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Royal Nairobi Captain's Prize enters final leg
https://www.kenya24news.com/sport/royal-nairobi-captains-prize-enters-final-leg/203718-news November 25, 2021 217
Joseah Kogo of the Royal Nairobi Golf Club follows through his chip from the 18th hole bunker during Tannahill Shield tournament on April 5, 2015 at Royal Nairobi Golf Club. Kogo is among the leading amateurs drawn for the final stage of Royal Nairobi Golf Club Captain's prize tournament this weekend.
Photo credit: File | Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
The week-long 2021 Royal Nairobi Golf Club Captain's prize golf activities which started last Sunday, enters its final stage Friday with the main event which is open to both club members and guests set to conclude on Saturday.
At least a field of over 250 golfers had been listed ready to tackle the par 72 course in what marks the end of club captain Sylvester Odhiambo's term. Formerly a captain of the Sunset Golfing Society and the century-old Mombasa Golf Club, Odhiambo has managed to bring on board a host of sponsors whose contributions have enabled him to put together all the week-long activities.
Leading the sponsors is Stanbic Bank, Glenfiddich, Rubis Energy, Solvochem, Nupea, Safaricom, and Mayfair Insurance among many others.
"I am truly grateful to all the sponsors who have agreed to support me not just for this week but throughout the year. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank all the club members led by the chairman for the tremendous support they gave me as their captain,'' said Odhiambo.
Meanwhile, teeing off the Captain's Prize week, was the Royal Junior Golf Academy last Sunday which attracted 65 juniors.
This was followed by the Caddies competition on Monday, while the local pros and a few others who were invited by the captain, played their 18- hole event on Wednesday. This paved the way for the club's seniors whose event was held on Thursday.
For the main event on Friday and Saturday which will be played in the medal format, those drawn include some of the club's leading amateurs such as Joseah Kogo, Maurice Njue, Paul Ichangi, Stanley Kirui and Robert Nyanchoga among others.
Leading the hunt from the ladies side will be players like Rebecca Likami, Rechel Chebukati, and Caroline Kadikinyi. Because of the big field, both rounds will tee off from 6.30am.
At the nine-hole Kiambu Golf Club, a Toyota Fielder car and a trip to Dubai courtesy of Kenya Airways, will be at stake during the Chairman's Prize (Davies Mukuria) on Friday and Saturday. The car will be a special prize for any player firing in one at the par three-17th hole.
At least 140 players are expected to be in action in the three-day event which started with Wednesday's curtain-raiser. Mukuria said the event will highlight the achievements of the current board, which include the solar panel placements, the new range sports bar and a well-maintained course.
Supporting the event which follows the Lady Captain's tournament held four weeks ago where the club chairman Mukuria emerged the winner with 43 points, will be Kenya Airways, Total Energies, Heritage Insurance, Quickmart and Friends of the Chairman.
At Muthaiga Golf Club, Club Captain Dr Khushil Nathwani who says he has had an incredible year, will be hosting a field of 250 players in his Captain's Prize being played on Friday and Saturday.
The event which follows last weekend's Lady Captain's Prize, is being sponsored by Absa and Coca Cola among others. Nathwani says he has had an incredible year and accomplished a lot despite the Covid–19 pandemic which caused a partial lockdown for over two months earlier this year.
Some of his achievements including winning the historical Nairobi District Foursomes which attracted a record 33 teams and where for the first time in the history of the event, the two Muthaiga teams met in the final with Bo Ciera and Daniel Kiragu emerging the winners and the captain himself Nathwani and partner Neer Chandaria. Muthaiga also won the 97th edition of the Tannahill Shield with 48 points.
"I am excited that Muthaiga Golf Club will make its European Tour Debut for the return of the Magical Kenya Open in March 2022. This has been no easy task to secure, and our Chairman can attest to this. However, we have finally managed to secure hosting this prestigious tournament with all its top players and the worldwide coverage it comes with to the Home Of Golf.
"I have formed a sub-committee that will oversee all the planning and preparations for the tournament, while in October this year Muthaiga launched the Junior Simba League,'' said Nathwani who added that Muthaiga feels honoured for being chosen to host the Uskids Golf partnership launch.
Away at the Mountain region, the 2021 Mt Kenya Ladies Open golf circuit starts Friday at the high altitude Nyahururu Sports Club course before moving to Nyeri on Sunday for the second leg of the circuit.
At Nyeri, a field of 56 ladies led by Kenya Ladies Golf Union (KLGU) chairlady was drawn to tackle the hilly golf course. This will be followed by the third leg at Nanyuki Sports Club course where 62 players were drawn. Post entries are however being accepted from 7.30am.
Burkina Faso join Cameroon in Afcon last 16


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Stepmom Chronicles
coronavirus event
A Time to Give Thanks
November 27, 2020 · by SFine	· in Bird's Eye View, coronavirus.	·
photo by Doug Johnson
in which the US death toll from COVID-19 passes 260,000 and reported infections are nearing 13 million – the CDC reports that for every infection that is reported there are 8 that go unrepresented in these numbers; globally, there are 60.6 million cases and 1.4 million deaths
It's been awhile since my last coronavirus journal entry. Today is Thanksgiving Day, and my husband and I are awaiting the results of his COVID test, taken two days ago. He gave a friend a lift in his car, windows down, for a ride that lasted less than 5 minutes, which seemed like nothing until the friend called to tell us he'd been exposed by another friend, who just tested positive. My brother, half a country away, has also tested positive, a week after his exposure to a client. No word yet if his wife has it. Now we all wait.
I have a few friends and relatives that have recovered from COVID. One friend, in her 70s, has what they call "long COVID". One sister-in-law lost her sense of taste and is still waiting for it to return; half a dozen other family members were infected but experienced almost no symptoms. It's easy to look at this handful of examples and think COVID is not very dangerous to most people, but I'm a social scientist and I know better than to succumb to the easy logic of missed disaster. No one ever thinks *they* will be an outlier. We humans have a tendency to think if we follow the rules we'll be safe – I'm no exception, no one was more surprised than me when a car ran a stop sign and then smacked into my husband and dog in the crosswalk. Everyone is fine, but the words of the driver of the rented Jaguar that hit them still haunt me. "Sorry, I didn't see you," he said. "I was looking at my GPS." Sometimes following the rules can't protect you from wayward disaster.
Since my last entry, the election has come and gone, with Joe Biden declared the winner in most states, even after many lawsuits and several recounts. Joe Biden has 306 electoral votes, well over Trump's 232 and the 270 required to win. Sixteen states have thus far certified election results before the deadline of December 14th. The fact that world leaders, as well as Fox News anchors, are agreeing Biden is the winner seems to suggest that on January 21st, President Biden is a fait accompli, but Mr. Trump continues to say that he won by a landslide and the election was stolen from him. Today, he told reporters that if the electoral college confirms Biden's victory, "they've made a mistake," but that he would leave the White House, adding he would probably not attend Biden's inauguration, nor would he concede defeat.
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Thanksgiving dinner was just the two of us, and texts with our daughters, one across the country, one across town. My gratitude for the food was seasoned with sadness; listening to the radio earlier, a reporter in Brooklyn interviewed people in a food line that was four hours long, a story playing out all across the country today. Many of the interviewees were hungry but said they would not be in line if it weren't for the anonymity of the masks. I cried at that. It is time we stopped boasting that America is the wealthiest country in the world. America is a country that contains many of the world's wealthiest people, true, but when one in five people have food insecurity during a pandemic coupled with mass unemployment, we can no longer claim to be a country of wealth.
Despite the repeated pleas of public health officials and exhausted, demoralized frontline health workers to not travel, roughly a million Americans crowded the airports and highways to spend the holidays with loved ones. Will they bring on the disaster medical professionals have been predicting? Hospitals are already full to bursting – according to NPR, more people in the U.S. are hospitalized for COVID-19 now than at any other moment of the coronavirus pandemic — more than twice as many as just a month ago. I was shocked to read the famous Mayo Clinic Health System has moved beds into waiting rooms and even a parking garage. Hospital officials say the real problem is not ventilators or even beds, but trained staff who can care for severely ill patients.
Yesterday, the CDC said it expects the total number of deaths in the nation to increase to 294,000-321,000 coronavirus deaths by December 19 – that would be 1,015 to 2,251 people dying each day. I hope against hope it doesn't get that bad, but my hope feels like fingers searching for a seam in smooth granite.
I grew up in the greater St. Louis area, so maybe paid more attention than most when Dr. Kenneth Remy, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and a physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital (where my own sister spend much of the first years of her life) made a video everyone should see – a first-person view of what it's like to be intubated, the last thing you see in the world a heavily masked doctor coming at you with an endotracheal tube and a laryngoscope. Hint: it's awful.
"For some patients, that's all they see at the end of their life," Dr. Remy said, visibly emotional. "They see that, they get some medicines and they never awaken again."
A vaccine is on the way – that's the good news. It may be that by May of next year, most of the US can be vaccinated. As a result of this news, this past week the stock market hit an all-time high, crashing through 30,000. It's worth noting that Bitcoin is also on the move, approaching it's record high value of $20,000 per bitcoin (pre-pandemic this year it was about $9,000).
Down here on the ground, the news is much less sanguine; Disney just announced a ~10% layoff of more than 32,000 employees. According to Pew Research, half the Americans who lost their job at the beginning of the pandemic remain unemployed; according to the New York Times less than half of the 22 million jobs lost during the early stages of the pandemic have been recovered.
If you don't quite know how to make sense of all these numbers, don't feel bad – I'm a marketing scientist, my whole career has been about interpreting data and forming a coherent narrative thread, and I can tell you that there is no one statistic that represents how America is faring, because there is not one America, there are two. One America is doing just fine, and even prospering; the other America is facing eviction, hunger, and destitution. For them, winter is coming; for the rest, it looks to be a good ski season. President-elect Joe Biden hopes to unite the country, but I'm not sure what epoxy is strong enough to bring together the blithely well-to-do with the needlessly suffering and dying.
Former princess Meghan Markle wrote an op-ed for the New York Times this week, revealing her miscarriage this past summer. I have always known I'm far from the only woman who counts the silent birthdays of an invisible child – my own miscarriage was a lonely and painful affair, as most, I suppose, are. For some reason I've always felt that missing child was a boy – he'd be in high school now. I did not feel less lonely when I read Meghan's story, but I did feel better. I hope that is true for all the women who have suffered the same loss.
It's a day for thanks…but things feel pretty bleak. It feels wrong, somehow, to be thankful for my health and my family when so many people are losing theirs. Like many people, I have financial worries, a fact that makes me feel by turns embarrassed and desperate, and has a tendency to drown out the grace notes. I think of the hard times my grandparents and parents have faced and resolve to focus on my blessings: there are people in my life that love me, and for that I am grateful and determined to make myself worthy of it. I fear I mostly fall short, but that will not stop me from trying. Tomorrow, good friends will stop by with their tiny daughter, who I've nicknamed Cricket. She loves our big chocolate labrador, squinting hilariously when his tail whaps her in the face. Sunday, my daughter returns from her first semester at an east coast college; I will make her a favorite dessert (canele de Bordeaux) to celebrate. I have a precious few days off work to spend advancing my novel, which I'm ~19,000 words into. I will run, make love to my husband, and sleep at night in a bed, without worry where our next meal is coming from. For now that is enough – more than enough.
Earlier this month, Alex Trebek, the longtime host of Jeopardy, died after a two year illness. Today the show aired a video message Alex made before he passed – a message he made knowing it could only be delivered posthumously. His voice is noticeably weaker than normal, but his words ring strong.
"Keep the faith," Alex tells us. "We're going to get through all of this, and we will be a better society because of it."
I hope your Thanksgiving is a blessed one.
Thank you for supporting my writing!
Your small donations make my writing career possible.
Tags: coronavirus journal
Mailto: reliablyuncomfortable@gmail.com
© Copyright Sandra Stephens (nee Sandra Miller)
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One response to "A Time to Give Thanks"
lorijcollins, I Kissed a Dog and I Liked It November 27, 2020 at 2:32 pm · · Reply →
Hugs from one soul sister to another. ❤
I take your comments straight, or on the rocks.... Cancel reply
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growing up midwestern
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Eric Gales stands head and shoulders among other guitarists in his genre and is out to blow your mind and expand your musical horizons, in fact Joe Bonamassa calls him "One of the best if not the best guitarist in the world today". He is known for mesmerising fans around the world with his uncanny connection to his guitar, don't miss this legend make his Bluesfest debut.
Bluesfest audiences are in for a thrill when Experience Jimi Hendrix takes the stage. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix's unparalleled creative and musical influence Experience Jimi Hendrix brings together an all-star line-up of some of Australia's guitar greats: Jak Housden – founder of the Badloves, Peter Northcote – who has played with Dragon, Tom Jones and Shania Twain, Dai Pritchard – Billy Thorpe's right hand man who also plays with Rose Tattoo, Steve Edmonds – of Hoodoo Guru's fame and Grant Walmsley –founder of the Screaming Jets. There isn't an audience on the planet more fitting for this homage to the iconic artist's songs, showmanship and trailblazing technique.
Bluesfest is honoured to welcome Australian-based musician Jeff Lang back to the festival in 2017. He has earned worldwide acclaim as a virtuosic guitarist, a dynamic songwriter and a startlingly unique live performer. Blending rock, roots, folk, Blues, ballads, instrumentals, improvisation and a devastatingly high level of musicality, Jeff Lang is a singularly unique performer in our world.
Ray Beadle has ripped it up at Bluesfest in the past, and he is welcomed back with open arms in 2017. Ray's guitar and vocal styles evoke numerous Blues legends, whilst concocting a breathtaking style all of his own. It is not by chance that Ray has become a favourite amongst Australian Blues fans.
Bluesfest is proud to announce that one of Australia's most highly lauded Bluesmen will make his festival debut in 2017. Lloyd Spiegel is an award winning solo artist on the cutting edge of the Blues scene in Australia. There is no doubt he will be at home on the Bluesfest stage.
It was his triumphant performance at Bluesfest in 2014 that sparked the recording of Glenn Cardier's highly acclaimed album Stranger Than Fiction, so it is with great excitement that the festival announces he will return with his band The Sideshow in 2017. After a successful career in the 70s, Glenn Cardier's re-emergence has been nothing short of extraordinary. Onstage, there are the trademark flashes of dark humour in his songs of stark beauty and thumping rockabilly/Blues.
All the way from the Isle of Man, Davy Knowles makes his Bluesfest debut in 2017. He is no stranger to festivals having played Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo with his band Back Door Slam. You know you have someone special on your hands when Peter Frampton raves: "He's definitely the gunslinger guitarist of the 21st century''.
He won the hearts of many Bluesfest goers in 2016, so it's with great pleasure Bluesfest welcomes Blind Boy Paxton back in 2017. Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920s and making them wish they could stay there for good. This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion).
She may be at the bottom of this announcement, but Melody Angel is destined to be at the top in the near future. She regularly performs at Buddy Guy's nightclub Legends in Chicago, and has American Blues Scene exclaiming "Besides her playing, what makes Angelsuch a powerful performer, is her strongly impassioned vocals. We can't wait to see her continue to grow. What a future she has! If you get a chance to catch Ms. Angel live, do it!" Melody Angel is an important voice and one that deserves to be heard around the world.


Last week our twins turned four and my husband had the idea of taking them to The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT for their birthday. While both my husband and our six year old had been there several times before, the rest of had not. So once the boys go home from school around noon, we had a quick lunch and then packed into the minivan to head on over.
The Maritime Aquarium focuses on the marine animals of the Long Island Sound and its watershed. The Long Island Sound watershed consists of the entire state of Connecticut plus areas of new York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and even Canada. The Maritime Aquarium strives to protect the sound and reminds us that the actions of those living in the watershed area directly affect the sound and the well being of its animals.
"The Maritime Aquarium inspires people of all ages to appreciate Long Island Sound and protect it for future generations. A vibrant and entertaining learning environment, the Maritime Aquarium achieves this goal through living exhibits, marine science, and environmental education."
When we got there we were greeted by very friendly and helpful staff. We were also thrilled that there were hardly any visitors there! It pays to go on a school day (assuming your kids are not in school yet). A few weeks earlier my husband and oldest son were there during spring break and said it was insane. So go on an "off peak" day if you can. The twins were so super excited at this point and could not wait to go in and see the animals. Here is a short photo journey of our trip. You'll notice that photography is not my strong point. Someday I will learn how to use this expensive camera properly.
First up was the stingray touch pool where the kids were able to put their hands right in and touch some of the rays. The boys loved it and we made a second trip back to it at the end.
They were obsessed with this "baby stingray" and our oldest would not leave until he got to touch it.
The flounder exhibit was very cool and because it is at about knee level, the kids were able to get right up to it and look down at the fish. It was definitely difficult to try and spot all of the flounders camouflaged in the sand.
The meerkats are the only exhibit that is not an animal from the Long Island Sound watershed. Children (and adults) can crawl into the little bubble to get a close up view of these little guys running around.
At the Go Fish exhibit their is a a 30,000 gallon tank filled with various fish that reside in the Long Island Sound like salmon, cod, striped bass and more. Unfortunately non of my pictures of the fish came out.
In the Go Fish area there is a child size mock boat where kids can try out some fishing (with paper fish). There is also information on which fish are OK to eat and catch.
We spent a lot of time in the frog area as our boys could not get enough of them! There were a lot of tanks filled with frogs and salamanders with plenty of step stools so the kids could see them better. I loved these vibrantly colored frogs. So cute!
And there were your larger more typical looking frogs. There were even others that I swear were as large as a chihuahua. I didn't like those as much.
The river otters were super cute and incredibly active. They were swimming and jumping and a lot of fun to watch. Our boys kept running back and forth with the otters.
We spotted some starfish as we made our way through the many exhibits.
The jellyfish tank was pretty awesome and we even got to see a staff member feed them. I much prefer looking at jellyfish this way than out in the real world. I really don't like when they creep up along side of me in the ocean. Not cool.
Look! We found Nemo and Dorie!!!
At long last we made it to the sea turtles. I say this because the six year old would not stop talking about the giant sea turtle the entire walk through the aquarium. I guess this particular sea turtle left a big impression on him during his prior visit. Then I saw why. Wow.
If you follow the flow of the map, your tour through the aquarium both begins and ends at the harbor seals. This was my favorite part as I love watching them swim around and jump up on the rocks. Plus they have such adorable faces.
We finished our walk through the aquarium just in time to watch the last seal feeding. The trainer came out out with two buckets of fish and told us all about the seals living there at the aquarium.
In addition to the traditional aquarium exhibits, The Maritime Aquarium also has some fun extras: an IMAX theater, and adventure ride and a cruise around the Long Island Sound (in season). We did not have time for the IMAX movie this time around, but my husband and son saw the movie Born to be Wild back in April and they loved it. In fact my son's exact words after exiting the theater were "That was the coolest movie ever!"
Daddy did take the older 3 into the Happy Feet 3D adventure ride while I stayed back with the little guy. They did seem to enjoy it and asked if they could do it again. Overall we had a wonderful afternoon at The Maritime Aquarium and everyone really enjoyed themselves. I am glad we decided to make it part of their special day.
The Maritime Aquarium is open year round except on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. There are always several special exhibits going on, like the meerkats, for you and your family to enjoy. Right now there is also an interesting special exhibit "Seasons of Change, Global Warming in Your Backyard" which examines how global warming is affecting New England. Hours, ticket prices, special events and exhibits can all be found on their website, www.maritimeaquarium.org. With the school year set to end in about a month, a visit to The Maritime Aquarium is a nice way to spend a hot summer day. So go ahead and plan your tip now, you'll be happy you did.
I leave you with one final thought: remember that we are all connected! What we do in our own backyard can make its way into streams and then rivers and then oceans. Maybe before you spray pesticides over your lawn or dump chemicals down the drain, you can stop and think about how those actions may harm other creatures and choose an alternative method.
Connect with The Maritime Aquarium on Facebook at www.facebook.com/maritime.aquarium.
My family and I received complimentary tickets to The Maritime Aquarium. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.
I love the Meerkats one! Sooo cool and cute! I love Aquariums.. I think it's time to take my boys back to see one soon! This one isn't too far away so maybe that's where we will go! Thanks for sharing your fun time!
That Meerkat exhibit is AWESOME! And I love the turtle, Nemo and Dory, the sharks - it looks so awesome!
Of course, I live in Phoenix, but what a great place to visit should we ever be in the neighborhood!
Looks like fun, I'm in NH and we love to go on road trips so I'll keep this in my list!
How fun. When I was younger we would go to my aunts in Baltimore and hit the aquarium it was always a blast. I need to take the kids.
I love all your awesome pictures. I love all aquatic life, what a great place to visit!
Thank you so much for sharing - it looks like you had a great time. I'm always concerned about using too many photos but your collection is great and really makes me feel like I'm sharing in your fun!


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More Important Now Than Ever: Remembrance and a few thoughts on this World Suicide Prevention Day
Edmonton Police Service
Lindsey Lubkey
Tracey Lubkey
On August 31, 2019 my sister Kelly and I lost our bright, kind, and beautiful mother Tracey to suicide. In the weeks preceding her death, a major depression Mum had dealt with and overcome several times before in her life came back with a suddenness and intensity that staggered us. It was terrifying to see this episode's impact and how debilitating it was; the helplessness you feel when a loved one is being tormented by their own mind is it's own kind of torture. Still, even through her long and grinding bouts of depression in years past, suicide somehow never felt like a possibility. The very notion was abstract, dark, and seemed impossible- so it was the most shocking and devastating thing we could have imagined that it happened. It's now just over a year later and there are many days we still can't believe she's gone.
Our Mom was our best friend, our biggest cheerleader and just exuded light and kindness. She always wanted to help, whether it was my sister and I, her friends and family or complete strangers- if there was a need for volunteers, she'd be one of the first to sign up. She had so much love for us, for her dogs, for travelling, for golfing, for gardening, for relaxing with drinks on the patio and talking for hours. She was so compassionate and could truly see the good in everyone. When we were growing up, she worked as a registered nurse and often brought home little gifts from patients and their families that she had cared for. She left such an impression on the people she met and this was especially obvious at her memorial, where we were just blown away by the amount of people who attended that had worked with her years, even decades ago. The stories people were generous enough to share with us about our mom were so beautiful- they were such a gift and helped to propel us through that surreal day.
Last year at this time, as we moved through the chaos and fog immediately following Mum's death, I began to see bright yellow billboards all over town stating that '11 Edmontonians attempt or die by suicide per day'. As it turns out, each year, over 50 countries recognize September 10th as World Suicide Prevention Day. So soon after losing my mother this way, the subject of suicide was the only thing on my mind apart from the endless 'Why?'s. This campaign's timing was bananas.
I quickly learned the ads were promoting 11 of Us, a resource portal developed as part of Living Hope: A Community Plan to Prevent Suicide in Edmonton. The Living Hope initiative was developed by a committee of individuals and organizations dedicated to preventing suicides in Edmonton. The plan's objectives include raising awareness and making education on mental health and suicide prevention available to Edmontonians, in most cases free of charge.
Over the past year, I've taken advantage of this initiative and attended excellent courses provided by Living Hope stakeholders including Mental Health First Aid (Basic Course), Safe Talk, Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), and Trauma Informed Care. Through these courses I have been lucky enough to meet and share my story with so many kind, compassionate and interesting people, whether they were the ones delivering the course or learning alongside me.
Of course COVID-19 has changed everything. Most of these courses are now offered online, including one I have yet to take called LivingWorks Start which teaches trainees to recognize when someone is thinking about suicide and to connect them with help and support. While many of us are dealing with screen-fatigue, please don't let the idea of one more online session deter you. Most courses don't require more than an hour, but the information you'll learn really could help keep someone with us.
This past year has been the hardest of my life, yet I've been encouraged and inspired by the work and efforts of so many as I try to gain peace and a better understanding of my family's experience. It goes without saying that suicide is a difficult topic- I've come to learn that nothing sucks the air out a room quite like the mention of it. It's much easier to look away, but for World Suicide Prevention Day this year, if your own mental health allows for it, take a moment to read about the experiences of suicide attempt survivors, caregivers, suicide loss survivors, and those at risk of suicide.
We live in a new world now and we're going to need each other more than ever. Like another one of those big yellow 11 of Us billboards I saw recently said, 'There's rarely been a more important time to check in with one another.'
Call 911 if someone is in immediate danger of becoming injured or dying.
In Edmonton: Call The Canadian Mental Health Association's (CMHA) Edmonton Distress Line 24/7 at (780)-482-4357 (HELP)
In Red Deer & across Alberta: Call the Mental Health Help Line at 1-(877)-303-2642
In Calgary: Call the Distress Centre Calgary's Crisis Line 24/7 at (403)-266-4357 (HELP)
Read more on Todayvile.
Related Topics:11 of usCanadian Mental Health AssociationDistress Centre CalgaryEdmontonfeatureLivingWorks StartMental Healthsuicide prevention dayTracey Lubkey
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By Shane Jones in Edmonton
The Edmonton Oilers didn't leave anything in the tank before their all-star break hiatus.
Tyson Barrie scored a pair of goals as the Oilers headed into a nine-day break in the schedule on a winning note, coming away with a 7-3 victory over the lowly Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
"I thought we responded really well after a tight game against Columbus (Wednesday) where we only got one point against them (3-2 overtime loss)," Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. "I thought we played well and got the two points and we're feeling good going into the break."
Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman each had a goal and two assists, and Evander Kane and Ryan McLeod also scored for the Oilers (28-18-4) who have gone 7-0-1 in their last eight games leading into a break that sees them idle until Feb. 7.
"We took (the game) over in the second period, but there were still a couple of things I'd like to clean up," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "But our team is 10-3-2 since the Christmas break and you couldn't script it better for us. I think we've taken a step here, it's a credit to our players."
Jason Dickinson, Jonathan Toews and Taylor Raddysh replied for the Blackhawks (15-29-4) who have lost three of their last four and entered the night sitting in second-last place in the NHL.
"We had a great start, but we maybe just stopped skating a little bit from what we had done in the first," said Blackhawks veteran Patrick Kane. "It would have been nice to control it a little more in the second, those are usually make-or-break periods."
Despite Saturday's drubbing, Chicago still managed to win seven of their last 11 games. They are now off until Feb. 7.
"It is tough losing the last game before a break, but I feel like we have taken a big step in the last month and have been building on our game in all areas with every line chipping in at different moments," Raddysh said. "That is what we are going to need the rest of the way and we have to keep giving it our all every night and keep getting better."
Chicago had a glorious early chance when Andreas Athanasiou was sent in on a clear breakaway, but he bobbled the puck and was unable to get a shot on Oilers starter Jack Campbell.
The Oilers took the lead 5:20 into the first period on a power-play goal as Chicago goalie Petr Mrazek reached out to deflect a Barrie point shot, but it instead caromed off of his blocker and down into the net. Edmonton captain McDavid picked up an assist to give him points in 12 straight games and 29 of his last 30.
Dickinson tied the game 5:25 into the middle frame as he scored his seventh on a partial breakaway after picking up a backhanded feed through the slot from Patrick Kane.
Edmonton's lethal power play put them back in front just over a minute later as McDavid sent a nifty backhand return pass from behind the net to Draisaitl, who beat Mrazek for his 29th of the season.
The Oilers surged ahead with a pair of goals less than a minute apart with about eight minutes to play in the second period. Barrie scored his second goal of the game and seventh of the season after Hyman tipped a shot that trickled behind the Blackhawks goalie, allowing him to sweep in and whack it into an empty net.
McDavid then scored his league-leading 41st of the season, wheeling out from behind the net before elevating a beauty of a backhand shot past Mrazek.
Hyman picked up his third point in a 2:33 span a minute-and-a-half after that, smacking home the rebound of a McLeod shot for his 26th of the campaign. Hyman has now scored in five consecutive games.
Chicago got one back on the power play as Patrick Kane sent a perfect feed in front that Toews tipped past Campbell for his 14th.
However, Edmonton answered back just 12 seconds later as an egregious turnover allowed Draisaitl to make a one-touch pass to Evander Kane, who rifled home his first goal since returning from having his wrist sliced open by a skate blade.
McLeod made it 7-1 with eight minutes to play as his shot was deemed to have crossed the line before defender Seth Jones could bat it out, even though play went on for a while before the horn sounded.
The Blackhawks made it look better with five minutes left as Max Domi took advantage of a giveaway to send Raddysh in to score his 14th on a nice deke.
Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner came down with a sudden illness, forcing them to activate emergency backup goalie Matt Berlin, a player from the University of Alberta Golden Bears. With their big lead, the Oilers put him in net with 2:26 to play, saving the only shot he faced. … Oilers forward Kane returned to the lineup after missing the last game while dealing with his bankruptcy case. As a result, James Hamblin was returned to Bakersfield of the AHL. … Out with injuries for Edmonton were Kailer Yamamoto (undisclosed) and Ryan Murray (back). … Chicago also had a prominent forward return as Toews was back after missing the last game with an illness. … The Hawks were without Tyler Johnson (ankle), Jarred Tinordi (facial fracture), Jujhar Khaira (back) and Alex Stalock (concussion). … McDavid became the first Oilers player with 50 assists in seven straight seasons since Jari Kurri (between 1982 and 1990) and the first player in the NHL with 40 goals and 50 assists in 50 or fewer games since Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux both did it in 1995-1996.
Both teams enter into lengthy breaks, with neither returning until Feb. 7.
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text:
kentoh - Fotolia
When network reliability matters more than performance
In the world of motorsport, there's no question that speed is everything. But for the IT team that supports this Formula 1 team, network reliability is the top priority.
Jessica Scarpati
Very few things move faster on land than a Formula 1 race car, and perhaps even fewer IT departments can match the blink-or-you'll-miss-it pace at which an F1 team's IT pros are required to operate.
Williams Martini Racing, a British F1 team and constructor, will compete in Grand Prix circuits this year in 21 countries across the globe, including Abu Dhabi, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Monaco and Russia. Upon arrival, each team gets access to an empty garage at the circuit -- often supplied with only a power feed -- to house the cars, parts and technology supporting the vehicles. Two of Williams' IT pros follow the team on the road, setting up Cisco wired and wireless networking gear, plus two racks of Dell's converged servers and storage, at a momentum that seems to rival the mechanics in the pit stop.
The IT support staff typically has one-and-a-half to two days to set up the infrastructure, complete any software updates, run the cabling and test all the equipment, according to Graeme Hackland, the team's IT director. They have only four to six hours after the race to tear it down and pack it up carefully enough to survive the drive or flight to the next race.
Technology plays a huge part in F1 racing. Cars are outfitted with 200 to 300 sensors transmitting data via radio waves while they're on the track, Hackland explains. Once in the garage, the car connects back to the IP network to transmit additional metrics. At the same time, auto engineers stay glued to real-time data analytics applications to track the car's condition and performance.
Susie Wolff, a [former] development driver with Williams Martini Racing, a Formula 1 racing team, discusses data obtained after a session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona in May 2015.
As a result, network reliability, simplicity and resiliency are the team's biggest technology priorities, Hackland says.
We'd rather have a slightly slower network that's reliable.
Graeme HacklandIT director, Williams Martini Racing
"Downtime just hurts the performance of the car. If the engineers can't see the data, they can't make aggressive calls and strategize. They can't call the car in at the right time. They can't see what their competitors are doing or react to changes they are making," he says. "We'd rather have a slightly slower network that's reliable."
The team's network is made up of a 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone supported by two core switches, with 100 Mbps running in the access layer. Its wireless network, built with Cisco's Meraki gear, provides Wi-Fi to the garage as well as any temporary offices used by marketing staff. Cisco firewalls and strong encryption keep competitors' eyes away from the team's data. And wherever Williams competes, it always sets up a 100 Mbps MPLS link via British Telecom to the team's factory in England.
Another issue with races in desert or tropical climates is that the garages have no traditional cooling systems, making it especially challenging to keep systems running smoothly and ensure network reliability.
"It's not a data center anyone would recognize," Hackland says. "In the hotter countries like Malaysia, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, we will put fans [in] just to move the air around. But in these garages, space is at a premium, so heat can be an issue. We sometimes get very close to the upper [limit of] operating temperatures of the equipment."
Read more from this series: Networks in cool places
Table of contents: Four examples of networks in unexpected places
SMM Pogo: Building a network on a mountain, underground at minus 20 degrees
U.S. Army PEO C3T: Boosting bandwidth amid the Ebola crisis
Chitale Dairy: Milk production doesn't stop, neither does network infrastructure
When it comes to exploring emerging or potentially complex technologies, Hackland says Williams takes a very conservative approach for its network at the track. That's because network reliability is essential.
"We're very suspicious of things like spanning tree and all of these protocols that you can use for high availability, because they do tend to add complexity to the network. And when they go wrong, it tends to be very difficult to diagnose," Hackland says. "We can't afford to have a degradation of performance because we're trying to be too clever."
Network upgrades: Making a roadmap
Are today's networks reliable enough for cloud computing?
Why is TCP considered a reliable protocol?
This was last published in February 2016
Gathering data from Lewis Hamilton's F1 car during a pit stop
Formula 1: Mercedes team turns to big data in quest for victory in Grand Prix
By: Bill Goodwin
CIO Interview: Graeme Hackland, Williams Martini Racing
Ultrafast network helps Williams Martini Racing stay among F1 contenders
Jessica Scarpati asks:
What do you do to make your network more reliable?
Is your IT ready to compete in the digital age? –Intel
CIO interview: Mercedes AMG Petronas IT director on ... – ComputerWeekly.com
CIO Interview: Graeme Hackland, CIO, Lotus F1 Team – ComputerWeekly.com
Williams Group hires ex-Lotus CIO Graeme Hackland as ... – ComputerWeekly.com
Jessica Scarpati - 3 Feb 2016 3:00 AM


The BMW M850i xDrive fully unleashes the race car genes of the BMW 8 Series Coupé. The TwinPower Turbo 8-cylinder petrol engine with a 4.4 litre displacement and 390 kW (530 hp) makes this fact very clear with every meter travelled. True racecar features make the motorsports genes come to life, such as two Twinscroll turbochargers, specially coated cylinder linings and separately controlled cooling circuits.
The M850i xDrive also stands out visually with enlarged air inlets, the front spoiler lip, the "M" emblem, the airbreathers on the sides and the rear M rear spoiler. The colours of the BMW M850i xDrive also stand out from other sports cars with numerous design elements in Cerium Grey, like the kidney frame and kidney slats, airbreather inlays, wing mirror caps, 20" light-alloy wheels and tailpipe finishers.
Impressive down to the last thread. While outstanding paint finishes bring out the appearance of the BMW 8 Series Coupé, luxurious materials with stylish contrast stitchings and classy decorative elements enhance the sporty interior – imbuing it with a particularly high-quality look.


text:
Q: autotools and -Wl,-whole-archive Is it possible to tell autotools to link one of the libraries with -Wl,-whole-archive flag?
Makefile.am
bin_PROGRAMS = pktanon
pktanon_SOURCES = main.cpp
pktanon_DEPENDENCIES = $(lib_LIBRARIES)
pktanon_LDADD = libpktanon.a $(LDADD)

I need to link libpktanon.a with -Wl,-whole-archive flag, also I want make to execute something like this:
g++ -o pktanon main.o -Wl,-whole-archive libpktanon.a -Wl,-no-whole-archive -l...

(as in this question)

A: I ran into a similar problem here. You can do this:
pktanon_LDFLAGS = -Wl,--whole-archive,libpktanon.a,--no-whole-archive

The issue is that Libtool doesn't guarantee the order of linker flags on the actual command line it executes, so you have to force it like this.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
What Is Art? | Becca Rothfeld
November 30, 2021 Justin E.H. Smith | The Point Magazine, with guest Becca Rothfeld Season 1 Episode 7
Nov 30, 2021 Season 1 Episode 7
Justin E.H. Smith | The Point Magazine, with guest Becca Rothfeld
How is the aesthetic experience of art different from how we appreciate wonders of nature—a pretty flower, or a mountain vista, or a peacock's beautiful feather? In this brisk and bracing 40-minute discussion, Justin E.H. Smith is joined by critic and self-declared lover-of-art Becca Rothfeld to spar over what makes art art. They ask: Does it have to be something made by humans and for humans, or could one consider an animal or a machine an artist? Is there a stable, transhistorical definition of the term, or would what is considered "art" in one era be unrecognizable as such to those from another time? (That is: can we say that Paleolithic cave paintings are art in the same way a Basquiat painting is art?) And together they settle the matter once and for all: Are Marvel movies art?
Hello, and welcome to the "What Is X?" podcast for The Point magazine. My name is Justin E.H. Smith, and I am your host. The rules of "What Is X?" are very simple. For each episode we are going to ask a question of the form "What is x?"—after the manner of the Socratic dialogues written by Plato, which were based on questions of the sort: What is art? What is beauty? What is justice? What is… the good? Things like that. And I am going along with my guest to pursue such a question each week. Each week a different guest and a different question. We will seek to come to an agreement as to the definition of x over the course of a circuitous dialectical inquiry. And after that is wrapped up, we will determine whether we have reached agreement, disagreement, or aporia. And those are the three possibilities and then we will conclude with some postgame analysis. And we will thank our speaker and bid you the listener farewell until next week. So this week, I am delighted to have as our guest the intrepid Becca Rothfeld, who is among the editors at The Point magazine, an associate editor or editor at large—I forget her exact title, she can tell us. She is also an accomplished and very noteworthy critic on the literary scene in the English-speaking world. And she is also a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Harvard University, where she is working on questions pertaining to the concept and the problem of beauty in philosophical aesthetics. So welcome, Becca.
Becca Rothfeld [03:01]
Thank you so much. It's a great honor to be able to use my voice and speak to another human being—something I have not been doing as much as I would like to, lately in quarantine. I'm a contributing editor at department. I don't know what that means exactly, or how it's different from the other kinds of editors that one could be. I think you sort of covered the rest of my qualifications. I'm an art lover. So that qualifies me to say things about art I hope.
That's great. Yeah. Thank you. So contributing editor at The Point. Alright, shall we get started, then? Again, this is going to be—as I've described this to some people already, the feel of this should be roughly half Socratic dialogue, half game show. So something between the Meno and The Price Is Right is kind of the feeling we're going for. But that said, unlike The Price Is Right, there are no losers here, right? Even if we end up disagreeing, or even if we find we cannot come to a definition, that is just as legitimate as coming to agreement. It's not as if agreement equals winning. So what I would like to ask you is: What is art? What is art? It's a difficult question, because obviously, art is a term that is at the center of a huge semantic cloud with lots of other associated terms—notably: artifice, artificial, artisan, artistic, artisenaI… I could go on and on. And these all go back to the same route the Latin ars—a-r-s, that is—and we find a Greek equivalent in the term techne, which can be translated variously as "art," or as "craft," or indeed, as "skill." It's not clear that these terms are any of these terms in any of the languages we've already invoked means the same thing from one century to another. So this is something else, we have to remain sensitive to—that it's a very historically embedded term, with different kind of connotations in one epoch than in another one. Indeed, if you use a compound phrase, like "art world," that's obviously going to mean something very different for, say, the young British artists of the 1990s than it means even for us today, let alone say, for curator in the Victorian period. So Becca, do you have any thoughts on this? Can we get started? I have no idea what art is, do you?
I do not have a great idea of what art is myself. And of course, the first question that I want to start with is the metaphilosophical question of what we're even doing when we ask what art is, what kind of answer would satisfy us. So as I was sitting down trying to write down things that I think are true of art in general, before this, I wondered if that would be satisfying, because things that are true of art, or characteristic of art, need not answer the question of what art is, because they may not be specific to art, plenty of things that are true of art, maybe even characteristic of art are also true, or characteristic, of other sorts of things. I wanted to initially ask me whether we're looking for necessary and sufficient conditions, or whether we're just trying to say things that are true and interesting about maybe not all, but many works of art?
That's a good question, I suppose what I would say and, of course, I don't really believe there's such a thing as metaphilosophy. I think that, you know, if you ask a metaphilosophical question, ipso facto, it becomes part of philosophy. Right?
Well, that is certainly the case. I didn't mean to imply that I didn't…
That's that's just an aside, but I guess what I would say is that necessary and sufficient conditions are kind of like the gold standard of definitions. That's what we hope to get. But if we can't get that, maybe at least we can get some family resemblances. Or if we can't get any of those may be an inkling or a hunch, right? It's just kind of like, we do the best we can always hoping that we'll get something, ideally, that would be such that we can invoke it whenever we have the question, Is this thing here a work of art? Well, does it have these two or three or four elements? That would be lovely, I worry that we're probably not going to get that with art. What about you?
I mean, I think art is particularly difficult in this regard. I mean, I think that most of my favorites accounts of art, or maybe they're not really accounts of art strictly speaking—most of my favorite discussions of art, take the sort of latter approach, the unsatisfying approach, where they don't attempt to offer necessary and sufficient conditions and instead they just apprise us with interesting things that art can do. Like Heidegger's discussion in "Origin of the Work of Art," I don't see as an attempt—perhaps you would disagree—to offer a definition of art so much as an attempt to characterize interesting facts that like art can have or something. But nonetheless, I would be interested, and attempting to offer some necessary and sufficient conditions, whether or not we're destined for failure…
No, but seriously, maybe this is important at the outset. Do you think it is a futile or even perhaps a silly undertaking? Do you roll your eyes at the idea of pursuing this question together?
No, I don't. I will say that in the course of reading about definitions of art, I've come to the conclusion that maybe what is more important is not the question of what art is, but the question of what makes art good, and maybe even the question of aesthetic value more broadly. So even if we can't come to any, you know, consensus about what art is, it might be the case that there's something that unifies everything beautiful, and I feel more optimistic about the prospect of coming to a conclusion, a definition about that.
That's promising, but here's a problem with it, perhaps: that we would could easily end up having to accept, and you might want to accept, recognizing, for example, natural objects. For example, to use I think this is Richard Wollheim's example, say certain forms of driftwood, or the contemplation stones that scholars put in their studies in classical China, things that are simply lifted out of nature and not transformed by human art in the literal sense, but that nonetheless have the power to provoke an experience of beauty in us, or an experience that we also associate with, say, a given painting or symphony or something like that. So if you're prepared, potentially, to admit aesthetic experience before the natural world as well, then we could pursue your line.
No, so I wouldn't necessarily want to say that the Grand Canyon is a work of art or something like that. But rather, if left to my own devices, I would be more inclined to ask the question, "What makes something aesthetically valuable?" than the question "What makes something a work of art?" Because I think one, I guess, subsidiary question would be, what are the stakes of answering that question? What does it matter if something is a work of art? Does it follow that we treat it differently? And I mean, I think, actually, as I've been reflecting on it for this, I'd sort of dismissed the question and decided to ask after beauty instead. But I think that maybe—I mean, we do treat works of art differently. We write criticism of works of art; we don't write criticism of the Grand Canyon. So I think that maybe I had dismissed the question too cursorily in my first years of graduate school, but I think that's something to keep in mind. Because I think that aesthetic beauty is also important as it attaches to things besides works of art—human bodies, works of nature, so on and so forth. And so I think often, in the history of philosophy, when people have asked after the definition of a work of art, they should have been asking after aesthetic value, given what they care about, like that's true of Hegel, in my opinion, or whatever. Nonetheless, so we can ask after the necessary and sufficient conditions of works of art and do our best. I have one condition that I think is plausibly necessary, albeit not sufficient, taken from Hegel's Aesthetics, which I've just been reading, sort of in preparation for this, and also just to get into it. So I guess, it seems to me that it is a necessary constraint on art that it be made for and by humans, or things with humanlike minds.
Interesting. I was going to say a moment ago, when you suggested this very peculiar idea, let's say, some very foreign culture that we might land upon where we learned that they actually do write nature criticism, that would be really strange and interesting, right? But I was thinking about this in connection with Kant. Because Kant, in this very peculiar work of his, The Critique of the Power of Judgment," where he combines what we might today call inquiry into the living world, on the one hand, with philosophical aesthetics, on the other hand, discusses such things as free natural beauties, like the feathers of certain tropical birds, and seashells, and so on, but also elsewhere, Kant discusses, at some point, his disgust at the thought of whales in the act of copulation, and, you know, is revolted by this on aesthetic grounds. And so I think that someone—if we're looking for someone who comes close to trying to combine the two, in a way that Hegel seeks positively to forestall, it would be Kant, and that might be an actually historically very interesting split, where, up until Hegel, we had the possibility of doing nature criticism and art criticism together. You want to agree with Hegel, though: you think it's right to restrict it to that narrower conception, where it's something humans or humanlike beings are coming up with—art? Why do you want to restrict it that way?
I guess in response to all of that, I have like one thing to say, which is that I think historically, it is not true that up until Hegel, we don't admit of the possibility of excluding nature, because I think like people like Plato, who wants to say that art's primary function is memetic, which I think is definitely wrong, but I think that that rules out thinking of, like, works of nature, or works of nature—I've already conflated the two—beautiful things in nature as works of art. Why do I want to rule out the possibility that works of nature—my God, I keep saying it—but beautiful things in nature, count as works of art…
Well, the 18th century term would have been works of the creator, and so in the 18th century, you do have a strong convergence of the two through natural theology. But that's just an aside…
Which makes sense because it allows you to apply the same kind of interpretive practices towards beautiful things in nature that you would towards works of art. I mean, I guess I'm inclined towards like an institutional understanding of what art is that art probably has something to do with the kinds of practices that were able to pick up in relation to it.
This is like George Dickie.
Yeah, and I think Danto.
Danto is a good counterpoint as well. I like Danto. Sure…
I mean, I think one reason why I'm inclined to say that I don't want to count nature among art, although, of course, I think that it can have aesthetic value, which even Hegel doesn't think that it can even have like that much aesthetic value. And I disagree with him about that. But I think it's because we have different processes in relation to nature. And so, I mean, I haven't actually spent a lot of time thinking about why it is that it would seem so futile to me to write a piece of criticism about a work of, piece of nature, perhaps God's creation. But I think maybe one reason might be that a lot of criticism aspires not just to describe whether something has aesthetic value or not, but rather to interpret something, and it only makes sense to interpret something that has an agent behind it. And that is plausibly understood as like a first symbol for something. So it's not it's not even sufficient if God is the creator of things like the Grand Canyon—he'd have to intend them to be symbols for something, or to admit an interpretation in order for us to take the same relationship to the Grand Canyon. I mean, no, I think that that—well, I'm sure that one could say different things about like various proponents of the institutional theory. And it's been a while since I delved into the details of the different views and how different people disagree about the details. But I think the basic idea is that the advent of modern art raises challenges that historical accounts of what art or aesthetic value are—it's not sufficient to respond to, because with the advent of modern art, and people like Duchamp, people are reappropriating everyday objects, and sometimes, I guess, even pieces of nature in recent years. And describing them as or treating them as works of art. So if we accept that these things are works of art, then traditional accounts on which art is something memetic, or art is something that has a particular kind of aesthetic value, like it's beautiful, are no longer sufficient. And so the best way for us to understand what makes something like a Brillo box or a urinal a work of art, is to appeal to its institutional history, and maybe also to appeal to the sort of practices that categorizing it as a work of art enables certain practices that we take up in relation to it. So I historically have found those sorts of accounts to be the most compelling, although perhaps, today, I will change my mind.
That sounds plausible to me. Yeah. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the institutional theory, just so that we're all clear on this, because Danto's preferred example is Andy Warhol's Brillo Box, and others such as he would put it, "transfigured commonplace objects," so that for Danto, if I understand him correctly, it's perfectly okay to say that there is there is one Brillo box that is atomically, physically identical to the millions of other Brillo boxes out there. But unlike all those other Brillo boxes out there, which are mere commercial packaging, this one Brillo box that Andy Warhol has transfigured and had caused to be placed in a museum is a work of art. You mentioned kind of the historical conditioning of the notion of art, and the way that classical accounts are inadequate for, say, 20th century readymades and other avant-garde instances of envelope pushing. But when you say classical, I suppose you mean, the very distinct history of philosophical aesthetics that starts to emerge with figures like Alexander Baumgarten, and moves up through the 19th century in Germany. But then that gives us a reason to stop and think, Well, wait a minute, that was a pretty brief period of time. And surely what someone was saying about art circa 1800, was not only not suitable for explaining Andy Warhol or Marcel Duchamp, but it also wasn't suitable for explaining, say, medieval Orthodox icons or any other, let's say, tradition of religious art, where typically, the artist works anonymously and it's all subordinated to the greater glory of God and so on. So in that respect, one does start to worry that this is a particularly historically contingent concept, and that we're working with the final remains of a tradition that was actually very short. Would you agree with that?
Sure. I mean, it does seem plausible to me that what people are apt to characterize as art and the institutions surrounding art change historically. It does seem that there is some continuity or—well, I suppose it seems like the institutional account, perhaps has the resources to accommodate this kind of thought and that it is open to institutionalists to say that the relevant sorts of institutions like evolve over time, so maybe the institutions surrounding art production in the Middle Ages are different. And so what makes something a work of art under other, those circumstances different. And I myself, I mean, I guess I'm a bit more of a perennialist, to use the language that you use in your book—which listeners, I've had a chance to read, and it's great. So I might be more inclined to say, I guess, that there are stable features of institutions that define art throughout history—some, I think, even in the context of medieval art, one assumes that there is a human agency behind it, even if we don't have a notion of the auteur in the way that we do now.
Yeah, so that's—I sympathize with your perennialism. One also, sometimes, though, wants to say with Friedrich Engels, right, that certain amount of quantitative change leads to qualitative change. And that, you know, if there's a certain number of transformations in the practices of artistic production, and a certain degree of transformation of the economy and the institutions that host artistic production, then at some point, you just have to say "this ain't the same thing anymore." Can I give you an example of something I read recently, and it's wild—
So there are services for like ultrawealthy oligarch types, where you can get an art agent who will recommend purchases, and then once you authorize these purchases, the same agent will see to their storage for you—that is, out of sight, nobody will look at them, nobody will damage them with their breath, or light, or anything like that. And this is effectively for ultrawealthy people who see art not only as in part an investment, but as entirely an investment—as nothing more than an investment. So, imagine, I mean, here's where I think the institutional theory might reach its kind of limit of explanatory power: take some kind of hot new artist whose work has been purchased by such a service, and is now being stored in deep storage underground somewhere, and is just kind of hiding there secretly as a work of art. Right? It seems a stretch to say that that thing there even if it say, represents a human being on a canvas or a sunrise, or something like that, that that thing there is ontologically of the same kind as, say, a Paleolithic cave painting. Right? Would you agree?
I mean, I guess I'm actually not completely sure about that. I mean, I think that if one takes the really bare institutionalist, unornamented institutionalist account, then one would have to conclude that they are both works of art. I think that what to me seems to make the institutionalist account more plausible, I guess, than it is, in the bare iteration as if one supplements it with the idea that there's something in common between all human institutions—not all human institutions, but like human institutions as they pertain to like a particular practice. I mean, that practice does seem… in some ways that practice seems alien; in other ways it seems pretty reminiscent of patronage systems in earlier epochs, where people were not so concerned with the artist that was produced by the people of whom they were patrons, but were just concerned to make themselves seem like they were interested in the arts or something like that. Although, I mean, I'm not super up on the history of it. I will say that I think that—I have rarely encountered an artwork, in particular a work of literature from a different era that did not seem comprehensible in some respects, to me, at least with some background information, which makes me feel like at least certain facts about literary institutions are common throughout time. And this even seems true to me when I look at art from the Middle Ages, literary art from the Middle Ages, anonymous or maybe even irrelevant authors, something like Gawain and the Green Knight I think can be read in a way that is very resonant, even to a person today, although of course I can never know for sure whether that's a function of my own imposition of my presuppositions onto it.
That's so interesting. I've thought a lot about this. And maybe one thing someone might say in opposition… I am often struck—I read a lot of epic poetry and oral epics of traditional cultures—and I'm often struck by what I take to be the aesthetic power of a kind of archaic perspective on human beings, in particular, a lack of any preoccupation with their inwardness. There's like zero Proustian quality in traditional oral epics, and I respond to that aesthetically, I dig it. But what I try to remind myself, though, is that this is not necessarily being done for aesthetic effect, it might be being done, because it's just the way they see people, but you see more continuity in the description of what we as human beings are from, say medieval tales to contemporary novels?
Well, of course it depends, because I think that any reasonable person will come down in the middle, saying, there are some differences in the medieval perspective on personhood, and there are some similarities. But I have to say that I have not—and people always say this about Greek art and Greek conceptions of the person and say that there's no room for inwardness. And it's Augustine who invents inner life or something like that. But I have to say that I find—I'm not huge on Greek literature or anything, but I think that I think that a lot of the characters, especially in Plato's dialogues, for example, are super recognizable. And it doesn't seem to me that any sort of standard account of inwardness is expunged. For instance, I love Alcibiades's drunken speech in the symposium about how he loves Socrates. It's super recognizable. I think everybody has had the sorts of feelings.
Most people have had occasion for drunken confession. And he seems to acknowledge, I mean, really, in the most literal sense, that Socrates has an inner life, that is, that he can look upon and love. I mean, you open Socrates, and you see beautiful statues inside and this sort of thing. Yeah. I mean, although I think that part of what is interesting about reading literature from other eras and other cultures is that there's all kinds of presuppositions that are alien to you. Like in courtly poetry from Japan, there's all these formal rules about the kind of landscape imagery that you can invoke in a particular kind of poem, and the intensity of the formal constraints is like really interesting and is super unfamiliar to somebody who's writing and reading after modernism. Nonetheless, I've yet to find a work of literature that does not seem to me to contain something recognizable. And I think that even in medieval works of literature, for example, like in Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain seems to have like a vivid inner life, he is resisting the advances of his hosts during the hunt passages—I don't know, if you've read Gawain and the Green Knight…
I have not. No.
It's great, I highly recommend it, it's really awesome.
I'll put it on my list.
It's a giant green knight—very exciting.
That's so cool. I could indeed be wrong about this. But I mean, of course, you know, you read even the most "archaic"—I'm doing scare quotes with my fingers, for people who can't see this—you read even the most "archaic" accounts of human action, and you still recognize it as action. And that already implies that there is some kind of motivation behind this and some kind of inner process going on that leads to the action. So indeed, I think you're very right about this, we do exaggerate the recentness of the discovery of the inner life. Let me throw you a curveball, I think, because you have already suggested it, so it's not that much of a curveball. That is, whether we can maybe get closer to a definition that we agree upon by looking at the parallel question on which I believe you do have strong opinions. Not what is art, what is beauty? So even if that forces us to take driftwood and gemstones and things like that into consideration as well, what is beauty?
Well, I actually, I don't mean to throw such a curveball back, I suppose. But I think that this is a super independently interesting question. Like, I mean, one thing that my dissertation is about and that I care about, but I actually don't think this is a promising strategy for answering the question of what art is at all. Precisely because I think the two come apart so sharply. It's just that sometimes the fact that this is the more important question, or the question that maybe we have better prospects of answering, or something. But I think that plenty of artworks are certainly not beautiful. I mean, one question that we perhaps could take up is the question of whether it's possible for something to be bad art, like whether art is [inaudible], which I think is something that changes over the course of the history of philosophy, like people like Hegel use the term art, honorifically, and some other people are perfectly willing to admit that franchise superhero movies are art, whereas other people would want to say they aren't even art at all. That's a separate sort of question. But I…
I was just gonna say I'm very sympathetic. If we're looking for—if we need a definition, I'm very sympathetic to the art as… an honorific view, I think that settles the matter cleanly. We call art what we think deserves the honor and we withhold the honorific from that which is bad. I'm not saying I'm going to go for it, but I'm saying it has its attractions. So go on.
I think that that raises other sorts of questions there, because there are more kinds of aesthetic value, at least in my opinion, than beauty. So in addition to there being things that maybe want to say that they're so bad that they're not even artwork, but there's something compelling about describing something as a bad artwork. That's one objection to that view. But another would be that it just raises a different host of questions. Because I think that there are plenty of artworks that we might want to say are, I don't know, maybe they're interesting, maybe they're disturbing, but without being beautiful, or something like that. And so then the question would be what are the range of aesthetic values that corresponds to artwork, or that define things as being artwork? And then there are all sorts of other related questions about, like, what makes something aesthetic, anyway? Like what makes something an aesthetic property, as opposed to an ethical property or just a descriptive property. And then you get into some other stuff. So while it might be true that the honorific account of what art is is ultimately salvageable I don't think it necessarily simplifies things. Because it raises other sorts of questions.
You're right, yeah, I can see that. Yeah, let's try to approach this from another perspective. You have written a lot in your capacity as a critic about literature. And this is, in some sense, as I understand your work, your home base in terms of thinking about what art is, so this raises the question of genre—genres of artistic production and of what unites them. In particular, with respect to literature, we often hear the phrase, the weird compound phrase "arts and literature," which leaves literature as a kind of outlier. And the first question is: Why? And the second question is: Does this perhaps reveal something about the pieced-together, bricolage sort of character of what we think of as art, when we look at the way the different genres are just kind of thrown together?
So, I think that there is a historical explanation for why this is so—and by the way, this is something that really irritates me. In reading like a ton of aesthetics, so much of it is just about—not even about all the arts except for literature, but just about the visual arts—like a lot of aesthetics seems to just assume without any justification that paintings and sculptures are the only, or at least primary objects of interest, to somebody interested in aesthetics. And they include things like dance, and there is a rich aesthetic tradition of people discussing music. But often when people do things like offer definitions of art, they sort of conveniently forget to care about things like music and dance, in addition to forgetting to care about literature, but I think that the contingent historical explanation for this is that people who are interested in aesthetics, or what they call aesthetics, at least initially, are interested in sensory experience. And they're interested in sensible properties. And so a lot of like the early Romantic and idealist attempts to understand what is distinctive about the aesthetic or what is distinctive about art appeal to something like sensible properties. Literature may or may not have sensible properties. Of course, literature can be read aloud, some literature is intended to be read aloud. And that sort of literature has auditory properties. But plenty of literature seems to not have that many sensible properties, unless we define sensible properties in a weird, counterintuitive way. So that's why I think that literature is often left out. I'm not sure that its historical exclusion is evidence that there is not something unifying about different sorts of art to be found so much as it just reflects a sort of Romantic bias, although interestingly, the Romantics also care a lot about poetry. Poesie is a really important category for them and think that does all kinds of important work or whatever. I myself am inclined to think that at least something can be found in common across different sorts of art, although I'm not sure that justify that.
I want to know what it is. You're inclined to think it—you suspect it but you can't pinpoint it.
To me, it seems to have something to do with the appropriateness of doing criticism, vis-a-vis or upon, whatever the appropriate conjunction is, these objects.
Yeah. I mean, one worries a little bit, no offense, but that you are something like an ornithologist trying to make the case for your relevance to birds, to invoke that old example about how philosophers of science are no more necessary for science than ornithologists are for birds. You are a critic, and you are seeking to define art as that which opens itself up for critical engagement, right? And one might want to say to you as a critic, "Oh, how convenient." Right? You see what I mean? You're defining art into your—you're giving art the definition that makes what you do, particularly relevant. And yet I'm inclined to agree with you. Yet I find it a pretty attractive proposal, when we're looking for what all these things have in common.
In response to the ornithologist point, I was just reading a book where someone suggests to the spouse that the person should take up birdwatching and the response is "The bird should watch me," which I think is amazing. But—that's in Norman Rush's Mortals, it's a great book.
Oh, wonderful.
But in any case, I mean—so I do think that I'm defining… Well, I guess, who knows what the direction is, maybe I became a critic because some part of me sensed that this is the appropriate attitude to take towards works of art. Or maybe I want to ensure relevance for myself by defining art in reference to criticism. I will say, though, that I think that what I mean by criticism includes more than formal criticism. And so, I mean, I think that it is at least important in discussing why art is important to us—and whether or not that should figure into our definition is sort of a separate question—but at least one reason why art is important to us is that we can engage in a series of critical—I keep using the word "practices," I mean, it's just the best word—critical practices surrounding it, whether they be formal or informal. So it's not just that there can be an Architectural Digest and that's what makes architecture architecture but rather that architecture is the kind of thing that you can talk about what your friends that you might be inclined to talk about with your friends. It is something of which it is sensible to ask why a certain choice was made. Of course, that isn't unique to art, because that's true of any any activity performed with human agency. But it's something of which it is fruitful to ask why particular sorts of choices were made. And I think that accounts of, I guess, aesthetic appreciation that I like most are ones that have it that aesthetic appreciation is not immediate but is rather the product of sort of discussion and consumption of artifacts, around the artifacts under discussion, because that seems to me to be true. And that seems to me to be a very important part of artistic consumption, to use an applicative word. So I guess, my justification for thinking that criticism has something to do with it has to do with the centrality of interpretive discussion and aesthetic practices—informal, interpretive discussion, often, just people debating, you know, whether the Beatles are better than the Stones or something that seems to be central to the way that we relate to artwork, even when we're not professional critics.
I think our time is just about up in terms of our dialogical inquiry. I think I hear some church bells chiming. That means we are in agreement.
I wanted the goat bleat!
Well, look, technically, you're a winner. I mean, I didn't want to make you nervous. But the truth is, it's better to agree than to disagree. And I wouldn't say exactly, I mean, this was a tough call. I'm going with the church bells, because basically, we didn't come to any kind of necessary and sufficient conditions. That is, we didn't come to anything like the gold standard of definition, as we laid it out earlier in the show. But we came to something that felt like agreement, which is that art is whatever is open to interpretive criticism. And I've never even thought of that before. And so maybe, like, it feels like agreement, and then, you know, I'm going to come away from this conversation and I'm going to be like, Wait a minute, Becca and I don't think the same thing at all about what art is, but still, at least for the moment—like hearing this, this new understanding that appeals to me so much feels like agreement. So that's what we're going to go with and you're a winner.
All right! It's at least a necessary condition. So that's half of what we wanted.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that. But I mean, I just kind of called it right there because it's important to stick to time. But we have about one more minute to talk. So I thought I would throw another question at you. What about superhero movies? Are they an appropriate object of serious criticism?
That's a good question. I mean, I certainly think—well, I say this from a position of total ignorance, because I actually haven't seen very many of them. Maybe any of them. I mean, I saw like the Batman movie in like, high school or something.
I think I saw the one with Michael Keaton in it, which might have been in like, 1989. That's my most recent superhero movie.
I guess I watched part of the Jessica Jones TV show, which was on Netflix. It was not very good, in my opinion. I mean, the reason—so if they are anything like I assume they would be like, on the basis of seeing previews for them and finding myself totally disinterested in watching them, I would say that they are certainly bad art. But it is possible to write a pan of something. I mean according to some, the most thrilling critical genre is the pan. So I think that yes, they're an appropriate object of excoriating criticism.
Excellent. Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you. Thank you so much, Becca. Again, this has been the "What Is X?" podcast, and I am Justin E.H. Smith. My guest has been Becca Rothfeld. And we have come to a sort of agreement on the question, "What is art?" I hope you'll join us again next time. Until then we'll see you later.


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Thousands Fell Through Cracks Between Eviction Halts Brought on by Pandemic
September 25, 2020 | News & Record - Greensboro
Ben Sessoms
Catrice Otengo sits for a portrait on July 31 in the Greensboro hotel room she is renting following an eviction during the coronavirus pandemic. Image by Casey Toth / The News & Observer. United States, 2020.
A padlock notice is taped to the door of an apartment whose tenant was unavailable for comment Aug. 19 in Raleigh. Image by Casey Toth / The News & Observer. United States, 2020.
Catrice Otengo parked her 2007 Ford Focus at an Extended Stay America in Greensboro, North Carolina, on an early July morning.
She just finished third shift as a specimen processor at Quest Diagnostics.
Inside her one-bed motel room, storage bins sat in the corner and a suitcase filled with clothes was tucked under a desk.
This was home.
The pandemic first brought a cut in Otengo's hours. Then, a weeks-long furlough. Unemployment checks didn't come quickly enough. An eviction did.
"I shouldn't be here," Otengo, 49, said. But she's been living in this motel room since mid-July.
COVID-19 decimated America's economy, leaving millions of tenants without the income they needed to make rent. Government officials tried to keep them sheltered. The state halted evictions at the start of the pandemic, through June 23. Then, at the start of September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blocked evictions nationwide for renters affected by the virus.
But, in that roughly two-month gap, Otengo and others fell through the cracks.
NC Eviction Filings: Landlords in North Carolina sought 18,333 evictions from June 24 to September 3, the period in which state and federal moratoriums were not in place. That's half of the number of cases that were filed during the same time period in 2019. The map shows the number of court filings by county in the months between moratoriums. Map by David Raynor / The North Carolina News Collaborative. United States, 2020.
Across the state, landlords filed evictions against more than 18,000 tenants in between moratoriums. It's unclear how many people were displaced, but eviction filings doubled from June to July and continued that pace into August, according to an analysis of data provided by the state Administrative Office of the Courts.
Renters had no safety net for much of the summer. The North Carolina General Assembly failed to direct any COVID-19 relief funds to help tenants settle overdue rent. In late August, Gov. Roy Cooper directed $175 million in housing relief, but for renters already displaced, it was too late.
Housing advocates predict another deluge of evictions in January after the federal moratorium expires.
"You're just essentially postponing those evictions from now until January," said Jesse McCoy, supervising attorney at Duke University's Civil Justice Clinic, which helps tenants facing eviction in Durham.
Under the CDC moratorium, renters must provide sworn statements that they can't pay rent due to the virus and failed to find help elsewhere. Landlords could face criminal prosecution if they try to displace those tenants.
The CDC order couldn't help Otengo. She said it made her sick to her stomach.
"What about the people that have already been evicted? What about those people? Where was my protection?" Otengo said.
Help Came Too Late
Right before the pandemic hit, a surgery put Otengo out of work for all of February, she said. Checks from her short-term disability insurance were slow to arrive.
She fell behind on her $765 monthly rent.
Otengo returned to work by the start of the pandemic. Soon, though, her hours were cut to 20 a week. In late April, Quest Diagnostics furloughed her, she said.
Like thousands of other workers, Otengo battled an overwhelmed unemployment system. She said only one check came.
With unpaid rent piling up month after month, Otengo drove to Raleigh in mid-June to protest alone at the offices of the North Carolina Division of Employment Security, the state agency that dispenses unemployment benefits.
A concerned DES employee helped with her payments. The benefits began rolling in, but it was too late.
Otengo fell too far behind on rent to square up. With the state moratorium lapsed, the court granted her landlord an eviction in July.
She went to Extended Stay America, where residents can secure a room week to week without paying a deposit. She pays $220 a week for a room, more each month than she paid for her apartment. She pays another $174 a month to store her furniture.
Otengo searched for better housing, but the eviction followed her.
It's a red flag for many landlords considering tenants.
After weeks of searching, she found on Craigslist a room to rent in Durham. Starting Oct. 1, she'll pay $550 a month to live with four strangers in a five-bedroom house.
That's on top of the storage payment. Her room is too tiny for all her furniture.
Otengo is working two jobs to save up for a better place. She now works full-time at LabCorp and is a waitress at Outback Steakhouse, where she earns $2.13 an hour plus tips.
'Landlords Are Suffering'
In mid-August, 115 tenants stood in line in a crowded hallway at the Durham County courthouse.
All of them faced eviction. They also faced the same plaintiff, Rick Soles Property Management.
Rick Soles, the owner, is in the business of sheltering people, but without rent, it's a failing one.
It's why he and hundreds of other landlords and management companies rushed to court in July and August for permission to evict tenants who had failed to pay rent in the spring and early summer.
"Landlords are suffering," Soles said in a phone interview.
Soles said he took his tenants to court because many of them hadn't paid rent since the onset of the pandemic.
For Soles and other landlords, rent is monthly income used for property taxes, mortgages and upkeep.
For much of the year, landlords have been expected to do without that income. Soles thinks the new CDC order is asking too much. A lawsuit has been filed challenging the moratorium.
"To tell a landlord that he cannot have any rent and he cannot evict the tenant until after the first of the year, he will have basically gone 10 months without any rent," Soles said.
And many landlords, he said, can't afford to lose that much income.
"Most of these people owe money themselves, and they're probably in situations where they cannot afford to lose two months worth of rent, much less 10 months," Soles said.
Cancel Rent?
The reprieve in evictions comes at a cost for tenants, too.
The CDC order does nothing about the rent itself. Unpaid rent will continue to pile up every month.
The moment the CDC moratorium lifts on Dec. 31, housing advocates warn of an anticipated rush of landlords filing for eviction.
This wave will be different, they said.
Typically, landlords bring an eviction if a tenant falls a month or two behind on rent. In North Carolina, a landlord can move to eject tenants if they are late, no matter how much they owe.
But the landlord is often willing to accept the late rent if the tenant can pull it all together within the appeal period, 10 days after the eviction is granted.
By January, though, a tenant could be several months behind on rent. The steeper that cost, the less likely that tenants can scrounge enough together and stay in their home.
Kathryn Sabbeth, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in housing law, said it is time for the federal government to step in with housing relief.
"The most obvious solution is someone has to pay the rent, and it's not going to be tenants who have no income," Sabbeth said. "There needs to be a cancellation of the rent, so it's not just that you can't be evicted, but that no rent is owed."
Landlords would benefit too, Sabbeth said. It would replace their lost rental income.
In August, Gov. Cooper directed $175 million in assistance to community organizations that help people behind on rent, mortgages and utilities.
Housing advocates worry that money could fall short of what is needed. Sabbeth said only the federal government has the resources to fund rental assistance long-term.
Otengo never saw any rental assistance. She tries not to think about her eviction and the lack of help available to her in July. When she does, it takes a toll.
"I try not to think about it because if I think about it, if I think about it too hard, I wouldn't be out here. I wouldn't survive. I would probably have an emotional breakdown, and I can't afford to do any of that," Otengo said.
"We were failed."
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Bouncing Back: North Carolina's Economic Journey to Recovery
Ben Sessoms covers housing and gentrification in the Triangle for the (Raleigh, North Carolina) News & Observer through Report for America, a national service program that places...
View this story on News & Record - Greensboro
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Broadband Still Hasn't Reached 'the Last Mile' in NC, and COVID-19 Is Making It Worse
The Pandemic Has Sounded an Alarm Bell on North Carolina's Digital Divide
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