ivie Lake an "excellent" rating for its availability of bluegill and other sunfish. Located 55 miles from San Angelo in Central Texas, this reservoir's basin was not cleared prior to filling, so O.H. Ivie Lake now contains thousands of acres of flooded forest that provides an ideal habitat for bluegill. The lake has three public recreation areas with parking, restrooms and courtesy docks. Fishermen can purchase live bait at the Concho and Kennedy Recreation Areas.
Toledo Bend Reservoir
Located on the Sabine River at the Texas-Louisiana border, Toledo Bend Reservoir also received an excellent rating for sunfish from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Large amounts of aquatic vegetation attract high concentrations of bluegill, especially during the early summer when the fish spawn. The Sabine National Forest stretches along the Texas side of the reservoir. This public recreation area has over 160,000 acres of woodland, with plenty of camping facilities and numerous boat ramps.
City of Athens: Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center
USDA Forest Service: Sabine National Forest
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Access to O.H. Ivie Lake
Douglas Matus is the travel writer for "West Fort Worth Lifestyle" magazine, and spent four years as the Director of Humanities for a college-prep school in Austin. Since 2005, he has published articles on education, travel and culture in such publications as "Nexus," "People's World" and "USA Today." Matus received an Education Pioneers fellowship in 2010 and an MFA from CalArts in 2011.
Major Lakes in Texas
Drop-Line Fishing in Texas
Lakes in East Texas
Fishing Hot Spots in Corpus Christi, Texas
Lakes Near Amarillo, Texas
Southwest US Travel»
National Parks & Wildlife»

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Covid19 News PR
Tom Kerridge you to 'stay supportive' of Great British pubs
Post author By Dominic Johnson
Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge has thrown his support behind the Great British pub, penning the foreword for CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2021, which is set to be released on 29 October 2020.
Against the backdrop of a hospitality industry scarred by the COVID-19 lockdown, Kerridge has urged the country to 'stay strong and stay positive' in this year's foreword.
Now available for pre-order, the Good Beer Guide is considered the definitive independent guidebook to good pubs that serve real ale across the UK.
Writing in the Guide, Kerridge observes "the one thing we have all missed during lockdown is human connection and social interaction, which above all else, is everything that the Great British pub provides – a warm, happy and friendly place for people to drink and eat."
Kerridge also reminds us that the Great British pub is recognised around the world as a uniquely British institution, with real ale acting as the cornerstone of that identity.
He says: "The passion and the heart and soul that goes into brewing is equal to the top wine makers, distillers, cheese makers, bakers, artisan chocolatiers or any other craft led hospitality producer. It is something we should be very proud of."
Despite their unique position, the pubs and brewing sector has been unusually hard hit this year in the wake of COVID-19, which is why CAMRA is calling for greater financial support for the sector.
CAMRA National Chairman, Nik Antona says: "Pubs may officially be 'open', but many are facing significantly reduced turnover and higher overhead costs due to social distancing measures. Others have had to make the difficult decision to stay shut until things improve – and there are some that will never reopen.
"We cannot overstate how important it is to support pubs during this difficult transition period. We hope people will use the Good Beer Guide to not only applaud the 'cream of the crop' featured, but also to visit all pubs during a time when they need it most."
Tom Kerridge adds: "We need now more than ever to be positive and strong to enable us to drive the word home about how fantastic the Great British pub is, and most importantly, what it brings to each and every community."
Click here to pre-order the Good Beer Guide 2021 with a foreword by Tom Kerridge.
CAMRA members can order the guide at a reduced rate of £12.00 + p&p. Become a member and help save pubs by clicking here.
Tags Alcohol, COVID-19, Drinks, Government, Hospitality, Online, Programme
By Dominic Johnson
Publisher, contact dominic@miramedia.co.uk about all commercial enquiries.
Landmark ruling on insurance is a boost to pubs and brewers
Covid19, News | 1min
New £9k Hospitality Grants
Hospitality and leisure sectors to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9K
← 10 safety measures travellers need to feel safe and confident → Hall & Woodhouse extends 'Eat Out To Help Out'


Here are details of some of the incidents being dealt with this week by Monklands police officers.
A thief made off with a stool from a bookmakers shop on Friday afternoon.
The culprit walked into William Hills in Main Street, Coatbridge, at 2pm and grabbed the seat which was sitting in front of a gaming machine before running off out the door.
Police are investigating a spate of overnight thefts of decorative potted plants and garden furniture at the weekend.
The thefts all took place at some point during Friday night into Saturday. Among the addresses hit were Fife Avenue in Airdrie where two 3ft aluminium planters worth £60 and two plastic ball bushes were stolen between 11pm and 7am.
There was a report of a similar theft from Caldervale Avenue where a set of Rattan garden furniture went missing along with 10 solar lights. The total value was put at £200.
Two large pot plants worth £100 were stolen from Earlston Crescent in Carnbroe while five artificial trees, three of them with solar lights attached worth £170, were taken from a garden in nearby Carnbroe Road.
A pensioner's house in Victoria Place in Airdrie has been broken into for a second time.
The 82-year-old woman had went out on Saturday afternoon but when she returned home at 10.30pm she encountered a man in her home and she asked how he got there.
The man replied: "Through the door," before apologising and walking past her and out of the house.
The pensioner then discovered that French doors at the back of her house had been forced open and her bedroom ransacked but nothing seemed to be missing.
The suspect is described as very thin and pale.
Police are investigating a break-in at Drumpellier Golf Club in Coatbridge.
The culprits triggered an alarm and although nothing was stolen they made off but were caught on CCTV in the locker rooms.
The incident happened at 2am on Saturday.
Cops are looking for information on the identity of a thief who made off with £10 from a newsagent's shop.
The cash was stolen from a plastic tub at Sunnyside Newsagent in Sunnyside Road at 11am on Friday morning.
A man walked into the shop and then leaned over and grabbed the cash before running off.
The suspect is described as between 30 to 40 years old, around 5ft 10ins with a flat or broken-looking nose.
*Anyone with information on these crimes is urged to contact Coatbridge Police Office on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.


Nobel laureate Liú Xiǎobō 刘晓波, who had been imprisoned in China in 2009 on charges of subversion, has died in a Liaoning hospital at age 61, news media reported today.
Liu was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer earlier this year, and released on a medical parole in May. But his condition did not improve, and his health rapidly declined in the last two weeks. Doctors reported his internal organs were shutting down two days ago, but dialysis seemed to improve his condition somewhat.
The writer co-authored Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto which urged the Chinese Communist Party to abide by the Chinese constitution's protection of civil rights and political freedom.
In 2009 he was arrested on charges of "subversion of state power" and sentenced to 11 years in prison. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia, as China refused permission for Liu or any member of his family to travel to Oslo to accept the prize.
Liu Xia, his wife, has been under house arrest since 2010, despite no formal charges against her. She was allowed to visit her husband in hospital, however.
As the government has heavily censored news of Liu and his Nobel prize, it's doubtful most Chinese know of him, and will probably not even hear of his death.


text:
Benjamin vs. Freud
On September 5, 2022 By Meredith M.In Uncategorized
Benjamin challenges outdated views of gender roles and their relation to power in her book Bonds of Love. Sigmund Freud, a famed neurologist, theorized that men recognize their sense of self and acquire their sense of being an individual by noticing their differences and separation from their mothers. Women, however, do not recognize this in the same way. Freud theorized that women never reach the same potential as males because they lack the same degree of recognized individuality from their mothers. Benjamin challenges this notion in her book, and theorizes that Freud was incorrect. She argues that a sense of self and individual identity does not arise from recognized differences with one's mother, but instead it comes from mutual recognition. She explains mutual recognition as acknowledging someone else as an individual person and separate identity, and having them equally recognize you back. This mutual understanding is what creates a sense of self. It also marks everyone as equals, and does not discriminate against other people as an "other". I do agree with Benjamin's theory for the most part. I think that mutual recognition is a much more beneficial way to obtain a sense of self, without sacrificing or demeaning someone else. This way, you do not label someone as the "other" or put yourself above them. This should be applied to everyday life as a way to avoid discrimination and power struggles. Men often use not being a woman as a way to feel more comfortable and confident in their identity, when in reality, this is not necessary at all. You can recognize yourself as a man without having to put down women. It is more of an "I am a man, and you are a woman, and that does not make me better than you or you better than me." Freud's logic was flawed and led to a lot of hate and negativity towards different identities. In our current political climate, we are especially polarized. Finding your identity by putting down someone else's is not productive at all, and Benjamin does a good job of illuminating that.
All kinds of writers deceive, Nabokov
Benjamin's Gender and Power Theory
One thought on "Benjamin vs. Freud"
I love how you unpack the differences between Benjamins work along with Freuds as well as drawing significance in Benjamins work specifically that applies to real life. I also really like how you mention that men in today's world use the idea of being a Women as a detriment or an insult to masculinity and how it only reinforces the false narrative/power dynamic between the two.


Please email storm@strangefamous.com to place your custom order for this item. We will respond within 24 hours with instructions for direct payment. No discount codes are applicable to this item. Thanks!
This product is a MADE-TO-ORDER, CUSTOM item, and has a turnaround time of 30 BUSINESS DAYS to manufacture (NOT including shipping time). When you order it, we start making it, just for you.
Please allow 6 weeks to arrive at your door from the time you order in the USA, 8 weeks for International orders.
***Due to the unusually high manufacturing cost / low price mark-up, discount codes may not be used for this item. Really folks, we're not making very much on this one - it costs a lot, but it's for the love all around.
When B. Dolan & Buddy Peace asked Classick Custom to design these special embroidered jackets for the KILL THE WOLF tour's stage show, they weren't planning on offering them to the public. But the second we laid eyes on these, we knew the question "Where can I get one?!" was going to be asked a whole lot. For that reason, STRANGE FAMOUS is offering these jackets CUSTOM, MADE-TO-ORDER for the rest of the year. While they're not cheap, they do make for an excellent fall/winter jacket / Holiday present, and each jacket will be a one of a kind! It's an exclusive club, ya heard?
* DIAMOND NYLON QUILTED FLIGHT JACKET. Lightweight and durable.
* CUSTOM EMBROIDERED NAME of your choosing on the right breast.
* STRANGE FAMOUS PATCH on the left breast.
* SFR / KING BEE PATCH on the left arm.
* INVERTED FLAG PATCH on the right arm.
* EMBROIDERED SKULLBEARD LOGO on the back.
Please email customerservice@strangefamous.com with any questions or for additional information. Thanks!


text:
Justia Patents Interstage Coupling (e.g., Level Shift, Etc.)US Patent for Digital joystick interface circuit Patent (Patent # 5,867,051)
Digital joystick interface circuit
A digital joystick interface circuit includes a trigger detecting circuit, a flip-flop circuit and a value comparator. The trigger detecting circuit is provided for processing the changes of the voltage or electric currents of a game interface so as to reset the trigger signal of the interface. The flip-flop circuit controls the charge cycle of the game port and causes a counter to start counting during the time delay of the charge cycle. The value obtained by the counter after reading the joystick's coordinate signal or switch signal is compared with that of the comparator. When the two values are equivalent, the flip-flop circuit will reset, achieving coordinate addressing.
Skip to: Description · Claims · Patent History · Patent History
(A) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a digital joystick interface circuit, and more particularly to a trigger detecting circuit for resetting the trigger signals of a game interface and, via a comparator, achieving a circuit for coordinate addressing.
(B) Description of the Prior Art
Generally, the coordinate addressing of game interfaces is controlled by joysticks. A conventional joystick is shown in FIG. 2. It includes a variable resistance 10 for connecting a middle point thereof to a game port of the game interface. By means of the time delay caused by the variable resistance 10, resistor R1, and capacitor C1, coordinate addressing is achieved. However, problems occur is that variable resistance 10 is subject to damage, and the capacitor C1 is easily affected by ambient temperatures and generates errors so that delay is not precise, and causing the coordinates to be displaced. In another conventional joystick, shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of analog switches 20 are connected to a series of resistors which replace variable resistance 10. Although switching of contacts may prevent damage to the resistances to a certain extent, there is the problem of error with the capacitor C1 working in conjunction with the resistances to constitute the time delay. This is because, while this arrangement would be more precise if the capacitor were in a vacuum, changes in temperature will cause the capacitor to generate errors easily. At the same time, in order to make smaller capacitors, it is necessary to provide a dielectric in the middle. Therefore, the precision of the delay will be affected more easily. Besides, in order to achieve higher precision, such analog switch joysticks are usually provided with more resistances, hence increasing the probability of error and cost, which is very unsatisfactory indeed.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a digital joystick interface circuit in which the voltage or variation in electric currents of the game interface may be reduced to obtain the trigger signal of the interfaced, so that a flip-flop circuit may be used to control the charge cycle of the game port. During the time delay of the charge cycle, a counter is started so that a comparison between the counted value and that of the joystick coordinate signal or switch signal may be made. When the two values are equivalent, the flip-flop circuit will reset to achieve coordinate addressing, thus alleviating the drawbacks of conventional resistances joysticks.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which,
FIG. 1 shows a conventional variable resistance joystick circuit;
FIG. 2 shows a conventional analog resistance joystick circuit;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the circuit of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a preferred embodiment of the circuit of the present invention;
FIG. 5A shows an embodiment of the trigger detecting circuit of the present invention;
FIG. 5B shows another embodiment of the trigger detecting circuit of the present invention; and
FIG. 5C shows still another embodiment of the trigger detecting circuit of the invention.
With reference to FIG. 3, the present invention essentially comprises a switch circuit 50, a trigger detecting circuit 51, a flip-flop circuit 52, a counter 53 and a comparator circuit 54. The switch circuit 50 and the trigger detecting circuit 51 are connected to a game port 60 of the game interface for resetting the voltage or variations of electric currents of the interface so as to trigger the flip-flop circuit 52, so that the latter outputs a high voltage to cut off the switch circuit 50 to control the charge cycle of the game port. At the same time, during the time delay of the charge cycle, the counter 53 starts counting, and the value obtained is compared with the value of the joystick coordinates or a signal from a joystick trigger switch signal input 70 obtained by the comparator circuit 54. When the two values are equivalent, the flip-flop circuit 52 will reset, achieving precise coordinate addressing.
FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of the circuit in which the game interface is a single chip integrated circuit (usually NE558). When the power is on, a trigger signal causes the flip-flop circuit comprised of NAND gates U3A and U3B to output a low voltage to cut off the transistor TR1 and charge the capacitor C1 connected to the collector of the transistor TR1. Capacitor C1 together with a resistor R1 constitute a time delay to form an output pulse. In this embodiment, when the pulse voltage is greater than a set reference value constituted by the divided voltage of resistors R4, R5 at the negative input end of the comparator U4, the voltage comparator U4 will then output a high voltage, thus triggering U5 and U6 so that the terminal Q of flip-flop U5 and the terminal Q of flip-flop U6 have a high voltage output. Clock signals for flip-flops U5 and U6 are input through clock signal input 69. In addition, since the two input terminals of NAND gate U7A are in a high state, the output of NAND gate U7A is a low voltage, achieving recovery of the trigger signal of the interface. This in turn triggers the flip-flop circuit composed of U7B and U7C so that the flip-flop circuit outputs a high voltage, thus closing the transistor TR2 connected to the output terminal. Subsequently, via op amp U1 and inverter U2 in the interface, the flip-flop circuit composed of NAND gates U3A and U3B may be reset to complete a trigger cycle.
The output terminal of NAND gate U7A in the trigger detecting circuit is also connected to the master reset (MR) terminal of the counter U8. Counter U8 is supplied with clock signals from clock signal input 69 via latch U14, one input of which is connected to the clock signal input and the other input of which is connected to the output of gate U7A. When the output of gate U7A is high, the counter U8 stops. When gate U7A switches to a low state, the counter U8 starts counting and outputs the value to terminals A0-A3 of the comparator U9. Terminals B0-B3 of the comparator U9 are connected to the coordinate signal or switch signal of the joystick to read the value of the coordinates or the switch signal. The read value is compared with that obtained by the counter U8 in the comparator U9. When the two values are equivalent, i.e., when A=B, a high voltage will be output. Via the conversion of U10, the flip-flop circuit composed of gates U7B and U7C may be reset. In this way, the signal of the joystick's displacement may be calculated to obtain the coordinate address.
FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C show various alternative trigger inputs to flip-flop U5. The input to these circuits, labelled "IN", is still via the game port and the switch circuit 50. With reference to FIG. 5A, the trigger detecting circuit of the invention may be provided with a differentiation circuit composed of comparator U10 and resistor R101. After the trigger voltage is differentiated, it is output to flip-flop U5. Or as shown in FIG. 5B, an analog/digital converter U11 is provided to convert the voltage into a digital signal which is stored in a data register U12. When another pulse arrives, the comparator U13 may make the comparison between A and B. Then, when A=1 and B=0, flip-flop U5 will be triggered. As shown in FIG. 5C, the invention may be provided with a MOS FET to convert the voltage signal into a square wave to trigger flip-flop U5.
In summary, the present invention employs the trigger detecting circuit and counter to achieve precise detection of the coordinate signal and switch signal of the joystick for precise coordinate addressing.
Although the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it should be understood that it is in no way limited to the details of such embodiment but is capable of numerous modifications within the scope of the appended claims.
1. A digital joystick interface circuit, comprising;
a trigger detecting circuit for detecting trigger signals present in said interface by converting voltage changes of the trigger signals into pulses;
a flip-flop circuit for detecting edges of said pulses and controlling a charge cycle of a game port to set a time delay; and
a value comparator circuit for reading a digital coordinate signal or switch signal and comparing the digital coordinate signal or switch signal with a value obtained by a counter during the time delay set by the flip-flop circuit, said flip-flop circuit being reset when the value obtained by the counter equals the digital coordinate signal or switch signal.
2. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trigger detecting circuit further comprises a switch circuit for controlling starting and ending of the charge cycle.
3. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trigger detecting circuit comprises a voltage comparator.
4. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trigger detecting circuit comprises an analog/digital converting circuit.
5. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trigger detecting circuit comprises a differentiation circuit.
6. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trigger detecting circuit comprises a transistor.
7. A digital joystick interface circuit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said analog/digital converting circuit comprises a data register and a comparator.
Filed: Nov 20, 1996
Date of Patent: Feb 2, 1999
Assignee: Cretech Co., Ltd. (Taipei)
Inventor: William S. Y. Liu (Taipei)
Primary Examiner: Timothy P. Callahan
Assistant Examiner: Kenneth B. Wells
Law Firm: Bacon & Thomas
Application Number: 8/752,517
Current U.S. Class: Interstage Coupling (e.g., Level Shift, Etc.) (327/333); Signal Converting, Shaping, Or Generating (327/100); Reset (e.g., Initializing, Starting, Stopping, Etc.) (327/142); Joystick (345/161); Pivotally-translatable Handle (e.g., Joystick, Etc.) (463/38)
International Classification: H03L 500;


text:
All Press Releases for April 12, 2018
New Book from URM GROUP Founders Explains How Businesses Use Universal Risk Management Breakthroughs to Outperform Competitors, Achieve Higher Profits and Sustain Growth
"Leading from Under the Sword of Damocles: A Business Leader's Practical Guide to Using Predictive Emulation to Manage Risk and Maintain Profitability" is now available at online booksellers
NEW YORK, NY, April 12, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dr. Nabil Abu el Ata, URM GROUP founder, business technologist and author, has just released his latest book, Leading from Under the Sword of Damocles: A Business Leader's Practical Guide to Using Predictive Emulation to Manage Risk and Maintain Profitability. Dr. Abu el Ata jointly authored the book with Annie Drucbert, URM GROUP co-founder and technology strategist, to explain how businesses are using universal risk management (URM) breakthroughs to outperform competitors, achieve higher profits and sustain growth.
Globalization trends and the rapid pace of technological innovations have introduced unprecedented change and uncertainty. To thrive under these conditions, companies must adopt new risk management practices and technologies to better anticipate and adjust to risks caused by the hyper connectivity of our modern world.
Leading from Under the Sword of Damocles helps readers understand how new algorithm-based predictive and prescriptive analytics technologies are being used to control risk and maximize opportunities in today's dynamic business environment.
Case studies show how the presented URM methods have been practically applied to preemptively expose risks and support decisions to optimize, transform or disrupt current business models, strategies, organizational structure and information technology (IT) systems when necessary to maintain a market position or outperform competitors.
"For those that want to forge a clearer and more scientific path forward," Charlie Fote, CEO, Fotec Group, former CEO, First Data Corporation, says, "Leading from Under the Sword of Damocles provides a practical guide that shows business leaders and risk management practitioners how mathematical emulation can be used to understand the modern impacts of hyper connectivity and hyper risk, as well as clearly identify when and which opportunistic actions should be taken to ensure the continuous efficiency and cost effectiveness of business operations."
Leading from Under the Sword of Damocles is 233 pages, published by Springer, and available in both print and e-book through online book sellers including Amazon.com and Springer.
To learn more about the practice of universal risk management and the technological breakthroughs that support improved business performance, visit: URMgrp.com.
Nabil Abu el Ata has invested over 20 years maturing the science of risk management and the practical application of predictive analytics technologies. In the late 1970s Dr. Abu el Ata's mathematical discoveries provided accurate coordinates for space exploration. By solving a problem that was previously defined as unsolvable, Dr. Abu el Ata set the foundation for a new era of risk management, which today enables companies worldwide to more accurately predict future system behaviors and take strategic actions to improve business outcomes.
Annie Drucbert is the co-founder of URM GROUP and a recognized authority in the predictive and prescriptive analysis of economic, financial and enterprise systems. Mrs. Drucbert's specialties include modeling, emulation and performance management of complex database and corporate systems. Mrs. Drucbert holds 3 US patents and has delivered strategic, tactical and operational services using X-Act OBC Platform for many global clients.
About URM GROUP
URM GROUP provides consultancy services and advanced risk analytics that help organizations more effectively and agilely respond to operational risks that other methods miss. In use by hundreds of global 1,000 clients, our universal risk management methods arm business and governmental leaders with the foresights they need to confidently respond to risks and clearly understand which (and when) preventive and opportunistic actions should be taken to ensure the continuous efficiency and cost effectiveness of operations. For more information about URMGroup, visit http://www.URMgrp.com and follow us @URMGroup.
Valerie Driessen
Attain Marketing for URM GROUP
Ladera Ranch, CA
Voice: +1 (949) 388-4813
E-Mail: Email Us Here


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Тайфа Сальтес и Уэльва () — средневековое исламское государство на юге современной Испании и юго-востоке Португалии, существовавшее в 1012-1051 годах. Около 1051 года тайфа Сальтес и Уэльва была поглощена более сильной тайфой Севильей.

Правители тайфы Сальтес и Уэльва
 Бакриды
 Абд аль-Азиз изз ад-Давла (1012/1013-1051/1052)

Ссылки
 Regnal chronology

Тайфы

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Re-connect with your whole self daily.
Self- knowledge enhances your relationship with self and others.
Explore, discover, and respond to messages and insights delivered through symptoms.
Emotional detoxification: Release stuck emotional energy regularly.
Give yourself a gift of love and care daily.


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Senator Rounds continues to defend VA facilities in rural areas
WASHINGTON, D.C.(WNAX)- The Veteran Administration has proposed making changes to their healthcare facilities in South Dakota, downsizing and possibly closing some of them.
Senator Mike Rounds says he opposes those suggestions.
https://hubcityradio.com/wp-content/uploads/Mike-Rounds-323a.mp3
Rounds says the result would be poorer service in fewer areas.
https://hubcityradio.com/wp-content/uploads/Mike-Rounds-323b.mp3
Rounds says the VA is not following the law passed by Congress in 2018.
https://hubcityradio.com/wp-content/uploads/Mike-Rounds-323c.mp3


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Pathways, Second Edition: Our Approach to Content
Executive Editor Sean Bermingham uses an example from Pathways, Second Edition to demonstrate how we create materials for learners of English from authentic sources, such as National Geographic.
SEAN BERMINGHAM
At National Geographic Learning, we produce dozens of series for English learners. But if I had to pick one example that really shows our approach to content, it would be from our series called Pathways.
The unit is called Life in a Day. Now, a lot of course books cover daily life. It's something students can easily relate to and a good way to start the first lesson. But often it's done in a way that's not very interesting. I get up, I have breakfast, I go to school, and so on.
So we wanted to take a different approach. Rather than stories about made up people, we worked with National Geographic to find real people. Explorers in different fields. A filmmaker, a researcher, a scientist. And we asked them to describe their daily life and then adapted the language so that it was accessible.
And then we thought, well let's go beyond that. Let's look at everyday life on a global scale. What do people do around the world on a single day? There are differences across cultures of course, but often it's the similarities that are more interesting, and that can help learners relate to other parts of the world.
The unit video, for example, is about a school in Philadelphia that uses video to connect with students in other countries. Kazakhstan. France. Nigeria. That way they can see the world from different perspectives.
[audio from video clip:]
"My name is Orazalina Anel. My name is Smagulova Anel."
"Today we want to show you how we shop."
"As you can see down in North Philly, it's Fall. The leaves are red, brown, green."
"We love winter and also love to play snowballs."
[Laughing]
They find that there are so many similarities. They're more connected and more alike than they are separate. It's an exchange of possibilities.
"Is there graffiti in Kazakhstan?"
"What are your activities in Africa?"
"Do you like living in Nigeria?"
"Are your foods spicy or sweet?"
"Are there rich people there?"
The video is called the global conversation, and that's also a good description of our own learning materials. Our goal is to help learners develop the confidence to express themselves in English so they can share their ideas and experiences about things that matter to them. Things that affect their lives. Then, using English, they can really be part of this global conversation.
"Hi, I am Monesjia. This is my partner Lulu. Today we're going to take Kazakhstan on our journey. Let's get started."


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How super is China: Can China build itself into a sustainable superpower?
By Julia Elmer - posted Monday, 10 November 2003 Sign Up for free e-mail updates!
There is no question that China will become a superpower. The question is what kind of superpower China will become. Will China emerge as a dictator of the brave new globalised world, or will its reign be tempered by its membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its bilateral trade agreements?
China represents the antithesis of globalisation in the sense that the Chinese culture places a large emphasis on traditions and preservation of culture. Even so, the country's burgeoning population and vast land resources mean that it has the ingredients to become a superpower.
While the economic future of China seems to be ensured, the country's environmental future is in great peril. It relies heavily on material- and energy-intensive production processes that have depleted the country's natural resources and increased environmental pollution. Without sustainable growth, China's reign as a superpower could be ephemeral at best.
The concept of qing zhong, perhaps the world's earliest statement of the quantitative theory of money, came from China. China has no trouble generating income, and it has become more and more skilled at attracting foreign investment. Foreign companies are finding it almost impossible to ignore the huge market potential in China. Nonetheless, conducting business in China presents some very unique challenges.
China remains very closed and has proven quite skilled at keeping out watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even the United Nations. This could present a challenge to China in terms of international business because more and more Western companies are recognising the fact that their customers want to buy environmentally and socially correct products.
Chinese business practices seem baffling to many Westerners. One of the key concepts in Chinese business culture is that of guanxi. This word is used to describe relationships and/or connections, and it has a very complex manifestation that could be seen as corrupt in Western societies.
In Chinese business, the moral virtues of Confucianism meet the win-lose tactics of a military-like business strategy to confound most outsiders engaged in business negotiations and dealings in China. Trust is an important element of conducting business, and it is difficult to develop trust when effective cross-cultural communication can not be achieved.
The Chinese culture and language are very complex in the eyes of most Westerners. China's best hope for overcoming this cultural hurdle is perhaps the fact that the Chinese diaspora extends to many corners of the world. The colonial pasts of Hong Kong and Macau, for example, provides a linguistic bridge upon which to build relationships with England and Portugal or even the United States and Brazil. Chinese emigrants have established Chinatowns all over the world, and they can also serve as bridges for conducting business.
Some estimates show that the population of China could reach 1.5 billion by 2030. Even now, China's large population means that the country is able to remain largely insulated from free-market pressures. For example, the piracy of intellectual property is rampant in China even though most other countries have banned it. China effectively has the ability to ignore the rest of the world and do as it pleases.
China also pegs its currency at roughly 8.28 yuan to the American dollar and thereby depresses the price of its exports and creates a trade advantage. China has undergone many WTO investigations for export dumping. Such practices are detrimental not only for the countries where the dumping takes place but also for the smaller Chinese domestic producers who can no longer afford to compete with the price disparity created as a result of the dumping practices.
When China joined the WTO in December 2001, it made commitments to open its market to more imports. Many nations would argue that China has failed to deliver on this commitment. In the eyes of China, however, imports seem undesirable because China is more than capable of producing enough for its own citizens while still having enough excess for export. Does the WTO have enough clout to force China to open its market further, or will China be able to leverage its force and continue to limit imports?
Population growth in China is likely to be concentrated in rural areas since people in those areas receive less education about and access to family planning. In addition, as city-dwellers become more and more sophisticated (and less and less able to keep up with the expenses of city life), they are less likely to build large families.
Article edited by Jenny Ostini.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.
1 post so far.
Julia Elmer is an MBA exchange student at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.
Feature: is this the Chinese Century?
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Q: I would like to emulate the Microsoft SQL Server function GetSqlBinary() in MySQL version 5.6 I would like to emulate the Microsoft SQL Server function GetSqlBinary() in MySQL version 5.6.
  The C# namespace System.Data.SqlClient implements GetSqlBinary(), which is like fetching a blob.But the C# namespace MySql.Data.MySqlClient does not  implement GetSqlBinary().
  So is seems that the difference is that GetSqlBinary gives you a lump of data as a byte array, while GetSqlBytes is similar but stores the data in a buffer which allows you to interact with the underlying data as a stream.
  Here is the definition of GetSqlBinary():
GetSqlBinary returns an SqlBinary structure:
Represents a variable-length stream of binary data to be stored in or retrieved from a database.
GetSqlBytes returns an SqlBytes class:
Represents a mutable reference type that wraps either a Buffer or a Stream.
Please suggest a way to do the function GetSqlBinary() in MySQL. Thank you.
Frank

A: I don't quite understand the problem you are having - let me explain why. The SqlBinary class is just a wrapper around a byte[] which adds some nice programmer-friendly methods and properties to it. But underneath the hood it is just a byte array. You can find this out by viewing the source code here:
http://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System.Data/System/Data/SQLTypes/SQLBinary.cs,2cc17fbd58a1a375
Also, you can view the source code to the SqlDataReader class here:
http://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System.Data/System/Data/SqlClient/SqlDataReader.cs,e46454446a9e2777
In short, it just takes the value of the field, casts it to a byte[] and constructs a new SqlBinary value from it. There is nothing stopping you from doing the same or implementing it yourself. Heck, if you implemented a MySqlBinary class you could even submit it as an enhancement to the library if you wanted to, I'm sure you are not the only person who would like it.
In short, doing this:
var binary = (byte[])reader.GetValue(i);

Is pretty much all you really need here.

A: Many thanks for this answer which solved my little issue.
From an application I had following line of code, reading out an image from MS SQL Server: MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(reader.GetSqlBytes(1).Buffer);
Re-writing this app using MySQL Server System.Data.MySqlClient you have to use following construction: MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream((byte[])reader.GetValue(1));
Again many thank to point this out.
Peder


A position within the Loyola community in which I can take advantage of work study and gain wider variety of work experience.
Graduated high school with a 4.3 GPA and a member of the National Honor Society.
Chosen to lead three religious retreats for my hometown youth group.
Partook in high school volleyball in which I was selected as a captain three of my four years.
Finished freshman year at Loyola with a 3.4 GPA.
Cedar Grove Board of Education Cedar Grove, NJ Custodian 06/2016 to 08/2016 Tasks included sweeping, mopping, power cleaning floors, cleaning classrooms, stocking office supplies, and minor maintenance.
Loyola University Fitness and Aquatics Center Baltimore, MD Referee 02/2016 to 04/2016 Refereed intramural basketball games.
Finish Line Car Wash Bloomfield, NJ General Employee 03/2014 to 12/2014 Simple tasks included washing and drying of cars, working the register, and cleaning inside of the store.
McDonald's Bloomfield, NJ Cashier 06/2013 to 01/2014 Handled interactions with customers at the front counter and drive through window both organizing food and dealing with money transactions.
Accounting 2019 Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD Expected graduation in 2019 with a degree in accounting.
Where can I find a Cedar Grove Board of Education Custodian resume example in Baltimore, Maryland ?
This is an actual resume example of a Custodian who works in the Accountants Industry. LiveCareer has 60774 Accountants resumes in its database. LiveCareer's Resume Directory contains real resumes created by subscribers using LiveCareer's Resume Builder.


How should a person with obessive compulsive disorder approach dieting rationally?
What is the differed between obsessive compulsive disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disoder?
What is everyday life like working with boss with narcissistic personality disorder?
Which person would be more volatile: one with a sadistic personality disorder or a sociopath (antisocial personality disorder)?


Q: You seem to be the 'all-weather' man this year: whatever the conditions, whatever the tyres, in the end a podium is almost certain. Are you the ideal driver right now?
Kimi Raikkonen: Ha, I wish I was. Clearly you have to look at the conditions and cope with them – even though our car is not the best right now, we are able to adapt to situations pretty well. And, of course, I am always trying my best to deliver a good result.
KR: Ah, look back at Malaysia. There I had some issues with the car, so no race is a walk in the park for me as you suggest. (laughs) That's how it goes. But for sure I always try to maximize the yield of points.
Q: There were high expectations today that you would go out in the last two minutes of qualifying and show everybody the way. But you ended up in P9 – and will start from P8 due to Lewis Hamilton's gearbox penalty. Was there no more to come?
KR: No, we haven't got the speed for one lap. Hopefully the race will show a different picture.
KR: I have no contract for next year – that much is true. But further than that, I don't want to discuss the matter. I want to do well this season and everything else will fall into place.
KR: I haven't thought about all that yet – I feel good here. But yes, there are many things that are undecided and there is still a long way to go this season, so let's see how things unfold. We will see pretty significant changes when teams switch to their 2014 car development – and then it will be interesting to see what is going on.
KR: I don't know. These are not the things that I think about right now.
KR: Look, sometimes he (Romain Grosjean) has a difficult weekend and sometimes I do. In the end it does not matter for me as I don't really need somebody who is pushing me. I do my own thing.
Q: You were a surprising third in last year's championship. Now you are an arguably even more surprising second in the standings. Are you surprised yourself – or is this in line with your personal expectations?
KR: Sure, it's interesting to beat your own benchmark. The only plan I have in my head regarding that is doing better – as to how much better, let's see. I am pretty relaxed about all these self-appointed point counters and soothsayers. Just let's wait and see.
Q: Malaysia was a bit of a drop in form for you. Why did it happen there and could it be symptomatic of conditions like that – ie higher temperatures compared those in Melbourne and Shanghai?
KR: Nothing to do with conditions. We had some issues with the car, that's all. Conditions are overrated.
Q: What's the best part of your car?
KR: I would say that we are more or less okay everywhere. We don't have really bad points anywhere, but also not really good points. The car works okay.
Q: So let's try this: what's the best part of your life right now?
KR: I have a lot good things to do and I don't complain. My life is okay.


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Sri Lankan ministers lashes out at 'imperialists' and calls abduction a 'diabolic lie'
Sri Lankan ministers lashes out at 'imperialists' and calls abduction a 'diabolic lie' | Tamil Guardian
A Sri Lankan government minister has slammed "Western countries" and "British imperialists", commenting on a Swiss embassy employee being abducted in Colombo and the UK Conservative Party's manifesto pledges on Sri Lanka.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Sunday Observer published today, Wimal Weerawansa said that the abduction of the Swiss embassy employee was a "diabolical lie" and also rejected devolving land and police powers to provinces as per Sri Lanka's 13th Amendment.
"We vehemently condemn the Swiss embassy falling to such a degradable level," Weerawansa said. "They are pained by the loss of the former puppet administration. The Western countries through that puppet administration continued their project to weaken our state. They were waiting to sign the MoU on Millennium Challenge Corporation. When their entire roadmap became a failure, they couldn't take it up. It is surprising that their regrets are expressed through such comedies."
He went on to call the Swiss embassy's record of the abduction "a diabolical lie".
Weerawansa also commented on the Conservative Party's manifesto pledge on Sri Lanka, ahead of next week's British general election.
"To get the votes of the Sri Lankan Tamils in Britain, the Conservative party says they would support a two-state policy in Sri Lanka," he claimed. "They include such clauses to their manifestos thinking that we are still a colony of the British imperialists. Whether it is Great Britain, its Conservative Party, Labour party or any other, they have no right to decide the destiny of our country. These white men should understand that the present world would not bow down before them or be at their mercy. At the recently concluded Presidential Election, the Sri Lankan people showed that they would not let anybody to divide this country or even touch it."
The Sri Lankan minister also added that the Sri Lankan president had already made clear he would not be devolving powers to provinces, as per the 13th Amendment.
"There is no need at all to give land and police powers," he claimed. "Devolution of power to the Provinces based on ethnicity would aggravate the problems. Some foreign countries don't wish to see our country in a stable position. They attempt to create issues in our country. However, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has categorically stated that he would not pursue any move which is rejected by the majority of the people."
See the full interview here.
05 December 2019 : Uproar in Sri Lanka over British party pledges
24 November 2019 : Conservative Party manifesto includes Sri Lanka for international action on divided states
Uproar in Sri Lanka over British party pledges
Conservative Party manifesto includes Sri Lanka for international action on divided states


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Remembering Vladimir Bukovsky (1942-2019): a long-ago lunch with a man who loved freedom and roses
Elena Danielson: archivist, correspondent
A guest post from one of our favorite guests: Elena Danielson, former director of the Hoover Library & Archives at Stanford, who has written for us here and here and here. Today she shares her memories of a man who is already missed.
While he probably wouldn't have remembered us, we remember him. My husband Ron pointed out the obituary in the New York Times: Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky died October 27, 2019 in Cambridge at age 76. I hope at the end he was quietly able to declare victory for surviving as long as he did, considering the foes he had fought and the demons he had battled.
Ron and I had a memorable lunch with him in Cambridge in April 1998. More than memorable. On business for the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford, I was on an archival collecting tour in Europe and visited various families of Russian dissidents in Paris, Fontenay-aux-Roses, London, Oxford, Cambridge. Keeping in touch with historically significant people was part of my job, a dream job: after establishing connections, their documents and papers would generally arrive at the Hoover Archives in due time. On this trip I met with members of the Pasternak family, the Siniavsky family, even a Romanov, Rostislav Romanoff ("you can call me Rosti"). My travel reports are full of all the practical details regarding scope of collection, contracts, shipping issues, etc., yet what comes through when I review my personal notes is the warm and generous reception I received from mostly strangers. It is still overwhelming to me. The Russian dissidents and emigres are a remarkable lot of human beings with amazing stories and a generosity of spirit totally at odds with their experiences. And even in this extraordinary group, Bukovsky stood out for both Ron and me.
With Bukovsky on the Bridge over the River Cam, April 1998
I had met him over a decade earlier when the was at Stanford to study psychology, and also to work with anti-Soviet activists. He had survived over a decade as a Soviet political prisoner in various jails and psychiatric treatment centers until he was sent into exile in a prisoner exchange program in 1976. The Hoover Institution published one of his books in 1987. My supervisor there asked me to drive Bukovsky to a human rights conference in Berkeley. As his chauffeur on this long drive, I remember vividly his wild and engaging conversation. It was clear that this man would challenge abuse of authority where ever he encountered it. It was built into his personality. This mindset enabled him to take on one of the most powerful and ruthless political structures in the world. "You have to do it," he told me, "despite the fact we knew we would lose."
A decade later, since I was going to be in London anyway, I wrote Bukovsky a formal letter in 1998 and asked to meet him in Cambridge. His response was coy. He said he'd be in Colorado the whole time of my trip – available on April 24 only. Closer to the time, I faxed back that I could take him to lunch on April 24, and decided to leave a voice mail to that effect on his answering machine, since he could access that while traveling. Bukovsky answered his Cambridge home phone immediately, he was most certainly not in Colorado.
Ron and I showed up exactly on time, noon on April 24, at 145 Gilbert Road in Cambridge. He lived alone in a charming classic English cottage with an entry path lined with lushly blooming tree roses … for all his disruptive behavior this was a man who loved roses. And a man who did not always answer the doorbell. It was the era before cellphones, so Ron and I left the house to walk to a public telephone down the street. Halfway down the block we hear someone yelling, "Hey, you!" We turned and saw a very rumpled Bukovsky leaning out his doorway and inviting us to come back. "I just woke up," he said, smelling of alcohol. And he offered us each a lovely cup of smoky tea, the very best lapsong suchong. This was a man who would never drink Lipton's tea.
On his table were heaps of photocopies of once top secret Soviet documents, archival heaven for me. And he knew it. Rumpled as he was, he had prepared assiduously for our meeting. He did his homework.
Ron and I offered to take him out to lunch. A congenial tour guide, he took us for a walk through Cambridge, showing us the sights along the way, smiling gargoyles on churches, Christopher Wren's library, college courtyards. Then we came to the historic café/bar "The Eagle," where he showed us the graffiti left by World War II pilots, some of whom never returned. As he ordered us a lunch of savory moules marinière accompanied by generous pourings of red wine, he began to reminisce about his life as a dissident: "We knew we were playing a game; we didn't know the stakes were so high." He had enormous respect for Reagan for paying attention to the human rights movement, which he felt many intellectuals tried to ignore.
Bukovsky, Ron Danielson at Cambridge
Since the fall of Soviet communism in 1991, Bukovsky had advocated vigorously for a Nuremberg style trial of communist leaders to finally discredit the Soviet system. He did not see any point in putting old villains in jail, he said he wanted to use the documentary evidence to totally ruin their credibility and to prevent any return of the repressive system. Such an effort at a judicial process began in 1992 with Bukovsky serving as an expert, determined to open up the archives.
Bukovsky was himself a scientist who tried to approach the factual data in a systematic way. He used new technology including a hand held Logitech scanner, that was 4-5 inches wide, with which he would swipe the documents several times across each page and then use a computer program to join the pieces together. It was uncharted territory both in terms of legal access and in terms of technical access. He successfully captured an enormous amount of data including heavily guarded secrets from the Politburo and even copies of KGB documents held in Central Committee files. He said he worked with an official named Poltoranin to declassify the materials he wanted to read. Apparently, they worked and drank together simultaneously. Bukovsky would tell Poltoranin what he needed and Poltoranin would order his staff to bring materials out on that topic, which Bukovsky would then scan on the spot. The Russians were unfamiliar with scanning technology at the time and apparently unaware that the documents were being copied. "I paid for every document with my blood," he explained in an almost matter-of-fact way. "I paid for every document with my liver." Already in 1998 he had plans to put the scanned data set on the internet. He said it would be ready to go online by October 1998. Today the documentation he secured in 1992 can be found online here. Now it all looks so obvious, but at the time it was exceedingly experimental and daring.
But the process was not completed. He complained: "Reagan and Thatcher ruined the USSR, but they didn't finish them off." He covers all of this in his books, but hearing it from him in person, in the presence of his remarkable personality, made it clear how he managed to maintain the good fight against all odds.
The Hoover Institution has kept up its active archival acquisitions program under the direction of Eric T. Wakin. Eventually about 57 boxes of Vladimir Bukovsky's papers were secured for the Hoover Archives by Lora Soroka under the guidance of the Russian and Eurasian curator Anatol Shmelev.
Tags: Anatol Shmelev, Elena Danielson, Eric Wakin, Lora Soroka, Vladimir Bukovsky
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Hollywood screenwriter rescues an actress from suicide in the Pacific. Then what happens? Come to Wednesday night's discussion of Alfred Hayes's book.
Also a veteran of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone"
Last call! Tomorrow night we celebrate screenwriter Alfred Hayes's My Face for the World to See. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 30, at the Bechtel Conference Center of Encina Hall, 616 Serra Street, on the Stanford campus. As you will remember, Serra Street is now closed. Directions and parking on the are on the Another Look website here.
The narrator, a Hollywood screenwriter, rescues a young actress from suicide in the Pacific. The incident leads to an affair fueled by gin, cigarettes, and ultimately madness.
Hayes (1911-85) was also a screenwriter and television writer, as well as a novelist. The best known of his seven novels is The Girl on the Via Flaminia. He received Oscar nominations for his work on Paisà, directed by Rossellini, and Zinnemann's Teresa. He adapted Maxwell Anderson/Kurt Weill musical Lost in the Stars for film. His television credits include Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.
Panelists include: Robert Harrison, author and professor of Italian literature; director of Another Look; Tobias Wolff, author and professor emeritus of English, founding director of Another Look; David Thomson, film critic and regular contributor to The New York Times, The New Republic, The Guardian, and Salon; and novelist Terry Gamble.
The event is free and open to the public. Please encourage your friends to join us! And visit our website for details: anotherlook.stanford.edu.
Tags: Alfred Hayes, David Thomson, Robert Pogue Harrison, Terry Gamble, Tobias Wolff
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Hollywood screenwriter rescues an actress from suicide in the Pacific. Then what happens? Come to Wednesday night's discussion of Alfred Hayes's book.
"The undulating quality of his thought": Robert Pogue Harrison remembers Michel Serres
"Michel Serres is indeed Stanford's ego ideal, even if the institution itself is largely unaware of it." Remembering the academician at the Stanford Humanities Center on Oct. 21.
Michel Serres, a Stanford professor, a member of the Académie Française, and one of France's leading thinkers, died on June 1 at age 88. Earlier this week, we published French Consul General Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens's remarks at the memorial conference for him on Monday, Oct. 21. (Read it here.) Below, Robert Pogue Harrison's words on that occasion:
When I joined Stanford's Department of French & Italian as a young assistant professor in the 1980s, I became close friends with Michel Serres. It was he who encouraged me to break out of the straightjacket of narrow academic specialization and to enlarge my conception of what it means to be a humanist. My first book offered an intensive textual analysis of Dante's Vita Nuova. It was thanks to Michel that that I subsequently went on to write a history of forests in the western imagination, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to our own day. That book, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, published in 1992, is dedicated to Michel Serres, yet he managed to beat me to the punch. Just before Forests came out, I received a copy of The Natural Contract, which, to my great surprise, Michel had dedicated to me. That dedication, with a quote from Livy (casu quodam in silvis natus), was for me a far bigger deal than the appearance of my book a month or two later.
"Michel had a way of enchanting and entrancing his audience."
In the late 80s and 90s, Michel's seminars at Stanford were attended by a number of junior and senior faculty members. He was the only one I can remember who regularly drew other faculty to his classes. We went not only to learn but to experience the unique aesthetic flourish of his teaching. There was an Orphic quality to his seminars. Michel had a way of enchanting and entrancing his audience. His lectures were musical, operatic performances, with preludes, movements, arias, and crescendos. He created this musical effect by the lyricism of his voice; by the cadences of his sentences; by his measured use of assonance and alliteration; by the poetic imagery of his prose; and by what I would call the undulating quality of his thought. There was a distinct rhythm to his seminars that put their beginning, middle, and end in musical, rather than merely logical, relation to one another. A Michel Serres seminar was a highly stylized affair, both in content and rhetorical delivery – and the audience could not help but break into applause when he concluded with the words "je vous remercie."
With Serres, the classroom became not only an intellectual space of illumination but also the site of revelations. In addition to what I've called the Orphic quality of his teaching, it also had a Pentecostal aspect. (I borrow the term from our onetime Stanford colleague Pierre Saint-Amand, who attended many of Michel's seminars in the early years.) Michel himself speaks of that particular type of communication in his book, Le Parasite. With Michel, one had the impression at times that something was speaking through him, that he was bringing to the surface deep, long-buried sources of knowledge and wisdom. It was very close to what Hannah Arendt, with reference to Heidegger's teaching in the 1920s, called "passionate thinking."
"An Orphic quality": Sharing a glass of wine in 2010
Whether he was teaching literary works or the origins of geometry, you could be sure that Michel would bring together religion and ancient history, anthropology and mathematics, law and literature. He had a wholly new way of reading philosophy, literature, and the tradition in general. Those of us who were drawn to his thought and his seminars developed a taste for complexity. In the heyday of deconstruction, Serres taught us that textualization led to inanition. The surest way to zombify philosophy, literature, or science was to textualize them. He taught by counter-example how to bring into play a heterogeneous plurality of perspectives. Texts were not folded in upon themselves but contained different strata of historical knowledge, of cultural instantiations and practices.
Serres's model of reading is not easily duplicated. He would bring any number of scientific, religious, and historical deliberations to bear on his reading of authors like Pascal, Balzac, or La Fontaine like Serres was able to do. Serres provided us with a model of complexity for which the word "interdisciplinarity" does not do justice. One could call it a "new encyclopedianism," but why not call it by a term that he himself coined in his book Genese – "diversalism."
The concept of diversalism is not opposed to universalism but represents a very different declension of it than the German metaphysical one – a declension that finds universality in multiplicity rather than unity, contingency rather than necessity, and singularity rather than generality. The confluence of different streams of knowledge, diversalism is the very lifeblood of complexity, that is to say the lifeblood of life itself, not to mention of human culture in general.
Harrison interviewed Serres on "Entitled Opinions" in 2008.
I would like to think that diversalism – as Michel understood it – defines what Stanford University stands for among institutions of higher learning. In that sense Michel Serres is the local unsung hero of Stanford's greater ambition to bring all fields of knowledge and research into productive conversation with one another. I would go so far as to say that Serres is – without Stanford even knowing it – this institution's ego ideal. Let me go even further and say that, in his diversalism, Serres was a very representative member of the Department of French & Italian, which by any measure has been the department of diversalism par excellence. Our colleague Elisabeth Boyi, who is here today, reminds us that diversalism also includes what her friend and fellow traveler Eduard Glissant called "diversality," namely the admixture of languages, cultural legacies, and ethnic origins in an "archipelago" of diversity, where archipelago means interrelated associations that are not organized hierarchically but laterally.
When you think of colleagues like René Girard, Jean-Marie Apostolides, Sepp Gumbrecht, Brigitte Cazelles, Elisabeth Boyi, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, as well as the younger generation of scholars in French & Italian, many of whom are present here today, you start to wonder whether there is another universe or timeline in which Donald Trump did not win the 2016 presidential election and that the Department of French & Italian figures as the fully acknowledged, rather than discrete, crown jewel of Stanford University. I mean Stanford in its commitment to a genuine diversalistic pursuit of knowledge. But as they say, nemo profeta in patria sua.
If Michel Serres is indeed Stanford's ego ideal, the institution itself is largely unaware of it. Stanford and Serres always had a courteous but altogether perfunctory relationship. Neither was the explicit champion of the other. That is not unusual. Stanford has a history of accommodating but not exalting some of its most creative endeavors and ventures. Maybe it's better that way. Be that as it may, Serres was always grateful to Stanford for allowing him to visit twice a year for some three decades. He did much of his best thinking here, interacting with colleagues and walking to the Dish daily. He used to say that he had no complaints about Stanford whatsoever. "Je vie comme un moine et je suis payé come une putain." Wherever he is now, I'm sure he's looking on Stanford fondly. Those of us he left behind here in California miss him dearly, and it is fair to say there will never be another one like him in our midst.
Stanford's resident Socrates takes a break on his daily walk to "the Dish." (Photo: L.A. Cicero)
Tags: "Jean-Marie Apostolidès", Brigitte Cazelles, Elisabeth Boyi, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Michel Serres, Pierre Saint-Amand, René Girard, Robert Pogue Harrison, Sepp Gumbrecht
Stanford remembers Michel Serres: French consul praises his optimism and "infinite love of peace"
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019
"Michel Serres was able to explain astronomy with history, music with mathematics, literature with technology," said Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, French consul general in San Francisco. The occasion was Monday's wise and memorable day of talks, retrospectives, recollections, (short) film clips of the late great French thinker Michel Serres, who died June 1. He was a Member of the Académie Française, a Great Officer of the Legion of Honor, a Graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, and a Stanford professor.
Audrey Calefas-Strebelle led a seminar remembering the French thinker, before the major evening event featuring a talks by Serres's daughter, Hélène Weis; his publisher Sophie Bacquart; Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Stanford Professors Robert Pogue Harrison, Dan Edelstein, and Cécile Alduy, among others. The long afternoon ended with Mouton Cadet , tea sandwiches, chocolate dipped strawberries, and piles of tiny little cakes.
"He was a son of the French Enlightenment, a strong voice of humanist ideas, the illustration of the French meritocracy, and the embodiment of the core values of our Republic."
From his Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens's talk:
Serres's daughter Hélène Weis, and publisher Sophie Bacquart, with the French consul-general
Michel Serres was a French character, and like the best French characters, such as Cyrano de Bergerac and d'Artagnan, he was from Gascony. Born in a rural village to a modest family, he grew up during World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He witnessed and theorized the fall of scientific positivism, as well as blind faith in scientific progress. Many of his concepts trace back to his childhood, his attachment to the land, to spaces, and his infinite love of peace. This period of time marked him profoundly, and he liked to say, "my body was made of war, so my soul was made of peace."
Like d'Artagnan, Michel Serres needed to see the world and explore the horizon. He remained a 'real Gascon,' meeting with the most influential intellectuals, still honoring his roots and devotedly maintaining his terroir accent, one that gave a poetic tone widely reflected in both his French and English works.
Through his travels, he carried his insatiable curiosity. Despite being faced with a world shaken by anxiety and turmoil, he always kept the calm, optimistic, and clear look of a child through his deep green eyes.
Today, amid fast transformations, interpreted by many as a crisis, this 88-year-old scholar saw an exciting and unprecedented ground for creation and social progress. We live through the fourth industrial revolution, which marks the beginning of a new era, a period of technology and digital innovation and the development of a new historical model.
Serres at Stanford: still larger than life
In Petite Poucette, the main character "Thumbelina" is named in reference to her ability to use her thumbs to send messages with her hands. To Stanford students, who are today's Thumbelinas, Michel Serres said: "The future looks good, and I would like to be eighteen, Thumbelina's youthful age, since everything is to be made, everything is left to invent."
This was the message of a man from an older generation that knew the bygone era of the industrial wars, totalitarianism, and the constant nuclear threat, to a younger era faced with new challenges, such as climate change. It is a message from the past to the future, going over the heads of barking crowds feeling nostalgic for the times before the computers – the crowds yelling "it was better before," the crowds criticizing the youth of the world, mocking their tears and their fights. To them, Michel Serres would say, "You long for the past. I was there in the past. I can tell you, it wasn't any better."
The Thubelinas should not be afraid to be young and to be different. For Michel Serres, true creation comes from difference, from the clumsy, the unalike, the left-handed, the weirds, the mocked, the seemingly ill-adapted. They are the true creators, inventors, and artists. They are the ones who will redefine the boundaries of a reality that does not fit them. And they are, now, the majority.
With the Stanford News Service, I was honored to do the only interview of him, ever, in English. It's below:
Tags: Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, Hélène Weis, Michel Serres, Sophie Bacquart
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What was Harold Bloom working on at life's end? This.
His dreams were still in Yiddish.
What was Harold Bloom writing at 89? According to his friend, the writer, translator, and publisher Lucas Zwirner, Bloom had started a new book called Immortality, Resurrection, Redemption: A Study in Speculation, exploring the afterlife in the Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman, and Islamic traditions. Zwirner discusses it in The Paris Review here.
"Being with Harold always felt historic, momentous," he writes. "The world around him was thick with thoughts and feelings, dense. The people we encounter in writing pierce us, their inner lives give us more life. For those of us who were lucky enough to study with him, Harold let that life out. It doesn't matter that he didn't finish his book."
America's legendary lit critic never finished the book, of course. He died last Monday. In his last email to his friend on September 18, Bloom discussed the book, and took on Silicon Valley, too:
In the early autumn of 2019, the denial of death by Silicon Valley technocrats has been an organized phenomenon for about fifteen years. There are varied cults that keep burgeoning of which the most notorious is Terasem, founded on a science fiction novel I could not finish. Satellite dishes have been set up to record the mindsets of the new faithful and beam them out into the great beyond, in the pious hope that amiable aliens will receive them and descend with fresh panaceas to sooth the fear of dying.
Does the world grow better or worse, or does it just get older? There is nothing new under the sun. Cultivating deep inwardness depends upon the reading of the world's masterpieces of literary works and religious scriptures. Not that Silicon Valley would be at all interested, but I would prescribe that all of them learn to read Shakespeare as he needs to be read. Self and soul would then return and take the place of fashionable evasions of the contingencies that have always shaped human lives.
Read the rest here. (And hat tip to Frank Wilson.)
A childhood chum.
And over at the Times of Israel, Bloom discusses how he still dreams in his first language, Yiddish. He was the child of Jewish Orthodox immigrants from Ukraine and Belarus: "As a very small child, three, four years old, I was sent to Sholem Aleichem schools… they were all over the Bronx. So, pretty good early education that was strictly in Yiddish… But to this day my English is very curious because I learned it only through the eye and not through the ear. I didn't, in fact, hear English spoken until I was about 5 and a half. I was a preternaturally early reader and at 5 or 6, I was already reading Shakespeare and trying to read Milton and so on. But English is, of course, a very peculiar language, as Bernard Shaw complains, the orthography and the pronunciation have nothing in common. So to this day, I speak my own curious, inflected English. It doesn't sound like anybody else's. So as far as I'm concerned, I still dream in Yiddish."
Tags: Harold Bloom, Lucas Zwirner, William Shakespeare
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"An elegant homage": weekend praise from Amherst for "Evolution of Desire" – and a few other books, too
It's been a full year-and-a-half since Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard was published. And I'm chuffed it's still getting reviews and attention.
The latest is from the weekend "Friday Reads" section of The Common, a tony journal put out by Amherst College. According to its website: "The Common is an award-winning print and digital literary journal published biannually, in the fall and spring. Issues of The Common include short stories, essays, poems, and images that embody a strong sense of place."
I'm honored that Evolution of Desire is the lead item. The review (they're all designed to be brief) is by Susan Troccolo, a non-fiction contributor to the journal.
"Cynthia L. Haven's book, Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard is a compelling study of her mentor's life's work and an elegant homage to a man whose extraordinary intellectual force and drive for understanding necessarily probed Psychology, Philosophy, Theology, and Anthropology."
It ends: "Evolution of Desire is a memorably written biography of a distinguished thinker for our time."
You can read what's in the middle here.
But there are four other books to consider. Here's Loves You: Poems by Sarah Gambito, recommended by poetry contributor Chloe Martinez:
"'Invite at least 15 people. It's okay if your apartment is small.' These are some of the instructions Sarah Gambito gives the reader at the start of Loves You, a collection of poems that are also recipes, that are also love songs, that are also prayers, and that are often centos, "patchwork poems" made up entirely of quotations. It's okay to include all this, Gambito tells us, it's okay to use everything around you in poems …"
A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, in which fiction contributor Katherine Vaz discusses a novel that was short-listed for the Man Booker and won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2017:
"Based on the true story of a woman who stayed closed-off in her apartment in Luanda during the struggle for independence, it's an uncanny mix of true-magic and suspense and the onslaught of history. The plot is clear and strong. The language, the story itself—breathtaking. The confines of Ludo's apartment end up containing the universe, in the way that the lines of a sonnet contain, due to the restriction of form, an explosion of richness."
Read the full text for all four here. I'll give you a hint on the last two: The Farm by Joanne Ramos and recommended by Danielle Batalion Ola (nonfiction contributor); and Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors and recommended by Katherine Hill (fiction contributor).
Tags: Chloe Martinez, José Eduardo Agualusa, Katherine Vaz, René Girard, Sarah Gambito, Susan Troccolo
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A fan of the Beach Boys? Here's a poem and video for you: "Every lovesick summer has its song."
In his year as state poet laureate, Dana Gioia was determined to speak, read, and hold a literary event in every one of California's 58 counties. And so he did. But that meant a lot of lonely hours on the road for Santa Rosa-based California guy.
Dana chilling in L.A. with Doctor Gatsby (Photo: Starr Black)
Perhaps that's what brought this poem to mind for one of his newest in the Blank Verse Films series. It's one of his poems that was driven by sound, which is appropriate for the subject.
"I imagine it already needs footnotes for the young, but I like to think that the experience is nearly universal in our era of entertainment," he told me. There's a personal link not mentioned in the poem: he shares a hometown with the Beach Boys outside L.A. – Hawthorne, California, before a freeway ran through it.
Cruising with the Beach Boys
So strange to hear that song again tonight
Travelling on business in a rented car
Miles from anywhere I've been before.
And now a tune I haven't heard for years
Probably not since it last left the charts
Back in L.A. in 1969.
I can't believe I know the words by heart
And can't think of a girl to blame them on.
Every lovesick summer has its song,
And this one I pretended to despise,
But if I was alone when it came on,
I turned it up full-blast to sing along –
A primal scream in croaky baritone,
The notes all flat, the lyrics mostly slurred.
No wonder I spent so much time alone
Making the rounds in Dad's old Thunderbird.
Some nights I drove down to the beach to park
And walk along the railings of the pier.
The water down below was cold and dark,
The waves monotonous against the shore.
The darkness and the mist, the midnight sea,
The flickering lights reflected from the city –
A perfect setting for a boy like me,
The Cecil B. DeMille of my self-pity.
I thought by now I'd left those nights behind,
Lost like the girls that I could never get,
Gone with the years, junked with the old T-Bird.
But one old song, a stretch of empty road,
Can open up a door and let them fall
Tumbling like boxes from a dusty shelf,
Tightening my throat for no reason at all
Bringing on tears shed only for myself.
Tags: "Dana Gioia", Beach Boys
R.I.P. Harold Bloom (1930-2019): "He saw reading as a great human enterprise, an engagement of the passions, a heroic endeavor."
One of the nation's preeminent literary critics, Harold Bloom, died today at 89 (we've written about him here). One of his students, Ann Kjellberg, publisher of Book Post, remembers her time as a Yale undergraduate in the 1980s, when Harold Bloom taught a famous course with John Hollander called "Originality."
"During office hours with me, Bloom once buried his head in his hands in despair that he was momentarily unable to remember the opening lines of Yeats's 'Per Amica Silentia Lunae.' He blamed the fact that he had been briefly haunted by the death of his mother."
Here are the lines, for others who do not know them by heart:
On the grey sand beside the shallow stream,
Under your old wind-beaten tower, where still
A lamp burns on above the open book
That Michael Robartes left, you walk in the moon,
And, though you have passed the best of life, still trace,
Enthralled by the unconquerable delusion,
Magical shapes.
She continued: "It meant so much to me, in those days when some sort of 'science' was supposed to direct the reading of literature, that he saw reading as a great human enterprise, an engagement of the passions, a heroic endeavor."
On Facebook, the writer Marat Grinberg posted an email he received from Bloom a dozen years ago:
From arts journalist and author Thomas Gladysz: "Back in high school I had a couple of jobs, and with my spending money I bought a copy of The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, with commentary by Harold Bloom. It cost $7.95, a not inconsiderable sum for a softcover book back in the 1970s. I treasured it, and held onto it all these years. In the early 2000s, I managed to get this famous academic to drop by the bookstore where I worked to sign copies of his new books. I admit I was a little intimidated by this prolific and bestselling literary critic and "monster" of reading. ("Yes, I do read 400 to 500 pages a day," he replied when I asked him about his renowned ability.) I slipped my copy of Blake's poems into the pile for him to sign. It made him pause – and I told him it was my personal copy. He smiled just a bit. Yesterday, Bloom died. His body of work lives on."
From poet, playwright, translator Nina Kossman: "Years ago he wrote me a letter about my translations of Tsvetaeva (my second book of translations). The letter is short but memorable. I scanned it, and so here it is."
A few Tweets below. We'll be adding to the stack:
Tags: Ann Kjellberg, Harold Bloom
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A Nobel for Olga Tokarczuk – Poland's leading novelist!
Congratulations to Olga Tokarczuk! She is the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize – 2018, because the Nobel Committee was enveloped in scandal last year, and so is issuing two awards at once (the 2019 one went to playwright Peter Handke, a more controversial choice). We've written about Tokarczuk before, here and here and here. We didn't predict this big win, however. The dreadlocked vegetarian is a mere 57 years old – relatively young for Nobel winners. However, she has been a leading light in the Polish firmament for years. According to The Guardian, "it has found not only a fine winner but a culturally important one." The Nobel Committee cited "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life." And congratulations, too, for her translators into English (vital for Nobel contenders) –American Jennifer Croft, and Britain's Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Congratulations, too, to her phenomenal publisher (we've written about him here), Jacques Testard of Fitzcarraldo.
The photo above was taken during a reading at the home of Izabela Barry, in New York City (Yonkers, to be more precise). Izabela has been a mover and shaker in the world of Polish lit for years (she's holding a glass of wine in the photo above), and her living room the setting for readings, discussions, and receptions. (We were honored to have Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard featured one evening a couple years ago – a French event, not Polish, admittedly, but we were further privileged to have the incandescent Polish scholar Irena Grudzińska Gross as interlocutor.)
The New York Times reports:
Ms. Tokarczuk is best known for her 2014 historical novel Księgi Jakubowe or The Book of Jacob, centered in the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires and focused on the life of Jacob Frank, an 18th century Polish leader of a Jewish splinter group that converted to Islam and then Catholicism. "She has in this work showed the supreme capacity of the novel to represent a case almost beyond human understanding," Nobel officials wrote in their citation.
In 2018, she got renewed prominence after winning the Man Booker International Prize for translated fiction for "Flights," an experimental novel based on stories of travel.
From the Guardian:
"Sometimes I wonder how my life would have worked out if my books had been translated into English sooner," mused the 57-year-old author earlier this year, "because English is the language that's spoken worldwide, and when a book appears in English it is made universal, it becomes a global publication." This might not be a desirable state of affairs but for writers from many parts of the world it is a fact of life. Her Booker win, as Antonia Lloyd-Jones – one of her two English language translators – remarked, was not just a triumph for her but for the whole of Polish literature.
By then, her canny independent publisher, Fitzcarraldo, had already followed up with Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Whereas Flights was one of the glittering historical and geographical collages that Tokarczuk calls her "constellation novels", Drive Your Plow is very different: a William Blake-infused eco-thriller which significantly extended her reputation, not least because it is much easier to read.
Postscript from NYRB Classics, via Twitter: In the photo above, one careful observer noticed another notable Polish translator, Sean Gasper Bye. The "photobomb, if the eyes do not deceive," would describe the man sitting on the floor, facing the camera, half-lit. Wrote the NYRB Classics: "I love his expression. Happy and rapt."
Tokarcyk and Croft at the Man Booker awards, 2018. (Photo: Janie Airey/Man Booker Prize)
Tags: Irena Grudzińska Gross, Izabela Barry, Jennifer Croft, Olga Tokarczuk
He was so popular in Polish films he got an American film contract. Then…
With his dog "Sambo." The dog was killed during the Warsaw Uprising.
First News, a Polish news site, observed a disturbing anniversary today. It's haunted me all day, and now I'm going to say a little about it.
It's the 76th anniversary of the death of one of Poland's leading actors, comedians, directors, producers, and entrepreneurs during the interwar period. Witty, gallant and seductive, Eugeniusz Bodo shot to fame following his debut in the 1925 silent film Rivals. But he found his true vocation with the "talkies." He starred in some of the most popular Polish film of the 1930s, including His Excellency, The Shop Assistant, Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna? and Pieśniarz Warszawy. His songs became instant hits.
His fame spread. So much so that, in 1939, Bodo signed a good contract with by an American film company and planned to emigrate.
Before he could leave, however, Poland was invaded by Germany, which invaded Russia two years later. His father, Teodor Junod, had been Swiss, and so his son was traveled abroad on a Swiss passport.
Portraiture by NKVD.
Then, after returning from one of his USSR tours, he submitted his Swiss documents for emigration to the U.S. He was arrested by Stalin's notorious NKVD (the maiden name of the KGB) on trumped-up charges of espionage. After a series of brutal interrogations in Moscow, he was sent to a forced labor camp.
He starved to death in 1943, at a Soviet gulag camp in Kotlas, Arkhangelsk, and was buried in a mass grave. He was 43. The Soviets blamed the Germans for his death, and didn't admit to the crime until 1991.
We tend to think stardom and money and a foreign passport offer protection from the horrors of history. They don't. They couldn't even save his dog.
Below, when things were looking rosy in 1937. The song, "Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą" – "I made an appointment with her at 9" – in the film "Piętro wyżej."
Tags: Eugeniusz Bodo