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I first began blogging fifteen years ago. I didn't really know what I was doing or why I was doing it or whether or not I would be blogging fifteen weeks or fifteen months later. But here we are. Fifteen years of my life have passed under the bridge - much of it documented via this blog.
Here's my very first post:-
As you can see, I even attracted one comment. It was from someone called Hadashi in Japan. To receive that comment from faraway was kind of magical. Encouraging too.
Four days later I posted a picture of myself being interviewed at work and the first verse of a poem about work by the late Philip Larkin who spent his most productive days in The East Riding of Yorkshire.
That post also attracted a single comment - from Zandrea! in Brookline, Massachusetts. Zandrea! was in fact two people - Zara and Andrea. Perhaps they were lovers or someone with a split personality. They or she stopped blogging four years ago.
In fifteen years I have created 3421 blogposts, receiving 1,822,114 visits. It has been quite a journey - something to look back on with a degree of satisfaction. I did that!
Only sometimes do I pause to think: Should I have done that? All those hours of blogging and reading other people's blogs, perhaps I should have saved up that energy and poured it into writing - stories, novels, poetry. Precious time has slipped away like sand in an hour glass. Fifteen years older and the end is nigh. What is there left to say?
- June 30, 2020 66 comments:
Ragged sheep graze moortops
Midst windbent gorse and heather
Lowry figures trudge to work
Heads bowed against the weather.
Stone walls form the skeleton
Of our blue remembered hills
Where terraces crawl up valleysides
From dark satanic mills
I heard a curlew calling
Her plaintive song of yore
Above these hallowed counties
Where Vikings went before
Her chorus contained questions
Of where our truth might be
Embroidered in our accents
Or lost to history.
We are the children of Captain Cook
And of Emily Davison too
Heirs to soil and industry
In this landscape that they knew.
To grinning caricaturists
We never shall succumb
Up North is where the heart is -
Great Britain's beating drum.
I wrote this poem today - June 29th 2020. The photograph at the top is of John Crowther Mill at Marsden near Huddersfield. It was taken on November 7th 2013.
Lowry - refers to the northern industrial paintings of L.S. Lowry (1887-1976)
Captain Cook - James Cook, the Yorkshire seafarer and explorer (1728-1779)
Emily Davison - suffragette martyr buried in Morpeth, Northumberland (1872-1913)
The late Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down"
Western leaders are meant to uphold the law, to lead by example. Somebody should have told the forty fifth president of the USA. Not only does he arrogantly refuse to wear masks in environments where masks are required, he and his support team blatantly defy music copyright laws in their efforts to whip up their circus-like rallies. They just do not seem to care that the rights to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are owned by The Rolling Stones and the rights to "I Won't Back Down" are owned by the estate of Tom Petty.
In this matter, Trump has been legally instructed to desist before but he appears to believe that he is above the law.
Ironically, the two songs highlighted here are most un-Trumplike. Take that Rolling Stones song. The message is that sometimes you simply have to make do, lower your expectations because life is such that "you can't always get what you want". You have to move on in spite of your frustrations. One thinks of the southern border wall which will never be completed.
The Tom Petty song blasted out at Trump's recent and embarrassing rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma is a song about digging in, holding your ground and general defiance. Tom Petty died in 2017. His philanthropy was well-known and he supported causes that are clearly at odds with Trump's main interests - including adoption, fostering, orphans, at-risk/disadvantaged youths, creative arts education, environment, homelessness and unemployment support.
Trump will "back down" because fair-minded Americans will vote him out in November - proving that you really "can't always get what you want". To paraphrase The Gospel of Matthew - he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. I wonder if there's a song with that message in it. If there is, they should play it at future Trump rallies - with permission of course.
YouTube links: "I Won't Back Down", "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
Birdlike
They often say that some people are owls and others are larks. Larks rise with the morning light and are out and about doing things while owls languish in their beds. And while owls inhabit the night hours, buzzing with ideas and mental energy, larks slumber in their nests.
I am very much a night owl. Always have been. In this sense I am rather like my mother who always seemed to be up late making things - lampshades, leather gloves, baskets or simply knitting. All my childhood, it was my father who was up bright and early to make his sons' breakfasts. Mum was always in bed. Unsurprising really as she had probably climbed the staircase to bed in the early hours of that morning.
I like the peacefulness of the nighttime. For me it's a good time for reading, writing, surfing the internet, watching a late film or looking up at the night sky. Sometimes I will even lock our front door and toddle off on a short night walk through the silent suburbs - with very few lights to be seen in windows. It can feel as if I own the night and everyone else has gone. A fox will dart between cars. A faraway train will rumble towards Doncaster or Derby. Perhaps an owl will swoop by - a night owl like me.
Larks might claim that the best part of the day is the early morning and may cajole night owls for missing it. But I feel no guilt for I cannot help my attraction to late nights. I haven't been to bed before midnight in a long, long time. This was even true during my working years when I needed to be up and about soon after 7am. I would have been much happier if my working day had begun at 10am and finished at 6pm but frustratingly I didn't make up the rules.
It seems to me that larks and owls are at the extreme ends of a spectrum. I guess that most people are somewhere in the middle - neither a lark that rises in the early morning nor a night owl in the moonlight. If I am right then I think those in-between people require a different bird symbol. Let's call them crows. They sit on fences between fields.
Which are you? A lark? An owl? Or a crow?
I hadn't had a proper picnic in years. Yesterday, Frances, Stew and I drove over to Redmires Reservoirs for a picnic lunch. Unfortunately, Shirley was at work - no doubt sticking needles in babies.
The three of us donned our boots and set off along the mile long track that would take us to Oaking Clough Reservoir - a tiny facility below Oaking Clough Plantation. I have been there many times but Frances and Stew had never ventured there before. There was nobody else around.
The ruinous building beside the little reservoir has two separate rooms with two separate entrances. In one of them we found a ewe with her lamb, sheltering from the thirty two degree summer heat. It must be hard having to wear a woolly coat all the time. Other sheep in the area were seeking shade by old stone walls and down in gullies that run from the moors.
We spread a blanket on the soft grass and picnicked in the sunshine. I had brought tuna mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches made on fresh low GI cob bread, cheddar cheese crackers, ripe peaches and cold Sheffield water in flasks. Sheffield water is excellent for drinking straight from the tap and ours actually arrives from Redmires Reservoirs.
We talked over baby names even though it's early days yet and such thoughts are probably premature. Frances is very keen on Phoebe for a girl which is a name that we toyed with giving her before she was born. Stewart does not want a "biblical" name if the baby is a boy. I guess that's quite understandable as he is the son of a vicar. I suggested Steve, Dave, Bob, Graham, John, Roger or Tasker - all names which they rejected out of hand, calling them "old-fashioned" and "silly"! And when I said the name Adrian - well they laughed like dervishes, claiming it was a girl's name anyway.
Frances and Stew had sensibly applied suncream before our lunch outing but silly me hadn't. As protection I did wear my sunbleached sunhat from Malta but still I ended up red-faced like a ripe tomato. You would think I might have learnt by now. After all, yesterday's temperature felt like The Australian outback, somewhere near Alice Springs.
Prepositions are usually thought of as common workmanlike words that allow writing to flow. But sometimes they have surprising significance.
Let's think about coronavirus deaths and death certificates. It might be said of a victim that he or she died of coronavirus or from coronavirus. In both cases the preposition indicates that the death was down to coronavirus. It was COVID that done it.
But equally it might be said that the deceased passed away with coronavirus. In this case COVID may not be the villain. It could be some other condition that caused the death - like heart disease or cancer. Just because coronavirus was present does not mean it was to blame.
When it comes to counting the dead, the selected preposition becomes important. Increasingly, it seems that there are arithmetical disparities between nations that result in both under-counting and over-counting of the dead. A lot of this is to do with how prepositions are interpreted.
Currently, Russia is admitting to just over 600,000 COVID cases. Great Britain has had just over 300,000 cases. And yet when it comes to death tolls, Russia indicates that as few as 8513 citizens have died of the disease but Great Britain has lost 43,081 citizens. Where is the mathematical logic in that? It doesn't make sense.
Clearly Russia is playing games with the truth. Quite possibly, it is scared by the truth, fearing the vulnerability it would reveal to all and sundry.
The beautiful River Wye near Litton Mill
Yesterday. Socially distanced walking with my son-in-law. We walked for eight and a half miles in beautiful summer weather. How green was Mother Nature's mantle and how pure the limestone filtered waters of The River Wye.
Bull above Monk's Dale
Our eight and a half mile Derbyshire walk took in historic Cressbrook Mill and Litton Mill - now both converted to residential and holiday units. We saw trout in the river and up on the opposite bank of the steep-sided valley we walked a section of The Monsal Trail - once a railway from Bakewell to Buxton. Too many cyclists. Too many walkers. We soon returned to the river below.
Tideswell Church
Stew and a Dominic Cummings scarecrow in Tideswell
From the little village of Miller's Dale we slogged up The Limestone Way and then along farm tracks that led us all the way to Tideswell where Stew married Frances last August - a few months before COVID came a-creeping into our lives and our collective consciousness. Looking back upon those halcyon days, it's difficult to recognise what has happened in the intervening period of time.
The world seems fundamentally changed and you wonder if we will ever get back to where we were. Thankfully, we can still go out walking - immersing ourselves in the natural environment, forgetting for a while all the stuff that has been going on.
River Wye swans
I have a confession to make. It is one of my guilty secrets. Admittedly, there are others but they will remain unspoken for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, here goes (he gulps hard). Please don't ridicule me but I like to watch two early evening quiz programmes on I.T.V. - namely "Tipping Point" and "The Chase". At least it's not an addiction to cigarettes or heroin. Surely, it's pretty harmless.
Because I have an enormous reservoir of general knowledge and interesting trivia, I like to pit my wits against the question setters.
Hosted by the genial Ben Shephard, "Tipping Point" is the slower moving of the two quiz shows. It reminds me of visits to seaside amusement arcades - dropping 2p coins into tipping machines. I have never been able to resist them.
"The Chase" is hosted by cheeky chappie Bradley Walsh - a very familiar face on British television. Contestants are chased down by one of the five chasers - Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, Ann Hegarty, Shaun Wallace or Mark Labett (aka "The Beast"). I like the fast pace of this show and the large number of questions that are posed in each episode. There's little hanging about.
So there you have it. My guilty secret is out. One or two of you out there in the blogosphere may have imagined that I am an intellectual giant who struts around reciting lines from "Hamlet" or contemplating my own navel but such suppositions are misguided. I am just TV quiz show fodder, hooked like a rainbow trout in a Scottish river or a plastic duck at a fairground.
Do you have any guilty secrets you are prepared to share?
Until we opened the box, we didn't know. There were two mugs. One for Shirley and one for me. She removed the white tissue from hers first and then I noticed she was blubbering. Why? Then I got the tissue off mine and straightaway I knew why. We are going to be grandparents if Nature takes her proper course.
Everybody knows now so why not share the good news with blog friends? Baby Pudding should arrive after Christmas - perhaps on the day of the next Haxey Hood on The Isle of Axholme - January 6th. It's early days yet and common sense says that a proportion of pregnancies end in tears but in spite of this we cannot help being ridiculously excited. The chain of life continues - connecting us all to the past and future.
Here are the parents-to-be yesterday afternoon - under Stanage Edge with the big smiley millstone. Maybe one day I will take my little grandson or granddaughter there. I hope so.
Vera Lynn died on Thursday and with her something of England died too. She was 103 years old. Significantly, her name, Vera, meant truth.
She was just a singer but her voice was the very soundtrack of Britain's fightback in World War II. She sang for the troops and even flew over to Burma to provide a much needed lift for military personnel sent there to push back against the Japanese.
At my mother's funeral service at The East Riding Crematorium in September 2007, the last sound we heard was Vera Lynn singing "The White Cliffs of Dover". It was a special song for my mother and father for they were both in The Royal Air Force during World War II and the "bluebirds" referred to in the song anticipated returning aircraft when the war was finally over.
I remember sitting there in the crematorium, looking up at a beautiful stained glass window through which sunlight streamed and listening in silence to:-
There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Just you wait and see
Mum and Vera. They were of the same generation and many times I recall my mother singing that very song as she beat the Yorkshire pudding mixture in our kitchen or ironed her sons' shirts. For her it would have brought back memories of fliers she knew who had died and of a terrible war that wracked the entire planet like a coronavirus pandemic.
Vera was an ordinary girl from an ordinary home in East London. Her father was a plumber and her mother was a dressmaker. That was part of her appeal and to some extent explains her ability to communicate with ordinary men and women caught up in a war that was not of their making.
It is funny that when old people die, what we mostly remember is how they looked just before they arrived at death's dark door. I think it would often be far more appropriate to remember those people as they were in their prime. See Vera Lynn's signed postcard image at the top of this post. No doubt she signed it in the very middle of that terrible war when she was the nation's sweetheart.
And so we bid farewell Vera. As your song says, "Peace ever after". Let's hope so.
Frances and Ian on holiday in France in 1997
No sense of anticipation can ever match the feelings connected with a desired pregnacy. I knew it four times but two of those possible children were ectopic - affixing themselves within my wife's two fallopian tubes a few years apart. And then they were gone - almost as soon as they had announced their presence. They were unnamed and unseen and therefore their passing remains harder to mourn. They had little substance - it was really just the idea of human lives that had departed.
Fortunately, we had two normal children - whatever "normal" night mean. They were not disabled in any way. Their development was "normal" and they both had happy childhoods in a loving family, growing into happy citizens with minds of their own and a keen sense of right and wrong.
It was a privilege to watch them grow, to tick off the passing months and years, to witness them becoming fully fledged adult human beings. There were no problems to speak of - no problems with mental or physical health - no problems with schooling, the police, drugs or angry behaviour in the home. We were blessed and we still are.
But now I get to the main point of this post. I want to spare a thought for all those parents who find themselves raising children who have serious challenges to face. We hear about these kids all the time.
Children who are mentally impaired - who cannot speak and will never develop beyond the level of a two year old. Children who cannot walk. Children who have suffered amputations because of meningitis. Deaf, dumb and blind children. Children with cystic fibrosis. Children with severe epilepsy. Children who will never leave home to live independently.
I raise my hat to the parents of these children. Mothers and fathers who discover inner resources that they never imagined they possessed. Parents who fight for their children in spite of their disabilities and their prospects. Parents with patience and huge hearts who keep battling to beat the obstacles they meet even though the son or daughter they continue to support is unlike the child they had dreamt of.
There are so many special parents like that and to me they are absolute heroes. I am not confident that if I had been in their shoes I would have been able to do likewise. Perhaps one of those special parents is reading this blogpost. Kudos to you my friend. You deserve our respect and our admiration.
Haxey
Haxey St Nicholas Church - seen across The Hood Field
Haxey is a large village in the middle of The Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire. Clint whisked me over there yesterday morning to meet up with my old friend Tony for a long country walk. Tony lives in my homeland - The East Riding of Yorkshire.
As it happens, The Isle of Axholme is where my lovely wife grew up. It isn't really an island but prior to the seventeenth century it was a very watery world bounded by rivers with a few villages situated on higher ground. Villages like Epworth, Belton, Crowle, High Burnham and Haxey. By the way if there are any Methodists reading this, The Isle of Axholme was the cradle of your religion. John and Charles Wesley were born and raised in Epworth.
With boots on, we left the car park attached to St Nicholas's Church in Haxey and set off along an old railway bed to Epworth. We ate sandwiches in the delightful grounds of the main methodist church and considered the course of Britain's response to the pandemic. We agreed that our current prime minister has done nothing to dispel the conclusion that he is an egotistical buffoon. Someone who wanted the spotlight but is weak on detail and judgement. During these critical times, we needed a better-informed, wiser political leader. Plenty of glaring and indeed fatal mistakes have been made since the British lockdown began.
The best picture I took yesterday - road to Epworth Turbary
Anyway, after lunch we wandered west from Epworth to discover a new word - "turbary". It is contained in the names Epworth Turbary and Haxey Turbary. These locations were just two miles apart. One dictionary says this "turbary - the ground where turf or peat may be dug especially for fuel". The word relates to ancient land rights that were largely ignored when The Isle of Axholme was tamed by Dutch drainage experts.three hundred and fifty years ago.
Rising ground brought us through a field of maize seedlings to Westwoodside. You could see for miles. Then we passed the field where the famous "Haxey Hood" is played out each January - with teams of men from different pubs battling to bring the "hood" home. To learn more go here.
It was good to meet up with Tony. He walks at the same pace as me - in more ways than one. Weather permitting we plan to reconvene for another walk next week. However, as I sit here typing out this account, my right foot is giving me so much gyp that I had to limp downstairs this morning. Funny that. When the walk finished I felt no discomfort whatsoever. Hope it's back to normal by next week. After all, Clint loves to spend quality downtime with Tony's female car - Elsie!
Skyers Farm near Haxey
Life is a Cabaret
(by John Kander & Fred Ebb)
What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come, hear the music play.
Life is a cabaret, old chum.
Come to the cabaret.
Put down that knitting, the book and the broom;
Time for a holiday.
Come taste the wine. Come hear the band.
Come blow your horn, start celebrating,
Right this way, your table's waiting.
No use permitting some prophet of doom to
Wipe every smile away.
So come to the cabaret!
I used to have this girl friend known as Elsie
With whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea.
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower
As a matter of fact she rented by the hour.
The day she died the neighbours came to snicker
Well, that's what comes of too much pills and liquor.
But when I saw her laid out like a queen
She was the happiest corpse I'd ever seen.
I think of Elsie to this very day.
I remember how she'd turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
And as for me, ha!
And as for me,
I made my mind up back in Chelsea
When I goooooooooooooooo,
I'm going like Elsie.
Start by admitting from cradle to tomb
There isn't that long a stay
Life is a Cabaret, old chum
It's only a Cabaret old chum
And I love a Cabaret!
Two black British heroes have emerged in the past week - during a time when many old questions about racism are being revisited. After all, black lives really do matter.
In the picture above you can see Patrick Hutchinson carrying an injured white demonstrator away from trouble at a heated political demonstration in London on Saturday. Naturally, Mr Hutchinson is a supporter of "Black Lives Matter" but the fellow he was rescuing is a right wing counter-demonstrator who was in Parliament Square to turn up the heat with like-minded thugs who confronted the police with violent intent.
Mr Hutchinson said, "His life was under threat so I just scooped him up on to my shoulders and started marching towards the police with him. It was scary. But you don't think about it at the time, you do what you've got to do."
Even more of a hero to me is 22 year old Marcus Rashford - the Manchester United and England footballer. It would be so easy for a young fellow like that to pull down the shutters on the world outside his window, to check his bulging bank account and investments, order a new Italian sports car on a whim and forget where he came from.
But he hasn't done that. He has remembered his origins - growing up in a deprived district of Manchester in a one parent family, often not knowing where the next meal was coming from.
Even before yesterday he had raised £20,000,000 during the pandemic to support food banks and address child poverty. He is a shy, quietly-spoken young man but yesterday he graced our TV screens to urge the government to continue its food voucher scheme for poor families throughout the school summer holidays and this morning he has tweeted these challenges for everyone to read:-
1. When you wake up this morning and run your shower, take a second to think about parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown.
2. When you turn on your kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee think of those parents who have had to default on electricity bill payments just to make ends meet having lost their jobs during the pandemic.
3. And when you head to the fridge to grab the milk, stop and recognise that parents of at least 200,000 children across the country this morning are waking up to empty shelving
4. Recognise children around the country are this morning innocently questioning 'why?' 9 out of 30 children in any given classroom are today asking 'why?' 'Why does our future not matter?'
Marcus's pleas for a U-turn on government policy will be debated in The House of Commons today. Kudos to him for sticking his head above the parapet in the cause of social justice in order to simply put food in children's bellies. He isn't carrying a right wing demonstrator away from a good kicking, he is doing something much more important and arguably more brave than that. After all of her struggles, his mother must be so very proud of him this morning.
What is there to do on a Sunday night when there is nothing of interest on the television and you are in the fourth month of a pandemic lockdown? Of course, you google around until you find a list of the word's most critically endangered animals.
Most of the beautiful and unique creatures on that list are pretty well-known - The Sumatran rhino, the orangutan, the hawksbill turtle, The Eastern Lowland gorilla etcetera. But there was one creature on that list that I admit I had never heard of before - the saola.
This member of the antelope and bovine families was not recorded by zoologists until May 1992. It was discovered in the forests of north and central Vietnam. Think of that... all the time The Vietnam War was being played out, shy saolas were grazing nervously in the shadows - even as helicopters whirred overhead and agent orange was raining down in the name of freedom.
There are not many decent photographs of saolas - probably because they are so rare. In December of last year it was estimated that there are only between seventy and 750 left in the wild. Even as I write this blogpost they may all be gone but I hope not. I hope that there are sections of virgin forest where they still feed and reproduce in peace.
In neighbouring Laos the creature is called the saht-supahp which means "the polite animal" - probably because of its quiet behaviour.
Saolas are herbivores. They seem to give birth to single calves. They have twin horns that sprout from the skull very close together and undoubtedly that is why they are sometimes known as "The Asian unicorn".
Like several other critically endangered animals, the saola's chief threats come from humankind. Forest habitats have been reduced or invaded by loggers and local hunters have killed them for their meat. It's the same old story.
Bless the saola.
God came through for me yesterday. Soon after pleading with him to lift the big grey cloud, it was gone. Praise The Lord! Praise him! He poured his blessings and his munificence upon me. What is more, everybody else in Sheffield's western suburbs reaped the benefits too.
Lunch was bacon sandwiches with mugs of tea. Then I saddled up Clint and we galloped off to Common Lane on the edge of the city. I tethered him there in spite of his whinnying and donned my walking boots.
I wasn't far from home but I found a couple of public footpaths that I have never walked along before and that's after living in this house for thirty one years. The sun shone and the blue firmament appeared through large holes in nonthreatening clouds that sailed by like stately galleons of yore.
Wild foxgloves were everywhere, sheltering and supported by drystone walls. Other Sheffielders were out and about, walking like me or jogging or cycling - none of us far from home. Some of them said "hello" as our paths crossed and some looked away. I always smile and say "hello" in a friendly manner whenever I pass strangers. It's the least I can do.
Soon after passing by Whirlow Hall Farm I encountered a fellow I have know for twenty five years or more. We always have a good old chinwag whenever we meet.
He's called Paul and it turns out that back in April he was in hospital for five days with COVID. His brother and sister-in-law also had it. Paul reckons that the infection occurred when he went to The Northern General Hospital upon request to pick up his aged mother. They had to transfer her to a residential home though she herself had not contracted the virus.
Paul didn't have to be attached to a ventilator but it was touch and go as he gulped breaths of pure oxygen through a mask. I made sure that I maintained a two metre distance when talking with him but even so it was nice to catch up.
By Thryft House Lane I spotted four separate rainbow stones that had clearly been painted by a child. I took photos of each one of them and joined them up for the image at the top of this page.
Thank you Almighty Father for giving me a nice afternoon that felt more like summer again. It's nice to have one's prayers answered so efficiently. More kind acts like this Lord and you will surely go to Heaven.
Sheffield's green western suburbs with Whiteley Wood Hall ahead
What happened to the English summer? Who stole it?
I woke this morning to a Novembery kind of mist. You could hardly see the houses beyond our back garden. A lone crow was pecking at the stale bread I scattered on the lawn last evening.
Yesterday was bloody miserable with dribbly grey rain most of the day but lashing down like bullets around two in the afternoon. No long country walks for me - I was trapped indoors, procrastinating like a procrastinating donkey. I watched far too much television including "Tipping Point", "The Chase" and "Celebrity Gogglebox" - interspersed with visits to my "go to" news channel - The BBC World News service.
Tuesday June 2nd was the last lovely day we had. I was in shorts and T-shirt up at the woodland car park at Ringinglow - just beyond the alpaca farm. In fact the other lads and I have started calling our outdoor pub "The Alpaca Arms" just for fun - but we didn't go there this past Tuesday afternoon - it was far too autumnal and wet with a thick grey blanket of cloud overhead.
Of course our gardens are loving this weather after our exceptionally dry and sunny springtime. Rain water was needed so desperately but now Almighty God we have had enough my friend. Please get your angels to unbutton the sky and let summer sunlight stream down once more from sapphire blue skies.
This is meant to be "flaming June" but since the second day of the month it has been flaming awful. Don't you think we have got enough to cope with Oh Great Jehovah? First you make BoJo The Clown our prime minister, next you dump COVID upon us and stand back while George Floyd is cruelly murdered by a racist policeman, then you take our blue skies away! It's not fair Lord. Please rethink your strategy sir.
Give us back our summer!
Location of "The Alpaca Arms" - courtesy of Google Streetview
What's the silliest thing you have ever done? I guess you will only reveal what you want to reveal. Maybe there are even sillier things that you wish to keep secret! Silly things can be accidental or deliberate.
Years ago, after a ferry journey from Ireland and a long drive across southern Wales, we ended up at my brother Robin's house in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. I was pretty tired and it was quite late so we decided to have takeaway fish and chips for our evening meal.
There we were round the table. Our children were still very young and for a treat they were drinking squat little bottles of cola. Those bottles were very similar in size and shape to the vinegar bottle. You guessed it already. I reached out for the vinegar and ended up pouring cola all over my lovely golden cod and chips.
Everybody laughed and the moment was so deeply etched in my little daughter's mind that for years afterwards she would remind me: "You put coke on your chips!" What a silly billy I had been!
In late 1978 there was a Christmas disco party in the lower school of Dinnington Comprehensive in the heart of South Yorkshire's coalfield. It was agreed that attending staff members would don fancy dress just for fun. This was in the days before paedophilia became newsworthy.
I decided to go as a dirty old man. For some reason, I already owned a rubber mask complete with hair, a bulbous nose, warts, bushy eyebrows and wrinkles. At a charity shop I bought an old brown Macintosh coat that was grubby and a size too big for me. I put a flatcap on that my mother had previously created on her sewing machine and I stapled a rolled back cover of an old "Playboy" magazine into my coat pocket. It was a simple disguise but I really looked the part - a proper dirty old man.
Other teachers laughed and so did the schoolchildren but as the Christmas party progressed, I noticed something weird. The kids were getting closer to me. Some started pulling at my coat and getting physical. One ripped the "Playboy" cover from my pocket. They were laughing but it was as if they forgot that there was a teacher behind the mask. I had become the dirty old man I was imitating. They had bought into the illusion.
I took the mask off and they all stepped back. I was "sir" again. Then with the mask back on the prodding and pushing restarted. I felt like Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
It was something but at the same time it was nothing. I have always remembered that experience from my days at Dinnington. Perhaps I should have played safe and gone to the disco party as Robin Hood or Hamlet or a massive banana.
During World War One, thousands of young men came to the moors west of Sheffield in order to train for trench warfare. They must have had a jolly time before being transported to Flanders fields and the horrible realities of warfare. Of course, many did not return.
The training centred around a long abandoned stone quarry near the reservoirs at Redmires. If you walked by there today you probably would not realise that stone quarrying ever happened on that raised ground or that just over a hundred years ago young men in khaki uniforms dug trenches and played war games there - where curlews cry and meadow pipits now swoop..
It has been a long time since I last investigated that hummocky ground but yesterday I was up there again. To my surprise there was a new addition to the landscape - a clever tubular shape depicting a soldier with a bowed head, a heavy pack on his back and a rifle in his hands. On the plinth he stood upon were these enigmatic words; "There But Not There".
Upon my travels to find the heart of England, I have seen figures like this before. All the same - standing in silence with bowed heads. Back home on the computer, I discovered that they belong to a commemorative art project called "There But Not There" - set up to mark the centenary of the end of that so-called "Great War". I am surprised that I did not know about this before.
Sadly or symbolically, the soldier I saw yesterday had lost his bayonet and the end of his rifle. He won't be killing anybody else in a hurry.
There But Not There
Once here but not here
Men's voices on the wind
Where curlews now cry
Above your head
Sorry for the loss
Of innocence
And a toll of death
That made no sense
Listen - for their agonies
Are everywhere
The glorious dead.
Conflicted
Regarding the current debate about historical links to the slave trade, I find myself somewhat conflicted.
On the one hand, my heart was lifted when I watched moving images of the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in the city of Bristol last Sunday. To see him being roughly rolled down the street before being tossed into the dock seemed to me like poetic justice. It was from that very dock that his ships had sailed to pick up cargoes of slaves from West Africa before shipping them across The Atlantic.
Colston's statue tossed into the water like a dead African slave
On the other hand, I think to myself: Where will this end? Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say - that is the past, let us leave it sleeping?
Of the first twelve American presidents only two did not own slaves - John Adams and John Quincy Adams. All the other ten owned different numbers of slaves - most of them whilst in office. For example, Thomas Jefferson owned over six hundred slaves and it is believed that he fathered several children with slave women so he was most likely a rapist as well as a slave owner.
The father of the nation - George Washington himself was also a slave owner. At his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, agricultural and domestic labour was undertaken by an army of 317 slaves. Attempts have been made to ameliorate Washington's reputation with regard to slavery but the bottom line is that he was a slave owner. Slaves who broke the rules were often whipped mercilessly at Mount Vernon.
Bristolians brought down the statue of Edward Colston so should Americans now pull down statues of George Washington? Should the state of Washington be renamed? Should Washington D.C. become Martin Luther King D.C.? Should the one dollar bill be reprinted with a picture of Mickey Mouse on it instead of the first president?
In a sense, there's not much difference between Colston and Washington. They both became wealthy through slavery.
We could go further back in time. Should we pull down The Great Pyramid at Giza and The Parthenon in Athens? Both were built by slaves - many of whom would have died during the construction of these great monuments to "civilisation".
I rest my case - still conflicted.
Though their numbers are in worrying decline, curlews are often seen in summertime on the moors west of Sheffield. Their plaintive calls are as distinctive as their elegantly curved bills - designed for investigating mud flats or prising worms from the earth.
Yesterday, I took a short walk from Redmires to the small reservoir at Oaking Clough. I heard and then spotted a curlew in the scrubland above Rivelin Brook. My camera possesses a good zoom facility so I was able to achieve these shots quite easily. As you can see, it was not a bright, sunny day but even so I am pretty happy with these two images.
And for your interest, here's a short video of curlews complete with call sounds. I found it on the website of the R.S.P.B. (Royal Society for The Protection of Birds). Enjoy!
All that I have for you today is pictures of two of the world's great leaders - D.J.Trump and Kim Jong-un. On a daily basis, these intellectual giants demonstrate the qualities of great leadership in a changing world.
For example, they have each handled the COVID19 epidemic with intelligence and foresight - happily taking on board the learned advice of epidemiologists and other well-informed academics. They realise that one of the vital traits of leadership is the ability to just listen.
As thousands of families have been wracked by grief, they have offered comfort and support, demonstrating another of the prime qualities of effective leadership - compassion.
Of course, leaders must be decisive and that decisiveness has been very apparent in the actions of both Donald Jong-un and Kim Trump in recent times. In no better sphere than defence is this exemplified. One marvels at the careful planning that has underpinned the building of the "beautiful wall" along America's southern border and at the testing of nuclear weapons above the waters to the west and east of North Korea. Pure genius in the name of World Peace.
As the great Iowan thinker, Leroy Eims said, "A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see." Do you see?
Another Sunday means another lockdown quiz via Zoom. For this particular quiz, each team has to prepare five questions. It's a family quiz so there tends to be an hour of chitter chatter before the quiz actually gets going. The whole thing can last up to three hours. As Little Richard might have said: "Good golly Miss Molly!"
With a little assistance from the wife, I have prepared five visual questions for later on. I am still in my dressing gown so for the millionth time the upstairs shower is calling along with the shampoo, shaving foam and soap. Talk about "Groundhog Day". But before I scale those treacherous stairs, here are today's questions. See how you do.
To American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Russian and Ukrainian visitors, I apologise in advance for the obvious British bias:-
Who is this and in which Yorkshire city was he born?
Who is the famous British woman on the left?
Here are The Seven Dwarfs. Name them.
Who is this as a young boy?
Who released the album "Joanne" in 2016?


Search Results for "ethics expert"
Client: Why does your engineer keep nodding? Dilbert: I don't like to lie, so I just nod while he times his lies to my nods. You were totally right about them hating candor.
Robot: Hey, everybody! I'm the new robot! Dilbert: No, you're our old robot. We erased your memories and replaced your head. Robot: So, I'm working with serial killers? Asok: It isn't "serial" until we do you.
Boss: Your financial projection doesn't support my preferred strategy. Maybe you could tweak the discount rate to 40%. Dilbert: You're asking me to be unethical. Boss: Only with your assumptions.
Dilbert: Our product has fewer features and a higher price compared to our competitors. Boss: We'll fix that with a little thing I call "marketing." Dilbert: Lying is unethical. Boss: That's why we only mislead.
Dilbert: The animal testing for our app is done. The app is so addictive that Zimbu the monkey was hospitalized for starvation while using it. I think we all know what we need to do. Boss: Submit it to the app store?
Wally: Our self-driving car went off a cliff with Ted in it. Did you tweak the software to make that happen? Dilbert; No, that was a bug. Wally: Was it a known bug? Dilbert: Now we're getting into a gray area.
Boss: Can you program our self-driving car prototype to drive Ted off a bridge so I don't have to fire him? Dilbert: Just because I have the power to kill a person and leave no evidence whatsoever doesn't meal I'll do it. Boss: He says he won't kill anyone. Alice: Crud! Asok: Shoot! Carol: Dang!
Narrator: Dogbert The Mental Health Expert. Boss: Can you confirm that my employees have lost their minds? Dogbert: Yes, because they work for you. Any other questions? Boss: But I'm sane, right? Dogbert: Yes, because you hired me.
Dogbert: Being the owner of a cryogenic investment firm is a lot of work. So instead of keeping my customers' brains frozen, I decided to toss them in the river and hope no one notices. The best kind of customers are the ones who can't write bad Yelp! reviews.


An efficient phyto-active would slow down the effects of skin aging and restore a youthful appearance. Aging skin appears thinner, more pale and translucent. Large pigmented spots may appear in sun-exposed areas. Changes in the connective tissue reduce the skin's strength and elasticity.
Standardized to contain 30% Acetyl 11-Keto beta boswellic acid from the gum resin of Boswellia serrata, a potent anti-inflammatory agent. Clinically validated for improving skin elasticity, reverse photoaging and reducing fine lines.
Extracted from the dried leaves of Salvia officinalis, standardized to contain 70% Ursolic acid sodium salt and upto 30% Oleanolic acid sodium salt. It helps in collagen build-up and protects the skin from photo damage.
Obtained from the leaves of Salvia officinalis and standardized to contain Ursolic acids. Clinical studies have established its UV protection role (by regeneration of dermal collagen fiber bundles structures and in turn improved skin elasticity).
Standardized for 90% Escin, is recognized to tone the capillary and to improve the micro-circulation of blood.
Obtained from the seeds of Hordeum vulgare seeds and contains 25% beta-glucans, they are recognised for their role in maintaining collagen balance to promote a healthy skin and protect the integrity of skin matrix.


I see the label-value problem, too. I'll try to make it work with @type:vocab.
> Just to chime in - I agree also.
> to my lack of understanding about OSLC though.
> downs on the page.
> > of potential values a very important one.
> > could make sense.
> >  I do not think the ontological model of a property covers it.
> >  Perhaps not all cases, but I think for many.
> > vocabs, see the usage of goodrelations enums from schema.org.
> >  What about the other hand [from issue text]?
> >  it might not be suitable in a particular context.
> > than two weeks away from the event date.
> > which status changes are available for a resource right now.
> > Are there OWL constructs which would allow me to do so?
> > :Joe must be the same resource and happily accept the change request.
> > aware that a modeling-based solution also exists.
> > that over defining new hydra properties.
> > What do you have in mind, maybe owl:Restriction?
> > network" makes sense.
> > members from goodrelations.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Search in titles only Search in Things Not T&F only
Things Not T&F
Clueless writing about our sport
tandfman
tandfman replied
I doubt that that what the Balto Sun writer had in mind.
DoubleRBar
DoubleRBar replied
It (cross country) use to be an Olympic sport before it was discontinued.
This is from an article in the Baltimore Sun: Headline - Maryland universities face daily uncertainty, disappointment in preparation for fall sports
Clueless quote:
The ACC postponed the start of Olympic sports (men's and women's cross country, field hockey, men's and women's soccer and volleyball) until Sept. 1.
Did you know that cross country is an Olympic sport? That's news to me.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...2h4-story.html
bad hammy
bad hammy replied
Originally posted by tandfman View Post
This is from a story about Kyle Merber's speaking to a HS Cross Country team in Westchester (NY) County:
The 2016 Olympics were held in Atlanta? How did I miss that?
https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/2...ry/2077067001/
Cluelessness was not obvious to me in this NYT profile of Merber in pandemic times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/s...-olympics.html
berkeley replied
This one is hard to believe. In a piece on the CNBC website about the status of the Tokyo Olympic Games, there appears this sentence:
Oh, really? Do these guys really think that track athletes have only one quadrennial opportunity to compete in their sport? And by the way, the last time I looked CNBC was an affiliate of NBC, which broadcasts the World Championships and other meets (including those on NBC Sports Gold).
Clueless. Totally.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/17/ioc-...eeping-in.html
Sadly, the way things are going there may not be much more than that for 200m sprinters and triple jumpers ...
How about this from an article about the closing of Coogan's bar in NYC:
They served "... the world's smallest sundae named after Olympic champion runner Eamonn Coughlin who was tall and fast".
Three errors in one sentence. He wasn't an Olympic champion, his name is Coghlan and he certainly isn't tall.
This appeared today, April 3, on Yahoo's site. It's attributed to NBC Sports Northwest, but it's obviously an old item. I'm sure it was accurate when NBC Sports Northwest first published it, but Yahoo was totally clueless in publishing an article today that's all about the World Championships coming to Eugene Augst 6-15, 2021! Those dates would, of course, overlap with those of the Olympic Games announced four days ago.
https://sports.yahoo.com/eugene-oreg...221324356.html
Trickstat
Trickstat replied
The vast majority of t&f athletes and those in most other sports in the Olympics cannot be considered "amateurs".
If they only compete once every 4 years, how would countries select their teams?
Last edited by Trickstat; 03-19-2020, 08:24 AM.
Conor Dary
Conor Dary replied
Not hard to believe at all...99.9% of the public doesn't follow the sport one bit...except for the Olympics reality show...And CNBC is especially dense...when the Irish prime minister was on CNBC a couple of years ago ....the hosts didn't know Ireland used the euro.
Amateur athletes in sports such as swimming and track and field can only participate in events every four years.
How about this for clueless headline writing:
Eastern Illinois Men and Austin Peay Women win the 2020 OVC Outdoor Track & Field Championship
That was posted yesterday, and of course it was the indoor championships, not the outdoor championships.
http://ovcsports.com/news/2020/2/27/...mpionship.aspx
Here's a good one. It's an article about the 2020 Olympic steeples.
The American men absolutely killed it in 2016, with all three representatives finishing in the top three. The squad was led by Evan Jager in second place, running a time of 8:04.28 to finish just behind Kipruto of Kenya. He was joined in the top 10 by Hillary Bor and Donald Cabral in seventh and eighth respectively.
Hmm-m-m-m So the 7th and 8th placers are in the top three? But wait, it gets better.
The steeplechase is always one of the most fun events to watch on the track given the potential for big falls and huge lead changes. The U.S. is dominant like no other nation in this event
Oh really? Isn't there a country in East Africa that's done pretty well?
http://wfuogb.com/2020/02/hopefuls-t...-steeplechase/
Last edited by tandfman; 02-27-2020, 11:29 PM.
El Toro replied
Some woeful (absent) fact checking from the BBC in the Rojas indoor WR article linked on today's front page:
The outdoor record stands at 15.50m, set by Sweden's Inessa Kravets in Gothenburg in 1995.
I suppose somebody believes athletes only competed in their own country back in the dark ages...
This one just astonished me. Penn junior Nia Akins ran the 800 on Friday in 2:00.71. This was #2 on the all-time collegiate indoor list (and #1 among American collegians). The university put out a press release that included these two quotes:
Her achievement broke the Ivy League record in the 800m . . .and made her just the fourth collegiate woman to break 2:00 in the 800m during indoor competition.
So you break 2:00 by running 2:00:71? That's news to me.
She was less than a second away from the all-time indoor collegiate record in the 800m, which is held by Texas A&M's Jazmine Fray, who ran a 2:00.69 in 2017.
That's the understatement of the year. Yes, .02 is less than a second.
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/nia...m-ncaa-history
wamego relays champ
wamego relays champ replied
Perhaps it has been rightfully ignored here on this board, but I don't know where to start with the viral reporting about the Indian buffalo jockey being compared to Usain Bolt. At least the local governing body says the comparison is ridiculous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njAjhmOYazg
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51528201
Last edited by wamego relays champ; 02-17-2020, 05:01 PM.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
June 19, 2021 In About CSHA, Advocacy, Convey Magazine
CSHA advocates for the community
(From Summer 2021 Convey magazine)
By Jennifer Snelling
THESE DAYS, we have become more comfortable with telehealth, teletherapy and Zoom. But more than a year ago when we were all asked to shelter in place, many practitioners were concerned about how to best continue serving their clients and patients.
This included recent graduates earning their Required Professional Experience (RPE) credits and SLP assistants. Could they be supervised by live video?
"Their work impacts tens of thousands of children and adults who require speech-language pathology and audiology services," says Linda Pippert, MA, CCC-SLP, MBA, CSHA's immediate past board chair and chair of the CSHA Foundation.
In order for practitioners to continue supporting their clients, the governor would need to approve waiver requests from the state licensing boards to allow supervision to happen remotely. CSHA legislative advocate Laura Preston had invested the previous year – her first with CSHA – in building relationships with government agencies. Her efforts put CSHA in position to seek those waivers in last year's emergency situation. Preston arranged a meeting for Pippert, then CSHA's board chair, with representatives of the Department of Education and the governor's office. Within a few days of the meeting, the administration approved the waivers.
"CSHA saved the jobs of SLPAs and RPEs and in turn provided access to services to children in schools, early intervention, clinics and medical centers throughout California," Pippert says.
While advocacy has always been a part of CSHA, the organization made a big leap two years ago when Preston joined the team. It was during that time that the CSHA board adopted the association's first-ever advocacy platform. A standard resource in nonprofits, the platform provides an overarching strategy and priorities to the association's advocacy efforts, making CSHA an increasingly effective voice for the community.
The board-approved platform allows the organization to be agile and intentional when approaching the Legislature and governmental agencies about licensure, clinical practice reimbursement rates and a host of other issues.
As a leading voice advocating for the profession and those it serves, CSHA collaborates with the state and licensing board to solve problems, as in the issues around telepractice early in the pandemic. In addition, CSHA's advocacy work represents the field by advancing policy, supporting research and grant funding on issues that affect clients and practitioners, and increases the visibility of the services provided by the profession.
"If you are working today through the pandemic, that is CSHA's work. We've let the licensing board and the Legislature know what our needs are. That's all happened through advocacy," says Michele Linares, MS, CCC-SLP, chair-elect of CSHA, and chair of the CSHA Advocacy Committee. "The board-approved platform provides a broad policy framework for pursuing the association's mission by identifying and prioritizing those areas of legislative, policy and regulatory issues in which the association will engage. This direction has allowed us to emerge as the thought leaders in California advocacy."
The shift in CSHA's advocacy started a couple of years ago when, coincidentally, a study commissioned by the Legislature was released that explored reimbursement rates for services based on cost of living, travel time and other factors. Buried in the study was a section that called for a 0% rate increase for early intervention therapeutic services.
These services were already not adequately funded, and many providers were counting on a rate increase in order to continue providing services. Preston jumped feet-first into this issue on CSHA's behalf and, after a great deal of work, the state amended the study, and the administration approved a rate increase for providers.
Preston supported the effort to adopt the advocacy platform and began working with the newly reconstituted advocacy committee in 2019, which includes six members. The members of the committee are listed on the CSHA website under "about us."
The professional practice and the workforce issues addressed by the committee include pursuing changes in current law around Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES). On that issue, Preston has worked to cue up a CSHA-sponsored bill, and garnered support for that legislation, when the pandemic hit and the bill was tabled.
For CSHA members working in schools, the organization advocates for updating language in the California Education Code to ensure it reflects current best practices, increased funding for speech-language pathology and audiology services, and collaborating with interpreters and translators. A bill on these issues is currently in the works.
For CSHA members in the health care field, the organization advocates for the inclusion of their services in alternative payment models, equitable reimbursements of services across age span and settings, and coverage of habilitation and rehabilitation as essential health benefits.
As SLPs and audiologists, CSHA members are all about helping patients and clients communicate. To further that goal, CSHA advocates for early intervention, appropriate assessments, services and funding to ensure that people with communication disorders have access to the care they need.
The board revisits the platform every two years to identify opportunities for updates and clarifications.
"The platform shapes the advocacy work we do throughout the year because the board has identified the things we have to prioritize," Linares says. "It's online for everyone to see. The platform has been a results-focused road map, and Laura is a highly skilled advocate who produces results."
"Joining the CSHA team has been an honor, because these are issues I happen to care deeply about," Preston says, "I'm so glad Brian (CSHA CEO Brian Lewis) reached out to me when he had the opportunity. He's not only a strategic thinker, but as a former lobbyist himself, he understands how things work and is able to fully support me in doing my work on CSHA's behalf."
Since coming on board, Preston has helped CSHA advocate for approving California State Universities (CSUs) to offer AuD programs and increased funding to California state graduate programs in communicative disorders to address the SLP shortage in California. Both measures passed, and there are now four new AuD programs to meet the audiology needs of Californians and more graduate student spots at CSUs.
Partnering with other California organizations to work for a common cause is an important aspect of the advocacy program. Some of the organizations that share CSHA's goals are Californians for Quality Early Learning, the California Academy of Audiology and the California Physical Therapy Association. Perhaps most important is CSHA's partnership with the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board (SLPAHADB) at the Department of Consumer Affairs.
The licensing board's goal is to advocate for consumers and regulate practitioners. As such, one might expect that relationship to be potentially adversarial. Instead, the partnership is collaborative and keeps the consumer first and foremost in consideration.
"There are some very shared common goals that we have," says Paul Sanchez, SLAPAHADB executive officer. "CSHA would want to benefit the profession and make sure the standards remain high in California. That's a goal we have because our goal is consumer protection. The partnership is important to the board and me because it can help us achieve those goals."
In addition to working together in times of emergency, CSHA helps the board rapidly get information out to its membership through its CSHA QuickNotes emails. When there is an update at the licensing board, the update is sent out to CSHA members, often on the same day as the update is posted to the licensing board website.
The relationship works both ways, says Holly Kaiser, MA, CCC-SLP, CSHA board director at large and a member of SLPAHADB.
For example, when the licensing board is looking at scope of practice questions, such as the difference between an SLPA and an SLP, or the encroachment of other professions, the board has subject matter experts available to consult on CSHA's Professional Practices Advisory Committee.
"CSHA has become a valuable resource for the board," says Kaiser. "For example, we need help analyzing applications for license from practitioners trained in foreign countries. CSHA has a number of people who could take on that role, such as members who are working in universities. It's such a wealth of expertise that they can find directly through CSHA."
Advocating for the community
CSHA's mission is to "serve our profession, our members, our clients and our communities through evidenced-based leadership in professional practice strategic advocacy, thought leadership and inter-professional collaboration."
To that end, the association's advocacy work translates professional expertise and insights into the legislative and policy arenas – areas with their own processes, timelines and institutional practices.
"As professionals, we are very aware of the barriers that impact our work and our ability to serve our client, but we may not have the language or the advocacy expertise to elicit change," says Raquel Narain, MA, CCC-SLP, BCBA, chair of CSHA board. "Our knowledge, combined with Brian and Laura's in the advocacy field, has helped us build our impact."
As it does each year, the Advocacy Committee takes positions on key pieces of legislation. One of those bills this year is AB 435, regarding digital hearing aids with specific proprietary software. CSHA has a support position on the bill that would require hearing aid dispensers and dispensing audiologists to notify consumers if the hearing aid they are purchasing uses proprietary software and can only be adjusted or repaired at specific facilities or locations.
The bill would provide that the purchaser of the hearing device must be aware of the product they are purchasing and if there will be limitations on where it may be adjusted or repaired. Currently, many purchasers have found themselves unable to have a devise repaired that includes proprietary software.
"We have to consider the unintended consequences, so we are asking the Legislature to require that the dispensers notify the consumer so that they understand the proprietary nature of the software before they purchase," Linares says.
Another current bill that CSHA supports is AB 1468, which requires health care service contracts to continue coverage for a number of services, including speech-language therapy and auditory services, without preauthorization to get clients through the door more quickly.
"Advocacy isn't just reactive," says Linares. "We can be proactive and not just be a good therapist, but also be a good advocate for consumers and the community at large. Having a platform and a strategy keeps us on track and moving forward. "
The power of more voices
There are some 30,000 SLPs and audiologists in California, but CSHA's membership is only around 3,000. Many professionals join American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and consider that sufficient. By not joining CSHA, professionals miss the opportunity to be a part of the organization that is impacting decisions made in California that affect the profession here and those it serves.
"The California Legislature listens more closely to California-based organizations than those outside the state and always has," Preston says. "And that goes for all professions, not just ours. I'm representing all speech-language-hearing professionals in the state in the work I do for CSHA. Everyone benefits from our work. We need everyone to join CSHA because we're already working for you and you can really help elevate our collective voice."
Adds Narain, "The more members CSHA has, the bigger and more influential our voice will be throughout California."
CSHA will soon be launching a virtual advocacy network, a new member benefit to provide additional advocacy information and to help them contact their state representatives on important issues. Imagine if all CSHA members engaged in the advocacy network and contacted the Legislature to advocate for their practice and those they serve.
"CSHA's work in advocacy gives our industry a voice," Narain says. "We are a profession that believes communication is a fundamental human right and we work tirelessly to empower our clients and stakeholders to use their voice to advocate for themselves and their loved ones. But unfortunately, we don't always do the same for ourselves. Through our advocacy platform, we are creating pathways for our members to be heard, and joining our state association is the first step in that process."
Jennifer Snelling is a freelancer who writes for a variety of publications and institutions, including the University of Oregon. She's a frequent classroom volunteer and is active in schools in Eugene, Oregon.
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Celebrate the New Year 2013 in the USA and experience the incredibly wide range of events, parties and feasts all over the country!
Watch the ball drop in America's most famous and georgous metropolitan areas, feel the warm breeze on the vast and beautiful Californian beaches when the countdown to midnight is running, or try skiing in the States' more winterly regions - new.yearseve.org will help you find the best cities, locations and opportunities to party exactly the way you like it.
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Celebrate New Year's Eve in Old Town at "FESTIVUS"


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California approves $2.9 bln investment to double car chargers in state
Dec 14 (Reuters) – The California Energy Commission on Wednesday approved a $2.9 billion investment plan to accelerate the state's 2025 electric vehicle (EV) charging and hydrogen refueling goals.
According to the Energy Commission, the investment will install 90,000 new EV chargers statewide, more than double the 80,000 already installed.
Combined with funding from utilities and other programs, these investments are expected to ensure the state reaches its goal of deploying 250,000 chargers by 2025.
The state will allocate $1.7 billion to support medium and heavy duty zero-emission vehicles.
"This plan will increase access to charging and hydrogen fueling for individuals, businesses and public institutions, while supporting an emerging manufacturing ecosystem and creating jobs," said CEC's chief transport commissioner. Patti Monaghan said in a statement.
In September, the US Department of Transportation approved plans for electric vehicle charging stations covering nearly 75,000 miles (120,700 km) of highways in all 50 states of Washington and Puerto Rico.
The $1 trillion infrastructure bill provides $5 billion to help states install EV chargers over five years along interstate highways. States now have more than $1.5 billion available to help build EV chargers.
The White House has approved 35 of the 50 state plans it announced earlier this year.
California moved in August to require all new cars sold in the state to be electric or plug-in electric hybrids by 2035.
Reported by Leah Binoy, Bengaluru. Edited by Stephen Coates
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Building a business case for your SIEM Investment
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Distribution tech personal lines insurance investment
Michael Panzer Named Senior Vice President Capital Investment Strategies for Atrium Hospitality
What to Consider for UK Expat and Foreign National Property Investment in 2023


We are daily awakened into the indescribable mercy of God! But we often forget to contemplate on that divine mercy which shields us every day. Listen to the inspiring words of Fr. Michael Denk on 'THE PRODIGAL FATHER', every Tuesday at 9 PM ET/BST/AEST beginning September 18 and meditate on the unending mercy of God the father.


Home » DANIO-CODE: Toward an Encyclopedia of DNA Elements in Zebrafish.
DANIO-CODE: Toward an Encyclopedia of DNA Elements in Zebrafish.
Title DANIO-CODE: Toward an Encyclopedia of DNA Elements in Zebrafish.
The zebrafish has emerged as a model organism for genomics studies. The symposium "Toward an encyclopedia of DNA elements in zebrafish" held in London in December 2014, was coorganized by Ferenc Müller and Fiona Wardle. This meeting is a follow-up of a similar previous workshop held 2 years earlier and represents a push toward the formalization of a community effort to annotate functional elements in the zebrafish genome. The meeting brought together zebrafish researchers, bioinformaticians, as well as members of established consortia, to exchange scientific findings and experience, as well as to discuss the initial steps toward the formation of a DANIO-CODE consortium. In this study, we provide the latest updates on the current progress of the consortium's efforts, opening up a broad invitation to researchers to join in and contribute to DANIO-CODE.


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Viellenave-d'Arthez è un comune francese di 175 abitanti situato nel dipartimento dei Pirenei Atlantici nella regione della Nuova Aquitania.

Società

Evoluzione demografica

Note

Altri progetti

Viellenave-d'Arthez

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Télécharge la Sonnerie de "If You Had A Bad Time"
I wouldn't ecpect to be seeing you soon, and that's fine.
You have to know that second guess ain't worth a try.
big and bright are the places you might someday go.
why you're one of those things I don't know.
Well i'm hoping you're going to open your throat and just scream.
You have to know who and why, which ones miss you when you die.
the salt in your eyes.


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Writing Assignment – Week 7
Thus far in our reading of the Iliad we have looked closely at rhetorical displays (e.g. lamentation, the embassy). In many ways it is possible to see heroic boasts as yet another type of rhetorical display. In Scroll 13 there are, at least, the two boasts of Idomeneus (13.374-383, 13. 446-45), with a boast of Deiphobos in between (13.413-416), and Menelaos' boast later on (13.620-639). Using one (or more) of these as a starting point and finding at least one earlier example from the Iliad, craft a well-supported and articulate post of 350-400 words that addresses the following questions: What are the typical features of this kind of rhetorical display? How does boasting play an important role in crafting one's heroic identity? And finally, in what ways is boasting explicitly connected to other rhetorical displays?
*Please* be sure to respond to and engage with at least one other post (unless you are initial).
This entry was posted in Diomedes on March 11, 2014 by nsatkovich.
← Writing Assignment – Week 7 Writing Assignment – Week 7 →
12 thoughts on "Writing Assignment – Week 7"
Chris March 12, 2014 at 8:12 pm
Heroic Boasts appear to consistently use a strong, declarative tone that is accompanied by a sense of victorious confidence in the speaker. Boasts appear to possess an optimism, a painting of hoped upon possibilities coming to fruition. In this way, heroic boasts lie in contrast to lamentation, as the lament speaks of sadness for past trauma and fear of inevitable future misfortune. These qualities of lament can be seen clearly in the lament of Andromache in Book 6, lines 407-39. Boasts seem to reflect a bitter satisfaction in the face of trauma, a way of throwing the pain of injury back confidently at the opposition. We see this explicitly in Deiphobos' boast in Book 13 after slaying Hypsenor, "Asios lies not now all unavenged. I think rather as he goes down to Hades of the Gates, the strong one, he will be cheerful at heart, since I have sent him an escort"(13.414-16).
This type of rhetorical display seems to employ a kind of facetious quality and a sort of bitter, mocking sarcasm in its character. We see this in Idomeneus' boast to Othryoneus, where he actually offers him the same promise Priam had promised to dishonor Ilion and become a traitor to his great city. Here we can see the sarcastic, almost disrespectful tone come off the page as Idomeneus boasts "I congratulate you beyond all others if it is here that you will bring to pass what you promised to Dardanian Priam . . . we would give you the loveliest of Atreides' daughters . . . if you joined us and helped us storm the strong-founded city of Ilion" (13.374-80). As he is dragging Othryoneus across the battleground by the foot he even goes as far as proclaiming, "Come then with me . . . we here are not bad matchmakers for you" (13.381-82). This characteristic of boasts creates an almost dark humor in the epic, and helps give a confident and triumphant flavor to these monologues.
Heroic boasts can help craft a character's heroic identity by providing a vehicle of expression to give each character a unique and bold voice, the power of which will be remembered by the audience due to the defining qualities that the boasts possess. Often, they also allow us to see a character at their best and most victorious, in the face of strong injury, and to see optimism and triumph despite overwhelming trauma and adversity.
Danielle Wood March 14, 2014 at 6:59 pm
I definitely agree with your definition of a heroic boast as containing elements such as great confidence and optimism. These heroes are making a statement of their power in the face of the enemy with such self-assurance that it seems like in their minds they've already won the war. For example, when Idomeneus is boasting to Deiphobos after Deiphobos' own boast: "…are we then to call this a worthy bargain, three men killed for one? It was you yourself were so boastful…Do you rather come yourself and stand up against me so you can see what I am like, Zeus' seed, come here to face you" (13.446-49). He one-ups Deiphobos, boasting to him of his own power, challenging him and his power. He's so sure of his victory that it causes Deiphobos to become uncertain and he walks away from him to find a fight elsewhere. Heroic boasting seems to be used in a way to assert ones dominance, to talk about being the manliest man on the battlefield but it's also easy to see how boasting could backfire. After a prideful boast, that person could be challenged and lose, resulting in both shame and death.
Celina Gauthier March 15, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Hi Danielle:
What you are saying does make sense. Do you feel that the boasts are used as an intimidation factor? Because, that is what immediately came to my mind after I was done reading your post. I began to think about how Homer describes the emotions of the characters in Chapter 13 after a boast is made. For example, after Deiphobos boast in lines 13.413- 16, the next line 13.417 describes the Argives emotions, "He spoke, and sorrow came over the Argives at his vaunting…" Then in 13.455 after Idomenus kills Alkathoos his boast to Deiphobos causes him to think about his next course of action. "So he spoke, and the heart in Deiphobos was divided, pondering whether to draw back and find some other high-hearted Trojan to be his companion, or whether to attempt him singly." As you said, the boast Idomenus makes causes Deiphobos to question his capability as a warrior.
Megan Sweeney March 15, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Celina,
I love that you looked more at how the boast causes people to respond as opposed to what it says about the boaster – I had not been thinking of it that way. (Danielle, what you said about the risk of boasting meaning a higher potential shame if their boasts do not turn out to be true is what I immediately thought of when reading these texts). It is most interesting in the case of Idomeneus and Deiphobos as he is boasting at a man who yet lives. As you pointed out, Deiphobos' immediate response was to go and find a friend to fight by his side. What does this do for Idonemeus? When he then must face Aineias, he has to call for his friends saying "I am alone, terribly I fear the attack of swift-footed Aineias" (13. 481f). If the boasts we have read seem embarrassingly proud then I would call this moment at least slightly embarrassingly cowardly.
Brittany Matthews March 15, 2014 at 10:46 pm
I find it very interesting that you contrasted lamentation and boasting. I agree that both rhetorical displays are a result of trauma. Characters in the Iliad seem to accept trauma by having lamentation and cope with trauma by boasting.
In book VI, Andromache accepted the death of her family, something that cannot be undone. She was very sad and seemed to not even be interested in avenging her family. In book XIII, the Achaians and Trojans coped with the death of their companions by boasting about an enemy they killed. Instead of showing sadness, they showed anger and fought for revenge.
Neko Ramos March 13, 2014 at 1:44 pm
I do agree with you, Chris, in your point that that lamentations and heroic boasts are polar opposites. i believe that heroic boasts are strong, powerful, and moving statements made from a specific character that has a purpose to either change things or foreshadows their action to make a change. Each character had their moments, not only in book 13, but in the Iliad as a whole to boast on their accomplishments in war and in greed. One perfect example is Agamemnon all the way back in book 1 where he is arrogantly boasting and using his empowerment for evil; "Fly as you will, i shall make you no prayers to stay you.I have other here who will do me honour"(book 1) In this text, we notice how Agamemnon is boasting about his title and current glory, but we soon find him pleading for Achilles help, so it goes to show that sometimes boasting can lead to turmoil.
In book 13, there were a few examples of warriors who stood strong and confident in their boasting, specifically Menelaus, just as he met up with Hector once again in the Iliad. "Even thus shall you Trojans leave the ships of the Acheans, proud and insatiate of battle though you be, nor shall you look any of the disgrace and shame which you have heaped upon yourself. Cowardly she-wolves that you are, you feared not the anger of Zeus, avenger of violated hospitality, who will one day destroy your city; you stole my weeded wife and wickedly carried off much treasure when you were her guest, and now you would fling fire upon our ships, and kill our heroes. A day will come when, rage as you may, you shall be stayed."(book 13 lines 620-637) This is a motivating and boastful piece of text from Menelaus because i believe he is foreshadowing the actions to come and threathening the trojans that they will pay for every single thing that they did wrong to him and his family. Although this was his moment to express and purge his threats and lashings, he still was unable to take action by himself, so i believe that this represents his identity as a character who is limited when it comes to the more powerful warriors such as Hector and his men.
This text features pain, sorrow, determination, bitterness, anger, and wrath. Menealus is still hurt by all the things he lost from the trojans, but remains determined to seek revenge when he is connected with his Acheans family.
I believe that the boasting between the Achaians and Trojans is explicitly connected to revenge. One good example is the gloating between Idomeneus (13.374-382, 13.446-454) and Deiphobos (13.414-416). It started when Idomeneus killed Othryoneus, a man who Priam promised to give his daughter to if he kept Ilion from being sacked by the Achaians. Idomeneus gloats by sarcastically promising "the loveliest of Atreides' daughters" (13.378) to the deceased Othryoneus if he helps capture Ilion. Idomeneus then killed Asios, which provoked Deiphobos to get even. Deiphobos killed Hypsenor and felt like doing so avenged Asios, but I believe he gloated only because Idomeneus had gloated. Deiphobos wanted to discourage the Achaians to counter Idomeneus's discouragement toward the Trojans. I believe Idomeneus boasted again after killing Alkathoös only to try to top Deiphobos's previous boast. It seems like the two warriors were trying to prove that they were better than the other by killing an enemy and then bragging about it. Boasting plays a role in a warrior's identity by acknowledging how bloodthirsty and confident he is in battle.
An earlier example of boasting in the Iliad is one between Alexandros (11.380-383) and Diomedes (11.385-395). Alexandros shoots an arrow and hits Diomedes on his right foot and then gloats about it. Diomedes then belittles Alexandros by telling him that his bow and arrow skills are useless in combat, and trivializes his foot wound by calling it a scratch. Diomedes also claims that if he hit a man then the act would result in death, which hints that he is a better warrior than Alexandros because Alexandros's attack did not kill Diomedes. This example lacks the feature of revenge that is connected to boasting in book XIII, but it shares the same heroic identity role.
Katharyn Hill March 15, 2014 at 10:47 pm
I agree with you Brittany about their boasting is clearly connected to revenge. For the most part, these warriors have to be bloodthirsty and willing to fight if they are going to be effective in battle and have a shot at winning. Throughout the Iliad, characters are constantly being wronged so there is a history between many of the characters that leads to revenge. Although their boasts seem cruel and unnecessary, it's understandable considering how much they have gone through as warriors.
Emily Berg March 15, 2014 at 1:33 am
I agree with you when you say that heroic boasts are opposite of laments. This is evident when homer writes, "Othryoneus, I congratulate you beyond all others…" (13.374). Immediately, the tone of this passage differs from that of a lament. The tone is uplifting and congratulatory rather than mournful and sorrowful. However, what is interesting is that family seems to be a central focus in both lament's, heroic boast's and other speech forms. Such can be seen further within the passage when Atreides' daughters are brought up. Additionally, the heroic boast's continue to demonstrate cheerful tones later in book 13 when Homer writes, "He will be cheerful at heart, since I have sent him an escort" (13.416). This is very interesting to me because thus far in the Iliad, we have only been able to understand the heroes in comparison to war or when in battle. However, the boast's eliminate the war imagery and instead cause the audience to associate the heroes with happy and cheerful images. For example, "never to be glutted with the grim war noises, nor go short of all that other shame and defilement…" (13.621-22). In a sense, these boasts's present irony, because one would not think that the heroes would be existent in scenes where battle imagery is not accepted by the characters.
I completely agree with you Emily about family being a central focus in laments and in boast in The Iliad. I think that it's important for readers to understand where the character has been in their life because that is a defining factor in who they are today and who they will be in the future. The boasts are cheerful because they are celebrating a major or even minor victory in their life and by boasting about it, it allows them to build up their ego and honor. By putting down whoever they just defeated, the act of declaring their victory for everyone to know about builds up their ego, which as we have seen throughout The Iliad, is a very important aspect to the warriors.
Chris:
I agree with you that the boasts each character makes give each one an identity. One thing I noticed about most boasts made by a character in the Illiad is that they include where characters are from and how they came to be. For example, in 13.446 -454 "Deiphobos, are we then to call this a worthy bargain, three men killed for one? It was you yourself were so boastful. Strange man. Do you rather come yourself and stand up against me so you can see what I am like, Zeus' seed, come here to face you. Since Zeus, first got by Krete Minos, who cared for his people, and to Minos in turn was born a blameless son, Deukalion, and Deukalion sire me to be lord over may people in wide Kret, and now my ships have brought me to this place to be an evil for you and your father and the rest of the Trojans." This boast informs its audience of Idomenus's origins and how he came to be involved in this battle. Also, the boast Idomenus makes in 13.374-383, which you already quoted, allows the audience to gain more insight about Othryoneus's involvement in this battle.
Moneshia Smith March 18, 2014 at 10:31 pm
Heroic boasts definitely include strong elements such as great confidence, strong judgment and optimism. Boasting is an element that is one's nature for some heroes, however not in all. It seems the boastful side of a hero comes out when another starts talking of his past success. Diomedes is a character who boasts about how brave he is and how if necessary he will fight on his own many Trojans and he has fought many fights on his own before joining the war. Boasting plays an important role in crafting one's identity because it gives some type of idea about one's character as a person can get the wrong idea or get the wrong vibe. One may think a boastful person such as Diomedes is not brave but cocky about himself. Lamentation, on the other hand is harder for some people but boasting is easier. Men can be looked at as a weak individual if they are caught weeping.