text:
SportsGolf
Rory McIlroy admires Jordan Spieth's work, laments his own finish
Rory McIlroy watches his tee shot on the first hole during the third round of the 2015 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Augusta, Ga. Credit: Getty Images / Jamie Squire
By MARK HERRMANN mark.herrmann@newsday.com @markpherrmann Updated April 12, 2015 1:28 AM
AUGUSTA, Ga. - Rory McIlroy came into this Masters on top of the world and on the cusp of the career Grand Slam. Now he is just like everyone else in the field: looking up and marveling at Jordan Spieth.
McIlroy made a bit of a run in the third round Saturday, reaching 8 under par, which was then within sight of the leader. But he bogeyed two of his final three holes and finished 6 under -- an exasperated 6 under.
"Look, I'm going to need something basically around 61, 62 to have a real chance. I'm not sure that's going to happen, but we'll see," said the world's No. 1 player, whose run of consecutive majors victories appears set to end at two.
Which is not to say that someone else can't catch Spieth. If anyone knows that the 21-year-old is not a lock, it is McIlroy.
He was 21 and in apparent control here four years ago, then let it slip away with a dramatic back-nine collapse.
"I think the good thing for him is he's already experienced it once. He has played in the final group at the Masters before," McIlroy said, referring to Spieth's runner-up finish last year. "I think he'll have learned from that experience. I think all that put together, he'll definitely handle it a lot better than I did."
McIlroy never did put himself in serious contention this week. His best achievement was not giving up after shooting 40 on the front nine Friday, putting himself in jeopardy of missing the cut. He recovered with 5-under 31 on the back nine that day and followed with a 32 on the front Saturday.
He just has yet to put four good days together at Augusta National. "I don't know, silly mistakes," he said, his voice soft and his smile wan. "I missed a couple short ones yesterday on the greens."
Still, he does not feel Spieth breathing down his neck for the No. 1 world ranking. Spieth currently is No. 4. "I just have to worry about myself and try to play the best I can. I know if I do that, then that No. 1 position is pretty safe," he said. "He's playing very well, but I know I have the capability to do the same thing."
By MARK HERRMANN mark.herrmann@newsday.com	@markpherrmann
Since 1983, Mark Herrmann has covered Brookhaven, Southampton and East Hampton on the news side, and high schools, the Islanders, the Mets and golf for Newsday sports. His assignments have included the Olympics, March Madness, the Triple Crown, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl and World Series.
Alderson says Mets will 'review the facts' after report that GM Porter sent explicit texts
Temporary words on Coliseum ice: Nassau Live Center
Quinn seemed to push all right buttons in Rangers' victory
Top 10 MMA pound-for-pound fighter rankings
Latest Golf stories
Woods has 5th back surgery, to miss Torrey Pines and Riviera
Column: Lower scores just an example of golf evolving
Kirk's long road back ends with finish that feels like a win
Kevin Na has a big finish and wins the Sony Open


text:
To all the naysayers: proof that Eugene millennials care about peace and the environment!
News by Amy KlarupPosted on 04/23/2014
Millennials often get a bad rap, from accusations of narcissism to claims that Generation Y is nothing but a collection of technology-addicted moochers. Two Eugene high school students subverted those stereotypes this month by winning Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship awards for their commentary on how young people can make a difference. The peace writing contest, sponsored by Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, inspired Oregon high school students to think about their impact on the future by answering the question, "What can young people do to create a more healthy, just and peaceful world?"
Sashka Warner, a 17-year-old senior at South Eugene High School, won first place for his impeccably researched essay, "Be the Change You Wish to See." In his essay, Warner uses specific examples of ways in which young people have made a difference, describing how eighth grader Alec Loorz launched the Sea Level Awareness Project and installed tall poles in coastal areas to show the eventual impact of sea level rise.
"By taking similar large-scale youth-dominated actions," Warner writes, "and perhaps combining with other activists across the globe, young people can take definitive action to make the world a better place."
Warner says it can be overwhelming to think about the environmental and social turmoil in the world, but as he learns more about solutions to counteract the damage, he feels hopeful and finds ways to connect with other youth who care about the same issues. "It's really important to remember that everyone can make a difference," he says.
Warner says he will use his $1,000 scholarship money toward pursuing a degree next school year at the University of British Columbia, where he plans to study issues related to sustainability and natural resources conservation.
The third place prize went to 17-year-old Thomas Meinzen, a junior at North Eugene High School (NEHS). His poem likens the current state of the world to a battlefield, with a growing tree representing young people and their ability to initiate change. "But there is hope," he writes. "A light that refuses to cease/ A new generation dawns/ on the possibility of peace."
Meinzen says that he chose to write a poem for the contest because he was worried about going over the word limit, and he thought the schematics of a poem would help him condense his thoughts. He says the tree analogy resonates with him partly due to the natural beauty of Eugene. "For me, a connection with nature is a really important part of my life. We're lucky in Eugene to have lots of trees, and it's amazing especially during this time of year that something so dead can spring with such life."
Meinzen helped start an ecology club at NEHS, where he and around 30 other students clean up trash, grow food in the school garden and talk about how to make NEHS more sustainable. "Focus small," he says. "If you try and solve everything at once you'll get overwhelmed, but make sure you do something every day, and it's a good starting point as people grow up to become more involved in the bigger picture."
The scholarship awards ceremony will take place 6:30-8pm Friday, April 25, at the Billy Frank Conference Center, 721 N.W. 9th Ave., in Portland. Click here to read the winning entries.
Protesters Crash Trump Rally — Again
Rally at Ferry Street Bridge attracts Trump supporters from Portland and summons a large protester presence
BlogNews 3 days ago
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend, supporters of President Donald Trump held an event near Ferry Street Bridge, drawing protesters who called them "fascists" … Continue reading →
Our Children's Trust Climate Lawsuit Dismissed
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to throw out the case
Five years into the case, a divided panel from 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the climate lawsuit from Our Children's Trust, the Oregon-based … Continue reading →
Tags: Climate change / climate lawsuits / Our Children's Trust / youth climate
Feelin' Renewed
Two clean energy ballot initiatives move on after judge rules against secretary of state's rejection
A Marion County judge ruled today that the Oregon secretary of state must allow two clean energy initiative petitions to proceed through the ballot measure … Continue reading →
Tags: ballot measure / Renew Oregon
Artists Dream Eugene
What would Eugene look like if we turned over city planning to artists? Or even architects?
Arts 6 days ago
Politicians in Eugene, often supported by land developers, have long called the shots. That might be why downtown has so many truly ugly apartment buildings. … Continue reading →
Find a Paper Read this Issue

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
class Quark < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :user

  scope :since, ->(datetime) { where(['created_at > ?', datetime]) }

  validates :count, presence: true, numericality: { greater_than: 0 }
  validate :not_excessive_counting

  after_commit :update_count

  def self.total_count
    Rails.cache.fetch(:quark_count) do
      Quark.sum(:count)
    end
  end

  private

  def update_count
    current_count = Rails.cache.fetch(:quark_count) { Quark.total_count }
    Rails.cache.write(:quark_count, current_count + count)
  end

  def not_excessive_counting
    errors.add(:quark, 'added too frequently') if user.quarks.since(1.minutes.ago).count > 60
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Ag-grid angular copy menu option not available I am using ag-grid with angular 8 with an enterprise license.
For some reason, the default "copy", "copy with headers" context menu items are not available. Only the "Export" item is showing up. Other enterprise features are working fine, but I can't seem to figure out how to enable "copy".
I'm not sure what I can try next, I've tried using different imports, disabling features, ...
The ag-grid-angular tag:
<ag-grid-angular
      #agGrid
      style="width: 800px; height: 500px;"
      class="ag-theme-balham"
      [columnDefs]="columnDefs"
      [defaultColDef]="defaultColDef"
      rowGroupPanelShow="always"
      [modules]="modules"
      [sideBar]="true"
      rowSelection="multiple"
      enableRangeSelection="true"
      setSuppressClipboardPaste="false"
      [suppressDragLeaveHidesColumns]="true"
      [suppressMakeColumnVisibleAfterUnGroup]="true"
      [rowData]="rowData"
      (gridReady)="onGridReady($event)"

    ></ag-grid-angular>

The test component file looks like this:
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { AllModules , Module} from "@ag-grid-enterprise/all-modules";
import "@ag-grid-enterprise/core";
@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./app.component.scss']
})
export class AppComponent  {

  private gridApi ;
  private gridColumnApi ;

  private columnDefs;
  private defaultColDef;
  private rowData;
  public modules: Module[] = AllModules;
  constructor(private http: HttpClient) {

    this.columnDefs = [
      {
        field: "athlete",
        width: 150,
        filter: "agTextColumnFilter"
      },
      {
        field: "age",
        width: 90
      },
      {
        field: "country",
        width: 120
      },
      {
        field: "year",
        width: 90
      },
      {
        field: "date",
        width: 110
      },
      {
        field: "gold",
        width: 100
      },
      {
        field: "silver",
        width: 100
      },
      {
        field: "bronze",
        width: 100
      },
      {
        field: "total",
        width: 100
      }
    ];
    this.defaultColDef = {
      enableValue: true,
      enableRowGroup: true,
      enablePivot: true,
      sortable: true,
      filter: true,
    };
  }

  onGridReady(params) {
    this.gridApi = params.api;
    this.gridApi.setSuppressClipboardPaste = false;
    this.gridColumnApi = params.columnApi;

    this.http
      .get("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ag-grid/ag-grid/master/packages/ag-grid-docs/src/olympicWinners.json")
      .subscribe(data => {
        this.rowData = data;
      });
  }

}

I'm not sure if the following is related, but I'll add it as extra info: when I try to bind the enterprise modules "AllModules" to the ag-angular-grid HTML, some features stop working (like the sidebar) and I get the browser error:

ag-Grid: unable to use Column Tool Panel as module
  @ag-grid-enterprise/column-tool-panel is not present. You need to load
  the module with: import "@ag-grid-enterprise/column-tool-panel"

A: Right, so apparently I've been using the wrong package for the ag-grid-angular component.
In my module file I was using:

import { AgGridModule } from 'ag-grid-angular';

switching to the following package made the whole thing work smooth as butter:

import { AgGridModule } from '@ag-grid-community/angular';

A: There are two ways to include AG Grid in your project, either via the complete packages or by using the feature modules.
From the docs there is a warning about mixing approaches which is leading to the issues above.

It is important that you do not mix packages and modules in the same
application as this will result in AG Grid being included twice and
doubling your bundle size! All modules are scoped by either
@ag-grid-community/* or @ag-grid-enterprise/* and should not be mixed
with the standalone packages of ag-grid-community and
ag-grid-enterprise.

Modules
Packages

@ag-grid-community/xxxxx
ag-grid-community

@ag-grid-enterprise/xxxxx
ag-grid-enterprise

@ag-grid-community/angular
ag-grid-angular

I have written about this more in this blog post which explains how to use each approach.
Also, all-modules is no longer recommended. If you are using that I would recommend switching to use the package approach as this will enable you to have all the grid features available.

A: Also, there may be a problem with your package.json. I recently upgraded Ag-Grid versions and the control panel stopped working. Only after upgrading all of the @angular/* packages and deleting/re-creating the @ag-grid package folders in node_modules did the error go away.
Here's a link to my package.json:  https://stackblitz.com/edit/ag-grid-angular-hello-world-mnmfpr?file=package.json

A: Just wanted to let those facing a similar issue with Ag-Grid-React (my clipboard context menu would refuse to recognize and display the Copy and Copy with Headers options), do the same as the accepted answer on this thread, i.e.:
Instead of using
import {AgGridReact} from 'ag-grid-react';
import 'ag-grid-enterprise';

Use the below
import {AgGridReact} from "@ag-grid-community/react";
import {AllModules} from "@ag-grid-enterprise/all-modules";

An example of the correct usage can be found here: https://www.ag-grid.com/javascript-grid-clipboard/
You will need to install @ag-grid-community/react and @ag-grid-enterprise/all-modules as separate NPM packages if you are using "import { AgGridReact } from 'ag-grid-react';"

A: If you are registering modules manually you have to add ClipboardModule to have Copy option available.
port {ClipboardModule} from "@ag-grid-enterprise/all-modules";

ModuleRegistry.registerModules([ClipboardModule])

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Enjoy the benefits of group bookings with Jet Airways.
Get prompt response to all your group queries.
Conveniently Request, Accept Fare Quotes, Pay and Upload Names on your own.
Track and manage all your group bookings using our easy to use interface.
If you are a IATA travel agent, please Click here for registration.


text:
Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State
Home/White Papers and Essays/Church and State/Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State
by Joseph De Feo
(Catalyst 3/2003)
Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, "A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes contradictory ideas." The foregoing lines represent an apt condensation of Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach's thesis in his book Thomas Jefferson and the Separation between Church and State. This slim volume consists of a relatively short essay on Jefferson's "wall of separation" metaphor, some primary sources, and a wealth of notes. Although Dreisbach calls the work merely a "sourcebook"—and it is an excellent one—it is hard for the reader to glance over the bare facts of the case without sincere and grave doubts about both the legitimacy and the desirability of the concept of a "wall of separation."
Unlike many other recent treatments of church-state relations, Dreisbach's study concentrates on the life of a metaphor—the "wall of separation between church and state"—and how it compares to the actual Constitutional law it is meant to represent. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in 1802 in his response to the Danbury Baptist Association, which had written to the president to congratulate him on his electoral victory. He wrote, "…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."
Dreisbach makes the persuasive case that Jefferson wrote his famous letter to "hurl a brick" at his Federalist opponents, who had branded him an atheist in the bitter election of 1800; his pious tone and offer of prayer were meant to silence his foes: "I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem."
Jefferson wrote also to appease some of his supporters—the Danbury Baptists, who voted Democratic-Republican and suffered under harsh regulation from the Congregationalist (and mostly Federalist) establishment in Connecticut. Connecticut in the early 19th century, like many states, had an established church. The state was firmly Congregational, with ministers on state salaries; dissenting religious groups, such as the Baptists, usually paid for the support of the established church, and did not enjoy the same privileges as Congregational ministers (e.g., for a time they could not even perform legal marriage ceremonies). This was perfectly legal, because the Constitution only prohibited the federal government from passing laws "respecting an establishment of religion"; and the Bill of Rights provides, through the tenth amendment, that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The power to establish a state religion, then, though denied to the United States, was reserved to the individual states.
Jefferson's acknowledgement of this federalist structure is evident in his conduct in office: he refused to proclaim federal days of prayer or fasting while president, breaking with the tradition of his predecessors; on the other hand, he drafted resolutions in support of such days of prayer while in the Virginia House of Burgesses and as governor of Virginia. Jefferson, Dreisbach shows, held a jurisdictional view of the First Amendment.
It is clear from Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists that he did hope in time to "see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights…"; he here referred to the eventual disestablishment of the various churches in the states, to match the federal government. But he would never have considered that the First Amendment could be used to do this, because he was committed both to federalism and to limited central government; he would have thought it a transgression for the federal government to stomp on the states' sovereignty.
Of course, a belief in disestablishment does not entail hostility to religion in government. Jefferson frequently showed his belief that the federal government is permitted to perform acts of hospitality toward religion without threatening the First Amendment. Not only did he ask listeners to join him in prayer in his second inaugural address; Dreisbach notes that he "personally encouraged and symbolically supported religion by attending public church services in the Capitol," in January of 1802 and with some frequency thereafter. He also negotiated a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians designating federal moneys to pay for the construction of a Catholic church and the salary of a Catholic priest. His notion of a "law respecting the establishment of religion" was obviously more robust than the stark image of the "wall of separation."
Despite Jefferson's nuanced thought on the relationship between church and state, jurists have seized on one phrase in his letter, presenting a caricature of Jefferson's views to promote their secularization of the U.S. government—which Dreisbach suggests Jefferson might have found objectionable.
The metaphor is not truly analogous to the Constitutional arrangement of church and state. The wall of separation presupposes that government and religion are wholly distinct and can be divided as though by a physical structure. A strict wall would eliminate practices that even supporters of strict separation now take for granted: for instance, military chaplains and tax exemptions for religious organizations. And it would be outrageous to ask legislators to leave their religion at home—not to mention harmful; the Bible is not Mein Kampf, although the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State might sooner allow the latter than the former to be read in Congress. The wall also tends to undermine the proper idea of freedom of religion, which should be like freedom of the press: the free press is protected from government interference. Banning the press from the public square would be viewed as an outrage; not so with religion.
What is more puzzling than the continual historical distortion of Jefferson's views is the fact that they matter at all in this debate. Jefferson's metaphor has become a canonized gloss on the First Amendment, despite the man's noticeable absence from this country during both the Constitutional Convention and the debate on the Bill of Rights during the First Federal Congress (he was the U.S. Minister to France); not to mention the fact that Jefferson was never on the Supreme Court. And there is no evidence that the phrase to which so much attention is now paid, was ever again uttered or written by Jefferson after he penned it in 1802.
Dreisbach attributes the phrase's continuing power partly to the unique advantages of metaphor in legal analysis. Metaphors liven up legal language, provide concrete images of the abstract, and engage the reader, causing him to make comparisons between the metaphor and that which it represents; all of which make the concept more memorable.
But this does not fully explain the wide currency of Jefferson's wall. To tell the whole story, one would have to take into account societal developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (namely, the increasing numbers of Catholic immigrants and the matching waves of nativist sentiment) as well as the biographies and psychologies of key proponents of the wall (for example, Justice Hugo L. Black's membership in the Ku Klux Klan and abiding anti-Catholicism). Dreisbach makes only passing mention of these factors, since he has limited the structure of his work to that of a legal sourcebook; nonetheless, any picture of the metaphor's life-span without these details lacks depth.
A major shortcoming of the use of metaphor in legal analysis is that a metaphor, in equating two distinct objects, can easily lend itself to faulty comparisons. For instance, a wall restricts parties on both sides; but the First Amendment was meant to restrict only the federal government. When Justice Hugo Black in his decision in the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education case called Jefferson's wall the definitive interpretation of the First Amendment, he capitalized on the image, declaring, "That wall must be kept high and impregnable." This is an even greater broadening of the First Amendment's scope. Dreisbach notes that some have called a high and impregnable wall a "wall of spite," and that good neighbors would prefer a low New England stone wall, at which neighbors can meet and speak. An amicus brief filed in Everson warned against turning the wall of separation into an iron curtain. Others have suggested the images of a wall with doors or guarded gaps, like the Great Wall of China; a barbed wire fence; and even a prison wall. The fact that all of these conceptions of the wall with their conflicting legal corollaries can be (and are) drawn from Jefferson's wall demonstrates how problematic the metaphor is.
Different readings of the wall metaphor result in an inconsistent array of decisions dealing with church and state: confusion over school vouchers, prayer or crèches in public schools, the tune "God Bless America," the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. More often than not, the metaphor's ambiguity has made it an easy cudgel to be used by radical secularists and other unprincipled partisans to promote their political agendas. It should be unsurprising that then-Justice Rehnquist in 1985 said of the wall of separation: "[It] is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned."
Professor Dreisbach takes great pains to present an impartial study. He even concludes with an even-handed presentation of arguments for and against the "wall of separation." Despite his mostly descriptive tenor, the facts of the matter tend to highlight what is prescriptive: nothing short of a serious reconsideration of the metaphor as a condensation of Constitutional law.
Joseph A. P. De Feo is a policy analyst at the Catholic League.
By Bill|2020-11-24T13:45:50-05:00March 19th, 2003|Categories: Church and State, White Papers and Essays|Comments Off on Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State
ARE RELIGIOUS GAYS SUICIDAL?
THE FLAWS IN CNN'S EPISODE ON PIUS XII
The End of Faith-Based Programs Is Nigh
Soros-Funded Catholic Left Is Dishonest
"Jesus' Wife" Hoax Verified


Far too many Detroit residents lose their home to tax foreclosure each year, but there are resources that can help Detroiters build equity and stay in their home.
Since 2002, nearly 150,000 properties have ended up in Wayne County tax auctions. Of these properties, nearly 90 percent have been purchased by speculators. On top of that, over 80% of all properties that enter tax foreclosure eventually become blighted. Tax foreclosure drives displacement, homelessness, speculation, blight, and low property values in record-breaking numbers.
The root causes of this cycle must be tackled, and Detroit residents must be empowered to build equity in their homes that have often been in their family for many generations. Homeownership is one of the best ways to ensure that life-long Detroiters build wealth, and maintain the integrity of the city's neighborhoods.
For those homeowners struggling to afford property taxes, there is help available. However, not enough people know about programs for Detroit homeowners with low incomes (see income eligibility requirements below). Perhaps the most helpful tool is the Homeowner's Property Tax Assistance Program (HPTAP) which can reduce your 2018 property taxes by 50% or even 100%. In 2017, only 5,500 residents applied for the HPTAP program, yet nearly 40,000 residents are estimated to be eligible.
As an effort to build awareness around the HPTAP application, and to create more locations where residents can go to receive help applying, the Quicken Loans Community Fund has partnered with 20 community organizations throughout the city, providing them with support and funding to put on monthly workshops.
At the workshops, residents will receive one-on-one assistance completing their application. Additionally, each workshop provides access to printers to make copies of all necessary documents and notaries to complete the application all in one place. Unfortunately, the application can be overwhelming, and residents need to have many documents to apply (see all documentation requirements below). As a result, the main goal of these workshops is to alleviate some of the stress involved with completing the application.
The same 20 community groups mentioned above will be working together to hold and facilitate 6 workshops in different districts throughout the city, during the first week of December. Qualified residents who have yet to complete the application for this year are highly encouraged to attend one of the workshops. These December workshops will be the last opportunity for residents to get help with completing the application in 2018.
After December 10th, Detroit residents will no longer be able to apply for a 2018 property tax exemption. They will be able to apply for a 2019 exemption next year, however the exemption is not retroactive and only offers relief for the year in which a taxpayer applies. In an effort to further encourage residents to attend the workshops in December, the Quicken Loans Community Fund will provide free lunch for the first 75 residents who attend each day.
Location: Focus Hope, 1400 Oakman BLVD.
Location: Alkebulan Village, 7701 Harper Ave.
Location: Central Detroit Christian, 1550 Taylor St.
Location: Patton Recreation Center, 2301 Woodmere St.
Location: St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center:19321 W Chicago St.


text:
ANDREW X. PHAM
View of Elephant Mountains from My Desk on the Mekong
A trip so necessary and so noble makes others seem like jaunts or stunts.
ADAM GOODHEART,
[A] work of radiance. In some ways, it resembles that supreme recollection of a world lost to history's depredations, Speak, Memory, in which Vladimir Nabokov summoned up his pre-revolutionary Russian boyhood.... [A]s with Tolstoy's war and peace, darkness, intrinsically formless, gets shape and vividness from the light playing through it.... brilliantly chilling...
RICHARD EDER, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is a book to be read by all and included in any course on the literature of war.
BICH MINH NGUYEN,
Hammock Navigator
Wine Taster, Lord of the Desk and the Writer's Block, Keyboard Slayer and Protector of the Realm
Andrew is an independent journalist and author. At various periods of his life, he has worked as an aircraft engineer, researcher, technical writer, startup founder, farmer, food critic, pizza chef, bungalow builder, small business owner, a literary panelist, teacher, and an MFA faculty. He is a Whiting Writer and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the winner of the Kiriyama Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.
His books have been on eight "Top Ten Books of the Year" lists. He is an active cyclist, delta nanolight pilot, paraglider pilot, tennis player, and skier. An avid cook, amateur brewer and winemaker, he is a fan of alcoholic beverages and almost every type of cuisine. He divides his time between California, Hawaii, and Southeast Asia. He enjoys hiking and traveling. He is stabilized by a loving wife, two rambunctious dogs, and two fat lazy cats.
Book Reading, A Bookstore Near You
San Francisco, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
Launch 2nd Edition of Theory of Flight
Twilight Territory Launch Party
For all inquiries, please leave a message below.
© Andrew X. Pham


Respect is the key to positive experiences in this forum.
Do not comment on a post unless you are expressing interest in the item. This is to avoid confusion.
Will you ship if needed?
In the "TOPIC" of the item, put a short description of what you have to sell, such as "Continuous 3-Light CF Bulb Studio Lights with Stands".
Once the item sells please REMOVE the posting so that it's no longer listed. Only active items should be left in this forum.
You run the risk of having your post removed if you don't disclose all the information about the item.
If the item is cross posted in other places, ie. Facebook, please include that information as well.
Proper descriptions make transactions smoother!
Order of interest. This is not a bidding site. We do not approve of members being skipped without valid reason.
Do not skip a buyer because he/she hasn't responded quickly. Give the interested buyer adequate time to respond before you move on. We will not ban people because they skipped you after you did not respond for an extended length of time.
If you need to sell your item quickly, you can list your terms as First Come First Serve. This will allow the seller to move on to the next buyer if the first was unable to meet as soon as the seller would like. Sellers should still go in order of interest, yet they are able to move on much quicker. This does not open things up for selling to the highest bidder. If your item is FCFS it should state this in the ORIGINAL post.
As the buyer, it is your responsibility to properly express your interest in the item. Asking questions does not necessarily convey an intent to buy, so if you want an item, you should always say something like, "Interested" or "Wanting to buy this but have a few questions." If you change your mind, post "pass" so the seller can move on, don't just leave them hanging.
If you feel that you were treated unfairly during a transaction, send a message to the website administrator. Please don't post in this forum about your frustrations over a transaction.
Occasionally, you may encounter a bad deal in this forum. It happens. It is important to remember that admins cannot always deliver the results you want. We cannot force someone (especially someone who was dishonest from the start) to fix their error.
Remember that buying an item on this forum is just like going to a garage sale: No guarantees and items are sold as-is. It is the buyer's job to ensure an item works properly and is what they want before handing over any money.
No sharing live video posts.
No tv or phone service posts.
Individual selling a vehicle? You may post, no problem. But please, post the mileage - it's always the first thing asked!
Bottom line is, you are responsible for your own transaction. PPAGKC will assume NO responsibility for bad deals.


text:
Arunava Sinha Posts
Anita Agnihotri's"The Sickle", translated by Arunava Sinha
The Sickle by Anita Agnihotri, translated by Arunava Sinha is a very powerful story. It is hard to believe that it is pure fiction. There are far too many instances in the book that seem like a thinly veiled account of reality. For instance:
The sugar mill owners had in fact opened up a toddy shop right here inside the toli. There may not have been taps or toilets, water for bathing, or a dependable roof over one's head, but the men still dropped in to drink on their way back to their shanties. It was the only way to get rid of their aches and pains. …The men weren't concerned about how the women managed to keep their households running in the toli. No matter how hard they worked, they would never have hard cash since they had taken their payment in advance. And yet they needed flour and rice, vegetables and kerosene. And it was the women who would have to do the cooking. What they did was save the tips of the sugarcane stalks, which had no juice but only leaves, from the acquisitive hands of the farmers and sell them for a little money. The inhabitants of the districts on the West turned up here to buy cattle fodder and kindling. From sugarcane leaves to slices sugarcane bristles, all of it could be sold. …
The kitchens in the banjari households are under the control of women. It is the men who say this proudly. Of course, they're the ones who continue to keep the women behind the veil. From leaving the house to going to high or college, it all depends on the whims of the menfolk. But their writ doesn't run in the kitchen. Many banjari kitchens don't allow meat or fish. The men are not permitted to bring any home, though they can eat it elsewhere. But they cannot enter the house immediately after eating meat — summer or winter, a man's wife must upend a bucket of water over his head first to purify him.
The kitchen's in your hands — this is how the banjari men boast. In behaviour, rituals and modes of worship, they have fashioned themselves after the Maratha community. Which is hardly a tall order. Running the kitchen means that everything from fetching the water to getting hold of kerosene, vegetables, flour and rice is the headache of the women. They are shackled for life in exchange for the privilege of being able to pour a bucket of water over their huabands' heads now and then. The implication? Whether at home or in the toli, the husband will never check on whether there are enough provisions, or where the kindling is coming from. The woman calls the man malak, for malik, her lord and master.
Somethings never change. Anita Agnihotri, an ex-bureacrat, is known for depicting social realism in her novels. One of the responsibilities she held was member secretary of the National Commission for Women. She retired in 2016 as Secretary, Social Justice Department, Government of India.
The Sickle is set in the Marathwada region of India. This novel about migrant sugarcane cutters emerged after extensive conversations with farmers, activists, women leaders, students, researchers and young girls from Marathwada, Vidarbha and Nashik. She also consulted Kota Neelima for her research on farmers suicides. The details that are in the novel range from the horrors of sexual violence where women are preyed upon by the men as the shanties that they live in are flimsy structures and do not provide any security. Another form of sexual violence is that the women are actively encouraged to have hysterectomies, so that they do not impede the work flow by absences due to menstrual pain or more pregnancies than are necessary. The drought afflicting the region, the corruption that runs so deep that economic exploitation has become a way of life, even if it is unjust, are narrated in all their brutal honesty. As Anita Agnihotri said in a recent interview to The Mint:
In our profession, we were told, 'If you see something, don't carry it back'," …. "But I followed precisely the opposite advice as a writer." Just as there can never be a "non-committal bureaucracy," she adds, "there is no non-political writing.
The Sickle can only be read in small doses as it is extremely disturbing in the truth it portrays. This is not going away in a hurry. Hence, it is unsurprising that the anger welling up in the ongoing farmers protests in Delhi ( on other farming related issues) is summed up by the image of women farmers on the cover of TIME magazine. It was published to commemorate Women's Day. But the equal rights and liberties that women seek is a long time coming as Anita Agnihotri shows — the patriarchal attitudes towards women are deeply embedded in society. Such systemic violence can be combated but for it to be completely done away with is still a distant dream. It is a long and at times a debilitating struggle, but it is worth fighting for.
Read The Sickle. It has been translated brilliantly by Arunava Sinha .
Taslima Nasreen's "Shameless"
In 1993 Taslima Nasreen wrote Lajja ( "Shame") in Bengali. It was her response to the anti-Hindu riots that had broken out in Bangladesh after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, India on 6 December 1992. The novel was published in Bengali and within six months sold over 50,000 copies. It brought the author "fame" that till then had been unheard of in the subcontinent. Prior to this, the only other author to have had fatwas issued against them was Salman Rushdie, an author of South Asian origin but residing in UK at the time. Lajja became one of the first books in translation to be talked about by many readers internationally and this was at a time even before the Internet. ( Dial-up modems, with limited email access, were introduced in India in 1996!) Lajja became a bestseller rapidly. The English edition for the subcontinent was published by Penguin India. Subsequently a new translation was commissioned by Penguin India in 2014-15. The translator of the later edition was Anchita Ghatak. The book was banned in Bangladesh and fatwas were issued against the author. Taslima Nasreen fled to Europe and later laid roots in India. At first she chose to live in Calcutta/ Kolkatta and is now based in Delhi. Years later, Taslima Nasreen still needs security cover wherever she travels.
Lajja was explosive when it was first published as it was a Muslim author, upset by the communal riots in her land, who was writing sympathetically about a Hindu family. The story details the progressive radicalisaion of Suranjan who firmly believes in a nationalist Hindu outlook. So much so it is a belief he continues to nurture even after he, along with his family, flee Bangladesh to become refugees in India. In India he becomes a member of a Hindu nationalist party. Pirated editions of Lajja were sold in India. It became an international bestseller and was translated into many languages. Taslima Nasreen, a doctor by training, has become an established writer with more forty publications. She defines herself as "a secular humanist, a human rights activist, and a prolific and bestselling author, who has faced multiple fatwas calling for her death".
More than twenty-five years later, Taslima Nasreen is back with a sequel to Lajja. It is called Shameless. Arunava Sinha, the translator, told me "the original title was Besharam but eventually the Bengali book was published, also in 2020, with a very tame title, e kul o kul. The book was written more than ten years though." Nevertheless Shameless is a unique experiment in writing a novel. It has shades of Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of An Author" with Suranjan as the protagonist but in conversation with Taslima Nasreen. The opening pages of the novel have Suranjan, the character, visit Taslima Nasreen, the author, and bring her up-to-date with the events in his life. It then develops into a fascinating narrative where a novel is obviously being drafted but it has so many overlaps with reality. With the author-turned-character (or is it character-turned-author?) providing pithy comments and at times intervening in the story by persuading the characters to act in one way or the other. It is a work of art. Shameless is a sequel to Lajja but seems more that that — Taslima Nasreen seems to have sort of trickled into the space between reality and fiction to put herself under the lens. But the conversation is more than that. It is a conversation between writer and character, commentary on the turbulent times. Taslima Nasreen's was an emotional response to the increased communalisation in the subcontinent after the fall of the Babri Masjid. It was not necessarily literary writing. But in the intervening years Taslima Nasreen has evolved as a writer. With Shameless she has given herself space to speak frankly without hopefully attracting any more bounties for her head. Also the writing is very close to her memoir (Dwikhondito, 2003, translated into English as Split: In Two, 2018 — translated by Maharghya Chakraborty). Interestingly in recent years her voice as an author comes through very strongly in the English translations despite her experimentation with a gamut of translators. A testament to her strong writing. There are sufficient examples in the novel that indicate her belief in being a secular humanist stem from having experienced or witnessed firsthand many incidents in the name of religion. Much of this she distills into her writing of Shameless, exemplifying how much of the personal informs the political.
Arunava Sinha's translation is superb. He is a renowned translator who has made available many Bengali writers in English but with Shameless his professional expertise as a translator par excellence is established. He channels Taslima Nasreen's authorial voice beautifully. His past experience of working with Bengali authors has helped him tremendously to hone his expertise in being utterly respectful to the desire of the author to be heard in the original language and carry it forth impeccably into the destination language, enabling the readers in English to appreciate the text for what it is. It works brilliantly in a translation like Shameless where the author herself has a lot to say, much of it tricky.
The time lapse between the publication of Lajja (1993) and Shameless (2020) marks a significant period of socio-political history in the subcontinent as well. With Shameless Taslima Nasreen seals her place as a relevant author who creates political art, a need of the times when plainspeak is not necessarily always welcome.
Interview with translator Debali Mookerjea-Leonard
Debali Mookerjea-Leonard is a Bengali translator, author, and professor of English and world literature. She lives in Virginia with her husband and plants. She has translated the late Sunil Gangopadhyay's novel Blood. Set in Britain and America of the late 60s and early 70s, it is about a highly successful Bengali physicist Tapan who settles abroad. Despite all the successes he has garnered he is unable to put to rest the trauma he suffered as a child when his father was killed by a British officer. This occurred a little before India attained Independence. Coincidentally he meets Alice in London; she is the daughter of his father's killer. Tapan's world goes topsy-turvy as he tries to figure out what to do since he nurses a visceral hatred for the former colonial rulers of India. It is a peculiar situation to be in given that he has more or less decided to relocate abroad and never to return to India. It impacts his relationship with Alice too who is more than sympathetic to his feelings and is willing to let the past be bygones but it is a demon that Tapan finds hard to forget. He does go to India briefly to attend a wedding and meet his paternal grandmother — someone whom he loves dearly and who had lost two sons in the Indian Freedom Struggle. So much so that the Indian politicians are now keen to bestow upon her a monthly allowance recognising her sons' contribution as freedom fighters. It is upon meeting his grandmother, who is past eighty and who witnessed much sorrow in her lifetime, that Tapan realises it is best to forget and forgive that which happened in the past and move on. Otherwise the past becomes an impossible burden to shed. Blood is a brilliantly translated novel that does not seem dated despite its preoccupations with the Indian Freedom struggle and a newly independent India. For all the stories and their intersections, it is evident that Blood is a modern novel which is worth resurrecting in the twenty-first century. The issues it raises regarding immigrants, familial ties, free will, social acceptance, loneliness, etc will resonate with many readers. As Debali says in the interview that "As an Indian expatriate myself, I found Sunil Gangopadhyay's frank treatment of the subject refreshing."
Sunil Gangopadhyay, who died in 2012, was one of Bengal's best-loved and most-acclaimed writers. He is the author of over a hundred books, including fiction, poetry, travelogues and works for children. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Those Days. This novel Blood was first published in 1973.
Debali Mookerjea-Leonard
Here is a lightly edited interview conducted via email with the translator:
1 . How long did it take you to translate Blood? In the translator's note you refer to two editions of the novel. What are the differences in the two editions?
I was on sabbatical during the spring semester of 2018 and Blood was my new project. I began working on it around the middle of January and completed the first draft in May. However, I let it sit for a year before returning to revise it.
I chose to use the second edition (1974) of Blood, rather than the first (1973), because the author made a few revisions. The alterations are minor, mostly cosmetic, and include replacing a few words in the text. These are mostly English words transliterated into Bengali: For instance, in Chapter 1, when Tapan asks Alice if she has the right glasses for serving champagne she responds, in the first edition, with "Don't be fussy, Tapan" whereas, in the second, she says, "Don't be funny, Tapan." The revised second edition also corrects spelling errors and misprints.
2. The book may have been first published in 1973 but it seems a very modern text in terms of its preoccupations especially the immigrants. What were the thoughts zipping through your mind while translating the story?
To me the novel's handling of immigrant concerns feels brutally honest. Blood refuses to romanticise the expatriate condition as exile and, instead, adopts an ironic stance towards immigrant angst, homesickness, and nostalgia. Yet, the irony is tempered with pathos in the narration's uncovering of immigrant dilemmas. For instance, an Indian immigrant uneasy about her fluency in English chooses to stay indoors, but remains enamoured with England which she nevertheless cannot fully experience. Through the exchanges between the novel's protagonist Tapan and his friend Dibakar, Blood also offers the realistic view that immigration is often driven by practical considerations. As an Indian expatriate myself, I found Sunil Gangopadhyay's frank treatment of the subject refreshing.
This does not mean that western societies get a pass in the novel. Through situations both small and large the novel exposes the racist and anti-immigration views prevailing in the United Kingdom, during the 1960s. That said, Blood is also critical of racial prejudice amongst Indians. Given current debates around immigration and citizenship both in India and across the globe, the novel's treatment of this subject remains relevant.
Connected to issues of migration and home, the novel brings to the fore complex questions about homeland and belonging, uncovering how the location of "home" has been rendered unstable through the Partition's severing of birthplace and homeland.
3. What is the methodology you adopt while translating? For instance, some translators make rough translations at first and then edit the text. There are others who work painstakingly on every sentence before proceeding to the next passage/section. How do you work?
For me it is a mix of both. I typically plan on translating a text it in its entirety before proceeding with the revisions but this intention is usually short-lived and seldom lasts beyond the first few pages. I find it difficult to progress until the translation feels most appropriate to the context, fits the voice, and fully conveys the meaning of the original. While translating Blood I have spent entire mornings deciding between synonyms. It is like working on a jigsaw puzzle because there is only one piece/word that fits. And sometimes I have had to redraft an entire sentence (even entire paragraphs) to elegantly capture the sense of the whole!
4. What are the pros and cons a translator can expect when immersed in a project?
First, the cons, the impulse to interpret. And the pros: the joy of being able to partake in the (re-)making of something beautiful.
5. Are there any questions that you wished you could have asked Sunil Gangopadhyay while translating his novel?
Were he alive, I would have requested him to read a completed draft of my translation.
6. What prompted you to become a professional translator?
My translation-work is driven primarily by the love of the text and the desire to find it a larger audience. In the future, I hope to be able to devote more time to it.
There is also a pedagogical dimension to this. In my capacity as a teacher of world literature, I aim to expose students to the vast and rich body of vernacular writings from the Indian subcontinent, inevitably through translations. And from personal experiences in the classroom, I know that many of my students are genuinely curious about writings from around the world. Blood is a small step in that direction. It is a book I want to teach.
7. Which was the first translated book you recall reading? Did you ever realise it was a translation?
I believe the first translated book I read was one of the many "Adventures of Tintin", The Secret of the Unicorn. But children's books aside, the book that came to mind immediately upon reading your question is Gregory Rabassa's translation of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It may not have been the first translated work I read, but it ranks among the most memorable ones. This is because while I knew that Marquez wrote in Spanish, Rabassa's translation preserved the novel's artistic qualities so meticulously that it lulled me into thinking that I was reading the original. It is a quality I aspire to bring to my work.
8. How you do assess /decide when to take on a translation project?
Not to sound self-absorbed, but my decision is based largely on how deeply the work moves me. My first translation project involved a short story by the Bengali author Jyotirmoyee Devi, entitled "Shei Chheleta" ("That Little Boy"). It depicts the predicament of a young woman who lost a family-member in the Partition riots. The author handled the subject with great sensitivity without resorting to the maudlin. The story would not leave me alone. I had to translate it because I needed to share it, and discuss it with friends and colleagues who did not read Bengali. Similarly, Gangopadhyay's novel intrigued me when I first read it. I thought about the characters long after I had finished the book, imagined their lives beyond the novel. I knew that one day I would translate it. It hibernated within me for years because, in the meanwhile, there were Ph.D. dissertations to write and research to publish. Finally, a sabbatical gave me the gift of time, and I just had to do it.
9. How would you define a "good" translation?
Preserving the artistic, poetic, and, of course, propositional content of the original is central to my understanding of a good translation. To resort to the old cliché, it is about conveying the letter and, perhaps more importantly, the spirit of the original. The translated text, I feel, must itself be a literary work, a work imbued with the beauty of the original. Additionally, readability is fundamental. Therefore, I asked family members and friends to read the draft translation for lucidity and fluency. For this reason, I am immensely gratified by your observation about Blood that, "It has been a long time since I managed to read a translation effortlessly and not having to wonder about the original language. There is no awkwardness in the English translation".
10. Can the art of translating be taught? If so, what are the significant landmarks one should be aware of as a translator?
It is difficult for me to say since I never received any formal training in translation-work. To me, translation is more than just an academic exercise, it is an act of love — love for the text itself, love of the language, and the love of reading. For me the best preparation was reading, and reading widely, even indiscriminately. While my love of reading was nurtured from early childhood by my mother, I had the privilege of being exposed to some of the finest works of world literature through my training in comparative literature at Jadavpur University in Calcutta and, later, in literature departments in America.
11. Do you think there is a paradox of faithfulness to the source text versus readability in the new language?
The translator walks a tightrope between the two, where tipping towards either side is perilous. A translation is, by definition, derivative, so fidelity to the original text is essential. Yet, a translation of a literary work is much more than a stringing together of words in another language. It is itself a literary work. And it is incumbent upon the translator not only to make the work accurate and readable but also literary in a way that is faithful to the literary qualities of the original.
12. What are the translated texts you uphold as the gold standard in translations? Who are the translators you admire?
Gregory Rabassa's translation of Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude; J.M. Cohen's translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote; and A.K. Ramanujan's translation of Ananthamurthy's Samskara.
More recently, Supriya Chaudhuri, Daisy Rockwell, and Arunava Sinha have produced quality translations from Indian languages.
Blood is published by Juggernaut Books ( 2020).
Book Post 24: 6 – 19 January 2019
Every Monday I post some of the books I have received in the previous week. This post will be in addition to my regular blog posts and newsletter. Today's Book Post 24 is after a gap of two weeks as January is an exceedingly busy month with the New Delhi World Book Fair and literary festivals such as the Jaipur Literature Festival.
In today's Book Post 24 included are some of the titles I received in the past few weeks as well as bought at the book fair and are worth mentioning.
Book 23: 9 December 2018 – 5 January 2019
Every Monday I post some of the books I have received in the previous week. This post will be in addition to my regular blog posts and newsletter.
In today's Book Post 23 included are some of the titles I received in the past few weeks and are worth mentioning and not necessarily confined to parcels received during the holiday season.
Meeting Arundhati Roy at The Bookshop, Jor Bagh, New Delhi, 25 Aug 2017
On Friday 25 August 2017 The Bookshop held a lovely interaction with award winning writer Arundhati Roy. The Bookshop is a warm space that magically transforms a literary evening into an electric engagement. Personal invitations had been sent to the select audience. There was no structure to the event which was a pleasure.
Arundhati Roy plunged straight into a conversation. She began the evening remembering the late owner and legendary bookseller K. D. Singh. She then read a long passage out of her novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness . Hearing an author read out from their own novels is an unpredictable experience but in this case turned out to be extraordinary. Despite the novel being varied and politically charged in many places, reading it alone, a reader tends to respond to the text. Listening to Arundhati Roy narrate it last night was revelatory as she has a soft lilt to her voice which brings out the rhythm and structure of the storytelling, softpedalling to some extent the political punch, but never undermining. Hearing her read out aloud was like being lulled into a level of consciousness where the magic of storytelling overtook one and yet once it is was over it was the politically charged experience of the episode from Kashmir which she chose to narrate that lingered on. It probably would be worth getting the audiobook which the novelist has recorded herself. On the left is a picture taken by Mayank Austen Soofi and tweeted on 17 May 2017 by Simon Prosser, Publisher, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House. On 24 August 2017 a digital companion to the novel was released called the Re: Reader. It is being hosted on a website of its own. According to the report in the Hindu, "The Re:Reader can be accessed on a smart phone by logging on to its website. The visitor is greeted by a 'floating menu' of different chapters, each with its own set of animated icons, sound effects, music, and a carefully chosen excerpt.
"Re:Reader has snippets of text from the 12 chapters of the book. Animations show the text in a new light; music brings the period to life, and with portions read by Arundhati Roy, it makes for a dreamy, heady ride. But none of these bits of 'media' are presented as 'content' for independent consumption. They are there to tempt, to intrigue, to transport the viewer to the Utmost world, not to reveal or substantially replace it." Later this innovative reading experience may be converted into an app.
At The Bookshop interaction Arundhati Roy mentioned how when she writes fiction she does not let anyone, including her literary agent David Godwin, know that there is a work in progress as she is unable to handle the questions about when it will be ready for submission. Also knowing full well that once she hands over a manuscript there is frenzied activity and she needs to be prepared for it. Interestingly when the manuscript of this novel was finally completed to her satisfaction she lay down on her couch and wept for hours.
Given the small group sitting in a circle around and at the feet of the author made for a lovely intimate gathering allowing for conversation to flow easily. Sure there were many in the audience who were awe-struck by the celebrity they were enagaging with and yet the vibes were peaceful. It was an evening where Arundhati Roy shared insights about her writing and editing process, some of which I scribbled down in my edition of the novel.
There are many parts of the book which need a book of their own.
This book is fiction as much as my first novel The God of Small Things was. I use every part of myself to write fiction. Experience informs your writing. Fiction is trying to create a universe which if it were unreal what would be the point of creating it?
When asked if it was an "autobiographical novel" she said "What is an autobiography? These questions do not matter if this autobiographical or the truth. The character in fiction is more real and eternal than the real person."
While writing fiction my body feels very different. With non-fiction there is a sense of urgency. In fiction I am just at my own speed. It is almost like cooking — it takes as much time as it takes.
When asked about editing her manuscripts she replied " I don't draft and redraft sentences which some people attribute to arrogance. I think of structure and characters take their own time to deepen. These are people I want to be able to spend rest of my life with. I don't write sequentially. I already have a sense of it. It is a combination of control and release."
On the structure of this novel she said: "This book is much more complexly structured. It is like a big metropolis in the fluid world. It has its old parts and its pathways. It has its democracy. The crowds have faces in it. When you see the narrative as a city then you are going down blind alleys."
On writing: "The way things are here and now I would not want to write it scared. Just write." She added " Factual knowledge has to be charged. My instinctiveness works the best for fiction."
On the parallels being drawn between Anjum and Mona ( made famous by Dayanita Singh's photographs), she said "Anjum is not Mona but she is in Mona's situation. Mona is definitely not a political person unlike Anjum."
Arunava Sinha, journalist and established Bengali to English translator, posed an interesting question to Arundhati Roy. He asked if she had had any interesting questions from her translators. Apparently the Polish translator has been flummoxed by sentences such as "evil weevil always make the cut" whereas the French translator has found the "Acknowledgements" the toughest such as "who queered my pitch". As for the Hindi and Urdu translations she is working upon them line by line.
While discussing her author tours as was done over summer she says she felt as if she herself was a tourist living in Jannat for she visited 20 cities in the space of 24 days. Surprisingly she returned home with no jet lag whatsoever! The reception to her book has been tremendous and she has been reading and promoting the book to packed audiences. In Buffalo, for instance, she was to address a 1000-strong audience and surprisingly not a single copy of the book was sold at the venue since every single member of the audience was carrying their very own dog-eared copy of the novel. Another anecdote was about Kashmir which forms a large part of this novel since "you cannot tell the story of Kashmir in a footnote". She has recently returned from a visit to the state where she met Khan Sahib, an old friend, who had scribbled in his copy of the book extensively with comments trying to figure out the references in the book. What was even more incredulous were the visitors she had coming by all night asking her to autograph their editions of the book.
All in all it was a fabulously magical gathering.
Han Kang's "The Vegetarian", translated by Deborah Smith
Deborah Smith (left), translator of the winning book, The Vegetarian, with author Han Kang at the Man Booker International Prize in London. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images. ( Taken from the Internet)
She was crouching, still wearing her nightclothes, her dishevelled, tangled hair a shapeless mass around her face. Around her, the kitchen floor was covered with plastic bags and airtight containers, scattered all over so that there was nowhere I could put my feet without treading on them. Beef for shab-shabu, belly pork, two sides of black beef shin, some squid in a vacuum-packed bag, sliced eel that my mother-in-law had sent us form the countryside ages ago, dried croaker tied with yellow string, unopened packs of frozen dumplings and endless bundles of unidentified stuff dragged from the depths of the fridge. There was a rustling sound; my wife was busy putting the things around her one by one into black rubbish bags. …She kept on putting the parcels of meat into the rubbish bags, seemingly no more aware of my existence than she had been last night. Beef and pork, pieces of chicken, at least 200,000 –won of saltwater eel.
The Vegetarian or Chaesikjuuija by Han Kang was published in Korean in 2007. The Vegetarian is about Yeong-hye who decides to become a vegetarian. She is discovered by her husband quietly and methodically removing all the meat products from their refrigerator and putting them into garbage bags. A horrifying proposition as her father points out, "It's preposterous, everyone eats meat!" Yeong-hye is reserved and rarely speaks even to her husband. She prefers to remain confined to a room in their apartment reading and reflecting. After deciding to turn vegetarian despite being more than a competent cook she inexplicably imposes the dietary restriction on her husband too. He seeks assistance from his in-laws in the hope they will be able to get some sense in to their daughter but to no avail. Slowly the mental well-being of Yeong-hye deteriorates when she begins to believe that she is photosynthesising like a plant and has to be institutionalised.
The Vegetarian sub-heading declares it to be a novel. But the published version consists of three interlinked stories told from three different points-of-view: Yeon-hye's husband, brother-in-law and sister. While they tell the story there are marginal overlaps of the narrative but slowly and steadily the plot does move ahead in time. It covers the time from the moment Yeon-hye decides to turn vegetarian to her institutionalisation, abandoned by her husband, returns to society to live alone albeit under the supervision of her sister and then back again in an institution. During the course of this time supposedly in the name of an art installation she agrees to her brother-in-law's suggestion to have her body covered in paint and then filmed having sex with him only to be discovered by her sister. Despite the betrayal by her sister, In-hye, does not stop caring for Yeon-hye and regularly visits her, "despite the probing gazes, that mix of suspicion, caution, repugnance, and curiousity" that she encounters from her fellow passengers en route to Ch'ukseong Psychiatric Hospital, Maseok.
It was first published as three separate "novelettes" and then compiled into a "novel" as described on the copyright page of the English edition. This is how it was published in English too in 2015. An early version of the story that developed into The Vegetarian can be read on the Granta website:http://granta.com/the-fruit-of-my-woman/ . This curiously mesmerising example of a contemporary magic realism novel went on to win the Man Booker International Prize, the first after it had been combined with the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction. Han Kang beat other powerful contenders such as Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk, Elena Ferrante and Kenzaburō Ōe. From this year the prize is now awarded to a single foreign novel translated into English, the money involved—£50,000 ($72,000)—being shared equally by author and translator. Till the win Han Kang and Deborah Smith were little known in international literary circles. Interestingly enough translating this book was one of Deborah Smith's first professional attempts and she literally struck gold. She has said many times on social media since the win that she was translating the book while learning Korean. It was pure luck that this particular book went on to achieve international acclaim. In an interview, Smith explains how, having completed a degree in English literature, she decided to become a translator. Monolingual until then, she chose Korean "pragmatically," because she had heard there was a lively literary scene in Korea and far fewer translators than for European languages. But she also very graciously acknowledged in an article how publishing is an industry and translation is a community – "nobody's in it for the money, largely because there usually isn't any". (http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/deborah-smith-publishing-is-an-industry-but-translation-is-a-community-1.2688760) She herself proposed The Vegetarian to an English publisher who accepted it. It is the first novel she has translated. Yet there has been criticism regarding the quality of translation from critics such as Tim Parks who refers to them as "translation niggles". (http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/06/20/raw-and-cooked-translation-why-the-vegetarian-wins/ )
For someone so passionate about the translated literature it is apt Smith has inaugurated her independent publishing press, Tilted Axis Press, with Bengali writer Sangeeta Bandhopadhyay's Panty, translated by Arunava Sinha. To commemorate Women in Translation Month*  (#WITMonth ) observed in August, Deborah Smith published the second title, a South Korean novel One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun, translated by Jung Yewon.
*The Women in Translation month is an annual ritual started as recently as three years ago to address the gender imbalances in literature by blogger Meytal Radzinski at Biblibio. (http://biblibio.blogspot.in/2016/08/witmonth-2016-day-1-ready-set-go.html )
Han Kang The Vegetarian: A Novel ( Translated by Deborah Smith) Portobello Books, London, 2015. Pb. Pp. 184 Rs 499
Shibram Chakraborty
The Merry Adventures of Harshabardhan and Gobardhan is a delightful collection of stories about two brothers — Harshabardhan and Gobardhan. They are well-meaning but bumbling chaps. The stories are gently told but the brothers can get into some silly scrapes. With every story you want to read more and more. For once the book blurb encapsulates the stories well — "Mildly dishonest timber merchants, foolhardy adventure buffs, reckless explorers, blundering do-gooders, occasional philosophers and gullible blokes, the endearing duo creates the most hilarious misunderstandings, commits the silliest mistakes and falls into the weirdest traps." I read the book in one go. Loved it!
According to the delightful author blurb in the book, Shibram Chakraborty ( 1902-1980) wrote extensively for both children and adults, using his trademark humour and wordplay to tell stories about the peculiarities of human beings. Chakraborty was a free spirit who ran away from home as a boy, took part in the freedom movement and went to jail as a teenager — he never finished school — and lived alone in a boarding house in Calcutta most of his adult life. His stories are about eccentric people in absurd situations, and brim over with fun and puns.
Arunava Sinha is an experienced translator. By now I have lost count of the number of books he has translated from Bengali into English. Many of his translations have been sold abroad as foreign editions in English and other languages. Here is the link to an interview I did with him in 2011: http://www.jayabhattacharjirose.com/jaya/2013/08/22/arunava-sinha-on-translating-buddhadeva-boses-classic-tithodore-and-the-future-of-translations/ His translation of this particular book is as competent as the others I have read by him. This translation made me giggle and chuckle. Then I was left wondering. Did he have to intervene in the text to transmit and convey some of the original puns from Bengali into English? Is translating humour difficult? How do you translate wit? Did he have to worry about losing some of the original material or did he manage to retain much of it? And this is what he said ( quoted with permission):
Sometimes I think this book is really for adults, not kids. At least, the wordplay is not for children. The policy I followed was to always have a pun in the translation whenever there was a pun in the original. And yes, it was not possible to retain both the meaning and the pun in most cases, so it was pun first. In that sense there was a replacement of material, but none of it changed the story. The puns don't really take the story forward, they are effects. I did some readings to kids in schools, and they seemed to enjoy the stories.
I would happily recommend this book for confident readers of 11+ and above. But I suspect this book will go down very well with adults too. The stories would travel well to foreign shores too since they are not too complicated in cultural details. The illustrations by Shreya Sen Handley complement the stories well.
Shibram Chakraborty The Merry Adventures of Harshabardhan and Gobardhan. Translated by Arunava Sinha. Hachette India, New Delhi, 2014. Pb. pp. 150 Rs. 250
Jumpstart, 28-29 Aug 2013
Jumpstart this year was focused on talking, discussing, tackling issues in children's literature in a range of languages. The discussions were not necessarily confined to the domain of English-language publishing. The presentations, panel discussions and conversations on the side were representative of the enthusiasm, involvement and engagement that the various stakeholders in children's literature hold. For Subir Shukla, the definition of children's literature, was inclusive of textbooks that were being created for children in all languages across all states. It was not necessarily confined to the domain of trade literature ( picture books, chapter books, fiction and non-fiction) but that which was being created and used on a daily basis in classrooms across states. According to Subir Shukla textbooks such as the ones he was discussing had phenomenal print runs of 700,000 + as opposed to 5,000+ of trade literature, so it was a definition hard to dispute. Though there will always be quibbles about what constitutes "children's literature".
Anita Roy, Sampurna Chattarji and Anushka Ravishankar, Jumpstart 2013
The first day sessions were attended very well. There were an estimated 175 people who had registered, apart from the invitees, speakers, panelists etc. But there was even better constructive engagement to be experienced on the sidelines, during the coffee and lunch breaks, the reception ( by invitation only) in the evening etc. The second day was quieter with a hum of activity in the various sessions. These were primarily masterclasses focussed on writing and illustrating, followed by the book souk — a form of B2B speed-dating between authors and publishers.
Jumpstart 2013
This is the fourth edition of Jumpstart. Every year there has been something new on offer. In terms of content, formats and organisation. For instance, this year participants could register on separate days, depending upon what sessions were of interest to them rather than sign up for the two-day conference. It made a marked difference to the level of engagement between the audience and speakers. There were (mostly) focussed questions from the floor instead of too many rambling observations. The proposed format of inviting speakers to make presentations like the TED lectures was a good idea, since these are highly experienced professionals, but without a rehearsal the day before there was palpable nervousness amongst the speakers. So very soon the TED-like talks fizzled out into simple presentations from the podium followed by a panel discussion.
This time it was evident that the first day of the conference was meant for intensive networking. People were obviously engaged in serious conversations, business cards were being exchanged and the immense (business) possibilities of bringing so many stakeholders in children's literature together was apparent. If only it were possible to know beforehand who were all the registered participants at Jumpstart, maybe the networking could have been more effective, since there is a limit to how many conversations one can have in a few hours. Energies do get spent. Maybe upon registering Jumpstart visitors could visit a restricted access section of the official website and view the names of expected people and their email ids, reach out to them, fix appointments, and do a bit of homework before attending the conference so the interactions could be far more constructive. Otherwise too much time was being spent in exchanging pleasantries, especially for Jumpstart virgins. Veterans, of course, knew how to mingle and move swiftly from one huddle to the next, glean information, exchange cards and initiate conversations, many to be completed days later. Over the years, I hear, many business engagements have emerged from or facilitated by Jumpstart. This year one of the immediate ones was award-winning illustrator Julia Kaergel's visit to Kumaon University, facilitated by Arundhati Desothali.
(C) Julia Kaergel
The "practical" aspect of the conference – the masterclasses and the Book Souk – are feature that continue to enchant a number of participants. Illustrators and writers have the opportunity have face-to-face interactions with publishing professionals, experts and of course authors can meet editors of publishing firms to show them their manuscripts. Maybe next year a session on learning how to cost one's labour and/or the costs involved in producing children's literature could also be factored in. It would certainly help many of the conversations to be a tad sharper and focused. People have dreams and it is up to the publishers to make them come alive through a partnership, but many of those dreams need to be realistic, only possible if economics and money are discussed.
Translation panel, Jumpstart 2013
Rohini Chowdhury, translator and writer, says it well about children's literature, something that German Book Office is constantly working at and facilitating through such platforms like Jumpstart – "Children are demanding readers, they absorb and observe, criticize and comment with a great deal more engagement and involvement than do most adults. They are also our future, and therefore, whether it is an original novel or story, or a translated work, children deserve the best that I can give." (http://bit.ly/18OytEa )


text:
Study finds that birth control in Canada's lakes affects fish fertility
By Samantha Edwards
A new study has found that unless we improve Canada's wastewater treatment facilities, our ecosystems could face devastating consequences such as male fish growing eggs, female fish no longer able to reproduce, and the extinction of some types of freshwater species.
Researchers at the University of New Brunswick and the IISD Experimental Lakes Area discovered that when small amounts of estrogen – a common hormone in birth control pills – is introduced into waterways, it interferes with the fathead minnow's ability to reproduce, creating a domino effect among other fish populations. In the real world, birth control pills enter our lakes and rivers via our municipal water treatment facilities.
The team of researchers, lead by Karen Kidd of the University of New Brunswick, added small amounts of estrogen into an artificial freshwater lake at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area research facility over many years. The team immediately noticed a decline in the fathead minnow population.
"The crash in the population was very evident and very dramatic and very rapid and related directly to the estrogen addition," Kidd told the Canadian Press.
The male population was disturbed as well.
"Right away, the male fish started to respond to the estrogen exposure by producing egg yolk proteins and shortly after that, they started to develop eggs."
Once the fathead minnow's population began to tumble, it created a chain reaction among other species. The minnow's main predator, the lake trout, began dying off, while the insects the minnow's feasted on felt a surge in numbers.
Kidd and her team first began the study in the late 1990s, after a group of British researchers discovered that estrogen levels can cause male fish to develop eggs.
And although Kidd's research was completed in a supervised, artificial body of water, real-life examples that mimic the study's findings are present in Canada. Alarming levels of synthetic estrogen and other chemicals were detected in two waterways in southern Alberta – the Red Deer and Oldman rivers – causing the feminization of male minnows.
There is hope for our minnows, however. Kidd found that once the estrogen was eliminated from the water, the fish population recovered to its original numbers.
"It's evidence that removing these chemicals from our effluents will have downstream benefits for the fish population."
Next StoryTime-lapse video captures a day at the cottage in... under a minute
3 fixes for gaps in your wooden floorboards
Weekly Hack: 7 tips to avoid getting sick
Cottage Q&A: Appliances vs. cold temperatures


text:
Grotów (; deutsch: Gräfenhain) ist ein Schulzenamt in der polnischen Landgemeinde Lipinki Łużyckie im Landkreis Żary (Woiwodschaft Lebus).

Geographie

Das etwa vier Kilometer lange Waldhufendorf Grotów liegt im Süden der Gemeinde an der Chaussee zwischen Niwica (Zibelle) und Lipinki Łużyckie (Linderode). Von der Bundesautobahn 15 kommend verläuft nordöstlich von Grotów in südöstlicher Richtung die Autostrada A18 zur Autostrada A4, nächste Anschlussstellen sind Królów im Nordwesten (Droga krajowa 12) und Żary im Südosten (Droga krajowa 27).

Nur wenige Kilometer nördlich des ursprünglich schlesischen Ortes verläuft die historische Grenze zur Niederlausitz.

Geschichte

Das Dorf wurde im 13. Jahrhundert von deutschen Siedlern gegründet, seine urkundliche Ersterwähnung fällt in das Jahr 1283. Es gehörte den Herren von Hakenborn auf Priebus und Triebel, die Gräfenhain 1388 an das Augustinerstift zu Sagan verkauften. Die Kirche zu Greiffenhayn fand 1346 Erwähnung in der Matrikel des Bistums Meißen.

Herzog Rudolf III. von Sachsen, Schwiegervater von Hans I. von Sagan, ließ 1413 das Dorf ausplündern, nachdem sich der Abt des Saganer Stifts gegen eine Besitznahme des Fürstentums Sagan durch Hans ausgesprochen hatte. Auch Hans II. war den Besitzern Gräfenhains nicht wohlgesinnt und nahm den Mönchen 1454 den Zins des Dorfes auf ein Jahr. Auf Betreiben des Klosters wurde 1472 ein Fischteich angelegt.

Versuche, 1527 die Reformation einzuführen, wurden vom Abt unterdrückt, nach einem längeren Streit konnte sich letzterer durchsetzen. Im Zuge der Gegenreformation in Schlesien wurde 1668 der letzte evangelische Pfarrer vertrieben. Zusammen mit dem Fürstentum Sagan kam das Dorf nach dem Ersten Schlesischen Krieg an das Königreich Preußen. Damit ergab sich die Wiedereinführung des evangelischen Glaubens. Zusätzlich zur bestehenden katholischen Schule wurde 1796 die evangelische Schule neu gegründet. Eine evangelische Kirche hingegen wurde erst in den Jahren 1829/1830 gebaut. Sie war eine Tochterkirche von Reichenau, vorher besuchten die evangelischen Einwohner die Kirche in Linderode.

Die Bewohner lebten hauptsächlich von der Landwirtschaft, als Nebenverdienst betrieben sie Hausweberei, bis diese im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert wegen industrieller Weberei unrentabel wurde.

Durch die Auflösung des Kreises Sagan kam dessen westlicher Teil 1932 an den Kreis Rothenburg. Gräfenhain war nach der Stadt Priebus der zweitgrößte der zum Kreis Rothenburg geschlagenen Orte.

Im Februar 1945 sammelten sich fast alle Einwohner zur Flucht vor der heranrückenden Roten Armee. Auf Nebenstraßen verlief der Fluchtweg in Richtung Lausitzer Neiße (die nahe liegende Autobahn war der sich nach Westen zurückziehenden Wehrmacht vorbehalten). Nach Beendigung des Krieges am 8. Mai 1945 kam der Großteil der Gräfenhainer in ihr Dorf zurück. Auf Grund des Niederganges des Deutschen Reiches und der Absprachen der Alliierten, die eine Westverschiebung Polens bis zur Oder-Neiße-Linie festlegte, erfolgte im Juni 1945 die Vertreibung der Gräfenhainer aus ihrer Heimat und die Ansiedlung polnischer Vertriebener aus dem polnischen Osten.

Gemeinsam mit den meisten anderen Gemeinden des Ostteils des Rothenburger Kreises kam die nun als Grotów bezeichnete Gemeinde zum Powiat Żarski, der aus dem polnischen Anteil des Sorauer Kreises hervorgegangen ist.

Noch im März 1945 sprengte die SS den Turm der katholischen Kirche in dem Glauben, keine Angriffspunkte der Artillerie der Roten Armee bieten zu müssen. Die stark zerstörte katholische Kirche wurde nicht wieder aufgebaut. Die vormals evangelische Kirche wird an ihrer statt für katholische Gottesdienste genutzt.

Bevölkerungsentwicklung

Um 1785 gab es im Dorf 49 Bauernwirtschaften, 35 Gärtnernahrungen und acht Häuslerstellen, deren Bewohner Friedrich-Albert Zimmermann mit 592 bezifferte. Fünfzehn Jahre später war die Zahl der Wirtschaften unverändert.

Vom ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert stieg die Bevölkerungszahl von knapp 600 auf etwa 750 an, fiel bis zum Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkrieges jedoch auf 700.

Söhne und Töchter des Ortes
 Georg Witzmann (1871–1958), deutscher Lehrer und Politiker (DVP)

Literatur

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

Ort der Woiwodschaft Lebus
Gmina Lipinki Łużyckie
Ort in der Niederlausitz

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Budding Manchester United ace, Scott McTominay wins player of the month
News_Sports News_Sports.Soccer
Manchester United's budding young midfielder Scott McTominay has been impressive and found a playing position for himself in the Manchester United squad.
Unlike his youngsters' academy raised players, he easily finds a place in the first team and with his consistency form, he is likely going to be adopted to the first team.
Scott McTominay has been reflecting on a run of strong personal performances that have earned him the Manchester United Player of the Month award for April.
The midfielder was the Reds' star man last month after several impressive performances, including a Man of the Match showing in the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Barcelona.
The 22-year-old also won the Goal of the Month vote for his strike in the 2-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers, which was his first senior goal.
The Scotland international is now looking to build on his recent good form and is hoping he can establish himself as a key player at Old Trafford after impressing the fans.
"It's a nice award to get, especially at the end of the season and obviously I want to go on and win more next season and in the seasons after that. Obviously, though the most important thing is for the team to be successful," Scott said.
"Manchester United fans are loyal, they stand behind us and with us no matter what, so that's amazing to see. I just want to try to show them that I'm a humble lad who wants to work hard and show some quality at the end of that."
Congratulations to Scott McTominay who has been voted as April's Player of the Month. McSauce. 🔥pic.twitter.com/lgUfVYkIvt
— The Man Utd Way (@TheManUtdWay) April 30, 2019
The Academy graduate featured in five of the Reds' seven games during April but is in no doubt as to what was his most memorable moment.
"That was special, to be fair. One of the best feelings I've ever had on a football pitch," he said when asked about opening the scoring at Molineux.
"I've played in some big Champions League and Premier League games, but that was sweet. Especially as my Dad, my girlfriend and one of my best pals were there in the crowd as well.
"It was a nice feeling. When I went home, it was just more gutting that we'd lost. It was so tough to take."
Scott went on to reveal that the technique behind the goal is something he's been working on in training.
"Kieran McKenna is always on at me about my shooting from outside the box, telling me to get my head over the ball, hitting them like Scholesy, Carras, Frank Lampard, the way they dip the ball and get their head right over it.
"It's just getting that contact and Kieran's been incredible for me. I've worked with him for about four or five years now and the information he's passed through to me has been absolutely second to none.
"He's one of the best coaches I've worked under."
Tags: #PremierLeagueNews, Manchester United, Player of the Month, scott Mctominay
Rid those Sweaty Armpits with these 3 simple Tips
Manchester United's miserable state to be known as Ed Woodward presents statements this month.


This is a review of "Emergency" recorded by The Pigeon Detectives. The review was written by Joseph C Seager in 2008.
Perhaps the most sought after album of the year thus far. 'Emergency', the second album from The Pigeon Detectives, released 2 days short of a full year since their debut blessed the ears of indie rockers everywhere. Everyone has heard the first single 'This Is An Emergency' and all the radio stations have been throwing it out across the land giving it some awesome airplay. Dance To The Radio must be hoping for another success story, since 'Wait For Me' was the first platinum selling album released on the independent label.
Jam packed full of good stuff, 13 tasty new songs for us all to sink out teeth into, 'Emergency' picks off where 'Wait For Me' left off. The band haven't gone crazy and stepped away from what has made them household names. Fun packed witty lyrics about life and love sung in a beautiful northern accent combined with simple instruments and a hell of a lot of attitude. The Pigeon Detectives are indeed back! I was worried that perhaps there wouldn't be as many possible single releases in album two as there was in the debut, but I think that there are plenty of opportunities for single release, and successful ones at that. 'Keep On Your Dress', 'Say It Like You Mean It' and 'I'm A Liar' could storm the charts!
'Nothing To Do With You' is a semi-interlude, giving you some time to breathe but it's a brilliant one minute 49 seconds. It's one of those songs that people will be singing in parks this summer, playing acoustic guitars; sipping cans of special brew and eating scotch eggs. The lyrics could easily have been taken from a break up letter or something similar; meaning everyone in Britain will know where they are coming from. Other stand out tracks are 'Everybody Wants Me', 'You Don't Need It' and 'Love You For A Day (Hate You For A Week)' but every track has it's special points. I do have to say though, like the first album, everything sounds a bit samey eventually. But it's another solid album from the boys from Rothwell. I have a feeling that they are destined for even bigger things.


"A New Regional Household Demand System for GTAP"
The GTAP final demand system has some known defects: the computation of the equivalent variation is not exact; with non-standard demand parameters, the equivalent variation may be grossly in error; the decomposition of the equivalent variation contains a nuisance term.
We find a further defect, that the upper-level demand equations are invalid. We revise the model to remove these defects.


BUCHAREST, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Romania's top court ruled in favour of a law to kill tens of thousands of stray dogs from the streets of Bucharest on Wednesday after a four-year-old boy was mauled to death earlier this month.
The boy's death triggered street protests demanding action against the capital's more than 60,000 strays, who bite dozens of people every day and are also a deterrent for tourism.
Parliament overwhelmingly backed a law that allows local administrations to put down dogs caught in public spaces if they are not adopted within two weeks. Animal rights groups, however, have protested for the dogs to be saved and a group of lawmakers challenged the law in the Constitutional Court.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta welcomed the court's ruling in favour of the law on Wednesday.
Hundreds of animal rights' protesters gathered outside the court to protest, chanting "May you get the dogs' fate" and carrying banners that said "Red card for Romania", "Choose life" and "We are not a criminal nation." Protests were set to continue.
"We will consult lawyers and if possible ... we will attack the decision at the international level," said Kuki Barbuceanu, project coordinator for the local unit of Vier Pfoten, an animal welfare organisation.
In previous failed campaigns to cull the strays local and international animal rights groups have argued that sterilisation and adoption were the solution.
Ponta said he hoped that local authorities would look at adoption or finding shelter for the dogs first, and use the option to kill them "very rarely".
Strays are thought to be a legacy of late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's decision to bulldoze pre-World War Two houses in Bucharest's historic centre in the 1980s to make way for the parliament building, one of the largest in the world.
In the process, thousands of guard dogs were abandoned by residents who had been forcibly relocated into small apartments.


text:
@Pharmakon
noise power electronics industrial death industrial seen live
1) Pharmakon is the noise / death industrial project of Margaret Chardiet, which has been operating out of The Red Light District collective in New York City since 2007.
2) Pharmakon is a two-piece black metal band from Melbourne, Australia formed in 2010.
1)Thus far, Pharmakon has released a self-titled EP out on Bloodlust! in 2008 and three full-lengths (Abandon, Bestial Burden and Contact) on Sacred Bones Records. Chardiet is also a member of the projects Throat and Cheena. Margaret Chardiet was born and raised in New York City . As a founding member of the Red Light District collective in Far Rockaway, NY she has been a figurehead in the underground experimental scene since the age of seventeen. She points out that the environment there amongst so many other experimental artists (amongst them Yellow Tears & Haflings) inspired her to keep making increasingly challenging work. She describes her drive to make noise music as something akin to an exorcism where she is able to express, her "deep-seated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them FEEL something in uncomfortable/confrontational ways." Engineered by Sean Ragon of Cult of Youth at his self-built recording studio Heaven Street, Abandon is Pharmakon's first proper studio album and also her first widely distributed release.
Unlike other experimental projects, Pharmakon does not improvise when performing or recording. She is concise and exact; each song/movement is linear with a clear trajectory. Perhaps more than any other style of music, noise is a genre almost exclusively dominated by male performers. Spin Magazine is apt to point out that her,"perfectionism might explain why her recordings are few and far between—a rarity in a scene where noise bros are want to puke out hour after endless hour of stoned basement jams into a limitless stream of limited-edition tapes. Her music may be as cuddly as a trepanning drill, but it's also just as precise: She glowers in measured silence as often as she shrieks, and every serrated tone cuts straight to the bone, a carefully calibrated interplay between frequency and resistance." The songs on this album were all written and recorded during a turbulent three month time period during which several fundamental life changes forced her to begin living in a completely new way and in a new space. She describes the lyrical themes of this album as being about, "Loss. Losing everything. Relinquishing control. Complete psychic abandon. Blind leaps of faith into the fire, walking out unscathed. Crawling out of the pit."
2) Pharmakon is a two-piece black metal band from Melbourne, Australia formed in 2010. Demo will be available on cassette tape and digital download. http://www.myspace.com/pharmakonblackmetal
1) Crawling On Bruised Knees
2) Vacuum
3) Body Betrays Itself
4) Milkweed / It Hangs Heavy
5) Intent Or Instinct
6) Ache
7) Bestial Burden
8) Pitted
9) Transmission
10) Primitive Struggle
11) Autoimmune
12) Bang Bang - Bonus Track
13) Nakedness of Need
14) Sentient
15) Sour Sap (Bonus Track)
16) No Natural Order
17) Homeostasis
18) Sleepwalking Form
19) Somatic
20) Self-Regulating System
21) Spit It Out
22) Deprivation
23) Bang Bang (Bonus Track)
24) Bang Bang
25) Pristine Panic/Cheek by Jowl
19 June 1990 (Age 30)
@Pharmakon/events


text:
Home :: WMD :: Library :: News :: Syria :: 2020 :: April ::
Turkish forces gun down two protesters in northwest Syria
Iran Press TV
Monday, 27 April 2020 8:11 AM
Turkish forces have reportedly opened live fire on people protesting their patrolling of a key highway in northwestern Syria, killing two people and wounding three more.
The protesters had set up roadblocks across the part of the M4 Highway that runs close to the government-held village of Nairab in the Idlib Province to oppose the patrols.
The casualties were caused after the Turkish military attacked them on Sunday, using live rounds and tear gas canisters, the Associated Press reported, citing activists.
The Turkish forces have been allowed to man a number of observation posts in Idlib as part of a de-escalation deal reached between Turkey and Russia in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in September 2018.
Earlier this year, however, Turkish troops were reported to have ventured far outside the areas that are assigned to the posts and engaged in heavy clashes with Syrian soldiers.
The Turkish presence in the province has also featured heavy support by Ankara for a number of anti-Damascus militant outfits, something that has been widely condemned as counterproductive to any de-escalation efforts.
Separately, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said the Turkish military was implementing a policy of "demographic change" across several parts of Syria.
The policy has witnessed abductions and arbitrary arrests, it added, saying it was targeting Kurds and Arabs alike.
The Observatory named one of the targeted areas as the Kurdish-populated town of Afrin. It said civilians from Eastern Ghouta in southwestern Syria and other Syrian areas were also being housed in several areas in the northern cities of Raqqah and Hasakah.
The Turkish military launched its first incursion into Syria in 2016 to push back against Kurdish militants that Turkey associates with anti-Ankara separatists.
Ever since, the military has launched several other wholesale invasions into Syria. The people, whom the Observatory said were displaced by the Turkish forces, were targets of so-called Operation Peace Spring that Ankara waged against Syria late last year.