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Performance Arts Team
Ajab Gajab Team
Everyday Practice Team
Support & Governance Team
Riḥla
Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan
Raavan Aaya
Duniya Sabki
Project Riḥla: Dialogues for a better tomorrow
Darpan
Everyday Practice
Sanyukta Saha
Sanyukta is an Applied Theatre practitioner based out of Delhi, India. She primarily works with children and young people through drama to imagine and realise possibilities that are seemingly beyond their realms. She believes that theatre should be made accessible to every child as it develops the ability to do, to think, to feel, and to be. She founded Aagaaz in 2015. She is also a Behavioural Consultant with Maynard Leigh Associates. She has been mentored in her journey to strengthen Aagaaz by Unlimited Delhi, ARThink South Asia and Changelooms Fellowship.
Devika Bedi
Devika spends her time walking frantically, staring at walls, drawing fish and drinking coffee. She graduated from Centre for Learning, Bangalore in March, 2015, took a life-changing gap year and then created chaos for a while at Swaraj University, Udaipur. She has a keen interest in education and working with people. She also enjoys working with her hands and wants to explore the role of arts in pedagogy and learning. Devika has been full time at Aagaaz since May, 2017, where she enjoys mentoring, designing learning spaces, working on sexual and reproductive health sessions, engaging with bigger questions, learning about theatre and simply interacting with the kids who bring out the crazy in her!
Sakhi Upadhyaya
Sakhi has been a theatre facilitator and practitioner working in and around Delhi for as long as she has been instigating a consistent reordering of her academic priorities. Graduating from Ramjas College in 2016 with the experience of many projects as a member of Shunya, the Dramatics Society and a degree in Economics, she completed the Young India Fellowship in 2017. Hoping to never escape college, she has been studying the anthropology of higher education in India to tease out the 'political' in the lives of young adults as they navigate public universities. She completed her Masters in Liberal Studies in 2018. Besides a begrudging fear of growing old, the urge to demystify the collective exercise of exchanging ideas through performance, theatre, and art has been the only certainty in her life.
Muzammil is a founding member of Aagaaz Theatre Trust. He has performing professionally in plays from the organization's repertoir since 2015. As an actor and co-director, he has been a part of plays that have performed in theatre festivals, school, public performance venues, public spaces, and many national level events. He continues to surprise all the facilitators with his astute sense of stagecraft and his engagement with theatre as a language. He is also quite exceptional in terms of his abilities as a director and a leader. On multiple occasions he has facilitated creative processes with Aagaaz, the last being a new version of our constantly adapted production Duniya Sabki – taking a close look at demonetisation and what it meant for people around him. He chose to work with the language of physical theatre rather than words to tell the story.
A while back, he made it to Zakir Hussain College's BA Programme course through ECA quota in Theatre. He learning to be a theatre maker and facilitator.
Ismail Sheikh is a founding member at Aagaaz Theatre Trust. He has performing professionally in plays from the organization's repertoire since 2015. As an actor and co-director, he has been a part of plays that have performed in theatre festivals, school, public performance venues, public spaces, and many national level events. Ismail, is possibly the most sincere and hardworking member of the core group of Aagaaz. He has grown into a confident performer with an exceptional talent when it comes to movement based work. He played one of the lead roles in Raavan Aaya, and while his performance was exceptional, what stood out was his ability to reflect on the play and his character. At 18, his ability to think critically alongwith his knowledge of history and current goings on in the world, would make him an asset to any theatre group/ company. If not in a theatre workshop, he is very often found debating something or the other
with any group of people willing to engage.
A while back, he made it to PGDAV College's BA Programme course through ECA quota in Theatre.
He is learning to be a theatre maker and facilitator.
Saddam is a stickler for time and his commitment is commendable. At 18, he has completed higher secondary education and decided to take on theatre full time. A lover of cricket, a great visual artist and now a diligent learner of accounts, he subsists his income from Aagaaz by working at a restaurant. He has acted in all of Aagaaz's plays. His journey with theatre began at the MCD Primary School in 2008. A founding member of Aagaaz, his desire to take on theatre for life is one of the reasons the organisation exists.
Nagina is an 18 year old who started doing theatre while still a student of grade 3 in the MCD Primary School in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. She has performed in over 12 plays and is a founding member of Aagaaz. Other than theatre she is has been co-leading Aagaaz's sessions on gender and sexuality through Darpan. She was recently selected as a group of 8 young people from Delhi as a part of the American State Department's project – Voices from the Margins, which brings together young people from New Delhi and New Mexico to explore relationships between cultural heritage and cultural identity.
Shahid is a founding member of Aagaaz Theatre Trust and is a part of its Core Group of theatre practitioners. He has performing professionally in plays from the organization's repertoir since 2015. As an actor and co-facilitator, he has been a part of plays that have performed in theatre festivals, school, public performance venues, public spaces, and many national level events. Always a smile on his face and willing to listen, he is also one to speak his mind, even if that
means challenging voices of authority in any space. Over the years we have seen Shahid pause every once in a while to reflect on who he is and where he is headed. He is never afraid to face his faults and always ready to embrace aspects of himself. He is intelligent and hardworking as a performer and always willing to go back to the drawing board.


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Honduras has achieved what many other countries only aspire to: a near-perfect DTP3 vaccination coverage rate of 98%. In 2010, it reported zero cases of diphtheria, Hib meningitis, measles, polio and rubella.
Honduras introduced rotavirus vaccines in 2009 to reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease.
Two years later, GAVI helped fund the country's roll-out of pneumococcal vaccine, in a bid to tackle the high mortality among the under-fives due to pneumonia.
Delivering vaccines, which must be refrigerated from the moment they are manufactured up until the point they are administered, is not a straightforward task. This is especially true in Honduras, where nearly half of the rural population lacks a reliable electricity supply.
It takes all stakeholders working in concert to achieve this level of success.


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Stephan goes to Karachi, Pakistan, a complex city – crumbling infrastructure, nonexistent public services, escalating population, extreme poverty on top of ethnic and religious violence, targeted killings, crime, and corruption are often a constant. Amidst this, he meets incredibly talented and passionate people working to uncover their city from its façade, and bring actions of change to light through simple innovation and creativity.
He meets and plays music with children at the Ida Rieu School & College for Blind and Deaf, one of the very few private institutions that offers academic, professional and boarding opportunities to deaf, dumb and blind community from all parts of society, and provides health care facilities.
Then, he visits The Aman Foundation that focuses on health and education opportunities for those without access. It offers one of a kind and unlike any other in the city, ambulance and a 24-hour call center services. AmanTech provides technical training, skills and access to jobs through placement in the formal market. Thousands of students at AmanTech join Stephan making signs for peace, unity, love, of their vision for Karachi, Pakistan, and the world, and for a future they want to see and live in.
borderless follows Stephan to a government school for boys in one of the poorest neighborhoods (a small fishing community by the beach), then run by Teach for Pakistan. Inspired primary school boys engaged with Stephan singing along "Muhabbat say duniya ravan hai davan hai" (Love Make The World Go Round) and learn about kids their age in Baghdad, where Said had previously visited.
Stephan speaks at the National Academy for the Performing Arts about the vision for borderless. He meets professors working to revive the practice of dying traditional musical instruments, and speaks with inspired young musicians and students who want to change the world through music.
borderless and Stephan host a unity concert #LightTheWorld Pakistan: Duniya Ko Roshan Karo, first of it's kind in the city, and perhaps the country, at Port Grand, a beautiful public space, by the waterfront of the historic Native Jetty Bridge in Karachi. A digital backdrop exhibited photos and videos from the entire filming of borderless, and brought together the various people we met on the journey. The country's beloved Qawwals Abu Mohamed and Brothers join Stephan on stage. The concert is attended by thousands – young and old – holding up their signs for peace, singing along to songs of unity, and standing together for a better future for their city and country.


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Tag: TriggerWarnings
AND THE STARS WERE BURNING BRIGHTLY by Danielle Jawando – double review!
An emotionally rich and current story of suicide, mental health, bullying, grief and growing up around social media.
When fifteen-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother Al has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart.
Al was special.
Al was talented.
Al was full of passion and light…so why did he do it?
Convinced that his brother was in trouble, Nathan begins to retrace his footsteps. And along the way, he meets Megan. Al's former classmate, who burns with the same fire and hope, who is determined to keep Al's memory alive. But when Nathan learns the horrifying truth behind his brother's suicide, one question remains – how do you survive, when you're growing up in the age of social media?
Title : And The Stars Were Burning Brightly
Author : Danielle Jawando
Series : And The Stars Were Burning Brightly #1
Format : Paperback ARC / eBook (overdrive)
Publisher : Simon and Schuster UK
Release Date : March 5, 2020
Reviewer : Micky / Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / ★ ★ ★ ★
Micky's 5 star review
AND THE STARS WERE BURNING BRIGHTLY is the kind of book you do need a snapshot of insight into before you enter, in this case I do recommend reading the blurb. This is a story about suicide, grief, bullying and social media. It is powerful and painful, chilling and stunning. I think it's a really important book and it's 100% worth the emotional investment.
The book started and ended with an author note, I had the privilidge of hearing the author read the beginning note and the first chapter at a publisher event. There wasn't a whisper in the room and I fought tears listening to her. The reading experience is pretty much like that, the story and the characters plunged me into their worlds, wrapped me up in their fraught emotions and spat me out a bit of wreck.
Nathan was the brother, grieving his older sibling and questioning everything; he needed the why to these events, some reason and he was determined. Alongside Nathan were family, other siblings, his mother, his friend, Al's friend Megan and some nasty characters. This was a intricately woven story, where as the reader you were alongside Nathan, searching for answers.
"My chest goes all tight, knowing that I'll never see him for real again, that he'll only ever be this person in a photo."
Eli's character was tangibly written, believable in his cruel manipulations and plain bullying. Tara and Lewi were more subtle in their connections to the situation and how events finally wove together was pretty shocking. Social media was the weapon wielded in this book and some of the elements took my breath away.
The picture of grief was palpable, I could feel the anger, despair and sadness rising out of the pages, I'm not an easy crier at books but I was an easy crier at this book. Nathan's emotions had the power to affect me deeply as did Al's short chapter starters.
For me, as a Mancunian, this book was gift in dialogue and narrative. It was written as Mancunians speak, quite literally and I found it easy to sink into. I don't think this element will be difficult for any other readers, but you might wonder for the first few pages as you settle into this.
Danielle Jawando captured the issues in this book with honesty, she didn't hold back on the difficult stuff, this was an absolute strength of this book. These issues shouldn't be diluted to make it more palatable, your heart should break as you navigate this with the characters. I am beyond impressed with this fictional debut and I will be watching avidly for more from this author.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for this early review copy.
Hollis' 4 star review
Despite what this book made me feel, and the tears, I'm happy I read this book. Not just because it helped to haul me out of a slump but also because this story is so important to read, particularly for teens, and was done so beautifully.
I went into this read pretty unaware, as per usual, and knew only that Micky, blog buddy extraordinaire, has been raving about it for what feels like ages now. I'm so thankful she put this on my radar.
When you're angry, it takes you away from the pain somehow. Stops it from tearing into you.
I truly don't have much to say, and certainly nothing to add to my partner's great review, but I couldn't not make a point to add something, to repost this, boost it once more, because this story deserves more awareness and, most importantly, deserves your time. It's heavy but never without hope, without light — just like stars; though they aren't seen until it's dark.. they shine so bright.
Author atakefromtwocitiesPosted on March 8, 2020 August 27, 2020 Categories Blog, reviewsTags 2020August, 2020March, 2020Reads, AndTheStarsWereBurningBrightly, DanielleJawando, DoubleReview, ReviewsByHollis, ReviewsByMicky, TriggerWarnings, YAContemporary1 Comment on AND THE STARS WERE BURNING BRIGHTLY by Danielle Jawando – double review!
THE SKY IS MINE by Amy Beashel – Blog Tour
No one has ever asked Izzy what she wants. She's about to change all that…
In a house adept at sweeping problems under the carpet, seventeen-year-old Izzy feels silenced. As her safety grows uncertain, Izzy know three things for sure. She knows not to tell her mother that Jacob Mansfield has been threatening to spread those kinds of photos around college. She knows to quiet the grief that she's been abandoned by her best friend Grace. And, seeing her mother conceal the truth of her stepdad's control, Izzy also knows not to mention how her heart splinters and her stomach churns whenever he enters a room.
When the flimsy fabric of their life starts to unravel, Izzy and her mum must find their way out of the silence and use the power in their voices to rediscover their worth.
For fans of Sara Barnard, Louise O'Neill and E. Lockhart, The Sky is Mine is a powerful exploration of rape culture and domestic abuse, and a moving story of women learning to love themselves enough to demand to be heard.
Title : The Sky Is Mine
Author : Amy Beashel
Publisher : Rock the Boat
Release Date : February 6, 2020
See that bright, shiny cover? THE SKY IS MINE is a book that shines but not with cheery goodness. No, this isn't a story to get comfortable with, it's a story to get uncomfortable with but it's really important. This is a spoiler-free review though, so expect a little vagueness.
Izzy was a young woman crushed. Crushed by her home life, crushed by manipulation and crushed by the demise of the most important friendship of her life. Izzy had lost her voice, herself and her perspective. This was a story of spiralling down and then the slow, long swim to the surface.
If things had been different, maybe I could have told Mum…
If things had been different, maybe my dad would have opened his door and his arms…
Things aren't different though. Things are what they are.
The themes in this book couldn't be more relevant than they are to contemporary times. The story explored how social media, something said or captured and tracking apps can all make life seemingly impossible. Izzy's life was on overload but in so many ways. Her story was about trust, grief, finding her voice and her way back to relationships.
THE SKY IS MINE was incredibly discomforting to read but completely worth the journey. There was hope housed within the pages of this book and that made the journey a path that was doable. The narrative voice conveyed by Amy Beashel was compelling and absorbing, taking the difficult and making it readable without losing impact or power. I admired her ability to tackle the subjects in this book, it was a difficult task which she accomplished so well. I am excited to read more from her.
Thank you to Rock The Boat for the finished review copy.
Author atakefromtwocitiesPosted on February 11, 2020 June 12, 2020 Categories BlogTags 2020February, 2020Reads, AmyBeashel, BlogTour, ReviewsByMicky, RockTheBoat, TheSkyIsMine, TriggerWarnings, YAContemporaryLeave a comment on THE SKY IS MINE by Amy Beashel – Blog Tour
WHAT KIND OF GIRL by Alyssa B Sheinmel
The girls at North Bay Academy are taking sides. It all started when Mike Parker's girlfriend showed up with a bruise on her face. Or, more specifically, when she walked into the principal's office and said Mike hit her. But the students have questions: Why did she go to the principal and not the police? Why did she stay so long if he was hurting her? Obviously, if it's true, Mike should be expelled. But is it true? Some girls want to rally for his expulsion – and some want to rally around Mike. The only thing that the entire student body can agree on? Someone is lying. And the truth has to come out.
Title : What Kind of Girl
Author : Alyssa B Sheinmel
Format : Paperback Arc
Publisher : Atom Books
WHAT KIND OF GIRL was such an interesting read that addressed some relevant but less written-about themes in the context of physical abuse in a dating situation in YA. There are some additional trigger warnings at the beginning of the book for those who seek this out.
This story asked the question, what kind of girl would let something like this happen and focused on the individuals but also very importantly, it focused on the reactions from friends, enemies, family and the school community. I can tell you it frustrated me and infuriated me at times with people's reactions and turns of events but it was utterly compelling.
The way the story was told was innovative and clever. It was told from mulitple POVS (not too many, I hasten to add) but for the first part of the story, you don't have names for the characters. This worked really well and there came a point where it was all woven together and the reveals came. Interestingly, this story was also told over one week and yet the level of depth to this story was impressive. I loved the style and structure, it felt fresh. There were moments where I felt in the dark but I enjoyed the veil of mystery until the reveals.
There were two key characters in this book and some strong supporting characters. I loved Maya, Hiram and Junie, although there were moments for each of these characters where I felt unsure about who they were, how loyal they would be and how true to themselves they could be. This is the kind of story that builds and builds and really, you don't know the full story until the final page.
The writing was inviting in story-telling and mysterious voices. I couldn't put the book down and read it in less than 24 hours. Alyssa B Sheinmel has a strong narrative YA voice that captured my attention with its themes and ability to immerse me in a situation.
Plenty of women never tell. They don't come forward and say their boyfriends are hitting them. They find thicker cover-up and better cover stories. They opened a cabinet and a mug fell on their faces. They walked into a doorknob in the middle of the night. Sure, it's completely implausible-why would anyone be eye-level with a doorknob?-but that's what women in the movies say. They cover for the men in their lives, at least at first. Eventually the woman stands up for herself and says: Enough.
Thank you to Atom books for the early proof copy in return for an honest review.
Author atakefromtwocitiesPosted on February 9, 2020 June 12, 2020 Categories Blog, reviewsTags 2020February, 2020Reads, AlyssaBSheinmel, AtomBooks, ReviewsByMicky, TriggerWarnings, WhatKindOfGirl, YAContemporaryLeave a comment on WHAT KIND OF GIRL by Alyssa B Sheinmel
ANNIE'S SONG by Catherine Anderson
Annie Trimble lives in a solitary world that no one enters or understands. As delicate and beautiful as the tender blossoms of the Oregon spring, she is shunned by a town that misinterprets her affliction. But cruelty cannot destroy the love Annie holds in her heart.
Alex Montgomery is horrified to learn his wild younger brother forced himself on a helpless "idiot girl." Tormented by guilt, Alex agrees to marry her and raise the babe she carries as his own. But he never dreams he will grow to cherish his lovely, mute, misjudged Annie and her childlike innocence, her womanly charms and the wondrous way she views her world. And he becomes determined to break through the wall of silence surrounding her; to heal…and to be healed by Annie's sweet song of love.
Title : Annie's Song
Author : Catherine Anderson
Format : Mass Market Paperback
Genre : Historical Romance
Publisher : Avon
Release Date : August 27, 2013
Rating : ★ ★ ★ .5
Micky's 3.5 star read
ANNIE'S SONG was an enjoyable read and a breath of fresh in terms of uniqueness of story, I've not read the like before, particularly not in the historical romance genre.
Firstly, this book starts out with an incredibly difficult first chapter, there are triggers here front and centre for some people. The issue wasn't exactly a trigger for me but it still took me aback and felt an abrupt and brutal start.
Annie had a disability and much of the early story is about misconceptions and misunderstandings about her disability. I struggled a little with where the story went in terms of consent issues to decisions made. I really hated observing some of what happened there. Added onto this, Annie had horrendous parents and what she had suffered in her childhood home was difficult to see recounted.
Alex was a man of integrity and I admired his actions on the one hand but I also wanted to knock some sense into him as he navigated decisions, their life and future direction. However, where would Annie have been without him? In a much worse situation is the answer. Alex did learn and grow as a man and partner, he was also a quite a forward thinker for the era.
Their romantic connection was a slow burn but even the were both adults, Annie's innocence made me feel like my skin was crawling as Alex tried to coax Annie into intimacy. So while I was enjoying much of the story, this element just took the rating down a little for me.
I'm grateful for the rec on this unusual story and I would definitely read Catherine Anderson again.
Author atakefromtwocitiesPosted on December 8, 2019 December 8, 2019 Categories BlogTags 2019December, 2019Reads, DisabilityRep, HistoricalRomance, ReviewsByMicky, TriggerWarningsLeave a comment on ANNIE'S SONG by Catherine Anderson

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Trivago is bold to take on the giants Booking.com and Expedia Inc. by debuting hotel data services, too. But its rate-shopping tool is better designed and possibly more powerful than what its rivals offer. Game on.
Trivago, the hotel price comparison platform, has been mocked a bit for spending more heavily on TV marketing as a percentage of revenue than any other online travel company.
But the Düsseldorf, Germany-based company has vigorously argued that it sees itself as a technology company whose success is heavily based on its investment in data science.
Tuesday, Trivago offers a new data point to support the claim that it's a data-focused company.
Trivago's new Rate Insights tool gives hoteliers advice on how they should set their rates to make the most profit.
The tool taps the company's pool of data on rate-setting trends in local markets to help hotel general managers and revenue managers forecast pricing trends. The information is derived from 250 booking sites and hotel supplier sites, trends in traveler search volume for a hotel's region, and a calendar of events (such as concerts and sports matches) that could spike local demand.
Trivago is following a trend. Several online travel companies have been branching into providing data services for hotels. In autumn 2016, Expedia Inc., a part-investor in Trivago, began rolling out a revenue management tool called Rev+ to hotels that distribute inventory via its network of consumer brands, such as Expedia and Travelocity.
The tool enables a property to assess how its rates compare against local market rivals over the span of a few months' time and to see predictions of demand in their market based on search activity Expedia Inc. brands are seeing and other data points.
This past spring Expedia also added a tool to help hotels respond rapidly to guest reviews on the PartnerCentral extranet, or online portal, that hotels use to connect with the company.
Meanwhile, Booking.com, the giant subsidiary of online travel behemoth Priceline Group, has also been expanding the array of business intelligence services it provides to hotels since it launched its BookingSuite division in 2015.
BookingSuite offers the broadest array of business decision-making tools for hotels — from the ability to shop competitor properties to check going rates to a rate-setting recommendation tool to software for managing digital marketing and direct booking campaigns.
But parent company Priceline Group hasn't revealed details on how much traction the division is getting.
Given the competition, how can Trivago's rate shopper tool stand out? Managing director Johannes Thomas said in a statement that, given Trivago is a metasearch company instead of an online travel agency, it has access to a broader set of rate changes.
"No other rate shopper has this combination of data in this amount and with this granularity," he said.
At Skift Forum Europe in April, Thomas pointed out that "Trivago has as many engineers as it has marketers." It looks like that investment is being reflected in a series of new products.
Whether hotels will trust the advice of commission-seeking third parties like Trivago when it comes to setting the rates for their room remains a question that will be answered over time.
Looking ahead, many industry observers will wonder if Trivago will offer a property management system for hotels. A year and a half ago, the company acquired a majority stake in Switzerland-based hotel-tech startup Base7booking, securing a majority stake. Many small hotels use Base7booking's cloud-based property management system to manage rates and inventory.
The new hotel insights tool is distributed as part of Trivago Hotel Manager PRO — essentially a company extranet, or online portal, for the more than 300,000 properties worldwide that sell rooms in its marketplace.
It may take some time for the investment to pay off for Trivago. The company hopes hotel managers will earn more revenue through it and will respond by boosting the room inventory that they sell via its marketplace instead of other channels such as Google.
The company seems to be okay with that long-term strategy. In May, Trivago CFO Axel Hefer visited Skift's offices and said the company was more interested in growth than achieving high-profit margins in the near-term.


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Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Judgment Concerning AXIRON® (Testosterone) Transdermal Solution
News > Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Judgment Concerning AXIRON® (Testosterone) Transdermal Solution
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed an earlier district court decision holding that the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,435,944 ("the '944 patent") are invalid as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
After a nine-day bench trial in 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Judge Sarah Evans Barker) held the asserted claims of the '944 patent obvious. The District Court also found non-infringement on behalf of, among others, Perrigo Israel Pharmaceuticals Ltd. ("Perrigo") with respect to the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,807,861. Plaintiffs Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly Export S.A., and Acrux DDS PTY. Ltd. did not appeal the judgment of non-infringement. The plaintiffs had asserted the patents to prevent the marketing of generic equivalents to Axiron® (testosterone) solution and the related applicator.
RMMS attorneys appearing for Perrigo were William A. Rakoczy, Christine J. Siwik, Alice L. Riechers, Gregory A. Duff, Lauren M. Lesko, Erin M. Forbes, and Chris P. Galligan.


Performs accounting of revenues and expenses on a full budget classification Chart of accounts for budget companies.
Prepares monthly and quarterly reports on cash execution of budget. Analyzes spending on salaries, and salaries for the month and make appropriate proposals.
Observe and implement current and subsequent control of the lawful production, processing and storage of accounting documents. Participates in the preparation and implementation of annual inventory and reporton the status of assets and liabilities.
Provides storage and use of accounting records in accordance with the Accounting Act and VAT № 20/2005. Supports the establishment and functioning of the financial management and control.
Monitor and be responsible for the operation of the dual signature, assuming anyfinancial commitment or of any expenditure shall be made only upon signature of the director and chief accountant.


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Summerbook #17: Secondhand Time
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets: An Oral History, by Svetlana Alexievich
Wow, this book is...an achievement. Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and it was well-deserved. It's not a regular book of history; it's more like a monument, really.
What Alexievitch does -- has been doing for well over twenty years -- is interview people and transcribe their stories. Mostly just ordinary people, and the stories are not edited much. They're just set down. The result is very immediate; you can almost see the people as they speak.
Many of the people in this book are elderly, and tell of long Soviet lives. Others are quite young and may not even remember Soviet life.
There's a former Soviet officer, who offers the rather stunning information that a good 70% of the Soviet economy was militarized, and in his opinion that was only correct. They weren't about to convert tank factories into factories for toasters! They had to be ready at all times.
There's a lady who spent her infancy in the gulag, and her childhood in the orphanage down the road. Other people who were convinced and happy Communists and can't get used to the new situation. Lots of them wanted more freedom to read and speak, but the economic chaos of the 1990s was horrible for just about everyone. Many people comment that they thought they'd get more books, salami, and freedom, and instead everything is about money, materialism, and bling all the time. (I have to say, the West really screwed over the Russians with this whole 'shock therapy' thing. What a mess.)
Sometimes she just collects random snippets, bits and pieces from the crowd on the street (as in the protests against the coup attempt against Yeltsin) or kitchen conversations at dinners, as everyone expresses different opinions.
A few quotations:
What an exciting time! I handed out flyers in the subway...Everyone dreamt of a new life...Dreams...People dreamt that tons of salami would appear at the stores at Soviet prices and members of the Politburo would stand in line for it along with the rest of us. Salami is a benchmark of our existence. Our love for salami is existential...
War is a swamp, it's easy to get stuck in it and hard to get out. Another Jewish saying: "When the wind is strong, the trash rises to the top." [This is from a man who was a boy during the war and joined the partisans in the woods after he was left for dead in a mass Jewish grave. The partisans were anti-Semitic too, but it was the only place he could be at all.]
The devil knows how many people were murdered, but it was our era of greatness.
For us, communism was inextricably linked with the Terror, the gulag. A cage. We thought it was dead. Gone forever. Twenty years have passed...I go into my son's room, and what do I see but a copy of Marx's Das Kapital on his desk, and Trotsky's My Life on his bookshelf...I can't believe my eyes! Is Marx making a comeback? Is this a nightmare? [snip] Marxism is legal again, on trend, a brand. They wear T-shirts with pictures of Che Guevara and Lenin on them. [Despairingly.] Nothing has taken root. It was all for naught.
It's just this enormous array of different lives, placed next to each other for observation and perhaps comparison. It's not at all an easy read; looking back at the dates on Goodreads, it took me nearly two months. Most of the stories are harrowing in one way or another, and it's a lot to deal with.
For anybody interested in Soviet history, this is a must-read, as are Alexievitch's other books. In fact, now she's got another book out. She writes faster than I can deal with. I will never catch up.
Labels: 20 books of summer, chunksters, history, Russian literature, WIT August
Maphead said...
Great book! I soooo need to get my review up and posted. Thanks for the great review!
Thanks, Maphead! One more down from our ever-growing piles of Slavic history, right?
Jenny @ Reading the End said...
I tried one of this author's books and I had a really hard time with it -- the narrative felt very fragmented. I wondered if I was missing something? Did you find that this book was fragmented in the same way, and you just got used to it in the end, or?
Yeah, it's not an easy format. I don't know that you CAN call it a narrative, especially this one; if you read the Chernobyl book maybe it bore some resemblance to a narrative. Or I think "The Unwomanly Face of War" is more of a regular history book, I haven't read that yet. This is just a whole lot of people, each telling their own story, or bits thereof.
Brona said...
I have this on my TBR for one day. Also keen to look into her book on Chernobyl too. It's meant to be as equally absorbing and monumental.
It's not as long, but it sure is absorbing. I read it...last year? Year before that?
Sixpence in Her Shoe
Summerbook #20: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life...
Summerbook #19: Purge
Summerbook #18: Lais of Marie de France
The Opal and Other Stories
The Blue Hills
Summerbook #16: Hartmann von Aue
Malgudi Days I
In Search of Lost Books
Summerbook #15: Paradise of the Blind
The Golden Skylark
Summerbook #14: Kalpa Imperial
Summerbook #13: Midnight Riot
Summerbook #12: The Claverings
The Mystery Trip Revealed


text:
New studies show that COVID vaccines damage your immune system, likely permanently
Wednesday, December 29, 2021 by: News Editors
Tags: adverse reactions, badhealth, badmedicine, badscience, biowar, COVID, health, immune system, pandemic, spike protein, Study, vaccine, vaccine damage, vaccine injury
(Natural News) Worried about Omicron? Guess what? After 90 days, the vaccine they gave you is going to make you MORE likely to get infected from Omicron, not less. The longer you stay on the vaccine treadmill, the harder to get off in the future and the easier you'll make it for the virus.
(Article by Steve Kirsch republished from SteveKirsch.Substack.com)
In short, we've been lied to about the vaccine. It is protecting you less and less over time. While you may get a benefit for earlier variants, the benefit for other variants (and likely other diseases) is going to be negative. In short, you are getting a short term benefit against Delta, but at the expense of a degradation of your overall immunity to everything else.
These vaccines may help you win the war against a variant that may soon be rare, but the price you pay is that you make your immunity to everything else worse. It's a dumb tradeoff (especially since early treatments work so well). But the people making the laws won't believe any of the science referenced in this article, so it will continue.
Alix Mayer alerted me to this game changing tweet about a study in Denmark which instantly went viral as you can see from the number of retweets:
Holy moly.
This study shows that after three months the vaccine effectiveness of Pfizer & Moderna against Omicron is actually negative. Pfizer customers are 76.5% more likely and Moderna customers are 39.3% more likely to be infected than unvaxxed people. https://t.co/wPgAwG8BW3pic.twitter.com/3Oh3IJSVIk
— Ezra Levant ? (@ezralevant) December 23, 2021
I want to tell you what this really means and how it is being attacked.
Summary: Refuse to comply with mandates. Now.
This paper means we will need to inject people every 30 days if we want to "protect" them. Based on the harm that the vaccines do to our immune system, it's likely that the needed interval will shorten with each booster.
If people don't get boosted as required, they will be MORE vulnerable to Delta and Omicron than if they weren't vaccinated. That's what NEGATIVE vaccine efficacy means. It doesn't mean the protection wears off (like we were told). It means the OPPOSITE of what you were told: it means the vaccines helps the virus to infect you (by suppressing your immune system, probably permanently each time we are injected according to Dr. Ryan Cole). It means we were lied to.
In short, the vaccine is like a heroin addiction: once you've had a taste of it, you are hooked: you have to continue it for life if you want protection. If you stop it, you're a sitting duck for the virus.
What's worse is our government is mandating this now. In light of this paper, they will change the vaccine mandates to force you to get vaccinated every month or you will be fired from your job. Their next move could well be to make it illegal not to be vaccinated. This seems like where things are headed based on what is happening in other countries where they are quickly stripping away your rights to do anything without a vaccination.
And we have no clue what monthly (and later weekly) vaccination will do to your body. This has never been tested.
My advice is simple. If you have been vaccinated, you need to stop now. Do not get the booster. My friend Dr. Robert Malone is fond of repeating the old adage, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
Sadly, most people cannot afford to lose their jobs, so they will get vaccinated and medical professionals will not speak out since doing so will cause them to lose their license.
The faster, safer, lower cost way to end the pandemic
Everyone needs to stop listening to the CDC now and start listening to people who have been saying to ditch the vaccines and aggressively promote early treatment with repurposed drugs.
The entire pandemic will end as soon as the CDC stops ignoring the existing early treatment protocols which have been available since March 2020 (Fareed and Tyson protocol was first available back then). Masking, vaccines, mandates, lockdowns, and social distancing were never needed. We could have (and still can) end the hospitalization and death with just one thing: early treatment. Just like Japan has done. But the CDC refused to listen.
What the paper said in detail
First, the link in the tweet is to the outdated version of the paper. The current version can be found here.
Start at the comments, both from social media and also from medrxiv readers.
Check out the social media portion of the comments
Here are some comments (on old and new version of the paper):
So assume the results you like (high VE for recent vaccination) are causal, but hand wave confounders at results you don't like (negative VE for distant vaccination)? Science?
This is a superb paper, especially the careful approach to CNV calling and the Bayesian methods used throughout.
Looking at the graphs, I see both vaccines lose all effectiveness at 90 days, but worse, actually drop into strong negative effectiveness after that time.This would mean that these vaccines *increase* one's chances of infection after the initial 90 days "honeymoon" period.Am I getting this right?If so, why are governments pushing third doses as Omicron is becoming dominant?
The key material is in the full PDF:
The graphs above tell the story. Negative VE means the vaccine is helping the virus, not you.
So at 60 days, the protection is close to zero, so if you want to maintain protection, getting vaccinated every 30 days is required.
This isn't a vaccine at all. This is basically stimulating your immune system so it is already "geared up" to fight the virus. That's not what a vaccine is supposed to do.
Furthermore, the negative VE after 90 days means you are hooked for life and I would guess (based on the mechanism of action), that we will need shorter and shorter dosing intervals for every booster you get (since it kills off your immune system every time).
So it could very well be monthly boosters after the 2nd dose, weekly boosters after the 3rd dose, and perhaps daily boosters after the 4th dose to maintain your "immunity."
You can't stop after that because if you stop, you're in worse shape than if you never started.
The stunning conclusion of the paper
In light of the exponential rise in Omicron cases, these findings highlight the need for massive rollout of vaccinations and booster vaccinations.
All I can say is "wow." The people who wrote this paper are clearly drinking the Kool-Aid on their interpretation of what their study means.
They also wrote this (which is purely speculative with no data behind it as noted in the italics were my addition):
The negative estimates in the final period arguably suggest different behaviour and/or exposure patterns in the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts causing underestimation of the VE. This was likely the result of Omicron spreading rapidly initially through single (super-spreading) events causing many infections among young, vaccinated individuals.
This paper should be a wake up call: the vaccines do not work. Stop repeating the insanity.
Early treatments like the Fareed and Tyson protocol are 10X better than any new therapy, they don't "hook you," and they don't cause disability or death.
If doctors started prescribing the Fareed and Tyson protocol, we'd have virtually no deaths, and few hospitalizations. But they can't do that since medical board will take away the licenses of any physicians who prescribe ivermectin, etc. This is happening now.
We are in this mess because the NIH, CDC, FDA are corrupt and incompetent and they will not hold themselves accountable in an open debate. This has been going on for 20 years in the vaccine space… it's nothing new. The book "Evidence of harm" documents all of this. Kirby was deliberately neutral in his presentation (being non-judgmental like reporters are supposed to be), but any neutral thinking person will side against the authorities.
Why the paper went viral
So, the reason this paper went viral is because
It is well done,
It was done by PhDs in infectious disease and epidemiology,
The results show what is really happening, and
Nobody has been able to attack the paper with a credible argument, even on Twitter.
It confirms what my team of experts has been saying about negative VE
Here are some of the ridiculous attempts to discredit the paper:
The article says that it's not peer reviewed and is not published in any scientific journals.
So without verification there are all kinds of claims out there about all kinds of things. We go by those principles that have passed peer review to separate fact and fiction.
— RobertNorton (@robertnorton_) December 23, 2021
It is impossible to have a negative VE. You cannot have a negative VE. The absolute lowest VE is zero, which infers no protection whatsoever. Your statement is completely false, including the data table that isn't even in the study you cited.
— SwingTrader (@SwingTrader1114) December 23, 2021
The paper isn't a fluke. There is lots of other evidence in support of the negative VE (and not supporting their speculative explanation for it).
Here's the data from Canada which shows that we have it backwards. We should be mandating "no vaccines" in order to keep your job and fire all the vaccinated people because these people are the most risky.
In Ontario in the last few days, cases per capita among the vaccinated have skyrocketed above cases per capita among the unvaccinated. Clearly, mandates are nonsensical at this point, because the entire case for restricting vaccinated people is their presumed higher per capita infection rate.
Here's the UK data showing the same thing. We need to flip around the mandates ASAP.
It looks like the U.K. data may support the vaccine-enhanced infection issue both FDA and I have raised.https://t.co/ewFK0ByA4N
— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) December 22, 2021
Other supporting data:
On COVID vaccines: why they cannot work, and irrefutable evidence of their causative role in deaths after vaccination and the video about that paper. If the vaccines don't kill you, they will leave you weaker. Over 90% of the deaths investigated after vaccination were found to have been caused by the vaccines. There is no other explanation.
The BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 reprograms both adaptive and innate immune responses
An excellent article by Jessica Rose which explains the underlying mechanism for why we are seeing the effect that the more you vaccinate, the more you make things worse for people. The vaccine damages both your adaptive and innate immune systems.
Vaccine efficacy declines to be negative in the UK (Expose article)
Booster protection fades within 10 weeks against Omicron: UK study
Booster shots protect against symptomatic Omicron infection for about 10 weeks, study finds — which could mean more doses for some in 2022
This substack article looks at the Danish study (described here) and the UK data. Note that the VE numbers in the two studies are different because if you separate our Omicron, you get a very different picture of VE compared to analyses that don't separate out VE by variant.
Dr. Ron Brown – Opinion EditorialDecember 23, 2021Ontario, Canada reported 5,790 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, December 23, 2021, setting the province's one-day record for new cases since the beginning of the pandemic: Ontario: Case numbers | COVID-19. Thursday's numbers include 971 unvaccinated new cases compared to 4,392 fully vaccinated new cases—a rapidly rising trend over the past several weeks clearly showing that most new cases are now occurring in fully vaccinated people.
Read more at: SteveKirsch.Substack.com
Previous :Pharmacist shocked to discover vaccine inserts are blank: 'I shouldn't be giving these out'
Next : KIRSCH: How the game is really played
More news on adverse reactions
At LEAST 150,000 Americans have been killed by covid shots… and counting
Radiologist reports a 360-fold increase in adenopathy following covid vaccinations
More hospital nurses blow whistle on "overwhelming" number of heart attacks, blood clots occurring in the fully vaccinated
Pharmacist shocked to discover vaccine inserts are blank: 'I shouldn't be giving these out'
With the new state religion the 'covidian cult' and America on a suicidal course into oblivion, no democrat nor republican dare state the obvious: 'The emperor has no clothes!'
Covid jabs can cause the central nervous system to go absolutely HAYWIRE, possibly for life
Smoking gun: Pfizer logs 1,223 deaths, 42,086 adverse reactions after just three months of vaccine rollout
New study confirms link between COVID-19 vaccines and serious heart problems
Soccer fans, players disrupting matches with heart-related emergencies – are covid vaccines to blame?
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-12-29-covid-vaccines-damage-your-immune-system.html
New studies show that COVID vaccines damage your immune system, likely permanently


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San Francisco Giants: The Case to Give Younger Players More Starts
The San Francisco Giants were officially eliminated from the NL West Monday night. The Giants won't be winning a wild-card playoff spot either, so it's officially time for the organization to start looking towards the future.
February 20, 2013; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Heath Hembree (72) poses for a picture during photo day at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants called up many young, promising players from their AAA affiliate, the Fresno Grizzlies, at the beginning of this month. They brought back some familiar faces such as Jake Dunning, George Kontos, Francisco Peguero, Nick Noonan, and Juan Perez. They also brought up some prospects that hadn't made their major league debuts yet such as Johnny Monell, Ehire Adrianza, and Heath Hembree.
Since the September call-ups, not many of these prospects have started games or seen a significant amount of playing time though. Bruce Bochy seems adamant about starting his regular players for the rest of the season.
"I'll find my spots to get [the callups] in the game," Bochy said. "Some of them will start, but at the same time, we're going to be playing to win every game. Our regulars are going to be out there."
Bochy's stance is understandable. After an extremely disappointing season, Bochy wants this team to finish this season strong. Even if it's impossible to make the playoffs, they could still finish off the season on a run and carry some of that momentum into next season. If they finish on a good note, then it's more likely that the returning Giants players will come into spring training with a better attitude and will be more focused on getting back to the playoffs next season.
Although that argument verifies that Bochy should continue to start the regular players, it's time to at least start mixing in some of the prospects. Bochy doesn't necessarily have to do a starting lineup with just the prospects, but it would be wise to give each of them some starts occasionally. This will give them some experience in the major leagues, it will make them more confident about their game, and it will potentially put some of them in a better position to make next season's roster.
For example, Hembree has a great shot at making an impact next season for the Giants. In fact, Hembree almost made the 25-man roster coming into this season. He has only appeared in three games so far this season for the Giants, but he has been very impressive so far. He currently has a 0.00 ERA with three strikeouts and two walks in three innings. He also has only allowed one hit.
He has shown great command of all his pitches, and he throws hard. He could easily make the 25-man roster next season and be one of a couple right-handed set-up men for Sergio Romo. After gaining some more experience in Fresno this year, he looks like he'd be ready to contribute effectively next season.
February 20, 2013; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Johnny Monell (79) poses for a picture during photo day at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Although he most likely won't make next season's roster, it would be interesting to see Monell get some starts too. Since Buster Posey is still playing with a small fracture in his right ring finger, it'd make sense for the Giants to rest him more or at least give him a break from catching.
Hector Sanchez will certainly get a fair number of starts at catcher for the rest of the season, but Monell could really use some more experience behind the plate. Monell has great power, but he needs to work on his defense. Giving him a few starts would be a great opportunity to see what he can do and what he can work on.
Adrianza is another prospect that should get a few starts. Adrianza is known for his defense at shortstop, but he started to improve on his offense once he was promoted to the Grizzlies earlier this season. The Giants should give him a couple spot starts to see if he truly has become more proficient with the bat.
The Giants, for the most part, already know what they'll get out of Dunning, Kontos, Peguero, Noonan, and Perez. Dunning and Kontos will definitely get some consistent playing time out out of the bullpen, since Bochy wants to utilize his larger staff of relief pitchers. Perez and Peguero will most likely get some spot starts in left field, and it's not clear how much playing time Noonan will get, besides pinch-hit opportunities.
The 2013 season for the Giants is almost over, but it's not too late to give their prospects a chance to prove why they deserve to make next season's roster. It's time to focus on 2014 and which prospects could make an impact.
Posted in Baseball, MLB, San Francisco Giants and tagged Bruce Bochy, Ehire Adrianza, Francisco Peguero, George Kontos, Heath Hembree, Jake Dunning, Johnny Monell, Juan Perez, Nick Noonan, San Francisco Giants on September 11, 2013 by maggiepilloton. Leave a comment
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text:
Commentary: Telegram, the powerful COVID-19 choice of communications by many governments
Commentary Commentary
Telegram has many features that drive its popularity and has been a vital tool for governments in combating this 'infodemic', say observers.
A woman uses her phone in a Mass Rapid Transit train in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Mar 22, 2020. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng
By Dymples Leong
08 May 2020 05:56AM (Updated: 08 May 2020 06:00AM )
SINGAPORE: Global efforts to tackle the COVID-19 "infodemic" – a term coined by the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation online – are speeding up in response to the sheer scale of fake news on social media and online messaging platforms.
The spread of misinformation about COVID-19 has led to confusion, fear and even violence.
As governments increasingly turn to a variety of social media platforms to communicate official information to the public, the popular application Telegram has become an important messaging tool for governments.
READ: Commentary: Forwarding a WhatsApp message on COVID-19 news? How to make sure you don't spread misinformation
BEHIND TELEGRAM'S POPULARITY
Originally built by founders Pavel and Nikolai Durov as a means to restrict Russian security agency access to their private communication, Telegram now has around 200 million users worldwide.
Three main features drive Telegram's popularity – secret chats, groups and channels. Secret chats are popular for their end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages, while groups and channels offer avenues for mass communication to large audiences.
Public groups can accommodate up to hundreds of thousands of members, allowing for two-way communication and collaboration. Group administrators can control access and privileges to new and existing members, moderate messages for prohibited content and enforce group etiquette.
Telegram channels are a powerful tool for broadcasting messages to unlimited audiences. They are advantageous for massive one-way broadcasts, similar to RSS feeds, and are commonly used by media organisations and businesses worldwide.
READ: Commentary: How to stay sane in a time of COVID-19 information overload
(Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Files)
The urgency with which information related to COVID-19 is consumed demonstrates the need for accurate and timely news. In China, individuals use Telegram to access information pertaining to COVID-19, overcoming government firewalls with virtual private networks.
But technology platforms also enable the dissemination and amplification of misinformation. Anonymous groups and channels on Telegram are sharing unverified information linked to COVID-19, often containing hoaxes of cures for the virus.
Milo Yiannopoulos, the alt-right internet celebrity and influencer, is just one of the many personalities who have taken to Telegram to promote COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
An audio clip falsely attributed to Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and widely shared on Telegram claimed there were more than 10,000 deaths in the country on Feb 27.
READ: Commentary: What to do with all these health rumours and forwarded messages in the time of COVID-19?
READ: Commentary: No, 5G radiation doesn't cause or spread the coronavirus
AUTHORITIES ON TELEGRAM
To reduce the impact of misinformation, governments have turned to Telegram to nudge citizens towards more factual information. Telegram channels created by governments and health authorities have gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
India and Malaysia utilise verified Telegram channels to broadcast news updates, advice and issue warnings about compliance with lockdown and social distancing measures.
The Singapore Government also launched its official COVID-19 channel earlier this year, disseminating the same COVID-19 messages it carries on the Gov.sg WhatsApp channel.
The Gov.sg Telegram channel has over 270,000 subscribers. The channel provides the public with reliable, clear and timely information regarding COVID-19.
Notifications from Gov.sg.
Global health organisations have also hopped on the bandwagon. The WHO has over 15,000 subscribers to its channel.
A USEFUL TOOL
Aware of the propensity for misinformation to proliferate on messaging applications, Telegram recently streamlined its verification processes for official channels created by health authorities.
This enables Telegram users to better distinguish between trustworthy sources of information and groups or channels disseminating misinformation. Telegram also sends notifications to users so they can join verified channels available in their countries.
READ: Commentary: Tech is not all bad. Our COVID-19 experience shows this
Official Telegram groups facilitate greater engagement with citizens. "COVID19 Karnataka SAHAYA" – a public group run by Karnataka state's Department of Information and Public Relations in India – enables people to obtain updated information about COVID-19.
COVID-19 related questions can be sent by the public and are answered by a dedicated team of state administrators, public health officials and medical professionals who then direct subscribers to verified sources of public health information.
COVID-19 updates are also sent to users via a bot embedded in the group.
READ: Commentary: COVID-19 vaccine – why is it taking so long to develop one?
Transparent and accurate public health information, disseminated in a timely manner, is a powerful way to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Helping users access information from verified channels makes this a step easier, while also reducing the confusion and anxiety about unverified sources of information.
Telegram is a useful tool that allows governments and health authorities to cut through the noise of unverified opinions and misinformation, and in doing so, provide updated public health and safety messages to the public.
BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Dymples Leong is a Senior Analyst with Centre of Excellence for National Security at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. This commentary first appeared on East Asia Forum.
Source: CNA/el


text:
\section{Introduction}

Deep Learning has become the de facto technique for an increasing number of cognitive applications, including vision,
speech and language translation. The success is driven by the availability of an enormous volume of data and advances
in deep neural networks, but it is these enabling factors that make Deep Learning one of the most computationally-demanding
HPC applications. Hardware accelerators such as GPUs and their accompanying software stack have provided a significant amount
of speed up. However, deep neural network training for speech and vision can still take days and even weeks. Therefore
parallelization by distributing the Deep Learning training to many (upwards of hundreds) GPUs over a compute cluster is
critical to cut the training time from weeks to hours.

Distributed Deep Learning (DDL) is challenging because as the number of learners increases,
the computation time decreases whereas
the amount of communication stays constant, resulting in unfavorable computation to communication ratios. Successful distributed
Deep Learning requires an infrastructure in which the hardware and software are co-optimized to balance the computational
requirements with the communication demand and interconnect bandwidth. In addition, the communication latency plays an important
role in massive scaling of GPUs (over 100). If these factors are not kept under control, distributed Deep Learning can quickly
reach the point of diminishing return.

In this paper, we present a software-hardware co-optimized distributed Deep Learning system that can achieve near-linear scaling up to 256 GPUs. The communication algorithm is encapsulated as a communication library, called PowerAI DDL, that provides a set of communication APIs for implementing Deep Learning communication patterns as an integral part of any Deep Learning framework. Currently, PowerAI DDL has been integrated with
{\em Tensorflow}\cite{TF}, {\em Caffe}\cite{CAFFE}, and {\em Torch}\cite{TORCH}.
PowerAI DDL provides a unified infrastructure for distributed Deep Learning over multiple GPUs for a single node, multiple nodes and a cloud environment. PowerAI DDL leverages an innovative multi-ring communication algorithm that balances communication latency with the communication overhead. It adapts to the hierarchy of communication bandwidths in any systems -- bandwidths that are often highest within a node and then subsequently decreases between nodes and then between racks in a cluster. PowerAI DDL's adaptation enables the ``optimal" distributed Deep Learning solution.

The paper is organized as follows. In section \ref{sec-prior}, we review prior art, focusing on the distributed Deep Learning
result that Facebook AI Research \cite{FACEBOOK-256} recently announced. In section \ref{sec-method},
we discuss what the methodology for benchmarking distributed Deep Learning
should be. In section \ref{sec-alg}, we describe PowerAI DDL and our multi-ring algorithm. In section \ref{sec-exp},
we present and analyze our
results on distributed Deep Learning using 64 IBM Power8 S822LC servers (256 GPUs).

\section{Prior Art} \label{sec-prior}

Massive scale distributed Deep Learning has been the holy grail of the deep learning research community for the past several years. There have been many attempts and reports on scaling to 64, 128 GPUs, but most of them only address the problem from a specific angle. In our opinion, the recent paper by Facebook\cite{FACEBOOK-256} is the first attack on 256 GPUs that addresses the entire massive scale Deep Learning problem, and provides truly impressive practical results. One thing we want to highlight is that the success of Facebook's paper hinges on being able to train Resnet-50 to the best accuracy while using a very large batch size, which runs counter to conventional wisdom. To train a neural network using 256 GPUs, one must solve the problem of converging to good accuracy with large batch sizes. The GPU computational efficiency at small batch size (4 or less per GPU) is very sub-par, and the compute to communication ratio is also too low for scaling to be efficient. Therefore the batch size per iteration must be in the thousands. The Facebook paper proffered a linear scaling conjecture for the learning rate for large batch size and selected a batch size of 8192 for the experiment, and demonstrated that it works, at least for Resnet-50. The linear scaling conjecture is plausible if the operating region in the parameter space is rather linear, which is not unreasonable when the training process has been warmed-up, as is being done in the paper. This paper\cite{FACEBOOK-256} is the first instance of a successful training of an "industrial" strength neural network to the best published accuracy with such a large batch size.

Other relevant details of \cite{FACEBOOK-256} are as follows. The hardware platform is 32 DGX-1 systems \cite{DGX1} (256 P100-SXM2) and the communication algorithm used is the recursive halving and recursive doubling algorithm well known in the HPC community. Resnet-50\cite{RESNET} on data set Imagenet 1K is trained using Caffe2 with the usual data augmentation techniques. The learning rate schedule starts with a warm-up phase, followed by a ramp up and then the usual step-wise descent. The scaling efficiency in \cite{FACEBOOK-256} is defined as the ratio between the run time per iteration of the one node case and the run time per iteration for the 256 GPU case, which we believe artificially inflated the scalability metric slightly (as opposed to measuring
scaling based on 1 GPU). The validation accuracy in \cite{FACEBOOK-256} reaches ~76\% in a hour, with scaling efficiency at ~90\%.

\section{ Distributed Deep Learning Benchmarking Methodology} \label{sec-method}

To compare the efficacy of different distributed Deep Learning systems, we need to capture the various characteristics of the distributed Deep Learning problem. Several obvious candidates come to mind, namely, scaling efficiency, accuracy, end to end training time, the neural network itself, the GPU being used, and the Deep Learning framework used to perform the training. We will discuss these characteristics separately.

\subsection{Scaling efficiency}

Given a specific batch size and distribution over n GPUs, scaling efficiency is defined as the ratio between the run time of one iteration on a single GPU and the run time of one iteration when distributed over n GPUs. This measurement is often extracted without any training to a given accuracy. Sometimes it is even calculated using synthetic data sets. In such cases, scaling efficiency on its own is completely meaningless, because one can satisfy any given scaling efficiency for any neural network by increasing the batch size. Using too big a batch size will result in converging to an unacceptable accuracy or no convergence at all, or such a long training time as to defeat the purpose of speeding up the training using distribution. Therefore, a high scaling efficiency without being backed up by convergence to a good accuracy and end to end training time is vacuous. In this paper, we only present results for neural network runs with demonstrated successful convergence -- no artificial data or pure per-iteration training comparisons are used.

\subsection{Accuracy and end to end training time}

In comparing two different distributed Deep Learning systems, it is imperative to have both system train to the same accuracy. A few percent improvement in accuracy can convert to adding many days of training time. Ultimately, users are interested in reducing the end to end training time at the same accuracy. Furthermore, accuracy has to be determined with a test data set of sufficient size that contains {\em all} classes used in network training and contains only images that have not been using during network training. Quoting training accuracy is unacceptable, since that just reflects over-fitting and over 90\% training accuracy can be readily achieved for many neural networks. We have observed several unpublished (blog) claims of high neural network accuracy, which does not comply with this methodology. Results in this paper follow this methodology, as did \cite{FACEBOOK-256}.

\subsection{The neural network}

The compute to communication ratio can vary widely for different neural networks. Using a neural network with high compute to communication ratio can hide the ills of an inferior distributed Deep Learning system. If there is not much to communicate, then having a sub-optimal communication algorithm or low bandwidth interconnect will not matter that much. Therefore it is important to select popular neural networks that are widely used for practical applications when performing the comparison.

\subsection{The Deep Learning framework}

Currently, the computation time for one Deep Learning iteration can vary by up to 50\% when different Deep Learning frameworks are being used. This increases the compute to communication ratio and gives the inferior distributed Deep Learning system an unfair uplift to the scaling efficiency. Therefore it is important to use a computationally-efficient Deep Learning framework to compare the merits of different Deep Learning systems. We have integrated PowerAI DDL into multiple frameworks, to demonstrate its robustness and generality.

\subsection{The GPU}

Nvidia P100 GPUs are approximately 3X faster than Nvidia K40 GPUs. Using a slower GPU increases the compute to communication ratio and again gives the inferior distributed Deep Learning system an unfair uplift to the scaling efficiency. When evaluating the communication algorithm and the interconnect capability of a Deep Learning system, it is important to use a high performance GPU.

\subsection{The communication overhead}

The communication overhead is the run time of one iteration when distributed over n GPUs minus  the run time of one iteration on a single GPU. This includes the communication latency and the time it takes to send the message (gradients) among  the GPUs. However it is not equal to the sum of the above quantities since the communication and latency could be hidden using clever algorithms. The communication overhead gives an indication of the quality of the communication algorithm and the interconnect bandwidth.
To perform a meaningful comparison between distributed Deep Learning systems, it is important to start with a popular neural network that has been widely trained, use a Deep Learning framework that is computationally-efficient, and train to best accuracy on high performance GPUs. The measurements to be reported should include the accuracy achieved, the training time it takes to attain that accuracy, the scaling efficiency, and the communication overhead. The overall metric will depend on whether factors such as power efficiency, cost and so on. An example of a meaningful comparison is to use the same number of the same GPUs, same Deep Learning framework, same neural network and the exact same training script and strategy, and compare the run time it takes to train to the same best published accuracy. We follow this methodology in this work and show our contributions to be robust at these standards.

\section{The PowerAI DDL Library} \label{sec-alg}

The PowerAI DDL library provides functionality for high-performance distributed Deep Learning
that can be employed in multiple frameworks, currently there are PowerAI DDL enabled versions of {\em Caffe},
{\em Tensorflow} and {\em Torch}.

\subsection{PowerAI DDL objects}

PowerAI DDL is based around the concept of {\em PowerAI DDL Objects}(). An instance of a PowerAI DDL object
combines a data structure, for example a tensor of gradients, with meta-data. The meta-data define the host and type of memory
the data structure resides in as well as the type of device, e.g. a GPU, and device identifier on that host.

PowerAI DDL objects are analogous to variables and all PowerAI DDL functionality operates on these objects.
The most basic operation is an assignment, where object $A$ is assigned the value contained in object $B$,
creating a copy. The distributed Deep Learning applications employ the operations {\em ReduceScatter} and
{\em AllGather} that operate on a set of variables that are distributed over a set of GPUs in a set of machines.
For example, gradient reduction across 256 GPUs employs 256 PowerAI DDL objects distributed over
64 Power8 S822LC servers, one per process in the application.

\subsection{Current implementation}

The current PowerAI DDL implementation is based on MPI\cite{MPI}, since MPI provides many needed facilities, from scheduling
processes to basic communication primitives, in a portable, efficient and mature software ecosystem.
We select Spectrum MPI, which offers functionality optimized for IBM's Power systems and Infiniband networks, leveraging the
considerable investment in the Spectrum products. The core API can be implemented without MPI if desired.

\subsection{Topology aware communication}

 To synchronize the gradients $\vec{V_j}, j \in \{1\ldots N\}$ of $N$ learners which are distributed
 over $N$ GPUs, a reduction
 \[
 \vec{R} = \sum_{j=1}^N \vec{V_j}
 \]
 has to be performed and the  result $\vec{R}$ has to be distributed to all the learners. For a complex
 neural network such as {\em Resnet-101}\cite{RESNET} for 22000 classes this vector has nearly  90
 million floating point entries, resulting in about 350 Megabyte of data.

Deep Learning frameworks often use a tree communication pattern or a parameter server
to perform the reduction among the GPUs. The communication overhead of these techniques has a
logarithmic (or worse) dependence on the number of GPUs and leaves part of the network links
idle during the reduction process.
On the other hand, the ring (or bucket) reduction\cite{RING}
across $N$ ring nodes requires $N-1$ phases of operation, but it uses all links
concurrently throughout the entire reduction process.
Each phase consists of $N$ concurrent communications, each of which transmits
 $1/N$ of the data set. Hence, the elapsed time of the ring reduction may be estimated by
\[
 T \approx \sum_{j=1}^{N-1} \left ( \frac{S}{N B_{min}}+L \right )
 \]
with $S$ denoting the size of the data set, $B_{min}$ the lowest bandwidth in the ring, and
 $L$ represents the latency incurred to initialize the communications and to synchronize between
 phases.
Figure \ref{fig-treering} shows the basic communication pattern used by PowerAI DDL for a small number of
GPUs, namely, a ring (shown with blue arrows)
in which all nodes communicate concurrently with one other node. Even though the network topology forms a tree,
it can be mapped into a ring topology by using every link in the tree simultaneously in both directions.
The order of the nodes is important in this mapping. As an example, by switching the first node from
the left with the third node from the left causes some network links to be used twice in the same direction,
and thereby increasing the elapsed time. The ring reduction algorithm has a couple of drawbacks - the elapsed time
for the ring reduction algorithm is proportional to the number of GPUs through the latency term, and it is also
dominated by the slowest network link.
While it is a good algorithm for a uniform network when $L$ is small and/or the number of GPUs is small, it is not
the best algorithm when the latency $L$ is large, or the number of GPUs is large, or some network
links are much slower than others.

 \begin{figure}[ht]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics*[width=2.4in]{ring_from_tree.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Communication ring implemented on a tree topology that uses all links in both directions concurrently. }
\label{fig-treering}
\end{figure}

 Across 256 GPUs, nearly 90 Gigabyte of data have to be transmitted to perform the reduction and
 the same amount of data has to be transmitted to copy the result to all GPUs.
 Even with a fast network connection allowing a net transfer rate of 10 Gigabyte per second, bringing 90 Gigabyte
 of data into a single parameter server would take 9 seconds, not considering the time for the distribution of
 the result. PowerAI DDL achieves the entire reduction and distribution of 350 Megabyte in less than 100 ms by
 using a communication scheme that is optimized with regard to the topology of the network.

When the number of GPUs is large and the network links are not equally fast, PowerAI DDL uses
a multi-dimensional ring algorithm. In the basic ring algorithm, we organize the $N$ GPUs in
a one dimensional structure, a ring. In an $m$-dimensional ring algorithm, we organize the
$N$ GPUs in a $m$-dimensional box, such that $N=d_1*d_2*...*d_m$, where $d_i$ is the size of the
$i^{th}$ dimension of the box.

A key differentiation of PowerAI DDL is its ability to optimize the communication scheme
based on the bandwidth of each network link, the network topology, and the latency
 for each phase.
For hardware systems with different link speeds, PowerAI DDL adjusts its
dimensions to take advantage of the fastest link, and to prevent the slowest
link to dominate the elapsed time. For example in phase $1$, communication
 is performed via NVLink or memory bus, resulting in a bandwidth of 20 Gbyte/s or more.
 In the second dimension communication may be restricted to a single rack and achieve
 an effective bandwidth of roughly 10 Gbyte/s. The third dimension has to communicate
 between racks and typically achieves a slightly lower bandwidth, for example 9.5 Gbyte/s.
 In a complete ring, the slowest link limits bandwidth to no more than 9.5 Gbyte/s.

\section{Experimental Results} \label{sec-exp}

To evaluate the performance of PowerAI DDL, we used a cluster of 64 IBM Power8 S822LC servers,
each equipped with 4 NVidia Tesla P100-SXM2 GPUs connected through NVLink. The systems were organized into
four racks with 16 nodes each, connected via Infiniband. Each rack was equipped with a
TOR switch and racks were connected via a director switch. The systems used IBM Spectrum MPI
and PPC64LE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. As Deep Learning framework served IBM-Caffe (released
as part of PowerAI), which is derived from the open source bvlc-Caffe with enhancements customized
for IBM's Power8 S822LC servers. Additionally, a PowerAI DDL enabled version of Torch was
employed.

We performed two types of experiments - one to extract scaling efficiency as a function
of the number of GPUs, the other to report the run time to train a neural network
to attain desired accuracy. For the former experiment, the
batch size on each host was fixed, so that the total or effective batch size scaled with the number
of hosts. We chose an effective batch size that has been demonstrated to converge to best accuracy, so
the scaling efficiency reported is realistic.

We tested with two different networks, Resnet-50 for Imagenet with 1K image classes and
Resnet-101 \cite{RESNET} modified for Imagenet with 22K classes by increasing the width of the fully connected layer.

\subsection{Resnet-50 1K}

We used Resnet-50 to extract scaling efficiency and communication overheads for 4 GPUs, 8 GPUs, up to 256 GPUs,
while maintaining a fixed batch size of 32 per GPU. At 256 GPUs the effective batch size is 8192, the same
as Facebook AI Research's 256 GPU result \cite{FACEBOOK-256}. Since Facebook's paper has already demonstrated successful convergence to
best accuracy for 8192 batch size, the scaling efficiency number is meaningful.
The first Resnet-50 1K we used is a port of the network described in \cite{FACEBOOK-256} to Caffe.
Since Facebook did not publish the script for the Resnet-50 they used, we cannot guarantee that
our Resnet-50 is identical to theirs. However, both have about 100 Mbyte of gradients, so a
direct comparison on the communication overheads can be made. Since we used Caffe whereas Facebook
used Caffe2, giving rise to different run times per mini-batch iteration, the scaling efficiency cannot be directly compared.
The PowerAI DDL communication overhead of 64 Power8 S822LC servers (256 GPUs)
over one Power8 S822LC server (4 GPUs) is about 23 ms.
Extracting from figure 7 of the Facebook paper, the communication overhead of 32 DGX-1 nodes (256 GPUs)
over 1 DGX-1 node (8 GPUs) is about 29 ms. Therefore our combined communication algorithm together with
hardware and network is slightly better.

\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics*[width=5in]{resnet50-256.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Resnet-50 for 1K classes using up to 256 GPUs with Caffe.}
\label{fig-R192}
\end{figure}

Figure \ref{fig-R192} shows the speed up and scaling efficiency for different numbers of GPUs
for Resnet-50 with 1K image classes, with a batch size of 32 per GPU.
All runs in figure \ref{fig-R192} were performed with IBM-Caffe, and thus included
performance improvements to BVLC-Caffe. As a result, the intra-node communication between 4 MPI-ranks
within a single node performed better than the intra-node communication in multi-threaded native
BVLC-Caffe.

Furthermore, we trained Resnet-50 with 1K image classes with a PowerAI DDL enabled version of Torch \cite{torch}
based on the open-source single-node multi-GPU Torch application available at \cite{soumith}.
A LUA interface to PowerAI DDL functionality for gradient reduction and distribution allows the adaption
with minimal modifications to the LUA implementation of Resnet-50 for 1K classes \cite{resnet}.
Learners are synchronized in every iteration.

\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics*[width=5in]{resnet50_torch.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Resnet-50 for 1K classes using up to 256 GPUs with Torch.}
\label{fig-R192-torch}
\end{figure}

Our implementation achieved an accuracy of 75.01\% in a training time of 50 minutes, training
over 90 epochs with a batch size of 32 per GPU. The learning rates and weight-decay were chosen as in \cite{facebook}.
The original Resnet paper reported a peak accuracy of 75.3 \% on Resnet-50 \cite{resnet}. However, the results in \cite{facebook} show that the accuracy could be pushed to as high as 76.2 \% using hyper-parameter tuning for large effective batch-sizes. We have not incorporated those techniques in our work.

For these Torch Resnet-50 runs, figure \ref{fig-R192-torch} shows scalability across increasing numbers of GPUs. A scaling efficiency of 84\% is observed from 4 GPUs (single node) to 256 GPUs
(64 Nodes). It should also be noted that in the current Torch implementation, the reduction of gradients is not overlapped with compute.

\subsection{Resnet-101 22k}

\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics*[width=5in]{resnet101-256.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Resnet-101 for 22k classes using up to 256 GPUs. }
\label{fig-R256}
\end{figure}

Compared to Resnet-50 with 1K image classes,
Resnet-101 modified for 22K image classes has a roughly three times larger gradient set of 350 Mbyte, but the
corresponding increase in compute time for the forward/backward pass is not nearly as much.
Hence, it is a harder problem to scale due to the lower compute-to-communication ratio relative
to Resnet-50.
Figure \ref{fig-R256} shows our results running IBM-Caffe using 1, 2, 16, 32 and 64 Power8 S822LC servers with
a batch size of 20 per GPU. All runs in figure \ref{fig-R192} were performed with IBM-Caffe.

For batch size 5120 we achieved 33.8\% validation accuracy within about 7 hours.
This accuracy exceeds the previous published accuracies of 29.8\%\cite{ADAM} and $<$25\%\cite{DistBelief}
for Imagenet 22K.
We used 7.5 million images from the full Imagenet dataset for training. Following standard practice,
a separate dataset of 2 million images not used in training was used for validation.

\section{Conclusions} \label{sec-concl}

We have provided further confirmation that training complex deep neural networks with a large number of GPUs
using a synchronous data parallel methodology can scale almost linearly to hundreds of GPUs, thus
offering a viable strategy to reduce training time from weeks to hours. Such rapid turn around can
accelerate the improvement of existing neural networks and design of new neural networks, and
exploration of new application domains. To proliferate this technology to the masses, more research needs to be
done. Massive GPU scaling relies on successful training to good accuracy for large batch size.
FAIR showed an initial demonstration of distribution to 256 GPUs on a couple of Resnets; our work here
demonstrates even better communication overhead, and uses PowerAI DDL to train a larger neural network
to leadership Imagenet 22K accuracy. It is key that the community continue to extend demonstration of
large-scale distributed Deep Learning to other popular neural network types, in particular, recurrent neural networks. The whole
training has to be made resilient and elastic since it is very likely that some devices will
malfunction when the number of learners increases. Automation and usability issues have to be addressed
to enable more turnkey operation, especially in a cloud environment.

\newpage

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Even if beginningless, something originally non-existent is seen to come to an end. In the same way the living organism which is thought to belong to oneself through its identification with the intellect, does not really exist. On the other hand, the true self is quite distinct from it, and the identification of oneself with the intellect is due to misunderstanding.
The cessation of that wrong identification is achieved by right understanding, and by no other means. Right understanding is held by scripture to be the recognition of the oneness of God and oneself.
This recognition is achieved by right discrimination between what is truly oneself and what is not, so one must develop this discrimination between the conventional self and one's true self.
Like very muddy water, which is clearly water again when the mud is removed, one's true self shines forth again when the contamination is removed.
When the non-existent is removed the individual is disclosed as the supreme self, so one must see to the removal of thoughts about "me" and suchlike from oneself.
The level of sense awareness cannot be one's true self since it is changeable, physical, restricted, a sense-object and intermittent. What is transient should not be mistaken what is eternal.
The level of pleasure is the aspect of ignorance which is a sort of reflection the blissfulness of the true self. Its attributes are the qualities of enjoyment and so on, which are experienced when an enjoyable object is present. It presents itself spontaneously to those fortunate enough to experience the fruits of good deeds, something from which everyone experiences great pleasure without trying to.
The pleasure level is manifest at its fullest extent in deep sleep, whereas in dreams and the waking state it is only partially manifest, stimulated by such things as the sight of enjoyable objects.
The pleasure level cannot be the true self either, since it is changeable, a conditioned phenomenon, the result of good deeds, and involved in the other levels of consciousness as well.
When all these five levels have been disposed of by meditating on scripture, when everything as been eliminated there remains the witness, pure consciousness itself.
This self, the light itself, beyond the five levels, the witness of the three states, changeless, unsullied, eternal joy — this should be recognised by the wise as one's real self.
After transcending these five levels as unreal, master, I find nothing but a nothingness, the absence of everything. What object remains for a wise person to identify with?
You have spoken the truth, learned one. You are skilled in discrimination. That by which all other phenomena, starting with the thought of "me", are experienced, but which is itself experienced by none, know that, by the subtlest of understanding, as your true self.
Whatever is experienced by something else has that as its witness. When there is nothing else to experience something, one cannot talk of it being witnessed.
This has the nature of self-awareness, since it is conscious of itself. Thus the individual self is by its self-awareness none other than the Supreme itself.
That which is fully manifest in the waking state, dream and deep sleep, which is perceived within in the form of the various experiences and impressions like self-consciousness, and which is experienced as the eternal Bliss, and Consciousness of one's true self, see this within your own heart.
The ignorant see the reflection of the sun in the water of a jar and think it is the sun itself. In the same way the fool sees the reflection of consciousness in its associated qualities and mistakenly identifies himself with it.
The wise man ignores jar, water and the sun's reflection in it, and sees the self-illuminating sun itself which gives light to all three but is independent of them.
When a man abandons the body and the intellect which is just a derivative of consciousness, and recognising one's true self, the experiencer, pure awareness, the source of everything existent and non-existent, itself devoid of attributes, eternal, all-pervading, omnipresent, subtle, empty of inside and outside, and itself none other than one's true self (for this is truly inborn), he becomes free from evil, sinless and immortal, free from pain, and the incarnation of joy. Master of himself he is afraid of no-one. There is no other way to the breaking of the bonds of temporal existence for the seeker after liberation than the realisation of his own true nature.
The recognition of one's inseparable oneness with God is the means of liberation from temporal existence, by which the wise person achieves the non-dual, blissful nature of God.
Having attained the nature of God, the knower returns no more to the temporal state, so it is essential to recognise one's own true inseparable oneness with God.
God is the truth, knowledge and eternal. He is pure, transcendent and self-sufficient — the everlasting, undiluted bliss which is enthroned undivided and inseparable within.
This supreme Reality is non-dual in the absence of any other reality beside itself. In the state of knowledge of ultimate truth there is nothing else.
This great variety of things which we experience through our failure to understand is all really God himself, once the distortion of thought is removed.
A pot made of clay is nothing other than clay, and its true reality is always simply clay. The pot is no more than the shape of a pot, and is just a mistake of imagination based on the name.
No one can show that the reality of the pot is different from the clay, so the pot is just an imagination based on misunderstanding, and the clay is the only final reality.
Similarly everything which is made of God is just God and has no separate existence. Whoever says it exists is not yet free from delusion and is like someone talking in his sleep.
The supreme scripture of the Arthava Veda declares that "All this is God", so all this is simply God, and anything in addition to that has no reality.
If it has any reality, that is the end of any eternal reality for oneself, the scriptures are false, and the Lord himself a liar, three things which are quite unacceptable to great souls.
The Lord, who knows the reality of things, has stated "I do not depend on them" (Bhagavad Gita 9.4) and "Things do not exist in me" (Bhagavad Gita 9.5).
If everything really existed, it ought to exist in deep sleep too. Since nothing does, then it follows that it is unreal and an illusion like a dream.
So the world is not distinct from the Supreme Self, and its perception is an illusion like all attributes. What we add to That has no reality, but merely appears to exist in addition to That through misunderstanding.
Whatever a deluded person experiences in his delusion is still always God. The silver is only mother-of-pearl. It is always God that is mistaken for something else, and whatever is added to God is just a name.
So there exists only the supreme God, the One Reality without a second, consisting of pure consciousness, without any blemish, peace itself and without beginning or end, actionless and having the nature of pure bliss.
Beyond all delusion-created distinctions, this Whatever shines by its own light, eternal, fulfilled, indivisible, infinite, formless, inexpressible, nameless and indestructible.
Seers know this supreme Reality, free from the distinctions of knower, known and knowledge, infinite, complete in itself and consisting of pure Awareness.
What cannot be got rid of or taken hold of, beyond the sphere of mind and speech, measureless and beginning-and-endless is God, one's true self and supreme glory.
The words "God" and "yourself", referred to by the terms "That" and "Thou" are conscientiously purified by repetition of the scriptural phrase "Thou art That", and are clearly seen to be identical.
Their identity can be indicated but not described, since they have mutually exclusive meanings like a firefly and the sun, a king and a slave, a well and the ocean, or an atom and mount Meru.
The distinction between them is due to the imagined additional associations, but in reality there are no such additions. The primary mental activity is due to the Lord's Maya, and in the case of the individual it is the result of the five sheaths.
These are additions to the Lord and the individual, and when they are removed, there is neither Supreme nor individual. A ruler is known by his kingdom, and a warrior by his arms. Take these away, and there is neither warrior nor king.
Scripture itself, with the words "Here is the teaching" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6), denies the imagined duality in God. One must get rid of these additions by means of understanding backed up by the authority of the scriptures.
"Not this, not this" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6) means that nothing one can think of is real, like a rope mistaken for a snake, or like a dream. Carefully getting rid of the apparent in this way, one should then come to understand the oneness of the Lord and the individual.
So the meaning of these two expressions, Lord and individual, must be carefully considered until their essential oneness is understood. It is not enough just to reject or accept either of them. One must come to the recognition of the identity of the meaning of them both.
In the phrase "this person is Devadatta" the identity is indicated by removing the distinction, and in the same way, in the expression "Thou art That" the wise must get rid of the apparent contradiction and recognise the complete identity of God and self by carefully identifying the shared attribute of pure consciousness. Hundreds of scriptural sayings declare the identity of oneself and God in this way.
In accordance with "It is nothing material" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.8.8) eliminate the unreal and find that which like the sky is pure and solitary, and is beyond thought. Eliminate too this purely illusory body which you have hitherto identified with yourself. Then recognising, "I am God" with purified understanding, see your true self as undifferentiated consciousness.