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1342: Ancient Stars
Comic #1342 (March 14, 2014)
Ancient Stars
Title text: 'The light from those millions of stars you see is probably many thousands of years old' is a rare example of laypeople substantially OVERestimating astronomical numbers.
Cueball makes the common observation that many of the visible stars in the sky are so distant that it takes thousands of years for light from that star to reach Earth. However, the brightest star Sirius is one of the nearest at a mere 8.6 light-years distance. In other words, the light that was arriving from Sirius in March 2014, when the comic was posted, was emitted some time around August 2005. The previous US president, George W. Bush, was in office from 2001 to 2009 and Megan notes that this isn't a terribly impressive observation.
The title text references the fact that most people have a hard time imagining the large scale of astronomical numbers. For example, the distance between astronomical bodies or the size of the Sun are hard to imagine; they typically underestimate them by many orders of magnitude and think they are much smaller than they actually are. See Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
In this case, however, people instead overestimate both the number of visible stars and their distance by quite a bit. It's frequently cited that about 5,000 to 10,000 stars are visible in the sky by the naked eye. The Bright Star Catalogue is a star catalogue that lists all stars of apparent magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the naked eye from Earth. The catalog contains 9,110 objects, of which 9,096 are stars, ten are novae or supernovae, and four objects outside of our Milky Way (two globular clusters and two open clusters). To see most of these you need good eyes and a very dark night, and at any point you will only be able to see fewer than half of these as the rest are blocked by the Earth.
This list shows the 91 brightest stars. Of these 59 are more than 100 light years away and only 6 are more than 1,000 light years away. The farthest on this list, Aludra, is "only" 3,200 light years away. Our entire Milky Way contains up to 400 billion (400x10⁹) stars and has a diameter of 100,000 light years.
There are visible objects much farther away, like the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.5 million light years away and made up of billions of stars. And a gamma ray burst GRB 080319B would have been briefly visible to the naked eye, despite being 7.5 billion light years distant.
See also 1212: Interstellar Memes, 1644: Stargazing.
All of the panels of this comic are white-on-black.
[Megan and Cueball stand facing each other, looking up at the sky.]
Cueball: Just think - the light from that star was emitted thousands of years ago. It could be long gone.
[Cueball looks at Megan, who is still looking up.]
Megan: That's Sirius. It's eight light-years away.
[Cueball looks up again.]
Cueball: Oh.
[Both look at one another.]
Cueball: Just think - the light from that star was emitted in the previous presidential administration.
Megan: Hmm, doesn't pack quite the punch.
The star V762 Cas in the Cassiopeia constellation is listed as being 14818 light years away and still having an apparent magnitude of 5.87 - thus being within the visible 6.5 limit. If Cueball had been able to point this star out, he would have been correct. But it is only visible under perfect conditions.
I knew this because Nick Cave's 2013 album *Push The Sky Away* includes the lyrics "Sirius is eight point six light years away / Arcturus is thirty seven / The past is the past and it's here to stay / Wikipedia is heaven". Obviously Randall has been listening to it! ;-) 173.245.53.176 08:32, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
The comic is about people getting the distance to the stars wrong. Wikipedia - List of brightest stars claims a that total of 9110 stars are visible to the naked eye and they provide a list of the 91 brightest stars. Of these only 59 are greater than 100 ly and only 6 are greater than 1,000 ly. The farthest visible star is 3,200 ly away. When people think of the stars they correctly imagine the vast distances they spread out over. But when lay people observe or imagine the visible stars they grossly overestimate the distances. As implied in the title text, in a world of vast astronomical underestimations, this is one of the few overestimates. 99% of the visible stars are only dozens of ly away.ExternalMonolog (talk) 09:35, 14 March 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog
People aren't overestimating the distance, they are underestimating the speed of light :-). The number of visible stars is the true overestimating. And even that ... the 9110 is number of INDIVIDUAL stars we can see. We can also see Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away ... but we can't distinguish any of trillion stars it have from others, the galaxy as whole is less bright that any of those 91 brightest stars. -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:04, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
In the comic, the lifespan of stars is also vastly underestimated. A thousand years is nothing when their age is generally counted in millions or billions of years. What is the probability a near-visible star died in the last thousand years and wouldn't that be a major astronomical event? Ralfoide (talk) 14:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
In the comic, the lifespan of stars isn't even mentioned in passing. The history of supernovae is pretty well documented and goes back nearly 2000 years, so the light from those supernovae is probably not more than 2200 years old...173.245.56.65 15:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
Actually, it is mentioned in passing, in the first panel. "The light from that star was emitted thousands of years ago. It could be long gone." (Emphasis mine.) While it is true that technically this is still true as it always "could" be long gone, it is in fact most likely still around. Even if the light were a few thousand years old, it's the blink of an eye to stars that live for billions of years. After all, it's roughly equivalent (given average lifespans) to "We haven't seen Steve in half an hour. For all we know he could be dead by now." Yes, possible. No, not likely. 199.27.128.218 18:36, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
Of course, one could also add the time it takes for the radiation to reach the surface of the star ;) 173.245.53.162 15:41, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
It is true that the energy released at the centre of the star may take millions of years to reach the surface. But it will not be the light we see until it leaves the surface of the star, as light cannot propagate through the plasma of the stars interior. So - no - we could not add this time;-) Kynde (talk) 19:56, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
What will be different about the photons leaving the surface? They're the same, they've just been bouncing about for thousands, not millions with respect to G-type stars, of years. In that sense, it is the light we see and we must add the time. 199.27.128.114 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1342:_Ancient_Stars&oldid=301329"
Comics from March
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Lloyd's Register / LRQA news / 2012 / Can Food Safety Management Systems Help to Drive Sustainability?
Can Food Safety Management Systems Help to Drive Sustainability?
The National Sustainable Food Summit closed today in Sydney. In an interview recorded straight after the event, LRQA's Cor Groenveld – Global Product Manager for Food Services - gave his views on some of the key issues coming out from the conference post his presentation at Australia's key event in the food supply chain calendar.
"This was the second national Sustainable Food Event in Sydney. I think what I learned here is how important sustainability is in the food supply chain. There are some facts and figures; we waste one third of all the food that is made in the food supply, it is unbelievable that we have so much waste, but also if you look at food security, we still have a lot of people not even having food, coupled with the energy that we are wasting."
Cor addressed the issue of sustainability; "For me the most important thing is how we proceed, because there is a lot of talk about sustainability in the food supply chain and there are great examples of projects but I think that we are not approaching it with a management systems approach. What I talked about today in the panel discussion that I was part of is perhaps we can learn from how we – LRQA - implements food safety across the food supply chain. Perhaps we can pick out energy management, waste management, water management and we can put these into a management system standard and I opened discussions on that. I think that this is something that we can look at in more detail in the future and also talk to stakeholders in the food supply chain to see if this is an approach that they would appreciate."


THE biggest crowd of the season at Belle Vue saw a crucial penalty miss cost Rhyl a deserved three points from a fiery clash against fellow high flyers Haverfordwest.
Over 500 supporters provided an electric atmosphere as the Lilywhites held on to second place in the WPL and made it 16 league matches unbeaten.
Haverfordwest are the only side to defeat Rhyl in the league this season and one could understand why they have been so hard to beat, but some of the gamesmanship they displayed while under the cosh in the second half left a lot to be desired.
Some exchanges with the Rhyl fans behind the goal threatened to get out of hand at one point, with some County players tending to over-react to the customary barracking.
The main talking point of the first half was the bookings - four to County and two for Rhyl.
Haver keeper Lee Kendall was lucky to escape with a yellow card when he first appeared to handle the ball outside his area and then hacked down Lee Hunt.
Rhyl went closest to scoring when Timmy Edwards headed just wide fro m Marc Limbert's kick.
County's Rhys Griffiths caused home keeper Paul Smith a couple of uncomfortable moments with long-range shots.
The visitors began the second half well and Rhyl were relieved when Limbert cleared a Griffiths shot offtheline.
In the 51st minute the South Walians took the lead. Rhyl's defence failed to deal with a free-kick and Griffiths fired home from 20 yards.
That was the end of Haver as a goal threat - the rest of the game belonged to Rhyl.
Chris Adamson and Andy Moran missed good chances before the equaliser arrived on the hour.
Lee Atherton's hoist into the area was flicked on by Edwards and Hunt scored his first goal for Rhyl with a classic over -head kick.
Moran's first time volley was well saved by Kendall and Hunt fired wide before the Lilies won a 65th minute penalty when Wyn Thomas brought down Hunt in the box.
Moran used to be as dependable as Matt Le Tissier from the spot, but he missed his second penalty in a row when his kick hit the left-hand post.
That was as close as Rhyl came to a winner although Kendall had to be smart to thwart Limbert and Adamson.
Rhyl: Smith, Brewerton, Wood, Atherton, Edwards, M Powell, Walters, Limbert, Moran, Hunt (McGinn 83), Adamson.


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H.E.R. interview – Evening Standard, 16 March 2018
Posted in H.E.R., Interviews
I'm a little worried that my interview with H.E.R. is going to have to be conducted behind a screen, like a protected witness in court, or using the voice of an actor, like Gerry Adams in the late Eighties.
Actually, I'm surprised that we're meeting at all. The Californian R&B singer wants to keep her true identity a secret, ironic considering that her stage name is an acronym for "Having Everything Revealed".
Keeping mum has enabled an impressive rise since releasing a seven-song EP, H.E.R. Volume 1, in September 2016, accompanied by no extra information other than a photograph of her in silhouette on the cover. It's sad, smouldering break-up stuff, modern in its production while sticking to the familiar territory of relationship troubles in its lyrics.
A second, eight-song EP, Volume 2, followed last summer, then a collection uniting all of her sparse, slow-moving material to date, which took the track total to 21. Without a chart hit, the music has made her popular enough for three sold-out theatre shows to constitute her first ever London appearances this month.
She looks every inch the star when she is led by her minder into the spiffy bar of the Bloomsbury Hotel, child-sized and big-haired in a black tracksuit by designer Daniel Patrick. In the end, although her people try to determine my questions before the meet-up, it's nowhere near as strange an encounter as I've been expecting. She won't take her sunglasses off, and there's a slightly awkward moment when I say, "Hello, I'm David," and she says, "…" but aside from the name thing she's as forthcoming as anyone.
"I chose not to put my face on the music because you put it all out there when you're someone like me, who writes about stuff that I actually go through. It's scary and uncomfortable releasing music that is close to you," she explains when we sit down. "But all kinds of things go into someone's judgement when they listen to music. An older woman might say, 'I can't relate to this because it's about a younger woman.' I decided to name this project H.E.R. because I wanted all women to think, 'I am her.' That was the idea: us all having this thing in common, being that girl."
She pronounces it "her", not as the initials. Her goal, to write about her specific issues and make them universal, seems to be working. Six of her songs are currently on eight-figure Spotify play counts, including the harp-led number Focus, which took off when Rihanna used it as background music for an Instagram video last year.
"I'm only 20 years old. I guess 16, 17, 18, that whole period was a dark time for me. I guess it was a hormonal thing, going through all those changes as a young woman, learning who you are and being comfortable with yourself, and also, which goes along with that, boys," she says. "It was definitely an unhappy, 'Who am I?' period. 'Who am I gonna be?' All those insecurities come around that time. Those first songs all represent that dark period, all those emotions. How it feels like the end of the world but really it's not."
However, during that time she had a better idea of who she was going to be than most teenagers. Her musician father encouraged her interest in the piano from her toddler years. As a child she could trick her piano teachers into believing she could read sheet music because she was so good at playing by ear. She signed a major label record deal with RCA at just 14, sharing management with Alicia Keys, and spent the rest of her education shuttling between high school in the Bay Area of California and writing and recording sessions in New York. "People at school knew that I sang and that this is what I was gonna do, but I was pretty private and low-key. I've always been kind of a loner."
I know all this about her early career because she told me, and also because of another strange aspect of her identity concealment: three seconds on Google tells you without a doubt that H.E.R. is Gabi Wilson, a precocious multi-instrumentalist who was already successful enough to have performed at the BET Awards, and can be found on YouTube performing an Alicia Keys cover on American breakfast television's Today Show at the age of 10. Even H.E.R.'s Wikipedia page offers her real name.
So we know who she is, and she knows that we know who she is. She just won't admit it. Both H.E.R. and Gabi Wilson maintain separate Twitter accounts and don't acknowledge each other. Wilson hasn't tweeted to her 24,000 followers in six months. H.E.R.'s account has 74,000 followers but doesn't follow anyone, tweets daily about her music and tour and includes lots of photos of her with sunglasses on and a hand over her face as though she's trying to conceal a burp.
Why not just give up the pretence? "I don't think there should be a 'ta-dah!' moment. I don't think anyone cares that much. It's not like I'm Superman," she says. "I've had people hear the message and now it doesn't matter whether you can see my face or whether you know my name or not, because people already love the music."
We discuss the way that everyone presents a tightly controlled image of themselves to the world today, most commonly with a perpetually partying Facebook feed. H.E.R.'s is just more extreme than most. "I've been a musician since I was really young, so I've been around. Sometimes people have a hard time accepting that people grow up when they've known them for a long time," she tells me. "I don't want people to attach my past to now because I've grown up. This is a new chapter in my life. There are a lot of internet detectives but a lot of other people say, 'I don't care, I just love the music.' And through the music you know exactly who I am. A face is not attached to who I am at the core."
In concert, again the sunglasses stay on, and her lighting man is instructed to keep the stage shadowy. She performed the first of her three London shows at Koko last weekend, where Janet Jackson stopped by to offer support. "I didn't even think I'd be performing the songs from these EPs. I thought I'd create an album straight afterwards. But this has turned into something absolutely ridiculous. It's insane how it's grown."
After this tour she'll carry on working on her debut album proper. She mostly writes in her current home in Brooklyn on piano or guitar and produces herself as well, though she has also worked with producers including Swagg R'Celious, Scribz, and the UK's Grades and MNEK. "It's very rewarding to think that something that I've worked towards for my entire life is happening," she says. More and more fans are looking her way every day. This anti-star is going to need bigger shades.
March 20, Koko, NW1 (0870 432 5527, koko.uk.com); March 21, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12 (0844 477 2000, o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk)
DEADMAU5 interview – Evening Standard, 13 June 2014
GHETTS interview – Evening Standard, 22 Oct 2014
GEORGE EZRA interview – Evening Standard, 25 July 2014
AITCH interview – Evening Standard, 6 Dec 2019
Tagged 2018, Evening Standard, H.E.R.
UK FESTIVAL GUIDE 2018 – Evening Standard, 9 March 2018
LILY ALLEN, The Dome – Evening Standard, 22 March 2018

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Benedikt Gäch is globally responsible for all ICT infrastructure and platform issues. To support our customers, he develops and coordinates topics such as data centers, cloud, Smart X (with Smart City, Smart Car, IOT), service platforms (e.g. OSS / BSS) and the necessary transformations. Prior to that, he worked for over 15 years as a consultant in various companies worldwide, but always with a focus on their infrastructures and platforms.
Before joining Detecon, he worked for a major international carrier. His focus was on optimizing ICT infrastructures for customers in the automotive, manufacturing, high-tech and food industries as well as financial service providers and insurance companies, among others. The graduate communications engineer frequently gives lectures at international events and works closely with standardization committees.
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EA Partners with Microsoft To Launch Subscription Game Service
By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)
Electronic Arts (EA) has just announced a brand new cloud-based gaming subscription service called EA Access, which will offer users access to their best games for $5 a month, or $30 a year and marks a shift to cloud-based alternatives for users to get in the game.
Today we're revealing a new way for gamers to play more EA games.?This is something we've never done before and we're excited to share it with you.
With access what EA calls "The Vault," users will be able to play such games as FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2, and Battlefield 4. EA hopes users will see EA Access as a great value since they'll only be paying $5 a month to play games stored in the cloud. And to make it even more attractive, the gaming company is also offering 10% all digital content purchased for the XBox One through the XBox Games Store.
"From full digital-download titles like the upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition or NHL?15," the EA blog post stated, "to additional membership services such as Battlefield 4 Premium or even FIFA Ultimate Team points, it's all 10% off for members." Users will also gain access to all new EA games a week before the release date.
EA Access is currently in Beta with a limited number of players and is XBox-centric (sorry PlayStation 4 fans), but they may have hinted that should EA Access be popular, that it could expand beyond Microsoft's exclusivity.
"At EA, we are always looking for new ways to make it easier for gamers to play more EA games across all platforms, and we are excited about what EA Access will offer to players on Xbox One." But I wouldn't hold my breath for it to happen any time soon, as Microsoft is pretty much paying the freight on this in order to gain market share in the XBox games store. But I hope that XBox 360 users will at least be able to participate as well.
Right now, EA Access is available only through XBox Live, but EA plans to also offer the program via GameStop, EB Games in Canada, and Amazon once it gets out of Beta. And for $30 a year, how can you not wanna do that? Beats the $60-70 price tag per game!
Hat Tip – The Verge
EA Blogpost -
ANNOUNCING EA ACCESS FOR XBOX ONE: THE BEST WAY TO PLAY EA'S GAMES
Today we're revealing a new way for gamers to play more EA games. This is something we've never done before and we're excited to share it with you. We have partnered with Microsoft to deliver EA Access, an all-new monthly (or annual) membership for gamers exclusively on Xbox One that starts at just $4.99 a month. The service is being rolled out in beta to a limited number of players today, but it will launch for everyone on Xbox One soon. At EA, we are always looking for new ways to make it easier for gamers to play more EA games across all platforms, and we are excited about what EA Access will offer to players on Xbox One.
EA Access membership unlocks The Vault, a collection of EA's biggest games on Xbox One ready for you to download and play. During the beta, gamers will have unlimited access to four great EA games: FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2 and Battlefield 4, with more titles being added soon. That's over $100 worth of games for $4.99 a month. You can play these EA favorites as much as you want with the click of a button.
EA Access is a totally new way for you to play more of the games you love, for less. Here's a rundown of the additional benefits EA Access members will get:
Awesome Value-- Besides the great games in The Vault, EA Access members will save 10% on purchases of EA digital content for Xbox One offered through the Xbox Games Store. From full digital-download titles like the upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition or NHL 15, to additional membership services such as Battlefield 4 Premium or even FIFA Ultimate Team points, it's all 10% off for members.*
Play First?-- Membership in EA Access lets you experience trials of new EA games up to five days before the release date.* It starts with Madden NFL 15, NHL 15, FIFA 15, NBA LIVE 15, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, but more are on the way. If you decide to buy the game, your progress will carry over so you can pick up right where you left off.
You can join EA Access for just $4.99 per month, or you can purchase an annual membership for $29.99 per year on Xbox LIVE?.
Soon, fans of GameStop will be able to purchase their EA Access membership in local retail stores. GameStop and Amazon will also carry EA Access memberships for Xbox One gamers across Europe, as well as EB Games in Canada.
Excited to check it out EA Access will launch on Xbox One soon. You will find more information on the program at the EA Access website. Be sure to follow EA Access on Facebook and Twitter as well.
*Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See www.ea.com/eaaccess for details.
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The Hour of the Furnaces is a product of the raging 60s. It was a response by directors Fernando E. Solanas and Octavio Getino to the Argentine military Junta and to the Latin American liberation movements. It is also a manifesto against commercial film (the First Cinema) and art film (the Second Cinema). The directors proposed the Third Cinema and new ways of making and critiquing films (In short, it integrates Film with Action to effect change in society; and to affect audience with reason as well as emotion turning them from passive consumers into active participants .) The film successfully blends theory, action, form and content into a brand-new art form, investigating the notions of 'violence / armed force' and (neo)colonialism, which are still relevant to Hong Kong today. The film was banned in Argentina. Yet it has attracted great attention in international film circle and washailed a classic of 'revolutionary film', 'militant film' and so on. There are continuous interests in the Third Cinema. Conferences, books, discourses and studies on the subject turn up from time to time since its inauguration.
'Look! This is where we shot the last scene yesterday.' Two actors show the camera (us) the set where La Commune was made. Please do not think you are watching a documentary of the film for the camera will soon become the journalist/ cameraman of the Commune TV, going about interviewing people. Yes, I mean TV! In the film, you will watch TV news in 1871! Do not mistake this film for a farce as Peter Watkins is more serious than anybody else and few can match his concern for the society. He is also an ardent inventor in film and television arts. Anachronism is just one of his alienating tactics. In this film, actors sometimes play the roles and sometimes play themselves to talk about their feelings at the moment and commend on the characters. When a group of Commune women shift their discussion of French women's predicaments in 1871 to that of 1999, men in the commune are talking about TV, the modern media, and the decline of Japan. Issues of different times and places juxtapose, intersect, and reflect on each other pressing and close to home.
As a film artist and activist, Watkins challenges the director centered traditional undemocratic way of filmmaking that renders audience as passive recipients. Watkins meticulously designed and controlled the production of La Commune but he also demanded and gave plenty of room for active participations from the actors. The director provides the backbone and the framework while everybody involved fills in the flesh and blood. For example, the important components of the film —dialogues and discussions— are taken from real discussions among actors during rehearsals who were told to play out the characters they have meticulously researched as well as their real selves in present day France. This is democratic collective creation in a controlled manner. On the activist level, he laments the lost of commitment and idealism and explains on his website why he made this film: ". . . the idea of commitment to a struggle for a better world, and of the need for some form of collective social Utopia [Paris Commune] – which WE now need. . . "and review many of the issues raised in the Commune but still failed to be resolve today. Therefore, he alienates the audience but requires them and the actors to participate at the same time in discussing many of the issues. For this purpose, he left a lot of space and information for audience to discuss (He did not mention it but such practice reminds me of an Argentinean documentary, Hours of the Furnaces, where the film stopped screening midway and asked audience to start discussion). The discussions inside and outside the film are parts of a social action. People playing members of the Women's Union in the Commune later actually formed a group to fight for the issues raised in the film. Thus social action steps out of the screen and into our real lives. La Commune is Watkins at his best and is exemplary of using filmmaking as social action. In Britain, only Ken Loach's works can barely match the strong social and political sense of Watkins' and Watkins has an edge over Peter Greenaway in setting his experimentations on solid social grounds. This short introduction can hardly do justice to such a rich film as how to show and use the film already require great wisdom. I better leave our clever audience to fathom its depths.
Inside a giant warehouse in a working-class Parisian suburb, Peter Watkins assembles a cast of over 200 non-professional actors (though their amateur status is undetectable). Basing their work upon thorough historical research, they will attempt tore- create the events of March, 1871-the rise and fall of the Paris Commune.
La Commune (Paris, 1871) explores that famous, brief, romantic, and tragic period when poor and working-class Parisians rose up against the "bourgeois" French national government, which fled the capital and re-established itself in Versailles. As this complex historical drama unfolds, it is also " covered" by two television news crews – one from "National TV Versailles" which broadcasts the official version of events, the other from "Commune TV," giving voice to the rebellious Communards.
Mixing past and present, revolutionary in form as well as content, Watkins's audacious masterpiece forces us to confront notions of a safe or objective reading of the past, and also to reflect, inevitably, upon the present. No one who meets the challenge of La Commune (Paris, 1871) will be unchanged by the experience.
Everywhere on earth is filled up with rage. Why those being ignored and powerless resort not only to tears, but also to force? In Greece, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain, or even in China, vigorous protests are happening. It is worth noting that, these incidents, which are stigmatized by the mass media as 'riots', mostly happened in the cities of the First World.
In order not to make simplified judgment towards the word 'rage', that is, to take it as an improper vent of personal emotion, we ought to understand, with the influence of capitalized globalization, what has been the fountainhead of rage for those being ignored.
Associated with the analysis by French sociologist, Alain Bertho, and philosopher, Toni Negri, these angry stories has reflected the reason of the general outbreak of riots under different political regimes. It also allows us to have a deeper understanding on the crisis, as well as the outbursts of anger of this era.
順寧道,走下去 Walk on! Shun Ning Road!
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In the Light of ...|Sep 27, 2004 1:32 PM| by: M.S.Srinivasan
The Future of Religion – II
Perhaps none of these positive elements of religion will be missing in the spirituality of the future, but they will be used with a new and better understanding of their significance or may even take different forms while expressing the new values of a future spirituality. In this series of articles we will be viewing religion in a balanced and futuristic perspective, in the light of Sri Aurobindo's vision, looking deeply into the luminous as well as the dark side of religion, critically examining various approaches suggested for its renovation and gazing into its future destiny.
The Failure of Organised Religions
In our previous article we have discussed some of the positive potentials of religion. But when we look at the actual historical fact of religions it makes us wonder how such a tragedy can befall on this human institution and activity which sprang from the highest and the noblest aspiration of humanity? What is the distorting factor which spoiled the whole thing? Let us look at this darker side of religion, the causal factors and the possible remedies.
Follies of Religion
History of human civilisation is replete with the crimes and follies committed by organised religions: its bloody religious wars, the horrors of its persecutions, its hatred for science and philosophy, its scorn for those belonging to other religions, the tyranny of its priest craft, the oppressive rigidity of its social customs, and in our modern age, religious fundamentalism of all kinds. Many noble souls like Joan of Arc fell victim to religious persecution. A great scientist like Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at the stake in the name of religion. The words of Christ that "Letter Killeth" literally comes alive with the red letter of blood in the history of organised religions. Curiously, one of the greatest exponents of religion in our modern age was so strung by the evils of organized religion, he went to the extent of saying:
"If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organized religion. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development. Study everything, keep your own seat firm. If you take my advice, do not put your neck into the trap. The moment they try to put their noose on you, get your neck out and go somewhere else. As the bee culling honey from many flowers remain free, not bound by any flower; be not bound. Enter not the door of any organized religions. Religion is only between you and your God and no third person must come between you. Think what these organised religions have done! What Napoleon was more terrible than those religious persecutions? If you and I organize we begin to hate every person! It is better not to love, by loving only means hating others. That is no love, that is hell".[1]
What is the reason for this miserable failure of organised religion? To answer this question, we must have a clear understanding of the structure of a religion. Any religion can be viewed as a collective organism with a physical, vital, mental and spiritual body. The inner most core of every religion is a spiritual intuition or realisation revealed to a prophet or a sage or many such religious leaders. This is the spiritual core of a religious organism. Then comes the mental body of religion made of its philosophy or theology; the next outer layer is the vital body of religion made of its mythology, ceremony and rituals and the social customs; and finally the outer most shell or the physical body made of the church, mosque or temple and the priest. The organised religion belongs to the most physical and vital body of a religion. What we mean by organized religion is some concept of God revealed in a scripture and institutionalised in the Church, plus some mythology, ceremony and rituals, and priesthood which claims to mediate between God and Man, sometimes asserting that its path or prophet as the only way to God, and without any vivifying spiritual experience, knowledge, practice or presence which is the real soul of a religion.
All these four dimensions of religions are needed for an integral spiritual life. But the soul and life of a religion is its inner spiritual core. All the other three outer layers of religion derive their life from this inner dimension. A religion can live and do its spiritual work only when this spiritual core is kept living, active and progressive with a constant stream of spiritual aspiration, experiences and realisation. When this inner core of religion becomes stagnant than the religion begins to die. The main problem with most of the organized religions is that they have strayed away from their life-giving spiritual source and what remains is a skeleton of dogma and rituals. The major mistake of organized religions is that they ignored in practice, while professing in words, the warning of Christ "The Spirit saveth, letter killeth". These religions instead of relying on the "Spirit that Saveth" have clung to the "Letter that Killeth".
The Great Fall
And when the Spirit withdraws, the Ego, cult-ego, takes over, the mental ego with its rigid and inflexible dogmas and the vital ego with its urge to dominate, possess and rule. So the history of organized religions has become mostly a part of the political history of humanity, rather than its spiritual history, with the mental and vital ego trying to conquer the world in the name of God!
But interestingly, this motto of organized religions to conquer the world for God is not altogether false. It is, as Dr. Mangesh Nadkarni pointed out in one of his talks, an egoistic distortion of a truth of the future destiny of humanity. According to Sri Aurobindo, return to the spiritual source of our being, which is the spiritual aim of all religions, is not the highest destiny of human evolution. This is only the first step or an aspect of our spiritual destiny. The next step or the other aspect is the return or descent of the divine Source on our earthly life culminating in the divinization of human life and the world of mind, life and matter or in other words a spiritual conquest by God or the children of God over the world. This spiritual quest is realized by an inner victory over ego and desire in every part of our nature, in our mind, heart and body, and making them into conscious and perfect channels or instruments of the divine Power, culminating in a Kingdom of God within as well as without. The battle cry of some of the organized religions to conquer the world for God is perhaps a distorted reflection in the vital ego of this higher spiritual destiny. But this spiritual conquest of the world belongs to a more distant future. The present condition of the organised religion is something opposite. It is the vital and mental ego trying to conquer the world in the name of God.
This brings us to the question why or how such a degeneration comes about? It happens to all human institutions, a process of disintegration or entropy which pulls everything into the mud. In religion, the story runs somewhat along the following line. A great spiritual teacher arrives spreading Light all around. The Light radiating from the teacher spiritually elevates or liberates a few of his close disciples, awakens a spiritual aspiration in a few more and initiates a more or less widespread religious, moral and intellectual awakening in the community. The great Master establishes a spiritual idea in the collective consciousness of humanity. And one day the Master leaves his body and soon after begins the Fall. The teaching spreads more and more into the masses, but at the same time the great and luminous thoughts of the Master pass into ignorant and darkened minds, and in the process gets diluted, distorted and betrayed by the ego, desire, passions, prejudices and superstitions of the lower nature of the followers. Finally when the "teaching", twisted, and bruised in the torture chambers of ego and desire, emerges, it is a dark opposite of the original thought — masking itself with the divine Name. What remains is the great Name, the Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Nanak, the legends and the temples built around them. As Sri Aurobindo describes the process in splendid muse:
"A glory of lightning traversing the earth-scene,
Their sun-thoughts fading, darkened by ignorant minds,
Their work betrayed, their good to evil turned,
The cross their payment for the crown they gave
Only they leave behind a splendid Name.
A fire has come and touched men's heart and gone;
A few have caught flame and risen to greater life."[2]
Worm in the Rose
So the canker, the worm in the rose, is the Ego. And the most pernicious form of the Ego in religion is the dogmatic assertion that my path or prophet is the only way to God or heaven and all others who follow other paths belong to the Devil and are condemned to eternal hell. It is this ignorant assertion which is the source of all fanaticism and fundamentalism in religion and has made religion into an instrument of division and hatred among people. All other aspects of religion like scriptures, mythology, ceremony, rituals, symbols can remain in the future, because they are necessary aids in the progressive spiritual evolution of the soul. But this dogmatic and exclusive assertion is a phantom of the past and has no place in the future. Some orthodox sections of the society may cling to these phantoms and they may rise aggressively to the surface as it is happening at present, in the form of fundamentalist terrorism. But they are allowed to rise in order to be eliminated. This is one of the methods of Nature for getting rid of things of the past which are harmful or no longer helpful to the future evolution of humanity. As Sri Aurobindo explains:
"Nature uses such means, apparently opposed and dangerous to her intended purpose, to bring about the fruition of that purpose. As in the practice of the spiritual science and art of Yoga one has to raise up the psychological possibilities which are there in the nature and stand in the way of spiritual perfection and fulfillment so as to eliminate them, even, it may be, the sleeping possibilities which might arise in future to break the work that has been done, so too Nature acts with the world-forces and meet her on her way, not only calling up those which will assist her but raising too, so as to finish with them, those that she knows to be normal or even the unavoidable obstacles which cannot but start up to impede her secret will."[3]
So we need not be too disturbed by the growing menace of fundamentalism and religious terrorism. They are allowed to rise in order to be thrown out. If the warrior-energies of nations, instead of fighting amongst themselves, join together to fight the menace instead, then it can be defeated.
The Remedy and the Alternatives
But inflicting a military defeat on the forces of fundamentalism is only a temporary solution to the problem. The permanent solution to the problem lies first, in the mental preparation of the whole of humanity with an education based on the ideals and principles of universal spiritual humanism; and ultimately on a spiritual education based on the principles of Yoga leading to the transformation of human nature in the unity-consciousness of the Spirit. This is the highest alternative to organized religions and also the ultimate solution to the evolutionary crisis facing humanity today. We will come to this solution at the end of our discussion. But this is a long-term solution which cannot be imposed on an unwilling or unprepared religion or humanity. Religion and humanity have to arrive at this solution through a process of natural evolution. For religion, this evolution is best achieved through a renovation of its inner and outer life in all the dimensions – physical, vital, mental and spiritual.
Some people suggest a pure inward-turning spirituality or Yoga discarding all outer supports as the alternative to organized religions. But such a pure inner Yoga can be pursued only by a few, while religion is for the many, the masses. Religion cannot be so elitist because it is, whatever may be its shortcomings and degenerations, the only means available at present for the spiritual elevation of the masses. Thus religion as an institution has to be rejuvenated and not discarded. This doesn't mean creating a new religion, but creating a new life in all the four dimensions of religion – physical, vital, mental and spiritual – and revitalizing them with the light and life of the Spirit.
How does one do this? Two methods are suggested: first is the outer reformation of religion and second is the inner regeneration of religion. The first method is the approach and attitude of what we may call as the "reformist mentality". There are three kinds of reformist minds: first is the rational reformer who wants to purify and reform religion by applying reason to all its forms and activities. The second is the social reformer who wants to add a social dimension to religion and make religion into a reformer of human society. Third is the seeker of the formless God who looks at all physical and vital forms of religion either as unnecessary or looks down upon them as lower forms of worship. There are serious flaws in the approaches of the reformist mind towards religion but there is also a kernel of truth in all these attitudes.
The second method, which is perhaps more in harmony with the dharma of religion is the inner regeneration of religion. Here also there are two possibilities; the psychological renovation of religion and a spiritual regeneration of religion.
In our subsequent articles we will be discussing the advantages, drawbacks and utilities of all these approaches and try to arrive at some form of a synthesis and a third alternative, which we believe is the future ideal towards which religion is heading.
[1] Swami Vivekananda, Collected Works, Vol. 2, p. 474
[2] Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, SABCL., 28, p. 7
[3] Sri Aurobindo, SABCL., Vol. 15, p. 557-58
Tags: future, religion, Sri Aurobindo
http://Website Unmesh
M.S. Srinivasan's article (The Future of Religion) is indeed excellent. This message will touch the youth [especially Indian] and will free them from the dogmatic approach of organised religion that they are born in.
http://Website Gayatri
This was very interesting and thought provoking.Yes, it is true that religion is being misused, particularly touching were the thoughts on what happens to great spiritual leaders o n leaving the body, the fall begins, distortions and misuses, till only the names remain. !!! How very true, but education can always highlight the good tenets of all religions and great leaders so that a true understanding is gained.


Solidarités International (SI) is a French humanitarian organisation operating for over 35 years who is committed to providing aid in the event of conflict and natural disasters. Our mission is to provide aid as quickly and as efficiently as possible to endangered populations by meeting their vital needs:  water, food and shelter. SI has started activities in North-eastern Nigeria in August 2016 in the fields of Wash and is now intervening in 4 areas of the state for Wash and Shelter activities. We are recruiting to fill the position below: Job Title: Livestock Officer Location: Ngala, Borno Beginning of contract: 3rd April, 2018 Contract duration: 3 months (with possibility of extension) - Probation period: 1 month Slot: 2 Mission The livestock officer, under the direct supervision of the FSL team leader, implement and monitor the small livestock  related activities, following Solidarités International technical recommendations, procedures (including safety procedures), schedules and deadlines. Responsibilities Representation and community mobilization: Mobilize the targeted communities and create awareness about the project activities; make sure that the projects' objectives and the selection criteria are well understood and accepted by the communities Establish and maintain good relations with local participants and communities (populations) in the area of intervention to know their perceptions of the operations and to understand the needs, complaints, and major events that may have an impact on the activities of Solidarités International Listen to the population and local participants in the field and report to his/her project manager any non-technical or safety-related issues which could affect the activities or safety of Solidarités International teams Implementation and Monitoring: Under the supervision of the FSL team leader: Participate in the identification of the beneficiaries of agricultural inputs' distribution, in collaboration with local authorities and landowners and according to specific criteria Participate in the distribution(s), for both small livestock of goat and sheep and poultry fowls ((small livestock distribution, trainings, set up, maintenance, monitoring, reporting, etc.) Ensure the proper follow-up of the beneficiaries and provide them with adequate technical support during activities Participate in identifying the training needs among the population and propose appropriate contents and training support material for the training sessions and awareness messages to be disseminated Conduct training sessions among the beneficiaries and ensure day-to-day technical support Ensure the day-to-day implementation of the activities and report difficulties met quickly to his/her direct supervisor Support the FSL team leader in the definition of technical specification of agricultural inputs and, if needed perform germination tests Propose relevant activity to undertake to his/her direct manager for the preparation of the weekly planning Participate in the monitoring of the activities in the field and data entry, according to the direct manager needs. Reporting and communication: Use the monitoring tools provided Participate in the files archiving at Solidarités International's office, accessible to the whole team Draw up and submit a weekly report to his/her direct manager Take part in weekly program meetings and clusters on request Report back any problems and constraints encountered during the course of the activities, including safety issues, to his/her direct manager Provide verbal and written reports on the activities to the FSL Team Leader on the agreed frequency Attend meetings with farmers' associations and groups , beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries upon the request Collaborate with the other components of the FSL department and support them when asked  Requirements Personal Abilities: Professional experience: 1 year of experience in similar position (NGO/Private or Public sector) - Humanitarian experience is a plus Languages: English (mandatory), Kanori, Haussa, Shua (additional languages a plus) Personal qualities: Reliable, honest, very good organization, resistance to stress, good interpersonal skills (internal and external communication), team player, capacity to delegate and to manage, initiative and autonomy, capacity of prioritization of tasks Technical competences : Training: University degree in Agronomy Project related skills : good knowledge of the project cycle, project implementation, project follow-up IT skills: Good knowledge of Office software : Excel, Word Salary and Conditions In accordance with SI's Terms of Employment; for national staff in Nigeria. Delocalization policy: applicable, according to SI conditions. Application Closing Date 25th March, 2018. Method of Application Interested and qualified candidates should forward their CV's, Cover Letters and references in one file (in Word or PDF, and name it with your name and surname) to email Note: No paper application will be accepted.


What happens when French fashion designer Chloe Trujillo takes on the influences of rock and roll? It results in an exquisite collection of fine French silk scarves with strong metaphors such as human skulls and mystic imagery.
ChloeTrujillo scarves fashion show was the highlight of a new Canadian news and lifestyle magazine Metro-Living-Zine launch party recently held at Five Sixty produced by Luvngrace.
Born of parents who were fashion designers, Chloe Trujillo today is an accomplish artist, fashion designer and performer who is married to legendary Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo.
You can see from her vibrant collection that she does have an obsession with images of skulls, for they are her inspiration as an artist. There is also a touch of Aztec in some. Her scarves were colourful and worn like dresses, tops or worn in traditionally over the shoulders.
In sharp contract with European designer scarfs by Gucci and Hermes, it's all about making a strong rock and roll statement.
Her piece called "America Blue"
Available in a range of sizes, the quality of the silk and workmanship appears to be of high quality. She also featured matching handbags and I'm told jewelry will be available soon.
As this was her first runway show in Canada, I'm sure we are going to see more of her Rock and Roll inspired accessories.
Based in Los Angeles, Chloe Trujillo collection is available online at chloetrujillo.com.


Commercial Relationships A. Gore, None; E. Bloch-Shilderman, None; I. Egoz, None; D. Peri, None; J. Turetz, None; R. Brandeis, None.
A. Gore, E. Bloch-Shilderman, I. Egoz, D. Peri, J. Turetz, R. Brandeis; Short-Acting Anti-Cholinergic Agents in Treatment of Topical-Sarin-Induced Miosis and Visual Deficiency in Rats. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2010;51(13):1813.
Purpose: : Eye exposure to the organophosphorus irreversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor sarin results in long-term miosis and reduction in visual function. Anti-cholinergic drugs, such as atropine, are used topically in order to counter these effects and obtain symptomatic relief. Unfortunately, such compounds attenuate ocular discomfort at the expense of producing mydriasis and partial cycloplegia symptoms, which may worsen visual performance. This study was aimed to test short acting drugs against sarin-induced miosis and visual impairment, which will minimally affect vision.
Methods: : Male Pigmented Long-Evans rats were topically exposed to sarin (0-10 µg) or propylene glycol, and 20 min later were topically treated with tropicamide, cyclopetolate, atropine or saline. Pupils were illuminated with an infrared spotlight and images were digitally recorded with a computerized infrared-capable video camera, thus measuring pupil width. Miosis was determined as a 50% reduction in pupil width. Pupil width was determined 15 min -72 h following each treatment. Visual function assessment was performed using the "Cued" Morris Water Maze task, 15 min following sarin exposure. In this version, cued navigation involves finding a goal location by approaching a single cue that marks the visible goal. The cue was a circular green rod (5 cm high) attached to the visible escape platform ( 1 cm above the surface of the water).
Results: : Rats exposed topically to various sarin doses showed a dose-dependent miosis, which returned to pre-exposure levels within 24-48 h. The threshold dose (ED50) calculated for miosis at 15-120 min following topical sarin exposure was ~0.02 µg. Significant reduction in visual function was seen in animals exposed to 0.2 and 1 µg sarin, opposed to 0.02 µg exposed or control animals. Finally, short-acting anti-cholinergic treatments differentially improved the sarin induced miosis and the resulting impairment in visual performance.
Conclusions: : The miotic as well as the visual defects observed following topical sarin exposure are contradicted to various extent by different short-acting anti-cholinergic drugs.


Client Appreciation 2012 It's Coming!
The fifth annual installment of our critically acclaimed Client Appreciation Event is…as I would like to usually say….just right around the last corner of the year. Make note! November 24, 2012 is the date that you want to mark down on your calendar!
Mouthwatering and appetizing food with free flow drinks awaits you! there will be timeless music and even more great family fun.
It is our privilege to invite you (once again) to the 2012 Annual Client Appreciation and Holiday Party on Saturday, November 24, 2012 – (2pm-12am). Please RSVP by November 17, 2012.
TanTeam Editorial http://www.tanteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/newlogo.png TanTeam Editorial2012-10-17 23:24:052019-01-03 23:41:15Client Appreciation 2012 It's Coming!
How To Register For The Client Appreciation 2012 Event?


How To Decorate A Dresser In Bedroom. How To Decorate A Dresser In Bedroom Small Dresser Mirror Dresser. How To Decorate A Dresser In Bedroom 6 Drawer Dresser Wayfair Dresser. How To Decorate A Dresser In Bedroom Dressers Walmart Dressers.


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Woodard Schools
Contact Number: +4401283 840120
Website: http://www.woodard.co.uk
ounded in 1847, Woodard Schools form the largest group of independent Church of England schools in England and Wales.They offer the highest standards of academic education coupled with a supportive and nurturing environment where every individual is encouraged and valued.The schools are united in their diversity and range from boarding, day, private, state, nursery, prep, senior, single sex and co-educational.From the group of schools, 19 are owned directly by Woodard (private, fee paying) and there are two Woodard-sponsored academies. The associated (independent) and affiliated (leading state) schools are keen to have a relationship with Woodard in order to share best practice, beliefs and to provide interschool opportunities for their pupils.Many of the owned schools have a national as well as an international reputation and in turn, a flourishing boarding community.
ounded in 1847, Woodard Schools form the largest group of independent Church of England schools in England and Wales.They offer the highest standards of academic education coupled with a supportive and nurturing environment where every individual is encouraged and valued.The schools are united in their diversity and range from boarding, day, private, state, nursery, prep, senior, single sex and...


Journalism educators attending last week's conference held by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication were greeted with news of the shrinking population in their classrooms. According to a new report from the University of Georgia (pdf), undergraduate enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs declined 2.9% in 2012, marking only the second time in two decades that they have dropped for two consecutive years. They fell 0.5% in 2011.
The drop is "significant," says Lee Becker, the director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia. At the same time, the report finds that the number of full-time faculty in communications and journalism programs increased by 5.9% in 2012.
But in the middle of a rapidly changing media environment, are students finding their journalism education worthwhile? Do j-school graduates feel prepared for their first day on the job? Findings in another new report from the Cox Center on a range of questions about the quality of their education suggest that most recent journalism and mass communication graduates appear quite pleased with their training—with a notable exception.
In the survey of 1,823 undergraduates, more than seven in 10 (70.8%) students with degrees in journalism or mass communication agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that their coursework provided skills needed in the current workplace.
In addition, 83.1% of the recent graduates agreed or strongly agreed that their instructors were current in their knowledge of the subject matter.
Nearly as many—78.5% of the 2012 graduates—agreed or strongly agreed that their alma mater's facilities and equipment were up to date.
When asked whether their coursework had included too little substantive material about the process of communication, 67.6% either disagreed or strongly disagreed while only 11.8% agreed or strongly agreed.
There was however, one significant outlier when it came to the high marks the schools received from the recent grads. Nearly four in 10 (39.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that their coursework included too little technical training. Only slightly more, 41.9% disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement.
Jan Lauren Boyles is a Google Journalism Fellow with the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.


Sometimes I'm struck by the sheer volatility of our world. Economic trends, political change, and technology innovation all seem more dynamic than ever. As a result, CFOs can't take their eye off the ball for even a minute.
Financial leaders must be able to change direction instantly when conditions shift or new threats arise. Yet discrete finance applications cannot provide the breadth of information and rapid insight that today's executives need.
Instead, CFOs need a single, integrated financial platform that provides instant visibility across the enterprise. To better understand the implications of embracing a platform approach to financial systems, I talked with three leaders who are on the front lines, working with today's leading financial executives: Thack Brown, general manager and global head of finance at SAP; Phil Beck, SVP & GM of payments and finance at SAP Ariba; and Todd Pelletier, SVP & GM, Global Accounts at Concur.
Schliebs: How are financial systems changing to meet volatile business environments?
Brown: To help our customers keep pace with the digital business environment, we have brought together the latest technologies with our 40+ year legacy in corporate finance to provide groundbreaking new capabilities for finance. A key aspect of that transformation has been tightly coupling our transactional systems with our planning and analytical tools to ensure that finance can have a single source of truth, built on a real-time data platform. With this, our customers can speed up decision-making and better guide the business. We have also opened up the system via open APIs so that the transactional systems become more of a financial information platform, effectively extending the reach of that data.
Schliebs: Why extend the reach of that data?
Brown: As we have opened the system, we are now inviting our ecosystem to take advantage of the data in the platform to build applications that leverage that data, using their unique intellectual property. With this, our customers now gain access to the IP of the world's leading consulting, tax, and audit firms via applications that they are creating to leverage that data. As we move forward, this will provide enormous opportunity for our customers to leverage best practices and industry-specific IP to better run their businesses and reduce costs.
Schliebs: Are you saying that financial platforms can help CFOs stay ahead of the competition?
Brown: Yes. With real-time data visibility, we can transform static processes like month-end close and annual budget cycle into highly dynamic processes that really support business decision-making. By further opening the system, we ensure that our customers gain access to the best innovation coming from our broad ecosystem.
Schliebs: Which business systems should be included in a financial platform?
Brown: Every one that touches financial performance, even those that operate outside the traditional control of finance.
Pelletier: Thack is right. Think about travel and expense (T&E) management. In every line of business, from manufacturing to high tech to financial services, people adhere to tight budgets and cost controls. And, for most companies, T&E is their second-largest controllable expense after payroll, but it lives outside of the financial systems and the controls built into those systems. By bringing T&E data into the finance platform, CFOs can automate the majority of the expense report, gain control, give actionable insight to decision-makers, and make T&E data a strategic financial line item.
Schliebs: What's the response when executives receive this insight?
Beck: Most executives we work with are excited to finally have access to the data and information they need to better control expenses and make better planning and forecast decisions. For many, this may be the first time they've seen certain data points, which can be very eye-opening.
Pelletier: One example is of a CFO who reviewed employee meal spend, and by making a small change in the meal-spending policy enabled the company to save over $30 million a year. And there are so many similar examples like that.
Schliebs: Are there other lines of business that need to be included in a financial platform?
Beck: Absolutely. One area where we see a huge opportunity to collaborate across business stakeholders is payables. In most companies, the accounts payable function has an arms-length relationship with the business and a siloed view of transactional information. They also lack the platform and analytics to make timely decisions on approved invoices, and they do not have the tools or supplier relationships necessary to execute against opportunities to optimize the financial supply chain. By moving into a real-time financial environment where stakeholders from accounts payable, treasury, and procurement can all access real-time transaction-level data, organizations can transform a theoretical opportunity – such as an early-payment discount – into an actionable opportunity with immediate bottom-line impact to the business.
Schliebs: Do most CFOs recognize the financial value of supply chain collaboration?
Beck: Most CFOs recognize the value of supply chain collaboration, but have lacked the platform and organizational alignment to execute a cohesive long-term strategy in this area. We are seeing best-in-class organizations now approach the financial supply chain strategically rather than tactically – a major shift. These companies are using analytics to establish payment-terms optimization programs complemented with early-payment programs (self-funded discounts and supply chain financing) to improve working capital management ratios and reduce supply chain financial risk.
Pelletier: That's a real win that CFOs can't overlook. Direct connections to travel suppliers provide actionable data that allow them to make strategic decisions on their spend.
Schliebs: To summarize: we need a drastic change in how CFOs set up their teams and positioning.
Beck: That's true. And it's also important to recognize that an integrated financial platform is the backbone to enable the change.
Schliebs: A financial platform can serve as a foundation for using advanced technologies like machine learning and predictive analytics to deliver new insights to the business. With all of the financial and operational data integrated at the core, access to information is instant and seamless. And that's exactly what CFOs need to keep their companies ahead of constant change. Thank you, gentlemen, for this insightful interview reflecting your many CFO discussions.
Learn more about how solutions from SAP, SAP Ariba, and Concur can help CFOs create an integrated financial platform.


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Genesee Regional Bank (GRB) opens in Hampton Ridge!
Welcome to our newest tenant! Genesee Regional Bank will open on January 28th in Hampton Ridge, located at 4180 West Ridge Road in Greece! Stop in for business banking, personal banking and residential mortgage services. Visit www.GRBbank.com for more information.
Founded in 1996, GRB is a Rochester, N.Y.-based financial institution that provides business banking, personal banking and residential mortgage services with local decision-making. With branch locations in Pittsford, Greece, and Rochester, GRB is proud to be growing and helping local businesses and residents reach their financial goals. The company has appeared on the Rochester Top 100 list and is the recipient of several Top Workplaces and Best Companies to Work for in New York State awards. www.GRBbank.com.
Monday through Friday 8:55 a.m. to 5:05 p.m.


It has been really wonderful fun with the Neufelds here in Thailand. We have been just hanging out by the pool and the beach and talking up a storm. I was really missing girlfriend time so Vicky has filled in all those gaps. Dax is having fun with all of the kids. We went back into Phuket town and got groceries again and I made the Neufelds a home cooked meal of pork tenderloin and it was yummy. I had saved a bottle of red wine that I purchased at duty free at the Phuket airport. Wine is very expensive here so I had to ration it.
Vicky and I went into Phuket one more time to shop and we had fun. We actually found a Thai massage place that had great prices but we ran out of time. At the West Sands that we are staying the Spa services are ridiculously overpriced for Thailand so I still have not had a Thai massage in Thailand. We shopped for silk but did not luck out on Thai silk either. I did manage to find some silk scarves for the girlfriends back home and they were 200 baht each which is about the best price that you can find. Thailand has really escalated its prices since I was here in 2000. Other than the little roadside restaurants everything is not the Thai prices that you would expect. Our favourite little restaurant outside the resort has some really cute but dirty dogs wondering around the tables and the main waiter or owner is always just wearing shorts and flipflops. He has this big belly hanging out and he serves our food. The food is really good and really cheap. Each main dish is under 100 baht. So the 3 families all eat well for about 1400 baht. Phuket, Thailand is really relaxing and the beach and pool were nice but I don't think that I need to ever return to Phuket. I would like to explore the other Thai islands.


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On August 17, 2021 August 18, 2021 By Ben YagodaIn Uncategorized3 Comments
Since this blog started, a small but active portion of it has been devoted to fake movies and TV shows seen in real ones — including the most recent post, on a Tony Randall-starring werewolf movie in an episode of Happy Days. (If you want to see a list of all such posts, go to the bottom of the sidebar at right and choose "Not Real" in the drop-down category menu.)
Anyone interested in this phenomenon has a new go-to site: Nestflix, put together by a web creator named Lynn Fisher, who does a lot of interesting projects, and also, clearly, has a lot of time on her hands. Nestflix is a very cool site, currently with more than 400 entries, including:
Loyal Movies in Other Movies readers will recall my posts on Habeus Corpus (in The Player) and Home for Purim (in For Your Consideration). But there's obviously a whole lot here that I haven't touched. When you click on one of the rectangles, you get a screen like this (the running time, logo, and credited director are completely fanciful):
Nestflix does such a great job that I will be giving fake movies a rest. At least for a while.
'Four Heads Are Better Than One' in 'The Conquerers'
On January 30, 2021 January 30, 2021 By Ben YagodaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Previous posts have put forth some movie-in-movie firsts (list at the bottom of this post). Today we take a look at the first sound film (or the first I've found) to have such a scene. It's William Wellman's The Conquerors (1932), a multi-generational epic in which characters played by Richard Dix and Ann Harding go west in the 1870s and go through a remarkable amount of stuff in a mere 86 minutes.
In the scene in question, Harding goes to a picture show with her grandson, Roger (Wally Albright).
Several notable things about this sequence:
It's a sort of early master class in film editing, probably the work of Slavko Vorkapich, known as the master of montage. First we see young Roger paging through a magazine article about the Praxinoscope, an animation device invented in 1877 and considered a precursor to cinema proper. Then we see…
Roger and his grandmother enter a movie house to see "Life Size Moving Pictures." Inside, a title reads, "Ladies, Please Remove Your Hats"–which cannot help bringing to mind the first movie-in-movie movie, "Those Awful Hats."
The movie they watch is George Méliès' early masterpiece of illusion, "Four Heads Are Better Than One." It's a bit anachronistic since the newsreels place the scene in late 1903 or early 1904 and "Four Heads" dates from 1898, but that's okay.
The transition at the end of the clip from the Wright brothers' flight to the flipping calendars to planes filling the sky is interesting in the light of Wellman's biography. Like Roger in the film, he was a fighter pilot in World War I, and he went on the make numerous aviation-themed movies, notably Wings, which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1927.
So here are the firsts we have so far (all subject to change, of course):
First movie-in-movie: Those Awful Hats (1909).
First real movie-in-movie: Show People (1928).
First movie-in-sound-movie: The Conquerers (1932).
First sound-movie-in-movie: Sabotage (1936).
First non-animated-sound-movie-in-movie (fake): Saboteur (1942).
First non-animated-movie-in-sound-movie (real): White Heat (1949).
'A Star is Born,' Part III: Double Vision
On July 19, 2020 By Ben YagodaIn Uncategorized1 Comment
[For part I of this post, click here; for part II, click here.]
The final movie-in-movie scene in A Star Is Born is a doozy, naturally. Norman and Vicki Maine (James Mason and Judy Garland) are throwing a party. Hollywood being Hollywood, Vicki circulates among the guests, asking, "Would you like to see a movie? We're going to run one." Lights go down, curtains automatically close, a screen rises from the floor and a modern painting retracts to reveal a projector. A (fake) newsreel begins.
Presently, studio chief Oliver Niles (Charles Bickford) sidles away to another room, turns on a television set, and fiddles with the remote, just as Norman walks in on him. What appears to be a ballroom scene of an antebellum costume drama is on.
I wish I knew what the movie is — it's not listed in IMDB connections or in filmsinfilms, or mentioned anywhere else I can find. It looks like Gone with the Wind, and I hope it is, because that would make the most monumental and cosmic in-joke in the history of movies. Why? Because George Cukor, director of A Star Is Born, was supposed to helm GWTW but was fired by producer David O. Selznick.
Things get amazinger. Oliver switches to a boxing match but through a window we get glimpses of the movie the rest of the guests are watching. That makes two movies-in-movie in one scene, which is a record (except I guess for shots of multiple TVs in appliance-store windows in films like Diner and The Shape of Water).
Again, I can't tell what the movie is. It appears to be some sort of jungle epic, and judging by the credits, I believe it's fake. And by the way, the credit in the shot above is another great in-joke. The "star" appears to be "Roy Webb." There is no such star or actor by that name. However, Roy Webb was a contemporary Hollywood composer of the first rank, having scored such films as Notorious and Out of the Past.
A couple of other notes on A Star is Born. First, it counts as a "double-dip": Charge at Feather River is seen in A Star Is Born, and Star is Born seen in three different movies — Twister, Hearts in Atlantis, and P.S. I Love You. And Twister, as previously noted, is the end of another chain — Now, Voyager; Summer of '42; and The Shining.
All eight of the movies mentioned in the previous paragraph were from the Warner Brothers studio — an indication of directors economizing by going in-house when it comes to their movie-in-movie choices. It's a tendency that I've just started to notice and really should quantify. Watch out for a future post.
'A Star Is Born,' Part II: 'Born in a Trunk'
On July 9, 2020 July 19, 2020 By Ben YagodaIn Uncategorized2 Comments
[You can read Part I here.]
Fast forward. Vicki Lester (Judy Garland) has gotten her big break, a starring role in a movie musical. She and husband Norman Maine (James Mason) go to the sneak preview, watching avidly from the balcony.
The film doesn't cut away from this (unnamed, I believe) movie-within-a-movie — the so-called "Born in a Trunk" sequence. Hardly. It stays there for no less than fifteen minutes. The sequence was actually added after director George Cukor had finished his work on A Star Is Born and left the country to scout locations for his next picture. In Cukor's rough cut, Norman and Vicki are seen going into the theater and then emerging at the end of the preview to wild cheers, a star having been born. Studio chief Jack Warner decided proof of Vicki's talent was needed, and hired longtime Garland collaborator and friend Roger Edens to supply it.
If there is a more meta moment in a major American film, I don't know what it is. Beyond its being a film within a film, the sequence is a version of Vicki's star-is-born story, but also, more pointedly, a retelling of Garland's own saga. As Trey Taylor has written, it
is special not only because it was a near-faithful reproduction of [Garland's] own tumultuous journey to stardom – a classic retelling of the E! True Hollywood Story as narrated and sung by the protagonist herself – but also because it was her onscreen comeback. Who else has made a film about a star who makes a comeback and, as a premonitory result, has a comeback? What better example of art-imitating-life is there?
In the film-within-a-film, Vicki Lester's character accepts the audience's cheers and flowers for her show-stopping and -ending performance of "Swanee" (one of a half-dozen vintage tunes in the sequence), and sits on the edge of the stage, surrounded by "garlands" of roses.
She addresses the audience, speaking rather than singing (the words are by Leonard Gershe, later the Broadway playwright of Butterflies Are Free):
Thank you, thank you very much
I can't express it any other way
For with this awful trembling in my heart
I just can't find another thing to say
I'm happy that you liked the show
I'm grateful you liked me
And I'm sure to you the tribute seemed quite right.
But if you knew of all the years
Of hopes and dreams and tears
You'd know it didn't happen overnight
Huh, overnight!
And I don't know if it strikes anyone else this way, but it reminds me of nothing other than the rhyming Munchkins in Garland's The Wizard of Oz of fifteen years earlier:
We thank you very sweetly
For doing it so neatly
You've killed her so completely
That we thank you very sweetly
Anyway, at this point she starts to sing (melody by Edens),
I was born in a trunk
In the Princess Theatre in Pocatella, Idaho
It was during the matinee on Friday
And they used a makeup towel for my didee
When I first saw the light
It was pink and amber
Coming from the footlights on the stage
When my dad carried me out there to say hello
They told me that I stopped the show.
And here art is imitating life imitating art, or some such. The story she sings isn't so much that of Vicki Lester (born Esther Blodgett) as that of Judy Garland — born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 1922 and nicknamed "Baby." According to Garland biographer John Fricke
Her father managed the town movie theatre; her mother accompanied silent films on the piano. Both parents performed, as did Baby's two older sisters, and she joined the family act on December 26, 1924, in a song-and-dance routine with her sisters and her own solo, a scheduled one-chorus arrangement of "Jingle Bells." To the delight of the audience, Baby refused to leave the stage and went into reprise after reprise of the latter number; her grandmother finally had to walk on from the wings and carry the child offstage as she protested, "I wanna sing some more!"
Vicki's character continues to tell her story, and then …
The filmed flashback nearly, but not quite, qualifies this as a movie-in-a-movie-in-a-movie, a triple-header seen before only in Scream 4 and New York, New York. And the latter offers one more meta angle on A Star Is Born. Far more than I realized when I wrote the post on Martin Scorsese's 1977 musical, the "Happy Endings" sequence in New York, New York, starring Garland's daughter, Liza Minelli — at 31, she was one year younger than her mother in Star Is Born — is an homage, reworking, imitation, call it what you will, of "Born in a Trunk," a movie-in-a-movie (twelve minutes long instead of fifteen) showing the rise to stardom of the character her character plays.
And if you want spooky, I'll give you spooky. Quick, who is this a photo of?
If you said Garland in "Born in a Trunk," you'd be right. But if you said Minelli, it would be completely understandable, and just one more example of the reverberations — past, future, and inward — of A Star Is Born.
Next (and last): A Star Is Born goes even mo' meta.


In the second of three special episodes, Connie Britton ("Friday Night Lights," "Nashville") talks about playing Debra Newell in the new Bravo series, and why the story feels timely. Julia Garner and Juno Temple, who play Newell's daughters, discuss how they came to inhabit their roles, and the show's production designer and costume designer share details of how they helped create the characters' worlds. "Dirty John" premieres on Bravo at 10 p.m. on Sunday, November 25. You can also find the original LA Times series, plus 14 other pieces of narrative journalism, in a new collection called "Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders," by Christopher Goffard, published by Simon & Schuster.
In the first of three special episodes about the making of the Bravo limited series, Christopher Goffard talks with actor Eric Bana about his portrayal of John Meehan, and the parallels between actors and con-men.   "Dirty John" premieres on Bravo at 10 p.m. on Sunday, November 25. LA Times Studios is participating as a producer on the Bravo series. You can also find the original LA Times series, plus 14 other pieces of narrative journalism, in a new collection called "Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders," by Christopher Goffard, published by Simon & Schuster. Support us by supporting our sponsors! Squarespace - Need a professional looking website? Get started today at squarespace.com/dirtyjohn and use the offer code DirtyJohn at checkout for 10% off.


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Jason Isaacs Brings "The Black Love Project" to Detroit
Welcome to Dlectricity Brooklyn-based filmmaker Jason Isaacs!
Isaacs has worked in arts education in the US and UK for over 20 years, working primarily with immigrant populations. He currently runs his own production studio and educational consultancy that serves non-profit organizations specializing in taking on issues of race, culture and representation in underserved communities.
"The Black Love Project" is coming to Dlectricity 2017, bringing untold stories of the magic of black love in America. Isaacs aims to showcase the existence, endurance and magic of black love despite the negative perceptions of black togetherness. Bringing a unique twist to the installation in Detroit, Isaacs will set up an on-site Black Love chamber to allow the community to record their own stories and contribute to the conversation. Isaacs also invites the community to bring their own Black Love photos in film or digital format to create a collection that will be made freely available online.
"The Black Love Project" is a large-scale, site-specific, non-linear 12-minute video loop to be shown at the Warren entryway of the Wright Museum of African American History. Thank you so much to The Wright for hosting this project!
Come ready to share your own Black Love story.


Techsol Solutions, in collaboration with technology partners and manufacturers, offers products and solutions for Smart Buildings and Home Automation. With fast shaping realm of 'Internet of Things' (IoT), entire ecosystem of smart products is evolving with an expanding range of sensors, controllers, and integrating hardware & software modules.
Products from the above categories can be easily Integrated together to provide high-end security/safety, cost savings, comfort and convenience.


text:
Eudesminsäure (3,4,5-Trimethoxybenzoesäure) ist eine organisch-chemische Verbindung mit der Summenformel C10H12O5. Es ist ein Derivat der Benzoesäure mit drei Methoxysubstituenten.

Vorkommen

Eudesminsäure kommt natürlich in der Rinde der Spätblühende Traubenkirsche, der Virginischen Traubenkirsche und Eukalyptusöl vor.

Eigenschaften
Eudesminsäure ist ein brennbarer beiger Feststoff, der schwer löslich in Wasser ist.

Siehe auch
 3,4,5-Trimethoxybenzaldehyd

Einzelnachweise

Benzolcarbonsäure
Dimethoxybenzol

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This is my signature necklace. Everyday necklace that looks amazing on everyone! This one can be worn with anything or on anyone. Looks great worn alone or layered with other necklaces. Sparkly texture makes this necklace extra special. Measures 16" long. Also available in 18', just send me a message if you are interested.


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South Carolina gets $275M to help repair bridges
DHEC updates teacher quarantine guidance to align with healthcare workers
Last parent of a child killed in 1963 church bombing dies
FILE – President Barack Obama signs a bill designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing of 1963, Friday, May 24, 2013, in the Oval Office of the White House. Standing, from left are Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Lisa McNair. Seated at right is Thelma "Maxine" Pippen McNair, the mother of Denise McNair. Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the children killed in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, died Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022. She was 93. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the four Black girls killed in a 1963 Alabama church bombing, died Sunday. She was 93.
McNair's family announced her death in a press release. A cause of death was not given.
McNair's daughter, 11-year-old Denise McNair, was the youngest girl killed in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement. Also killed were three 14-year-olds: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson and Cynthia Dionne Wesley.
Three members of the Ku Klux Klan were eventually convicted in the case, the first in 1977 and two more in the early 2000s.
Maxine McNair worked as a teacher for over three decades in Birmingham public schools. Her daughter, Lisa McNair, said she changed many lives through education and left a lasting legacy through the students she touched.
"Mrs. McNair was an amazing wife and mother and as a teacher of 33 years in the Birmingham public school system imparted knowledge in the lives of hundreds. We are going to miss her laughter and her humor. The family would appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers," the family's statement said.
Maxine McNair's husband, Chris McNair, died in 2019 at the age of 93. He was one of the first Black members of the Alabama legislature since Reconstruction, and a Jefferson County commissioner.
In 2013, Maxine McNair attended an Oval Office ceremony in which President Barack Obama awarded the four girls the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the country's highest civilian honors.
Funeral arrangements for a celebration of Maxine McNair's life are pending.
Denise McNair was one of five girls who had gathered in a downstairs bathroom at the 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963, when a timed bomb planted by KKK members went off outside under a set of stairs.
The fifth girl and sister of Addie Mae Collins, Sarah Collins Rudolph, was blinded in one eye by the blast. She later provided testimony that helped lead to the convictions of the men accused of planting the bomb.
The church bombing came during the height of the fight for Civil Rights in America, and as Birmingham's public schools were being desegregated. The four girls became emblems of the racist hatred that emanated from much of the opposition to equal rights.
by Manny Martinez / Jan 17, 2022
CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) -- Hundreds of millions of dollars from the infrastructure bill will be headed to South Carolina to help fix hundreds of bridges across the state.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation said the nearly $275 million will bolster its fight against aging bridges falling into disrepair.
by Dawn Wise / Jan 17, 2022
SOUTH CAROLINA (WJBF) - Sunday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced it was updating its official guidance for the quarantining of teachers and other school staff who have been exposed to COVID-19 but who show no symptoms of the virus, when the school is in a crisis staffing condition.
School teachers and staff who are not up to date on their vaccines and who have been exposed to COVID-19 but have no symptoms do not need to quarantine, as long as they have a negative test on day 5 after their exposure and wear a mask for 10 days after exposure.
Georgia Southern announces 2022 MLK Jr. commemorative events' speakers
by Steven Poeling / Jan 17, 2022
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) - Georgia Southern University announced the names of the speakers for the school's upcoming 2022 Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Celebration Dinners.Georgia Southern plans to host the events on January 25 in Statesboro and January 26 on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah.
The school announced Rev. Francys Johnson, J.D., ('01) and Amir-Jamal Touré, J.D., will serve as speakers.


This May, Software2 will be travelling to the University of Maryland, College Park to exhibit at one of our favorite Higher Education IT conferences: LabMan 2018.
At last year's conference at Wright State University (Dayton, OH) we got to show the beginning of AppsAnywhere's journey in higher education, and this year our team are just as excited to catch up with some incredible customers and meet some innovative university IT departments and tech-focussed individuals.
There's more information to come soon, so keep an eye out to see what we're planning this year.
Join us for our pre-event webinar – Deliver apps on-demand across campus – and learn how university or college IT can use AppsAnywhere to improve the student experience by delivering apps to any device.
Featured speaker: The webinar will be presented by Software2's Phil Spitze. Phil came to Software2 with an extensive background in University IT, most recently 4 years with Le Moyne College (Syracuse, NY). He enjoys helping Universities discover the long list of benefits that AppsAnywhere and Cloudpaging offers to both students and IT, including how to enable BYOD. In his spare time, Phil is an avid photographer.


Patient experience goes beyond clinical care and basic comforts while being in the hospital. Think about environments throughout your hospital where staff, patients and visitors spend time but may be less than welcoming.
Create nooks for kids to play, parents to work and separate visitor areas so everyone can feel like they have some space.
Provide Wifi, install a book vending machine, provide knitting needles/yarn or other tools to help people pass the time. Sidenote: According to a study originally published in the book Clinic Design: Enhancing the Patient Experience through Informed Design, by Gary A. Nyberg and Christine Guzzo Vickery, only 41 percent of respondents said they wanted to watch TV when sitting in a waiting room. Instead, the top sought after activities were reading (95 percent) and using a mobile phone (57 percent).
Keep it comfortable. Provide a wide array of furniture so people/patients/visitors can be comfortable whether they are reading, watching TV or working on their laptop.
Provide items that someone may have forgotten like a toothbrush, wet wipes and snacks. After sitting in a waiting room for six hours, visitors may feel more refreshed and patient if they can wash their face and brush their teeth.
Warm, friendly decor can help those waiting feel at ease. If local artists are willing, allow them to display their work in gallery format or even sell their work subtly. Waiting in an art gallery is much more enjoyable than waiting in a plain, beige room.
Most hospital walkways are scarily bland and dreary. As patients, visitors and staff pass through, their brand experience isn't enhanced, they may even be tainted due to the dark, old and neglected halls. Every area of your hospital should enhance patient experience. Every hallway untouched is a missed opportunity. What do you want to convey as people pass through the hall- hope, joy, experience. Whatever it is, you have a blank canvas.
London Children's Hospital commissioned more than 10 artists and designers to transform their halls and waiting areas.
By not creating an inviting place for visitors and staff to dine, you may be missing out on more than improving brand perception- you may be missing out on revenue opportunities. Every time a visitor or employee leaves the hospital campus for lunch or a cup of coffee, that is potential revenue leaving your building. The image to the right is a concession stand we redesigned to make the restaurant a destination, not and afterthought or last choice for dining. The healthcare industry could take some guidance from the arena and venue industry who want people to arrive early and enjoy the venue before the show to enhance their overall experience and perception. Concert-goers are more likely to want to order food and drinks and hangout at a branded restaurant versus a generic 'concession' stand. By branding concession stands, venues are increasing revenue and enhancing their customer experience, this could apply for the healthcare industry as well.
It's important to use your facility's potential to improve patient experience while also generating revenue. These are just a few of our favorite examples to get your brainstorming started.


Impossible thing, this thing about a favorite! Can other people do this? Who are these people, these favorite-havers, and with which sort of knife do they cut the list down to one?
But, okay. So. Speaking of knives: Steven Millhauser, The Knife Thrower, "The New Automaton Theater." Because, how does he do that?
By which I mean: the story is a house of cards, but not the usual kind: it is a reverse pyramid balanced on a single card.
By which I also mean: this story walks blindfolded to the end of the gangplank, and we hold our breaths. The swords unsheathed just in case, the eye-patches and parrots and peg-legs, et cetera: the story wipes the sweat from its inky brow, and steps forward for the last time on earth. Except it doesn't fall. Instead, it takes another step. And still doesn't fall. Another step. Another. Still not falling, and now it starts to jog.
By which I really mean: this story, this new automaton theater, it expands and expands beyond its already ingenious premise until we almost (but never quite) want it to stop expanding so that we can get our heads around what just happened in that paragraph right back there. The narrator starts off talking about real historical objects that exist at the far edge of our capacity for understanding and wonderment–the mechanical songbirds of Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria, the mechanical duck (four hundred separate pieces per wing! Fully functional intestines!) of Jacques de Vaucanson—and then says that in his (the narrator's) town, such things are small beer. Now, that is not a hard thing to think or write. But Millhauser actually imagines and describes these farther machines, and then farther, and then farther.
The current issue of the literary magazine Tin House is dedicated to "Fantastic Women," writers who are blurring the lines between fantasy and literary fiction, and Robin Romm would fit right into that crowd. based on the short stories in her debut collection, The Mother Garden. Here, she reminds us that the early experts on fairy tales knew the power of realism, too.
When I was young, my grandparents sent me a book of fairy tales. My grandfather, a bit of a scholar, treated books at least as well as he treated members of his family and so the book arrived swaddled in cellophane, wrapped twice in butcher paper, in a padded envelope. The pages were thick and the illustrations, if my memory can be trusted, depicted realistic children in lederhosen amidst flowers and rocks. No ordinary book, this. It was the real Grimm's. Cinderella's stepsister hacked off her toes when her foot failed to fit the glass slipper Bluebeard's closet nearly erupted with the ghosts of his decapitated wives. But the story I most vividly recall—the story that stayed with me through my entire childhood, informing my stories into adulthood—is a story entitled "Babes in the Woods." The story runs parallel to the story of Hansel and Gretel. A stepmother urges a brother and sister to go searching for berries, or some such delight, in the autumn woods. They scatter crumbs behind them to mark their path, but when they reach the end of the day, the birds have feasted on the crumbs. No witch house appears on the horizon. Not much, if my memory serves me, actually happens in this tale. The children are lost. No one finds them. The night grows cold and they die.
I loved this story. My mother, crouching by the bookshelf obliged my longing to hear it a couple of times, but soon she refused.


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Beautifully designed on 935 square metres of land is this fully detached bungalow in Victoria Gardens. Entrance into a lavish hall, L- shaped lounge/dining, sitting room, study,open plan kitchen/living/dining leading onto the pool and deck area and three double bedrooms (main having ensuite facilities). Underlying this property is a separate flat let with another two/three bedrooms, a five-car garage and a home cinema. Mature split level gardens surround the property with large pool,Jacuzzi,all set up in a spa enviroment.Outside dining area enjoys unobstructed valley views. Sole Agents.