The cover star of Pan14 could at first glance be the formidable Sir Gore Ouslet Carruthers from Chetwynd-Hayes closer to the collection It Came to Dinner. But I know from a bit of interweb research that it is in fact a Josh Kirby (the chap behind the Discworld illustrations) representation of The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
A seemingly crazy old man relates to a reporter a tale of a trip to a parallel Earth where plants have evolved into the dominant life form, and where humans are farmed as food.
Sometimes you come across a story which is just so preposterously daft that you have no option but to stop totting up the list of plot holes, completely suspend all disbelief and just go with the flow. Such in the case with "Vortex", a delightfully entertaining slice of gore-dripping hokum, which mixes elements of Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine and Day of the Triffids to produce a nightmarish tale of agriculture gone crazy.
But when Sabatini (a pseudonym if ever I heard one) names his protagonist Mr Bloom, we can be sure the whole gig is a bit of fun on his part. Clearly the author is attempting to post some sort of vegan friendly message here; for his plants actually do nothing more to the humans than farmers do to say an apple or sugar beet.
Scientific impossibilities abound, but the one conundrum I would have liked to have been solved is how the woman Bloom brings back - his Weena, if you like - is transformed from a humanoid with "long billowing hair" and an "exquisite body" into a cactus.
Mrs. Nesbit is the downtrodden, browbeaten wife of 25 years of her tedious martinet of a husband. But her salvation arrives in the form of a pair of Creative Funeral Directors, who thoughtfully mow down hubby (and associated dachshund) in their hearse, before bundling the still-warm bodies into a coffin. Mrs. N is left to clear up the blood on the road.
These surreal narratives where characters would react relatively normally in the face of decidedly abnormal events used once to be the domain of Martin Waddell. But his tenure ended with Fried Man in Pan11, and this entry represented Conrad Hill's taking up of the baton.
However, it is a rather tame effort and Hill would go on to produce some rather more memorable stuff.
The Schwartz of the title is an all powerful computer which has been entrusted with controlling almost every aspect of British industry, public services, communications and defence. Everything really.
All goes swimmingly until Schwartz starts making a few eccentric decisions. Loneliness is diagnosed, so what could be the harm in getting a little chum for the big computer?
A fun read, reminiscent of Spike Milligan at times, but never a horror story in a million years. Perhaps Turner had realised David Bowie had already explored the potential of an all omnipotent computer gone wrong in his song The Saviour Machine, and that the author felt he had to go for laughs.
Three brothers live on a farm; with the eldest a drunkard and the youngest an imbecile, it is only the hard work of the middle brother which keeps the venture afloat. Whilst he is out ploughing, the other two attempt to seek out and destroy a rat in the barn with the aid of an iron bar, a can of petrol, and a box of matches.
Things are patently not going to end well for someone.
An eminently enjoyable tale, due mainly to Harrison taking the time with characterisation over the first few pages. Perhaps for the first occasion since I used to watch Tales of the Riverbank as a boy, did I find myself feeling sorry for a rat.
Eddie Richardson was a chap who predated Steve Austin by a few years, in that he was your original bionic man with his aluminium legs, plastic hands and electronic innards. But he is not immortal, and the inscription on his tombstone fords someone the opportunity for a joke at his expense.
A rather pointless piece this, with the bulk of the dull narrative simply serving to set up the lame one-liner punchline.
This did represent the fourth light-hearted entry to Pan14. What was Bertie up to?
Anton is a lone boffin beavering away in his home laboratory attempting to ascertain if lycanthropy, and the legends attributed to it, had their roots in "chemical and glandular imbalance" within the body.
His work with canines suggests so, but he needs to be sure by testing out his serum on a human – and who better than his wife's dull-witted lover. But having the condition passed from carrier to victim via kissing was always going to be a risky business.
After the plethora of comedic tales which opened Pan14, what we all really needed was another deadly serious David Case epic. But bugger me, if Case was not infected with the same bug – for not only does Strange Roots pitch in at a mere 35 pages, but it is played for laughs as well!
The author has Anton, of Balkan extraction and ridden with deep seated fears of werewolves, dabbling dangerously deep into just such a subject; the biochemistry of which is simply preposterous. The plotline – nymphomanic wife included – reads like a pitch for a re-make of Carry On Screaming, with the Monty Python-esque Ministry of Silly Research thrown for good measure.
Horror story it most certainly is not, but it is David Case we are talking about here so the tale is, inevitably, extremely readable. I may have started to believe that Bertie had designated Pan14 as The First Pan Book of Humorous Horror Stories, but I noted Alex White was next in line.
A young woman is sent to a clinic by her mother and step-father to "learn obedience". There she is systematically raped and mutilated.
We PBoHS readers had enjoyed (if that is the correct word) an early insight into the casually callous world of Alex White back in Pan7, but that tale was but a light romance compared to the unforgettable brutality of The Clinic.
The tale from there on is a depressingly grim litany of abuse and disfigurement. The final image of a tear dropping from Ellen's remaining eye is heart-rending.
A spider spins a web across the recently dumped corpse of a naked woman. After catching a fly, it scurries down the body looking for a safe place to hide.
Paula keeps seeing things. Horrible things. Specifically an old man hiding out in the abandoned building opposite who catches and devours dogs and cats. Once she even witnessed him murdering and eating a child. But no-one, not the police, neighbours or her husband Mike will believe her.
She thinks she may be losing her mind, which actually suits Mike just fine, as the whole business is a set up to help him have his wife committed as insane.
But as the plan nears completion he has the proverbial Change of Heart, and decides to call the whole thing off. But the vagrant he has paid to act as the cannibal stalker has developed taste for things.
Stories set in the US were few and far between by this point in the series, although I am not sure the author was American as it has the feel of a story written by someone who had never set foot in America: flats are flats apparently and not apartments.
The climax is not particularly shocking, partly because it is so predictable, but mainly because the author fails to paint Paula as anything but a two dimensional character.
"Don't bring your own coat-hangers" is the enigmatic phrase which always appears on Mrs. Rydall's house-party invitations. Porson, like most other guests, is puzzled by the request but is too polite to enquire further. The brash Crittal, on the other hand, is keen that Mrs. Rydall spills the beans. But he has reasons beyond idle curiosity.
A fine little story this, written almost in a mock Agatha Christie style, all the action set in a large country-house. The author sets out a neat little mystery which is apparently resolved, before hitting us with a delightful sting in the tail. The final scene where Porson is poking about in Mrs. Rydall's room is a master class in tension building.
Porson and Crittal are both well-developed characters; the former as pompous as the latter is brash, with both equally irritating in their way.
A man returns to the riverside spot where, as a child, twenty-four years earlier he was subjected to a brutal sexual attack. His motives appear to be one of exorcising ghosts, but perhaps there is more to his visit.
There is an irony to the fact that what could be described as Bertie's comedic collection, contains two of the most disturbingly dark entries to the whole series in The Clinic and this one. Doubly ironic, in fact, given Conrad Hill general brought a lighter touch to proceedings.
But this beautifully written tale explores that very difficult topic of child abuse, and the consequences thereof.
The structure of the narrative takes the form of a nested story relating the events of twenty-four years earlier, bookended by a contemporary prologue and epilogue; the former scattering a series of puzzling clues, with the latter housing an even more shocking revelation.
Much of the nested story has Hill describing in intimate detail the boy enjoying a solitary day's fishing – probably the last truly carefree hours of his life - which at times put me in mind of A.L. Barker's Submerged in Pan1.
"he awoke to a low golden sun in the east with a few embarrassed straggler clouds caught naked in a clear blue sky, scurrying to hide in the dull anonymity far in the distance".
perhaps foreshadowing the Man hiding his own nakedness behind the dull anonymity of a raincoat.
There is also a neat twist to the title which, although on the surface refers to the Boy and his attacker, upon reflection I feel actually represents the Boy as he was, and the Man he grew into.
Wordsworth knew what he was about when he wrote: "The child is the father of the man".
A traveller stumbles upon a run-down country house in the fenlands, occupied by the odd, aristocratic Carruthers family who boast equally odd culinary tastes.
Nevertheless, what an intriguing cast of characters he puts together: the educated tramp Herbert with his secretive background; Stafford Carruthers, the "middle-aged schoolboy looking for a holiday"; the domineering matriarch Lady Carruthers, not forgetting the 350-year old Sir Gore Ouslet Carruthers who, unlike the rest of the family, enjoys his meat unhung.
"I'll show you the remains of the garden; then if you are very good, perhaps we'll have time to be very bad".
Hi, I cannot thank you enough for listing these stories because I've been searching for years to find 'The Vortex of Horror' as I remember reading it when about ten-years-old and discovered that it may be (in an anthology) released on Amazon. I wasn't supposed to be reading Pan books of horror when a child, but I devoured them and am now a professional horror writer with much success, such was the inspiration of the stories back then, now I create my own in my own words after being inspired by them and by Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, Bram Stoker and many other great horror fiction writers. Edward Lee is one of my favourites too, Nelson Samuels, Sam West, Tim Miller, Wade H. Garrett and others too. Long live the horror genre.
I did exactly the same! 35 years it took to rediscover a tale that stuck vividly.
Thank you for your kind words. It is rather gratifying when I hear that someone has actually read some of the scribbles I have fired out into the ether. One does sometimes wonder. Long Live the Horror Genre indeed, Although, I do sometimes wonder if the Golden Age has gone forever, after Mr King dragged it kicking and screaming into the mainstream.
Hi, being of a similar age. I used to lap up these books. We could buy them at age 11 in school from the book club! Not unusual for me to come home once a moth armed with a PBoH, together with Anne of Green Gables! Great site - thank you.
Hi. I loved these stories back in the seventies. I used to lie in bed gazing at the covers.
Giving yourself bad dreams, I bet.
Hi. Thanks for these reviews. My Pan books are long gone with the wind. But I still remember them. Especially Alex White stories.
"The Clinic" affected me deeply and I was angry for a long time because of it. The author should be commended for creating a truly memorable, if repellent story.
Yes, The Clinic really is a harrowing read. It too made me angry at the sheer unfairness of it all.


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Photo 43855038 © Razihusin - Dreamstime.com
Nevada's Supreme Court put ESAs on hold, but theres a big silver lining
Today, the Nevada Supreme Court issued a permanent injunction against the state's Education Savings Account (ESA) program. Nevada's ESA law, passed in 2015, was the nation's largest victory for private school choice to date. The program offered near universal eligibility, granting more than 450,000 students' families access to tax-free accounts for educational purposes. Even more powerful than vouchers, families can spend ESAs on a huge array of expenses, from tuition, to tutoring, to software like Rosetta Stone, or even therapy for special needs students.
Many local outlets are suggesting that Nevada struck down the ESA program, but things are sunnier for school choice supporters than headlines suggest. The Nevada Supreme Court actually upheld the constitutionality of the program itself. In its opinion, the court wrote that "the ESA it is not contrary to the Legislature's duty under Article 11, Section 2 to provide for a uniform system of common schools." The court also agreed that ESA funds, eligible for use at religious schools among other options, had an "educational" rather than "sectarian" purpose overall. The court also held that once the public funds allotted for ESAs rest in participating parents' accounts, they become the parents' private dollars to spend. Therefore "any decision by the parent to use the funds in his or her account to pay tuition at a religious school does not involve the use of 'public funds.'" Calling ESAs "sectarian" because some participating parents choose religious schools is a favorite accusation of many school choice opponents, whether teachers unions or the ACLU. The court firmly siding with Nevada ESA supporters here fundamentally secures the constitutional future of the program, provided it can be implemented satisfactorily.
The only real issue the court had with the program was how it was funded. Nevada's ESA use money from the state's public education general fund to fill parents' accounts. However, the court ruled that because Nevada's ESA did not appropriate money from a separate source, using money intended for K-12 public education to fund ESAs instead "undermines the constitutional mandates" for public education in Nevada. Therefore, the court issued a permanent injunction, barring the state from issuing funds for the ESAs. Luckily for Nevada, funding ESAs such that they pass constitutional muster should be an easy enough task.
Unlike Washington State, whose legislature had to scramble to fund charter schools with lottery money after the State Supreme Court banned them from receiving general fund money, Nevada has a simpler solution. The state can still fill ESA accounts using the general fund, it just can't use those parts of it already slated for public education. All Nevada has to do is create a specific fund to support the ESA program that draws from the state's general fund-let's call it a "Choice Education Fund"-separate from the dollars already going to "public education." Each year, unused dollars from the "choice" and "public education" pots could then revert back to the general fund for future use, leaving the ESA program in place and free from legal threats.
The court's ruling on funding brings up a larger paradigm shift school choice advocates still need to work towards. If we define "public education" as education available to every child, why should we conceive of it as coming exclusively from government sources? If we're going to spend public money to support all students having an education in the first place, why shouldn't they be able to be use it at a variety of schools, whether traditional public, public charter, or private? Separating the funding source from the provider shouldn't be seen as "undermining" public education. Luckily for Nevada, legally secure large-scale private school choice could be just one bill away.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Adopting a child is a long process and can be really costly. Prospective parents would have to attend various seminars and would have to be interviewed by a social worker on a consistent basis including numerous visits to the adopting parents home. Adopting parents would have to show that they are both financially and emotionally capable of taking care of a child. The cost to adopt is at least $10,000 and it would be more if you plan on adopting abroad because of the travel involved. The good news is that IRS provides tax break in a form of a credit if you have a lot of adoption expenses. For tax credit purposes, the eligible child must be under 18 years of age or physically or mentally incapable of caring for him/herself regardless of age.
Before 2010, the adoption credit is a non-refundable credit, meaning that  the amount of the credit is limited to your tax liability – and if you do not owe any taxes, you cannot take the credit for the year. However, the excess or unused credit can be applied (or carry forwarded) to the lesser of 5 years or until the credit is used up entirely. In 2010, Congress has expanded the adoption credit to make it refundable (See 2010 Tax Updates You Don't Want To Miss). Yes, you can now take 100% of the credit regardless of whether you owe any taxes or not. In addition, the maximum credit is increased to $13,170 per child, up from $12,150 in 2009. However, this credit is reduced or phased-out if your adjusted gross income (AGI) is between $182,520 and $222, 519. And if your AGI is more than $222,520, you can no longer take the credit.
For adoption expenses to qualify, they must be reasonable and necessary expenses related to, and whose principal purpose is for, the legal adoption of an eligible child. The expenses that qualifies are adoption fees, attorney's fees, court costs, travel expenses (including meals and lodging) while away from home, re-adoption expenses to adopt a foreign child.
What Adoption Expenses Do Not Qualify?
Examples are expenses that violate state or federal law, adoption of the spouse's child, for which you received funds under any state, local or federal programs, for carrying out any surrogate parenting agreement, allowed as a credit or deduction under any other federal income tax rule, paid or reimbursed by your employer or any other organization, paid before 1997.
Until adoption becomes final – you can take the credit AFTER THE YEAR your qualified expenses were paid.
If the adoption becomes final – Â you can take the credit IN THE YEAR your qualified expenses were paid.
Foreign Child Rule – if the child is not a US citizen or resident at the time the adoption process started, the credit cannot be claimed unless the adoption becomes FINAL. Â You treat all adoption expenses paid or incurred in years before the adoption becomes final as paid or incurred in the year it becomes final.
You must complete Form 8839 and attach this to your Form 1040 tax schedule. Enter the total of the credit on Form 1040, line 71 and check box "b" on that line.
Source: irs.gov, Pub 17 – Instruction for completing form 8839.


Diagram for the DNA probe directed assembly of TMV1cys nanotemplates onto a readily addressable site. L and R represent left and right electrodes. Inserted picture shows an actual chip.
Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor Reza Ghodssi (ECE/ISR/UMERC/NanoCenter) has received a new three-year grant from the National Science Foundation worth $401,712 for research on novel, biological nanofabrication processes for the development of small-scale energy storage devices utilizing the Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Ghodssi is the principal investigator (PI) for the research project, titled "Nanofabrication Using Viral Biotemplates for MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) Applications." Professor James Culver from the Center of Biosystems Research at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute is Co-PI.
The objective of the research is to make use of the self-assembly and metal-binding properties of a biological nanostructure, the TMV, in the development of novel functional materials and fabrication processes for energy microsystems applications. The TMV is a high aspect ratio cylindrical plant virus that can be genetically engineered to include amino acids with enhanced metal-binding properties. These genetic modifications facilitate electroless plating of the molecules as well as self-assembly onto various substrates. The developed processes will be incorporated in the fabrication of new, nanostructured small-scale energy storage devices.


Dr Alexandra Thomson is the manager of the University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Deep Green Biotech Hub, one of the few algae-based hubs in Australia. With a PhD in marine ecology and a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Honours), both from UTS, she has produced research papers on marine ecology and the carbon capturing potential of coastal systems.
Deeply passionate about science education, Alex has taught in over 15 undergraduate subjects and co-authored several papers focusing on tertiary science education. She engages with local and regional schools to share her passion for science and biotechnology, and has led creative science engagement projects such as the "Living Lights" algae-filled installation for Vivid Sydney (2018).
Alex is a member of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the World Seagrass Association, a mentor for undergraduate science students, and an advocate for developing the career paths of young scientists. She has received a number of awards for conference presentations, teaching, and public engagement programs. Alex is currently spearheading the world's first dedicated algae accelerator program - joining biotechnology and entrepreneurship - through the Deep Green Biotech Hub, creating opportunities for STEM-preneurs across NSW to accelerate algae innovation and engage with science.


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Ariadna is a genus of tube-dwelling spider (family Segestriidae).

Species
, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species:

Ariadna abbreviata Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna abrilae Grismado, 2008 – Chile
Ariadna algarvensis Wunderlich, 2011 – Portugal
Ariadna alta Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna amabilia Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna araucana Grismado, 2008 – Chile
Ariadna arenacea (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna arthuri Petrunkevitch, 1926 – USA, Caribbean
Ariadna aurea Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna barbigera Simon, 1905 – Chatham Islands
Ariadna bellatoria Dalmas, 1917 – New Zealand
Ariadna bellatula (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna bicolor (Hentz, 1842) – USA, Mexico
Ariadna bilineata Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna boesenbergi Keyserling, 1877 – Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina
Ariadna boliviana Simon, 1907 – Bolivia, Suriname, Brazil, Paraguay
Ariadna brevispina Caporiacco, 1947 – Tanzania
Ariadna brignolii Wunderlich, 2011 – Italy
Ariadna burchelli (Hogg, 1900) – Victoria
Ariadna caerulea Keyserling, 1877 – Colombia, Ecuador
Ariadna calilegua Grismado, 2008 – Argentina
Ariadna canariensis Wunderlich, 1995 – Canary Islands
Ariadna caparao Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna capensis Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna cephalotes Simon, 1907 – Peru, Bolivia, Argentina
Ariadna changellkuk Grismado, 2008 – Chile
Ariadna chayu (Wang & Zhang, 2022) – China
Ariadna chhotae Siliwal & Yadav, 2017 – India
Ariadna clavata Marsh, Baehr, Glatz & Framenau, 2018 – South Australia
Ariadna comata O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898 – Mexico
Ariadna corticola Lawrence, 1952 – South Africa
Ariadna crassipalpa (Blackwall, 1863) – Brazil
Ariadna crypticola Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna curvata (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna cyprusensis Wunderlich, 2011 – Cyprus, Kos
Ariadna daweiensis Yin, Xu & Bao, 2002 – China
Ariadna decatetracantha Main, 1954 – Western Australia
Ariadna dentigera Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna deserta (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna dissimilis Berland, 1924 – New Caledonia
Ariadna diucrura (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna dysderina L. Koch, 1873 – Queensland
Ariadna elaphra Wang, 1993 – China
Ariadna europaensis Wunderlich, 2011 – Italy
Ariadna exuviaque Wunderlich, 2011 – Mallorca
Ariadna ferrogrisea Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna flavescens (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna formosa (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna fragilis Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna gallica Wunderlich, 2012 – France
Ariadna gaucha Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna gonzo Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna gryllotalpa (Purcell, 1904) – South Africa
Ariadna hottentotta Purcell, 1908 – South Africa
Ariadna inflata (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna inops Wunderlich, 2011 – Portugal
Ariadna insidiatrix Audouin, 1826 – Mediterranean
Ariadna insula (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna insularis Purcell, 1908 – South Africa
Ariadna insulicola Yaginuma, 1967 – China, Korea, Japan
Ariadna ionica O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873 – Greece
Ariadna ipojuca Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna isthmica Beatty, 1970 – Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil
Ariadna javana Kulczyński, 1911 – Java
Ariadna jiuzhaigou (Wang & Zhang, 2022) – China
Ariadna jubata Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna karrooica Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna kibonotensis Tullgren, 1910 – Tanzania
Ariadna kisanganensis Benoit, 1974 – Congo
Ariadna kiwirrkurra Baehr & Whyte, 2016 – Western Australia
Ariadna kolbei Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna laeta Thorell, 1899 – Cameroon, Príncipe
Ariadna lalen Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Chile
Ariadna lateralis Karsch, 1881 – China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan
Ariadna lebronneci Berland, 1933 – Marquesas Islands
Ariadna lemosi Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna levii Grismado, 2008 – Chile
Ariadna levyi Wunderlich, 2011 – Israel
Ariadna lightfooti Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna maderiana Warburton, 1892 – Madeira, Salvages
Ariadna major Hickman, 1929 – Tasmania
Ariadna maroccana Wunderlich, 2011 – Morocco
Ariadna masculina Lawrence, 1928 – Namibia
Ariadna maxima (Nicolet, 1849) – Chile, Argentina, Juan Fernandez Is.
Ariadna mbalensis Lessert, 1933 – Angola
Ariadna meruensis Tullgren, 1910 – Tanzania
Ariadna mollis (Holmberg, 1876) – Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina
Ariadna molur Siliwal & Yadav, 2017 – India
Ariadna montana Rainbow, 1920 – Lord Howe Islands
Ariadna monticola Thorell, 1897 – Myanmar
Ariadna motumotirohiva Giroti, Cotoras, Lazo & Brescovit, 2020 – Chile
Ariadna multispinosa Bryant, 1948 – Hispaniola
Ariadna muscosa Hickman, 1929 – Tasmania
Ariadna natalis Pocock, 1900 – South Africa, Christmas Islands
Ariadna nebulosa Simon, 1906 – India
Ariadna neocaledonica Berland, 1924 – New Caledonia
Ariadna obscura (Blackwall, 1858) – Peru, Brazil
Ariadna octospinata (Lamb, 1911) – Queensland
Ariadna oreades Simon, 1906 – Sri Lanka
Ariadna otwayensis (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (Victoria)
Ariadna papuana Kulczyński, 1911 – New Guinea
Ariadna pectinella Strand, 1913 – Central Africa
Ariadna pelia Wang, 1993 – China
Ariadna perkinsi Simon, 1900 – Hawaii
Ariadna phantasma Marsh, Hudson & Framenau, 2021 – Western Australia
Ariadna pilifera O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898 – USA, Mexico
Ariadna pollex (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna propria (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna pulchripes Purcell, 1908 – South Africa
Ariadna rapinatrix Thorell, 1899 – Cameroon, Príncipe
Ariadna reginae Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica
Ariadna rutila (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna ruwenzorica Strand, 1913 – Central Africa
Ariadna sansibarica Strand, 1907 – Zanzibar
Ariadna scabripes Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna segestrioides Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna segmentata Simon, 1893 – Tasmania
Ariadna septemcincta (Urquhart, 1891) – New Zealand
Ariadna similis Purcell, 1908 – South Africa
Ariadna simplex (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna sinuosa (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (Victoria)
Ariadna snellemanni (van Hasselt, 1882) – Sumatra, Krakatau, Philippines
Ariadna spinosa (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna subnubila Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna subplana (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna tangara Marsh, Baehr, Glatz & Framenau, 2018 – South Australia
Ariadna taprobanica Simon, 1906 – Sri Lanka
Ariadna tarsalis Banks, 1902 – Peru, Ecuador
Ariadna thylacinus Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna thyrianthina Simon, 1908 – Western Australia
Ariadna tigrina Marsh, Stevens & Framenau, 2022 – Tasmania
Ariadna tovarensis Simon, 1893 – Venezuela
Ariadna tria (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (Victoria)
Ariadna ubajara Giroti & Brescovit, 2018 – Brazil
Ariadna umbra (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna umtalica Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
Ariadna una (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna uncinata Tang, Li & Yang, 2019 – China
Ariadna ungua (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna ustulata Simon, 1898 – Seychelles
Ariadna valida (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna vansda Siliwal, Yadav & Kumar, 2017 – India
Ariadna weaveri Beatty, 1970 – Mexico
Ariadna woinarskii (Marsh, Stevens, Bradford & Framenau, 2022) – Australia (South Australia)
Ariadna yintiaoling (Wang & Zhang, 2022) – China

References

Segestriidae
Araneomorphae genera
Cosmopolitan spiders

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Praise Ministries International is cross-continental ministries whose mission is to reach the world for Christ through evangelism, education, and church planting. Our goal is to meet the emotional, cognitive, psychological, physical, and spiritual needs of humanity. It is based upon this philosophy that Praise Ministries International operates under the didactic and holistic ministries of the Great Commission. Praise Ministries International is ministries of liberty and restoration. The Ministries is built on the following scripture:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19[NIV]).
Praise Ministries International was envisioned on June 14, 2001, in Danane, Cote D'Ivoire. Its visionary being a refugee for 8 years in Danane, Cote D'Ivoire, moved into the Republic of Guinea in 2002 as the result of the cross-border attack by rebels from Liberia into Danane, Cote D'Ivoire. The visionary in person of Jallah Koiyan initiated the ministry in Laine Refugee Camp, Republic of Guinea as a prayer ministry. For the past twelve years, the ministries has been operating and ministering to the needy in Africa and the United States. Praise Ministries International is a non-denominational and it has since been incorporated in 2008 with the state of North Carolina as a public charity and it has a 501 (c) (3) status. Praise Ministries International works in alliance with the Kingdom Global Ministries and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina as a church planting group recognized by the state convention.
Praise Ministries International presently operates from a leased facility as a church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The church has been operating in Charlotte for the past two years. The base of supports for the African mission comes directly from the U.S.A based local church assembly. The local church assembly in Charlotte had been a support based for the church in Liberia, Monrovia. Meanwhile, the church in U.S.A in collaboration with the Liberian based church ministries are embarking on a school project to provide shelter (school building) and instructional staff to affect the hundred of children in Lofa County, Liberia, who are not in school as the result of lack of school building and instructional staff. The meeting of the educational need for the present population in this region is urgent.
ONE VISIONARY STORY
The visionary in person of Jallah Koiyan has been in ministry for the past 19 years. He grew up spiritually in a church called the Light of the World Christian Church situated in Harbel, Firestone, Liberia. During the tenure of his Christian life at this church, Jallah Koiyan served in various capacities. He served as usher from 1986 to 1988. From 1989 to 1992, he served as choir member. He also became a youth leader and a Financial Secretary during these years. From 1991 to 1992, he closely worked with the Pastor as assistant. As the civil war intensified in Liberia, the visionary fled into the Republic of Guinea for refuge. While in the Republic of Guinea, the visionary served as the General Secretary and Secretary for Evangelism for the Refugee Pastoral Fellowship and Eglises Protestante De Guinee (Protestant Churches of Guinea under a missionary group from Canada). After serving in these capacities for two years, the visionary traveled to Cote D'Ivoire in 1995 to continue his secondary education. Upon his graduation from high school in 1996, the visionary attended the Charismatic International School of Ministry where he obtained a diploma and a certificate for Ministerial and Biblical Studies. After his graduation, the visionary volunteered to work for this school as School Administrator from 1998 to 2000. The visionary fled again into the Republic of Guinea in 2002 as the result of rebel's invasion on Danane, Cote D'Ivoire. He lived in Laine Refugee Camp from 2002 to 2005 where he initiated this ministry as a prayer ministry. The visionary traveled from the Republic of Guinea into the United of America along with his family in 2005, October 31. The visionary is the Senior Pastor of the Praise Assembly of Charlotte of the Praise Ministries International and he is presently a student at New Life Theological Seminary, undergraduate degree. The visionary is called into the pastoral and the deliverance ministries.
THE CHALLENGES AND CORE ISSUES
For the past four years, the U.S.A based church leadership and the congregations have been the supportive arm for the mission in Liberia morally and financially; unfortunately, our resources are inadequate to meet the various needs outlined below:
The need to build a church edifice in Liberia
The need to build a school in Liberia
These areas mentioned are vital to the development and expansion of the ministries in Liberia and U.S.A. The church leadership and congregations solicit generous giving of potential donors to help supplement our inadequate resources to take care of the two areas mentioned above.
The goal of Praise Ministries International is to affect the emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual needs of the human race as to enable her carries out the Great Commission. It is based upon this idea that the Ministries focuses on evangelism, church planting, and education as to fulfill the didactic and the holistic ministries; therefore, Praise Ministries International is committed to follow E.C.E.
EVANGELISM: Praise Ministries International is committed to preaching the Gospel through local church evangelism and crusade. The implementation of evangelism is the direct obedience to the Great Commission which brings about multiplication and church growth leading to church plant.
CHURCH PLANTING: Praise Ministries International is planting church in Charlotte and churches in Liberia; as a result, the need for church's edifice for U.S.A and Liberia is urgent.
EDUCATION: Praise Ministries International is conducting adult literacy and early childhood education programs as to affect the illiterate population in Liberia, Lofa County, and Voinjama District. The erection of the ten classroom school building is on the way to take place as soon as funds will be available; however, Praise Ministries International is presently using the local materials to mold the blocks or bricks for the building foundation.
Praise Ministries International recently had a visit in Lofa County, Kpademai town. During the second visit, the Ministries donated a generator, a set of jersey, and two bags of used clothes to the inhabitants of Kpademai town. The generator and a set of jersey were donated for the adult literacy program and the used clothes donated were used to serve six hundred children for the Christmas season. In 2010, Praise Ministries International also served children with clothes and food in Grand Cape Mount County for the July 6 celebration held under the auspices of the Maketta's Preparatory School in Monrovia, Liberia. The Ministries collaborated with this group to serve the environs of the township in Grand Cape Mount County.
Praise Ministries International has the mission to reach the world for Christ through evangelism, church planting, and education as to meet the emotional, cognitive, physical, and spiritual needs of humanity thereby fulfilling the didactic and the holistic ministries. Fulfilling this vision will require cooperative effort from individual donors, philanthropic groups, or governmental and non-governmental organizations to supplement Praise Ministries International inadequate material resources to enable the Ministries to carry out the building projects in Liberia. The leadership of Praise Ministries International is inviting and soliciting assistance from potential donors in kinds and money to accomplish this goal to carry out the construction of the buildings to house students and the congregations in Liberia.
ACHITECTURAL DIAGRAMS


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text:
Q: getting server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration I am using codeigniter mvc . i want rewrite my route
at the moment its like that
http://localhost/abc/index.php/blog

I want it like
 http://localhost/abc/blog

for this i change in my htaccess file using this
 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteBase /abc/
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

when i change i am getting server 500 error

A: .htacess example is available on http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/general/urls.html. Remove index.php in application/config/config.php - change to:
$config['index_page'] = '';

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /abc/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Save Irom Sharmila
Irom Sharmila and the Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner
(article written for the web magazine MxMIndia.com on Sharmila completing 11 years of her marathon fast)
Irom Sharmila is in love with somebody who has been communicating and sharing soul anguish with her in her confinement through letters. A report in The Telegraph, Kolkota declared this loudly. Nothing very strange about this, after all Sharmila is only 39 years of age, and living alone in a prison cell after having vowed to sacrifice eating to demand the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, for the last almost 11 years. Her fast completed 11 years on November 2 which is the day her family says her fast began, or November 5 when the newspapers first took notice of her fast and put it on record in the next day's edition.
The terrible privation she has inflicted upon herself and how she has been coping with it is next only to superhuman and it is a wonder that her spirit had not broken down long ago. Ordinary men and women would have probably lost their sanity by now. She is still very much alive today, carrying on the fight she took upon herself to shoulder. It must come with a great deal of bewilderment for many to discover that a superhuman has the heart of a human within. This should not be a matter of discouragement but of elation. After all, what we want to see demonstrated is an ordinary human pushing the boundaries of achievement and not a god doing what are humanly impossible.
We would in this sense give three cheers to Sharmila for the revelation and not downgrade her stature in any way, although we do feel as a public figure she should have been a little wary and discreet about going public with her very private life. It is also unfortunate that she had not indicated this to the local media, making it seem as if the local media has been party to keeping her feelings under wraps. Or is it a case of efforts by interested parties to do just this? This should become known sooner than later.
But no great damage done, the truth is out, so be it, and hopefully for the better towards the actualisation of the noble cause she is fighting for. Her direct supporters, and all the rest of us, must come to terms with the new and more human image of the lonely tough-willed fighter, and carry the movement forward with renewed vigour. After all the movement is what is important, and with or without an iconic figure like Sharmila as standard bearer, it should carry on without any sense of loss or that the wind in the sail has diminished. She has done enough to highlight the issue, more than anyone behind the cause can imagine every doing. We should not be on the lookout for a martyr in her. Instead we should be encouraging her to end her self-inflicted privation and carry on the struggle without having to go through all the torture of unending hunger. The issue is the draconian AFSPA and not Irom Sharmila, however great she is.
We cannot however help wondering if Sharmila is not under psychological stress more than ever in the past few months. It is learnt that meeting her even by her own family members is no longer as easy as it used to be, permission now having to be acquired from the chief secretary of the state himself. All of us who have visited the iron lady in the past know her confinement was not so strictly guarded. For whatever the reason, her privation was being deepened and surely her loneliness too in equal measures, after all she is a human too. Imagine 11 years in a prison cell all alone, not even in contact with other prisoners as she is in a special jail ward in the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital Porompat so as to enable medical care and nose feeding.
Not only this, going without food is not just about tolerating hunger. In fact, in her case, hunger may not be much of an issue for she is fed through the nose and kept alive. But her self-denial is more about foregoing taste and smell of food, some of the most gratifying of all human senses. Any lesser person would have lost sanity under the circumstance. Is this additional stress having a toll on her? We hope not.
In any case, the campaign against the oppressive AFSPA has been allowed to hinge on Sharmila alone for too long. This was not good for her as she is finding out now, or for the movement, for it deprived individuality of individual campaigners, most of them having simply to rally behind Sharmila, abdicating in the process the need to take individual stances in the manner Eric Fromm described the emergence of dictatorships in "Escape from Freedom".
The episode is sad in another way though. The paradoxical thing is, to be a public leader entails a great deal of sacrifice of private life. Sharmila as a selfless crusader against the embodiment of an oppressive law automatically came to be lifted on an exalted public pedestal. Sharmila as a shy private woman can lead a happy individual life but will disappear from the public domain. This is the difference between an inspirational leader and a common citizen. The freedom to aspire for either should remain with the individual. Let Sharmila decide her own future without any guilt. She has contributed enough already. Manipur and its resistance against the AFSPA must however continue undeterred even if she decides to retire to a peaceful normal life.
Leaders and Followers
But there are more to what this recent development has proven. The fact that a personal decision of Irom Sharmila is now seen somewhat as a threat to the campaign against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, in Manipur is a demonstration of the strategic and structural flimsiness of any protracted struggle to resort to hero worship. It has to be said that Sharmila's direct followers are guilty of having done this to a great extent. Even if it is not hero worship, they had built their campaign with her as the major, if not the only prop.
The approach should instead have been to see Sharmila as a star campaigner, but not the heart and soul of the campaign, but unfortunately, for whatever their reason, this route was not given much importance. And so a single report of Sharmila's love affair with a hitherto unheard of man, and her reported statement that she is disillusioned with her followers, caused so much trepidation and even the fear that the campaign against the AFSPA would lose much of its steam.
We hope this does not happen and the movement is able to find new legs that could do with but did not absolutely need Sharmila as a prop if she at all becomes unavailable. Indeed, the myriad human rights organisations actively involved in the campaign must now take time off to rethink, retrospect and reorient their future strategies. Meanwhile leave Sharmila to be where she wants to be.
But increasingly confounding is also the reason why The Telegraph chose to give so much prominence to Sharmila's declaration of her very personal affair. This is even more intriguing for in all of the 11 long years she has been staging her protest fast, even on the day she completed the 10 year landmark, she was not seen as deserving headline space by this newspaper. Many other newspapers and television channels even ignored the event. So why this sudden interest in her personal affairs, even though it is clear she was the one who revealed it to the journalist who did the report.
The timing, whether by design or coincidence is also curious for only a few days earlier the Union home minister, P Chidambaram had announced in New Delhi that the government was considering a review of the AFSPA. Moreover a reflected halo form the Anna Hazare blitzkrieg in New Delhi was beginning to hover over Sharmila, signifying perhaps liberal India's conscience was being awoken, and the issue of AFSPA was beginning to attract national attention. It was in the midst of this that the story of Sharmila's love affair butted in rudely.
The story was heart warming no doubt despite the hiccups caused by a passage suggesting Sharmila was having very serious differences with her supporters, still the question of its timing as well as the prominence given to it, would undoubtedly make many suspicious that it may have motives other than plain journalistic calibration of news value. Thankfully however, it does now seem the sensational revelation is unlikely to sidetrack the anti-AFSPA campaign.
The development also should bring back the old debate of whether leaders make situations or the situations make leaders. The Sharmila case should again highlight the need to find the right balance between two. Leaders with vision give any movement the right focus and charisma, but it is also equally true that it is the peculiarities of a given situation which throws up a leader. For instance it is unlikely Gandhi could have happened in the 18th Century or Abraham Lincoln in the 20th Century.
This notwithstanding, it would be wrong to also dismiss human agency in shaping event and indeed history. If everything were to be predetermined by circumstance and leaders too were forged only by the impersonal forces of history, as Isaiah Berlin noted in "Crooked Timber of Humanity" a difficult ethical situation would arise whereby it would become impossible to hold anybody accountable for history's many atrocities. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and all the other mass murderers of history would then appear to be no more than quasi-tragic figures, compelled by historical circumstances to do what they did.
In this context, Pol Pot who killed two million of his countrymen in the span of a decade of his rule, believed whatever he did was for the good of his country even on his deathbed as became evident in what was to be his last interview by Far Eastern Economic Review. It would thus be prudent for the human rights movement in the state to assess the situation arising out of Sharmila's changed emotional constitution from this light.
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Journey: Siroy Hill, Manipur
Amrit Koijam - October 15, 2011


text:
Q: seaborn modify y axis (log scale) to show more values I have plotted a boxplot using seaborn, the y axis is uses a log scale (time in miliseconds). I would like to make the y axis more clear by including more values on the axis. How could I achieve that? The code used and the graph generated are below.
ax2 = sns.boxplot(x="xVals", y="Time", data=df2, whis=[0, 100])
ax2.set(yscale="log")

A: Try
ax2.xaxis.set_major_locator(ticker.MultipleLocator(5))
ax2.xaxis.set_minor_locator(ticker.MultipleLocator(1))

More info:
https://matplotlib.org/api/ticker_api.html


The goal of the degree program offered at Bucerius Law School is to train fully-qualified lawyers ready for the German market; lawyers who have received a sound, internationally and practice oriented legal education. To be admitted to the Law School as a student, applicants must go through a two-stage written and oral selection process. To be admitted to the application process, candidates need to have excellent German and English language skills.
Approximately 450 students complete their studies after 12 trimesters (four years) and are awarded the degrees Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and the First German State Examination. All students are required to spend one trimester abroad at one of our partner universities, around 90 located in 30 different countries. In return, we welcome students from all over the world to Bucerius Law School each year from September to December. A sophisticated foreign language program for jurists, lectures on economic and business basics and a general course of studies ("Studium generale") are integral components of the program. In short: The legal education offered at Bucerius Law School is streamlined, international and practice oriented.
Over 75 % of Bucerius Law School graduates finish the First State Examination with "outstanding" results and receive an average grade of over 10 points. This by far exceeds the average results normally achieved in Germany.


text:
Q: Getting unbound method error? I tried to run this code below
class TestStaticMethod:
    def foo():
        print 'calling static method foo()'

        foo = staticmethod(foo)

class TestClassMethod:
    def foo(cls):
        print 'calling class method foo()'
        print 'foo() is part of class: ', cls.__name__

    foo = classmethod(foo)

After I ran this with the code below
tsm = TestStaticMethod()
TestStaticMethod.foo()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#35>", line 1, in <module>
    TestStaticMethod.foo()
TypeError: unbound method foo() must be called with TestStaticMethod instance as first argument (got nothing instead)

tsm.foo()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#36>", line 1, in <module>
    ts.foo()
TypeError: foo() takes no arguments (1 given)

I really don't get why I'm getting the unbound method. Can anyone help me?

A: You shall try the below code by dedenting the foo variable from class TestStaticMethod
class TestStaticMethod:
    def foo():
        print 'calling static method foo()'
    foo = staticmethod(foo)

tsm = TestStaticMethod()
tsm.foo()

A: You should not indent

foo = staticmethod(function_name)

in function(foo) itself,
Instead give this a try:
class TestStaticMethod:
    def foo():
        print 'calling static method foo()'
    foo = staticmethod(foo)

or
class TestStaticMethod:
    @staticmethod
    def foo():
        print 'calling static method foo()'

Both above solutions will work


BMW at Monterey Car Week 2018: World Premiere of the all-new BMW Z4 Roadster.
After premiering the BMW Concept 8 Series Coupe and the BMW Concept Z4 Roadster on the Reviewing Stand at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance last August, BMW is taking the wraps off of the production versions of those two models with the World premiere of the all-new BMW Z4 Roadster and the North American premiere of the all-new BMW M850i Coupe – the first of a new line of BMW 8 Series models. In addition, BMW is presenting the stunning BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupe for the first time in North America.
Since its inception, The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering has combined a lush setting on a golf course nestled against the Santa Lucia mountain range with exceptional cuisine and the finest examples of vintage sporting automobiles. BMW will once again have its signature display in the center of the show field for this exclusive event on Friday August 24. This year, the BMW display will feature the all-new BMW Z4 Roadster.
BMW will supplement its paddock display with three iconic BMWrace cars. The first is the No. 2 1981 BMWM1 IMSA Group 4 that was campaigned by BMWof North America at the 24 Hours of Daytona and Mosport during the 1981 season and driven by the likes of David Hobbs, Mark Surer, and Dieter Quester. The BMWM1, the first 'M' car, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and powered by a Paul Rosche-designed 3.5-liter, twin-cam 6-cylinder "M88" engine, mounted amid-ship, debuted at the 1978 Paris auto Show to the admiration of the world's motoring press. Now, 40 years later, the M1 is one of the most collectable of BMW's historic models.
The second display car is none other than the BMW of North America Stars and Stripes liveried, BMWPower, 1996 McLaren F1.
The third race car on display is the No. 25 2015 BMW Z4 GTLM that propelled BMW Team RLL drivers Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner to second place in the Driver, Team and Manufacturer standings in the 2015 TUDOR United Sports Car Championship.
The week-long activities culminate with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on the 18th Green of the Pebble Beach Golf Course overlooking Carmel Bay on Sunday August 26. BMWwill be represented on the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Concept Lawn with the North American Premiere of the BMWConcept M8 Gran Coupe.
The BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupe is more than simply a luxury sports car with four doors. It symbolizes a new and unique understanding of luxury.


text:
Gospel Music (Correct)
Gospel Music Early Roots Gospel music is a genre that grew out of jubilee quartets. It can be defined as a sacred music, about God
Hooray! Hip Hop Roots Hip Hop can be traced as far back as the late 1970s. The genre was born from rhythmic speaking on top
A Musical Theater Post
MUSICAL THEATER What is musical theater? Well, from the title of the genre, one can say that it is theater with music in it, or
All About Techno
All About Techno Techno, or Detroit techno originated in the midwest, specifically in Detroit, Michigan in the 1980s. It was mainly started by three black
Now It's Time to Get Funky
Now It's Time to Get Funky Funk music, like most musical genres came from black people. It is easily recognizable from heavy bass lines and
Ready, set, DISCO!
Ready, Set, DISCO! WHen thinking about or hearing disco, one usually imagines a large disco ball, a club full of dancing people, and of course,
What Time is it? Ragtime!
What Time Is It? Ragtime! Ragtime is a genre that originated among African American people in the midwest and was most popular during the years
Gospel Music Early Roots Gospel music is a genre that grew out of jubilee quartets. It can be defined as a sacred music,
Jazz Music and its Association with Black Intellectualism
Jazz Music Jazz Music History and Early Roots Jazz music was just starting out in the late 1800s and early 1900s with a
Negro Spiritual Post by Faith Shannon
Negro Spirituals A Review of: A Unique and Symbolic Thread in African American Culture Everything that we have learned so far about Negro
Jubilee Quartet Project (Faith S.)
The Empress of Blues: Lyrical Analysis
Bessie Smith: The Empress of Blues Bessie Smith When we think of the Blues genre, we usually think of male singers such as B. B.
Review: Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson The Marian Anderson article was very informative on the experience of black women in the music industry during segregation. Being that we sing
A Review of Folk Music: African American Legacy
Being that I was not previously introduced to Black people's association with folk music, this article was an eye-opener. I appreciated how the videos demonstrated
Faith Shannon
Faith Shannon's Page
Posts Pages
Sam's Early Life Most people know Sam Cooke for his famous song "A Change Is Gonna Come", which is by far his most famous song.


text:
27. Iasi 29. into Moldova
28. an industrial heritage
this steam heating system in Iasi's industrial complex still seems to work
By now you know about my obsession with decrepit factories and with 'palatis', in reality called 'blocks', here, but 'palati' is a much nicer word. A view of what is left of Iasi's industrial complex, and why.
the place of a former factory, now gone to dust – literally
A tour of the old industrial complex of the city is an eye opener. I have already commented on the senseless destruction of capital, huge factory halls falling into disrepair, but here this has been taken to a different level, less visible perhaps, because entire factories have disappeared! Apparently, the privatization mechanism after the 1989 revolution was to sell a factory lock, stock and barrel, preferably to a foreigner with money – not necessarily an investor -, so as to draw less attention to the deal. The buyer would be interested in a quick buck only, and focused on selling the machinery as scrap iron, obviously huge business at the time – and still, presumably, because everywhere in Romania we encountered 'fier vecchi' signs pointing to yards full of metal waste. Further metal was to be had from the factory walls: gypsies got rich by spending their time meticulously taking apart the buildings, salvaging the iron bars from the reinforced concrete, and leaving nothing but a heap of dirt on the spot of the privatized factory. Which is why you don't see those factories anymore. Even the manhole covers also made of metal, have all disappeared. Which makes driving here pretty hazardous!
another factory skeleton
and one still standing, just
and another one, which is unlikely to ever produce anything again
Not all the factories have been taken down, some of the complexes still sport buildings in various stages of collapse; broken windows, whole parts of the outer walls missing, you know what I mean. None of those are working, there is nothing being produced anymore, from an industrial base that must have had quite some capacity 25 years ago – even though production at the time may not have been the most efficient. Yet, some people have managed to patch up a few corners of those buildings, or some of the smaller sweatshops, and rent them out to Romanian small enterprise, any type of business, really. Car parts, garages, building materials, that sort of thing. In itself a positive development, of course, but what is really needed is some form of legal structure that can be enforced – without it, it will only be the big guys, well connected politically, who will invest. Which also happens: on some of the flattened land new, cheap buildings – corrugated iron, mostly – have arisen, and are being rented out to supermarkets and retail outlets.
and the old textile factory admin building
the green building, which I was not allowed to photograph from the public pavement
And then there are the few factories that have been saved, or that have been modernized and are still, or again, producing something. Almost always with foreign capital, but also occasionally with indigenous funding – which, in the eyes of the locals, is immediately suspect, of course, and probably for good reasons.
The dodgy-ness of some of this business was illustrated when I almost got arrested, in one of the complexes. As soon as I had stepped out of the car, to take some pictures, a guard – why do you need a guard, there, in the first place? – approached, rather menacingly. My quick-witted friend told him that I was a potential foreign investor, at which moment his attitude changed completely, and he enthusiastically started to call his boss. Not exactly what we wanted, either, so my friend told him that, really, my first visit had to be kept very low-key, as not to scare me, and my money, away. Which he perfectly well understood, of course. Of course? Elsewhere, I was on the public pavement, taking another picture of a building, when yet another guard appeared, telling me that this was forbidden. Based on what, he couldn't explain – and even if I had been speaking fluent Romanian, I don't think that would have changed anything -, but the fact alone that someone comes to tell you to back off means they must have something to hide. Or think they have something to hide.
prototype, 5-story palati, where half of your life happens outside
bunch of satelite dishes, outside one of the palatis
window onto the world
ground-floor apartment being exploited as a cafe-bar
inside corridor of a palati
and storage cupboards on the corridors, as well as one plant
In the communist days that built these factories, they also needed people to staff them, and people needed to live, so around the factories, extensive 'palatis' were built, with one- or two-room apartments. And a two-room apartment is really that, two rooms, not two bedrooms. But often they came with a balcony. Which, of course, could be closed off, to create extra space. One of the fascinating elements of these palatis – well, the thing that fascinates me – is the creativity and ingenuity with which people have made changes to their individual apartments – and I can only see the outside, so just imagine how this must look inside. We did make an attempt to see some of this inside, but we didn't get much further than the corridors – indeed, where everybody has their outside cupboard, locked, because they have no room for that in the apartment itself.
You can read about all of this, these days, and I have done so, but seeing it with your own eyes, and having somebody who lived through this telling you about it, is a whole different experience. And I am still not sure that I can imagine all of it, the concept of living under communism and the subsequent rape of an industrial complex by the happy, non-scrupulous few.
And the saddest thing? We came across one factory building that was almost entirely intact. Built much longer ago, in the 1920's or so, and with bricks, so there is no scrap metal value in the walls. Fabulous structure. Unused. Forgotten, it seems. Like so much from before communism. It seems.
Next: we go into Moldova, the Republic, not the province
brick 1920's factory building
of which the windows have been smashed in, but for the rest, excellent condition
Tagged with → factories • houses • Iasi • Romania
The Romania & Bulgaria Blog
01. the Romania & Bulgaria plan
02. Timisoara
03. the Iron Gates
04. Severin
05. into Bulgaria
06. Sofia
the Icons Museum
07. the Bulgarian Monasteries
08. detour to Istanbul
09. Istanbul
10. the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
11. Veliko Tarnovo
12. around Veliko Tarnovo
13. Koprivshtitsa
14. the road to Ruse
15. the Bulgaria experience
16. Bucharest
17. Curtea de Arges
18. the Carpathian castles
19. Brasov
20. Bucegi Mountains
21. the Saxon villages
22. Sighisoara & Sibiu
23. the Transylvanian question
24. the Transfagarasan Highway
25. Ploiesti
26. the Prahova Valley
29. into Moldova
30. Moldovian tourist attractions
31. Bicaz and Ceahlau
32. to Bucovina
33. the painted monasteries of Bucovina
Humor Monastery
Voronet Monastery
Moldovita Monastery
Sucevita Monastery
35. the wooden churches of Maramures
Botiza
Desesti
Budesti
36. looking back


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McKenna Haase looks to raise her stock as a professional driver with move to Indianapolis
Ken's Racing Pix
McKenna Haase has a necklace that says "Remember why you started." Never have those words meant more than in the last 15 months.
There has been a lot of reflecting over that time period. Haase remembers meeting Kasey Kahne in a mall on vacation when she was in third grade and how the encounter ignited a passion for the sport.
That fire never left. It led Haase into the 305 Sprint Car ranks and then to the 360 Sprint Car division at the famed Knoxville Raceway. She also built a strong brand off the track, which led to strong sponsorship for her self-owned team.
Still, Haase never lost that love for working on and driving racecars. It's that love and her desire to build a professional racing career that led her to the decision to move from Iowa to Indianapolis and embark on a 360 and 410 Sprint Car schedule in 2020.
"When I think back to really why I got into this sport, it's because I wanted to drive racecars and started working on them and driving at the lowest levels," Haase said. "All of the other stuff, the marketing, which was the only way I could fund my racing at that age, came after that.
"I've always wanted to travel and race, but I just never had the budget to do it. So, I finally moved out to Indy and wanted to be taken seriously as a racecar driver and not just a brand."
Continued Haase, "I get to go back to working on cars, too, and just be immersed in racing itself. Being in the racing capitol of the world will be helpful with that."
Haase, of Des Moines, IA, started racing in the 305 Sprint Car division at Knoxville Raceway in 2014. She moved up to the 360s in 2017 and managed a pair of wins in the division one year later.
Knoxville was the perfect place for Haase to not only cut her Sprint Car teeth, but also get exposure. But, she also realized that she needed to travel to become a better driver and realize her dream.
Troy Hugen Photo
The move to Indianapolis occurred in April and was kept pretty quiet, so much so that Haase didn't tell some of her close friends, because she didn't want to be bombarded with questions or have it affect her racing season.
Still, Haase believes the move is needed as a major piece of the racing puzzle. The rest is hitting events in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as Iowa, to hone her skills.
"I've been saying it for years, but I promise I mean it this time, that we are going to race outside of Knoxville," Haase laughed. "That doesn't mean we won't race Knoxville, but I just never had the budget to race outside of Knoxville.
"I love my life in Iowa. I had a great business network, racing network, and my youth motorsports programs were based out of Des Moines. So, I had a great life building, but I came to the realization that it wasn't the life I wanted to live long-term."
A MEMORABLE MESSAGE
One thing Haase hasn't had a lot of over the last three years is free time. Along with running her own race team, building youth programs, and increasing her brand in racing, she also was a full-time student at highly regarded Drake University.
Academics have always been important and even emphasized. Haase attended the College of Business and Public Administration at the school, studying Finance with Track and Investment Analysis.
Not only was she a 4.0 student, she was President of the Investment Club. Haase has also been academically published, penning a piece on the economics in racing that appeared in the International Journal of Motorsports Management.
One day, the Dean at Drake called Haase into his office and gave her some advice on her career. The spoken words still stick today.
"He had been watching me, and said, 'McKenna, I wouldn't be saying this if you didn't have a 4.0 GPA,'" Haase said. "He's like, 'I can see you are anxious to get out of here and are completely overloaded with these other things you have going on. Your racing career won't always be here, but our school will be, and I want you to chase that dream.'
"It pushed me over the edge. I just remember walking out of his office and feeling the weight of the world was off my shoulders. I actually didn't listen right away and became a part-time student, and even that got to be way too much with all of the sponsors, the foundation, and the development team.
"I finally called it quits with pretty much a senior year left. It was the best decision I ever made. Not that I'm against education, I love education, but I just felt it wasn't right for me. Moving to Indy was the best decision I ever made."
BUILDING A RACING RESUME
Haase figured out early on in her career that taking care of sponsors and gaining exposure was going to be her ticket to building a successful team.
Few have done it better in such a short amount of time. Haase, 22, doesn't get money from her family but has made ends meet by building a sponsorship base that is in the neighborhood of 30 strong.
Outside of racing, Haase, who does ninja and Taekwondo training, has also increased her brand by earning a spot on NBC's "American Ninja Warrior," a show that features men and women competing on difficult obstacle courses.
Now, Haase is looking to have the same sort of success on the racetrack. But to do so, she will have log laps and experience, regardless of car or class.
Haase has a good start. She has run a Midget, a Sprint Car, and Outlaw Kart. She recently tested a Super Late Model and has tested an F-2000 on the simulator.
"I've never driven a racecar I didn't love driving," Haase said. "The only thing I've been in long enough to win in was a Sprint Car, other than an Outlaw Kart when I was younger.
Ken's Racing Pix
"It's taken me 20 nights or less to win, but don't get me wrong, it's been up-and-down until that first win. I just feel like I haven't had the chance to truly show all of my talent, because I've only raced 10 to 20 times a year.
"When we've gone to a different track with the Sprint Car, like quarter-mile bullrings or whatever, we've been on the podium in a handful of races on the short tracks. But again, it's just been in Iowa."
Haase knows it's all about getting noticed, and even though Knoxville Raceway is the biggest stage in Sprint Car racing, she needs to show more at different venues and on different surfaces.
Running 20 races a year doesn't cut it. Especially when you are competing for rides with drivers with more experience who travel coast to coast facing some of the stiffest challengers in the sport.
"Rides are not going to come to you," Haase said. "That only happens for a select few. You have to go get them.
"Obviously, the way the sport is now, it's money, so it's extremely difficult. I think it's still possible and believe if you put yourself in the best position, it can be done.
"For me, if I can just win outside of Knoxville and run a 410 and put good results out in the East … it's going to take some time and experience … but I just think showing up to the fight is what it takes."
DOING IT ON HER OWN
McKenna Haase looks up and down the pit area and can do the math in her head. It's the price she pays for being good with numbers and finance.
Sprint Car racing is an expensive game. The money it takes to run a team doesn't discriminate whether a car is littered with sponsors or is blank.
That's something Haase learned at an early age. She started her team at age 13 and quickly learned what it takes to get to the track every week. More important, she realized she couldn't do it alone.
Haase needed sponsors. And since she turned her Sprint Car endeavors into a business at 17, she has worked tirelessly trying to acquire more partners and take care of the companies that take care of her.
"Every single car costs 'X' amount of dollars," Haase said. "I understand there is better equipment than others, but at the end of the day, you have to pay 'X' amount to go to the racetrack.
"Where I struggle with my car — I'm grateful for my sponsors and blessed with great sponsors — is my parents don't put a dime into what I do other than their time, and I appreciate that. But, they aren't cutting me checks.
"Sponsorship is the only way I could race. I put my own personal money in, too, but I had to create a brand. It still takes sponsors to put that car on the racetrack."
It's tough being a female in the sport. Even the most talented female drivers are sometimes looked at as a novelty.
Haase doesn't shy away from her brand popularity, but she isn't content being perceived in that way. She is a racecar driver and wants to be respected for her talent on the track as much as off.
"I just don't want to be seen as a brand," Haase said. "I started out as a driver, and I am a driver, a racecar driver. I want to win just as bad, if not more, than anybody, and I'm ruthless about it.
"I'm willing to sacrifice whatever it takes. Obviously, I was a 4.0 finance major who could have gotten a really good finance job. Not only did I not get a degree, I lost the degree. I lost the finance job, I quit my job in Iowa, and moved to Indy just to race sprint cars."
Continued Haase, "I'm living like any Sprint Car driver in Indy. Just because I own the team, it doesn't mean I'm cutting a salary. I'm living off percentage and my motivational speaking appearances, so it's tight and a huge sacrifice.
"It's really difficult financially, but it's what I want to do. I have confidence in sponsors to sustain the team, the foundation I'm working on, and speaking appearances. I have confidence that I will be able to succeed in all of that."
Haase isn't the type to wait for things to happen. Instead, she is comfortable rolling up her sleeves and going after what she wants.
Knoxville Raceway has been good to Haase, but she wants more. That desire — her ambition to be a professional racecar driver — is what led her to relocate to Indianapolis, a hub for racing in the United States.
It's a two-prong attack. Haase needs to get more laps outside Knoxville and increase her exposure. Both lead to more sponsors and more opportunity.
"I didn't go to Indy because I landed a big sponsor," Haase said. "Frankly, I can't even say that I went to Indy to get sponsors, but I did go there to get business connections.
"I would love to get sponsors there. When I originally went out there, I figured it was already dried up with all the teams that are there. Thankfully, a lot of my sponsors in Iowa, they are national companies.
"The best way to describe it is if an Olympian competes in Beijing, they are still going to get a lot of coverage in Iowa. So, even if I have an Iowa-based company, we are racing in Indiana building our brand."
Welcome to racing in 2019.
Gone are the days of talent being enough. Guys like Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, and Doug Wolfgang would have made it regardless of location or wallet. Talent and dedication spoke volumes, and like the National Football League, someone would have found them.
Now, there are more drivers then there are seats, and many owners require a driver to bring a bag of cash as well as their helmet. If it's not a rent-a-ride, it's the family-owned teams dominating the landscape.
Haase knows it won't be easy to break into the big-time, but she is determined to make a go of it. The goal is to race professionally her way, and she will settle for nothing less.
"My current plan, which is subject to change, is to run Sprint Cars," Haase said. "A combination of 360s and 410s in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
"Anything I can get outside of that would be great, but I just want to focus on something and go at it full throttle."
Despite drivers' objections, Lincoln Speedway will implement a 5×5 wing rule for the 358 Sprints in 2020
Episode 125: Tyler Swank and John Westbrook, 358 Sprint Car wing change, National Open, more


Shoe cleansing products at Revert 95.
The best shoe care products you find online and in store at Revert 95.
We have a lot shoe care products for the maintenance of your shoes for different types of products. For example, we have products for the Inner and outer of your shoe, from sprays to whole sets. Revert 95 sells shoe cleaning products from Jason Mark and Sneakerlab. Products Its appropriateness for several at Types of footwear-including premium leather, suede or cotton.
Sneaker LAB & Jason Mark online and in the store.
Sneaker LAB & Jason Mark are shoe cleansing products for premium shoes and has a big collection of cleaner sneakers accessories.
Sneaker Lab Has A Full Array of biotech and Green Products for all cleaning shoe and sneaker care requirements. All products are water based and continues to work long after application, are useful and packaged in recyclable materials. Jason Mark, known as one of the better shoe care products on the market. No longer would sneakerheads use household chemicals for the polishing shoes. Jason Mark has already launched dual-woven water-repellent wipes and wipes for permanent stains & more.


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Jundiaí River may refer to:

 Jundiaí River (Espírito Santo)
 Jundiaí River (upper Tietê River tributary)
 Jundiaí River (Rio Grande do Norte)
 Jundiaí River (São Paulo)

See also
 Jundiaí


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Q: Attributed Strings for UILabels in Xcode 6 I wanted to change the text of a label that says "hello world" such that "hello" is red, and "world" is blue. I'm doing this programmatically and obviously simplifying this example.
Is there a way to do this?
My alternative was to just create two uilabels, and set the attributes of each one accordingly, and then just add them together next to each other, but I thought it would be great if I could just assign the text of a label as per above instead.
By the way it doesn't have to be a UILabel as long as I can just render this text inside a UITableView row.
Thanks!

A: Here is a small example on how to use NSAttributedString:
var resultString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Hello ", attributes: [NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.redColor()])
var worldString = NSMutableAttributedString(
    string: "World",
    attributes: [
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.redColor(),
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.boldSystemFontOfSize(13.0)
    ]
)

resultString.appendAttributedString(worldString)

Then you can assign it to UILabel:
UILabel().attributedText = resultString


CHICAGO — The Cubs' Saturday afternoon game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field has been postponed due to weather, the team announced.
A make-up game has been scheduled for July 6, and fans are advised to keep their tickets so they can use them at the rescheduled game.
Cubs fans hoping to score a special limited-edition bobblehead commemorating the last out of the World Series lined up in the rain before the game. The team was planning on giving them to the first 10,000 fans who entered Wrigley Field.
The bobbleheads will now be made available at that rescheduled game.


A tack coat, when sprayed onto pavement, functions as a glue to hold existing and new pavement layers so they function as a single, unified pavement for improved strength and durability. When propely bonded, the resulting pavement structure uniformly distributes traffic load stress. Without proper bonding, each pavement layer works independently, failing to distribute stress evenly, leading to cracking, rutting, slippage and other distresses that destroy road quality.
In the same way that fragile, thin veneers of wood are glued to each other to form a robust sheet of plywood, research shows layers of asphalt pavement perform better when bonded to each other.


My purpose in posting this infographic isn't to scare people out of eating food, but to inform on what ingredients to watch out for when you are at the grocery store. What also caught my eye is one of the ingredients on the list, BVO, is found in Gatorade and Powerade – the most common electrolyte replacement choice that athletes make. Yet another reason to stay away from those sugar-filled, artificially colored drinks!
One of the general rules I tell my clients is to stick with whole foods as much as possible (and when it comes to meat – organic and free-range). If you follow that rule, you will eliminate most of these toxins.
Farm-raised fish and meat from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Genetically engineered fruits and vegetables.
Bromated Vegetable Oil (BVO) – originally used as a flame retardant and found in many sodas and sports drinks.
Artificial food colors and dyes (Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 2, etc).
Potassium Bromate (typically found in bread).
Olestra/Olean (found in chips and french fries).
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) – preservatives found in some beer, cereal, butter, nuts, meat, and chewing gum.
The synthetic version of the natural bovine hormone rBGH that increases milk production in cows.
For more information on these ingredients, their health risks, and where they are banned, read below.
Infographic taken from the Food Revolution Network.


Add some fun to your celebrations with these colorful mini cupcake poppers!
We're taking a delicious frosting you are going to LOVE and sandwiching it between everyone's favorite part of a cupcake.. the cupcake tops!
frosting – our favorite recipe is HERE.
Preheat your oven to 350°. Make the cake batter according to package directions, then separate into 4 different bowls, about 1 1/4 cups batter in each.
Spoon batter into mini cupcake tins and bake for 8-10 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Let them cool completely.
Meanwhile, separate frosting into 4 small bowls, and add 5-6 drops of food coloring to each and mix well.
Pipe or spread a little color coordinated frosting onto the underside of one of the tops and then sandwich another top of the same color on top of the frosting.
These are so cute!!! Thanks for sharing on Homestead Blog Hop!
How fun! My granddaughters would love these! Thanks so much for sharing at Celebrate Your Story!
I'm in love! …and no cake pops for me because I know myself and I would just eat the bottoms as soon as I cut them in half. LOL This recipe is just too cute and so colorful. YUM!
I would totally call these colorful Whoopie Pies! If you have a "Donut Maker" pan that everyone seems to suddenly be selling, they have a whoopie/no-hole doughnut pan that would make even more without losing the bottoms.
LOVE this idea!!! Can't wait to try theses!!!


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Jordan to support King No-One at The Leadmill.
Jordan Rooker has been announced to support King No-One on their upcoming March 2018 tour at The Leadmill, Sheffield alongside Graces. Due to be a sell out show, Jordan and his band will open the night on Thursday 15th March 2018.
For tickets contact [email protected]
Or go to https://theleadmill.seetickets.com/event/king-no-one/the-leadmill-club/1178568/


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Tag Archives: Shechem
Embracing Converts, and the Seeds of Amalek
'The Meeting of Jacob and Esau' by Gustav Doré
This week's parasha is Vayishlach, which recounts Jacob's return and settlement in the Holy Land after twenty years of living in Charan. At the end of the parasha is a long list of the genealogies of Jacob's brother, Esau. The list seems unnecessary, and many Sages have wondered why the Torah bothers to spend so much time recounting Esau's descendants. There have even been debates on whether the entire text of the Torah is equally holy, or if passages like the Ten Commandments are holier than passages such as this list of Esau's genealogies. Meanwhile, the Arizal states that many of the deepest secrets of Creation are embedded particularly in this seemingly boring and superfluous passage. He draws particular significance from the list of the kings of Edom. The Arizal says these kings are codenames for the Sefirot, and a careful reading of the text reveals the cosmological rectifications (tikkunim) required to repair all of Creation and restore the world to perfection.
About half way through the list we are told that "… the sister of Lotan was Timna" (Genesis 36:22). Again, the Sages are baffled at this extra addition. We already care little enough that there was once an Edomite chief named Lotan – who cares that he had a sister named Timna? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 99b) notes how there were those who scoffed at such verses, saying: "Did Moses have nothing better to write?" And then, the same page of Talmud comes in to explain its tremendous significance:
Timna was a royal princess… Desiring to become a proselyte, she went to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they did not accept her. So she went and became a concubine to Eliphaz the son of Esau, saying, "I'd rather be a servant to this people than a mistress of another nation." From her, Amalek was descended, who afflicted Israel. Why so? Because they should not have repulsed her!
The Talmud combines the verse in question – which states that Timna was the royal sister of the chief, or prince, Lotan – with an earlier verse (36:12) that says she married Esau's son Eliphaz and bore Amalek. She wished to convert to Judaism and approached the Patriarchs. All three rebuffed her. So, she ended up with Eliphaz – the closest she could get to being part of the nation. This union gave rise to the evil Amalek, that antagonizing force which has been oppressing Israel for millennia. The Sages state that the Patriarchs should have embraced this potential convert, instead of pushing her away. Their failure to open their arms led to centuries of Jewish suffering. The Talmud sends a pretty clear message: gentiles and converts should not be turned away, and doing so only breeds more resentment against Jews, bringing out all of the world's "Amaleks".
Soulmates of Jacob and Moses
The Arizal comments on the Timna passage and points out something even more amazing. He taught (Sha'ar HaMitzvot, Shoftim) that Timna was actually the soulmate of Jacob! Timna contained a great deal of holiness, and Jacob was meant to convert her and marry her, thereby elevating her spiritual sparks. That would have been a massive tikkun of its own, and would have hastened the coming of Mashiach. Instead, Jacob rejected her, and she went on to produce Amalek, bringing evermore evil into the world, and further delaying the coming of Mashiach.
The Arizal highlights that Moses made a similar mistake in not consummating his marriage to the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman. Both Tzipporah and the Cushite woman were Moses' soulmates, and while Moses did the right thing in converting the Cushite, he never properly married her. Her sparks of holiness were not fully elevated, and the tikkun was left incomplete. This is why Aaron and Miriam were upset with their brother, as we read later in Numbers 12:1, "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married…"
Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 Students in Shechem
In this week's parasha, too, we read how the people of Shechem genuinely wished to unite with Jacob's family, agreed to circumcise themselves, and converted en masse. However, Jacob's sons Shimon and Levi rejected them and resorted to violence in avenging what was done to their sister Dinah. Jacob was horrified at the actions of his sons, and later did not bless the two on his deathbed. It appears their sin was never forgiven, as hundreds of years later the tribes of Shimon and Levi were not given set borders within the Holy Land, but only a handful of cities interspersed among the other tribes. Kabbalistic texts reveal that Shimon and Levi killed 24,000 people in Shechem, and these 24,000 converted souls later reincarnated as the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva!
All of these narratives point to the same lesson: converts should be welcomed and accepted wholeheartedly. They have the potential for great holiness. The Talmud (Bava Kamma 38a) states that a gentile who occupies himself with Torah is equal to a kohen gadol, a High Priest! The Arizal describes five types of Jewish souls, and the souls of converts are among the purest. (The other types are "Old Souls", "New Souls", "True New Souls", and the "Souls of Cain and Abel". Of these, the most impure are Old Souls.) It goes without saying that there is no place for racism of any kind within Judaism – Moses himself married a black woman, and was reprimanded for not being diligent in consummating that union.
Historically, Jews were never the proselytizing kind. There are no Jewish missionaries that go out knocking on the doors of gentiles to seek converts. At the same time, Judaism was rarely a popular religion to convert in to. But this will change very soon, and we have to be ready for that day, for the prophet Zechariah (8:23) predicted:
It shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold – from all the languages of the nations – shall take hold of the corners of a Jew's clothes, saying: "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you…"
Did You Know These Famous People Converted to Judaism?
This entry was posted in Jewish Law & Life Cycle and tagged 24000 Students, Aaron, Abraham, Amalek, Arizal, Bava Kamma, Charan, Convert, Cushite, Dinah, Edom, Esau, Ethiopia, Gentiles, High Priest, Isaac, Jacob, Kings of Edom, Levi, Lotan, Miriam, Moses, Prophecy, Rabbi Akiva, Sefirot, Shechem, Shimon (Simon), Soul, Soulmates, Tikkun, Timna, Tzipporah, Vayishlach, Zechariah on December 16, 2016 by Efraim Palvanov.
The Stones, Symbols, and Flags of the Twelve Tribes of Israel
Bamidbar is the fourth book of the Torah, and the name of its first parasha. It is known in English as "Numbers", since it begins with a detailed census of the Jewish population in the wilderness. We are given a description of how the nation was organized in their camps: the tribes of Yehuda, Issachar, and Zevulun were positioned towards the East; Reuven, Shimon, and Gad to the South; Ephraim, Menashe, and Binyamin to the West; and Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the North. The Levites and kohanim were in the centre. We are told that each of the tribes had their own flag, just as in a large military formation. What did these flags look like? Which colours did they bear, and what symbols graced them?
Modern Rendition of the Choshen, the High Priest's Breastplate
In an intriguing passage, the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:7) provides a summary of the flags' appearance. It begins by telling us that the colours of the flags corresponded to the colours of the stones that were on the Choshen (or Breastplate) of the High Priest. The High Priest was commanded to wear a special breastplate that had twelve precious stones, one for each of the twelve tribes. Each stone had a symbolic meaning unique to that particular tribe.
Reuven's was the odem, a ruby, and so his flag was red. The symbol on the flag was the duda'im, flowers that Reuven had picked for his mother Leah (Genesis 30:14). It was on account of these flowers that Leah went on to have three more children. Duda'im is often translated as "mandrakes", though according to Rashi they were of the Jasmine plant.
Shimon had the pitdah, probably topaz, and his flag was green. The symbol upon the flag was an image of the city of Shechem. This is in memory of the episode where Shimon (together with his younger brother Levi) took up swords to decimate the Shechem population after the abduction and rape of their sister Dinah (Genesis 34).
Levi's was bareket, possibly an emerald or onyx, and the flag had three bands of colours: white, black, and red. Upon the flag was an image of the Urim V'Tumim, the mystical objects kept within the High Priest's breastplate that were apparently used for communication with the Divine.
Modern-day Coat of Arms of Jerusalem, with the Lion of Judah
Yehuda had nofech, a stone more difficult to identify, with different opinions holding that it was either red, green, or blue. The Midrash here describes the flag as blue like the skies. Emblazoned upon it was the image of a lion. Before his passing, Jacob blessed each of his twelve sons, and in his blessing, he described Yehuda as a lion (Genesis 49:9). The lion would later become associated with the Davidic dynasty of kings (which hails from the tribe of Yehuda), and with the seat of their throne in Jerusalem, a city that goes by a number of names, including Ariel ("God's lion").
Issachar's was a sapphire (or lapis lazuli) stone, and his flag was of a very dark blue colour. Upon it was the image of the sun and moon. The Midrash explains why, citing I Chronicles 12:33, which describes the people of Issachar as being wise in astronomical and chronological matters.
Zevulun had a yahalom, today's Hebrew word for diamond, though there may be other possibilities. Zevulun's flag was white, and bore a depiction of a ship, again based on Jacob's blessing to the tribe to be successful sea-going merchants, and live along the Israeli coastline (Genesis 49:13).
Dan had leshem, amber, with a flag of a sapphire-like colour (despite the fact that amber is typically golden-red). Upon the flag was the symbol of a snake, once more based on Jacob's blessing (v. 17). Likewise, Gad's flag bore the image of a military camp (v. 19), on a black and white background, based on Gad's stone of shevo, a black agate or obsidian.
Amethyst, the Greek root of which is literally "not intoxicating"
Naphtali had achlamah, the purple amethyst. His flag was of a similar colour, described by the Midrash as pure wine that isn't too strong. It is interesting that the Midrash should compare it to wine, since amethyst was believed in ancient times to keep one sober and prevent drunkenness. Upon the flag was an image of a gazelle, also from Jacob's blessing (v. 21).
Asher's stone of tarshish is certainly the least identifiable of the dozen. Opinions range from chrysolite and coal to flint and hyacinth. The Midrash doesn't help in clarifying the matter, describing the flag as similar to the colour of an expensive jewel stone worn by women. Whatever the case, the image upon the flag was that of an olive tree, since Jacob blessed Asher with fatty riches and delicacies (v. 20).
In the encampment, the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe were counted separately. On the breastplate, however, they were counted as one, under the banner of their father Yosef. This is because Ephraim and Menashe were not Jacob's sons, but his grandsons, and on his deathbed, Jacob elevated their status to that of his own sons. Thus, we always maintain that there are twelve tribes: if we include the priestly Levites in the count, then Ephraim and Menashe are combined into one, Yosef, to ensure twelve. If we do not include the Levites since, after all, they are in a different class (and did not inherit any land for that matter), Ephraim and Menashe are counted independently of each other.
The stone of Yosef was shoham, which also has a number of opinions to its identity. The Midrash tells us that the flag was black, which supports the suggestion that shoham is malachite, a stone that has dark green and black colours. Ephraim's black flag had a bull depicted on it. This is drawn from Moses' final blessing to the tribes of Yosef (Deuteronomy 33:17), which the Midrash quotes. (Jacob's blessing also mentions the word for a bull, but it is translated differently there.) The Midrash also tells us that the bull represents Joshua, who was of the tribe of Ephraim.
Based on the same verse in Moses' blessing, Menashe's black flag had a re'em, a horned animal sometimes translated as a unicorn, or perhaps an ox or even a rhinoceros. Again, the Midrash points out that this represented the Biblical judge Gideon, who was of the tribe of Menashe.
Last but not least, Binyamin's flag famously depicted a wolf, based on Jacob's description (Genesis 49:27). The stone of Binyamin was the yashfe, another unidentified one. The Midrash tells us that Binyamin's flag had a mix of the colours of all the other tribal flags. This is likely due to the fact that Binyamin was the beloved little brother of the family, and all of his older siblings, though sometimes at odds with one another, always united to protect him. It is said that this is the reason why the Holy of Holies in the Temple was specifically in the territory of Binyamin (while the rest of the Temple was in the land of Yehuda), since the whole nation put aside their differences and united as one when it came to the smallest of their brothers.
This is an excerpt from Garments of Light: 70 Illuminating Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion and Holidays. Click here to get the book!
This entry was posted in Midrash and tagged Ariel, Asher, Bamidbar, Benjamin, Blessings, Census, Choshen, Chronicles, Dan, Diamond, Dinah, Duda'im, Ephraim, Flags, Gad, Genesis, Gideon, High Priest, Holy of Holies, Issachar, Jacob, Jasmine, Jerusalem, Joshua, Levi, Lion, Mandrakes, Menashe, Moses, Naphtali, Numbers, Reuben, Sapphire, Shechem, Shimon (Simon), Snake, Stones, Symbols, Temple, Twelve Tribes, Unicorn, Urim v'Tumim, Yehuda, Yosef, Zevulun on May 21, 2015 by Efraim Palvanov.


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