We have original fiction from Tananarive Due ("Migration") and Sandra McDonald ("When You Work for the Old Ones"), along with reprints by Michael Shea ("The Horror on the 33") and Tim Pratt ("Fool's Fire"). We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with Jack Ketchum.
Be sure to check out the Editorial for a run-down of this month's nightmarish content and to get all our news and updates.
Jazmine was a bit of a departure for me as a character, and I have to admit she was fun to write. As a polite and kind person, as I like to think of myself, it's oddly liberating to try to access the mind of someone who has unthinkable impulses and explore the monster within us all. In that way, she's somewhat similar to the protagonist in my short story "The Lake," who literally becomes a sea monster as an outward manifestation of her predatory nature.
Of those grim events I find it difficult, even at this late date, to write. Strictly speaking, they did not even involve me, but Knavle, my dear friend, from whose voluminous correspondence alone I know of them. But we are close in soul, Knavle and I, and through his accounts, hellishly circumstantial as they were, I can say that I too, in a manner, lived those moments of horror with him. When that first dread encounter befell him, Knavle had been a wino for almost exactly a year.
One of the most disturbing moments in any horror film I can think of is in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a movie everyone hates but me (the Cannes audience booed it at its premiere, but what do they know about anything). Taken by itself, it's not just an overlooked gem about the final tragic days of a young woman, but one of the most terrifying films of the 1990s. Stripped of the series' quirky fun, it's a straight shot down nightmare alley, where every facet of Smalltown America wholesomeness is rotten and festering with darkness.
In Manhattan a few years ago, I visited the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. When you gaze up at the dark windows now—the building belongs to NYU—it's hard to imagine the horror of all those garment workers, mostly immigrant women, who died in an inferno fueled by employer abuses. We say it could never happen again, but of course it could. Across America, workers suffer from the heat or cold in big box warehouses as well as unsafe conditions in slaughterhouses and factories.
Especially when GPS devices in cars were new (and occasionally even now, when most of us just use map apps on our phones), there were lots of stories about people blithely driving into lakes or off cliffs or over broken bridges because they followed the advice of their devices rather than looking at the world around them. Certainly, I have followed GPS directions into weird neighborhoods and down bizarre side streets I never would have visited otherwise.


text:
I fled an extremist Jewish cult in Guatemala when I was 15 years old. I grew up with virtually no education and wasn't allowed to show love to my parents.
Lev Tahor leaders are on trial in New York for fraud and kidnapping. I fled the extremist group after rabbis ordered me to marry a 12-year-old girl.
Cult experts explain why R. Kelly's accusers would stay in his orbit despite harrowing abuse allegations
Cult experts told Insider they believe R. Kelly used fear, charisma, and behavior modification tactics to keep his accusers from leaving him.
Lawyers for 'Smallville' star Allison Mack say she deserves no prison time after cooperating with the investigation into the NXIVM sex cult
Mack has apologized for her role in the sex cult, calling it the "greatest regret" of her life. She's scheduled to be sentenced on June 30.
A free-living commune in Tennessee used TikTok to attract new members, but the strategy may have backfired
The Garden, a free-living commune in Tennessee, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people on TikTok. The new viewers brought scrutiny.
QAnon believers lost faith after Biden's inauguration, but the conspiracy theory won't disappear
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory may join cults, other extremist movements, or find new ways to spread the message of Q, experts said.
The science-backed psychology techniques Nxivm used to 'fetishize vulnerability' and manipulate members into sex
According to therapist Kelly Scott, Nxivm leader Keith Raniere employed science-backed theory to make his manipulation seem reasonable to followers.
Ex-cult member breaks down 11 cults in movies and TV
Ian Haworth escaped from a Toronto cult in 1978 and founded the Cult Information Centre, a charity providing advice and information for cult victims.
The world didn't end, and this once thriving doomsday cult has faded. But some of its loyal leaders still operate near Yellowstone National Park.
Inside the Church of the Universal and Triumphant, a doomsday cult that once counted thousands of followers.
Politics 2020-01-18T06:01:59Z
Lev Parnas and Michael Cohen are right to think working for Trump was like being in a cult, according to a cult expert
Steve Hassan, cult expert and author of "The Cult of Trump," told Insider that various aspects of Trump's presidency resembles that of a cult group.
People 2019-04-08T17:21:00Z
I grew up in a cult and I can tell you why 'normal' people join them
Aside from a conservative dress code and a ban on makeup, toys, and birthdays, the church was full of outwardly kind people.
6 of the most infamous cults in history
From charismatic leaders to disturbing allegations, the true story of some of history's most infamous cults and religious groups.
The expression 'drinking the Kool-Aid' was coined from a horrifying tragedy that happened 40 years ago this weekend
November 18 is the 40th anniversary of the mass murder-suicide of more than 900 people, most of them Americans, who were members of a California cult.
LaCroix slams insecticide lawsuit in an over-the-top press release that calls itself a 'cult' deserving of 'patriotism'
LaCroix is embracing its cult status in the face of a lawsuit that claims the drink contains artificial ingredients. "There is an unspoken phrase within a cult – 'We got each other's back!'" Nick A. Caporella, CEO of LaCroix parent company Natural Beverages, said in a press release.
10 people who say they were in a cult — and how they got the courage to leave
Most people don't want to believe it, but given the right circumstances, it can be easy to fall prey to a cult. Still, there's hope — and here are 10 stories of people who say they successfully escaped from a cult.
'Dynasty' actress who helped take down NXIVM claims the alleged sex cult wanted to infiltrate Mexico's government through a former president's son
In excerpts from "Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult," Oxenberg details how NXIVM founder Keith Raniere tried to expand into the Mexico's political elite. The actress wrote her book after revealing her own daughter, India, was involved int he alleged cult.
Netflix's 'Wild Wild Country' directors explain how they unraveled the story of a cult famous for sex, Rolls Royces, and bioterrorism
An interview with directors of Netflix's "Wild Wild Country," a docuseries of the Rajneesh cult in the 1980s that tried to build a utopian commune in Oregon.
A 'self help' club for women allegedly requires naked photos for admission, brands members with a hot iron, and urges them to follow a near-starvation diet
Keith Raniere's "self help" group NXIVM is accused of branding its members, among other manipulative tactics, in a bombshell report from the New York Times.
Scientists have found evidence of a mysterious 'skull cult' in an ancient temple
A new study published in the journal Science Advances describes at least 691 shards and chunks of bone found at an ancient ritual site in southeast Turkey.
How Scientology leader David Miscavige rose to power, according to insiders
A&E docuseries "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" examines how David Miscavige inherited Scientology from its creator L. Ron Hubbard.
One of America's creepiest hotels is undergoing a $44 million transformation into apartments — here's what it looked like before
Philadelphia's old Divine Lorraine Hotel is being turned into an apartment complex.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
copy ..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.xml ../style/module.xsl
cd functions
cd evaluate
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.evaluate.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.evaluate.zip @dyn.evaluate.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.evaluate.use-cases.zip @dyn.evaluate.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
cd functions
cd min
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.min.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.min.zip @dyn.min.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.min.use-cases.zip @dyn.min.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
cd functions
cd max
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.max.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.max.zip @dyn.max.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.max.use-cases.zip @dyn.max.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
cd functions
cd sum
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.sum.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.sum.zip @dyn.sum.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.sum.use-cases.zip @dyn.sum.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
cd functions
cd map
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.map.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.map.zip @dyn.map.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.map.use-cases.zip @dyn.map.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
cd functions
cd closure
copy ..\..\..\style\base.css .
saxon dyn.closure.xml ../../../style/function.xsl
wzzip -P -o dyn.closure.zip @dyn.closure.package.txt
wzzip -P -o dyn.closure.use-cases.zip @dyn.closure.use-cases.txt
cd ..
cd ..
wzzip -P -o dyn.zip @dyn.package.txt
cd ..
saxon modules.xml style/home.xsl
saxon modules.xml style/package.xsl
wzzip -P -o all-exslt.zip @package.txt
saxon modules.xml style/xml-package.xsl
wzzip -P -o exslt.zip @xml-package.txt
cd dyn

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


www.nesaralaw.us ⭐ 10 out of 10 based on 396 ratings. 2015 user reviews.
Download Kawasaki Z 750 Wiring Diagram Pdf, ePub, Mobi.
As an manager of a car, I find me being intelligent on the subject matter of auto wires. Since I am pretty much the last person who must be tinkering with everything that has electronic up-to-date jogging via it, I was hesitant to make an attempt to tackle the dilemma of auto wires.
Nonetheless my vehicle determined or else when it begun to randomly find electronic techniques it wished to me tamper with. When the electronic seating straps begun to slide lower back and forth while not factor as I drove downward the freeway, I made a decision I greater discover ways to tamper with the electronic techniques, thinking about the exuberant amount of auto restoration.
I came across my own self with a determination either to, break down and shell out $100 an hour or so for a so-identified as expert to view it and try to restoration it, or I really could determine how the electronic system of my car been working. Thinking of my point of ignorance I likely was going to try to overcome the out of the question. In the end the only factor I realized about electronic programs is that Air conditioning/DC was a rock and roll group and that newbies and wires typically failed to get along.
On the other hand even with my reluctance, I set out to discover some tips i could about auto wires. I easily learned that there is a significant offer of facts located on the topic of auto wires. A swift explore Yahoo furnished me using an selection of facts. There are various concentrations of websites giving facts.
Some websites furnished a fundamental summary of the average electronic system of most cars. A company branded Longer Area Customs presented some great fundamental facts. They expressed their facts was simply just for a fundamental being familiar with and not for a comprehensive justification of certain models. Yet they truly offer some in depth facts about fundamental programs these as Air conditioning and lighting effects. Additionally they offer some great issues taking pictures facts.


This was my last rig as of 3-15-08. I split everything up into 2 rack cases. The main Rack is a Rok Sak 4 space. It is plywood covered in nylon. It is durable yet light and easy to carry. Here I have 3 VL70m's with Turbo Chips, a TOA D3 Mixer, the new Synthophone Power Supply, and a Quadra Merge. In the Gator 3 space rack Bag there is the Kenton wireless Midi Receiver and the Furman Power Conditioner/ Voltage Regulator.
Below are a "few" of the many rigs I have assembled since about 2002.
Rig as of 9-23-06. Simplicity makes for less weight, less connections to come undone, and it is easier to make clean layering of the synths.
This was the rig that is in a 4 space effects rack prior to dropping another VL70-m in favor simplicity . It was a bit of a task getting everything to fit but all of the components and wiring are very snug and secure. The Bose PAS allowed for a reduction in components.(( update 5-29-07)) I have returned to basically this same setup. Two VL's are real nice for layering sounds. Eventually I will have 3 back in my rig. The horn section sounds and other layers are pristine , and very authentic sounding. I would have to sacrifice only a few sounds in the XV to go this way again.
Below is a view of the actual wiring. Everything is secured with wire ties ,and velcro.
Note the Antenna mounts. For both the Sennheiser Wireless In Ear Monitor , and the Kenton. I have installed antenna extensions to allow rack mounting. This is the old rig before it was modified and downsized.


text:
Fiction | August 27, 2018 August 27, 2018
Coldwater Canyon: An Excerpt
by Anne-Marie Kinney
An excerpt from Coldwater Canyon (Civil Coping Mechanisms, October 2018)
She'd be coming out the east side of the building. Shep knew because he'd been here before, because she'd been here before. He had followed her on two buses, from her stop on Colfax—just a couple of miles from his home—all the way to the casting office on Ventura. He'd watched her crouch in the parking garage's stairwell to check her makeup, her headshots and resumes tucked in a manila envelope under her arm, watched her make ethereal faces into her compact, practicing her poignant stare.
While he waited, he tried to imagine what those offices looked like inside. Were they Hollywood-slick, with real plants and glass tabletops, or was she sitting under buzzing fluorescent lights, the walls stuffed with asbestos, brushing the balls of her feet rhythmically against stained berber carpet? He liked to imagine Lila in these quiet moments, daydreaming her surroundings, wondering at her thoughts. His gaze floated up to a billboard with a male model holding a bottle of Tanqueray, his hair slicked back and skinny tie flying three-dimensionally beyond the billboard's edge.
"I know you're bored, Lionel. I never promised you excitement." The dog lay on his side on the passenger seat, his tongue lolling slightly out the side of his mouth. Shep scratched his belly, and the dog kicked his leg in a jerky, circular motion. While he waited, Shep tried to ignore a drilling ache in his own belly, one he'd woken with that morning. He rested his hand on the spot as though holding the pain back from spreading through the rest of his body.
When she emerged a half hour later, it took him a moment to notice that she was in some kind of distress. She looked wan, with a new pallor, her jaw quavering. Her hands were trembling as she opened and closed her mouth, seemingly making a deliberate effort to breathe. The manila envelope slipped from her fingers onto the pavement and she quickly crouched down to scoop it up before it blew into a puddle on the sidewalk. She clutched the envelope to her chest and took a few more deep breaths, then rose slowly, carefully, on her too-high platform heels.
Shep started the car and waited until she was half a block ahead of him before pulling out to follow. From behind, she looked so much like Lorene, though her gait was quick, her steps clipped and narrow, not like Lorene's at all come to think of it. Lorene always walked like she knew people were watching, like she was performing a walk. He remembered the first time he'd seen her outside Wilcox High. He was a senior, ditching last period with Marty Cumberland, who would be killed not two years after graduation, flipping his dad's tractor off the side of highway 136 while Shep lay in a bunk in Saudi.
It was just a few weeks into the school year. They were smoking under the bleachers during a free period, he hanging lackadaisically with his hands gripping the aluminum bars while Marty re-packed the bowl, when the double doors at the back of the gym opened, cutting the afternoon's lulling prairie stillness. He signaled to Marty to hide the pipe under his backpack. Then she appeared in gym clothes, cotton shorts and Wilcox Wildcats t-shirt tied in a knot at her hip. Even in tennis shoes she walked with purpose, her hips in a controlled swing, her backpack hanging from one shoulder, blond bangs swept low over her right eye. She pulled a tube of lipgloss from her bag and gently dabbed at her lips without consulting a mirror.
Marty pulled the pipe back out and flicked his lighter, satisfied that no teacher was coming, but Shep just stared. She must be a freshman, he thought, because he was certain he'd never seen her before. A black Chevy pulled up at the curb and the girl waved. She leaned into the window to greet the unseen driver before crossing over to the passenger side and climbing in. The truck pulled out of the parking lot, and Shep watched it all the way until it passed the water tower to the north, where it faded out into the dusty horizon.
"You see that?" he said to Marty.
Marty shook his Bic lighter and flicked it again, trying to get a flame. "Yeah, nice tits," he nodded.
Shep shook his head and resumed swinging from the aluminum bars.
The similarity must be in his head, he reasoned now. Lila didn't seem to be quite so aware of her beauty, not as blazingly confident. He hesitated to take note of her backside in the filmy sundress she was wearing, which threatened to fly up with every gust of wind. She kept her fingertips grazing its short hemline, clamping down with her palm every time the breeze picked up. She didn't usually dress like that. When she wasn't dressed in her work uniform, he usually saw her in jeans and t-shirts. He wondered if some fat cigar-chomping agent or casting director had told her she had to be sexier, and fumed a little on her behalf. Still, she was more beautiful than Lorene had ever been, if such a thing were possible. She'd taken her long, dirty blond hair down, and it blew about her tanned shoulders as she walked with her head down.
Suddenly, Lila stopped as though stricken. She ducked to her right and disappeared into an alley. Shep pulled over and without thinking, stopped the car, Lionel barking in protest at being left behind as his master got out and approached on foot, thinking she must be sick or hurt or worse, not thinking of what he would say or do when he caught up to her.
He peered into the alley to find her crouched down on her haunches, her back to the wall, sobbing. Her eyes were squeezed shut as her shoulders heaved.
Shep froze, realizing that there was nothing he could do here. She wouldn't recognize him surely, and he couldn't risk revealing himself. Besides which, he had no way of consoling her. He knew what this, what he, looked like. Even if he came to her saying, "shhh, shhh, it's alright," as he would to a child, even if he said her name, good god, especially if.
Her crying tapered off, and she breathed roughly for a minute, wiping her face with a disintegrating tissue she'd fished out of her purse. Shep knew he should leave, that she would scream if she saw him there, snooping down the alley at her private despair. Was it the audition? Had they been cruel to her, or was it something deeper, a longstanding torment of which he knew nothing and could never hope to understand?
On a count of three, he turned away from her, resting his face on the white-painted brick for a moment before returning to the car. He heaved himself into the driver's seat as Lionel climbed all over him, lapping at every inch of his neck and chin. Shep set the dog back down on the passenger seat. He started the car up again and sat with his hands on the wheel, waiting for the engine to stop coughing. A minute later, she emerged from the alley, her face freshened as though nothing had happened, and continued on her way. He pulled out of the spot and followed, painfully aware now that the time he'd invested into following her was giving him an idea of her habits, but no insight into her soul. There was no coming back from it, no way to replace the years.
They came to a red light. Shep stopped at the intersection, and Lila stopped just a few feet to his right on the sidewalk. What was he doing to her? Even taking her obliviousness as a given, this had to be a violation. But who was he hurting?
The light stayed red, and Shep's thoughts drifted to his return from the Gulf in '91. No one had come to meet him at the airfield. He'd looked for his grandmother among all the crying, clutching families, knowing somehow that she wouldn't be there, surprised by his lack of surprise. He caught a bus to Harner, his pack stuffed between his knees and the seat in front of him. He leaned his temple against the window as the sun melted into the fields.
When he got to town, he found the streets empty. It was dinnertime. He pictured all the families inside at kitchen tables, sharing their days, with the windows closed and curtains drawn to hold in the warmth they generated together. He walked slowly, his thoughts scattered and ungraspable, as though his mind were a deck of cards, with every card accounted for, somewhere, but strewn about the floor in disarray. The air was crisp, but there was no snow left on the ground, and he understood what had him so disoriented: he'd missed winter.
He walked right past his grandmother's house and found himself instead on Lorene's front stoop. He was sure she'd forgotten him, probably moved on to some boy in her class. But he had to see her. He had to ask her if he still had a chance. Did the time matter so much, if he could find the words to explain how thoughts of her had kept him alive when it felt as though the loneliness would drown him in his cot, how just closing his eyes and calling up her scent had blocked out the fear of death? He cringed at some of the words he felt brimming at the top of his throat, all the promises and revelations he felt buzzing within. He was sweating with the effort of containing it all.
Before he got a chance to knock, the door opened, and he was met with Lorene's mother's pinched face.
"What are you doing standing here like a statue?"
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I was just about to—is Lorene home? I just wanted to see her."
Her face softened for just a moment as she noticed his pack and the fatigues he was still wearing. But she steeled herself again just as quickly.
"She's not here."
"Oh…is there a game tonight? Is she at school?"
"No, she's not at…just go on home."
"Oh," Shep nodded, slightly dazed, "Well, do you know where I might find her?" It was dark now, and the moon was just a sliver short of fullness. He had a mind to wander back to the high school anyway, just in case.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, and shut the door.
Shep stumbled as he stepped down from the porch and looked up toward Lorene's bedroom window. He thought for just a second that he saw the white lace curtain lifted by a finger, but when he looked again, it seemed as though he hadn't seen anything after all.
Hangdog and heart-bruised, he made his way back to his grandmother's house. He was wary in a way he couldn't quite articulate. He'd always felt vaguely like a long-term boarder, benefiting from home-cooked meals, but realistic enough not to expect too much in the way of familial affection from the woman he'd been foisted upon as a kindergartener. He'd often wondered why she kept him, why she hadn't surrendered him to some other family member, though he couldn't name any natural candidates. Now that he'd been gone so long, he half-wondered if he was still welcome. Maybe she'd taken in a renter by now, packed up his things and plunked them in the attic alongside his mother's boxes, relegated to the sealed-off past.
As he climbed the front steps, he was struck by a coughing fit. His throat convulsed as tears trickled from the corners of his eyes. Finally, the coughing subsided, and he spit thick black liquid into the soil beneath his grandmother's hedges. He kicked dirt over the puddle, wiped hot saliva from his mouth and caught his breath.
The windows were darkened, but he found the door unlocked.
"Hello? Gran?"
There was no answer, and Shep set his pack down softly in the entryway and removed his boots. He turned on the living room lamp and was startled at the mess. Piles of laundry sat unfolded on the sofa, spilling over onto the carpet. Filthy plates, cloudy glasses and sticky utensils were scattered on the coffee table, and a fine layer of dust covered every surface. He picked up a coffee cup and found a sticky ring underneath, swarming with ants. He sniffed the air. Something, somewhere in the house, was rotting.
"Gran, are you here?" he called louder now.
He found her upstairs, sitting on the edge of her bed. She was in her nightgown, slouched with her hands clasped in her lap, staring at the wall.
Shep lowered himself to his knees in front of her and tried to catch her eye.
"Gran? It's me. I'm back."
She didn't look at him.
"You…okay?"
Something struck him about the way she was holding her hands and he reached out and gently tried to separate them from each other. Maybe he could help her up, take her down to the kitchen, maybe make her a cup of tea if she had any in the pantry. But the fingers were stuck in their position, the fingers gnarled around each other. Her thumb spasmed, and Shep clamped his palm down over it.
Her head rolled downward slowly toward him. Her eyes were glassy, bloodshot.
"Gran, can you hear me?"
She was facing him, looking into his eyes, but he could tell that she wasn't seeing him, or at least didn't fully recognize who she was looking at. He held onto her hands. He wanted to cry, felt that this was the time to do it, finally, if ever there was a time, but he didn't have any tears in him. He stared at the carpet. He breathed in the rot.
A horn honked behind him and Shep flinched. He drove ahead and scanned the sidewalk, finding Lila a block ahead of him already. What was he doing? Whatever it was, he was at an impasse, unable to stop himself but unable to get any closer either.
The girl made a right turn, and Shep signaled to follow her, but when he reached the intersection, he turned off the signal and kept on going straight. He squeezed the steering wheel tight, his nails digging grooves into the meat of his palms.
Anne-Marie Kinney is the author of two novels, Radio Iris (2012, Two Dollar Radio) and Coldwater Canyon (forthcoming from Civil Coping Mechanisms in October, 2018). Her short fiction has been published in journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, The Rattling Wall, Joyland, The Collagist, Fanzine and Black Clock. She lives in Los Angeles.
Daughters of the Air


text:
Pa. coronavirus cases top 7,000, with more than 1,200 new cases; 90 have died
Updated: Apr. 02, 2020, 12:33 p.m. |
Published: Apr. 02, 2020, 12:03 p.m.
Drone views of Harrisburg rush hour during coronavirus
Ron Southwick | rsouthwick@pennlive.com
Pennsylvania has reported 1,211 new coronavirus cases today, raising the statewide total to 7,016.
At least 90 have died, including 16 new fatalities today, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Cases have been reported in 62 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
Seven deaths have been reported in the Harrisburg region, including two newly reported fatalities today in Lancaster and York counties.
The health department posted new numbers today. It's the largest one-day increase in cases to date.
The bulk of the cases have been reported in the Philadelphia area. But cases are rising across the commonwealth, including central Pennsylvania.
Most of those who have been screened have tested negative for the virus. There are 47,698 patients who have tested negative. The department no longer reports the number of pending test results since the bulk of the testing is now done in commercial laboratories.
Philadelphia leads the state with 1,852 cases and 13 deaths. Montgomery County is second in the number of cases (735) and tied for third in fatalities with Northampton County (9). Monroe County, with a much smaller population than Philadelphia, is second in fatalities statewide with 10.
In central Pennsylvania, Lancaster County leads the region with 203 cases and 4 deaths. York County has topped 100 cases, the second highest figure in the midstate. Today, York County reported its first death due to the virus, the health department said. Other counties in the Harrisburg region continue to see more cases.
Here's a look at the total number of cases in the rest of the midstate counties: Dauphin (67, including 1 death); Lebanon (45); Cumberland (41, including 1 death); Franklin (23); Adams (18); and Perry (3).
In western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County has topped 400 cases. Other counties in the western part of the state continue to see more cases.
Gov. Tom Wolf has taken aggressive steps to stem the spread of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, the governor issued a statewide order for all residents to stay at home except for essential trips. He had previously issued stay-at-home orders for a host of counties, including the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas, but held off on extending the order across the commonwealth.
"This virus is spreading rapidly," Wolf said. "It's in every corner of our state."
For perspective, the first coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania were reported on March 6.
Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine have urged residents to practice social distancing and limit trips to the grocery store. They've said they worry that a surge of new patients could potentially overwhelm hospitals.
The governor has closed schools indefinitely. On Wednesday, Wolf said the state could allow students to move to their next grade level in the fall, based on the work they have completed before schools were shut down. School districts are moving to remote learning to deliver instruction to students.
Wolf has also ordered businesses that aren't life-sustaining to shut down. Thousands of businesses have applied for waivers from the state to stay open, arguing that they are providing essential goods and services. Some trade groups have also complained the waiver process appears arbitrary, with some businesses being allowed to open while companies in the same sector are told they must remain closed.
Universities and colleges around Pennsylvania have moved to online instruction and said they won't resume in-person classes for the rest of the semester.
The health department doesn't offer statistics on how many people recover from the coronavirus. The department has said hospitals inform the state about positive cases but don't report when patients are discharged. Most patients who contract the virus do recover.
More from PennLive
When will we be done with coronavirus? Pa. searches, hoping for hint of downward bend
Coronavirus brings Pennsylvania's construction industry to a near standstill
Pa. residents with disabilities worry coronavirus rationing will deem them expendable


text:
package com.github.jsonldjava.core;

import org.junit.Test;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

public class DecimalLiteralCanonicalTest {

    @Test
    public void testDecimalIsNotCanonicalized() {
        double value = 6.5;

        Map<String, Object> innerMap = new HashMap<>();
        innerMap.put("@value", value);
        innerMap.put("@type", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal");

        Map<String, Object> jsonMap = new HashMap<>();
        jsonMap.put("ex:id", innerMap);

        JsonLdApi api = new JsonLdApi(jsonMap, new JsonLdOptions(""));
        RDFDataset dataset = api.toRDF();

        List<Object> defaultList = (List<Object>) dataset.get("@default");
        Map<String, Object> tripleMap = (Map<String, Object>) defaultList.get(0);
        Map<String, String> objectMap = (Map<String, String>) tripleMap.get("object");

        assertEquals("http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal", objectMap.get("datatype"));
        assertEquals(Double.toString(value), objectMap.get("value"));
    }
}


text:
Latest Attempt in Cyber Warfare
By admin|2017-06-29T07:36:56+00:00June 30th, 2017|News|Comments Off on Latest Attempt in Cyber Warfare
Many major firms, airports and government departments in Ukraine have been struck by a massive cyber attack which spread across Europe this week. This interesting news came to us from The Telegraph in their article, "Petya cyber attack: Ransomware spreads across Europe with firms in Ukraine, Britain and Spain shut down."
Ukrainian government departments, the central bank, a state-run aircraft manufacturer, the airport in Kiev and the metro network have all been paralyzed by the hack.
The virus is believed to be ransomware – a piece of malicious software that shuts down a computer system and then demands an extortionate sum of money to fix the problem. It comes on the shadow of another threat – WannaCry – which affected more than 150 countries. It is believed by American and British analysts that the WannaCry attack in May was carried out by North Korea. It still remains unclear who is responsible for this latest attack.
It has never been more important to secure your systems, make frequent back-ups and be diligent about access to your enterprises.
breachcyberattackscybersecuritydatagovernmentransomwaresecurity
Access Innovations Completes Thesaurus and Indexing Project for Hindawi Limited


Home » Women's Health » Is your lifestyle hurting your heart health?
Laughter is the best medicine for your heart because it can reverse the harmful effects of stress and negativity.
You can strengthen your heart through regular exercise and a well-balanced diet.
High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels are the leading indicators for heart disease.
Your heart is the most important muscle in your body, and it does amazing things for your body every day. So, it's important to take care of it. Not only does it beat more than 100,000 times per day, but it also sends about 3,600 gallons of oxygen-rich blood through 75,000 miles of blood vessels throughout your body – every day. Now, that's a lot of work.
When the body is at rest, it takes six seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, eight seconds to go to the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to go all the way to the toes and back.
Only five percent of your blood supplies the heart, 15-20 percent goes to the brain and central nervous system, and 22 percent goes to the kidneys.
The heart sits in the center of the chest, not on the left side. The bottom of the heart tips slightly to the left, which is why you feel it beating more on the left side.
The heart creates enough energy in a single lifetime to drive a truck to the moon and back.
Is your lifestyle hurting your heart?
If you internalize negative emotions, you may be increasing your risk for heart disease. Negativity and stress can raise the levels of inflammatory-causing chemicals in the body, which often lead to atherosclerosis, a hardening of the arteries.
Irregular flossing can lead to gum disease, which has been linked to an increased risk for heart disease. Luckily this disease is preventable with regular brushing, flossing and swishing with mouthwash.
Eating too much red meat has been linked to cardiovascular disease due to its elevated levels of cholesterol and saturated fat. Switch up your diet so meat accounts for about 10 percent of your daily calories and fresh leafy green vegetables, fruit and whole grains fill up the other 90 percent.
If you avoid fresh fruits and vegetables, you can be hurting your heart health. Lower your risk for heart disease by as much as 20 percent when you add five servings of mineral and nutrient-packed fruits and vegetables to your diet each day.
Now is the perfect time to be proactive about your heart health by scheduling regular checkups with your doctor. The Swedish Heart & Vascular Institute is the leading cardiovascular care center in western Washington. Our expert physicians provide advice on how to prevent and manage risk factors for heart disease. Find out your risk by taking our online heart quiz.


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Library website (171)
Humanities (1,138)
Social and Behavioural Sciences (145)
2,218 search results for "colonialism imperialism and heritage" in the Public website
Mapping Identity in Dutch Colonial Sri Lanka (1658-1796) Research project
At the heart of this study is a thorough inquiry of categorisations of social identity used in the VOC's record-keeping bureaucracy. How were service, occupational and caste groups classified and shaped by the VOC?
Queering the Museum: Contemporary Artists and Curators as 'Critical Visitors' and their Creative Interventions Research project
Doctoral research on recent developments in museological practices by "critical" curators, interventionist artists, and personnel initiatives, focusing on 'queering' as an entrance point to broader intersectional issues; resulting in a report on the 'Queer Baseline' (to be launched in 2020), a popular…
Creating Nubia: How Colonialism, Tourism, and Archaeology Made a Region, a Past, and a People Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo
The lecture will be hosted on THURSDAY, 12 JANUARY 2023 AT 18:00 UTC+02
Beyond Empires: Global, Self-Organizing, Cross-Imperial Networks, 1500-1800 Research output
Beyond Empires explores the complexity of empire building from the point of view of self-organized networks, rather than from the point of view of the central state.
Falling bombs and looting soldiers: how to protect Ukraine's cultural heritage? News - 23 January 2023
The war in Ukraine is leading not only to human suffering. Ukraine's cultural heritage is also experiencing the consequences of the war: museums are being bombed and 'Russification' in the occupied territories means children no longer learn Ukrainian. Researcher Evelien Campfens was commissioned by…
Imperial Legacies in Early-Modern South India. Dynastic Politics in the Vijayanagara Successor States Research project
This research deals with the royal houses of the Vijayanagara Empire and four of its successor states: Ikkeri, Tanjavur (under both the Nayaka and Bhonsle rulers), Madurai, and Ramnad. This study is thus concerned with dynastic politics and imperial legacies in south India between the 14th and 18th…
Changes that threaten heritage News - 10 March 2017
The oil pipeline in Dakota, the widening of the motorway near Stonehenge, the construction of dams in Turkey and Iraq: newspapers and social media are full of alarming articles about threats to heritage as a result of large-scale construction work. Heritage experts at Leiden University have developed…
Promise, Pretence and Pragmatism: Governance and Taxation in Colonial Indonesia, 1870-1940 Research output
On 2 Juni 2021, Maarten Manse defended his thesis 'Promise, Pretence and Pragmatism: Governance and Taxation in Colonial Indonesia, 1870-1940'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. R. Arendsen.
Colonialism and Slavery: An Alternative History of the Port City of Rotterdam Research output
Unlike most city histories, this book focuses exclusively on the city's connections with colonialism and slavery.
Classicism and cultural interaction in the late republican and early imperial Rome Research project
This project examines the intriguing relationship between Greek literary criticism and Latin literature in Rome (first centuries BC and AD).
Borderless Empire: Dutch Guiana in the Atlantic World, 1750–1800 Research output
How geographical and institutional openness in Dutch Guiana fostered a unique colonial economy. This publication is part of the Early American Places Series.
'The Eurasian Question': The postcolonial dilemmas of three colonial mixed-ancestry groups compared Research project
Why did some Eurasians opt for staying in the former colony while others left for the metropolis or another country?
Succesful online conference: Imperial Artefacts News - 11 March 2021
On January 28 and 29, 2021 the conference 'Imperial Artefacts: History, Law and the Looting of Cultural Property' took place online. This first of its kind event at Leiden University was an interdisciplinary online conference and brought together (post-)colonial historians, legal historians, curators,…
missions and societies in the Middle East: organizations, identities, heritagization (XIXth-XXIth centuries) Research project
The project re-examines the role of the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries in the cultural and social developments of the Middle East and their interactions with the indigenous communities, from the nineteenth century until today. It seeks to discover and retrace such 'entangled histories'…
Founding an Inclusive Space: Legacies of Alternative Archiving Practices in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom Research project
The project 'Founding an Inclusive Space' investigates the histories of various LGBT+ archives in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Bente de Leede PhD candidate
The potential of intangible loss: reassembling heritage and reconstructing the social in post-disaster Japan Research output
Attitudes towards cultural heritage have long been characterised by an 'endangerment sensibility' concerned with preventing losses. Recently, however, critical heritage scholars have argued that loss can be generative, facilitating the formation of new values and attachments. Their arguments have focused…
Moved by the tears of others: emotion networking in the heritage sphere Research output
There is no heritage without emotional sharing and clashing. This article explores the involvement of divergent emotions in heritage making by discussing the debate series of Imagine IC and the Reinwardt Academy and zooming in on the commemoration of slavery and imagery of 'Black Pete' in the Netherlands.…
Language Diversity Research Dossier
Language offers new insights into our history, cultural differences, migration, and the way in which our brain processes information. This knowledge can in turn help us understand what it means to be human, as well as opening the way to many practical applications. In order to realise these goals, linguists…
Master's Online Experience Day Colonial and Global History: Online Q&A Event - 21 February 2023
Queer Salon, bringing together insiders and outsiders Research project
Doctoral research on the history of the critical visitor and their efforts at founding alternative archives including LGBT+-focused, feminist, disability and digitizing projects, resulting in a traveling exhibition on findings (with audio-guides), popular and scholarly article, and a dissertation.
The Nahua-Tlaxcalteca Calendar during the colonial period and the contemporary perception of time in Santa Catarina (Acaxochitlan, Hidalgo, México) Research project
How was time understood during the colonial period by Tlaxcaltecan Naua communities? What is the relationship between time, spirituality and ritual in the present-day Naua community of Santa Catarina? What does this tell us about the strengths and values of Indigenous heritage and about the impact of…
White Lies and Black Markets Research output
In 'White Lies and Black Markets. Evading Metropolitan Authority in Colonial Suriname, 1650-1800' dr. Karwan Fatah-Black offers a new account of the colonization of Suriname in the period between 1650-1800.
networks of human mobility and exchange of goods and ideas from a pre-colonial, pan-Caribbean perspective Research project
Since the emergence of humankind people have maintained social contacts and traveled widely, establishing interaction networks in which goods are traded and ideas are transmitted, increasingly on a global scale.
Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914-1945: "Aliens in Uniform" in Wartime Societies Research output
Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914-1945:
Slave in a Palanquin: Colonial Servitude and Resistance in Sri Lanka Research output
For hundreds of years, the island of Sri Lanka was a crucial stopover for people and goods in the Indian Ocean. For the Dutch East India Company, it was also a crossroads in the Indian Ocean slave trade. Slavery was present in multiple forms in Sri Lanka—then Ceylon—when the British conquered the island…
DigiDogon: Digitizing Dogon heritage. The legacy of Abirè, the Dogon prophet
This project aims at recording and safeguarding parts of the intangible cultural heritage of the Dogon in central Mali. A major song cycle, the baja ni, forms an integral part of Dogon funeral traditions. The song cycle is attributed to Abirè, a blind Dogon poet/prophet, probably from the 19th c., who…
Visions of Rome. Strategic Appropriation of the Roman Heritage in Humanist Latin Poetry Research project
This research project analyses the use of different, often competing, stereotypical images of Rome in Humanist Latin Poetry, by considering it as strategic appropriation of the classical heritage.
Field Labs: Testing Intersectional Approaches to Inclusive Actions Research project
Subproject of the NWO Smart Culture Grant research project 'The Critical Visitor'.
On-Campus Master's Experience Day Colonial and Global History: Try-out lecture Event - 17 March 2023
Reproducing past, present and future: colonial visions and experience in Asia in the residencies Research project
Reproducing past, present and future: colonial visions and experience in Asia in the residencies
Resurrection of Esoteric Buddhism through Wuguang's Appropriation of Imperially Imported Shingon Research project
This study elucidates a critical facet of modern global Buddhism that has escaped the attention of the scholarly community by exploring the life, teachings and influence of Master Wuguang 悟光上師 (1918-2000).
Negotiating Conversion and Family Law in eighteenth century Dutch Colonial Sri Lanka Research project
What was the function of the Dutch Protestant Church in Sri Lankan society? Why did people relate to the Church and how did conversion influence their life course?
in ethnically mixed relationships of immigrants from Dutch former colonies in the Netherlands, 1945-2005 Research project
Subproject of
Central Asia Initiative
The Central Asia Initiative is funded by the Leiden research profile area Asian Modernities and Traditions with the purpose to establish Central Asian Studies at Leiden University.
Asia and the UN Research project
Subproject of the ERC project 'Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within: The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South'.
The impact of Rome on cult places and religious practices in ancient Italy, BICS Supplement 132, London 2015 Research output
This publication of the School of Advanced Study of the University of London is one of the outcomes of the Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization project and the Colonial Rural Networks project (NWO, Dr. T.D. Stek). The volume, edited by Tesse Stek and prof. Gert-Jan Burgers of the Free University Amsterdam,…
From molecules to planets: Exploring the chemical heritage of solar systems Research project
Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800) Research project
Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)
About the programme Colonial and Global History (MA)
During the one-year master's programme in Colonial and Global History you will learn about the importance of a comparative perspective for understanding transnational processes such as imperialism, colonialism, islamisation, modernisation and globalisation.
Heritage Quest project wins European Heritage Europa Nostra Award News - 14 October 2022
Heritage Quest is a large-scale citizen science project in the field of archaeology that allows anyone to contribute to scientific research. It is the first large-scale archaeological citizen science project in The Netherlands and one of the few of its kind in the world. As part of the Cultural Heritage…
Fernweh Research output
Crossing borders and connecting people in archaeological heritage management. Essays in honour of prof. Willem J.H. Willems
Archival Interactions: Artists and Archivists Research project
LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development receives funding for a MOOC on "Heritage under Threat" News - 8 October 2015
The Centre for Global Heritage and Development has been successful in applying for a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on the topic of threatened heritage at ICTO, the platform for innovation and education at Leiden University.
Museums, Collections & Society
Leiden and The Hague are home to many museums with large numbers of artefacts and archives. Leiden University also and Leiden University also houses special collections. Museums, Collections & Society stimulates research and education and raises ethical questions regarding the collections' origin.
The Critical Visitor Research project
The Heritage Sector at a Crossroads: The way of Intersectionality. This project investigates how heritage institutions can achieve inclusion and accessibility within their organization, collection, and exhibition spaces that meets the breadth of demands placed by today's "critical visitors." Fifteen…
Invisible Landscapes: Colonialism and history in Montecristi News - 12 December 2016
Archaeologist Eduardo Herrera Malatesta reflects on the unfamiliarity with the pre-Columbian past that he encountered during fieldwork in the Montecristi province in the Dominican Republic.
Call for Papers: Imperial Artefacts. History, Law, and the Looting of Cultural Property News - 10 June 2020
Call for Papers: Imperial Artefacts. History, Law, and the Looting of Cultural Property
Maritime History Colonial and Global History (MA)
Maritime History encompasses humankind's relationships to the seas and oceans of the world.
Shifting the compass Research output
Shifting the Compass: Pluricontinental Connections in Dutch Colonial and Postcolonial Literature


Alas! It's Spring! Flowers are bursting! Birds are tweeting! And your mailbox is jam packed with real estate flyers. Not that real estate flyers are the sole domain of this season, but they really do seem to increase in volume during warming months, when sales volumes tend to peak.
Some neighbourhoods will receive more than others. If you're in Toronto, though, you're pretty much guaranteed to receive a lot.
My neighbourhood gets its fair share of flyers, including my very own! As far as my flyers are concerned, I do try to include some relevant information that the reader will find useful, and I write every thing for it myself. But I think I'm in the minority here. I'm pretty sure most agents use a marketing company that writes their articles and provides the stats. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Some of the stats and articles are very well done. But I do think there is a general idea out there that agents write their own opinion pieces and stats on their flyers.
The one thing that gets under my skin a little, though, are the salespersons who claim to be the top 1%. There are far too many flyers going out with this claim. Mathematically, it just doesn't add up. But I guess you can be the top 1 % in Canada, at your brokerage, or #1 at your desk.
Then there's the awards. Such and such won the chairman award, the president's award, the gold star award. Good for you! Agents, you should be proud, but unless you're going to tell me what the award means, then don't bother to advertise with it.
The other thing I see a lot of is the complimentary free home evaluation. While I certainly think it is decent for salespersons to offer free home evaluations, let's not pretend it's a novelty. The ones that say: "This card entitles you to a complimentary free home evaluation" is almost laughable. I don't know of many real estate salespeople who do not offer a free home evaluation. Some don't bother, but most will. So, let's not pretend it's some thing special.
At the end of the day, most folks don't pay attention to real estate flyers. We all know that most of them that reach someone's mailbox goes straight into the recycling. And, providing your advertising isn't very offensive, it doesn't matter what your flyer says. It matters that after many years, when that one person decides to sell his or her house, he or she may wonder: Who is it that agent that sells homes in our neighbourhood again? And then, that real estate agent who has been filling their recycling for the past several years may cross their mind -that is, if they don't already know a salesperson already. And that's why we do it.
Still, I can't help it. I critique every thing that comes to my door as if I was not a salesperson, and I am just a homeowner. I do take the time to read it. So, if you're going to be sending me stuff, make it worth my while! Inform me or make me laugh. It doesn't have to be elaborate or even your own. Just make it worth the time, even if it's for only a minute out of my day.


Loeb & Loeb partner Corey Rubenstein is highlighted as counsel for MYR Group Inc. and is quoted on how a parent company's involvement in its subsidiary's OSHA training can affect liability. This article discusses the criminal case brought against MYR Group Inc. by the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Justice (DOJ) alleging multiple electrocution fatalities were the result of willful OSHA standard violations.
Click here to read the article on EHSToday's website.


Campbell, S.H. & Daley, K. (eds) (2009). Simulation Scenarios for Nurse Educators: Making it REAL. New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
Campbell, Suzanne Hetzel and Daley, Karen, "Simulation Scenarios for Nurse Educators: Making it REAL" (2009). Nursing and Health Studies Faculty Book Gallery. 2.


I heartily accept the motto that writing is a process of self-discovery. Deep thinkers write their way toward understanding and generating meaning from what they see, read, hear, and experience—I feel that as a teacher it is my responsibility to foster this sense of discovery in my writing classrooms. Further, I believe that both reading and writing are processes of self-discovery: we truly learn more about ourselves and our relative positions in social groups—ranging from the smaller family units that make up our primary discourse to broader civic units that make up our secondary discourses—through reading and writing. Reading, writing, and an acquisition of literacy in these various discourse communities enables students gain the power to position themselves within conversations that happen in those discourse communities so that they may communicate with confidence their views all while being aware of the shared values and beliefs that compose who their audience is. Furthermore, reading and writing also become processes of understanding the views of others' in relation to the views of the thinker; thus, I encourage my students to seek first to listen to the texts we read—to find common ground with them and then to respond to them in the context of their own views. My students take an active role in their learning during our processes of reading and writing, so they soon see me not as a conduit to hidden branches of knowledge but as a invested collaborator in their own learning wherein they are empowered to plant their own trees and harvest their own fruit in light of whatever their academic goals might be. In short: I am a constructivist, and I regularly sow in the minds of my students that reading and writing are tools that they will use throughout the university and throughout life, and the greatest part of my labor in convincing my students the truth of this is two-fold: I make reading and writing relevant to their own interests and goals; and I let them use reading and writing to help figure out what their goals are to begin with.
In my first year composition classes, students deconstruct their own attitudes and assumptions about social and cultural issues through reading, writing, language, and discussion, and this includes their attitudes and assumptions about what reading and writing is. They are learning the necessary skills to start their personal statement writer service. They learn that often times, attitudes and assumptions about issues in the public sphere are often handed down to them through their primary and early secondary discourse communities. As university students, however, my students learn to question their inherited attitudes and assumptions and to look at new ideas with a mindset that is curious, inquisitive, and open to new possibilities. In acquiring a new secondary discourse—namely the discourse of academia—they learn that good readers and good writers become good by doing reading and writing. This, in my view, makes strong moves toward undermining the precarious paradigm that good writing merely means demonstrating formal rule acquisition. In essence, writing is a performance of thinking that takes place in a social context, and my students experience this through every major writing prompt in my curriculum: they discover that writers write when they're compelled to respond to something; their responses have an audience; their audience has certain needs they need to be aware of; their audience has a chance to accept the truth-value of their responses if they address the needs of their audience; and their responses actually matter in the world beyond the writing classroom and their English teacher.
My attitude for collaborative learning and having an awareness of one's position within their various discourse communities grows out of my time as a reading and writing tutor at Fresno City College, a campus among campuses in terms of ethnic and cultural diversity. Often tutoring students of different cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds who were all taking the same composition courses as each other, I was espoused to the notion of looking at issues from a wide variety of perspectives. My time as a reading and writing tutor allowed me to frequently work one-on-one with students whose backgrounds differed from my own in a variety of ways, and I can say truthfully that they taught me just as much as I taught them: they helped me realize my own position in social constructs along with my own attitudes and assumptions about societal and global issues. In helping me be aware of my own primary and secondary discourses, they enabled me to critique those discourses and truly unpack my own attitudes and assumptions about societal and cultural issues. In a sense, this multi-cultural experience is what I want to give back to my students as their teacher.
I generally facilitate this approach to learning through my writing prompts which in truth serve as both reading and writing prompts; this helps my students see reading and writing as inextricably linked processes, and it helps them be aware of and enter into a conversation of ideas about a broad topic; therefore, they begin to enter the genre of scholarly, academic writing by treating their writing as a critical response to what other people are saying about their topic. For example, the penultimate unit of my English 10 course introduces my students into a conversation about culture, race, and ethnicity in the United States. In reading a selection of texts from a variety of authors, I ask students to summarize the views of what those authors are saying within this topic. Once students discover the specific branch of the overall conversation they wish to know more about and eventually join, they learn research skills that will be expected of them during the rest of their time at the university. They continue on this track that sparks their initial interest by doing further independent research all while gaining literacy in issues important to 21st century America, academic discourse, and scholarly research. Some students choose to focus on economic issues, some on social issues, some on political issues: it is truly up to them, and making those decisions, to me, is just an important of a process as is the production of the final essay. The readings for the unit and the discussions we generate in class allow for a wide variety of potential points of focus in order for them to construct a conversation of shared ideas and for them to respond to those ideas. Most importantly, this entire process does not neglect valuing and evaluating just that: process.
More specifically—and this is true for every unit in my English 5A, 5B, and 10 courses—I have my students keep track of and evaluate their labor as they work through their projects on a weekly basis. The basic prompt is three-fold: What went well with the labor? What didn't go well? What can be done next time to make the labor even better? This labor journal allows my students (and me) to keep track over what labor is being done and how it is being done. When students bring their labor habits to their consciousness by having to articulate it through language and then evaluate and assess that labor, concrete ideas for growth and development are a natural result. Another process-oriented task my students do are blogs in which they enter into a conversation of ideas about the texts that they're reading in real time—and I frequently require students to respond to each other's posts. Although the blog itself is a product, it's another product that forces students to be mindful of their process as the prompts require them to be actively engaged with their reading while they're reading. Finally, since my students must keep an active log of their reading throughout each unit, they are able to make meaning through their responses and through sharing their responses with their colleagues thus demonstrating to them that learning is an active process that happens both individually and communally.
In short—seeing as though all iterations of reading and writing begin with a sense of confusion—I facilitate my students' movement toward clarity and self-discovery through collaboration with the texts they read, with each other, and with me. I see myself as a facilitator of their own meaning making, not as an authoritative source to some hidden branches of knowledge. In my classroom, it is my ultimate goal that my students—regardless of their roots—leave with the ability to make their own fields fertile and to reap everything they therein sow.