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By Guest Author on November 27, 2018
By Craig Kraft
Editing: Claudia Rousseau, Ph. D. Art History and Jayne Wise, former editor for National Geographic
Craig Kraft with San Tribesmen. Image courtesy of the artist.
As an artist I have long been fascinated by the universal human urge to connect through mark making, particularly the ancient pictographs our ancestors created in caves around the world. Eager to learn more, in the summer of 2015 I traveled to Spain and France to view the ancient markings and etchings in 11 cave sites, including the Lascaux Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I continued the following year with a hard trip to Sulawesi, Indonesia, where I saw marks dating to nearly 40,000 BC, currently considered one of the oldest marks in the world. Most recently, I traveled in October 2017 to Namibia, Africa, to explore the culture of the indigenous San tribes and examine their rock art.
To date I have visited 26 important rock art sites on three continents, which I found to be the only way to truly understand them. The markings gain their sense from the environment from which they came. They are not flat but sculptural emerging out of hollows, fissures, bulges and overall contours of the cave wall.
The San are, by most accounts, the oldest surviving indigenous group in the world—making them perhaps the people we all originated from. Descendants of our Early Stone Age ancestors, these hunter-gatherers have roamed Southern Africa for 60,000 years or more, and have created most of southern Africa's rock art. According to the acclaimed archaeologist David Lewis- Williams the San are the key to understanding the true origins of ancient rock art.
Namibia's uniqueness turns out to be threefold: the enduring presence of the San, arguably the oldest indigenous people in the world; the rock art they created; and the wild animals that inspired it. The ancient San markings were meant to signal the presence of nearby game and water to other hunter-gatherer tribes as well as to connect the San people to the spiritual world. The San still practice their ancient traditions—from hunting and gathering to trance dancing—and, I would find, were eager to share their unique history. Unfortunately, most San tribes have lost their ancestral lands by government and private takeover and are considered poachers on their own land.
Africat Foundation and Okonjima Plains Camp: Day 1
Landing in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, after a 33-hour flight from DC, Libby Harris, my travel companion and I were escorted to the Galton House by our tour company, Ultimate Safaris. Here we unwound from our flights, ate well, and prepared for our adventure. The next day we packed our luggage into a Toyota Land Cruiser manned by our very knowledgeable guide, Jimmy Gariseb, and headed for the Okonjima Plains Camp, home of the Africat Foundation. The real travel challenges out in Namibia's back country are the dirt roads: They are deeply corrugated, resulting in an extremely rough ride that transferred directly through our loosely bolted truck and into our bodies. But the rewards are real too: We would lose count of the many leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, and hyenas we spotted, some rescued, tagged, and let loose in the Africat Foundations' 200-square-kilometer (77-square-mile) private nature reserve. My heart beat fast when a leopard walked within 10 feet of our open-seat safari vehicle. Later we glimpsed a male and female leopard mating in the bush. Primal shrieking, howling, and thrashing—an eerie but realistic introduction to the wilds of Namibia.
San in preparation for trance dancing. Photo by Craig Kraft.
The San, their customs and rituals: Day 2-3
We headed to Fiume Bush camp, in the Otyozondjupa Region of Grootfontein, situated in the grasslands of the Kalahari Desert. The long entrance road was composed entirely of sand, which made the road passable only in the lowest gears. The lodging was modest but the experience profound. We watched San Bushmen make fire, craft tools and bows and arrows, practice tracking and trapping techniques, and, most importantly, perform the almost forgotten trance dance. Included in that was a local shaman.
According to acclaimed archaeologist David Lewis-Williams, the fundamental code to San rock art lies in the shaman's trance dance, and a large portion of San drawings were done by shamans inspired by that dancing. When the shaman painted a spirit animal, such as an eland, he did not just pay homage to the animal; he also harnessed its essence, called N!um. By putting paint to rock, the shaman opened portals to the spiritual world.
Happily, trance dancing is still performed, and often features a shaman surrounded by other shamans and a community of women. The rhythmic dancing, chanting, and clapping around a night camp fire creates a special, almost primal atmosphere. As our shaman approached a deep trance, he snatched a burning coal from the fire and tossed it back and forth between his hands—an action that soon seemed to bring him back to our earthly reality. We had just been privy to a ritualistic practice from long ago, a long way from home. Later, when I visited the rock-art sites of Twyfelfontein (a World Heritage Site), Small and Large Bushman's Paradise, White Lady, Golden Snake, and Paula's Cave, I realized that I was experiencing the "why" behind the rock art-making.
On our final morning at Fiume Camp I shared a delicious communal breakfast with an international group of adventurous travelers as the camp's owner, Joern Gressmann, extolled the virtues of the San culture and made a strong, heartfelt case for its preservation. His passion was exhilarating and contagious.
A zebra in Etosha National Park. Photo by Craig Kraft.
Etosha National Park: Day 4
At 8,600 square miles, Etosha is considered Namibia's greatest wildlife sanctuary. The park centers around the Etosha Pan, a large endorheic salt pan 75 miles long and half as wide that was formed by tectonic plate shifts that changed the flow of the Cunene River. It has the look of a desolate lunar landscape.
Elephant in Etosha National Park. Photo by Craig Kraft.
We arrived at Mushara Bush Camp, on the park's outskirts, after what became a half-day wildlife drive. There is but one main road and people are not allowed out of their vehicles, so animals here are accustomed to visitors. We saw large herds of elands, elephants, zebras, springboks, oryx, kudus, wildebeest, and giraffes. At times we spotted all of these species drinking from the same waterhole. We also saw hyenas, ostriches–and lions poised on a lookout for potential prey. A particular highlight was our sighting of rare white and rare black rhinos.
But perhaps my most memorable moment came when a 12-foot-tall, 13,000-pound elephant casually passed right in front of me. It was astonishing; for the first time I felt the power and the glory of Africa's wildlife, and began to understand the Sans' worship of the animals around them. The experience would inspire me to create a light-based artwork that imagines the spirit of the African Elephant, its mix of grace and power, its igniting of our senses as it reminds us of our place on the chain of life, teaching us humility. Yet to understand the San depictions of elephants I had to experience the power of that animal up close and in its natural habitat.
We spent the following morning driving through the park, many times blocked by herds of zebras, springboks, and elephants. The wildlife, complemented by the exotic African flora, lulled me into a kind of stupor; dormant feelings and sensations arose from deep within me, reminding me of our mutual past on this planet. At the same time I felt separate, a human outsider looking in on a vast animal kingdom.
On the Etosha Pan. Image courtesy of the artist.
Etosha Pan: Day 5-6
After winding our way through the park we arrived at the Etosha Pan, a 1,850-square-mile salt pan that looks like void of life but to me hummed with energy. For us, the white and greenish surface quickly became a vast playground for running and jumping, an otherworldly expanse that sparked my imagination. I soon found myself contemplating the transitional area between tangible and intangible, material and ephemeral.
Our next stop was the Okaukuejo watering hole, where hundreds of animals had gathered to drink and bathe. There may be no better place in Namibia to see a range of species at the same time. Especially captivating was a large family of 20 or more elephants playing in the water, splashing and spraying alongside their calves.
From Okaukuejo we headed to our lodge for the night, Safarihoek, a spacious, elegant safari camp nestled on a hill overlooking Etosha. That evening the local guide encouraged us to drive down to the lodge's photography blind to watch wildlife congregate at the area water hole. As we approached the blind we startled a large herd of hump-backed eland antelopes, "God's special animal," according to the San, and the most potent animal spirit of all. The herd thundered past our vehicle in a fury of movement—an awe-inspiring sight captured by our headlights.
Damaraland: Day 7
Our next base camp would be Doro Nawas, an outpost of thatched wood-and-stone cabins in Damaraland, a region 200 miles west of Etosha that abuts the arid Skeleton Coast and is characterized by majestic tabletop mountains and bizarre vegetation, including quiver and baobab trees. En route from Etosha we visited a remote Himba village, which we reached by deploying the full power of our 4-wheel-drive vehicle to climb over huge boulders. Living in such a harsh desert far from other civilizations, the indigenous Himba have retained much of their traditional lifestyle, from daily smoke baths fueled by smoldering leaves and branches of Commiphora trees to body decorations using red ochre paste. For us it proved an immersion into an ancient culture utterly removed from our own—which would be good preparation for Doro Nawas. The compound, locally owned and staffed by residents of surrounding villages, perches on a rugged, rocky hill on the edge of the Aba Haub River. The open sky above would blink alive at night with a profusion of stars and constellations, a visual symphony.
That night we were treated to a barbecue staged a mile's walk from our cabin. Under a canopy of twinkling stars, our group of 20-some guests was seated at a long table illuminated by torches, where we were served delicious African food, from grilled springbok and eland to seafood.This was followed by a moving performance by local singers. I was surprised at how much I felt at home in this desert deep in Namibia.
Rock markings at Twyfelfontein. Photo by Craig Kraft.
Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Day 7
To escape the blistering desert heat and the throngs of visitors, the next morning we were up before dawn, bouncing our way down wilderness roads to Twyfelfontein, a 6,000-year-old World Heritage rock art site. It was with great anticipation that we began our exploration of the rugged terrain, climbing, crawling, and balancing on huge boulders to get the best and most up-close views. Importantly, Jimmy, our guide, stayed close at hand to ensure our safety. Making our way along a rocky pathway, we arrived at the ancient engravings just as the first rays of sunlight touched them. The rays crawled over the boulders, spotlighting the engravings. This was by far the most expansive set of engravings I'd seen—nearly 2,500 in all. They are considered the third key to deciphering the code behind rock-art drawings.
The most interesting works were the spirit etchings, which are part animal, part human. Especially compelling was the Dancing Kudu, an engraving that depicts a pregnant kudu antelope. This is surrounded by entropic or inner-eye images. The etching is ancient but had the feeling of a message from the future, or maybe from some form of outside intelligence. Also grabbing my attention: the Lion Man, an image that combines lion-paw features with human hands, most likely a shamanistic vision merging animal with human.
This made me wonder about my own creative process, which involves imagining something from the far recesses of my mind, even out of my mind. Many times it feels that out of chaos comes clarity. The art-making process requires a leap into terra incognita—not unlike the shamans having a vision and portraying that truth.
In the next hours we saw a mix of animals, along with markers—such as the etched circle within a circle—meant to alert future hunter-gathers to what animals were in the area and where to find water. By now the heat, combined with the ancient imagery, had made me lightheaded, and we still had a treacherous climb back to our vehicle. Still, I managed to snap hundreds of photographs, my assurance that I would never forget the wonders I had just seen.
White Lady Painting. Photo by Craig Kraft.
White Lady Painting: Day 8
Our second day at Doro Nawas we visited the famous White Lady painting, a masterpiece in the Tsisab Ravine, which cuts into the Brandenburg Mountain range, home to Namibia's highest peaks. The work was named by archaeologist and ethnographer Henri Breuil, who made a connection to paintings he had seen in Greece. The title is curious: the work depicts male figures with erect penises. Located on a panel on a small rock overhang, the site required a 1 ½-hour hike that became much steeper as we ascended. Adding to the experience was our guide, who scouted ahead for a lone elephant bull that apparently had been expelled from its herd and could have been dangerous. Happily, our paths never crossed.
The White Lady drawings and paintings are spread across a huge shelter wall. Having seen photos of the artworks in my research, I was excited to examine them in person. They were beyond my wildest expectations. Dating back at least 2,000 years—and possibly up to 5,000 years—some of the images were singular and some in clusters. White shaman figures stood out, rendered in a kind of Egyptian style and holding what looked like champagne glasses. The glasses held the shaman's sweat, and blood that was thought to have magical, spiritual powers. The figures held antelope fly whisks, knee and arm straps, and dancing rattles—indications that they are pictured during a ritual. These paintings are most likely done by the hoise Sans tribe as well as other Sans tribes. They still showed great detail and color despite millennia of exposure to the elements. The usual cast of wild Namibian animals were portrayed with paints fashioned with red ochre, manganese, iron oxides, charcoal, and a white made from ostrich-egg whites, plant material, and nearby minerals. Figures were rendered with precision and sharp edges. The inclusion of both thin and full figures suggested that more than one tribe made the images. Some images, called therianthropes and inspired by trances, were part animal and part human, including an antelope with a human leg. These were trance inspired images induced by chanting, dancing and clapping mixed with dehydration and exhaustion. The artists were trying to connect to the spiritual world of their ancestors and beyond.
Golden Snake Cave. Photo by Craig Kraft.
Bushman's Paradise, small Bushman's Paradise and Golden Snake Cave: Day 9
We stayed at the Spitzkoppen Lodge, where bouldered mountains meet the desert. The lodge is on the northern periphery of the Spitzkoope inselberg ("island mountain"), between huge granite boulders formed more than 150,000 years ago. Breathtaking views of the Brandberg and Erongo mountains revealed sunrise colors that blended subtle shades of oranges, violets, and ambers, conveying a sense of tranquility and harmony.
At Spitzkoppen the temperatures dropped a frightening 40 degrees between midday and midnight. I would sleep fully clothed and with three blankets pulled over my head—and still shivered all night.
We rose the following morning at dawn to arrive at the entrance to Bushman's Paradise, site of more rock art, before the government guides and their groups of visitors. This would prove to be the most difficult climb of my trip, a trek along a 60% incline on a smooth and textured surface. Luckily there was a chain rail to aid my ascent, but with my arthritis I was pushed to the limit. About halfway up I found myself wondering why I was risking my life for a view of San rock art. I considered turning back, but, having come so far, I pushed ahead and gave it my best. It was a decision I would not regret.
Craig Kraft at Busman's Paradise. Image courtesy of the artist.
The first cave, Bushman's Paradise revealed depictions of myriad animals, including a strikingly sculptural bent-horn antelope. Our guide discovered pigments of red and yellow ochre near the paintings, and gave me samples to use in my art making. At Small Bushman's Paradise cave my eyes focused on a richly colored rhinoceros drawn with red iron oxides, and thinly drawn animals with human heads. Also here was a set of figures pairing human heads with animal legs—more trance-induced drawings. Our last stop was Golden Snake Cave. Upon making our way through a narrow opening, we were rewarded with the sight of a large drawing showing a startled shaman confronted by a long, segmented white snake.
Paula's Cave and the Thin Men. Photo by Craig Kraft.
Erongo Mountains and Paula's Cave: Day 10
We departed Spitzkoppen Lodge–a place, like so many in Namibia, where I could have stayed for weeks–for the Erongo Wilderness Conservancy and Lodge, a complex of luxurious tented accommodations that nestles in granite formations near an ancient volcano. The Erongo Mountains form a rare confluence of ecosystems that fosters a remarkable biodiversity of species endemic to Namibia. Late in the afternoon we took a guided safari through rugged terrain to Paula's Cave, which perches high above the valley below. The climb up was moderately steep over dirt pathways and large boulders. The final stretch involved traversing a 20-foot face of a massive boulder without the help of handrails, ropes, or chains. Stepping carefully, we arrived at the cave's wide-mouthed entrance. Inside, drawings and paintings featured a row of tall thin men holding hands, a large group of athletic-looking humans in dancing poses, along with antelopes rendered in red iron oxide.
Our trip back to the lodge delivered expansive views of a flaring sunset over the Erongo Mountains, with silhouettes of angled trees and bushes below. We were treated to the most brilliant orange sun I've ever seen, surrounded by wisps of light blue and white mixed with swirls of yellow and amber clouds. It was a transformed view of the natural world like I had never seen before; it will never be forgotten.
Craig Kraft Damaged Spirit of the African Elephant. Image courtesy of the artist.
Closing thoughts- contemporary expressions of ancient art making
My final morning we returned to Windhoek and the Galton House, where my adventure began. Our guide treated us to a wonderful farewell Namibian meal, at which we reminisced about our fabulous adventure through northern Namibia and what it meant to us. What was clear: During our 12-day journey we had formed a powerful cross-cultural bond with our hosts and their remarkable homeland.
It would take most of a week to acclimate to my life back in Washington DC and several months to fully integrate my Namibian experience. Only then could I begin to answer recurring personal questions. Why go back to experience the very first marks made by homo sapiens and Neanderthals? Did the journey help me answer such questions as what drives our urge to make art? Is art decoration, communication with others, or connecting to a higher power? I had been leaning toward the latter, but now I knew it's a combination of all three motives.
Today my Namibia experience drives me to create contemporary artwork mindful of where and how art began. Exploring this historical process, I have tried to capture and depict the spirit of the African elephant, the largest of the San spirit animals, in a light blue-silvery neon sculpture of a half sized elephant head. Starting with a 3D scanned, sculpted elephant model, I created 60 cross- sections 1 inch apart allowing me to make neon tube patterns. These neon tubes were hung with translucent wires from an 11-foot-high, 8-foot-wide wall to represent the spirit of the African elephant. However, during the creative process the spirit of the African elephant evolved into the statement about the horrific poaching occurring around the world.
My very physical Namibian adventure has proved to be the inspiration for my light based sculptures. Other light sculptures inspired by ancient rock-art symbols found in Spain, France, and Sulawesi, Indonesia–has culminated in one-person exhibitions at the Cafritz Art Center, Silver Spring, MD (October 2018) and will be followed by a retrospective at the Susan Calloway Gallery in Georgetown December, 2018.
Acknowledgements: Travel Companion and Patron: Libby Harris
Authored by: Guest Author
2018 Spring Open Studios: Shahla Arbabi at EZ Storage Studio #313


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Journalist ID: 1842
Hormuz Peace Endeveour (HOPE)
Abbas Mousavi
Levinson has no judicial records in Iran: FM Spox
Tehran, Nov 10,, IRNA – Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the US national Robert Levinson has no judicial records in Iran and Tehran is following his case just out of humanitarian motivations.
Mousavi made the remarks in his weekly press briefing here on Sunday.
He further rejected certain rumors that Lewinson has a case in Iran's Revolutionary Courts and stressed that he has no judicial or criminal cases any of Iranian courts.
Mousavi said Iran has opened a file for Lewinson just out of humanitarian concern as a case of disappearance.
The spokesperson said Iran is following Lewinson's case as a gesture of good-will after it received requests to do so.
However, he went to underline, Iran has no information about his destiny.
Mousavi stressed that Iran will spare no efforts in this regard.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Mousavi expressed satisfaction with the scale of the positive feedback from the neighboring states especially from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia about the Iranian President's initiative of Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE).
Asked to elaborate on the responses Iran got from the neighboring states, he said that it is early to go to details, hoping that the well-wishing step of Iran to be welcomed by the countries of the region to reinforce peace and security in the region.
Regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Mousavi said that Iran gave enough time to diplomacy and, in March, decided to reduce to commitments, as stipulated in the deal.
He added Iran decided to reduce commitments step by step in order to stay in the deal and abide by its commitments, tough it could stop them when it decides to do so.
Mousavi said that taking the fourth step of reducing commitment shows that Iran is serious and will not compromise on the national interests.
He said that Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif will make a trip to Kazakhstan on Monday.
"The doors for diplomacy are still open, but Iran doesn't rely on and wait for anyone."
He said that the Europeans cannot activate the snapback mechanism. If they want to do so, Iran has a great variety of options, which will be used according to new circumstances.
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Where is the best place to put static string I'm making web project with c# mvc.
I have to make static strings (About 10 strings). These strings are used as business code in controller, so I think it can't be resources (like resx).
I thought of 2 ways:
First. create static class including static strings
public static class CodeGenerationKind
{
    public const string Collaboration = "Collaboration";

    public const string Documentation = "Documentation";

    public const string DocumentationFolder = "DocumentationFolder";

    public const string Instruction = "Instruction";
}

Second. put strings on config file
<add key="Collaboration" value="Collaboration"/>
<add key="Documentation" value="Documentation"/>
<add key="DocumentationFolder" value="DocumentationFolder"/>
<add key="Instruction" value="Instruction"/>

which one is better? If first is better, where do I put this class?
or Is there a better way?
Here is my project structure:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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HomeMoviesWhy Linda Hamilton Thinks Children Of The Corn Is Her Worst Movie
Why Linda Hamilton Thinks Children Of The Corn Is Her Worst Movie
While the original Children Of The Corn has become something of a cult favorite, Linda Hamilton feels it's her worst movie. Following the success of 1976's Carrie, it didn't take movie studios long to realize there was gold to be mined from adapting Stephen King's work. The 1980s was a real mixed bag in this regard, featuring highlights like Stanley Kubrick's masterwork The Shining or The Dead Zone, to King's own critically mauled directorial debut Maximum Overdrive. Children Of The Corn arrived in 1984 and adapted King's short story of the same name.
Children Of The Corn is set in a small Nebraska town, where the local children have murdered all the adults and formed a cult around a being dubbed "He Who Walks Behind the Rows". A couple named Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) drive through the town and soon get caught up in the madness. Children Of The Corn was met with mixed reviews upon release, though a fanbase has developed around it. While it suffers from bad special effects and sluggish pacing, it does have its good points, including the eerie performance of John Franklin as cult leader Isaac.
Related: Terminator 7 Should Bring Back Linda Hamilton's Sarah (& Kill Her Off)
Children Of The Corn was a solid success in 1984, which was also the year The Terminator was released. These movies set Linda Hamilton's career off to a strong start, but reflecting on the film years later, she revealed she really wasn't a fan of Children Of The Corn. In a 1992 interview with genre magazine Starburst Magazine (via The Terminator Files), Hamilton spoke with interviewer Alan Jones about Terminator 2. When listing some of her past disappointments, she stated this about the Stephen King adaptation.
"Nothing has beaten 'Stephen King's Children of the Corn' yet which still haunts my past as the worst film I've made. Can you believe they're making a sequel? They didn't dare ask me to reprise that role!".
In the same interview, she also bashed 1986 sequel King Kong Lives as "...the most ridiculous movie." Hamilton doesn't do a deep dive on why she felt Children Of The Corn was her worst movie, but her response likely mirrored the critical reaction it received. In a later 2009 interview for Blu-ray featurette "It Was the Eighties!" she cited the production's constant struggles with money leading to key scenes not being filmed. One example includes the corn turning black as Vicky and Burt try to escape the fields in the finale.
Of course, Linda Hamilton dubbed Children Of The Corn her worst movie over 30 years ago, so her option may have softened over time. In the aforementioned featurette, she recalls the time she spent filming it warmly and was glad it had a fanbase. Stephen King's Children Of The Corn would become a long-running horror franchise, though after 1992's Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, every entry has gone straight to video. In a 2016 Deadline interview King himself claimed he liked the first movie, but "I could do without all of the Children of the Corn sequels."
Next: Stephen King: Why Children of the Corn's Movie Adaptation Failed


In an interview with FRANCE 24, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo reacted to the ongoing migrant crisis, in particular the exodus of young Africans to Europe. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Akufo-Addo said African nations have a "responsibility" to help create opportunities for their citizens at home.
"We have a responsibility to our young people… to create the conditions that will make sure that they see opportunity in their own countries of birth and origin," Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo told FRANCE 24's Marc Perelman.
"I don't think anybody will cross the Sahara and go to these rickety boats in the Mediterranean because they want to. They feel a certain compulsion to do so because at home, the opportunities that they're looking for are not there," he added.


Kittsee Heliport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a heliport and as such only available to approved aircraft.
Oberpullendorf Heliport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a heliport and as such only available to approved aircraft.
Pinkafeld Airport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a small airport and as such only available to approved aircraft.
Punitz-Gussing Airport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a small airport and as such only available to approved aircraft.
Schwerpunkt Heliport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a heliport and as such only available to approved aircraft.
Trausdorf Airport is located in Burgenland, Austria. It is classed as a small airport and as such only available to approved aircraft.


CNBLUE Lee Jungshin, was Shiwoo Nervously Pointing the Sword?
낭만자객 꽃시우가 독수리오형제로? ~ <칼과 꽃> 금화단 단원들의 독수리 오형제 컨셉 사진 방출!
A romantic assassin flower Shiwoo in eagles five brothers? ~<Blade and Petal> Members of a gang Keumhwa, eagles five brothers photo is released!
At 'Blade and Petal', KBS 2TV Wednesday and Thursday drama, CNBLUE Lee Jungshin is attracting attentions by having released the scene he goes in a giant vase.
In the photo released in advance for broadcast on 17th July, His acting carrying out spy mission was released. Shiwoo (Lee Jungshin) faced a crisis that he comes to light Yeongaesomoon's subordinate. But he found a vase at the moment, then he hide himself in the vase and overheard secret meeting.
Especially, Lee Jungshin with strong eyes is getting interests for slender nine heads high and as manly swordsman with flexible moving.
He was given confirming from a director soon by his manly enter water. He was valued high by staffs because he finished shooting without losing smile for all he kept hard situation hiding himself with flowers in the vase that barely enter his body.
Shiwoo, acted by Jungshin had been moving place and place, but since he kept eyes of a leader of a gang Keumhwa -a secret organization of Yeongryuwang- and has been under him. Shiwoo will guard like a shadow by Mooyeong (Kim Okbin), who was involved tragic destiny.
At episode 5 of 'Blade and Petal', Shiwoo will trespass on Yeongaesomoon's mansion and will be aware of uncommon moving in there. It will be broadcasted on 10 pm July 17th in Korea.
CNBlue's Lee Jung Shin asked actress Lee Bo Young, who he has acted with in the ratings hit "My Daughter Seo Young, " to go easy on him and his drama.
Lee Jung Shin is one of the cast members of "The Blade and Petal" (also known as "Sword and Flower"), in which he essays the role of the swordsman Si Woo tasked to protect the princess played by Kim Ok Bin. Lee Bo Young is currently starring in the SBS drama "I Can Hear Your Voice," which is a ratings hit and the competition for "The Blade and Petal" during the Wed-Thurs evening drama timeslot. It seems Lee Jung Shin humorously asked Lee Bo Young to take it easy with her drama so "The Blade and Petal" and "I Can Hear Your Voice" can have a friendly neck to neck ratings race.
"The Blade and Petal" premieres on KBS2 on July 3.
Fans have been backing up Lee Jung Shin′s recent drama endeavour, sending in rice wreaths to show they′ll be there for him.
Lee Jung Shin′s fans sent in over a ton of rice wreaths to be displayed in the press conference for the upcoming KBS2 drama Blade and Petal held on July 1.
Fans from across Asia, from countries such as Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong, also joined in the rice wreath donations, covering the venue with quite a few such wreaths. The grand total added up to 1,200kg, which will be donated to those in need.
CN Blue fans boast a long history of rice wreath donations, as they also brought in rice wreaths for CN Blue′s CN Blue Blue Moon World Tour Live in Seoul 2013 held in May. They also sent wreaths for the CN Blue concerts held in September 2011, December 2011 and December 2012, as well as for the press conference for KBS′ My Daughter Seo Young held in September 2012.
Lee Jung Shin has donated the wreaths to various welfare facilities and joined in volunteer work.
The singer will appear in Blade and Petal as Si Woo, who has a crush on King Youngryu′s daughter Moo Young (Kim Ok Bin). He is skilled in music, and uses fans and umbrellas as weapons.
Blade and Petal will air its first episode on July 3.
CNBlue members show concern for their youngest member, Lee Jung Shin. The band's bassist, who is currently in the cast of the soon-to-premiere historical drama "The Blade and Petal," (also known as "Sword and Flower") revealed this at the drama's press conference held in Seoul on July 1.
In the drama, Lee Jung Shin's character Si Woo is revealed to have feelings for the princess protects, played by Kim Ok Bin. He is the third wheel to the love that blossoms between the princess and Yeon Choong, played by Uhm Tae Woong.
I'm Jungshin~ Today Blade and Petal press conference had ended~ It will be broadcasted from the day after tomorrow, on July 3rd~ I'm nervous.. And today many fans sent me garlands, reporters and staffs prepared rice cake and a fan for me… delicious..
Just as much as I'm beloved! I'll work hard and harder to do tour and Blade and Petal filming ^^ I love you!
My curiosity goes up to the max once I read trans for KBS, Jungshin does promise something once Blade and Petal reached 30%?? And what is that? ughhhh unfortunately I don't speak Korean so I can't searching around this and patiently waiting for the news or trans :(, well whatever Jungshin's promise is I'll make sure not to miss one and each eps start from the day after tomorrow, SHIWOO FIGHTING!!!!!


MHZS40 foundation free concrete batching plant is popular now in Southeast Asia areas. This concrete batch plant does not need to do any foundation . most customers like this advantages of the plant and want to save time and also easy to tranfer the work site.
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Paradise Ranch operates with the help of many volunteers ranging from ages 9 and up. Previous experience working with horses or individuals with disabilities is not necessary. Each volunteer is trained for their specific job. Volunteers include mount leaders that lead the horses as directed by the instructor or side walkers walking beside the rider. Volunteers also provide valuable assistance with special events which include horse shows and fundraisers.
Possess a positive attitude and the ability to follow directions. Able to work independently and complete assigned tasks. Parents must be willing to co-sign forms.
One must be able to commute for entire session and provide for one's own transportation.
Volunteers must wear comfortable, sensible clothes – no sandals, short shorts, crop tops or dangling jewelry. Wear boots/shoes you can work in. Display appropriate behavior around the barn and our clients and their families.
Display appropriate behavior around the barn, our clients, and their families.
Possess a positive attitude, be able to walk/jog for up to 20 minutes and/or walk on uneven ground. You must be able to lift your arm overhead and maintain for up to 30 minutes. A volunteer must have adequate body size, strength and experience for specified task. All must sign a liability release and confidentiality forms.
One must be able to commit for entire session, and call your own substitutes when you are unable to be at Paradise Ranch at your assigned time.
Volunteers must wear comfortable, sensible clothes – no sandals, short shorts, crop tops or dangling jewelry. Wear boots/shoes you can jog/work in. Smoking, foul language, or crude and inappropriate behavior is not tolerated.


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Successful brands go beyond expectation. Brands that don't just do the job – brands that go deeper and become the fabric of our lives. Because creativity is at the heart of what we do, and because we're influenced by the spirit of generosity, we work hand in hand with our clients to build the brands that create more. These are the brands that deliver sustainable success and make the world a better, more rewarding place to be.
Brands play a huge part in delivering optimism to people. And these days, this outcome is of great value. This is why we believe that the most successful brands have a generous view on things - sharing or allowing access to knowledge, behaving more openly, they are genuinely transparent.


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WI Harper-backed YesHealth Group and Nordic Harvest Bring Europe's Largest Vertical Farm to Denmark.
WI Harper-backed YesHealth Group and…
WI Harper Group | December 9, 2020 | Source: FastCompany
YesHealth Group is partnering with Danish company, Nordic Harvest, to bring Europe's largest and most efficient indoor vertical farm to Denmark. Thisvertical farm will cover more than 7,500 sq., featuring YesHealth Group's proprietary technologies, including: robotics, hydroponics, arrays of more than 20,000 LEDs, and smart software for processing over 5000 individual data points, all integrated with Nordic Harvest's design of process flow and packaging. YesHealth Group is a global leader in hydroponic farming and currently operates the largest vertical farming operation in Asia. WI Harper led its Series C in August 2018.
If you buy lettuce in the winter in Denmark, it will probably be imported from Spain or Italy—or even Kenya. But a new vertical indoor farm on the outskirts of Copenhagen will soon begin producing 1,000 metric tons of greens a year locally. The Danish company running the farm, in partnership with a Taiwanese tech provider, says that similar farms covering an area the size of 20 soccer fields could fully supply the country's entire demand for greens.
[Photo: courtesy YesHealth]
The farm is the work of YesHealth Group, a Taiwanese company that has spent the last decade developing vertical farming technology. The company developed the largest vertical farm in Taiwan, which is profitable (unlike several North American vertical farm startups), and the largest vertical farm in China (the Chinese farm supplies food to employees rather than selling it). In Denmark, it's partnering with Nordic Harvest, a startup that aims to make food production more sustainable through technology.
Like most other indoor farms, the facility uses hydroponics, technology that grows food with little water, and doesn't require the use of pesticides. (It also avoids the risk of disease outbreaks like salmonella that can happen on outdoor farms.) The company makes its own LED lights, which have become far more efficient over the last decade; electricity is one of the largest costs of this type of agriculture.
The new farm, covering more than 75,000 square feet, will run fully on wind power, slashing the carbon footprint of production. In theory, because the greens will be much fresher when they reach grocery stores and consumers, the system can also help reduce food waste. The majority of the farm, with 14 shelves of greens stacked up toward the ceiling, is automated, so labor costs are low.
When the greens are sold in Danish supermarkets beginning in January, they'll be priced similarly to organic greens, though Stella Tsai, the general manager of YesHealth Group, says that it will soon be competitive with conventional produce. "In this kind of growing method, you can control every cost," she says. "You won't be influenced by the climate, so you can [grow on] a new schedule." YesHealth Group plans to expand to other locations in Europe, and will also move into Singapore, the Philippines, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa next year.
| About YesHealth Group
YesHealth Group is a mission-driven company that aims to provide fresh, nutritious, and safe leafy vegetables to the world through environment-friendly agricultural practices built for the 21st century. Our vertical farms apply zero pesticides and yield several hundred times more vegetables per unit area than traditional field farms. Our vertical farms can be built anywhere and operate all year-around, consequently disrupting the normal supply chain in agriculture. YesHealth Group is one of the largest vertical farming companies in the world. Located in Taiwan and China, we operate the two largest and most energy efficient vertical farms in Asia. Over the past eight years, we have developed a number of proprietary and patented technologies now fully integrated into our company. We currently collaborate with local partners to build more vertical farms around the world.
| About WI Harper Group
WI Harper is a pioneer and leading cross-border venture capital firm investing in early and expansion stage companies globally. With offices in San Francisco, Beijing, and Taipei, the firm actively oversees more than $1 billion in assets under management. Since inception nearly three decades ago, WI Harper has invested in over 400 startups and has successfully experienced more than 100 IPO and M&A exits.
We look for innovative companies and visionary founders in healthcare, technology and sustainability fields where there are high synergies and meaningful value-added cross selling opportunities. While our healthcare team is presently honing on bioinformatics and digital biology, our technology team is focused blockchain, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, IoT, robotics, drones, autonomous driving, as well as digital media and green energy projects.
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Khelo India is National Programme for Development of Sports.
Khelo India School Games, which are a part of the Khelo India programme are being held from 31st January to 8th February 2018 in New Delhi.
Venue: DR. SPM Swimming Complex, Delhi.
Star to telecast Khelo India School Games in 3 channels - Star Sports 1, Star Sports-HD and its free-to-air sports channel, Star Sports First. In addition, the games will be available on its digital platform, Hotstar.


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Q: Joins and Loops in SQL Server 2008 How to join the below tables to get result like in "Result" table:
Table: Invoice
Inv_No  Fk_Rep_ID       Inv_Date     Inv_Amt
3000              202       10/1/2014     35
3001              194       11/1/2014     40
3002              180       15/1/2014     55

Table :Return
Return_ID   FK_Rep_ID      Ret_Date Ret_Amt
2000              202     17/1/2014 67
2001        194   15/1/2015 43

Table: Credit
Credit_ID   FK_Rep_ID   credit_Date credit_Amnt
1000           NULL     4/2/2014    60
1001            202     5/2/2014    12

Table: Debit
Debit_ID    FK_Rep_ID         Debit_Date    Debit_Amnt
400           NULL         4/5/2014 600
4001              194          5/5/2014 110

Table:Receipt_Items
Fk_Rec_No   FK_Item_No     Item_Type    Rec_Item_ID
7787             1000             2 1
7788             2000             1 1
7788             3000             0 2
7788             3001             0 3
7788             3002             0 4
7788             4000             3 5
7788             4001             3 6
7789             1001             2 1

Table :Sales_Rep
Rep_ID        Rep_Name
180         Vinu
194         Bibin
202         Salman

Result
Fk_Rec_No   Fk_Item_No  Item_Type   Rep_Name    Item_Date   Item_Amt
7787    1000    Credit  NULL    4/2/2014    -60
7788    2000    Return   salman 15/1/2014   -67
7788    3000    Invoice  salman 10/1/2014   35
7788    3001    Invoice  Bibin  11/1/2014   40
7788    3002    Invoice  Vinu   12/1/2014   55
7788    4000    Debit   NULL    4/5/2014    600
7788    4001    Debit   Bibin   5/5/2014    110
7789    1001    Credit  Salman  5/2/2014    -12

Query :
SELECT tt.*,SR.Rep_Name
    FROM(SELECT
    fk_receipt_no
    ,fk_item_no
    ,CASE Item_type
    WHEN 0 THEN 'INVOICE'
    WHEN 1 THEN 'Return'
    WHEN 2 THEN 'Credit'
    WHEN 3 THEN 'Debit'
    END as ITEM_type,
    Case Item_type when 1 then '-'+Cast(Item_Amnt as varchar(50))
    when 2 then '-'+Cast(Item_Amnt as varchar(50))
    else Cast(Item_Amnt as varchar(50)) End Item_Amnt
    ,COALESCE(R.FK_Rep_ID,C.FK_Rep_ID,I.FK_Rep_ID)  as FK_Rep_ID
    ,COALESCE(R.Ret_Date,C.Note_Date,I.Inv_Date)  as Item_Date
    FROM Recp_Item RI LEFT JOIN [Return] R ON RI.FK_Item_no=R.Return_ID
    LEFT JOIN Credit C ON RI.FK_Item_No=C.Note_ID
    LEFT JOIN Invoice I ON RI.FK_Item_No=I.Inv_No
    ) tt LEFT JOIN [Sales Rep] SR ON SR.Rep_ID=tt.FK_Rep_ID

A: You probably should mention that FK_Item_No refers sometimes to different things, like Credit_ID.  This kind of multipurpose FK almost always results in a union for each type of item it could represent.
This is pseudo code, I expect you to provide all the tedious join criterias since you should be capable of doing so.
Notice left joins are used to the Rep table since you have some null FK's
In each select aliases are used to normalize the column names such as credit_amnt => Item_Amt.  Technically this is only required for the first select in the join so long as the others are in the same order, but I usually do it for all unions for readability.
Select * From
(
  Select ri.Fk_Rec_No, Credit_ID as Fk_Item_No, it.Name as Item_Type,
    r.Rep_Name, c.credit_Date as Item_Date, c.credit_Amnt as Item_Amt
  From Credit c inner join Receipt_Items ri left join Rep r
  --join with your item type table you don't show

    Union

  Select ri.Fk_Rec_No, Debit_ID as Fk_Item_No, it.Name as Item_Type,
    r.Rep_Name, c.Debit_Date as Item_Date, d.Debit_Amnt as Item_Amt
  From Debit d inner join Receipt_Items ri left join Rep r
  --join with your item type table you don't show

    Union
  ...

) as typesUnion
Order By Fk_Rec_No, Fk_Item_No


Facebook's approach to advertising is one of those topics that has its fans (the marketers) and its foes (the average user). With the desire to make money in order to facilitate the service, advertising is a key revenue stream for Facebook. However, yesterday (probably not for the first time), advertising took up 100% of my Facebook screen space. The problem with this is that as advertising space goes up, my willingness to engage with the site goes down. There should never be a situation where 100% of the screen holds meaningless content.


"Some kids are smarter than you.
We will focus on the values of kindness, caring and the courage to display both this year.
Thank you for reaching our Website! We trust that you will find what you are looking for in this space. If not, feel free to contact us as we would love to answer any questions you may have.
This website represents the more static part of our presence in cyberspace. For video clips, photos and articles that are constantly changing, follow the links to our Social Media outlets.
You will no doubt be impressed by what our amazing young people are up to but for a more hands-on feel, why not pop in and see us some time so that you can experience first hand the underlying spirit of this family –friendly place?


After falling behind early and being pushed to the end in every set without a key starter, Penn State was able to work through the adversity for a four-set victory.
The Nittany Lions were playing without 6'4″ freshman middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord, who is fifth on the team in kills per set (2.30) and leads the way in hitting percentage (.379) while ranking second in blocks per set (1.22). Still, they out-hit Purdue .246 to .204 and dominated the block chart, 13-6.
Penn State has plenty of other freshmen who contribute beyond Hord, which was on full display with Jonni Parker (18 kills, .271, 8 digs, 3 blocks, 3 aces) and Amanda Phegley (6 kills, .667, 2 blocks) who specifically filled in for Hord. The seniors were also strong in Taylor Leath (13 kills, .220, 11 digs), Nia Reed (11 kills, .167, 5 digs, 4 blocks) and Bryanna Weiskircher (50 assists). Junior libero Kendall White also added 27 digs.
Purdue couldn't get their first VolleyMob ranked victory of the season, but they showed strong fight and balance, with four players in double-digits for kills, thanks in part to Hayley Bush (50 assists, 5 digs). Brooke Peters (29 digs) led the match in digs, while those top attackers were Sherridan Atkinson (15 kills, .151, 7 digs), Grace Cleveland (14 kills, .186), Caitlyn Newton (13 kills, .276) and Blake Mohler (11 kills, .421, 3 blocks).
Next Up: Penn State heads back home to face an even higher ranked opponent as they host #4 Nebraska on Saturday night. Purdue meanwhile heads to the road to take on #21 Iowa in another Saturday night showdown.
The Iowa Hawkeyes got a nice encore victory to their upset of #5 Wisconsin, in which they swept Rutgers to grab a winning record in Big Ten play. For the Scarlet Knights, they can at least take away competitive sets in the first two, though they remain without a win in the Big Ten.
Additionally, Rutgers can take away some offensive success after hitting .284 led by Sahbria McLetchie (12 kills, .296), Beka Kojadinovic (11 kills, .300) and Tali Marmen (8 kills, .250). Setter Inna Balyko (34 assists) also kept things balanced.
It wasn't enough though, as the Iowa offense was even more impressive in hitting .398 as Taylor Louis (13 kills, .478, 4 blocks) was unstoppable. Cali Hoye (12 kills, .276, 3 aces) and Brie Orr (32 assists, 8 digs, 4 kills, .800, 2 aces) also pitched in with high totals. The Hawkeyes added to it all by out-blocking Rutgers 8-4 and had a 6:3 serve ratio compared to 3:9 for the Scarlet Knights.
Next Up: Iowa has a big top 25 showdown with 25th-ranked Purdue at home on Saturday night. Rutgers continues to search for their first conference victory when they take on Indiana on the road.
So far this season, Indiana has been a nice surprise under new head coach Steve Aird. They've been competitive and gotten some victories, but this one was all about Nebraska who outside of a tight second set were the much stronger side.
The Huskers wound up hitting .301 – even after a lackluster first offensive set – while holding Indiana to an .094 mark. Contributing to that was the difference in serving and passing, as Nebraska had more aces (7-2) on two less serve errors.
Individually, Nebraska was led by their outside hitter trio of Jazz Sweet (11 kills, .435, 5 blocks), Lexi Sun (11 kills, .280, 9 kills, 4 blocks, 2 aces) and Mikaela Foecke (10 kills, .259, 9 digs), who combined for 32 of the team's 38 terminations. Nicklin Hames (31 assists, 10 digs), Kenzie Maloney (11 digs, 4 aces) and Callie Schwarzenbach (3 kills, .250, 9 blocks) also pitched in.
For Indiana, Hayden Huybers (7 kills, .400, 3 blocks) and Deyshia Lofton (7 kills, .136) led the attack out of the middle. Victoria Brisack (16 assists, 10 digs) also had a double-double at the setter spot.
Next Up: Nebraska begins a four-match road trip that will define their abilities to go for another Big Ten title, starting Saturday at #11 Penn State before meetings at #3 Minnesota and at #5 Wisconsin next week. Indiana meanwhile comes back home for a Saturday meeting with Rutgers.


text:
Category Archives: Books
Books-Aurelius on Philosophy
Posted by commart in 21st Century Modern, A Little Wisdom, Books, Philosophy, Political Psychology
Aurelius, intellectual discipline, intellectual freedom, philosophy, stoicism
Alexander, Caesar, Pompey–how do they compare to Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Socrates? The philosophers saw the things of the world for what they are–that is they saw things in terms of their causes and their matter–and their command centers were autonomous. As for the others, look at the kinds of worries they had and how little freedom they had!
Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations: The Annotated Edition. Introduction by Robin Waterfield, Translator and Editor. New York: Basic Books, 2021.
No need for droning. Were one designing a modern "great books" program, one might do worse than start with Meditations for grounding.
Book: Quick Quote: _The Twilight of Democracy_ by Anne Applebaum
Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, North America, Philosophy, Political Psychology, United States of America
Anne Applebaum, Book Highlight
In the United States and the United Kingdom, the new right has broken with the old fashioned Burkean small-c conservatism that is suspicious of rapid change in all its forms. Although they hate the phrase, the new right is more Bolshevik than Burkean: these are men and women who want to overthrow, bypass, or undermine existing institutions, to destroy what exists.
Applebaum, Anne. The Twilight of Democracy. New York: Doubleday, 2020.
If you're feeling at sea with America's now dramatically confused, polarized, and shifting political landscape, this book may offer a steady deck and a good look around at how we humans have organized ourselves and where forces may be taking us faster than we know.
Applebaum, Anne. "The World is Never Going Back to Normal." The Atlantic, November 18, 2020.
Wikipedia. "Anne Applebaum".
Suggested Thoroughly Independent End-of-Summer Reading for Lovers of Freedom, Knowledge, and Western Civilization
Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology
American Decency, Democracy and Political Philosophy, political science, summer reading, Trump Era
Summer Reading, Hunter Hill, Hagerstown, Maryland, August 20, 2020
This post has been on my mind for at least a month and rather held up by the sorry habit of reading "long form" in bits and pieces. Advancing age, declining energies, the web's own "Electronic Attention Deficit Disordering", and the plain fact that I've reached about the final less-than-third of life's journey surrounded by a personal library (of about 2,250 volumes) offering me more choices for reading than may be read or re-read toward the looming end account here for my relaying more of what might be helpful to fellow travelers than I have taken in myself.
However, I have read each of these suggestions in part or whole — and if in part have bookmarked — and have been trying to transition from "Life Online" (how it has turned out thus far) to more of the aesthetic and literary manse beloved ever by romantics and old souls.
Dictatorships have powerful tools in capricious censorship, denunciations, frames (how the despotic present issues as well as rivals for power and targets for crushing), and, ultimately, force by threat and by violence. By comparison, democracies would seem soft with conscience, empathy, and sentiment — and not much else before the armed might of absolute state power. Nonetheless, how much abuse must democratic constituencies take before facing the choice of withering before despotic forces or standing up to them?
Were it not for the desperation, greed, ignorance, and laziness of our own — and perhaps ourselves — we may not have reached this point where the apparent most patriotic and pious of Americans may have put into power the most questionable and selfish representative of America's reactionary wealthy. Well, we're sure in it together now and might wish to clarify what it means to be Americans and what it may mean to govern ourselves with more adult comprehension, selfless wisdom, and a much, much greater magnanimous and shared American spirit.
Applebaum, Anne. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. New York: Doubleday, 2020.
Bolton, John. The Room Where It Happened. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.
Hitchens, Christopher. Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006.
Paine, Thomas. Collected Writings: Common Sense, The Crisis, and Other Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters. Rights of Man; The Age of Reason. Eric Foner, Editor. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1995.
Soros, George. In Defense of Open Society. New York, Public Affairs, 2019.
Soros, Tivadar. Masquerade: Dancing around Death in Nazi-Occupied Hungary. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1965.
Stawrowski, Zbigniew. "Is Democracy Moral?" Church Life Journal, October 25, 2019.
Stewart, Katherine. The Power Worshippers. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
Posted to YouTube by KEXP, September 15, 2009.
Posted by Republican Voters Against Trump, August 18, 2020.
In Loving Memory, Smart 'Alik' Revisits a Mid-20th Century Russia Less Burdened by the Dictator
Posted by commart in Books, Russia
Memoir. Arkady Polishchuk, Mid-20th Century Russia, Old Russia, Practical Russia, Traditional Russia
Polishchuk, Arkady. As I was Burying Comrade Stalin: My Life Becoming a Jewish Dissident. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2020.
You know the kid: the pint-sized disruptive force of nature. No willful schoolmarm with a calm down is about to keep this little fellow from jumping up on a school desk or three and leading the revolt of a righteous legion of one.
There has been now a long period between the Rule of the Tsars, the Dictatorship of proleteriate's self-serving nomenklatura, the Cold War Era, the ongoing but passing Region of the Phantoms of the Soviet, and, alas, the dismal mini-epoch of COVID-19 hysteria. Arkady Polishchuk's reminiscence from the early portion of his now long life — the author was born in 1930 — proves less political than delightfully romantic. With Stalin's dictatorship an omnipresent and worrisome fact of life, the same proves somewhat ignored by those not directly in its path. Life just proceeds beside it — or acquiesces to it in major part while elsewhere stubbornly evading it and working around it.
What may most charm in this part of Polishchuk's memoir is Russia eternal, from the rustic home of the 1930s and the Primus stove to the charms — for the youngest of boys — of playing in the attic of a building equipped with radiators —
We didn't need coal or firewood anymore; alas, I was unable to sit on the radiators of central heating – they were half-hidden under both windowsills. It made it impossible to turn the paunchy radiators into a reconnaissance aircraft, although I drew on them our red five-pointed stars and stuck out there our world-famous red flag.
While the author's life moves forward, his experience moves backward through time, i.e., to rough wilderness and lives of lumberjacks and milkmaids certain to age and weather in the remote wild winters.
There is too the timeless "realpolitik" of business — how things really get done — known to all frontiers but perhaps Russia's wild timber lands with both arch observation and bemused appreciation.
When one willful woman in the back of beyond flirts (seriously) with the (unwilling diplomatic) author, she whinnies in the ageless way.
She was an agent of some collective farm from Southern Ukraine, in Russian terms, a pusher (tolkach). Her job was to buy timber for the construction of a new dairy farm and stables, of course, if she told me the truth.
"Are'ye here to get some raw wood?" the head asked.
"Live wood? Logs?"
"It's great," she said.
"What's so great?" I said.
"It's great that you aren't here for the timber. Are'ye a prosecutor or a policeman?"
"No, I'm a pediatrician."
"Is that the type who helps pregnant women?"
She whinnied like a breeding stallion.
"Do you have a child here?" I asked.
"No, my children are in Moldova."
"I can't treat children from a distance."
"You can treat their mama right here."
"I have to go," I said. "A child is waiting for me."
In Western terms, she could be called an expediter or even a mover and shaker. The law did not back her activity though it was as necessary for the Soviet economy as a lubricant for trucks and trains. These agents traveled across the country to get scarce material and parts for state plants, factories, and farms, whatever the cost. Their main tools were bribes and what could be delicately called barter arrangements. If needed, or if in the interests of authorities or an extortionist, these pushers could easily fall under the penal code. Without them, though, the five-year plans of the USSR would not have been implemented. No doubt, this proprietress of the luxurious black tresses did not know a thing about the very existence of the State Planning Commission. However, this powerful institution have always conceptually known of her existence. The Socialist System worked!
So Polishchuk's Russia has its magical old world, one where horses gain more traction than trucks in some places and prove themselves more reliable as well, where the farmer may hope to waylay the stranger for hitching to one of his comely daughters, so that she and stranger may be more permanently way laid and put to work in the ways of the countryside. It has too its thieves, the lonesome hood out for mugging and a wallet, the organized gang set to wrangle a truck load of felled timber bound for sale at other than its intended destination, and there's the permanent fixture of the fixer, bribing, cajoling, dealing where the state's dogma and ideals fail to motivate the deals that get done.
Still, Stalin's actions and a modernizing Russia's accomplishments are always near in memory and in conversation. For Polishchuk's young adulthood, the war was over but the world remained ragged and scattered, unsettled, and in some parts channeled or herded by the Soviet effort — Stalin's effort — to move around particles of populations. Speaking with a forester for his story, Polishchuk hears both the boast of industrial advancement and the covering of Stalin's propensity for broad and compelled mass displacements.
"It's a revolution," his voice relaxed, the tension almost evaporated. "You'll see the most advanced methods of labor brought to life by the "Friendship" brand chainsaw. Difficult to believe that until recently we used axes and two-handed saws."
"Just like a century ago?" without knowing it, I touched an open wound again.
"You can say so," now he was nervous anew. "After the war. No-no, the workers weren't prisoners, they were deportees. The winter in Karelia was harsh. The barracks were built slowly… I was young. Just like you. It was my first job after the Forestry Academy."
Note: Russia had warred against Finland for Karelia and after annexation had used the depopulated space to sort displaced persons of uncertain or negative political loyalty to the Soviet.
Polishchuk continues with memory:
"Soviet prosecutors have a long history of poor judgment," I tried to comfort him, but my joke sounded ambiguous.
He returned to his memories, "At first, I took all deported for enemies. They were continually arriving."
I mumbled some sort of soothing nonsense like, "The whole country did. Patriots are blind." After that, I asked a wrong question again, "Who were they?"
He ruffled his hair, "Russians, Poles, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Volga Germans, and Chechens," he stared at me almost in a panic, "The families with small children…" he looked in the window, his voice faltered, "Have you ever seen a concert pianist chopping down a pine with an ax?"
"We all remember what we want to forget," I said.
What the author may have wanted to forget himself may be present in his first book, Dancing on Thin Ice: Travails of a Russian Dissenter (DoppelHouse Press, 2018), a book that begins with the nastiest of prison stories. As I Was Burying Comrade Stalin — perhaps by living adventurously and critically on top of the dictator's memory — presents more the underlying character of Russia in its more comfortable and natural cultural habits.
(Disclosure: Arkady Polishchuk and this editor have been friends on Facebook for quite a few years now).
Carlson, Charles. "Finland: Soviet Annexation of Karelia Still a Taboo Subject." Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (REF/RL), July 1, 2003.
George Will: Independent
Posted by commart in American Domestic Affairs, Books, Philosophy, Politics, United States of America
conservatism, democracy, freedom, George Will, Philosophy of Democracy
Charles Lane: . . . . that brings us to the present day and present President whose name, by the way it's Donald Trump, does not appear in your book. Now that can't be an accident.
George Will: The names of Charlemagne and Audrey Hepburn and Duke Ellington don't appear in the book either [Lane: That's true] because this is a book about ideas and the current president is not part of that discussion. He has nothing to do with conservatism. He really to his credit has never pretended to be a conservative. He's an entrepreneur in politics and he's maximizing whatever he wants to maximize. This is a book about important arguments, and he's not part of that.
Lane, Charles. "George Will wrangles with God, the conservative sensibility and the dangers of progressivism." YouTube, 9:33-10:15. The Washington Post, June 2, 2019.
Posted to YouTube by Washington Post, June 2, 2019
BackChannels will leave to others, especially the young, familiarization with one of America's most iconic of conservative opinion makers: George F. Will.
Curious about "important arguments", BackChannels has made the purchase.
East, Kristen. "George Will leaves the GOP". Politico, June 25, 2016.
https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/02/02/united-states-of-america-basic-training/
Also Related on YouTube
In Retrospect: Jon Ronson's "The Elephant In The Room"
Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology
American politics, book notes, book review, Jon Ronson
At a high school basketball game in Indiana in March, white students chanted "Trump! Trump! Trump!" at Latina students. Everyone knew what that meant: It was a new way to be racist.
But the alt-right's appeal remains marginal because the huge majority of young Americans like multiculturalism. They aren't paranoid or hateful about other races. Those ideas are ridiculous to them. The alt-right's small gains in popularity will not be enough to win Trump the election. This is not Germany in the 1930s. All that's changed is that one of Alex's fans — one of those grumpy looking middle-aged men sitting in David Icke's audience — is now the Republican nominee.
But if some disaster unfolds — if Hillary's health declines further, or she grows ever more off-puttingly secretive — and Trump gets elected, he could bring Alex and the others with him. The idea of Donald Trump and Alex Jones and Roger Stone and Stephen Bannon having power over us — that is terrifying.
Darcy, Oliver. "Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other 'dangerous' voices banned by Facebook and Instagram." CNN Business, May 3, 2019.
For the record, BackChannels supports as broad a spectrum of political speech as possible bounded by criminal law associated with conspiracy and incitement.
While Facebook Civilization as Zuckerberg may shape it has no monopoly on speech conveyed via the web, it's notable that Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan made the same grade.
In the gonzo escapade that produced dish for The Elephant In the Room, Ronson manages to get in some quality time with Alex Jones and Roger Stone in Jones' production trailer. The "in" with the talk show host had been crashing Bohemian Grove years earlier with him.
Barrett, Devlin, Rosalind S. Helderman, Lori Rozsa, and Manuel Roig-Franzia. "Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone indicted by special counsel in Russia investigation." The Washington Post, January 25, 2019.
CNN, same day —
CNN, posted to YouTube January 25, 2019.
DW, posted to YouTube April 13, 2019.
Agent provocateur as Roger Stone refers to himself? Moral crusader for the west as befits Steve Bannon's "populism" in the surrounds of the books collected and gardens cultivated by Italian monks? Or clowns found out and moved off the Oval Office's carpet?
Trump stole the election and the aforementioned demons were unable to remain attached to his glory: so why read Ronson's book?
Take it in for background — $1.99 for the Kindle — for delight in language, and for the prescient glimpse of a campaign x personality yesteryear that really does seem just like yesterday.
Having quoted from the end of the book, here's the sound of the beginning:
The TV's at the EQUINOX were showing a Donald Trump rally. Hillary Clinton might have been holding her own rally somewhere but, if so, it wasn't on any of these screens. In fact, a few weeks ago MSNBC, Fox News and CNN had ignored a Hillary Clinton speech entirely, choosing instead to broadcast a live feed of the empty podium from which Donald Trump would soon speak. His empty podium: that's how insatiable our appetite was to hear Donald Trump say staggering things in the spring of 2016, back when it was new and strange.
I plugged in my headphones and heard someone in the crowd shout out to Trump: "Are you going back on the Alex Jones show?"
"Alex Jones? Trump said. "He was a nice guy! You like him?"
"It was a GREAT interview!" the man called back.
"Oh good," Donald Trump said. "Alex Jones. Nice guy."
I was so jolted by this exchange I almost fell off my elliptical. Donald Trump knows Alex Jones?
I AM BASICALLY ALEX JONES'S Simon Cowell. I star-spotted him in the late-1990s . . . .
Smart Alik! Skating Across the Era of Soviet Absurdities
22 Friday Jun 2018
Posted by commart in Books, Journal, Library, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Russia
contemporary Russia, Jehovah's Witnesses, Orwellian state, Pentacostal Christians, refuseniks, religious persecution, Soviet Era, Soviet history, Soviet injustice, Soviet intolerance
Polishchuk, Arkady. Dancing on Thin Ice: Travails of a Russian Dissenter. Los Angeles: DoppelHouse Press, 2018.
In the news at the time:
At the unusual session, General Shchelokov was said to have told the Jews that he had heard of the alleged beatings on a newscast by the British Broadcasting Corporation. He insisted that he was not in charge of security at the reception office.
"I would never permit beating," Mr. Shcharansky quoted the minister as having said. "If it were my affair, I would arrest the organizers."
Four of the Jews were missing tonight. They were Boris Chernobylsky, a radio engineer; Arkady Polishchuk, a former editor of the magazine Asia and Africa Today; Viktor Yelistratov and Mikhail Kremen, both also radio engineers. It was not known whether they had been arrested.
Simpler, David K. "Jews in Moscow Resume Visa Sit-In." The New York Times, October 22, 1976.
The missing "refuseniks" plus one — Arkady Polishchuk notes in his account of that distant day that he had not applied for a visa but was with a crew that had — knew where they were, and the one doing the remembering through his memoir was in that place called pain.
A doctor in the Sklifosofsky Institute said that I had two cracked ribs and recommended to wind a towel around my trunk. He refused to give me an x-ray film or a written reference. An exhausted night nurse of this principal trauma center muttered, "If we give a reference to every hoodlum beaten in a street fight the country would soon run out of ink and paper."
They certainly had shortages of x-ray films and painkillers.
Having been Jewish but not at the time a refusenik, Polishchuk would similarly take up the cause of Pentacostal Christians persecuted by the Soviet Union for their possession of faith. With empathy and wry humor, he conveys what it's like for the criminalized pious:
"The local KGB should pray for you every day," I said. "Without you, they would've stagnated here, without an increase in rank and salary."
After this lively exchange of views on the role of light and darkness in the spiritual life of mankind, we all crossed the kitchen garden planted with heavenly potatoes, passed by green onions and fragrant dill, and, through a narrow opening in the fence, began making our way to the house of Vera Shchukin. One by one or in pairs, we used the most roundabout paths between houses. The village was asleep. Almost all windows were now unlit.
I wiped sweat from my forehead and whispered to Goretoi, "Muggy."
He said nothing. I couldn't stop talking. "For how long have you been aware that this gathering is prohibited by articles 142 and 227 of the Criminal Code?"
"For as long as I've believed in my Savior," he whispered.
Near the time of this writing, Polishchuk's telling of the plight of Pentecostal Christians may take on an eerie resonance as Capo, Colonel, President, Emperor Vladimir Putin's government goes after the community of Jehova's Witnesses in today's Russia:
"It began about 10 o'clock in the evening and didn't wind up until 4 a.m.," Tatyana Petrova said of the raid. "I didn't see how it started because I was in the kitchen, but I heard my husband go to the door. I heard a woman introduce herself as someone from the electric company. She said she needed to read the meter. My husband opened the door and then a whole crowd of people pushed into the apartment."
Filimonov, Andrei and Robert Coalson. "'Extremist' Faith: Russian Jehovah's Witnesses Report Wave Of Police Raids, Detentions." Radio Free Europe, June 15, 2018.
In Polishchuk's day:
Children giggled and jostled each other in the ribs. The men were pushed up against the walls. Two old women sat close to the invisible gap between the door and its frame, in hope of catching a breath of fresh air. On stools sat an old man, white as chalk, and two pregnant women. One of them, with a hand-copied New Testament, offered me her chair, but I shook my head and clung to the wall. When nearly forty persons had squeezed into the house, the deacon turned on the light, and ducked outside to check if it escaped to the street.
Life's a long enough journey for most, but in the Soviet Union, the unutterable sadness of situations posed against the boasted heroic strength of the state must have made it seem so much longer. "Alik", when referred to with affection, sent to write about a community for the blind discovers instead of a refuge for those so afflicted a familiar metaphor and dismal reality: ". . . a leper colony. There was nothing I could write about them. I was frantically looking for a way to say at least half-truths about their everyday concerns instead of reporting on the contribution of the blind to our common cause of building socialism."
In the wings always and frequently spotlighted: spooks . . . KGB — as colleagues (around whom to be cautious) on publications; as agents sent to disconnect his home phone before the refusenik Natan Sharansky could relay a statement by Andrei Sakharov to a listener in Canada; as minders, followers, and thugs.
The games played in Putin's courts today seem no different then they were then. Polishchuk covered one of the trials of Dr. Mikhail Stern whose latest crime had been to give his son "a written permission" required in support of the application of the same to emigrate. The whole becomes an absurd nightmare of examinations of minute evidence to none.
While the phantoms of the Soviet live on in the spiritual descendants of the KGB, perhaps the haunting swirls on in the earlier victims of their omnipresent bureaucracy, observation, manipulation, sabotage, entrapment and framing, capricious "justice", and punishment.
Additional Reference
Wikipedia. "Soviet Dissidents".


Toronto : HarperFlamingo Canada, 2002.
Pauline Johnson : selected poetry and prose / compiled and introduced by Michael Gnarowski.
Paddling her own canoe: the times and texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake).
E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake : collected poems and selected prose / introduced and edited by Carole Gerson and Veronica Strong-Boag.
E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake: collected poems and selected prose.
Flint and feather : the complete poems of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) / E. Pauline Johnson ; with introduction by Theodore Watts- Dunton and a biographical sketch of the author ; illustrated by J.R. Seavey.
Flint and feather / E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) ; with short biographical sketch of the author.
The Shagganappi / by E. Pauline Johnson ; with introd. by Ernest Thompson Seton.
Flint & feather : the life and times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake / Charlotte Gray.
Buckskin & broadcloth : a celebration of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake, 1861-1913 / Sheila M.F. Johnston.
Pauline Johnson : first aboriginal voice of Canada / Betty Keller.
Pauline, a biography of Pauline Johnson / Betty Keller.
The re-presented Indian : Pauline Johnson's "strong race opinion" and other forgotten discourses / by Christine Lowella Marshall.
Paddling her own canoe : the times and texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) / Veronica Strong-Boag and Carole Gerson.
Johnson, E. Pauline, » 1861-1913.
Mohawk Indians » Canada » Biography.
438 p. : ill., map, ports. ; 24 cm.
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Posted on September 25, 2018 by Clay Travis - OKTC
At the beginning of the anonymous mailbag this week, I want to hit you with a request — my new book, "Republicans Buy Sneakers Too" comes out today. It is in every bookstore in America as you're reading this. It's also $17 on Amazon. I don't ask for much from you guys — in fact, all of my content has always been free on this site, on radio, and on Periscope and Facebook — but I would really appreciate it if you would go buy a copy of my book — I also personally recorded the entire nine hour unabridged audio if you'd rather listen to me read it.
I'd like to write several more books over the next few years and the number of copies we sell of this book will determine whether that's financially worth my time or not. It will also send a message about how much support there is for what I argue. I know that support is there because I see the data, but having this book hit the New York Times list, for instance, would be eye opening to many across the country.
If you want an autographed copy of the book — I won't be able to do as many public book signings as I would like because my radio and TV obligations make travel difficult now — you get a free autographed copy of the book as part of a yearly subscription to the VIP. Week four college football picks are up on the VIP message board and we're at 58% winners so far this year.
Okay, the anonymous mailbag is presented by my guy Ryan Kelley at The Home Loan Expert. Own a home but also have too much credit card debt? Go to their website today and by this time next week your credit card debt can be wiped out and you can have a brand new low rate mortgage. Put your financial house in order just in time for football season by wiping out your credit card debt and visiting him today Also, if you use The Home Loan Expert and tell them Outkick and Clay Travis sent you, you get a free year's VIP subscription.
Here we go with the anonymous mailbag.
As always you can email your anonymous mailbag questions to claytravis@gmail.com, anonymity guaranteed.
"Recently I have gotten engaged (I know, the kiss of death), but she is a great girl. We live together now, and it is going great. When we first met, she told me she was a Georgia Bulldog fan but she didn't seem like a die hard fan at all.
Sadly I have been a massive Tennessee Vols fan my whole life. In the 24 years I've been alive, I only have a handful of positive Vol memories.
Ever since the start of football season — and Georgia becoming good — she has made the turn into the biggest UGA fan on the face of the earth. All I hear about is Kirby fucking Smart, Jake Fromm, and the Swift kid. With this weekend's game approaching how do I handle watching the game with her? She already knows I've been in a pissy mood since I drove 3 hours to watch my Vols get destroyed by Florida… in Neyland… at night…. With that said, should I make an excuse to not watch the game with her? Also how do I handle it if Georgia makes it in the playoff? Should I support Georgia since Tennessee sucks so bad this year (It would be great leverage for morning sex)? I need advice from the expert."
I think it's much harder to be in a split marriage when the outcome of a game is unclear every year. Think, Auburn vs. Georgia.
Here barring some totally unforeseen outcome — like Jeremy Pruitt becoming Bill Belichick — Tennessee is going to get their ass kicked for the next several years by Georgia.
So there's no real suspense here. Tennessee is the mouse and Georgia is the cobra. Its' not a matter of whether you are dying, it's just a question of when.
So you might as well enjoy the sex in the meantime.
"Never done this before, but I pre-ordered your book, and had it downloaded & waiting on my Kindle when I woke up this morning. Great first chapter so far!
You are probably getting a million of these, but would love to hear your take on the Kavanaugh confirmation process/circus. As a white male professional who was in a fraternity in college, I am probably eliminated from ever seeking any public office in the future if this is where the new bar is being set. And with 3 sons, I shudder at the backlash that they might face in their professional futures. Hell, my 10 year old has probably already done things that might keep him from getting elected.
Given your legal background and rational perspective on the world today, I am really only interested in hearing your take on this hysteria,above the background noise of the mainstream media talking heads!
Thanks & keep up the good work!"
If the Kavanaugh standard of misbehavior is the new standard for acceptable 21st century behavior — two people make accusations of non-criminal behavior with zero supporting evidence that behavior occurred despite there being multiple public witnesses it did not happen and it costs you your job — I don't think there's a single frat guy in America today who is eligible to be a Supreme Court justice.
That's why I see the Kavanaugh attack, honestly, as an attack on masculinity itself.
My buddy Jason Whitlock has been arguing that most people attacking football are doing so because it's hyper masculine and they don't like hyper masculine culture. I'm starting to believe he's correct. This isn't about Kavanaugh it's about attacking anyone who doesn't have the same political opinions as you do.
I disagree with Kavanaugh on abortion, the death penalty, and potentially, gay marriage, but I would vote for his confirmation if I were a senator whether I were a Democrat or a Republican.
I think there are many reasonable men and women out there who see what's going on in our country and think this is crazy. Kavanaugh, if anything, seems pretty stodgy and boring. The guy admitted he didn't have sex in high school or for years in college either and he kept calendars of everything he did in high school. We're not far removed from the guy having a secret diary with a secret key.
If anything, I kind of expect for Donald Trump to drop him for not having enough sex and sounding like a loser.
But in all seriousness, this is not a dude who was out running through women like Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Namath or Derek Jeter.
Even the things he's accused of are more awkward than criminal. He's denied everything — and there's zero evidence they happened — but trying to make out with a girl and then getting tackled by your buddy and wrestling with him instead? Getting wasted and pulling out your dick in a dorm party with more dudes than girls there? There's a difference between uncouth behavior and criminal behavior.
How long until the Senate Judiciary is investigating guys from my generation and a question is asked like, "Did you, your honor, ever teabag a passed out fraternity brother or witness another fraternity member doing the same, during your four years of college?"
Is there any frat guy in the country that could testify no if he was in college in the 1990's or 2000's?
I have my doubts.
Now I don't think anybody wants the dumbest fraternity member in his pledge class sitting on the Supreme Court, but I do think we have to set a standard that high school and college hijinks — which may be inappropriate but did not result in criminal charges at the time — are off limits regardless of party.
That seems sane to me.
But we live in an insane world where a guy's high school yearbook page is front page in the New York Times so who knows.
"One of my friends at a small college in California has a housing dilemma. As a senior, he and his seven friends were given first pick of their housing options. Naturally, they chose to all live in an on-campus suite together with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. They had suffered through subpar housing for much of their college career and were excited to finally all be able to live together in one spot.
A few days before school started, he found out that one his friends was no longer going to live with them. It turns out the school had a housing shortage and ended up subsidizing this guy's off campus housing. A week before school started, my friend was notified that the extra spot in their suite was going to be filled with another student they did not know. Here's where the issue is.
Their new roommate who they would be sharing both a bedroom and a bathroom with is a transgender freshman (transitioning from female to male). My buddy was pretty upset that a freshman they did not know would be living with them. Additionally, this environment probably would not be the best place for a freshman to live and would certainly feel like an outsider (living with 7 seniors, 3 of which are on the football team). My friend and I align pretty closely with your political views and take a Libertarian view on most social issues. If someone wants to be a guy, then that's fine with us. However, biologically this person is still a female and this situation on the most basic level would have been a freshman girl living with senior football players.
Eventually, my friend's dad was able to convince the housing department that this situation was absurd, and they found a different housing option for this person.
Additionally, to show you what the culture is like on this campus, my friend told one of his best female friends about the situation, and she now refuses to speak to him because she thinks he is a bigoted person who is not accepting of trans people.
If you were in this situation, what would you do? Should my friend have lived with this freshman?"
This is a tough situation on so many different levels. First, I don't think a freshman should be living with seven seniors. That doesn't seem like a very conducive housing situation to begin with. Second, I don't think it's very fair to put one stranger into a housing situation with seven other people who all know each other and have chosen to live together already.
So I think the easy solution here would have been for the college to let you pick another person to move in and fulfill the eighth spot in the house.
All of these resolutions don't even need to consider the particular circumstances at play here.
Having said all of that, I don't know what the college should do when a freshman is transitioning from being female to male.
As a general rule I don't think minors or young adults should change genders. That is, I certainly don't think juveniles should do it and I'd advise anyone who is contemplating making this decision to wait until they are at least 24 or 25 because we often make poorly thought out decisions at young ages when our emotions are often deeply involved.
Having said all of this, if you believe changing your gender is going to make you happy, I'm fine with you making that decision. What I believe often happens, however, is young people of all ages often fixate on a grand gesture or major life decision as the cure to their unhappiness. As you age I think you realize that's often not the case. When you're young you often think, "Oh, if I just had more (money, sex, muscles, a better job, boyfriend or girlfriend or car or apartment) I'd be happy!"
That's almost never true.
Happiness, at least in my experience, is mostly innate and focused on how you feel internally more than by what you have to show others externally. If you define yourself by what you are chasing as opposed to what you have you'll almost always be unhappy because there's always something more to chase. That's not to say ambition or high goals are wrong, they most certainly aren't, I'm very ambitious and have high goals, but I think you have to be happy on your journey as opposed to believing that happiness will find you once you achieve a certain goal.
I think you have to age to find this wisdom. If you wake up doing something you hate every day because you think eventually you'll attain something that you love, I think that's unlikely to be the case.
So my skepticism on gender changes is that it, like most grand goals and gestures of youth, is often a symptom of unhappiness as opposed to a cure for it.
Now that I've given you the Tao of Clay how do you respond in this situation?
Biologically, at least in the early stages of the transition, this person is still female, right? My position would be that the general rule should be to assign students to a room based on the gender on their birth certificates. This would work for the vast majority of the students and avoid a situation where a girl would be placed in a room with seven guys, which I think most of you would agree would not be ideal for college housing.
I would also, however, create an option for student housing for students who are transitioning to men or women.
In fact, why not put two students who are both transitioning from male to female together in the same room? Or vice versa? Or at least have them on the same floor. I would think this would potentially be helpful to them. Freshman year of college is often a tremendous social, cultural and interpersonal struggle. I know that moving to Washington, D.C. and moving into a dorm with two strangers was an incredible challenge for me.
I can't even imagine what that struggle would have been like if I'd simultaneously decided to become a woman too.
I think the university did a disservice to everyone by putting seven seniors who know each other into a single housing unit with one freshman transitioning from female to male.
I suspect upon being made aware of this issue, someone at the college agreed and hopefully found a better solution for all involved.
As for whether you should be shunned on campus, of course not. But I also don't understand why you should be sharing the story widely with others either. If the correct result was reached, why make a big deal out of it with others and give them an opportunity to shun you?
"I'm curious to hear your take on this. If the plot of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" took place in 2018, I genuinely believe Tom Robinson would be found guilty (regardless of evidence to the contrary or a lack of evidence corroborating his accuser's story) not because of the color of his skin, but rather because his accuser said so.
I also think that Atticus Finch would be considered an enabler rather than a moral compass. Instead of being a beacon of light that people strive to be similar to, Atticus Finch would be considered a stain to the society & a symbol of "female oppression."
There's a chance I'm being a bit dramatic, but I genuinely think society's ability to process facts has reached such a dense level that this is 100% plausible. Thoughts?"
Not sure if you watch Outkick the Show, but this is the exact argument I've been making.
The problem with believing someone based on their gender is it's the exact opposite of what we believe in America, that both sides of any argument should be zealously pursued regardless of race or gender. That's the entire purpose of our adversarial judicial system.
I've defended murderers and people accused of serious crimes. That didn't mean I believed they'd behaved correct, it meant I understood my obligations as a lawyer — to provide the best defense I was capable of providing.
The eloquent message of "To Kill a Mockingbird" was that identity politics were wrong. It was wrong of Southerners to believe a white woman over a black man simply because she was white and he was black. Atticus Finch's argument was simple in the cross examination — facts matter.
What we saw in the book and the movie was that facts often didn't matter in a Jim Crow era South — that the truth was camouflaged by our own racial prejudices and identity politics. That we overlooked the truth to believe our worldviews.
What happened to Tom Robinson in that fictional tale was identity politics gone wrong.
And identity politics have gone wrong in our modern era too.
It's wrong to believe a woman in 2018 simply because she's a woman.
All that should matter in these cases are three things: the facts, the facts, the facts.
What we've seen happen of late often isn't justice, it's an overreaction to past injustice. The Duke Lacrosse case is a perfect example of this — there are many people out there focused on identity politics who want privileged white men like the Duke Lacrosse players to be guilty just because they are privileged white men.
I understand the desire to right past wrongs, but you don't right past wrongs by continuing to make the same mistakes of the past, only this time to make them in favor of past discriminated against groups.
That's not justice, that's still sexism or racism.
I've written before that this explains the OJ Simpson verdict — OJ was found not guilty even though he murdered two white people — because some black defendants had been found guilty despite being innocent. OJ got off despite being guilty because Emmett Till, and many others like him in American history, were found guilty despite being innocent.
The problem is it has now been nearly 25 years since OJ Simpson. Our society should be evolving beyond baseline assumptions of guilt or innocence based on race and gender. Unfortunately, with Bret Kavanaugh, I think we're seeing that's not true. There are many people who believe Bret Kavanaugh's accuser not based on the evidence at all — there is none — but based on her identity and their worldview.
They also believe something even more radical — that aggressively questioning this women is disrespectful of her allegation.
I fundamentally disagree.
I think all people making accusations of criminal conduct should be aggressively questioned about those accusations regardless of their race, sex, gender or sexual orientation. To do otherwise is a miscarriage of justice.
"Just purchased an autographed copy of your book for a buddy of mine whose couch I pissed last weekend (wasted). He originally coerced me into listening to Outkick with your Lena Dunham dramatic reading from election night. Question, is that sufficient enough as an apology?"
As much as I appreciate the additional autographed book sell, I don't think a single copy of a hardback book is adequate compensation for pissing on his couch.
You owe him more.
Thanks for reading the anonymous mailbag. Please go buy a copy of my book. As this exact moment we are presently the number 54 best selling book in America on Amazon.
Thanks for all your support of Outkick.


text:
Q: Can BDD NUnit test cases run parallel in selenium Grid? I have a BDD framework and using NUnit for test execution.I am trying to implement selenium grid wherein as the default configuration ,I have 5 instances of chrome , firefox and 1 of IE. However when i select multiple tests from VS to run from a node on lets say chrome, they only run sequentially and not in parallel.
I tried using MaxInstances and MaxSessions also.

A: Selenium Grid has got nothing to do with scheduling tests in sequence or in parallel. You would need to configure NUnit to run tests in parallel. The Grid is merely an execution environment which by default will support parallel test execution, but since the tests need to be spun off in parallel, which NUnit should be doing.