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Home / Tag: Sexual Revolution
Tag: Sexual Revolution
The 8 Books I Finished in August
September 8, 2022 Jeremiah
CyclesInvolutionReligionSexual Revolution
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by: Ray Dalio
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century by: Louise Perry
The War on the West by: Douglas Murray
The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: Woke, Entitled, and Drunk with Power by: Mark Bauerlein
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by: Luke Burgis
The Giver by: Lois Lowry
The End of Eternity by: Isaac Asimov
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by: Ross Douthat
At the beginning of July, in this space, I worried that with all the traveling I had coming up that I would get out of the habit of writing. I don't know that that's precisely what happened, it was more that I transitioned into a different mode of fitting in my writing, and then had difficulty, upon my return, in transitioning back. Accordingly, you have my apologies that I only got one essay out last month, and none the month before. I hope to make it up to my loyal readers at some point.
Additionally I was working on a very long book review for a magazine. (Ethics of Beauty, you may recall me mentioning it last month.) The magazine is called American Hombre, and the first issue is coming out this month. It's being done by Erik Taylor, who's a good friend of mine. You can pre-order it now. (The actual physical magazine will be available in a couple of weeks.)
I'm quite excited about it, and not just because I've got a book review in it. I miss the days of the glossy magazines with great pictures and solid content, and this is very much what American Hombre is. It's a visual magazine, and a throwback to a simpler, and dare I say, better time.
It would mean a lot to me if some of you would check it out, as in purchase a copy of the first issue or better yet subscribe.
The address do that is: https://americanhombre.gumroad.com/ and readers of my blog get a dollar off the price of an issue or 10% off the cost of a subscription, just use the coupon code 'RW'.
And seriously, go do it, you won't regret it.
I- Eschatological Reviews
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
By: Ray Dalio
Briefly, what is this book about?
Another cyclical theory of history and nations. Dalio is particularly focused on the role debt plays in that cycle. Given our own massive national debt, Dalio thinks our best days are definitely behind us.
What's the author's angle?
Dalio runs Bridgewater, an investment management firm, and his interest in history initially stemmed from a desire to not lose money. That still informs much of his analysis, but over the years it has broadened into adjacent areas like politics, war, and social unrest.
I have issues with Dalio's optimism, but if you also think America's best days are behind us, and you want to understand why, this is a fantastic book. It reads well, and some of the charts he includes would make the book worthwhile all by themselves. Also his commentary on China (Chapter 12) seems particularly perceptive.
The problem with any kind of cyclical analysis whether it be from Dalio or Turchin or Spengler is that your data set is so small. Even if we assume that cycles are a thing there haven't been very many of them. Plus it's difficult to imagine that steadily advancing technology wouldn't alter whatever pattern we did detect. But even without the advance of technology it's hard to imagine that different nations in different places wouldn't end up with different behavior. As such it's difficult to use previous cycles to predict future cycles. Nevertheless, to the extent that it is possible to work within these limitations, Dalio does so in superb fashion.
His book is built around three big forces:
Long-term debt and capital markets cycle
Internal order and disorder cycle
External order and disorder Cycle
As you might imagine from his background Dalio is the strongest and most novel when it comes to the first cycle. But he's got interesting things to say, and interesting charts, about the other two as well, which he often connects to the financial side of things. Here are a few examples:
He has a list of economic red flags which generally precede revolutions and civil wars. When over 80% of the items on the list are present then the chances of such an internal disturbance in the next 5 years are 1 in 3. When 60-80% of them are red then the chances are 1 in 6. The US is currently in the 60-80% bucket.
Similar to Taleb he points out the historical blindness of most investors. Specifically mentioning that in the 35 years before WWII "virtually all wealth was destroyed or confiscated in most countries, and in some countries many capitalists were killed or imprisoned". That was not that long ago nor were the circumstances all that different.
He spends quite a bit of time talking about the Dutch Empire of the 17th and 18th Century. As someone who spent two years in the Netherlands on a religious mission, I really appreciated these parts, but it's a fascinating story that most people are completely unfamiliar with.
As I said I really like his charts, and the charts for China are scary. Not only do all the lines go up for China, while mostly going down for the US, the steepness of those lines is also amazing. The beginning of the cycle for other nations was always pretty gradual. China's rise looks exponential.
In general the book seems like bad news for the US and good news for China. It makes the case that the US is nearing the end of the cycle and on its way down, while China is at the beginning of the cycle and on its way up. That said, the the US is still #1. The question is how long does it remain in that position and what does transitioning to #2 look like? (Assuming Dalio is correct.) Dalio seems to think that it'd be dumb to go to war over Taiwan, a place most people can't find on a map. But also acknowledges that the US can't back down either without completely losing credibility with all of our allies. We have ended up in a no win situation. So that's our position in the short term, what about the long term?
Eschatological Implications
You might think from my description of the book thus far that Dalio is a pessimist, that it's all doom and gloom. And in the short term that's a reasonably accurate description of things, but over the long run he's an optimist. While he thinks that the US is on its way down, overall he views history as moving in a corkscrew pattern. It loops up and down, but the overall slope is positive—that because of human innovation there is an arc of history and it points upward.
He also mentions that while bad periods are bad (by definition) that they're not as bad as people imagine:
What are these destruction/reconstruction periods like for the people who experience them? Since you haven't been through one of these and the stories about them are very scary, the prospect of being in one is very scary to most people. It is true that these destruction/reconstruction periods have produced tremendous human suffering both financially and, more importantly, in lost or damaged human lives. Like the coronavirus experience, what each of these destruction/reconstruction periods has meant and will mean for each person depends on each person's own experiences, with the broader deep destruction periods damaging the most people. While the consequences are worse for some people, virtually no one escapes the damage. Still, history has shown us that typically the majority of people stay employed in the depressions, are unharmed in the shooting wars, and survive the natural disasters.
As you might have noticed he labels these times as destruction/reconstruction periods. Pointing out that while bad things happen good things later emerge. This doesn't merely include times like the Great Depression it also includes all of the wars which have been fought as well.
But of course we haven't had any wars recently, and the economic troubles we've had have been pretty mild as well (largely due to government intervention). We seem to be pushing the destructive period out as far as we can, which inclines one to believe that when it finally arrives it will be particularly bad.
And this is the big problem with his rosy view of the future. He spends a lot of time considering how this cycle will be the same as past cycles but almost no time considering how it will be different. Let's review his three cycles:
1- Long-term debt and capital markets cycle:
Has any country's debt reached the size of the US's? Or been as critical to the world economy? What about the centrality of the dollar as the world's reserve currency? Or the size of US financial markets as a percentage of all economic activity? Dalio compares the ascendent US to similar periods for the Netherlands and the UK. How central do you think the guilder, and the Amsterdam stock market were to the entire world at the height of the Dutch Empire, in 1700? I'm sure they were important, but there's no way they were important on the scale of the dollar and the US financial markets in 2000. What about the UK in 1850? Here we come a little bit closer, but even so I think we're still talking about a much smaller scale, with far less interdependence. And when things did start to collapse for the UK after WWII, the US did a lot to soften things. Do you imagine China will provide the same courtesy to us when our turn arrives?
2- Internal order and disorder cycle
Not only is the US a lot bigger than the Netherlands and the UK, as I pointed out in a previous post: American problems have ended up being problems for the entire Western world. Additionally, out of all the elements Dalio discusses I feel like internal disorder is the one most subject to variation, not necessarily happening at the same point in the cycle or in the same way. Consequently it's difficult to say if the internal disorder happening in the US will end up being relatively mild or if it will devolve into full on civil war. But it already feels like it's going to be worse than what was experienced by the Dutch and English at their decline.
3- External order and disorder Cycle
This last item is where the biggest differences lie in my opinion. For one thing the last two transitions were relatively smooth—far smoother than we can expect the transition from the US to China to be. The accession of William of Orange to the throne of England created an obvious link between the UK and the Netherlands, and made it easy for the financial happenings in Amsterdam to move to London. Yes, later the two nations did fight a war, but it was so inconsequential you've probably never heard of it. As to the next transition it's hard to imagine that moving from the UK to the US could have been made any smoother. Yes, obviously the World Wars have to be included as part of that transition, but the two countries were allies for crying out loud. The wars took place because Germany was also a contender for the next great power, and in essence the UK decided it would rather pass the baton to the US than have it forcibly taken by the Germans. But this time around there isn't going to be any peaceful baton passing, it will have to be taken by force. And force has taken on an entirely new character since then. In other words we have nukes.
I think Dalio makes a pretty convincing case that the US's time in the sun is coming to an end, I am less convinced that this end will be similar to previous declines and ascents. I think the ways in which it is different and potentially worse are far greater than the ways in which it's similar.
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century
by: Louise Perry
That men and women have very different preferences when it comes to sexual behaviors, and that the sexual revolution, and sex positive feminism, rather than prioritizing the preferences of women, have instead entirely surrendered to male desires and inclinations on subjects like what sex should be like, when it should happen, what commitments it entails, etc.
Perry is heavily involved in a group over in the UK called We Can't Consent To This, which works to eliminate "rough sex" as a defense option for men who have murdered their female partners. The deaths of at least 60 UK women have been excused in this fashion, which represents the tip of the spear for problems of "consent" enabled sexual violence.
I really enjoyed this book. But if you're familiar with my biases that should hardly be surprising. Still if you're someone who's had doubts about whether "consent" can act as the entire foundation for which sex is good and which sex is bad, then you should definitely read this book.
For those of you who caught my last post, you might remember that I mentioned this book in conjunction with previous taboos against premarital sex. Obviously I was referencing her in support of a fairly conservative position, and lest you mistake my position for her position she does state, fairly early on in the book, that:
…although I am writing against a conservative narrative of the post-1960s era, and in particular those conservatives who are silly enough to think that returning to the 1950s is either possible or desirable, I am writing in a more deliberate and focused way against a liberal narrative of sexual liberation which I think is not only wrong but also harmful.
Though lest you think I distorted her position, this is what she had to say about marriage:
The task for practically minded feminists, then, is to deter men from cad mode. Our current sexual culture does not do that, but it could. In order to change the incentive structure, we would need a technology that discourages short-termism in male sexual behaviour, protects the economic interests of mothers, and creates a stable environment for the raising of children. And we do already have such a technology, even if it is old, clunky and prone to periodic failure. It's called monogamous marriage.
I couldn't have said it better myself, but what is this idea of "cad mode"?
Perry says that men have two modes: cad mode and dad mode. Now of course this is a continuum, not every man is either a perfect dad or a perfect cad. And more importantly incentives can change someone into more of a dad or more of a cad. There are still men that will respond to their partner's pregnancy by dispensing with all of their caddishness and fully becoming a dad. But of course there are also men who, in a previous age, would have married their partner and become dad's who now, because of modern incentives, abandon her and move on.
While Perry's book ends with a full throated defense of monogamous marriage, the bulk of the book is taken up by an examination of these incentives, and how sex positive feminists have participated in enabling maximum caddishness, or as Perry puts it:
…a long, sorry history of feminists prioritising their own intellectual masturbation over their obligation to defend the interests of women and girls.
Of course what you're looking for now are specific examples. There are many. Perry covers a lot of ground and I ended up with 94 highlights. I can't possibly cover even a fraction of the excellent points she made. So I'll just focus on one extreme example: choking. Be warned this gets graphic.
Sexual liberation has advanced far enough in the decades since it began that very few things are off limits, if there's consent. One of those things that consent has made possible is sadism. (Perry has a whole section where she discusses the Marquis de Sade.) Consent is the magic spell that changes, pain, humiliation, degradation, and domination from bad things into good things. Specific examples of these "good things" include slapping women, strangling them with belts, and scarring their back with razor blades.
The most fashionable thing at the moment is strangulation, which is not only ubiquitous when it comes to pornography, but extremely common outside of it as well. Perry provides statistics showing that over half of 18-24 year old women in the UK report being strangled by their partners during sex. Many said that it was unwelcome and frightening, while others reported they had consented, and a few said they had invited it.
Herein lies the crux of the problem of consent. There's the outer circle of women who consented to sex, but once it's going on it was impractical to try to consent to everything that happened. Then there's a smaller circle of women who did consent, but once again consent in the moment when things are already moving quickly is different from fully informed consent without any expectations or pressure. And then there's finally the smallest circle which is women who invited it.
Even if we take this smallest circle at their word, and assume they really enjoy it, they seem to be enabling the strangulation of all the people who don't really enjoy it and the people who think it's frightening. To put it another way, in order to make it available to the 5% of women who really enjoy it, do we inevitably end up with it happening as well to another 45% who have to suffer through it?
And is it actually 5%? Could it be 1%? Could it actually be 0%? If we assume that women enjoy this sort of thing then one would imagine that they would enjoy it even with no man present, and yet, as Perry reports:
But a fetish for strangling oneself is vanishingly rare among women, so much so that I have not been able to find a single case in the UK of a woman accidentally killing herself during an auto-erotic asphyxiation attempt gone wrong, with the notable exception of 21-year-old Hope Barden, who died in 2019, having been paid to hang herself on webcam by Jerome Danger, a sexual sadist obsessed with extreme porn.
So how many women are really, truly consenting to this inherently dangerous practice? (Perry includes studies that say that there is no safe amount of strangulation.) On top of all the foregoing the bit about truly consenting is troublesome as well. Perry provides plenty of examples of porn stars who, while deep in the business, will go on and on about how they not only consent to everything, but that it's an expression of their deepest desires. Only to later, once they're out, vociferously claim that it was horrible, degrading, and except for the fact that they needed the money they wouldn't have consented to any of it.
On that note we'll wrap up with a final selection from the book.
Taking a woman at her word when she says 'of course I'm consenting' is appealing because it's easy. It doesn't require us to look too closely at the reality of the porn industry or to think too deeply about the extent to which we are all – whether as a consequence of youth, or trauma, or credulousness, or some murky combination of all three – capable of hurting or even destroying ourselves. You can do terrible and lasting harm to a 'consenting adult' who is begging you for more.
And the liberal feminist appeal to consent isn't good enough. It cannot account for the ways in which the sexuality of impressionable young people can be warped by porn or other forms of cultural influence. It cannot convincingly explain why a woman who hurts herself should be understood as mentally ill, but a woman who asks her partner to hurt her is apparently exercising her sexual agency. Above all, the liberal feminist faith in consent relies on a fundamentally false premise: that who we are in the bedroom is different from who we are outside of it.
This review is already running long, so I don't want to spend too much more time on things. But as eschatology (at least in the expanded way I use the word) is all about endings, it's interesting to reflect on things that have already ended, and consider what the consequences have been.
Perry spends quite a bit of time considering the impact of the Pill, and how it ended thousands of years of sex having consequences.
In Sophocles' Antigone – a play particularly attentive to the duty and suffering of women – the chorus sing that 'nothing that is vast enters into the life of mortals without a curse.' The societal impact of the Pill was vast and, two generations on, we haven't yet fully understood both its blessing and its curse.
But the sexual revolution of the 1960s stuck, and its ideology is now the ideological sea we swim in – so normalised that we can hardly see it for what it is. It was able to persist because of the arrival, for the first time in the history of the world, of reliable contraception and, in particular, forms of contraception that women could take charge of themselves, such as the Pill, the diaphragm, and subsequent improvements on the technology, such as the intrauterine device (IUD). Thus, at the end of the 1960s, an entirely new creature arrived in the world: the apparently fertile young woman whose fertility had in fact been put on hold. She changed everything
The question this and the rest of the book raises, whether we're talking about the Pill, or the collapse of traditional marriage, or pornography, is how do we put the genie back in the bottle?
At first glance it seems impossible, and perhaps it is, but Perry suggests that it's worth a shot, and I agree. At a minimum it's worth digging into what the genie has been up to, which I think is a useful way of describing Perry's book. And as she points out, it hasn't been good.
II- Capsule Reviews
The War on the West
By: Douglas Murray
Examples of recent and extreme animosity exhibited against historical western culture.
Douglas Murray has been on this beat for awhile. The numerous accusations which have been leveled against him by his enemies are too numerous to mention here. (Check out his Wikipedia page if you're curious.) Which is to say if you're looking for a reason to dismiss him you probably won't have to look very far. I don't think it's appropriate to dismiss him, I'm just saying it's easy.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm hoping that this book will be looked back on as a chronicle of peak involution. If it truly represents the peak then perhaps you don't need to read it, but if things haven't peaked then you definitely should read it in order that you might be informed enough to play some small part in making sure that peak comes soon.
I've already spent a lot of time talking about this book in the post I just mentioned, so it's not my intent to go deeper, but I would like to relate one story. Yes, it's an anecdote, and not data, and, yes, this is a book full of anecdotes, but light on data, but there's a visceral component to this problem that can only be illustrated by looking at specific instances of cancellation/censorship/removal. With that in mind I'd like to tell you the story of Rex Whistler and the mural he painted.
Rex was enormously talented and only 21 when he was chosen to paint a gigantic mural in the refreshment room (later restaurant) of London's Tate Gallery. The job took him 18 months of exceptionally difficult labor. The mural was a fantasy piece depicting an imaginary land. Everyone loved it. George Bernard Shaw spoke at the opening. It was a triumph.
That very winter the Thames flooded and the painting was essentially destroyed to a height of eight feet above the floor. Whistler once again set to work, and repainted everything that had been destroyed, which was most of it.
Turning it over to Murray for the moment:
I have always found there to be something deeply touching about the character as well as the work of Rex Whistler. He was astoundingly talented, had more technical ability than almost anyone of his generation, and possessed an invention and ease that made everything he painted instantly recognizable. He was also loved by everyone who knew him or even just met him—men and women alike. He worked exceptionally hard at his vocation, had a number of unreciprocated passions for women from a different social class than his own, and was just beginning to master the art of oil painting when World War II broke out.
Perhaps you can guess what happened next. He immediately signed up, spent the rest of his short life in the army and died in Normandy.
For nearly 80 years no one remarked on the mural except to compliment it, but then in 2018 a single Instagram account started complaining about some parts of the mural, claiming that they were racially insensitive. Two scenes were identified, each a couple of inches high, and because of them the restaurant containing the mural has yet to reopen from the pandemic. Thankfully it looks like the mural will not be removed (at least not yet) but a new piece of art needs to be commissioned to be put next to it.
Murray describes worse crimes, but I'm not sure he described anything else that was quite so moronic.
The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: Woke, Entitled, and Drunk with Power
by: Mark Bauerlein
All the ways in which we have abjectly failed the Millenials and Gen Z.
Bauerlein is an English professor who presumably has witnessed much of what he describes first hand. This role also explains his diagnosis…
This is another in the "Everything's going to Hell" genre, and I'm not sure it has much to add to the subject. There were several points where I considered abandoning it, but I have a soft spot for people who think that reading will solve all of our problems.
In a sense Bauerlein is a disciple of Marshall McLuhan, though he never mentions him by name. His argument is that now that kids have gone from reading great works of literature to media that is shallow and superficial, that they have, themselves, become shallow and superficial. They lack the complex understanding and sympathies that people derive from great literature and are instead completely at the mercy of simplistic and memetically driven emotions. Speaking of which…
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
By: Luke Burgis
A popular, non-academic examination of the ideas of René Girard.
Apparently understanding "mimetic desire" turned Burgis' life around and saved him from unhappiness as a startup slave. Also apparently he's tight with Peter Thiel the best known disciple of Girardism.
I wasn't particularly impressed by the book. I read it for a book club, and might not have finished it otherwise. I didn't find it to be particularly revelatory, and rather than making me excited to read one of Girard's actual books (something that has been on my list for a long time) it actually made me less eager.
For me the book had two main failings:
First, the whole concept of mimetic desire seemed to be a restatement of Jeff Hawkins Memory-predicton framework. The former seems to be saying that we are constantly examining our surroundings for models of how to behave, while the latter claims that the brain largely operates by building predictive models and then testing those models via observation. There's not a lot of daylight between those two ideas. Though to the extent that Girard was first I guess he deserves some credit, but the same cannot be said for Burgis.
Second, to the extent that Girard does have a unique insight it revolves around the mechanism of scapegoating. Burgis talks about this phenomenon, but it's never clear what we're supposed to take from his discussion. Perhaps I'm being too demanding, but it seems that, at a minimum, a book like this needs to do one of three things:
Explain how the modern world is broken because modernity has perverted or ignored the principle. For example: "Nietzsche was correct, we have flipped the scapegoating mechanism on its head and brought chaos out of order, and that's why things are falling apart."
Show how the modern world is better than the past, perhaps because we have finally internalized scapegoating: "At last we have reached the full flowerings of what Christianity started two thousand years ago where we honor the scapegoat/victim rather than stone them."
Or explain how the modern world is no different than the past. "We still scapegoat, in the same fashion as our ancestors and if we understand more why they did it we can understand why we do it."
Burgis does none of these things, and as a result, while he provides some interesting ideas, he doesn't do anything to explain how those ideas should fit in with what's already going on.
All of which is to say that the book was fine, perhaps even good, but it wasn't groundbreaking.
by: Lois Lowry
Jonas, upon turning 12, is selected to take a special role in his community, one which will rip apart all his comfortable assumptions to reveal the horrible dystopia they all inhabit.
I get the impression that people younger than me probably already have read this book, probably in high school. If you have I don't know that I would recommend revisiting it, and if you haven't it's okay, but there are lots better YA books. And even YA dystopias.
There are two ways to write dystopias. The first is to imagine and present a fully realized world, where, ideally, all the parts make sense. Perhaps you're not entirely sure how we would ever get there from here, but once the society is established, it's not obviously impossible. The second way is to work in allegory. The first is common enough that I doubt you need examples, the second is rarer, and can be found most often in shorter works. TV shows like Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, or stories like Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, or The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin. I mention the latter because The Giver essentially duplicates the plot, which is not to say that Lowry is a plagiarist. I bring it up because I want to compare the allegorical approach to the fully realized approach.
If you're working in allegory you don't have to explain how the dystopia persists, you don't need to explain the mechanisms of how it works, or what the broader world is like. To compensate for these advantages there are obvious disadvantages to using allegories. They're easier to dismiss, they overlook what Hannah Arendt described as the banality of evil in favor of flashy sin.
But if you just want to pass along a moral lesson an allegory would seem to be the way to go. Unfortunately Lowry seems to want to have it both ways. She puts a lot of effort in creating a fully realized world, but then when the climax of the story arrives she largely abandons this reality in order to dispense her message. It's an okay message, but I was so distracted by the sudden ridiculousness of the world that I kind of didn't care about the message.
It is possible it's just me. I have a long standing obsession with fragility, and the world of the Giver is obviously incredibly fragile. You see no reason why the society has continued as long as it has. Jonas doesn't rebel because of some special circumstances, or some unique situation. In fact you're left with the impression that it would be almost impossible not to rebel and screw up the system if you just assume that the society is operating normally.
In other words while the ending was entirely believable, the fact that the same thing hadn't happened already a hundred times previously wasn't.
by: Isaac Asimov
The Eternals, a group of time travelers who keep bad things from happening anywhen in the universe.
Everyone, including me, should read more old science fiction. And this is a pretty good example of it.
I've never been particularly impressed with Asimov's characters, and while he might be doing a little bit better than average in this book, none of them are going to knock your socks off. Where he excels is his plots, and this is a great one. You might end up thinking it's derivative, but only because you've read and seen lots of stuff that was actually copied from this book, rather than the other way around.
III- Religious Reviews
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
by: Ross Douthat
A history of religion from the end of WWII down to the present day (or at least 2012 when the book was written).
Douthat is a devout Catholic, so he definitely has a dog in the fight.
I can't get enough of Douthat. I've never read anything of his that I didn't enjoy. I was particularly interested in how amazingly religious the country was in the immediate aftermath of the war. It's always interesting how blind we can be about even time periods relatively close to our own.
This post is already huge, and I'm hoping to publish it shortly. So I will just say that Douthat does a great job of appearing to be a disinterested observer despite being devoutly religious. As such I think his history of modern American Christianity is particularly useful and compelling, and that is the case whether or not you yourself believe.
I'm not sure if it's good or bad that five of the eight books were published this year or last. I guess as my readers you might want to know about the latest stuff. But it's also true that the "latest stuff" will be completely forgotten 10 years from now. If you like getting the lowdown on recent books, or if you have no opinion, or if you hate it, but appreciate my candor, consider donating.
Eschatologist #20: The Antifragility of Taboos
August 31, 2022 Jeremiah
AntifragilityCultureSexual RevolutionTaboos
We covered the fragility of systems and technology in the last newsletter. In this newsletter I'd like to move from the material to the ephemeral. In other words, let's talk about culture. This is a huge topic for a short newsletter, so while much of what I say can be applied to traditional culture in general, I want to focus on traditional taboos. The older and stronger and more widespread the taboo, the better.
You might imagine that since taboos are also human creations that they would suffer from the same fragility I described in my last newsletter. But there is a difference between systems which were invented and systems which have evolved. The process of evolution separates the antifragile from the fragile.
Antifragile things are made stronger by disorder, chaos and other shocks (up to a point). Fragile things are made weaker. Invented things, by nature of their novelty have not been subjected to ongoing shocks or chaos, while evolved things have undergone that evolution in the presence of and in response to such shocks and chaos.
All of this is to say that for something to become a taboo, it must have survived. It must not have broken. Which means, it's antifragile. More specifically it made the culture as a whole antifragile.
At this point some of you are saying, "Yeah, yeah. Chesterton's Fence. I get it." But I would argue that this is a stronger argument than the one Chesterton was making. Chesterton pointed out that you shouldn't remove a fence unless you understood the reason it was constructed. But this assumed that if you put in some effort, you could uncover that reason. Probably just by asking around. The fence is an invention, and it's assumed you could find the reason for its invention.
Evolutions leave fewer clues, but despite that they end up being even more important. You might be familiar with the famous example of how the preparation of manioc evolved in order to eliminate the cyanide. The indigenous people who undertook such preparations had no idea what cyanide was, nor would the connection between chronic cyanide poisoning and the processes of manioc preparation have been easy to discern. Now that we can test for cyanide the reason for the extensive preparations is obvious. But just because we can uncover the underlying reason for one taboo, doesn't mean we can uncover the underlying reason for all taboos.
To take an example that's closer to home, let's consider the longstanding and very widespread taboo against premarital sex. (Consider for a moment: Why should China and the West, historically so different in most other respects, have this exact same taboo?)
Adherence to this taboo has plummeted since the sexual revolution, and to the extent people think about why it existed in the first place they imagine that sex produces children who need to be cared for, but now that we have numerous methods of birth control we can dispense with it. They might admit that there used to be a reason for the taboo, but that technology has solved the problem—that our inventions have eliminated the need for our evolutions.
I think this is sheer hubris, and I'm not alone. In her recent book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, Louise Perry makes the case that the taboo solved numerous other problems like preventing sexual violence, which we're only now grappling with. That "hook-up culture is a terrible deal for women".
But does this mean that all traditional taboos are antifragile evolutions that should be maintained absent ironclad evidence to the contrary? And what about traditional culture more broadly?
I'm arguing that in both cases this should be the default. That we should be very careful anytime we think we've invented our way out of a problem previously solved by cultural evolution. And in particular we should never imagine that our ancestors were silly and superstitious and had no reason for a taboo. And yet both things are far too common. In so many areas we've abandoned thousands of years of wisdom because it seemed unnecessary, archaic, or just inconvenient.
This has been and will continue to be a mistake.
Some might dismiss me as an old man yelling at the clouds, but if old men have been yelling at clouds for thousands of years, I'm asking you to assume that there's a good reason for it.
I'm always on the lookout for good band names and this newsletter had a surprising number: Material to Ephemeral, Evolved Taboos, Sheer Hubris, and of course Old Men Yelling at Clouds. To those I'd like to add, Donations Encouraged.


The surrounding area is below average, but does not feel unsafe. There are fences around the yards and lots of noise like loud voices and small, barking dogs. Idlers can be seen wandering around in the middle of the day. A light rail station is only a few blocks away for convenient transportation. The outside of the building is moderately maintained and gated. Units are standard with nice faux-hardwood flooring.
733 Dixieanne Ave is located in Old North Sacramento neighborhood in the city of Sacramento, CA.
Do you want to find out more about 733 Dixieanne Ave, Sacramento, CA 95815 apartment rentals? Get all the right facts about the 733 Dixieanne Ave, Sacramento, CA 95815 apartments for rent on realtor.com®. Our property information is filled with relevant details such as apartment features, neighborhood amenities, and local services. Choose the home that is right for you by learning all about 733 Dixieanne Ave, Sacramento, CA 95815 in our listings.


The first transcontinental railroads brought fashionable easterners to the American West. In the 1880s and 1890s they traveled in sumptuous palace cars and stayed at luxury hotels. Westerners with an eye on promotion turned to what they took to be their own traditions. After 1900 a wilder West became popular; the Indian was rediscovered, and the cowboy returned to the saddle, if only during fiestas and rodeos. Increasing numbers of tourists headed for natural curiosities such as the sequoias of Yosemite and the geysers of Yellowstone. Then mass-produced automobiles and cheap air, rail, and bus fares changed the face of western tourism forever.
In Search of the Golden West offers splendid old-time photographs and descriptions of nabobs, hucksters, naturalists, dudes, realtors, and motoristsall those who sought the reality and created the myth of the Golden West.


If you love keeping up to date with the latest devices, have a passion for the mobile industry and strive to deliver the best customer experience you can and you're in the right place!
We're looking for a Sales Consultant - Mobile to join our fantastic B2B team in Manchester. You will have the opportunity to discuss our latest mobile device portfolio within our small-medium business account base, helping to deliver great service to existing customers and finding some new customers along the way too.If you have a flair for customer service, whether it's in a store, field or office environment then this could be the right role for you.
• Based in the office, you will be making outbound calls to our existing customer base to help cross-sell our current mobile propositions. This could include handset plans, SIM services and package upgrades.• Spot opportunities within our SIM services customers to up-sell to device plans.• Pro-actively engage with customers generated from our lead generation teams to ensure that all opportunities are capitalised on.• Generate high quality mobile pipeline and capture renewal dates for customers who are in still contract with different suppliers.• Develop and nurture a pipeline of mobile customers where a contract end date has been captured.• Maintain a high level of productivity to maintain your KPI's and ultimately meet and exceed all targets.• Deliver outstanding levels of customer service on every customer interaction.
So what are we looking for?• Positive can do attitude, target driven with the passion and energy to succeed who is able to work collaboratively within a team and interact with internal teams across the business.• Passionate about Mobile Devices and an ability to relay features and benefits to customers to enhance the sales process.• Experience in the mobile industry is essential. Any experience in a B2B environment in desirable.• A strong commitment to succeeding, developing relationships, delivering results to the satisfaction of the customer and yourself.• Good at handling objections and possessing the ability to show persistence and resilience.


Cleaning the Tri-County Area Since 2002!
Schwenksville, Skippack, Spring City, Trappe and others.
family owned commercial cleaning service Since 2002.
A clean office environment improves employee morale, reduces sick days and provides your clients, and customers with a professional environment in which to do business.
Everyday wear and tear can leave your tile floors looking dull and worn. Stripping and waxing will extend the life of your floors, making those dull and worn floors look new again.
After the construction crew leaves, we clean all areas including rough clean to final sparkling clean and ready for occupancy.
As an additional service, we will manage and inventory your janitorial supplies and paper products.
Germ free, sanitized surrounding are necessary in any medical facility, therefore, by using only hospital grade products and vacuums with HEPA filters we can ensure you a germ free, sanitized environment.
Water can be damaging when out of control, we provide flood assessment, extraction and drying services when you need it.


Sentara Healthcare is hiring a full time Financial Plan and Report Advisor in our Corporate Office located in Norfolk, Virginia.
Assist in creating, maintaining, and improving reports for business operations and special projects to provide managers and directors with financial information to make strategic and operational decisions.
Serve as knowledge resource in financial planning and reporting systems.
Provide customer service in resolving any system issues/questions.
Provide training to financial leaders and department managers.
Maintenance of database structure and flow.
Assist in implementing and maintaining reports for the forecast and budget for the entire organization.
Assist in planning and reporting special projects/tasks all to support the overall department objectives and goals of the system.
Perform tasks and activities to support the overall integration of any newly-acquired entities.
Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance required. 3-5 years experience as a Financial Planning & Reporting Advisor or comparable position. CPA preferred. Healthcare experience is preferred.


text:
Q: Mac graphical glitch, UI replaced with gradients? I'm currently running on a Mac Mini (2014 Model) and recently although rare I have been experiencing some strange graphical glitches, it seems to replace parts of my UI and whenever I open an application with a green and red gradient. I'm not sure if this is driver related or memory perhaps? - Regardless any help or info as to what is causing this would help!
Edit:
The resolution is 1440p (Thunderbolt -> DisplayPort Adapter) and is running on OSX 10.9.5 (Mavericks)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours Presents: Spring Upon a Crime (A Seattle Wilderness Mystery) by ML Erdahl
Spring Upon a Crime (A Seattle Wilderness Mystery)
by ML Erdahl
About Spring Upon A Crime
2nd in Series
Publisher: Wild Rose Press (January 13, 2021)
Digital ASIN: B08P87F6J1
Wilderness guide Crystal Rainey leads a group of college students to a private campground amidst the awe-inspiring Olympic Rain Forest. The excursion is ruined when the charming hostess Roxie is discovered standing over the land owner's body, murder weapon in hand.
Enlisted to investigate the crime to absolve her friend, Crystal descends on the quiet city of Forks to find loggers, developers, and eco-protesters circling the property, intent on either exploiting or protecting the bastion of old-growth forest. The list of suspects is intimidating. Can Crystal find answers in a community determined to keep her in the dark?
About ML Erdahl
Award-winning author ML Erdahl lives amidst the trees of the Pacific Northwest, where he pens humorous cozy mystery novels set in the wilderness he has spent his lifetime exploring. The only thing slowing him down is when his adorable rescue dogs, Skip and Daisy, demand to be pet and cuddled on his lap while he types. When he's not working away in front of a computer, you can find him gardening, hiking, or grumbling to his wife, Emily, about the perpetual Northwest winter rain that prevents him from going outside.
Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Goodreads Bookbub
Amazon Barnes and Noble Apple Books Kobo Google Play
Book 1 in this Series
February 22 – I'm All About Books – SPOTLIGHT
February 22 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
February 22 – Novels Alive – GUEST POST
February 23 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 23 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 23 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
February 23 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
February 24 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – GUEST POST
February 24 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW
February 24 – Laura's Interests – REVIEW
February 24 – The Ninja Librarian – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 25 – Literary Gold – REVIEW
February 25 – Mysteries with Character – REVIEW
February 25 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 26 – I Read What You Write – SPOTLIGHT
February 26 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
February 26 – Here's How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT
February 27 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, GUEST POST
February 27 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 27 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
February 28 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 28 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT
Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today!
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Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours Presents: Deadly Darkness: A World War II Mystery (Deadly Series) by Kate Parker
Deadly Darkness: A World War II Mystery (Deadly Series)
by Kate Parker
About Deadly Darkness
Historical Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Publisher: JDP Press (February 26, 2021)
Digital ASIN: B08P58VKPY
As Britain prepares for an imminent invasion, the murder of a celebrated Arctic explorer leads to the discovery of a web of Nazi spies on the south coast.
July, 1939. Newlywed Olivia Denis Redmond plans to spend a peaceful honeymoon in the country before war rips her soldier husband away. But when she finds a dead body in the midst of a blackout, Olivia is drawn into the investigation.
Since the police inspector isn't interested in clues pointing to espionage and blackmail, Olivia must unlock secrets hidden for years in this idyllic village and face the wrath of an unseen enemy.
As danger stalks her, can Olivia expose a cunning killer before she becomes the next victim?
Deadly Darkness, the sixth book in the Deadly Series, is for fans of World War II era spy thrillers and classic cozy mysteries, of intrepid lady sleuths with spunk and smarts. No explicit cursing, sex, or violence.
Start exploring this journey or mystery and intrigue today as Britain and Germany draw dangerously close to war.
About Kate Parker
Kate Parker caught the reading bug early, and the writing bug soon followed. She's always lived in a house surrounded by books and dust bunnies. After spending a dozen years in North Carolina, she moved to Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but she'd developed a love of wide rivers, warmer and wetter weather, and fast-growing greenery that sent her hurrying back to North Carolina.
Deadly Travel is the fifth book in the Deadly Series, and Kate's plan is to follow it quickly with Deadly Darkness, both set in 1939 in the days leading up to war. There are at least three more of the Deadly Series coming that will bring the beginning of the war to Olivia's doorstep. Kate reports that she is having fun creating new stories to entertain readers and chaos to challenge her characters.
Website – www.KateParkerbooks.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker/
Twitter – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker
GoodReads – www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123001.Kate_Parker
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo –
February 25 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
February 25 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
February 26 – Baroness' Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
February 26 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT
February 27 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
February 28 – I Read What You Write – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 1 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
March 1 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – SPOTLIGHT
March 2 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW, GUEST POST
March 2 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
March 3 – Novels Alive – GUEST POST
March 3 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 4 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 4 – Laura's Interests – REVIEW
March 5 – Diane Reviews Books – GUEST POST
March 5 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
March 6 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
March 6 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
Celebrate Lit Presents: Catching Hope by Kathy Cassel
Book: Catching Hope
Author: Kathy Cassel
Genre: Middle-grade fiction, action/suspense
Catching Hope—a pursuit fraught with danger.
Newly adopted Lexi Michaels is taking her first real vacation as she, twin brother Levi, adoptive brother Chad, and new cousin Jen head to Haiti where their dad, a pediatrician, will be volunteering in an island clinic. But who is the man who displays such hatred for the Michaels when they arrive at their resort? Is an attempted burglary as random as it appears? Will Jen ever accept the newcomers to the family? When the four teens set out to explore Haiti's sights and history on their own, an unexpected encounter and natural disaster plunge them into adventure and danger. With their very survival at stake, can the four teens work together or will Lexi's dream of a "forever family" end in tragedy?
Click here to get your copy!
Kathy Cassel lives in the Florida panhandle with her husband and four of their eight children, five of whom are adopted. She is a motorcycle rider, scuba diver, and loves spending time with her family. Her debut novel, Freerunner, was published by Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. in 2019.
More from Kathy
My Experience with Haiti
Prior to the 2010 catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that caused immense damage to the country of Haiti, many people would not have been able to tell you that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola just a two hour flight from Miami.
I knew where it was because our family had adopted a child from Haiti in 1997. At the time the earthquake took place, my husband and I were in the process of adopting twins from a different orphanage in Port au Prince Haiti. It had been over three years and our adoption was not yet complete. During those three years I visited the twins at the orphanage five times. Other family members went with me on some of those trips, and at one point, all of our children still living at home went to visit the orphanage.
This was an eye opening experience for my family. In fact, I volunteered us to do the daily wash. That meant hand washing clothes and sheets for 135 orphans using large metal tubs and harsh soap, then rinsing the clothes in other tubs before hand wringing them and hanging them on clotheslines. Once home, my children no longer complained about unloading the dryer!
Cooking was done in large pots over open fires and mainly consisted of rice and beans, or red sauce over rice. The cooks originally prepared the food in a wooden shack, but more than once one of them would get so hot she'd pass out, so an outdoor area was set up for food preparation.
After the earthquake, there was a mountain of paperwork to be done to get refugee status for children in the orphanages who had families waiting for them. Finally the children were brought to the United States, although some of the orphans went to other countries too, to be united with their forever families. Sadly, many were held in the airport for days before being released. For our family, the long wait was over January 25, 2010. Now our family is complete with three birth children and five adopted children, three of whom are from Haiti.
Some of the places mentioned in the book resemble real places in Haiti, although they have been fictionalized. I hope you will not only read Catching Hope, but will also take time to learn more about the country of Haiti.
Blog Stops
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, February 25
Ashley's Clean Book Reviews, February 26
Debbie's Dusty Deliberations, February 27
For the Love of Literature, February 28 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, March 1
Inklings and notions, March 2
For Him and My Family, March 3
Wishful Endings, March 4 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, March 4
Locks, Hooks and Books, March 5
Library Lady's Kid Lit, March 6
Artistic Nobody, March 7 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 8
deb's Book Review, March 9
Simple Harvest Reads, March 10 (Author Interview)
Lots of Helpers, March 10
To celebrate her tour, Kathy is giving away the grand prize of a $40 Books-A-Million Gift Card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/1089e/catching-hope-celebration-tour-giveaway
Celebrate Lit Presents: Lady Wynwood's Spies 1: Archer by Camille Elliot
Book: Lady Wynwood's Spies 1: Archer
Author: Camille Elliot
Genre: Christian Historical Romantic Suspense
A Christian Regency Romantic Adventure serial novel with a supernatural twist
Lady Wynwood's Spies volume 1
She met him again by shooting him.
Part one in a Christian Regency Romantic Adventure epic serial novel with a supernatural twist. After four seasons and unmarried because she is taller than most of her dance partners, Miss Phoebe Sauber receives the shocking news that she is being callously banished from her father's estate because he is remarrying. Feeling betrayed by her father and by God, and wanting to escape her family's presence, she attends an archery tournament with her friends.
But her perfect aim fails her, and her arrow hits a piece of paper held by Mr. Michael Coulton-Jones, whom she hasn't seen much in society in several years. But strangely, her arrow tears a section of the paper with a partial symbol that looks eerily familiar to her.
He met her again while searching for a killer.
Michael had quit his work as a spy for the Foreign Office when his brother was poisoned. His search for the murderer leads him to Apothecary Jack, a criminal underworld leader with a penchant for poisons, who is gathering a powerful army through an alchemical potion that can give men supernatural strength.
But his path unexpectedly crosses again with Miss Sauber, who saves him from a trap laid by Jack. She and her Aunt Laura, Lady Wynwood, have found a vital connection to Apothecary Jack and the mysterious group he works for.
Now Michael, who had vowed to never again allow civilians to come to harm, must work with a nobleman keeping dangerous secrets, a human lie detector, a chemist, a fellow former spy, and the one woman he's never allowed himself to get close to.
And it is only this ragtag group that stands against a traitorous organization that could enable Napoleon to conquer the world.
Camy writes Christian contemporary romance and romantic suspense as Camy Tang and Regency romance as USA Today bestselling author Camille Elliot. She lives in San Jose, California, with her engineer husband and rambunctious dog. She was a staff worker for her church youth group for over 20 years and she currently plays on one of the Sunday worship teams. Visit her websites at http://www.camytang.com/ and http://www.camilleelliot.com/ to read free short stories and subscribe to her quarterly newsletter.
More from Camy
I love Regency romances! I started reading them when I was 13 years old and haven't stopped since.
There's something about the Regency time period and culture that's glamorous and decadent and the epitome of elegance. The resplendent dresses! The brooding, romantic Lord Byron and the distinguished Beau Brummell! Dashing naval captains and army lieutenants, glittering ballrooms and winsome debutantes!
The flip side of my personality loves romantic suspense and action adventure. I love seeing strong women face danger with courage and smarts, and strong men willing to do anything to protect their loved ones and fight for justice.
So, basically, the Lady Wynwood's Spies series grew out of my desire to see Mission: Impossible in the Regency era!
My Regency "IMF" team is brought together when my spinster heroine, a botanist and a skilled archer, discovers that her late uncle had ties to a mysterious group. She goes to her aunt's best friend, a gentleman who has secretly been a spy for decades, and he forms his team of ex-agents and uniquely gifted civilians to battle this group of alchemists who want to ensure that Napoleon wins the war with England. (Cue the Mission: Impossible theme music!)
I've also structured the series a little differently. It's a very long serial novel, similar to a Japanese manga or light novel series, with 12 volumes that each have a completed story arc, but the main plot isn't resolved until the end.
I hope you'll join me on this epic Regency romantic adventure!
Locks, Hooks and Books, February 15
CarpeDiem, February 15
Hebrews 12 Endurance, February 16
Artistic Nobody, February 17 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)
Inside the Wong Mind, February 17
Through the Fire Blogs, February 18
Mia Reads, February 18
Sara Jane Jacobs, February 18
HookMeInABook, February 19
Betti Mace, February 20
Inklings and notions, February 20
Abba's Prayer Warrior Princess, February 21
Texas Book-aholic, February 21
Connie's History Classroom, February 22
The Artist Librarian, February 22
Pause for Tales, February 22
For Him and My Family, February 23
Labor Not in Vain, February 23
deb's Book Review, February 24
Fiction Book Lover, February 24 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, February 25
Just Your Average reviews, February 25
Simple Harvest Reads, February 25 (Guest Review from Mindy Houng)
Tell Tale Book Reviews, February 26
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, February 26
Blossoms and Blessings, February 27
Britt Reads Fiction, February 27
Adventures of a Travelers Wife, February 28
A Good Book and Cup of Tea, February 28
Blogging With Carol, February 28
To celebrate her tour, Camy is giving away the grand prize of a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited!!
https://promosimple.com/ps/1074a/lady-wynwood-s-spies-1-archer-celebration-tour-giveaway
Celebrate Lit Presents: The Lady in Residence by Allison Pittman
Book: The Lady in Residence
Author: Allison Pittman
Genre: Christian Historical
Release date: February 2021
Can a Legacy of Sadness be Broken at the Menger Hotel?
Visit historic American landmarks through the Doors to the Past series. History and today collide in stories full of mystery, intrigue, faith, and romance.
Young widow Hedda Krause checks into the Menger Hotel in 1915 with a trunk full of dresses, a case full of jewels, and enough cash to pay for a two-month stay, which she hopes will be long enough to meet, charm, and attach herself to a new, rich husband. Her plans are derailed when a ghostly apparition lures her into a long, dark hallway, and Hedda returns to her room to find her precious jewelry has been stolen. She falls immediately under a cloud of suspicion with her haunting tale, but true ghost enthusiasts bring her expensive pieces of jewelry in an attempt to lure the ghost to appear again.
In 2017, Dini Blackstone is a fifth-generation magician, who performs at private parties, but she also gives ghost walk tours, narrating the more tragic historical events of San Antonio with familial affection. Above all, her favorite is the tale of Hedda Krause who, in Dini's estimation, succeeded in perpetrating the world's longest con, dying old and wealthy from her ghost story. But then Dini meets Quinn Carmichael, great-great-grandson of the detective who originally investigated Hedda's case, who's come to the Alamo City with a box full of clues that might lead to Hedda's exoneration. Can Dini see another side of the story that is worthy of God's grace?
Allison Pittman is the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed novels and a four-time Christy finalist—twice for her Sister Wife series, once for All for a Story from her take on the Roaring Twenties and most recently for the critically acclaimed The Seamstress which takes a cameo character from the Dickens' classic A Tale of Two Cities and flourishes her to life amidst the French Revolution. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, blissfully sharing an empty nest with her husband, Mike. Connect with her on Facebook (Allison Pittman Author), Twitter (@allisonkpittman) or her website, allisonkpittman.com.
More from Allison
From Haunting to Healing: How Stories Bring New Life to Old Ghosts
If you really think about it, every story is a ghost story. Not the floating spirits of the dearly departed kind, not bumps in the night or mysterious howling in the darkness—but the best stories come from examining a haunted heart. Memories that pursue the present.
A few years ago I took the walking tour of haunted San Antonio. It was a lark, a fun tourist-y thing to do with some visiting friends. I'm not a believer in ghosts, but I am a collector of stories. The tour opens at the Alamo—sacred ground of slain soldiers. The second stop is the Menger Hotel, listed as one of the most haunted hotels in the United States by those who measure and evaluate such things. And while the tour guide waxed on about the guests' litany of haunted experiences (including Teddy Roosevelt raging through the lobby), my mind stuck with the story of Sallie White. Sallie White is the Menger Hotel's most famous ghost—a chambermaid whose apparition is reported to be seen walking the halls, towels draped over her arm, or to be heard as an efficient two-rap knock on your door late at night. My mind, however, didn't dwell on Sallie the ghost, but Sallie the woman—just a normal, hard-working, poor woman, murdered in the street by a man who claimed to love her. But for that, she would have passed into history unknown. Instead, her story is told every night as strangers gather on the very sidewalk where the crime took place.
Years after first hearing the story of Sallie white, I stayed in the Menger for a few days to gather details for The Lady in Residence. I booked what they call a "Petite" room—meaning it is a room that maintains its original structure. Read: tiny. Exposed pipes, creaky wooden floors, antique furniture—the only update, the bathroom fixtures. As it turned out, my room was directly above the place where Sallie White was murdered. One night I pressed my ear against the glass and listened to the ghost tour guide tell her story. The next morning, I stood in the exact spot with a fancy Starbucks drink, thinking about her. She lives on, not because people claim to see her walking and hear her knocking in the dead of night, but because she is a woman remembered.
So, is that beautiful? Is it ghoulish? Maybe it's both, but when I was given the chance to write a story set in and around the Menger Hotel, I was determined to make Sallie White's story a part of it. I didn't want to write her story—that would have required embellishment beyond those few historic, factual tid-bits that such a woman left behind. Sallie White didn't have correspondence to catalog or a journal to give us insight to her thoughts. Instead, I wanted to tell it to readers everywhere who might never make it to San Antonio to hear it for themselves. When you read The Lady in Residence, you are going to hear the true story of Sallie White, all of it taken from a newspaper account of the time. And then, I did what all historical writers do…I folded it into my own tale and folded that tale into another.
That's really the joy of writing a split-time novel—being able to draw back and shoot a narrative-arrow straight through the hearts of two stories, threading them together, to bring a haunting to a place of healing.
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, February 23
Fiction Aficionado, February 24
For the Love of Literature, February 24
Where Faith and Books Meet, February 24
Mia Reads Blog, February 25
Inspiration Clothesline, February 26
Books I've Read, February 27
Remembrancy, March 1
Bigreadersite, March 1
Hallie Reads, March 2
Blogging With Carol, March 3
By The Book, March 4
Debbie's Dusty Deliberations, March 4
The Write Escape, March 5
Life of Literature, March 6
Godly Book Reviews, March 7
Vicky Sluiter, March 7
To Everything There is A Season, March 8
Pause for Tales, March 8
To celebrate her tour, Allison is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of The Lady in Residence!!
https://promosimple.com/ps/1086e/the-lady-in-residence-celebration-tour-giveaway
Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours Presents: A Side of Murder (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery) by Amy Pershing
A Side of Murder (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery)
by Amy Pershing
About A Side of Murder
Publisher: Berkley (February 23, 2021)
Digital ASIN: B087PL9HHF
Beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is known for seafood, sand, surf, and, now…murder.
Samantha Barnes was always a foodie. And when the CIA (that's the Culinary Institute of America) came calling, she happily traded in Cape Cod for the Big Apple. But then the rising young chef's clash with another chef (her ex!) boils over and goes viral. So when Sam inherits a house on the Cape and lands a job writing restaurant reviews, it seems like the perfect pairing. What could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, a lot.
The dilapidated house comes with an enormous puppy. Her new boss is, well, bossy. And the town's harbor master is none other than her first love. Nonetheless, Sam's looking forward to reviewing the Bayview Grill—and indeed the seafood chowder is divine. But the body in the pond outside the eatery was not on the menu. Sam is certain this is murder. But as she begins to stir the pot, is she creating a recipe for her own untimely demise?
About Amy Pershing
Amy Pershing is a lifelong mystery lover and wordsmith who spent every summer of her childhood on Cape Cod. In her previous incarnations she was an assistant editor at Viking Penguin, a restaurant reviewer for Playbill magazine's Restaurant Reporter, and a journalist at the Rome (Italy) Daily American before eventually going on to lead employee communications at a global bank. A few years ago (with the final college tuition bill paid), she waved goodbye to Wall Street in order to write full time (and spend more time sailing on Cape Cod!). A Side of Murder is the first book in the Cape Cod Foodie mystery series featuring Samantha Barnes, a disgraced but resilient ex-chef and the world's most reluctant YouTube star. While Sam tries to balance her new job as the local paper's "Cape Cod Foodie" with her complicated love life, a posse of just-slightly-odd friends, a falling-down house and a ginormous puppy, she also discovers a new talent – a propensity for falling over dead bodies … and for solving crime.
Website: https://amypershingauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amypershingauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amypershingauthor/?hl=en
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20632873.Amy_Pershing
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Bookshop.org – Books A Million – Indiebound – Target – Hudson Booksellers – Powells
February 23 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 25 – Christy's Cozy Corners – GUEST POST
February 25 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
February 27 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW
February 28 – Literary Gold – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 28 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
March 1 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 2 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 3 – Ruff Drafts – RECIPE
March 3 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 4 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
March 5 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 6 – ebook addicts – SPOTLIGHT
March 8 – Melina's Book Blog – REVIEW
at February 24, 2021 2 comments:
Celebrate Lit Presents: Dance with Me by : A.M. Heath
Book: Dance with Me
Author: A.M. Heath
Genre: Christian Historical Romance (1960s)
Will a new partnership tear their worlds apart … or will it be the piece they never knew was missing?
In 1959, Arleen Thatcher and Neil Fox are fierce competitors on the dance floor, so they're the least likely pair to enter a televised competition together. But when rivaling studio owners decide to team up, the two find a partnership they never thought possible.
Arleen's reputation around town is reason enough for Neil to keep his distance from his new partner. But as Neil gets to know Arleen, he discovers a side of her few others have seen, one of dark family secrets and carefully-constructed facades.
God's plan for their partnership may involve more than a single dance; it may be the key to the healing Arleen so desperately needs.
The Art of Love series is compiled of stand-alone novels where the characters tell their own stories and love means so much more than passion.
Besides being an Indie Author, I'm a wife, mother of four, children's Sunday School teacher, sweet tea drinker, history fanatic, romantic, bubbly, lover of broccoli, and a retired cake decorator who has a soft spot for Christmas trees, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What I'm not is a laundress (or at least not one who keeps up very well), a duster, tall, or patient in a doctor's office.
More from A.M. Heath
Breathing Life Into A Novel
One of the common remarks I get from my readers is how they felt like they had been transported into the story. The characters felt like real people and the setting felt authentic. And that's always a blessing to hear as an author!
But the question is how do I do it?
Well, I'll let the cat out of the bag. Since I'm not big on heavy descriptions, I allow other features to weigh in and help create the setting. In a nutshell, "I'm just keeping it real" (as we used to say in the 90s). And there are 3 areas to focus in on, especially when working with a historical novel:
Common objects or daily habits
Common Objects:
It's all about those minor details. The everyday objects or habits that a character might have that will help create the setting and bring authenticity to it.
Here are a few items found in the 1950s that aren't as common today:
Two-toned painted vehicles
Phones attached to the wall, with a cord, and a rotary dial
Soda shops
Pull tab canned drinks
Clothes lines and ironing boards
I use the U.S. census to preview the top 1000 baby names in any given year starting in 1880. But I also make note when I run across a name that sounds modern but is found in a real historical document.
While I'm writing, I create a name bank so I have era approved names on hand to use for my secondary characters.
Here's a preview of a name bank for characters set in the 1950s:
Female:
Male:
Slang:
I must admit, the slang is my absolute favorite. I browse slang for each era through online searches and history books. But my favorite place to collect phrases is directly from the source. Anytime I'm watching an old movie or TV show, I jot down phrases I heard and the year it was filmed. It doesn't get anymore authentic than hearing it straight from the horse's mouth.
While I'm writing, I'll preview my list and create a smaller word bank of phrases that my characters are most likely to use, so I can remember to weave them into the story.
Here's a look at some of the fun phrases:
Say, (use at the start of your sentence)
Call dibs
Don't have a cow
Flick (movie)
Cool it
Righto
Teed off or sore (mad)
Burn rubber
Get bent
Fellas
I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek into the 1950s. Dance With Me was a real neat novel to write. It's set in 1959, so there's a strong greaser vibe throughout the story. Believe me, I was on cloud 9 the entire time.
Now it's your turn! Do you have a favorite era in history to read about?
Which one of these swell phrases will you dust off and use in normal conversation today? Lol You should definitely surprise someone with it, then tell me about it. It's a load of fun. My kids get sore at me all the time for using "lame" phrases, but I must say that they have a wide lingo vocabulary whether they wanted it or not.
Rachael's Inkwell, February 25
To celebrate her tour, A.M. is giving away the grand prize package of a multi-artist CD and a paperback copy of the book!!
https://promosimple.com/ps/10747/dance-with-me-celebration-tour-giveaway

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


#1 Get ready to move on. Make sure you're able to qualify for a new mortgage and you can afford homes in the neighborhood where you want to move.
#2 Get help if you need it. You can sell your home yourself and save money, or use a broker and save time. Honestly consider which you can most afford.
#3 Fix 'er up. Make any necessary repairs, modernize with new fixtures, and increase your curb appeal with a new coat of paint before you list.
#4 Get a pre-sell inspection. You'll save yourself surprises down the road, and your inspection report can reassure potential buyers during showings.
#5 Set the right price. Get an appraisal or conduct a CMA of similar properties in your neighborhood.
#6 Brag a little! Take the time to create a winning sell sheet that includes high-quality color photos and lists your home's best features.
#7 Get impersonal. "Undecorate" your house as needed, making it as neutral as possible to help potential buyers imagine living there.
#8 Clean up. Keep both the interior and exterior of the home well-maintained, clean and clutter free in case of drive-bys or drop-in viewings.
#9 Sit by the phone. Be as available as possible to returns calls, answer emails, show your home, answer questions, and – hopefully – receive offers.
#10 Keep your cool. Even low-ball offers are valuable for the information they provide. Stay unemotional and be willing to negotiate.


From time to time, Mathieu Stern presents us with a cool, unusual lens. This time, he found Novoflex 600mm f/8, or as he calls it: a "bazooka lens." It's not an ordinary telephoto lens, at least not when it comes to its design. It's made to look like a rifle, and it's definitely not something you'd want to shoot with in a crowded place. At least if you don't want to scare people off or have a talk with the police.
Novoflex 600mm features the f/8 aperture, with 22 blades. It was introduced in 1955 and made in Germany, and the concept was to control the focus with the pistol grip. Since it's a long lens, it was mainly used for wildlife and sports.
Mathieu found this lens disassembled in a box at a yard sale near Paris. Lucky as he is, he managed to get it for $15, while its usual price is around $500-$600 on eBay. When he assembled the lens, he ended up with a piece that almost takes the word "shooting" to its original meaning. So, as you can imagine – it would cause him trouble to use it in Paris, especially after the terrorist attacks the city went through.
So, not wanting to risk, Mathieu traveled to a peaceful city of Angers to try out his new toy. He shot people and wildlife to demonstrate the reach of the lens and its quality. He even got spotted a couple of times, and I sure hope nobody called the police. It would definitely cause an awkward situation.
Harmless until you go to the wrong place. I recall lifting my camera to take a photo in a place where photos were allowed in from of Chile's presidential palace. Guard had immediate eyes on. Had I lifted something like this there or most anywhere…….
yeah,…try using that in London !
You're dead in Cleveland OH using something like this. The president gave a pass to kill citizens. This is a weapon to them. You are a fool to use this.
The Novoflex was a great rig in years when autofocus was unheard of. A friend of mine was not happy with the quality of the original optical system back then and had it replaced with Leiz Telyt.
Let's play the "good idea/bad idea" game..
bad idea – taking photos with gear that will get you shot by homeland security.
This is the 280mm from Novoflex.
when i was a kid, i could swear i had a plastic camera toy similar to this. it was definitely in the shape of a rifle/bazooka. i feel like it was maybe blue or yellow. you would take the film (the kind that was in a cartridge) and snap it on the back.
sound familiar to anyone or am i totally trippin???
Watch "collateral murder" it will show you how harmless a lens looking like that can be. And with the current paranoia running through America at the moment it could get your head blown off. No thanks.


The USA Pro Move Yoga Ball is excellent for toning and strengthening your core muscle group. Half of the ball benefits from a bumped surface which helps tackle and alleviate muscle pains. The ball is finished off with USA Pro branding.


Superdry women's Snow Cat Ski Down jacket. Be stylish on the slopes in the Snow Cat Ski Down jacket, featuring a 90/10 premium duck down filling with very high fill power rating for ultimate comfort, a single layer zip fastening and detachable faux fur trim on the hood, which can cleverly concealed when not in use. This jacket also features two zip fastened front pockets, a ski pass holder on one sleeve and one inside pocket for added practicality. The Snow Cat Ski Down jacket has also been designed with wrist gaiters and a snow skirt help to keep the snow out, meaning you can stay warm and comfortable as you ski. The jacket is completed with a Superdry Snow badge on one sleeve.


Positives: Excellent production in last three years at Mississippi State (251 tackles, eight sacks), showed improvement each season in school… Has a good mix of size and speed, bulk is above-average… Has good quickness in most facets of the game, is able to run with most tight ends in coverage, has the ability to get to the quarterback when asked to blitz… Plays with a lot of passion and desire, has a mean streak and the ability to make a big hit… Stacks and sheds pretty well when taking on blockers, uses big frame to his advantage… Is a good athlete for his size… Is a pretty good wrap-up tackler, does not miss a lot of tackles near the line, although open-field tackling could be a little better… Durability is not an issue, has not missed time due to injury… Good in play pursuit, has a solid motor and enough speed to get back into the play.
Negatives: Takes some poor angles when tackling and blitzing, can be somewhat out of control when closing in on a target… Can get a little high at times, has a tall frame and needs to lower pad level when tackling and taking on blockers… Not great against the misdirection game, instincts are average and change-of-direction skills could be better, will get out of position too regularly… Needs to be more fluid when scraping through traffic… Will not be relied on much in the pass coverage game, is adequate in coverage, but will be utilized as more of a pass rusher on third downs.
Wright was a three-year stater at Mississippi State and a consistent leader of the defense. He finished second on the team in tackles each of the last two seasons, making 47 solo and 98 total in 2010. Wright also was third on the team with eight tackles for loss, second with three sacks, second with nine passes defensed, second with nine pass breakups, second with four quarterback hurries, and he also recorded a sack and a fumble recovery.
Standing at 6'3" and 246 pounds, Wright boasts an impressive combination of size and speed, as he has been clocked as fast a 4.59 in the 40-yard dash. His pass-coverage skills are beyond stellar for a linebacker. He also has some of the longest arms at his position, and his wing-span helps him both against the pass and in making tackles. Wright is also more than capable of getting to the quarterback and he will have to do that especially in third-down situations. However, Wright must improve his fundamentals–especially in the tackling department–in order to become a star at the next level. Look for him to go off the board during the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft.
KJ Wright is a mid round outside linebacker prospect. You can argue the biggest need for the Giants is a strongside linebacker. Outside of Akeem Ayers (who we're not big fans of), there are no real high end strongside backers. Have to look in middle rounds. That's where KJ Wright fits in. Really productive. Good in coverage. Can blitz. Versatile. Is he a starter year one? I don't know. Not out of the gate. Down the line, mid season, maybe. He's definitely talented, and I think a bit underrated. You could do a lot worse. The question is, do the Giants want a guy who can step right in or someone who needs a little seasoning. My guess would be the former, but if Ayers is gone, you're going to have to go with the latter (not to mention free agency, which, as we know, could be completely crazy with the CBA mess). Still, Wright has potential, and in the 4th round, could be a steal. Potential starter in the 4th round is nice. We approve.
I like KJ Wright, he is very underrated right now, from what I read, his weaknesses seems that they can be fixed with coaching, and the intangibles, he has already (instincts, mean streak, ability to cover is a plus).
Although one report says he has trouble shedding blocks, and the other says he is good at shedding blocks, Wish i had more video on him.
And lets face it, the SAM LB is not really a glory position, its not Middle, so maybe it makes more sense putting a guy in there that's gonna be good for years, who doesn't have to be a high round pick.
It would just be nice having our LB's be on the field for all 3 downs, and not having to put a safety as LBer.


Buy LGBT Pride Gear from the USA - Adidas, Nike, Converse, Levi's and More!
June is LGBT Pride month, and in celebration of the LGBT community and its history, several brands have been rolling out collections of LGBT Pride Gear. So, whether you're in the market for something to wear to Pride or just looking to show your support to the LGBT community, check out these lines of LGBT Pride Gear from some awesome brands.
Nike is offering some really cool products for Pride month, including several pairs of their running shoes with rainbow patterning. They're also offering men's and women's tees with colorful slogans across the front that support the cause. For LGBT Pride Gear that you can wear to the gym or out and about, check out Nike's BETRUE collection.
Also under the Nike heading is Converse, which has also produced its own line of LGBT Pride Gear. Converse is offering several tees in a variety of rainbow styles, but the shining star here is the rainbow pairs of their iconic chucks. There are several patterns to choose from to sport on your feet. Check out the Converse collection alongside the Nike collection.
Adidas has three new pairs of original men's sneakers for Pride month—including a rainbow pair of their Superstar style. Understated and functional, these shoes are great for all year long, but especially great for Pride.
Levi's has a long history of supporting the LGBT Pride movement, and this year has rolled out a huge selection of LGBT Pride Gear for the month of June. This year's collection has special focus on raising awareness of stigma, and fighting it. Levi's is offering tees, jeans, and accessories like a Pride flag pin and a rainbow bandana, and 100% of the proceeds are donated to the Harvey Milk Foundation and the Stonewall Community foundation. Check out their collection and get shopping! June may be coming to a close, but that doesn't mean that you can't sport LGBT Pride Gear all year long! Fill your cart with these Pride collections, and then come to Big Apple Buddy for your international shipping needs!


text:
Bruno Reichlin (born 10 February 1941 in Lucerne) is a Swiss architect.

Biography
Reichlin studied at the Polytechnic of Zürich.

In the 1970s he got associated with Fabio Reinhart and opened a practice in Lugano. They were strongly influenced by Italian architect Aldo Rossi.

Reichlin has been a professor of architecture at the University of Geneva since 1984.

Reference works
 Tonini House, Torricella-Taverne, Switzerland (1974)
 Sartori House, Riveo, Switzerland (1976)
 Croci House, Mendrisio, Switzerland (1979–89)
 Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, Italy (1981–90, with Aldo Rossi, Ignazio Gardella, and Angelo Sibilla)
 Factory at Coesfeld-Lette, Germany (1983-7; with Santiago Calatrava)
 Motorway hotel, Bellinzona, Switzerland (1990)

References

External links

1941 births
Living people
People from Lucerne
ETH Zurich alumni
Swiss architects
Academic staff of the University of Geneva

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Belichick, Addressing Hernandez Case, Says It's A 'Sad Day'
By PAUL DOYLE
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Four weeks after Aaron Hernandez was escorted out of his home in handcuffs, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick stood before a room full of reporters and spoke for the first time since his former player was charged with first-degree murder.
The Wednesday press briefing came two days before the start of training camp and was designed to specifically address the issue that's been hanging over the franchise for a month. Belichick read a prepared statement in which he offered sympathy to the family of murder victim Odin Lloyd and attempted to explain how the Patriots could have employed a man now accused of homicide.
Belichick took questions, but offered few insights as he insisted that he was limited by the ongoing criminal investigation. But after weeks of silence, he defended his organization and how it does business.
"I, since I got here in 2000, have always emphasized the need for our team and our players and our organization to represent the community the right way, both on and off the field," Belichick said. "And we've worked very hard together over the past 14 years to put together a winning team that's a pillar in the community. … This case involves an individual who happened to be a New England Patriot. We certainly do not condone unacceptable behavior, and this does not in any way represent the way the New England Patriots want to do things."
Hernandez, whose case was delayed until Aug. 22, happened to be in an Attleboro, Mass., courtroom as Belichick was speaking. And earlier Wednesday, Patriots defensive back Alfonzo Dennard was in a Nebraska courtroom for an arraignment on charges of violating probation relating to a DUI arrest.
Dennard will be at training camp this week. Hernandez was released within hours of his arrest.
But off-the-field behavior has drawn attention for the Patriots, whose system of evaluating players has been criticized.
"As the coach of the team, I'm primarily responsible for the people that we bring into the football operation," Belichick said. "Our players are generally highly motivated and gifted athletes. They come from very different backgrounds. They've met many challenges along the way and have done things to get here. Sometimes they've made bad or immature decisions, but we try to look at every single situation on a case-by-case basis, and try to do what's best for the football team and what's best for the franchise. Most of those decisions have worked out, but some don't."
Belichick was out of the country on vacation when Hernandez was arrested. Owner Robert Kraft spoke to select reporters earlier this month and said he was "duped" by Hernandez.
Although Belichick said in his 7-minute, 22-second opening statement that he agreed "100 percent with the comments that Robert has already made on the situation," he wouldn't respond to a question about whether he, too, felt duped.
"I'll refrain from making any more comments on any ongoing people involved in the judicial process," Belichick said.
Wearing shorts, sneakers, a Patriots pullover and with a pencil resting on his right ear, Belichick spoke with a tinge of emotion during his opening remarks. He mentioned Hernandez by name in his first sentence and it was the last time he did so.
"I'm going to address the situation involving Aaron Hernandez today," Belichick said as he began his remarks. "Felt that it was important enough to do that prior to the start of camp. It's a sad day, really a sad day on so many levels. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim. ... A young man lost his life and his family suffered a tragic loss. There's no way to understate that."
During the question-and-answer portion, Belichick continually said that the ongoing legal investigation prevented him from commenting on specifics and that he has advised his players to do the same.
"I know that there are a lot of questions — fair questions — about this subject and related subjects," Belichick said. "Not trying to make the story disappear, but I respect the judicial process. … Got a system [of] justice that deals with criminal charges and, ultimately, the judge or the jury will determine the accountability."
The Patriots' veterans report for training camp Thursday, and the team will make 2012 captains Tom Brady, Logan Mankins, Jerod Mayo, Vince Wilfork, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater available to the media. Brady was recently asked by Sports Illustrated's Peter King about the Hernandez case and he said, among other things, that he had "moved on."
Belichick echoed that sentiment when asked if the Hernandez story would be a distraction during training camp.
"It's time for the New England Patriots to move on and that's what our job is," Belichick said. "And as I said, our goal is the same: to have a winning football team, to be a pillar in the community. That's what our direction is; that's what we're going to do."
Hernandez has also been implicated in a 2012 double-homicide in Boston. He was also accused of being involved in a Florida shooting earlier this year.
Asked if the team had any idea that Hernandez was involved in those cases, Belichick simply said, "No."
Belichick was also asked if the issue of gun use among athletes was drawing added attention around the NFL. He said the topic was discussed in league meetings by both local and league security people.
"We have league security meetings every year with the NFL and I'd say that topic has been addressed as long as I've been in the league, which would be [since] 1975," Belichick said. "I think that topic has been addressed every single year."
The Patriots selected Hernandez out of Florida in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. He was considered a first-round talent whose stock slipped because of maturity and personality concerns. He also reportedly tested positive for marijuana while in college.
Belichick was asked multiple times about the team's evaluation process and whether it might change.
"The draft is nine months off," Belichick said. "We have a process in place. Can it be improved? Can it be modified? It possibly can. We're going to look at it. … Again, of the hundreds of players we've had through this program in the last 14 years, there's been a lot of good ones, a lot of real good ones, and we'll try to do a good job in bringing people into this organization in the future and try to learn from the mistakes that we've made along the way, of which there have been plenty."
Copyright © 2021, Hartford Courant


Mobile working can offer significant benefits for UK companies – allowing employees to work on a variety of web-enabled devices, from any time and any location.
But the productivity gains associated with remote working cannot be taken for granted by organsiations, as a new survey suggests.
Research conducted by social software provider harmon.ie indicates that poor access to collaboration tolls is preventing some mobile workers from getting their jobs done.
Almost nine out of ten traveling executives and managers claimed they cannot work effectively on collaborative projects while on the go.
Half said they have difficulties getting input from colleagues in a timely manner and 41 per cent reported working on potentially out-of-date documents.
Some 54 per cent of survey respondents said their personal productivity levels were affected, while 43 per cent reported missed deadlines.
"We live in an era of what we call BYOD – bring your own device – and with that comes the expectation that every important application and document will be available while walking around with an iPad or smartphone," said Yaacov Cohen, chief executive of harmon.ie.
He said that without the same information, tools and software on their mobile devices as employees have on their desktop, people may be connected but "remain involuntarily out of touch".
The message to business leaders is clear – if they want to reap the benefits of mobile working, they may have to invest in higher quality tools for their employees.
Or at the very least, they must support a full range of employee devices, even if this requires them to review security processes and other working policies.
Equipping staff with mobile technology, but not the software and applications they need to take advantage of it, makes no economic sense.
If businesses are spending on laptops, smartphones and media tablets, they may as well target the productivity gains associated with mobile working.
Otherwise it amounts to an all-expense, no-benefit scenario – which leaves the company with a hole in its IT budget and little prospect of a financial return.


text:
French Quarters
History & Ancestry
Membership & Endowments
New Exhibits
Veterans Memorial Display
Damar Community Historical Foundation
Our Ancestors were few but our Descendants are many
In August 2014, Leona Newell and her family donated the building immediately west of the Historical/Visitors Center in memory of Loren Newell. Pictured below is the Newell building which was annexed and made part of the Historical Center next door. This area has over doubled the size of the Visitors center and will allow the Foundation more room for the preservation of historical pictures and small artifacts. Many people may remember this building partially as an old post office, then later a restaurant, and was once Valda Johnson's old soda shop. In the last 30+ years, Loren used it as a shop and warehouse. Even though most of the original building was in poor condition and the west 1/2 of the original building was razed, it has now been totally remodeled and sided with a new roof.
Above pictured is the two combined buildings after completion of the new roof and siding. Pictured below is Leona Newell along with Kaylon Roberts and Jim Desbien October 25, 2014 as they celebrated the dedication of the Damar "French Quarter" Visitors Center and announcement of the gift of the building from Leona Newell to the Foundation.
Through the most generous grant of $53,500 from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, the remodeling and completion of the Newell annex has been made possible. In February 2015, the DCHF received the grant and due to the work from members and volunteers, the interior of the buildings were complete by May 23, 2015 and the exterior completed in 2016.
Pictured above left after completion of the foam insulation installed making the new addition very energy efficient. The right picture is the same wall after the knotty pine ship-lap boards were installed on the top half of the wall. The bottom portion was completed with a different product and a beautiful chair-rail will separate the two. The ceiling has been completed with a beaded ceiling board and the tile and floor covering was installed. The finished room is a beautiful place to display our history.
Below pictured is the new restroom along with a picture of the small kitchenette
The Foundation has been involved with other projects. One being what we call the Damar Sounevirs "Memories" project. This is a project where some of the CCD students from St. Joseph Church interviewed some of the elderly citizens with Damar ancestry, and wrote about the memories from their past. Paula Desbien was able to write and receive a $500 grant from the Heartland Community Foundation Action Fund for the project. The grant was used to assist some of the CCD students with the cost to attend the NCYC conference in Indianapolis in November 2015. The Memories project is an ongoing one, to encourage any descendant of Damar to write and record their biographys, memories and genealogy and will be available at the Center for all to share. If you already have histories, genealogys or albums of your families, please contact us and we would be happy to display them.
This is just an example of how our Foundation can work with other foundations, private citizens and local groups to obtain money for projects and we hope to be able to obtain other grants for worthy causes in the future.
Please call us at:785-726-3540 or fill out our contact form or email us at dchf@ruraltel.net
105 Main St Box 42
Damar, 67632
New exhibit at the French Quarters. Stop by and see a collection of handcrafted miniature canoes, sea shells and other items that Len Schamber collected while serving in the Peace Corp in the late 60's on the island of Ponape in Micronesia. Coming soon in November, miniature Christmas town exhibit by Linus and Deb Pfannenstiel
Get Social.
© Damar Community Historical Foundation