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US Open shows how fun lawn bowling can be
Prose and Kohn: Ryan Kohn
By Ryan Kohn
| 6:00 a.m. November 25, 2016
It moves at a slow crawl, drawing out the intrigue of where it will stop its roll.
Eight men watch the red bowl weave its way in between two blue bowls, curl around a smaller white ball and come to a halt. Four of the men exclaim and clap. The other four can only give credit to their opponent's shot.
Sarasota Lawn Bowling Club hosted the Bowls USA 2016 US Open from Nov. 12 through Nov. 19, and will host the event again next November. It is a big deal for the club. Bowls players from the world over came to Sarasota to compete, including India, Pakistan and Scotland. It even featured a true legend of the game in England's Andy Thomson, who has been a permanent fixture in World Bowl's top-16 rankings since 1996.
You may have never played lawn bowls, but I bet you've played one of its derivatives, bocce or curling, or at least are familiar with its concept. The idea of lawn bowls, or simply "bowls," is to roll your bowls as close to the small white ball (the "jack") as possible. Players are awarded points based on how many of their bowls are closer to the jack than their opponent's closest bowl. So, if the closest three bowls to the jack are all yours, you are awarded three points. Games can be one-on-one, pairs, or four-on-four, in both a men's and women's division.
It sounds simple, but bowls do not roll in a straight line. They curve, at a large degree, and different throwing techniques put different spins on them. Greens, as the game's playing surfaces are called, can run either fast or slow. Sarasota's usually take about 14 seconds from end to end, while greens in Australia take about 20-24 seconds.
"It's a game that you can probably learn how to play in an hour," said Daniel Jittu, president of Sarasota Lawn Bowling Club. "But you master it over a lifetime."
Clem Reiss, 74, has lived in Sarasota for 15 years, and has played lawn bowls at the club for equally as long. His appreciation for the sport stems from the option it gives athletes with backgrounds in other, more physical sports. If you can't play tennis or basketball anymore, you can still bowl.
The game is most popular in countries like Scotland, England and Australia. It was popular in America before the Revolutionary War, but many prominent Americans disavowed the game to protest British rule, and it never regained its former popularity despite a slight bump in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to Walt Disney's involvement.
Jittu said that while most people in the United States think of bowls as a "retirement sport," that is not entirely the case. The club has a handful of teenagers who play once a week after school. Worldwide, the best bowls players are typically in their 20s and 30s. Only in America does it appeal to older generations.
That may soon change. Jittu, along with Bowls USA, the sport's governing body in America, and World Bowls, the sport's international federation, have put together a proposal to make lawn bowls an Olympic sport. Part of the proposal would make Sarasota a hub for the sport's Olympic trials. If everything goes according to plan, a test lawn bowls Olympic-style games could be held as soon as 2024.
The Sarasota club has improved a lot during the past few years. Richard Broad, New Bowls USA president, first visited the club in 2000. He said the greens were "dreadful" back then. Broad credits Jittu with spending the money to get the greens ready for a major competition like the US Open.
Thomson agreed with Broad on the quality of the greens at the Sarasota Club. He added that American players have the potential to be competitive if they work at it, but stressed that the average age of competitors must drop if that potential is going to be reached.
"Bowls is only an old person's sport in the media," Thomson said. "It doesn't have to be."
Count this as me doing my part to change perceptions.
Young people of Sarasota: give the game a shot. If you have the patience for golf, you have the patience for lawn bowls. The game needs an injection of youth if it is going to survive in this country.
As Broad said of his community, "We may be small, but we're charming."
Try it, and you might be charmed yourself. It does not feature the adrenaline rush of more popular sports, but it is a fun way to get some sun and spend an afternoon with friends.
"How could there be anything better than this?" Broad asked.
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Sarasota secures international lawn bowling event
Lawn bowlers accuse officials of neglect
Bird Key Yacht Club seeks pickleball courts
Athlete of the Week: Clemens Reiss


By the time I left I had probably been hugged by 50 people - virtually everyone I saw reacted with delight. Cool! What a great way to fill my cup.
I've had similar experiences since moving back to Barrie.
I think it is really easy to get caught up in our day to day "stuff" and forget to reach out and stay in touch with people we've come to know along the way. Don't move on completely. People are important, and you are one of them.
Keep in touch. It's good for your heart.


A massive well done to all of Year 5 and 6 for their performance last Thursday night at St. Mary's - you all did really well.
I thought are play was excellent I loved it.
That was the best Christmas play I have ever done.I really liked it.
well done Kate/Olivia ,Nikky/Abby, mum/Anna , paul/will, Lauren J ,Sam Q including all the year 5 and 6 for all their hard work.
Not forgetting Mr Bailey , Mr Brooks, Mrs Galvin,Mr Herring ,Mrs Spill ,Mrs Fowlas fof helping us with the production.
The christmas production was very good well doneevrey one!


Bryan Beel is a Vice President with over ten years of real estate appraisal and consulting experience. Mr. Beel is in the Valuation & Advisory Services Group's Raleigh-Durham office in the Southeast Region.
Mr. Beel has experience providing finance appraisals, consultations, market studies, rent analyzes, feasibility studies and litigation support. He has also managed several portfolio assignments.
Mr. Beel's experience encompasses a wide variety of property types including apartments (conventional and student housing), retail properties (net-lease, neighborhood centers, community centers, and regional malls), industrial properties (manufacturing, multi-tenant, net-lease, and cold storage), office (general, medical, and net-lease), as well as special use properties.


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CAL Fire uses resources on the ground and in the air to effectively fight wildland fires. Fixed wing aircraft are used for Air Attack Operations.
The Incident Commander (IC) operates on the ground in the vicinity of the fire. The IC is the overall commander of the fire. He coordinates all the resources needed to fight the fire.
HRAAB uses Air Attack 310 to provide an overall aerial view of the fire for the IC. Air Attack 310 coordinates the airspace over the fire directing air tanker and helicopter water drops where they are required.


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Tag Archives: The Avengers
Very Metal "Thor The Dark World" teaser poster drops
So, when did Thor join Sabaton? Just wondering.
The second cinematic adventure for the exquisitely coiffured son of Odin will be with us in November, and to whet your proverbial whistle for Tuesday's teaser trailer, here's a Marvel-supplied poster of the Norse God bringing his own, oddly-accented brand of thunder and bad assery.
As the first "Thor" outing was probably my favourite of the stand-alone "Phase One" series of Marvel films, I'm truly on board for what the House of Ideas' cinematic brains trust delivers with this movie, even if I'm going to miss original director Kenneth Branagh's love of a 'Dutch' angle.
Still, most of the other principals are back, Christopher Eccleston is bringing his own brand of Mancunian melancholy to the villain role and it's being helmed by a regular "Game of Thrones" director (I suspect that there's rather less scope here, however, for non-stop pillaging, politicking and the other less salubrious fantasy stuff for which that HBO show is becoming increasingly famed…).
I expect good things…
Tagged as Chris Hemsworth, Christopher Eccleston, God of Thunder, Loki, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Odin, Power Metal, The Avengers, Thor, Thor The Dark World
What Joss Did Next…
So, how do you follow-up last year's barely seen, low-budget success d'estime, "The Avengers"? It came and went from theatres in about a week, hardly made a dent at the box office. I don't blame you for never having heard of it.
Luckily, somebody's decided to let Joss Whedon out of movie jail and given him the chance to make amends for bombing so badly last time out by making something with sure-fire commercial potential – a can't-miss, four-quadrant, summer blockbuster of a flick.
He's only gone and made a Shakespeare adaptation! Why, you'd almost think that he'd just made a billion dollar superhero smash and thus had carte blanche to follow his muse, call in some mates and make the Bard relevant to Generation Twitter. Such absurdity! It's almost as if you have to direct a successful movie version of "Much Ado…" in order to be allowed the keys to the House of Ideas movie toy box…
First Trailer for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (tor.com)
'Much Ado About Nothing' Trailer: Joss Whedon Does William Shakespeare (slashfilm.com)
Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing Looks Totally Awesome (jezebel.com)
Whedon Does William: The "Much Ado About Nothing" Trailer (nerdist.com)
Filed under Films, Geekery, Movie Trailer
Tagged as Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Joss Whedon, Much Ado About Nothing, Nathan Fillion, Shakespeare, The Avengers, William Shakespeare
BraveHawk? BraveEye?
via Cherry Garcia on Tumblr (and the SFX Spurious Awards)
Filed under Geekery
Tagged as "Brave", Fan art, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Marvel Comics, Pixar, The Avengers
Boxing Hawkeye
Ugly art, Disney! Must try harder…
Disney will be getting a fresh influx of much-needed, "John Carter" offsetting cash on September 25th when they release "The Avengers" on Blu-Ray (in the two flavours presented above) and in a two-disc DVD set if you're representing old-school digital media.
It need hardly be said that this flick will be selling like the proverbial warm baked goods. What needs to be established, for anally retentive, hopeless old collector geeks like me is whether we'll be getting a nifty Steelbook set too, to go with the four (count 'em!) copies of "Serenity" which we own in various DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and nifty collector's tin editions on our shelves.
It's only financial prudence which has stopped me from chasing down the previous Marvel movies in textbook form – financial prudence which will be merrily cast asunder once this film hits Blu-Ray.
Hmm…I sure could do with a Hammer right about now…
Hurrah for Joss Whedon-fixated nerdery! And imminent bankruptcy!
Tagged as Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Ironman, Joss Whedon, The Avengers, The Avengers Blu Ray Disc, The Avengers DVD, What Would Tony Stark Do?
Joss Whedon – what next for Marvellous Movie Maven?
In news calculated to give even the most vehement Whedonist indigestion, the awesome nerd visionary behind "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", "Angel", some show (and movie) about people with brown coats and this summer's eyeball-buffing work of epic awesome sauce has mixed feelings about returning to the fold to helm another "Avengers" adventure.
Empire magazine has more (via the L.A. Times' 'Hero Complex' blog).
Notwithstanding Marvel Studio's alleged tendency to get cheap and cheerless when it comes to hiring back expensive creative talent (a predisposition apparently much maligned by Mickey Rourke and Jon Favreau on "Iron Man 2"), I think it certainly behoves all concerned to sit down and talk sensibly about returning for another go around the giant exploding bush (it's like a Money Tree, if Michael Bay invented it).
Here, for my money, is Marvel's chance to have an equivalent film-maker/studio relationship to that enjoyed by Warner Bros and Christopher Nolan – which is something that's not to be taken lightly, as it appears to be of massive critical and financial benefit to both parties.
Make it happen, Marvel – this guy helped to get you your first $1 billion blockbuster and he's worth betting on again, the big geeky lug of a renaissance man.
Tagged as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Christopher Nolan, Hero Complex, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Marvel Studio, Mickey Rourke, The Avengers, Warner Bros
Acts of Gods
"Put it on my tab…."
It's good to know that somebody out there is considering the important stuff, per this story at SFX today – the damage caused by the climactic battle in "The Avengers" would have cost some poor soul $160 billion to make good.
A sum, of course, that is likely mere walking-around money for a Billionaire philanthropist superhero playboy such as Tony Stark, but more of a concern to the rest of us.
Why, it's almost as much damage as two blokes in a car managed to accrue in the climactic car apocalypse in "Fast Five"…
This piece from TV Tropes on the concept of Hero Insurance makes for intriguing reading in that regard…
Tagged as $160 billion, Avenger, Hulk, Iron Man, Joss Whedon, Manhattan, Property Damage, SFX, The Avengers, Tony Stark, TV Tropes
Epic Fantasy Avengers Assemble!
Nifty shield courtesy of the genius nerds at Fantasy Shields.com
Inspired by a post over at the Tor Books blog, which posits a line-up for a Fantasy equivalent of "The Avengers", I couldn't let a day go by without pledging my team of Ye Olde Awesome Fictional Nerds into the fray…
To lead this band of brothers, sisters and brigands?
We're going to need magic – that's a given. We're also going to need some one with quick wit, nifty sartorial skills and every team has to have one member liable to go off the deep end and indulge their dark side every so often. Severus Snape is the complete package. Just make sure that he hasn't worked his mojo on the team's +5 to Health Mead beverages and we'll be fine. Think of him as Nick Fury, sans eye patch but replete with devastating sarcasm and lank locks of doom.
Sorcery taken care of – next, we'll be needing some brute strength, Tank-style.
Because, you know, Hellboy is Teh Awesomez and is more than a match for his Hulkness. Also, somebody with his chequered past, supernatural Rolodex is and possessed of The Right Hand of Doom is going to be a cat that you want to have on side when the intergalactic/dimensional cannon fodder start showing up en masse.
If we've got magic and damage on lock down, we should be looking at having a sneaky, acrobatic, multi-tasking assassin on side. Preferably with cute, pointy ears.
That's Felicia Day as Tallis in the web series for EA's otherwise unloved "Dragon Age 2". Elf representation covered, quick wits aplenty and she could probably dash out a nifty Elven ballad or two around the team camp fire on a cold night in the forest.
If we're basing our team around the Avengers template, I'm going to have to find a Tony Stark/arcane technology specialist from somewhere. And given my abiding love for the video games, we're going to kill two ancient beasts with one stone.
Yep, that's the Alchemist class from "Torchlight" – who's as near as dammit to being both Iron Man and Black Widow in the same package. At least when I'm playing, that is. Multi-tasking? Me? On a school night, yet? But of course…
We're going to need somebody who can handle a bow and arrow and take down fools with almost disdainful aplomb…
Yep, Neytiri from "Avatar", you'll do nicely (and as some would argue that "Avatar" was more fantasy than SF, there's certainly a case to be made…)
I confess, I'm slightly at a loss for a "Captain America" analogue in my uncanny squadron of fantastic misfits – any ideas will be gratefully accepted…
(Not So) Stealth Edit!
After going away and thinking about it for a while – I'm giving the Cap role in my coterie of weird heroes to….
Gabriel Belmont, conflicted warrior hero of the recent "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" revamp – he's got the combat thing down pat and can brood for days. Armour? Check. Strong moral convictions? After a fashion. He's probably got some kind of shield to employ that I've yet to find, down some back alley in the game. Yep, he's in.
As Garrett points out in the comments, I'm still in need of a good fictional Thor analogue – and suggests Ares, from Greek mythology, but also reinvented for various Marvel titles in the expanded "Avengers" family.
He's a massively overpowered warrior from antiquity thrust into the modern era, able to summon ancient weaponry from his Mythological Ancestral home, battle like a maniac and has a history with the wider "Avengers" continuity.
Yep, he's in…
Filed under Books, Films, Gaming, Geekery
Tagged as Avatar, Avenger, Black Widow, Captain America, Fantasy, Fantasy Team-Up, Felicia Day, Hellboy, Marvel Comics, Nick Fury, Severus Snape, The Avengers, Tor Books, Torchlight

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Our motley crew heads to the port city of Low Dock in an attempt to procure a ship and assemble a crew.
Will they find what they need? Or will this become the shortest heist ever attempted? Find out as "The Great Vilhaim Heist" continues!
"The Trump campaign is getting ready to make its final push towards the White House. For months, he has been playing to the basest urges of the American populace: the need for more. More safety, more money, more guns, more of everything. His followers have been whipped into a frenzy, waiting to strike at the polls. The whole country is wound as tight as a fiddle-string, and that's exactly the way Trump wants it.
Maybe you needed the university credits. Maybe your parents supported his campaign and had an "in". For whatever reason, you were one of the few chosen to intern in the executive half of the campaign, with Trump himself. It was stressful, and that's what you expected. His smiles are a little too wide, his words are a little too rushed, and his running mate is a little too quiet. That's all normal, right? It's just stress. Stress will make you see things that aren't there – especially on election night."
We had the amazing privilege of recording the talented Jacqueline Bryk's new KULT: Divinity Lost scenario "And the Rocket's Red Glare", together with Isak Jansson from Sweden's largest actual play podcast "Rollspelsklubben" as a guest player. Joining us was also our dear friend Jenny Bremberg.
NOTE: This scenario is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the scenario's creator and are not to be construed as real. Where real life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are almost entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of this story.
This is fake news, but we hope you will enjoy it.
Over the coming few weeks we will be playing the adventure "The Great Vilhaim Heist" for Scarred Lands, a setting for Dungeons & Dragons by Onyx Path Publishing. We are again joined by The Gentleman Gamer Matthew Dawkins who will be our Dungeon Master for this adventure.
"Scarn. This world is not what it once was. Broken and battered, it was mauled in a great conflict that raged across its surface for years. The titans — primal beings, forces of nature that created and shaped Scarn — warred with their children, the gods, who had learned to draw power from the faith of lowly mortals wandering the face of Scarn. They clashed across the world, amassing armies using the creatures they created or who worshiped them. On one side were the "titanspawn," twisted monsters and foul creatures loyal to the titans; on the other, the "divine races," the mortals, banded together to aid the gods. Over time, the gods were successful and the titans subdued, but never destroyed. The gods are the sole rulers of Scarn now, fueled by the devout worship of their mortal followers.
Yet though the war is over, the damage remains, and it is for this reason that Scarn is now known as the Scarred Lands. That great conflict, known as both the Divine War and the Titanswar, has been over for a century and a half, but the healing process has only just begun. Much of Scarn's topography has been twisted and warped in unnatural ways. And the titans, though dormant, are not dead. Welcome... to Scarred Lands"
We are very happy and pleased to bring you this special episode of Red Moon Roleplaying where we got to play Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG from 1981. The game is written by industry legends Ken St. Andre and Steve Perrin, and is based on Michael Moorcock's works about Elric of Melniboné, the albino sorcerer who wields the enchanted black blade named Stormbringer. A blade that feeds off of blood and souls.
For now we wish you a pleasant journey to the Young Kingdoms!
We got the great opportunity to play the gorgeous primal punk RPG DEGENESIS by SIXMOREVODKA with Kyle Willey, who is a freelancer on the game, as our Gamemaster.
"500 years have passed since a swarm of asteroids ushered in the end humanity. Earth is engulfed by a new ice age. But Mankind hasn't given up just yet. From the ashes of a destroyed civilization, a new one has risen. Cults, clans and tribes are fighting for dominance in a world that is being reborn. Apocalyptic sects raise fortresses in the landscape. Clans form new cities. Border towns rise from the settling asteroid dust. A whole people are on the move to harvest the artifacts of the lost generations. To rebuild earth in a new and glorious fashion.
But in the shadows of the craters something is moving. A strange virus that was traveling underneath the icy shell of the asteroids has started infecting humanity's DNA. The virus, called the Primer, is starting to mutate people who get in touch with it, transforming them, turning them into a new apex predator, a new race of human beings.
It's the birth of Homo Degenesis."
We have reached the end of our journey. The final confrontation is at hand and our three heroes will fight not only for their own survival, but for that of the whole community.
Music by: Cryo Chamber Collaborations "Cthulhu", "Yog-Sothoth", "Shub-Niggurath", "Azathoth" and "Nyarlathotep"
We are almost at the end of our story. Plans are made and alliances created. Can Denton be saved?
Find out as the TERROR AT MAKE-OUT POINT continues!
Let us tell you of the days of High Adventure!
Thanks to our friends at MODIPHIUS we got the opportunity to sit down for a session of their game, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, at Dragonmeet in London. This epic tale of heroism pits our unwitting heroes Bracus and Leonitus against nefarious foes in a city with a dark and sinister secret. The two have come in pursuit of coin, but will they leave the city with more than that? And will they leave it... alive?
Agents from the Bureau are on their way to Denton and B.C. finds himself in a tough spot.
The Terror at Make-out Point continues!
Our play-through of "Hearts on Trial" concludes. Will Leander and Red find what they seek beyond the Hedge?
Things that should not exist in this world reveal themselves, as Dr. White, B.C. and Agent Faulkner fight for their lives. The terror continues... as does our adventure!
Armed with new information and clues the group finds themselves discussing their next move in a local diner. What's that Mary-Beth, another cup of coffee? Why thank you kindly.
It's been a few months ago since we checked in with our Patreon bonus campaign "Taroticum" for KULT: Divinity Lost. Having left you on a dreadful cliffhanger we thought it would be nice to give you closure to the prologue.
We released the ninth episode of the campaign on the five dollar per month level on Patreon today so you can enjoy a nice KULT binge if you back us there. Your support allows us to spend more time on the show and really means a great deal to us!
The Lee-Metford rifle was a bolt-action rifle that replaced the aging breech-loaded Martini-Henry rifle as the British Army's service rifle in 1888. It was much faster than the Martini-Henry and the bolt's rotation was only 60 degrees compared to the 90 degrees of similar German and French rifles. It had one major drawback however and that was its reliance on the extremely smoky black powder as a propellant. The rifle was supposed to utilize cordite which is smokeless, but production delays made the makers of the rifle have to rely on black powder.
In 1896 the Lee-Metford was phased out in favour of the Lee-Enfield rifle, which used smokeless powder and is still utilized to this day with units in especially the developing countries of the commonwealth.
During World War 2 the Lee-Metford found itself converted in to an automatic rifle in New Zealand and Australia due to the lack of Bren and Lewis guns. The Lee-Metford remains in use by one unit today, the Atholl Highlanders in Scotland.
Over on our Patreon you can follow the crew of the "Red Moon" as they fight for their lives in the "Last Voyage of the Ghazali" and now also as they discover the secrets of the third horizon in the first part of the epic "Mercy of the Icons"-campaign that is called "Emissary Lost".
This is the second episode of "Emissary Lost" and allows us to follow Pig and Carlo on the Coriolis station as they uncover a mystery that will change the future of the third horizon forever.
Now, may the icons watch over you and have mercy on your soul!
Red Moon Roleplaying are proud to announce our campaign "TERROR AT MAKE-OUT POINT" for the Sci-Fi horror game "They Came From Beneath The Sea" from our friends at Onyx Path Publishing, with the game's creator The Gentleman Gamer, Matthew Dawkins as our Gamemaster / Director.
This will be a short campaign before we begin our next big thing and will give you a chance to follow the misanthropic Dr. White, played by Craig, the high-flying B.C. Rosberg, played by Hjalmar, and the pinko-hunting Agent Faulkner, played by Mattiaz, as they unravel the mystery that is "TERROR AT MAKE-OUT POINT".
The setting is a take on the 1950's Alabama that you can see in Sci-Fi monster movies from that era. While the game embraces humor and schlock, Matthew will be keeping the Red Moon formula intact by taking us down far darker paths and putting us against nightmarish Lovecraftian horrors beyond human imagination.
This first session includes character creation and if you want to skip to the action you can find it at 01:47:18.
At Dragonmeet we had the amazing opportunity to finally earn our name and to play the latest edition of the classic fantasy RPG RuneQuest by Chaosium. The adventure is called "Contested Ground" and is set in the lands of Old Tarsh in Glorantha, the amazing setting created by Greg Stafford. Gamemaster is none other than the line editor for RuneQuest over at Chaosium, Jason Durall.
Hjalmar takes the role of the warrior Arim, and Craig the bandit Ilaro, both of the Dolutha clan of the Hindarli Tribe. The two will represent their clan in an honor duel against the Two Brothers Clan and at stake is control of the important Storm's Eye watchtower. Things... will not go as planned.
Sit back and enjoy a journey to Glorantha, where the Red Moon has risen.
Thank you again for following our play-through of "Curse of Strahd"!
Craig, Hjalmar and Mattiaz sat down right after the end of the campaign to look back on their memories from the journey. The total conversation clocked in at 2.5 hours and we hope that you will enjoy reminiscing about the twisted places we visited and the many wonderfully dark characters we met.
We have a few more things to prepare over the coming week but will be announcing our next campaign as soon as we can. Stay tuned!
In November of 1462 the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus had finally heard the requests of Vlad III Dracula to join him in his war against the Ottomans. He arrived in Transylvania to negotiate with Vlad, who had now lost his throne to his brother Radu, whom the Ottomans favored.
After long negotiations Corvinus decided that Vlad was a liability he could not afford and had Vlad imprisoned in his palace in Visegrád. Fourteen years passed until he was mentioned in writing again.
In 1476 Radu's successor as prince of Wallachia, Basarab, was seen by the Hungarians as too friendly to the Ottomans. Corvinus decided to recognize Vlad as the lawful prince of Wallachia and together with Moldavian support Vlad's Hungarian army invaded his homeland. In the end of 1476 Vlad was again crowned Prince of Wallachia.
However, his reign would be short as Basarab returned with a large Ottoman army supporting him in early 1477. Vlad III Dracula met his end when his small army was vanquished by Basarab's forces. Vlad's corpse was supposedly cut in to pieces and his head was sent to Sultan Mehmed II.
According to the stories Vlad III Dracula was buried in the monastery in Snagov. But when his supposed tomb was excavated in 1933, only horse bones were found within.


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Many U.S. Construction Contractors are Turning Down Work Because They Don't Have Enough Workers
The vast majority of contractors report moderate to high levels of difficulty finding skilled labor, leading them to turn down work, according to a recent U.S. Chamber poll.
Economy/
Thaddeus Swanek
Senior Writer and Editor, Strategic Communications, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Even before the pandemic, commercial contractors had serious concerns about having enough skilled workers to fill open positions. According to the latest data from the U.S. Chamber's Commercial Construction Index (Index), those concerns remain at chronically high levels and are leading to serious consequences.
Skilled worker shortage leads to contractors turning down projects Commercial contractors concerns about having enough skilled workers to fill open positions remained at chronically high levels this quarter and are leading to serious consequences.
The vast majority (91%) of contractors report moderate to high levels of difficulty finding skilled labor, up three points from this summer. More telling is the fact that 62% of contractors report high levels of difficulty finding skilled workers, rising seven points from last quarter, and up 20 points from one year ago.
These challenges are leading to real-world consequences: almost half (45%) of contractors who report difficulty finding workers say they have turned down work because they can't find enough skilled workers.
Other consequence of the skilled workers shortage are even worse. Among those contractors reporting difficulty finding workers:
74% say they are asking skilled workers to do more work (down from 83% who said the same in 2020 Q4).
72% report a challenge in meeting project schedule requirements (up slightly from 71% in 2020 Q4).
Over half (60%) are putting in higher bids for projects (up from 58% in 2020 Q4).
"One of the most pressing issues facing our economy today is the worsening worker shortage crisis, and these findings show that construction sector, much like other industries, continues to face this challenge," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley.
The report also found that rising costs and a lack of materials continue to create challenges for the construction industry, causing the overall Index score to fall one point this quarter to 65 as contractors' revenue expectations, a key driver of the score, fell for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Economic Viewpoints
New U.S. Chamber Data Center Highlights Economic Challenges Facing Business in 2023
Record high number of contractors report materials shortages
Alongside a shortage of workers, contractors are also facing shortages in the materials they need to complete projects.
A record-high percentage (95%) of contractors are experiencing at least one product shortage, up 24 points year-over-year. Steel (27%) remained the most-reported product shortage followed by roofing material (19%) and wood/lumber (17%).
Steel has climbed to the most-cited material shortage over the past several quarters—and many contractors also cite steel as a concern because of its fluctuating cost. Nearly an all-time high of 97% of contractors (since the start of the Index in 2017) indicated that cost fluctuations have a moderate-to-high impact on their business. Of those who said material cost fluctuations have had an impact on their business, 43% said steel was their top concern.
Trade and tariffs remain a big concern
Contractors have expressed ongoing concerns about the potential effect of tariffs and trade wars on their access to materials. This quarter, already-high concerns over trade and tariffs persisted.
Nearly half (47%) of contractors said steel and aluminum tariffs will have a high to very-high degree of impact on their business in the next three years. A similar percentage (49%) said the same about new construction material and equipment tariffs, up five points from last quarter and up 23 points year-over-year.
Bradley said, "It is critical that policymakers invest in programs to upskill and prioritize workers, pass sensible immigration reform, and remove tariffs and other trade barriers so that contractors have the workers and materials they need to get the job done."
For more data on the commercial construction industry, visit www.CommercialConstructionIndex.com to access the full report and methodology.
Thaddeus is a senior writer and editor with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's strategic communications team.
If Congress doesn't increase the debt limit the government would be unable to pay its bills resulting in a first-ever default, which would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy.
By Neil Bradley
The Economy Isn't Doing as Poorly as You Think Due to Second-Hand Pessimism; Here's Why
By Curtis Dubay
How Fixing Our Worker Shortage Can Fight Inflation
What to Expect for the Economy in 2023


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Syllabus of the Online Course (Subject): International Pricing Policy. Export prices.
The main purpose of the Online Course / Subject "International Pricing Policy" is to understand the importance of an appropriate pricing strategy when entering new export markets.
One of the most complicated aspects of foreign trade is pricing policy. An incorrect pricing policy can lead to total failure in international markets.
First of all; we should find out about prices in various foreign markets, this information will allow us to have some real criteria for setting our export prices.
However, we will meet the familiar dilemma of global or local prices.
From another point of view, the price is attached to the selected Incoterm. In the more competitive markets; it is habitual to deliver the product to client´s premises, thereby offering DDP prices. In some countries this is impossible, and it will cause us problems.
When designing the international pricing policy; we will have previously carried out a survey of our competitor's prices in our different target markets.
We will be able to act according to this information one-way or the other. It will be a basic reference when establishing international prices. In this respect, the Internet is a valuable research tool for the exporter.


text:
Q: How to access controller from route in Ember? Is there any foolproof way to access controller from a route?
add

App.ApplicationRoute = Ember.Route.extend
  events:
    someAction: (user) ->
      console.log 'give me name from currentUser controller'

The someAction is very general and I think that ApplicationRoute is the best place for it.

A: I think the method controllerFor should be available in this event:
App.ApplicationRoute = Ember.Route.extend
  events:
    someAction: (user) ->
      console.log this.controllerFor("currentUser").get("name")

Update in response to the questions in the comments:
It all depends on what you want to do. Worrying about DRY on such a basic method, does not make much sense imho.
In your kudos left case I would do this:
App.ApplicationRoute = Ember.Route.extend
  events:
    someAction: (user) ->
      this.controllerFor("currentUser").decrementKudos();
      // implement the decrementKudos in your controller

But I guess storing this one controller should also work, if this is too much code for you:
App.ApplicationRoute = Ember.Route.extend
  currentUserCon : this.controllerFor("currentUser")
  events:
    someAction: (user) ->
      this.currentUserCon.decrementKudos();
      // implement the decrementKudos in your controller

A: In the newer version of ember you can access current route's controller in route as below
Ember version 2.5
currentUserCon : this.controller

if you want to access other routes controller then use controllerFor method.
this.controllerFor('path to controller'); //put path to controller as parameter.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Mark Strand / With Only the Stars to Guide Us
Mark Strand at John Cabot University
Mark Strand / The Art of Poetry
Mark Strand / The Everyday Enchantment of Music
Mark Strand / The Coming of Light
Mark Strand / Eating Poetry
Mark Strand / From the Long Sad Party
Mark Strand / My Mother on an Evening in Late Summer
Mark Strand / Always
Mark Strand (born 11 April 1934) is a Canadian-born American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Since 2005–06, he has been a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
by Jay Parini
Strand was born in Canada on Prince Edward Island. He studied at Antioch College, where he took a BA. He also received a BFA from Yale, where he studied painting. At the University of Iowa, he worked closely with poet Donald Justice, completing an MA in 1962. He spent a year in Italy on a Fulbright scholarship, and later taught at Iowa for three years. In 1965 he spent a year as Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Brazil, where he was deeply influenced by contemporary Latin American poets (especially the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade). Strand has moved around a good deal, teaching at many American universities, including Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Utah, where he is now professor of English.
Strand's poetry is known for a clarity reminiscent of the paintings of Edward Hopper, and for a deeply inward sense of language. Many of the poems aspire to the condition of dreams, shot through with images possessing a strangely haunting vividness, as in 'The Ghost Ship', which summons a mysterious ship that floats 'Through the crowded streets ... / its vague / tonnage like wind'. He frequently invokes everyday images, as in 'The Mailman', where a wraith-like mailman visits the narrator at midnight to deliver 'terrible personal news'. In 'The Last Bus' the poet imagines Rio de Janeiro, calling the sea 'a dream' in which the city 'dies and is reborn'. The poem is surreal in a manner that combines the dreamlike quality of Pablo Neruda with aspects of nightmare that recall such European expressionists as Georg Trakl.
Strand's first book, Sleeping with One Eye Open was published in 1964. His second, Reasons for Moving (1968), attracted widespread attention from critics; it includes 'Eating Poetry' which begins: 'Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. / There is no happiness like mine. / I have been eating poetry.' This antic surrealism also animates poems like 'Moontan', 'The Man in the Tree', and 'The Marriage'. Darker (1970) was an obliquely autobiographical volume, containing such poems as 'My Life' and 'My Death'. These poems are full of a quiet, ironically pictured anguish as the poet teeters on the brink of self-consciousness in pursuit of his via negative. In 1973 Strand published The Story of Our Lives, more explicitly autobiographical than anything he had written before. It includes a striking elegy for the poet's father.
The Late Hour (1978) is among the strongest of Strand's several books, containing poems for the poet's son and daughter, and a number of poems (such as 'The Late Hour', 'Snowfall', and 'The Garden') that possess a deeply elegiac quality. In this book, Strand began writing with a freshness and simplicity that recall the poetry of ancient China.
As the Mexican poet Octavio Paz has written: 'Mark Strand has chosen the negative path, with loss as the first step towards fullness: it is also the opening to a transparent verbal perfection.' Strand's Selected Poems (New York, 1980) adds to previously published work a number of beautifully realized autobiographical poems, including 'Shooting Whales' and 'Nights in Hackett's Cove'. Strand has also published a book of short stories, several translations from European and Latin American poets, and an anthology of contemporary poetry. For criticism, see Richard Howard, Alone with American (New York, 1969).
From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press.
by Jonathan Aaron
The Monument (1978) . . . showed that Strand had not lost his faith in the uses of self-mockery. A book of "notes, observations, instructions, rants, and revelations" satirizing the notion of literary immortality, it was Strand's answer to a question he'd heard asked at a translation conference: "How would you like to be translated in five hundred years?" Strand thought it a "fabulous question. It stumped everyone." The book was his answer. Harry Ford (Strand's editor then at Atheneum and now at Knopf, to whom Strand has always been devoted) turned The Monument down, thinking "it would ruin my career. I think he meant that it was bad, tasteless, and would offend my contemporaries." In its playfully barbed irreverence, the book seemed out of keeping with Strand's ostensibly more serious writing. It looked then to some like a wrong move. Today it seems a brilliantly prescient entertainment.
After Selected Poems came out in 1980, Strand hit something of a wall. "I gave up [writing poems] that year," he says, looking back. "I didn't like what I was writing, I didn't believe in my autobiographical poems." He began to concentrate on journalism and art criticism. He wrote the sweetly freakish comedies collected in Mr. and Mrs. Baby and Other Stories (1985), which featured the likes of Glover Bartlett, who reveals to his wife that he used to be a collie, or the nameless narrator who's certain his father has returned to life as a fly, then as a horse, and finally as his girlfriend. In settings that ranged from contemporary Southern California to the Arcadia of Greek myth, Strand explored new approaches to parody and satire and, in doing so, began to work himself free of what he felt were the imaginative and stylistic limitations of dramatic self-regard. "And then," he says, "in 1985, I read Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Aeneid. I decided I'd try a poem, and I wrote `Cento Virgilianus,' and I was off and running."
The Continuous Life, Strand's first book of poems in ten years, appeared in 1990, containing both poems and short prose narratives. More varied in dramatic scope and tone than his previous collections, its humor pointed yet ruminative, The Continuous Life offered dryly poignant views of disappearing worlds ("The Idea," "Cento Virgilianus," "Luminism," "Life in the Valley"), its prose pieces piercingly funny send-ups of various aspects of the literary enterprise ("From a Lost Diary," "Narrative Poetry," "Translation"). It signaled Strand's complete recovery of poetic purpose and poise. His most recent collection, Dark Harbor (1993), a long poem in forty-five parts, reads like a book of dreams and reports on dreams. An episodic journey full of both daily and mythical incident, it amounts to a fearful perception of the self as Dante-like in a twilit world full of beauty and menace, pervaded, finally, by a deep sense of mortality.
Copyright © 1995 by Jonathan Aaron. Excerpted from a longer profile in Ploughshares (Winter 1995-96).
www.emerson.edu/ploughshares/Winter1995/Strand_Profile.html for the full profile.http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/strand.htm
Mark Strand, 1990
Photo by Denise Eagleson
About Mark Strand: A Profile
Born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1934, Mark Strand spent much of his childhood in Halifax, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. As a teenager he lived in Columbia, Peru, and Mexico. Upon graduating from Antioch College, he went to Yale to study painting with Joseph Albers. Turning from painting to poetry "wasn't a conscious thing," he says. "I woke up and found that that's what I was doing. I don't think these kinds of lifetime obsessions are arrived at rationally." After spending 1960-61 in Italy on a Fulbright scholarship, studying nineteenth-century Italian poetry, Strand attended the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop for a year, and then taught there until 1965, when he went to Brazil. A year later, he and his wife and small daughter moved to New York City. He taught at Mt. Holyoke College in 1967 and at Brooklyn College from 1970-72, then held visiting professorships at various places, among them Columbia, the University of Virginia, Yale, and Harvard. In 1981 he accepted a full-time position at the University of Utah, Salt Lake, where he remained until 1993. Strand is now the Elliott Coleman Professor of Poetry at Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches in the Writing Seminars.
Strand's many books include eight volumes of poetry. He has received fellowships from the Ingram Merrill, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim foundations and from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1974 he was awarded the Edgar Allen Poe Award by the Academy of American Poets, and in 1979 the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets. He received a MacArthur award in 1987. In 1990 he was chosen to succeed Howard Nemerov as Poet Laureate of the United States. In 1992 he won the Bobbitt Prize for Poetry, in 1993 Yale's Bollingen Prize for Poetry.
Mark Strand's attitude toward his own writing is frank, unfussy, and wry. When he talks about himself, it's always with a sense of humor that underscores the absence of solemnity in his seriousness. Reasons for Moving (1968) and Darker (1970) gained him a national reputation as a poet. The disturbing power of their dark conundrums stemmed from the vividness of their comically incongruous details. The tenor of his work shifted in The Story of Our Lives (1973). Reflecting "an emotionally strenuous period," its poems "were more ambitious, longer, and involved than any I had written," as he said at the time. Highly rhetorical, they sought to express sorrow in elevated, passionate terms. The Late Hour followed in 1978, its poems "shorter and more lively," containing "more of the world in them and less of myself."
The Monument, published that same year, showed that Strand had not lost his faith in the uses of self-mockery. A book of "notes, observations, instructions, rants, and revelations" satirizing the notion of literary immortality, it was Strand's answer to a question he'd heard asked at a translation conference: "How would you like to be translated in five hundred years?" Strand thought it a "fabulous question. It stumped everyone." The book was his answer. Harry Ford (Strand's editor then at Atheneum and now at Knopf, to whom Strand has always been devoted) turned The Monument down, thinking "it would ruin my career. I think he meant that it was bad, tasteless, and would offend my contemporaries." In its playfully barbed irreverence, the book seemed out of keeping with Strand's ostensibly more serious writing. It looked then to some like a wrong move. Today it seems a brilliantly prescient entertainment.
After Selected Poems came out in 1980, Strand hit something of a wall. "I gave up [writing poems] that year," he says, looking back. "I didn't like what I was writing, I didn't believe in my autobiographical poems." He began to concentrate on journalism and art criticism. He wrote the sweetly freakish comedies collected in Mr. and Mrs. Baby and Other Stories (1985), which featured the likes of Glover Bartlett, who reveals to his wife that he used to be a collie, or the nameless narrator who's certain his father has returned to life as a fly, then as a horse, and finally as his girlfriend. In settings that ranged from contemporary Southern California to the Arcadia of Greek myth, Strand explored new approaches to parody and satire and, in doing so, began to work himself free of what he felt were the imaginative and stylistic limitations of dramatic self-regard. "And then," he says, "in 1985, I read Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Aeneid. I decided I'd try a poem, and I wrote 'Cento Virgilianus,' and I was off and running."
The Continuous Life, Strand's first book of poems in ten years, appeared in 1990, containing both poems and short prose narratives. More varied in dramatic scope and tone than his previous collections, its humor pointed yet ruminative, The Continuous Life offered dryly poignant views of disappearing worlds ("The Idea," "Cento Virgilianus," "Luminism," "Life in the Valley"), its prose pieces piercingly funny send-ups of various aspects of the literary enterprise ("From a Lost Diary," "Narrative Poetry," "Translation"). It signaled Strand's complete recovery of poetic purpose and poise. His most recent collection, Dark Harbor (1993), a long poem in forty-five parts, reads like a book of dreams and reports on dreams. An episodic journey full of both daily and mythical incident, it amounts to a fearful perception of the self as Dante -- like in a twilit world full of beauty and menace, pervaded, finally, by a deep sense of mortality.
When asked what his next book will be like, he replies, "I just can't predict. I suppose Dark Harbor was a step toward what I'm doing now, which is completely cuckoo. But I don't care. I'm just amusing myself." He's a little reluctant to amplify. "I'm not sure how clear I can be on this matter, because I'm not very scrupulous in keeping track of myself. I think there's a certain evenness of tone that I used to try to establish in my poems, which I now try to disrupt. I try to fracture the poem, crowd the poem with shifts or changes which I might have found too crazy or too disturbing in the past." After a pause, he adds, his voice softer, conspiratorial, "Verbal high-jinx -- without that, there's not much of a difference between poetry and prose, is there?"
Strand aims to read all of Proust during the coming winter. Asked what poetry he reads, he replies, "I tend to read my friends -- Joseph Brodsky, Charles Simic, Charles Wright, Jorie Graham." He keeps returning to Wordsworth's The Prelude. "And the Victorians -- I don't read Browning, but I do read Tennyson, not necessarily the best poems, but I love 'Marianna.' And any number of Christina Rossetti's lyrics, which are so dark and seem to come off so well."
He's written a book on Edward Hopper. The painters William Bailey and Neil Welliver are especially close friends. Moreover, his poems themselves are often pictures -- he makes a point of speaking through images that capture what Charles Simic, thinking of Strand, calls "the amazement of the vivid moment." So it's something of a surprise to hear him say that looking at paintings doesn't help when he feels blocked or stuck in his own writing. "No, when I can't write, I read John Ashbery, oddly enough." John Ashbery? "There's a tremendous vitality there, and he's very unpredictable. Ashbery befuddled me in the old days, because I was always looking for the wrong kind of sense in his poems. I kept trying to paraphrase him. Not that you can't paraphrase him, but if you do, you miss the point of his poems. Anyway, now that I don't try to translate Ashbery anymore, it all makes perfect sense." He laughs. " 'I'm Tense, Hortense.' That's the title of a poem I'm writing. It's very Ashberyesque, don't you think?"
Jonathan Aaron's most recent book of poems is Corridor (Wesleyan/New England). He teaches writing and literature at Emerson College.
http://www.pshares.org/read/article-detail.cfm?intArticleID=3990
1964: Sleeping with One Eye Open, Stone Wall Press
1968: Reasons for Moving: Poems, Atheneum
1970: Darker: Poems, including "The New Poetry Handbook", Atheneum
1973: The Story of Our Lives, Atheneum
1973: The Sargentville Notebook, Burning Deck
1978: Elegy for My Father, Windhover
1978: The Late Hour, Atheneum]
1980: Selected Poems, including "Keeping Things Whole", Atheneum
1990: The Continuous Life, Knopf
1990: New Poems
1991: The Monument, Ecco Press (see also The Monument, 1978, prose)
1993: Dark Harbor: A Poem, long poem divided into 55 sections, Knopf
1998: Blizzard of One: Poems, Knopf winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for poetry
1999: Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More, with illustrations by the author
1999: "89 Clouds" a single poem, monotypes by Wendy Mark and introduction by Thomas Hoving. ACA Galleries (New York)
2006: Man and Camel, Knopf
2007: New Selected Poems
2012: Almost Invisible, Random House,
978: The Monument, Ecco (see also The Monument, 1991, poetry)
1982: Contributor: Claims for Poetry, edited by Donald Hall, University of Michigan Press
1982: The Planet of Lost Things, for children
1983: The Art of the Real, art criticism, C. N. Potter
1985: The Night Book, for children
1985: Mr. and Mrs. Baby and Other Stories, short stories, Knopf
1986: Rembrandt Takes a Walk, for children
About Mark Strand's Poetry
by Richard Howard
The poems tell one story and one story only: they narrate the moment when Strand makes Rimbaud's discovery, that je est un autre, that the self is someone else, even something else; "The Mailman," "The Accident," "The Door," "The Tunnel," even "The Last Bus" with its exotic Brazilian stage-properties, all recount the worst, realizing every apprehension, relishing the things possible only in one's wildest fantasies of victimization, and then with a shriek as much of delight as of despair, fall upon the fact--
It will always be this way.
I stand here scared
that you will disappear,
scared that you will stay--
that the victimizer is, precisely, the self, and that the victim is the other, is others.
[. . . .]
Strand is both nervous and morbid, and a consideration of finality is his constant project, sustained here by shifting the responsibility for the imminent wreck from "the reaches of ourselves" to the ambiguity instinct inlanguage.
Strand's work since Reason for Moving widens his scope, even as it sharpens his focus; just as he had divided his body against itself in order to discover an identity, he now identifies the body politic with his own in order to recover a division; in a series of political prospects, "Our Death," "From a Litany," "General," and finest of all "The Way It Is," the poet conjugates the nightmares of Fortress America with his own stunned mortality to produce an apocalypse of disordered devotion:
Everyone who has sold himself wants to buy himself back.
Nothing is done. The night
eats into their limbs
like a blight.
Everything dims.
The future is not what it used to be.
The graves are ready. The dead
shall inherit the dead.
But what gives these public accents of Strand's their apprehensive relevance is not just a shrewd selection of details ("My neighbor marches in his room, / wearing the sleek / mask of a hawk with a large beak . . . His helmet in a shopping bag, / he sits in the park, waving a small American flag"), nor any cosy contrast of the poet's intimeries against a gaining outer darkness ("Slowly I dance out of the burning house of my head. /And who isn't borne again and again into heaven?"). Rather it is the sense that public and private degradation, outer and inner weather, tropic and glacial decors (Saint Thomas and Prince Edward Islands, in fact) are all versions and visions of what Coleridge called the One Life, and that the whole of nature and society are no more than the churning content of a single and limitless human body--the poet's own.
From Alone With America: Essay on the Art of Poetry in the United States since 1950. New York: Atheneum, 1980. Copyright © 1980 by Richard Howard.
by Samuel Maio
In his short collection of idiosyncratic musings in verse form, The Sargeantville Notebook (1973), Strand included the following curious statement:
The ultimate self-effacement
is not the pretense of the minimal,
but the jocular considerations of the maximal
in the manner of Wallace Stevens.
Strand admittedly has long admired Stevens's work, and read Stevens even before beginning to write his own poetry. (He once remarked to Wayne Dodd: "I discovered I wasn't destined to be a very good painter, so I became a poet. Now it didn't happen suddenly. I did read a lot, and I had been a reader of poetry before. In fact, I was much more given to reading poems than I was to fiction and the book that I read a lot, and frequently, was The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens") Perhaps Strand, in commenting on what constitutes the "ultimate self-effacement," regards Stevens as a belated Romantic poet, as does Harold Bloom, in that the ostensibly private reflection, which is the subject of the poem, expresses emotions or ideologies that are in fact diffuse. I make this parallel by suggesting that Strand means "the minimal" to be the private, or individual, concern so that a pretense of such occurs when a poet argues for his own life experiences as reflective of a larger than personal theme, and that his phrase "the jocular considerations of the maximal" means the viewing of global concerns with some degree of wit, with a touch of the absurd. A poet betrays his "pretense of the minimal" when he tries to be an impartial observer, a chronicler of an event he has witnessed or of a landscape he has seen; his presence in the poem--his personal "I" speaker--negates his intended impartiality, or objectivity, towards his subject. . . .
Strand reads Stevens, however, as having successfully avoided such pretense by constructing poems that begin about another's concerns, then move outward to embrace universal questions: "Peter Quince at the Clavier," "Le Monocle de Mon Oncle," and "The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage" are a few examples from his early work. These jocular titles lead us to poems of "maximal" subject matter; in each, Stevens's presence is not visible. Each poem concentrates on the individual named in its title; consequently, Stevens's discussion of universal matters is filtered through his representation of these paltry and jocular characters. Yet these poems of Stevens employ a particular individual--Peter Quince, the "Oncle," the Nude--(and none acting as a persona) in order to achieve his measure of self-effacement. In this sense, these figures are like dramatis personae. Yet Strand's objective is to achieve the same extent of impartiality, and impersonality, while using an "I" speaker that is neither a persona (that is, a representative "I" speaking in behalf of all) nor one that is entirely confessional.
The resulting self-effacing voice aids Strand in his personal inquiry into the constitution, the definition, of an individual in a contemporary world to which he feels no relationship or role other than that of filling a void. Such an inquiry--and tentative answers--could not have been effected without his use of the self-effacing voice, for, as we have seen, this voice cannot be distinguished from the self portrayed--and defined--in these poems, whoever it is Strand would have us believe is their author.
From Creating Another Self: Voice in Modern American Personal Poetry. Kirksville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Thomas Jefferson University Press.
by Harold Bloom
The irreality of Borges, though still near, is receding in Darker, as Strand opens himself more to his own vision. These poems instantly touch a universal anguish as no "confessional" poems can, for Strand has the fortune of writing naturally and almost simply (though this must be supreme artifice) out of the involuntary near solipsism that always marks a central poetic imagination in America. An uncanny master of tone, Strand cannot pause for mere wit or argument but generally moves directly to phantasmagoria, a mode so magically disciplined in him as to make redundant for us almost all current questers after the "deep image."
From Southern Review (1972)
by Linda Gregerson
When Mark Strand reinvented the poem, he began by leaving out the world. The self he invented to star in the poems went on with the work of divestment: it jettisoned place, it jettisoned fellows, it jettisoned all distinguishing physical marks, save beauty alone. It was never impeded by personality. Nor was this radical renunciation to be confused with modesty, or asceticism. The self had designs on a readership, and a consummate gift for the musical phrase.
From Parnassus: Poetry in Review (1981)
Publicado por Ficciones en 0:29
Etiquetas: Mark Strand
Vanessa Paradise
FOTOS DE TRIUNFO ARCINIEGAS
DE OTROS MUNDOS
MESTER DE BREVERÍA
Mia Wasakowski
Anna Swir
Augusto Monterroso
Charles Shulz
Claire Vaye Watkins
Daphne dyu Maurier
David Levine
Eduardo Cote Lamus
Flora Borsi
Jean Rhys
Kate Chopin
Les Murray
Mayra Verónica
Michael Drayton
Richard Matherson
Triunfo Arciniegas
Virgilio Piñera
Jean Rhys / A life tortured
Escritor colombiano. Especialista en Traducción y Magíster en Literatura. Obtuvo el VII Premio Enka de Literatura Infantil en 1989 con Las batallas de Rosalino, el Premio Comfamiliar del Atlántico en 1991 con Caperucita Roja y otras historias perversas, el Premio Nacional de Literatura de Colcultura en 1993 con La muchacha de Transilvania, el Premio Nacional de Dramaturgia para la Niñez en 1998 con Torcuato es un león viejo, el Premio de Literatura Infantil Parker en 2003 con La negra y el diablo y el Premio Nacional de Cuento Jorge Gaitán Durán en 2007 con Mujeres muertas de amor. Autor recomendado por el Banco del Libro de Venezuela. Además, White Ravens 2014 por El niño gato. Premio Fundación Cuatro Gatos 2014 y Lista de honor IBBY 2016 por Letras robadas. Nominado al Premio Hans Christian Andersen 2018.
Jenny Saville / An undoubted heavy-weight of the Britart movement
Georges Simenon / The creator of Maigret
Triunfo Arciniegas / Mujer con sombrero


text:
Palin With a Pedigree
Michael Hirsh &
Michael Isikoff ,
Liz Cheney is truly Dick's daughter
Liz Cheney is truly Dick's daughter, galvanizing the Republican base with her right-wing views and blistering critiques of Obama. Did somebody say 2012?
When the Republican Jewish Coalition hosted its annual winter conference at Las Vegas's splashy Palazzo hotel earlier this month, party luminaries such as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham showed up to hobnob with some of the GOP's most generous donors. But the guest who seemed to excite the audience the most was a diminutive, former mid-level State Department official who has never held elected office. Introduced by Miriam Adelson, wife of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, Elizabeth Cheney delivered a rousing attack on Barack Obama's foreign policy that won her a standing ovation. It was an impressive performance by Cheney, a policy wonk, law-school grad, and mother of five who may now be bidding to establish America's next political dynasty.
It's telling that no one at the Palazzo seemed very concerned that Liz, daughter of Dick, had just four days earlier appalled many in her own party's establishment. Her conservative advocacy group, Keep America Safe, had launched a nasty assault on seven Justice Department lawyers who had defended Guantanamo detainees. The ad branded the Justice lawyers "the al-Qaeda Seven" and asked, in ominous tones, "Whose values do they share?" To many critics within and outside the GOP, the attack smacked of McCarthyism for seeming to impugn the loyalty of lawyers who — like all members of their profession — sometimes represent unpopular (and guilty) clients. Nineteen conservative lawyers later issued a statement denouncing the ad. Among them were Ken Starr and top officials who had served in the George W. Bush administration. "I was horrified," says John Bellinger, Condoleezza Rice's former chief counsel.
Like father, like daughter, it seems. Much as Dick Cheney staked out the far right wing of the Bush administration, winning the respect and gratitude of GOP hawks despite his low popularity nationwide, Liz seems eager to make her reputation by unnerving her party's moderates. In another era — one less driven by ideological extremes — the vicious attack ad might have sunk her political career. But now it may have only turbocharged it. Cheney's aides could barely contain their glee last week at the ruckus they had stirred up. "For $1,000, we've driven the debate for over a week," said one political adviser, who asked not to be identified because the group, co-led by conservative commentator Bill Kristol, wanted to speak only through official statements. Or as one of Liz Cheney's biggest fans, Rush Limbaugh, put it on his radio show: "It sure as hell got everybody's attention, didn't it?" (Cheney herself did not respond to a request for comment.)
The 43-year-old Cheney appears modest and unassuming, but she's been rattling the GOP establishment for much of the last decade. After she left the State Department in 2006 to have a baby, later joining Fred Thompson's presidential campaign, Cheney became a fierce political combatant on the TV talk circuit. When Larry King asked her last year about the "birther" conspiracy, she said she didn't believe Obama was born in a foreign country, but explained the movement by saying people are "increasingly uncomfortable with an American president who seems afraid to defend America." Her uncompromising views were apparent even before that, going back to her two stints at the State Department under George W. Bush. During her first tenure at State, as a deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs under Colin Powell from 2002 to 2004, Cheney faithfully followed administration policy but became known for pushing her father's give-no-quarter views on terrorism. "It was very awkward, and people had to be careful in front of her," says one former official. "How do you conduct a viable meeting if you think one of the people is going to turn around and tell all to the vice president?" She also wasn't shy about letting people know who she was. "She came across to me as … pushing her weight around," says Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, who has often been harshly critical of Dick Cheney and the Bush White House. "She knew who her daddy was."
When Liz Cheney was promoted at the start of Bush's second term, becoming principal deputy assistant secretary of state, she upset some more moderate political appointees by pressing hard to use government money for regime change in Syria and Iran. According to several former colleagues who would speak about her activities only on condition of anonymity, Cheney began acting more as an appendage of her father's office, at a time when administration policy was trending toward a more diplomatic approach.
Dick Cheney told Fox News last year that he'd "love to see (Liz) run for office someday," and he thinks she wants to. Liz herself is more coy about her political plans, but if the impact of her "Al al-Qaeda Seven" attack is any measure of her ambition and effectiveness, a run may not be far off. After the ad slammed Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department for not disclosing the names of the seven lawyers, Holder was forced to admit that he himself had once filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case of an accused al-Qaeda detainee. (Holder had argued against President Bush's claim that he could indefinitely lock up a U.S. citizen without charging him with any crime.) Now, thanks to donations from old political supporters of her father's, like Florida real-estate magnate Mel Sembler, Cheney's group is also planning to apply the "soft on terror" charge to Democrats in this fall's midterm elections by airing targeted TV ads in swing districts. Though Cheney isn't saying, her group could also be readying her for a 2012 congressional run from Virginia, her current home, or her parents' home state of Wyoming.
GOP strategist Vin Weber says Cheney appeals to the "Sarah Palin constituency," but she has more intellectual credibility. "Nobody says about Liz" what they do about Palin, he says. Whether any of this is good for the Republican Party is anybody's guess. But at least a few moderate Republicans note — with some trepidation — that Palin may have a rival, and Dick Cheney may have an heir.
(c) 2010, Newsweek Inc. All rights reserved.
Michael Isikoff


text:
class UNIX_SerialControllerFixture :
	public CIMFixtureBase
{
public:
	UNIX_SerialControllerFixture();
	~UNIX_SerialControllerFixture();
	virtual void Run();

};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – Former Prime Minister, Stephenson King, was swept out of the leadership of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) after his former tourism minister, Allen Chastanet, scored a convincing victory in Sunday's poll.
King, who led the UWP into defeat in the 2011 general elections, was defeated by a 264-99 margin with Chastanet's "A" Team also securing a clean sweep of all the executive posts at stake.
Party officials said that the polls were pleased with the voting procedures and the 364 delegates representing the island's 17 constituencies were allowed to cast their ballots in an orderly manner.
There had been rumours of planned disruptions by supporters opposed to Chastanet did not materialize.
Former foreign affairs minister, Rufus Bousquet, who sought the position of chairman, also suffered defeat at the polls.
In his acceptance speech, Chastanet, a hotelier, said that his first task would be to unite the party.
"The process of reconciliation begins immediately, and I am making a special appeal to every supporter to reach out and embrace one another, extend a handshake or exchange a smile, remembering we have one common purpose and one goal, to remove the St. Lucia Labour Party from the backs of the suffering people of this country.
"We would need each of you to be involved in the various aspects of the restructuring process, every skill set is necessary, every expertise counts.
"We would make a concerted effort to include the youth, the women, our constituency branches, our stalwarts, and current and past candidates and every political fodder in St. Lucia," Chastanet said.
King, who initially refusing to shake his opponent's hand, later addressed party supporters urging them to unite for the task ahead.
"I know what it is to be down and out but I also know what it is to keep fighting until the end, as the task ahead would require the energy, effort and drive of all UWP supporters," King told the convention, recalling the death of his mother over the past few weeks.
King said he was looking forward to working with the national executive in the future.
In his address to the convention, feature speaker, Dr. Claudius Preville, a trade negotiations and policy research consultant, reminded the delegates that in order to regain power, the UWP would have to "become attractive to its support base, attract the growing number of apathetic voters, attract women in leadership roles" and exercise its wiles to attract SLP supporters.


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Clean audit for DPME
The Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) has achieved its sixth consecutive clean audit.
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who tabled the annual report to Parliament on Friday, attributed the clean audit to the commitment of all officials who ensure sound controls over the financial, performance reporting and compliance monitoring environments.
According to the report, the department has improved its performance on key functions related to planning, monitoring and evaluation to contribute to the realisation of building a prosperous South Africa, as envisaged in the National Development Plan (NDP).
During the period under review, the department said it undertook a review of the planning system in the whole of government, with a view of improving coordination and coherence in the implementation of developmental objectives and outcomes.
"As a result, a process of developing legislation to institutionalise planning across government was started. The country needs an instrument to foster an integrated planning process," said the department.
An Annual Budget Prioritisation Framework, otherwise known as the Budget Mandate Paper, was introduced to support departments to align their budget with NDP and Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) priorities.
While strengthening planning and prioritisation in resource allocation, the department said it is gradually improving its monitoring systems to ensure that implementation is consistent with government programmes.
As part of its monitoring function, the department conducted and published a Mid-Term Review of Government Performance.
"The review revealed that government is making good progress in some areas, [however], concerted efforts and speedy actions are required to address inequality, poverty and unemployment," the department said.
Furthermore, the department conducted monitoring on specific elements of the service delivery system, which enabled the department to gather evidence related to the state of management practices and the experiences of citizens when accessing government services.
These included the use of Management Performance Management Tools (MPAT), Local Government Management Improvement Model (LGMIM), Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring (FSDM), the Presidential Hotline and Community Based Monitoring.
To ensure efficiency in assessing the impact of government programmes, the department reviewed the evaluation system in the past financial year. The review identified the need to allow for a more diverse evaluation system that focuses on shorter evaluations in crises periods and longer-term sectoral reviews, in collaboration with other departments and State institutions.
The department said it will continue to identify mechanisms to strengthen planning and coordination, monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure that government programmes contribute to changing the lives of the people, especially youth and women, who are most affected by poverty and inequality.
In this regard, the department has initiated a process to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for the National Youth Policy to strengthen monitoring of the implementation of policy by stakeholders. - SAnews.gov.za
NSFAS to pay over R6bn upfront to varsities
SABS urges vigilance in food purchases


text:
Recommendations - Roman Catholic Church investigation report
These recommendations were made in the Roman Catholic Church investigation report.
Leadership and oversight of safeguarding matters
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious in England and Wales should each nominate a lead member of the clergy for safeguarding to provide leadership and oversight on safeguarding matters to their respective Conferences and the wider Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the role description for the Lead Bishop for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales was approved in March 2021. Bishop Paul Mason (the Bishop of the Forces) was appointed to this role at the Spring Plenary Assembly in April 2021 for a term of three years. The Conference of Religious have also approved the role description for the Lead Safeguarding Religious and have appointed Fr David Smolira SJ as the first lead.
Both roles include working collaboratively to model a "One Church" strategy for safeguarding in the Catholic Church in England and Wales
Mandatory safeguarding training
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales should ensure that safeguarding training is mandatory for all staff and volunteers in roles where they work with children or victims and survivors of abuse. It should also be a requirement that regular refresher training is completed. The training should consider the impact of child sexual abuse, including the impact of trauma and the perspective of victims and survivors, and should be developed in conjunction with the Survivor Advisory Panel.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that it has already mandated that clergy and parish safeguarding representatives undergo baseline safeguarding training, supplemented by biennial refresher training. The reach of mandatory training is extended to volunteers under a new standards-based approach to safeguarding for all who are engaged in any pastoral work in the Church. The voice of victims and survivors of abuse is central to the development of this approach and the Survivors' Reference Panel will be a key player in this work.
Compliance with safeguarding policies and procedures
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious should publish a clear framework for dealing with cases of non-compliance with safeguarding policies and procedures. That framework should identify who is responsible for dealing with issues of non-compliance at all levels of the Church, and include the measures or sanctions for non-compliance.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry noted that a new body, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), is being established as a professional standards agency for the Catholic Church. The agency will include a dedicated audit function with the necessary powers of sanction, which will provide a clear framework for dealing with cases of non-compliance with the national safeguarding standards and the related national safeguarding policies and procedures. The CSSA will have a new board of directors comprising an independent lay chair and the majority of directors will be lay persons who do not hold any specific or designated role, employed or otherwise in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Each unique church body in the Catholic Church in England and Wales will be required to enter into a contractual arrangement with this new agency. The contract will set out arrangements for service provision from the agency to the particular church body, and the necessary levels of compliance that will be demanded through this contractual engagement. The Catholic Bishops' Conference hopes that the use of contractual agreement between the Church body and the CSSA will be underpinned by the General Decree for Safeguarding that was submitted to the Holy See for Recognition in June 2019. Further information was submitted back to Rome on 19 March 2021 and awaits final response from the competent congregation.
On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the trustee bodies of all Catholic dioceses and religious orders have been invited to subscribe to the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), and that the contractual arrangements will be signed by the end of the year.
In addition, a new audit team is currently being recruited, with a Safeguarding Assurance Manager expected to be in post by the end of October 2021.
The competent Congregation asked for further amendment and clarifications regarding the text of the General Decree that had been submitted for recognition in June 2019. The Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the work of redrafting the text in line with these recommendations is continuing.
External auditing of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service
The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service should have the effectiveness of its audit programme regularly validated by an independent organisation which is external to the Church. These independent reports should be published.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) Board and an independent advisory panel will identify the mechanisms and scope for the external auditing of the CSSA. It was stated that they will need to determine an appropriate body to undertake this and determine the terms of reference and frequency of this work of external audit. It is intended that the internal audit function will be carried out by the CSSA audit section and any external audit of the CSSA will produce a published report, along with any action plan that may be required for remedial work or enhanced operation.
On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the CSSA Board remains committed to the independent verification of its audit processes and, in spring 2022, will be undertaking a formal process of appointment of a suitable external body. The outcome of any review will be published on the CSSA website.
The Catholic Council for the Inquiry further stated that safeguarding standards will be formally launched in October 2021 and the CSSA will work with Dioceses and Religious Life Groups to ensure that they are fully aware of what would constitute good practice in relation to each of the standards. It anticipates that baseline audits will commence in the first quarter of 2022.
Redrafting the Code of Canon Law
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales should request that the Holy See redraft the canonical crimes relating to child sexual abuse as crimes against the child.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that it accepts and supports this recommendation and has written to the Holy See making a request to this effect. The Vatican has responded that this will be included in the revision of Book VI of the 1983 CIC, which is currently in process. In the revised Book VI of the 1983 CIC, crimes against minors are considered under a different title than crimes against the obligations of celibacy on the part of clerics. The revised title will be "Crimes against the life, dignity and freedom of man" and will include a canon that is specific to crimes against minors.
On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry confirmed that the newly developed legislative text will come into force in the Universal Church on 8 December 2021. The new text now determines the penal norms, unlike the text before, in order to give precise and sure guidance to those who must apply them. In addition, the offence of child abuse is now framed not within the offences against the special obligations of clerics, but as an offence committed against the dignity of the human person.
Review Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service policies and procedures manual
The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service should review its policies and procedures manual and the documents within it to ensure that they are consistent, easier to follow and more accessible.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that a review of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service policy and procedures took place immediately after the Inquiry's hearings in November 2019.The updates to policy and revisions to presentation of the different policy documents, were implemented and published on the CSAS website early in 2020. The Catholic Council also stated that work is underway to review the existing national policy and procedures to reduce the length and complexity of these documents. The presentation of the revised policies and procedures aims to achieve high level simplified information that will be easily accessible to different roles within the church.
On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the national safeguarding policies and procedures are live documents and remain subject to review and refinement to ensure that they align with the new national safeguarding standards which will be launched at the end of October 2021. The new CSSA website is being finalised and this too will be launched by the end of October 2021. The national safeguarding standards, safeguarding policies and supporting practice guidance will be published on this site.
Publication of complaints policy
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious should publish a national policy for complaints about the way in which a safeguarding case is handled.
The policy should deal with communication with complainants during the complaints process and set out an escalation process for all complainants to have their complaint assessed by an independent adjudicator, if they are unhappy with how their complaint has been handled.
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that a framework and template for complaints which includes the need for clear communication between the complainant and those handling the complaint, and an escalation of the process if the outcome it felt to be unsatisfactory, was ratified by the Bishops in their November Plenary Assembly in 2020.
Recommendations process
You can find out about our process for monitoring responses by visiting our web page.
Roman Catholic Church investigation report
View the Inquiry's Roman Catholic Church investigation report in its entirety.