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The Republic of Finland and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have a close relationship. Finland is one of six members of the European Union that are not members of NATO. Finland has had formal relations with NATO since 1994, when it joined the Partnership for Peace programme. The country maintains positive relations with the organisation.  While the country has historically maintained its neutrality, and due to complicated relations with Russia, possibility of membership has been a topic of debate in the country since the end of the Cold War. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the debate turned in favour of NATO membership, and the country officially applied to join NATO on 18 May 2022.

On 5 July 2022, NATO signed the accession protocol for Finland to join the alliance.
If Finland joins NATO, the  border with Russia will become a new NATO–Russia border.

Background
At the end of World War II, Finland had to cut its ties with Germany with which it had allied against the Soviet Union in the Continuation War. Following the war, foreign policy was guided by the so-called Paasikivi–Kekkonen line, which aimed to ensure Finland's survival as an independent sovereign, democratic, and capitalist state next to the communist Soviet Union. This was to be achieved by maintaining good enough relations with the Soviet Union to avoid war with its eastern neighbor. The Finnish government refused foreign aid from the United States under the Marshall Plan due to pressure from the Soviet Union. Shortly afterwards, the YYA Treaty was concluded between Finland and the Soviet Union. The Cold War was marked by so-called "Finlandization", in which Finland retained its nominal independence on internal affairs, while its foreign policy was limited to avoid conflicts with the Soviet Union's foreign policy. As a result, it took neutral stances to stay out of great power conflicts, and refrained from joining NATO, the European Communities or other institutions which were established following the war by the Western democratic states, as well as the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. During the peak of the Cold War the Finnish government made a conscious effort to increase defence capabilities, to ensure a strong deterrent for any potential invasion. From 1968 onwards, the Finnish government adopted the doctrine of territorial defence, which requires the use of large land areas to delay and wear out a potential aggressor. This was complemented by the concept of total defence, which calls for the use of all resources of society for national defence in times of crisis.

Co-operation

Finland participates in nearly all sub-areas of the Partnership for Peace programme, and has provided peacekeeping forces to both the Afghanistan and Kosovo missions. Finland maintains close relations with NATO and purchases military equipment from members of the alliance, including F-35 Lightning II aircraft, and newly procured equipment must follow NATO standards.

In April 2014, while Carl Haglund was Defence Minister, the government announced that it was negotiating a  on Finland's readiness to receive military assistance and to aid NATO in equipment maintenance. However, Haglund emphasized that this memorandum would not be a step towards membership.  The agreement, signed in September 2014, allows NATO and Finland to hold joint exercises on Finnish soil and permits assistance from NATO members in situations such as "disasters, disruptions, and threats to security". As such, Finland (and Sweden) participated in the 2015 NATO-led Arctic Challenge Exercise.

Membership

History
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union between 1988 and 1991, the threat posed to Finland's independence was diminished. NATO emphasised its Open Door Policy to admitting new members, and many former Eastern Bloc and post-Soviet states joined the alliance in the 1990s and 2000s.  However, across multiple subsequent governments the Finnish position was that joining NATO was not necessary, and it was preferable to retain an independent defence policy, though if conditions changed the country had the right to exercise the option to join NATO.  Removing barriers to effectively exercising the option to join an alliance (for example, by increasing interopability) is a part of this policy.  The country did move away from neutrality during this period though, joining the European Union in 1995 which required adopting its Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The possibility of Finland's membership in NATO was one of the most important issues debated in relation to the Finnish presidential election of 2006.  The main opposition candidate (and current president) Sauli Niinistö, of the National Coalition Party, supported Finland joining a "more European" NATO. Fellow right-winger Henrik Lax of the Swedish People's Party likewise supported the concept. On the other side, president Tarja Halonen of the Social Democratic Party opposed changing the status quo, as did most other candidates in the election. Her victory and re-election to the post of president put the issue of a NATO membership for Finland on hold the duration of her term.

In 2007, Finland made various technical preparations of the Finnish Defence Forces for membership, with the then Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies eager to pursue NATO membership.  The government preferred to wait until after the negotiations of the new EU treaty were concluded before reviewing their policy on NATO, to determine if it included a new EU-level defence agreement.  However, public interest in the issue decreased in subsequent years.

Finnish think tank , which has regularly commissioned opinion polls on NATO membership, noted in its 2015 report a downward trend in the percent opposed that started in 1998, including a steep decline after the 2012 presidential election. In March 2014, during Russia's annexation of Crimea, one survey showed only 22 percent supported membership, though a second showed that 53 percent would support membership if Finnish leadership recommended it. Support for a military alliance with neighbor Sweden was also high, at 54 percent, and Finland could possibly seek an enlarged role for NORDEFCO. Finnish Minister of Defence Carl Haglund suggested that a referendum on NATO membership could be held sometime after the 2015 parliamentary election.

In January 2022, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that Finland reserved the option of applying NATO membership if it chooses to do so, but she said it was "very unlikely" it would happen during her term as prime minister. On 24 February 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she reiterated that while Finland was "not currently facing an immediate military threat", joining NATO was still a possibility, noting that "the debate on NATO membership in Finland will change". On 25 February, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson threatened Finland and Sweden with "military and political consequences" if they attempted to join NATO. Both countries had attended the emergency NATO summit as members of NATO's Partnership for Peace and both had condemned the invasion and had provided assistance to Ukraine. Following a meeting on 1 March 2022 to discuss whether to apply to become full members of NATO, Prime Minister Sanna Marin stated that no decision had been made on the issue yet, saying that "such an important question needs to be dealt with thoroughly".

Opinion polling following the invasion showed an unprecedented increase in support for joining NATO among Finns, with a clear majority in favour. Additionally, multiple citizens' initiatives on the subject got the required 50,000 signatures, requiring the Parliament of Finland to consider the matter. President Niinistö characterised the polling as demonstrating sufficient popular support for an application. Prime Minister Marin suggested that the decision process must be concluded in the spring and in a matter of "weeks, not months".

On 13 April, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs produced a report on the international security landscape and on the foreign and defence policy options available to Finland, which is expected to form the basis of the debate on NATO membership. The report identifies that the Russian invasion has changed the long-term European security environment and made it more difficult to predict and act in the near term. It does not explicitly take a position on NATO membership, but does state that the present security arrangements are insufficient and that membership would increase stability, although there is no immediate threat. As a member, Finland would not be obliged to accept foreign bases or the presence of nuclear weapons on its territory; Finland's defence budget would rise by 1 to 1.5%. Helsingin Sanomat assessed it as a positive evaluation of NATO membership.

European Union membership

Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995, joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program on 9 May 1994, applied for NATO membership on 18 May 2022 together with Sweden.
Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the EU mutual solidarity clause applies to Finland along with other EU member states:

Article 42.2 specifies however that NATO shall be the main forum for the implementation of collective self-defence for EU member states that are also NATO members. The other EU member states that are outside NATO and consequently resort to the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP, which has a much smaller structures and capabilities than NATO's command structure) for the implementation of collective self-defence, are Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Sweden.

Political positions
Prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the National Coalition Party and Swedish People's Party of Finland supported NATO membership, and the other parties were neutral or opposed to varying degrees. In 2016, the party conference of the National Coalition Party agreed that Finland should apply for membership "in the next few years". In the vision of the Swedish People's Party of Finland set out in the same year, Finland will be a NATO member in 2025. Many individual politicians have advocated for NATO as well, including the current President Sauli Niinistö and former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, as well as former President Martti Ahtisaari, who has argued that Finland should join all the organizations supported by other Western democracies in order "to shrug off once and for all the burden of Finlandization". Two other former presidents from the Social Democratic Party, Tarja Halonen and Mauno Koivisto, have publicly opposed the idea, arguing that NATO membership would deteriorate Finland's relations with Russia. The Left Alliance has been the party most opposed to joining NATO; when they entered into coalition with the SDP in 2019, they made clear that any movement towards entering a military alliance would lead to the Left Alliance leaving the cabinet. However, the party's position changed following the invasion, with chair Li Andersson calling for a thoughtful, society-wide discussion and evaluation of the possibility of applying to join NATO, and later confirming that the party had decided not to resign from the government if an application is submitted. After the invasion and a large change in popular opinion, the leadership of the Center Party and Finns Party also changed position to support NATO membership.

NATO opinion
NATO has consistently maintained its "open door policy". Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expected that the member states would "warmly welcome Finland as a member of NATO". He has said that "Finnish membership would make NATO stronger", identifying the country's military capability and commitment to remaining a democratic society as assets.

Foreign opinion

Finland has received critical feedback from Russia for even considering the possibility of joining NATO, with a 2009 study suggesting this could have repercussions for Russia's relations with the EU and NATO as a whole. Following the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen reiterated that Finland had no plans to join NATO, and stated that the main lesson of the war was the need for closer ties to Russia. In a June 2014 interview in the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergey Alexandrovich Markov accused Finland of extreme "Russophobia" and suggested that Finland joining NATO could start World War III. In July 2016, Putin stated on a visit to Finland that Russia would increase the number of troops on the Finnish border if Finland were to join NATO. He also warned that NATO would "fight to the last Finn against Russia".

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the radical shift in Finnish positions towards membership of NATO, Maria Zakharova and Dmitry Medvedev warned that joining NATO would have consequences for Finland, including the deployment of nuclear weapons; Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that the Finnish lease on the Saimaa canal may be terminated.

According to , Director of Research at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, the rapidity of Finnish movement towards NATO has surprised Russia. She predicts that Russia will begin a hybrid campaign to influence the Finnish decision process, including cyber attacks, with increasing escalation if Finland moves closer to membership.

Russia has halted providing natural gas to neighbouring Finland, which has angered Moscow by applying for NATO membership, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. Russia's leading exporter of electricity to the Nordic market, RAO Nordic, has announced that it has decided to cut electricity supplies to Finland due to payment arrears.

Polling
Polls asking the Finnish public whether they support or oppose joining NATO have been regularly conducted. This table includes only unconditional questions; other polled topics include support for joining NATO should Sweden also join, and support for joining NATO if the Finnish government officially recommends membership, both of which generally increased public support for joining.

According to Helsingin Sanomat's data between 20–26 June 2022, 70% of them stated that Finland would not meet Turkey's demands, and 14% stated that Finland would meet Turkey's demands.
According to Ilta-Sanomat's data, between January 30 and February 1, 53% of Finns stated that they wanted to join NATO without waiting for Sweden to join together, 28% stated that they wanted to wait to join NATO with Sweden, and 19% were undecided.

Application

On 12 May 2022, Finnish president Sauli Niinistö and prime minister Sanna Marin announced in a joint press conference that they were in favour of seeking NATO membership "without delay".  On 15 May 2022, Niinistö and Marin announced that the president and Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy had adopted a report endorsing Finland joining NATO, beginning the formal constitutional process of applying. A Finnish application had been anticipated following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine degrading the European security environment, and a significant shift in Finnish public opinion on the desirability of membership.

The government's proposal to join was approved in parliament by 188 votes to 8 on 17 May, The next day, Finland submitted an official application to NATO in Brussels jointly with Sweden; the organisation considered the applications and then negotiations began. Negotiations were expected to take weeks, after which Finland would participate in NATO activities at all levels on a provisional basis during the ratification period. With negotiations concluded and a reconfirmation of the applicant's intent to join, the accession protocol will need ratification by all the existing NATO member states; this was estimated to take between four months and a year. After ratification is completed, the Parliament of Finland must pass an Act to formally bring the accession into force.

During the interval between initiating an application and membership entering into force, Finland would be at risk. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said that Finland could join the alliance "very quickly" and that there would be some degree of protection for Finland during that period. Non-binding security promises have been received from the United Kingdom and the United States, and the other reports claimed that further promises would be received from the other Nordic countries as well as France and Germany.

Croatia's president Zoran Milanović has stated that his country should block ratification of Finland's accession until electoral reform measures are implemented in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, though the Foreign Minister has expressed the government's support for any application.
The European Union announced its support for Finland and Sweden's NATO membership.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced his opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, saying that it would be "impossible" for Turkey to support their application while the two countries allow groups which Turkey classifies as terrorist organizations, including the Kurdish militant groups Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Democratic Union Party (Syria) (PYD), and People's Defense Units (YPG) and the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, to operate on their territory. (The PKK is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations.) Turkey has requested the extradition of alleged PKK members from the Nordic countries. In addition, the Turkish government has demanded that the arms embargo imposed by the Finnish and Swedish governments in response to its operations against the YPG in Syria be lifted. Turkey's demands for extradition of Kurdish and other political dissidents has been met with hostility by Kurdish activists and some human rights organizations, due to Turkey's poor human rights record and suppression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. On 17 May 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Turkey to approve Finland and Sweden's NATO membership. On 18 May 2022, Turkey quickly prevented Finland and Sweden from starting NATO membership negotiations. On 19 May 2022, Finland and Sweden announced that they could address Turkey's security concerns. On the same day, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Former Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that they were always ready for talks with Turkey and always condemned terrorism. On 21 May 2022, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stated that Finland is ready for dialogue with Turkey on NATO membership and has always condemned terrorism. On May 24, 2022, Finland and Sweden decided to send a delegation to meet with Turkey. Jukka Salovaara from Finland, Oscar Stenström from Sweden, İbrahim Kalın and Sedat Önal from Turkey are serving in the memorandum negotiations.
Opposition parties CHP and HDP in Turkey announced that they support the membership of Finland and Sweden. The ruling parties in Turkey, the AKP and MHP have announced that they will not support the membership of Finland and Sweden.  Finnish President Niinistö said that he had earlier received favourable response, including from Erdoğan and foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, towards Finland's membership; Niinistö and Haavisto urged patience, while Jussi Halla-aho, chair of the , suggested that Turkey wished to draw attention to Swedish policies, rather than to Finland's. However, Niinistö stated in June that his country would not move forward with their application without Sweden, and that the two countries would join NATO "hand in hand".

Speaking later, İbrahim Kalın, spokesman for Erdoğan, said that approving Finnish membership was not being ruled out, but that the status of these groups was "a matter of national security for Turkey" and that negotiation would be required. However, after Kalın's statement, Erdoğan reiterated his threat to block Finland's and Sweden's membership applications. NATO leadership and the United States said they were confident Turkey would not hold up the two countries accession process. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also held talks with Turkey to convince the Turkish government of the need for the two Nordic nations integration. On May 21, Erdoğan and Sauli Niinistö had a phone call to discuss Finland's NATO bid, Niinistö reiterated Finland's condemnation of terrorism in all forms. Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın, who led the talks on behalf of Turkey, stated after the first meeting in Ankara that the process would not progress until Turkey's expectations were met and they did not feel any time pressure on them. After a delegation consisting of Swedish and Finnish diplomats held talks on the matter with its Turkish counterparts, Erdoğan repeated that he would not consent to their accession bid as the same day the talks were held in Ankara, Salih Muslim, who is considered a terrorist by Erdoğan, appeared on Swedish television. Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli suggested that a scenario in which Turkey would leave NATO should be considered an option, in which case a new military alliance could be founded. In late May 2022, opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu argued that in case the accession row persisted and AKP and MHP decided to close the Inçirlik Air Base, the CHP would support this.

At the 2022 Madrid summit on 28 June, Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, and Erdoğan signed an agreement to address Turkey's security concerns, and Niinistö announced that Turkey had agreed to support membership of NATO for Finland and Sweden. While NATO members unanimously agreed to formally invite the countries to join the following day and the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland to join the alliance were signed on 5 July, Erdogan reiterated his threat to veto their membership, stating that he expected the applicant countries to meet their obligations under the agreement before Turkey's parliament would consider approving their accession protocol. Finland, Sweden and Turkey held their first trilateral memorandum meeting on 26 August 2022 in Vantaa, Finland. The second memorandum meeting between Finland, Sweden and Turkey was held on 25 November 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden.
The third meeting of the Finland, Sweden and Turkey tripartite memorandum meeting will be held on 9 March 2023 in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
Turkey has announced that it will not approve NATO membership in the Turkish Grand National Assembly if Finland and Sweden do not fulfill their triple memorandum commitments.  On 8 December 2022, at a press conference he gave with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar during his visit to Turkey, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen stated that Finland has always condemned terrorism, Finland is in full solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.
On 26 August 2022, Jukka Salovaara, chief negotiator responsible for Finland's NATO membership, said in a statement after the tripartite memorandum meeting in Vantaa that they are in deep consensus with Turkey.
By November, Finland's NATO membership had been ratified by 28 out of 30 member states, with only Hungary and Turkey yet to complete their procedures. During the process of application, Sweden held elections resulting in a center-right government that pledged to continue the NATO process, reaffirming a united front with Finland's application, and suggesting that they would be more able to meet Turkish requirements. On 24 November 2022 Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that he supported Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO, promising Hungary will ratify NATO membership in January. Later, on 13 December, Gergely Gulyás, Orban's chief of staff, stated that the Hungarian legislature would start debating the ratification process of Sweden and Finland's NATO accession 20 February 2023. On 8 January 2023, Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto, told reporters that "Finland is not in such a rush to join NATO that we can't wait for Sweden to get the green light," Haavisto also stated that representatives from the Swedish and Finnish parliaments are expected to visit Ankara in January, with another meeting between the three countries scheduled for the Spring.
On January 23, 2023, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that Turkey fully fulfilled the Turkey–Finland–Sweden tripartite memorandum, while Finland and Sweden did not. In addition, Akar announced that they expect Finland and Sweden to fully comply with the triple memorandum.
On 24 January 2023, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto announced that the trilateral memorandum talks with Finland, Sweden and Turkey would likely be suspended until after the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey.

Finland, Sweden and Turkey tripartite memorandum meetings were canceled indefinitely upon Turkey's request. The third meeting of the Finland, Sweden, Turkey tripartite memorandum was to be held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in February.
On 1 February 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey had a positive view of Finland's NATO membership and not Sweden's NATO membership, due to Sweden allowing a demonstration by far-right politician, Rasmus Paludan, wherein he burnt the Islamic holy book, the Quran.  On 1 March 2023 the Parliament of Finland approved Finland's accession to NATO by a vote of 184 in favor and 7 opposed.

In March 2023, Jens Stoltenberg pushed for Hungary and Turkey to finalize the accession of Finland and Sweden by the July summit. On 15 March, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced that Turkey had made a decision on Finland's application and had invited him to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul with both Erdoğan and Turkish officials indicating that Finland's application would be approved. Additionally, Turkish officials stated that it was "high likely" that Finland's application would be approved in mid-April, prior to the Turkish general election. Turkish officials also stated that Finland's bid would be approved independently from that of Sweden. Erdoğan publicly announced on 17 March that he would drop his opposition to Finland joining the military alliance, stating a goal of formalizing the ratification of Finland's entry into NATO prior to the 2023 Turkish general election.

On 17 March 2023, it was announced that Hungary's legislature will vote on the ratification of Finland's NATO accession on 27 March 2023, and that parliamentarians of the ruling party Fidesz would unanimously support Finland's accession to NATO.

Timeline

The ratification process began with the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members at the NATO summit in Madrid. Member negotiations were held on 4 July 2022, and the Accession Protocols were signed in Brussels on 5 July 2022.

Ratification process

Note

Finland's foreign relations with NATO member states

See also
 Foreign relations of Finland
 Foreign relations of NATO
 Enlargement of NATO
 Partnership for Peace
 European Union–NATO relations
 Finland–Sweden relations
 Sweden–NATO relations

References

Bibliography

External links
Official website of Finland's mission to NATO
Relations with Finland – NATO website

Finland–NATO relations
NATO
NATO relations


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Grassley Demands Answers On Fugitives Living In Public Housing
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Ethan Barton Editor in Chief
August 08, 2016 3:23 PM ET
Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to know why fugitives are living in federally-funded housing, which the Iowa Republican points out is a violation of the law.
"It is essential that the federal government ensures the safety and security of public housing residents against fugitive felons and other such predators," Grassley wrote to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro Friday.
More than 1,300 felony fugitives were found living in public housing in one HUD region in 2012, but local authorities refused to kick them out, The Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively reported July 26, 2016. Those residents were wanted for crimes ranging from felony theft to rape and murder. Grassley cited TheDCNF story in his letter to Castro.
The HUD Inspector General (IG) report that unveiled the fugitives was unreleased because of "questions about the validity of the data," IG spokesman Darryl Madden told TheDCNF, though he declined to provide specific details.
Local public housing authorities (PHA) told IG investigators that "HUD had informed them that it was a PHA's [sic] discretion as to whether or not to terminate the fugitive felons from the HUD funded program," the report said.
Grassley noted: "However, that is not necessarily true." The senator and the IG both pointed to a federal law bars fugitives from living in tax-funded housing.
Grassley said "Congress included a provision in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193), which requires the immediate termination of any fugitive felons, as well as probation and parole violators in federally subsidized housing."
Local housing authorities were relying on a less-stringent federal regulation, rather than law to support their claim that they may allow fugitives to continue residing in publicly-funded homes, according to Grassley.
"It is disconcerting that the regulation appears to ignore the mandate in the statute and that the IG's office failed to release a copy of report to either the department or the general public," Grassley wrote.
Grassley asked Castro to provide the total number of fugitive felons living in public housing throughout the country, the justification for the lenient language in the federal regulation, how HUD will enforce the law, and what steps the department has taken to ensure tenants safety while felons occupy public housing.
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Ethan Barton
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


[S1] GRO Index, Aylesbury 3a 573.
[S1] GRO Index, Q1 1963 Wycombe 6a 710.
[S35] Bucks Herald, Obituary - Mrs. D. Pitcher, 1 Feb 1963.
Mrs. D. Pitcher, once a committee member of the Old Ellesborough District Nursing Association, died at her home, Bushey Leys Farm, Ellesborough, on Friday. She was 86.
Born in Wingrave, Mrs. Pitcher came to Ellesborough when she was married in 1902. She became a member of the Women's Institute in Kimble, but it is as a militant figure trying to raise money to build a bungalow for the Ellesborough district nurse that she will be remembered. This took place long before the coming of National Health, when it was necessary to raise the money by subscription.
Ten years ago Mrs. Pitcher suffered a broken hip and since that time has had to use a stick. However, she remained active until she died and continued doing her share of work in the house.
Mrs. Pitcher was widowed 24 years ago.
She leaves a son, a daughter, four grandchildren and one great grandchild.
The funeral was held at Ellesborough Parish Church on Wednesday.
PITCHER Daisy Louise of Bushey Leys Farm Ellesbororough Buckinghamshire widow died 25 January 1963 Probate Oxford 19 April to Marjorie Helen Blundell (wife of Basil Blunell). Effects £2425 17s.


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#BobbyRoode
MMA India's Backlash Round-up: 07/05/2018
Darshan Sheth - May 7, 2018
Last night's dual-branded Backlash pay-per-view aired live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The event wasn't received well by the audience due...
WWE: List of all the Superstars drafted to RAW
Darshan Sheth - April 17, 2018
The Superstar Shake-up kicked off on last night's Monday Night RAW and it changed the landscape of the WWE. A number of Superstars made...
MMA India's WWE SmackDown Roundup: 27/3/2018
Darshan Sheth - March 28, 2018
Last night's SmackDown LIVE took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The matches heavily advertised for this edition were Shinsuke Nakamura vs Shelton Benjamin and The...
WWE: What to look forward to on tonight's episode of SmackDown
Tonight's episode of SmackDown LIVE will air from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Numerous singles and tag matches are announced for the...
MMA India's SmackDown Roundup: 20/3/2018
Last night's episode of SmackDown LIVE! aired from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. This episode will go down in history as the...


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2019 Grass Court Season: Review of Halle and Queen's Club Finals
Sportz Cosmos / June 26, 2019
Roger Federer overcame a sluggish start to complete Der Zehnte – winning his 10th title at the Noventi Open in Halle as he defeated David Goffin of Belgium 7-6(2),6-1 on Sunday, while the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez competing as a wildcard went on to win a second title at the Queen's Club in London after defeating the Frenchman Giles Simon 6-2,6-7(4),7-6(2).
The top seeded Federer faced three break points in the fifth game of the first set, but once Goffin was unable to convert all his chances, the Swiss settled in to top form to thwart the Belgian's bid to win his first ATP Tour level time since Tokyo 2017. Federer faced little trouble in the tie-break and took it comfortably 7-2. In the second set he broke serve thrice in the first, fifth and the seventh game to claim his third title of the year.
The eight time Wimbledon champion who also reached the milestone of completing 100 titles in Dubai, also won the Miami Open by Itau, his 28th Master's title. He is now only 7 behind Jimmy Connors all time record of 109 titles and becomes the oldest winner on tour since Ken Rosewall of Australia won when he was 43 years old. It was also his 19th career title on grass and the win assures him of being seeded second at Wimbledon ahead of arch rival Rafael Nadal should the seeding committee follow their own seeding system.
Federer who has 6,620 points currently, adds 2,360 points from grass court tournaments played over the last two years giving him total of 8,980 points, while Nadal who is at 7,945 points carries only 855 points on grass in the last two years which puts him at 8,800 points. This ensures that the Swiss will only meet the four time champion Novak Djokovic only in the summit clash on July 14.
Federer also improves to 32-4 for the year and is now 8-1 against Goffin whose only win over his idol came in the semi-finals of the World Tour Finals in 2017 at the O2 arena in London. Goffin who was ranked 33rd before the tournament rises 10 places to 23 and is assured of being seeded at the third grand slam title of the year beginning July 1. Federer won Wimbledon in 2003-2007, 2009,2012 and 2017.
At the Queen's Club in London, the 37 year old Feliciano Lopez won his second title in three years after beating his 34 year old rival Giles Simon in two hours and forty nine minutes. The 2017 champion who had to take a wildcard entry into the event having dropped to 113 in the rankings improved his head to head record against Simon to 6-2, which includes the Eastbourne title he won in 2013 playing against the Frenchman. Lopez got two service breaks in the opening set as Simon struggled to find his rhythm.
In the second set Simon got his lone break of serve to go 2-0 up before Lopez got the break back right away. Lopez who served 16 aces in the match forced a tie-break which the Frenchman won to send it to a decider. Lopez who went 3-13 on break points squandered a match point on Simon's serve in the twelfth game which the Frenchman won to force another tie-break. Lopez who saved six of the seven break points he faced won it comfortably 7-2 as Simon netted a forehand. Lopez will rise 60 places to 53rd in the rankings, while Simon is now ranked 25th after his first final of the year.
– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]
June 26, 2019 in 2019 ATP Queen's Club, 2019 Halle Open, Rasesh Mehta, Tennis Galaxy.
2019 Wimbledon: Review Of The Quarterfinals
2019 Wimbledon: Review Of Manic Monday
2019 Wimbledon: Review Of The Semifinals
← 2019 French Open: Review Of The Semifinals
2019 Wimbledon: Preview Of The Second Round Matches →


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Mothering her mother: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
Sofia and her mother, Rose, are spending the summer of 2015 in Almería. Although Sofia spends the day on the beach, this is no holiday. For much of Sofia's life, certainly from the age of five when her Greek father moved on, Rose has suffered from a mysterious illness which renders her intermittently unable to walk. They have remortgaged Rose's house in London and come to Spain in search of a cure at the unconventional Gómez Clinic.
11 reasons I might give up on a novel #amreading
As I've mentioned before, I was surprised when a literary agent who turned down my debut novel did so because the sample I'd sent her was written in the first person present tense. But if you read for a living, being familiar with your preferences and prejudices can save a lot of time. After all, we can't all appreciate the same thing. Reading for reviews is helping me clarify my own likes and dislikes although, despite the title of this post, a sense of accountability to publishers who've provided me a free copy and a belief in the value of diversity will see me rarely abandoning a book. (I think I ditched three out of well over 100 books I read last year.) But since "11 reasons I don't want to read your book" has a nasty ring to it, for the purposes of this post I'm extending the definition of "abandon" to encompass books I'm not even tempted to start. Practical or blinkered, considered or arbitrary, undoubtedly contradictory, in reverse order of annoyingness, these are my 11 reasons I won't give a novel my time.
A musical adventure: The Song Collector by Natasha Solomons
The celebrated composer Harry Fox-Talbot, or Fox to his friends, is grieving for his wife, Edie, a singer who rose to prominence cheering the troops during the Second World War. He's lost interest in music until, quite by chance, his grandson, Robin, discovers the piano. The four-year-old turns out to be a musical prodigy and, by nurturing his development, Fox gradually re-engages with life.
Sand: Gold Fame Citrus & My Own Beach Memories
There's no rain in California. The swimming pools that graced the homes of the beautiful people are nothing but rubbish tips, no-one can wash and drinking water is rationed. Just beyond Los Angeles, civilisation lies buried under mountains of moving sand. Most people have been evacuated to the camps out East; those who remain take their chances in this lawless environment. It's not only the sun that is harsh.
Nostalgia & Reminiscence: Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb & Just One
Mihály is on honeymoon in Italy when he bumps into János, an old school friend who, when they last met in London, stole his gold watch. The chance encounter throws up memories of his youth, an extended adolescence of irresponsibility under the influence of the charismatic Tamás, and his sister, Éva. The following day, en route to Rome with his wife, he steps down from the train to grab a coffee. Inadvertently – or perhaps with unconscious intention – he boards the wrong train just as it's pulling out of the station. Disembarking in Perugia, he realises that he's been given the perfect opportunity to separate from his wife.
The Voyage of the Dolphin by Kevin Smith & other St Patrick's Day reads
It's almost Spring, 1916, and the aristocratic semi-illiterate Hugh Fitzmaurice risks being sent down from Trinity College, Dublin, for his failure to appreciate that university students are required to study in addition to swanning around the town. The Senior Dean has a proposition that might just save him from joining his compatriots in the trenches: his kinship with the celebrated Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, makes him the ideal leader of a pseudoscientific expedition to the Arctic to bring back the bones of an Irish giant. Not the type to let his lack of seafaring experience stand in the way of an adventure, Fitzmaurice recruits his two friends, and his pet iguana, to join him.
Man and monster: Trencherman by Eben Venter
Marlouw's sister, Heleen, is worried. When her son, Koert, first went to visit his parents' homeland in the Bloemfontein region of South Africa, he phoned or emailed almost every day, but now she hasn't heard from him for weeks, and his last message was mostly gobbledygook. Reluctantly, but not without his own personal agenda, Marlouw agrees to travel from his home in Melbourne to try and find his nephew. Even if it weren't for his club foot, the journey would be a difficult one in a country where AIDS is rife, the streets are lined with the hungry and desperate, and the infrastructure has collapsed.
Parallel Narratives: The Living by Anjali Joseph & When We Were Alive by CJ Fisher
With the echos of each other in the titles, I couldn't resist pairing these two novels published this month, both involving parallel narratives. As I'm playing with a similar structure in my current WIP, I'm also interested in what these novels can teach us about a form that's more difficult to pull off than we might think.
Struggle without Stupidity: Jihadi by Yusuf Toropov
Since childhood, Thelonius Liddell has striven for excellence in an attempt to forget the trauma of seeing his father murder his mother. At a university careers day, he's recruited into the US intelligence agency by Becky Firestone, the somewhat disturbed daughter of the director whom Thelonius eventually marries. When we first meet Liddell he's already a dead man, writing his memoir in the ten metre square cell in the clandestine containment unit he calls The Beige Motel. Now preferring the name Ali, he was converted to Islam by his wizened cellmate in a squalid (presumably Iraqi) prison, where he is accused of the murder of a man and his young daughter and of desecrating the Koran. His conversion was part of a deal brokered by a young woman, Fatima, but, like almost everything else in this multi-layered thriller about the war on terror, we have to keep on turning the pages to uncover the truth. While I'm inclined to agree that, as Fatima says, Stupidity has taken over the process of government in both countries, there's nothing stupid in this complex tale of compromised morality and the fragility of the human mind.
Libraries, Fictional Heroines and International Women
Who doesn't love a blog poll? This time last year, I asked you to choose between five fictional heroines to mark International Women's Day, and I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd have another bash, especially when I realised that World Book Day falls only a few days before International Women's. I'll admit that I haven't ploughed systematically through a whole twelve months of reviews to select my shortlist, but I think this year's five are a good representation of the range of heroic female characters we might encounter on the page. I'm presenting them in alphabetical order and, remember, it you don't have to have read the books, or even the reviews, to vote.
All for Nothing & When the Doves Disappeared
My historical education – or should that be education about history? – continues courtesy of a couple of powerful novels about the Second World War and its aftermath along the eastern front.
Women's Lives: Where Love Begins by Judith Hermann & Vertigo by Joanna Walsh
Stand by for two haunting short books published in the UK today about different facets of the lives of women.
Three debut novels on the lives of preteen girls
I've partnered these three debut novels because they're all about preteen girls (although, in the third, Under the Udala Trees, our heroine does grow up to become a mother herself). Set in Britain, China and Nigeria they feature loneliness, religion and burgeoning sexuality with the latter two against the backdrop of war.


text:
package org.apache.cassandra.cache;

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.Future;
import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledFuture;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.cliffc.high_scale_lib.NonBlockingHashSet;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListeningExecutorService;
import com.google.common.util.concurrent.MoreExecutors;

import org.apache.cassandra.concurrent.ScheduledExecutors;
import org.apache.cassandra.config.CFMetaData;
import org.apache.cassandra.config.DatabaseDescriptor;
import org.apache.cassandra.config.Schema;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.SystemKeyspace;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionInfo;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.OperationType;
import org.apache.cassandra.db.marshal.BytesType;
import org.apache.cassandra.io.FSWriteError;
import org.apache.cassandra.io.util.*;
import org.apache.cassandra.io.util.ChecksummedRandomAccessReader.CorruptFileException;
import org.apache.cassandra.service.CacheService;
import org.apache.cassandra.utils.JVMStabilityInspector;
import org.apache.cassandra.utils.Pair;
import org.apache.cassandra.utils.UUIDGen;

public class AutoSavingCache<K extends CacheKey, V> extends InstrumentingCache<K, V>
{
    public interface IStreamFactory
    {
        InputStream getInputStream(File dataPath, File crcPath) throws IOException;
        OutputStream getOutputStream(File dataPath, File crcPath) throws FileNotFoundException;
    }

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(AutoSavingCache.class);

    /** True if a cache flush is currently executing: only one may execute at a time. */
    public static final Set<CacheService.CacheType> flushInProgress = new NonBlockingHashSet<CacheService.CacheType>();

    protected volatile ScheduledFuture<?> saveTask;
    protected final CacheService.CacheType cacheType;

    private final CacheSerializer<K, V> cacheLoader;

    /*
     * CASSANDRA-10155 required a format change to fix 2i indexes and caching.
     * 2.2 is already at version "c" and 3.0 is at "d".
     *
     * Since cache versions match exactly and there is no partial fallback just add
     * a minor version letter.
     */
    private static final String CURRENT_VERSION = "ca";

    private static volatile IStreamFactory streamFactory = new IStreamFactory()
    {
        public InputStream getInputStream(File dataPath, File crcPath) throws IOException
        {
            return ChecksummedRandomAccessReader.open(dataPath, crcPath);
        }

        public OutputStream getOutputStream(File dataPath, File crcPath)
        {
            return SequentialWriter.open(dataPath, crcPath).finishOnClose();
        }
    };

    // Unused, but exposed for a reason. See CASSANDRA-8096.
    public static void setStreamFactory(IStreamFactory streamFactory)
    {
        AutoSavingCache.streamFactory = streamFactory;
    }

    public AutoSavingCache(ICache<K, V> cache, CacheService.CacheType cacheType, CacheSerializer<K, V> cacheloader)
    {
        super(cacheType.toString(), cache);
        this.cacheType = cacheType;
        this.cacheLoader = cacheloader;
    }

    public File getCacheDataPath(String version)
    {
        return DatabaseDescriptor.getSerializedCachePath( cacheType, version, "db");
    }

    public File getCacheCrcPath(String version)
    {
        return DatabaseDescriptor.getSerializedCachePath( cacheType, version, "crc");
    }

    public Writer getWriter(int keysToSave)
    {
        return new Writer(keysToSave);
    }

    public void scheduleSaving(int savePeriodInSeconds, final int keysToSave)
    {
        if (saveTask != null)
        {
            saveTask.cancel(false); // Do not interrupt an in-progress save
            saveTask = null;
        }
        if (savePeriodInSeconds > 0)
        {
            Runnable runnable = new Runnable()
            {
                public void run()
                {
                    submitWrite(keysToSave);
                }
            };
            saveTask = ScheduledExecutors.optionalTasks.scheduleWithFixedDelay(runnable,
                                                                               savePeriodInSeconds,
                                                                               savePeriodInSeconds,
                                                                               TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        }
    }

    public ListenableFuture<Integer> loadSavedAsync()
    {
        final ListeningExecutorService es = MoreExecutors.listeningDecorator(Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor());
        final long start = System.nanoTime();

        ListenableFuture<Integer> cacheLoad = es.submit(new Callable<Integer>()
        {
            @Override
            public Integer call() throws Exception
            {
                return loadSaved();
            }
        });
        cacheLoad.addListener(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                if (size() > 0)
                    logger.info("Completed loading ({} ms; {} keys) {} cache",
                            TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.toMillis(System.nanoTime() - start),
                            CacheService.instance.keyCache.size(),
                            cacheType);
                es.shutdown();
            }
        }, MoreExecutors.sameThreadExecutor());

        return cacheLoad;
    }

    public int loadSaved()
    {
        int count = 0;
        long start = System.nanoTime();

        // modern format, allows both key and value (so key cache load can be purely sequential)
        File dataPath = getCacheDataPath(CURRENT_VERSION);
        File crcPath = getCacheCrcPath(CURRENT_VERSION);
        if (dataPath.exists() && crcPath.exists())
        {
            DataInputStream in = null;
            try
            {
                logger.info(String.format("reading saved cache %s", dataPath));
                in = new DataInputStream(new LengthAvailableInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(streamFactory.getInputStream(dataPath, crcPath)), dataPath.length()));

                //Check the schema has not changed since CFs are looked up by name which is ambiguous
                UUID schemaVersion = new UUID(in.readLong(), in.readLong());
                if (!schemaVersion.equals(Schema.instance.getVersion()))
                    throw new RuntimeException("Cache schema version "
                                              + schemaVersion.toString()
                                              + " does not match current schema version "
                                              + Schema.instance.getVersion());

                ArrayDeque<Future<Pair<K, V>>> futures = new ArrayDeque<Future<Pair<K, V>>>();
                while (in.available() > 0)
                {
                    //ksname and cfname are serialized by the serializers in CacheService
                    //That is delegated there because there are serializer specific conditions
                    //where a cache key is skipped and not written
                    String ksname = in.readUTF();
                    String cfname = in.readUTF();

                    ColumnFamilyStore cfs = Schema.instance.getColumnFamilyStoreIncludingIndexes(Pair.create(ksname, cfname));

                    Future<Pair<K, V>> entryFuture = cacheLoader.deserialize(in, cfs);
                    // Key cache entry can return null, if the SSTable doesn't exist.
                    if (entryFuture == null)
                        continue;

                    futures.offer(entryFuture);
                    count++;

                    /*
                     * Kind of unwise to accrue an unbounded number of pending futures
                     * So now there is this loop to keep a bounded number pending.
                     */
                    do
                    {
                        while (futures.peek() != null && futures.peek().isDone())
                        {
                            Future<Pair<K, V>> future = futures.poll();
                            Pair<K, V> entry = future.get();
                            if (entry != null && entry.right != null)
                                put(entry.left, entry.right);
                        }

                        if (futures.size() > 1000)
                            Thread.yield();
                    } while(futures.size() > 1000);
                }

                Future<Pair<K, V>> future = null;
                while ((future = futures.poll()) != null)
                {
                    Pair<K, V> entry = future.get();
                    if (entry != null && entry.right != null)
                        put(entry.left, entry.right);
                }
            }
            catch (CorruptFileException e)
            {
                JVMStabilityInspector.inspectThrowable(e);
                logger.warn(String.format("Non-fatal checksum error reading saved cache %s", dataPath.getAbsolutePath()), e);
            }
            catch (Throwable t)
            {
                JVMStabilityInspector.inspectThrowable(t);
                logger.info(String.format("Harmless error reading saved cache %s", dataPath.getAbsolutePath()), t);
            }
            finally
            {
                FileUtils.closeQuietly(in);
            }
        }
        if (logger.isDebugEnabled())
            logger.debug("completed reading ({} ms; {} keys) saved cache {}",
                    TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.toMillis(System.nanoTime() - start), count, dataPath);
        return count;
    }

    public Future<?> submitWrite(int keysToSave)
    {
        return CompactionManager.instance.submitCacheWrite(getWriter(keysToSave));
    }

    public class Writer extends CompactionInfo.Holder
    {
        private final Iterator<K> keyIterator;
        private final CompactionInfo info;
        private long keysWritten;
        private final long keysEstimate;

        protected Writer(int keysToSave)
        {
            int size = size();
            if (keysToSave >= size || keysToSave == 0)
            {
                keyIterator = keyIterator();
                keysEstimate = size;
            }
            else
            {
                keyIterator = hotKeyIterator(keysToSave);
                keysEstimate = keysToSave;
            }

            OperationType type;
            if (cacheType == CacheService.CacheType.KEY_CACHE)
                type = OperationType.KEY_CACHE_SAVE;
            else if (cacheType == CacheService.CacheType.ROW_CACHE)
                type = OperationType.ROW_CACHE_SAVE;
            else if (cacheType == CacheService.CacheType.COUNTER_CACHE)
                type = OperationType.COUNTER_CACHE_SAVE;
            else
                type = OperationType.UNKNOWN;

            info = new CompactionInfo(CFMetaData.denseCFMetaData(SystemKeyspace.NAME, cacheType.toString(), BytesType.instance),
                                      type,
                                      0,
                                      keysEstimate,
                                      "keys",
                                      UUIDGen.getTimeUUID());
        }

        public CacheService.CacheType cacheType()
        {
            return cacheType;
        }

        public CompactionInfo getCompactionInfo()
        {
            // keyset can change in size, thus total can too
            // TODO need to check for this one... was: info.forProgress(keysWritten, Math.max(keysWritten, keys.size()));
            return info.forProgress(keysWritten, Math.max(keysWritten, keysEstimate));
        }

        public void saveCache()
        {
            logger.debug("Deleting old {} files.", cacheType);
            deleteOldCacheFiles();

            if (!keyIterator.hasNext())
            {
                logger.debug("Skipping {} save, cache is empty.", cacheType);
                return;
            }

            long start = System.nanoTime();

            WrappedDataOutputStreamPlus writer = null;
            Pair<File, File> cacheFilePaths = tempCacheFiles();
            try
            {
                try
                {
                    writer = new WrappedDataOutputStreamPlus(streamFactory.getOutputStream(cacheFilePaths.left, cacheFilePaths.right));
                }
                catch (FileNotFoundException e)
                {
                    throw new RuntimeException(e);
                }

                try
                {
                    //Need to be able to check schema version because CF names are ambiguous
                    UUID schemaVersion = Schema.instance.getVersion();
                    if (schemaVersion == null)
                    {
                        Schema.instance.updateVersion();
                        schemaVersion = Schema.instance.getVersion();
                    }
                    writer.writeLong(schemaVersion.getMostSignificantBits());
                    writer.writeLong(schemaVersion.getLeastSignificantBits());

                    while (keyIterator.hasNext())
                    {
                        K key = keyIterator.next();

                        ColumnFamilyStore cfs = Schema.instance.getColumnFamilyStoreIncludingIndexes(key.ksAndCFName);
                        if (cfs == null)
                            continue; // the table or 2i has been dropped.

                        cacheLoader.serialize(key, writer, cfs);

                        keysWritten++;
                        if (keysWritten >= keysEstimate)
                            break;
                    }
                }
                catch (IOException e)
                {
                    throw new FSWriteError(e, cacheFilePaths.left);
                }

            }
            finally
            {
                if (writer != null)
                    FileUtils.closeQuietly(writer);
            }

            File cacheFile = getCacheDataPath(CURRENT_VERSION);
            File crcFile = getCacheCrcPath(CURRENT_VERSION);

            cacheFile.delete(); // ignore error if it didn't exist
            crcFile.delete();

            if (!cacheFilePaths.left.renameTo(cacheFile))
                logger.error("Unable to rename {} to {}", cacheFilePaths.left, cacheFile);

            if (!cacheFilePaths.right.renameTo(crcFile))
                logger.error("Unable to rename {} to {}", cacheFilePaths.right, crcFile);

            logger.info("Saved {} ({} items) in {} ms", cacheType, keysWritten, TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.toMillis(System.nanoTime() - start));
        }

        private Pair<File, File> tempCacheFiles()
        {
            File dataPath = getCacheDataPath(CURRENT_VERSION);
            File crcPath = getCacheCrcPath(CURRENT_VERSION);
            return Pair.create(FileUtils.createTempFile(dataPath.getName(), null, dataPath.getParentFile()),
                               FileUtils.createTempFile(crcPath.getName(), null, crcPath.getParentFile()));
        }

        private void deleteOldCacheFiles()
        {
            File savedCachesDir = new File(DatabaseDescriptor.getSavedCachesLocation());
            assert savedCachesDir.exists() && savedCachesDir.isDirectory();
            File[] files = savedCachesDir.listFiles();
            if (files != null)
            {
                String cacheNameFormat = String.format("%s-%s.db", cacheType.toString(), CURRENT_VERSION);
                for (File file : files)
                {
                    if (!file.isFile())
                        continue; // someone's been messing with our directory.  naughty!

                    if (file.getName().endsWith(cacheNameFormat)
                     || file.getName().endsWith(cacheType.toString()))
                    {
                        if (!file.delete())
                            logger.warn("Failed to delete {}", file.getAbsolutePath());
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                logger.warn("Could not list files in {}", savedCachesDir);
            }
        }
    }

    public interface CacheSerializer<K extends CacheKey, V>
    {
        void serialize(K key, DataOutputPlus out, ColumnFamilyStore cfs) throws IOException;

        Future<Pair<K, V>> deserialize(DataInputStream in, ColumnFamilyStore cfs) throws IOException;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Attractive appearance, low maintenance, and reliable heat and fire protection - that's a tough combination of requirements for an insulation system. But our Heralight system manages this balancing act easily.
In 2014, Bülow Carré in Stuttgart - a modern, high-end property with offices, shops and restaurants - required garage ceiling insulation that protected against thermal and fire while contributing to a comfortable atmosphere in its 300-space underground parking facility. Such insulation is necessary not only for the comfort of those who use the building but for their safety, as well, because the intense heat of a fire in the garage could damage the support structure of the facility and endanger their health and safety.
Parking structures like that of Bülow Carré must serve the needs of both the structures themselves and the facilities they serve. Such needs include not only comfortable and convenient access to the facility but fire protection to guard against structural damage that can result from the heat of a fire and thermal and acoustic insulation to inhibit heat and noise transfer through the parking structure ceiling.
To meet the challenge for Bülow Carré, the builders installed a Heralight ceiling insulation system from Knauf Insulation, which uses a combination of Heraklith wood wool insulation panels in a lean grid rail system together with glass mineral wool supports. The white wood wool panels were inserted into the easy-to-install lean grid system, which was then colour-adjusted to create a uniform pattern across the ceiling.
In addition to their fire resistance, the non-combustible (A2) Heraklith wood wool insulation panels do not melt or produce burning droplets when exposed to fire, which adds to their durability under operational duress. And their fine wool structure not only creates an extraordinary visual effect but also improves the acoustics in the garage - the surfaces of which would otherwise reflect sounds such as the reverberation of slamming car doors or the staccato clack of footsteps in hard heels. The wood wool surfaces also stand up well to accidental blows or attempts at vandalism.
and contributing to a comfortable atmosphere in the garage.


text:
Q: Custom Sorting By 24-hour clock Time in Backbone/Javascript I have backbone collection which consists of dates and 24-hour clock times.  I would like to be able to sort my collection by time.
So since a normal sort functionality would sort (as an example) 1:00, 17:00, and 19:00 as such, I am trying to display 17:00, 19:00, 1:00 in that order.  1:00 of the next day proceeds 19:00 in time, in this case.
Since this case only occurs when a value is less than or equal to 12, the simplest solution seems to be: sort those values greater than 12; sort values less than 12; append sorted values less than 12 to values greater than 12.  So two separate sorted lists.
    comparator: function( a, b ) {
                if(!this.sortColumn ) return 0;
                    if(sortColumn == 'time') {
    switch (a.get('time')) {
                case a > 12: return 1;
                case a <= 12: return 2;
            }
      }
}

This is a rough idea that I've had.  This doesn't sort the two respective groups.  The idea being that the case where it's greater than 12 precedes the case where it's less than 12, but they will be unsorted.
EDIT:   Note that all the events occur after 12:00 PM on Day 1 and before 12:00 PM of the next day, Day 2.  This is why dates like 1:00 will be after dates like 19:00.
Any advice would be fantastic.
Thanks

A: You can define your comparator function as a "sortBy" :

"sortBy" comparator functions take a model and return a numeric or
  string value by which the model should be ordered relative to others.

The goal is then to produce a sorting value that corresponds to your requirements. As @Pointy noted in the comments, adding 24 to the times before 12:00 would do the trick
For example
var C = Backbone.Collection.extend({

    comparator: function (m) {
        var t = m.get('time'),
            h = parseInt(t.substr(0, 2), 10),
            m = parseInt(t.substr(3), 10);
        if (h<12) h = h+24;

        return h *60 + m;
    }

});

var c = new C([
    {time: '01:17'},
    {time: '01:00'},
    {time: '12:00'},
    {time: '07:00'},
    {time: '15:00'}
]);

console.log(c.pluck('time'));

http://jsfiddle.net/nikoshr/5srqn5b4/

A: I dont see the issue with just ordering them by the actual number..
var times = [];
// generate some data..
// [1:00, 1:30, 2:00 ...]
for(var i=0; i < 24; i++){times.push(i.toString() + ':00');
times.push(i.toString() + ':30')}
// standard sorting
console.log(_.sortBy(times, function(num){ return num}))
> ["0:00", "0:30", "10:00", "10:30", "11:00", "11:30", "12:00", "12:30", "13:00", "13:30", "14:00", "14:30", "15:00", "15:30", "16:00", "16:30", "17:00", "17:30", "18:00", "18:30", "19:00", "19:30", "1:00", "1:30", "20:00", "20:30", "21:00", "21:30", "22:00", "22:30", "23:00", "23:30", "2:00", "2:30", "3:00", "3:30", "4:00", "4:30", "5:00", "5:30", "6:00", "6:30", "7:00", "7:30", "8:00", "8:30", "9:00", "9:30"]
// improved sorting
console.log(_.sortBy(times, function(num){ var key = parseInt(num.split(':')[0]); if (key >= 12) {return key - 12} return key + 20 }))
> ["12:00", "12:30", "13:00", "13:30", "14:00", "14:30", "15:00", "15:30", "16:00", "16:30", "17:00", "17:30", "18:00", "18:30", "19:00", "19:30", "20:00", "20:30", "21:00", "21:30", "22:00", "22:30", "23:00", "23:30", "0:00", "0:30", "1:00", "1:30", "2:00", "2:30", "3:00", "3:30", "4:00", "4:30", "5:00", "5:30", "6:00", "6:30", "7:00", "7:30", "8:00", "8:30", "9:00", "9:30", "10:00", "10:30", "11:00", "11:30"]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
05 Apr 2014	NEWS Comment
Lancôme Announces Lupita Nyong'o as Brand Ambassadress
Actress Lupita Nyong'o has taken the world by storm, and is now Lancôme's newest brand ambassadress.
Nyong'o is an outstanding example of a natural beauty, who radiates confidence and happiness.
Among her many awards she has garnered this award season is an Academy Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for her portrayal of Patsey in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave–making her the fourth Academy Award winning Lancôme ambassadress.
"I am truly honored to join the Maison Lancôme, a brand with such a prestigious history that I have always loved. I am particularly proud to represent its unique vision for women and the idea that beauty should not be dictated, but should instead be an expression of a woman's freedom to be herself," said Lupita Nyong'o.
Nyong'o will be joining fellow brand ambassadress' Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Penélope Cruz, and Lily Collins, and will be seen this summer in campaigns shot by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
Xavier Vey, President of Lancôme USA added, "Lupita's authentic inner and outer beauty, her exquisite grace, and true confidence represent today's modern woman. Having Lupita as a Lancôme ambassadress will help support our mission in the U.S. market which is to speak to all women. Her rising star status is like a blooming rose; she is elegant and has an undeniable brilliance."


text:
HomeHelpful tipsIs Rocky Johnson in the WWE Hall of Fame?
Is Rocky Johnson in the WWE Hall of Fame?
On February 25, 2008, Johnson was announced as an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame along with his father-in-law, "High Chief" Peter Maivia. Both Johnson and his father-in-law were inducted into the Hall of Fame on March 29, 2008 by his son, The Rock.
When did Rocky Johnson get inducted into the Hall of Fame?
Johnson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. He was inducted into the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame in the same year.
Did Rocky Johnson wrestle in the WWF?
During his wrestling career, he became a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Georgia Champion and a NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion. Along with his partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was a part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1983.
What killed Rocky Johnson?
Rocky Johnson/Date of death
Is Undertaker a Hall of Famer?
As seen this week, the Class of 2020 and 2021 were officially inducted into the prestigious club in a taped edition from the ThunderDome including Taker's on-screen brother Kane. But the Deadman wasn't there to induct him.
How tall is Rocky Johnson?
Rocky Johnson/Height
When did Rocky Johnson get inducted into WWE Hall of Fame?
A few years later, Johnson also helped train other future Superstars during a short stint working for WWE. In 2008, The Rock was able to give something back to his father, helping to recognize his accomplishments in sports-entertainment by inducting him into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Who is in the WWE Hall of Fame?
WWE remembers the lasting legacy of Rocky Johnson A look back at the incredible life and career of WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson. Catch WWE action on WWE Network, FOX, USA Network, Sony India and more. 01/17/2020 – 17:45
Who was Rocky Johnson married to in WWE?
The High Chief was himself a "blood brother" of the even more legendary Anoa'i Samoan wrestling dynasty, so when Johnson married Peter's daughter, Ata Maivia, he became a part of that dynasty. Johnson debuted in 1966 and competed all around the world before settling in the NWA in the 1970s.
When did Rocky Johnson retire from the ring?
Lou Albano makes a costly error in a thrilling No Disqualification Match for the World Tag Team Championship with the Wild Samoans and the team of Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas on Championship Wrestling. The "Soul Man" retired from the ring in 1991, but his imprint continued to be felt on WWE for years to come.
How long will Ubuntu 20.04 be supported?
Are hard top sippy cups bad?


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Home > University of Lisbon > University of Lisbon
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Fernando Jorge and 160 others shortlisted this university
Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa) is the largest and most prestigious Portuguese university, and a major European university.
ULisboa has 18 Schools and over 100 research units, around 50,000 students, 4,000 lecturers, 2,500 non-academic staff and 400 degree courses. It is a major centre for teaching, research, innovation, sports, culture and art.
The inheritor of a seven century-old university tradition¸ ULisboa was created in July 2013, as a result of the merger of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Universidade de Lisboa.
ULisboa is deeply involved with Portuguese society and the Lisbon metropolitan area, accepting its responsibility to make the city of Lisbon one of the great European capitals of culture and science.
ULisboa welcomes every year more than 1,000 foreign students in search of high-quality education, and the culture, climate and hospitality that Lisbon and Portugal have to offer.
The quality of research, innovation and culture of the schools and research units at ULisboa attracts a growing number of international talents to create projects and research partnerships at the highest level.
ULisboa, a national and international leader, lives up to its motto: a University from Lisbon to the world.
Total students - 48,352
International students - 6,945
Total faculty staff - 3,080
Interested in studying in Portugal?
Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics
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Alameda da Universidade
1649-004 Lisboa Lisboa
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Universidad Panamericana de Guatemala


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2013 ncte q&a
NCTE/ALAN 2013 -- Boston, MA
After his keynote at ALAN in Boston, MA, CC received a list of questions unanswered. Those questions, and his answers are featured below. If you have other questions, contact CC at Stotan717@gmail.com or his assistant at kellymilnerh@aol.com and we'll add them to this collection of Q&As.
(PHOTO LEFT -- ALAN Keynote, Boston 2013)
Q: Why does he write for young adults rather than any other age group? It would be interesting to hear about his writing process.
A: It wouldn't be interesting to hear about my writing process; it's diagnosable. It's pretty much "what if…what if…what if…
I never think I'm writing for young adults. I think I'm writing about young adults. I like that aged character because that time is the first in our lives when we look at the world through what will become adult eyes. It's an age that is often pooh-poohed by adults. We tend to call adolescent romance "puppy love" and consider teens problems frivolous, but how they handle those problems is the source material for how they'll handle things as life gets more complicated. Brain science tells us this is a formative time.
Q: Chris, of all the touching characters you have given us, which one was hardest for you to write?
A: Probably Jennifer Lawless from Chinese Handcuffs. Though I had worked with a lot of girls with sexual abuse in their histories, I only knew it from the outside. I couldn't afford to get it wrong because if I did, the entire book would be invalidated. Luckily two of the girls I was working with were voracious readers who wanted their stories told without actually having their stories told, so they became my editors. When I wrote something into Jennifer's thoughts or conversation that didn't ring true, they would let me know in no uncertain terms. Partly she was hard to write because she was so trapped. While I'm writing I'm paying so much attention to the craft that I don't have much of an emotional response, but when I read it over later, I do.
Q: Do you ever hear the voices of potential censors as you write? Do you listen to what they have to say?
A: Naw, I don't hear their voices as I write. I barely hear their voices when I'm in the room with them. Truth is, I don't have much respect because the content of what they say is usually devoid of knowledge of child development or of how connection with characters spurs kids' creativity. They consider themselves experts in education when most have never taken a class in education or tried to work with a classroom full of students. They project their own fear and discomfort onto students without ever asking students. Listening to their voices as I write would be like pouring superglue over my keyboard.
Q: Given our ever-shifting society, have your assumptions about your intended audience changed over the course of your career?
A: Not really. The "ever-shifting" is pretty much back and forth, so what goes around comes around. I don't make a lot of assumptions about my intended audience anyway, and in fact don't consider any one group "intended." Every smart writer I've ever heard will tell you "The story is everything." I'm more likely to write to one or two good readers who I trust to tell me when the story works and when it doesn't.
Q: Which comes first as you envision a new story—the protagonist? The conflict? The outcome? Something else?
A: That really depends on the story. Sometimes an event will trigger a story and sometimes a person or persons will. I start with anything that fires me up; spurs my intensity. I would love it if the outcome got me started because I would know in which direction I'm writing from the first page, but that never happens.
Q: What is your most censored YAL book?
A: Whale Talk
Q: Any censorship battles that you lost? Or are still on-going?
A: God yes. Lost a bunch of them. The first one I lost I didn't even know I was in… at Cascade High School in Cascade, Idaho, where I graduated. Students were required to bring a note from a parent to check out my first book. Nine hundred forty three people total in the town. My mother died three blocks from the house where she was born, so by the time it was published, she was the Grande Dame of Cascade, Idaho. If my mother walked into your house and you didn't have a copy of Running Loose on your coffee table, woe be unto you. The only building in town where you couldn't freely pick up a copy of Running Loose was the school.
Lost another battle to the Superintendent of Public Instruction of South Carolina, as near as I know the only Democrat who ever took me out. She was in a life and death political campaign for the U.S Senate against Jim DeMint (sp), that ultra-sensitive conservative SC senator who wanted all homosexual teachers and foster parents to be stripped of their certifications…and that was just the beginning for ol' Jim. The State Superintendent (Inez Tenenbaum – who now works in the Obama administration) got hijacked by a small, loud group from the Christian Right who wanted Whale Talk and two other books – A Separate Peace and Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands – removed from a voluntary summer reading list. I think she decided she had to give them something, so Whale Talk became the sacrifice. She'd have been better off to go with A Separate Peace, given Knowles is dead. What she didn't know was that coincidentally I had been invited to the South Carolina Teachers of English conference to deliver the keynote. Many of the members were so articulate in their anger that she took me up on my offer for a sit-down. She was far too ensconced on her position to back out, and we had a pretty uncomfortable discussion that started with me saying "I've had this argument a number of times in my life but never with a Democrat." As far as I know the book still isn't on that list. There are a number of others I've lost.
Q: Who do you write for? Yourself? Troubled teens? Both?
A: I really do write for anyone who might pick up one of my books.
Q: What do the censors find objectionable? The language? The context? Both?
A: It's my belief it's more context than language, though language is a more convenient target. I usually start out my part of the language argument saying I never read anything in the Christian Bible about "fuck." But if I put a gay character in a book who isn't a freeway sniper or a serial killer, I'm somehow putting gay ideas into kids' heads that will surely turn into gay behavior. If a character defies authority there is often an accusation that I'm advocating that . Same with a character who has sex out of wedlock, etc. etc. Funny that they don't complain too much about gunplay.
Q: You write novels that shed light on 'dark subjects' – kids do but often, do not tell – Do you think parents have a right to object because you are acting more like a therapist than a novelist?
A: This is the United States of America. Parents have a right to object to anything they want. I'm not sure if the questioner is saying I act more like a therapist than a novelist or if he/she 's saying parents think that, but shedding light on 'dark subjects' doesn't mean I'm acting like a therapist. It means I'm taking knowledge I've acquired from being a therapist and using it to tell what I consider a truth about my characters' lives. When it comes to rights, they have the right to complain and characterize me however they want, I have the right to write my stories, and readers have the right to read them. Those parents also have the right to forbid their kids to read my books, and I wish them luck with that, I really do. But they do not have the right to decide what other people's kids can read and I'm always surprised at those times when they somehow get the right to tell educators how to educate. That is usually the fault of administrators who are more concerned with how the school looks to the community than serving their clients: the students and the teachers.
Q: As America becomes more diverse and inclusive, have you noticed a change in the censorship fights? More? Less? The same?
A: The censorship fights seem to be the same. As America becomes more diverse and inclusive, the censors become more threatened and therefore louder. I'm counting on this diverse population to finally make the censors' arguments appear as ludicrous as they actually are. I do think this wonderful mix is going to change things. I'm tired of being embarrassed to be a white American male. I really wish I were going to live longer.
Q: Do you meet many arm-chair liberals? Parents who praise your work, but would rather have their kids read 'Jane Eyre' and 'Great Expectations' because that is what smart kids read?
A: I do, and I usually tell them I think it's a mistake to do "either-or". If you give any sharp YA literature expert a theme from any classic, he or she can give you that same theme in contemporary YA literature, and the theme doesn't have to be explained so thoroughly because it's in language today's kids speak. If I struggle through a Shakespeare play, then have it explained to me, even by a great Shakespearian teacher, I miss the intimacy of connection with the character because rather than have the experience of connecting directly to that character while I'm into the story, I get it intellectually. So I may come away with an understanding, but I'm missing the passion of being buried in a good story in real time. There is value in that intellectual pursuit but if you want me to become a life-long reader you want to find a way to my heart as well as my brain. Plus, I can't tell you the number of AP kids who have told me the best ways to make a teacher think you've read a story you haven't read.
Q: Did you ever have someone get into your face? Directly accuse you of 'damaging ' minds because of your dark and realistic writings..?
A: Yes. I've often been called "an agent of the Devil." About a year ago someone came right out and called me "the Devil." The actual guy. I thought, "I finally made it. I'm tired of playing second fiddle to that asshole." So I had a beer. If I'm not being quite so much of a smartass I try to get them to imagine the thought processes I must go through to intentionally damage minds.
Q: Do you self-censor? If not, do you find yourself 'doubting your choices?'
A: I wouldn't call it "self censoring". I don't censor what I write about, other than I don't write about things I don't know about, or don't feel competent finding out about. If I write something I feel is too graphic in the sense that it takes away from the story I'm trying to tell, I tone it down. What I don't do is worry about what the so-called censors will think. That said, I am always doubting my choices. I live with the fear that some choice I make doesn't push the story realistically where I want it to go. That's one reason I love my editor. Even if we don't agree we put words to the doubt and I have a better chance of making a right choice.
Q: Have your books become establishment? You are accepted because you are a name and therefore, if it is Crutcher, it must be good?...
A: Boy, if that's true, I have no evidence of it. I think there are plenty of people who might say "this is a Chris Crutcher book," or "this doesn't seem like a Chris Crutcher book," but I think in general if I write a book that's not very good, I don't get a pass.
Q: Working on something new that will raise eyebrows?
A: Am I ever. I've recently submitted a book about a character who shows up in a town twelve years after a horrific Christmas mall shooting. The kids who were visiting Santa Clause as first and second graders when it happened are now juniors an seniors in high school and the reverberations have ricocheted through all their school years. Gotta stop there, to avoid spoilers, but the conversations between Jesus and Superman in the main character's essays alone could stir a little ire. (They're really funny.)
Q: Chris: I have heard time and time again that if we don't have young adult readers read "the classics" they may never have cause to read them again in their lives. One might make the same argument for young adult literature.
A: One very well might, but in my mind that's not the point. If you give me "the classics" and I have no emotional response to them, or they're simply outside my capacity to appreciate, that's a negative return. If I read a young adult novel that does get a passionate response from me, there's a pretty good chance I'll keep looking for stories that do that. Very likely they won't be young adult literature down the road, but I will keep looking for the stories that draw me in. In other words, YA literature is part of a natural progression. There would be a lot better chance of my reading the "classics" in my later years had I been able to fall in love with stories I related to and then expand from there. We want to keep the idea of "development" in mind. Plus, the discussion about the classics and young adult literature isn't "either-or." They are in no way mutually exclusive. There are high school and even middle school students who will eat them up…love them. Those students should be encouraged to the max. They are the ones who will actually keep those classics alive.
Q: Is the introduction to young adult literature just as important as the introduction of classics in the secondary English classroom?
Q: I think I'd like to know if he thinks his audience has changed much over the years. We always hear the statement, "Kids today..." followed by some big thing kids did or didn't do 20 years ago, but does he feel the teens he writes for now are very different from the teens he wrote for when he began writing?
A: Times change quickly. Evolution doesn't. If the teenage Chris Crutcher weren't far more like the teenagers of today than different, I wouldn't be able to write about them. That "Back when I was a boy/girl" thing is a function of memory and perception. Things happen faster now. Information is more available. Competition for certain things has gotten ridiculous. But brain development and emotional/psychological development hasn't changed.
Q: And, I'd love to know what other YA authors he enjoys as a reader.
A: Wow. On a given day probably a bunch of different answers. My problem answering is the number of far-better-writers-than-I that I would leave out.
Q: During your writing career, you've tackled many controversial topics and issues. Are there any topics that you avoid? If so, what are they? What makes you shun them?
A: There aren't any I'd avoid that I know about. The only things that make me avoid a topic are ignorance or lack of interest.
Q: Why do your books seem to provoke so much controversy?
A: I think the biggest reason is a certain level of irreverence toward institutional thought. I have what could easily be called an overdeveloped resistance to the status quo. When I get into it with the religious right - or the political right - it's usually because a character is challenging what I consider to be their ill-thought-out decrees. They call me blasphemous and I accuse them of putting their philosophy ahead of their humanity. On the rare occasions that I get into it with the politically correct Left, it's because I use racial epithets in my writing or attach a personality trait to a character that seems cliché. Truth is, I can't portray the kind of racist I grew up with without using racial slurs. If memory serves, I saw one African American person in the flesh before I was eighteen years old, but I heard the N-word every day of my life. So my writing is a reflection of what I know…or at least what I perceive. More simply put, I believe the controversy comes from the fact that one side thinks we can protect kids by keeping them from discovery, and I think we protect kids from helping then discover.
Q: Do you ever get tired of dealing with your books being challenged and having to justify their use in classrooms?
A: Not really because the truth is, I don't spend a lot of time on it. I've responded so many times I know it by heart, so most times it's just tweaking it a little for whatever the new censorship location is. It's harder on teachers and librarians than it is me, and I'm always hugely grateful when they hang in there because they think there is merit to whichever story it is. I'm also aware that sometimes they just can't do it.
Q: What makes you keep writing after all these years and all this controversy?
A: Well, the years of controversy don't have anything to do with my writing. Every story is a new adventure for me…to see whether or not I can pull it off. Since I don't think about the controversy while I'm writing, there's no stress there, and when I'm finished writing, I have a little extra time on my hands. As you might imagine I'm one of those people who doesn't mind a little controversy. When I match that irritation for lack of a better word, with the lives of some of the people I've worked with in therapy over the years, I can't complain too much. Besides that, I always think I'm right.
Q: Who do you picture when you first start to write a book? Another way to see this would be, who is your audience? Has the audience for your books changed over the years? In what ways? Has your writing style or approach to book writing changed over the years? How? Why?
A: I've said this above, but I don't think of audience. Like a lot of young adult writers I have a pretty wide audience. There are teenagers, of course, but I also get a lot of emails from adults. Other than the age of the protagonist there's not a lot of difference between a good YA novel and an adult novel. The audience has changed some in that the YA field is pulling in a lot more adult readers these days.
Q: If you could be remembered for one YAL book, what would it be? Why?
A: Probably The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, or maybe a new one coming out called Muckers. Unfortunately I didn't write either of those.
You're asking me to pick a favorite child here, but to this point, probably Whale Talk. I have certain intimacies with many of the characters, it contains issues I'm passionate about and it's probably as complex as anything I've written. Sarah Byrnes and Deadline are close seconds, though, and I couldn't have had more fun writing the suspense/thriller aspects of Period 8. I have a certain love for all my books.
Q: What books spoke to you most when you were a teen? Why?
A: I only read one. To Kill a Mockingbird. How cliché can I get, huh?
Q: Teen readers relate strongly to your books, and many of them actually write you to express how much a book meant to them. Relate a favorite anecdote concerning one of those testimonies about the power of YA books.
A: One of my favorites came from a U.S. Army sergeant on active duty in Iraq. She'd had a rough go of it growing up and happened to read Whale Talk at just the right time. She kept a copy with her over there and at times gave it to certain other soldiers. Of course I made sure she got more copies. I think people don't realize how our readers honor us - make our lives better than they ever had a right to be – simply by relating back how our stories happened to collide with their histories at just the right time.
The flip side of that was a girl who took me to serious task over a short story in which an Asperger's syndrome character spewed racial epithets. She was a multi-racial kid who had probably heard some of those epithets hurled at her and she told me that, though she could take it, she didn't want her little sister reading that crap. I received the email a few days before I was to do a presentation at her school, and I think she was goaded by some of her classmates into saying she wanted to give me the what-for one-on-one. Of course by the time I got there she had second thoughts; kids were taunting her and she was having to go face-to-face with the visiting author all the teachers had been talking about for weeks. She decided to bail, but I got the school librarian to bring her in with the promise that no bad would come of it. It gave me the chance to tell a kid that intellectual freedom includes the right not to read also, and that I thought she was really brave to stand up for what she thought was right and that she had a point. She hadn't actually read the story because the language pissed her off in the beginning, so we went through it so I could explain my intentions. She couldn't afford to change her position but was glad to accept a signed copy of the book and spent the bulk of our remaining time telling me what a rough life she and her sister had. It was all way more important than anything in the book.
Q: The books you're writing fit the same mold as books you've always written--how have you managed to avoid trends in YA literature that have made so many authors try different genres?
A: I'm kind of a one-trick pony. Most of those other writers have a greater capacity than I to try those different genres.
Q: Is there a certain type of teen you're trying to reach with your writing? The at-risk kid? The athlete? The disaffected?
A: It probably sounds smartass, but I'm trying to reach anyone who picks up one of my books. Writing about hard-time kids doesn't only appeal to hard-time kids. Every kid, and in fact every adult, can relate to hard times.
Q: With so much dystopian literature being published recently, do you see a greater need for realistic fiction, stories that include teens our readers can more directly relate to?
A: I think any book that gets a kid moving his eyes left to right is a good book. I don't care if a kid reads Goosebumps until he/she is thirty. If kids are engaged in the act of reading, then they have the tools to read whatever interests them at any given time. I think some of the dystopian literature seems as real as anything I write to some kids. I mean it sells like hotcakes. My stuff sells like oatmeal.
<<END>>
2013 NCTE/ALAN Schedule for CC:
8:30 am -- 8 Great (Censored) American Novels
Sunday, Nov 24
8:30 am -- YA Authors, Censorship, and Good Advice
11:00 am -- Signing at HarperCollins, booth #1008
5:30 pm -- ALAN Cocktail Party
Monday, Nov 25
11:05 am -- ALAN Author Breakouts: "Examining the Culture of Sports: 40 Years of Ball in YAL"
1:00 pm -- ALAN Chris Crutcher Keynote: "Can We Be F*****g Real?"


I have an unusual amount of intuition when it comes to people, I am able to figure out motivations and intentions with a high rate of accuracy. Even with people whom I've had very little interaction with. I don't fit stereotypes very well. I'm often the odd one out in a group. I love being different and surprising and not fitting stereotypes. I'm rather pleased to be me. I have a great self esteem and good confidence which makes me willing to seek out and accept challenges which I may not appear to be able to deliver on initially. I'm not afraid of failure. In fact I think it is an essential part of the experimental process that gets you to success. I surprise people often with my reactions and perspectives.
Baby, I will love to make from your body my favorite fetish ! So, I'm waiting you in my room !
Come here. seduce my mind and you can have my body and when this happens you won't be able to get me out of your mind .


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Virtue Rewarded
by Samuel Richardson
pubblicato da Dead Dodo Classic Press
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose country landowner master, Mr. B, makes unwanted advances towards her after the death of his mother. After attempting unsuccessfully to seduce and rape her, her virtue is eventually rewarded when he sincerely proposes an equitable marriage to her. In the novel's second part, Pamela marries Mr. B and tries to acclimatise to upper-class society. The story, a best-seller of its time, was very widely read but was also criticized for its perceived licentiousness.
Generi	Romanzi e Letterature » Classici
Editore Dead Dodo Classic Press
Scrivi una recensione per "Virtue Rewarded"


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