Can you imagine Tyson's surprise as he spotted an Argentinian Restaurant and Market in Laguna Hills, CA...about 3 minutes from where my parents live!?!?!
A store that sold the famous Alfahores (layered cookies with delicious fillings) and Dulce de Leche! Now you may say, "But can't you get Dulce de Leche in the U.S.?" - The answer is no. None can come close to the sweet joy of this rare Argentinian Dulce de Leche.
And let's not forget about Chorizo- not like our U.S. version. And the Milanasa...and the empanadas!!!! I loved browsing through the store with him as he pointed out his favorites and told the stories behind them. I loved seeing him so completely happy!
Of course we vowed to go back there EVERY time we visit my parents in California! What a great find!
Today I am thanking Columbus. It's because of him that Tyson and I were able to stay an extra 1/2 day in California. I love that Columbus Day is a federal holiday celebrated on Monday (my day off)!
We were able to go to California to send off my sister who will be leaving in 9 days for Geneva, Switzerland. Silly me, I didn't take any photos of her while we were there! Don't know why!
We were happy to see her one last time before she departs for 18 months. When she returns, our little one will be One Year Old! Crazy to think about how time will fly by!
this picture was taken in 2009 while Kenzie and I visited Lucerne, Switzerland. Photo is taken of the famous Lucerne Bridge.
Half way done! Can't believe how fast time seems to be going by!
This simple tutorial can help you ruin a great computer and make a mess at the same time!
5. Ignore the thought, "Wouldn't that be horrible if this cup tipped over and fell on Tyson's computer..."
6. Continue working on your computer and forget said thought.
8. Brush the side of your cup with the back of your hand.
14. Have a quick moment of amnesia- "Where are the towels?"
15. Run and grab a towel and dry off the computer.
A look at behind the scenes. Tyson is the real master mind behind all of this. Without his laptop, stereo system and desk top screen that we have none of this would be possible. Just beware of all the cords once you turn off the lights. That would be disastrous.


Advancement in technology has greatly improved our lives. The health sector, in particular, has benefited from technological advancements in remarkable ways. Current trends in Healthcare technology will leave you astounded. Here are some for your perusal.
Home consultation is made available with this virtual technology system. You can have easy access to a doctor without leaving the comfort of your room and have your questions answered. Amazing, isn't it?
Artificial intelligence has enjoyed remarkable success since its emergence. Its uses in gaming and security are absolutely mind-blowing. The healthcare sector is now incorporating A.I in the diagnosis of diseases in order to proffer proper treatment.
Internet of things has been making waves and getting rave reviews recently. It is amazing to know that healthcare is also taking advantage of this digital technology to further alleviate human pains.
The Health history of patients is very integral in healthcare. The storage and retrieval of healthcare-related data are now made easy with cloud computing. A large amount of medical data is now being stored and utilized when needed thanks to the input of cloud computing.
In case you think virtual reality and augmented reality only belongs to the world of fictional movies, you are still leaving in the past. Virtual reality and augmented reality are being employed in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Besides, they are also employed in the education of medical students.


A recent article by Tim Enthoven in the New York Times – Don't Blink! The Hazards of Confidence – offers some fascinating thoughts on judgment, expertise, and illusions of confidence, and it's an interesting perspective from which to examine the challenge of bird identification.
One of his key points is that confidence does not arise from a careful assessment of probabilities.
Our confidence in bird identification is often based on fleeting glimpses, subjective impressions, and snap judgments, yet we still say we are "one-hundred-percent sure". This confidence, according to Enthoven, comes from the tidy narrative we construct around our sighting, more than from the actual observation. The real danger of this confidence is that it prevents us from recognizing our mistakes. Overconfidence leads us to reject the possibility of error and instead adapt our story to emphasize our correctness. Overconfidence, ironically, can be one of the biggest barriers to developing expertise.
In other words, the best way to develop true expertise as a birder is to spend long hours in the field, to be alerted to your mistakes quickly, and to review them unflinchingly. Unfortunately, most of our mistakes as birders disappear into the distance, and we never have a clue that a mistake was made, let alone what it might have been. The ones we do know about are often pointed out by other birders, and at that point most people get defensive.
That's normal, but also counterproductive. Mistakes happen, and they provide excellent learning opportunities, but only if we are open to admitting and examining them.
« Does technology make birders lazy?
This is just so true, and it's especially meaningful coming from such a noted authority as you. I get quite a lot out of my favorite birding website but I frequently cringe at the snap "ID's" provided for distant, blurry snapshots of birds. I've become almost perversely proud of how short any of my life lists are (I tend to keep separate lists for different places I've lived (or visited, in some cases) and haven't really bothered to meld them. I know I've seen a LOT more bird species than I've ever identified; and probably left some in the unsure category that I probably had "soft-ID'd" correctly.
Am I the only one who gets less than excited by "Big Days?" Are there so many birders out there that are that confident about bird calls alone?
As Churchill said, Success is going from one mistake to the next without losing your enthusiasm. Attitude is everything. And so is giving in to over-curmudgeons. We need our experts, but at times I long back to the day when a robin was so cool.
I have concentrated on Colorado and have a good state list.
So no matter how much you have done there is always room for improvement Robert A. Spencer DFO,CFO,ABA, etc.
@Diane G., I find Bid Days to be exactly the kind of challenge that's not only exciting, but makes you a better birder.
The upshot is that the 95% rule means that you have to all see, and agree, on the ID of 95% of the species you tally.
You are not allowed to make any mistakes at Pelee. Sad but true.
Sorry for replying late to the blog post, but I find it very interesting.
I have been particularly interested in the identification of Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers ever since a Hairy Woodpecker flew over one of the counters at a famous hawk watch. The counter called out a Downy Woodpecker even though it was a very obvious Hairy Woodpecker that flew right over the heads of many people. If others knew his mistake, nothing was questioned. A friend and I looked at each out with dumbfounded expressions.
Ever since that day about 15 years ago, I have been paying extremely close attention to the calls of Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, particularly where I spend 100s of hours each year where both species are common. Normally, when heard well, Hairy Woodpeckers are easy to tell by call from a Downy. However, each walk, and even to this day, I will hear one or two of these woodpeckers and I simply am not sure which one it is. It will be forgotten.
It seems to me there are numerous obstacles to correctly identifying these woodpecker calls…distance, background noises, I am sure it makes a difference which way the bird is facing and no doubt wet vegetation muffles the calls.
However, I am still finding that very experienced birders are making mistakes (even more than occasionally) if it is based on calls. Yet everyone makes a quick decision with confidence, whether right or wrong.
So after spending an extreme amount of time listening and studying theses woodpeckers, I have concluded not all Downy or Hairy Woodpeckers can be identified correctly.
I think there must be a lot of psychology going on here, but I cannot understand how numerous top birders are confident in their identification of these woodpeckers. Once they hear the call one time, they have an identification and unfortunately because "it is only a Downy" never look for the bird to verify their initial identification.
Thanks Ted, that is a very relevant quote!
Thanks for this post. I have just started reading your posts after finding them by Googling information on how to tell Ross's geese from Snows.
This is a very interesting and informative article. As a volunteer at National Wildlife Refuges I continually hear people confidently calling birds incorrectly. I look for at least two confident calls, complete with reasons before deciding what a bird really is, when I'm sure I don't know. Guess I need to do that for birds I know also.
out of a chorus of sounds. It is a gift.
Hi Fred, True, but I think learning bird songs is like learning a language, and the challenge of picking words out of a conversation (or a room full of conversations) is the same as distinguishing one species song from a chorus. There must be some level of natural ability or hearing acuity, but also, you get better at it as you become more fluent.
That last comment by Fred is interesting, but carries a very common misconception about "natural gifts" and "natural abilities".
Every child is born with the ability to learn every language. No one would say that some individuals have a "born gift" for language. It is the same for music. Those guitar players who can play by ear were not born with that talent, they nurtured it, they developed it. What they were born with was the ability to learn guitar.
It is the same for every talent. See for example the work of Dr Suzuki on talent education as it applies to music. What is important is work and practice and more work and more practice. Dr Carol Dweck of Stanford has documented this (the importance of work) in her excellent book: "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success".
I agree with David that learning bird song is exactly like learning a language: you go step by step and do lots of practice. I am returning to birdwatching after a 25 years hiatus and I found that I have to relearn a lot of the bird songs. And I am slowly getting better at it.
If picking up bird songs is a gift, it is a learnable gift… and everybody can learn it.


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CCR-1 School District Increases Substitute Teacher Pay
By Editor | January 19, 2022
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By Mike Scott
"Everyone is in dire need of subs," Joni Kraus told CCR-1 school board members at their Wednesday, January 12 meeting.
Kraus, who serves frequently as a substitute teacher, requested to speak to the board regarding substitute teacher pay.
"Clark County's pay is a lot lower than other districts. Scotland County pays $90 per day. Clark County pays $80," she said.
The $80 per day rate, divided by a seven and a half hour work day, comes to $10.66 per hour, less than Missouri's 2022 minimum wage of $11.15.
Kraus further noted that Canton and Highland also pay $90 per day, while Knox County pays $100 per day. Keosauqua pays $125 per day."
"I think it's something you should look at. I love the kids here, but it makes more sense for me to sub at other schools," she explained.
CCR-1 Superintendent Dr. Ritchie Kracht explained that while the daily sub rate was lower than surrounding districts, long-term subs, those working more than 21 consecutive days, were paid according to the district's salary schedule of $178 per day.
"Pay is just one of many issues with getting subs," said High School Principal Jason Harper.
Middle School Principal Jason Church added, "Some of our old stand-bys have really scaled back, due to COVID and other things. I don't think it (a higher rate)would be a selling point, but it would help keep the ones we have."
The board approved an increase to $90 per day, effective Thursday, January 13.
Kracht reported that the district had saved $1,576.473 refinancing one of its bonds.
"That's a big savings for us," he said.
The district's plans to upgrade HVAC in several buildings utilizing energy performance contracts hit a major bump when the proposal from Veregy came in much higher than expected. While their original estimate was $1.5 to $1.7 million dollars, the plan they presented was scaled back significantly, and would not include upgrades on the second floor of either Black Hawk or Running Fox Elementary Schools. Even with the cutbacks, the price was much higher than the original estimate.
"To do the second floors, it costs a million dollars more," said Kracht.
"They came in here and looked at everything before they gave us the original estimate," said board member Charles West. "How can they be this far off?"
Kracht explained that Veregy doesn't do the work themselves, they hire contractors, and right now, prices have doubles and contractors can't hire labor.
"It's because they know we all have money to spend," said board member Kevin Ross.
The CCR-1 district has been promised over three million dollars in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) payments. This is federal money provided to the states to address the impact of the coronavirus.
"I'm leary of jumping until we have the money," Kracht said. "Our legislature is a disaster right now."
He explained that legislature hasn't appropriated the funds to the schools yet, and that the federal deadline was approaching. If the legislature doesn't appropriate the funds to schools by then, the money will be given to other states.
"Some schools have already spent the money," he added. "I think we need to put the brakes on this, and get them (Veregy) here for the next meeting."
In other business, the board:
-Approved an agreement with Southeastern Community College to provide services.
"It really fleshes out our vocational programs," said Harper.
-Reviewed attendance. "We had a really bad month for attendance in December," said Kracht. "There was a lot of sickness."
-Updated Board Policy BBB to meet current state election laws.
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Paul Dillon Architects
Originally from Galway, Paul Dillon received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from New York Institute of Technology in 1992 and a Masters of Architecture from California State Polytechnical University, Pomona in 1995. He received The Richard Neutra Award for his Master's Thesis and has served as guest design critic on a number of occasions. He established paul dillon architects on returning to Galway and won an AAI award for site 7, Briarhill Business Park in 2008.
Paul Dillon Architects is an architectural practice based in Galway, Ireland.
Email: paul@pauldillonarchitects.com - www.pauldillonarchitects.com
More designers in Galway, Ireland
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Extension to Secondary School
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The Silver Slugs extends a warm welcome to all new and current retirees to our annual picnic held in the beautiful Harvey West Park.
Here is an opportunity to reconnect with former coworkers and friends and also make some new friends.
This is a pot luck so just bring your favorite dish to share (either an entree, side, salad or dessert) and we'll provide the beverages (coffee, water, soft drinks, juice). Also bring your own plate, cup and utensils (picnic style) to minimize on recycling.


This short documentary from 1950 captures the thrill of harness racing on Prince Edward Island. We follow Bellhop's career as a pacer, from his unwilling introduction to harness through trials with a bicycle sulky (or 2-wheel cart) to his first big race. The film culminates with scenes of trotters and pacers at Charlottetown's Old Home Week.


Addiction recovery requires a serious commitment, yet that doesn t mean it has to be a bleak, never-ending struggle. Clarify what makes you happy and try to act on those things. She is an award-winning author of six books and one play, all focused on family violence prevention and healing. When you finish the book you ate richer for the process. Are you still confused with this book? If you want to read online the Recovering Joy: A Mindful Life After Addiction, we also provide a facility that can be read through your notebook, netbook, ipad, kindle, tablet and mobile phone.
In Buddhism, peace is considered the highest form of happiness, rather than bliss. But when I stopped being a slave to my addiction, I was able to rediscover the freedom to do the right things with my life. By his early 20s, he was a struggling musician making a meager living playing lead guitar, a job he held for about 20 years while still using alcohol and marijuana. If you live in Colorado and want to regain your mental health and happiness by recovering from your own addiction, you should get in touch with AspenRidge Recovery today. It is nothing short of a serious commitment to oneself that is based on the urge to break free from the shackles of addiction. You can alsofreely print the book. I greatly respect Kevin Griffin's work and contribution to the recovery community.
He continues to offer workshops, lectures, and retreats around the country. Another is a sense of victimhood. Kevin Griffin is the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, the breakthrough book that established him as a leader in the mindful recovery movement. Improving my mental health and rediscovering my happiness during recovery became easier as time went by, because I learned to trust in the process and stay out of my own way. His latest book is Living Kindness: Buddhist Teachings for a Troubled World, and his website is. He is best known for his ground-breaking work bringing together Buddhist teachings with issues of recovery and the Twelve Steps.
As a reader I found myself skimming past these and just reading the content of each chapter. That was just so bleak. Her first novel is entitled The Mending Time. As a longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12-step participant, Griffin has become a leading teacher at several international Buddhist centers, treatment centers, professional conferences and academic settings. But this broadness of topics is the weakness of the book. She supports their transition to a healthier lifestyle, teaching them how to manage stress, prepare and cook simple yet satisfying meals, and how to take better care of themselves and achieve their goals for a healthier life over the long term. When you are really interested to read based on the title of this book, you can see how the book will give you many things.
It lacks the laser focus that I found in. As many people can attest, feelings of guilt and shame often only serve to exacerbate addictive behaviors. In lovingkindness meditation, the practitioner recites a mantra of kindness towards him or herself, then directs attention outward towards a person that they love, someone they feel neutral towards, and someone they dislike. With specialization in helping people in recovery connect with meditation and a progressive understanding of the 12 steps, his workshops involve a combination of meditation, mindful speech, formal discussions and day-long activities involving dialogue. It takes reflections, self-inquiry and mindfulness practices. You will discover that recovery becomes the foundation for happiness and you will realize that what you thought was fun was not actual happiness, that intoxication is very different from happiness. Through reflections, self-inquiry, and mindfulness practices, Griffin reveals how we can better act in accordance with our core values, cultivate healthy and satisfying relationships, renew our sense of playfulness, and find the unexpected joys in the journey of recovery.
Meta is Certified Wellness Practitioner, independent scholar of history and English in Asheville, as well as a mother of three children and grandmother of three grandsons. What I was saying was that nothing was wrong with my life. We explore and answer these questions and more. Kevin Griffin has been teaching on this intersection of Buddhism and addiction recovery for over fifteen years. Doing this practice transforms how we relate to ourselves and everyday life by allowing us to get to know our mind and patterns. Since its publication, Kevin has toured extensively, giving workshops and lectures at places as diverse as Harlem, the Colorado Rockies, and Hawaii.
When we bring mindfulness into our eating habits we can restore our sense of satisfaction no matter what we are or are not eating. With Recovering Joy, Kevin Griffin fills in what is often the missing piece in addiction recovery programs how to regain our ability to live happier lives. Sharon recently moved to the area from Chicago area, is married and has two Siberian Huskies that keep her active walking and hiking. What about the way to get this book? This is a very practical book for moving beyond those first few years to building a rewarding life congruent with the values that support recovery. Kevin Griffin: In some ways my addiction was a misguided spiritual search.
The course is designed to facilitate a better understanding of mental illness, increase coping skills and empower participants to become advocates for their family members, and is designated as an evidence-based program by. Through reflections, self-inquiry, and mindfulness practices, Griffin reveals how we can better act in accordance with our core values, cultivate healthy and satisfying relationships, renew our sense of playfulness, and find the unexpected joys in the journey of recovery. It is not only about the how this bookconcern about, it is about what you can take from the book when you have read. A Buddhist practitioner for 35 years and sober for over 32, he brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to his teaching and writing. From making that first difficult, embarrassing decision to ask for help, to the sweat and tears that poured out of me during detox, to the solitary and sometimes boring life I lived while I avoided the so-called friends that I used to drink and use with, to the logistical nightmare of going to tons of 12-Step meetings while at the same time going to therapy five times a week, holding a job, and trying to have some semblance of a family life, I fought for my recovery every step of the way. But this broadness of topics is the weakness of the book.
I was a periodic drunk. The author is willing to be vulnerable and present his experience with both recovery, buddhism and life outside these two compartments in honest terms. Those in recovery often make the mistake of emphasizing and reflecting on their negative qualities to be a basis for healing. Buddhist meditation practices and teachings have become important elements for many people in addiction recovery programs. What is a recovery residence, how does it work, where does it fall in the continuum of care, and who is in charge? Mr Griffin always has something cogent to say. What is a Recovery Residence and How Does it Work? Bill Krumbein, author of The 12 Steps and Zen Koans blog, sees the two as inextricably linked. All my nit-pickiness aside, I got some real value out of this book.


Our after-sale service is delivered by marketing center's after-sale department which is responsible for service and marketing of machines, fittings, information and consultation. It aims at providing specific aftersales services and put in place a platform for interactions that is backed up by the head office.
We have 5 well-trained experts providing technology services for clients and 3 skilled service staff at the home office and more than 10 overseas, who are ready to deal with difficult problems in as short a time as possible.
Our supervisory system ensures that every single service of every engineer will be under the eye of both clients and the company. This is made possible by on-site analysis and by making a follow-up visit to the client.
The company has a technical service hotline to deal with any unexpected problems that might arise, at any time, which cannot be handled by the client, and will send out technical personnel if necessary.
1. Client letters and calls will be handled the very same day.
2. Service staff will explain what needs to be done to the client over the phone, within 2 hours of receiving the service information. The technical person will leave for the trouble spot within 2 days if necessary.
3. In the city of Xi'an, the response time, from receiving the service call to arriving on the spot will be less than 2 hours.Elsewhere in Shaanxi province, it will be less than 12 hours.Outside Shaanxi, but in China, it will be less than 24 hours.
4. For foreign clients, we will speak with the client and solve the problem as quickly as possible.


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Q: Distance from a point to a line Consider a point $P \,(-6,-5)$, and a line $s$ given by $y=-3x+7$.
I have at least two options $A$ and $B$ to compute the distance between them:
A.1) Find a line $t$, perpendicular to $s$, that goes through $(-6,-5)$.
A.2) Find the point of intersection between $s$ and $t$.
A.3) Compute the distance between that point and $(-6,-5)$.
This would give me the answer $3\sqrt{10}$.
OR
B) Use the formula $$d(P,s)=\frac{|ax_0+by_0+c_0|}{\sqrt{a^2+b^2}}$$
which gives me $\sqrt{61}$ on the denominator.
How do I solve that to get $3\sqrt{10}$?
Please help!!!

A: Just substitute into the formula:
$$\frac{\left| (-3 )(-6)+(-1)(-5)+7\right| }{\sqrt{10}}=3\sqrt{10}$$

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Home > Opinion	> What Lies between Chinese Writers and the Nobel Prize
What Lies between Chinese Writers and the Nobel Prize
October 8th, 2009 berlinf	Leave a comment Go to comments
Nobel Prize for Literature was just awarded to Herta Müller, born in Romania and productive in Germany. This came somewhat to my surprise even though I had not been playing with a crystal ball. Shortly before the announcement, one prominent member of the jury Peter Englund admitted to the Associated Press that the prize has become too Eurocentric with most jury members being European . Americans have not won any Nobel Prize in literature since 1993. Englund's confession sparkled some hope in America that this time it might be an American author. And the disappointment that followed!
It is worse for China. Chinese poet Beidao was among those nominated for the prize. I guess he will have to wait. On the map of world literature with Europe right at the center, Chinese literature is an island that is hidden somewhere, to be discovered and understood. We depend on the likes of sinologue Wolfgang Kubin to tell the rest of the world what our writing is about. Unfortunately, Kubin was disgusted with the majority of Chinese literature that has surfaced, especially the vulgar young authors who proclaim to be "writing with their bodies" instead of their minds and hearts. Such "body" authors receive better recognition than their more serious peers, thanks to the cultural reporters that care more about controversies than content. Many pop critics do not read much anyway.
What hurdles, then, lie between Chinese writers and Nobel laurels? Literary critic Wang Binbin from Nanjing University says they lack everything, except quantity. They lack "good language, good mood, good thoughts" . With Wang leading the effort, I will add a few items of my own to the list(中国当代作家无人能摘诺奖).
Some believe that Chinese literature, written in Chinese, lack good translators and good translation. If only it were that simple! As I have observed, there is an increasing number of "talent scouts" diligently looking for the next big name in China. There are good translators out there, but of course, being one myself, I have to state that nobody is paying them beyond some symbolic royalties, so understandably some good ones left. There is also no lack of foreign publishers who came in recent years to pursue their Chinese dream. The key of the issue is whether writers can actually sell once their works is translated into other languages. This is something that translators cannot help much with. Some professional translators of Chinese literature confess that their translated works do not sell more than a few thousand copies. What sells is the scar literature by Chinese authors living abroad. Their writings are based upon stereotypical perceptions centered on such themes as the Cultural Revolution and their personal growth story. Not that these themes are innately wrong, but these authors do not take it any further to add new dimensions, new layers, new inquisitions. They just lie comfortably in their little narcissist cocoons without trying to have a broader vision.
Speaking of vision, my feeling is that the Eurocentric jury like works from authors of "two worlds". Müller, for instance has her "two worlds": Romania and Germany. She started out as a translator to work in two languages. She is interested in transformations that can happen when words cross borders. In an interview with Radio Romania International, she described how a falling star makes a Romanian think of death, and a German would want to come up with a wish. "We're not only speaking about different words, but about different worlds. "
Europe is a place where borders are easily crossed, many languages are spoken, and cultures are constantly clashing, absorbing and assimilating. Once upon a time there were also the opposing worlds of the capitalist vs. the socialist, the Soviet vs. the western. In literature, such clashes and tensions present numerous opportunities. But the "two worlds" I am talking about can be related to geographies, times or systems of ideas. Faulkner has his two worlds of the black and the white, the north and the south, an America before the Civil War and an America after. Naipaul has his worlds of Africa, India and Europe. Pearl Buck grew up familiar with the "East Wind and West Wind". Sartre found his tensions between his middle class upbringing and his working-class political position. Orhan Pamuk literally lives between Europe and Asia, in Istanbul, where a nostalgic Ottoman past meets a modern Turkey. In an interview with the Paris Review earlier in 2009, Pamuk says: "Turkey should not worry about having two spirits, belonging to two different cultures, having two souls. Schizophrenia makes you intelligent. You may lose your relation with reality –I'm a fiction writer, so I don't think that's such a bad thing- but you shouldn't worry about your schizophrenia. If you worry too much about one part of you killing the other, you'll be left with a single spirit. That is worse than having the sickness." (Interview with the Paris Review, 30/01/2009). I am not quoting Pamuk here to promote insanity as a path to literary success. However, it should be emphasized that writers should not be confined only to their little unitary world. People living in two worlds find voices crossing, echoing and clashing, which result in undertones and depths in their work. Living in two worlds is often anything but enjoyable. People may find themselves in dilemmas and clashes and difficult decisions. They may find themselves not accepted or welcomed by each. At the margin or being on the edges, however, lies fertile soil for the growth of artistic creativity. Sadly, China's literary landscape is monotonous in spite of the sheer number of works being published. It is a landscape isolated from past glories and cut off from international exposure. It is basically an island. There is something really tragic about it.
Chinese writers also lack an encouraging environment for creative writing. Gao Xingjian won the Nobel Prize only after he went to France. In recent years, our cultural environment seemed to have gone back in time. Times are now harder for writers than the 1980s. The Central Propaganda Ministry, the stern father of many smaller watchdogs, is just a huge nervous system housed in a government building. Everything can be made to sound sensitive. They don't like things they cannot deal with using the old command and control methods. It is so difficult to avoid ideological landmines that writers sometimes retreat to safer corners to write toothless literature that does not bite, or even bark. In this restraining environment, not having anyone win the Nobel Prize may not be such a bad thing for status-quo-maintaining bureaucrats. What may worry them is the possibility that someone may be so careless as to really get a Nobel Prize. The lucky bastard would become an international celebrity. How do we control what he or she says? Would he or she end up embarrassing the state? In cultural affairs, the watchdogs are just pretending they like to let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred voices be heard. Deep in their guts they like unerring uniformity, also known as "harmony".
In addition, the overall social environment in China right now is simply too noisy for quiet writing. You have to enjoy tranquility to enjoy writing. Chinese writers too, stop enjoying tranquility in their writing because everybody else is making money by means fair or foul. They want to be rich, famous and popular. They too want to get a piece of the attention pie. They want to have both the reputation as a serious writer and the popularity of a pop writer, as Dr. Wang Binbin puts it.
Chinese writers also need to have "hearts" to allow them to have larger concerns. Pearl Buck, for instance, took an interest in a group of people that neither Chinese intellectuals nor anyone outside at that time took an interest in: Chinese farmers living on the good old earth. If there are any necessary fools today who'd worry whether the sky will collapse, they should include writers. We are like a bunch of cavemen waiting in our rest for sages to tell us stories and make sense of the world. They are the ones to fret about seemingly unpractical issues, such as the destiny of Africa, what happened to East Germany after the Berlin Wall, or, what is the meaning of life. They are the ones to give voice to the voiceless. They are the ones that hold their chins to think, to look at the starry night, to ponder what is out there and what our life here is all about. They are the ones to formulate difficult questions about the environment and our neighbors. What value is there, if an author cease to do these while focusing on his or her own little life?
I am not offering any formula for the Nobel, of course who'd expect that anyway? One could also ask: why in the world would these writers care about Nobel Prize any way? Isn't our own Maodun Literary Prize good enough to boost writers' morale? Not necessarily. In a larger context, there is a glaring inconsistency between our economic success and literary failure. This isn't very helpful in telling the China story.
Categories: Opinion	Tags: Chinese Writer, Literature, Nobel, Prize
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Louis Yu
October 9th, 2009 at 05:32	| #1
I was under the impression that Chinese readers tend to read more "documentary" things like biographies, or books that document history movements ect; I was told once by family and friends to "not waste my time on reading "fictions" as they are just stories…". I think some people see literature or fictions as just useless pass-times as oppose to a form of art…. "art" has a weird effect in China and usually is looked down on- both the art and people that makes art…
Thanks for this thoughtful post. I am reading Pamuk's book Snow at the moment and I think you are right about the creativity that comes out of these kinds of tensions.
There are only two topics that catch the Chinese attention in the past few decades, politic and economy. Everyone is busy to absorb, learn, imitate, take, and have no time to release, teach, create, and give. Until today, I am still reading the same old literature written before New China came into picture. I couldn't grasp what is the theme of the modern work and writing, and among modern writers, perhaps only 余秋雨 is popular in my region but somehow, his writing is not real literature and lean toward historical and cultural. The rest like 王蒙、莫言、王安忆、张贤亮、贾平凹 which I believe is well accepted in mainland are to me too peculiar. Perhaps Chinese lack humanism and never appreciate leisure?
Back to Chinese and Nobel Price for Literature, how come nobody ask why there is not a single Chinese song in the Billboard 100?
A Chinese writer has one the Nobel Prize, but it was censored.
Anyway, i think it's futile to discuss the nobel prize based on geography.
If you're going to discuss the validity of the prize, then you need to discuss what the authors have accomplished, not what nationality they have.
Li Zhenhua
thats all the fact you can get in the perception of "China" and "Chinese", but lots of them are the old issues already, I do think to win the prize is really not important even this not correct Eurocentric issue does to the world. Literature should not relay too much on the political or power, well something shall tell the truth, but literature normally does not tell especially for today, it's not about literature, it's about how blogging system have constructed by writers and none writers, if we still have the old way of judge for it as the nobel prize, then the prize shall pass away itself. and in comparison of what is the better understanding which should not be an one way ticket, we should not ask the jury all become Chinese or Indian, but those juries have to understand the outside world which existing not far from the language which language can not always tell. So, sometime we have people win the prize because of political reasons, which is fine, but is that really about the identity or the need of politically correct….
wgj
Why do so people keep calling it "Central Propaganda Ministry" when the actual English name is "Central Publicity Department"? First of all, it's not a ministry within the the government, but a department within the CCP; second of all, "propaganda" is so negatively loaded it's almost sarcastic, and the CPD itself never officially adopted it for the translation of its name, AFAIK.
dragan
Hm,… by your logic, Ha Jin should won Nobel Prize. There's lot of politics in Nobel Prize. Maybe you think that NP is Eurocentric, but people form East Europe thinks that NP is "great culture" centric. Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn got prizes solely on political basis (they are great, NP worth writers anyway). Problem is not in China, but in Committee.
1) Trying to claim that the CCP and the Chinese government are not one and the same is simply laughable, but even if we accept your argument . . .
2) Trying to use the word 'publicity' in place of 'propaganda' when translating the word '宣传' is a fruitless task. Just read this article and you will see how Orwellian it makes things (parts where the word '宣传' are used are bolded):
" "Carrying Forward the Spirit of Patriotism and Adhering to Correct Guidance of Public Opinion to Create a CCP Anniversary of Soaring Spirit in a Social Atmosphere of Harmony"
Making an inspection yesterday at Beijing Television and the Beijing Bureau of Xinhua News Agency of preparations for news and publicity of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and Beijing Municipal Party Secretary Liu Qi (刘淇) demanded that [media] powerfully carry forward the spirit of patriotism and adhere to correct guidance of public opinion, creating a soaring spirit, joy and serenity, and a harmonious and civilized atmosphere for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China by publicizing the glorious achievements and successful experiences of the capital city . . .
Liu Qi emphasized that news and publicity departments must tightly adhere to the events and topics as determined by the Central Party, publicizing the resplendent journey since the founding of the new China 60 years ago, carrying forward the spirit of patriotism and upholding correct guidance of public opinion, publicizing the glorious achievements and successful experiences of the capital city, singing loudly the main themes of praise of the party, of socialism, of economic reforms, of our great mother country and of our various peoples . . . "
(Source: http://cmp.hku.hk/2009/05/15/1627/ )
Tell you what, since crazed internet nationalists and the reality-based community cannot agree on the correct translation for "中共中央宣传部", let us simply call it "The CCP Ministry of Truth", has a nice ring to it, no?
@Berlinf – I have only ever read two Nobel Prize-winning works: Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples and A Dance To The Music of Time. Churchill was and is an amazing read, but A Dance To etc. was pretentious, meaningless waffle. I do not think of the Nobel Prize for Literature as a mark of quality, nor do I think Chinese authors should feel particularly miffed for never having won it.
What I would say is that Chinese literature will never reach its full potential whilst freedom of speech lags. Yes, I know that Russian authors acheived much under the Tsars and the USSR, but they were always hampered by the government (cf. Solzhenitsyn) and nowadays there are few Russian authors whose works are known outside their home country (Eduard Limonov being the only exception known to me).
@FOARP #8
Carrying Forward the Spirit of Patriotism and Adhering to Correct Guidance of Public Opinion to Create a CCP Anniversary of Soaring Spirit in a Social Atmosphere of Harmony
… Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and Beijing Municipal Party Secretary Liu Qi (刘淇) demanded that [media] powerfully carry forward the spirit of patriotism and adhere to correct guidance of public opinion, creating a soaring spirit, joy and serenity, and a harmonious and civilized atmosphere for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China by publicizing the glorious achievements and successful experiences of the capital city . . .
Good god, FOARP, this sounds like one of Dick Cheney's political wet dreams. Rummy, Wolfy, Glenn Beck and Frum are probably jealous as hell. This sounds like it is right out of the neo-con bibles of The Project for the New American Century and The American Enterprise Institute. Fortunately, most Americans reject such inane ideology. Please note I did not say all. After all, we still have teabaggers and birthers and neo-fascists. And neo-cons.
Unfortunately, it is also reminiscent of the Nazis, Hitler's speeches and Leni Riefenstahl's films.
This is a joke, RIGHT? Honestly, FOARP, is this just a Jon Stewart-like pre-Halloween skit by the CCP? 😀 This sounds beyond belief. And the Beijing Daily printed this for everyone to see. Wow. That makes it even scarier. Have they ever heard about "plausible deniability"? At least Cheney knew enough to lie about things like this. ::LMAO:: 😛 😉
Thanks for the link from David Bandurski at the China Media Project at HKU.
October 9th, 2009 at 15:20	| #10
FOARP, You wrote regarding Russian literature. I am familiar with Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his 2 books, Crime and Punishment, and the Brothers Karamazov. FD wrote during the era of the tsars. Leo Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina, and War and Peace. He wrote during tsarist times, too. Another tsarist-era writer was Anton Chekhov. He wrote Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard, which were plays.
These are all outstanding works. Tsarist Russia was anathema to generations of my fellow Russian Jews and my own Jewish family. Nonetheless, the Tsars cultivated the arts, such as ballet, music and writing. It was a much different atmosphere than the current atmosphere for writers in China.
hzzz
You can find the list of nobel laureates in literature here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature)
There have been 4 winners so far from Asia. 2 from Japan, 1 from China and 1 from India. American authors have won this prize 7 times. If I counted correctly the Europeans (both eastern and western) have won the prize 56 times. I think the facts speak for themselves whether the the judges are euro-centric or not. It's understandable too – that's where the judges are from and a few if none of them can read asian languages directly, so their exposure in works done in other languages are limited.
I agree with others that this is not a big deal. The non-science Nobel decisions are mostly political. For a Chinese to win you must be anti-government, otherwise the political zealots would view giving prize to a Chinese as kow-towing to the CCP.
Growing up in the US system I had to read Hemingway and Faulkner. Since I took french in high school I also had to read Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. These are great works, but the best novels I have read in any language are the kung-fu ones written by Jin Yong. In terms of pure influence his work is likely to have been more read and made into more media than the works by any other modern author. Yet because his work is actually appealing to the masses, easy to read, and he does not outright condemn the Chinese government, the euro literary snobs will never accept him as a great writer.
*edit* – I just read that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize! LOL. Okay I am definitely happy that I voted for him and all, but I am not sure what he has done to deserve this prize. Is this some sort of consolation prize for Chicago not getting the Olympics?? Just more evidence that the Nobel committee is getting way too political.
The Pooka MacPhellimey
This doesn't bear as much relation to the translation of Chinese literature as one would think — though God knows Chinese literature suffers terribly in English translation at the hands of talentless hacks who submit their first drafts and call it a day. Still, Göran Malmqvist, one of the members of the Swedish Academy, is a respected sinologist in his own right, and frequently mentions Chinese authors to the press. (He has pretty lousy taste, but de gustibus non est and all that.) And Chinese literature is frequently better represented in French and German translation than in English.
The problem is that the "serious writers" of today's China — Cao Naiqian, Mo Yan, Yu Hua — either continue writing the same book over and over again (see Mo, who apparently thinks that if the last three thousand-page epics about Shandong families with strong women and weak men didn't get him the Nobel, the next one will), lack the discipline to maintain a full-length novel and fall back on grotesqueries instead (see Yu, and the mess that is 兄弟), or do nothing but transpose William Faulkner into a rural Chinese setting (Cao, and pretty much every other "serious writer," at least once). Other once-promising writers (Ah Cheng, Wang Shuo) have either quit writing altogether or committed intellectual suicide to the point that they can no longer write anything worth reading. The case of Wang Shuo, one of very few contemporary writers who actually seems at home in his own language, is particularly sad: he had always seemed to me the best bet for a true vernacular literature, and now he does little more than masturbate. And while there are plenty of other talented writers out there, it's rare in my experience to read a novel that can honestly qualify as good, rather than just "pretty good…for China."
What happened? (I mean besides 1957. And, you know, everything that came after it.) So many of the great writers of the Republican period — Lu Xun, Lao She, Qian Zhongshu, and Eileen Chang come to mind — were producing truly world-class literature, stuff that hasn't been surpassed since. Of course, they'd all received foreign schooling to some degree — Qian, famously, was fluent in several European languages living and dead, and wrote beautifully in English. Their foreign education didn't teach them how to write, of course, but it must surely have expanded their worldview, as the original poster said, to encompass something beyond themselves. Later generations, even with access to an abundance of foreign literature in translation, just don't seem to have that.
Not everything can be chalked up to political prejudice. (The choice of Gao Xingjian, for example, can better be chalked up to an utter lack of taste.) If people want to know why China hasn't won a Nobel Prize for literature, maybe they should ask first why China has produced so few good writers in recent years.
berlinf
@The Pooka MacPhellimey I agree that some potentially great writers have squandered or given up their talents. A great writer should never write to meet the expectations of his readers. They should surprise them. What you described about Mo Yan and Yu Hua are both cases of trying to please the market.
Ford once said to the effect that he'd made a faster horse instead of a car if he had listened to customers 🙂
@wgj at 6
With all due respect to the respectable individuals in the government, I really do not think changing the translation of the Central Propaganda Ministry helps in making China a better place for culture. We have to face the fact that contemporary Chinese literature and culture in general is in a rather pathetic state. Whose fault is it? I don't know how creativity lives, but I sure know how it dies. You say no to this and no to that and pretty soon thinking starts to freeze. This is why I don't like this ministry. I don't see how it nurtures and cultivates anything. It's a big naysayer that works only to stifle creative talents. These folks really don't have a clue how culture works. Go to the Confucius Institute web sites and you'll see they perceive cultural prosperity only as the preservation of things like the Beijing Opera, the Taiji, the Kungfu, the Calligraphy… beautiful things from the past that start to stink if you put all of them together for too long. These are what I call museum culture that a Confucius elite in the past cherish. These propaganda folks do not cast their eyes at a more "living culture", namely how the ordinary folks live, laugh and love, as Jia Zhangke would demonstrate. Only when you start to appreciate these will there be cultural confidence, and new opportunities for traditional Chinese culture to grow and reproduce. Otherwise, it will suffer from atrophy. Mao certainly did it wrong by denying all the traditional heritage, but now I think we err in another extreme in our revolt against the Cultural Revolution.
@hzzz at 11,
No doubt these members are eurocentric and probably biased in their taste. But Chinese folks don't like what is being written either, including the readers and the critics. If these don't say anything about the quality of their writing, I do not know what would.
But I agree that in oppressive regimes such as the former Soviet Union, great works were also produced. One major difference I see is that in the former Soviet Union, the materialist world view was not so thoroughly adopted. Churches were still alive there, though somewhat subdued. China is more successful in adopting the materialist world view which severed the link with the folklore and killed imagination. The materialist world view is rather limiting in perspectives. I am not saying that all literature should be fantasies, but when imagination is killed, the soil is no good for literary things to grow. In such environment you cannot even think of things like the Harry Porter, let alone deeply inquisitive works like Brother Karamazov. We just look at what can be seen, heard, tasted or felt. This therefore produced a kind of a spiritual wasteland.
@The Pooka MacPhellimey
In short, Nobel Prize in literature just doesn't gave a damn of Asian writers. From their history of awards, there's only been 2 Nobel Prize winners in Asia (Japan and China).
Not to sound racist or anything like that but this world is a "white" world.
October 10th, 2009 at 02:05	| #17
@Jason, No need to feel bad about it. I heard that Southern Metro Daily is creating a competing prize for Chinese writers. Maybe we ARE different after all, belonging to a different tradition. I'm more and more torn about the issue. I guess It's only when we try to play the same game that problems arise which force us to be self-reflective as what I had tried to do.
Check here if interested: http://book.qq.com/a/20090414/000036.htm
Hemulen
I think it is important to put the Nobel Prize in literature into perspective and to take it for what it is.
First, the Prize is not awarded by a panel of "judges" or a "jury" but by the Royal Swedish Academy, the primary purpose of which is to develop and protect the Swedish language. It was set up by the Swedish king in 1786 and consists of 12 members, the statutes have never been amended. The membership is a self-selected group and once you are elected, you are a member for life. Today most of the members are linguists, academics and authors, but there have also been some politicians on the academy. Their major task is to edit a number of dictionaries and other normative material on the Swedish language. All of them are Swedish or have Swedish as their native language, it is NOT and is NOT supposed to be an international panel where every country is represented, so it is besides the point to say that the "jury members are all European".
Second, the Nobel Prizes were set up in 1901 in pursuance of Alfred Nobel's will, which he wrote in 1896. In his will, he said that the literature prize should be awarded to the author who "in the field of literature [wrote] the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". He also stated that the prize should be awarded to anyone regardless of nationality and that the Swedish Academy should be in charge of the prize. That's it.
The entire Nobel Prize rests on the will of a private individual who died in 1896 and his fortune. The Swedish academy never asked for this honor and they can decide at any moment not to award the Nobel Prize in Literature. Neither has the Swedish King any obligation to hand out the prizes on December 10 every year. No one is forced to accept the prize either and some people have declined the prize.
There is more information at the Official Nobel website nobelprize.org
@Hemulen Sweden is not in Africa or Asia or the Americas, so I don't see why "eurocentric" is beside the point. I don't know what you are trying to say here, that the Nobel is based on just a Swedish scientist's personal will and governed by a club of a bunch of good old boys? That may well be the case, but unfortunately the thing has become so influential that ignoring it and dismissing it doesn't help either. I'd look at it and ask: Ok, it's may be a trashy prize, but how come we cannot even get a trashy prize?
I guess we could use this as a starting point to discuss what went wrong with Chinese contemporary culture. Let's face it, something is wrong, very wrong.
I am seeing that ideological control as playing a part. I woke up this morning and the first email I recieved is that from Douban who said it deleted one of my book reviews on Hammer and Sickle. In the review I was refering to communism laughed out of its existence in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but it may be out of brotherly love that Douban censor even that.
But I guess the more essential part lies in the writers themselves. They don't have the perspectives, guts or hearts that great writing requires.
Alfred Nobel bequeathed to the Swedes and Norwegians (depending on the category) the opportunity to hand out a prize each year. So "worthiness" for this prize is determined by the academies and Norwegian parliament who make the selections. Tough to argue that it's the most prestigious prize in the world, but the winner isn't necessarily the de facto world-wide consensus pick as the best in his/her/their field that year. All it means is that he/she/they was/were the majority choice among committee members.
So to complain that Chinese writers haven't won simply because the Nobel is "eurocentric" is unbecoming at best, and sour grapes at worst. A Chinese writer winning a Nobel would not render the prize any more or less eurocentric. In fact, it's Scandinavian-centric, since those are the opinions that matter.
So for the hard-done-by CHinese writer, I guess they have a choice. Do they write about what moves them, or do they write something they hope will appeal to the judges? Hopefully the former. And if the lack of a CHinese winner is troublesome, then it's time to start your own prize, and hope that one day it matches the cachet of a Nobel.
Hi Berlin,
Interesting post.
My thinking is the West at this particular time has a strong appeal for everything "raw" and going back to the primal instincts.
By the time China swings that way, the West would have swung the way China is today.
And then at that time, it is whomever the richest and most powerful that can give the biggest award going to make the most noise. 🙂
yinyang,
That's an interesting thought. Someone ought to set a big prize in China. There are so many tycoons in China nowadays, I wonder why nobody did that. Waiting till they die to leave a will? There is a hope there.
To Berlin:
"Waiting till they die to leave a will?" — that's what Nobel did. The symmetry would be nice, no?
As I suggested in #20, that's the way to go. Just like there are Golden Elephant awards for Chinese/Asian cinema. You can probably transplant the Nobel discussion onto the film industry, and wonder why Chinese films don't win Best Picture Oscars. I don't think anyone's come close other than Crouching Tiger. And the reason is the same as for Nobels: an Oscar doesn't define some movie/actor as the best in the world; it simply reflects the opinion of the Academy. So better to make your own award, and hope that someday it might match the pomp and circumstance of the big cheese.
Of the three prizes that are not awarded to the "hard" sciences – peace, literature and economics – the same discussions start every year, and perhaps for a good reason. I sometimes make this joke with my brother:
* The peace prize is given to the one who created most trouble in his or her area the last decade. It will help if he/she is highly controversial.
* The economic prize is given to American nationals based on either 1) being staunch libertarians or 2) finding out some simple principle that only economists would miss anyway.
* The price in literature will be handed to the person based on who didn't get it last year, and pressure from areas who still haven't gotten it. Two many European men getting the prize? Give it to an American woman, whether she's writing quality literature or not.
Btw, there is one member of the Academy that speaks and reads Chinese, Göran Malmqvist (马悦然). He's a friend of Li Rui and knows many other of the famous authors well. From what I understand he takes things very personally and relations with Ba Jin got sour after 6/4 (he expected the old man to speak out against the government). Here's an interview with him in Chinese about the subject at hand:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2004-12/09/content_2312976.htm
I recommend Berlin writing Jack Ma to plead for a $100million to beef up an existing literary award that already exists in China and then take it "international."
Another thought – I think the Chinese Olympic Committee is very interested in changing the rules on table tennis so other countries get a better chance at winning gold. That makes the sport more popular. If China keeps winning it, then the overall prestige is not as high.
Same thing for Nobel. If it is not inclusive and doesn't take into consideration what rest of the world (mainly outside Europe and America) thinks cool, it will only remain a regional award.
@yinyang – The Nobel prizes will continue to attract attention so long as they remain controversial. They have certainly managed that his year.
Now you mentioned it, I remember Sweden as being the only country who could compete with China in Pingpong a few years ago. Now it's all dominance for China. What we lost in literature we gained in Ping Pong. Just kidding.
I really think we need a grand prize not for China as the PRC, but for the larger Chinese writer community, including overseas writers. Here is my comment on a similar discussion at paper-republic (http://paper-republic.org/links/raymond-zhou-on-the-nobel-dilemma/#comments):
There is a failed prize in mainland China, called "Chinese Literature Media Prize" (not an attention-catching name to begin with), which was set up by Southern Metro Daily (http://book.qq.com/a/20090414/000036.htm) in an ambition to rival prizes in other languages, but it has not generated much interest. Bi Feiyu, one of my favorite authors, even turned it down this year when he was awarded the prize in the novel genre:
http://book.qq.com/zt/2009/bifeiyu/index.htm
I agree with Bruce that there should be a prize for all writers who write in Chinese, those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China and those abroad. I hope some rich tycoon nearing the end of his life would raise his hand to respond to my post. Well, I am not going to bet on it.
In any case, many tiny prizes in each of these parts of what I would call "Greater Chinese Writing Circle" would do little to bring the best authors into public attention. In the meantime, writing to the prize is like teaching to the test, except the former is more hopeless. So Raymond is right, maybe it is better that nobody has won it it. It would definitely ruin any talent that is left if someone did end up getting it.
In my Chinese blog article about the issue (http://berlinfang.blog.163.com/blog/static/11667071620099811554546/), I found that about a half of those who left a comment (666 comments so far)indicate one way or the other that I should not have fretted about it, that Chinese literature is altogether a different thing. This led me to think that much more goes into literature than some "universal quality standards" which I originally assumed in the post when reflecting upon Chinese writers' failure at Nobel. Yu Guangzhong (the Taiwanese poet quoted in jdmartinsen's comment above) said something that is worth pondering: Even at his best and with the best possible translation, Shakespeare would not be as interesting for a Chinese reader as Tang Xianzu or Mao Dun (Chinese playwrights). I don't think that is sour grape. That's often what I felt as a reader.
To yinyang:
while i think the Nobels don't represent "the best in the world", but rather, "the best in the eyes of the selection committee", it seems a stretch to suggest they aren't prestigious. In fact, if they weren't prestigious, I don't think this thread would exist. I think it unlikely that CHinese would complain about the lack of Chinese Literature Nobelaureates if it was merely some pedestrian ho-hum award.
If rich tycoon set up an award – How literature could stoop so low.
If government set up an award – Tend to bias and deem propaganda.
If writer association set up an award – No one care.
If readers set up an award – Many would ask why the winner is JinYong and not Bajin.
I think sometimes the Chinese is a confuse lot.
Hi S. K. Cheung, FOARP, Berlin,
I didn't mean disrespect for the Nobel, actually. It is one of the most noble awards that exist today for the most part, to the extent humans are capable of making it.
Truthfully, it is difficult to say if some other committee governing such kind of award in the future will be able to make it truly something the world respect as something representative for the whole planet.
Hi Berlin, #28
Thx for the links and added info. I am getting a chance here to learn more about Chinese authors.
Hi Rhan, #30,
Who says Chinese all think alike? 🙂
Dear yinyang,
I never said that! Who did deserves a kick on his butt! Or can we send our troops over?
Uln
Berlinf, I really liked your post. It answers (or it asks?) a few questions that I was also asking myself for some time.There are 2 different issues here, in my opinion.
1- Is the Nobel prize a fair standard for World literature? Obviously not, it is eurocentric and it is just the opinion of a few committee members that are not necessarily the most qualified judges. But in the end, I dont think we are looking for fairness, or is anything in art and literature really fair? This is just about prestige, and as long as the Nobel prize is recognized by a large part of the World population as the most prestigious prize, it should be regarded as a worthy objective for Chinese literature. The other solution, which is to snub it and say "in China we have our own standards" cannot possibly be good. It leads to isolation and inbreeding, which is deadly for creativity. In conclusion: Nobel is unfair, but unavoidable. At least until the time when Chinese "soft power" creates a new World order 🙂
But there is more interesting question in your post, IMO: What is the problem with Chinese literature?
I don't know so much about Chinese literature, but I have read a few of the most popular books: the wolf totem, Yu hua's books, Han han, etc. and seriously I have the feeling that they lack the variety and creativity of the Western scene. Not to mention the thousands of non-fiction and novels out there that are strictly designed to catch readers and do not even attempt to risk something original. It is as if the "get rich quickly" slogan has made its way into literature, completely polluting the art.
From what I have seen of Chinese literature, my impression is that it doesn't go beyond to explore new worlds, and instead it is stuck in its own space. Perhaps I am being too European in this judgement. Perhaps, as you hint, Chinese books should not try to compete in "europeanness", but instead develop their own virtues, just like the Chinese mountain-water paintings ignored the Western laws of perspective. After all it was never a characteristic of China to have the clash of different Worlds, but rather the great harmony of a mighty empire… and yet, some degree of conflict seems necessary for creation. What about the journey to the West, or the stories of the 3 kingdoms?
I don't have the answers to all this and I still have a long way to understand the problem, but I do think that there IS a problem with Chinese literature today.
I agree with the commentators above that some of the best works in literature have been done in times were there was no democracy, and in societies less free than China is today. I think the state of literature has to do not so much with the CCP or the censorship in China, but rather with the socio-economic environment, where the ethics of materialism invade all domains. Add to this that there is little respect for IP, and that books, even the most famous authoos, are selling at 3$ apiece. What is the motivation of a young talented Chinese to dedicate his life to the risky business of literature? He has to be crazy to even try it.
Regarding censorship: one anecdote:
I made a Chinese friend when I was in Xian 8 years ago. She was a student of art and in spite of her young age she knew a lot of World literature. She impressed my with her knowledge of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the spanish speaking Noble prize writer that I didnt suspect would be well known in China.
Then she said it is a pity there was no Chinese nobel prizes and I said well, actually last year a Chinese won the prize. And she says "no, it is impossible, you are wrong" And I said I actualy seen him with my own eyes, he lives in the same part of Paris where I live, in the Chinese area. And I ended up asking my friend back home to buy the book and send it over, because it was not available in China (I had no internet at the time). And I sent it to her, although personally I didn't like it so much (it was the Mountain of the Soul), but just because I thought it was unfair that she didnt have access to it.
With this I mean that, for sure, censorship does have an impact in the way Chinese regard literature, and I agree that the government has no interest in promoting Chinese writers to win the prize. But still, I don't think that is the main reason for the situation. If there were really the necessary social conditions, literature would flourish IN SPITE of the government much better than supported by it, as it often happened in past times in many countries.
@Uln: I was in China when Gao Xingjian got the prize, and I have an anecdote too. 😉 When the prize was announced, media in China was absolutely silent, except Xinhua, which published a very short notice saying that Gao had been awarded the prize, that the Swedish Academy obviously had no idea about quality literature in China, and that the prize had been given for political reasons and thereby lost all its significance.
A couple of weeks later I went to a bookstore and found a book by Li Rui that seemed interesting. As I was paying, the man behind the counter said that "this man really ought to get the Nobel Prize instead." I asked: "well, but who did get the prize?" The man answered that they had the winner's books and asked if I would like to buy one, after which he went out to a storeroom to fetch a bunch of Gao's books. Apparently they were all in stock but had been stopped with short notice.
Later I met several people who were really into literature and nobody had heard about Gao winning the prize. I don't think this would be possible today.
The Norwegians use 'Peace' Prize as a political tool to influence world affairs. Their yardstick is based on a rich country like Norway, so they oppose developing countries like China. The Prize should be given to where the credit is due. Period.
It is similar to the Literature Prize discussed here. I started a post at FM on the Peace Prize:
http://blog.hiddenharmonies.org/2009/10/16/nobel-peace-prize/
I saw this article in the Guardian. Here are some excerpts:
Sorry, John Updike. Don't get your hopes up, Joyce Carol Oates. And Philip Roth, what were you thinking? It's been 15 long years since an American author was last honoured with a Nobel prize for literature.
Judging by the low opinion the head of the award jury holds of American writing, it is not going to happen this year.
Today, the literary world on this side of the Atlantic reacted in bemusement and anger to an extraordinary tirade against American writing by Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Nobel prize jury.
"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world … not the United States," he told the Associated Press today.
"The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."
The black-and-white views guaranteed Engdahl a wide audience for his confident dismissal of an industry that published more than 50,000 works of fiction last year.
The US literary community has long had an ambivalent attitude towards the Nobel prize – not helped by the long drought. The last time American to win a prize for literature was Toni Morrison in 1993.
In the years since then, Europeans have been recognised nine times, including Britain's Doris Lessing.
The Nobel committee has also had a patchy reputation for recognising genius. Although the reputations of such US winners as TS Eliot, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway have survived, other honourees such as Sinclair Lewis or Pearl Buck, have fallen in popular regard.
Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth have been mentioned for years as worthy candidates without ever getting the nod. John Updike presumably decided he never had a shot anyway when he created his character Bech and made fun of the prize.
Apparently, it isn't just something against Chinese literature. The Nobel world seems to be a eurocentric one.
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(Letter) Translation: Carbon Trading Prelude To Low Carbon Economy (Letter from pug_ster) China Yearns to Form Its Own Media Empires


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Home - Law
Civil Association – Concept, objectives, requirements and examples
We explain what a civil association is, its objectives, legal requirements and examples. Also, how is it different from civil society?
Civil associations are a form of private organization with altruistic purposes.
What is a civil association?
It's called a civil association to an organization with legal personality (of private law) and non-profit, whose efforts pursue cultural, educational, sports, informative or similar purposes. Its existence depends on the donations of its associate members, represented in a General Assembly.
In other words, civil associations are a form of private organization with altruistic purposes, which respond to their own statutes (included, in writing, in a constitutive document) and are managed autonomously, although they are subject, like any other organization, according to the law.
These types of associations are common today and are important to enable the organization of private charitable initiatives without the intermediation or direct control of the State, which allows not only greater bureaucratic agility, but also higher margins of commitment on the part of the associates and, in the long run, greater effectiveness in the fulfillment of their solidarity objectives.
Like many other legal aspects, the norms and requirements of a civil association vary depending on the legal framework of each country, although in general they are required to:
That they gather a minimum of formal associates.
That they have an act of creation and statutes approved by the public administration.
That its internal functioning is governed by democratic and legal principles.
That there is a formal accounting available for any type of audit.
Civil association and civil society
It is not advisable to confuse a civil association with a civil society. This last term has a very distant meaning, typical of political science: civil society is the set of civilian forces in society. In addition, in many legal areas, unlike civil associations, which are not for profit, civil societies are those that have economic purposes.
See also Porfiriato - Concept, causes, characteristics and culture
This distinction may be less clear than it might seem, in cases where a charitable activity can be, at the same time, profitable or capitalizable, but it is important when paying tribute to the State. In a very broad sense, both civil societies and civil associations pursue altruistic ends, but the former do so with a commercial interest, while the latter will reinvest their earnings in the association itself.
Examples of civil associations
The following are examples of civil associations:
Civil Association for Equality and Justice (Argentina).
Mexican Association for the right to information.
PRISMA Charitable Association (Peru).
Consciencia Civil Association (Argentina).
Atlatl Project (Mexico).
SI Television Editions Association (Spain).
United States Association for International Migration (United States).
Freedom of Association – Concept, importance and characteristics
Criminal Liability – Concept, forms and civil liability
Accounting objectives (general and specific objective)
Categories Law, Social Sciences
Classification of Animals – Characteristics and examples
Adulthood – Concept, beginning, end, stages and characteristics


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Israel News | Science
Bats Squeak to Echolocate Prey and Gossip in Death Metal Growls, Researchers Find
Step aside, Mariah Carey: the Daubenton's bat boasts an unmatched vocal range, spanning no less than seven octaves
The Daubenton's bat, boasting a seven-octave vocal range and potential death-metal record deal.Credit: San Martin Gilles / Flickr
Death metal is quite the genre. Never mind the lyrics that can't even be printed here: there are band names that can't be printed here.
It's adorable when death metal bands turn coy with lyrics like "oxidized razor masticator" instead of "eater of rusty razor blades" (thank you, Revolver), but these are not melodies for the masses. And now the poor bat, maligned aviator of the night, is compared in a science paper to death metal chanteuses because, it turns out, they issue super-low-pitched growly calls when socializing.
Some bat species – not all – famously emit high-pitched squeaks when engaging in echolocation, notably when chasing insects. Now we learn that the echolocating insectivorous Daubenton's bat boasts an unmatched vocal range, spanning no less than seven octaves, Coen Elemans at the University of Southern Denmark and colleagues explained in Plos Biology on Monday.
Your range is three or four octaves. Mariah Carey reportedly has an almost supernatural voice range, part of which only – reportedly – dogs can hear.
Unlike Carey, the Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii) turns out to boast discrete specialty throat equipment for ultra-high squeaks at the one end, and super-low rumbles ranging from 1 to 120 kilohertz at the other end. That is well beyond the range of any other mammal, insofar as is known.
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Tel Aviv Fruit Bats Use Skyscrapers to Navigate, Scientists Discover
So they squeak to find flying food and emit guttural growls when gossiping. And gossip, bats do. Unrelated work on Israeli bats has found that they chatter nonstop – not necessarily in low tones, by the way. A lot of what they have to say, the researchers assure us, is complaining.
How was their vocal range elucidated? The researchers removed the larynxes of five bats, mounted the tissue and filmed them at ultra-high speed, 250,000 frames per second, while flowing air over them to mimic natural bat-talk. The rest was computer work to reconstruct the motion of vocal membranes that were obscured by other structures in the actual bat.
The low end of the bat's vocal scale turned out to be produced by folds of membrane above the vocal cords called "ventricular folds."
If you are a Mongolian death metal throat singer, you may use your ventricular throat folds to produce the low frequencies too.
So, the bats have specialist laryngeal structures for different types of calls: echolocation versus gossiping with other bats, Elemans and the team report.
"We show that bats vibrate extremely thin and light membranes extending from their vocal folds to make their high-frequency ultrasonic calls for echolocation. To extend their limited lower vocal range, bats make aggressive calls with their ventricular folds – as in death metal growls," the team states.
Daubenton's bat. Good name for a death metal band?Credit: Lennart Lennuk
Evolutionarily speaking, the team suggests, Daubenton's bats experienced different selection pressures for echolocation (to hunt fast prey) and for interpersonal communication, resulting in the evolution of separate laryngeal structures that vastly expanded their vocal range to the wonder that it is today.
Music in Israel
No Time for Escalation


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Dégénération é um single da francesa Mylène Farmer, lançado em 19 de junho de 2008. A música foi escrita por Laurent Boutonnat e si só vende cerca de 70.000 exemplares. Esta música faz parte do seu quinto álbum de originais "Point de Suture". O videoclipe foi dirigido por Bruno Aveillan em Praga, em meados de 2008. A canção foi executada durante shows do cantor em 2009.

Singles
 CD single
 "Dégénération" (single version) — 5:27
 "Dégénération" (radio edit) — 4:05
 "Dégénération" (instrumental version) — 5:27
 CD maxi / 12" maxi
 "Dégénération" (single version) — 5:27
 "Dégénération" (Tomer G sexy club mix) — 8:33
 "Dégénération" (MHC future generation remix club) — 6:29
 "Dégénération" (Manhattan clique mix) — 3:20
 CD single - Promo / CD single - Promo
 "Dégénération" (edit version) — 3:55
 CD maxi - Promo
 "Dégénération" (comatik club remix - Martin Solveig) — 7:04
 "Dégénération" (Tomer G sexy club mix) — 8:28
 "Dégénération" (single version) — 5:23
 12" maxi - Promo
 "Dégénération" (Martin Solveig degenerave remix) — 7:04
 "Dégénération" (Tomer G sexy club mix) — 8:28
 CD single - Promo
 "Dégénération" (MHC future generation remix club) — 6:29
 Digital download
 "Dégénération" (single version) — 5:27
 "Dégénération" (Tomer G sexy club mix) — 8:33
 "Dégénération" (MHC future generation remix club) — 6:29
 "Dégénération" (Manhattan clique mix) — 3:20
 "Dégénération" (2009 live version) — 6:58

Performances nos paradas

Singles de Mylène Farmer
Singles de 2008
Canções com temática LGBT

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


John Fischer and his team at US company StickerGiant patiently created a 105.05 kg (231 lb 9.6 oz) ball out of around 200,000 stickers and labels, which has been verified as the world's Largest ball of stickers in Longmont, Colorado.
Weighing considerably more than the average adult male (64 kg/141 lbs), it's so heavy that John has to use a forklift and wheeled wagon to move it around.
The record was attempted in honour of the first National Sticker Day in the USA.
Dubbed "Saul" after a character from Breaking Bad, the ball was an officially declared candidate in the 2016 presidential elections, under the motto "Stick together".
"Stickers are fun because they allow people to take any normal thing and make it theirs," – John Fischer.
It was always John's plan to break a world record with "Saul the sticker giant" and his employees are as dedicated to growing it as he is.
"When we got the news that we had achieved the Guinness World Records title, we had a big celebration," said John.
Saul appears in the Guinness World Records 2018 book alongside thousands of other incredible creations and record-breaking achievements.


If you have a kitchen sink drain problem that you are experiencing right now and you don't have any knowledge on what to do, this is for you. In this article you will learn some alternative things you can do before calling a plumber and it will save your money. The plumber Moreno Valley service companies are offering services that will surely help you with your problem. They are also having many options that you can choose so you can budget your money.
These alternative ways to unclog your kitchen drains are tested and proven before we suggest and give you our readers the information here. We assure you that it will not damage your sink drainage more and you will not be going to spend too much money. If the problem is still not working after you have done it, all you needed to do is call a service company. Besides there is nothing wrong in trying our tips and alternative ideas since we already test it and we approve and prove it.
This is very basic and you can do this without spending anything, this is the one of the cheapest alternative solution for you clog kitchen sink drain. All you have to do is boil some water and then once it boils and all hot and good, you will pour it all in the sink and just wait for it to be drained. You needed to take all of the dishes that is in the sink so that there will be barrier of the water to directly go to the sink. You have to repeat this process for several times before it will totally unclog the sink drain of your kitchen, then you are good to use it again.
All you have to do is mix the two and the bubbles from this mixture will be the one to do the effect in your sink. All you have to make sure that there is no water in the sink or any type of dishes in the sink. It has to be clear and nothing will be on the way. You have to wait for 15 to 25 minutes so that it will totally clean your sink drain. If this still won't do, try to do it again for the second time.
If the two alternative ways are not working, this will be the last resort for you and all you have to use is the one you commonly use in your household. You will be needing to create and have something to tight the seal around the plunger that you have. You have to double check everything and try to use something to stop the spill and make sure that it will not ruin anything. It is either a or your clothes that you are not using anymore or wet cloth or a something that is much better to use to for a stopper and you will not make a mess.
If you are looking for a landscaper that will make sure you will not regret investing to, then this article is for you. We are about to talk what does the best landscape service company must have to make sure that their clients or costumer will not have any regret in hiring them. The Sutherland Shire landscaping is one of the service companies that will surely give you the best quality of work they offer. Just keep reading for more information about the quality of a service company that is legit and worth your investment.
The best company or business will stand in the test of time and from the things that they are offering and how they reach their clients/ costumers. A business or a company that is still running for a long time already has a huge advantage from any other companies since, through years they are still working. This only means that they are doing a good job that will keep the business alive and they give their client a satisfying result of work. We got this saying that time will surely test you and if you are still standing surviving it means that you are strong and worth enough to be with.
The company is legal to run the business and past all the standard in running a business or company for their clients. They must have a proof and give their clients assurance that they are having a legal business where they can truly trust them. The workers must be professional in doing their work and always respect the client's property and the client themselves. Professional workers are a very well train person to do the just in the most assuring and will treat their client as the most important person all the time.
The equipment, tools or materials that they will choose must be on the edge to any other equipment from any other service company in town. This will make sure that work will be fast and easy for them to work on. They must know how to use it and have safety equipment for their protection while they are working in your area, and know how to use it. They must be well-trained in using any materials or tools and machineries in the field, and the company must provide trainings for them to make sure there is no accident in the field.
Chances are you never want to hear the word thin in reference to your hair even if you are trying to lose inches from your middle. It is not too late to save your strands if you have been shedding more than usual.
It is true that our hair is an important part of our body because it not just gives us the confidence but also protect our head from elements such as heat. If you have problems due to declining hair, you can contact hair transplant Virginia for professional assistance. To help you, here are some bad habits that contribute to your thinning hair.
Hot water dehydrates strands which lead to dry and brittle hair which is more susceptible to snap and fall out. The heat throws your scalp's pores into overdrive to keep up with the oil production and washes your hair's protective oils down the drain which can severely damage the root and lead to additional shedding.
It is advisable that you take the temperature down a few degrees. You can still opt for a warm shower but it is essential that you rinse your hair with the coolest temperature possible.
The proteins that make up your hair and its protective cuticle can be damaged with scorching temperature. Once the cuticle is damaged, your hair is more prone to breakage because the moisture balance is disrupted.
The best thing to do is limit your hot tool usage to two or three times a week and begin with the coolest setting possible. To reduce friction, it is important that you apply a heat-protection spray which will create a thermal barrier.
It is true that if you starve yourself, you can force to direct its energy towards essential functions such as helping your heart and brain work rather than making hair. To save your strands, it is a good idea to eat a healthy diet with plenty of lean protein such as fish, lentils, chicken, and beans.
Since protective cuticle is slightly raised, our strands are never more fragile and prone to breakage when they are saturated with water. You can create the perfect storm for snapping off by brushing or combing locks in the shower then following with aggressive towel drying.
It is advantageous that before your hair gets wet, minimize post-shower brushing by combing. After you shower, do not rub hair, it is advisable that you blot your hair with a towel.
You must be cautious if a tight ponytail or braid is your go-to look. Sporting these styles can put excessive tension on the hair follicles which can damage and create scars that destroy them permanently. This can lead to a condition that can permanently weaken the hair follicles and makes it impossible for hair to grow.
Whenever possible, try wearing your hair down. Keep it soft when you do tie your strands back however if it is pulling on your skin, it is way too light.


Wertin, Timothy M.; Reed, Sasha C.
Wertin, Timothy M.; Belnap, Jayne; Reed, Sasha C.
Stocker, B.D., Prentice, I.C., Cornell, S.E., Davies-Barnard, T., Finzi, A.C., Franklin, S., Janssens, I., Larmola, T., Manzoni, S., Näsholm, T., Raven, J.A., Rebel, K.T., Reed, S., Vicca, S., Wiltshire, A., and Zaehle, S., 2016, Terrestrial nitrogen cycling in Earth system models revisited: New Phytologist, v. 210, no. 4, p. 1165-1168, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13997/full and http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.13997.
Tucker, Colin; Reed, Sasha C.
Reed, S.C., and Tana E. Wood, T.E., 2017, Chapter 11--Soil Phosphorus cycling in tropical soils: An ultisol and oxisol perspective, in Rattan, L., and Stewart, B.A., eds., Soil Phosphorus: Boca Raton, FL, Taylor & Francis, p. 247–283, http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781315372327-12.
Steven, B., Kuske, C. R., Gallegos-Graves, L., Reed, S.C., and Belnap, J., 2015, Climate Change and Physical Disturbance Manipulations Result in Distinct Biological Soil Crust Communities: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, v. (online), http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2015/08/11/AEM.01443-15.full.pdf+html and http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01443-15.


We have 12 women who attended. It was lovely an intimate, gorgeous group of women who shared stories and interacted comfortably throughout the day. A big thank you to the ladies who spent the day with us, you know who you are.
"This was such an invaluable experience. There is so much information out there and it is so nice to have a professional approach. I feel so empowered"
"I found it a very useful day to attend and really enjoyed connecting with the speakers and like minded others who are going through similar stages and phases as myself"
"Came out with a lot of information and also came out with a lot more awareness of what to expect during the pregnancy journey"
"Incredible diversity of great information from professionals"
"Very positive and inspiring, an uplifting event. Nice to connect with professionals and personally"
"Very informative, well worth investing in something for yourself. Being surrounded by women who have gone through pregnancy or experiencing everything I'm going through"
"Great day with fantastic food. Invaluable professional knowledge, I now feel like I have been steered in the right direction"
"Wonderful overview of information for someone coming into this journey with little knowledge"