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Ted Chiang's Impersonal Universe
Justin Lee
Posted on August 22, 2018 (September 4, 2019) by Zack Ravas
I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second or perhaps less; I don't know how many birds I saw. Were they a definite or an indefinite number? This problem involves the question of the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because how many birds I saw is known to God. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because nobody was able to take count. In this case, I saw fewer than ten birds (let's say) and more than one; but I did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, but not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That number, as a whole number, is inconceivable; ergo, God exists.
— Jorge Luis Borges, "Argumentum Ornithologicum"
Jorge Luis Borges is one of a handful of writers whose every work fills me with awe and envy. I'm awed by the precision of his paradoxes, his ability to usher me into mysteries at once beautiful and haunting. I'm envious because his aesthetics so resonate with me that I feel as if each story I read is a story I'll never get to write.
Ted Chiang is another such writer. Like Borges, his craft is as precise as clockwork. The elegant inevitability of his plots, which unfold as if mapped upon some narrative Golden Mean, suggests an orderliness to reality without diminishing its mystery. Take, for instance, "Tower of Babylon," in which the biblical story of Babel is reimagined sans-idolatry: an entire civilization is organized around the desire to be nearer to God Most High. When the hero at last pierces the vault of heaven and enters the "waters above," he swims upwards until breaking the surface—and finds himself on Earth again, just outside the city, swimming in the "waters below." The structure of reality is precise, circular, self-contained—and for that reason, unfathomable.
"Argumentum Ornithologicum" is but one of many pieces that illustrate the kinship between Borges and Chiang—their passion for the ambiguities of language and mathematics, their careful, laconic rendering of complex ideas. It is also emblematic of their greatest divergence: Borges was a mystic; Chiang is a materialist.
I had the opportunity to hear Chiang speak this past spring at the University of California at Irvine, where I teach. Students in our Rhetoric and Writing courses had been reading Chiang's collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, and were primed to listen and engage. Chiang's subject was the differing worldviews of science fiction and fantasy, which dovetailed nicely with the focus of our courses. It was a fascinating, astute analysis of the political and moral implications of genre. More interestingly, the talk and subsequent Q&A session revealed important tensions in Chiang's own work.
He opened his talk with a well-worn Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." While superficially true, Chiang argued, vast differences exist between the technological wonders of science fiction and the magic of fantasy stories, the most significant difference being that in fantasy the universe is presumed to be personal, whereas in science fiction it is impersonal.
Chiang offered a short discursus on the history of science. In his telling, the pivotal moment was the emergence of chemistry—a genuine science—from the magical discipline of alchemy. The latter involved the purification of the soul alongside the purification of a base metal into nobility, while the former was grounded in observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and systematizing. Alchemy failed and chemistry prevailed, said Chiang, because the soul is of no consequence.
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This corresponds to the personalism of the fantasy genre. The magician is always chosen, set apart from others as the bearer of a special destiny. For Chiang, this implies hierarchy, elitism. He contrasts this with science fiction, which he construes as egalitarian. The science of science fiction is—in theory if not in practice—available to everyone. Star Wars is instructive here. Although anyone might pick up and fire a blaster or fly a starship at lightspeed, only the elect can wield the Force. Star Wars is thus fantasy and not science fiction.
No fan of hierarchy, Chiang observes that fantasy stories are rarely set in post-industrial revolution settings. He explains this by way of Marx's theory of the alienation of labor: the worker's estrangement has the effect of erasing difference and collapsing social hierarchies into the binary of proletariat and bourgeoisie. This flattening—tightly yoked to the mechanical worldview—makes it difficult to believe in a personal universe. Everyone is ontologically equivalent in the eyes of the market. Thus fantasy stories set in capitalist societies require a greater suspension of disbelief.
This idea informs Chiang's story "72 Letters," which transmutes Jewish occultism into an egalitarian science. A deeply learned story, "72 Letters" offers a golem-filled Victorian world in which signs and referents militate against Saussurian linguisticsSaussure, and the Hebrew language can be employed by a skillful "nomenclator" to animate clay. At the time of the story's setting, "nomenclators no longer spoke in terms of God or the divine name. Instead, current thinking held that there was a lexical universe as well as a physical one, and bringing an object together with a compatible name caused the latent potentialities of both to be realized." The central conflicts concern the impending extinction of humanity—which, cum Pythagorean preformationism, is reaching the final generation of homunculi nested Russian doll-like in the loins of men—and the displacement of human workers as the golems become increasingly sophisticated.
It's an elegant unfolding of the mechanical philosophy through the peculiar idiom of Kabbalism. "72 Letters" does what all the best stories do: it renders the familiar strange. It also subverts Chiang's commitment to the Feuerbachian notion that the idea of God, and thus of metaphysical hierarchy, has alienated man from his natural characteristics. Chiang decries what the spirit of capitalism has done to human communities and inchoately links inequality to metaphysical personalism. But this is belied by the sources of alienation presented in Chiang's very work. At its heart, the post-industrial revolution world of the ever-expanding market is—in all its soul-denaturing, labor-alienating, dehumanizing grandeur—egalitarian in its ontology, a perfect product of the mechanical worldview. Chiang takes for granted that our universe is impersonal, that "science" has demonstrated the truth of the mechanical worldview. He thus identifies as a writer of science fiction.
How does he explain the appeal of fantasy? We all want to believe there's something special about us, Chiang claimed, that the universe is ultimately personal. He sees fantasy performing a necessary function vis-a-vis instilling a sense of transcendent meaning to our experience of reality.
If religion is the opiate of the masses suffering under industrialization, he implied, fantasy fiction anaesthetizes us against the painful knowledge of the universe's indifference. It also shapes our character. Fantasy inspires us to be "good and brave."
But how, if the universe is impersonal, can there be moral meaning in an individual's actions? Chiang spent the next hour's worth of questions after his lecture circling back to this, trying to express himself to his satisfaction. Chiang seemed to be discovering for the first time that his worldview was perhaps incoherent.
It's strange that Chiang struggled to articulate his philosophy. It's clear from his fiction that he has wrestled mightily with these questions. It was as if he were seeing them with fresh eyes. Perhaps he was experiencing the existential terror of his character in "Division by Zero." In this story, Renee, a brilliant theoretical mathematician, successfully proves that 1=2, without resorting to the disqualifying trickery of a division by zero. "One and one will always get you two on your fingers," she explains to her husband, "but on paper I can give you an infinite number of answers, and they're all equally valid, which means they're all equally invalid… The positivists used to say all mathematics is a tautology. They had it all wrong: it's a contradiction." No one in Renee's life is capable of grasping the gravity of her discovery, not even her academic colleagues. Knowing in her bones that the universe is devoid of meaning, lacking even the barest coherence, Renee falls into a deep depression and attempts suicide. After her convalescence, she explains that it was not a "normal kind of depression." Instead, "it was almost as if I were a theologian proving that there was no God. Not just fearing it, but knowing it for a fact… and I'm the one who demonstrated it."
Watching Chiang during the Q&A, I got the impression he was discovering something similar about the nature of language and values. If there is an absolute, metaphysical disjunction between sign and referent, there can be no meaning beyond the subjective. Because our values are constituted linguistically, they, too, are necessarily caught up in the same self-referential incoherence. Chiang's preference for egalitarianism over hierarchy is ultimately no different than a preference for square triangles over negatively charged cations.
Meaning is personal. For there to be any meaning beyond the merely private, the merely subjective, existence-as-such must be personal. There must exist an irreducible unity between mind and being.
In a January 2017 New Yorker interview, Chiang mused that his stories are attempts to reject "the identification of materialism with nihilism." But such an identification is inevitable. Nihilism, whether of the moral or epistemological variety, is directly implied by the mechanical worldview—as all our great existentialist writers understood. Because Chiang's stories largely strive to reject nihilism and affirm meaning, they are powerful arguments against materialism.
"Story of Your Life," recently adapted by Denis Villeneuve as the film Arrival, offers the clearest example. Louise, Chiang's linguist narrator, is tasked with decoding the language of extraterrestrial visitors, known as "heptapods." The language is non-sequential, fitted to the heptapod's "simultaneous" experience of time. Louise's consciousness is reconstituted as she immerses herself in this new language, and she becomes unstuck in time, much like Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. This provokes eloquent meditations on the nature of causality, the relationship between language and consciousness, and the question of free will.
Contrary to Chiang's conception of science fiction, Louise intuits the universe as fundamentally personal. "The physical universe," she muses, "was a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar. Every physical event was an utterance that could be parsed in two entirely different ways, one causal and the other teleological, both valid, neither one disqualifiable no matter how much context was available." It should go without saying that there can be no language apart from consciousness, no "utterance" without a speaker.
Louise invokes Borges in her reflections on free will, imagining a "Book of Ages" (reminiscent of Borges' "Book of Sand") which "records every event past, present, and future." Could a person, knowing her future choices with certainty, still choose freely? Such a scenario clearly involves a contradiction—if we take for granted modern definitions of "freedom" and "causation." But Louise embraces older, better conceptions of these terms.
"Freedom isn't an illusion; it's perfectly real in the context of sequential consciousness. Within the context of simultaneous consciousness, freedom is not meaningful, but neither is coercion; it's simply a different context, no more or less valid than the other. . .
"Similarly, knowledge of the future was incompatible with free will. What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible for me to know the future. Conversely, now that I know the future, I would never act contrary to that future, including telling others what I know: those who know the future don't talk about it. Those who've read the Book of Ages never admit to it."
Louise goes on to discover joy in enacting the already-written future. Though she doesn't quite use this language, she is coming to understand freedom teleologically. Her present actions acquire meaning in light of their future effects. This recalls the classical understanding of freedom: All reality is directed toward an end, an ultimate purpose. Only those actions that are oriented toward this ultimate end are truly free.
Elsewhere, Chiang has stated "I believe that the universe is deterministic, but that the most meaningful definition of free will is compatible with determinism." Such compatibility is only possible if the physical universe is indeed an "utterance." The classical formulation of this notion is, in fact, biblical: "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God."
Borges, in his lecture "Nightmares," reflects on J.W. Dunne's An Experiment with Time, which conceives of dreams as offering us a glimpse of the near past, the present, and the near future. "All this the dreamer sees in a single glance," writes Borges, "in the same way that God, from His vast eternity, sees the whole cosmic process. And what happens when we wake? What happens is that, as we are accustomed to a sequential life, we give a narrative structure to our dream, though our dream has been multiple and simultaneous." Borges doubts Dunne's speculation, but he admires its beauty. The notion of such a "modest personal eternity" illustrates the even more attractive idea that our dreams may reflect reality more faithfully than our conscious experience of waking life.
I am convinced the best stories are analogous to such dreams. After the Q&A, Chiang said his goodbyes and received our applause. He has written some of the most exquisite stories in our language, in any language. As he continues to reflect on questions of consciousness, of meaning, of faith and doubt, I hope he will listen more attentively to his own stories, to his own dreams.
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Posted in EssaysTagged arrival, essay, Jorge Luis Borges, sci-fi, science fiction, ted chiang, tower of babel
Sisterhood Becomes Powerful: 'The Only Girl' by Robin Green	• Letter From the Editor – Fall Issue 113
5 thoughts on "Ted Chiang's Impersonal Universe"
Julia Lupton says:
This is a very perceptive piece that beautifully grasps the struggle for meaning in a world defined by scientific knowledge, as worked out in the fiction and thought of one of today's most compelling writers.
Felipe Foncea says:
Great and necessary article. Thank you very much. Borges was not a mystic though, those of us who know him up close know that he was a magnificent cinic. When he say God he say Universe and infinite, not backwards.
Pingback: The Elitism of Fantasy vs. The Egalitarianism of Science Fiction ⋆ 10z US politics
Lorne Beaton says:
"For there to be any meaning beyond the merely private, the merely subjective, existence-as-such must be personal. There must exist an irreducible unity between mind and being."
R. Scott Bakker is not as singularly talented a writer as Chiang, but he is no less aware of the issues this article discusses. His Second Apocalypse fantasy series takes as these ideas as their premise and follows them to a conclusion: if mind and being are one, then right and wrong are objective truths. Therefore Hell is real, and people who deserve Hell are bound for an eternity of suffering.
The action of Bakker's books is thus driven by the fight to defeat an evil Consult who are acting, completely rationally, to escape damnation at absolutely any cost. Their method for doing so is to break exactly this link between meaning and being — literally, to disenchant the world. Recommended.
Pingback: Notes on Ted Chiang's "The Story of Your Life", pt. 3 – Alice in HK land


Australian bauxite developer Metallica Minerals has been granted a mining lease for its Urquhart bauxite project, located some 5km southwest of Weipa on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.
Making the announcement, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said the lease will allow the company and its JV partner – China's Ozore Pty Ltd – to tap into three billion tonnes of undeveloped bauxite and create new Cape York jobs.
"The granting of this mining lease will support up to 26 jobs and allow the new mine to produce bauxite for export until 2033," Dr Lynham said.


I finally caught up on your blog!! what a pleasure – I love your articles.. Sorry I didn't catch them sooner.. You're so inspiring and refreshing!!
Lots of Love!! Your Sis..
ooohhhh, you should not be speaking of sunshine and bumble bees. it makes the rest of us, stuck under 2 feet of snow, too mad with jealousy!
i just found your blog and it's lovely. i love everything you feature.


I had been eyeing up this gorgeous number in the +Simply Be Catalogue for some time, but at the original price of £95.00 I just could not bring myself to press the "buy" button.
Then the Christmas fairy sent me a gift... I got a voucher for money off and I managed to nab this number at a discounted price of £76.00 instead!
The colour is somewhere between royal blue and violet. The top half is lace over a bodice and the skirt has a waterfall drop combined with a lovely embellishment at the middle to bring it all together.
The material is quite slinky, so I opted for shapewear underneath to hide any lumps/bumps.
This dress makes me feel glam!
Oh well...I will just have to organise an event to wear it to!
Beautiful, and I love the color.
Thank you ladies, I love the colour too!


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Erlanger VP resigns over patient safety concerns: 'I can no longer in good conscience remain in my role'
Death of improperly restrained patient ruled homicide in South Carolina
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Beaumont workers to rally over CEO's compensation
Trump preparing executive order for flu vaccine
Salary potential influences most residency choices: 10 highest-paid residencies
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The 293 hospitals with 5 stars from CMS
Viewpoint: If Vanderbilt nurse is arrested for homicide, leadership should be too
Healthgrades names 'America's Best Hospitals' 2019
The 282 hospitals with 1 star from CMS
Registered nurse salary for all 50 states — California No. 1 at $106,950
Former Vanderbilt nurse indicted on reckless homicide charge after fatal medication error
5 best, worst states for healthcare in 2019
'Beyond horrifying': Cardiologists warned UNC Children's of heart program issues
17 healthcare CEOs make list of overpaid executives
HCA accused of billing fraud: 3 things to know
Ascension shakes up leadership, announces 12 changes
Death of Louisiana nurse attacked by patient ruled a homicide
The healthiest county in each US state
Dozens of Chicago hospital staff fired for improperly viewing Jussie Smollett's records
Vanderbilt hit with $25.5M suit over wrong-site surgery
CMS finds serious deficiencies at MD Anderson
10 most in-demand medical specialties & average base salary
San Francisco hospital CEO resigns amid patient abuse scandal
Michael Kasper, CEO of DuPage Medical Group, dies at 46
'Burn in hell,' Cone Health manager tells health plan via email
Where are the 41 'straight-A' Leapfrog hospitals?
53 medical professionals indicted in federal opioid bust: Here's who they are
Walmart has no shelf space for hospitals' shoddy healthcare
Highest-paid CEOs in 2018: Who made the list from healthcare
Amazon now sells hospital rooms: 5 notes
Trinity Health restructuring to affect nearly 1,700 employees
MD Anderson patient died after contaminated blood transfusion, CMS says
Walmart drops price of virtual visits from $40 to $4
Physician and surgeon compensation for all 50 states — New Hampshire No. 1 at $275,840
From cost-center to strategic asset — How to turn your health system's marketing department into a bottom-line MVP
Eric Oliver - Wednesday, February 13th, 2019 Print	| Email
Healthcare-based merger and acquisition activity is increasing, leaving healthcare organizations scrambling to figure out ways to not only standout from the competition, but to best leverage their collective platforms to ensure patients receive the care they need.
Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health affiliate Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Canton, Mich., opted to address this issue with a new approach to marketing. During a recent webinar, hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Evariant, marketing leaders from Trinity Health, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System and Evariant, discussed customer-centric marketing strategies, enterprise-wide data and technology integration and marketing performance.
Here are the discussion participants:
Matt Casselton, Trinity Health's vice president of marketing and consumer engagement
Karen Cameron, Trinity Health's marketing and consumer engagement manager
Mitch Holdwick, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System's marketing director
Rachel Neely, Evariant's customer success leader
During the webinar, Mr. Holdwick relayed the true story of a Trinity Health patient, using the pseudonym Amy to protect the patient's identity. On Feb. 1, 2018, Amy was on Facebook when she came across a sponsored post asking users to take a health assessment to gauge their eligibility for bariatric surgery. Amy took the test and had a slightly elevated score. St. Joe's began nurturing that interaction and on May 2, 2018, Amy contacted the hospital's call center, spoke with a customer care rep who connected her with an expert on bariatric surgery.
On May 3, 2018, she went to a surgeon-led seminar where she scheduled an appointment with a physician five days later on May 8. By July 9, 2018, Amy underwent a bariatric procedure. With a process that used to take 12 months on average, Amy went from start to finish in just five months. Now Amy has lost 44 pounds, resolved a number of health issues and is living a healthier life.
Amy's story is possible because Saint Joseph Mercy Health System turned its marketing department from a cost center into a strategic asset, focused on helping to both drive and improve the consumer experience.
Modern day marketing
The days of photos, press releases and marketing departments as cost centers are fading. It's become essential for health system marketing departments to become the consumer-facing voice of the organization.
"Healthcare systems are beginning to recognize that our patients are, in fact, consumers — and they are becoming increasingly engaged," Ms. Cameron said. "The marketing department is key for reaching out to and interacting with patients."
To do this, Trinity Health needed to embrace data. In 2013, Trinity Health merged with Newtown Square, Pa.-based Catholic Health East and began thinking about how to better reach patients in light of the expanded scope of the system, Mr. Casselton said. As the parent organization of 94 hospitals in 22 states, Trinity Health wanted to ensure patients in all markets were reached.
"We knew that if done correctly, prioritizing and starting small, we could acquire and retain more patients, and most importantly we could demonstrate the measurable impact of marketing to the rest of the organization," Mr. Casselton said.
Ms. Cameron said, Trinity Health's marketing department had to become "best friends" with the departments collecting and organizing its data. Data was used in new ways to create campaigns they've never done before. "While the data was a starting point, it wasn't enough to move us forward," Ms. Cameron said. "We realized that we needed a methodology that would scale and grow across the enterprise."
Trinity Health recruited a team of marketers across the enterprise to work to better achieve its goals. Trinity Health needed a cloud-based solution to bring its data together. The platform would assist in patient acquisition and engagement, increasing customer loyalty and communication efforts throughout the complete care continuum. They selected Evariant. With the help of this platform, Trinity Health's marketing department is becoming a strategic asset.
Trinity Health created campaign strategy templates, with the help of the Evariant success team, that could be tailored to suit any market. During the discussion, Mr. Holdwick explained how St. Joe's marketing deployed a strategy to create unique consumer encounters like those experienced by Amy.
First, the department employed a digital first strategy that used an omni-channel approach to handle acquisition, engagement and retention. Next, it leveraged data and insights to create individualized tactics for different consumer segments. The department then began to focus on promoting service line procedures that generated strong returns on investment.
When Amy clicked on that health assessment on Feb. 1, 2018, she was engaging with St. Joe's bariatric surgery campaign. The campaign aimed to increase awareness of the hospital's bariatric services, grow market share from local competitors and create a unified regional effort through a hyper-local campaign.
The campaign featured a number of elements including: paid search, downloadable resource guides, display ads and paid social media posts. It's been an overwhelming success.
Since beginning the campaign, St. Joe's reached 114 percent of its lead goal in 2017 and 173 percent in 2018, recording a click to lead conversion rate of 15 percent. The increased demand directly led to two surgeons working an additional 24 hours per week. St. Joe's search impressions increased 143 percent from 2017 to 2018 and the campaign realized over 50 percent net growth in return on investment.
"These stats show the power of the campaign and how they can impact the bottom line," Mr. Holdwick said.
Most importantly though the campaign helped patients seek out the care they needed.
"We talk about ROI all the time," Ms. Neely said. "And as a marketer that's what we have to show, we're not just taking pictures anymore. We're making an impact on the bottom line. But surgeons adding operating room time is my favorite in the story because it shows marketing is much more than that. It's feeding the bottom-line business to your physicians and surgeons. It's showing you've forged a relationship with your surgeons. … And, most importantly, it's showing you're meeting consumer demand."
A replay of this webinar can be viewed anytime through this link.
More articles on strategy:
HSS CEO Lou Shapiro: System's 'value' is more than just financial worth
Why Premier Health is turning to high schoolers to fill its workforce
Why hospitals are using Amazon, Apple, Google tech at patients' bedsides
Safeguards 'overridden' in Vanderbilt nurse's medication error that led to patient's death, prosecutors say

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Online and Newsworthy: Have Online Sources Changed Journalism?
This special issue combines insights from seven studies, integrating key findings to advance the understanding of the use of online sources in the news production process, the change of the relationship between journalists and different groups of actors; and the reasons for the use of online sources during journalists' daily work and the verification of these sources
Research and Editorial Team: Sarah Van Leuven, Sanne Kruikemeier, Sophie Lecheler & Liesbeth Hermans
Link: Online and Newsworthy: Have Online Sources Changed Journalism?
The paper focuses on detailed insights on the use of different kinds of online sources and its implications for news access by different kinds of actors, verification practices for online sources, and the credibility of journalism when it makes use of online sources.
Based on the combined insights of seven studies, the paper explains how this special issue contributes to the developing body of literature investigating whether online sourcing practices have changed journalism, and which questions deserve further attention in future research. The central aim of this special issue is to get a better understanding of whether digitalization has changed journalistic sourcing practices and journalism as a profession. It argues that the different contributions within this issue illustrate that the increasing use of online sources has impacted, yet perhaps not drastically changed, all aspects of journalistic news production.
The first five contributions in this special issue focus on what extent and which online sources are used by professional journalists. Von Nordheim, Boczek, and Koppers, as well as other scholars in this special issue, have provided longitudinal and comparative insights into the use of "new" online sources in journalism. Their work shows that scholars must move beyond using one-shot case studies, and that they need long-term and comparative insights into changes in journalistic practice. However, what the scholars' work also indicates is that journalists are still in close contact with elite actors, whereas non-elite actors and their stories take a back seat. The results of the insights confirm that Twitter has become a relevant sourcing tool for journalists – mainly as a monitoring tool and as a source of inspiration – but that this has hardly changed relationships with actors.
The studies by Thorsen and Jackson and Chernobrov featured in this special issue focus more on the understanding of how journalists have developed new routines and strategies to verify the credibility of online source. The paper states that the "social aspect" of social media is an important indicator of which actors are seen as more credible. These papers confirm that breaking news or crisis news is one type of news that benefits significantly from the removal of time and space barriers in online sources.
The special issue suggests that future research should aim to better understand journalistic verification strategies for online sources by going beyond survey or interview data.
Tags: Professional_journalism Social_media Verification Digitalisation


Spring is finally here, and with it comes the rush to visit what Missourians fondly call "the Lake." Located in the heart of Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks has many opportunities for fun, and USA Today readers have voted it the "Best Recreational Lake in the Nation." While it may surprise some to learn that a Missouri lake beat out California's Big Bear Lake, Iowa's West Okoboji Lake, and Nevada's Lake Tahoe, those who have been to the Lake will know exactly why it won this title.
The huge body of water covers more than 1,150 miles of shoreline, which is more expansive than the entire California coast. Both on and off the lake, fun activities abound. While not on the water, visitors can partake in sightseeing at the local state parks, dining in a wide array of restaurants, camping, or staying at a top-rated hotel or lodge. When visitors hop on a watercraft, jet ski, kayak, or participate in other watersports, they can enjoy the thrilling sights and sounds attached to the lake.
With all these opportunities for fun, what could go wrong? In short, plenty.
Precaution must be taken to ensure you stay safe. Over 100 people were involved in boating accidents on the Lake from April 10, 2018 through March 15, 2019. Of these incidents, 10 individuals lost their lives. Injuries and accidents often result from boating under the influence (BUI), participating in watersports while intoxicated, and other instances of careless or reckless behavior.
Planning a Trip to Lake of the Ozarks? Follow These Safety Tips.
The official kickoff of boating season will be during the 22nd annual Spring Harbor Hop on May 4, 2019. The Harbor Hop is a semiannual event in the spring and fall, which draws huge crowds to play in what's billed as the largest poker hop on the water. Boaters participate by drawing cards at more than 40 locations around the lake to make a winning poker hand.
Before you start gathering the sunscreen, beach towels, and refreshments and loading up your boat, take some time to review the tips for safe boating provided by the Lake of the Ozarks Water Safety Council.
Do not operate a boat while intoxicated; boating under the influence (BUI) is a criminal offense as serious as driving under the influence, and it carries similar penalties.
Children under the age of 7 must wear a life vest/personal floatation device while aboard a watercraft, and it is highly recommended that everyone on board wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket that's the proper size, in good condition, and readily accessible.
It is illegal to operate a watercraft faster than "idle speed" within 100 feet of a dock, occupied/or anchored vessel, or buoyed area.
At night, the speed limit is 30 miles per hour, which begins 30 minutes after sunset and continues through 1 hour before sunrise.
If your boat is 16 feet or longer, you are required to carry a Coast Guard-approved throwable device.
Motorboats must carry fire extinguishers if they are less than 26 feet in length, and/or they are carrying/using flammable or toxic fluids.
All vessels from 16 to 40 feet must have a sounding device, such as a horn or whistle. Vessels over 40 feet must have a bell in addition to a sounding device.
Every person born after January 1, 1984 and operating a vessel on the lake must possess a boating safety identification card issued by the Missouri State Highway Patrol or its agent, and a photo ID, or a boating safety identification card issued by their home state from a NASBLA-approved boating safety course.
Want to learn more? Attend a Boating & Water Safety Seminar held by the Lake of the Ozarks Water Safety Council in Lake Ozark, Missouri on May 11, 2019 for further information about electrical safety, life jackets, First Aid, CPR training, and more.
To contact Cantor Injury Law, please call us at (314) 485-4005 or contact us online for a swift reply. We offer free case evaluations for victims of accidents that occur on Lake of the Ozarks.


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Cheshire East freezes council tax for two years
Opposition councillors claim it's an 'optical illusion' and is a budget full of stealth taxes
Cllr Arthur Moran
Cheshire East's plan to freeze council tax for two years was described as an 'optical illusion' by one Labour councillor.
Council leader Michael Jones told yesterday's meeting of the full council, the Conservative-led authority planned not just to freeze council tax for 2015/16 but for the following year also.
This would be the sixth consecutive year with no increase.
"We are the first council in the country to do this," he told the meeting at Sandbach Town Hall.
And while there much back-slapping among the Conservatives, with one describing the budget as 'not good but spectacular', opposition councillors claimed it was a budget full of stealth taxes.
Nantwich councillor Arthur Moran (Ind) said the budget promises not to put up fees and charges by more than 1%.
"Car parking charges for Crewe were put up earlier this week. I wonder if that was by 1% – and that's on car parks that are making great profit and are full of potholes," he said.
"We've all parked in Sandbach today for free and all the residents of Sandbach park for free. Congleton has got the lowest charges in the borough. But this must be addressed when the next administration takes over."
Cllr Moran said Nantwich had the highest council tax in the borough because, like other town councils, it was paying for services and assets which had been handed over from Cheshire East.
Cllr Steve Hogben (Lab) agreed and announced Labour would be fighting the car park increases in Crewe.
"The council tax freeze is a total optical illusion," said Cllr Hogben. "Cllr Raynes said there were no increases. Only on Monday February 23 Cllr Topping approved a £1 increase (per day) in some of the car parking charges in my ward - Railway Street and Pedley Street.
"We have made a call-in request for that. We hope that will be proved successful. That was an attempt to bring in an increase by stealth."
Ukip councillor Brian Silvester said his party wanted to see a reduction in the council tax – and that could have been done if Cheshire East had not wasted huge sums such as £4m on a 'failed' Local Plan, £400,000 on 'lost appeal after lost appeal', spent money on interim posts and consultants and on 'bloated salaries' and bonuses for senior council staff.
He said 46 town and parish councils had been forced to put up their council tax precepts because they had taken control of services from Cheshire East.
Cllr David Brickhill (Ind) warned not increasing council tax could put the council at huge risk because it was losing money for services it could not claw back.
But the council leader insisted the Cheshire East budget was the best in the North West and one of the best in the UK. He said the council's finances were in 'great shape'.
The budget was approved with 44 voting in favour, eight against and 18 abstaining.
Arthur Moran
Brian Silvester
David Brickhill


Victoria, BC- The Victoria Royals are pleased to announce that Matthew Phillips has joined the American Hockey League's (AHL) Stockton Heat, who are the top affiliate of the Calgary Flames of the NHL, on an Amateur Tryout Agreement.
Phillips was drafted by the Flames in the sixth round, 166th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
A product of Calgary, AB, Phillips recently completed his second campaign in the WHL where he was named to the Western Conference First All-Star Team. Through 70 regular season contests, Phillips led Victoria in scoring with 90 points (50g-40a) and became the first player in Royals' history to score 50 goals in a season. The Victoria forward also took part in six playoff games this season and registered three points (1g-2a).
Last season, Phillips was named the recipient for the WHL's Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as the league's top rookie. Phillips finished the 2015-16 regular season first in points (76) and goals (37) among all WHL rookies. Phillips also finished tied for first in the league in game winning goals (10), and tied for second in powerplay markers (16).
In 144 career regular season WHL games with the Royals, Phillips has earned 169 points (88g-81a).


text:
Support Student Journalism.
Tyler Smith
Conspiracy: Book Review
by Tyler Smith, Staff-Writer
Conspiracy is a book about how a gossip blog, a retired wrestler and a reclusive billionaire all cross paths, and end up in front of a judge and jury in a courtroom in Florida. First things first, trigger warning: this book contains graphic descriptions of sex, possibly nonconsensual at points, descriptions of suicidal tendencies and racial slurs.
Moving on, Ryan Holiday mixes the story of the spectacular downfall of Gawker, a tabloid blog with the concept of conspiracies themselves- how they form, progress and ultimately resolve. You see, Gawker is a now defunct blog site that made a name for itself by posting nasty and mean spirited articles, mainly about celebrities and high profile people. It got away with this more or less by hiding behind the first amendment- because of free speech, if you're a public personality, you're fair game. One of the articles they posted outed Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire, as gay. Peter took offence, and instead of letting it go like most people advised him, he decided he was going to do something about it. As it just so happened, several years later, Gawker posted a leaked sex tape from Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan. An unlikely alliance forms and to make an absolutely bonkers story short, Thiel, using Hogan as a cover of sorts, bankrupted Gawker using the US legal system and in the process changed the conversation around journalism and privacy.
One of the problems I had with this book is that the tone of the author feels a little lofty for what actually took place. I somewhat understand why Holiday went this route, but it gets exhausting when you're trying to connect to the story but every few sentences are bogged down with wordy philosophies and musings. In almost every single chapter there is at least one (long) paragraph referencing a war or Machiavelli or another body of work that you aren't reading because you wanted to know how Hulk Hogan ended up suing a tabloid blog. Another thing that I feel like speaks to the vaguely condescending tone the author can sometimes take is how Holiday talks about people who play video games. It's a small point, at some point Holiday refers to #Gamergate, an absolute mess and a rabbit hole we won't be getting into here. Any criticism Holiday has of the people involved in this is well deserved, but at other points in the book he refers to "people who play video games" simply as "angry video game nerds". Maybe it's the Nintendo Switch sitting on my desk, but it didn't sit well with me.
One thing I do appreciate that Holiday does is he talks about the human impact that all of this has on the three main people in this story. Even if you already know how everything went down, it is still very eye opening how at the end of all of it there were emotions, and how terribly difficult it can be to be on the other end of tabloids that we usually use as mindless entertainment or ways to pass time. It's also interesting how he details the growth and change of the people who are the bad guys of the story. There's lots of conflicting opinions and feelings that I think he balances well (even if it's buried under historical trivia). It also has very interesting insights on legal proceedings and the US court system and how it treats journalism as a whole.
Mining for Memories at the Bonne Terre Mine
The Future of the Nintendo Switch is Looking Bleak...and That's a Good Thing!
Scream 5 The Requel
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Interested in reaching out to The Current? Click on our contact page to fill out a form, or email Stephanie at:
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text:
Coronavirus: Riverside County allowing short-term vacation rentals, officials announce
Mark Olalde Shane Newell
Riverside County is now allowing travelers to stay in a short-term rental property without risking the violation of a local ordinance, officials announced Friday.
Short-term rentals are allowed in "private homes or condos where the host rents the entire home," said Juan Perez, assistant CEO of the county's transportation land management agency. Hotels, motels and inns are not included in the allowance.
No events or gatherings are allowed at short-term rentals, Perez said, and only guests registered for the home should be on the premises. No shared spaces between the host and guest are allowed (for example, when someone rents just one room) and "strict cleaning protocols are to be followed," Perez added.
Deep cleaning is required after each rental, as well as a 24-hour gap between stays.
"As we continue to see our economy gradually reopen, we want to continue to stress that we ask everyone — our business owners, our customers, employees, the general public — to follow safety protocols," Perez said.
City rules can still supersede the county rule, Perez said.
During a Palm Springs City Council meeting, Mayor Geoff Kors on Friday afternoon informed fellow council members about the county's guidance and reminded residents that permits are required to legally operate short-term rentals. Given the city's rules concerning face coverings and physical distancing, Kors said "it's important that anyone who comes here knows that."
Riverside County is allowing vacation rentals to open back up at a time when the state's guidelines say such operations aren't permitted until California has progressed farther in its recovery roadmap. The state says leisure travel isn't permitted, and many places have specific orders that limit short-term rental stays to people who are traveling for essential purposes, or because they need to quarantine.
Although the state was abundantly clear that hotels were not to be opened until Stage 3, Perez said, the county conducted a legal review of the state's orders, and "we feel that there is greater county discretion for short-term vacation rentals."
"This practice now puts us in line with other counties," he added, referencing an earlier decision made by neighboring San Bernardino County.
San Bernardino County officials last week allowed short-term vacation rentals to start operating again, ahead of Joshua Tree National Park's reopening. They anticipated of an influx of visitors who were weary from being cooped up during the coronavirus pandemic and would need a place to stay as they ventured to the park.
In Newport Beach, city officials approved vacation rentals for three-night stays or more starting May 20.
Most California counties are in an accelerated phase of Stage 2, which means retail and dining operations are allowed. But personal services and places where people gather in large groups, like nightclubs or libraries, remain closed. Hotels and lodging — or any "non-essential travel" — is not permitted in Stage 2, according to the state.
"This is another step forward in the reopening process and supports hospitality, a pillar of the Fourth District economy," Riverside County Board Chair and Fourth District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said in a statement. "Rental properties can be safe environments for guests to stay in while providing income to families."
More:Amid coronavirus pandemic, when will Palm Springs hotels reopen? Plans are underway
More:Hot new small hotels in Palm Springs for 2020: Bigger isn't always better
More:Andaz Palm Springs might finally get moving again under new leadership


Ideally located on the Kuta beach, AlamKulKul Boutique Resort offers close proximity to markets, shopping centers, restaurants and much more. You can enjoy the sunset by the beach and enjoy refreshing drinks at Marry's Bar, Chief Surf Club. You are sure to enjoy the delicious breakfast buffet as well.
Nestled near the popular Legian sunset beach, Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta is a 4-star hotel. Offering an astonishing sunset view of Kuta, this hotel engages the nature and its beauty at its best. This award-winning luxury hotel can allure anyone with its own charm and character. For a divine and luxurious holiday, visitors must come here. Offering impeccable tranquillity, it is hidden in the environmental-friendly frame and is just perfect for honeymooners and couples. Moreover, the multiple accommodation options along with world-class services and facilities are something the hotel is known for. Some of the nearby attractions to the hotel are Sky Garden, Waterbom Bali, Bali Mall Galleria, and Paddy's Club Kuta.
Enjoy the stunning view around the hotel from the terrace.
Want best Legian Packages with this Resort?
The hotel offers spacious rooms, which are segregated into Mystery Room, Alam Villa with Pool Access & Alam Club Lounge Access, Alam Villa with Dinner & Lounge Access, Deluxe Alam Double or Twin Room, Deluxe Family Room, Triple Room, Deluxe Alam Lanai Room with Alam Club Lounge Access, Alam Double or Twin Room, Alam Lanai Room with Alam Club Lounge Access, Family Room, Quadruple Room, Alam Villa with Alam Club Lounge Access, and Java Villa with Plunge Pool & Alam Club Lounge Access.Rooms of Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta are decorated in a modern Indonesian style. Also, they are equipped with a TV, free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, minibar and tea/coffee making facilities. Private bathrooms come with a bathtub and shower. In fact, some rooms have a private balcony.
For the convenience of its guests, Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta offers a luxurious spa and fitness and wellness center. It features a business center and meeting/banquet facilities. Guests are also provided a variety of facilities like a 24-hour front desk, tour desk, concierge service, and luggage storage. Additionally, the hotel provides currency exchange facilities and shuttle service too. Internet access is available in all areas free of cost. For recreational purposes, many activities are offered such as live music performance, cooking class, happy hour, wood carving and many more. Moreover, BBQ facilities, a terrace, and garden are also maintained by the hotel.
Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta features restaurants and bars namely Papas Limoncello Cafe, Bunga Kelapa Restaurant, Poolside Bar, and The Veranda. Papas Limoncello Cafe is an Alfresco Italian Family Restaurant that offers Mediterranean cuisine and more than 27 classic juice, coffee drinks, mocktails, beers, cocktails, and wines. Bunga Kelapa Restaurant uses coconut as the main ingredient for its delicacies. Poolside Bar offers a variety of cocktails. The Veranda, one can have a panoramic view of the beach with refreshing drinks.
Offering exceptional hospitality to its guests, Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta is renowned for its facilities. Located in a perfect area, this property is known for its budget-friendly price as well. Friendly and professional staffs always remain ready to serve the guests in the best possible way. BBQ facilities, terrace, and garden really make it different from other Bali hotels. For a memorable and extremely comfortable experience, tourists must come at the Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta and stay for a while. Its unmatched beauty and soothing environment can mesmerize anyone.
How much is the distance between Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta and the International airport?
The hotel is situated at a distance of approximately 5.3 km from Ngurah Rai International Airport.
Does the hotel offers an airport pick up and drop services?
One can go to the famous Kuta Beach to enjoy Balis golden sunsets. Waterbom Bali is also nearby to explore and get engaged in the recreational work. Moreover, one can also visit places like Kuta Theater, Circus waterpark, Dream Museum Zone, 5GX Bali Reverse Bungy, and Armada Flow House.
Is there any shop inside or near the hotel?
Yes, there is a gift shop inside the hotel premises.
Yes, hotel Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta provides offers like Staycation package, Family package, Romantic package, and Eat, Stay and Relax package.
In order to render a beautiful experience to its visitors, Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta maintains excellent lodging facilities that can attract any visitor. From its hearty ambiance to refreshing food at its restaurants to warm hospitality, everything that it harbors is world class. Here, guests can capture the mesmerizing beauty of Kuta beach from The Veranda. Moreover, guests can enjoy impeccable food at the great Asian Restaurant inside Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort Kuta. The friendly staffs ensure a hassle-free stay. The tranquil environment at the idyllic pools gives your thoughts freedom to dip in the vast ocean of memories and emotions. This establishment is absolutely ideal for couples because of the exceptional aura that it has. The fame it has, its facilities, amenities, and services enhance that.


Coffee Coffee Coffee. We've been chatting a lot about coffee lately, but I want to tell you in two words why you are going to LOVE this coffee. Are you ready? Organic AND Eco-friendly. Yes eco-friendly, organic coffee OneCups are here!
There are actually MANY reasons to choose Rogers Family Company coffee. Are you ready to hear?
Their own coffee farms. We are proud to grow our own coffee on six, beautiful, bio-diverse, organic coffee farms.
Fair Direct Trade. Coffee is purchased directly from farmers we know personally at prices that will sustain both a high quality of life for the farmer, coop members, and for workers on the farms far into the future.
Shade Grown Coffee. A way of growing coffee in concert with nature. We plant our coffee trees in and among a forest canopy of native trees rather than in full sun. Shade coffee farming (as opposed to clear cutting for full sun) creates healthy soil content, protects the environment for a myriad of animals and birds, fights global warming, and truly creates a better coffee bean.
100% family–owned and operated company.
I could go on and on about the wonderful things they do for the environment – worm composting, bio-gas energy, community programs, carbon-free footprint company! Love companies that are green! You'll have to read all about it on the Rogers Family Company site.
Organic French Roast OneCup™: Enjoy the distinct, smoky, and bold taste of French Roast coffee that fanatics love. Not for the faint of heart. 100% Organic.
Organic Breakfast Blend OneCup™: A bright and flavorful blend of the finest 100% organic Central and South American coffees. A perfect way to start the morning.
Organic Gorilla Decaf OneCup™: Full-City roasted taste that is big and strong yet mellow. Decaffeinated using the Natural Water Process. 100% Organic.
Organic Java Love OneCup™: An exotic and syrupy blend of Indonesian and Latin American coffees. 100% Organic.
I received each of these four flavors a few days ago and have been drinking Java Love ever since….I am in Love.
They arrive in a compostable bag inside the box that you'll want to keep closed when storing so it stays fresh as long as possible. That is why I haven't opened all the flavors yet, but I bet they are allll yum.
And the price? $6.99 for a box of 12. That is Awesome.
Check out Rogers Family Company ~ they have make 6 brands of coffee and 2 tea. I know you want to support a fantastic company like this one!
WIN the 4 OneCup Single Serve Boxes I have shown here!
I received this item for review and all opinions are my own.
Thanks for the great giveaway—I am a coffee-LOVER!
I'd love to try the San Francisco Bay Coffee Espresso Roast.
I have wanted to try some of these coffees for a while now. I like that they have the small trial sizes that you can get. That way you can be sure you like it before you buy it in larger quantities. Thanks.
I LOVE COFFE,AND I WANN WIN!
Definitely a coffee lover! Great giveaway!
Coffee lovers at my house :o) The Fairwinds, Buttered Rum Coffee is one we'd like to try.
I love their Single Serve Coffee Cups.
I love that it is biodegradable. Looks like a lot of varieties too!
The coffee is amazing and I like to try the Caramel Flavor Roast!
My husband drinks lots of coffee - he will drink and love almost any flavor.
Roger's Coffee French Roast looks wonderful and I love that their coffee cups are 97% Bio-Degradable!
I am impressed, and I would like the SF Bay french roast.
I just got a keurig and Im so curious as to all the flavors out there and what to try out. Love that they have an organic line for k cups!
Would like to try the San Francisco Bay Coffee Rainforest Blend.
I would love to try their San Francisco Bay fog chaser coffee!
Once again you find a great company I had not heard of before your review. You're right, they have so many wonderful options on their website for us coffee connoisseurs!
The organic tea looks great too!
I love the K-cups with less plastic. I hope other coffee's catch on!
I have tried the following: Rainforest Blend, Espresso, and their Italian Roast. All three were delicious. I would like to try their flavored coffees.
I like the idea of throwing the used packets in the compost!
I like that their products are organic and I like the vanilla flavored coffee too.
I love to drink coffee, and even more to try new ones!!!
You're right, I was impressed. The prices aren't bad at all and I like the free shipping option.
I would love to try their coffee! Thanks!
OneCup Pumpkin Spice sounds yummy.
They have a lot of coffees they look good.
I'm impressed by the biodegradable single cup packaging.
I've been drinking Roger's Family Coffee for several years. Every now and then I try something else but go, immediately, back to my favorite Roger's Family Coffee.
I am excited about your contest!
I love coffee and their coffee is delish.
i love all the organic options!!
I'd love to try their Pumpkin Spice single serve cups. I'm also rather interested in the biodegradable cups instead of the plastic ones I normally use.
I love this... organic options and that there is not all that plastic. I always feel so bad about that!
These are genius! I put off buying a Keurig until they came out with re-usable cups I could put my own coffee in, but I do like the idea of having greener options for those days when I just want to toss in a premade cup and be done with it.
Just bought a keurig yesterday.
I've bought their coffee before at my local club store and it's DELICIOUS! I think the one I've tried is Fog Chaser or Fog Lifter. So good!
Java Love is my Absolute Favorite coffee! I've been drinking it for a little over a year now. When I run out I want to cry because it's so hard to find in my area! I've gotten my husband and 3 friends hooked on it too. I tell everyone about it. It's simply THE BEST!
I want to try this coffee! It sounds great!
I would love to try their coffee.
I love trying different coffees. Would love to try this.
I would definitely be considered a coffee lover :) I like all the options on this site!
i love coffee, especially during the cold weather that is just around the corner!
I am a coffee fanatic..its all I drank most days from the time I wake up till bedtime!
I love the San Francisco Bay Breakfast Blend. It's what I drink the most and I buy it in bulk. Great deal and environmentally friendly.
good prices compared to some, and their selection of flavors sound delicious, thanks!
Awesome coffee! Love that it's organic!
I love the My French Press. What a great idea!
I love that it is not only organic but also family owned!
I am hoping the coffee and packaging is gluten free. I searched the website and couldn't find anything about that. Looks good though!
So many different types to try.... makes me crave some coffee!! (Can't wait for baby #2 to get here so I can enjoy some!) I love how the family works together to run the business!
I love coffee and I love those ecofriendly pods!!
i love coffee! Its awesome that they have such good quality AND eco-friendly coffee!
Cool stuff! I'd love to try their organic tea.
Oh wow - this is a completely cool concept for coffee drinkers - love it.
I am EXTREMELY impressed!! They have hundreds of flavors for my tastebuds, and I keep hoping I'll win some. I have never tried their product, but dang, it ALL sounds nummy!
While in Chicago I once drank coffee that was referred to as "Human Petroleum." It was awesome!
I'd also like to try OTC, Organic Tea Sampler Gift Pack.
I would like to try many of their varieties of coffee. There are alot I would enjoy.
The Rogers Family does have an impressive coffee resume. It'd be interesting to try a new coffee everyday for a little while.
I checked them out and I AM impressed!
I love that they have organic and fair trade coffees.
I love coffee! Thank you!
They have an awesome selection of coffees and teas... would also love to try their 100% Organic Ceylon Estate Tea. Thanks for the giveaway.
They have a great variety of k-cups. Thanks so much for the chance to win.
I have never tried this brand but I do like lots and lots of coffee...which is probably why at 2:00 am I am entering giveaways and not sleeping!
All the coffee sounds great especially the Cinnamon Crumb Cake Coffee.
They have got some very good prices!
always looking for new kcup coffee tot ry!
Love to try new coffee!
I like that they offer the onecups.
would love to try their coffee!
I love coffee! I'd love to try this stuff!
I need some coffee right now!!
thank you, would really love to try their coffee.
There is so much i could buy on their site! Free shipping over $50 is a awesome deal.
I am a recent Coffee lover because I just recently started drinking and loving coffee!
I would love to try organic coffee. Rogers Family Coffee sounds delicious.
Going to check Amazon... I <3 Coffee!
I have checked out Rogers and it all looks nummy!
I would love to try their San Francisco Bay Coffee Pumpkin Spice K-cups.
I admit I am a java junkie. Love that they are so eco-friendly, will definitely be checking them out.
I would love to try Organic coffee, it sounds wonderful!
Rogers Family Company also has some very nice teas. Good company!


The typical Great-West Financial Senior Software Engineer salary is $114,262. Senior Software Engineer salaries at Great-West Financial can range from $89,326 - $129,728. This estimate is based upon 9 Great-West Financial Senior Software Engineer salary report(s) provided by employees or estimated based upon statistical methods. When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Senior Software Engineer at Great-West Financial can expect to make an average total pay of $116,017 . See all Senior Software Engineer salaries to learn how this stacks up in the market.


Phishing For Artists… » « Grasshoppers!
From Kestrel, click for full size!
© Kestrel, all rights reserved.
The red ones. ♥ What are they?
The red ones look like a type of Indian Paintbrush to me. One of my fave wildflowers when we lived in the San Jacinto mountains.
The red one is Ipomopsis aggregata. Common name is scarlet trumpet and in old books, fairy trumpet. And I think it's also called scarlet gilia.
I have no idea what an of them are.
The last one is fireweed/great willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium), right? Here they tend to be more red in colour than the one in the photo, but most pictures of them seem to be on the bluer shade of purple/violet.
Yes, Ice Swimmer, that's what it is!
I don't know that yellow one… I remember those being under a made-up sort of joke classification as a "DYC" (I think that stood for Damned Yellow Composite), because they were difficult to tell apart.


text:
Tea, Cozy
The isolation has undone me. I am talking to the kettle.
It is a shiny new kettle, bright red, Le Creuset. It was marked down by Amazon's warehouse, but I can find no flaw. As I wash that cheerful enameled surface and scrape off various stickers, I murmur, "Are you just old, darlin'? Is that why you were in the warehouse?"
The stickers are stubborn, maybe baked on and frozen by temperature extremes. How many trucks have carried my kettle, and how long has it languished on a shelf? More than most objects, a kettle is meant to be used.
The shape angles wide at the base—its style name was Zen, which helped win me over. I gush in hot water and swirl it around, promising to take better, more meditative care of this one than the predecessor I just scorched.
My mom had bought me the previous kettle years ago, insisting I needed its narrow spout to fill our hot water bottle. We were both addicted to that winter comfort, its rubbery rounded edges and sloshing softness so much cozier than a rectangle with a cord and dry electric heat. I was not, however, a fan of her kettle choice, a cold stainless steel that was a little lightweight, thin, for my taste. It refused to tolerate my absentmindedness.
Teakettles should be cozy and stalwart, with a reassuring heft and a bright splash of color. They also need a pleasant whistle, for the sake of people like me. They should not be yet another electrical appliance to plug into a power strip already bristling with connections. Some things must remain simple.
I resume our conversation, aware that I perhaps need to work in others' company again, that I may be growing squirrelly. "All those soothing cups of tea you'll make," I say, meaning this as a pleasantry, an anticipation of oolong, Moroccan mint, double-spiced chai, Constant Comment. In my Irish family, though, strong tea was inseparable from emotional crisis, and my hand moves the dishtowel faster, nervous at the thought of all the unknown upset ahead. Grief and distress are far more likely to require this kettle's services than an unexpected home birth.
I pull back, make myself think instead of gossip and good books and hot toddies for future colds. (The thought of a cold is almost prosaic, these days.) Whatever the occasion, putting the kettle on is a friendly act, a promise of conversation, strength, and quiet companionship. Coffee is a harsher stimulant, more transactional, offering energy and demanding performance. Tea takes its time—I hate myself when I microwave it, the very convenience reminding me that I am rushing my life away, so hooked on speed that I cannot wait a few minutes for a kettle to boil.
Three years ago, I drove for several hours through a torrential thunderstorm, got lost, and lost phone reception before finally reaching Paris, Missouri, the small town where the writer George Hodgman grew up. Hapless in the kitchen after years in Manhattan, George offered me tea (Lipton) and boiled the water in a little saucepan. I smiled and later included that detail in the profile. It seemed charming, a tiny bit of human ineptitude in an erudite former Vanity Fair and Simon & Schuster editor who knew all the literary celebs.
Two and a half years later, Hodgman killed himself. All I could think of was that saucepan. No longer charming, it now reminded me that he had been painfully alone for years—never cozy and snug, always a little on edge, even at home. For many reasons, he had never developed the knack of comforting himself—only the rest of us. We became friends after I wrote the profile, and I quickly came to treasure his wit, his sarcasm, his deep compassion. He recognized other people's pain, yet no one could come close enough to soothe his.
How long had that been true? There was an essential aloneness about him, despite his ready warmth. He joked about becoming an eccentric, mad recluse in his old age (he was not yet sixty). George had moved home to care for his mother in her last days, and she was gone by the time I met him. I got a sense of her as funny, sharp-edged, eager for his help and his role as her audience, but hardly cozy. Not the sort to fetch somebody a hot water bottle unasked.
Kettles are fundamentally social, I realize. Left to my own devices, I probably would just microwave a mug. But a kettle boils enough water to share, one of those communal acts that keep us all sane. Even Scotland Yard detectives, if television is to be trusted, ask for a cuppa when they need to come into someone's home and extract a bit of information. If anything will let down someone's guard, it will be that ritual.
The Brits, with their chilly fog and chatty discourse, have always known the value of the kettle, as have the Japanese, the Chinese, the Turks. The first teakettles were bronze, forged in Mesopotamia 3500 years BCE, and they had decorative spouts, their practicality made beautiful. The English name "kettle" came later, taken from the Old Norse ketill, or cauldron. Women's work, witchery and elemental. Fire heats water and keeps us alive—in this world and the next.
The northern Iroquois had a Feast of the Dead in which their bones, thought to enclose their souls and the stories of their lives, were retrieved from a temporary grave, scrubbed clean, and buried in a common grave along with small offerings, often kettles, made by their loved ones. The Hurons even called the ceremony "the kettle."
I wish George could have been buried with a kettle. What I really wish is that he had a kettle when he was alive. Tea was probably too watered-down for him, but sympathy might have made a difference.
Read more by Jeannette Cooperman here.


text:
What Does Sugar-Free Do To You?
July 6, 2004 / 10:06 AM / AP
Rats fed artificial sweeteners ate three times the calories of rats given sugar, a finding the study's authors said suggests sugar-free foods may play a role in the nation's obesity epidemic.
Other scientists, however, dismissed that conclusion, saying studies on people don't indicate that. One researcher called the rat study nonsense.
The experiment by Purdue University researchers appears in the July issue of the International Journal of Obesity. The scientists said their rodent findings could help explain why Americans have grown fatter over the past two decades even as the nation's consumption of artificially sweetened sodas and snack foods has soared.
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They contend that artificial sweeteners could be interfering with people's natural ability to regulate how much they eat by distinguishing between high- and low- calorie sweets.
As part of their study, they fed two groups of rats sweet-flavored liquids for 10 days. One group got only sugar-sweetened liquids, while the other was fed liquids sweetened by both sugar and saccharin.
After the 10 days, both groups of rats were given a sugary, chocolate-flavored snack and regular rat chow.
Both groups of rats ate about the same amount of the chocolate snack. But the rats fed both sugar and saccharin ate three times the calories of the rat chow than the rats fed only the sugar-sweetened drink.
Susan Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue, said the findings suggest the rats given the saccharin-sweetened drink ate more rat chow because they experienced an inconsistent relationship between sweet taste and calories.
That, in turn, could confound their natural ability to keep track of calories.
"Consuming artificially sweetened products may interfere with one of the automatic processes our bodies use to regulate calorie intake," said Swithers, the study's co-author.
Adam Drewnowski, director of nutritional sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that whatever caused the rats to overeat is unclear and could have been caused by something other than the sugar-free liquid they were fed. He said the rat results have no bearing on human research.
"They're extrapolating and saying that humans may not be adjusting to the artificial sweeteners because they're expecting calories and the calories are not coming in. I just think this is nonsense," he said.
Drewnowski said a 1994 French study he helped direct compared people given yogurt artificially sweetened with aspartame with people who ate yogurt sweetened with sugar. The study found no differences in eating behavior between the two groups.
Terry Davidson, a Purdue professor of psychological sciences, said the team's findings involving saccharin cannot be extended to more commonly used artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, sold as Splenda.
G. Harvey Anderson, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the Purdue research, said its findings could be explained by the fact that rats like the taste of saccharin.
He said the rats who overate could have favored the saccharin-flavored drink and then compensated for its lack of calories by eating more rat chow. "I just find this data hard to interpret," Anderson said.
By Rick Callahan
First published on July 6, 2004 / 10:06 AM
CBSN Live
Right Rail - Video Promo - Listing
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The octopus is one of the most bizarre life forms on Earth – one of the smartest, most interesting, and most alien. It can camouflage itself in a flash, squeeze its entire body through a one-inch hole, and use their brains (yes, it has nine of them) to think and play. Chip Reid visits scientists at New England Aquarium in Boston, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and talks with Sy Montgomery, author of "The Soul of an Octopus," about these curious creatures.
Gary Clark Jr. on "This Land"
At 35 Gary Clark Jr. is still clearly uncomfortable being heralded as one of the best guitarists in a generation. He's played the White House, and toured with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. This year his blues/rock album, "This Land," is up for four Grammy Awards. Kristine Johnson talks with the musician who describes himself as a "simple dude from Austin, Texas who picked up a guitar."
Carlos Ghosn's great escape
You don't get as far as Carlos Ghosn has come without thinking outside the box, or inside the box for that matter, which is how the former Nissan executive – facing trial in Japan for financial wrongdoing – managed to skip bail and flee the country. He spoke (somewhat evasively) with correspondent Charlie D'Agata about his improbable journey.
Sunday Profile: Kim Novak
Now on the cusp of turning 87, Kim Novak is still finding herself. The star of such classics as Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo," "Picnic," and "Bell, Book and Candle," the actress turned her back on Hollywood in the 1960s and has since pursued artwork and a love of animals. Mo Rocca reports.
Overdue protections for pregnant workers
It's a story told hundreds of thousands of times every year across America: Women can get the job – just don't get pregnant. Even though pregnancy discrimination has been illegal under federal law for more than 40 years, pregnant women are pushed out of their jobs every day, because employers still deny accommodations to pregnant workers. Jan Crawford talks to women who have faced serious choices and sometimes tragic circumstances affecting careers and family; and with two lawmakers trying to change federal law to better protect women in the workplace. [Photos from "Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace" by Working Assumptions.]
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One employee hopes the dog, named "Subway Sally," helps raise awareness for other stray pets.
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The legendary performer and wife Patti Scialfa were at the ceremony to cheer Sam on.
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Jack Wilson, the 71-year-old volunteer security guard who said he killed the gunman with a single shot, was honored Monday for his heroism.
7-year-old hockey player gets NHL to make inclusive playing cards
Sabrina Scali took action when she saw a deck of NHL playing cards, that only showed the queens as cheerleaders.
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"It's a small planet ... We have a lot more likenesses than we do differences," pilot Bill Harrelson learned during his trip.


Jelle Slof is a craftman who sees pure craftsmanship as impossible to reach in art.
Using humour and acting as if being naive, he tries to position himself as a "conceptual craftsman".
in oil on old wooden panels (15 x 15 cm) at 50 euros a piece.


text:
namespace Lucene
{
    NumericRangeQuery::NumericRangeQuery(const String& field, int32_t precisionStep, int32_t valSize, NumericValue min, NumericValue max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        BOOST_ASSERT(valSize == 32 || valSize == 64);
        if (precisionStep < 1)
            boost::throw_exception(IllegalArgumentException(L"precisionStep must be >=1"));
        this->field = field;
        this->precisionStep = precisionStep;
        this->valSize = valSize;
        this->min = min;
        this->max = max;
        this->minInclusive = minInclusive;
        this->maxInclusive = maxInclusive;

        // For bigger precisionSteps this query likely hits too many terms, so set to CONSTANT_SCORE_FILTER
        // right off (especially as the FilteredTermEnum is costly if wasted only for AUTO tests because it
        // creates new enums from IndexReader for each sub-range)
        switch (valSize)
        {
            case 64:
                setRewriteMethod(precisionStep > 6 ? CONSTANT_SCORE_FILTER_REWRITE() : CONSTANT_SCORE_AUTO_REWRITE_DEFAULT());
                break;
            case 32:
                setRewriteMethod(precisionStep > 8 ? CONSTANT_SCORE_FILTER_REWRITE() : CONSTANT_SCORE_AUTO_REWRITE_DEFAULT());
                break;
            default:
                // should never happen
                boost::throw_exception(IllegalArgumentException(L"valSize must be 32 or 64"));
        }

        // shortcut if upper bound == lower bound
        if (!VariantUtils::isNull(min) && min == max)
            setRewriteMethod(CONSTANT_SCORE_BOOLEAN_QUERY_REWRITE());
    }

    NumericRangeQuery::~NumericRangeQuery()
    {
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newLongRange(const String& field, int32_t precisionStep, int64_t min, int64_t max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, precisionStep, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newLongRange(const String& field, int64_t min, int64_t max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newIntRange(const String& field, int32_t precisionStep, int32_t min, int32_t max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, precisionStep, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newIntRange(const String& field, int32_t min, int32_t max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newDoubleRange(const String& field, int32_t precisionStep, double min, double max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, precisionStep, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newDoubleRange(const String& field, double min, double max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newNumericRange(const String& field, int32_t precisionStep, NumericValue min, NumericValue max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        if (!VariantUtils::equalsType(min, max))
            boost::throw_exception(IllegalArgumentException(L"min/max must be of the same type"));
        int32_t valSize = VariantUtils::typeOf<int32_t>(min) ? 32 : 64;
        return newLucene<NumericRangeQuery>(field, precisionStep, valSize, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    NumericRangeQueryPtr NumericRangeQuery::newNumericRange(const String& field, NumericValue min, NumericValue max, bool minInclusive, bool maxInclusive)
    {
        return newNumericRange(field, NumericUtils::PRECISION_STEP_DEFAULT, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive);
    }

    FilteredTermEnumPtr NumericRangeQuery::getEnum(IndexReaderPtr reader)
    {
        return newLucene<NumericRangeTermEnum>(shared_from_this(), reader);
    }

    String NumericRangeQuery::getField()
    {
        return field;
    }

    bool NumericRangeQuery::includesMin()
    {
        return minInclusive;
    }

    bool NumericRangeQuery::includesMax()
    {
        return maxInclusive;
    }

    NumericValue NumericRangeQuery::getMin()
    {
        return min;
    }

    NumericValue NumericRangeQuery::getMax()
    {
        return min;
    }

    LuceneObjectPtr NumericRangeQuery::clone(LuceneObjectPtr other)
    {
        LuceneObjectPtr clone = MultiTermQuery::clone(other ? other : newLucene<NumericRangeQuery>(field, precisionStep, valSize, min, max, minInclusive, maxInclusive));
        NumericRangeQueryPtr cloneQuery(boost::dynamic_pointer_cast<NumericRangeQuery>(clone));
        cloneQuery->field = field;
        cloneQuery->precisionStep = precisionStep;
        cloneQuery->valSize = valSize;
        cloneQuery->min = min;
        cloneQuery->max = max;
        cloneQuery->minInclusive = minInclusive;
        cloneQuery->maxInclusive = maxInclusive;
        return cloneQuery;
    }

    String NumericRangeQuery::toString(const String& field)
    {
        StringStream buffer;
        if (this->field != field)
            buffer << this->field << L":";
        buffer << (minInclusive ? L"[" : L"{");
        if (VariantUtils::isNull(min))
            buffer << L"*";
        else
            buffer << min;
        buffer << L" TO ";
        if (VariantUtils::isNull(max))
            buffer << L"*";
        else
            buffer << max;
        buffer << (maxInclusive ? L"]" : L"}");
        buffer << boostString();
        return buffer.str();
    }

    bool NumericRangeQuery::equals(LuceneObjectPtr other)
    {
        if (LuceneObject::equals(other))
            return true;
        if (!MultiTermQuery::equals(other))
            return false;

        NumericRangeQueryPtr otherNumericRangeQuery(boost::dynamic_pointer_cast<NumericRangeQuery>(other));
        if (!otherNumericRangeQuery)
            return false;

        return (field == otherNumericRangeQuery->field &&
                min == otherNumericRangeQuery->min &&
                max == otherNumericRangeQuery->max &&
                minInclusive == otherNumericRangeQuery->minInclusive &&
                maxInclusive == otherNumericRangeQuery->maxInclusive &&
                precisionStep == otherNumericRangeQuery->precisionStep);
    }

    int32_t NumericRangeQuery::hashCode()
    {
        int32_t hash = MultiTermQuery::hashCode();
        hash += StringUtils::hashCode(field) ^ 0x4565fd66 + precisionStep ^ 0x64365465;
        if (!VariantUtils::isNull(min))
            hash += VariantUtils::hashCode(min) ^ 0x14fa55fb;
        if (!VariantUtils::isNull(max))
            hash += VariantUtils::hashCode(max) ^ 0x733fa5fe;
        return hash + (MiscUtils::hashCode(minInclusive) ^ 0x14fa55fb) + (MiscUtils::hashCode(maxInclusive) ^ 0x733fa5fe);
    }

    NumericRangeTermEnum::NumericRangeTermEnum(NumericRangeQueryPtr query, IndexReaderPtr reader)
    {
        this->_query = query;
        this->reader = reader;
        this->rangeBounds = Collection<String>::newInstance();
        this->termTemplate = newLucene<Term>(query->field);

        switch (query->valSize)
        {
            case 64:
            {
                // lower
                int64_t minBound = LLONG_MIN;
                if (VariantUtils::typeOf<int64_t>(query->min))
                    minBound = VariantUtils::get<int64_t>(query->min);
                else if (VariantUtils::typeOf<double>(query->min))
                    minBound = NumericUtils::doubleToSortableLong(VariantUtils::get<double>(query->min));
                if (!query->minInclusive && !VariantUtils::isNull(query->min))
                {
                    if (minBound == LLONG_MAX)
                        break;
                    ++minBound;
                }

                // upper
                int64_t maxBound = LLONG_MAX;
                if (VariantUtils::typeOf<int64_t>(query->max))
                    maxBound = VariantUtils::get<int64_t>(query->max);
                else if (VariantUtils::typeOf<double>(query->max))
                    maxBound = NumericUtils::doubleToSortableLong(VariantUtils::get<double>(query->max));
                if (!query->maxInclusive && !VariantUtils::isNull(query->max))
                {
                    if (maxBound == LLONG_MIN)
                        break;
                    --maxBound;
                }

                NumericUtils::splitLongRange(newLucene<NumericLongRangeBuilder>(rangeBounds), query->precisionStep, minBound, maxBound);

                break;
            }

            case 32:
            {
                // lower
                int32_t minBound = INT_MIN;
                if (VariantUtils::typeOf<int32_t>(query->min))
                    minBound = VariantUtils::get<int32_t>(query->min);
                if (!query->minInclusive && !VariantUtils::isNull(query->min))
                {
                    if (minBound == INT_MAX)
                        break;
                    ++minBound;
                }

                // upper
                int32_t maxBound = INT_MAX;
                if (VariantUtils::typeOf<int32_t>(query->max))
                    maxBound = VariantUtils::get<int32_t>(query->max);
                if (!query->maxInclusive && !VariantUtils::isNull(query->max))
                {
                    if (maxBound == INT_MIN)
                        break;
                    --maxBound;
                }

                NumericUtils::splitIntRange(newLucene<NumericIntRangeBuilder>(rangeBounds), query->precisionStep, minBound, maxBound);

                break;
            }

            default:
                // should never happen
                boost::throw_exception(IllegalArgumentException(L"valSize must be 32 or 64"));
        }

        // seek to first term
        next();
    }

    NumericRangeTermEnum::~NumericRangeTermEnum()
    {
    }

    double NumericRangeTermEnum::difference()
    {
        return 1.0;
    }

    bool NumericRangeTermEnum::endEnum()
    {
        boost::throw_exception(UnsupportedOperationException(L"not implemented"));
        return false;
    }

    void NumericRangeTermEnum::setEnum(TermEnumPtr actualEnum)
    {
        boost::throw_exception(UnsupportedOperationException(L"not implemented"));
    }

    bool NumericRangeTermEnum::termCompare(TermPtr term)
    {
        return (term->field() == NumericRangeQueryPtr(_query)->field && term->text().compare(currentUpperBound) <= 0);
    }

    bool NumericRangeTermEnum::next()
    {
        // if a current term exists, the actual enum is initialized: try change to next term, if no
        // such term exists, fall-through
        if (currentTerm)
        {
            BOOST_ASSERT(actualEnum);
            if (actualEnum->next())
            {
                currentTerm = actualEnum->term();
                if (termCompare(currentTerm))
                    return true;
            }
        }

        // if all above fails, we go forward to the next enum, if one is available
        currentTerm.reset();
        while (rangeBounds.size() >= 2)
        {
            BOOST_ASSERT(rangeBounds.size() % 2 == 0);
            // close the current enum and read next bounds
            if (actualEnum)
            {
                actualEnum->close();
                actualEnum.reset();
            }
            String lowerBound(rangeBounds.removeFirst());
            currentUpperBound = rangeBounds.removeFirst();
            // create a new enum
            actualEnum = reader->terms(termTemplate->createTerm(lowerBound));
            currentTerm = actualEnum->term();
            if (currentTerm && termCompare(currentTerm))
                return true;
            // clear the current term for next iteration
            currentTerm.reset();
        }

        // no more sub-range enums available
        BOOST_ASSERT(rangeBounds.empty() && !currentTerm);
        return false;
    }

    void NumericRangeTermEnum::close()
    {
        rangeBounds.clear();
        currentUpperBound.clear();
        FilteredTermEnum::close();
    }

    NumericLongRangeBuilder::NumericLongRangeBuilder(Collection<String> rangeBounds)
    {
        this->rangeBounds = rangeBounds;
    }

    NumericLongRangeBuilder::~NumericLongRangeBuilder()
    {
    }

    void NumericLongRangeBuilder::addRange(const String& minPrefixCoded, const String& maxPrefixCoded)
    {
        rangeBounds.add(minPrefixCoded);
        rangeBounds.add(maxPrefixCoded);
    }

    NumericIntRangeBuilder::NumericIntRangeBuilder(Collection<String> rangeBounds)
    {
        this->rangeBounds = rangeBounds;
    }

    NumericIntRangeBuilder::~NumericIntRangeBuilder()
    {
    }

    void NumericIntRangeBuilder::addRange(const String& minPrefixCoded, const String& maxPrefixCoded)
    {
        rangeBounds.add(minPrefixCoded);
        rangeBounds.add(maxPrefixCoded);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: NETunnelProviderSession startTunnel() doesn't start VPN connection So im using PIATunnel library to start a VPN connection. The best I have managed to get so far is trying to connect to a VPN server which immediately gets disconnected.
I want to be able to debug the issue and find out what happens after calling the startTunnel(). I can only monitor the connectivity through the notification center observer, but i dont know whats causing the connection problem that I immediately get disconnected. On server side I don't see my IP address so for that reason im sure the iOS device is not making the connection.
Im basically running the Demo app from this repo: https://github.com/pia-foss/tunnel-apple/tree/master/Demo
What im uncertain of is that in order to debug the VPN tunnel do I need to run the Network Extension target? Can I debug using the containing app's target? I have tried both and when I override the init() for the NEPacketTunnelProvider subclass when running the extension target likde this:
override init() {
   os_log("QQQ PIATunnelProvider: init")
   super.init()
}

I don't see the log message (for my iPhone) in Console app.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Frederika Bergman
Silenced Description
Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl was assaulted and raped as she picked flowers for a Midsummer's Eve ritual. Cut to the present, and a man is killed in a hit-and-run. He has no identification on him; he is not reported missing or wanted by the police. At the same time, a priest and his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide.
Fredrika Bergman, along with Alex Recht's federal investigation unit, is assigned to the seemingly unconnected cases. The investigations lead to a clandestine people-smuggling network: a new player on the international human smuggling market operating out of Bangkok.
As the police slowly uncover the shocking hypocrisy behind the network, they begin to find a trail that runs all the way back to the 1980s, to a crime that went unreported but whose consequences will reach further and deeper than anyone ever expected.
©2013 Kristina Ohlsson (P)2015 Simon & Schuster
De : Kristina Ohlsson
Indisponible sur Audible.fr
De nombreuses raisons peuvent expliquer pourquoi un livre est indisponible.
Parfois, un livre est temporairement épuisé - et parfois, aucune version audio n'a été enregistrée. Audible veut vous donner la sélection la plus complète possible et nous continuerons à ajouter des séries et combler les attentes le plus rapidement possible.
Lu par : Maggie Mash
The body of a young woman is found carved up and buried in a forest glade in an innocuous Swedish suburb. Alex Recht and his team in the Stockholm Police soon identify the body as belonging to missing student Rebecca Trolle, but as his team continues to excavate the site, they soon find that someone has been returning to the same spot to bury their victims year after year, decade after decade.
Shortly after a crowded New York-bound flight takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found onboard. Anonymous hijackers demand that the Swedish government revoke its decision to deport a Moroccan man. If their demands are not met, the plane will explode if it attempts to land. The US and Swedish governments must choose between negotiating with terrorists in order to save the 400 passengers held hostage at 30,000 feet or to stand their ground and pursue the deportation of a possibly innocent man.
Fredrika Bergman, Book 5
On a cold winter's day, a preschool teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later, two Jewish boys go missing on their way to tennis practice. A heavy snowstorm hits Stockholm, and the traces of the perpetrator are few and far between. Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht are faced with one of their toughest challenges ever as they hunt for a killer who seems as merciless as he is effective.


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text:
Our Village
"I am because we are" - ubuntu
Where's the Village?
Concerns over violence...
It still hurts...
Fredrick Douglas 4th of July
B. Starr on the confederacy
"hey brother, I got you!!!"
KCUR FM 89.3 Interview
Group forges effort...
Tough Father's Day
Fulfilling a Promise
The Our Village Difference
Black-on-Black Crime Summit
"Good Feelings..."
Wake up KC!
Hundreds Volunteer...
Frustration at City Hall
About OVTV
OVTV Schedule
Break the Silence...
Be a OVTV Correspondent
Add Your Show To The Line-up
Entrepreneurship Mentoring
Daddy's On Duty
Daddy's On Duty Sign Up
Register Voter Form (PDF)
Nate Turner
The Our Village Coalition Difference
This grass-root organization is designed to go door-to-door, block-by-block in an effort to get to know our neighbor, a once valued principle we have abandoned in these modern times. It is our belief that returning back to the days of it taking a village to raise our children is crucial, but more importantly it is the means of regaining control of our village.
If and when this small thing does occur, and it is my prayer that it is much sooner than later, the problems with crime and violence and any any kind and the ailments we face as a village will simply cease to exist. The Our Village Coalition motto and creed is based solely in scripture: "the love you save, may be your own". So we must turn from the mindset that the crime and violence is happening to someone else or someone else's problem. Because you see, every person lost to this senseless violence in our Village didn't have to die. If our community, our village would stand up right now, another one doesn't. So we must take ownership of this problem and stand together to end all of the crime and violence, once and for ALL, because it affects us ALL.
Question is what are you doing to fight violence and crime? Question is what are you doing to ensure our children and loved ones are safe? If you're unable to answer these two simple questions Our Village Coalition is the right place for you. Through Our Village Coalition you'll have the opportunity to fight crime and violence every single day with like minded individuals in a unified effort. Individually people from all walks of life are making a difference, can you imagine what a collective group of individuals can accomplish. Ending crime and violence rests with, US. Taking care of our children this day, at this moment is our responsibility. No one is killing us, but us, so the remedy can only come from US!
It's Our Village we must FIGHT together to regain! It's Our Village that's at stake! It's Our Village!
4435 Prospect Avenue - Kansas City, Missouri 64130 - (816) 388-0176