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Review of ARGUMENTS FOR A THEATRE – Howard Barker
1993 (2nd ed.), Manchester University Press, 183 pages
Book and Author Blurb
Howard Barker's reputation as a major European dramatist has been forged over 20 years' work both in major state theatres like the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in the independent theatres, particularly through The Wrestling School, an innovative company dedicated to the performance of his work. Always controversial Barker's drama makes demands on its audience as a first principle; it is characteristically tragic, poetic, emotional, and by the imaginative power of its situations and the metaphor and poetry of its form, draws theatre beyond its conventional range. Over a period of years Barker has moved towards defining his aims and methods, beginning with the how celebrated manifest Fortynine asides in 1985. His strategy is to change the habitual relations between stage and audience, to encourage a different way of experiencing theatre, and to liberate its particular strengths from ideological restrictions which have aggregated over years of Stanislavskian and Brechtian practice.
In this collection of essays, lectures, aphorisms, Barker elaborates his concept of a Theatre of Catastrophe, a form of tragedy without reconciliation, and locates his expectations in the experience of theatre rather than its moral content. Also here are short, searching pieces on individual performances by actors, notes, on productions drawings and poems which are oblique but illuminating reflections on a changing theory.
Howard Barker's best-known plays are Scenes from an Execution, The Castle, The Possibilities, The Bite of the Night, and The Europeans.
Argument for a Theatre
What is tragedy? To Barker, modern tragedy is a "Theatre of Catastrophe." The theatre of catastrophe is Barker's term for his brand of tragedy. Conventional tragedy could have a message, whether as a mouthpiece of a national morality or as the tragedian's personal pulpit. Tragedies put on by overfunded state theatres, writes Barker, serve to reinforce the national conscience. Tragedies put on by ideologues, writes Barker, serve as tragedians as personal pulpits. Both degrade drama's purpose which is that it does not have a purpose. Barker's tragedies will have none of this nonsense.
Tragedy, to Barker, is a conduit for the beauty of language. It is amoral. It rejects politics, conscience, and the populist culture. Pure tragedy must do away with the authority of the author-playwright. Works such as Roland Barthes' 1977 essay "The Death of the Author" and Adrian Page's 1992 volume The Death of the Playwright loom over Barker's thinking. In the theatre of catastrophe the audience too is a playwright and, in narrative authority, equal to the playwright and actor. If anyone has authority in the theatre of catastrophe, it is the actor who is elevated to an exalted status by the beauty of language and suffering.
If people come to the theatre of catastrophe, and exit saying: "I learned something," then Barker has failed. If people come to the theatre of catastrophe, and exit saying: "I agree, the meaning was clear," then Barker has failed. If people come to the theatre of catastrophe, and exit saying: "That was a great solution," then Barker has failed. These objectives are for rival theatres. These objectives smack of the critical theory of Brecht and Shaw, humanist theatre, or the political theatre that was popular in the decades leading up to the 1980s. Barker wants audiences leaving his theatre to leave feeling uncertain. "After the tragedy," he writes, "you are not certain who you are." I think what Barker really wants—but stops short of saying—is for an audience to see one of his shows and rise up and riot, tear up the furniture, and exit in disgust. Sort of like the public's reaction to Brecht's 1929 play The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent. I wonder if Barker has ever achieved this? I think the trick to this is that you have to get people into your theatre who do not like you, and this is somewhat hard to do, as most of the public coming to your shows are fans, and since they're expecting grotesque violence and terrible things happening with bodily fluids, they won't mind. Here's an example of Barker's language (from the prologue to The Bite of the Night) :
And Consistency
None of it
I'll take you
I'll hold your throat
And vomit I will tolerate
Over my shirt
Over my writs
Your bile
Your juices
I'll be your guide
And whistler in the dark
Cougher over filthy words
And all known sentiments recycles for this house.
Barker is a bit of a walking contradiction. For a writer so focused on ambiguity in his playwriting, his lecture prose is lucid and to point. He writes in a direct blunt aphoristic style. It has moments of profound beauty as well, such as this passage: "The status of comedians has never been higher. In my latest play, The Last Supper, laughter has become so artificial, so mechanical, that it has ceased to be attached to human beings at all, and drifts over the landscape like a storm cloud, discharging itself over battlefields and banquets alike." His aphoristic style is perfect in the Twitter age. For a writer who writes such long plays, three, four, or even five hours long, his book on the theory of drama is delightfully short, 183 pages in total. For a writer so set against political plays, he sure writes a lot about politics and its wants. For a writer so set against conventional morality, he sure writes a lot about conventional moralities and their discontents. When I was young, I listened to heavy metal music. This style of music railed against religion. It railed against the outdated church. When I was young—and perhaps still today—I listened to this heavy metal music. Now, however, when I think back on the singers and the bands, I think: "If you have truly surpassed and grown beyond religion, you guys sure use up a lot of lyrics talking about angels and demons, scaling the golden wall of heaven, and doing battle with the priests. If truly you had risen above, perhaps you would not sing so much of the old ways." Barker sort of reminds me of this contradiction in heavy metal music. It's sort of like Marx' controversy: for someone who despises capital so much, he sure spends a lot of time and energy focused on it.
While tragedy for Barker has no meaning, it has a feeling. It is a theatre of pain, of insoluble complications. Tragedy is for "cultures secure enough to tolerate the performance against collective wisdom." Here is an echo of Nietzsche—another great stylist—who also believed that tragedy was for the strong, for those who had not only the strength of conviction, but the excess in strength that delighted in challenging and overthrowing their own convictions. By dramatizing unpredictable patterns of behaviour, Barker generates moral uncertainty. Barker dramatizes, for example, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in his play On the Divine. In Barker's play, just as in the Bible, a ram is caught by its horns, and Isaac is spared. But in Barker's play, instead of sacrificing Isaac out of pure faith, Abraham uses philosophy to justify the sacrifice of his son. For using philosophy he is rebuked by the God character, played by Benz, who in turn, after chastising Abraham, is killed by Isaac. The God character dies.
The death of the God character is deliberate, and one senses when Barker comments on the scene: "There is, perhaps, nothing sacrilegious in the liberal climate of contemporary Christianity" that, if he could have, he would have even went further than having Isaac kill God. Unlike Aristotle, who wanted pity and fear, Barker wants anxiety: his theatre of catastrophe is a theatre for an age of anxiety, a theatre where the capacity of the actor to waylay audience expectations and to convey the pain of irreconcilable alienation reigns supreme. Barker does not want audiences to be entertained, but to be wrung out like rag dolls.
I wonder what sort of audience comes to the theatre of catastrophe? Are there limits to how popular the theatre of catastrophe could be? I could see the theatre of catastrophe being popular with the cognoscenti who say: "Not another revenge tragedy, I want something to tickle my senses." But how many cognoscenti are there? Even in this "liberal climate of contemporary Christianity," how many theatregoers, believers or nonbelievers, would go to see God die on stage? Barker is on his way to entering the canon. But will he? Many plays that enter the canon also have an element of popular appeal, something that Barker seems allergic to. Time will tell.
Barker's Theatre of Catastrophe Model of Tragedy
-poetry and metaphor
-speculation on behaviour
-psychological unreliability
-complex syntax
-long speeches
-the eruption of alternative discourses within the speech
-moment
-the gaol
-the spoiled landscape
-the cemetery
-pain at the insubstantiality of values
-melancholy
-non-therapeutic
-non-enlightened
-constant digression
-accumulation of feelings
-complication
-irresolution
-disintegration
-impossibility
-requires external funding
Wong's Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy
-beauty desired, but not required
-speculation on the worth of human values
-the psychology of ramblers and gamblers
-accessible language and ideas
-stichomythia
-the eruption of gambling images and metaphors within the speech
-objectives
-the casino
-the no-limit tables
-the dead man's hand
-overcoming the smallness of existence by the greatness of daring
-anticipation and apprehension
-commiseration
-higher sensibility of the impact of the highly improbable
-straight line and goal
-repercussions of the gambling act
-unpredictability
-the best-laid plans of mice and men fall short
-low-probability, high-consequence events
-an outcome that while not impossible, defies all odds and expectations
-internally funded, has skin in the game
Until next time, I'm Edwin Wong, and I'm doing Melpomene's work.
This entry was posted in Reading List - Books and tagged arguments for a theatre, Howard Barker, risk theatre, theatre of catastrophe, theory of tragedy, wrestling school on by Edwin Wong.
Edwin Wong's Articulation of Personal Research Activity (Risk Theatre)
Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference (CATR) "Partition/Ensemble"
May 25th-28th 2020 Montreal, Canada
The Articulations of Division and Unity: Re-evaluating Practices of Artistic Research Seminar
Concordia University and Université du Québec à Montréal
Natalia Esling and Bruce Barton Co-Curators
Hi Everyone, my name is Edwin Wong. Like many of you, I arrived at theatre off the beaten path. I'm a classicist who studied ancient theatre with Laurel Bowman at the University of Victoria ('04 BA Greek and Roman Studies) and David Konstan at Brown University ('07 MA Classics). My favourite old-time tragedy is Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes—of all the plays in the tragic canon, it's the only one where you can work out the odds of all the actual and contrafactual outcomes. That's fascinating because I study the impact of highly improbable events. I was born in 1974, so that makes me 45. I live in Victoria, BC where I work as a project manager for PML Professional Mechanical. We build hospitals, schools, office buildings, submarine hangers, condos, you name it.
In commercial construction, "Mechanical" refers not to cars, but to an umbrella of trades: plumbing, sheet metal, fire sprinklers, insulation, firestop, refrigeration, and controls. Mechanical—alongside electrical, glazing (windows), concrete, wall board, gypsum wall board, and many others—is one of the divisions of construction that come together to build the buildings you see around you. Project managers are a liaison between designers (architects and engineers) and the trades installing the work. As a project manager, I look after contracts, changes, construction schedules, and mitigate risk. I'm a Red Seal plumber by trade. That means I've completed a four year apprenticeship.
I enjoy reading books outside my field of study, especially books on financial speculation, market bubbles, and stock market collapses. Favourites include Lowenstein's The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management (how an overleveraged hedge fund founded by two Nobel winners brought the global economic system to a stop), Bernstein's Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, and Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Perhaps it's from my work and reading interests that the focus of my artistic research is to explore what happens in drama when risk becomes the fulcrum of the action.
The current focus of my artistic research began in winter 2006 when I came across trader/mathematician/philosopher Taleb's first book, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the in the Markets. It was sitting in the economics section of the big Borders bookstore in Providence, Rhode Island. His book argued that low-probability, high-consequence events shape life more than we think. Wall Street traders triggered devastating low-probability, high-consequence events by taking on inordinate risks. I thought: "Isn't this what happens in tragedy? Macbeth triggers Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Hill—an exceedingly low-probability event—by taking on too much risk." I spent the next twelve years perfecting a theory of tragedy where risk drives the action and I called the theory "risk theatre."
When Great Recession—a product of excessive risk taking—hit in 2008, I realized how the scale of human ambition in finance, politics, warfare, technology, and science makes risk a timely topic. Theatre could capitalize on this by simulating risk on the stage. My risk theatre theory of tragedy would provide a template for playwrights who wanted to engage with risk.
When I started writing and researching the book, I was working at Bayside Mechanical. I would try my ideas of risk on my colleagues in the office. We talked about construction risks, and this influenced the book. In construction, sequencing the trades is critical. Before the steel studs go in, mechanical installs or "roughs in" the drainage pipes and potable water distribution. Studs go in, and then electrical and mechanical finish putting in their pipes, ducts, and conduits. Then drywall goes up. Because construction schedules are compressed, when a delay in one part of the process occurs (for example, if cold temperatures delay pouring a suspended concrete slab), the delays cascade down the chain, affecting all the trades, and the day delay in the pour ends up setting back the construction schedule not one day, but two weeks. This type of risk is called "tight-coupling," and from discussions with other project managers, became a sub-chapter in the book. To illustrate it, an example from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was used: the letter carrier to Verona just happens to be quarantined, delaying Friar Lawrence's letter to Romeo. But, because Friar Lawrence's plan is tight-coupled (the end result relies on many events happening in perfect sequence), the failure of one small part of the plan creates an unexpected and dramatic low-probability, high-consequence event: two suicides instead of one wedding.
The language of my book provides an example of how diverse perspectives change the flavour of research. In addition to talking to other project managers and engineers, I would run my ideas by the tradespeople. When they were hanging cast iron pipe, I would tell the tradespeople about literary theory. When they would review the blueprints, I would tell them about the art form of tragedy. When they were having coffee, I would chat with them about risk. If you read my book—and I hope that you will—you'll find that, compared to other books on literary theory, the language is straightforward. In my book, you'll find many construction analogies. For example, my theory of tragedy is likened to a set of blueprints construction workers use to build a house. Many of the ideas were run by the tradespeople at work. To get the ideas across, I would present them in a straightforward language using construction metaphors. Much of this vernacular makes it into the book. As a result, even though my book contains literary theory, it's accessible to people from all walks of life.
The traditional paradigm of theatre research is that if you're not part of an academic department or a theatre, you're unable to contribute to the discussion. You're out in the wilderness, and the wilderness will reclaim you. Sort of like historian Arnold Townbee's "Appalachian effect" where, if an advanced society settles the Appalachia, in a few generations, despite whatever refinements it had, will revert back to nature due to its geographic isolation. There's some truth to this. Without the support from the community, it's hard to keep going. But I think, if you're not part of the establishment, and you're able to keep going, you'll be able to bring new perspectives into an established art. New blood.
Friesen Press published my statement of artistic research, The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected in 2019. It contains a model of drama based on uncertainty and chance. On the cover is an image of the dead man's hand, a visual analogy of the impact of the highly improbable. The dead man's hand is a poker hand, a pair of black aces on eights. The odds of this poker hand are remote but the consequences great. It was the hand folk hero Wild Bill Hickox held when he was unexpectedly shot dead in a saloon in Deadwood.
My book presents a theory of tragedy through an extended gambling metaphor. Heroes are gamblers who place delirious bets at the no-limit tables. They lay down, however, something other than money. In tragedy, cash isn't legal tender. Human values are legal tender. Loman, in Death of a Salesman, lays down his dignity for the American Dream. Faust, in Doctor Faustus, lays down his soul for world dominion. Macbeth lays down compassion, or the milk of human kindness, for the crown. More, in A Man for All Seasons, lays down his life for his faith. The ramification, and I believe it is an important one, of looking at dramatic acts as gambling acts is this: tragedy serves as a valuing mechanism for human values. A gallon of milk is worth $4.99, but how much is the milk of human kindness worth? It's hard to value life from within life itself. But, in Macbeth we see that the milk of human kindness is worth a chance at one crown to rule Scotland. Tragedy is the art that values human assets. It does so through the mechanism of the hero's wager.
Of course, we don't come to the theatre to be educated, but to be entertained. Tragedy entertains, according to risk theatre, by dramatizing gambling acts gone awry. Heroes, by making delirious bets, trigger low-probability, high-consequence outcomes not unlike how gamblers, by going all-in, blow themselves up. Famous gamblers who have blown themselves up by wagering all-in include Hermann from Pushkin's short story The Queen of Spades and the Cincinnati Kid from Jessup's novel The Cincinnati Kid. Heroes, according to risk theatre are similar. They concentrate their fortunes on one all-in bet. Their wagers, like Hermann's and the Cincinnati Kid's, are good. They play to win and should win. But then, the unexpected happens and all is lost. Sometimes the unexpected comes in the form of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Hill. Other times it's when one discovers—as Loman does—that one's life insurance policy makes one worth more dead than alive. And then there're the times when the foolproof bet is derailed—as the Cincinnati Kid discovers—when the adversary "makes the wrong move at the right time." Audiences are entertained by watching heroes blow up in the same way as spectators in casinos find entertainment in watching the action at the no-limit tables.
Many people talk of how heroes blow up in tragedy, and of how audiences find the fall thrilling. What risk theatre gives you, is the mechanism by which heroes blow up and the mechanism of why audiences find the fall entertaining. "Why do we find tragedy endearing when it recounts sad tales full of strife and sorrow?" is a perennial question. Risk theatre provides answers.
To look at how risk triggers low-probability, high-consequence outcomes, risk theatre brings together studies in risk management and the interpretation and creation of theatre. Studies in risk management take many forms. There are the breakdowns of the events leading up to Chernobyl, Deepwater Horizon, or the space shuttle Challenger. There are studies of irrational exuberance, studies of the financial manias and crashes from the Dutch Tulip Bubble in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble of 1720 (where Newton famously lamented: "I can calculate the movement of the stars but not the madness of men") and from the Great Depression in 1929 to the Great Recession of 2008. Then there are the studies of the great adventurers, of how they perished ascending Everest or sailing off the edge of the world. And then there are the military disasters: the Fall of Singapore or the failure of the Maginot Line in the Second World War or the Battle of Lake Trasimene or the Battle of Cannae in antiquity.
In these studies, risk analysts, historians, engineers, scientists, and economists have identified recurring motifs which precede the fall: black swans, overconfidence, failure to adapt, dogmatism, communications breakdowns, excessive leverage, lack of redundancy, tight coupling, feedback, miscalculated second-guesses, heuristic errors, and many others. Traditionally, playwrights and interpreters have focused on how the protagonist's hubris precedes the fall. My research looks at how all the different types of risk precede the fall. My goal is to allow tragedy to speak to today's analysts, historians, engineers, scientists, economists, and other risk takers, by interpreting tragedy in their language. Birnam Wood, for example, becomes a black swan event. In Corneille's Cinna, for example, the feedback between the quartet of protagonists leads to unexpected outcomes. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet becomes a study in tight coupling (when each part of a plan is dependent on all the other parts). And so on.
Tragedy also entertains, and risk theatre explains what makes tragedy thrilling. Spectators come to the theatre to feel the emotions of anticipation and apprehension. To continue the gambling analogy, just as spectators go to the casino to watch the high stakes action at the no-limit tables, so too theatregoers go to the casino, not to watch the nickel and dime bets, but to watch heroes make delirious wagers. Theatregoers feel anticipation for what the hero will wager. What will Macbeth wager for the crown—perhaps compassion, or the milk of human kindness? What will Loman wager for the American Dream—perhaps his dignity? What will Faustus wager for world dominion—perhaps his soul? In addition to anticipation, theatregoers feel apprehension for how, despite having the best-laid plans, heroes lose all.
After twelve years of researching my book, The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected, I shopped around for a publisher. Because I was no longer part of academia, the academic presses were uninterested. Because I wasn't part of the theatre world, the presses which focus on drama were uninterested. The manuscript sat fallow until a friend suggested that I try self-publishing.
As luck would have it, one of Canada's premier self-publishing companies, Friesen Press, is located in Victoria. In 2018, I signed up with Friesen. They would take care of typesetting, printing, and distributing the book. Marketing and publicity would be by me. Then I thought: "How can I get credibility for my self-published title to entice theatregoers, critics, academics, and playwrights to buy it?" My goal is to offer people a new and exciting way to interpret and understand drama and literature. But who would buy a self-published book?
First, I started a blog. Since I was working on tragedy, and Melpomene is tragedy's Muse, I called the blog "Doing Melpomene's Work" (melpomeneswork.com). I would blog about the process of writing the book, my thoughts on theatre, book reviews, and really anything that came to mind. But the blog wouldn't be enough.
In addition to the blog, I decided to start a playwright competition: I would challenge playwrights all over the world to create risk theatre plays, and there would be cash rewards for the winners. The playwright competition would provide design concept proof. If audiences loved risk theatre plays, then tragedy could be rebranded as a theatre of risk. Tragedy is a tired art. Some find it pretentious. Others are mystified by the concepts of "flaw" and "hamartia" and "catharsis." Tragedy needed a reboot.
Creating the playwright competition was more challenging than I thought. I had no theatre contacts and no idea where to start. I initially pitched the idea to Playwrights Guild of Canada. They said: "We like the idea, but who are you?" They would publicize the competition on the condition that I partner up with a theatre. At that point, I began to approach the local theatres.
I thought it'd be easy. I always heard the arts were looking for money and funding. I would approach the local theatres saying: "I've got all this money to start a competition, let's partner up." Not all the theatres responded to emails and voice messages. Some who responded didn't think the competition was a good fit. Some responded with hostile comments. This wasn't the welcome into the theatre world that I was expecting.
Sometimes, after some bad luck, you get some good luck to balance things out, and that's exactly what happened. When I called Langham Court Theatre, General Manager Michelle Buck just happened to be in the box office, and I had a chance to speak with her. We set up a meeting. In a few months, the board of directors approved the project. She brought teacher, director, and playwright Keith Digby on board, who in turn brought on board actor, director, playwright, and educator Michael Armstrong. The Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Playwright Competition was born. It awards over $11,000 in cash prizes to playwrights each year. In addition, we bring in the winning playwright to workshop the play. The experience culminates with a staged reading at Langham Court Theatre.
Our international jurors for the first year were Yvette Nolan (Canada), Armen Pandola (USA), and Sally Stott (UK). Here are the winners they selected, based on the criteria of risk theatre as outlined in my book.
The first place winner was Brooklyn playwright Gabriel Jason Dean's In Bloom. It tells the story of Aaron, an ambitious, well-intentioned, but ultimately reckless documentary filmmaker in Afghanistan. While there, he not only risks his own life in pursuit of exposing a greater truth, but his actions also lead to the death of an Afghan boy named Hafiz, a tragedy Aaron later lies about in his award-winning memoir. This sets off an unexpected chain reaction of events.
The four runners-up were Michael Bucklin with Signature Photo, a story of a photojournalist who is willing to risk all to get the photograph that will launch her career. She makes the dangerous trek to Rwanda, where she finally gets the shot—a picture so brutal and controversial that it became an instant sensation. Yet the success of the picture has unintended consequences for the photojournalist, as well as those around her, and the repercussions turn devastating when the authenticity of the photographs is called into question.
Next was Scott McCrea with Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler, a play in which a wealthy corporate executive's memories have been erased and replaced by a copy of those of another man, a doctor named Marko. Believing he's Marko, he wagers more than he suspects he can to start a new life, free from the errors of his past. But his gamble has unexpected tragic consequences.
Then there was Phillip Christian Smith's The Chechens. In The Chechens, rumours are going around that homosexuals are being held in camps. Can one family go all-in to protect their little brother who may or may not be gay? Or will they turn him in or honour kill him? Whichever way the family chooses, dangerous and irrevocable consequences will be set loose.
The final runner-up was J.D. Volk's Chrysalis. In Chrysalis, an interracial married couple struggles to come to terms with the role they played in the tragic death of their young biracial son at the hands of a police officer. It examines Keri's wager to transcend the cultural norms of being a woman of colour in America. She does this by guarding against the unlikely but ever-present threat of violence that may befall Jack, her biracial child, and trying to convince her white husband of the need to take appropriate precautions. Nevertheless, the die of fate has been cast. The unexpected triumphs over expectations.
The implications of taking risk theatre from the page to the stage are far-reaching. By encouraging and challenging playwrights each year to make risk the dramatic fulcrum of the action, we can test the hypotheses of risk theatre. Can each dramatic act be considered a gambling act? Is theatre the place where we can price out the value of human assets such as dignity, honour, and compassion—the milk of human kindness—through the mechanism of the hero's wager? How do audiences react to heroes triggering low-probability, high-consequence outcomes with their delirious wagers?
I was exceedingly pleased by both the quantity (182 playwrights from 11 countries participated) and quality of the work. From creative writers to academics and from emerging playwrights to seasoned veterans, they sent in plays. In our first year, we had been expecting fifty entries, tops seventy. That our expectations had been exceeded was proof of concept: playwrights were interested in writing plays where risk and the unexpected drive the action.
In October 2019, Gabriel Jason Dean flew from Brooklyn to Victoria to workshop his play In Bloom. Michael Armstrong ran the workshop with Gabriel, and the workshop culminated in a staged reading at Langham Court Theatre. It was magic to focus on risk, chance, and the unexpected during the workshop. And it worked on stage. The best comment I had was from a friend who came. She said, "I'm glad I could make it, but I have to leave at the intermission to put the kids to bed." At the end of the show, when I saw she stayed, she smiled and said: "I had to see how it turned out." The success of the staged reading with the audience provided further proof of concept that risk is the key to rebooting tragedy in the 21st century.
The feedback from the playwriting community has been encouraging. They enjoy this new way to look at tragedy. Playwright and two-time Academy Award nominee Donald Connolly wrote: "The idea of 'tragedy' was wrapped in the mystique of motivations and nobility and flaws that put it out of reach for me as a playwright. This book strips away the mystique and makes the form available to me." The competition is now in its second year. The goal is that in ten years, risk theatre will have reached a critical mass with playwrights (who create the plays), directors and dramaturgs (who interpret plays), and audiences (who attend plays). Once critical mass is reached, tragedy can be rebranded from its old identity (pity, fear, error, story of kings and queens) into a theatre of risk which speaks to contemporary audiences.
In addition to the blog and the playwright competition, I also conference and speak to students. Although risk theatre is a new idea, its ideas can be presented through reading classic plays. Macbeth is a great example. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth's high-risk wager—the milk of human kindness for the crown—is thwarted by an unexpected low-probability, high-consequence event—Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Hill.
This year, I've presented to a third year drama class at the University of Victoria. I gave them a risk theatre reading of Sophocles' classic play Oedipus rex. A risk theatre reading starts with finding the hero's wager: Oedipus bets that he can solve the riddle of the plague and stakes his reputation on being able to do so (he did after all, solve the sphinx' riddle). His bet is good, but his expectations are dashed when a low-probability, high-consequence event happens. That event is that he unexpectedly runs into the Corinthian messenger—who had also saved him when he was a babe—and the shepherd—who was supposed to have exposed him when he was a babe and is the sole surviving witness of Laius' murder. Risk theatre finds that dramatists generate excitement by derailing heroes' expectations by low-probability, high-consequence risk events. A link to the presentation: "When Genius Failed: A Risk Theatre Reading of Sophocles' Oedipus rex" can be found here: https://melpomeneswork.com/oedipus/
I've also presented this year at the Classical Association of the Middle West and South AGM at Sanford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In this presentation, I talk about my favourite tragedy: Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes. It's my favourite because it's the only play in the dramatic canon—whether ancient or modern—where you can quantify the exact odds of what did take place, and what did not take place. It's possible to do this because of the play's unique structure. It's set during a civil war. Seven attacking captains are randomly posted to attack each of Thebes' seven gates. Seven defending captains are also randomly posted to defend each of Thebes' seven gates. The worst-case scenario takes place if the two brothers are both posted to the final gate. By using the laws of probability, I demonstrate how Aeschylus structures the play so that the fated outcome takes place despite the odds of it happening being more than two and a half million to one against. Seven Against Thebes is risk theatre's paradigm play because the sheer improbability of the outcome can be stated in such precise and overwhelming figures as to be able to prove the risk theatre hypothesis that the function of tragedy is to dramatize low-probability, high-consequence risk events. A link to the presentation: "Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, Probability, and a New Theory of Tragedy" can be found here: https://melpomeneswork.com/aeschylus-seven-against-thebes-probability-and-a-new-theory-of-tragedy/
In conclusion, the aim of my artistic research is to consider all the ways in which tragedy is a theatre of risk. Through my book, the playwright competition, the blog, and conferencing, I invite academics, theatre professionals, creative writers, critics, and audiences to consider how risk is the dramatic fulcrum of the action. My efforts are directed to a singular goal: to usher in a new tragic age in storytelling, drama, and literature. Our age is an age fascinated with risk, chance, uncertainty, and the impact of the highly improbable. Risk theatre rebrands and reimagines tragedy for these modern times. Even though I approach theatre as a stranger and outsider, I hope, that people will want to explore the possibilities when risk is the dramatic fulcrum of the action. Risk theatre is the name of 21st century.
This entry was posted in Publications and tagged Articulations of Division and Unity, Canadian Association of Theatre Research, CATR, Concordia, risk theatre, tragedy, Université du Québec à Montréal on by Edwin Wong.
FEBRUARY 2020 UPDATE – RISK THEATRE MODERN TRAGEDY COMPETITION
Stats, stats, stats!
THANK YOU assiduous playwrights for all your entries! Here are the vital statistics since the 2nd annual competition began eight months ago. Forty-four plays have come in from two continents (North American and Oceania) and three countries (USA, Australia, and Canada). The competition website is at risktheatre.com. Here are the country breakouts:
USA 40 entrants
Australia 2 entrants
Canada 2 entrant
Of the American entries, 25 are from the east and 15 are from the west. There is a concentration of dramatists in New York (13 entrants). Go New York! Australia is also off to a good start, already exceeding last year's entries. Canada finally awoke. There's a long way to go to hit the 182 entries from 11 countries from last year.
The breakdown between male and female entrants stands at 31 men and 13 woman. While the balance may seem to tilt towards male writers, in a historical context, the numbers are quite progressive: prior to the twentieth century, I only know of one tragedy written by a woman. That play is The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry, written by Elizabeth Cary in 1613. The times, they are a changing!
Last month the https://risktheatre.com/ website averaged 30 hits a day. The top five countries clicking were: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, and Germany. Most clicks in a day was 196 back in June 2018 when the contest launched. Best month was March 2019 with 2372 hits—that was when we announced the 2019 winners. All time views stand at 15,810 and growing. So far, so good for this grassroots competition!
My book THE RISK THEATRE MODEL OF TRAGEDY: GAMBLING, DRAMA, AND THE UNEXPECTED (ISBN 978-1-5255-3756-1) hit the bookshelves in February 2019. To date, it has sold 1015 copies. THANK YOU to everyone for supporting the book—all proceeds help fund the competition. The book won in the Readers' Favorite Awards and the CIPA EVVY Awards. The audiobook, performed by Greg Patmore of Coronation Street, will be released next month.
Please ask your local library to carry this unique title. To date, the book can be found at these fantastic libraries: Brown University, Palatine Public, Pasadena Public, Fargo Public, South Texas College, University of Bristol, University of Victoria, Greater Victoria Public, Richmond Public, Smithers Public, University of Colorado (Denver), Denver Public, McMaster University, Buffalo and Erie County Public, Rochester Public, Wheaton College, South Cowichan Public, Vancouver Public, Hillside Public (Hyde Park, NY), Scarsdale Public (NY), Indianapolis Public, Okanagan College (Penticton), Concordia University, University of British Columbia (UBC), University of London, Wellesley Free, Tigard Public, Herrick Memorial, Gannett-Tripp, Charles J. Meder, Westchester College, Cambridge University, Fordham University, SUNY Cortland Memorial, Russian State Library, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Binghamton, Glendale Public, Benicia Public, Santa Clara County Public, and Westchester Community. Let's get a few more libraries on board! Reviews of the book can be found here:
http://theelementsofwriting.com/wong/
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/edwin-wong/the-risk-theatre-model-of-tragedy-gambling-drama-a/
https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Book-Review-THE-RISK-THEATRE-MODEL-OF-TRAGEDY-Edwin-Wong-20190626
https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-risk-theatre-model-of-tragedy/
This entry was posted in Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition and tagged playwright competition, risk theatre, theory of tragedy on by Edwin Wong.
Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, Probability, and a New Theory of Tragedy
CAMWS Classical Association of Middle West and South Presentation
116th Virtual Annual Meeting
Thursday, May 28 Session 10, Section A: Greek Drama 4
Abstract Link: https://camws.org/sites/default/files/meeting2020/abstracts/2028AeschylusSeven.pdf
I'd like to tell you about my new theory of tragedy called "risk theatre." In risk theatre, risk is the dramatic fulcrum of the action. To illustrate it, I'll use a play full of gambling references and high-risk action: Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes.
Drama, I argue, dramatizes risk. Comedy dramatizes upside risk. Tragedy dramatizes downside risk. Tragic heroes are gamblers who gamble with something other than money. They make delirious bets that trigger devastating low-probability, high-consequence outcomes. Audiences ask: "How did such a good bet go awry?"
To begin a risk theatre read, look for a bet where much is at stake. High stakes entertain. When you go to the casino, you don't go to watch nickel and dime bets. You go to watch the heroes at the no-limit tables who lay down dignity, honour, or compassion, the milk of human kindness. You go to experience the emotions of anticipation and apprehension: anticipation for the magnitude of their wagers and apprehension for how they blow up. Even though heroes are smart, swift, and well-accoutered, they lose all. To see how they had every expectation of being crowned the ivy, yet lose all evokes wonder.
What's the bet in Seven? As civil war rages, Eteocles bets the gods are on his side. It's a high-risk bet, as Thebes' existence hangs on the line. It's a good bet, as he's defending native shrines from foreign aggressors. Why wouldn't the gods be on his side?
How will Eteocles know the gods are on his side? In this play, seven attacking captains are posted by lot—in other words randomly—to Thebes' seven gates. Eteocles, in turn, draws seven lots to post seven defenders. By drawing lots, he entrusts the outcome to the gods. If the gods smile, the matchups will be favourable. If the gods turn away, the matchups will be unfavourable. Through the crack that is probability and chance, the gods reveal their intent.
I follow Fritz-Gregor Hermann's conjecture that a stage direction instructing Eteocles to draw lots on stage was lost in transmission. Hermann's conjecture solves the problem of the tenses, as Eteocles shifts between the future, perfect, present, and aorist when announcing the defenders. Before, commentators were divided: some thought he decided the postings prior to the shield scene. Others thought he decides during the shield scene. And yet others thought he decided some before and some during.
If Eteocles draws lots on stage he can easily shift between tenses because he can be speaking before he draws the lot ("I will announce the winner"), as he's drawing the lot ("I see the winner is"), or after he's seen the lot ("A winner has been chosen"). Not only does the conjecture rehabilitate the shield scene, rebuked for being static, but it also heightens the suspense. Drawing lots is dramatic in itself, a device Aeschylus would revisit in the Oresteia.
Do the random matchups favour Eteocles? In aggregate, yes. Take the first gate, where the attacker shouts out impieties. Eteocles just happens to draw a defender who is "a noble man who honours the throne of Reverence (503)." Or, take the fourth gate where the attacker bears an image of Typhon on his shield. By a strange synchronicity, Eteocles draws a defender who has Zeus—Typhon's slayer—emblazoned on his shield. Eteocles, pleased at this stroke, invokes Hermes, the god of luck, saying: "Hermes, by divine reason has matched this pair (625)." Through the crack in randomness, the gods reveal their will.
Additional subjective cues hearten Eteocles. There's the enemy's disarray. Their morale is so low that they prepare their obituaries. One of their captains says: "I'm going to die." Dark omens hang over them. They harangue one another. Contrast this with the chorus of Theban women, who function as a barometer of morale within the city. They start by singing the fall of Thebes. But, by the first stasimon, they sing the ode to joy. From the matchups to the unfolding action, Eteocles has subjective reasons to believe.
Eteocles also has objective reasons to believe. With seven attackers, seven defenders, and seven gates, the worst-case scenario is buried deep in the odds. The worst-case scenario happens if he confronts his brother at the seventh gate. At the final gate, substitutions would no longer be possible, as all the captains are posted. Kindred blood would spill. It's the worst-case scenario because there're rituals to purify spilt blood, but no rituals to purify spilt kindred blood.
We can use this play to prove the theory of risk theatre because, with seven attackers, seven defenders, and seven gates, all the possible permutations of the attackers and defenders fall under the rules of probability. When Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane Hill, we felt it was a low-probability, high-consequence event, but failed to quantify it. When the detective on the trail of regicide finds out that he himself was the regicide, we felt it was a low-probability, high-consequence event, but failed to quantify it. Because of Seven's unique construction, it's the one play in the entire canon where we may calculate the odds of what did, and did not happen. With these odds, we may prove the risk theatre hypothesis. Let's do math.
Mathematically, the likelihood of a compound event is the product of its individual probabilities. The odds of rolling snake-eyes, or two ones on six-sided dice, is 1:36, or 1:6 * 1:6. On that analogy, the odds of the worst-case scenario are 1:49, the product of Polyneices' odds (1:7) and Eteocles' odds (1:7) of going to the final gate. The probability of the worst-case scenario happening is exceedingly low, about 2%. Most of the time—in fact, 48 out of 49 times—the worst case scenario is averted. Of course, Aeschylus doesn't dramatize what happens most of the time, but the lowest-probability, highest-consequence event. And that is exactly what risk theatre theory predicts.
If 1:49 odds aren't enough to entice you, if you say, "I need, at minimum, 1:1000 odds to be convinced that risk is the dramatic fulcrum of the action," then I offer you this. The odds of the brothers meeting at the seventh gate are 1:49, to be sure, but that figure hardly reflects the chance of all the matchups taking place exactly as they did. The play, argues Gilbert Murray and others, is structured so that the matchups from gates one to six bolster Eteocles' confidence with the result that, when he falls, he falls from a greater height. The play would be less if the captain with the Typhon device encounters anyone but the captain bearing Typhon's slayer. The question we need to ask, then, is: what are the odds of all the matchups taking place exactly as they did? This fascinating question has not been asked until today.
According to the law of permutations, the formula to find how many unique arrangements there are with seven captains at seven gates is seven factorial (7!) or 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1, which equal 5040. Since there are seven attacking and seven defending captains, to find out how many unique pairings exist at seven gates, multiply 5040 by 5040. With seven gates, seven attackers, and seven defenders 25,401,600 permutations are possible. The odds, therefore, of Eteocles being raised up from gates one to six only to be struck down at gate seven are 25,401,599:1 against. Aeschylus has transformed the fated outcome, known to all, into an exceedingly improbable event. This is exactly what the theory of risk theatre predicts.
If Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Hill couldn't convince you, if the uncanny reunion of Oedipus with the Corinthian messenger and the shepherd couldn't convince you, then I hope today's reading convinces you that the function of tragedy is to dramatize low-probability, high-consequence risk events. I give you over twenty five million reasons to believe.
This concludes my reading. Tragedy starts with a bet. An all-in bet with much at stake. It's a good bet with a high likelihood of success. But the hero's expectations are dashed when, against all odds, the unexpected happens. Tragedy functions by suppressing the subjective odds of the fated event happening so that, when it happens, the audience is dumbstruck. Fate suppressed rages and explodes.
To take risk theatre from page to stage, I founded the world's largest competition for the writing of tragedy with Langham Court Theatre, one of Canada's oldest and most respected theatres. Every year, winners receive over $11,000 in cash and a trip to Victoria which culminates in a workshop and staged reading. Congratulations to Brooklyn playwright Gabriel Jason Dean for winning the inaugural competition with his play In Bloom, a story of a well-meaning journalist who crosses the line. The website is at risktheatre.com.
Risk theatre is inaugurating a new tragic age in drama and literature that will rival fifth century Athens and the English Renaissance. Aeschylus' Seven leads the charge as risk theatre's paradigm play. "Risk" dominates today's headlines and, to understand risk, we return to the ancients who began by dramatizing the consequences of what happens when more things happen than what we think will happen.
Risk theatre is literary theory's finest hour in the 21st century because it recalls something that has been forgotten so long, namely, that risk is the dramatic pivot of the action. I challenge you to use it on all your favourite works, whether they're novels, history, biography, opera, or films, and I promise you you'll never read a work of literature the same way. Please tell everyone about this bold new tool of interpretation and ask your local library to carry my book: The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected. Review copies are available at Classical Journal, American Drama and Theatre (JADT), and The Bryn Mawr Classical Review. An audiobook version, performed by Greg Patmore of Coronation Street, is also available.
Thank you, and welcome to the new tragic age.
This entry was posted in Publications and tagged Aeschylus, CAMWS, Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Greek tragedy, Langham Court Theatre, risk theatre, Septem, Seven Against Thebes, theory of tragedy, tragedy on by Edwin Wong.


text:
International Pressure on India's Drug Industry: The Hide-and-Seek Game of Modi's Administration
India's pharmaceutical industry is among the biggest ones in the world and plays a major role in the market especially for less developed countries. Regulatory warnings and bans on Indian drug factories for failing manufacturing standards are hitting the sector since several years. The government is making a political move to accomplish with international blames but how much concrete the change will be still remains unclear
by Pietro Dionisio
Degree in Political Science, International Relations
Cesare Alfieri School, University of Florence, Italy
International Pressure on India's Drug Industry
The Hide-and-Seek Game of Modi's Administration
The Indian pharmaceutical sector accounts for about 2.4 per cent and 10 per cent of the global pharmaceutical industry in value and volume terms respectively, and is expected to expand at a 15.92 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from US$ 20 billion in 2015 to US$ 55 billion by 2020.
Additionally, the government plans to set up a US$ 640 million venture capital fund to boost drug discovery and strengthen pharmaceutical infrastructure at a time when the market is dominated by generic drug industries accounting nearly 80 per cent of the whole Indian pharma production. The "Pharma Vision 2020" by the government's Department of Pharmaceuticals aims to make India a major hub for drug discovery.
What's more, over the last 10 years, the export of India's generic pharmaceuticals has reshaped the global drug business. Once known as exporters of bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), Indian generic drug makers have moved upwards on the global value chain and managed to gain a foothold in regulated markets such as the US and Europe. Nowadays, India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally accounting for 20 per cent of global generic drugs exports. This makes India a lifeline for millions of people in developing countries, especially in Africa.
But things could unfortunately change since India faces pressure from the United States (US) and Big Pharma lobbies to roll-back its in force health patent rules that still put people first against corporate profits.
In May, a first alert was played by the Narendra Modi central administration by issuing a new policy document about intellectual property rights (IPRs) at large (not only health-related). The new direction is likely to be an effect of the India-US working group created a couple of years ago to review IPRs and loosen pressure on the Country. In the document, seemingly compliant with the WTO's agreement on TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights), IPRs are meant to be an economic tool allowing India to provide economic growth while safeguarding the public interest. However, just at a careful reading, the words leave room for more than one interpretation making the legislation ambiguous.
And there is more.
In an effort to improve the economy, the government is trying to reform its drugs law to make it easier for companies to do business while ensuring the safety and efficacy of medicines. As such, the government is willing to open the country to foreign investors as regards all economic, including pharmaceutical, sectors. Relevantly, the administration will allow foreign investors to buy up to 74 per cent of Indian drug companies without prior government approval.
So conceived, the move is raising concerns about its effects on domestic pharmaceutical industry. Admittedly, due to high sector fragmentation, a gradual takeover by foreign investors is likely to impair India's role as a supplier of low-cost generic medicines to much of the world and create upheaval in the global generics market.
Not to mention that the new direction would also aim to improve regulatory standards and bring drug industry into line with global norms and enforcement of rules, including a fresh look at penalties and punishment for companies violating manufacturing and clinical trial guidelines.The move follows regulatory warnings and bans in recent years on Indian drug factories for failing manufacturing standards.
All things taken together, it is bad news for poor people that the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been in touch with the US and EU regulators to get advices and suggestions and make the new law (likely to be ready soon) aligned with international standards. Perhaps, will there be some additional pressures on India? All people in need touch wood.
Otherwise, there is no doubt that the new bill could have the potential to solve significant issues affecting the pharma sector including relevant to the weak Indian drug control system.
Inherently, at a time when Indian drugmakers are defending themselves from poor manufacturing quality accusations from US and European regulators, or have been hauled up before the court for alleged data integrity and sanitary violations, the new bill, once enforced, could hopefully help solve the problem.
Like a coin, the political move embarked on by India shows two faces. It is not clear, indeed, if the government is really changing its position about pharmaceuticals. The words used in the official documents are ambiguous, though it is clear that the Indian administration is trying to slacken the international pressure on its drug sector. However, a real change shouldn't preferably be made happen considering the role that Indian generic drug makers cover internationally for the sake of poor people living in less developed countries. On the flip-side, since more control on drugs quality is vital, the new law could serve as a much-needed tool.
Posted on 1st September 2016 1st September 2016 Author Daniele Dionisio
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Gold added Rs 320 to trade at an over five-month high of Rs 28,500 per ten grams, while silver regained the Rs 40,000 per kg level after a gap of four months in the bullion market. Bullion merchants say that a firming trend in global markets where gold exceeded USD 1,300 an ounce for the first time since August is the reason why gold is rising in the domestic market. However, wedding season demand is also playing its part.
After US call, India preparing for Iran oil import cut?
Akshaya Tritiya special: Should you buy Gold today?


text:
@interface TrafficMapViewController : UIViewController

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


On Tuesday 24th January, 25 Year 12 Geography students went up to the chilly but nevertheless stunning setting of Stanage Edge in the Peak District to conduct fieldwork.
The aim was to investigate the significance of the peat bogs there as a store of carbon and their importance in mitigating climate change. The students were resolute and good-humoured in the face of difficult conditions and were not afraid to (quite literally in some cases) get stuck in.


text:
HomeSoftwareConsumers Worried About Safety of Connected Devices
Consumers Worried About Safety of Connected Devices
Device makers should make note of the fact that consumers are wary of the threat of devices being hacked and include security controls in early in R&D process.
Nancy Crotti
The threat of a direct cyberattack on patients' implanted or wearable medical devices has been limited to TV shows, so far. In reality, that danger could be less than two years away, according to a medical device security expert from Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC).
Half of patients surveyed this year by PwC said they would be wary of using any connected medical device if such an attack should occur, according to the company's 2016 report on top health industry issues. Slightly more than half said they would think twice about using devices made by the manufacturer of the hacked device. Nearly 40% would be wary of using a hospital where such an attack took place. Sixty-two percent of consumers told the company last year that they value device security more than ease of use.
The likelihood of a cyberattack that would shut down a pacemaker or cut off insulin supply pales in comparison to that of a cyberattack on patient information stored and transmitted by medical devices, said PwC cybersecurity expert Mick Coady.
No one is pretending it won't happen, however.
In October 2014, FDA issued a guidance statement recommending that medtech manufacturers consider cybersecurity risks as part of the design and development of medical devices. In July 2015, FDA advised health providers to stop using an infusion pump because of its vulnerability to hacking.
Data breaches not only scare consumers and regulators, they also cost a lot of money. An estimated 85% of large health organizations experienced a data breach in 2014, with 18% of breaches costing more than $1 million to remediate, according to the PwC report.
Meanwhile, medical devices and the information they collect and transmit are exposed to layers of insecurity. Connected devices are vulnerable by virtue of their data transmission connectivity. So are the smartphone apps that gather and send information they transmit, and the hospital IT systems that store it.
Within a hospital, concerns swirl around medical devices that provide vital services to patients and are connected to the hospital's IT system and Wi-Fi systems, making them - and patients - vulnerable to attack.
Manufacturers and hospitals have a great deal of work to do to safeguard the vulnerability of patients and their private information, as well as their own liability. New devices protected from the outset with security features may have a market advantage over existing ones, Coady said. He has been working with device manufacturers to figure out where in a product's R&D lifecycle to insert security controls. He advises them to do so "early and often."
"Those devices capture an enormous amount of patient information and store it on the device, whereas 15 years ago, they did not," Coady said. "No medical device has ever been built with security in it; none at all."
In addition to safeguarding their new devices, manufacturers will need to coordinate with hospitals to inventory existing devices, whether they're on a shelf, implanted in or worn by patients, or freestanding in a hospital, and figure out how to safeguard them from cyber vulnerability. Manufacturers are ultimately liable for a device security breach and are more aware of vulnerabilities than either hospitals or patients, Coady said.
Hospital networks are far safer than individual devices, but still vulnerable. Some have been changing their networks' zoning to add layers of security for devices, he added.
Ultimately, patients will decide whether to use a connected medical device.
"You weigh up the pro and con that way," Coady said. "It's hard not to be weighted toward the medical device operating the way it needs to."
[Image courtesy of SHEELAMOHAN/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET]
Nancy Crotti is a freelance contributor to MD+DI. Read more of her work at http://nancycrotti.com.
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A Marstons Inns pub, built in the last 30 years this is a large open plan pub which caters mainly for food. It has an extensive and inexpensive range of food availible at all times of the day. This includes a carvery. It is based around a family pub and has an outside play area and large car park. There are some quieter corners and along with pedigree it offers well kept beers from the Martson's range.


- SINGLE-SIDED FRAME features an 18" flat profile and trapezoidal shape that slides easily under furniture and equipment to improves cleaning in corners (Double-Sided version also available, 1863885).
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- LIGHTWEIGHT weighing only 4 lbs. when fully loaded with solution.
- ON-BOARD FLUID RESERVOIR is a high-capacity refillable reservoir (21 oz) that holds enough solution to clean up to 850 sq. ft. of floor space by dispensing three streams of cleaning solutions with each press of the trigger.
- QUICK-CONNECT allows our the mop frame (1863893) to also be used with any of our telescoping handles (1863882 & 1863883) to help provide the perfect height for users dust mopping or cleaning with our Charging Bucket System (1863992).
Bleach Safe - All Rubbermaid Commercial Products' microfiber textiles are bleach-safe and proven to last longer and provide better cleaning efficiency.
50% More Surface Area - Rubbermaid Commercial Products' fringed dust mops provide significantly greater surface area, resulting in faster and more efficient cleaning.


1. Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,2. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: When…: Heb. A land when I bring a sword upon her3. If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;4. Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. whosoever…: Heb. he that hearing heareth5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.6. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.7. ¶ So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.9. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.10. Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?11. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?12. Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.13. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.14. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; that…: Heb. judgment and justice15. If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.16. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.17. ¶ Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.18. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.19. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.20. ¶ Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.21. ¶ And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.22. Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.23. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,24. Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.25. Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?26. Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife: and shall ye possess the land?27. Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. to be…: Heb. to devour him28. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. most…: Heb. desolation and desolation29. Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.30. ¶ Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. against thee: of, of thee31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. as the…: Heb. according to the coming of the people they sit…: or, my people sit before thee they shew…: Heb. they make loves, or, jests32. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. a very…: Heb. a song of loves33. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.


text:
package cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.actions;

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.app.DialogFragment;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.design.widget.Snackbar;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.ListView;

import com.afollestad.materialdialogs.MaterialDialog;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.R;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.helper.Utils;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.actions.simple.ReportDialog;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.adapter.ListButtonAdapter;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.helper.DatabaseHelper;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.helper.DeleteAllWebCams;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.model.Category;
import cz.yetanotherview.webcamviewer.app.model.WebCam;

public class ImportDialog extends DialogFragment {

    private MaterialDialog importDialog;
    private File selectedFile;
    private ListButtonAdapter listButtonAdapter;
    private List<WebCam> importWebCams;

    private MaterialDialog progressDialog;
    private int newWebCams, duplicityWebCams, updatedWebCams, maxProgressValue;

    private DatabaseHelper db;
    private Activity mActivity;

    private static final int OPEN_REQUEST_CODE = 41;

    @Override
    public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
        super.onAttach(activity);
        mActivity = activity;
    }

    @Override
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        db = new DatabaseHelper(mActivity);
        importDialog = new MaterialDialog.Builder(mActivity)
                .title(R.string.backups)
                .customView(R.layout.import_dialog, false)
                .iconRes(R.drawable.settings_restore)
                .build();

        listButtonAdapter = new ListButtonAdapter(mActivity, Utils.getFiles(Utils.folderWCVPath));
        ListView listView = (ListView) importDialog.findViewById(R.id.list_files);
        View empty = importDialog.findViewById(R.id.list_files_empty);
        listView.setEmptyView(empty);
        listView.setAdapter(listButtonAdapter);

        listView.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> list, View view, int position, long id) {

                selectedFile = listButtonAdapter.getItem(position);
                importDialog.dismiss();
                selectionDialog(true);
            }
        });

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {

            LinearLayout containerLayout = (LinearLayout) importDialog.findViewById(R.id.container_layout);
            containerLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

            ArrayAdapter<String> itemsAdapter =
                    new ArrayAdapter<>(mActivity, R.layout.simple_list_item,
                            Collections.singletonList(mActivity.getString(R.string.browse)));
            ListView fakeList = (ListView) importDialog.findViewById(R.id.fake_list);
            fakeList.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            fakeList.setAdapter(itemsAdapter);

            fakeList.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> list, View view, int position, long id) {
                    openFile();
                }

            });
        }

        return importDialog;
    }

    @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT)
    public void openFile() {
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT);
        intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
        intent.setType("application/octet-stream");
        startActivityForResult(intent, OPEN_REQUEST_CODE);
    }

    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent resultData) {
        if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            if (requestCode == OPEN_REQUEST_CODE) {
                if (resultData != null) {
                    try {
                        InputStream inputStream = mActivity.getContentResolver().openInputStream(resultData.getData());
                        try {
                            BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                                    inputStream));
                            Gson gson = new Gson();
                            importWebCams = Arrays.asList(gson.fromJson(bufferedReader, WebCam[].class));

                            importDialog.dismiss();
                            selectionDialog(false);
                        }
                        catch (JsonSyntaxException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                            showResult(false);
                        }
                    } catch (IOException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private void selectionDialog(final boolean local) {
        String restore_summary;
        if (local) {
            restore_summary = getString(R.string.restore_summary_part1) + " \'" +
                    selectedFile.getName() + "\' " + getString(R.string.restore_summary_part2);
        }
        else {
            restore_summary = getString(R.string.restore_summary_part1) +
                    getString(R.string.restore_summary_part2);
        }

        importDialog = new MaterialDialog.Builder(mActivity)
                .title(R.string.restore)
                .content(restore_summary)
                .positiveText(R.string.merge)
                .negativeText(android.R.string.cancel)
                .neutralText(R.string.action_delete)
                .callback(new MaterialDialog.ButtonCallback() {
                    @Override
                    public void onPositive(MaterialDialog dialog) {
                        if (local) {
                            new importJsonBackgroundTask().execute(false, true);
                        }
                        else new importJsonBackgroundTask().execute(false, false);
                    }
                    @Override
                    public void onNeutral(MaterialDialog dialog) {
                        if (local) {
                            new importJsonBackgroundTask().execute(true, true);
                        }
                        else new importJsonBackgroundTask().execute(true, false);
                    }
                })
                .show();
    }

    private class importJsonBackgroundTask extends AsyncTask<Boolean, Integer, Long> {

        @Override
        protected Long doInBackground(Boolean... booleans) {

            if (booleans[0]) {
                DeleteAllWebCams.execute(mActivity.getApplicationContext(), true);
            }

            try {
                Gson gson = new Gson();

                if (booleans[1]) {
                    BufferedReader bufferedReader;
                    bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(
                            new FileReader(selectedFile));
                    importWebCams = Arrays.asList(gson.fromJson(bufferedReader, WebCam[].class));
                    bufferedReader.close();
                }

                List<WebCam> allWebCams;
                allWebCams = db.getAllWebCams(Utils.defaultSortOrder);

                maxProgressValue = importWebCams.size();
                showProgressDialog();

                newWebCams = 0;
                duplicityWebCams = 0;
                updatedWebCams = 0;

                int newCategory = db.createCategory(new Category("@drawable/icon_imported",
                        mActivity.getString(R.string.imported) + " " + Utils.getDateString()));
                for (WebCam webCam : importWebCams) {
                    if (allWebCams.size() != 0) {
                        boolean found = false;
                        for (WebCam allWebCam : allWebCams) {
                            if (webCam.getUniId() == allWebCam.getUniId()) {
                                if (webCam.getDateModifiedMillisecond() == allWebCam.getDateModifiedFromDb()) {
                                    db.createWebCamCategory(allWebCam.getId(), newCategory);
                                    duplicityWebCams++;
                                }
                                else {
                                    db.updateWebCamFromJson(allWebCam, webCam, newCategory);
                                    updatedWebCams++;
                                }
                                found = true;
                            }
                        }
                        if (!found) {
                            db.createWebCam(webCam, Collections.singletonList(newCategory));
                            newWebCams++;
                        }
                    }
                    else {
                        db.createWebCam(webCam, Collections.singletonList(newCategory));
                        newWebCams++;
                    }
                    progressUpdate();
                }
                db.closeDB();
                if (booleans[0]) {
                    snackBarImportDone();
                }
                else showResult(true);
            }
            catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                snackBarImportFailed();
            }

            return null;
        }
    }

    private void showProgressDialog() {

        mActivity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {

                progressDialog = new MaterialDialog.Builder(mActivity)
                        .title(R.string.restore_progress)
                        .content(R.string.please_wait)
                        .progress(false, maxProgressValue, true)
                        .show();
            }
        });
    }

    private void progressUpdate() {

        mActivity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {

                progressDialog.incrementProgress(1);
            }
        });
    }

    private void snackBarImportDone() {

        mActivity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {

                progressDialog.dismiss();
                Snackbar.make(mActivity.findViewById(R.id.content_frame), R.string.import_done,
                        Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
    }

    private void snackBarImportFailed() {

        mActivity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {

                progressDialog.dismiss();
                Snackbar.make(mActivity.findViewById(R.id.content_frame), R.string.import_failed,
                        Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
    }

    private void showResult(final boolean compatibleFile) {

        mActivity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                if (compatibleFile) {
                    progressDialog.dismiss();
                    DialogFragment reportDialog = new ReportDialog();
                    Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
                    bundle.putInt("newWebCams", newWebCams);
                    bundle.putInt("duplicityWebCams", duplicityWebCams);
                    bundle.putInt("updatedWebCams", updatedWebCams);
                    reportDialog.setArguments(bundle);
                    reportDialog.show(mActivity.getFragmentManager(), "ReportDialog");
                }
                else incompatibleFileDialog();
            }
        });
    }

    private void incompatibleFileDialog() {
        new MaterialDialog.Builder(mActivity)
                .title(R.string.incompatible_file)
                .content(R.string.incompatible_file_summary)
                .positiveText(android.R.string.ok)
                .iconRes(R.drawable.warning)
                .show();
    }
}


text:
|-
| (33401) 1999 CC68||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| 33402 Canizares||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33403) 1999 CN73||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33404) 1999 CT73||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33405) 1999 CW73||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33406) 1999 CM74||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33407) 1999 CA75||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33408) 1999 CW76||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33409) 1999 CD77||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33410) 1999 CX85||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33411) 1999 CV91||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33412) 1999 CX96||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33413) 1999 CP99||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33414) 1999 CP100||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33415) 1999 CB101||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33416) 1999 CW101||||10 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33417) 1999 CV103||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33418) 1999 CJ106||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33419) 1999 CD112||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33420) 1999 CT116||||12 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33421) 1999 CN118||||13 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33422) 1999 CN135||||8 лютого 1999||Обсерваторія Кітт-Пік||Spacewatch
|-
| (33423) 1999 DK||1999 DK||16 лютого 1999||Коссоль||ODAS
|-
| (33424) 1999 DC2||||16 лютого 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33425) 1999 DP2||||19 лютого 1999||Обсерваторія Оїдзумі||Такао Кобаяші
|-
| (33426) 1999 DR2||||19 лютого 1999||Обсерваторія Оїдзумі||Такао Кобаяші
|-
| (33427) 1999 DZ2||||21 лютого 1999||Обсерваторія Оїдзумі||Такао Кобаяші
|-
| (33428) 1999 DO3||||18 лютого 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч,Маріо Юріч
|-
| (33429) 1999 DL4||||23 лютого 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч,Маріо Юріч
|-
| (33430) 1999 EH||1999 EH||7 березня 1999||Обсерваторія Ріді-Крик||Джон Бротон
|-
| (33431) 1999 EK||1999 EK||9 березня 1999||Обсерваторія Зено||Том Стаффорд
|-
| (33432) 1999 ET3||||15 березня 1999||Прескоттська обсерваторія||Пол Комба
|-
| 33433 Маурилія (Maurilia)||||14 березня 1999||Обсерваторія Ґноска||Стефано Спозетті
|-
| (33434) 1999 FU||1999 FU||17 березня 1999||Коссоль||ODAS
|-
| (33435) 1999 FD4||||16 березня 1999||Обсерваторія Кітт-Пік||Spacewatch
|-
| (33436) 1999 FZ6||||20 березня 1999||Коссоль||ODAS
|-
| (33437) 1999 FK9||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33438) 1999 FE10||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33439) 1999 FF18||||20 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33440) 1999 FR18||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33441) 1999 FT18||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33442) 1999 FW18||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33443) 1999 FZ18||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33444) 1999 FF19||||22 березня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33445) 1999 FB21||||23 березня 1999||Обсерваторія Ґноска||Стефано Спозетті
|-
| (33446) 1999 FU23||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33447) 1999 FM24||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33448) 1999 FT24||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33449) 1999 FL25||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33450) 1999 FO25||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33451) 1999 FL26||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33452) 1999 FU26||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33453) 1999 FG27||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33454) 1999 FJ27||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33455) 1999 FV27||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33456) 1999 FG28||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33457) 1999 FP28||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33458) 1999 FE29||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33459) 1999 FM30||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33460) 1999 FL31||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33461) 1999 FP31||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33462) 1999 FT31||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33463) 1999 FM32||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33464) 1999 FN32||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33465) 1999 FP32||||23 березня 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч
|-
| (33466) 1999 FE33||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33467) 1999 FG35||||19 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33468) 1999 FD36||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33469) 1999 FL36||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33470) 1999 FQ37||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33471) 1999 FV38||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33472) 1999 FN42||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33473) 1999 FZ45||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33474) 1999 FB51||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33475) 1999 FK53||||28 березня 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч
|-
| (33476) 1999 FV54||||20 березня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33477) 1999 FR59||||27 березня 1999||Станція Сінлун||SCAP
|-
| 33478 Денізлівон (Deniselivon)||1999 GB||2 квітня 1999||Викротська обсерваторія||Кристофер Жак
|-
| (33479) 1999 GO||1999 GO||5 квітня 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч
|-
| 33480 Бартолуччі (Bartolucci)||||4 квітня 1999||Обсерваторія Пістоїєзе||Лучано Тезі,Маура Томбеллі
|-
| (33481) 1999 GH1||||7 квітня 1999||Обсерваторія Оїдзумі||Такао Кобаяші
|-
| (33482) 1999 GO4||||10 квітня 1999||Вішнянська обсерваторія||Корадо Корлевіч
|-
| (33483) 1999 GW4||||11 квітня 1999||Обсерваторія Фаунтін-Гіллс||Чарльз Джулз
|-
| (33484) 1999 GS7||||7 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33485) 1999 GE8||||9 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33486) 1999 GN8||||10 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33487) 1999 GS8||||10 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33488) 1999 GD9||||10 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33489) 1999 GF9||||10 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33490) 1999 GK9||||11 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33491) 1999 GM9||||11 квітня 1999||Станція Андерсон-Меса||LONEOS
|-
| (33492) 1999 GT17||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33493) 1999 GX17||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33494) 1999 GZ17||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33495) 1999 GL18||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33496) 1999 GQ18||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33497) 1999 GD19||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33498) 1999 GG19||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33499) 1999 GN19||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|-
| (33500) 1999 GV19||||15 квітня 1999||Сокорро (Нью-Мексико)||LINEAR
|}

33400

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Sale delle Langhe is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about  southeast of Turin and about  east of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 509 and an area of .

The municipality of Sale delle Langhe contains the frazione (subdivision) Arbi.

Sale delle Langhe borders the following municipalities: Camerana, Ceva, Montezemolo, Priero, and Sale San Giovanni.

Demographic evolution

References

External links
 www.comune.saledellelanghe.cn.it/

Cities and towns in Piedmont
Comunità Montana Valli Mongia, Cevetta e Langa Cebana


text:
You are here: Home / Reviews / A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
With a cascade of luminous and psychologically intricate prose, Arkady Martine's A Desolation Called Peace picks up shortly after the conclusion of A Memory Called Empire. It's another brilliant book that I find even richer than the first volume of this series on the Teixcalaan Empire and its remote satellite, Lsel Station. The two novels should definitely be read in sequence.
A Teixcalaan fleet of warships has passed through the gate near Lsel to confront an alien fleet that is thus far ominously invisible and silent. The new emperor Nineteen Adze is taking charge in the capitol of the empire. And Mahit Dzamare has returned from her ambassadorship to Lsel where she faces a dangerous and uncertain future.
Right from the opening of A Desolation Called Peace, Martine contrasts different ideas of language, personhood, and how minds work. And she does this through several perspectives, unlike A Memory Called Empire which limited us to Mahit's point of view. This story begins in the mind of the aliens and at once we get a rough idea that they regard humans or other "meat" creatures as something clumsy, strange and mostly useless.
The Prelude poses all sorts of questions that can't be answered until much later in the story, but at least we are warned that there is a very different kind of intelligence and concept of language at work among the aliens. That strikes close to all that Teixcalaan civilization holds dear – its respect for unadulterated human minds and their elaborate language and forms of communication in which song and poetry are essential.
Soon we learn about Nine Hibiscus, the newly appointed commander or yaotlek of the fleet sent to confront the aliens. Much like Mahit in An Empire Called Memory, who struggled to fit into her new role of ambassador to Teixcalaan, Nine Hibiscus feels a bit awkward in her role, so different from that of a captain of a single ship. This is another recurring theme: the difficulty, sometimes generated by internal doubt, sometimes by external politics – or both – that the main characters experience in their new roles.
Eight Antidote is the eleven year-old heir to the throne, and adding his perspective is especially interesting. He is a kid, as everyone keeps reminding him, but he has to learn fast what it means to exercise power after he is made privy to critical conversations in the War Ministry. He becomes more and more adventurous as the story unfolds until he stumbles his way to a key role as the plot moves to its exciting climax.
Mahit herself is still struggling with the imago in her brain which overlays her own thinking, and sometimes physical actions, with those of her murdered predecessor Yskandr Aghavn. Now back on Lsel, she is no longer ambassador but still feels acutely the confusion of juggling awarenesses in her mind with the clear political threat of two factions. One simply wants her dead, and the other is considering if she could be useful as a spy before she is disposed of.
Three Seagrass, Mahit's close friend and former guide in the Teixcalaan capital, is trying to fit into her new role in the Information Ministry and seizes on the first assignment that comes along. It is the dangerous one of flying to the front battlelines to help Nine Hibiscus figure out the meaning of a mysterious alien transmission. To accomplish that task she decides to fetch Mahit from Lsel and so saves her from what seems to be certain death.
After all these introductions, the story gets moving in earnest as Three Seagrass and Mahit arrive at the fleet's flagship to help interpret the alien transmission. It moves with many surprises toward a powerful confrontation with the aliens while also dealing with each of the human conflicts in convincing and moving ways.
Martine revels in the intricacy of social and verbal interactions. Her characters, always under pressure, have to think through all the possible interpretations that could attach to their words, gestures and bearing. The style reminds me of Henry James or Edith Wharton, those early twentieth century writers whose characters were immersed in the complexities of a society where the wrong word or implication could ruin a reputation. Here it could destroy a life as well as a career.
For me this style has its payoff in the relationship between Mahit and Three Seagrass. It is the emotional core of the story, and each scene in which they try to communicate powerfully captures the push-pull of their feelings.
There is a remarkable moment between them when they first hear the alien recording. Like everyone who hears this hideous sound, they vomit in response to the overwhelming shrieks before getting to work trying to figure out if there are patterns that form the basis of communication. Then, after initial success in figuring out what the aliens are saying, when it's time to clean up the mess they've made on the floor, they proceed to get entangled in every tense moment they have ever had together. Everything they say gets them deeper into misunderstanding as their inner anger and unexpressed love build. It's completely believable and one of the best scenes I've read of frustrated communication.
Sometimes, especially in the earlier parts of the novel, Martine's style of introspective probing of each character's motivations becomes a drag on the action. Yes, it's important to know how careful each word or action choice has to be, but there are moments when a page or two of reviewing all the possibilities is a bit much, especially when the words or actions taken are not all that surprising.
It's a style that demands close reading, and the level of intellectualization of every interaction keeps emotion under tight rein. The payoff to this approach comes when a number of characters finally release their deepest feelings.
Aside from Mahit and Three Seagrass who struggle to figure out if what they feel for each other is love or something else, there is the vivid scene of Nine Hibiscus on the bridge of her ship, shouting through the tinny-sounding communication device linking her to a planet below, and desperately ordering her beloved second in command to return. As he ignores her and is seemingly on the verge of sacrificing himself to learn more about the aliens, she bellows terms of intimacy with her older companion, oblivious to everyone else in her presence.
The beauties of Martine's style are many, and I found myself rereading several passages to savor the aptness of phrase, imagery and rhythm. Yet the language always serves dramatic purpose as key characters struggle through their fated roles. The ensemble of word, action, idea and character makes A Desolation Called Peace a book to be treasured.
The Great Series Read Project
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Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Reviews Tagged With: alien minds, Arkady Martine, communication, galactic empires, identity, language, love, society


Replacing Your Roof with No Warranty: If there comes a point in time when you need to replace the roof above your head, then you want to be sure that you hire a roofing company that will provide a warranty for the roofing work they provided. This ensures that, for a certain extended period of time, most repairs will be done under the protection of the warranty by the roofing company. This means that you won't have to pay for the repairs, which is an important way to save money and ensure that repairs are made for mistakes that the roofing company may have made during the original installation.
Not Asking for an Estimate: Whether you need your roof replaced or you need some repairs to be done, you should always be asking for an estimate on the work. This is important because a written estimate will protect you in the end. If the roofing company charges much more than was original agreed upon by the written estimate, then you should be sure to fight against those charges.
Covering up Old Shingles: When you lay down new shingles, it's important that you remove all the old shingles first. Many homeowners make the mistakes of laying the new shingles directly on top of the old shingles. However, this creates a problem because it leaves room for moisture, dirt, and debris to get easily trapped in between the two layers of shingles. This can then lead to more excessive wear and tear of the new shingles.
Not Placing a Moisture Protection Layer: Directly underneath the shingles, you should have an additional moisture protection layer. This is a sheet that is placed on the roof, which then has the shingles laid on top of it. This extra moisture protection ensures that water can travel down off the roof instead of getting caught on the underside of the shingles.
By avoiding these common roofing mistakes that many homeowners make, you can be sure that your roofing system is durable and saves you more money in the long run due to less extensive damages that will require more repairs than necessary.


text:
ALTER TABLE stack ADD COLUMN saltpassword varchar(255);

-- //@UNDO
-- SQL to undo the change goes here.

ALTER TABLE stack DROP COLUMN saltpassword;