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Home World News Afghanistan Tries to Stamp Out Opium Again
Afghanistan Tries to Stamp Out Opium Again
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — For years, opium has been the monster too big to slay. One Afghan government after another has pledged to stamp out opium production and trafficking, only to prove unable to resist billions of dollars in illicit profits.
The Taliban government of the 1990s ultimately managed to reduce opium cultivation. But after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, opium taxes and smuggling helped fuel the Taliban's own 20-year insurgency.
Now, with the Taliban back in power, the insurgents turned politicians are again struggling to eradicate opium cultivation and the rampant addiction problem that has come with it. The Taliban announced on April 3 that poppy cultivation had been outlawed, with violators to be punished under Shariah law.
But stamping out opium will be more difficult than ever because of a shift by poppy farmers to green energy.
Water pumps powered by cheap and highly efficient solar panels are able to drill deep down into rapidly dwindling desert aquifers. The solar panels have helped generate bumper opium harvests year after year since farmers in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing belt began installing them around 2014.
Now, solar power is a defining feature of southern Afghan life. Tiny solar panels power light bulbs in mud huts, and solar-driven pumps irrigate cash crops like wheat and pomegranates, as well as subsistence farmers' vegetable plots.
The solar arrays have been central to ensuring Afghanistan's status as the global leader in opium. Afghanistan produced 83 percent of the world's opium from 2015 to 2020, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Even with a grinding war and persistent droughts, opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose to 224,000 hectares in 2020 from 123,000 hectares in 2009, the U.N. reported.
The previous American-backed government had spent $8.6 billion on poppy eradication, but top Afghan officials were deeply complicit in the opium trade, building garish "poppy palaces" in Kabul, the capital, and buying gaudy villas in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. A 2018 government inspector general's report concluded that the campaign "had no lasting impact."
Reporting From Afghanistan
The Taliban, for their part, have condemned opium as anti-Islamic, as Afghanistan's poppy crop sustains addicts in Europe and the Middle East, as well as a huge number inside Afghanistan. But given their own deep ties to opium smuggling during the insurgency, Taliban leaders are walking a fine line between hypocrisy and holiness.
A widespread crackdown would exacerbate Afghanistan's already devastating postwar economic collapse and antagonize the Taliban's core constituency among Pashtun farmers, impoverishing families that rely on the crop to be able to afford food. Eradication would require not only seizing farmers' solar panels, but also confronting Taliban commanders complicit in the trade — at a time when the movement is facing internal dissatisfaction as the money dries up.
The opium trade earned about $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion last year, the United Nations has estimated. Opium sales have provided 9 to 14 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, compared with 9 percent provided by legal exports of goods and services.
"The cultivation of opium and export of opiates is hugely important for the Afghan economy as a whole, and any implementation of the ban will have wide-ranging consequences," the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent research group, wrote in a report last month.
Opium farmers now rely on at least 67,000 solar-power-fed water reservoirs across Afghanistan's desert southwest, according to a European Union-funded research project by David Mansfield, a consultant who has studied illicit economies and rural livelihoods in Afghanistan for two decades.
The panels, which supplanted more expensive and less reliable diesel to run water pumps, have helped turn the desert green. The population of previously uninhabited desert areas in Kandahar, Helmand and Nimruz Provinces ballooned to at least 1.4 million people in recent years as solar-driven pumps helped expand arable land, according to Dr. Mansfield's research.
"For many opium farmers, abundant water is now a given," he said. "No one perceives it to have a cost."
The Taliban have taken aim at some solar-powered pumps. On May 13, the governor of Helmand Province, adjacent to Kandahar Province in the opium belt, ordered the police to confiscate panels and pumps so that newly planted poppies would die in parched fields.
"Do not destroy the fields, but make the fields dry out," Gov. Maulave Talib Akhund said in a statement. He added, "We are committed to fulfilling the opium decree."
The opium ban comes amid catastrophic levels of hunger, poverty and drought. The United Nations estimates that 23 million Afghans are suffering acute food deprivation. An economy once propped up by Western aid has collapsed under sanctions and freezing of Afghan government funds abroad.
"It's too bad for Afghans because poppy is the wealth of the Afghan people," Shah Agha, 35, a poppy farmer from the Zari District of Kandahar, said of the ban.
After investing about $500 on seeds, fertilizer, labor and other expenses, Mr. Agha said, he hoped to gross about $5,000 after selling the 20 kilograms of opium he expected to harvest this spring.
The opium ban was met with a collective shrug this spring by southern farmers, many of whom were already harvesting their spring crops. Opium prices surged almost immediately, several farmers said, to roughly $180 per kilogram from $60 per kilogram.
"I think they banned it for their own benefit because most of the smugglers and Taliban commanders have tons of opium, and they might want to increase the prices," Mr. Agha said.
Taliban forces this spring seemed unable or uninterested in initiating a swift eradication campaign. Taliban patrols drove leisurely past bountiful opium fields where the spring crop was being harvested. Workers flanked by bright solar panel arrays used curved knives to scrape sticky opium paste from poppy bulbs
The government has indicated that it will allow the spring harvest because it was already underway. But the Taliban have vowed to crack down on farmers who try to cultivate any new crops.
As the United States did during its long presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban have suggested shifting to alternative crops like wheat, pomegranates, cumin and almonds. But even if poppy growing were eliminated, alternative crops would still be at risk because desert aquifers are being rapidly depleted.
Dr. Mansfield said that determining how long the aquifers could continue to supply water was uncharted territory because no one had been able to conduct a rigorous scientific study of the desert groundwater.
Amir Jan Armani, 45, who said he hoped to gross about $4,000 from 45 kilograms of opium he harvested in Kandahar Province this spring, said he had watched water levels drop precipitously since solar panels arrived.
When farmers used diesel-powered pumps, groundwater levels dropped about three meters a year, Mr. Armani said. But since solar panels arrived, they have sometimes sunk up to nine meters annually. His well is 30 meters deep, he said, but his neighbor's well across the river is 60 meters deep.
"We have to continue to dig our wells deeper and deeper," Mr. Armani said.
He and other farmers have saved money this spring by not paying opium taxes imposed by the Taliban in previous years. No such taxes have been levied this year, said Noor Ahmad Saied, the Taliban's director of information in Kandahar.
Many farmers in Arghandab, a district in Kandahar famous for its pomegranates, have chopped down pomegranate trees killed by drought or fighting. They planted poppies instead.
Even when prices are high, many poppy farmers say, they earn only about $2 a day for each family member. They are at the very bottom of a narcotic trafficking system in which profits increase exponentially from growers to middlemen to processing labs to major cross-border traffickers.
Ehsanullah Shakir, 31, an opium smuggler in Helmand Province, said Taliban enforcement of the ban this year had been uneven so far. Some farmers had planted almonds, cumin or basil after harvesting their spring poppies, he said, but others had ignored the ban and planted poppies for a second harvest. And opium markets continue to operate as usual in many areas, Mr. Shakir said.
Farmers whose poppy fields were plowed under by the previous government could send their sons to paying jobs as soldiers or police officers — or to the constellation of unskilled jobs provided by the United States and NATO. But those options are gone, and unemployment has soared under the Taliban.
In the Maiwand District of Kandahar, Nek Nazar, 41, worked to install a new water pump at the edge of his poppy field. He began growing poppies five years ago, he said, because they produced far more income than the wheat he had grown.
Mr. Nazar spoke as though the crop shift had been preordained and was not a matter of choice. For him, it was either plant poppies or starve.
"Growing poppies is the only option to survive right now," he said.
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar.
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text:
Ar-Kan Rune-Lag
Wodenic Ritual Regalia
This post is going to show you various pieces of regalia used by Woden's Folk in its ritual work. Here we shall show the photos but make comments only where these are felt to be important.
These are fylfot-swastikas burnt onto the Ritual Hammer of Thunor used at all WF Rites in the past, and made from oak from a 'blasted oak' (an oak-tree blasted by lightning).
The Stone of At-al-land which is a magical stone thrust up from within the earth in a massive catastrophe that hit the Northern Continent of At-al-land some 7,000 years ago. This piece comes from the Moray Firth in the Scottish Highlands which has a major fault-line running through it and cutting Scotland in half at this point. This Magical Stone is part of a much larger piece which is kept in a secret location in England. The small stone is used for all Wodenic Profession and Initiation. The stone was found at a place called The Fairy Glen which is a spot at which an Odinist Magician and I performed an Alf-Blot and a shimmering blue figure appeared before me as I meditated at the spot after the blot. This was the area in which I undertook an Odinic Initiation into the Circle of Ostara where a blood-rite was used (spilling my own blood) and two sea-eagles swooped down over me as this was done.
This is the Ritual Drum that I use for Woden's Folk rituals and for magical workings. The drum has the Saxon Irminsul and various runic staves painted onto the surface. The outside is covered by deer-hide and the drumstick used has a wolf-skin cover to 'mute' the sound.
Marked in runes on the stave is the name WULF INGESSUNU which is one of my Wodenic Names. The drum-stave was made myself and the runes burnt-cut into it.
The Ritual Mead-Horn with silver finish to the drinking-piece and two leather bands, one with the runic formula ALU-ULA.
Small Ritual Blowing-Horn.
A Balder-Knife and Horn Steel-Striker (Lapland) used for lighting the Ritual Fire through Need-Fire (the Horn-Steel being held upright and the Ritual Knife at an angle, thus making the Nyd-Rune; the strike is through 'friction' and thus is seen as Friction-Fire (Need-Fire).
Wolf-Skin worn at rituals by the Wulfinga - Sons of the Wulf. Many of those within WF have taken on names with 'wulf' within it and this has been significant in view of the nature of our Order.
Above is the Sunwheel Arm-Band worn by the Folk-Warder at the Wodenic Rites, the Torc of Honour bearing the Thule Swastika, and the Black Sun Headband worn at our rites.
This is the Ritual Seax and Black Sun symbol used as a cover for the knife; these are also used in certain rituals.
The blowing of the horn is meant to awaken the Gods, but I also use a whistle for some of the magical work, this being easier to carry around in the pocket. The whistle does the same symbolic act as the horn, and is made of horn as well. This one was made by an old friend and Odinist Magician who was in the Odinic Rite for many years.
There will be further posts on ritual regalia and magical regalia, and also on rune-staffs that I have made and use.
Posted by Wulfinga at 12:26 No comments:
Rune-Craeft
This post is going to outline how to make runic wands, runes, and other ritual regalia used within the Woden Folk-Religion. Some of the stuff shown here is used by Woden's Folk in their rituals. It is important to try to make the stuff yourself, using the correct tools and above all hallowing each object ritually to 'charge' it with Vital Energy. Firstly, I am going to give some advice on how to make ritual objects yourself -
1. Use hand-tools that are solely for this work.
2. Never use any form of electric tools.
3. For runes, runic wands etc. I have used Rowan Wood, since 'rowan' is 'rune' and since Tacitus tells us that some Germanic Tribes used 'fruit-bearing trees' as wood for their oracle-staves this fits with this perfectly. But there is no need to become dogmatic as any wood that suits your purpose can be used.
4. Red Ochre is used to 'redden' the runes, and I have always used a 'prick' of my own blood to 'charge' the runes with my own Life-Force. It is essential to 'charge' them for your own use.
5. Linseed Oil is used to protect the wood after finishing, and beeswax polish to finish off the product. Linseed oil is made from flax which is sacred to the goddess Freya.
Details of how some of these ritual objects are made can be found on the Woden's Folk website, but here I am going to outline some more details that may be relevant and helpful to your work.
One of the tools that you will need is a good sharp knife that is uses solely for this work; I use the above knife which is sharp and used to finish the product, and to 'sharpen' the runic staves which are burnt in rather than carved (saves less blood-spilling, but if you are handy at carving such small and delicate stuff carving would be ideal). I have two knives, the other one being similar to this one but slightly smaller.
24-Rune Futhark -
These rune-staves are about 1 1/2 inches high, 3/4 inch wide and about 1/4 inch thick and have been burnt, carved to finish, stained with Red Ochre/Blood and protected with linseed oil and beeswax. This is the first rune-set that I had attempted and came out very well. The edges have been chamfered using the knife which gives them a 'rough' finish. Note that I have not tried to make each rune uniform and the same dimensions because this makes them look a bit more 'authentic' looking.
This set is very much smaller than the first set, being about 3/4 inch long, 1/2 inch high and 3/8 inch thick, this time cut from round pieces of rowan wood, split down the middle, leaving one smooth side and one rounded side, the runes being carved on the smooth side, of course. Note the small leather pouch that they are kept in (get these from any leather store or re-enactment fair) and the god-head on the leather closure-thong.
33-Rune Futhork -
This is an entirely different version of a rune-set, being made up of small pieces of rowan wood cut across the section, leaving on the bark if you wish, and then having the runes burnt on the cross-section. Being only about 1/2 across or less these are a bit harder to get the runes onto, but easier to cut and make than the larger ones. (The stone above it has an 'eye' naturally within itself, and thus here represents the Eye of Woden.
Again we have a different type of rune-stave, in this case 33 staves cut in lengths of about 4 inches each with the bark left on. Each end is shaved smooth and the runes burnt-cut into this section. These can be used for an entirely different form of divination, in which the staves are thrown onto a cloth and the stave-shapes as well as the runes themselves taken into account in a reading. These rune-staves were made from hazel rather than rowan, hazel being a sacred wood for water-divining.
Nine Glory-Twigs -
From this simple pattern all 33 of the runes of the Ar-Kan Rune-Lag can be found. The Glory-Twigs are made from rowan wood cut 9 inches long (the 'Sacred 9') and are carefully placed in this position to make up the 'Mother Rune'. It should be noted that the 33 runes are all found within this shape, but there are also an infinite number of shapes contained within it, so the runic staves are almost endless. The 33 rune-row is the longest that we know of, but there are more recorded runes that are not in any rune-row.
33-Rune Wand -
This Runic Wand has the 33-runes burnt-cut into the rowan stave along two edges, made up of four sections of eight (32) with the Gar-Rune burnt-cut into one end as the Sacred Centre or Cosmic Axis. A silver Fylfot-Ring has been pushed onto the stave to finish, and a piece of 'bluestone' hung from one end. The wand and nine glory-twigs are shown below -
These two provide a unique Ar-Kan Rune-Lag teaching method based upon the ancient use of passing knowledge down from one generation to the next by word of mouth. These can be used together to do this easily, and will become far more used in the future role of Woden's Folk as a Teaching Order. We have to pass this Runic Wisdom onto others so that it is kept for future generations to know and use.
33-Rune Spiral-Stave -
This is a most interesting rune-stave which has the 33-runes cut into a 'spiral' form on a piece of wood taken from an oak-barrel that held whisky. Indeed, this is really taken from sacred wood since the oak-barrel is used as part of an ancient Viking Ritual held in a small village in the Scottish Highlands - a ceremony called the Burning of the Clavvie. This is just one small piece, and I made much more of these, including a runic fylfot-staff made from a whole length of the curved barrel; this can be used as a Ritual Fire-Bow to create the Need-Fire.
88 Rebirth Mandala -
The meaning of this will be known to those who have read my book and will not be revealed here. This was another piece from the 'clavvie' wood and has been burnt-carved and stained-blooded to give it 'Life-Force'. There is another version shown below -
Below is shown part of the 88-Mandala which is another form of this but one in which a total mandala is made up from small rowan-staves, a process which itself needs full concentration and thus 'powers' the mandala as it is made up. Space allows only the top section to be shown -
The photo below shows the rowan-staves, the very small staves being contained in the two film-cases -
This Runic Mandala shows that runes are not used solely for divination, but are used for magical invocation and for causing change through the power of the Will. Making up an runic mandala is in itself an act of magic, having to use full concentration and the use of the Will. It is the Triumph of the Will that overcomes all adversity, no matter how powerful that adversity is. Will is an aspect of Woden - indeed, his brother.
This one is made from Ash-Wood and was made by a very dear Folk-Comrade of mine - Hraefn - who died a few years ago and left his regalia to me to keep and to pass on for future generations. The stave uses the 24 Rune Futhark and has been brilliantly carved with the runes. Note how the bark has been left on which helps to give 'feeling' to the wand.
18-Rune Armanen Set & Runic Wand -
This runic-wand and rune-set I made myself and uses the 18-rune Armanen System of Guido von List and other German Rune-Magicians. The wood is indeed sacred since it is from an ash-tree growing on the grave of Karl Maria Wiligut in Germany.
Runic Ancestral Stave -
The words on this stave read - ALFRED HENRY BALCHIN - the name of my maternal grandfather who died when I was in my youth and who was very close to me. I can remember having a bad dream in which I 'left my body' flying through the air until I was hovering over a grave - the grave of my grandfather. A few days later he died! This stave was done a few years ago after he made contact through a dream of a close relative who did not even know who he was, but advised me of the dream. I still have an old mantlepiece clock that belonged to him and which stopped - and has never gone again - on the exact day of his funeral. My grandfather was a coachbuilder, this being the job of a skilled carpenter in those days, and I remember him making all his own furniture which is a skill not many possess in today's regimented standardised mass-produced world.
This is a leather bag used to hold rune-sets or rune-staves, and can be used for any small pieces of regalia. One of these makes them look neat and tidy and can also be worn around the neck or tied to a belt around the waist.
Runes of At-al-land
'The 33 rune futhark has been left to us from an area which for the culture of the whole world was the motherland, from the old Atlantis....Part of Atlantis now lies under the water where the waters now roll between Great Britain and North America, the area of the Dogger Bank....'
Friedrich Berhard Marby
The German Rune Magician, Marby, thinks that the 33 Anglo-Saxon-Frisian rune-row originally stemmed from Atlantis (At-al-land) which lay in the Dogger Bank area. Now, recent discoveries have shown that this area sank after a massive tsunami hit the area around 7,000 years ago. We should consider that this was an area populated by Germanic Tribes around 7,000 years ago, but they would go way back beyond this date which was the ending of the area known as At-al-land. Now, although I would never consider the Oera Linda Book as a historically accurate document, there may well be some truth in its contents on the sinking of Atland (this is the name given in this book) since it is a Frisian document.
The runes or 'running script' that are shown in the Oera Linda Book do not stand up to close scrutiny since they are placed in the order of the Roman Alphabet. But they do reflect the Armanen system which uses a hexagon, although in this case this is a six-spoked wheel as a circle, and thus the runes are curved. Neither does much of this book seem to tell any kind of historical truth, though the pieces about Atland are very interesting. Whatever the case here, the most interesting thing is that the 33 rune system is held to have been from At-al-land in the north, and area of which England was a part.
If this is so then we have one of the earliest runic systems which developed in At-al-land, and which was still in use by the Frisians (Folk of Freya) who brought it here with the Germanic Tribes who crossed over to Britain in order to aid their kinfolk against the growing incursion of the Judaeo-Christian religion in these islands. There are quite a few articles using runic inscriptions which have come down to us from Anglo-Saxon times, so the runes were in use in these times, and may have been used before this. One of the problems in finding examples of runes in more ancient times is that scholars refuse to admit the presence of Germanic Tribes prior to the 'Anglo-Saxon invasions', and thus there cannot be examples prior to this. On a stone which is part of the Bryn Celli Ddu tumulus in Gwynedd in North Wales is an Ing-Rune (Germanic) with a dot in the centre - this is clearly that shape and although it may or may not be a rune, it is clearly a diamond-symbol. We may never know, but the fact is that there could be runic symbols that have been overlooked or dismissed simply because they are not supposed to have been used in these islands at that time.
Some of the runes which can only be found in the Frisian Rune-Row can also be found on the Horns of Gallehus, but in the form of runic posture. These horns go some way to proving that the runes developed from posture - and not the other way round. These horns also seem to show a Horned God, which is important in that this was found in many different cultures prior to the Viking era, when this god-form seems to have changed into Odin All-Father. The Cweorth-Rune/Ear-Rune has various different gods/goddesses portrayed in this stance, from many different cultures all over the world, as well as those in England and Scandinavia.
An interesting point about the 33 rune-row is the number of trees that figure in the rune-names - the oak, ash, thorn, and yew. We know that the so-called 'Celtic' script - Ogham - featured different trees in a form of tree-lore, so we may well have here a dim recollection of a much older tradition of Tree-Lore here in these islands, stemming from At-al-land. We should not be too dogmatic in this, for example in later Viking times Odin was associated with the Ash-Tree, yet we know that Wotan was associated with the Oak Tree. Considering that the Wolsungas were the offspring of Woden their Tribal Tree was the Oak Tree, as was that of Herne the Hunter (Woden) - so we have both Thunor and Woden associated with the Oak.
I should point out here that although I have shown before how the 'Celtic' tradition seems to have been distorted through the Hyperborean Druids being infiltrated by an alien element which introduced Hebrew names and attributes, there is still a good deal of mythical elements that show that there was a common link to the Germanic Folk and a good deal of Northern Tradition still left in Celtic Myth. When we look at the Ogham Script it is really neither a script nor magical letters, but more like a form of code. Some versions are very close to the runes too, and these may have been coded texts holding certain secrets allied to the runes. The so-called 'Celtic Runes' such as the 'Coelbran' were later forgeries and have no historical validity - they are laid out in the sequence of the Roman Alphabet and were faked because it was not good for the English to have something the 'Celts' did not have.
The last four runes of the Futhork can be seen as the Gral-Runes since they fit to some extent with the objects found in the Gral Legends - the Sword (Cweorth?), the Cup (Calc), the Stone (Stan) and the Spear (Gar). These objects are also connected to the Four Hallows - the holy objects of the Tuatha de Danaan. We can see that their mysteries seem to form part of the mysteries of the Islands of the Mighty. It can be no coincidence that the Gral-Runes can be found in the runes that were used here in England, and that they were originally Hyperborean Mysteries and Mysteries of At-al-land. The only object that does not seem to fit is the Sword for Cweorth, but there may be a connection somewhere that has as yet not been found.
The Oera Linda Book is not a historical document and as such should not be taken too literally in all that it has to say, but it does give a hint of recording the legend of the sinking of Atland (At-al-land). In this work there is also the 'running script' or runes, but again these do not tally with any known version, and certainly do not tally with the known 33-rune version that the Frisians used. I have shown before how the 33-rune version fits with the spinal column in its entirety, whereas the 24-rune version fits with the flexible part of this column. Both versions could thus be linked to the awakening of the Kundalini-Force or Fire-Serpent.
At the point of writing I have just opened an attachment to an email sent to me of a newspaper cutting showing how the main London-Edinburgh A1 Trunk Road, always said to have been built by the Romans, had at least one section in use some 10,000 years ago - yes ten thousand years ago! This would have been before the sinking of the Dogger Bank area, and thus tells us that there were not the 'primitive stone-age savages' living here, as historians and archaeologists would have us believe. There was a more advanced people who built and used the same trunk-road system as we use today.
It is usual to see the 33-rune row as a development of the 24-rune Futhark, but when we look at the later Norse Runes there were fewer runes used, and not more runes. The Horns of Gallehus have some rune-shapes that are only within the 33-rune row (these are the posture-runes) and this is an earlier Scandinavian version. So it could be, as Marby suggests, that there was an earlier 33-rune row that dates back to At-al-land and this is the Atlantean Rune-Row. Or it may be that the 33-rune row was developed specifically for the English Destiny by certain Woden Initiates (Arman Initiates).
The Number 33 is a magical number and in the Ar-Kan Rune-Lag system developed by Woden's Folk this is split into four eights with the Gar-Rune (Spear of Woden) as the Sacred Centre. We have thus 8 x 4 = 32, plus the extra rune. However, this version can also be split into 3 x 11 runes which is yet another magical numerical formula. This splits the rows as follows -
Feoh/Ur/Thorn/Os/Rad/Ken/Gyfu/Wyn/Haegl/Nyd/Is
Ger/Eoh/Peorth/Eolhs/Sigel/Tir/Beorc/Eh/Mann/Lagu/Ing
Daeg/Edel/Ac/Aesc/Yr/Ior/Ear/Cweorth/Calc/Stan/Gar
There is in fact no precedence in splitting this into either the former 4 x 8 +1 or the latter 3 x 11, but if we do not experiment then we shall get no further with our runic studies. The runes are not static, and are subject to flux and change as all things are in the Cosmic Cycles. There is one small point that may help us to understand the most Ancient Runes and that is the order of the two runes Daeg-Edel, which can also be Edel-Daeg. We need to understand the reason for this flexibility, which does not occur in any of the other runes.
Daeg - this, as the rune suggests, is a rune that can be 'flipped', and its shape suggests the old 'hour-glass' or 'sand-glass' which was shaped like the rune and which was 'flipped' over in order to start time once again. This is a Rune of Revolution! This is the rune that suggests one of the most basic Cosmic Law - the Law of Reversal. Whenever something moves towards one extreme then a reversal takes place and the movement is directed towards the other extreme. So the Daeg-Rune suggests a reversal of forces and we can here link this to the point of catastrophic change such as that of the sinking of At-al-land.
Edel - this is the Rune of At-al-land (Racial Homeland) and its link to the Daeg-Rune suggests a link to the sinking of At-al-land due to some catastrophic change, in this case the tsunami that sank part of this Northern Continent. Of course, there is also the possibility that parts of this ancient land will arise once more after yet another catastrophe, such as the tsunami suggested by some Woden Initiates throughout the last few years.
The last five runes of this third rune-row suggest that there may here be a connection to the sinking of At-al-land, a legend held in the rune-row -
Manu - the Manu appears prior to the Great Flood in order to revive the Order of Caste and to save the Sacred Eddas.
Lagu - The Great Flood, a tsunami triggered by earthquakes that sank the Northern Lands, overwhelming the land and plunging vast areas into the North Sea.
Ing - The land of England, overwhelmed by the Great Flood, parts of the land sinking beneath the waters, to rise again at different periods of history.
Daeg - Catastrophic change, the 'flipping' of time and thus the trigger for the sinking of the Northern Lands.
Edel - The Racial Home land, some of which was plunged beneath the vast waves of the tsunami; the loss of the Racial Homelands which triggered a vast Folk-Wandering.
These runes can also refer to our times and the catastrophic changes that must come at the end of this part of the Cosmic Cycle. The same pattern will be effected as that of the last part of the cycle. So, for what reason do we have an extra nine runes in this row? Nine is yet another magical-mystical number, and refers to the basic matrix of the runes - the Nine Glory-Twigs. It also refers to the nine nights that Woden hung upon the Wolf-Tree in order to gain the Secret of the Runes. The last nine runes also contain the Gral Runes which form the basis of the Aryan Caste System and also the four cycles of the ages (Great Year). These last runes also contain some very interesting patterns, for example there are three runes directly linked by phonetics - Yr/Ior/Ear - each following from each other, and Ear being the last rune of the rune-poems, the last four having no rune-meanings. Again, this last rune suggests death and destruction, linking it with the others to a catastrophe and the sinking of At-al-land. It is also interesting to note that Ior is said (by Edred Thorsson) to be connected to the 'serpent' and in this case the Midgard Serpent (Ior-mun-gand). The Midgard Serpent (at one level) can represent the thrashing of the waters in a tsunami, whipped up by the movement of the tectonic plates by the Worm.
The Ear-Rune can not only be linked to the element of Earth, but etymologically can be linked to the element of Water; since the Cweorth-Rune is the Fire-Twirl and thus linked to the element of Fire, then we have the basic elements of catastrophic change as recorded in myth and legend - Water (Flood) and Fire. It should be noted that the Ear-Rune/Cweorth-Rune both have very similar shapes and are thus linked in that way too. The Number Nine is also the last number in the sequence 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 after which we return to 1; it is thus a complete cycle in itself, prior to a return to the origins, and thus the beginning of a new cycle.
There is also a very interesting set of Biorhythmic cycles that almost correspond exactly to three of the known rune-rows -
23-day cycle - the physical cycle (24 runes)
28-day cycle - the emotional cycle (28 runes)
33-day cycle - the intellectual cycle (33 runes)
Like the connection between two of the rune-rows (24 & 33) and the spinal column, can this really be a coincidence? This post will be left here because this brings us to a point where we are getting close to discovering new meanings to these runes, and this needs a good deal of study and the putting together of what we have here into a logical order. This has only scratched the surface of what is to come.
Posted by Wulfinga at 16:44 4 comments:
Raising the Stang
The Wolf-Hook Rune is the Rune of Resistance and was used in the Peasant's War in Germany. This rune derives from the Eoh-Rune which s...
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text:
Q: Suppress Escape Characters in Matlab I am writing a module in Matlab to enter the configuration parameters of my experiment to a file 'parameters.txt'.
Here is the module which does that :
for i=1:size(ParamSheetText,1)
    fprintf(fparam, ParamSheetText{i,1});
    fprintf(fparam,'\n');
end

One of the parameter is the folder location :  "D:\temp". fprintf is interpreting \t as a escape sequence. Is there any way that I can suppress the escape sequence or modify the code so that escape sequence is suppressed.
Thanks

A: fprintf is parsing escape sequences only in format strings, so you shouldn't be passing your data string as a format string (but rather as an additional argument following the format specifier):
fprintf(fparam, '%s', ParamSheetText{i,1});

I believe this will correct your issue.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Jan.12 (GMM) Pat Symonds has admitted Williams' next step will be more difficult than the giant leap of 2014.
After a career slump that hit bottom in 2013 with ninth in the constructors' standings, the once-great Grove team managed to end last year as arguably Mercedes' closest challenger.
But Red Bull designer Adrian Newey thinks Williams was helped last year by its switch from Renault to industry-leading Mercedes power.
"Clearly, last year was engine-dominated," he told Sky, "and we saw that with Williams springing forward.
"Obviously Williams did a very good job but I think what really made the difference for them was the engine."
Williams' technical chief Symonds, however, said the British team is proud to have beaten a grandee name like Ferrari to third place in the constructors' standings.
"We are stable and do not have financial difficulties," he insisted, according to France's L'Equipe, "but we do not have the budget of some of our competitors.
"So it was especially pleasing last year to beat Ferrari for example, as we have half the budget they do. But to be better than third in 2015 will certainly be more difficult than going from ninth to third place last year."
Symonds also denies that Williams' leap forward can so easily be explained by its superior 'power unit'.
"In 2013," he pointed out, "we also had the same engine as the world champions (Red Bull) and we were ninth. We had many new things in 2014 including the aero and the braking system, and those things do not happen by magic.
"We want to continue on this path in 2015," Symonds added.


UPDATE: My 4.0 Women's Tennis Team won Sectionals and is playing at the USTA League National Championships! Join us this weekend at Reffkin Tennis Center October 17th and 18th in our hometown – Tucson, Arizona!
Tucson's 4.0 Women's League, The High Fives!
Two passions of mine have always been tennis and art.
Drawing and creating art is similar to playing singles. In tennis it's me and the ball. Yeah, the other person hits it, but I know I can control it. My strategy is to make my opponent run more than I have to. Not being lazy or anything, but this is how I win matches.
Creating art is very purposeful too. For me it's me controlling acrylic paints with my brush. Having them do exactly what I want. When I don't like the outcome, I take control and modify.
With both tennis and art you can get into a wonderful rhythm. Playing tennis creates a wonderful sound of the ball going back and forth. When I'm in the zone, time passes and I can do no wrong. With painting, I can also zone out. Three hours fly by and I realize I haven't taken a break.
I found some old artwork that features tennis!
Jim Dewan created and gave me this card after a big match that I won!
I was so excited to get a card like this. Jim used his artistic skills to congratulate me on my big singles win at Union-Endicott High School.
A few years later, I graduated from high school and decided to illustrate my passion for art and tennis on my homemade graduation announcement.
I drew and photocopied my high school graduation announcement. Good old 1997.
I'm always going to be playing tennis and painting. Tennis is one of those sports that grows with you. My parents friends in their 70s still play doubles. I want to be just like that!
For now, I'll continue to play weekly in my 4.0 Women's League and create more art!
What sport or passion do you think you'll always be doing?


Have you guys try the Molten Lava? I tried it once when I went there to grab fast dinner with some of my friends during the Tokio Hotel concert at 1Utama past few weeks ago. Right after the concert, U tried to buy it but I unlucky because it's late and it's close.
Thanks to Botakai where last Wednesday, I was invited to join the food review at Molten Lava in 1Utama. When talk about the dessert, Molten Lava is a shop specialised in Churros, which is also known as Spanish doughnut.
I was informed by the pretty Molten Lava bos where Molten Lava was created out of the love for good food, food that makes you happy. This idea was sparked by a craving for the oh-so-yummy churros sold in Disneyland (happy food from the happiest place on Earth). Then, they took the idea further and cooked up delicious snacks from around the globe, fused them with the favourite local flavours and voila, the menu was born!
Designed to appeal to practically anybody, their quirky menu ranges from the humble home-baked chicken pie to churros with sambal ikan bilis for the more adventurous. They are proud to be Malaysias first churros outlet and are regularly cooking up new delicious-snacks-that-can't-be-found-in-KL, such as our latest product, the Funnel Cake.
But why Molten Lava? Well, the name originates from their signature lavas, a range of sauces served steaming hot on churros, toast, roti paratha or glutinous rice. Their lavas are inspired by the Thai-style sangkayah and come in a variety of flavours such as pandan, taro, banana, durian (most popular) and many more.
If you guys looking for a lunch set that really nice and not expensive, you guys can try their set lunch with is just RM8.80!
When talk about churros, the only churros that I tried is this one. Dip inside hot chocolate and and topping with some sugar really make my dessert perfect! The outer layer is crispy, while the inner part is super soft and fluffy. They have a variety choices of dip such as chocolate dip and Ikan Bilis dip.
Other than the chocolate dip, they have Ikan Bilis for you to dip your churros. If you like some spicy stuff, this is the one you guys might want try. It's looks simple but the outcome? Marvelous!
Churros is really easy to make my dessert day perfect because it's core and most bankable item is the Churros, which is a stick form of doughnut, fried till it is golden and crispy and can be "dressed up" with sugar, or drizzled over with luscious chocolate caramel or other forms of "dressing".
People in the US and Mexico like to have their Churros with cinnamon. It's great for takeaway, too, as people could just snack on them at theme parks.
Strawberry, Chocolate & Dulce De Leche (thick caramel).
If you think that Churros is thin and small, you are wrong! try their Filled Churro where it is almost the same as normal Churros only that it's bigger and there's filling inside of it. I personally prefer the chocolate and the dulce de leche where it's a thick caramel.
If you like something different like some hot stuff mix with cold stuff, you guys might want to try their funnel cake. There have choice between Funnel Cake Banana & caramel + Ice Cream or Funnel Cake Strawberry Chocolate + Ice Cream. With only RM10.50 you got the nice hot + cold desert. It's made from the same ingredient of churros and the different are it's very thin layers weaved like a web, therefore it's crispy if compared with Churros.
Some people might don't like ice cream. Don't worry because you can try the Funnel Cake without ice cream but topping with Chocolate and Caramel.
If you guys think that churros can't make your cute stomach full, they have rice and noodles as well. The Tom Yam fried rice not really spicy and there have enough Tom Yam flavor in it.
Brownies @ RM4.80 per pcs.
The brownies looks nice but I'm too full to try it.
Coffee Butter Cake @ RM4.80 per slice.
Chicken Pie @ RM1.80 per pcs.
With the big bos of Molten Lava.
All Molten Lava products are freshly made on-site daily and are free of preservatives. We serve both eat-in and take-away, so everyone can get their dose of happy food regardless of their schedules.
Thanks for the invite ^^ Little Monkey & Botakai.
Clockwise: Botakai, Clever Monkey, Little Monkey, Pei Li & Jamie.
Back L-R: Little Monkey, Jason Ong, Jamie & Pei Li.
Front L-R: Aaron Kee & Xiang.
8/10 for the service. They have prepare extra dining area which is located open air in front of the cafe and reserve for the Moletn Lava customer only.
7/10 for the food quality and quantity. Worth to try and price reasonable.
8/10 for the environment. The modern looking Molten Lava.
the funnel cakes look soooo nice! but quite expensive lor..
hoho,funnel cake tuh mcm sedap dowh..


Sweet, neutral, toxic; liver, kidney, spleen and stomach meridians entered.
Regulate menstruation and activate blood.
Difficult labour, stillbirth, mazischesis, amenorrhea due to blood stasis.
Make pill or powder, 3~9 g.


Neal Ardley has challenged a quartet of young AFC Wimbledon talents to prove they can earn more opportunities in the first-team next season.
The club has taken up options to retain the services of academy products Egli Kaja and Dan Gallagher, along with goalkeeper Joe McDonnell. Striker George Oakley (pictured), who also rose through the youth ranks, has signed a new contract after his promising start to the season for the Under-21s was curtailed by a serious ankle injury.
Neal Ardley believes that all four have the potential to step-up and play League 1 football if they can continue to progress.
"We have been doing reviews and mapping out plans for their development at the club because they need to take their games onto a new level," said Neal. "We are constantly raising the levels of the first-team and that means the young players have to continue improving. They train regularly with the first-team so they know what's required to step-up.
However, Neal confirmed that George Pilbeam, Callum Wilson and Ben Harrison have all left the club as he felt it was better for their careers to seek opportunities elsewhere.
AFC Wimbledon thanks all three for their contributions to the club and we wish them every success in their future careers.


Drug-resistant tuberculosis: an insurmountable epidemic?
Drug-resistant tuberculosis has brought back the spectre of pre-antibiotic days. WHO surveillance data from 2007 showed multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)-tubercle bacillus resistant to both isoniazid and rifampicin accounting for 4.8% of all new and subsequent cases of tuberculosis. India and China-the two most populated countries of the world, house the maximum number of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases. In eastern European and central Asian countries, more than 6% of new TB cases are MDR-TB, whereas the number is <3% in the countries of the western world. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has emerged with the prospect of tuberculosis becoming an incurable disease. A surveillance spreading over the six continents showed 10% of MDR-TB cases were also XDR-TB. The fact that tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection among HIV-infected patients in developing countries makes the challenge almost insurmountable. The mortality of HIV and MDR-TB co-infected patients is exceedingly high. The absence of guidelines for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis and of infrastructure for delivery of DOT program and rapid laboratory diagnostic facilities, including drug susceptibility testing for both first and second-line drugs, and lack of trained human resource in most of the developing world account for the emergence and perpetuation of this menacing problem. WHO along with partnership with Green Light Committee and individual national governments has started DOT plus program to control this global epidemic.


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Dilworth case 'unusual' – Victims advocate
An advocate for victims of abuse in religious institutions says the Dilworth school case is unusual because the accused have ended up in court.
Published in RNZ
Six men in their 60s and 70s with historical links to the Anglican boys' school in Auckland have been charged with indecent assault, sexual violation and drug supply.
Police have been investigating the Dilworth claims for a year and have so far identified 17 victims of abuse spanning from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
Liz Tonks, from the Network for Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions, says it's unusual to see charges laid in these cases.
At a media conference yesterday the Dilworth Trust Board chair Aaron Snodgrass apologised publicly to any former students who had been abused.


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/ Legal Articles / Extremism And Violence Has Permeated Through Pakistani Society; Need To Discourage Crime Against Women: Pakistan SC
Extremism And Violence Has Permeated Through Pakistani Society; Need To Discourage Crime Against Women: Pakistan SC
September 9, 2020 by Sanjeev Sirohi | Leave a comment
In a well-reasoned, well-researched, well-analysed and well-articulated judgment titled Muhammad Abbas Vs The State in Jail Petition No. 499 of 2015 (On appeal against the judgment dated 8.9.2015 passed by the Lahore High Court, Lahore in Criminal Appeal No. 300-J/2013 and Murder Reference No. 138/2011), the Supreme Court of Pakistan just recently on August 24, 2020 has observed that extremism and violence has permeated through Pakistani society and it has been brutalized. Not enough is done to ensure that crimes against women do not take place. The Court was also of the view that, "Respect and language play an important role to bring about a positive change in society and using terminology such as 'Ghairat' or honour is not helpful." Very rightly so!
To start with, in this latest, landmark and laudable judgment authored by Justice Qazi Faez Isa for himself and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood of the Pakistan Supreme Court, the ball is set rolling in para 1 wherein it is observed:
"Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 1636 of 2015: This jail petition has been filed with a delay of 57 days. For the reasons mentioned in the application, the delay is condoned and the petition is entertained for hearing.
Jail Petition No. 499 of 2015: On 20 February 2020 Mr. Tariq Mehmood Bhatt, learned Advocate of the Supreme Court, was appointed to represent the petitioner at State expense, as the petitioner was imprisoned and unrepresented."
While narrating the brief facts of this notable case, it is then stated in para 2 that, "Muhammad Asghar, the complainant, reported to the police that his sister was killed by her husband, the petitioner. The crime was witnessed by Muhammad Asghai (PW-9) and a neighbor Shahadat (PW-10). The crime was stated to have been committed at 1 am on 17 May 2009 and FIR No. 210 was registered at 5.50 am at Police Station Baraghar, District Nankana Sahib. The petitioner was tried by the learned Sessions Judge, Nankana Sahib and was convicted for the qatl-i-amd (murder) of his wife Mst. Saima Bibi ('the deceased' under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code ('PPC') and sentenced to death. He was also directed to pay compensation of fifty thousand rupees to the legal heirs of the deceased and in default of payment to undergo six months simple imprisonment. Murder Reference, to confirm the death sentence, was submitted to the Lahore High Court, Lahore and the petitioner appealed his conviction and sentence. The learned judges of the High Court upheld the conviction of the petitioner but reduced his sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life because the petitioner had fired only once upon the deceased."
To state the ostensible, the killing of any person cannot be justified and this is underscored in para 13 wherein the key point is that, "For Muslims the Holy Qur'an is the word of God. Killing a person is abhorrent and a grave sin [Holy Qur'an, surah An-Nisa (4) verse 93 and surah Al-Maidah (5) verse 32]. The Holy Qur'an also does not mandate the punishment of death for the offence of adultery [Holy Qur'an surah An-Nisa (4) verse 15 and surah An-Nur (24) verse 2]. If the petitioner suspected his wife of infidelity he should have followed the path prescribed by the Holy Qur'an and the law of Pakistan to resolve the matter."
Briefly stated, the key point that is contained in para 14 is that, "Making a false allegation of adultery is an offence under section 496C IPC and also constitutes an offence of qazf under the Offence of Qazf (Enforcement of Hadd) Ordinance, 1979 (Published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, Part I, on 9 February 1979). The offence of murder and the offences of false allegation of adultery are separate and distinct offences. The woman or the girl who is killed in the name or pretext of honour has no chance to redeem her honour. She is deprived of both her life and reputation."
Furthermore, it is then observed in para 15 that, "The petitioner who professes to be a Muslim did not follow the methodology commanded by Almighty Allah and the law of Pakistan to resolve his suspicions about this wife. The petitioner then couched his criminal and un-Islamic conduct by stating he became enraged to see his wife in the company of a man and on account of his ghairat he killed her. Almighty Allah loves those who amongst others restrain their anger [Holy Qur'am surah Al-Imran (3) verse 134]. To become enraged is not an admirable trait nor is ghairat. The word ghairat nor the Arabic ghairatan is used in the Holy Qur'an. The Holy Qur'an also does not permit killing on the ground of adultery, let alone on the ground of ghairat (ghairatun in Arabic), nor prescribes a lesser punishment for such killings. The law of Pakistan also does not permit this. It is inappropriate to interpret Chapter XVI of the PPC, which includes section 302 PPC, by disregarding the requirements of Section 338-F PPC, which necessitates seeking guidance from the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah. Reference may also be made to Article 227 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ('the Constitution') which mandates that, 'All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah'."
Be it noted, the Bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan then concedes in para 16 that, "Pakistan has one of the highest, if not the highest per capita honour killings in the world and predominantly the victims are women. By stating that murder was committed on the pretext of ghairat (honour) the murderer hopes to provide some justification for the crime. It may also elevate the murderer's social status with those not from familiar with Almighty Allah Commands in the Holy Qur'an. This is unfortunately, more so because there is no honour in such killings. Parliament was rightly concerned with the prevalence of such killings and enacted legislation to dissuade, if not stop such crimes. It did so by ensuring that offenders do not avail of the benefit of section 302(c) PPC, for which the maximum punishment is twenty-five years imprisonment but which does not prescribe a minimum punishment. Parliament specifically stipulated that such crimes attract clause (a) or clause (b) of section 302 PPC, for which the punishment is either death or imprisonment for life. However, the Muhammad Qasim case relied on certain obiter observations in the Muhammad Ameer case and after creating another exception to the erstwhile section 300 PPC this exception was applied to bring the offender's case within the ambit of section 302(c) PPC, even though the Muhammad Ameer case had held that an honour crime did not come within the ambit of section 302(c) PPC. The language of the proviso read with the definition of fasad-fil-arz is clear. If for the sake of argument it is assumed that there was some ambiguity in the proviso, the statement and objectives introducing it had it removed. The provisos (the one inserted in the year 2005 or the one in year 2016) did not intend to nor created another exception for one who kills in the name or pretext of honour in the erstwhile section 300 PPC, nor did it state that such crimes came within the ambit of section 302(c) PPC; on the contrary it said the opposite."
In this context, the Bench then also makes it a point to mention in para 17 that, "It may be clarified that we have relied on the law with regard to statement of the accused recorded under section 342 as expounded by this Court in the Faiz case, which was a judgment by a five-member Bench and not on the Mohammad Qasim case, a judgment which was by a three-member Bench. We have also not relied on the obiter observations of another three-member Bench in Muhammad Ameer case. In the Muhammad Qasim case the mandatory requirement to seek guidance from the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, stipulated in 338-F PPC, was not done, therefore Muhammad Qasim cannot be categorized as having decided a question of law or is based upon or enunciates a principle of law (Article 189 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan)."
No doubt, the Bench then more significantly points out in para 18 which merits mention particularly the relevant part that, "It needs restating that killing is never honourable. And, a murder should not be categorized as such. It will help deter such killings if the term ghairat is not used to describe them. It is also inaccurate to translate ghairat into English as honour. The word ghairat does not have an exact English equivalent. A more accurate translation of the trait, of ghairat would be 'arrogance' and the one with such trait is an 'arrogant' person."
Most significantly, the Bench then further very rightly holds in para 19 that, "Extremism and violence has permeated through Pakistani society and it has been brutalized. Not enough is done to ensure that crimes against women do not take place. Respect and language play an important role to bring about a positive change in society and using terminology such as ghairat or honour is not helpful. The Constitution mandates that 'tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed' (Preamble and Objectives Resolution of the Constitution of Republic of Pakistan which is required to be given 'effect' to (per Article 2A), Almighty Allah commends humility [Holy Qur'an, surah Al-A'raf(7) verse 94], loves kindness [Holy Quran, surah Al-Ma'idah (5) verse 13] and calls upon his slaves to overlook human faults and cultivate gracious forgiveness [Holy Qur'an, surah Al-Hijr (15) verse 85]. One of the Principles of Policy set out in the Constitution requires that, 'Steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all spheres of national life (Article 34 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan). Therefore, adverse assumptions, as made in the present case, cannot be permitted. Another Principle is that 'The State shall protect the marriage, the family, the mother and the child' (Article 35 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan). When women and girls are not protected but rather killed in the name or on the pretext of honour the family is destroyed."
It goes without saying that the Pakistani establishment and the Pakistani ruling party must take serious note of what has been said so clearly, categorically and convincingly by none other than the Supreme Court of Pakistan itself! The whole world should also now take very serious note of it and reputed international organizations instead of taking potshots on Prashant Bhushan's case should concentrate their energies on what the Pakistan Supreme Court has said so bluntly on honour killings, extremism and hatred that has permeated through Pakistani society! This is the crying need of the hour also!
Needless to say, honour killings and extremism cannot be justified under any circumstances whatsoever! Pakistan is on the verge of being blacklisted because of extremism and violence. It must wake up at least now and start taking reformative steps!
Sanjeev Sirohi
Tagged Extremism And Violence Has Permeated Through Pakistani Society honour killing Justice Qazi Faez Isa Justice Sardar Tariq Masood Need To Discourage Crime Against Women No 'Honour' In Honour Killing
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This reassuring animated graphic lets you know Data Rescue 3 is hard at work.
If you learn one thing from this article it should be back up your data – all of it, frequently and redundantly.
Or maybe, if you find life kind of boring, and you have lots of spare time on your hands, don't. Be like Inspector Clouseau, waiting for your man Kato to jump you when you get home, just to keep yourself sharp.
You may already be thinking to yourself, "Wow, Steve struck me as the kind of guy who would always back up his data," and you'd be pretty much correct. Everything on my boot drive is covered by Time Machine, and every scrap of data that is relevant to my clients' business is also backed up securely to the cloud the instant it is created and every time it is modified.
Do you think I have salvaged my clients' faith in me? So do I. Let's proceed.
You know where this is headed. I had about 250 GB of audio material, sample archives, compositional sketches and so forth, which I'd been carrying around for quite some time, transferring them en masse from one drive to another as the collection gradually increased in size like a digital snowball. And this archive finally landed on a drive which, at some point in the past, I had instructed Time Machine not to back up. And there it died sometime last week.
What do you do when you notice one of your drives isn't showing up on your desktop? You power cycle it, you listen to that awful clicking noise, you pop it into the freezer for a few hours, you scan in vain for a backup or even a directory listing, because you've largely forgotten what's on it. Then you panic just a little bit.
I took it to my local computer guys, who advertise data recovery services on their website. When I told them the drive wan't mounting, they admitted it was already beyond their abilities to restore (in retrospect their abilities are likely on par with my own, details to follow) and handed me a pamphlet for a California-based service they recommend.
California seemed like a bit of a hike, so I found a promising-looking outfit in Vaughan, filled out a ticket, packaged the drive up and sent it their way. And while I waited for their assessment and estimate, I tried to attribute a value to this chunk of data I'd been dragging around for years, in expectation of a representative from Memofix asking me if I was willing to spend $X to retrieve it.
I decided that it was worth no more than $500, and even that may be a little high. As a composer who has settled pretty comfortably – too comfortably – into the realm of found sound, or acquired sample, compositions, I had been obsessively collecting instruments and sounds, creating meandering (though momentarily engaging) loops and sketches from them, and setting them aside for rediscovery at some undefined later time. A very pragmatic voice in my brain told me that if there was anything of musical value on that drive, it would have already found its way into a composition. In fact, having this vast quantity of sonic resources at my disposal might have actually been making me a less effective composer, as I sifted through patches, samples and loops looking for inspiration, and fooling myself into thinking this was a productive use of my time, rather than focusing on starting with the real hard work – creating harmonic, melodic and formal ideas from scratch.
I'm not a fatalist, or much of an anything-ist lately. But the creative mind loves to make connections, and mine was straining to draw some "the universe is trying to tell you something" connection among the various aspects of this catastrophe. Every holiday season I tell myself I'm going to spend some of my time off writing new music, but usually I don't get past a few dozen measures before I get distracted. Is this a sign that I should clean up my act, divest myself of the baggage of my old, faulty methods, and start fresh? No. It's a quasi-random catalyst for my own navel-gazing and lateral thinking. But the end result is the same.
The estimate for drive recovery came in somewhere north of $1600 and the prognosis was not encouraging even at that price. Recalling that this lump of files had been moved around several times, I managed to track down the drive on which it was previously housed, and run a scan for deleted files with a newly-purchased copy of Data Rescue 3. And thanks to my impatience, and my satisfaction with the quickest formatting option when I last re-formatted the drive, much of my data was recovered intact. Ironically, the directory structure, along with most of the file names, was obliterated. So where I once had a very organized and clearly indexed library of samples, songs, and patches for various instruments, I now have a collection of folders organized by file type, containing up to 10,000 files each, identified only by a number and a file extension. Included were 27,662 AIFF files, named File-00001.aif through File-27662.aif. It's as though I took 250 GB of files and ran them through a gravel sifter.
In the interests of starting the new year off on a positive note, I'm calling all this a good result. I still have most of those files that have been a digital equivalent of Linus's safety blanket for me for God knows how long, but I have a strong incentive to attempt to create new ideas without them – finding the file I think I'm looking for could now take weeks rather than hours. I have a brand, shiny new 2TB drive that will henceforth back up every single bit of data I create until it too, inevitably, ceases to function. And I have a data recovery application which I hope I will never need again. But if sometime this year you realize you have accidentally erased your only copy of a vital file, bring the drive over to my place.
Bring a nice bottle of wine with you and I might not even charge you.


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