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Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
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JACK OF TIME
By F. X. Blisard
(Continued from ERBzine 0433)
Time's Tool
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. There is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will....
--James Russell Lowell, A Glance Behind the Curtain
"Major Burroughs," she said, smiling, "this gathering is NOT a session of the United Nations, nor any other geopolitical organization. This is the annual meeting of the International Burroughs Bibliophiles -- a simple literary society dedicated to the study, preservation, and proliferation of your published and unpublished works."
When I came to, I was flat on my back under the table, reacting sharply to the smelling salts that Gen. Groves was waving under my nose.
"General--"
"Call me Les, Major. Everyone else around here does."
"Les...allright, if you insist," and I raised myself up on one elbow, "as long as you promise not to call me Ed, Edgar, or E.R."
"I know," he said, smiling. "You always wanted to be called 'Jack'... that's why you named your firstborn 'Jack'--not to mention your first two brain-children, 'Jack' Carter and 'Jack' Clayton. Well, 'Jack' it is, Jack." And he helped me up onto my feet.
"Well, Les," I said, "Now that we've been formally introduced, how's about I get acquainted with some of the other members of this here fan club? Prof. DuBois I've already met--although I rather imagine he's more of a devil's advocate than a bona fide 'fan'...but I suppose every organization needs one o' them."
DuBois was quick to respond: "Major Burroughs, I assure you my dissent in no way detracts from my recognition of your talents--or your achievement. Just because I find the body of your work a mine of paradoxes does not mean I reject it altogether."
"Aw, shucks, perfesser," I moaned, "just when I was warmin' up for a no-holds-barred debate, ye go all mushy on me!"
"Very well, then," he said, "let us continue our earlier discussion--at your convenience, of course."
"It's a date, perfesser--"
"Please, call me Will."
"Okay, Will. As soon as I discharge my social obligation to our dinner companions. I feel a round of handshakes coming on."
DuBois then took upon himself the solemn duty of introducing me to his colleagues in that strange international fraternity. There was a pretty even mix of men and women, young and old, and -- as I mentioned -- a fair representation of every non-white race on the face of the earth. There were Australian aborigenes, Filipinos, Hindus, Pakistanis, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolians, Eskimaux, Amercan Indians, African Americans, West Africans, Berbers, Kalahari Bushmen, Zulus, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Yemenites--and all filled with an enthusiasm not just for the stories I had written over a century before, but for the entire "Lost World" of Western Civilization that lay behind it. They were, in fact, as I came to learn, the guiding literary lights of their own respective cultures, each of them leaders in the artistic vanguard of their own emerging -- or, rather, re-emerging -- societies. The one common denominator was that they each came from a culture rich in its own oral storytelling tradition, and each -- for some strange reason -- found in my stories a link with their own. These were the cultures that my own Euro-American culture had once regarded as "primitive." Now they were running the whole show quite nicely, thank you, all on their own.
"So, Will," I said to DuBois in between bouts of book-signing, "how many of these blokes are 'retrievals' like yourself and Leslie Groves?"
"Nary a one," he said. "We're few and far between--on purpose, I believe. The authorities have never shed their suspicion of us--of anyone from the past--no matter how 'useful' to them we may be. In fact, the more 'useful' one of us is, the more closely he is watched."
"Every occupation has its occupational hazards, eh?" I grinned, and Will returned it.
"When the Retrievers came for me," he recounted, "I was literally on my deathbed. They came disguised as Ifa-priests and -priestesses... special religious functionaries in the West African country of Ghana, where I was living at the time."
"Ghana?"
"The old British colony called the Gold Coast. It was the first one to gain its independence, back in the--oh damn, there I go again!" I looked at him quizzically. "Breaching policy--the same thing I gave Orinmala hell for. It's not that easy, dealing with you 'out-of-timers'--watching every word, lest we drop some hint of 'things to come'."
"Not to worry, Will," I assured him. "I'll never tell. And I promise, I won't go playing the stock market when I get back home. Pray, continue. You were telling me about these Ifa-priests...the local undertakers, apparently?"
"Not quite. All funerary details in the Ashanti culture are attended to by one's family members. The Ifa-priesthood do, however, enjoy virtually unopposed access to any person, any place, any time...especially if the person in question is in extremis and has no extended family locally--as I, of course, did not."
"Oh, I get it--witch doctors!"
"Please," the old protestor protested, "have a little more respect than that for things you do not comprehend! I was every bit as agnostic as you before I came to Africa to live. 'Medicine men' ... 'shamans' ... 'diviners' ... these are all just labels that nineteenth-century anthropologists pulled out of European history and applied willy-nilly to social institutions that bore a superficial resemblance to something back home. But just because you have named something does not mean you have understood it."
Chastened, I nodded for him to continue with his tale.
"With the help of some sympathetic members of the actual Ifa circle, the TSC engineers gained access to my hospital room a week before the date of my 'historical' demise and simply switched the bodies."
"Wait a minute--whose 'body' did they 'switch' for yours?"
"Well, as I understand it, it was some sort of...biological duplicate of...of me." Noting my confusion, he pressed on. "Reconstructed from my own dead cells--here in their labs, before they went 'back' to retreive me--rather like one of your own outlandish 'scientifiction' plot devices. They call such duplicates 'clones', I believe."
"Sure," I said, "from the Greek -- Klonos -- a young shoot/sprout/twig. Makes sense, kind of. So one of my 'damphool' ideas panned out, eh? Well, chalk one up for the pulp-fictioneers. How long does it take to grow one o' these here 'clonies'?"
"Damned if I know," he snorted. "All I do know is they never figured out how to make the damned things survive more than a few days. By that time, of course, the retreival team -- and the real Will DuBois -- were long gone and I had a new lease on life."
"I suppose they have quite advanced medicines now, to have brought you back from the brink?"
"No, actually, the best medicine they had to offer me was...hope."
"Hope?"
"Yes--a reason to live--a renewed sense of purpose--the knowledge that I could once again be...useful--that I still had something to contribute to society--or, at least, to this society."
"I remember," I said, smiling. "You said in an interview once; 'I would have been hailed with approval if I had died at 50. At 75, my death was practically requested.' I liked that--wished I'D said it. But say-- was it really all that bad? As I recall, in '45 you were still quite a big deal in certain circles. The last I heard, before my last trip to Guam, FDR had just appointed you to help start up that 'United Nations' business. What happened?"
"Happened? Absolutely nothing--that was the whole problem. It was just more of the same old game--what Mark Twain used to call the 'Civilization Game'. Oh, the deck got shuffled real good, allright, but all the cards were still being dealt by the same old white-haired, white-skinned 'gentlemen'."
"Yeah," I said, somewhat ruefully. "I've had my share of run-ins with them myself. But hey, speaking of white-haired old gentlemen, I don't suppose, by any chance, Mr. Twain hisself is lurking about these parts, these days, is he?"
"Oh, they tried to retreive him," DuBois snorted, "But he wouldn't have any of it. Said he was really looking forward to his 'Grand Tour' of the next life. Besides, his wife and daughter were on the other side and he figured he'd kept them waiting long enough. Personally, I think he'd just had his fill of what he used to call 'the damned human race'."
"Sure can't fault him for that," I said. "Still, I'd really like to have spent some time with him. Missed him the first time around, though I did manage to stop at his birthplace on my way West in 1919. Oh well. So... are there any other 'retrievees' hereabouts besides yourself and General Groves?"
The old professor stroked his beard pensively for a moment before replying. "I suppose it can't hurt for you to know that, Major. Allright, here's the short list. There's my old nemesis, Booker T. Washington--he's on assignment right now down in South Africa, building up a new industrial base. Then there's Mr. Garvey -- Marcus Garvey -- he's overseeing the creation of our merchant marine fleet, up in the Red Sea. Another white fellow, a Czechoslovak named Dvor'ak -- Antonin Dvor'ak...he's working closely with Orinmala on cultural affairs...trying to put together a 'Pan-African Philharmonic' or some such monstrosity. You may recall, he was an early advocate of using African American and American Indian melodic systems as the basis for a uniquely American musical tradition. Imagine--blues and jazz becoming cultural standards for a whole society?"
"I always said that that's the direction we were going, what with the Garshwins and Irving Berlin..."
"Both students of his!" exclaimed DuBois, suddenly animated. "Remember when he was teaching at the New York Conservatory of Music back in the 1890s?"
"Sure," I said. "That was when he made such a big splash with his 'New World Symphony'..."
"Yes, and quite a few enemies among white supremacist art critics."
"But he stood his ground," I beamed with pride. "And the public simply ate it up--every city in the nation put on public performances of that 'New World' piece, with its wierd mix of classical European, American Negro, and American Injun motifs. Some of us white folk weren't half bad, eh?"
"Some, yes...but was it ever enough?"
"All that is neccessary for the triumph of evil," I quoted....
"Is for good men to stand by and do nothing," he finished....
"Jefferson," we both intoned, somberly.
After a few moments of awkward silence, I perked up: "Well...anybody else from the old homestead passing through?"
"No, that's about it," he mused. "No, wait, there is one old 'friend' of yours -- an Apache warchief named Go-yat-thlay."
"Geronimo? He's here?"
"Well, not here here. Right now he's off somewhere on maneuvers with our geurilla forces. Probably over in the 'Badlands'--Somalia... Ethiopia...Sudan--that kind of information really is 'top secret'... no way in hell they'd trust the likes of me with it. But one thing I can tell you--he's very eager to meet you."
"Whaaaaa--?"
"Scout's honor," he said, holding up two fingers and grinning broadly. "Seems he was quite delighted by that little novel you wrote about him--what was it called?"
"War Chief of the Apaches," I groaned, "and the obligatory sequel -- Apache Devil. what a devil of a time I had getting them published!"
"I know," he said, a puzzled expression creeping over his countenance, "And, to me, its one of the most paradoxical aspects of your career: Why did you go to so much trouble and expense to publish what amounts to an "apologia" for Native American resistance to white supremacy at the same time you were shoring up international white supremacy with those dreadful depictions of Native Africans -- like the one I read aloud earlier from Jungle Tales?
I chewed on the inside of my cheek a bit before answering. "Will," I said, looking him dead in the eye, "all I can say is: Go back and read it again. Look at the context. In each and every case, look at the damn context. Tarzan may always be the protagonist, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's always the hero."
Okay, Jack," he mused. "I'll do that. I should jave known there was more to your work than meets the eye. But dammit, man, did you have to be so obscure about it?"
"You should read some of the hate mail I got from white supremacists, objecting to the heroics of mere fictional characters such as Mugambi--"
"The 'Ebon Hercules' you called him, I believe...in Jewels of Opar, wasn't it?"
"Sounds about right," I said. "But one thing I do remember clearly--those Buffalo Soldiers I served under in Arizona, back in '95, when I was just a raw recruit fresh out of the academy--"
"'Tough as nails' you said, and 'fairer to work for than any white sergeant'...if memory serves me."
"Indeed it does, perfesser," I whistled. "You've really done your homework on me!"
"As have we all Major," chimed in Madame President. "Why are you so surprised? Could it be a case of 'a prophet not without honor except in his own country'?"
"My Lady," I said, blushing beet red again, "You should know better than to quote Scripture to an old atheist."
"Atheist, my foot!" she scolded. "I have it on the highest authority that every story you ever wrote is a thinly veiled parable."
"Granted," I replied, "but a parable for what? That is the question!"
"The triumph of justice...the power of love...the folly of evil...take your pick, Major. Such were your standard themes--and, we must assume, your core beliefs!"
" 'O! Wauld some pow'r the giftee gi'e us / To see oursel'es as others see us' -- Bobbie Burns for the defense. The defense rests. And speakin' of rest, I'd be much obliged if someone would show me to my quarters. By my count, its been well over 24 hours-- give or take a century-- since I've had some shuteye. And I'm sure you'll want us all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our return flight."
"Of course, Major," said Orinmala, contritely. "Forgive us imposing on your time this way. I hope you understand -- for us, this little sympo-sium has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. General Groves will escort you and Lieutenant Gridley to your suite. I'm afraid Padraic has been called away by his other duties. General, would you be so kind?"
"At your service, My Lady!" Groves appeared out of the crowd and reprised his earlier salutation to Orinmala's outstretched hand. Then, to the uncanny applause of men and women not yet born in our lifetime, we three departed the dining hall and threaded our way once again through the maze of corridors. It was only midafternoon, but I was already exhausted -- a condition that I attributed as much to the bewildering revelations in the dining hall as to the trauma of time-travel. Young Gridley seemed equally worn down by the events of the past 24 hours. Gen. Groves, however, energetically sought to engage us both in conversation on the way to our quarters.
"What luck, boys!" he exuded. "Now listen up, there ain't much time and I want you both to get this right the first time. You won't get no second chance."
"What the hell're you babblin' about now, Les?" I asked impatiently.
Ignoring me, he plowed straight on: "That hat," he said. "Don't let it outa your sight, not even for a second. It's the key to this whole operation, along with the reconstituted B-24."
"Les," I said, "take a deep breath...."
"Can it, mister!" he barked, "This is a briefing, goddammit."
Startled into attention, Gridley and I both stared at him as if he were an escaped mental patient, while he continued his rant.
"This time-travel business is very simple, so simple we should've thought of it ourselves back in the 20th century. But we were so fascinated with machines, with trying to beat Mother Nature into submission. We had the capability right here"--and he tapped his right temple with his forefinger -- "right inside our noggins all along."
"But you said it was the bomb that caused--"
"That's one way, the most expensive--and wasteful--way of inducing a TSC-rift. What you'll experience tomorrow will be vastly different--smoother, more 'natural', so to speak...a product of symbiotic synergy between the human, the animal, and the inanimate material realms."
Noting our complete befuddlement, Groves pressed on: "The B-24 that carried you--us--here has by now been completely transformed at the molecular level--absorbed, assimilated, and totally reconstructed by a powerful hybrid animal we call an 'oxylesson'...it's a completely new species produced by combining the chromosomes of every known animal species on earth.... That airplane is no longer just nuts and bolts: it's now a living organism, whose form and function can change at will--"
"Wait a minute," interjected Gridley. "whose will?"
"The will of whoever wears this headpiece," replied the General, tapping the brim of my hat, reminding me of the strange charade he had acted out on the tarmack that morning.
"The metal strip," I exclaimed. "So that's what it's for!"
"Whoa, whoa, hold the phone, Daddy-O," said Gridley. "What does that have to do with time travel?"
"That's the tricky part," continued Groves. "It takes two people--one to man the controls for normal flight (that's you, Gridley), the other to 'navigate' through the Time-Space Continuum (that's you, Major)."
"Uh, excuse me?" queried Gridley. "Why can't it be the other way 'round?"
"Simple division of labor," replied Groves. "Each of you to his own area of expertise."
"Okay, then," said I, "why the subterfuge? Why doesn't the High Command just supply me with my own 'magic bonnet'?"
"Because," sighed Groves, "they don't trust you. Don't take it personally, Jack, they don't trust anybody. Besides, they've already engineered the ship to run on a sort of 'automatic pilot' with respect to the TSC function. But it can be overridden by someone wearing one of these," and he pointed again to my headgear. "They don't know you have one, of course."
"And why are you doing this?"
"Because I don't trust them!" he said. "They mean well, but they're always screwing up...."
"So, who do you trust, Les?"
"You," he answered immediately, matter-of-factly.
"Hmmm...interesting choice. Why me?"
"Because you're the guy who started all this," he said. Then, after an awkward silence, "Look, do you each remember what you were thinking about just before the plane skipped-to-my-loo and you ended up at Los Alamos?"
Gridley and I eyed each other. "You go first," I said.
He grinned sheepishly as he confessed, "Well, y'see, there's this gal in Honolulu..."
"Mm-hmm, just as I thought," said Groves. "Now, how 'bout you, Major?"
I didn't grin, but I did knit my brows as I said, simply, "I was planning the next day's schedule...."
"I rest my case," said Groves, triumphantly.
"Wait a minute," I blurted. "What case? Are you saying that this time-travel stuff works by just wishing?"
"That's a crude way to put it, though I can see how one might characterize it so. But I'm surprised, Major, that you, of all people, would so underestimate the power of the human mind."
"Yeah, Major," Gridley wisecracked. "What's wrong with you?"
Giving the lad a dirty look, I laid into Groves: "Look, Les, I've never claimed to be a rocket scientist, just an educated layman. So, if this is a briefing, would you please start being brief, as in to-the-point?"
"Okay, here's what you need to know for tomorrow. The metal hatband simply translates your brain waves into their corresponding radio waves, which the reconstituted plane's nervous system picks up and in turn translates into submolecular messages that target strategically placed metallic implants throughout its body to generate a process of atomic fusion--that's the opposite of atomic fission, but just as powerful, perhaps even more so -- which provides the "kick" needed to travel along the TSC."
"So I need to do--what? Think happy thoughts? Click my heels together and say 'there's no place like home'?"
"Very funny, but no, just concentrate on your destination--and keep concentrating. The system will do the rest."
"And what happens if I concentrate on, say, 1492 instead of 1945?"
"Then you'll scare the be-Jesus outa Columbus and his crew, they'll high-tail it back to Spain, there won't be any America -- and, conversely, there won't be any you! If you wanna commit suicide, please do it one your own time."
Groves stopped abruptly, seized the handle of a door, and said, "Here we are, boys -- the deluxe suite."The door swung inward to reveal yet another circular, skylit room, on a smaller scale than either the dining hall or Orinmala's study, but well appointed: a large, round table in the center, with four moulded-plastic chairs protruding from underneath it at the four compass points; four catacomb-like sleeping niches set into the wall at the same four compass points, with two layers of drawers set into the wall beneath each "bed"; and, alternating in the spaces between the beds, two glass doors (which I assumed led to lavatories) and two desk-like counters recessed into smaller niches and equipped with the same kind of protruding chairs as those at the central table.
From the middle of the central table rose a translucent cylinder about four feet high, marked with the same "forest canopy" pattern as all the other skylights throughout the complex. Groves went straight for this cylinder and pressed against it with the palm of his hand. Immediately, a cleverly concealed square panel at the base of the cylinder raised up to reveal a refrigerated compartment stocked with various glass bottles and paper or plastic cartons.
"No liquour in here, but every other beverage you can think of. Just press your palm against the unit like I just did" -- he removed his hand and the panel closed--"you'll get the hang of it." He walked around the table, repeating the procedure until he had acquainted us with the various sections of the larder -- dairy, vegetables, meats, breads, even a small "freezer" complete with ice cubes and an assortment of desserts.
"No stove," Groves lamented, "but there is this handy-dandy little number," and he opened up one more panel behind which were two miniature percolators side-by-side, one for making coffee, the other dispensing plain hot water.
"Cups, dishes, flatware, napkins--all in the upper compartments," as he slapped the top half of the cylinder repeatedly, opening and closing said compartments in rapid succession. "All disposable -- just drop 'em in here," and he bent down to point to one of four knee-high, spring-loaded trap doors in the cylindrical pedestal on which the table was mounted. "It all gets recycled." He rose to go. "Any questions?"
"Any books?" I asked.
"Over there in the desk-niche," he pointed. "All pre-1945 titles, of course. There's also what we call a 'digital data center' loaded into the desktop. You probably saw Orinmala using one when Gen. Mugambi brought you down here. But don't even try using it. You'd need a password just to open up the unit and they're not about to issue one of them to either of you... you won't be here long enough to learn the basics, anyway. My recommendation -- pick out a good book and curl up in bed with it. You'll be asleep before you know it."
He headed towards the door, paused as he opened it, grinned and said cheerily, "Pleasant dreams, lads. You leave at 0900 hours." And he was gone.
What I thought was the dawn coming up like thunder was just Gen. Groves again, pounding on the door. "Rise and shine, me buckoes," his muffled voice sounded from beyond the portal. "Its 0500. Paddy'll be here in 15 minutes with yer uniforms. Make yerselves some strong coffee." Gridley and I stumbled to our respective shower stalls and re-emerged to find Paddy preparing coffee at the "roundabout." Grateful, I embraced the steaming mug and sat down, inquiring as to the scedule.
"Well, first off," said he, "there's a fine breakfast buffet set up in the main dining hall. All yer mates'll be there, includi' them two Slavs what Mister Mugambi incarcerated--though, if 'twas up to me, I'd jest bind 'n' gag 'em and toss 'em in the ship's hold for the duration. Anyhoo, the plan is to rush ye all through breakfast and then truck ye out to the airfield, posthaste, for some sorta dry run." He rose to go. "The loo is well stocked with shavin' supplies. Will ye be needin' anyt'ing else, Major? Lieutenant?"
"Not that I can think of, Paddy," said I. "Give us another 15 minutes and we should be ready to roll. Right, Looey?"
"'Firmative," slurped Gridley through his coffee.
Sure enough, the whole crew was assembled in the dining hall, the only "locals" being Gen. Groves, Gen. Mugambi, and a few of the latter's daughters assisting the "Walking Wounded." There was also a contingent of armed guards hovering around Rokovitch and Paulinov.
"Well, Major Burroughs," Mugambi grinned, "you slept well, I trust?"
"Like a baby, thank you," I replied. "You've been most hospitable to us 'Out-of-Timers'."
"Not at all, at all," he said, mimicking Paddy's brogue. "Just think of us as your friendly neighborhood--"
"Good Lord! What's that?" I cried out, pointing to the wall behind him, which had suddenly taken on an extra dimension it had not had--or I had not noticed--the day before. A huge flock of flamingoes, in formation, had suddenly appeared on the horizon of the landscape in the picture and started moving steadily upwards, growing ever larger as if actually approaching us. It was only then that I realized that the walls were covered not with a huge, life-sized, continuous still-photograph, but rather with a huge, life-sized, continuous motion-picture screen. The device effectively provided all occupants of the room with a simultaneous "periscope" view of the actual landscape surrounding the compound. The reason I did not realize this the day before was simply that there had been no activity, either animal or human, in the immediate vicinity at that time of day. Also, I was sufficiently tired and preoccupied on that occasion that I took no heed of whatever movements there may have been off in the distance.
"Ah, they are returning," said the black General with evident delight. "How lucky for you! Come, grab something to eat and let us go up to meet them."
"Meet who? The birds?" I said, bewildered again. "I hardly think--"
"Trust him on this one, Major," said Groves from behind me. "It ain't the damn birds he's talking about. It's what the birds are running away from."
"Running away...why would I want to go meet some predator that--"
"Oh, this is one predator you'll be glad you met. Come on now, let's not insult our host." And he began ushering me in the direction of the widest archway, beyond which rose a wide staircase which Mugambi and his bodyguards were already mounting. The ebon giant stopped a few steps from the bottom and turned to see where I was and beckoned excitedly. "Come, come. You have to see them from a distance first. Come!" And he stood there waiting for us to catch up, throwing his arm around my shoulders when I finally reached his side.
"With the rising sun at our back," Mugambi exclaimed, "we will see them in all their glory!" I decided to humor him, as I would a religious fanatic, which the gleam in his eyes put me in mind of. Besides, his grip on my shoulder was one of iron.
We emerged upon the broad, flat, asphalt roof of the main structure. General Mugambi led the way to the northwest corner of the roof and one of his guards handed him a pair of binoculars. I strained my eyes in the direction he was scanning and could just make out, arising from behind a barren ridge several miles distant, a sizeable plume of dust. The General suddenly handed me the binocs, pointing and exclaiming as he did: "There! Focus on that ridge before the storm of dust"--and as I raised the device to my eyes, he drew in his breath and said, proudly--"and you shall see a sight that you will never forget."
He was right. Now it was my turn to gasp for breath. While I was adjusting the glasses to my own eyesight, there burst over the crest of the ridge a pair of creatures unlike any I had ever seen before. I call them a pair, but never were two beings more completely one, their juxtaposition so unexpected that for an instant I doubted my own eyes, if not my sanity. A rider, a human rider, garbed in what looked like burnished gold and mounted upon a beast half zebra and half antelope, was bounding over the ridge at a good twenty feet above the rock-strewn surface. They struck the ground a full forty feet beyond that, to spring again, and again, like some gigantic grasshopper, eating up the miles between us with the quickness of thought. And after him, a hundred other mounted men on identical steeds. At the pace they were keeping, they would be upon us in a matter of minutes. I lowered the glasses momentarily and turned towards Mugambi, who had somehow acquired another pair of binoculars and was himself surveying the progress of the strange horde.
"Er, General," I assayed, "shouldn't we get below...before they reach the compound? I see no defenses--"
He lowered his own glasses and turned his head, a look of amazement on his face. "Defenses?" he said, then burst into a bellylaugh and glanced at his guards, who took up the refrain, slapping their knees and doubling over with laughter. Even General Groves was trying to repress a smile. "They are our defenses!" said Mugambi, with a sweeping gesture that took in the ever-widening circle of invaders.
Anxiety conspired with confusion and embarrassment within me as I glanced out across the open plain at the living tidal wave that was but a minute or two away from overwhelming us. Why was I the only one on that rooftop who appreciated the potential harm to life and limb in our situation? The only element missing from this Mad Hatter's party was a Cheshire Cat! Then fascination with the details of the approaching apocalypse overtook me, and, resigning myself to a swift destruction, I spent the remaining seconds taking note of them. The mounts were magnificent creatures, beefier than either species from which they were bred, the black zebraic stripes alternating tigerlike with the tawny deerskin coat, and each tapered head surmounted by a pair of short, twisting horns. Each of the riders was wearing a body-length suit whose markings matched the hide of the very beasts they rode. These "uniforms" were complete with hoods that covered the entire head, including the face, with eyelets obscured by the set of elaborate goggles each man wore. Slung across the back of every rider was a short rifle, and every hip supported either a sidearm pistol or a long knife. Their saddles and saddle-bags were similarly camouflaged. And, just as Mugambi had said, in the rays of the rising sun they were an awe-inspiring sight--a faerie-like fleet of irresistible doom.
On their way across the plain, the wierd troop had broken into serried ranks of 12 or 13 abreast. Whatever their objective, their assault would obviously come in successive waves. Mugambi, at that point, ceased laughing and assembled his own men in formation, the entire complement of a dozen guards standing at "present arms" in a single row facing the oncoming horde. Then the General turned to likewise face the intruders with a look of grim determination on his face, holding his swagger stick behind him as he had at our arrival. Gen. Groves silently pulled me aside--out of the line of fire, I assumed.
When the first wave was within a few bounds of our position, I was certain Mugambi would give the command to aim and fire, but he remained silent and motionless, as did his men. This is madness, I thought, and turned towards Gen. Groves to say so, but he simply raised his index finger to his lips, cautioning me to silence, and fixed his gaze on the impending slaughter. The first row of furies was almost upon us. I steeled myself and awaited my fate.
To my amazement, the first wave landed not on the rooftop we occupied, but clear on the other side of the building, as did the next, and the next, until all eight rows had passed over us--like the Angel of Death over the Israelites, I thought--while Mugambi and his phalanx of guard maintained their pose of "readiness." Then the riders reassembled their ranks on the ground, two rows each on all four sides of the building, and proceeded once again to overleap our position--all eight rows at once, criss-crossing each other's paths with unerring precision. This show of "horsemanship" was repeated four times and then abruptly ceased, the whole company having arrayed itself on the ground again in the same configuration as before. An eerie silence prevailed for the space of a full minute, the riders striving with their anxious mounts to stay them, the latter held in check only by the steely discipline of their masters.
Then, as sudden as lightning, one of the riders detached his mount from the ranks of his fellows and bounded upwards with a blood-curdling battle cry that I could have sworn I had heard before, and landed squarely on the roof, directly in front of General Mugambi. The General did not budge an inch, nor did any of his guards. I glanced at Groves, not daring to speak, but again he raised his index finger to his lips, winked at me, and nodded in the direction of the incredible scene being acted out before us. As I stared, transfixed, the rider prodded his mount with his heels and the beast, camel-like, knelt down on its front legs, permitting its master to dismount with a single artful movement. The rider approached Mugambi boldly, undaunted by the armed guards a few paces away. Scant inches from the General's chest, the mysterious stranger stopped and, lifting his arm above his head, stripped off his dusty goggles and with them his sweat-stained hood, to reveal a face as brown and weathered as the hide of the beast he rode. It was an aged, well-wrinkled face, with high cheekbones, a high forehead, and a large, broad, aquiline nose bisecting a pair of piercing, steel-grey eyes and balanced by a set of wide yet pencil-thin lips atop an anvil jaw. The man was beardless and his hair was straight and black with generous streaks of gray. Despite his age, he seemed unwearied by his strenuous ride--indeed, invigorated. For some reason, I was hardly surprised when he and Mugambi embraced each other fiercely, then, parting slightly, pounded each other about the arms and shoulders, laughing heartily. It was, of course, Geronimo.
<< END OF CHAPTER 4 >>
JACK OF TIME ~ An ERB Time-Shift Novel ~ by Frank X. Blisard
ERBzine 0280 JACK OF TIME: ERB Novel Intro & Ch. 1 - "After the Fire..."
ERBzine 0330 JACK OF TIME: Chapter 2 "Time Bomb"
ERBzine 0433 JACK OF TIME: Ch. 3 "Time's Fool" - Graphics & Links Laden
ERBzine 0433t JACK OF TIME: Ch. 3 "Time's Fool" - Fast-loading Text Version
ERBzine 0434 JACK OF TIME: Ch. 4 "Time's Tool" - Graphics & Links Laden
ERBzine 0434t JACK OF TIME: Ch. 4 "Time's Tool" - Text Version
ERBzine 0436 JACK OF TIME: Ch. 5 "Time and Tide" - Text Version
ERBzine 0555 JACK OF TIME: Ch. 6 "A Time For War"
ERBzine 0663 JACK OF TIME: Ch. 7 "Othello's Fellows"


Is your business changing at least as fast as its environment? If not, you are going backwards. If you hope to both respond to market change and shape it, then continually realigning your strategy, culture, and leadership is essential for business survival and success. The biggest challenge facing most businesses now is transformational change in the context of the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, especially with digital technologies reshaping business models and patterns of working across the world. We know that most acquisitions and mergers fail to achieve in full their intended goals and that organization culture is the most significant obstacle.
It is probably the last of these, mental models, that is the most challenging. A mental model is a way of seeing the world, sometimes called a mindset, that is often a long-established habit that is unexamined and out of the leader's awareness. An unexamined mental model limits our ability to shape the challenges we face or to develop new responses. Instead, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes endlessly.
One example of an outdated mental model, which is common in our experience, is when business leaders fall into the trap of seeing their organization as a machine. You can hear this through the language leaders use around change, as they search for "levers" and "toolboxes" or seek to "drive" change. This mental model of organization as an industrial-age machine leads to a belief that if they can figure out how it is working and just find the right tools, then they can make the changes needed to modify the pattern of working. Also, that it is a repeatable and measurable process; that there are reliable levers for making change happen. They often focus on organizational structure, which is comparatively easy to rearrange. Or they focus on some of the key processes, both in how the business operates and HR processes such as reward.
In fact, all such processes both influence and are a function of organizational culture. It can be discomforting for leaders to realize and accept that the culture is not controllable in this way. Many business leaders have grown through their functions as experts who can fix issues and make things happen using established methods. These leaders may experience anxiety while working through ambiguity and uncertainty, when others turn to them expecting answers.
When business leaders let go of the machine metaphor and start to develop a different mental model of organizations, culture, and change, they can immediately create more options about how to respond. We find an organic model more helpful than a mechanical one in understanding the nature of organizations and how best to generate change. Culture is the complex patterning of relationships between members of an organization and its stakeholders, for example, customers, suppliers, regulators, society, and the environment. For leaders, it is a significant shift from trying to "make" change happen to "enabling" change or "creating the right conditions" for change to flourish. For this, leaders need to continually notice the emerging patterns of interaction and experiment with how best to influence them. They need to stay curious and open to how else they might disrupt the patterns to generate change.
Generate an outside-in view of the culture. Those around you have invaluable insights. Draw on the data you already have, for example, customer surveys, and continually seek out more—through data and dialogue with those at the boundaries of your business and in unrelated fields.
Be purpose-led. Take a future-back perspective. Be clear about your business purpose, your future vision and the opportunities and risks in the market. Use these to energize change.
Be aware of history—what led the business to where it is now. Many of the myths and assumptions current in the business and in yourself come from this legacy.
Share the challenge rather than the solution. Involve your team in what is happening and have them explore what this means for how you work together and with stakeholders.
Focus on the stories you share. Develop the narrative of where you have come from, where you are now, and what is exciting about the future.
Build on the positive energy. Notice and celebrate examples of positive behavior and ways of working that herald what is needed in the future.
Above all, start with the changes in yourself and your leadership team—your own mindsets and behaviors. If you do not change the leadership team's pattern of behavior, then you will not see others change. Be open about your own challenges, and ensure this is a real priority for the whole team, not just another thing on the to-do list.
We have experience of working alongside businesses as they face the challenges of culture change. In the same way as a leader cannot make change happen in a business, so we as consultants cannot prescribe an approach. We need to work with you as consultants, bringing our expertise to your context. We can help you hold the mirror up to your existing culture but are wary of quick, generic categorizations, because a business culture is always complex and dynamic. We help identify areas to focus, ways to influence the pattern of relationships, and the impact of changes you make. Given the complexities and dynamic, you need to remain responsive and ready to adapt after every step.
We are at a time of unprecedented and accelerating change in the world. Business culture change is one of the hardest challenges facing leaders, but it is essential if an organization is to learn quickly and adapt rapidly to the changes in its environment. The role of leadership is to articulate the purpose and focus on generating the environment, including the culture, which releases the talent for people to deliver business success.


text:
Dámaso de Lario Ramírez (Valencia, 8 de septiembre de 1949) es un diplomático e historiador español.

Biografía
Doctor en Historia, ingresó en 1977 en la Carrera Diplomática. Ha estado destinado en las representaciones diplomáticas españolas en Jordania, Australia y Reino Unido. Ha sido Comisario General de la Sección Española  en la Exposición Internacional de Brisbane (Australia) 1988, Secretario Permanente y Vicepresidente de la Sección Española del Comité Permanente Hispano-Norteamericano de Cooperación para la Defensa.

En 1998 fue nombrado Subdirector General de Relaciones Económicas Bilaterales con países no europeos y, posteriormente, Embajador de España en la República de Indonesia, con acreditación en Singapur y la República Democrática de Timor Oriental, y Embajador en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. De agosto a noviembre de 2010 ocupó el puesto de Director General de Comunicación Exterior. Nombrado el 19 de noviembre de 2010, Embajador en Misión Especial para las Relaciones con Países del Golfo, y el 31 de agosto de 2012, Embajador en Misión Especial para Asuntos Internacionales de Medio Ambiente. Ha sido Cónsul General de España en Toulouse (Francia) desde agosto de 2013 hasta su jubilación en 2018.

Publicaciones
"Escuelas de imperio: La formación de una élite en los Colegios Mayores (siglos XVI-XVII)", Ed. Dykinson, Madrid, 2019, 465 pp. ISBN: 978-84-1324-099-2

Referencias

Embajadores de España en Indonesia
Embajadores de España en Venezuela
Diplomáticos de España del siglo XX
Diplomáticos de España del siglo XXI
Nacidos en Valencia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Bia peruana é uma borboleta neotropical da família Nymphalidae, subfamília Satyrinae e tribo Brassolini (único gênero da subtribo Biina), encontrada apenas no Peru. Esta espécie fora classificada, junto com a espécie mais conhecida, Bia actorion, como sendo da subfamília Satyrinae, mas estudos posteriores determinaram que ela realmente pertencia aos Morphinae. Porém novos estudos, utilizando características de genes mitocondrial e nucleares, determinaram que todos os Morphinae (tribos Morphini, Brassolini e Amathusiini) fossem colocados em Satyrinae, tornando Morphinae uma subfamília inexistente. Em vista superior, esta borboleta apresenta um padrão de coloração amarronzada, com reflexos iridescentes em azul nas asas posteriores; o que a faz diferir de actorion, que apresenta reflexo em azul nas asas dianteiras. Em vista inferior, apresenta padrão de coloração similar ao desta última espécie citada.

Hábitos
É provável que as borboletas da espécie B. peruana apresentem os mesmos hábitos de B. actorion.

Ligações externas

Lepidópteros descritos em 1904
Borboletas


Uber and other ridesharing companies are not just killing Chicago cabdrivers—they're also hurting banks and other lenders involved in the taxi medallion market here.
This summer, New York-based Signature Bank revealed that it has placed the majority of its Chicago medallion loans under heightened scrutiny and is restructuring debts tied to the taxi industry.
Capital One abruptly quit Chicago's medallion market last year, according to a lawsuit, and medallion owners say other lenders have left it, too. Medallion Financial, a publicly traded firm that owns 159 Chicago medallions, has slashed the value of that holding 22 percent over the past year and a half. Its own stock price is off 34 percent from last year.
For financial institutions, the days when the Chicago taxi market served as a tidy niche business are over. Given how quickly ridesharing firms have gained customers, it may be one that never recovers.
"We know that Uber and Lyft are presenting stress to any bank with exposure to this asset class," says Chris McGratty, managing director at investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods in New York who follows banks, including Signature.
Signature, which has provided loans for medallion acquisitions and refinancing deals, highlighted this summer how the weakening market in Chicago forced it to react. On a call with analysts in July, CEO Joseph DePaolo said the company put about two-thirds of its portfolio of 753 Chicago taxi loans on an internal watch list. In June and July, the lender restructured $112 million of its $172 million portfolio by changing loan interest rates, requiring borrowers to put up more collateral and offering longer amortization schedules.
DePaolo added that the current loan-to-value ratio for its Chicago taxi debts was 92 percent. A high loan-to-value ratio indicates that borrowers' debt levels are approaching equilibrium with the underlying value of the asset and serves as a warning sign for distress.
Walter Rabin, CEO of the Signature subsidiary that handles the firm's medallion lending, acknowledges that the Chicago market has shifted, pointing to the rise of ridesharing companies as well as a relatively new cap on how much medallion owners can charge drivers. The bank moved the Chicago taxi loans to its watch list as a proactive measure, he adds.
"We're forward-looking, and when we see changes in the lending environment . . . we at times will make risk-rate adjustments to a class of loans," Rabin says. Signature hasn't issued any new taxi loans here this year, though Rabin says that's due to a dearth of opportunities to lend.
Capital One is out of the market, too, quitting a joint venture to provide medallion loans with an affiliate of Chicago cab industry veterans Michael Levine and Patton Corrigan, the pair allege in a lawsuit pending in New York. The McLean, Va.-based lender's action caused a liquidity crisis here, forcing prices lower since owners could not find buyers for their medallions, the suit says. Levine declines to comment. Corrigan couldn't be reached, and a Capital One spokeswoman did not respond to a request to comment.
Four credit unions based in the New York area—Lomto, Progressive, Melrose and Montauk—also are avoiding new deals in Chicago, according to local investors such as Charles Goodbar, who owns 59 medallions. "They're working within their existing portfolios," he says. Executives from the credit unions, which are worried about their businesses collapsing because of Uber's operation in New York, didn't return calls.
While lenders scramble, the question of how much medallions are worth is a critical one. Owners who are earning less amid increased competition, and who must make loan payments on assets that are losing value, likely pose a greater risk of default.
The present market price for medallions in Chicago is murky, since so few have traded hands of late. The city's taxi regulator recorded a mere 12 transactions this year through Aug. 28, with prices ranging from $150,000 to $290,000 apiece. Last year, 91 medallions traded at an average price of $327,051. That's down from 370 in 2013 at an average price of $348,466.
There are a total of 6,995 medallions in Chicago, according to Medallion Financial. As of June 30, the New York-based company said its 159 Chicago medallions were worth $39.5 million, or $248,119.50 each, according to securities filings. The total value is down 22 percent since the end of 2013. In an email, the company's president, Andrew Murstein, says the drop reflects values settling at a "more normalized level" after dramatically increasing during the previous decade. He adds that ridesharing firms and a lack of lending have pushed prices down, too.
Some market participants believe the value of a medallion is already much lower. HVM Capital, a company based outside Boston with a short position on Murstein's company, published a report in June claiming that financial institutions involved in the taxi-loan market here won't finance medallion transactions for $150,000 because the price is too low.


text:
      {{'Back'|translate}}

      {{'Close'|translate}}

    <qr-scanner ng-show="index.isComplete" on-scan="topbar.onQrCodeScanned(data)" before-scan="topbar.openSendScreen()" />

      {{(titleSection|translate) || (index.alias || index.walletName)}}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: react native navbar animation input text I want to show a cancel (iptal) button, on the focus TextInput animation?
I did the following code, but it hasn't worked:
constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { cancelBtn:this.cancelBtn()};
}

cancelBtn(){
    return (<TouchableHighlight style={styles.searchTouch} onPress={this.press()}>
    <Text style={styles.searchBarText}>İptal</Text>
    </TouchableHighlight>);
}

render(){
    <View style={styles.searchBar}>
        <View style={styles.searchBarBox}>
            <TextInput
                ref="searchBarInput"
                style = {styles.searchBarInput}
                placeholder = 'Mekan Ara...'
            />
        </View>
    {this.state.cancelBtn}
    </View>
}

How do I do this in an animated way?
img:
s.s.1 => http://i.stack.imgur.com/m7wxm.png
s.s.2 => http://i.stack.imgur.com/hYa3z.png

A: Use the onFocus method of TextInput to trigger an animation. Reverse it with onBlur. Then, display the input based on whether the input is selected (state).
This example isn't tested from the styling perspective, but should give you an idea. Make sure to read up on the Animation docs too.
constructor() {
  this.state = {
    inputLength: new Animated.Value(100), // initial value
    isFocused: false
  }
}

onFocus() {
  Animated.timing(this.state.inputLenght, {
    toValue: 90, // or whatever value
    duration: 1000
  }).start(() => this.setState({isFocused: true}))
}

onBlur() {
  Animated.timing(this.state.inputLenght, {
    toValue: 100, // or whatever value
    duration: 1000
  }).start(() => this.setState({isFocused: false}))
}

<Animated.View style={{width: this.state.inputLength}}>
  <TextInput
    ref="input"
    onFocus={this.onFocus}
    onBlur={this.onBlur}
    ...
  />
</Animated.View>
{this.state.isFocused && (
  <TouchableOpacity onPress={() => this.refs.input.blur()}><Text>Submit</Text></TouchableOpacity>
)}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Max Depatie
Changing community faces challenges
By Owen Fahy and Christopher Cohen
IB courses offer more opportunities for integrated experiences
Two thousand ten marked the first year that Convent and Stuart Hall started offering coed classes. Six years later, the high schools continue to navigate the challenges and benefits of offering "a single sex education in a coed environment," but on a larger scale and for different reasons.
Stuart Hall High School's low enrollment in the years leading up to 2010 caused the administration to start offering coed classes in the Language department,, according to President Ann Marie Krejcarek. Students now have the opportunity to take coed classes in every department because it offers them the most opportunity.
The International Baccalaureate Programme offers the most coed classes with juniors taking between five and six coed classes. The IB Programme is in its inaugural year at Convent and Stuart Hall and has 30 students enrolled.
"We wanted to offer students the biggest menu of options, which is why we chose to introduce the IB Programme," said Krejcarek.
Of the students in the program, 19 are boys and 11 are girls. The girls' exposure to classes like computer science and robotics, which are not offered in the IB Programme, may have deterred them from joining the Programme, Krejcarek speculated.
Due to the inequality between the number of boys and girls in the Programme, all of the classes except for English and theology are coed. Krejcarek said ideally history should be single sex so the programs would be half coed and half single-sex. Currently there is a higher percentage of coed classes than single-sex.
Krejcarek said she also hopes to introduce IB Music and Computer Science, which are currently not offered at either school.
Despite this year's shift towards more coed classes, Krejcarek said the schools are not on track to become coed as some students have speculated.
"I feel like they are going to integrate more boys and girls over the next couple of years, resulting in the schools becoming one," said Andre Restauro '18.
President Krejcarek says the administration hopes to keep the communities separate for certain events and then have them be coed for some so that the student can enjoy "the best of both worlds."
"I hope that students claim their own community while enjoying the complexities that come with it," Krejcarek said.
Bus departures, arrivals present challenges
Late buses between the Broadway and Octavia streets campuses are resulting in students routinely missing class time, creating headaches for students and administration alike as everyone adjusts to the new transition brought o
n by more coed classes with the implementation of the International Baccalaureate Programme.
An increasing number of students are taking classes at the opposite campus, with 40 coed classes this year, up from 29 the year before.
"I think that the community feel aspect has really expanded, not just for IB students, but for students as a whole," Director of Student Life Ms. DeMartini-Cooke said. "Having both groups on each campus has really opened up what it means to have a high school campus."
For the first few weeks of the school year, only one of the two buses traveling between campuses had enough seats to accommodate all of the students. Once the maximum capacity of the bus was reached, students were no longer allowed to board. These students had to attempt to trek from one campus to the other within the 10-minute passing period.
The school recognized these issues, and has replaced the smaller bus with one significantly larger, fitting all the students who need a ride.
"The first couple weeks of school the buses were late, but as time has gone by the buses have been slowly improving and hopefully will reach a point where we miss no class," Adrian Medina '18 said.
The Roundtable timed buses arriving at the other campus an average 3 minutes, 42 seconds late. Once arriving and getting off of the bus, it can take students 1 to 2 minutes longer to hustle to their classroom and unpack for class.
"I have had to actually adapt classes to account for buses," physics teacher Riaz Abdulla said. "I generally have to start between 5 and 10 minutes late. It becomes a cycle where I have to let students out 'on time' or they miss the next bus and the next teacher ends up paying for it."
Students who bus between classes arrive on average of 5 minutes, 12 seconds late, resulting in missing an average of one class period per 18 classes, according to a Roundtable study the week of Oct. 12 in which buses were timed.
Based on the 18 classes each block period has met so far this year, students taking a bus to class have missed an average 93.6 minutes of the class, or about 6.2 percent of total class time.
Students are missing the equivalent of one entire class per every 18 class periods.
"I would say driving is an art not a science," said bus driver DiAra Reed. "There are a lot of variables such as traffic and pedestrians. It could also be the students we have to wait for."
Head of School Tony Farrell says to combat the issue the school has worked towards having teachers let students out on time, allowing students to hustle and make the bus.
"We are definitely aware and are seeing what we can do to ease that transition so that taking the bus isn't a stressful part of your day," DeMartini-Cooke said.
The Roundtable • Copyright 2023 • FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO • Log in

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On Monday 27th November a team of 12 Year 1 and 2 children represented our school at a cross country running event at Hellesdon High School. Members of the team came first and third in the girls event, and overall the team came second.
Well done to all those children and thank you to Mrs Howes.


text:
Q: Select multiple facets or filter data simultaneously UPDATED 6/29/12
I have managed to set up a search and a side bar for filtering results of a search using Sunspot and act-as-taggable with Rails. I was following this tutorial here
but I still can't select mutliple filter's at once. When I select a filter the other sub-category names still disappear. What am I missing?
My Original Question was this:

I'm not quite sure how to select multiple facets at once filtering the
  data. So I have multiple sub categories i.e.(hiking, skiing, climbing,
  etc.) I want to be able to select hiking and climbing simultaneously
  so the data shown is only those objects of hiking and climbing. Right
  now I select one (let's say hiking) and all the other options
  disappear.  Can someone explain?

Below is my code:
Gear Controller
  def index
    @search = Gear.solr_search do
        exclusions = []
        fulltext params[:search]
        exclusions << with(:sub_category_name, params[:name]) if params[:name].present?
        exclusions.compact!
        exclusions = nil if exclusions.empty?
        facet :sub_category_name
        facet :sub_category_name, :exclude => exclusions, :name => :all_categories
        paginate(page: params[:page], :per_page => 15)
    end

    @gears = @search.results
  end

** Gear Index View**

        <%= form_tag gears_path, :method => :get do %>

            <%= text_field_tag :keywords, params[:keywords] , class: 'gearsearchbar' %> <%= submit_tag "Search", :name => nil, class: 'btn btn-inverse gearsearchbutton'  %>

        <% end %>

Sub Category

    <% for row in @search.facet(:all_categories).rows %>

        <% if params[:name].present? %>
          <%= row.value %>(<%= link_to "remove", :name => nil %>)
        <% else %>
          <%= link_to row.value, :name => row.value %> (<%= row.count %>)
        <% end %>

    <% end %>

<div c

        <% @hits.each do |gear| %>
            <%= render partial: 'gear', locals: {gear: gear} %>
        <% end %>

     <%= will_paginate @hits, class: 'flickr_pagination' %>

Gear Model
class Gear < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :title, :size, :price, :sub_category_id, :user_id, :image, :image_a, :remote_image_url, :color, :year, :latefee, :cancellation, :minrental, :policy, :about, :address, :city, :state, :zip, :sub_category_name
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :sub_category
  has_one :category, :through => :sub_category
  has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy
  has_many :line_items
  require 'carrierwave/orm/activerecord'
  mount_uploader :image, GearpicUploader
  mount_uploader :image_a, GearpicUploader
  before_destroy :ensure_not_referenced_by_any_line_item
  acts_as_taggable_on :tags

  validates :title, presence: true
  validates :size,  presence: true
  validates :price, presence: true
  validates :sub_category_id, presence: true
  validates :user_id, presence: true

  searchable do
     text :title, :size, :price, :year, :zip, :state, :city, :minrental, :about, :latefee, :color

     text :user_firstname do
          user.firstname
     end

     text :user_lastname do
          user.lastname
     end
     # **Facet Section**

     string :size, :price, :year, :zip, :state, :city, :minrental, :latefee, :color

     string :sub_category_name , :multiple => true, :stored => true do
       sub_category.name
     end

     string :category_name do
       category.name
     end
   end

   private
   def ensure_not_referenced_by_any_line_item
     if line_items.empty?
      return true
      else
      errors.add(:base, 'Line Items present')
      return false
     end
   end

end

A: It looks like you need to take advantage of the :exclude option for your faceted search.
def index
  @search = Gear.search do
    exclusions = []
    # tags, AND'd
    if params[:tag].present?
      all_of do
        params[:tag].each do |tag|
          exclusions << with(:sub_category_name, tag)
        end
      end
    end
    exclusions.compact!
    exclusions = nil if exclusions.empty?
    facet :sub_category_name
    facet :sub_category_name, :exclude => exclusions, :name => :all_categories
    paginate(page: params[:page])
  end
  @hits = @search.results
end

So what I've done above, is create an exclusions array to hold the collection of filters. The with() method returns a filter object, so we capture all the filters in the exclusions array. We do the compact! to remove nil objects from the array, and if it's empty, we make it nil (this is due to the limitations of the :exclude option, if you pass it an empty array, it will not work correctly). We then facet on the same :sub_category_name term, excluding the filters, and also give it a name. This facet will give you all the facet categories excluding the selected ones.
Then in your view, when you display the facet options, you use the named :all_categories facet.
@search.facet(:all_categories).rows.each_with_index do |facet, index|
  # This just outputs all the facets, you can add the logic in.

<%= facet.value %> (<%= facet.count %>)

end


Jailee, OHNY's program coordinator, went to visit the recently reopened South Street Seaport Museum two weeks ago. The museum closed in early 2011 due to financial difficulties and was launched anew through the help of a one year partnership with the Museum of the City of New York. Sixteen new galleries have now been reopened and filled with a collection ranging from ships in a bottle to contemporary furniture design and fashion. The location of the museum at 12 Fulton Street is just as exciting as the work displayed inside. Its low ceilings and exposed rafters play tribute to the site's rich history.
I must confess that I never had a chance to see the old version of the South Street Seaport Museum, but I can say that I was truly struck by both the building and the exhibition displays of this reborn institution. I tend to gravitate toward art museums, not history museums, but I enjoyed every minute – so much so that I believe I came close to getting locked in when I realized that it was 15 minutes past closing time and I was still wandering around in the deserted galleries alone (although I'm sure a docent would have shooed me towards the door eventually).
Much of the objects on view are from the museum's original collection. I first stepped into a room that had a stunning display of ships in bottles. I think I share with most people a fascination with these creations – there are many of these delicate works of art on view and a small display case demonstrating their building process. I won't spoil the magic and tell you how it's done – you'll have to visit the museum to see.
A number of galleries feature design objects that have been manufactured in New York – a means to remind visitors that New York once did (and still does) build and manufacture things. The most striking aspect of these displays is that they are not meant to be strictly didactic – they are arranged and presented more like works of art. In the museum as a whole, there seems to be more stress on the aesthetic impact of the objects and the gallery space rather than historical information.
The result, as you can see, is a dynamic presentation of amazing pieces, such as these model ships. Note the exposed original brick in the background. If you examine the wood beams on the ceiling, you can see that new beams have been added to add structural integrity to the building, but the old ones are also still in tact. You can even pick out some charred beams that must have been through a fire in the past.
There is a gallery devoted to the photography of Edward Burtynsky. These images were taken in Bangladesh where 52% of decommissioned large ships are broken apart and destroyed. The images are incredibly beautiful and also very haunting.
On temporary display is an exhibition of photographs that document the Occupy Wall Street movement. A general call for images was organized by the museum and the curators chose their best images to display in the exhibition.
Just like OWS, the images display a dynamic mix between humor and struggle. I was amazed to be reminded at how wide-spread the movement has become – stretching to all areas of the city, involving young kids and senior citizens. It may be hard to yet reflect on how OWS will shape our political and cultural future, but these documents certainly capture the spirit.
The museum presents many unique exhibition displays. In this gallery, a projection on a topographical map of New York explained how different parts of Manhattan have evolved over time. This is displayed in a dark gallery with large projected images of different landscapes of the city. Again, more beautiful than informative, but nonetheless an engaging way to display history.
One of the best parts of the experience was just being inside this historic building. You can get a glimpse of many of the old features. Rather than fully renovate the space, the museum has simply re-purposed it. I found myself staring at the walls and ceiling as much as on the objects on view.
The photo above is a glass floor panel that shows the old elevator space of the building, which used to be the Fulton Ferry Hotel from 1874-1935. This elevator shaft was rediscovered by Joseph Mitchell and Louis Morino, owners of Sloppy Louie's Restaurant on the ground floor. Mitchell wrote about the Fulton Fish Market and the surrounding area in a number of popular stories for the New Yorker in the 1940s and 1950s. The story, "Up in the Old Hotel" was inspired by artifacts Mitchell found in this elevator shaft.
Another view of (what I think) are the pulleys and ropes of the original elevator.
The 16 newly designed gallery spaces of the South Street Seaport Museum show that this museum has a bright future ahead of it thanks to the help of the Museum of the City of New York. You can also take advantage of the partnership between the two museums: if you purchase entry to the Museum of the City of New York, you also have access to the South Street Seaport Museum (and vice versa).
This museum looks old, but this doesn't take away the beauty of its design and artifacts. I don't know bout you guys, but I really appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the different museums. I've seen museums with steel floor joist, or ones that have simple wooden floor. I think what interests me the most is the different themes it tries to portray depending on the artifacts they have to exhibit.


Kentucky Owl Bourbon dates all the way back to 1879, when Charles Mortimer Dedman founded the C.M. Dedman Distillery. Kentucky Owl was produced until Prohibition forced the distillery to close - and it never reopened. Fast-forward to 2010, Dixon Dedman decided to reignite the Kentucky Owl brand that was created by his great-great-grandfather many moons ago. The whiskey itself is made with casks sourced from various distilleries and blended by Dixon, and is bottled at cask strength, resulting in a full-bodied flavour profile. Kentucky Owl has impressed many already, and the wheels are in motion for a big ol' Bardstown-based distillery and visitors centre to be created.
Nose: Pecan pie, brandied cherry and a kick of cinnamon bark.
Palate: Cooked orchard fruit with a dusting of ginger and nutmeg, waves of caramel, good coffee.
Finish: Lasting brown sugar, oak spice and pear tarte tatin.
Wow a Bourbon with flavour notes. Love to try as I only drink Bourbon but will wait for less money per bottle.


The SIP for the week of April 21, 2019 Southwestern sign at Long Gym. Please click here to view Long Gym in 1941. .
Please click the caption below the photo on the home page and be taken to the Athletic Network Profile of George A. Berry where he documents how/when the sign came to be placed on Earl K. Long Gymnasium.
Click here to view the listing of the 2018 SIP Photos.
If a team photo is from a sport or support group, click Photo Gallery (left side of home page) - Sport or Category of Photo - year of photo.
If the photo gallery is from a reunion or special event, click the Ragin' Cajuns Reunions and Special Events (banner on right side of the news box), then the headlines of that event, then the photo gallery.
April 21, 2019 - Southwestern sign above Earl K. Long Gymnasium.
April 7, 2019 - 2000 Tennis Teams.
March 10, 2019 - Alfred and Helen Lamson Park.
March 3, 2019 - M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.
February 24, 2019 - 2012 Track & Field Reunion - Saturday evening social and recognition program.
February 10, 2019 - 1956-57 Men's Basketball Team.
January 27, 2019 - Miscellaneous Photo Gallery.
January 20, 2019 - 1962 L'Acadien.
January 13, 2019 - 2006 All-Sports Reunion.
January 6, 2019 - Red Jackets Reunion of 2004.
Jan. 28, 2018 - 1993 Softball Team photo - first trip to the WCWS.
Jan. 21, 2018 - 1965 Football Team photo - our first football GSC championship under Coach Russ Faulkinberry and a reminder that we were the Bulldogs, Raging Cajuns, then more names...and, finally, the Ragin' Cajuns. Click the Mascots and Traditions tab in the Photo Gallery to view what those were.
Jan. 18, 2018 - Athletic Network Site Dedication - Dec. 17, 2003 - Overview of the event, including photo gallery.
Postings by John Dugas, Associate Athletic Director & Athletic Network Webmaster.


Mountains are freedom. Treat them respectfully.
The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.
I like to think that today is the best day of my life and tomorrow will be the next best day of my life. And if you think that way, you're living for the beauty of today.
Standing on the apex of our planet is humbling. I'm starved of oxygen, depleted of reserves, unable to eat, and bound by anxiety. This is a dangerous place. Yet the symbolism of standing on top of the world gives me a chance to experience time on a cosmic scale.
Here at home, we're in a world of right angles and human construct, so whether it's cement or plastic or steel, everything is at an angle. But nature is chaos theory in full play. So having that uniqueness of what nature is gives me a sense of rejuvenation and scale.
The mountains seem to have conquered us long before we set foot on them, and they will remain long after our brief existence. This indomitable force of the mountains gives us humans a blank canvas on which to paint the drive of discovery and, in the process, test the limits of human performance.
When I was a kid, we would build pillow forts. My pillow fort was always like Ice Station 9 in Antarctica. The other kids would come by and be like, 'Oh! The wind and snow is blowing.' From a young age, I wanted to be out there and surviving. I'm a high-strung, hyperactive guy.
It's more of an adventure when you set off into unknown territory, and there's nothing like that feeling you get when you discover a place on the Earth where no one has ever been.
The compression of time one experiences when you're a small person underneath this huge avalanche is amazing.
The mountains are a demanding, cold place, and they don't allow for mistakes.
When you find your passion, it's great. You go up a mountain with partners, and you have a wonderful opportunity to connect and achieve a goal together. You are not trying to be better than other humans. You are supporting each other.
We can't take climate change and put it on the back burner. If we don't address climate change, we won't be around as humans.
If people see me giving back to the military, they'll hopefully follow suit and be good to these guys who have done so much. I'm not Lance Armstrong or Tiger Woods - I'm just an old, gray-beard mountain climber, but I'm hoping to inspire people to follow my way.
Specifically choose not to take a GPS. Just create a challenge. You can climb Everest or walk across Antarctica with minimal gear and still have that sense of adventure. But in terms of exploration, Google Earth has this world mapped down to the square foot.
Once I graduated from university, I wanted to climb and be outdoors as much as possible. I worked as a part-time carpenter and kept up a relationship with The North Face. One thing led to another, and I'm lucky to be where I am now. It was a circuitous path with lots of adventure throughout.
If you compare Everest photographs in 1953 with its current state, things are melting. I imagine if I were a golfer in Indiana, I'd be hard-pressed to believe in climate change because nothing's going on there. But when you're up in the mountains and seeing the glaciers melt away, it's an obvious physical manifestation of a warming planet.
Perhaps you could say that mountaineers are driven by ego or our competitiveness, but there's a lot more to it than that. Whether it's a huge face in the Himalaya or some crag in the woods behind your house, exploration offers us a unique perspective on the world that you can't really find anywhere else.
It's our human nature to explore. Tens of thousands of years ago, our species walked out of Africa, traveling far and wide across the entire planet, from the Arctic to the tip of Tierra Del Fuego, making us the most geographically diversified species on Earth.
Yes, I was inspired by Jack London and still love reading his books. Ernie Banks is another hero because I lived in Chicago for two years as a kid, and I loved that he was the Cubs' loyal underdog and one of the first African-Americans to make that breakthrough.
It takes a lot of resources to climb Everest, and a lot of other people. But you should go do it.
From a climbing standpoint, gravity is the adversary. You and your fellow humans are striving together to get to the same place at the same time. And I think that's a really good way for humans to interact.
Live in the moment and make the most of every single hour that you're alive. Like it says on the sign outside the drop zone in front of the school: No Idling.
The alpine environment is very delicate. I've been able to see change in the mountains in the 20 years that I've been climbing full-time. Glaciers have receded. The tree-line is changing. That's very rapid to see nature changing in a 20-year period.
If people want to go do some big outdoor thing for their ego, have them climb snowy mountains rather than shoot animals.
The first ascent of Everest came at a time when humanity needed relief from two world wars. It was a unifying and inspiring event, signifying the drive to reach our greatest potential.
I'm done with Everest. I did it three times, and I need to be good at that and be happy with it and focus on other climbs.


Pink Pandas in Swaziland? Not a new species of wildlife but a youth group from Cambridge!
The Pink Pandas recently took part in a visit to Swaziland for 3 weeks to do community work and actually helped build a classroom and library for the community of Shewula.
The Pink Pandas are a group from Netherhall School in Cambridge. Consisting of nine Year 11 girls, the group has been together for five years working on various projects.
They came up with the idea to go to Africa and they have been fundraising for two years to make the project happen by running cake sales, a quiz night, organising a barn dance and working at various local festivals and fetes. They also applied for and received Youth Opportunities funding to support the trip.
As well as the building project, the girls also helped teach in the school, which is for children who are orphans through HIV or cannot afford to go to school.
Finally... they even found time to complete a Silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition!
"This is a brilliant example of young people doing great things and of youth workers supporting it to happen." - Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council.


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EX NETONE BOSS APPLICATION DISMISSED
Wednesday, September 05, 2018 NewsdzeZimbabwe 0
A bid for freedom by former NetOne chief executive Reward Kangai, who is facing 21 counts of criminal abuse of office, yesterday hit a brick wall after his application for refusal of further remand was dismissed.
In dismissing Kangai's application, magistrate Mrs Rumbidzai Mugwagwa ruled that the police needed ample time to investigate the matter.
She said due to the complexity and nature of the charges that Kangai was facing, the State could not be said to have been delaying in providing him with his trial date.
This was after prosecutor Miss Ropafadzo Botch had sought further postponement of the matter on the basis that there were extra-territorial investigations being conducted.
She said from the ongoing investigations, more charges against Kangai were emerging.
The matter was remanded to November 21. Kangai, through his lawyer Mr Nyasha Munetsi, successfully applied to have his passport back until the next remand date.
It is the State's case that sometime in October 2014, Kangai unlawfully and corruptly sanctioned payment of rentals in advance for four base stations without authorisation and approval from the board of directors.
Kangai allegedly showed favour to Bopela Family Trust by sanctioning the advance rental payment of $10 500, which covered a period of 21 months.
Richwood Sports Club was paid $33 000, which covered a period of five years, while Avondale Christian Church was paid $27 000, which covered three years.
It is alleged that house No. 514 Chipembere Road, Windsor Park in Ruwa, Harare was paid $5 400.
The court heard that NetOne has no provision for advance rental payments and the lease agreements entered between the company and base station landlords had no provision for such.
It is alleged that Kangai's conduct was prejudicial to NetOne and other landlords whose rentals were not paid.
Kangai also approved a loan of $80 000 to Bopela Group (Pvt) Ltd without approval of the board.
It is alleged that the loan approval was outside NetOne's mandate. The company lost $155 900 as a result.
Between January 2014 and December 2015, Kangai allegedly hand-picked Espol Advertising (Pvt) Ltd, Sectional Poles South Africa, Convergys (Pvt) Ltd, Bopela Group (Pvt) Ltd, Gemalto (Pvt) Ltd, Afrosoft (Pvt) Ltd and Imago Communications for a tender whose total value $17 594 700.
The court heard that on eight different occasions, Kangai abused his authority by giving directives to his subordinates on the acquisition of base station sites.
The procedure required three survey reports before the final selection. It is alleged that construction work at the sites commenced without survey reports. Herald


text:
David Léon Cahun (23 June 1841 – 30 March 1900) was a French traveler, Orientalist and writer.

Life
Cahun's family, who came originally from Lorraine, destined him for a military career. However, owing to family affairs he was compelled to relinquish this, and he devoted himself to geographical and historical studies. In 1863 he began to publish a series of geographical articles and accounts of his travels in Egypt and neighboring countries in the Revue Française. About the same time he published letters of travel, and a geographical review which was the first of its kind in the daily press. In 1864 Cahun set out to explore Egypt, Nubia, the western coast of the Red Sea, and Asia Minor.

Returning to France in 1866, he became a political writer on the staff of La Liberté. When that paper supported the Empire, Cahun left it, joining the staff of La Réforme (1869) and La Loi. During the Franco-Prussian War he was a correspondent for several papers. On 4 September 1870, he entered the army as a volunteer, and was appointed sublieutenant of the 46th Foot the following November. When peace was established he resumed his Oriental studies, devoting himself chiefly to research concerning the Turks and the Tatars.

In 1875, he was appointed to the Bibliothèque Mazarine, where he was specially engaged in the compilation of an analytical catalogue from the year 1874. Meanwhile, Cahun had begun to publish a series of historical novels dealing with ancient history, in the style of the journeys of Anacharsis in Greece. They are said by one critic to be written in temperate and pure French, combining interest with genuine archeological knowledge. It was Cahun's intention to present facts of ancient history that were not generally known, and thus make contributions to general history and geography. These novels include: Les Aventures du Capitaine Magon, on Phoenician explorations one thousand years before the common era (Paris, Hachette, 1875); La Bannière Bleue, the adventures of a Muslim, a Christian, and a pagan at the time of the Crusades and the Mongolian conquest (ib. 1876); Les Pilotes d'Ango, dealing with French history in the sixteenth century (ib. 1878); Les Mercenaires, set during the Punic Wars (ib. 1881); Les Rois de Mer, on the Norman invasions (Chasavay, 1887); Hassan le Janissaire, on Turkish military life in the sixteenth century (crowned by the French Academy); La Tueuse, scenes from the Mongol invasion of Hungary in the thirteenth century (1893). Cahun contributed many literary articles to the Revue Bleue, Le Journal des Débats, etc., and several critical, geographical, and ethnographical papers to the Bulletin de la Société d'Ethnographie, Bulletin de la Société Académique Indo-Chinoise Bulletin de la Société Japonaise, Bulletin de la Société Americaine, Bulletin de l'Athénée Oriental, etc.

In 1878 Cahun set out on a fresh series of journeys accompanied by his wife. The two intrepid travelers visited central Syria, the mountains of Ansairi (1878), the Faroe Islands and Iceland (1879), central Syria and Mesopotamia (1880). In 1879 the Tour du Monde published an account of his travels through Syria and the mountains of Ansairi. He also issued a volume treating the same subject, entitled Excursions sur les Bords de l'Euphrate (Paris, 1884). His scholarly study of local customs, Scènes de la Vie Juive en Alsace, with preface by Zadoc Kahn, chief rabbi of Paris, appeared about the same time (ib. 1885). In 1884 he published Le Congo, la Véridique Description du Royaume Africain, Traduite pour la Première Fois en Français sur l'Edition Latine Faite par les Frères de Bry en 1598, d'Après les Voyages Portugais et Notamment Celui d'Edouard Lopez en 1578 (Brussels, 1884).

In 1890 Cahun established a course of lectures at the Sorbonne, where he taught the history and the geography of Asia. An abstract of one section of this course was incorporated in the Histoire Générale of Lavisse and Rambaud. Cahun's Introduction Générale à l'Histoire de l'Asie (1896), based on material gathered during his travels, is a complete and exact history of that continent. He also undertook the restoration of some ancient casts that are of great geographical interest. Some years before his death Cahun ceased writing for the Parisian periodicals, but to the end he contributed to Le Phare de la Loire. He left an unfinished history of the Arabs, and a historical novel dealing with the same topic. He was a member of several learned societies.

Family
Cahun came from a distinguished family, who traced back its ancestry to the times of Louis IX of France,. His nephew, the son of Mathilde Cahun, Marcel Schwob (1867–1905), was a prolific French writer. French photographer and writer Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob, 1894–1954) was his great-niece.

Influences on Turkish nationalism
Cahun's novel La Bannière bleue (1877) acted as a major source of inspiration for Turkish nationalist current in the Ottoman Empire and his history work Introduction à l'histoire de l'Asie: Turcs et Mongols des origines à 1405 (1896) had great impact on the nationalistic historiography of the Republican era. Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic had also been an avid reader of Cahun's Introduction à l'histoire de l'Asie which included influence of a Turkish race in the early development of the European civilization.

References

External links

1841 births
1900 deaths
Alsatian Jews
People from Haguenau
French travel writers
French historical novelists
19th-century French Jews
French war correspondents
French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War
19th-century journalists
French male journalists
19th-century French novelists
French male novelists
19th-century French male writers


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PlayStation Productions will adapt Games for Film and TV
| 20th May 2019
| Gaming News
Sony Interactive Entertainment has launched PlayStation Productions, a production studio which will adapt the gaming giants catalog to film and television. The new division, as reported by TheHollyWoodReporter will be headed up by Asad Qizilbash and overseen by chairman of Worldwide Studios at SIE, Shawn Layden.
The studio is already in production from its base in Sony Studios, Culver City.
"We've got 25 years of game development experience and that's created 25 years of great games, franchises and stories," Layden told the site. "We feel that now is a good time to look at other media opportunities across streaming or film or television to give our worlds life in another spectrum."
"Instead of licensing our IP out to studios, we felt the better approach was for us to develop and produce for ourselves," Qizilbash added. "One, because we're more familiar, but also because we know what the PlayStation community loves.
"For the last year and half, two years, we've spent time trying to understand the industry, talking to writers, directors, producers," says Qizilbash. "We talked to [film producer] Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Kevin Feige to really get an understanding of the industry.
"We looked at what Marvel has done in taking the world of comic books and making it into the biggest thing in the film world," says Layden. "It would be a lofty goal to say we're following in their footsteps, but certainly we're taking inspiration from that."
Layden hopes that Sony will be able to create adaptions which are better than others have managed to date.
"You can see just by watching older video game adaptations that the screenwriter or director didn't understand that world or the gaming thing," added Layden. "The real challenge is, how do you take 80 hours of gameplay and make it into a movie? The answer is, you don't. What you do is you take that ethos you write from there specifically for the film audience. You don't try to retell the game in a movie.
"It has to stand up as a great movie or TV show," he says. "This is a passion project for me. To be the first gaming entity to do something lasting and meaningful in a completely different medium is something I'd like to see us achieve here at PlayStation Productions."
We certainly hope Sony can pull this off. It'd be amazing to have fantastic TV Shows or Movies based on Uncharted, God of War, The Last of Us and the many more IPs Sony has in its back catalogue.


text:
Q: immutability of data structures and variables in functional programming It's usually said that in functional programming data structures are immutable. I know that immutable data structure is a data structure that cannot be changed.
However, does it also mean that variable references also can't be changed?
For example,

var arr = [1,2,3]
arr = [4,5,6]

In this code I didn't change the array [1,2,3], but created a new one. Still, I changed the reference of the variable 'arr'. Does this code follow the principle of immutability data structure?

A:
Does it also mean that variable references also can't be changed?

Yes. They're called constants then. You'd better write
const arr1 = [1,2,3]
const arr2 = [4,5,6]

This approach allows you to treat the scope environment as an immutable datastructure as well, and this should be the default. It makes reasoning about your code a lot easier.

A: You shouldn't reassign references. Ideally you'd create a new variable so you can see a "before and after" of any changes you've made.
The underlying structure can still be immutable however, even if the reference pointing to it changed. If someone was looking at an old version of the structure, reassigning a reference wouldn't do anything to harm the validity of the data, since the old version still exists, unchanged.


text:
Nuns and non-religious millennials find common ground
Detroit news
Every few weeks for the last two years at the Dominican Center in Grand Rapids, a diverse group gathers to talk faith and social action.
Seated around the room are members from what seems an odd coupling: one group is mostly millennials who consider themselves spiritual but not religious; the other, older Catholic
"Groups like this are really vital for our spiritual well-being, but also communal well-being,"
Archbishop Lyke Conference celebrates gifts that Black Catholics bring to liturgies and ministries
Just before the July 6 closing Mass for the Archbishop Lyke Conference that seeks to enrich liturgies and ministries and promote evangelization at parishes serving Black...
Catholic Standard 2019-07-11
Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship bids farewell to retiring pastor Bryan Jessup
At 6 years old, the Rev. Bryan Jessup, outgoing pastor of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, had a religious experience that has sustained him...
Times Standard 2019-06-29
Three sister organizations continue annual tradition of spreading mercy in the Cedar Rapids community.
Sister organizations Mount Mercy University, the Catherine McAuley Center and Mercy Medical Center are continuing the tradition of spreading mercy in our community. Circle...
Public Technologies 2019-07-16
Lois Havlik
LOIS B. HAVLIKCedar RapidsLois B. Havlik, 93, of Summit Point Senior Living, formerly of Cedar Rapids, died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by family Sunday, July 7,...
Cedar Rapids Gazette 2019-07-09
Intermarried Jews are not a second Holocaust
PHOENIX (JTA) – Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz's recent tone-deaf declaration that intermarriage is akin to a "second Holocaust" was shocking and shameful, and desecrates the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust. While Peretz leads the Jewish Home party as well as the United Right coalition, and is known for a Kahanist ideology, we should not merely write off...
Cleveland Jewish News
Former hospital nuns were committed to loving and serving
ENID, Okla. — In Enid's not-too-distant past, a trip to the hospital could be as much a spiritual journey as a physical one, with nurses equally ready to tend to matters of medicine and faith. St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, originally founded in 1915 as Enid Spring Sanatorium and Baths, was purchased in 1937 by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ of Wichita, Kan., an order...
TDT News
Former Enid hospital nuns committed to loving and serving
ENID, Okla. (AP) — In Enid's not-too-distant past, a trip to the hospital could be as much a spiritual journey as a physical one, with nurses equally ready to tend to matters of medicine and faith. St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, originally founded in 1915 as Enid Spring Sanatorium and Baths, was purchased in 1937 by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ of Wichita, Kansas, an...
Waco Tribune-Herald
Sacred Heart celebrates 90th anniversary
Sacred Heart Catholic Church recently celebrated the Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus and the 90th anniversary of the church building at a reception in the gymnasium. Displays featured pictures, uniforms, yearbooks and audio/visuals of the church and school. Special guest was Manuel Ibarra, who retired as maintenance supervisor of the historic building after nearly 15 years of...
Herald and News
Faith and civil society
In my previous article in these pages (July 8, 2019), I discussed the paradox of collective freedom in faith-based communities. The article led to a heated debate around the existential challenges of faith-based communities and their apparent disdain towards dissent and critical thinking. I received feedback via email – a mix of appreciation and admonishment for writing an...
The News International
Dilemmas from the periphery
Culture is a contested concept which encompasses a variety of dimensions of human life including social cohesion, collective experience, self-expression and creation of art as its constituent parts. Culture enthusiasts refer to indigenous self-expression, social behaviour, collective experience, art and local customs and practices as manifestations of the identity of a...


A is for AlÍll1ony. "'''"hen love is gone," she writes, "it invades the void." B is for Baby. "The all-important. The wonder. The never-disappointing. . ." C is for Complexes. "People cite them to alibi for their bad manners." D is for Dietrich, quoted above, whose dictionary !$I. $. ':, 'm J '. 4- in the current LOOK reflects a great woman's charm. Vi W 1i " , ; r ;,.', m , " ,', ::: :; à ,', '.' ,',', '.., X'g -if' ' Touring the alphabet from A to Z, she comments on v .m"m' '>,' JI eggs and Einstein, love and liverwurst, mink and morals. and Italian men. W is for her 'Varmth, Wit, Wisdom . . . in LOOK, the exciting story of people. " >' ... " f. "::;:, ., iø * ( Y':\ , -:- . '"':". ......(.:::.:: :::.: ._ J"" ';'.' .: t.: "."


Bangkok has emerged as a top international city with a rising economy and major tourist destination in Southeast Asia. Now the second largest economy in the region, it also was the most visited city in the world per a Mastercard report in 2016 with over 21 million visitors.
While many people visit Bangkok for holiday or business, a growing segment of visitors are arriving for medical care. The top hospital in the world for medical tourism, Bumrungrad International Hospital, is centrally located in Bangkok and has been the anchor for a growing number of top hospitals serving medical travelers.
Here are five top hospitals in Bangkok. The first four are located in central Bangkok.
Bumrungrad was established in 1980 by an American team with 200 beds and now is one of the largest hospitals in Southeast Asia and has 580 beds. It sees 1.2 million patients per year of which 520,000 are international patients from 190 countries. It cares for 5,000 outpatients a day and has 150 interpreters on staff to handle patients from all over the world. Bumrungrad is accredited by the Joint Commission International. The hospital is located off Sukhumvit Road at Soi 3 and has an excellent health screening program.
Sikarin Hospital has over 23 years of experience and is Joint Commission International accredited and program specific accreditation for Stroke Program, Diabetes Mellitus Program, and Acute Myocardial Infarction Program. It also has an excellent Aesthetic Center with experience specialists and competitive prices.
It is the most convenient private hospital to visit in Bangkok because it is located near Suvarnabhumi International Airport in the BangNa district. It is only 15 minutes from the airport and the surrounding area has many shopping malls, hotels, and restaurants to make the patient's stay comfortable without being directly in the city center.
Sikarin Hospital has 350 beds, advanced medical equipment including the latest MRI technology and a catheterization laboratory, along with top medical doctors. It's centers of excellence include health screening programs (check-up), aesthetic treatments, Sikarin Heart Center, dental clinic, orthopedics, and international medical center.
Bangkok Hospital was established in 1972 and was one of the first private hospitals in Thailand. It is accredited by the Joint Commission International and has branches all across the country including Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, and Phuket. It is centrally located in Bangkok and its centers of excellence are in cardiology and cancer care. It covers all medical specialties and has a top orthopedic center and spine center.
The Samitivej Hospital group is one of the leading private hospital groups in Southeast Asia. It has six hospitals and the Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital is its main branch located in central Bangkok. It is accredited by the Joint Commission International and has 275 beds and 400 specialists. The hospital provide services to international patients including the large expat community in Bangkok. It has a top liver and digestive center and an orthopedic center. It is located several blocks off Sukhumvit Road at Soi 49.
BNH Hospital (originally 'British Nursing Home' Hospital) was the first private hospital in Bangkok established in 1897. Its modern facilities were built in 1996 and it serves the local and expat community. BNH Hospital provides all medical specialties and has a top Women's Health Center and medical Check Up center. The hospital is located just south of Lumpini Park.
Yanhee Hospital is a top hospital in Bangkok for cosmetic surgery. It was founded in 1984 and services patients from all over the world. It has 400 beds and is accredited by the Joint Commission International. Its top procedures are face lift, tummy tuck, eye lid restoration, breast augmentation, and nose shaping. It is located north of the the Bangkok city center in Bang-O.


This is not a blog about how to grow your hair, how to go natural, what products to use or how to care for your hair. There are enough blogs out here giving you that information. That would be contributing to natural hair overload. Now don't get me wrong, I do love checking out new natural hair styles. Natural hair can be styled in such beautiful creative ways. So be forewarned, everyone's hair is different so figure out what products you need on your own. I'm here to inspire you on how to be the best that you and only you can offer to the world. I'm living my life like it's golden, and I encourage you to do the same.
I'm here to share with women of substance who still want to do the damn thing.