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Canadian TV series or program
Sarah Polley
Mary Harron
Sarah Gadon
Rebecca Liddiard
Kerr Logan
Paul Gross
Ending theme
"Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" by Anne Briggs
CBC Television (Canada)
Netflix (international)
October 30, 2017 (2017-10-30)
Alias Grace is a Canadian television miniseries directed by Mary Harron and written by Sarah Polley, based on Margaret Atwood's 1996 novel of the same name. It stars Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Rebecca Liddiard, Zachary Levi, Kerr Logan, David Cronenberg, Paul Gross, and Anna Paquin. The series consists of six episodes.[1] It premiered on CBC on September 25, 2017, and appeared on Netflix on November 3, 2017.[2][3][4]
In advance of the series premiere, the first two episodes received a preview screening at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in its Primetime lineup of selected television programming.[5]
The series was the third adaptation of an Atwood novel broadcast on television in 2017, after The Handmaid's Tale (adapted for Hulu) and Wandering Wenda (adapted for CBC Television's CBC Kids lineup).[6]
Sarah Gadon as Grace Marks[7]
Edward Holcroft as Dr. Simon Jordan, a psychiatrist
Rebecca Liddiard as Mary Whitney, Grace's friend
Zachary Levi as Jeremiah the Peddler[8]
Kerr Logan as James McDermott, Kinnear's stableman
David Cronenberg as Reverend Verrenger, a committee member who wants Grace acquitted
Anna Paquin as Nancy Montgomery,[9] Kinnear's housekeeper
Paul Gross as Thomas Kinnear, a wealthy man who hires Grace
Martha Burns as Mrs. Parkinson
Will Bowes as George Parkinson
Sarah Manninen as Mrs. Humphrey
Stephen Joffe as Jamie Walsh
Michael Therriault as Mr. McDonald
Margaret Atwood as Old Woman at Church (Cameo)
Original air date
Canada viewers
"Part 1" Mary Harron Sarah Polley September 25, 2017 (2017-09-25) 0.442[10]
Dr. Simon Jordan is hired to do a psychiatric evaluation of celebrated murderess Grace Marks, who supporters hope will be set free as a result of Jordan's report. Grace has been imprisoned for murder for the past 15 years while her co-conspirator James McDermott was hanged. Though she has no memory of the actual murders, she tells Jordan about immigrating from Ireland to Canada and finding employment as a maid. Her mother died on the voyage, and her abusive and alcoholic father sexually assaulted her. Her father demands that she go earn a living and support the family. She is distressed at the idea of leaving her younger siblings alone and promises to come back. She leaves to find work in Toronto. Throughout the conversations with Jordan, she has flashbacks involving the murders, trial and conviction.
"Part 2" Mary Harron Sarah Polley October 2, 2017 (2017-10-02) N/A
Jordan appears to have developed an interest in Grace and fantasizes about her. Grace tells him about her friendship with Mary Whitney, another maid. Mary is outgoing and an advocate for equality; she attempts to impart these ideas to Grace and the two quickly become friends. Grace is introduced to a peddler named Jeremiah who reads her fortune, telling her that she will encounter difficulties but all will be fine. Eventually, Mary becomes pregnant but refuses to tell Grace who the father is, although it is implied that it is the son of the master of the house. Mary later dies of complications from an abortion, and Grace hallucinates that she hears Mary speaking to her. She then faints, lies unconscious for a period of time, wakes up in distress looking for Grace and claims she is Mary, then faints again. Once she regains consciousness the second time, she says she doesn't have any memory of what the other women in the house told her she had said and done.
Jordan continues to fantasize about Grace while they continue their sessions, speaking of the events after Mary's death. Grace meets Nancy, a housekeeper for Mr. Thomas Kinnear. Nancy offers Grace a job with more pay. Though another maid warns Grace not to take the job, she accepts, in part because Nancy reminds Grace of Mary. After arriving at the farm in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Grace meets Jamie, a younger farm boy, as well as James McDermott, a farmworker. Nancy dislikes McDermott because of his abrupt and explosive personality, and Nancy shows a strictness about the way things should be handled in the home. McDermott flirts with Grace, who does not reciprocate. Nancy gives Grace a tour of the house, including the cellar where the murders will take place.
"Part 4" Mary Harron Sarah Polley October 16, 2017 (2017-10-16) N/A
Jordan has developed a crush on Grace while his landlady, Mrs. Humphrey, is attracted to him. Grace continues to recount her life's story to him. When Nancy decides to dismiss McDermott, McDermott tells Grace that Nancy and Mr. Kinnear are sleeping together. Grace loses respect for Nancy upon finding out that Nancy is pregnant, and they begin to quarrel. According to Grace, McDermott says that they should kill Nancy and Kinnear and throw their bodies down the cellar. However, according to McDermott's written confession, Grace wanted to murder Nancy and Kinnear by poisoning them but McDermott refused to help her. Jeremiah comes to say goodbye due to a change in career, and asks Grace to run away with him, but she decides not to when he says he does not believe in marriage. Grace overhears Nancy considering dismissing her because she is quarrelsome. Grace later dreams that she is assaulted by men, including McDermott and Kinnear. She dreams of headless angels in bloody robes, which she interprets as a sign of God's judgement against Kinnear's household.
Jeremiah reappears in the present, fashioning himself a neuro-hypnotist known as Dr. DuPont, but only Grace is aware of his true identity. He suggests putting Grace into a trance to try and access her memories. Though Jordan disagrees, Grace is willing to allow Jeremiah to hypnotize her. Grace later tells Jordan that she tried to warn Nancy about McDermott's threats of killing her and Kinnear, but she shrugs it off. When Kinnear went away on a trip, Nancy used this opportunity to fire McDermott and Grace. Grace's confession says that McDermott hit Nancy and threw her into the cellar, where he strangled her with Grace's kerchief, but she says she cannot remember this, and that her lawyer dictated her confession. After Kinnear arrived home, McDermott shot him and attempted to shoot Grace as well, and she fainted from fright. Another period of amnesia follows; McDermott confessed that Grace coerced him to kill both Kinnear and Nancy with the promise of marriage. The couple were arrested in a bed and breakfast inn. In the courtroom, Jamie's statement says that he saw Grace in the yard, and that she lied to him about the whereabouts of the victims at that time. That night, Jordan fantasizes about Grace coming to visit him in bed, only to realize that Grace is Mrs. Humphrey. Distressed, he leaves the city by train the next day.
Jordan visits Grace's lawyer in Toronto, who tells him that Grace is likely guilty and may have a crush on him. Once he returns to see Grace, he encourages her to be hypnotized, who agrees if Jordan says so. Jeremiah hypnotizes Grace, who takes on the persona and voice of Mary. Jordan asks her if she ever had relations with McDermott, and she, as Mary, claims that the two kissed passionately, which is described as a method to anger and make Jordan jealous. She attempts to provoke him, saying that she knows of his feelings for her. She also claims to have tried to string both McDermott and Kinnear along. Mary claims that she murdered Nancy, but that Grace does not know of Mary's existence, insinuating that Grace was innocent. During the hypnotism, there are various flashbacks/versions of the murder played, some in which Grace is distressed by the deaths and others in which she participates. Mary's presence is apparently due to a Catholic superstition that Grace previously spoke about in which after a person dies, a window must be opened to let their soul out, which Grace didn't properly do for Mary. Once Jeremiah brings her out of her trance, Grace appears to have no awareness of what she said, and says she must have been asleep. Jordan is offended by this turn of events and leaves town to see his mother. He refuses to write a report about Grace's case because he cannot be sure if the entire ordeal was a farce. He goes on to succumb to Mrs. Humphrey's attempted seduction, and they have sex before his abrupt leave. Jordan continues to ponder and think of Grace and he joins the army in an attempt to distract himself. Grace is hurt by Jordan's departure without saying goodbye.
Eleven years later, Grace receives a pardon and is released from prison. She is surprised to be reunited with Jamie Walsh, who apologizes for his role in her conviction and asks her to marry him. After hesitating, she accepts. The two lead a pleasant life, and Grace now has the Jersey cow and Leghorn chickens Mary predicted she would have when they were teenagers, as well as a husband whose name begins with "J" as Mary foresaw. Grace declines Jamie's suggestion of hired help and is also troubled by his constant questioning on her life in the asylum, which reminds her of Jordan and his apologies for the pain he's caused her. The narration now becomes known as a long letter Grace is writing to Jordan. Unbeknownst to her, he was severely injured in the American Civil War and was left in a semi-catatonic state. His mother reads him the letter, and Jordan, who has not uttered a word in years, emits the single word "Grace". The series closes with Grace sewing a quilt of her own, which includes pieces of fabric worn by Nancy and Mary so that the women remain close to her.
Public domain paintings from Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK - the national gallery of Denmark) decorate central locations in the series, among them the house of the Parkinson family where Grace Marks works as a maid, and the governor's mansion where she meets with Dr. Jordan. SMK provides free access to its public domain collection, and the scenographers have used a range of the museum's paintings, primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries.[11][12]
Seen in Parkinson's house: Christen Købke, View of a Street in Østerbro outside Copenhagen. Morning Light, 1836.
Seen in Parkinson's house: Jens Juel, Niels Ryberg with his Son Johan Christian and his Daughter-in-Law Engelke, née Falbe, 1797.
Seen in Parkinson's house: C.A. Jensen, Cathrine Jensen, née Lorenzen, the artist's Wife, Wearing a Turban, c. 1842–44.
Seen in Parkinson's house: Johan Thomas Lundbye, Kolås Wood. Vejrhøj, 1846.
Seen in Parkinson's house: Constantin Hansen, The Arch of Titus in Rome, 1839.
Seen in Parkinson's house: Jens Juel, The Dancing Glade at Sorgenfri, North of Copenhagen, 1800.
Seen in Parkinson's house: Carl Gustaf Pilo, Portrait of Frederik V in Anointment Robe, about 1750.
Seen in the governor's mansion: Rembrandt's workshop, Willem Drost?, Young Woman with a Carnation, 1656.
The prison scenes were shot on location at Kingston Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario where the real Grace Marks, who formed the basis of Atwood's character, was incarcerated. Scenes were also filmed at the Correctional Service of Canada Museum in the old Warden's residence.[13]
On Metacritic, the series received a score of 81 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[14] The miniseries has a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.00 out of 10 based on 82 reviews. The site's critical consensus is: "Biting social commentary and Sarah Gadon's hypnotic performance make Alias Grace a worthy addition to the Margaret Atwood adaptation catalog".[15]
^ Maane Khatchatourian (June 21, 2016). "Netflix Nabs Sarah Polley Miniseries Based on Margaret Atwood True-Crime Novel". Variety. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
^ "CBC, Netflix to screen miniseries based on Margaret Atwood novel Alias Grace". The Globe and Mail. The Canadian Press. June 21, 2016.
^ "Netflix Debuts First Look Images from New Miniseries based on Margaret Atwood novel, Alias Grace". Netflix Media Center. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
^ Alias Grace Teaser Netflix. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
^ "Vince Carter documentary and a preview of CBC's Alias Grace join TIFF's 26-title Canuck lineup". Toronto Star, August 9, 2017.
^ Wong, Tony (June 6, 2017). "City TV unveils a Canadian 'Sopranos' for the fall". The Hamilton Spectator. Last month, CBC announced its fall lineup, doubling down on Canadian author Margaret Atwood with the historical drama Alias Grace, which joins children's show Wandering Wenda on the network.
^ Lesley Goldberg (June 28, 2016). "Sarah Gadon to Star in Netflix's Margaret Atwood Drama 'Alias Grace' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
^ Michael Ausiello (July 22, 2016). "Zachary Levi Joins Alias Grace, Netflix and CBC's 6-Hour Miniseries". TVLine. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
^ Nellie Andreeva (August 16, 2016). "Anna Paquin To Star In 'Alias Grace' Netflix & CBC Miniseries". Deadline. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
^ Bill Brioux [@BillBriouxTV] (September 26, 2017). "MON o'nites CTV #BigBang 2952k YoungShel 2553k MeMyself&I 952k GoodDoc 1820k CBC #MurdochMysteries 978k #AliasGrace 442k GLO #TheBrave 874k" (Tweet). Retrieved May 20, 2018 – via Twitter.
^ Sanderhoff, Merete (November 8, 2017). "Danish art takes Netflix". SMK Open. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
^ "Dansk kunst på Netflix". www.b.dk (in Danish). November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
^ Grubbs, Jefferson. "Is Kingston Penitentiary A Real Prison? 'Alias Grace' Filmed On Location". Bustle. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
^ "Alias Grace". Metacritic. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
^ "Alias Grace: Miniseries". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alias Grace (TV series).
Alias Grace at IMDb
Gilbert, Sophie (November 11, 2017). "Alias Grace Is True Crime Through the Female Gaze". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
Mary Harron filmography
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
American Psycho (2000)
The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)
The Moth Diaries (2011)
The Anna Nicole Story (2013)
Charlie Says (2018)
Dalíland (TBA)
Alias Grace (2017)
Netflix original ended series (2012–2018)
Bad Samaritans (2013)
House of Cards (2013–18)
Hemlock Grove (2013–15)
Orange Is the New Black (2013–19)
Turbo Fast (2013–16)
Lilyhammer (2012–14)
Some Assembly Required (2014–16)
All Hail King Julien (2014–17)
BoJack Horseman (2014–20)
Knights of Sidonia (2014–15)
Marco Polo (2014–16)
VeggieTales in the House (2014–16)
The Seven Deadly Sins (2014–20)
Atelier (2015)
Between (2015–16)
Bloodline (2015–17)
Care Bears & Cousins (2015–16)
Club de Cuervos (2015–19)
Daredevil (2015–18)
Dawn of the Croods (2015–17)
Dinotrux (2015–18)
DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge (2015–18)
F Is for Family (2015–21)
Grace and Frankie (2015–22)
Jessica Jones (2015–19)
Making a Murderer (2015–18)
Narcos (2015–17)
Popples (2015–16)
Richie Rich (2015)
Sense8 (2015–18)
Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City (2015–16)
The Adventures of Puss in Boots (2015–18)
The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show (2015–17)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–19)
W/ Bob & David (2015)
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015)
3% (2016–20)
Ask the StoryBots (2016–19)
Beat Bugs (2016–18)
Bottersnikes and Gumbles (2016–17)
Brown Nation (2016)
Captive (2016)
Chasing Cameron (2016)
Chelsea (2016–17)
Chelsea Does (2016)
Cooked (2016)
Crazyhead (2016)
Degrassi: Next Class (2016–17)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016–17)
Easy (2016–19)
El marginal (2016-2022)
Estocolmo (2016)
Flaked (2016–17)
Fuller House (2016–20)
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016)
Haters Back Off (2016–17)
Hibana: Spark (2016)
Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh (2016–18)
Kong: King of the Apes (2016–18)
Kulipari (2016–18)
Lady Dynamite (2016–17)
Last Chance U (2016–20)
Love (2016–18)
Luke Cage (2016–18)
Luna Petunia (2016–18)
Marseille (2016–18)
Netflix Presents: The Characters (2016)
The OA (2016–19)
Paranoid (2016)
Skylanders Academy (2016–18)
StoryBots Super Songs (2016)
The Ranch (2016–20)
The Get Down (2016–17)
Terrace House: Aloha State (2016–17)
Travelers (2016–18)
Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (2016–18)
Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016–18)
White Rabbit Project (2016)
Word Party (2016-2021)
World of Winx (2016–17)
13 Reasons Why (2017–20)
72 Dangerous Animals: Latin America (2017)
Atypical (2017–21)
A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017–19)
Abstract: The Art of Design (2017)
American Vandal (2017–18)
Anne with an E (2017–20)
Bill Nye Saves the World (2017–18)
Cable Girls (2017–20)
Castlevania (2017–21)
Dark (2017–20)
Dear White People (2017–21)
Disjointed (2017–18)
El Chapo (2017–18)
Five Came Back (2017)
Free Rein (2017–19)
Friends from College (2017–19)
Girlboss (2017)
GLOW (2017–19)
Godless (2017)
Greenhouse Academy (2017–20)
Gypsy (2017)
Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (2017)
Iron Fist (2017–18)
Ingobernable
Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father (2017–21)
Julie's Greenroom (2017)
Legend Quest (2017-19)
Mindhunter (2017–19)
My Only Love Song (2017)
Neo Yokio (2017–18)
One Day at a Time (2017–19)
Ozark (2017–22)
Santa Clarita Diet (2017–19)
She's Gotta Have It (2017–19)
Shot in the Dark (2017)
Spirit Riding Free (2017-2020)
Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters (2017–18)
Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–20)
The Confession Tapes (2017–19)
The Day I Met El Chapo (2017)
The End of the F***ing World (2017–19)
The Keepers (2017)
The Kindness Diaries (2017)
The Magic School Bus Rides Again (2017–20)
The Many Faces of Ito (2017)
The Worst Witch (2017–20)
The Punisher (2017–19)
The Toys That Made Us (2017-19)
Tarzan and Jane (2017–18)
Terrace House: Opening New Doors (2017–19)
Ultimate Beastmaster (2017–18)
VeggieTales in the City (2017)
We're Lalaloopsy (2017)
Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2017)
Wormwood (2017)
3Below: Tales of Arcadia (2018–19)
7 Days Out (2018)
72 Dangerous Animals: Asia (2018)
A Little Help with Carol Burnett (2018)
A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities (2018–19)
Afflicted (2018)
Alexa & Katie (2018–20)
All About the Washingtons (2018)
Altered Carbon (2018–20)
Amazing Interiors (2018)
Baby (2018–20)
Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures (2018–20)
Battlefish (2018)
Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever. (2018)
Bobby Kennedy for President (2018)
Brainchild (2018)
Bumping Mics with Jeff Ross & Dave Attell (2018)
Busted! (2018–21)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–20)
Cooking on High (2018)
Dancing Queen (2018)
Dark Tourist (2018)
Death by Magic (2018)
Devilman Crybaby (2018)
Diablero (2018–20)
Dirty Money (2018–20)
Dogs of Berlin (2018)
Everything Sucks! (2018)
Evil Genius (2018)
Explained (2018–19)
Fastest Car (2018–19)
First Team: Juventus (2018)
Flint Town (2018)
Follow This (2018)
Ghoul (2018)
Girls Incarcerated (2018–19)
Hero Mask (2018–19)
Insatiable (2018–19)
Kiss Me First (2018)
The Kominsky Method (2018–21)
The Letdown (2018–19)
Lost in Space (2018-21)
Luis Miguel: The Series (2018-21)
Maniac (2018)
Marching Orders (2018)
Motown Magic (2018-19)
Murder Mountain (2018)
Narcos: Mexico (2018–21)
The New Legends of Monkey (2018-2020)
Nicky Jam: El Ganador (2018)
Norm Macdonald Has a Show (2018)
On My Block (2018–21)
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (2018–20)
Prince of Peoria (2018–19)
Requiem (2018)
Sacred Games (2018–19)
Safe (2018)
Salt Fat Acid Heat (2018)
Samantha! (2018–19)
Selection Day (2018)
Seven Seconds (2018)
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018–20)
Spy Kids: Mission Critical (2018)
Stay Here (2018)
Sunderland 'Til I Die (2018–20)
Super Drags (2018)
Swordgai: The Animation (2018)
The Ballad of Hugo Sánchez (2018)
The Break with Michelle Wolf (2018)
The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (2018)
The Final Table (2018)
The Fix (2018)
The Good Cop (2018)
The Hollow (2018–20)
The House of Flowers (2018–20)
The Innocent Man (2018)
The Innocents (2018)
The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale (2018)
The Mechanism (2018–19)
Paradise PD (2018–22)
The Ponysitters Club (2018)
The Protector (2018–20)
The Rain (2018–20)
The Staircase (2018)
The Who Was? Show (2018)
Tidelands (2018)
Trolls: The Beat Goes On! (2018–19)
Troy: Fall of a City (2018)
Ugly Delicious (2018–20)
Undercover Law (2018)
Vai Anitta (2018)
Watership Down (2018)
Westside (2018)
Wild District (2018–19)
Wild Wild Country (2018)
YG Future Strategy Office (2018)
Original ended series (2019 onwards)
Continuation series
2017 Canadian television series debuts
2017 Canadian television series endings
English-language Netflix original programming
Films based on works by Margaret Atwood
CBC Television original programming
Television shows based on Canadian novels
Murder in television
Television shows set in Toronto
Television shows filmed in Toronto
Television shows filmed in Kingston, Ontario
Irish-Canadian culture in Ontario
Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Television Film or Miniseries winners
2010s Canadian drama television series
2010s Canadian television miniseries


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Working with Management
Center Rock Capital Partners and Leelanau Private Capital Acquire Eastern Wholesale Fence
by Christian Theodore | Nov 3, 2020 | 0 comments
Center Rock and Leelanau Acquire Leading Manufacturer and Distributor of Fencing
CHICAGO, IL and BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI — Nov 3, 2020 — Center Rock Capital Partners, LP ("Center Rock") and Leelanau Private Capital ("LPC") are pleased to announce the acquisition of Eastern Wholesale Fence, LLC ("Eastern"), a leading branded manufacturer and distributor of exterior residential and commercial fencing solutions.
Eastern is headquartered in Medford, New York and offers one of the broadest portfolios of premium, innovative PVC, chain link, wood, and aluminum fences. Offering quality fencing and industry-leading service, Eastern is a critical partner to fence contractors, fence fabricators, distributors, retailers, landscapers, and municipalities.
"Eastern's quality products, high service levels, and quick ship capabilities differentiates us from the competition at each stage of the sale and fulfillment process," said Peter Williams Jr., CEO of Eastern. "We are proud to have built Eastern into a leading fencing distributor in the Northeast and are excited to partner with Center Rock and LPC to pursue strategic initiatives and further accelerate growth."
Terry Theodore, Partner at Center Rock said, "With over 15,000 SKUs, Eastern's comprehensive product offering, outstanding customer service, and exceptionally fast delivery model allow Eastern to get high quality products to their customers more quickly than others in their industry." Brent Willson, a Center Rock Principal added, "Peter and his team have demonstrated an ability to win in a fragmented fencing market by investing strategically in production and distribution capabilities. Eastern's strong market position and industry-leading service model, together with opportunities to expand, make it a very exciting investment for Center Rock."
About Eastern Wholesale Fence, LLC
Eastern Wholesale Fence is a leading branded manufacturer and distributor of exterior residential and commercial fencing solutions. Eastern manufactures and distributes a full range of fence products, including PVC, chain link, wood, and aluminum ornamental fencing
For more information, please visit www.easternfence.com.
About Center Rock Capital Partners
Center Rock is a Midwest-based private equity firm focused on building leading industrial companies in the lower middle market. Center Rock seeks industrial manufacturing, industrial services and industrial distribution companies headquartered in North America, often with multi-national operations and locations that serve both domestic and global markets. With substantial expertise working constructively with management teams to drive both operational and strategic improvement, Center Rock's investment professionals have the flexibility and tools to invest in a broad array of transactions and build value in lower middle market industrial companies.
Partner Access Portal
© 2023 Center Rock Capital Partners

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Process water is a general term, and since each system can vary based on the water quality and the environmental regulations for its reuse, there is no universal treatment process. Nevertheless, basic requirements must be met when dealing with produced water. It is important for companies to understand these factors so that can be maximized while containing costs and complying with regulations.
Water, even if it's occurring in nature, consists of a lot of minerals which can harm industrial pipes, boilers, etc. by causing corrosion, scale building, spotting on finished surfaces, precipitation in chemical products and other related problems. Thus the following water treatment techniques are used to maintain a long life for these costly equipment and produce ultra-pure water with higher specifications.
Demineralization & Reverse Osmosis Techniques.
Preliminary treatment or pretreatment is any physical, chemical or mechanical process used on water before it undergoes the main treatment process. During preliminary treatment :screens may be used to remove rocks, sticks, leaves and other debris; chemicals may be added to control the growth of algae; and also a pre-sedimentation stage can settle out sand, grit and gravel from raw water.
RO stage As illustrated in the figure we tend to apply a very high pressure is applied to the concentrated solution, the water molecules are forced through the semi-permeable membrane and the in which bacteria, heavy metals, salt, bad mineral substances and other dissolved matter and chemical drugs are removed from water to be collected in tanks for use .


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5 Simple Tips to Help Manage Social Anxiety After Leaving Lockdown
Community Psychiatry's Allie Shapiro, M.D. is featured in Healthline providing tips on how to handle anxiety as we ease back into normal life following the end of quarantine.
By: Cathy Cassata, 06/15/2020 | Healthline
1. Ease back into it
For those who live with social anxiety, Dr. Allie R. Shapiro, psychiatrist with Community Psychiatry, says to slowly enter into a social life.
"This will help them to ease into situations that were previously uncomfortable. As quarantine ends, the auto-avoidance will also end, necessitating their introduction back into situations they deeply fear. That's not a leap anyone should take all at once," Shapiro told Healthline.
2. Visualize situations in your head
Shapiro recommends preparing for upcoming social events by role-playing specific worries or concerns with someone you trust, on paper or in your head.
Abelovska elaborates by explaining if you have an upcoming walk planned with a friend or are about to meet them at the park, try to mentally plan your meetup and how you'd like it to go.
"Visualize your friend when you see them and what you will say. It may be awkward at first, especially as we are not able to hug or touch friends, but you will soon adapt to the new way of greeting a loved one," she said.
Another strategy Shapiro suggests is to challenge internal negative thought patterns with a reversal thought, either before or during anxiety-provoking situations.
For example, if you're going to an outing where you'll be around new people, she says, "Instead of auto-thinking, 'These people won't like me and will make fun of me,' try: 'They've been stuck inside for months just like me. We'll trade stories. They will like me and I'll probably find one new friend,'" she said.
3. Allow yourself to be scared
Even if it seems like everyone around you isn't worried or scared to get back into the world, Shapiro says it's acceptable to have your own reaction and anxieties about the situation.
"Remember, no one has ever been through anything like this in the modern world, so no one really knows how to do it 'right.' Even the experts don't have all the answers, so it's normal to have your own uncertainties and doubts," she said.
Socialize at your comfort level, Shapiro adds.
"You're not obligated to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or puts you at risk. There are a lot of different factors that will affect when you feel it's the best time to start venturing out. Think about your age, health history, quarantine situations, and even your own anxiety when taking that next step outside," Shapiro said.
Click here to read the entire article on Healthline
Community Psychiatry Appoints Christopher Brengard As Chief Executive Officer
Experienced multi-site provider executive joins leading independent provider of outpatient behavioral health to accelerate continued expansion of integrated access to high-quality, clinically-driven care; Community Psychiatry also expands Board of Directors …
How to Talk to Friends and Family Who Are Hesitant to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine
Community Psychiatry's Leela Magavi, MD was featured in Healthline discussing how having open discussions with loved ones about the vaccine can help relieve fears. By: Cathy Cassata | December 17, …
Parental Job Loss During COVID Puts Kids at Higher Risk of Abuse
Community Psychiatry's Leela Magavi, MD was featured in Verywell Family discussing child abuse related to the pandemic. By:Sarah Fielding | December 15, 2020 Parents are supposed to be a source …


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Q: Missing artifact org.springframework.security:spring-security-parent:jar:3.0.7.RELEASE:compile I am getting a Missing artifact org.springframework.security:spring-security-parent:jar:3.0.7.RELEASE:compile error in the pom.xml when I add the maven dependency for Spring Security but when I remove that dependency the error disappears. Could someone help me understand that why is it happening and how should I add Spring Security 3 added in my application using maven? Thanks.
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     <groupId>com.think</groupId>
     <artifactId>think</artifactId>
     <packaging>war</packaging>
     <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <name>think Maven Webapp</name>
     <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <properties>
        <java-version>1.6</java-version>
        <org.springframework-version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
        <org.aspectj-version>1.6.10</org.aspectj-version>
        <org.slf4j-version>1.6.1</org.slf4j-version>

        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

     <dependencies>
        <!-- Spring -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                 </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Spring Security -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-parent</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- AspectJ -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSR 330 - @Inject -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl-impl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Jackson JSON Processor -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Rome Atom+RSS -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.java.dev.rome</groupId>
            <artifactId>rome</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSR 303 with Hibernate Validator -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
            <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Joda Time Library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
            <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- File Upload -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>2.0.1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JUnit -->
           <dependency>
             <groupId>junit</groupId>
             <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
             <version>4.8</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
           </dependency>

        <!-- JSR 250 - @PostConstruct, @PreDestroy and @Resource  -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.annotation</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsr250-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- java-image-scaling -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.mortennobel</groupId>
            <artifactId>java-image-scaling</artifactId>
            <version>0.8.5</version>
        </dependency>
     </dependencies>

    <repositories>
        <!-- For testing against latest Spring snapshots -->
        <repository>
            <id>org.springframework.maven.snapshot</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Snapshot Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/snapshot</url>
            <releases><enabled>false</enabled></releases>
            <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
        <!-- For developing against latest Spring milestones -->
        <repository>
            <id>org.springframework.maven.milestone</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Milestone Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/milestone</url>
            <snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>${java-version}</source>
                    <target>${java-version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>install</id>
                        <phase>install</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>sources</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
              <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
              <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
              <configuration>
                <webResources>
                  <resource>
                    <directory>${build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
                    <targetPath>src</targetPath>
                  </resource>
                </webResources>
              </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <!-- Have to use version 1.2 since version 1.3 does not appear to work with ITDs -->
                <version>1.2</version>
                <dependencies>
                    <!-- You must use Maven 2.0.9 or above or these are ignored (see MNG-2972) -->
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
                        <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjtools</artifactId>
                        <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
                    </dependency>

            </dependencies>

                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>compile</goal>
                            <goal>test-compile</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <outxml>true</outxml>
                    <source>${java-version}</source>
                    <target>${java-version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.1</version>
            </plugin>

        </plugins>

    </build>

</project>

A: This dependency exists, however it is a parent of a multi-module project with pom packaging. You should be importing concrete artifacts that reference this module internally:
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

The spring-security-parent pom artifact will be transitively downloaded for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Teodora Miscov
Following her passion for all things digital, Teodora moved to London with the goal of completing her BA in Digital Media Communications at the University of Westminster. Having completed her formal education, she is now pursuing her career in the vibrant Soho as the Marketing Manager at Lab. Her interest for art and philosophy finds a release on her personal blog, which she has been running for six years. Catch up with Teodora on LinkedIn and Twitter.
We've won the Creativity & Innovation award at The Drum Recommends ceremony last night!
The Drum Recommends Awards recognise the most highly-rated agencies on the homonymous platform.
LAB Wins The Drum Recommends Award for Creativity & Innovation
LAB, the independent digital agency that uses a blend of consumer neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics to design, build and market digital brands and experiences, has just won another The Drum Recommends Award, the awards which recognise the most highly-rated agencies on The Drum Recommends platform.
LAB has been recognised for three different areas of its offering, with nominations in the Direct Marketing, Creativity/Innovation and Strategic Thinking categories - and winning the Creativity & Innovation award.
"Creativity is what makes us find a better way, discover new unexpected connections and bring something innovative to the surface. It's an inherently human trait within a world of technology. We're so happy to have received another The Drum Recommends award recognising our team's different way of viewing the world." - Tom Head, Co-Owner and Director at LAB
Agencies are not required to submit an entry form for the awards, as nominations are based on the ratings they have received from clients on The Drum Recommends. The Recommends database contains over 64,000 ratings from brands.
Congratulations to all the fellow nominees and winners, and thank you to The Drum for organising one of the best nights in digital.
At Lab we believe you need two superpowers to succeed today, a deep understanding of human behaviour and digital. Our mission is to give these to as many people as possible.
If you want to find out how this could transform your business get in touch at hello@lab.co.uk or 0207 183 6668
People buy emotion
Author: Jakub Šenkyřík
Lab develops creative concept and visual identity for Digital Podge
Author: Teodora Miscov
Neuromarketing sounds sexy because it is sexy
Lab Named 'Ones To Watch' in the Econsultancy Top 100


Roland DG Corporation has announced it recently sold its 420,000th vinyl cutter.
"We often hear that the cutter market is mature," said Yuko Maeda, Roland DG general manager for sign products. "However, we believe that the needs for using a cutter, for both professionals and consumers, are still strong, and we remain committed to exceeding our users' expectations with our market-leading technology. The sale of our 420,000th cutter is testimony of our success."
Roland DG began producing and selling its CAMM-1 series cutters in 1988 to improve the productivity of sign makers. "Previously, stencils and signs were made by hand," said Maeda. "Since their introduction, Roland professional cutters have become widely used in a variety of fields to handle a range of applications, including stickers, decals, signs, window tinting film, floor graphics and heat transfers for apparel decoration."
For the consumer and office markets, Roland developed the smaller, less expensive and easy-to-use line of portable STIKA series cutters in 1990. "STIKA satisfies the needs for consumer who want to decorate their automobiles or personal belongings with colourful labels and decals, and for small office personnel and retailers who want to produce office signs and point-of-purchase (POP) displays on demand." Maeda said.
The announcement comes with the introduction of the company's latest CAMM-1 product, the GS-24 desktop cutter. "With 26 years of technological evolution, the GS represents true cutting-edge technology," Maeda added. "It features a redesigned cutting carriage and blade holder, increased downforce for cutting dense materials and a convenient LCD panel for easy monitoring and control."
"In addition to being our most powerful desktop cutter ever," Maeda said, "the GS is also the easiest to use, even for novices." The included Roland CutStudio software lets you enlarge, reduce, reposition, rotate and mirror images quickly and easily. An improved tiling function makes cutting oversized images a breeze, and you can even cut TrueType fonts without the need for outlining. CutStudio supports BMP, JPG, STX, AL and EPS file formats as well as the ability to cut directly from Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW.


text:
Formula E Driver Suspended For Cocaine Use!
Action adventure video game Super Metroid was released in 1994 and is the third installment of the Metroid series.
First released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988 prior to being formatted for NES, Super Contra is a run and gun video game.
Andretti Autosport's has confirmed that one of their drivers from the Formula E series has tested positive for Cocaine. The driver is Franck Montagny, honorably Montagny has admitted to the drug use and the FIA has suspended the Andretti driver.
Formula E is the latest edition to the racing community. "E" being electric race cars, that is right. Formula E is a mixture of Indy Car and Tesla. The brain child of the FIA.
Montagny is quoted by saying he "made a mistake" and that he "is guilty" of all accusation.
Through professional studies, cocaine stays in the human body for 2-4 days which places the date of use on Montagny during the race weekend in question.
Car Brands That Started Out Making Anything But Cars
Ferrari LaFerrari Production Maranello
12 Insanely Different Bugatti Veyrons
LaFerrari Vs Porsche 918 Vs McLaren P1: World Exclusive (teaser) – TOP GEAR
Four Bugatti Chiron's Spotted In Los Angeles


text:
The Forgotten Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
HomeBlogCommentaryThe Forgotten Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He gets a whole day because he was at the forefront of one of the most important movements in the history of this nation. This August marks the 60th anniversary of his "I Have a Dream" speech in which he spoke the famous words which embody that movement: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
That sentence is his legacy. It's noble and aspirational. It conveys all that we should be. We're all familiar with it, and what it means.
Why, then, don't we act like it?
Despite his words, his life, and the Civil Rights Movement, our society regards race as an overarching, primary characteristic. We don't live in a color-blind society, and in spite of everything Rev. King strove for, we're now told that to even be color-blind is to be racist. We've forgotten his legacy. Just a couple of days ago the NHL announced a job fair in Florida at which whites were not permitted, a blatantly discriminatory act in overt violation of both Federal and Florida State law. But plenty of people don't see a problem with it as long as it discriminates only against whites, and so the NHL plans a whole job fair based on race. I'll be called racist just for pointing out that it's wrong.
It begs the question: is this what Martin Luther King envisioned 60 years ago? Is this what he wanted? I believe most people recognize the answer to be "no." Rev. King's dream of seeing character rather than race still seems to be very far away due to this hyper-focus on race.
It wasn't always this way. To understand why it is now, we need to review a bit of history. Then we need to overcome it. Then we can begin to realize Rev. King's dream.
The Sociology of Race
Race is an inescapable aspect of what we are, determined by our DNA, and impossible to change. However, it says nothing about who we are, and that's the essence of that memorable passage in Rev. King's speech. The only influence race has on who we are is in the learned cultural practices shared by people who share the same race and geography, and how others treat us based on our race.
Humans have a natural tendency to seek the company of those who are like us, in one or more respects. In other words, we self-segregate. This can be along many lines, but race is a very obvious indicator, because not only is our race impossible to change, but it's also nearly impossible to hide. Physical characteristics such as skin, eye, and hair color, and even build, almost always give away racial traits at a glance.
Historically, before cross-continental travel was made easy, almost everyone in a given part of the world shared similar racial characteristics, so self-segregation was primarily on the basis of traits other than race. This could be tribe/clan, class, socio-economic status, religion, or even profession. Even within very small communities that have everything else in common, people often self-segregate based on age and sex. Old women will get together to talk and chide the young pack of boys who just recklessly broke yet another thing. Even in America today, people who are all the same race still naturally self-segregate by sports interest, musical interest, or social groups, sometimes violently (think The Outsiders). The Red River Rivalry between UT and OU is a good modern-day, non-violent, football-ized example of such a dynamic where race isn't a factor at all.
This self-segregating is a natural function of human behavior because associating with people like ourselves provides familiarity and comfort and a sense of security. Conversely, we naturally feel a sense of insecurity with people who are not like us. That's where racial friction comes from, and it has also been a factor in human interactions for all of recorded history.
In a melting pot like the United States, people tend to self-segregate by race because it's a very obvious indicator of who else is like you. The real basis for this is shared cultural experience. For instance, Indians in our community often seek the company of other Indians, and it's no wonder since Indians in America typically share much more in common with one another than with non-Indians. This is the case for almost all races and ethnicities.
However, while friction between races has always existed, conflict and hostility have historically not been based on racial differences. Certainly, history has seen plenty of racial strife, but most major conflicts in history have been based on religious or ideological differences, or over good old-fashioned scarcity of resources. History is rife with countless examples of localized and enduring violence among people of the same race. That was the entire history of the Mongol Empire before the Chieftan Temujin united thirteen warring tribes all of the same race who had perpetually been fighting and killing one another. Temujin became Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Dynasty, which went on to fight and kill a lot of other people, also not on the basis of race.
The Evolution of American Racism
Despite the popular modern narrative, slavery was neither uniquely white, nor uniquely American. Almost every race in every significant civilization in the history of the world practiced slavery, and none of them cared too much about the race of the slave. The very word "slave" has Latin roots related to the Slavs of Eastern Europe who were captured by Germanic raiders and sold as slaves to the Arabic rulers of Spain as far back as the Eighth Century A.D.
This then is the legacy of humanity–constantly killing and enslaving one another. It really warms the heart.
Fast forward from the eighth century to the sixteenth century when slaves from Africa were sold to Portuguese merchants by slavers in West Africa. These black Africans were captured by other black Africans and sold to white Europeans. These slaves, taken first to Brazil, were the first in what would become a persistent and thriving transatlantic slave trade.
At the time, any consideration of the race of the buyers, the sellers, or the slaves, was secondary to the consideration of profit, long before Adam Smith penned The Wealth of Nations, a progenitor of capitalist philosophy. It turns out the profit motive is as old as humanity too, and so the slave trade prospered.
In time, however, the Enlightenment began to subvert all this. Slavery had been a well-established, profitable institution all over the globe for literally thousands of years, and then these upstart Enlightenment thinkers (white Europeans incidentally) started writing about Liberty and the Dignity of Mankind, and suchlike. They started to gain adherents, and to put pressure on governments to limit or abolish slavery.
This, in fact, was a central argument in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States. Abolitionists in the northern states wanted to abolish slavery while slaveholders in the southern states wanted to protect the institution and keep using slave labor. This impasse was what resulted in the infamous three-fifths compromise in the Constitution, but despite what you may hear in public schools or the mainstream media, the three-fifths compromise did not suggest that black people were only worth three-fifths of a person. Rather, it specified that for purposes of the census and Congressional apportionment, three-fifths of all slaves were counted in the census, while free people were counted fully, including free blacks, of which there were many in the north. It was the abolitionists who wanted slaves to not be counted at all, so as to deny the slaveholding southern states more seats in the new Congress since more northern Congressional seats meant a greater chance of abolishing slavery. Conversely, the slaveholding southerners wanted slaves to count as a full person (those racists!) so the south would hold more power in Congress to protect the institution of slavery.
The end result of three-fifths was nearly a precise measure of the balance of anti-slavery to pro-slavery sentiment at the time the Constitution was drafted in 1787. In time though, Enlightenment thinking advanced, and the abolitionist movement gained ground. Then England abolished slavery in 1833, seriously jeopardizing the institution in America.
Throughout this process, the philosophy behind slavery in America changed further. Where historically slavery was accepted as largely "just business," now that the writing was on the wall, slaveholders, looking to protect the institution, increasingly rationalized the practice, and did so along racial lines since slaves in America were now almost universally black (a century or more prior, there were also white slaves in America, and it's estimated that at the time the Constitution was drafted more than a million whites were enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast in Northern Africa).
Here we begin to see in earnest the notion that blacks were inferior to whites, and that slavery was good for them. You can see it reflected in the writing of the time by those who were pro-slavery. Basically, they thought of anything they could come up with to justify keeping slavery around. This is where our national consciousness said goodbye to any focus on slavery in favor of a focus on race.
In the end, of course, it came to war–The American Civil War to be precise. The end of that war, and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, formally abolished slavery in the United States (which, I note, was supported by 100 percent of the Republicans and 23 percent of the Democrats.)
Then came the Reconstruction, and all of the long-built sentiment of the inferiority of blacks was left to fester in the former slaveholding states, and racial friction would mount for nearly a century more in the era of Segregation before the culmination of the Civil Rights movement.
A hundred years is a long time to keep stewing on something, and it only makes matters worse. People have short memories, but the memory of societal sentiment runs deep. The Civil Rights movement was a movement–had to be a movement precisely because it ran so deep in the south. The deep-seated societal memory of every excuse concocted to protect slavery was what gave segregation such a strong foothold in the south, and why so much was required to overcome it.
Segregation was dismantled, and over the next half-century, racial barriers were torn down, and discrimination faded into the past. Obstacles based on race were replaced with obstacles based on socio-economic status, which can have a strong corollary, but we won't stop talking about race, and defining one another by race, and judging based on race.
In our urge to right the injustices of the past, we are hyper-sensitive to race and increasingly seek to confer victim status. Race has become such an overt focus that it's even changed the way we categorize race. Several years ago, Hispanics in America outnumbered African Americans for the first time. After that happened, suddenly questionnaires changed from a single "Race" question which included both African-American and Hispanic as options to two questions: "Race," which included all the options as before, except Hispanic, and a new "Ethnicity" question, which only contains two options: Hispanic, or Non-Hispanic, as though the entire concept of ethnicity has only to do with whether one is Hispanic.
Our obsession with race only breeds more obsession, doing greater injustice to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Reviving the Dream
Rev. King's dream was noble, and it remains impossible so long as we regard race as a problem to be solved. Race isn't our problem, our societal focus on race is our problem. The issue isn't that we're white or black or Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander. The issue is that we're human. Ironically, we need to go back several hundred centuries to a time when we didn't see race as our predominant defining characteristic, but we need to do so without the bloodshed and slavery.
Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a nation where we could be judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. It's very hard to lay down decades or centuries of cultural inclination, but while being human is our greatest curse, it's also our greatest blessing because we have the gift of free will and willpower to look past all of it and simply make it happen, thereby making race cease to matter–through sheer will.
As I've said, 90 percent of our issues would evaporate if we treated one another as fellow children of God first, and everything else second. That goes for race, political affiliation, or school. Rev. King's legacy is great. Making his dream an enduring reality would be so much greater.
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text:
Q: How to change a string to Uri I am getting (what I believe) is a string from my hashmap and need to return this from my method as a Uri in order to use it in a VideoView.  Here is my method that gets the string from my hashmap:
public static Uri getVideoPath(String cond){
        Log.d(DEB_TAG, "*********Inside of getVideoPath");

        HashMap hm = createHashmap();

        Log.d(DEB_TAG, "********Value of hm is " + hm.get(cond));
        Uri tempPath = (Uri) hm.get(cond);

        return tempPath;
    }

I get a value for my "hm.get(cond)"  of this "http://www.personal.psu.edu/tmv105/video/sunny/sunny.mp4"  I get no value for "tempPath" which is the value that I am passing over to the call of this method like this: (mVid is my VideoView)
mPath = LayoutConditions.getVideoPath(wd.getCurrentIconCode());
mVid.setVideoURI(mPath);
mVid.requestFocus();
mVid.start();

Any ideas how I might handle this?  Thanks in advance for any help provided!

A: Try this:
Uri tempPath = Uri.parse((String)hm.get(cond));


'I LOVED this book! I am a Yoga Teacher who is trained in Kundalini but I generally don't practice it because I am not a practicing Sikh and I have some concerns about the 'cult-like' nature of the style. However, this book blew all the myths away.
I'm actually considering making this book part of my Yoga Teacher Training courses in the future because I believe her explanations of the eastern anatomy are so clear and undogmatic'.
In this fully illustrated introduction to the wonders of Kundalini, yoga teacher Kathryn McCusker teaches us how to activate the infinite power present in us all. Lying dormant at the base of the spine, Kundalini energy can be awakened by a range of techniques, from yoga poses, meditation and breathing exercises to mantras, mudras, body locks called bandhas and more. Moving through the spine, this energy re-balances each of the body's seven major chakras (energy centres), calming our nervous system, balancing the mind and re-energising our entire being.
Stage by stage, this insightful book shows how to make Kundalini practice a part of even the busiest life, no matter how much or little yoga or meditation you've done in the past. It begins with an easy-to-follow account of the subtle body, the energetic part of you that includes the chakras and Kundalini itself. There is advice on all aspects of preparation, from motivation and setting up a practice space to using diet and ritual to purify your body and mind. Step-by-step exercises then illustrate the key stretches and yoga poses, there is a chapter on the vital art of pranayama (breath control) and another explains how to deepen your practice through the use of mantras (sacred sounds), mudras (hand gestures) and yantras (sacred diagrams). Finally, the twelve guided meditations in the last chapter, each one an effective combination of the techniques already explained, empower you to address specific issues you may like to enhance in your life, whether balance, creativity, love, anxiety, anger or fatigue.
Designed to be easily integrated into daily life, the nurturing guidance in this book allows absolutely anyone to draw on the Kundalini power already present in their body to achieve lasting health and happiness.
The 12 guided meditations—combinations of yoga, pose, mantras and mudra (hand gestures)—bring together all the techniques to address issues such as creativity, love, anxiety or fatigue. Click here to purchase downloads of the chanted mantra meditations featured in Kathryn's book.
With this inspiring book, you'll draw on the Kundalini power already present in your body to achieve lasting health and happiness. Full-color throughout.


The Alan Jones contract saga drags on, with new reports over the weekend suggesting that Super Network's Bill Caralis made a call to Jones to formally offer him a job.
Herald Sun reports that the reclusive owner reached out to Jones, whose contract with 2GB ends within months.
If Jones were to move to 2SM he would be reunited with the Golden Tonsils; John Laws.
A spokesperson for Laws said that he would be more than happy to work with Jones despite their checkered past.
Laws does not answer to a program director at 2SM, freedom that could sway Jones to move, given he was reportedly disciplined by the Macquarie Media board following several on-air incidents throughout 2018.
Whether Jones goes this time around or not, 2GB will eventually need to replace him on Breakfast.
Until now, the frontrunners to replace Jones on Breakfast have been Mornings host Ray Hadley or Drive presenter Ben Fordham.
But the latest report from the Daily Telegraph suggests that Steve Price could be an option for either Mornings or Breakfast.
"Ray is going to take over breakfast and Steve will go into mornings if Alan is not there," a senior Macquarie Media exec reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Merrick Watts could feature in some way, after he reportedly sought a secure a full-time role at 2GB following a secret trial for management recently.
Watts will present 2GB Drive this week on Good Friday, alongside Natalie Peters.
An interesting caveat in the mix is the increasing uncertainty over Hadley's own future, given the steady stream of bullying allegations from current and ex-employees he has faced in recent weeks.
Macquarie Media has responded to all questions about recent allegations against Hadley with a variation on the following statement, given to Radio Today on April 5.
"All claims and complaints received are handled by way of a confidential process between the person complaining, the person being investigated and the company.
Jones' salary will be based on the current per diem rental price of a dead horse.


It was more than one year ago when an internet friend invited me to participate in the crowdfunding campaign of a French band named Synopsys. To be honest, until that moment I had heard no sample of their music (their previous releases included one EP and one demo) and If I would like to be more accurate I would say that I actually had no knowledge of their existence as a band. Some quick search in Youtube and Spotify, some quick listening to some audio samples and I finally decided to join the campaign. In these cases the best thing that anyone can do, is trust his instinct and this is exactly what I did. After all, helping a band release their music can only be a good thing, isn't it ?
and as already mentioned, this is their first full length album containing 8 songs, coming in a beautiful digipack CD (LP's are also available through the band's webstore) and having a cover which definitely sets the mood for the listener of the album.
If someone would like to give a quick description of their music, that would be post metal which combines a large amount of atmospheric elements in the background. Synopsys do not hesitate to experiment with their material, incorporating ambient and classical parts into their compositions but in the same time they do not also "forget" to become harder and darker (Leviathan). Melancholic soundscapes are frequently apparent within Le Temps du Rêve either during songs like Into the Abyss and A Whisper in the Evening or during the two short interludes Impulse and Beyond the Black Ocean and it is exactly this pluralism in the compositions that makes the album a success.
Another thing that I have personally found as an advantage in their compositions is the durations which (with the exception of the first song) are kept within logical time-frames (around 6 minutes by average) thus helping to maintain the album's consistency by avoiding unnecessary musical verbalisms and theme repetitions . The production is excellent and helps to showcase the multidimensional character of Synopsys music, making any delay in the release of Le Temps du Rêve finally worthy.
Having been part of the crowdfunding campaign for the creation of Le Temps du Rêve, I know how hard Synopsys had worked for making this album a reality. As a listener, and music fan above all, I have to say that all the effort succeeded in producing one of the best records of this year so far.
Below you can find a Spotify link where you can listen their first EP Timeless.


The distance between Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and Karioi, New Zealand is approximately 13,071 km or 8,122 mi.
To reach Winnipeg, Manitoba in this distance one would set out from Karioi bearing 46.5° or NE and follow the great circles arc to approach Winnipeg, Manitoba bearing 60.4° or ENE .
Winnipeg, Manitoba has a warm summer continental/ hemiboreal climate with no dry season (Dfb) whereas Karioi has a marine west coast climate (Cfb).
The mean temperature is 7.9 °C (14.2°F) cooler.
Total annual precipitation averages 651.3 mm (25.6 in) less which is equivalent to 651.3 l/m² (15.98 US gal/ft²) or 6,513,000 l/ha (696,283 US gal/ac) less. About 3/7 as much.
The altitude of the sun at midday is overall 9.7° lower in Winnipeg, Manitoba than in Karioi.
The table shows values for Winnipeg, Manitoba relative to Karioi. You can also view this comparison the other way around from the perspective of Karioi vs Winnipeg, Manitoba.


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Myanmar to build more hotels in Nay Pyi Taw for SEA Games
Myanmar will build more hotels in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw in preparation for the upcoming 27th Southeast Asian (SEA Games set for next year-end, local media reported Thursday.
Aimed at provision of more hotel rooms for the SEA games, a total of 19 hotels will be added to the existing 31 hotels to make up to 50 in Nay Pyi Taw hotel zone, said the Myanmar Post Global News.
Myanmar authorities have negotiated with hoteliers to meet customer demand in service sector.
Star rating system with hotels will be introduced not only for the existing ones but also for the newly ones to be added in Nay Pyi Taw.
The 27th SEA Games will be hosted by Myanmar in Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung Beach for 12 days starting from Dec. 11 to 22 next year and the event will be competed by 5,000 athletes from 11 countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam and host Myanmar.
Several millions of people across the region and the world are expected to witness the spectacular Games either on site or through the television and internet.
The SEA Games is the highest sports competition held in Southeast Asian region once every two years as of 1959.
So far, Myanmar has hosted them two times -- in 1961 and 1969. Myanmar stood first with 104 medals in the 1961 SEA Games and with 149 medals in 1969's, indicating that Myanmar emerged champion every time it hosted SEA Games.
Source: Global Times


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Category Archives: Gothic
Why Brave is an Important Movie
I tend to lightly toss around terms that are meaningful to me, but may seem odd to outsiders, such as "archetypes" or "gothic". To others, I may even sound more than a little obsessed. Focused on particular ideas would be more accurate, however. My entry into the world of the gothic corresponded with my studies of the British Enlightenment and, although archetypes can be found in stories dating from ancient times, my fascination with these tropes grew with the gothic monster. The gothic is and was a study of the shadow archetype of mankind; this appeals to my human core, to my understanding that I have a shadowy side to my persona that I fear and desire to keep hidden. I don't want to acknowledge this side of me, but neither can I deny it. Denying it is, in fact, dangerous because it means I'm no longer in conscious control of it.
To exemplify this archetype, as well as some others, I'd like to discuss a movie of the past year I considered to be both well-done and important, albeit often misunderstood: Pixar's Brave. To feminists, the brave female Merida is not a symbol of feminine power. To others, the lack of the typical romantic ending is a form of trickery [this response I read in forums–critics wouldn't dare to complain about a lack of someday my prince will come]. And to those on the cultural fringe, such as the Botkin sisters, Merida is hardly a female worth emulating because she creates yet another "unhealthy stereotype" for girls to follow–too feminist, in other words. Frankly, as a female, I find these opposite and varied reactions to be false, or even worse, to be obtusely missing the point.
The heroines that make up our post-feminist culture generally follow two models: women desiring to fill male archetypes–most notably the warrior archetype–or women discovering themselves through princes who rescue them. Both of these models imply a worship of the male and a degradation of the female. But ironically, the male idolatry we involve ourselves in has created a counter-phobic reaction against men because, ultimately, women will never be men, no matter how hard they try. And so we find ourselves at this strange cultural crossroads of reviling the feminine and masculine alike, rather than discovering the ways in which the sexes may mutually benefit each other in this modern egalitarian patriarchy we currently live in.
In Merida, we see a young woman who is consumed by the worship of the masculine. She's wild; she's a warrior; she resists all attempts her mother makes to cultivate her into a feminine princess. While her mother works behind the scenes to bring about a marital alliance that might save the clan, her father encourages his daughter to be as rough and tumble as her three little brothers. The masculine, or the animus, as Jung would put it, is ruling Merida's person.
To run through the story very quickly–Merida turns to a witch for magic that will change her mother's mind about forcing Merida into an arranged marriage. The magic, of course, takes a strange and dangerous turn when her mother transforms into an enormous female bear. Meanwhile, the plot of the hateful masculine is formulated through a warrior who has transformed himself, using the same magic, into a giant black bear. At some point in the past, this bear warrior has left Merida's father as a one-legged warrior. Those of you who are familiar with archetypes probably already see where I'm going with this–the enormously dangerous male bear is Merida's shadow. It threatens to consume Merida after she falls into its lair (subconscious, anyone?); it has already left her father as half a warrior, or half a man, in a sense, limping along on one leg. As a young woman who doesn't want to be one, Merida doesn't approve of men any more than she approves of herself or her mother. This hatred is demonstrated through her ridiculous male suitors. Are men really as foolish as these cartoon buffoons? No, but they're certainly foolish as viewed through Merida's mental filter.
This movie could have gone in any direction. Merida's family could have produced a prince for her to marry. Merida could have become a female warrior, thereby fulfilling the deep feminist longings of women wanting to be men. But, no, the story writer chose to uphold the feminine. Merida's mother, as the big black she-bear must defeat the warrior bear spirit that's threatening to consume her daughter. After the mother accomplishes this, she changes back into her human form. Merida then has a renewed relationship with her mother, which also represents the feminine in Merida's soul. At the end, the buffoons sail away, and Merida and her mother ride their horses off into the sunset, so to speak, and they're together–united. Merida has been united with the feminine.
Will Merida ever marry? No doubt, if her parents present a worthwhile man, she will concede that the clan needs her to marry. But that's speculation. Not every female is meant to marry, and that isn't what Merida's story is about. It's about the restoration of the feminine in a girl who's being ruled by her masculine side. It's about the rightness of females and the beauty of being one. And it's not about filling a personality stereotype or denying who one is at core. The mother acknowledges this–Merida is a female, but she's a female unlike her mother. Still, a woman, of any personality, possesses a feminine spirit, and who would want it any other way?
Too many people would like it to be different, actually. And so, here we are, shuffling uneasily at this bizarre cultural crossroads in which we have learned that women are to be despised because they aren't men, and that men are to be despised because they are naturally men. I applaud Pixar for defying the cultural norms and giving us strong women who are naturally women. Brave's archetypes resonate with me, and they prod me forward and away from the crossroads, into the gothic forest of the subconscious, where my shadow waits–that female inside me that's still waiting to be discovered.
Posted in feminism, Gothic and tagged animus, archetypes, Brave, Merida, Pixar, the gothic, the shadow on January 21, 2013 by Jill.	10 Comments
The Importance of What-If Questions in Christian Fiction
Nobody can agree on the purpose of Christian fiction. I suspect this is just as true in the arena of the speculative. But I'll hazard a guess that most speculative authors are asking "what if" questions, meant to ponder the meaning of life, science, philosophy, and humanity's place in the universe.
When applying these questions to a Christian model, heated debates inevitably ensue. I don't know the reason for it, but Christians often insist that the answers to these questions are black and white and, furthermore, many Christian writers tell tales as if they already know the answers to these what-ifs. Therefore, how dare an author ask them in the first place and, conversely, how dare a reader venture down those shaky roads of what-if questions that don't have obvious or clear answers. But maybe, just maybe, those what-if questions are just as important for the Christian message as having all the answers.
For the purpose of my venture into the speculative, I'd like to go all the way back to the British 18th C Gothic. I'm going to quote from two classic works from this time period, Ann Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest and Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
Gothic literature was an English creation. They created it at the height of the Enlightenment, at the pinnacle of philosophical and scientific thought, and during a turbulent period of history. They used the Gothic as a means of imaginative escape into a world where anything was possible, and, what is more, they used it as a means of balance. They balanced virtue with vice, sublimity with beauty, and, ultimately, science and rational thought with the supernatural, just as current speculative fiction balances the terror of the unknown with reality.
Consider this quote from one of the heroes at the end of Romance: "'Call [my thoughts on the afterlife] not the illusions of a visionary brain,' proceeded La Luc: 'I trust in their reality. Of this I am certain, that whether they are illusions or not, a faith in them ought to be cherished for the comfort it brings to the heart, and reverenced for the dignity it imparts to the mind. Such feelings make a happy and an important part of our belief in future existence: they give energy to virtue, and stability to principle'" (275).
Although La Luc is speaking about his dead wife and his faith in an afterlife, there is a secondary meaning that emerges, here, at the conclusion to the novel. Radcliffe is telling her readers that the incredible events of her story, the depth of evil, and the hints of the supernatural, are not necessarily illusions. Believing that the world is evil also leads to a belief in goodness, which becomes a kind of imaginative faith. This faith leads to happiness, but more than that, it energizes those most important Christian notions of virtue and principle.
Even Jane Austen, in her novel that mocked Radcliffe's, Northanger Abbey, has her heroine, Catherine, concede that Radcliffe's type of evil isn't tolerated in England–and yet, even though there are no purely evil villains, no vampires or monsters, nor any thoroughly pure heroines walking around in "'[Henry to Catherine] a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such footing;'" even so, Catherine responds this way: "among the English, [Catherine] believed, in their hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad" (Austen, 157-8).
Perhaps the depth of depravity in Radcliffe's novels could never have occurred in a rational country–although I would beg to differ with Henry on that one–but evil does exist in the world. Allowing the mind to imagine clearer, stronger notions of these opposites can motivate a person to act more virtuously. That is part of Catherine's point and, by extension, Austen's. In imagining horrible scenarios, Catherine may have got her facts wrong, but she didn't get them wrong in principle. Her imagination helped her understand the true character of her imagined villain.
The what-if questions of speculative fiction bring balance to Christian fiction because they force us to step out of reality in order to understand it better.
Gothic fiction may not be the beginning of the speculative genre, although Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is often considered the first true science fiction novel, but it is integral to understanding the purpose behind Christian supernatural fiction.
But I have one BIG question: why is this genre** not popular in the Christian market? Are we frightened of the questions? Are we afraid the answers won't line up with our preconceived notions of God and his interactions with mankind?
**Editing to say that I used the term "genre" last night when I was tired. I really meant "spec fic", which is an umbrella term that encompasses multiple genres–Gothic being one of them.
p.s. I quoted from these editions:
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey 1818. Longman Cultural Edition 2005. Ed. Marilyn Gaull.
Radcliffe, Ann. The Romance of the Forest 1791. Oxford University Press 1999. Ed. Chloe Chard.
p.p.s. painting by Salvator Rosa
Posted in 18th C, 18th C Gothic, Ann Radcliffe, Gothic, Jane Austen, speculative fiction on June 27, 2011 by Jill.	4 Comments
The World is Sublime When Humanity Disappears
The mountains are ecstatic…None but…God know how to join so much beauty with so much horror.–Thomas Gray
We're lost in it. We're lost in a world of deep canyons, tangled forests, and high, craggy peaks. We're lost in a maze of civilizations, modern and ancient. Our own edifices tower over us, not to mentions God's.
Where are we? We're specks at the base of the peaks. We're ghostly images at the opening of the tombs. We're stones gazing at the cosmos, at the pinpricks of light more massive than we are, light years away from us. We're astronomers examining the images in heaven we can't begin to comprehend.
We're lost. The beauty of the world is horrible. With our senses, we expect to ascertain the world, but we can't. We're blind, deaf, dumb, w/o taste, and numb. The enlightenment woke us, then put us to sleep. The age painted our figures in its picturesque, diminished us, rendered us meaningless–as ghosts.
The world is not sublime when humanity disappears. The purpose of speculative fiction is to find humanity. I propose that Christian speculative authors begin to pay attention to their purpose. Stop preaching. Slide the figures into prominence, pull them from their obscure spots, repaint them so we can see, hear, feel them. Don't give us oblivion. Give us truth.
How do authors write truth? I'll repeat myself: Stop preaching. Slide the figures into prominence, pull them from their obscure spots, repaint them so we can see, hear, feel them.
Because in the daylight, the tomb is empty, and the ghost has escaped, reentered the world. And where will we find him?
Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, taken from Olga's Gallery
Quote from Picturesque
Posted in 18th C, 18th C Gothic, Gothic, picturesque, speculative fiction on May 18, 2011 by Jill.	3 Comments
Mike Duran's The Resurrection: A Beautiful Blending of the Gothic
On Gothic fiction: The Brits, being the master novelists that they are, created this genre of literature in the 18th C. Unless I'm mistaken, Horace Walpole was the first author to pen a work of Gothic fiction in his Castle of Otranto. Walpole set the standard, in any case: a setting that is alive with darkness and mystery, where the supernatural looms largely–and, yes, I do mean largely. There is no mistaking the supernatural in Walpole's work.
His Castle was followed by many works of Gothic fiction, in which authors competed to create the scariest, darkest, or most bizarre works of fiction. This was a breathing time for the Brits, in which they could forget for just a moment how the enlightenment had dampened them, and live again in a world where mysticism and the supernatural could exist–generally in fantastical Catholic realms, otherwise known to them as Mediterranean countries.
Then along came the more feminine Gothic. Writers such as Ann Radcliffe used the same motifs of darkness and evil, of crypts and ghostly encounters in Mediterranean countries, except with one vital difference–these authors relegated the supernatural to the unbelievable. Their enlightenment thinking got the best of them; natural forces explained all hints of the supernatural. Morality and even, perhaps, underlying feminism took hold of their texts.
On the modern Gothic: I read Mike Duran's book The Resurrection a couple of weeks ago. I must admit that I was prepared to enjoy it because I've enjoyed Mike's blog for about a year now. He's smart. He doesn't shy away from controversy. And I knew he would soon debut a work of supernatural fiction, which to me is just another name for Gothic literature, one of my pet subjects (plus, if you must know, I also write supernatural fiction). Then he wrote a truthful but discouraging article disparaging reviewers that hand out five-star ratings like candy. I felt trapped. I wanted to review his book; in fact, I had to because I had won a copy off his blog. How could I give it a good review after that? Honesty is one thing–but how does he know one way or the other whether I'm honest? Suddenly, I found myself in the damned if you do, damned if you don't arena of book reviewing.
I'm not a particularly nice person, all in all. I'm a critic at heart, but I know when it's good for me to shut my mouth. I've learned this after many hard lessons. So instead of reviewing Mike's book here on my blog (I had already given it a 5-star review on Amazon), I turned my attentions elsewhere. I picked up another–secular–book of Gothic fiction, Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. The beauty of the language captured me. I was utterly, soulfully lured into a London ghost story with the classical style of writing that I crave. I fell for it–until the end, in which I discovered that it wasn't a classical novel after all. It was, in fact, a modern novel in which nobody wins–not the good, not the evil. It just ends. The supernatural is rendered into impotent god-like ghost figures who can't save themselves, let alone anyone else. Her story, ultimately, was thoroughly unbelievable. I sank under a weight of depression and returned to The Resurrection, which still sat on my bedside table awaiting review. I knew at that point the reason I had given Mike's book a 5-star rating.
Finally, the novel I'm meant to review: The Resurrection blends the Walpole aesthetic of the supernatural with the feminine Gothic, except with the modern American twist, in which the supernatural exists in the Protestant world of the here and now. His book is a modern adaptation that utilizes every facet of the genre: his setting is dark and mysterious, his heroine broken–a crippled kind of Jane Eyre, and his supernatural is larger than life. And maybe it's just me, but I found the romance between the heroine and her construction-worker husband extremely sexy. I'm not much into eye-probing and rakish stares; I've been married for 17 and 1/2 years to my own fire-fighter type of heroic man, and that's the best kind of romance there is–one of devotion between a husband and wife.
Mike Duran's writing style is more matter-of-fact than poetic, but it works. It's believable. His ghost story is creepy, cold, and left me jittery–and, yet, I believed in it. Add to that a satisfying ending, in which the supernatural guides the main characters to fight their battles and actually prevail against darkness, and the story is complete.
I have a few criticisms of the novel, and since the author wants them, I'll deliver:
*The beginning is abrupt. It lets the reader in on the story right away, which is a plus in today's publishing world, I suspect. One of the main protagonists, Ian Clark, witnesses the ghost who haunts him. The other main protagonist, the crippled heroine I already mentioned, experiences her first vision. But these scenes were terribly rushed and left me a little breathless because I felt pulled along by a plethora of overly active verbs. The writing calms down after that, and I don't mean that it slows down. It calms down.
*I'm not a big fan of scenic fiction, I have to admit, but I also realize that today's readers wants their fiction to mimic the art of cinema, and so be it. I don't like it, but I'll deal with it. Mike's novel is no different than any other modern scenic fiction. His writing is more intelligent than most, and for that, I give him kudos. In today's world, calling a work scenic is not criticism.
*The author doesn't want to traverse the path of fear very far. This may be an honest criticism depending on what the reader expects from the story. Personally, I don't want to have nightmares. To me, the author goes just far enough, such that the supernatural is tangible, but not horrifying.
*The worst part of the novel, for me, is the afterword. Yes, I realize, it's not technically part of the plot. Apologetics have a long and illustrious history in Christian writing, but I don't want to read them after I've finishing a novel that gives me satisfaction in and of itself. Plus, I have more disagreements with the theology in the afterward than I do with the theology in the novel. I can almost guarantee that wasn't the author's intent.
My rating stated boldly: I give this book five stars, and not simply because I want to bolster the genre. Go ahead and argue with me, if you want, Mr. Duran. And don't worry. I'm expecting an even better second book. I love the supernatural genre, otherwise known as the Gothic, and I can't get enough of it. Keep delivering it, already!
Buy The Resurrection HERE. Discover more about the author HERE.
Posted in Gothic, gothic fiction, Mike Duran, supernatural fiction, The Resurrection on March 21, 2011 by Jill.	Leave a comment
On the Supernatural in Poetry, by Ann Radcliffe
"Where is now the undying spirit," said he, "that could so exquisitely perceive and feel?–that could inspire itself with the various characters of this world, and create worlds of its own; to which the grand and the beautiful, the gloomy and the sublime of visible Nature, up-called not only corresponding feelings, but passions ; which seemed to perceive a soul in every thing: and thus, in the secret workings of its own characters, and in the combinations of its incidents, kept the elements and local scenery always in unison with them, heightening their effect . . ." (Radcliffe)
Ann Radcliffe is one of my favorite 18th C Gothic authors. When I was sifting through old files, I found references to her discussion On the Supernatural in Poetry. Literally, she writes it in a fictional way, as a conversation between two people. It's a beautiful and telling conversation, to say the least. It tells of Radcliffe's own aesthetic as an artist and hints at how she desired to use scenery and character to create distinct moods in her books. You can read the entire work at the link I posted in paranthesis. You can also read it at litgothic.com, which is one of my favorite sites. They are very particular about others copying the manuscripts they put up, so I copied the above paragraph from a university link. Oh, come on, I try to give credit where credit's due! Besides, Radcliffe's work is surely not under copyright any longer.
Posted in 18th C Gothic, Ann Radcliffe, Gothic, supernatural in poetry on April 15, 2010 by Jill.	Leave a comment


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The exterior of your property is always at the mercy of the elements. These elements might seem tame in urban communities compared to rural ones but the threat is as real in the concrete jungle as it is in the woods. When your home or business is no longer looking its best, our Squamish pressure washing can give new life to your space.
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If you are wondering what sets our Gorillas apart from competing property maintenance firms, the process says it all. Instead of simply pointing and spraying, our Gorillas treat your space right. Eco-friendly cleansing applications are applied to affected areas, loosening dirt and staining. Gorilla brushes then scrub away anything that might be left sitting while pressure washers blow away any remaining shadowing or marks. On their own, these steps can scratch the surface of your property but when combined, there is nothing our Squamish pressure washing can't handle.


Kapil Sharma's upcoming film Firangi's latest song is out and it's titled Oye Firangi.
The song has been crooned by Sunidhi Chauhan and composed by Jatinder Shah. Kapil Sharma looks in his element in the song. Oye Firangi shows Kapil Sharma adorning the police uniform and enjoying his stint as a police official.
Sunidhi's vocals are refreshing and the song is melodious for sure. Kapil Sharma's expressions and innocence is coming across well. The film also stars Monica Gill, Edward Sonnenblick, Kumud Mishra, Rajesh Sharma and is produced by Kapil Sharma's K9 productions.
Coming back to the title track, let's hope that Firangi brings back Kapil Sharma's lost glory.
Alia, Sonam & Jacqueline Get A SURPRISE GIFT From Anushka, Guess What?


These include Richard Mckim's George Alcock Memorial Lecture on George's observations of the planets and John Rogers' talk on Jupiter's weather. Both of these are great examples of the depth of knowledge that we have within the BAA.
I'll be at the Summer Meeting on Saturday and hope to see many of you there.


We meet every week at St Peter's Rooms in Ruddington from 10:30am. Our services are relaxed and relatively informal with opportunities to worship, pray and explore what God is saying to us together. We aim to make our services accessible to everyone whether you have been a Christian for years or are just starting to explore faith for yourself.
On the first Sunday of each month adults and children meet together for breakfast church. We share croissants together, spend some time socialising and then we worship through a range of activities suitable for people of all ages. We like to have a fun time together.
On the other weeks in the month we meet all together to start with and then the children go off to their groups. Our children's work is run jointly with St Peter's Church who meet across the road from us. Younger children meet at the Hermitage in St Peter's church grounds. School years 6 and above meet at The Hub. We run our own crèche and minis group for very little ones at St Peter's Rooms where the Sunday services happens as we know that parents and very young children will need to be on site together.
Feel free to join us any Sunday morning for a regular or special service.