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Archive for the ' History ' Category
Opinion: Abortion Debate Highlights Political Impotency of the Younger Generation
Abortion protest – Barcelona, Spain. Photo: David Berkowitz.
As I left my house to go to work yesterday I found, as I regularly do, junk mail crammed into my letter box. But, unlike the usual menu for takeaways or an estate agent trying to get me to sell my rented house, I found a leaflet for anti-abortion. It was well made with good eye-catching design; even the pictures of its featured politicians were Obama-ised like the famous 'Change' posters. I left it where it was and continued on my way. Two minutes down the street I met the man who was handing out the flyers. Now, I work in a place where daily I deal with large numbers of elderly and retired people, so take my word for it when I tell you; he was one of the oldest people I have ever seen. He was walking up driveways at the pace of a snail with a limp, and his liver spots were so numerous they could have been freckles on a ginger child. Never before have I seen the division of opinions between the old and the young so perfectly portrayed. And yet, despite this man's obvious lack of vitality he was standing up and making an effort to involve himself in an issue he feels very strongly about. The same can definitely not be said of the majority of the young people in my generation.
Irish government
Irish politics
Sinn Fèin
Youth inaction
Youth vote
Last Chance To See: The Ros Tapestry, Farmleigh, Dublin
Technically, this is not actually the last chance to see the Ros Tapestry, but as the tapestry is only at Farmleigh until 1st April, if you live nearer to Dublin than New Ross (its usual home) then you would do well to visit Farmleigh this weekend. The exhibition at Farmleigh also happens to be free, a welcome bonus in these cash strapped times.
Alongside our recent giant Easter egg hunt, which took in Ashtown and Farmleigh, we took time to pop in to view the Ros Tapestry panels. The panels have been exhibited in Farmleigh Gallery since January, to mark Ireland's Presidency of the EU. The monumental series of fifteen panels measuring four feet by six is still a work in progress. Twelve panels are finished and the remaining three (including a lively and detailed battle scene) are represented in this exhibition by full sized colour cartoons. Continue reading →
Ann Griffin Bernstorff
EU Presidency
FARMLEIGH GALLERY
Irish crafts
Ros Tapestry
Catholic Church Still Sits At The Crossroads
The recent news concerning the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has drawn a wide range of reactions from surprise and dismay to sheer indifference. The main reason the outgoing pope has given is that he no longer has the state of body and mind required for the gruelling work hours as Supreme Pontiff in a world "subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith." Pope Benedict is to resign at the end of the month, leaving the throne of St. Peter vacant and paving the way for the first papal conclave since 2005. Continue reading →
Benedict XVI
Francis Arinze
Great Schism
Marc Oullet
Papal conclave
Papal resignation
Peter Turkson
Israel Isn't Perfect, But Palestine Certainly Won't Be Either
There is a tendency here in Ireland, amongst some though not all, to instantly criticise Israel in favour of Palestine, an automatic reaction borne from what sometimes appears to be a genetic predisposition to display extreme hatred of anything which appears in the guise of imperialism and the coloniser – real or imaginary. Throughout the Islamic world, Israel is often criticised though this outspoken criticism shouldn't be mistaken for a genuine concern for Palestine's inhabitants in each and every case; rather it is worryingly often a manifestation of the hatred of the only free state in a veritable sea of totalitarianism, aside from the severe and sometimes under-estimated hatred the Arab world has for Jews simply because they are Jews. Many of us in the West also feel comfortable criticising Israel from behind our newspapers and computers. But blindly criticising Israel as a heartless coloniser is a gross misunderstanding of the facts; both historically and in the present day.
Persecution of Palestinians is nothing new. Ten thousand were killed in 1970. 1991 saw a mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. The work of Israel undoubtedly. Yet for some reason media attention was not as completely focused on these events. Why? Because those 10,000 killed in 1970 met their deaths in Jordan while the ethnic cleansing took place in Kuwait. Israel wasn't involved in either incident and so the coverage was nowhere near the media frenzies we've seen over the past few years. When, in 2002, the Israeli army invaded the Jenin refugee camp to root out terrorists the uproar across the world's media was deafening as they rushed to document each and every perceived excess. Oddly when the Lebanon did the exact same thing in 2007, they received worldwide support while media outlets largely ignored the story following the usual run of first reports.
Why is this the case? Why in Western society is the first reaction always one which is in defence of the Palestinians, regardless of the true facts behind the story? For one thing, Palestinians have hit all of the right buttons in garnering support. The belief has spread that these are rebels fighting the evils of modern imperialism (evil in and of itself though unfortunately not as applicable in this case). People will always rally behind this cry, particularly in those smaller nations across the globe whose history has been dominated by imperialism in one form or another. For another thing, they are fighting against the Jews. The hatred for them that currently exists with such open vehemence in large swathes across the Arab world once existed in a similar state across Europe, which bubbled away for centuries culminating in the unforgettable events in the death camps across the Third Reich. Hitler may be dead and Nazi Germany may be gone but old prejudices die very hard.
Also of importance is the fact that Palestine is fighting a war against a democracy. The issue here lies with the press. In a democracy the press gains access to a far greater degree than in a non-democracy. Seeing as how they don't live in fear of death (other than from incoming Hamas rockets), Israel is far more full of journalists than neighbouring Palestine. And a war against a democracy gains far more attention than one which is waged against a non-democracy. Essentially the world views it as a fight between the uncivilised or the unmodernised, and sees it as something such Luddites are bound to get up to. Thus the democracy begins to be criticised consistently harsher for its small crimes than its opponent will for their most egregious actions – such actions are expected of one yet must be punished in the other. This is obviously the case with Israel and Palestine and when Israel is consistently attacked in the media, the idea that they must be in the wrong, if there are so many stories condemning their actions, begins to imprint on people's minds. And considering Israel is in fact a democracy they can't simply act like a totalitarian state and completely dismiss the horror of the rest of the world as they ethnically cleanse themselves of the enemy (something Hamas would have no issue with, were the roles reversed). So the conflict drags on and the longer the coverage and the longer the conflict, the more they are criticised. This manifests itself in some very odd ways. Take, for example, the Labour Party LGBT group here in Ireland, who protested against Israel which is ironically the only country in the Middle East where LGBTs have rights. But not only did they protest but they did so beneath the flag of Hamas, the symbol of an organisation which tortures and executes gay people. A frightening definition of irony or perhaps simple sheer ignorance, and even more frightening when considering that the organisations involved, including some from the media, saw nothing amiss with this.
Now many might say that none of this matters, these arguments are invalid and pointless because Israel is simply in the wrong as a colonising force which is trying to take control of land to which they have no claim, and that is that. Palestine should be in the hands of the Palestinians because they were there first. These people point out that there was peace in the area before the Zionist colonisers came to establish a state, and are also of the view that the Muslims are the colonised while the Israelis are clearly the colonisers. Anyone who attempts to understand the history of this troubled land knows that this view isn't a historically accurate one, and the history does make for some interesting reading. History tells us a different story, not as far back as 1850 or so, which is roughly the period of time Palestinian sympathisers often like to travel to, but over the course of a thousand years or more. Numerous peoples have populated this land – Canaanites, the Ancient Israelites, Persians and Assyrians, and first joined the Islamic Empire under Muslim colonisers in 636 AD, changing hands several times before being recaptured by the Islamic Muhammad Ali of Egypt from the Turks in the middle part of the 19th century before winding up in the hands of the British. And for those who say that the entire country was simply handed over to the Jews by the British, that simply isn't the case. As a matter of fact, vast tracts of land were willingly sold to Zionists from the mid half of the 19th century, for which they paid prices which were vastly more than the land was actually worth. The area had been in decline for several decades; Palestine was poorly cultivated and widely neglected in many parts and many thought an influx of wealthy Jews would do wonders for reviving the dry and dusty land. Later complaints from Arabs were found to be exaggerated or false; some of the land in question was found to have been sandy and uncultivated land before it had been purchased, having only been put to use when taken over by its Jewish purchaser. So who has the definitive right to this land? The Jews who became a scattered and persecuted group centuries beforehand or the Muslim conquerors who moved in and took the land by force before selling it to their now hated neighbours while painting themselves as the innocent victims of colonisation today? The fairest solution is the two state one; one Palestinian and one Israeli, an offer which has been proposed several times and consistently reject by an Islamic group whose desire to see a Palestinian state is trumped by that of watching the state of Israel burn. True, the Israeli settlements and plans to build the same in the West Bank aren't helping matters and can understandably be condemned. But returning to Hamas, are these really the people who garner such worldwide support?
Let's imagine a different world for a moment – a world in which Israel simply gave in to these demands and sat back and allowed their destruction, the state that is desired in Palestine is established with terrorist group Hamas at the head. Would those who support Palestine's efforts now really support such a state? Do they even realise what that would entail? Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority has maintained that any Palestinian state will be an Islamic one, which isn't an issue. The real issue is that a) the state will be under a more than likely extreme form of Sharia law and b) Hamas will be at the head of this. Sharia law has its positives though restrictions on freedom of speech and the rights of women are just two things to take issue with. Women can't ride motor scooters. Dancing women is a grave offence. 150 'witches' were arrested by Hamas in 2010 while Christians have spoken out against forced conversion to Islam. And freedom of religion certainly won't be an issue, because there will simply be no freedom. In 2002 the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was desecrated, two years following the destruction of Joseph's Tomb in Shechem. Across the Arab world, synagogues, churches and even mosques are all targets for the fanatical, and Palestine is nothing if not well supplied with the fanatical. Even the Shia Muslims aren't safe as they face persecution from Hamas in Gaza. And these are the people who essentially have so much support from the Irish people? Evidently the feeling of shame has long departed these shores. In one sense our support of Palestine is understandable, a support born of an ill understanding of many of the facts and an accidental or perhaps forcible misunderstanding of the consequences, fuelled by a history of oppression in our own country and the remnants of a nationalist narrative which railed against the evils of imperialism in any shape or form, which has taken so long to dissipate and which still somewhat resonates through time today.
And then there is the final part of this insane jigsaw puzzle – the fact that Palestinians – ordinary Palestinians and their supporters across the Middle East remain committed to the destruction of Israel. Such a Palestinian state would not be a model of peace and acceptance but hatred and aggression towards anyone outside of Islam but the Jews in particular. If it was truly peace that Palestine wanted then indoctrination of children in schools wouldn't exist (something which speaks volumes against these people, for whom brainwashing children into believing their cause is right and just is a necessity). In the end it comes down to this – if Hamas ended their campaign of terror, Israel would have no part in Gaza, trade would be free, checkpoints dismantled etc. However if Israel gives up all violence, Hamas' move would be extermination of all Israelis, with the support of the people behind them, not all by any means, though the number is frighteningly sizeable. And so the conflict will continue, because Israel cannot end the violence, and Hamas won't.
David Finklestein of The Times wrote "There can be peace and prosperity at the smallest of prices. The Palestinians need only say that they will allow Israel to exist in peace. They need only say this tiny thing, and mean it, and there is pretty much nothing they cannot have. Yet they will not say it. And they will not mean it…again and again…the Palestinians have been offered a nation-state in a divided Palestine. And again and again they have turned the offer down, for it has always been more important to drive out the Jews than to have a Palestinian state…there cannot be peace until this changes."
protestors
Salam Fayyad
Shia
San Patricios – Mexico's Fighting Irish
If there's one thing that the Irish are known for, besides potatoes and heavy drinking, it's spreading ourselves around the world. Since the days of empire, Irish emigrants have found homes in America, Canada, Australia and India, even as close to home as our English neighbours. But one particular country that doesn't really spring to mind so often would be Mexico.
By the 1840s, much of the US army was made up of Catholic immigrants, mainly from Germany and Ireland. When the Mexican War (1846-1848) broke out, which had its roots in the annexation of Texas and the westward push of American settlers, they were sent as part of General Zachary Taylor's invading force to invade the bordering country. The Mexican government, aware of the prejudices in America against such immigrants, began a campaign to win them to their cause. They were urged by Mexican propaganda to throw off the yoke of Protestant oppression while it was insinuated the America intended to destroy Catholicism in Mexico.
Dubious about why they were fighting a Catholic country in an army where their superiors mistreated them, the Mexican propaganda campaign was very effective in turning these men's minds and loyalties, and hundreds deserted Taylor's army. "The San Patricios were alienated both from American society as well as the US Army," says Professor Kirby Miller from the University of Missouri, an expert on the history of Irish immigration. "They realised that the army was not fighting a war of liberty, but one of conquest against fellow Catholics such as themselves." In November 1846 General Antonio López de Santa Anna organized American deserters with other foreigners in Mexico to form the San Patricio Battalion, or St. Patrick's Company, a name it quite probably received from its Irish-American leader, John Riley who had been a member of the Fifth United States Infantry. The company saw action several times throughout the course of the war; at Monterrey, Saltillo and Buena Vista, each time receiving praise for their fighting.
Following the failed defence of Mexico City, the San Patricios found themselves back in the hands of the United States Army. John Riley was one of the lucky few and as he had technically deserted before the war between Mexico and the United States was actually declared, he escaped death. Instead he received fifty lashes while the letter "D" was branded on his cheek. Though some members of the San Patricios escaped death, many weren't so lucky. The sentences imposed on the San Patricios outraged the Mexican public. In Toluca, for example, Mexican authorities prevented rioters from trying to retaliate against American prisoners of war.
The story of the fighting Irish in Mexico didn't end there. By March of 1848 the Mexicans had found enough original San Patricios combined with fresh deserters to form two more companies while they continued bargaining for the release of those members in American custody, who weren't released until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The San Patricios actively continued as a group, patrolling across Mexico and protecting the people from bandits and Indians. They later became involved in revolts within Mexico until a presidential order from General Herrera stopped them under which Riley was arrested under suspicion of his involvement in a plot to kidnap the President. The San Patricios were recalled to Mexico City so the government could monitor the group and their actions at a closer range. In the end, Herrera, in order to end the problems with the San Patricios as well as an effort to cut the post-war budget, dissolved the company in 1848. Most members remained in Mexico as they couldn't return to the United States.
Some US historians still regard these men as traitors who deserted their army. Mexicans, however, see them as heroes, and so they honour them in a commemoration held each September. In 1993, the Irish began their own ceremony to honour the Irish soldiers, in Clifden, Co. Galway, Riley's old hometown. While being held as a prisoner in Mexico City, Riley wrote a letter to a friend in Michigan in which he said "Be not deceived by a nation that is at war with Mexico, for a friendlier and more hospitable people than the Mexicans there exists not on the face of the earth."
General Zachary Taylor
Irish Immigration
San Patricios
FC Barcelona's Irish Saviour
The generation of football fans which has grown up with the instantly recognisable and world revered and feared brand of tika-taka football which Barcelona play are familiar with a certain section of Barcelona managers who have strode back and forth in front of the touchline – Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola and his successor Tito Vilanova. But rewind roughly 80 years and you would find a less continental name at the helm of a club struggling for their very lives in 1930s during the Spanish Civil war, because the Catalan club and area was associated so much with the Republican cause, and the immense pressure they came under almost caused them to fold.
Born and raised in working class Dublin, Patrick O'Connell used football as a method of escape. He joined Belfast Celtic in the early 1900s before transferring to Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City then Manchester United in May 1914, finishing his career with spells at Dumbarton and Ashlington while enjoying an international career with Ireland including captaining (with a broken arm) the side to a famous 3-0 victory at Ayrsome Park.
In 1922, for unknown reasons, Spain called to O'Connell and he left Irish shores and succeeded Englishman Fred Pentland as the manager of Racing Santander, guiding the side to five regional titles as they became founding members of La Liga in 1928. Between 1929 and 1935 as the world experience the Great Depression, O'Connell managed both Real Oviedo and Real Betis winning several titles with the latter. In the background right-wing tendencies were spreading across Spain and the Catalan region was becoming a focal point for resistance against these views. On the football pitch this manifested itself in the developing rivalry between Catalan Barcelona and the Franco-supported Real Madrid, a fierce and often bitter rivalry that still persists today. In the summer of 1935, O'Connell visited his native Ireland for a holiday and was appointed manager of Barcelona on his return after his successes with Betis hadn't gone unnoticed. The club had gone into a decline during that decade, alongside the rising hostile political climate and success at the national level consistently evaded them. Things weren't looking great.
What saved the club was the decision by O'Connell to take up an invitation to tour Mexico and America, for a guaranteed fee of around $15,000, a huge sum during the 1930s, throwing both the club a financial lifeline, and a period of respite and safety for the club's players, some of whom had left to join forces in opposition to the military uprising, and who were feeling very unsafe. Thanks to O'Connell the tour was a PR success. The money was wired to a bank in Paris to ensure its safety from fascist hands, and the team eventually returned to Spain, consisting just of O'Connell and four other players from the original party which had travelled. On his return to Spain, O'Connell left the club.
During the war years 1942-1945 O'Connell remained in Spain as the hand guiding Sevilla's title ambitions, which never came to fruition before finishing his Spanish management career back where it all began at Racing Santander. What happened following his departure from Spain is unknown, all that is clear is that the man who ensured Barcelona's survival through turbulent times died in obscurity in run-down lodgings in London in 1959. Today, the club still remembers the man who did so much for them; a bust of the man from Dublin sits in the Barca museum, part of their club's history forever.
Ashlington
Belfast Celtic
Fred Pentland
Patrick O`Connell
Tito Vilanova
Adams Must Decide How History Will Remember Him
If the truth will have its way, another sad chapter of Northern Ireland's violent history may finally be closed, should the testimony of an ex-IRA volunteer be joined to that of former IRA man, Brendan Hughes, and other former members who told their stories to the Boston college project whose aim it was and is to create and collect a repository of oral history concerning the Troubles.
Major pressure is to be heaped upon Gerry Adams in the Dáil following an interview given to the Sunday Telegraph by Dolours Price, a former member of the feared inner sanctum. Price, who was married to actor Stephen Rea, has remained disillusioned by the peace process and what she sees as Adams' betrayal, and gave the Sunday Telegraph an interview concerning what she told the Boston project. The 61-year-old, who now lives in a quiet suburb in Dublin, has claimed that not only was Adams in the IRA but it was on his orders that victims were ferried across the border, a bombing campaign against a series of targets in mainland Britain, including the Old Bailey, as were the kidnappings of those viewed by the IRA as traitors, including one Jean McConville.
The allegations against Adams are nothing new. The family of Jean McConville in particular have always maintained the Sinn Féin leader's role in her execution during the early 1970s on the basis of accusations concerning repeatedly relaying information to the British army through a radio in her home. Adams resolutely denies any involvement in the young woman's death which has in some manner come to represent the atrocities committed by the IRA during the Troubles alongside the Omagh bombing. And until now no real hard evidence could be put forward to stick on Adams. Even when combined with the testimony of Brendan Hughes released by the Boston College after his death as per his agreement in the book 'Voices from the Grave' which offers a starkly different story to the one which Adams has always painted (namely his active involvement in the IRA), the proof is circumstantial and those who criticise him have a potential bias, being former IRA men and women who felt betrayed by a former leader. Unsurprising, really, when considering that the Troubles and the truth rarely go hand in hand.
The response from Adams hasn't really been surprising. The solid, hard evidence mightn't be there but public opinion will quite possibly mount against Adams, alongside political pressure from his colleagues in the Dáil who wouldn't mind having a different scapegoat in the public eye (James Reilly, we're looking at you). So really, at the heart of it, Adams will decide his own destiny. Despite the Good Friday Agreement which finally ended the Provo's long armed campaign in the North, a page cannot be truly turned to a new side while the major players on both sides of the coin are not only publicly active in the present but shadily skirting their past. A new dawn is on the horizon with a new generation but the truth must out first. While he keeps his mouth shut, no one wins. The families of the disappeared want to know who and what caused their loved ones to die and is a constant and horrifying reminder of those thirty years of fear and violence.
Eventually, the truth will come out. Whether through legal wrangling or the passage of time and the deaths of those who told their stories, the contents of the Boston College project will be revealed, and new evidence will undoubtedly come to light. Two corroborating oral witnesses could be dismissed. Many more will surely not. And who knows what other dark secrets are yet to be revealed from within the depth of those archives. Adams and his image would do far better if he revealed any secrets he might be hiding about his past now, under no pressure and of his own accord. History, they say, will be the judge of us all. Adams must decide what it will say.
Brendan Hughes
Dail Eireann
Dolours Price
Jean McConville
Omagh bombing
Provisional IRA


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GHRP-2 (growth hormone-releasing peptide 2) also called pralmorelin is a GHS (growth hormone secretagogue) used as a diagnostic agent. Growth hormone secretagogues are a class of drugs acting as secretagogues (that is, induce the secretion of GH (growth hormone).
GHRP-2 (growth hormone-releasing peptide 2) also called pralmorelin is a GHS (growth hormone secretagogue) used as a diagnostic agent. Growth hormone secretagogues are a product acting as secretagogues (that is, induce the secretion of GH (growth hormone).
What Is Growth Hormone-Releasing Peptide 2?
It's a peptide that stimulates your body's growth hormone (also known as somatotropin or human growth hormone) production. It's one of the most effective and powerful preparations of the GHRP group, excelling in efficiency Ipamorelin and growth hormone-releasing peptide 6 (GHRP-6 or growth hormone-releasing hexapeptide) by approximately 30 per cent.
Its action is typically caused by the hypothalamus and pituitary stimulation, leading to an increased secretion of GH in 7 to 15 times, while the other stimulators of GH, based on the gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA or γ-aminobutyric acid) and amino acid level, don't provide an increase that is more than 2 to 3 times.
The hypophysis (pituitary gland) is an endocrine gland that is roughly the size of a pea. It weighs 0.018 oz (0.5 grams) in the human body. It is located in the centre of the brain, and its function is to regulate the production of hormones of most of the endocrine glands.
The hypothalamus is the portion of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain), the main centre of the ANS or autonomic nervous system (ANS, which humans don't control, regulates blood circulation, metabolism organs, reproduction, excretion, digestion as well as respiration), controls sleep cycle, hormone levels and much more.
Hence, the peptide interacts with growth hormone secretagogue receptors (ghrelin receptors) and causes increased appetite.
Stimulation of enhanced GH (growth hormone).
Increasing linear growth in kids as well as adolescents.
Making sure there is an anti-inflammatory effect and thus improves immunity.
The injection has to be carried out while the stomach is empty, at least two hours after taking the previous meal, and it shouldn't be less than 60 minutes before the next one. It's advisable that the food that is consumed before injection contains a bit of carbohydrate and fat.
The prevention of changes that are related to ageing implies making just one injection of once each day. The average growth hormone-releasing peptide two cycle lasts for 1 to 2 months, then followed by 1 to 2 weeks of rest for the purpose of preventing excessive depletion of the hypophysis (pituitary gland).
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Fylde-based social enterprise, Spiral Health, has been presented with an excellence award in recognition of its work.
Spiral Health community interest company, has won the Hirst Prize for Social Enterprise Excellence.
Spiral, which has its head office in Wesham, provides rehabilitation services to primary and secondary care, social services and the private sector, was formed in 2012.
Its first contract was to operate a 40 bed nurse-led unit at Bispham where staff are involved with the board and the day-to- day running to continually improve care standards and produce efficiency savings.
The team has since won new contracts to create a new rehabilitation unit at the Royal Preston Hospital and is now working with Eric Wright Construction to open a state-of- the-art dementia unit. Meanwhile, Spiral Health's chief executive Tracey Bush regularly advises the government on how this model of healthcare can be rolled out.
The award was presented was presented by a leading figure in the sector, Clive Hirst at Social Enterprise Solutions in Blackpool, along with a share of the company's profits in line with how social enterprises operate..
Tracey Bush received the award at a special ceremony which also included staff, board members, public members and the outgoing High Sheriff of Lancashire, John Barnett MBE DL.
Mr Hirst said: "Spiral Health has always demonstrated its social enterprise credentials by contributing to the community and clearly demonstrating its social value.


text:
from .services.vpc_access_service import (
    VpcAccessServiceAsyncClient,
    VpcAccessServiceClient,
)
from .types.vpc_access import (
    Connector,
    CreateConnectorRequest,
    DeleteConnectorRequest,
    GetConnectorRequest,
    ListConnectorsRequest,
    ListConnectorsResponse,
    OperationMetadata,
)

__all__ = (
    "VpcAccessServiceAsyncClient",
    "Connector",
    "CreateConnectorRequest",
    "DeleteConnectorRequest",
    "GetConnectorRequest",
    "ListConnectorsRequest",
    "ListConnectorsResponse",
    "OperationMetadata",
    "VpcAccessServiceClient",
)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Our Books Ourselves
February 25, 2012 August 12, 2017 christophernorthjr
https://christophernorthjr.edublogs.org/files/2012/02/Teatime-1wc0h0y-2a67zps.mp3
Stackridge
J. D. Wilson, Jr.
There was an article in The New Republic, "Voluminous" by Leon Wieseltier that talks about how the books we read shape the people we become, about how some books will shape our biography. They do not just entertain us or move us, but become us, shape our memories and who we become, or as Wieseltier says "Many books are read but some books are lived, so that words and ideas lose their ethereality and become experiences, turning points in an insufficiently clarified existence and thereby acquire the almost mystical (but also fallible) intimacy of memory. In this sense one's books are one's biography." A library is more than a collection of books, it contains those books with which we have established an intimacy; we have conversed with them, written in them and they have written upon us.
The photograph above is of my library and it suggests a lot about who I am. It is very diverse everything from Proust to Dr. Seuss; from the earliest myths and folk tales to The Changing Light at Sandover. It is very disordered and serendipitous, with stacks in front of books put away in the more conventional fashion, standing up with their backs to us; with many that were purchased on a whim or because they addressed a topic that at the time fascinated, and probably still fascinates, me. They are hugely overstocked suggesting an appetite that it is impossible to satisfy in that few, and certainly not me, are capable of consuming so much. It suggests my curiosity on subjects ranging from the American West, to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to astronomy, psychology, and "great" thinkers past and present. But mostly there are stories from Scheherazade to Chekhov, from the mighty walls of Priam to Toad Hall and the Misty Mountains. The song that started things is called Teatime by a group I discovered in 1973 while walking through the streets of Edinburgh and one of the universities there (St. Andrews I think). The song is there because tea is an important adjunct to reading. C. S. Lewis once said something about there not being a book long enough or a cup of tea large enough. He said it much more eloquently of course, but I endorse the sentiment.
The desk I work at in my library is uncluttered and more organized, though still surrounded by books that have significance for me, Shakespeare's First Folio (a facsimile, not the original), Aubrey Beardsley's edition of Le Mort d'Arthur, probably one of my favorite books and one of the books that drove me, in the sixth grade, towards serious literature. I could not read Malory's and Caxton's English, though I tried, but I had read one of the stories in my sixth grade reader at school, a modern adaptation, and so I wanted the "big book" the adaptation came from. I struggled with the opening chapters, but unlike some eleven year olds, the book was clearly beyond me. That said, though, any edition that does not open with the words "It came to pass in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that waged war against him a long time" is no edition for me. There is a sense that a library is a self-portrait of its owner and reveals a great deal about the person who possesses it, and is probably a good reason not to show one's library to just anyone.
Érik Desmazières: La Salle des planètes, from his series of illustrations for Jorge Luis Borges's story 'The Library of Babel,' 1997–2001. A new volume of Desmazières's catalogue raisonné will be published by the Fitch-Febvrel Gallery later this year. Illustration © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/mar/10/how-we-know/?pagination=false
Of course the quintessential library is Jorge Luis Borges' "Library of Babel." If the library we have speaks to who we are what do the libraries we imagine say about us. The Library of Babel is essentially unusable in its size and complexity though more complete than any could hope for. But part of what makes a real library a real library is selection, a library that includes everything cannot say much about the collector of the library because the only criteria is that it be in print. Theoretically the Library of Congress is something of an accumulation of everything published in America. It represents the depth and breadth of writing in America but being a collection of everything it does not pass judgment, it does not by exclusion and inclusion suggest what is worth reading and what is not. The case could be made that a public library also does not pass judgment on books, that they merely collect, but their collections often represent the interests of the communities they serve, while also including titles that suggest where the librarian thinks the community should be. Where a personal library may be a self-portrait of the person to whom it belongs a public library in many ways is a self-portrait of the community to whom it belongs.
Self-Portrait at the age of thirteen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self-portrait_at_13_by_Albrecht_Dürer.jpg
The drawing above and the painting below are self-portraits of Albrecht Durer, one at thirteen and one at twenty-nine. What do these portraits tell us about the artist and how the artist changed over those sixteen years? The first is much simpler and the subject much younger. The painting shows the unique signature that Durer developed, his initials actually, the letter "D" embedded in the letter "A". Though both are detailed the later painting captures details that are more complex and intricate. The most obvious difference is probably that of color, which is perhaps the primary difference between a drawing and a painting. I have been told that hands are often the most difficult for an artist to do well. The hands in both the painting and the drawing are very well drawn and suggest the thirteen year old Durer was already a master craftsman. For me the significant difference is in what the artist attempts, the painting revealing an artist who has grown in skill and maturity.
Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Durer_selfporitrait.jpg
Where paintings are snapshots of sorts, they capture a moment in time and the way things were at that moment, a library is more of a living self-portrait, it evolves and grows as its "curator" evolves and grows, and though the painting suggests growth and an evolution of style over the drawing, the painting does not contain the drawing in the same way a library contains some of its earlier manifestations. Also, with the passage of time some things are discarded and others are added. The library reveals the librarian then in two ways. What is discarded suggests those things that are left behind or outgrown; they reveal a change in intellectual, spiritual, and cultural directions. My first library included many Batman and Superman comics that are now no more. My brother picked up for a dime or a quarter a copy of the first Superman comic. He found it in a junk shop when we were children in San Pedro, California. That comic book and many others from about the same period were purchased by my brother and I from an old thrift shop three or four blocks up the street from the old ferry building and the ferry that would take my brother and I to the shipyard on Terminal Island where our father worked. There was a table toward the front of the store where the comics were scattered in no particular order. There were many of them and we would rummage for the oldest Batman and Superman comics we could find. We had never read them so they were like new to us, and a little cheaper than the brand new ones we could purchase at the drug store.
When he threw that book away he threw away what would come to be worth over a million dollars (the copy of the same edition having sold for that much in a recent auction). What does this suggest about the value of books and what we choose to keep and what we choose to discard. Is my library better served by this Superman comic or by the old Skeat edition of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, with the navy blue bindings that identify it as one of the Standard Oxford Authors (they are roughly the same age, coming as they both do from the 1930's)? I suppose how that question is answered says something as well about the keeper of the library and how he has grown as a person and a collector of literature.
Drawing for the novel The War of the Worlds, showing a Martian fighting-machine battling with the warship Thunder Child
Henrique Alvim Corrêa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Correa-Martians_vs._Thunder_Child.jpg
There were a number of other articles about books and the kinds of stories people have been attracted to over the millennia. There was an article in the London Review of Books, "Homer Inc", on The Iliad and why, despite what Matt Damon said in Goodwill Hunting, it has from the beginning always been more popular than The Odyssey, which on the surface seems to tell the better story. There was a review of a book on the illustrations done for The Thousand and One Arabian Nights, "Visions of the Arabian Nights", and how they have changed over time. There was a third article on monsters and what makes them attractive to readers, "Monsters, magic and miracles". Each of these articles touches on different aspects of what makes a story attractive and draws readers to it. There are monsters in the Arabian Nights, but there are no monsters in The Iliad though The Odyssey is populated with a healthy number of monsters. It might be said that it is the humans in The Iliad that are somewhat monstrous in their behavior. Perhaps that is what combat does to people or maybe it is just a snapshot of a more primitive people who do view human life in quite the same way we do. There is also, generally, something epic in the battle with monsters, whether it is the Martians in The War of the Worlds or dragons in Beowulf and other stories from medieval Europe.
Zmey Gorynych, the Russian three-headed dragon
Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Ivan_Bilibin_065.jpg
Monsters engage us perhaps because they are so different from us on one level, but on others not so different. We empathize at least as much with the monster in Frankenstein as we do with Frankenstein himself because we understand the monster's loneliness and desire for companionship. I enjoy the scene in ET where ET and Eliot first see each other and each is terrified by the "monstrous" appearance of the other. ET needs help and Eliot empathizes with ET's need, in this we see that they both share a common humanity in spite of their terrifying differences and their shared humanity enables each to befriend the other. This suggests that what makes a monster is relative. Polyphemus was not a monster in the eyes of the other Cyclopes with whom he lived. In my library there are many monsters and many monstrous acts depicted. There are monsters, like Frankenstein's creature and Quasimodo that draw my empathy and others like Grendel and Wells' extraterrestrial beings that evoke fear and terror. There are also many ghosts who evoke a different kind of terror. There is something in me that enjoys being horrified and seeks out terror in all its grisly forms.
https://christophernorthjr.edublogs.org/files/2012/02/TanLeMyImmigrationStory_2011X-1k6b32r-2jzmvwu.mp4
My Immigration Story
Tan Le
The video tells another story of survival and acceptance. It is not a book; it is a video clip of the person telling their story. Oral histories have become more a part of our culture's historical legacy. Of course there is nothing new in this. In The Last of the Mohicans we are introduced to Hawk-eye and Chingachgook as they discuss, among other things, the relative value of written versus oral history. Neither Hawk-eye nor Chingachgook trust written history, seeing them as shaped more by the interests of the historian than by giving an accurate account of what has occurred. I imagine the veracity of those telling the story, whether written down or spoken, has a lot to do with reliability of the narrative each presents. But how do we classify these stories, whether made up or stating facts? What do we do with films, recordings, photographs, all that other media that tell stories without writing anything down? Many libraries are film libraries or record (CD) libraries. What do these libraries reveal and should an honest "librarian" draw from all forms of story telling? I suppose this is a matter of taste, but Tan Le's story has some of the qualities of Odysseus's journey home. There are the predators, the overcoming of the odds, there are elements of fate and destiny. Stories, even true stories, are told after the fact, that is they are selective, events are included others are rejected, based on their relevance to the story being told. This suggests there is purpose to the story, that, even when the story is a true story, a memoir, that there is a kind of order to the events, the suggestion, perhaps, that the outcome was destined.
In the earliest of stories this was true, the Norns or the Fates cut the thread that wove the tapestry of a life when that life reached its end. No matter what the characters involved do, Oedipus will murder his father and will marry his mother. It will all happen inadvertently and no one is to blame for the way things go, but people are accountable nonetheless and all is foreordained. Today it is chance and serendipity that lead to these outcomes. Life is chaotic; there is no order or purpose. When I look at my library it has haphazardly come together the way it has, but there is also a guiding hand, my interests, my values, my tastes in literature; these are the "fates' that guide my library's destiny and shape the person my library has made. Perhaps these are the the fates that shape all our destinies. That said, when I look at my library I see the books I have read and collected and they have formed in many ways the person I have become, one can read in them all my strengths and failings, my inadequacies and redeeming qualities. It is where they first took breath.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/SelbstPortrait_VG2.jpg
biography, books, libraries, memory, storiesLeave a comment
Only a Memory
April 26, 2010 May 8, 2010 christophernorthjr
Looking into You
Memory, Bronze door at main entrance of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building
Olin Warner (completed by Herbert Adams)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Memory-Warner-Highsmith.jpeg
In the song the singer returns to a place he once called home. It has changed as he has changed and the scene the song evokes suggests the true meaning of nostalgia, the pain of coming home. Returning to a place where memories live is often an unpleasant enterprise. The place is never as we remember it and even if the changes in the place are not great the changes in us often are. Our changed selves are out of place in our old worlds. The bronze relief on the main door of the Library of Congress is titled Memory but what is being remembered? The figure in the door could be Penelope remembering Odysseus and wondering when or if he will return. It might be of any woman waiting for a warrior to return (and the objects she holds suggests she is remembering a warrior). Of course this woman could be the wife or mother of a soldier that has died and will not return. Perhaps the door is of a specific event that would be clear if I knew the door's history but not knowing its history leaves the image open to many interpretations, all of which suggest the more melancholy aspects of memory. Perhaps all memory, by virtue of what it is, is tinged with melancholy.
There is a line from the Wallace Stevens poem "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" (one of the ways of looking at the blackbird) that goes, "I do not know which to prefer, / The beauty of inflections / Or the beauty of innuendoes, / The blackbird whistling / Or just after." I think what the poet is considering, especially in the last phrase, "The blackbird whistling / Or just after" is whether the event ("the blackbird whistling") or the memory of the event ("just after") is the more pleasant. Our memories of an experience, especially a pleasant experience, are often more pleasant and more "memorable" than the experience itself. This raises the question to what degree are we shaped by our experiences and to what degree are we shaped by our memories of those experiences, which are not always the same thing. This is perhaps what is being gotten at in the first phrase in the Stevens poem about "The beauty of inflections" and "the beauty of innuendoes." Which is more beautiful the sounds that we hear or what those sounds suggest, hint at, or evoke? Are we shaped by inflections of memory or by their innuendoes?
The Last of England
Ford Maddox Brown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_last_of_england.jpg
At the back of the song is also the suggestion of leaving home, he is visiting a house he lived in when he "first went out on (his) own." The singer is not going to a new world in the same way the people depicted in Ford Maddox Brown's painting above or Alfred Stieglitz's photograph below are going to a new world, but in a sense when a young man or woman leaves home to make a home for him or herself in the world it is a new world that is opening up. It may not come with as much that is foreign and different as it was for the folks in the painting or the photograph but it still involves entering something of an unknown universe. When we leave home we know the landscape, the people around us look and dress largely as we do, they also speak our language. This helps, but the world is new nonetheless. It takes courage to go out on our own. Ours is a nation of immigrants, which means that for most us there is someone in our ancestry that made the trip the folks in the painting and the photograph are making.
The Steerage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Steerage_1907_Stieglitz.jpg
I think that of the two, the journey in the painting and the photograph, the one depicted in the photograph had to be the most difficult. The folks in steerage are very different from the folks looking at them from above. The world the folks in steerage are entering is a very different world from the one they left. Of course I am assuming that the folks in the painting are going to America, as the folks in Steerage appear to be doing. Of course this is a guess on both parts. It could be the folks in the painting are going to India or Egypt, both parts of the English Commonwealth at the time. It may be the folks in steerage are going to another country that is more like the one they left and that it is those watching from above that will be the ones to feel most out of place. Our lives, perhaps, are shaped as much by our preconceptions as they are by our memories and there are no guarantees that either is entirely reliable.
There was an article in the Guardian, "The private life of books," about what is at times found in second hand books. I know I often buy books that people have written in because I want to know the thoughts of others, if others have understood the book as I understood it or were affected by it as I was affected. The world of the used book is a very different world from that of the new book. I have books that I bought in various places that are quite old. Some were printed before the technology that "burst" or separated the pages was invented. When these books were bought in order to read them the reader had to first cut the pages. There is a scene in The Great Gatsby where the narrator, Nick, is commenting on Gatsby's library and the magnificence of the volumes that fill the shelves. Nick pulls down a book and soon discovers that none of the pages in any of the books he looks into have been cut. This tells us the books in Gatsby's library served more of a decorative than literary purpose. When I open a book that is a few hundred years old in which none of the pages have been cut, I am having the experience of reading that book for the first time, not just the first time I am reading that book but the first time anyone has read that book. I have not had this experience often, but each time I have had it, it has filled me with a kind of awe. I am the first person, other than the printer who set the page perhaps, to read this book though it has had a home on someone's bookshelf for many, many years.
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street
Giorgio de Chirico.
http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chirico/chirico9.html
There was a review recently in the Washington Post, "Michael Dirda reviews 'Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks' by John Curran," of a book on Agatha Christie's notebooks, the notebooks she kept as she was writing her mystery stories. I have always been a great fan of detective fiction in general and of Christie's stories in particular. I remember riding my bicycle through Scotland. I was by the banks of Loch Ness when a rainstorm started. I found a bed and breakfast where I could stay until the rain passed. One of the other guests there recommended the Christie novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. There was a copy of the novel in one of the sitting rooms. I picked it up and it was the first full length novel I ever read in a single sitting. It kept me up all night long and I never got sleepy. This was not the first Agatha Christie novel I read, but it is among the most memorable. Of course there was more to the experience than the book, there was also the place, I was in Great Britain, in a place that was shrouded by its own aura mystery. The window in my room looked out over Loch Ness and I remember looking out each evening to see if there were any strange creatures swimming about. But of course there were not, and my memory refuses to "enliven" this recollection.
The film is about a man trying to figure out who he is and the woman that is trying to help him. Something has happened to the man that has induced amnesia. All we know is that the event that brought on his forgetfulness seemed to involve something white and some lines. We only know this because of how he reacts to straight lines and the color white. The actor playing the old psychiatrist in the film is Michael Chekhov, Anton Chekhov's nephew. He (Michael Chekhov) was a student of Constantin Stanislavski and went on to develop his own approach to the craft of acting. He is known for developing the concept of the "Psychological Gesture," a behavior or action that reveals an inner psychological reality in the character being portrayed. I think knowing this makes his portrayal of the psychiatrist in the movie that much more delightful. I think that Gregory Peck in his portrayal of the amnesiac makes use of this theatrical device at various times in the film, including those moments with razor in the clip above. It is also what we do not know about this character's past (and what we think we know) that creates the tension that permeates this scene.
This suggests the limitations of knowledge or at least the limits of what we think we know. Knowledge can be deceptive. We think we know a thing; we have studied it and found out a lot about that thing. But if there is any complexity to what we know the odds are our knowledge is limited and the conclusions drawn from it are not always reliable. This can create problems because we often have to act on what we know and we often cannot be sure we know enough to act. Chekhov's character in the film believes he must act on what he knows, but as the film will show he does not know enough to justify the conclusion that he draws. He wants to go to the police because he believes Peck's character is dangerous. But this view may be questionable. You will have to watch the film to find out if Chekhov calls the police or listens to Ingrid Bergman and suspends judgment.
Memories make our lives richer. They enable us to derive pleasure from an experience over and over again. When I read a book that evokes or alludes to another book that I have read that evocation or allusion brings back the original experience of reading that book (or part of the experience). Of course there is the other side of memory, a side like that experienced by the character in the film, where memories, or the ghosts of memories, haunt us and keep us from enjoying the present or of building a future. And memories often will not be controlled. They will visit us in their own time and often stay longer than they are welcome. Little things often bring them out of hiding. For me the smell of diesel fuel takes me back to London in the 1970's and graham crackers bring me back to a room above a plumbing store on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, California. These are pleasant memories and I welcome them when they come. But there are always others that are less welcome that have their own triggers that I will not mention here for fear of provoking them.
knowledge, memory, nostalgia, storiesLeave a comment

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Here is a partial list of error messages that you may see from CVS. It is not a complete list---CVS is capable of printing many, many error messages, often with parts of them supplied by the operating system, but the intention is to list the common and/or potentially confusing error messages.
The messages are alphabetical, but introductory text such as `cvs update: ' is not considered in ordering them.
In some cases the list includes messages printed by old versions of CVS (partly because users may not be sure which version of CVS they are using at any particular moment).
The exact format of this message may vary depending on your system. It indicates a bug in CVS, which can be handled as described in H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual.
This is a generic response when trying to connect to a pserver server which chooses not to provide a specific reason for denying authorization. Check that the username and password specified are correct and that the CVSROOT specified is allowed by `--allow-root' in `inetd.conf'. See 2.9.3 Direct connection with password authentication.
This message indicates that you removed a file, and someone else modified it. To resolve the conflict, first run `cvs add file'. If desired, look at the other party's modification to decide whether you still want to remove it. If you don't want to remove it, stop here. If you do want to remove it, proceed with `cvs remove file' and commit your removal.
This message has been happening in a non-reproducible, occasional way when we run the client/server testsuite, both on Red Hat Linux 3.0.3 and 4.1. We haven't been able to figure out what causes it, nor is it known whether it is specific to linux (or even to this particular machine!). If the problem does occur on other unices, `Operation not permitted' would be likely to read `Not owner' or whatever the system in question uses for the unix EPERM error. If you have any information to add, please let us know as described in H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual. If you experience this error while using CVS, retrying the operation which produced it should work fine.
The obvious cause for this message (especially for non-client/server CVS) is that the CVS root is, for example, `/usr/local/cvsroot' and you try to check out files when you are in a subdirectory, such as `/usr/local/cvsroot/test'. However, there is a more subtle cause, which is that the temporary directory on the server is set to a subdirectory of the root (which is also not allowed). If this is the problem, set the temporary directory to somewhere else, for example `/var/tmp'; see TMPDIR in D. All environment variables which affect CVS, for how to set the temporary directory.
See `'root' is not allowed to commit files'.
This generally indicates a CVS internal error, and can be handled as with other CVS bugs (see section H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual). Usually there is a workaround--the exact nature of which would depend on the situation but which hopefully could be figured out.
This message is harmless. Provided it is not accompanied by other errors, the operation has completed successfully. This message should not occur with current versions of CVS, but it is documented here for the benefit of CVS 1.9 and older.
See F.2 Trouble making a connection to a CVS server.
This message has been reported as intermittently happening with CVS 1.9 on Solaris 2.5. The cause is unknown; if you know more about what causes it, let us know as described in H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual.
This, unfortunately, is a rather nonspecific error message which CVS 1.9 will print if you are running the CVS client and it is having trouble connecting to the server. Current versions of CVS should print a much more specific error message. If you get this message when you didn't mean to run the client at all, you probably forgot to specify :local:, as described in 2. The Repository.
CVS 1.9 and older will print this message when trying to check in a binary file if RCS is not correctly installed. Re-read the instructions that came with your RCS distribution and the INSTALL file in the CVS distribution. Alternately, upgrade to a current version of CVS, which checks in files itself rather than via RCS.
With CVS 1.9, this can mean that the co program (part of RCS) returned a failure. It should be preceded by another error message, however it has been observed without another error message and the cause is not well-understood. With the current version of CVS, which does not run co, if this message occurs without another error message, it is definitely a CVS bug (see section H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual).
This means that you need to set the environment variables that CVS uses to locate your home directory. See the discussion of HOME, HOMEDRIVE, and HOMEPATH in D. All environment variables which affect CVS.
CVS 1.9 and older will print this message if there was a problem finding the rcsmerge program. Make sure that it is in your PATH, or upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not require an external rcsmerge program.
This means that there was a problem finding the patch program. Make sure that it is in your PATH. Note that despite appearances the message is not referring to whether it can find file. If both the client and the server are running a current version of CVS, then there is no need for an external patch program and you should not see this message. But if either client or server is running CVS 1.9, then you need patch.
This means that for whatever reason the client was unable to apply a patch that the server sent. The message is nothing to be concerned about, because inability to apply the patch only slows things down and has no effect on what CVS does.
There is a known bug in the server for CVS 1.9.18 and older which can cause this. For me, this was reproducible if I used the `-t' global option. It was fixed by Andy Piper's 14 Nov 1997 change to src/filesubr.c, if anyone is curious. If you see the message, you probably can just retry the operation which failed, or if you have discovered information concerning its cause, please let us know as described in H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual.
The most common cause for this message is if you are using an external rsh program and it exited with an error. In this case the rsh program should have printed a message, which will appear before the above message. For more information on setting up a CVS client and server, see 2.9 Remote repositories.
This means that there is a syntax error in the given RCS file. Note that this might be true even if RCS can read the file OK; CVS does more error checking of errors in the RCS file. That is why you may see this message when upgrading from CVS 1.9 to CVS 1.10. The likely cause for the original corruption is hardware, the operating system, or the like. Of course, if you find a case in which CVS seems to corrupting the file, by all means report it, (see section H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual). There are quite a few variations of this error message, depending on exactly where in the RCS file CVS finds the syntax error.
If you see both messages, the database is being rebuilt twice, which is unnecessary but harmless. If you wish to avoid the duplication, and you have no versions of CVS 1.7 or earlier in use, remove -i mkmodules every place it appears in your modules file. For more information on the modules file, see C.1 The modules file.
Typically this can happen if you created an RCS file with your username set to empty. CVS will, bogusly, create an illegal RCS file with no value for the author field. The solution is to make sure your username is set to a non-empty value and re-create the RCS file.
This message means that CVS isn't familiar with the tag tag. Usually this means that you have mistyped a tag name; however there are (relatively obscure) cases in which CVS will require you to try a few other CVS commands involving that tag, before you find one which will cause CVS to update the `val-tags' file; see discussion of val-tags in 2.2.2 File permissions. You only need to worry about this once for a given tag; when a tag is listed in `val-tags', it stays there. Note that using `-f' to not require tag matches does not override this check; see A.5 Common command options.
This typically means that there is a directory named CVS but it does not contain the administrative files which CVS puts in a CVS directory. If the problem is that you created a CVS directory via some mechanism other than CVS, then the answer is simple, use a name other than CVS. If not, it indicates a CVS bug (see section H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual).
This message will be followed by a usage message for RCS. It means that you have an old version of RCS (probably supplied with your operating system), as well as an old version of CVS. CVS 1.9.18 and earlier only work with RCS version 5 and later; current versions of CVS do not run RCS programs.
This message seems to be caused by a hard-to-track-down bug in CVS or the systems it runs on (we don't know--we haven't tracked it down yet!). It seems to happen only after a CVS command has completed, and you should be able to just ignore the message. However, if you have discovered information concerning its cause, please let us know as described in H. Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual.
When committing a permanent change, CVS makes a log entry of who committed the change. If you are committing the change logged in as "root" (not under "su" or other root-priv giving program), CVS cannot determine who is actually making the change. As such, by default, CVS disallows changes to be committed by users logged in as "root". (You can disable this option by commenting out the definition of CVS_BADROOT in `options.h' before building CVS.
This message is typically printed by the `log.pl' script which is in the `contrib' directory in the CVS source distribution. In some versions of CVS, `log.pl' has been part of the default CVS installation. The `log.pl' script gets called from the `loginfo' administrative file. Check that the arguments passed in `loginfo' match what your version of `log.pl' expects. In particular, the `log.pl' from CVS 1.3 and older expects the logfile as an argument whereas the `log.pl' from CVS 1.5 and newer expects the logfile to be specified with a `-f' option. Of course, if you don't need `log.pl' you can just comment it out of `loginfo'.
See `EOF in key in RCS file'.
This message typically means that the server is not set up properly. For example, if `inetd.conf' points to a nonexistent cvs executable. To debug it further, find the log file which inetd writes (`/var/log/messages' or whatever inetd uses on your system). For details, see F.2 Trouble making a connection to a CVS server, and 2.9.3.1 Setting up the server for password authentication.
This means that someone else has committed a change to that file since the last time that you did a cvs update. So before proceeding with your cvs commit you need to cvs update. CVS will merge the changes that you made and the changes that the other person made. If it does not detect any conflicts it will report `M file' and you are ready to cvs commit. If it detects conflicts it will print a message saying so, will report `C file', and you need to manually resolve the conflict. For more details on this process see 10.3 Conflicts example.
This indicates a problem with the installation of diff3 and rcsmerge. Specifically rcsmerge was compiled to look for GNU diff3, but it is finding unix diff3 instead. The exact text of the message will vary depending on the system. The simplest solution is to upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not rely on external rcsmerge or diff3 programs.
If text contains a valid response (such as `ok') followed by an extra carriage return character (on many systems this will cause the second part of the message to overwrite the first part), then it probably means that you are using the `:ext:' access method with a version of rsh, such as most non-unix rsh versions, which does not by default provide a transparent data stream. In such cases you probably want to try `:server:' instead of `:ext:'. If text is something else, this may signify a problem with your CVS server. Double-check your installation against the instructions for setting up the CVS server.
This is a normal message, not an error. See 10.5 Several developers simultaneously attempting to run CVS, for more details.


text:
Kazimierz Bieliński (ur. 15 września 1897 w Rzeżęcinie, zm. w listopadzie 1939 w Piaśnicy) – polski inżynier elektryk, organizator elektrowni gdyńskiej, dyrektor Miejskich Zakładów Elektrycznych w Gdyni.

Życiorys
Był synem Jana i Marii z Wiśniewskich. Urodził się w Rzeżęcinie (gmina Morzeszczyn) na Pomorzu, gdzie ojciec prowadził gospodarstwo rolne. Kształcił się w "Collegium Marianum" w Pelplinie. W roku 1916 został powołany do wojska i posłany na front zachodni.

Po zakończeniu I wojny światowej zdał (w roku 1919) maturę w gimnazjum w Chojnicach i wstąpił na Wydział Elektryczny Technische Hochschule zu Danzig, gdzie uzyskał dyplom inżyniera elektryka w roku 1924. Pierwszą pracę otrzymał w Pomorskiej Elektrowni Krajowej Gródek SA w Toruniu, a następnie w parowo-wodnej elektrowni "Pomorze" pod Pelplinem.

W roku 1929 przeprowadził się do Gdyni, gdzie powierzono mu organizację Miejskich Zakładów Elektrycznych (MZE). Do wybuchu wojny był dyrektorem zakładu, który prowadził całokształt prac związanych z elektryfikacją miasta i portu. W 1931 roku organizował w Gdyni Zjazd Związków Elektrowni Polskich. Uczestniczył w 1932 roku w zawiązaniu gdyńskiego Oddziału Wybrzeża Morskiego Stowarzyszenia Elektryków Polskich (SEP) i do wybuchu wojny był jego prezesem.

Za działalność na rzecz obrony polskości Pomorza Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej uhonorowała go dyplomem, a prezydent Złotym Krzyżem Zasługi.

Jak ustalił w roku 1948 Sąd Grodzki w Gdyni, Kazimierz Bieliński został 27 października 1939 roku aresztowany przez Gestapo i należał do jednej z grup więźniów rozstrzelanych, w ramach akcji "Inteligencja", 11 listopada tegoż roku w Piaśnicy.

Należał do Polskiej Korporacji Akademickiej "Związek Akademików Gdańskich Wisła".

Przypisy

Bibliografia

 VI Lista członków Związku Filistrów Korporacji "Z.A.G. Wisła", 1935 r.

Absolwenci i studenci Wyższej Szkoły Technicznej Wolnego Miasta Gdańska
Polscy inżynierowie elektrycy
Budowniczowie Gdyni
Polscy korporanci
Ofiary zbrodni w Piaśnicy
Urodzeni w 1897
Zmarli w 1939

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In meditation, we aim to quieten the mind so that we can experience our true nature, which is divine. When we cease to identify with our thoughts, then heart, mind and body unify. We feel harmony within ourselves and with the world around us. Meditation changes everything for the better. With a little time, patience and practice, you can see how this comes true in your life.
Meditation is the ancient art of being present. Here is the place and now is the time to enjoy each moment as it unfolds. When we let go of worries about past and future, we can live consciously, mindfully. Meditation is neither complicated nor difficult. Most of us have experienced moments of meditation in our lives – when we are struck by a beautiful sunset, when we listen to music which touches us, when we are immersed in our favourite activity – we enter the 'zone'. The conscious practice of meditation simply requires some discipline and commitment, like any new skill.
At first, we must learn to control the mind and concentration exercises teach us to do this. We train the mind to stay focussed on a particular object: it could be the breath, a candle, a mantra or an inspiring word like 'peace'. In this way, we gain some mastery over the constant flow of thoughts. When the mind becomes quiet, we can then experience the restful spaciousness of a meditative state.


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Graduation today, Google tomorrow
Engineering graduate Max Koopman will soon leave the sandstone walls of The University of Queensland for the technological hub of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
UQ showcases projects by tomorrow's architects
New design proposals for Brisbane landmarks will feature at the State Library of Queensland this month as part of The University of Queensland's student architecture exhibition, CROP'15.
Students roll the dice with Queen's Wharf Casino alternatives
Architecture students at The University of Queensland are proposing new designs for the controversial Queen's Wharf Brisbane Integrated Resort Development to be showcased at an exhibition in December.
It's 2015, so where's my flying car?
Today, 21 October 2015, marks the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrive in the fictional future of the iconic film Back to the Future II. While we aren't expecting the time-travelling duo, played by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, to arrive...
Light-optics research could improve medical imaging
A team of researchers, including The University of Queensland's Dr Joel Carpenter, has developed echo-less lights that could improve medical imaging inside the body, leading to less-intrusive surgery.
Top honours for passionate energy advocate
A University of Queensland PhD student who is investigating sustainable energy solutions for developing communities has secured a prestigious fellowship from the American Australian Association.
Cooling tower could revolutionise energy generation in drought areas
New technology from The University of Queensland could transform electricity generation, making it cheaper and more reliable for drought-affected areas.
Launching Australia into space
Launching satellites into space could soon be easier and cheaper than ever before, thanks to research at The University of Queensland.
Engineering a more balanced workforce
Engineers Australia has recognised The University of Queensland for its work in boosting female participation in engineering courses.
Diagnosis in the palm of your hand
The cough is the single most common reason for a trip to the doctor, placing enormous strain on Australia's healthcare system, but a new mobile health tool being developed by The University of Queensland could ease pressure on doctors and lower...
Engineering student has designs on Cambodia
Second-year university student Talia Rose is kicking off 2015 at the Engineers Without Borders Design Summit in Cambodia.
Robotic soccer ball set to make sport more accessible
A robotic soccer ball is set to improve social ball game participation for people with visual impairment, thanks to a team of University of Queensland engineers and Vision Australia.
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Antimicrobial peptides established an important part in the defense against extracellular infections, however the expression of cationic peptides within macrophages as an antibacterial effector mechanism against intracellular pathogens is not demonstrated. vulnerable mice systemic disease resembling typhoid fever in human beings. This pathogen counters macrophage antibacterial effectors with acidity tolerance and perturbation of endosomal trafficking, in order to avoid oxidative and nitrosative harm and phagolysosomal degradation (4, 5). We've noticed that macrophages impair cell department of intracellular cell department. Because diverts the phox to reduce immediate harm by reactive air intermediates (ROIs) (4), we hypothesized these ROIs impair bacterial cell department by regulating a previously uncharacterized antimicrobial effector system(s). Macrophages have a very selection of intracellular proteases, a few of that are secreted whereas others display activity within a phagolysosomal area. Research using knock-out mice show that this proteases neutrophil elastase and cathepsin G possess important antibacterial actions within neutrophils (10, 11), but a job for macrophage proteases during infection is not reported. And a immediate microbicidal part (12), proteases with elastase-like Cinacalcet HCl specificities proteolytically activate users from the cathelicidin category of cationic peptides, that are synthesized as inactive proproteins (13, 14). Mice communicate cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP), a cationic -helical peptide with antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterias (examined in ref. 13). CRAMP manifestation by keratinocytes mediates control of bacterial pores and skin contamination by group A (15). Whereas alveolar macrophages communicate defensins, another course of antimicrobial peptides, macrophage manifestation of cathelicidins, is not reported (16, 17). resists harm by cationic peptides by changing their lipopolysaccharide (LPS) framework by using users from the PhoPCPhoQ regulon (refs. 18C21 and examined in ref. 22). PhoPnull mutants, which are even more vunerable to peptides (20), show reduced virulence in mice (23). It really is appealing to determine whether murine macrophages make use of cationic peptides such as for example CRAMP to regulate replication because these cells offer an intracellular market for within supplementary lymphoid organs. This research analyzed whether macrophages make use of proteases and cationic peptides to limit replication of the intracellular bacterial pathogen. Components and Methods Development Circumstances of Bacterial and Macrophage Cells. The serovar Typhimurium strains SL1344 and 14028s (Hereditary Stock Middle, Calgary, Abdominal, Canada), 14028s Pho24 PhoPconstitutive mutant (F. Heffron, Oregon Health insurance and Sciences University or Cinacalcet HCl college, Portland), 14028s (B. Stocker, Stanford University or college, Stanford, CA), and strains expressing pFPV25.1-GFP (S. Meresse, Marseille, France, and S. Falkow, Stanford University or college) had been cultured as explained (6). Strains inside a SL1344 history had been utilized unless indicated normally in the written text. Bone tissue marrow was isolated from your femurs of BALB/c (The Jackson Lab), 129/SVJ, or for 20 min, as explained (6). Monolayers had been cleaned with PBS, incubated in press made up of 100 g/ml gentamicin (Sigma) for 1.5 h, and taken care of with 10 g/ml gentamicin. Intracellular success and/or replication of was dependant on using the gentamicin-resistance assay (6). Immunofluorescence. Immunofluorescence staining was performed as referred to (6) through the use of rabbit anti-LPS Ab (1:200) (Difco) without permeabilization to identify extracellular bacteria, a particular polyclonal rabbit anti-CRAMP Ab (1:150 Cinacalcet HCl dilution) (24) in the current presence of 0.2% saponin, and an Alexa 568 mouse anti-rabbit Ab (1:200 to at least one 1:400 dilution) (Molecular Probes). Bacterias had been have scored as filamentous if they had been intracellular and a lot more than three times much longer than a normal bacterium (around 5 m). To assess protease activity, BMDM had been incubated with 10 M carbobenzyloxy-Ala-Ala-Ala-Ala-rhodamine 110 (Calbiochem) going back 2 h of disease. Confocal parts of 0.1-m thickness were assembled into toned projections through the use of Rabbit polyclonal to Caspase 3.This gene encodes a protein which is a member of the cysteine-aspartic acid protease (caspase) family.Sequential activation of caspases image software (Version 1.63; Country wide Institutes of Wellness, Bethesda). Circulation Cytometry. BMDM had been clogged and permeabilized on snow with 0.2% saponin (Sigma) and 2% FBS, plus they were stained sequentially with rabbit anti-CRAMP Ab (1:150) and goat anti-rabbit phycoerythrin extra Ab (1:200). Circulation cytometry was performed with a FACSCalibur fluorescence-activated cell sorter with cellquest software program (BD Biosciences). RT-PCR. RNA was isolated from BMDM through the use of TRIzol reagent, and cDNA was synthesized from comparative levels of RNA through the use of SuperScript II and oligo(dT) (Invitrogen). PCR was performed utilizing the pursuing oligonucleotide primers: CRAMP, 5-GCTGATGTCAAAAGAATCAGCG-3 and 5-TCCCTCTGGAACTGCATGGTTCC-3; and GAPDH, 5-AGAACATCATCCCTGCATCC-3 and 5-CTGGGATGGAAATTGTGAGG-3. In Vitro Filamentation Assay. Stationary-phase bacterias had been cultured in N-minimal press (pH 7.four or five 5.8) containing.


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Science Organic chemistry Alcohols, ethers, epoxides, sulfides Synthesis and cleavage of ethers
Synthesis and cleavage of ethers
Williamson ether synthesis
Acidic cleavage of ethers
Nomenclature and preparation of epoxides
Science·Organic chemistry·Alcohols, ethers, epoxides, sulfides·Synthesis and cleavage of ethers
One way to make ethers is to use the Williamson ether synthesis, which is where you start with an alcohol, and you add a strong base to deprotonate the alcohol. Once you deprotonate the alcohol, you add an alkyl halide, and primary alkyl halides work the best. We'll talk about why in a minute. And what happens is you end up putting the R prime group from your alkyl halide on to what used to be your alcohol to form your ether like that. So let's look at the mechanism for the Williamson ether synthesis, where you start with your alcohol. We know that alcohols can function as weak acids. So if you react an alcohol with a strong base, something like sodium hydride, we know that the hydride portion of the molecule is going to function as a strong base. This lone pair of electrons is going to take that proton, which is going to kick these electrons off onto the oxygen. So if we're drawing the product of that acid-based reaction, we now have an oxygen with three lone pairs of electrons around it, giving it a negative 1 formal charge. And we call that an alkoxide anion, which would interact with the positively charged sodium ion floating around. So there's some electrostatic or ionic interaction between those opposite charges. And here's where you introduce your alkyl halide. So if we draw our alkyl halide, it would look like this. And we know that there's an electronegativity difference between our halogen and our carbon, where our halogen is going to be partially negative, and our carbon is going to be partially positive. Partially positive carbon means that that carbon wants electrons. It's going to function as an electrophile in the next step of the mechanism. And a lone pair of electrons in the oxygen is going to function as a nucleophile. So opposite charges attract. A lone pair of electrons on our nucleophile are going to attack our electrophile, our carbon. At the same time, the electrons in the bond between the carbon the halogen are going to kick off onto the halogen like that. So this is an SN2-type mechanism, which is why a primary alkyl halide will work the best, because that has the decreased steric hindrance compared to other alkyl halides. So what will happen is, after nucleophilic attack, we're going to attach our oxygen to our carbon like that, and we form our ether. So if we wanted to, we could just rewrite our ether like this to show it as we added on an R prime group like that. Let's look at an example of the Williamson ether synthesis. So if I start with a molecule over here on the left, and it's kind of an interesting-looking molecule. It's called beta-naphthol. And so beta-naphthol has two rings together like this, and then there's an OH coming off of one of the rings, like that. So that's beta-naphthol. And in the first part, we're going to add potassium hydroxide as our base. Now, potassium hydroxide is not as strong of a base as sodium hydride is, but in this case, it's OK to use a little bit weaker base. So the lone pair of electrons on the hydroxide are going to take that proton, leaving these electrons behind on the oxygen. So when we draw the conjugate base to beta-naphthol-- and we can go ahead and show that-- we're going to take off that proton, which is going to leave that oxygen there with three lone pairs of electrons, giving it a negative 1 formal charge. So this is our alkoxide anion. And this alkoxide anion is resonance stabilized. So a resonance-stabilized conjugate base stabilizes the conjugate base, which makes beta-naphthol a little bit better acid than other alcohols that we will talk about. So since beta-naphthol is a little bit more acidic, that's why it's OK for us to use a weaker base for this example. So potassium hydroxide is strong enough to take away the acidic proton in beta-naphthol because the conjugate base to beta-naphthol is resonance stabilized. So in the second step, once we have formed our alkoxide anion, this is where we add our alkyl halide. So if I add my alkyl halide in my second step-- let's see if we can have enough room here-- I'm going to use methyl iodide as our alkyl halide. So methyl iodide looks like that. And once again, we know this carbon is going to be the electrophilic carbon, so nucleophile, electrophile. So a lone pair of electrons on the oxygen attacks the carbon, kicks these electrons off onto the iodide, and we form our product. So let's go ahead and draw the ether product that will result. So these rings are going to stay the same like that. And we now are going to have our oxygen attached to a methyl group, which came from the methyl iodide like that. So we formed our product. This product is called nerolin, which is a fixative used in perfume. So this has an interesting smell to it. So if you ever get a chance to do this Williamson ether synthesis, it's just interesting to see what nerolin smells like, what it looks like, and to think about it as being a component of some perfumes. Let's think about synthesizing an ether. So if you were given a problem where the question said something like, OK, here is the ether that you want to synthesize. What would you need in order to do so? So you need to think about, OK, there's my ether, and I'm going to make it from some other things over here. And if I analyze the alkyl groups attached to my ether, and I have a methyl group over here, and this would be like a cyclohexyl group over here. And one of those two groups I'm going to use for my alkyl halide. You want to use the group that's the least sterically hindered since it's an SN2-type mechanism. So you want to go with the methyl group. So in your second step, you would need to add something like methyl iodide. That's the least sterically hindered, so that's going to improve your yield on this reaction. So that's the second step. And in the first step, you'd have to add a strong base, so we'll use sodium hydride here. And your alcohol, therefore, must come from this. So this must be where your alcohol comes from. So if I'm going to show my starting alcohol, it would have to look like this. So if I add that alcohol in the first step, sodium hydride, I take off that proton, form an alkoxide, that alkoxide nucleophilic attacks the methyl iodide to add the methyl group on, and to form the ether on the right. So that's how to think about using the Williamson ether synthesis. So think about retrosynthesis and think about which alkyl group is the best one to use for your alkyl halide.


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The critical requirement for effective leaders
In a fast changing and highly competitive world, the requirement for effective leadership within organisations is arguably as critical today as it has been at any time.
Organisations with the most inspirational and effective senior leaders are often those which also lead the way when it comes to delivering high performance cultures, brilliant customer service and great places to work. When it comes to appointing the most senior people, getting it right can clearly have significant advantages. At the same time, as recent history has shown, getting it wrong can have disastrous consequences.
The demand for more robust succession management
Accordingly, organisations have been seeking more sophisticated ways of reducing the risks and uncertainties involved when selecting and developing their most senior leaders. With research by Hogan Assessments indicating that 66% of externally appointed senior executives are destined to fail, the hunt for credible internally identified candidates has been on the rise.
Predicting the future
Assessing technical, people and leadership skills in the 'here and now' is one thing. But when facing a world of continuous change and evolution, an ability to be able to look into the future is becoming increasingly as crucial.
Over the last two decades, Quo have developed a unique approach to succession planning and the assessment of senior level talent that creates a dynamic analysis of individual potential - not just at the current time, but several years into the future.
Quo's unique ability to understand future human potential has led us to develop a revolutionary and globally unique approach to assessment. PfAM provides a far more in-depth look at an individual's potential to deal with complexity in decision making, then projects it into the future, helping organisations to make more accurate judgements and predict a candidates potential over the course of a career.
At the heart of this ground-breaking approach is the simple equation of human behaviour: P = f(AM). Performance is a function of Ability and Motivation.
Using a combination of interviews, exercises, psychometric questionnaires, competency assessments and other bespoke activity, we assess applied capability (the level of complexity at which a person is using judgement and decision making in their current role).
Assessing against 8 stages of potential required to deal with complexity, we are able to gauge the person's potential capability (the highest level of complexity at which a person can operate).
We then predict future capability - the level of potential capability that a person will possess at any given time in the future. In other words, we predict an individual's potential at any time in their future career.
Matched against a bespoke cultural assessment against a specific organisation, the insights created by PfAM have been revolutionary in helping our clients to make better-informed long-term decisions about the development of their leadership teams and succession planning activity.
The impact of identifying the right leaders
Organisations with the highest quality leaders are 13 times more likely to out-perform their competition
Senior Leaders hired from outside the organisation have a 66% failure rate
Emotional Intelligence accounts for 85% of 'Star Performance' in top leaders
Well designed personality assessment can account for up to 40% of a leader's performance
IDENTIFYING, RETAINING AND ATTRACTING TOP TALENT
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Palais de la Porte Dorée, based to the east of Paris takes you on the journey of the aquatic world of oceans and seas. After around forty years of research and underwater observations the museum was created for the public to reveal the underwater life and facts. The collections include photographs and sketches representing fascinating beauty of the oceans, shocking encounters with wild animals and the wonderful perfection of the sea bed.


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Bespoke Systems
Is Your Smartphone Listening to You?
Blog Is Your Smartphone Listening to You?
It started with oats.
New year and a new us, the Revive team decided to take on a group diet with one of the stipulations being oats for breakfast. It was harmless, a little office 'banter' if you will. Until I was sitting at home on my personal smartphone, on my personal Instagram account having Quaker Oats aggressively advertised to me.
How did it know?
I know about cookies, I know about cache, and I know about remarketing; but this was a new level. I was adamant I hadn't researched Oats, and even if I had, it would've been on my office computer. Every time I recounted the tale to friends or family, everyone had a similar story – and it was always based around advertising.
And it made me question:
Are advertisers listening to me via my smartphone?
According to an article by the BBC, all major tech firms have resolutely rejected the idea. Google reportedly said it "categorically" does not use what it calls "utterances" for advertising, or any other purpose for that matter. (Utterances are the background sounds made by a person before saying "Okay Google", at which point voice recognition is activated.)
A spokesperson for Google clarified that the company doesn't share audio content acquired via "listening" with third parties. Nor do their listening capabilities extend further than activating its voice services.
It is also stated in the Google content policy for apps developers that apps are forbidden from collecting data without the user's knowledge. Apps which are found breaking this rule are removed from the Google Play store.
However, I disagree. These smartphones are constantly listening, albeit for a specific phrase such as "Okay Google" or "Hey Siri". Our smartphones must be constantly active to note when these key phrases are spoken, and processing "utterances" to be able to distinguish when it isn't the activation phrase.
In the same article, Facebook told the BBC that it doesn't allow brands to target advertising based on data collected by microphones, and claimed they don't share data with third parties without user consent.
Facebook adverts, we know, are targeted using information shared by members on the network and their net surfing habits elsewhere (cookies and cache etc.).
Other big tech companies have also denied listening via smartphones.
However, as much as we don't like to admit it, our smartphones are tracking devices. They travel with us and sleep next to us, they listen for key phrases, know our exact location at all times, track how many steps we take and how well we've slept. Newer smartphones can even learn our routine; what time we get up, leave work and trains we often get. And this is all without being asked.
If you use Google services and are logged into your Google account, follow this link. It'll show your activity across all of its services, from Chrome and Search to Android and YouTube. You can filter by date and product, and then select "Voice & Audio". If you've ever used voice search on Google, you'll receive a list of audio recordings, and be able to play and listen to them instantly. Scary huh?
Wait, it gets worse.
Last year the CDT (Centre for Democracy & Technology) in America alerted us to a technology called SilverPush. SilverPush uses audio, that's imperceptible to us, to track our activities across devices.
For example, SilverPush could emit a tone, that you can't hear, from your TV during an advert break that your smartphone will recognise. This links the TV and phone to the same person, and alerts your smartphone to the kind of programme you like to watch… the kind of information that is vital for targeted advertising.
So, is your smartphone listening to you? Yes, no, kind of. In the literal sense, yes, in answer to the question? Possibly. We've seen the evidence, and we know the technology exists, but whether it's all above-board is yet to be confirmed. Let's just say we won't be surprised when a news story breaks about it.
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All our children were on their best behaviour excitedly awaiting the visit of Father Christmas to our Christmas disco again this year. Father Christmas was waiting in Sister Susan's Office before the disco started!
Fun was had by all. Father Christmas even had a dance with us before he gave us all a Christmas Gift!
Thank you to PTA and all who helped to make this event as usual, a great success.